"A clone."
"And one that could even fool the Heavenly Dao of this world..." Li Shun's interest was immediately piqued.
Li Shun had encountered techniques that could summon clones in earlier fights.
But without exception, the level symbol appeared only above the original's head.
That greatly diminished the clones' ability to mislead pursuers and cover an escape. Some of those tricks became useless altogether.
"Goatee's cloning technique seems different."
"I've got your scent." Li Shun licked his lips, savoring the distinctive taste of the flesh he had just swallowed.
It was a special ability he had absorbed from someone else during three years of ceaseless devouring and evolution.
In those three years, how many tens of thousands of lives had he devoured with the Agricultural School's Reaping Life technique? He had inherited all manner of strange abilities along the way.
There were so many, and they were so varied, that Li Shun had once made a thorough inventory of them.
He had kept only the six most useful and discarded every dispensable one.
The value of a technique lay in its refinement, not in how many he possessed.
After that culling, Li Shun's strength had grown rather than diminished.
"Scent Blood, Track Prey for Ten Thousand Miles" was one of those six prized abilities.
"He still seems a long way off."
"But you won't escape."
As he spoke, a crackling burst rang out. In an instant, Li Shun's appearance changed beyond recognition. Even his build, his height, and the scent of his flesh became entirely different.
This was no simple illusion. It was another of the six abilities Li Shun possessed: "Shape Flesh into Form, Borrow Bone to Restore Life."
It allowed him to take the form of anything he had once devoured.
Its principle was simple: as he ate,