External Incarnation

After killing the Spiny Turtle, Babata had Luo Zhiyuan recount the entire process. Not wanting to expose his innate secret technique, Luo Zhiyuan only told Babata that he had used a soul attack technique to kill the beast.

Upon hearing that he had used a soul attack to kill the Spiny Turtle, Babata grumbled with great dissatisfaction: "Why use a mental shock? Isn't that bullying the turtle? It was only at Apprentice Level 8, and you are a Planet Level 5 spirit reader. That's far more extravagant than using a butcher's knife to slaughter a chicken. You've missed out on a lot of valuable combat experience this way."

Rolling his eyes, Luo Zhiyuan ignored Babata's nagging. Aside from his movement techniques, he had only practiced one set of fist-based combat techniques and wasn't carrying any weapons yet. He couldn't exactly punch and kick a turtle shell, could he?

Telling Babata that he needed time to reflect on the battle, he stopped responding to the AI. Luo Zhiyuan spent less than an hour fully absorbing the combat experience from the Spiny Turtle's memories. It contained a wealth of hunting, camouflage, and survival techniques, all of which proved incredibly beneficial to him.

He had zero real-world combat experience—well, the schoolyard brawls from his previous life certainly didn't count. As a monster that had survived for many years, the turtle had encountered countless battles, both against other monsters and humans. These memories now became Luo Zhiyuan's own experience, ensuring he was no longer a complete novice in combat.

Consequently, his second battle showed significant improvement. This time, Babata selected an Apprentice Level 7 Adamant Wolf. The Adamant Wolf was fast, possessed physical strength equivalent to an ordinary Apprentice Level 8 monster, and had no obvious weaknesses. Babata ordered Luo Zhiyuan to kill it without using any soul attack techniques.

After Babata roughly locked onto the target's location, Luo Zhiyuan set off alone, though this time he brought throwing knives with him.

In a dense forest, Luo Zhiyuan stopped his rapid advance while still a great distance from the Adamant Wolf. He found some mutated plants in the nearby woods, crushed their leaves, and smeared the paste over his body. The Adamant Wolf had a keen sense of smell, and this would prevent it from detecting him from afar.

While approaching the wolf, Luo Zhiyuan activated his domain. His figure became blurred and indistinguishable as he wove through the jungle, passing near other monsters without causing a stir, successfully closing in on the Adamant Wolf's location.

Reaching a distance of 500 meters, Luo Zhiyuan crouched downwind and buried three throwing knives into the soil. To prevent the knives from making noise as they moved through the dirt, he controlled them to skim just beneath the surface, navigating around countless plant roots until they stopped less than ten meters from the wolf.

Holding his breath and staring intently, Luo Zhiyuan waited for the Adamant Wolf to patrol its territory. He suddenly controlled one throwing knife to flip up a patch of turf in front of the wolf's head to distract it. Then, from the blind spot behind the beast, he launched the other two knives simultaneously from the left and right. As the wolf dodged the first knife, the two flanking blades instantly pierced its abdomen, completing the kill.

From the stealthy approach and the creeping crawl to the final feint, Luo Zhiyuan had executed a perfect hunt. He stood up calmly and walked to the bleeding wolf, feeling no nausea despite the pungent scent of blood. Having digested the Spiny Turtle's memories, he was already accustomed to such carnage and avoided any ridiculous rookie reactions. He then quickly used his innate secret technique to fuse and absorb the Adamant Wolf's soul before it dissipated.

After reporting the process to Babata, the hunt could be called perfect, save for the fact that Babata hadn't detected the final soul fusion. This allowed Babata to brag to Luo Feng, claiming that his teaching had yielded remarkable results!

After the battle, Luo Zhiyuan spent another hour absorbing the combat experience from the Adamant Wolf's memories. The wolf's experience consisted mostly of aggressive hunting techniques.

As a pure predator, the Adamant Wolf had a strong desire to attack and possessed many techniques for trading damage for damage, usually achieving greater combat results with minimal loss—experience that the Spiny Turtle had lacked.

