[That pungent, nauseating stench, mixed with the sewer's distinctive cold dampness, once again entered your nostrils unimpeded.]
[Filthy black water silently rose over your ankles, bringing an utterly realistic physical sensation.]
[You took your position in the center of the sewer with practiced ease, and the Cursed Energy circuits within your body roared into motion like a precision engine.]
[Your Innate Cursed Technique, "Phantom Parade," activated, and you replicated and activated that cloning Cursed Technique, "Pseudo-Body Formation," once more with extraordinary precision.]
[Amid a strange distortion of space and rippling tremors, bodies began rapidly splitting off around your original body.]
[Unlike the previous three-way operation that had pushed your physical limits, however, once the spatial fluctuations completely subsided this time, there were no longer three of you standing in the filthy water.]
[There were four "Li Shunchens," identical in appearance and build, each possessing an independent perspective and an equal share of Cursed Energy.]
[Your central control body raised a hand slightly and, with practiced, methodical movements, handed the two exceedingly precious unfinished cores and the precision engraving tools on the workbench to the clones on your left and right.]
[The instant these two clones took possession of the cores, they immediately entered that unnerving state of absolute concentration, preparing to continue the unfinished soul engraving.]
[Your gaze, however, settled calmly on the newly summoned fourth clone, whose hands were empty.]
[You gave this additional clone no instructions concerning core engraving.]
[In your plan, the reason you had forcibly split off another clone, even at the cost of further increasing your brain's computational load, was never to have him participate in that intensely demanding precision engraving.]
[The sole core task you assigned this fourth clone was to conduct exceedingly tedious, intensive analysis and practice specifically concerning Barrier Techniques during this