Gulun Secret Realm, inside the castle.
Jiang Luo carefully studied the Ten Thousand Line Flow path recorded in the Nine Heavens Atlas in his hands.
In reality, this was only one of his clones.
His true self and the other sixteen clones were all inside the World Ring.
Some were beneath the starry sky within the Eye of the Space-Time Nightmare Beast, comprehending the profound essence of the Law of Space.
Some had logged into the Virtual Universe and were practicing their movement techniques, drawing on the Nine Heavens Atlas and their insights into the Eye of the Space-Time Nightmare Beast.
Some were devoting themselves wholeheartedly to cultivating the Burning Technique.
Some were cultivating the Soul Amplitude Secret Technique of Soul Flame.
Some were cultivating Space Shatter.
Some were cultivating the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map.
Some were cultivating the Thirteen Sword Fiend Body.
Some were cultivating the Soul Secret Techniques from the Cangyuan Map universe: the Demon Awl Forbidden Technique and the Primordial Spirit Star.
Some were using their soul link to direct the Ten Thousand Feather Tree, far away in the Huanming Star Sector, to keep developing new life planets and spreading faith.
"Master!"
Wu He's voice carried through the walls and echoed through the quiet room. "The people from the Virtual Universe Company have arrived."
"All right, I know." Jiang Luo nodded slightly.
He left the castle. A spacecraft was parked not far away, and three World Lords in white robes were waiting beside it.
"Your identity has been verified. We can complete the transaction."
After verifying his identity, one of the World Lords smiled and handed over two World Rings.
They specialized in delivering items purchased at medium-scale auctions.
They weren't surprised that the recipient was only at Universe Level.
Jiang Luo's identity was no secret throughout the Gulun Universe Kingdom. As the Gulun Kingdom Lord's newly accepted named disciple, it was only natural that he would qualify to attend a medium-scale auction.
He had bought more than ten million Hunyuan Units' worth of treasures. The World Rings, worth 0.5 Hunyuan Units each, were complimentary gifts.
After the three World Lords from the Virtual Universe Company had left,
Jiang Luo returned to the quiet room and refined the World Rings.
His other sixteen clones emerged one after another and entered the World Rings they had refined.
One of the World Rings contained a lake made of Locke Divine Water.
Ten million cubic meters of Locke Divine Water was enough to restore the physical bodies of all seventeen clones to the level of his true self.
A little over a month later,
all the clones' bodies had returned to peak condition.
Only then did Jiang Luo take out the other World Ring and retrieve the treasures inside.
A blue, multifaceted crystal sphere, roughly five meters in diameter.
It radiated an endless chill. This was the Doukou Crystal Fetus he had won at auction for ten million Hunyuan Units!
Jiang Luo set aside the Molten Flame Crystal Silk and Heavenly Radiance Marrow, which were packed in boxes, and turned his attention to a plump caterpillar that looked as if it had been trapped in amber.
Its body was completely hairless, covered instead in mysterious green patterns.
It was a juvenile Green Line Devouring Insect!
A Green Line Devouring Insect was born at Star Level, and once it matured, it reached World Lord.
It went through three metamorphoses along the way.
This was its larval stage.
Jiang Luo took a test tube of silver liquid from a nearby box.
The juvenile Green Line Devouring Insect wasn't dead. It had been sealed inside an amber-like alloy.
Once it came into contact with the silver liquid, the "amber" alloy would change from a solid into a gas, lifting the seal.
Hiss, hiss, hiss~~~
The amber rapidly evaporated into gas.
Immediately afterward, the Green Line Devouring Insect, which had been tightly confined and sealed, seemed to turn into a green streak. It blinked out and shot toward Jiang Luo.
"Imprisonment!"
The streak vanished in an instant. The plump larva of the Green Line Devouring Insect seemed nailed in midair, unable to move.
Jiang Luo stared speechlessly at the insect that had thrown itself into his trap. "This thing doesn't seem very smart."
He could use Space Imprisonment, but even without that, a Green Line Devouring Insect larva at just Stellar Level One couldn't have handled any other Universe Level expert either.
