Clone?

The mission target was now only this one Aulis in front of him, so Yin Congyang didn't mind chatting with him for a bit. He had just gone all out with three axe strikes to kill Glacha, and while the drain wasn't huge, he wasn't at peak condition either. Taking this time allowed him to recover slightly.

"Give me a chance? What do you mean?" Yin Congyang stared at Aulis, his gaze icy. "You're human, yet you betray your own kind, act as a lackey for enemy races, and harm human interests..."

"Hmph!" Aulis cut him off with a cold snort, his expression twisting. "A lackey? Do you know what the alien races can give me? And what has the human race given me? I was sold as a slave from the Apprentice Stage, my entire clan became slaves, my home planet was turned into a slave-breeding world for slavers. I wanted to be loyal to humanity, but all humanity brought me was slaughter, humiliation, hatred... And the alien races? They gave me secret techniques, treasures, money..."

He took a deep breath, calming slightly. "You're the number one genius of the Planetary Level in Qingnang Training Camp. I see potential in your talent, so I can give you a chance. Put down your weapon, seal yourself, and I'll take you to my superior. With your talent, you can get more treasures and more powerful secret techniques in the organization..."

Yin Congyang looked at him coldly, his voice like ice. "A traitor to humanity deserves to die without a burial. And you dare to try and tempt me? To follow you and become a rat in the sewers, never seeing the light of day again?"

Aulis sneered mockingly. "Then it seems I'll have to beat you half to death and drag you like a dead dog to my superior. By then, you'll understand that even wanting to be a dog will be a luxury!"

"With just you alone, I'm afraid that won't be possible," Yin Congyang said, looking at him, a thought stirring in his mind. "Call out your helper..."

A giant sword appeared in Aulis's hand, and he struggled to break through Yin Congyang's Five Elements Domain, charging at him. "It seems your senses are sharp, but no matter how sharp your senses are, without matching strength, they're ultimately useless..."

Once in close range, the giant sword in his hand came crashing down at Yin Congyang with immense force. Yin Congyang, wanting to test the power of a Star Level nine, raised his axe to block the strike, only drifting back a few steps.

Aulis struck with one sword after another, each aimed at Yin Congyang's vital points. Earlier, he had said he wanted to capture Yin Congyang alive—half true, half to make Yin Congyang lower his guard. With thousands of years of combat experience, Aulis knew the principle of a lion using full force even against a rabbit. Even if he truly intended to capture Yin Congyang alive, it would only be after beating him half to death, leaving him unable to resist.

Yin Congyang only defended, not attacking, calmly blocking Aulis's slashes. He quietly extended his Spiritual Force into Aulis's sea of consciousness, only to strangely find that Aulis's soul was much weaker than a normal Star Level nine's.

With a thought, he activated the [Shake God] secret technique. His soul force formed a sharp arrow, its tip bearing a reverse three-edged barb, shooting rapidly into Aulis's sea of consciousness.

Aulis seemed to have trained in some soul defense secret technique. Suddenly sensing immense danger, he roared, stopping his giant sword mid-swing. Veins bulged on his face, and his entire sea of consciousness trembled violently. Yin Congyang's soul arrow had just charged into Aulis's sea of consciousness when it was constantly worn down by the intense vibrations. Only a sliver of power remained, piercing into Aulis's soul. Aulis, drenched in cold sweat, let out a wild roar, clutching his head and screaming in agony.

Yin Congyang was about to fly over and kill him when suddenly, with a "crack," the World Ring on Aulis's hand shattered, and a figure flew out from the broken ring.

Yin Congyang stared at this new arrival in shock and uncertainty. Although he looked different from Aulis, his soul fluctuation was identical, meaning they were the same person. Most importantly, this person radiated the energy fluctuation of a Universe Level!

Scanning back and forth twice, Yin Congyang guessed, "Is he your clone? Or are you his clone?"

The Universe Level Aulis frowned at Yin Congyang. "I was careless. I didn't expect that not only are your domain and law comprehension high, but your soul force is also this strong. Fortunately, I broke through to Universe Level a few days ago, or I might have really fallen into your hands. Now it seems it's my luck, but your misfortune. I wanted to capture you alive, but it seems I can't hold back anymore. I'll have to send you on your way. What a pity!"

He reached out, and the giant sword in the Star Level Aulis's hand flew into his own. A Universe Level's triple domain was far beyond what a Star Level nine could compare to. Now, Aulis's triple domain was on par with Yin Congyang's eightfold domain, able to contend with it.

Every swing of his giant sword carried immense force, harder to block than before. Yin Congyang's law comprehension was higher, and his axe techniques were exquisite, blending hardness and softness. Sometimes he struck the side of the sword with the axe's back, sometimes he deflected the sword's momentum with the axe's body, avoiding a direct clash with Aulis's heavy sword. His defense was watertight, and in a short time, the Universe Level one Aulis couldn't gain an absolute advantage.

Beside them, the Star Level Aulis was bleeding from his seven orifices, barely able to move, only able to heal on the sidelines, unable to help.

