I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

’The sooner I absorb and digest it, the more time I’ll save.’

”All done!” Just then, Liou Wenxin’s voice, full of relief, came from outside. ”Su Ze, come and help.”

Su Ze hurried over and saw that Liou Wenxin had already submerged Penny’s head in an unknown liquid. Penny’s eyes were closed, as if she had fallen into a deep sleep.

”I’ve already done the basic processing on this head to put her consciousness to sleep. Now, I need you to work with me to completely erase her consciousness and memories. Only then can we turn it into a communication base station,” Liou Wenxin said.

”Alright.” Su Ze nodded. He had helped turn Amida’s head into a base station before, so he was quite familiar with the process.

Last time, however, they had to call Zhou Wenshan for help at the end. Now, Su Ze’s Spiritual Power was far stronger than that of other psych-type evolvers of the same rank, so he was able to finish the job by himself this time.

Once the consciousness was erased from Penny’s head, the Spiritual Venerable’s head was no longer a threat. The rest of the work could be left to Liou Wenxin alone.

Turning it into a communication base station would still take a few days.

...

It was late at night by the time he left Liou Wenxin’s lab.

Liou Wenxin, a workaholic, had originally planned to work through the night. However, Mrs. Yun got a message from Su Ze and rushed back in the evening, forcing Liou Wenxin to put her work on hold.

Su Ze, Mr. Ya, Liou Wenxin, and Mrs. Yun gathered once again in the villa at Dongli University.

When she learned that Su Ze had completed his fifth evolution and become a Saint-level Venerable, Mrs. Yun was stunned for a long time. In the end, she just shook her head and said with an air of nonchalance, ”Not bad.”

She had been so shocked by Su Ze so many times that she was numb to it. Even if Su Ze suddenly became a god, her reaction would probably be the same.

She had become a Hegemon before Su Ze, but now he was already a Venerable, while she was still lagging at the bottom of the Hegemon ranks.

But that wasn’t important. She thought about Dongli’s other Guardian Gods—they had been stuck at the Hegemon stage for years, and Su Ze had surpassed them all anyway.

Su Ze smiled, placed several Storage Rings on the table, and said, ”Take whatever you need from these.”

They contained all sorts of resources left over after he and Mr. Ya had taken their pick.

Of course, Mrs. Yun and Liou Wenxin didn’t stand on ceremony with Su Ze. They both picked out some resources they needed, their hearts filled with joy.

Neither of them was short on cash, but some resources couldn’t be bought, even with money.

As for the remaining resources, Su Ze planned to visit the Li Min Association tomorrow and have Mr. Gu pick out everything Dongli needed.

He would also take the opportunity to tell them that he had become a Venerable!

With Su Ze becoming a Venerable, Dongli Kingdom’s publicly known strength now ranked first among the five nations.

”Oh, right.” Mrs. Yun suddenly remembered something. ”That fellow Zhang Tai completed his fourth evolution today and became a Hegemon! It’ll probably be all over the news tomorrow.”

Su Ze was taken aback. He’d heard long ago that Zhang Tai was preparing for his fourth evolution but didn’t expect it to take so long for him to succeed.

He hadn’t checked the messages in the ”Dongli Guardian God” group chat for a long time, so he had no idea.

Su Ze suddenly felt a flicker of anticipation. ’What kind of face will Zhang Tai make when he finds out I’ve already become a Venerable?’

”In that case, doesn’t Dongli have eight Guardian Gods now?” Liou Wenxin exclaimed. ”With this kind of power, only the Ancient An Country can still claim to be ahead of us among the five nations.”

”Actually, there are more. The Dongli Saint Envoy can now be considered one of Dongli’s native powerhouses. All told, including myself, Dongli now has two Venerables and seven Hegemons,” Su Ze summarized. ”However, among the other nations, the Ancient An Country, the Luofan Country, and the Mu Country are all hiding their true strength. They have the backing of the Nian Race or the Filth Earth Organization.”

The Peninsula Country is no more, leaving only five of the original six nations. As it stands, the weakest in terms of actual combat strength is, surprisingly, the Great Desert Kingdom.

The leadership of the Great Desert Kingdom is still completely unaware of the alien invasion. However, as the situation develops, they will soon have to face a choice and pick a side.

Once the Great Desert Kingdom makes its choice, the entire situation on the Lin Hua Continent will become much clearer.

...

That night, Su Ze returned to his room and prepared to absorb the Sixth-Order S-rank Mirage King Extract.

He took out the Mirage King Extract, which shimmered with a fantastical blue light, and took a moment to regulate his breathing.

This time, he wasn’t absorbing something above his level, so there was almost no chance of failure, and it wouldn’t cause a commotion. For that reason, Su Ze hadn’t told Liou Wenxin or the others about it.

Taking a deep breath, Su Ze twisted off the cap and downed the liquid, which shone with the blue light of evolution, in a single gulp.

The extract’s flavor was very peculiar. It wasn’t the sweet taste Su Ze had hoped for; instead, it was constantly changing.

Sour, bitter, salty, spicy—the four flavors cycled endlessly, but sweetness never came.

The texture was just as bizarre and varied. Sometimes it felt hard and dry, sometimes soft, sometimes mushy... It was as if he hadn’t drunk a liquid at all.

The extract lingered in his mouth for a full half-minute, as if playing tricks, before it finally deigned to slide down Su Ze’s esophagus and into his stomach.

From Su Ze’s stomach, streams of blue energy emanated, suffusing every fiber of his being.

The blue energy was absorbed into his body little by little, gradually thinning out.

The entire process lasted for over four hours before Su Ze had completely absorbed the blue energy.

The absorption process was smooth and uneventful, though it took a little longer than expected.

Next came the skill selection phase.

Su Ze’s consciousness entered a familiar white world he hadn’t visited in a long time. Before him, five balls of blue mist appeared.

They represented five skills.

Of the five balls of blue mist, one was large and four were small. Normally, Su Ze would have chosen the largest one without hesitation, as that would represent the strongest skill.

This time, however, he had to prioritize an attack skill, so he decided to examine each one before making his choice.

He approached the largest ball of mist first, sensing the information within it.

While this method wouldn’t reveal the skill’s exact effects, he could at least get a general idea of its category.

’It’s not an attack skill...’ Su Ze sensed it for a moment and felt a pang of disappointment. The largest ball of mist did not feel like an attack-type skill.

He couldn’t quite tell what category it belonged to; it seemed different from any skill he had ever encountered.

Su Ze then checked the other four balls of mist one by one and did find an offensive-type skill among them.

This left him conflicted. Should he choose this obviously strongest skill of an unknown type, or should he play it safe and pick the weaker, but clearly offensive, skill?