I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

”What’s wrong?” Su Ze could tell from Mrs. Yun’s tone that something was amiss.

Mrs. Yun sighed. ”A couple of days ago, the Lihai Defense Line was assaulted by a massive number of Marine Beasts, and our defenses are strained. Anticipating more attacks, Mr. Gu requested reinforcements from the Sovereign Country.”

”But the Sovereign Country refused, claiming the other five nations are also under attack by large numbers of beasts. They said even the Sovereign Country itself is being assaulted, so their forces are stretched too thin to provide any support.”

”If that were all, it would be one thing. But Mr. Gu heard that someone in the Sovereign Country proposed merging all six of our nations into Lin Hua Country. They also want all our people to migrate to Lin Hua Country to shrink the defensive perimeter, making it easier to concentrate our forces against the beast invasion.”

”After the five-hundred-year War of Evolution, we’re just going to hand over the very territory we fought so hard to defend?” Su Ze couldn’t believe it. ”Has the situation really gotten that serious?”

Liou Wenxin said, ”The situation isn’t that dire yet. This move by the Sovereign Country seems more like an attempt to use the crisis to strengthen its control over the six nations.”

Mrs. Yun gritted her teeth. ”Exactly! Someone even proposed recalling all the Sacred Envoys from the six nations. They’re trying to force us to submit!”

The duty of the Sacred Envoys is to protect the six nations. If they are withdrawn, the six nations will lose the protection of their Venerable Combat Power. In the event of an attack by a tier-five beast, the casualties would be catastrophic.

Su Ze hadn’t expected so much to happen in just a few short days. ”Have any of these proposals been passed?” he asked.

”Not yet. Right now, the Lin Hua Country leadership is split into two factions. One agrees with unifying the six nations, while the other objects, arguing that the autonomy of the six nations was granted by Lin Hua’s Legend himself and should be preserved,” Mrs. Yun explained. ”However, I’ve heard that the three Legendary experts have yet to take a side.”

Su Ze knew what was really going on. ’The three Legendary experts have only remained silent on the surface. In reality, the struggle has already begun.’

Liou Wenxin thought the same. She said, ”I have a feeling that this push to unify the six nations might be coming from ’them.’”

The four of them at the table exchanged glances. They all knew that by ”them,” Liou Wenxin was referring to the people who had been possessed by the aliens.

Su Ze grew pensive and recounted his last trip to Lin Hua Country, when he had gone with Chen Suifeng to ask Mr. Ke to come out of seclusion.

”It looks like this is a power play between Lin Hua Country’s ruler, Jiang Pingle, and Mr. Ke,” Liou Wenxin analyzed. ”No matter how well Mr. Ke stays hidden, the moment he interferes with the affairs of the country’s leadership, he’s bound to provoke a counterattack from Jiang Pingle.”

Su Ze nodded. ”And I’m worried that King Mu’s death might have alerted the aliens, forcing the conflict to escalate prematurely.”

Liou Wenxin agreed. ”That’s a definite possibility. They probably aren’t sure if Mr. Ke and the others know their identities yet. But when you killed King Mu, Minister Chen Suifeng helped you immensely by tying up a large number of experts from Mu Country. That could have made them suspicious.”

Given Chen Suifeng’s status and personality, it’s unthinkable that he would disregard the bigger picture just to help Su Ze kill one of the rulers of the six nations.

Unless he already knew King Mu’s true identity.

The aliens would surely come to the same conclusion, leading them to suspect that Chen Suifeng, Su Ze, Mr. Ke, and the others already know they exist.

At this thought, Su Ze couldn’t help but worry about Chen Suifeng. Chen Suifeng still hadn’t contacted him, which probably meant he was indeed under suspicion, or even surveillance.

’Not having a covert and secure method of communication is a real pain.’ Su Ze found himself envying the Spirit Communication Phones used by the Filth Earth Organization.

Speaking of which, he remembered giving Amida’s brain to Liou Wenxin and asking her to use it as a base station to reverse-engineer the Filth Earth Organization’s Spirit Communication Phones.

He quickly asked about her progress.

”I was just about to tell you,” Liou Wenxin said, pulling a metal case from her storage item.

The case looked like an old, boxy television set without a screen. Su Ze probed it with his Spiritual Power and found a chaotic tangle of wires inside, all connected to a living brain.

”It’s completely finished. This brain is the base station, and its communication range can cover about half of Dongping City.” As she spoke, Liou Wenxin took out several cell phones. ”These are the compatible handsets, controlled by Spiritual Power. Give one a try and see how it works.”

Su Ze took the phone and tried controlling it with his Spiritual Power. To say it was similar to the phones used by the Filth Earth Organization would be an understatement—it was a perfect replica.

He immediately handed one to Liou Wenxin, one to Mrs. Yun, and one to Mr. Ya, keeping a few for himself.

”From now on, let’s use these phones to communicate about any sensitive topics.

”It’s a shame the range is a bit small. If I could get my hands on the head of a Spiritual Venerable... how wide would the coverage be?”

Su Ze recalled that the Filth Earth Organization used the head of a Spiritual Venerable for their base station. ’Their communication range seemed vast.’

Liou Wenxin thought for a moment. ”If we used the head of a Spiritual Venerable as the base station, given that Dongli is in the center of the Lin Hua Continent, we could potentially cover the entire continent.”

”The difference is that big?” Su Ze’s heart leaped at the thought.

’And come to think of it,’ he mused, ’with my incredible resistance to spiritual attacks, if I were to fight a Spiritual Venerable one-on-one, I might actually have a chance of winning.’

’It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call me the nemesis of spiritual-type evolvers.’

...

In the days that followed, Su Ze never received a call from Chen Suifeng, which made him start to worry.

He didn’t dare call Chen Suifeng either. ’All of his communications are probably being monitored right now.’