"Not bad." Dr. Zhuang nodded, "When I was in Donghua City, I secretly combined the past scientific technologies with the current immortal techniques, hoping to integrate them and perfect my cloning technology."
"Unfortunately, when I was in Donghua City, this work was always somewhat lacking. This led to the failure of all the human clones who had their Primordial Spirits adjusted."
Zhou Bai nodded; he had read about this in the notes Dr. Zhuang had left in the hospital.
Dr. Zhuang continued, "And the reason for the failure is simple: I discovered I couldn’t directly clone the Primordial Spirit. So, the human clones I produced after their Primordial Spirits were adjusted were always deformed, and I could only re-cultivate their Primordial Spirits."
Lv Chongyang exclaimed in shock, "You can cultivate Primordial Spirits?"
Dr. Zhuang smiled, "It’s just grafting a bit of my own Primordial Spirit power, much like cloning myself. That’s why at that time, I could still only clone myself. Moreover, after grafting my Primordial Spirit power, the clones that were born could hardly continue to cultivate, and the efficiency of enhancing their Primordial Spirit power was extremely poor. They could basically only be used as assistants."
"So, I continued to study the original Daoist scriptures here and tried to perfect the cloning technology."
"Unfortunately, there has been no progress."
"Until one day, I met a person."
At this point, Dr. Zhuang started to smile, "He brought a very interesting technology."
...
In front of the cave entrance, Annie watched Li Xiuzhu, whose face was fiercely distorting, incessantly striking the light screen, and her mind became a bit confused.
"What’s going on?" Annie asked, "Why is the Sect Hierarch inside?"
Images flashed through her mind, and suddenly she heard the words Li Xiuzhu had spoken echoing in her head:
"Do not let anyone out."
Annie’s gaze slightly hardened, and she couldn’t help but think, "Could it be that the Sect Hierarch who just went out has a problem?"
At that moment, Li Xiuzhu, who continued to pound on the light screen, looked towards Annie and suddenly spoke, "Annie! Quickly, let me out. I am the real one, the one who just left is a mutant. He ambushed me and then escaped by impersonating me."
"We must stop him quickly, otherwise, everyone will be in danger."
Annie frowned, hesitated slightly, then shook her head, "No, he could control the Array, but you’re blocked by it; he’s the real one, and you’re the fake one."
Li Xiuzhu looked at Annie with a disappointed face, "He took my Array flag, so he could control the Array on this side, and also stripped me of my control."
"There’s no time left; this mutant has the ability to take on someone else’s appearance. If we let him mix into the village, the consequences are unimaginable."
Annie’s gaze shifted slightly, feeling that what the other party said might also make sense.
At that moment, more howling sounds came from inside the cave, and Li Xiuzhu turned back with an ugly expression, "The other mutants inside the cave seem to want to break free too. I’ll go stop them; if the mutant outside wants to come in too, make sure to stop him; he definitely wants to release the other mutants."
Watching Li Xiuzhu turn to leave, Annie’s heart stirred slightly, "He doesn’t want to come out? Could what he said be true?"
For a while, Annie was plunged into hesitation, unsure whether she should believe the words of Li Xiuzhu in front of her.
More than ten minutes later, the Li Xiuzhu who had left the cave returned to the cave entrance. Maybe it was the impact of what had just happened, but at this moment, Annie always felt a chilling aura surrounding him as if he was a corpse.
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"Annie, continue guarding the outside; I’m going back in."
Seeing that Li Xiuzhu was about to enter the cave again, Annie thought for a moment and ultimately didn’t mention the incident that had just occurred. Instead, she caught up to him and said, "I’ll come with you."
Li Xiuzhu paused slightly, his eyes slanting towards Annie.
Swept by his gaze, Annie felt chills running across her body; she had never seen such a cold look from Li Xiuzhu before.
"Do you want to come with me?" Li Xiuzhu looked at Annie, and Annie felt that his gaze was different from usual, his eyes seemingly mocking.
At that moment, Annie finally confirmed that the Li Xiuzhu in front of her was indeed not the usual Li Xiuzhu. Though his appearance, gestures, and even some habits looked exactly like Li Xiuzhu, Annie intuitively sensed that there was another soul in his mind.
Annie nodded, "I just heard more sounds of mutants from inside; I’m worried about your safety, let’s go in together."
In her heart, she thought, ’If the Li Xiuzhu in front of me is fake, then the one before might be the real one. I can’t let the possibly real Li Xiuzhu be killed by him; I have to figure out what’s really going on.’
The Li Xiuzhu in front of her looked at Annie’s gaze and suddenly smiled slightly, "Since you want to come in, then follow me."
Annie nodded again, then with a slight movement of her Primordial Spirit power, a tiny insect flew out towards the village direction.
She looked at Li Xiuzhu nervously, feeling relieved when she thought he hadn’t noticed: ’I just need to hold on for a while; the others should be arriving soon.’
The two entered the cave and walked about tens of meters along the passage inside, and a vast space appeared before Annie.
Inside were all sorts of strange, incomprehensible devices.
Wang Xuanhua and several other mutants were immersed in a purple liquid, their eyes closed tightly, seemingly in deep sleep.
Just then, a dark shadow fiercely pounced at Li Xiuzhu, but before Annie’s shocked eyes, the shadow was killed by a backhand slap from Li Xiuzhu, with such speed that Annie couldn’t react at all.
Annie looked at the figure that fell to the ground, the same ’Li Xiuzhu’ who had been hitting the light screen trying to leave the cave.
Looking at the two Li Xiuzhus—one standing, one fallen—Annie, without time to think about why the Sect Hierarch was so easily killed, released her Primordial Spirit power and the Five Poisons Pearl to protect herself, and shouted at the standing Li Xiuzhu, "What are you doing?"
"Killing someone who wanted to kill me." Li Xiuzhu turned his head, his gaze at Annie full of indifference.
"What exactly is going on?" Annie’s mind was a mess, "Why are there two of you? Why did you kill another you? Which one of you is real?"
Li Xiuzhu calmly said, "If by ’real’, you mean the person who first brought you to the cave, entered it, and instructed you to guard the entrance, then it’s the one on the ground; I’ve already killed him."
Shocked, Annie looked at Li Xiuzhu and shouted, "You killed the Sect Hierarch? Who are you really?"