The following period was filled with battles against various types of monsters: flying, agile, powerful, and later, pack-based creatures. Fighting these diverse monsters greatly compensated for Luo Zhiyuan's lack of combat experience. Furthermore, he almost always chose to fuse their souls, allowing his own soul to grow stronger while simultaneously accumulating a vast wealth of combat experience.

These absorbed experiences quickly became Luo Zhiyuan's combat instincts. His instincts were highly diverse, allowing him to choose the best approach based on the environment and the opponent. This left Babata constantly marveling: Luo Feng's genes were truly impressive to produce such a combat genius!

Babata shared Luo Zhiyuan's recent progress with Luo Feng, whose mindset had shifted: That's my son, of course the more of a genius he is, the better!

Initially, Luo Feng and Xu Xin had been somewhat worried about Little Zhiyuan going out to the wilderness alone. After all, he wasn't even two years old, and they feared he couldn't handle the negative consequences of combat or the psychological pressure. But after learning of his progress, they stopped worrying. Luo Feng would even boast to Xu Xin that "like father, like son," and Xu Xin would always respond with a gratified smile.

Some time later, Luo Feng, Hong, and Thunder God chose an auspicious day to take down the Beast Emperor in the ocean. The three brothers had all seen improvements and were very satisfied. However, all three consistently avoided the topic of Luo Zhiyuan; they were elders, after all, and really couldn't compare themselves to a child!

On September 15, 2062, Luo Zhiyuan celebrated his second birthday. The Luo family, the Xu family, Hong, and Thunder God were all present, enjoying a happy and lively celebration. It was a bit surreal for everyone to see Luo Zhiyuan, who stood as tall as a seven or eight-year-old, celebrating his second birthday, but that wasn't the point—as long as he was happy, it was fine!

Luo Zhiyuan had been in the Swallowed Star world for quite some time now. He had successfully integrated into this world and felt a sense of belonging. Because there were many family members and friends here who loved, cherished, and protected him, he knew he loved them in return. He wanted to do something for them, using his knowledge of the plot to make their lives better.

Luo Zhiyuan knew that Luo Feng would soon leave Earth for the first time to make contact with cosmic civilization. This encounter would teach Luo Feng a vivid lesson; the cold, ruthless nature of cosmic civilization would greatly increase his sense of urgency. He would spend a fortune on resources, which would bring tremendous changes to Earth and significantly accelerate the overall evolution of humanity.

But that wouldn't be enough. If they couldn't handle the incoming cosmic adventurers in a few months, it would be a disaster for the people of Earth. After all, those were dozens of Star Level powerhouses. To date, only Luo Feng's Golden Horned Behemoth clone had reached Star Level, and that was only just after hitting Star Level 4 before heading into space.

Luo Zhiyuan was still far from Star Level. Even if he trained to Planet Level 9, he didn't know if this body had a cultivation bottleneck. If he got stuck for a while, it would be a long, indefinite wait.

Luo Zhiyuan pondered for a while. It seemed necessary to fully understand his External Incarnation innate talent. During the inheritance of memories, he learned that this was an excellent life-saving talent, even surpassing the Golden Horned Behemoth's ability to gestate clones, because he could gestate two types of clones, both requiring only a piece of tissue containing genetic material.

One type of clone was disposable; he could create several using energy, each possessing at most one-tenth of the original body's energy. They would vanish upon destruction or could be dismissed at will; these were called "Incarnations." The other type was permanent; if destroyed, they could be reborn by consuming energy. These were called "Clones," similar to those of the Golden Horned Behemoth, though he didn't know how many he could gestate or what the limitations were.

Luo Zhiyuan thought he could first ask Luo Feng for some Golden Horned Behemoth tissue. After all, the innate secret technique only required a piece of tissue, and perhaps he could have a Golden Horned Behemoth clone of his own.

However, no one knew that Luo Feng had possessed the Golden Horned Behemoth. How to ask for the tissue without exposing himself as a transmigrator required careful consideration.

