I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

The beast tide was immense, its origin out of sight, but the swarm itself wasn’t too concentrated.

Su Ze could tell this was because the swarms’ targets weren’t concentrated either. They weren’t all heading for Dongli’s coastline; instead, they were attacking all the coastal cities of the six nations.

Currently, the coastlines of Luofan Country, Mu Country, Peninsula Country, and Ancient An Country were all under assault from the beast tide.

Only the Great Desert Kingdom, being a landlocked nation, was spared.

Of course, they still had to face attacks from land-based beasts. However, compared to the Marine Beasts, the land-based ones were far fewer in number, making the defensive pressure much lighter.

The ocean covered about 65% of Blue Star’s surface, and the great ocean closest to the Lin Hua Continent was known as the ”Central Sea.”

As Su Ze traced the beast tide back to its source, he drew ever closer to the depths of the Central Sea.

Along the way, he went on a killing spree, slaying every beast he encountered to extract their golden energy.

He planned to completely digest the Bloodline Crystal inside his body along the way.

With his current strength, as long as he didn’t encounter a Rank-5 beast, he could steamroll through anything in his path. Even if he did face a Rank-5 beast, he was more than capable of fighting it—in fact, the advantage would be his.

His powerful underwater mobility allowed him to advance or retreat, attack or defend, as he pleased.

To pose a real threat to him, a Rank-6 beast would have to make an appearance.

In reality, Rank-5 beasts weren’t a dime a dozen. Su Ze hadn’t encountered a single one on his journey, let alone a Rank-6 beast.

He did, however, run into a few unlucky Rank-4 beasts, none of which lasted more than two rounds against him.

Slaughtering his way forward, he unknowingly arrived in the depths of the Central Sea. Gradually, Su Ze could feel the beast tide growing noticeably denser.

This meant he was getting closer to the source of the beast tide.

The depths of the Central Sea were mysterious and incredibly dangerous. After arriving, Su Ze grew more cautious.

He was certain that this region of the sea definitely contained Rank-6 beasts.

If it weren’t for the temporary power boost from his ”Bloodthirsty” skill, he would never have dared to wander aimlessly in these waters.

After electrocuting over a hundred beasts in one go, Su Ze finally stopped. The Golden Bloodline Crystal inside his body had been completely digested!

The difficulty of digesting a Golden Bloodline Crystal was, after all, equivalent to that of a Rank-6 S-class extract!

Normally, for a Venerable Powerhouse to digest a Rank-6 extract, the time required would be measured in years—easily ten, twenty, or even several decades.

And that was with the help of digestive aids. After reaching the Saint-level, if one were to rely purely on their own body’s ability to digest, grinding it out over time without medicine, they’d practically have one foot in the grave by the time they finished a single tube of extract.

But as for Su Ze, even with a digestive speed faster than an ordinary person’s, the aid of top-tier digestive medicine, the boost from Swan Dance 2.0, and even secluding himself for training in the spaceship’s training room, it still would have taken him an estimated two to three years to completely digest the Golden Bloodline Crystal.

But now, by killing tens of thousands of beasts and extracting a massive amount of golden energy, he had managed to completely digest the Golden Bloodline Crystal, saving himself an enormous amount of time.

With his goal achieved, Su Ze naturally decided to rein it in.

It was better to be more low-key in the depths of the Central Sea. A slaughter on this scale could very well attract the attention of a Rank-6 beast.

From then on, Su Ze only killed a weak beast just before the ten-second timer ran out to extend his ”Bloodthirsty” skill. He avoided any unnecessary killing.

Even so, he still accumulated a sliver of golden energy.

Su Ze observed the golden energy. ’I wonder what happens to this golden energy when I don’t have any Evolutionary Material to digest.’

’Will it be stored in my body for later use? Or will it just dissipate after a while?’

About half a minute after the golden energy formed, it began to slowly dissipate...

’So it can’t be stored, just as I thought.’

’Then can my body absorb the golden energy directly?’

A sudden idea struck Su Ze. He hurriedly separated an extremely tiny speck from the golden energy that was about to dissipate completely—perhaps only one-thousandth or even one-ten-thousandth of the total amount.

He tried to control his body to absorb that tiny speck of golden energy.

He was being relatively cautious. After all, he was experimenting on himself.

The only reason he was bold enough to experiment on his own body was that, in his liquid form, he could abandon parts of it at any moment.

Besides, judging from its previous effect of helping to digest Evolutionary Material, it shouldn’t be a type of energy that was harmful to evolvers.

The absorption process was smooth and without complications. However, once the speck of golden energy dissolved into his body, he didn’t seem to feel any change.

Wait!

He suddenly sensed his ”Bloodthirsty” skill was about to deactivate. ’But I just killed a beast a second ago,’ he thought. ’It should have been extended by ten seconds.’

With no time to think, Su Ze casually crushed a passing sea urchin.

Seeing the ”Bloodthirsty” skill’s timer reset, he breathed a sigh of relief and finally had the presence of mind to analyze the cause of the strange event.

’It seems to be related to that golden energy...’

After absorbing the golden energy, Su Ze hadn’t felt any change in his body—not even the slightest enhancement. On the contrary, it had nearly caused the buff he’d worked so hard to maintain to expire.

’Just now, it felt like time skipped forward eight or nine seconds. But I’m certain time in the outside world is flowing normally; I can tell from the movements of the surrounding Marine Beasts.’