Arrangements for the Clone

Eastsea City, top floor of the Forging Masters Association

A handsome young man with the imposing aura of a blazing sun pushed open the office door and strode inside, his Blood Qi still unsettled from having just finished work.

"Master, you wanted to see me?"

Mu Chen looked at the disciple he was most proud of in his life and said, "Ziming, your martial uncle has already made the arrangements. In a few days, someone will come take you to Heaven Dou City.

"Your Soul Forging skills are already quite refined. When it comes to Soul Forging, there is little left that I can teach you.

"Next, as long as you continue honing your experience and Blood Qi, you can prepare to challenge the rank of Eight-Star Saint Craftsman.

"Are you ready for this trip to the Heaven Dou City Forging Association for further study?"

"I'm ready, but Master, Martial Uncle just became a Divine Craftsman. So many people are asking him to forge Four-Word Battle Armor that he must be very busy. Does he really have time to guide me?"

"Don't worry. He is more than willing, and sending you to his side this time is not just for further study. It is also for your safety."

After all, you are now the youngest Seven-Star Saint Craftsman in the history of our Forging Masters Association.

Indeed, Li Ziming's forging skills had already reached the seventh rank, directly breaking the Forging Masters Association's record.

Whenever Mu Chen recalled the day Li Ziming had successfully challenged the seventh-rank forging master assessment a year ago, he felt immensely proud. For the following month, he brought it up to everyone he met in the forging world.

"Ah? What? How did you know my disciple became a Seven-Star Saint Craftsman?!"

In response, Zhenhua, the Nine-Star Divine Craftsman and president of the Douluo Continent Forging Masters Association, sent his enthusiastic congratulations.

Part of the message read as follows—

"Gold! I'm the Divine Craftsman here! Is Mu Chen even worthy?!

"What?! Can you even teach a genius like that properly?! And you took him in?!

"If you can't teach him, give him to me! I'll teach him!"

According to information leaked by an unnamed staff member, throughout that month, the Forging Masters Association headquarters was often filled with the pig-slaughter screams of numerous young forging geniuses.

Over the past six years, Li Ziming had made tremendous progress. Under Mu Chen's full support, his Soul Power had reached level 73, making him a Soul Saint. His Soul Rings consisted of three purple and four black rings, his abundant Blood Qi rivaled that of an ordinary Titled Douluo, and his spiritual power had reached the peak of the Spirit Sea Realm. He had even forged himself a set of Two-Word Battle Armor—Blazing Sun.

Although Liu Tianran could have made Li Ziming a Soul Douluo at any time, he had still chosen to wait.

After all, the sudden emergence of a twenty-year-old Seven-Star Saint Craftsman had already shattered the Dao hearts of countless forging masters.

Not only had Li Ziming crushed an entire generation of young geniuses in the forging world, he had also drawn the attention of numerous factions.

Many believed that after Zhenhua, he was the person most likely to become the next Divine Craftsman.

Yet this had also touched the nerves of many people, especially those from the Star Luo Empire and Heaven Soul continents.

After all, the Federation had just produced a Divine Craftsman, which had already given them a massive headache. Now, the candidate for the next Divine Craftsman had practically been chosen as well.

When that time came, the Federation's combat power would receive an unimaginable boost.

Faced with such a terrifying future, they had no choice but to take risks and adopt some radical measures.

Over the past three months, Li Ziming had faced no fewer than twenty assassination attempts. He had personally killed at least eight assassins below the Soul Douluo rank.

As for those above the Soul Douluo rank, they had been dealt with by Mu Chen and the Titled Douluo-level friends he had invited.

Still, for safety's sake, Mu Chen decided to send Li Ziming to Zhenhua's side. Heaven Dou City was one of the Federation's central cities and also home to the Forging Masters Association headquarters, where powerful experts gathered in great numbers.

Moreover, Mu Ye, the Body Sect's leader, personally protected Zhenhua. Unless a Limit Douluo acted personally, anyone else who came would simply be delivering themselves to death.

Of course, behind Li Ziming's astonishing achievements, aside from Mu Chen's dedicated nurturing, there was also Liu Tianran's wholehearted support.

However, due to the limitations of his age and identity, Liu Tianran could not remain focused on gathering energy himself. In order to help Li Ziming develop as quickly as possible and gather even more energy sooner, he created a second clone—Xie Jiayun.

To gather energy, one inevitably had to pursue slaughter and death. And where was there more slaughter and death than in the military?

Under Li Ziming and Liu Tianran's arrangements, Xie Jiayun entered the Federation Military, specifically the Western Legion, where the fighting was most intense.

Furthermore, to ensure that Xie Jiayun had a sufficiently high starting point, could steadily and safely gather energy in the military over the long term, and receive the attention and training of the military's upper ranks, Liu Tianran had specially arranged for him to possess an exceptionally rare Healing System super Martial Soul—the Tree of Life.