In the end, Luo Zhiyuan decided to first clarify his own innate secret technique—External Incarnation. When he received these talents, his memories only contained rough descriptions. This was likely because he was the first life form to ever possess these specific talents, unlike the Golden Horned Behemoth, which had many ancestral memories. Perhaps this was something the origin of the universe had tailored specifically for him.

Thinking it over, he decided to act. Gestating an incarnation required a piece of tissue. Luo Zhiyuan made up an excuse about going out to fight again and set off alone. This time, however, he requested to shut down Babata's auxiliary AI, telling his family he wanted to conduct a solo hunting operation.

Of course, the real reason was that he didn't want Babata to discover he possessed such a secret technique. He had already exposed a time-related secret technique, which had left Babata in awe; if the clone technique were discovered, he had no idea what Babata might think.

Because there were many bizarre secret techniques in the universe, if Babata suspected he had been possessed, it would cause unnecessary trouble. Although his situation was indeed a form of alternative possession, he preferred to avoid extra complications. As a transmigrator, he didn't intend to tell anyone this secret.

Arriving at a forest with few monsters, Luo Zhiyuan scouted the area and, finding nothing to disturb him, decided to experiment with his innate secret technique.

He plucked a leaf from a mutated plant and activated the External Incarnation technique, instantly choosing to gestate a disposable incarnation and channeling a small portion of his energy. A strand of spiritual energy wrapped around the leaf and dissolved it. Suddenly, a flash of light erupted within the soul space in his consciousness, and an energy-formed cocoon appeared. Within less than a second, the cocoon dissipated, vanishing completely from his soul space.

Luo Zhiyuan suddenly felt a strange sensation, as if a part of his body were buried in the soil, yet he didn't feel suffocated. Looking to his side, he discovered a mutated plant had appeared—the exact same species he had plucked the leaf from. It was identical in every detail, even the number and position of the branches and leaves were exactly the same.

When he looked at the mutated plant, he understood: this was the incarnation he had created. This marvelous sensation allowed him to share all the plant's feelings: the warmth of the sun on its trunk, the refreshing breeze through its leaves, the nourishment of its roots in the earth...

A flash of realization hit him. So this was what it felt like to have a clone. The mutated plant was him; he was Luo Zhiyuan, and he was also this plant. The two were like a person's left and right hands—they didn't interfere with each other and were both unified under his will.

When Luo Zhiyuan tried to control the incarnation to move, he found it could only sway its branches slightly; it couldn't move its position at all. It seemed this was because the mutated plant itself was immobile. Luo Zhiyuan left the plant incarnation where it was and continued forward to test if there was a distance limit.

After traveling more than ten kilometers away, he found no distance restriction on the incarnation. Furthermore, he could sense the surroundings through the incarnation at any time. For now, there appeared to be no distance limit; whether there would be one when crossing planets or further distances remained to be tested later.

Luo Zhiyuan found an Apprentice Level 6 ape-like monster nearby, knocked it unconscious, plucked a tuft of its hair, and used the innate secret technique again. This time, the gestation took slightly longer than the plant, but still less than a second, and an incarnation identical to the monster appeared beside him.

At this moment, Luo Zhiyuan felt as if he had become a three-headed, six-armed Nezha. He now possessed his own body, a mutated plant incarnation, and an ape-like monster incarnation. These three bodies did not interfere with each other and shared a single mind, truly achieving the ability to watch in all directions and listen to everything.

Luo Zhiyuan's mental amplitude had reached 22, meaning he could now multitask twenty-two ways without any pressure! Therefore, he could perfectly control both incarnations and his original body simultaneously. However, when he created the ape incarnation, he didn't receive any memory inheritance. It seemed these disposable incarnations could not inherit the original creature's memories.

This time, Luo Zhiyuan transferred one-tenth of his energy to the ape clone, which was the energy cap for an incarnation. He found that the physical strength of the clone was no different from the monster's; it seemed the incarnation was generated based on the biological sample and had nothing to do with his original body.

