External Incarnation

After killing the Spiked Turtle, Babata asked Luo Zhiyuan to recount how he had done it. Since he didn't want to reveal his Innate Secret Technique, Luo Zhiyuan simply told Babata that he had killed the Spiked Turtle with a Soul Attack secret technique.

Babata was quite dissatisfied when he heard that Luo Zhiyuan had killed the Spiked Turtle with a Soul Attack secret technique. "Why'd you use Mental Shock? That's just bullying the turtle, isn't it? It was only at Apprentice Level 8, and you're a Planetary Level 5 Spirit Reader. That's like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut—what a waste! You'll get much less combat experience that way."

Luo Zhiyuan rolled his eyes and ignored Babata's muttering. Aside from his movement technique, he had only practiced one Combat Secret Technique based on fistwork, and he didn't even have a weapon with him. It wasn't as if he could punch and kick his way through a turtle shell.

He told Babata he needed some time to reflect on the fight, then stopped paying attention to him. In less than an hour, Luo Zhiyuan had fully absorbed the Spiked Turtle's combat experience from its memories. It included many of its hunting, camouflage, and escape techniques, all of which proved extremely useful to him.

After all, he had no real combat experience of his own. Well, the brawls he'd gotten into as a student in his old world probably didn't count. As a monster that had survived for many years, the Spiked Turtle had faced plenty of battles almost every day, both against other monsters and against humans. All of that experience was now Luo Zhiyuan's, so he was no longer a complete novice.

His second battle went noticeably better. This time, Babata had chosen a Level 7 Apprentice Direwolf. It was fast, its physical strength was on par with that of an ordinary Level 8 Apprentice monster, and it had no obvious weaknesses. Babata ordered Luo Zhiyuan to kill it without using his Soul Attack secret technique.

Once Babata had roughly pinpointed the location, Luo Zhiyuan set out alone. This time, though, he brought throwing knives.

In a dense forest, Luo Zhiyuan stopped well before reaching the Direwolf. He found some nearby mutated plants, picked a few leaves, crushed them, and smeared them over his body. The Direwolf had a keen sense of smell, and this would keep it from detecting him by scent from a distance.

As he drew closer to the Direwolf, Luo Zhiyuan activated his Domain. His figure blurred as he moved through the forest, making him hard to discern. He even passed close to several monsters without disturbing them and successfully reached the Direwolf's location.

When he was within five hundred meters of the Direwolf, Luo Zhiyuan hid downwind and stuck three throwing knives into the soil. To keep the knives from making noise as they moved through the earth, he guided them slowly beneath the surface, close to the ground. They slipped past countless plant roots and stopped less than ten meters from the Direwolf.

As the Direwolf patrolled its territory, Luo Zhiyuan held his breath and watched intently. He guided one throwing knife to thrust up a piece of turf in front of the Direwolf's head, drawing its attention. Then, from the blind spot behind it, he sent two knives darting in from either side. As the Direwolf dodged the knife in front of it, the two knives from the sides plunged into its abdomen, killing it.

From the concealed approach to the final diversion, Luo Zhiyuan had carried out the hunt flawlessly. He calmly rose and walked over to the Direwolf, blood still flowing from its body. Even the pungent stench of blood no longer turned his stomach. After absorbing the Spiked Turtle's memories, he had grown accustomed to scenes like this and no longer reacted like a ridiculous rookie. He quickly used his Innate Secret Technique to fuse with and absorb the Direwolf's fading soul.

After telling Babata how the hunt had gone, Luo Zhiyuan received high praise. Babata hadn't noticed the final Soul Fusion, so the hunt had seemed perfect to him. Babata even bragged to Luo Feng about how effective his teaching was!

After the battle, Luo Zhiyuan spent another hour absorbing the combat experience in the Direwolf's memories. Most of it consisted of clever ways to attack while hunting.

As a pure predator, the Direwolf had a strong appetite for battle and knew many ways to trade injury for injury. It could usually inflict greater damage at a smaller cost to itself. These were experiences the Spiked Turtle hadn't possessed.