This Martial Soul was extraordinarily rare and possessed powerful healing abilities. Li Ziming had gone to great lengths to obtain it.

He attended auctions held by many major factions before finally gathering a branch from the Tree of Life as material to create the clone.

Next, Liu Tianran directly invested the energy reserves he had accumulated over two years, giving him the starting point of a five-ring Spirit King along with a set of One-Word Battle Armor.

The outcome did not disappoint Liu Tianran. With the Tree of Life's formidable healing abilities, Xie Jiayun thrived in the military, earned considerable military merit, and received vigorous training from the military's upper ranks due to his outstanding talent.

At the age of twenty, he had become an honored Federation colonel with his cultivation of a level 72 Healing System Soul Saint.

It was also thanks to Xie Jiayun's diligent gathering that Li Ziming had been able to progress so quickly.

The matters concerning the first and second clones could now be considered settled. However, Liu Tianran's arrangements for Li Ziming and Xie Jiayun had mostly placed them in logistical, equipment, and positional roles.

As for their combat power, Liu Tianran did not currently require either of them to possess especially outstanding fighting strength. He might enhance them in the future, but his resources and energy reserves were still in their infancy, so there was no need for that now.

Therefore, Liu Tianran now needed a combat-oriented clone with exceptionally powerful talent, one who could ensure his safety during this early stage.

He needed him to rely on his own talent to truly enter the sight of those major factions, so that he could gain sufficient status and authority in the future and handle identity and background issues for later clones.

After all, Liu Tianran could not keep replacing dead people for every clone. There was no guarantee that everyone would have as small a social circle as Li Ziming, and that would eventually cause problems.

If someone noticed something was wrong one day, it would become troublesome.

Otherwise, even if their talents were exceptional, their unclear identities would likely keep them excluded from the core circles of those factions.

Cemeteries were more suitable for Liu Tianran to gather the energy needed to create clones. Of course, some corpses in those cemeteries had been dead for too long to yield much energy, but there were simply too many of them.

After collecting energy for four hours, Liu Tianran left East Sea Cemetery when he could no longer gather much more.

Three days later,

It was once again the annual time for Martial Soul awakenings, and Spirit Pagodas across the Federation began their busy work.

Inside the Tianhai Spirit Pagoda, an orphan named Zhou Mingyu entered the public Martial Soul awakening room alone, without anyone accompanying him.

A staff member led Zhou Mingyu into a small room. The moment he stepped inside, he saw dense patterns etched across the floor, walls, and even ceiling.

The moment Zhou Mingyu entered the room, a strange sensation swiftly spread through his heart. It was as though a hidden power was stirring deep within his body, as if something were urgently calling to him. Even his heartbeat unconsciously quickened.

The staff member stood at the very center of the room and released his Soul Power.

"Little friend, get ready. I'm starting!"

"Mm, I'm ready, Uncle."

The moment Zhou Mingyu finished speaking, an icy-blue radiance carrying a frigid aura rose from his entire body. It then transformed into a white longsword, while the cold aura it released enveloped the entire room. In an instant, frost formed even on the staff member's hair and eyebrows.

The Mysterious Ice Sword was a top-tier weapon Martial Soul. It possessed an exceptionally pure ice attribute and was only a step away from Ultimate Ice. It was enough to attract the attention and training of the Spirit Pagoda's upper ranks.

This was also the Martial Soul Liu Tianran had prepared for this clone. To improve his talent and combat power, Liu Tianyi had not only made a special trip to Eastsea Academy to obtain Wu Changkong's sample, but had also used a Century-Grade Mysterious Ice Herb to purify and strengthen the clone's Martial Soul attribute.

Choosing Wu Changkong as the clone template had been a helpless choice. Liu Tianran simply did not know of any top-tier geniuses who were easier to approach than Wu Changkong.

After all, although he was nearly thirty and only a Soul Emperor, that was entirely due to psychological issues. Later, he would rise from level 70 to level 98 in only a few short years, so there was no need to question his talent.

Watching this scene, Zhou Mingyu could not help sighing in admiration. He rather wished his main body's Martial Soul were also a sword. Forget how powerful it was—at least it looked cool!

After all, being strong was temporary, but being handsome lasted a lifetime!

"Little friend, how are you feeling now?"

At some point, a middle-aged Spirit Pagoda deacon had appeared in the awakening room. Casting aside his unrealistic thoughts, he looked at Zhou Mingyu and said with a smile, "Little brother, congratulations on awakening such a powerful Martial Soul."

"Your Martial Soul is an extremely powerful ice-attribute weapon Martial Soul. It is already extremely close to the ultimate level of ice."

"Martial Souls with such a quality of ice attribute have not appeared many times in history, but every person who awakened one was a super genius who shook the world."

"Basically, nearly every Soul Master with a Martial Soul of this quality cultivated to the realm of a Super Douluo."

The deacon smiled at Zhou Mingyu. "Little friend, your Martial Soul awakening is complete. Now, let's test your Innate Soul Power."