Waking the ape monster, he controlled his incarnation to attack it, experiencing the feeling of close-quarters combat. With every punch landing and blood splashing, he found he actually enjoyed the thrill of this heated battle. He didn't use his fist-based combat techniques, instead using raw punches and kicks to kill the ape monster, leaving his incarnation covered in wounds.

Satisfied, Luo Zhiyuan exhaled and dissolved both incarnations. He felt the two streams of energy return to his body, but they were less than what he had channeled out; it seemed some energy was consumed and couldn't be 100% recovered. That made sense—otherwise, one could create an incarnation, let the main body recover its energy, and then dissolve the incarnation to gain extra energy, which would be far easier than cultivation and would violate the laws of the universe.

Having learned enough about the disposable incarnations, Luo Zhiyuan decided to move to another place, but just as he turned, he paused.

A thought had suddenly flashed through his mind: could he create an incarnation of himself? If he could, it would be much more convenient in the future. He could leave an incarnation at home while he went out to explore, provided there really was no distance limit. It was worth a try.

Luo Zhiyuan plucked a hair from his head and activated the External Incarnation technique. His spiritual energy wrapped around the hair and dissolved it. A flash of light appeared in his soul space, then nothing. Outside, silently and instantly, an incarnation identical to Luo Zhiyuan appeared. It worked!

He hadn't expected to actually be able to create an incarnation of himself, and the speed was incredibly fast—the incarnation appeared almost the instant his spiritual energy wrapped around the hair. Luo Zhiyuan was ecstatic. The action reminded him of a familiar scene: Sun Wukong plucking a hair and blowing on it to create clones. He hadn't expected to be able to do the same thing himself. The sense of déjà vu was overwhelming, haha!

In for a penny, in for a pound, Luo Zhiyuan continued to split off more incarnations until he reached the 21st, after which he could no longer gestate any more. Thinking it over, it seemed the number of incarnations was related to his mental amplitude; since his current mental amplitude was 22, he could split off 21 incarnations. As his amplitude increased in the future, he should be able to create even more. Although the energy of each individual incarnation was not very high, the sheer quantity was certainly impressive!

Furthermore, Luo Zhiyuan hit upon a key point: these were all his own incarnations. Even though their energy could not be perfectly recovered, their memories were shared. If he allowed these incarnations to cultivate as well, wouldn't that be a roundabout way of shortening his own cultivation time? Time to test it out!

However, Luo Zhiyuan had been a bit too optimistic. While these incarnations could cultivate, the energy within their bodies could not exceed one-tenth of the main body's, and the energy cultivated by them could not be returned to the main body upon recovery. This meant there was no way to rapidly increase the main body's energy.

Nevertheless, after experimenting, he found that the incarnations could still practice secret techniques and comprehend domains. In the future, while others would have to cultivate secret techniques and comprehend domains or laws all by themselves, Luo Zhiyuan could have many helpers working on it simultaneously. That kind of cultivation speed would be no joke!

Next, Luo Zhiyuan used External Incarnation on a strand of his own hair, but this time he intended to form a permanent clone. He wondered if it would work; if it did, could his clones also utilize innate secret techniques?

After his spiritual force enveloped the hair, it dissolved, and an independent small space appeared within his soul space. Inside that small space, a white cocoon of light emerged and began to flicker incessantly, as if it were breathing. However, after flickering only a few times, the entire cocoon vanished.

Luo Zhiyuan sensed a message from his sea of consciousness: this attempt at External Incarnation had failed. It seemed he could not gestate clones using his own tissues. There was another piece of information: his permanent clones were limited to a total of five. He could gestate one starting from the Planetary level, and with each increase in rank—Stellar, Universe, Domain Lord, and Sector Lord—he could gestate one additional clone. He could gestate them immediately or save the slots to use all at once upon reaching the Sector Lord level.

Luo Zhiyuan was quite satisfied with his research into External Incarnation. Aside from the remaining uncertainties regarding the limitations of permanent clones, he had basically figured out everything about the incarnations, and the gains were significant. As for the matter of permanent clones, he would need to deliberate carefully. After all, he could only gestate five in total, so he had to be prudent in his selection. He would wait until he had gained more experience before making his choice.