Over the following period, Luo Zhiyuan fought many different kinds of monsters: flying monsters, agile and nimble ones, powerful ones, and eventually monsters that fought in groups. Battling all these different types made up for his lack of combat experience. He also almost always chose to fuse with their souls, growing stronger while gaining a wealth of combat experience.

Before long, absorbing these experiences had turned them into Luo Zhiyuan's battle instincts. His instincts were highly adaptable, allowing him to choose an approach suited to the environment and his opponent. Babata couldn't stop marveling. "Luo Feng's genes really are impressive. He's raised himself a born fighter!"

Babata told Luo Feng about Luo Zhiyuan's recent progress. Luo Feng's mindset had changed by now: He's my son. Of course the more talented he is, the better!

At first, Luo Feng and Xu Xin had been a little worried about Little Zhiyuan fighting in the wilderness alone. By age, their son wasn't even two yet, and they feared the battles might leave him with harmful aftereffects or some kind of psychological pressure. But once they learned how things were going, they stopped worrying. Luo Feng even boasted to Xu Xin that the son of a hero was bound to be a hero, and Xu Xin would smile and agree, pleased.

A while later, Luo Feng, Hong, and Thunder God picked an auspicious day and took down the Beast Emperor in the ocean. The three brothers had each improved in their own way and were satisfied with their progress. They were also all very careful to avoid bringing up Luo Zhiyuan. They were the elders, after all; they really couldn't afford to take a child seriously!

On September 15, 2062, Luo Zhiyuan celebrated his second birthday. The Luo Family, the Xu Family, Hong, and Thunder God were all there, and they had a lively, joyful celebration together. Seeing Luo Zhiyuan, who looked seven or eight years old, celebrate his second birthday felt a little incongruous to everyone, but that wasn't important. What mattered was that they were happy!

Luo Zhiyuan had spent a good while in the world of Swallowed Star by now, and he had truly become a part of it. He felt that this world was his home. He had family and friends who liked him, loved him, and protected him. He knew he loved them too, and he wanted to do something for them, using what he knew about the story to help them live better lives.

Luo Zhiyuan knew that Luo Feng would soon leave Earth and venture into the universe for the first time, making contact with alien civilizations. That encounter would teach Luo Feng a vivid lesson in the universe's ruthless nature and greatly intensify his sense of urgency. He would spend a fortune buying all kinds of resources, bringing enormous changes to Earth and greatly accelerating humanity's overall evolution.

But that still wouldn't be enough. A few months later, if they couldn't properly handle the Universe Adventurers who came to invade, it would be a disaster for Earth's people. After all, there would be dozens of Star Level powerhouses. So far, only Luo Feng's Golden Horned Behemoth clone had reached Star Level, and it would only reach Star Level 4 right before they set off into the universe.

Luo Zhiyuan was still far from Star Level. And even if he cultivated to Planetary Level Nine, he didn't know whether his body would hit a cultivation bottleneck. If he got stuck for a while, reaching that level would seem even more distant.

After thinking it over, Luo Zhiyuan decided he needed to figure out his External Incarnation talent. From the Inheritance Memory, he knew it was an exceptionally powerful ability for staying alive, even surpassing the Golden Horned Behemoth's talent for creating clones. He could create two kinds of clones, and for either one he only needed a piece of bodily tissue containing genetic material.

One kind was temporary. By using energy, he could split off several, each with at most one-tenth of his original body's energy. They vanished when destroyed, though he could also dismiss them himself. He called these "avatars." The other kind was permanent. If destroyed, they could be reborn by expending energy. He called these "clones." They were similar to the clones created by the Golden Horned Behemoth, but he didn't know how many he could make or what limitations there might be.

Luo Zhiyuan thought he could ask Luo Feng for some of the Golden Horned Behemoth's bodily tissue first. The Innate Secret Technique only required a small piece of tissue, so perhaps he could get a Golden Horned Behemoth clone of his own.

However, Luo Feng hadn't told anyone that he had taken over the Golden Horned Behemoth's body. Luo Zhiyuan would have to think carefully about how to ask him for some of its tissue without revealing that he was a transmigrator.