Zhou Mingyu nodded and stepped forward, placing his hand on the Soul Power testing compass.

"Ten!"

His gaze flickered slightly, but he was not particularly surprised.

This time, the Spirit Pagoda deacon's reaction was quite calm. With such a top-tier Martial Soul, Innate Full Soul Power was only natural. After informing Zhou Mingyu that he possessed Innate Full Soul Power, he began inviting him to join the Spirit Pagoda.

After pretending to think for a moment, Zhou Mingyu decided to join.

In this era, joining a major faction was inevitable. Joining one made everything much more convenient. Among Shrek, the Tang Sect, the Spirit Pagoda, and the War God Hall, Liu Tianyi had arranged for Zhou Mingyu to enter the Spirit Pagoda.

"Your talent is quite good. The master of our Tianhai Spirit Pagoda thinks highly of you." After handling Zhou Mingyu's entry procedures, the deacon encouraged him, "Work hard. If you perform well, there is a very good chance the Pagoda Master will take you as his disciple."

Zhou Mingyu nodded.

Every city had a manager for its Spirit Pagoda. Only Spirit Pagodas in larger cities had branch Pagoda Masters, and Skysea City, as the Federation's largest coastal city along the Eastsea Coast, had a prosperous economy.

At the same time, the coastal regions had developed rapidly in recent years. As one of the Eighteen Heavenly Pillars, the Skysea City Spirit Pagoda was equipped with a branch Pagoda Master directly appointed by headquarters.

Those qualified to serve as branch Pagoda Masters of the Eighteen Heavenly Pillars were all super experts within the Spirit Pagoda. None could be below the rank of Super Douluo.

Those who could become branch Pagoda Masters possessed more than talent and strength. Each had their own means, and the factions behind them were deeply intertwined and complex.

Becoming a branch Pagoda Master's disciple is already quite good. At the very least, the resources needed for my early development will definitely be abundant.

Zhou Mingyu was well aware of his own standing. In this era, Innate Full Soul Power was no longer an especially outrageous talent. It was not commonplace, but the number awakened in every generation already surpassed the number of Limit Douluos. A top-tier Martial Soul alone probably could not attract Limit Douluos competing to take him as a disciple. Having a Super Douluo take interest in him was already a perfect start.

"Let's go. The Pagoda Master is already waiting for you."

The deacon led Zhou Mingyu to the upper floors of the Spirit Pagoda and entered one of the rooms.

The room was filled with a sense of technology. Many glass spheres resembling eggs sat inside, each containing a different rare Spirit Soul.

"Pagoda Master, Zhou Mingyu has arrived."

"Mm. You may leave first."

Zhou Mingyu shifted his gaze away from the various strange Spirit Soul eggs and looked toward the man standing with his back to him.

The man turned around.

His face was exceedingly dignified, carrying an imposing authority even without anger. He looked extremely stern. Although he was not using Soul Power, the elemental energy of heaven and earth around him naturally revolved around his body.

"Greetings, Pagoda Master."

"Mm. You are Zhou Mingyu?"

Wang Yupeng examined Zhou Mingyu, then nodded.

Zhou Mingyu stood respectfully where he was, without making any overly presumptuous movements.

"You possess Innate Full Soul Power, so you can already fuse with your first Spirit Soul." Wang Yupeng said, "Can you show me your Martial Soul?"

Following Wang Yupeng's instructions, Zhou Mingyu summoned his Martial Soul.

A frigid aura surged out around him. Ice crystals began condensing around his body, while sharp sword energy circled around him.

After carefully sensing that aura, Wang Yupeng's pupils contracted slightly.

It really is an extremely pure ice attribute, almost comparable to Ultimate Ice.

As long as he cultivates to the Titled Douluo rank in the future and equips himself with a hundred-thousand-year ice-attribute Spirit Soul, the quality of this Martial Soul might automatically ascend into Ultimate Ice. He may even have hope of reaching the limit.

It is just a pity that his attribute does not match mine very well. Should I take him in or not?

After some thought, Wang Yupeng decided to establish the master-disciple relationship first. Zhou Mingyu's talent was outstanding, and if he hesitated, someone else might snatch him away.

After all, the language of geniuses was: the slow hand gets nothing.

"Zhou Mingyu, are you willing to take me as your master?"

"I am willing," Zhou Mingyu said.

He respectfully performed a salute and knelt before Wang Yupeng.

Wang Yupeng beamed.

"I, Wang Yupeng, have taken a total of five disciples. You are the fifth, and most likely the last."

Zhou Mingyu listened quietly.

"From today onward, you will cultivate by my side. I am Wang Yupeng, known as Thunder Bear. My cultivation has reached level 96, making me a Super Douluo. I am also a Three-Word Battle Armor Master and possess some renown on this continent."

"If anyone dares bully you in the future, simply give them your master's name."

"Very good. The initial layout is complete. The rest can be left to time."