The First Clone's Choice

"You currently specialize in the Time Law and have also mastered the Huo Suo Codex." Lord of Dragon Passage continued with a smile. "That you were able to comprehend a trace of Beast God intent at the Universe level, even the Stellar level, shows that you are quite gifted in fused laws. However... fused laws are thousands, even tens of thousands of times harder than comprehending a single law alone."

"If you wish to continue down this path in the future, you must be mentally prepared," Lord of Dragon Passage reminded him.

"This disciple will remember." Lu Ming responded earnestly, though he was filled with confidence deep down.

Lord of Dragon Passage nodded.

He then walked into the distance, with Xiaofeng Venerable and Lu Ming following close behind.

"Your Fourth Senior Brother has arrived," Lord of Dragon Passage said.

"Fourth Senior Brother?"

Lu Ming immediately looked around. Suddenly, he spotted a nearly ten-meter-tall ape giant in the vast space ahead, covered in purple fur and walking toward them from afar. A blood-red long staff nearly as tall as his true body was strapped to his back. The staff was covered in incomparably complex secret engravings, and a terrifying baleful aura radiated from it, occasionally tearing apart the surrounding space.

He strode forward in great steps, faint thunder rumbling in his wake as the surrounding space trembled.

"Teacher." Once the ape giant carrying the blood-red staff approached, he spoke in a deep, rumbling voice.

"This is your Fourth Senior Brother, Venerable Chi Ting," Lord of Dragon Passage explained to Lu Ming behind him.

"Though your Fourth Senior Brother has never cultivated the Huo Suo Codex, he has nearly completely mastered its advanced ultimate technique, the Azure Thunder Seven Pulls." Lord of Dragon Passage smiled slightly. "If you encounter any confusion while comprehending the Huo Suo Codex in the future, gather your questions and ask your Fourth Senior Brother directly. Every ten years, I will have him assess your cultivation progress."

Lu Ming's heart stirred upon hearing this.

Azure Thunder Seven Pulls... it sounded like a super ultimate technique on the same level as the Seven Transformations of the Profound God cultivated by Luo Feng in the original work.

This Fourth Senior Brother of his was probably among the foremost Human Race Venerables in terms of attainments on the Path of the Thunder-Time Beast God.

"Yes." Lu Ming first answered his teacher respectfully, then turned to Venerable Chi Ting and said with respect, "I'll have to trouble Senior Brother to guide me from now on."

"We are both Teacher's disciples. It is only natural." Venerable Chi Ting looked incomparably fierce and sinister, yet he now revealed a friendly smile.

"On the path of Thunder-Time fusion, I have indeed achieved quite a bit... but when I first embarked on this path, I was already a World Lord. Junior Brother, you have stepped onto this road of cultivation so early. In the future, you will surely attain true greatness."

"You flatter me, Senior Brother."

After giving Venerable Chi Ting his instructions, Lord of Dragon Passage looked at Lu Ming. "When my Virtual Universe Company nurtures geniuses, those with greater talent receive more resources. Of course, most resource allocations are made only after one reaches the World Lord level. Since you have become my disciple, I will also grant you some resources."

"Thank you, Teacher." Lu Ming was secretly delighted.

"Is there anything you need now?" Lord of Dragon Passage asked casually. "Secret techniques? Treasures? I can grant you either, but at most one item."

After giving it some thought, Lu Ming hurriedly replied respectfully, "This disciple wishes to nurture a Universe-level special lifeform as a clone, but those in the Company treasury..."

Lu Ming did not finish his sentence, but Lord of Dragon Passage should have understood what he meant.

After arriving in the Initial Universe, Lu Ming's authority to browse materials for nurturing clones had indeed increased substantially. However, the strongest Universe-level special lifeforms there were only beings such as Silver Eyes and Dou Kou, special lifeforms with Gene Levels roughly a hundred times that of the Human Race.

Although the innate abilities of these special lifeforms were fairly good, far stronger than the likes of the Demon Killer Race that Lu Ming had initially been able to look up, they were still nowhere near "heaven-defying."