"Devour!"
Jiang Luo immediately activated his mutated Mysterious Heaven Skill and began devouring the Green Line Devouring Insect's bloodline.
The plump larva seemed to sense something. Fear showed in its dozen or so eyes.
But soon, they dimmed.
An endless stream of heat flowed into this clone's body, causing his genes to undergo continuous transformation.
Without him noticing, translucent threads even began to ooze from his skin, wrapping around him layer by layer until they formed an insect cocoon.
Three days later,
fine cracks appeared across the cocoon's surface, and a naked figure stepped out.
His skin seemed to have not a single pore, and was covered in mysterious green patterns.
Faint light seemed to spill from his eyes and ears.
In that light, his build and face looked uncanny and perfect.
Jiang Luo looked at his body and muttered, "Looks like I'll have to avoid being seen in public with this clone..."
Although his own bloodline had remained dominant during the devouring, the Green Line Devouring Insect bloodline had still brought about tremendous changes.
The most obvious was his sensitivity to the Law of Wood and the Law of Space.
His sensitivity to the Law of Wood was now on par with his sensitivity to the Law of Fire.
His sensitivity to the Law of Space had also more than doubled!
It still probably couldn't compare to a space-favored species like the Mosha Clan, but there was no doubt he had made a major leap forward.
"This clone's life level has risen from twelve times to sixteen times..."
"But the greatest change is in my soul..."
Jiang Luo looked astonished.
After devouring the Green Line Devouring Insect bloodline, his transformed soul was more than ten thousand times larger than before!
If his soul had once been the size of a yellow dwarf, it was now the size of a red giant.
Its volume had increased countless times.
Of course, this was only an increase in quantity, not in the strength of his consciousness.
So his Spiritual Force was still at Universe Level One, but its quantity far exceeded that of humans at the same level.
Even Domain Lords probably didn't possess Spiritual Force this vast.
"So that's how it is..." Jiang Luo mused.
After devouring the Green Line Devouring Insect bloodline, this clone had also gained two additional Innate Secret Techniques.
The first was Soul Division and Thought Manifestation.
The second was Blink.
The Green Line Devouring Insect's so-called Myriad Clones talent was, in essence, the ability to divide off soul seeds and implant them in other living beings, creating countless living puppets.
Naturally, the soul seeds' consciousness was far weaker than the original's, and the life level and gene level of the beings they could possess were also far inferior to the original's.
This was much like the talent of the Insect Queen, whose soul was naturally powerful.
The Insect Queen could control a million or even more Zerg Warriors at once, but as their numbers increased, the precision of her control declined sharply.
The Green Line Devouring Insect, on the other hand, could control at most 10,081 living puppets, but its control was more precise than the Insect Queen's.
Jiang Luo was quite pleased with this Innate Secret Technique. "This clone can focus on developing and protecting life planets."
The Green Line Devouring Insect bloodline had been devoured by this clone, so only this clone benefited from the resulting bodily and soul transformation, as well as the Innate Secret Techniques.
They couldn't be shared with his other child bodies.
That was unless he could cultivate the third layer of the Tao Wu Eighteen Gods and Demons to mastery. Then, the eighteen child bodies could merge into his true self at any time, and his true self could also split into eighteen clones whenever he wished.
When they merged into his true self, the souls and bodies of all eighteen child bodies would fuse as one.
Of course, he was still far short of the aspiration power needed to manifest the third layer of the Tao Wu Eighteen Gods and Demons.
And even if he could manifest it, the resources and time needed to cultivate it to mastery were beyond what he could achieve in the short term.
Even Ji Ning of the Desolate Era universe had settled for less and not cultivated the third layer to mastery.
This, too, was Jiang Luo's ambition!
Each of the eighteen child bodies would devour a different life source and follow a different path.
Once he mastered the Tao Wu Eighteen Gods and Demons and reunited the eighteen child bodies, all their talents and achievements would belong to his true self.
And they would be greatly enhanced!
If he could devour the myriad races, could he forge a supreme path of his own?
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