In the end, Luo Zhiyuan decided to first figure out his Innate Secret Technique—External Incarnation. When he had gained these Innate Secret Techniques, his memories contained only a general description of them. Perhaps it was because he was the first lifeform to obtain them, and unlike the Golden Horned Behemoth, he had no ancestors' Inheritance Memories to draw on. Maybe the Origin Law of the Universe had tailored them specifically for him.

Once he'd made up his mind, he set to work. Creating an avatar required a piece of bodily tissue, so Luo Zhiyuan found an excuse to go out and fight again, then set off alone. This time, he asked to have Babata's auxiliary Light Brain shut down. He told his family he wanted to try hunting on his own.

Of course, the real reason was that he didn't want Babata to discover he had an Innate Secret Technique that could create clones. Babata already knew about one of his time-related techniques and had been astonished by it. If he learned about the clone technique too, Luo Zhiyuan had no idea what he might think.

There were many strange techniques in the universe. If Babata thought someone had taken over Luo Zhiyuan's body, it would cause unnecessary trouble. Although, in a way, Luo Zhiyuan's situation did count as a strange kind of possession, there was no need to invite trouble. As a transmigrator, he didn't plan to tell anyone his secret.

Luo Zhiyuan went to a forest with few monsters and looked around. Once he was sure nothing would disturb him, he decided to test his Innate Secret Technique there.

He plucked a leaf from a mutated plant and used the External Incarnation technique. He immediately chose to create a temporary avatar and split off a small portion of his energy. Spiritual Force enveloped the leaf and dissolved it. Then a burst of light suddenly appeared in the Soul Space within Luo Zhiyuan's Sea of Consciousness, and a cocoon of energy took shape. In less than a second, the cocoon began to fade and vanished completely from the Soul Space.

Luo Zhiyuan suddenly felt something strange, as though part of his body had been buried in the soil, yet he didn't feel smothered. When he looked beside him, he saw a mutated plant that hadn't been there before. It looked exactly like the plant whose leaf he had picked, down to the smallest detail. Even the branches and leaves were in precisely the same places, and there were the same number of them.

When he looked at the mutated plant, he understood that this was the avatar he had created. The feeling was uncanny: he could experience everything the plant did as if it were happening to him. The warmth of sunlight on its trunk, the refreshing breeze passing through its leaves, the moist nourishment of its roots in the earth...

A sudden understanding came to him. So this was what it felt like to have a clone. That mutated plant was himself. He was Luo Zhiyuan, and he was also that plant. The two were like a person's left and right hands: they didn't interfere with each other, yet both obeyed his will.

When Luo Zhiyuan tried to move the avatar, he found he could only make its branches and leaves tremble slightly; he couldn't move it from its spot at all. It seemed that was because the mutated plant itself couldn't move. He left the plant avatar where it was and continued on, testing whether there was a limit to how far away he could be.

After Luo Zhiyuan had gone more than ten kilometers away, he still hadn't noticed any distance limit on the avatar. He could also sense the surroundings through it at any time. For now, it seemed there was no limit, but he didn't know whether that would still be true across planets or over even greater distances. He would have to test that later.

Luo Zhiyuan found a Level 6 Apprentice ape-like monster nearby and knocked it unconscious. Then he plucked out a tuft of its fur and used his Innate Secret Technique again to create an avatar. This time, the process took a little longer than it had for the mutated plant, but still less than a second. An avatar identical to the monster appeared beside him.

At that moment, Luo Zhiyuan felt as if he had become Nezha, with three heads and six arms. He now had his own body, an avatar of a mutated plant, and an ape-like monster avatar. The three bodies didn't interfere with one another, and they shared a single mind. He had truly achieved the equivalent of seeing in all directions and hearing from every side.

Luo Zhiyuan's Spiritual Force amplification had reached 22, which meant he could use twenty-two minds at once without any strain! With two avatars in addition to his original body, he could control all three perfectly at the same time. However, when he created the ape-like monster avatar, he hadn't received any inherited memories. It seemed that these temporary avatars couldn't inherit the original creature's memories.

This time, Luo Zhiyuan had transferred one-tenth of his own energy to the ape avatar, which was the maximum amount an avatar could hold. But he found that its physical strength was no different from that of the monster. It seemed that an avatar was created based on the biological sample, with no connection to the strength of his original body.

