Only her hands had appeared, but her voice came first.
"Original, seriously. You took this long to summon me? Do you not know that when a girl wants out, you should not keep her waiting?"
Wu Ling immediately had countless retorts ready, but once he remembered that she was ultimately formed from a part of his own soul, he swallowed them all with the thought, "We are all me. Nobody gets to look down on anybody else."
After saying that, those jade-like hands pushed lightly, and a petite pink-haired girl emerged halfway from Wu Ling's shadow.
"Hey, Original, this is my first time, you know. Could you be a little gentler and help me out? Do you really have to make me crawl out by myself?"
Smack.
Wu Ling slapped a hand over his forehead and covered his eyes, doing his best to calm the soul of mockery inside him.
"Is it too late to return the goods? I remember I only maxed out curiosity. Did I pick the wrong mode while splitting the clone, or put the points in the wrong stat?"
No matter how speechless Wu Ling felt, the clone had already been split off. There was no way to toss her back in and rebuild her, so he stepped forward and helped pull her out.
"Mmm. Original, be gentle."
Looking at that face, six parts similar to his own but more feminine, Wu Ling nearly ground his back teeth to powder.
"If you were not really a girl, Azure would be dying ten or twenty times for this today."
Azure: question mark face.
"So the Original summoned me just to vent his anger? Then third sister exists so he can vent something else? The Original has become such a deviant that even his own clones are not safe. We will be oppressed forever. Even if we failed art school, we would receive no comfort. Even if we had only a single loaf of bread, the Original would still squeeze value out of it. There is no future in being a clone anymore. Time to wait for death."
Facing Azure's stream of muttering, Wu Ling kept pulling while shouting, "Azure, shut up! Learn from Ember. If you are not helping, go cultivate!"
"Alas, a clone will never be a slave. Unless the Original gives an order."
After Azure left, Wu Ling's female clone finally came out smoothly.
She stood a little over 1.5 m tall, close to 1.6 m with shoes on. Her long pink hair fell to her waist, and she gave off a clever, mischievous air. If she stood beside Wu Ling now, anyone who did not know them would probably think they were siblings at a glance.
After pulling out this bizarre clone, Wu Ling immediately turned to leave. What he wanted most right now was a moment of silence, but his female clone clearly did not intend to give him that.
"Yay, I am out! Original, Original, give it to me! Hurry and give me Medea's Spirit Ring. Give it to me, please, come on, hurry, hurry, I want to research it..."
Wu Ling, finally unable to endure her nagging, stopped walking. The instant she saw him stop, the clone went silent and simply stared up at him with wide eyes, acting cute.
Wu Ling's clone used Charm on Wu Ling. It was super effective.
Looking at his own clone acting cute, Wu Ling felt most of his anger vanish in an instant.
"In the end, nobody understands me better than myself. Your code name will be Scholar. From now on, I will call you Rose."
Wu Ling rubbed Rose's head. A black Spirit Ring appeared and lit up.
As a purple cloak draped over Rose, she obtained all of Medea's abilities and knowledge. The feeling she gave off changed slightly as well.
"All right, Rose. I am giving Medea to you, but I also have six tasks for you. You can research freely only after these six tasks are complete.
"First: compare and analyze mana and Spirit Power. Try to see whether Spirit Power can be used to perform Magecraft. If it works, good. If it does not, modify it and see whether Spirit Power can produce similar effects.
"Second: based on the results from the first task, remodel our residence and turn it into a Workshop.
"Third: research Reinforcement Magecraft for the sword created by my first Martial Soul and for my physical body. It must be the kind that lasts for a decent amount of time.
"Fourth: I want you to research four types of cultivation methods. Since Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Skill from a martial arts world can function here, I believe you can create corresponding methods based on the human body. The four types are low, mid, and high grade general methods, plus dedicated methods built around specific Martial Souls. For now, the fourth type only needs to be researched for me.
"Fifth: potion-making. Eating spiritual herbs and immortal herbs directly is too wasteful. Medea is a witch, so she should be able to refine potions. I will provide the ingredients. You help me refine some potions.
"Sixth: after you finish researching Spirit Power, develop a few weapons that use Spirit Power as their energy source. Future Soul Guidance Devices will be your blueprint. I want Tang San's hidden weapons to have no place to shine at all.
"Rose, did you understand?"
Faced with a list of tasks that sounded exhausting just to hear, Rose felt no pressure at all. Instead, she became faintly excited.
"As expected of the Original. About eighty percent of that matches what I was thinking."
Wu Ling strongly agreed with that. They were the same soul, after all. The details might differ, but their final goal would not be too far apart. "As long as you understand. By the way, what were you thinking for the other twenty percent?"
When it came to the other twenty percent, Rose became a little more serious. "The other twenty percent? One is Oscar. I really want to study his food-type Martial Soul and figure out its structure and nutritional composition.
"And I do not need to say it for you to understand. The reason you used future prediction as an excuse was to borrow Spirit Hall's enormous reach and find him. He is an orphan, his talent is top-tier, and his mentality is fairly good. Whether you take him in as a subordinate or reduce Tang San's group's combat power, it is a good move either way.
"After all, judging by Tang San's way of thinking, you, as the Pope's disciple, have already walked the path to death.
"As for the second, it is Bibi Dong. Original, you may be a person who respects his Master, but in your heart, Bibi Dong is more like a partner than a master. Do not forget that her goal is to destroy Spirit Hall. I need to prepare for that too."
It had to be said that she truly was a clone who had been created by sacrificing combat power and physical strength in exchange for heightened curiosity and intelligence. That delicacy of thought and organized planning were beyond both Azure and Ember.
Of course, Ember was a muscle-brained straight arrow, so he obviously could not compare. As for whether Azure was hiding something because of his negative personality, that remained uncertain.
"Fine. Do things your way. But I have one condition. Before you make a move, remember to tell me. I need to confirm the plan when the time comes."
Rose patted her chest, which had only gained a faint curve because of Medea's possession. "No problem. When the time comes, just take me back in and you will know everything, right? Leave it to me."
Wu Ling nodded in deep agreement. To prevent the memories from becoming too chaotic when he recalled a clone, he collected his clones once every two or three days.
"Good. Do what you need to do. As for cultivation, you can skip it for now. Let Ember and Azure work harder. Ordinary exercise has already lost most of its value anyway, so have them spend two-thirds of each day refining Spirit Power instead."
"Then I am off to research. Bye, Original!"
Watching Rose leave in childlike excitement, Wu Ling smiled gently.
"Since my third Spirit Ring is ten-thousand-year level, it directly pushed my Spirit Power to level thirty-three. Then how long will it take me this time to reach level forty...?"