Chapter 348: The Price of Death

The light in Qi Yuangu's eyes gradually dimmed, the breath of life receding like a tide, until he finally collapsed straight onto the ground.

Lu Yu slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air; at this moment, logically speaking, this matter should be considered settled.

Of course, if that man surnamed Wei hadn't managed to escape, it would have been perfect.

This was an unavoidable situation; after all, the abilities awakened by these Awakened are strange and varied, and by comparison, the Clone ability is not exactly rare.

As for the potential retaliation he might face later, he wasn't stupid; this identity had already caused such a huge incident, so naturally, it would have to be completely shelved in the future—it was just an insignificant mask anyway.

It was just that he felt a slight worry in his heart: would someone with a keen mind notice any flaws when he performed the Wind-Facing Blade Slash in the future?

"Forget it, I'll worry about that later. To be safe, I should take these corpses back; they are carrying Space Items, and there might be some valuable things hidden inside."

Lu Yu squatted down and lightly touched the corpses with his palm; in an instant, the corpses vanished from where they were and appeared inside his Space Item.

This was a trick he had only learned after flipping through the Association's item manual: living things cannot be directly placed into a Space Item, but once they are dead, they can be stored inside.

Immediately after, his figure flashed and he appeared at the place where the battle had previously erupted, collecting the several corpses scattered on the ground one by one into his Space Item.

He scanned his surroundings; the area was eerily quiet, and the guards who were usually seen everywhere seemed to have evaporated into thin air, leaving no trace behind.

"This place cannot be stayed in for long; taking Ji Wanqing back is the priority." Before his voice had even faded, his figure vanished from the spot again.

……

"Pfft!"

A man who had been sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion with his eyes tightly shut suddenly snapped his eyes open, and a mouthful of blood sprayed out like an arrow, staining a large area of the floor in front of him a shocking, blood-red color.

"Hoo, hoo..."

The man braced his hands on the floor, panting rapidly as if he had just struggled back from the brink of death.

It took a full minute or two before he slowly raised his head, revealing a familiar face—it was none other than Wei Xiong, who had been killed by Lu Yu in Anshan City.

Yet, compared to his previously ruddy and glowing appearance, his face and lips were now as pale as paper, looking as terrifying as a vengeful ghost.

"Damn bastard!"

Wei Xiong gritted his teeth, squeezing these words through his teeth, the hatred in his heart for Lu Yu burning like a raging fire, wishing he could tear him into ten thousand pieces.

That's right, his ability is Clone; as long as his true body remains, he can continue his life.

But this does not mean the death of a clone has no impact on him; on the contrary, once a clone dies, he must pay an extremely painful price.

Every time a clone dies, the strength of his true body drops by nearly thirty percent. At first glance, it might seem like no big deal—he could just work hard to cultivate and recover later.

Initially, he had thought the same, so he didn't care about his own life, often venturing deep into dangerous areas or, to let others in his team retreat safely, drawing away powerful Fierce Beasts alone, only to be unfortunately killed.

Such actions won him great benefits and high prestige, and he had always secretly rejoiced in this ability he had awakened.

However, as time passed, he gradually sensed that something was wrong.

To be precise, he had noticed it during the process of breaking through from a D-rank Awakened to a C-Class Awakened.

Most D-rank Awakened of the same period only needed about half a year to break through to become C-Class, but he had spent nearly two years.

What did this mean? One must know that when he cultivated, he would summon a clone to cultivate along with him; theoretically, his cultivation speed should have been twice that of others.

But the reality was that his cultivation time was more than twice that of others, which meant his cultivation efficiency was only about one-fifth of everyone else's!

After becoming a C-Class Awakened, this gap became even more pronounced. Even with several times the resources of others, his cultivation speed was only one-tenth of theirs!

When others had long since crossed the threshold of C-Class and advanced to B-Class Awakened, he remained stagnant.

Only then did he finally understand that the price of a clone's death was not just a regression in strength, but a sharp increase in the difficulty of improving his strength.

Every time a clone died, the difficulty of cultivation would rise by one level, and each increase in difficulty was much higher than the last!

The more times he died, the greater the increase in difficulty, eventually leading to him needing to put in ten or even dozens of times more effort than others just to barely keep up with their pace.

Therefore, in a sense, he who appeared to possess an immortal body was actually more afraid of death than anyone else.

This was also one of the reasons why he had tried so hard to win over Lu Yu previously; having already died nearly ten times, if he continued to die, he would likely be trapped at the level of a C-Class Awakened for the rest of his life.

And the other reason was that in his eyes, a mere Martial Artist—even a True Essence Realm Martial Artist—what did it matter?

Once they received his favor, they should have obediently come over and bowed down to him. But the result...

Thinking of this, Wei Xiong was consumed by rage, and another mouthful of blood sprayed from his mouth.

He wiped the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, slowly stood up, and walked out of the room with heavy steps.

"My Lord!" The two Awakened at the door were shocked at the sight. What was going on? Could it be that Lord Wei had run into trouble during his cultivation?

"Go and call that fellow Chen Qinglin to me, and find the best painter in the city while you're at it."

"Yes!" Although the two were full of confusion, they still immediately followed the order and acted with speed.

A cold sneer appeared at the corner of Wei Xiong's mouth.

Two or three minutes later, two men walked in one after the other.

The one walking in front was one of the men who had just left to carry out the order, and following behind him was a middle-aged man with an extraordinary air, extremely tall, nearly 1.9 meters, a full head taller than the person in front.

However, when he saw Wei Xiong, he was like a punctured balloon; his previous aura instantly dissipated, his waist bent involuntarily, and he looked at Wei Xiong, who was sitting and drinking tea, with a face full of fawning, asking cautiously:

"I wonder why Lord Wei has summoned this humble one? If there is anything this humble one can do for you, please, Lord Wei, just give the order."

"Chairman Chen, please sit," Wei Xiong said, pointing to the empty seat beside him.

"Yes." Chen Qinglin sat down cautiously, daring only to sit on the edge of the seat, appearing extremely reserved.

"Please wait a moment, Chairman Chen; I have an important matter to discuss with you shortly."

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare," Chen Qinglin hurriedly replied, his heart instantly jumping to his throat, secretly speculating: what on earth could this person want with him? He didn't know if it was a blessing or a curse.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh in his heart.