Chapter 174 - 160: Headless Clone

Zhou Wenshan said, "I just called Mr. Gu to discuss the situation. He has already gone to request the Saint’s presence. Since this involves a legendary-tier expert, it’s enough to warrant the Saint’s intervention."

So, the group waited right where they were. No one touched the corpse on the ground.

Liou Wenxin and Zhou Wenshan had both made a preliminary judgment: Su Ze’s corpse had also been "parasitized." However, because the body had no brain, the process had encountered some problems.

As for the specific nature of those problems, they would have to wait for the Saint to examine it. After all, these were the methods of a legendary-tier expert. Even Zhou Wenshan didn’t dare to make any rash conclusions.

Su Ze had seen the Dongli Kingdom’s Saint once before. During the Coral Monster invasion, the Saint had taken action, repelling Coral Island and pursuing it into the deep sea.

Su Ze and the others didn’t have to wait long before Gu Chengguang arrived on the scene, accompanied by an old man with white brows and a white beard.

"Lord Saint." Everyone hurried to greet him.

The white-bearded, white-browed Saint gave a slight nod without speaking. He walked over to Su Ze’s corpse, furrowed his brows to observe it for a moment, and then placed his hands directly on it. A cyan evolutionary light flowed from his palms as he felt the body for a moment before speaking:

"This is indeed the work of the Evolution Divine Teachings’ Pope, but this was likely just a Butterfly Stage clone."

"Lord Saint, how should we handle this corpse? Is there anything wrong with it?" Zhou Wenshan took the initiative to ask.

The Saint stroked his beard and said, "The Pope’s Blood and Flesh Parasite ability is indeed bizarre, but its principle still relies on controlling the host’s brain. This corpse just so happens to lack one, which caused the parasitism to fail.

"However, a piece of the Pope’s ’source flesh’ has merged with this body, giving it vitality. A sliver of the Pope’s consciousness—a wisp of Spiritual Power—is hidden within that source flesh. But since that wisp of Spiritual Power couldn’t invade a brain, he was unable to control the body’s movements. I will now destroy that wisp of consciousness. Afterward, this body will become one of the living dead, and you can dispose of it as you see fit."

Seeing that some people still looked confused, the Saint shook his head and explained patiently, "You can think of it as a piece of the Pope’s own flesh invading this corpse. I’m about to eliminate the remnants of the Pope’s consciousness on that piece of flesh. After that, this body will basically be in a vegetative state. Understand?"

Everyone nodded in unison.

’What kind of bizarre skill does that Pope have?’ Su Ze thought. ’He can split off a piece of his flesh to possess someone and even bring a corpse "back to life." That’s just too outrageous.’

The white-haired Saint closed his eyes. A moment later, he opened them again and said, "Alright, the Pope’s consciousness within this body has been purged. You can burn it or do whatever you want with it now. However..."

The Saint looked at Su Ze. "I hear this body is yours. In that case, your Spiritual Power will be highly compatible with it. You should consider keeping it as a clone. It might have other uses in the future. It’s not easy to find a living clone for yourself."

"Thank you for your guidance, honorable Saint." Su Ze quickly expressed his thanks. He then took the corpse on the ground—no, it wasn’t a corpse anymore; since it was alive, it should be called a body—and stored the body back in his Storage Pendant.

Zhou Wenshan then stepped forward and requested, "Lord Saint, the Pope of the Evolution Divine Teachings infiltrated our Dongli University disguised as a student. He captured the Crab Slave beast that has been responsible for numerous recent crimes in Dongli. I implore you, Lord Saint, to help us investigate whether he is still hiding somewhere in Dongli University."

The Saint nodded slightly. "I’ll go take a look."

With that, he shot into the sky and flew toward Dongli University.

Gu Chengguang and Zhou Wenshan, both Saint-level, hurried to follow.

In the end, only Su Ze, Liou Wenxin, and Mr. Ya were left.

The three of them also flew toward Dongli University, but their speed was no match for the Saint-level experts.

Liou Wenxin sighed. "I can’t believe the Crab Slave beast ended up in the hands of the Evolution Divine Teachings. My worst fear has come true."

She would rather the Crab Slave beast have been completely destroyed, making it impossible to extract its Evolutionary Material, than for its terrifying parasitic ability to be obtained by the utterly unscrupulous Evolution Divine Teachings.

Now, they could only hope that the people from the Evolution Divine Teachings were unlucky and failed to absorb the Crab Slave’s parasitic skill, or that the skill wasn’t present in the beast’s extract.

What they feared most was that the Evolution Divine Teachings would succeed in breeding the Crab Slave beast on a massive scale, especially since the Pope had captured it alive.

If the Evolution Divine Teachings mastered the Crab Slave’s parasitic skill, it could lead to disaster in the future.

Su Ze offered a wry smile and tried to console her. "It’s probably not that big of a deal. The Pope’s Blood and Flesh Parasite Skill is already insane. What’s the difference if they master the Crab Slave’s parasitic skill too?"

...

The Saint searched Dongli University and its surroundings but did not find the Pope’s clone.

And so, the sensational Crab Slave murder case, which had been ongoing for more than half a month, officially came to a close.