Yin Congyang, however, grew more excited the longer he fought. Since entering the training camp, no one had ever put this much pressure on him. The instructors' training pressure was enough, but it lacked the life-or-death tension. Every move had to be both all-out and reserved, or the next moment, he might lose his head to a single sword strike.

Under such life-or-death pressure, the fluctuations in his dantian suddenly accelerated dozens or even hundreds of times faster than before. The evolution, which had slowed after nearing the Planetary Level limit, abruptly sped up.

But the limits of the body and Spiritual Force at the Planetary Level were real. Once his body and Spiritual Force truly reached the Planetary Level limit, if he could just cultivate quietly for a few hours, Yin Congyang could break through to Star Level. But now, facing a life-or-death battle, where was the time for that?

The fluctuations in his dantian continued to surge out. After his body and Spiritual Force could no longer grow by even a fraction, they all turned toward the soul in his sea of consciousness. Yin Congyang's soul force visibly strengthened.

Aulis's attacks grew more frantic. He couldn't understand why this Planetary Level nine had a physique comparable to a Star Level six or seven, or why he had endurance like a perpetual motion machine. When going all out still couldn't secure an absolute advantage, and the enemy, though at a disadvantage, held their ground without chaos, he thought of retreating.

He hadn't retreated earlier for two reasons: first, through the Star System Defense System, he knew no one with energy fluctuations beyond Star Level had arrived, so he wanted to avenge his subordinates before leaving; second, he guessed the other party's spaceship was likely high-grade. Given the Virtual Universe Company's deep pockets, it was probably an E-grade ship. His D-grade ship might not evade their tracking, and if he couldn't shake them off, the convenience of the virtual universe meant he couldn't escape. So he waited on Red Leaf Planet, wanting to eliminate the threat before withdrawing.

Now, with all his methods exhausted and unable to achieve his goal, the longer the fight dragged on, the worse it was for him. Moreover, for some reason, he felt a faint threat from Yin Congyang, which gave him an absurd feeling: a Universe Level one and a Planetary Level nine, with a whole major level between them—could someone at Planetary Level nine actually kill him, a Universe Level one?

But just as he resolved to retreat, a soul fluctuation suddenly erupted from Yin Congyang...

The battle between them hadn't lasted long, but when all the fluctuations in the dantian surged into the soul, Yin Congyang's soul force grew at an unprecedented rate. His soul force, already near the peak of Star Level, quickly reached its limit and continued to strengthen.

"Boom"

A roar seemed to echo in his sea of consciousness. Yin Congyang's soul force made a massive leap, transforming from the Star Level peak to Universe Level.

Seeing Aulis show signs of wanting to flee, Yin Congyang ignored the changes within himself and unleashed all his soul force to activate the [Shake God] secret technique—

Both the Universe Level Aulis and the nearby Star Level Aulis had their eyes go wide, their souls dissipating. His final thought was: I'm a Universe Level one, how could I die at the hands of a Planetary Level...

"Whoosh~"

After confirming Aulis was dead, Yin Congyang let out a long breath. He had to admit, the pressure from a Universe Level one was immense, forcing him to walk the line between life and death in their brief exchange.

Confirming the mission was complete, Yin Congyang waved his hand to close the virtual universe livestream.

Only then did he walk toward Aulis. Same procedure: first, he collected all the corpses and storage rings, then searched the residence.

Perhaps Aulis had already decided to abandon this lair, as the residence was cleaned spotlessly, leaving nothing behind.

Yin Congyang flew into the sky and quickly entered the E386 Spaceship, ordering it to return to the training camp.

He went to the ship's largest cabin, took out all the spoils, and laid them out. Each storage ring varied in size, and the contents were different. He emptied them all, sorting everything by category.

Aside from Aulis's, which he hadn't looked at yet, the others' storage spaces held nothing good. It made sense—as space pirates, like ancient Earth pirates, they couldn't hoard anything valuable; they'd squandered it all. If there was anything good, it would definitely be in the boss Aulis's hands.

Aulis had two storage spaces. One was enormous, containing a D-grade ship, some treasures that could aid Universe Level body evolution, and some miscellaneous items. Surprisingly, there were also over a thousand cubic meters of Universe Crystals, worth a million Universe Coins. Most people would exchange Universe Crystals for Universe Coins and deposit them in a bank, where the card was bound to their spirit, making loss impossible. Why did Aulis keep so many Universe Crystals?

The smaller storage space was made of a very peculiar metal that seemed to have a shielding effect. Yin Congyang probed it with his spirit and found only two items inside: one was a stone about 20 centimeters high, resembling a statue; the other was a spherical object about a meter in diameter, like a seed, covered in extremely fine, intricate patterns. Even with Spiritual Force, he couldn't make them out clearly, and looking at them too long made him dizzy.

Yin Congyang took out the statue-like stone. It had no fluctuation. This peculiar ring probably wasn't meant to shield this stone.

He toyed with the stone in his hand. Upon closer inspection, it really was a statue, but very crude, clearly the work of a poor sculptor.

Seeing nothing on the outside, Yin Congyang carefully injected his Spiritual Force into the statue.