They fell far short of Lu Ming's ideal first clone.

"You do not think much of those, do you?" Lord of Dragon Passage smiled.

"This disciple simply does not wish to waste a precious clone slot," Lu Ming answered honestly.

"You are clever, and exceedingly patient as well." Lord of Dragon Passage praised Lu Ming once more.

Special lifeforms were special from birth, each one heaven-defying. It was easy for them to break through to the Immortal level, and an extremely small number were even born Immortal. The Human Race treasury contained many remains of top-tier special lifeforms, but most were Immortal level and could not be used to nurture clones at all.

As for special lifeforms below the Immortal level, nearly all of them hid within cosmic mystic realms and refused to emerge. Capturing them was exceedingly difficult.

Those cosmic mystic realms were incredibly dangerous. Even Super Experts at the Universe Venerable level could perish there. Therefore, bodily materials from special lifeforms below the Immortal level were extraordinarily rare. Even when such materials existed, they were almost always in the hands of true Super Experts and were never put up for sale.

After all, while the innate talent of "clones" was certainly rare, which of those Super Experts was not widely experienced? Naturally, they would not consider blood or hair insignificant. Even if they could not use them themselves, they existed eternally and might have need of them someday.

With Lu Ming's previous status and authority, the highest-grade special lifeforms he could access through the Virtual Universe system were only at the level of Silver Eyes. But after consecutively clearing seven levels of the Tongtian Bridge and gaining the ability to take a Universe Venerable or even a Universe Master as his teacher, the situation naturally became entirely different.

Given Lord of Dragon Passage's standing, even the Human Race's truly most closely guarded stock could be brought out and directly bestowed upon his disciple.

"Our Human Race treasury does indeed contain genetic material from special lifeforms with high Gene Levels. However, most of those materials come from World Lord-level special lifeforms, and a very small number from Domain Lord-level ones. You cannot use them yet." Lu Ming nodded slightly upon hearing Lord of Dragon Passage's words.

He was still only at the Universe level. If he wanted to nurture a clone now, he could only use genetic material from a Universe-level special lifeform at most.

As for Domain Lord-level and World Lord-level special lifeforms, he would have to wait until he reached the corresponding life level before he could nurture them.

However, some truly heaven-defying special lifeforms were mostly born at the World Lord level.

"Universe-level special lifeforms generally have Gene Levels of at most around a hundred times... but there are exceptions. In the early days of the universe, one of our Human Race experts happened upon the genetic material of a rather heaven-defying Universe-level special lifeform." As Lord of Dragon Passage spoke, he produced a mysterious mass of azure flame-like airflow out of thin air.

"This is?" Lu Ming's gaze suddenly sharpened.

"This is an extremely heaven-defying special lifeform of the universe—the Blazing Void Beast!" Lord of Dragon Passage looked at the mysterious azure airflow and continued solemnly. "Though it is born only at the Universe level, its numbers in the universe are extraordinarily scarce. It can practically be called one of a kind."

"One of a kind?" Lu Ming's eyes immediately lit up.

While special lifeforms were incomparably heaven-defying, their numbers were correspondingly sparse, making it difficult for them to form a "race."

Yet throughout the entire Original Universe, the same type of special lifeform would generally still have some of its own kind.

Some special lifeforms of the same type, even if incapable of reproducing, had thousands or tens of thousands of kin. Even the rarer kinds had dozens or hundreds. The special lifeform Dou Kou, for example, had several thousand of its kind...

Even a heaven-defying special lifeform like the World Tree had nine of its kind.

As for those truly most heaven-defying special lifeforms, only one might ever exist throughout the endless ages of the universe, such as the Eight Innate Beast Gods.

Since Lord of Dragon Passage said that this Blazing Void Beast was practically one of a kind in the universe, its degree of heaven-defiance likely did not pale beside the World Tree's. It might even surpass it!

"This Blazing Void Beast possesses a uniquely heaven-defying advantage in comprehending the two great Origin Laws of fire and space, which happens to make up for your weakness in law specialization." Lord of Dragon Passage continued his introduction. "As for its other innate talents and traits..."