He woke the ape-like monster and controlled his avatar to attack it, experiencing close-quarters combat firsthand. Fists struck flesh and blood sprayed everywhere. He found that he seemed to enjoy the thrill of this heated fight. He didn't use the fist-based Combat Secret Technique he knew, but instead killed the monster with nothing but punches and kicks. In the end, his avatar was battered and bruised too.

With a satisfied sigh, Luo Zhiyuan dissolved both avatars. He felt their energy return to him, but there was less than before he had split it off. Apparently, some of it had been used up and couldn't be fully recovered. That made sense. Otherwise, he could create an avatar, let his original body recover its energy, and then dissolve the avatar to gain extra energy out of nowhere. That would be much easier than cultivation—and would surely violate the laws of the universe.

Having learned enough about temporary avatars, Luo Zhiyuan decided to move somewhere else and continue experimenting. But just as he turned around, he suddenly stopped.

A thought had just occurred to him: could he split off an avatar of his own body? If he could create an avatar of himself, that would make things much more convenient. He could leave one at home and go exploring himself, as long as there really was no limit on the distance between them. It was worth a try.

Luo Zhiyuan plucked out one of his own hairs and activated External Incarnation. After Spiritual Force enveloped the hair, it dissolved. A flash of light appeared in the Soul Space, then nothing happened. But outside, an avatar identical to Luo Zhiyuan appeared in an instant, without a sound. It worked!

He hadn't expected to really be able to create an avatar of himself, and it had happened so quickly that the avatar appeared almost as soon as his Spiritual Force enveloped the hair. Luo Zhiyuan was thrilled. The action had reminded him of a familiar scene: Sun Wukong pulling out a hair and blowing on it to create clones. He couldn't believe he'd just done the same thing. It was such a déjà vu moment. Haha!

He decided to go all out and created one avatar after another, until he could no longer create any more after the twenty-first. After thinking it over, he figured the number of avatars must be related to his Spiritual Force amplification. His amplification was 22, so he could create 21 avatars. Once his amplification increased, he should be able to create even more. Each avatar had little energy, but their sheer number was certainly impressive!

Luo Zhiyuan also realized something important: these were all his avatars. Although he couldn't fully recover their energy, they shared memories. If he had them cultivate too, wouldn't that effectively shorten his cultivation time? He decided to test it!

However, Luo Zhiyuan's hopes had been a little too high. The avatars could cultivate, but the energy inside each one could never exceed one-tenth of the original body's energy. And when he recalled an avatar, the energy it had cultivated couldn't be transferred back to his original body. So they couldn't rapidly increase his original body's energy.

Still, his experiments showed that the avatars could cultivate secret techniques and comprehend Domains. Other people could only cultivate secret techniques or comprehend Domains and Laws on their own, but Luo Zhiyuan could have many helpers doing it alongside him. There was no underestimating how much faster that would make his cultivation!

Next, Luo Zhiyuan used External Incarnation on another strand of his hair, this time to create a permanent clone. He didn't know if it would work. If it did, could his clone use Innate Secret Techniques too?

After Spiritual Force enveloped the hair, it dissolved. A separate little space appeared in the Soul Space, and a white cocoon of light formed within it. The cocoon began to flash steadily, as if it were breathing, but after only a few flashes it vanished completely.

Luo Zhiyuan sensed a message from his Sea of Consciousness: this attempt to create a permanent clone had failed. It seemed he couldn't use his own tissue to create one. Another message told him that he could create five permanent clones in total. Starting at Planetary Level, he could create one, then another each time he advanced to Star Level, Universe Level, Domain Lord Level, and World Lord Level. He could create them as soon as he reached each level, or save them all until World Lord Level and create them then.

Luo Zhiyuan was fairly satisfied with what he'd learned about External Incarnation. Aside from the unclear limitations on permanent clones, he now understood temporary avatars almost completely, and he'd gained a lot. He would need to think carefully about permanent clones. Since he could only create five in total, he had to choose them cautiously. He'd wait until he knew more before deciding.