Li Yilin closed his eyes, feeling a chill run through his entire body.
"I understand." He leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed, tilting his head to expose his vulnerable throat. "I'll transfer 10 Hunyuan Units to your account shortly. That's the compensation the Giant Axe Arena gave us."
"Distribute the compensation to the families of the clansmen who died, and use the rest for postwar recovery... All clansmen must evacuate Wunuo Star within half a month."
"Yes." Blair nodded. "But..." She looked up, worry in her eyes as she gazed at Li Yilin on the other side of the screen.
"Why do we have to evacuate? Is there some danger we don't know about?
"Will this put you at risk?"
She wasn't questioning Li Yilin's orders. She was simply curious—and worried that he might be in danger.
Li Yilin and Sidar were the two pillars holding the Wutuo Clan steady!
Without them, the Wutuo Clan would have no chance of establishing itself in the universe.
The clansmen would obey their orders without question.
Likewise, they were deeply concerned about any danger the two might face.
"It's fine." Li Yilin waved a hand, looking dejected.
"The metal deposits on Wunuo Star are too valuable for a Domain Lord like me to protect. The only way would be to abandon every clansman on our homeworld, but you know I can't do that." He rubbed his aching temples.
"I've decided to temporarily return Wunuo Star to the Giant Axe Arena and leave the metal deposits entirely in their hands... I won't interfere, and neither will you behind my back. Anyone who dares disobey will be
"treated as a traitor to the clan!" Li Yilin said sternly.
Blair didn't dare question him. She nodded solemnly.
"Understood."
After settling everything and transferring 10 Hunyuan Units to her, Li Yilin ended the call.
Now that he was free, he finally had time to look into the system, which had finished updating.
He lowered his eyes to the System Panel in the upper-right corner of his vision. As if sensing his attention, it flickered and expanded, filling most of his field of view.
[Check-ins: 1.]
A single, brief line.
Li Yilin couldn't help asking in his mind, "What are the conditions for the system to finish updating?" He had a feeling the update had required certain conditions, but he hadn't figured out what they were.
The system responded to his question like an inanimate object: not at all.
Li Yilin tried everything, even asking aloud, but the system still didn't react. At last, he had to admit it was just a simple panel—if anything, less than a panel, since it didn't even have a Host Panel that could record all kinds of information about its host.
After he tried various things, the display on the panel changed to two words—
[Check In]
It was simple. He only had to click those words with his mind to check in.
His second check-in in thirty thousand years filled Li Yilin with anticipation—and a little nervousness.
To make sure it worked, he even entered his World Ring, bathed, changed clothes, and burned incense to pray to the God of Wealth... After going through the whole ritual, he prayed in his heart to get something good, then clicked "Check In" with his mind.
His will pressed down.
There was no golden light, nor the sound of coins falling. The System Panel simply displayed three gleaming Lucky Bags.
He didn't hesitate, quickly clicking to claim them.
All three Lucky Bags opened at once. One immediately turned into a beam of light and shot toward his brow, entering the depths of his soul...
What was this?
Li Yilin's heart tightened. The next instant, he felt himself completely submerged in memories. Vast, wondrous, intricate memories, complete with images and text, poured into his mind one after another.
His head throbbed because the memories were flooding in at nearly the limit his soul could bear. Yet he felt no alarm—instead, he was thrilled.
This was clearly a gift, just like the Innate Secret Technique the Primal Universe bestowed on Special Lifeforms. The difference was that the universe had given theirs, while the system had given him his.
I hope the system's gift can help with my situation!
As he struggled to absorb the memories, Li Yilin felt both nervous and eager.
After who knew how long,
he finally absorbed all the information and opened his eyes, stunned.
"It's... a Clone Secret Technique!"
This was recognized throughout the universe as the most powerful life-saving technique. He'd just gained one so easily?
He was both delighted and incredulous. His consciousness sank deep into the "Singularity" in his mind, where he saw two strands of purple lightning that hadn't been there before, circling his seemingly ordinary gray Singularity.
Sensing his gaze, the two bolts of lightning flickered twice, then hid inside the Singularity like frightened young beasts.
Could they be...
"My soul clones?" Li Yilin could feel that a mere thought would let him control the two bolts of lightning at any time, as if they were another body of his.
The difference was that the lightning didn't have a body yet. That was only an illusion.
Once he'd absorbed all the memories, he had gained complete mastery of the Clone Secret Technique bestowed by the system.
The method for nurturing a clone was simple: let the lightning devour a fragment from a lifeform he wanted to use as a clone, and it would replicate the fragment's genetic material... then nurture it into a complete lifeform.
That lifeform would be his clone.
Most importantly, the soul of a clone created by the Clone Secret Technique bestowed by the Primal Universe only followed the characteristics of the original body's soul. It could never change. If the original body's soul belonged to the Human Race, the clone's soul would belong to the Human Race too, never another race.
But the souls of clones nurtured by the system's Clone Secret Technique would be almost identical to the clones' own bodies.
In other words, if Li Yilin nurtured a Monster Race clone, its soul would appear to belong to the Monster Race, with no trace of the Wutuo Clan in it.
And though the system's Clone Secret Technique made a clone's soul look different from the original body's, the clone was still entirely controlled by the original body's consciousness.
Even if a clone died, the original body could nurture another at any time, and the new clone's soul characteristics wouldn't change.
The same was true in reverse.
There was no restriction whereby a shattered Origin Core would mean certain death; nor any restriction that prevented a clone from nurturing the original body...
"This is terrifying!" Li Yilin's breathing quickened with excitement.
With a Clone Secret Technique like this, if he chose a Monster Race for his second clone and a Bug Race Mother Emperor for his third...
As long as he didn't expose himself, he could go anywhere in the Primal Universe. Even if he were discovered, everyone would only think he was one of their own, not an Alien Race member.
After all, no one had ever heard of a Clone Secret Technique that could change the identifying characteristics of a soul.
The odds of all three bodies dying at once were vanishingly small. As long as Li Yilin kept the secret, he'd face no risk of death as he grew in the Primal Universe.
The very first check-in reward had given him such a huge surprise that even someone as levelheaded as Li Yilin couldn't help feeling thrilled. It took him a while to calm down.
Once he'd settled, he looked at the other two rewards, his anticipation even more evident.
The first one was a great start. The rest must be good too!
The first item was a horn, three meters long, from some unknown creature.
Black formed its base, while intricate purple patterns like burning flames covered its inner surface and ran the length of the horn. From afar, it looked as if the whole horn were wreathed in purple fire.
[Heaven-Swallowing Bull Beast Horn ×1.]
That was the system's description of the reward.
"Heaven-Swallowing Bull Beast?" Li Yilin turned it over and over, but couldn't make out a single identifying feature.
He even connected to the Virtual Universe and searched, but couldn't find any information about the Heaven-Swallowing Bull Beast.
"Could this be material for a clone the system prepared for my Clone Secret Technique?" Li Yilin couldn't help wondering.
So far, everything the system had given him had been extraordinary. He refused to believe that this gleaming purple horn was ordinary.
Besides, "Heaven-Swallowing" sounded incredibly impressive.
After thinking it over for a while without figuring out what the system intended, Li Yilin put the horn in his World Ring and looked at the final reward.
This one was simple: three metal books, each a meter long and wide and half a meter tall.
Stacked together, they looked like a square metal pillar.
Three gleaming golden characters were written on the cover of the top book—
Thunder Dragon Step
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