The outcome wasn’t good—the Crab Slave beast had, after all, fallen into the Pope’s hands. But at least for now, no one else would die from its parasitism.

According to the investigation, the young couple Su Ze had seen by the man-made lake were indeed real people from Dongli University. However, it could now be confirmed that both had been parasitized by the Pope of the Evolution Divine Teachings. They were as good as dead.

In response, Dongli University launched a campus-wide physical examination. All students, faculty, and staff had to undergo the checkup, including cafeteria chefs, janitors, dormitory supervisors, and convenience store owners. There were no exceptions. The goal was to ensure no one else was being controlled by other factions through various evolutionary means.

Huo Yuanzheng, the vice-director of Dongli University’s practical combat department, was also confirmed to have died at the hands of the Crab Slave beast. The public security department uncovered his long history of soliciting prostitutes, but to preserve a shred of his dignity, they did not make the matter public.

Reconstructing the Crab Slave beast’s criminal history, it could be basically surmised that it came ashore during the Coral Island invasion by parasitizing some other beast. During the battle, it then parasitized the first victim, a naval soldier, which kicked off this entire series of murders.

As a Tier 3 beast, the Crab Slave possessed high intelligence, not quite on par with a human’s, but not far off.

Furthermore, after parasitizing a human, it seemed capable of "borrowing" the human’s intelligence to some extent. Alternatively, it could be understood that the parasitized human’s behavior was merely influenced, while they remained alive and conscious.

For instance, if the Crab Slave issued a command like "go eat" to the host, the host would proactively go and eat without the Crab Slave needing to control every single chew and swallow.

This was also how the Crab Slave was able to pose as a "call girl" and chat online with clients from all over the country, even constantly changing accounts to avoid being tracked.

Su Ze only learned later that an account named "Nationwide Drops," which had left comments online before, was actually being used by the Crab Slave. He had even seen its comments online himself.

...

The day after the Crab Slave incident concluded, the Dongli University physical examinations ended. Unexpectedly, they actually found a few things!

First, one student and two teachers had left without notice, apparently afraid something would be discovered.

Then, the practical combat department discovered that one of its students was an undercover agent from the Filth Earth Organization.

This guy had deliberately learned a skunk beast’s body odor skill, using the skunk’s stench to cover up the foul odor of a Tainted One.

When he first absorbed the skunk’s body odor skill, it was treated as a joke. No one thought it was intentional.

After being caught, this Filth Earth Organization mole confessed everything. He was merely a peripheral member with very little knowledge of the organization’s internal secrets. His only mission was to keep a close eye on Su Ze’s movements.

Su Ze didn’t pay the matter much mind. It was perfectly normal for the Filth Earth Organization to have people watching him. Even after catching this "skunk," there were probably others.

As long as he avoided long trips, was careful to hide his tracks when he did go out, used the Hundred-Change Mask to alter his appearance, or brought Mr. Ya along with him, it shouldn’t be a major problem.

In the days that followed, Dongli University returned to its usual tranquility, but Su Ze and those around him were all busy with their own tasks.

Mrs. Yun continued to diligently practice the Swan Dance to digest the Saint-level extract in her body.

Mr. Ya was busy feeding his "little cutie."

Su Ze, meanwhile, began to study the new "headless body" he had acquired.

Because the body had no head, it couldn’t eat. It needed an injection of Nutrient Liquid every few days to stay alive.

The Lord Saint had told Su Ze to use the headless body as a clone, but after Liou Wenxin studied it, she discovered that Su Ze’s Spiritual Power would need to be stronger before he could do so.

To control a clone, one’s Spiritual Power must at least be able to leave the body. Su Ze’s Spiritual Power was stronger than a normal Cocoon Stage evolver’s, but it was far weaker than that of researchers like Liou Wenxin.

Liou Wenxin’s preliminary estimate was that once Su Ze completed his third evolution and became a Butterfly Stage evolver, his Spiritual Power would be strong enough to control the clone.

’By the time I reach the Butterfly Stage, what damn use will a Cocoon Stage clone be?’ Su Ze wondered.

’To scout ahead or something?’

’Better than nothing, I guess.’

’Could I have the clone disguise itself as me to handle dangerous tasks and draw enemy fire...?’ The thought surfaced in Su Ze’s mind, but then he suddenly remembered the clone didn’t even have a head. How could it be disguised?

’That’s right! Don’t I have the Hundred-Change Mask?!’

Su Ze abruptly remembered he still had the Hundred-Change Mask, which could disguise the headless clone as anyone.

’Looks like this clone will be useful after all.’

For now, Su Ze left the headless clone in Liou Wenxin’s laboratory. She would be responsible for giving it regular injections of Nutrient Liquid. In any case, he wouldn’t be able to use the clone before he completed his third evolution.

Three days after the Crab Slave incident, Su Ze finally received good news from Prince Atago of the Great Desert Kingdom: the Sand Blind Snake Extract was ready!

The Great Desert Kingdom’s Royal Hunting Team had tracked a Sand Blind Snake all the way to the vicinity of the Miracle Oasis. After three days, they finally succeeded in hunting it down.

Now, that vial of Sand Blind Snake Extract was in Atago’s hands.