"An annoying dilemma, I imagine," Xue Huang whispered from the shadows of Shen Tian’s mind. "The classic problem of cultivators tied to the leashes of a sect."
"Do you have a solution?" Shen Tian asked, arranging the herb flasks on his shelf as if nothing were happening.
"The Blood Lotus Reflection Art," the ancestor said, and her tone lost its sarcasm to become deathly serious. "It is a technique from the era of the Immortal Emperors. It allows you to split off a portion of your vital essence and your consciousness to create a perfect clone. A true body of flesh and blood bearing your same mind."
Shen Tian set the flask down on the table.
"The price. Every art has a price."
"It requires dividing your soul," Xue Huang responded. "For anyone below the Nascent Soul stage, attempting to split their own consciousness means instant death by mental collapse, or ending up as a drooling vegetable. But you... your mind is old, Shen Tian. I have seen the structure of your Sea of Consciousness. If anyone in the Foundation Establishment stage can withstand that mutilation, it is you."
Shen Tian’s resolve hardened instantly, the last trace of fear crushed beneath a century of discipline.
He stripped to the waist, sat in the center of the stone floor, and channeled his Qi. Xue Huang guided the process directly from his mind, dictating the sequence for breaking the internal seals.
Before it began, the System emitted a pulse of red light.
"[WARNING: Soul severance technique detected.]"
"[Origin: Xue Huang (Blood Empress).]"
"[Risk of mental collapse: 94.7%.]"
"[Risk of death by spiritual hemorrhage: 89.2%.]"
"[Risk of conversion into a vegetable: 99.1%.]"
"[Recommendation: Abort the process.]"
Shen Tian ignored the warning. He had already expected it.
"Are you going to go through with it?" Xue Huang asked, in a tone that for the first time sounded genuinely concerned. "Your tool says the probability of success is less than six percent."
"The System measures probabilities based on normal bodies," Shen Tian responded, closing his eyes. "I am not normal."
Xue Huang fell silent for an instant. Then, her voice resonated in his mind with absolute severity.
"Then let us begin. Channel your Qi toward the ninth meridian. When I tell you, you will break the seals of the tenth. The pain will be... indescribable."
The System emitted a second pulse.
"[Initiating emergency protocol.]"
"[Option A: Abort the process. (Survival probability: 100%)]"
"[Option B: Continue with the process. (Survival probability: 5.3%)]"
"[Option C: Activate Suppression Point overload to assist in the severance. Cost: 100 Points. (Survival probability: 48.6%)]"
Shen Tian committed at once.
"Option C."
"[Overload activated. Consuming 100 Suppression Points.]"
"[Remaining balance: 30 Suppression Points.]"
"[Severance assistance online. Stabilizing meridians...]"
A scorching heat ran through Shen Tian’s body. The System was using his points to strengthen his meridians, preparing them for the brutal separation that was about to occur.
"Now," Xue Huang ordered.
Shen Tian broke the seals of the tenth meridian.
The process went beyond pain into pure destruction. Shen Tian felt an invisible axe fall upon the very center of his ego, splitting it into two bleeding halves. The vision of the room fractured. His physical body expelled a dense mass of Qi, spiritual liquid, and vital blood through the pores of his back.
The System emitted one alarm after another.
"[!WARNING! Spiritual hemorrhage detected.]"
"[Qi loss: 40%... 55%... 70%...]"
"[!Risk of imminent collapse!]"
"[Applying emergency stabilizers...]"
Shen Tian felt the System inject energy into his meridians, containing the hemorrhage. The drain still outpaced the supply. The Qi loss continued to increase.
"Your tool cannot sustain you much longer!" Xue Huang shouted. "You need to anchor your consciousness to something! A memory, an emotion, anything!"
The anchor came to Shen Tian instantly. He fixed his mind on the most vivid memory of his past life: the moment the young master of the Lin Clan ordered his lackeys to shatter his ribs. The pain. The humiliation. The helplessness. One hundred and thirty-five years of misery compressed into a single instant of pure rage.
That anchor kept him conscious.
The dark biomass accumulated in front of him, boiling and molding, hardening into bones, weaving muscles, and expanding skin.
The System continued emitting notifications.
"[Soul severance completed at 30%... 60%... 90%...]"
"[Stabilizing new vessel...]"
"[!Warning! The new vessel lacks a cultivation base. Requires external Qi feeding.]"
"[Recommendation: Transfer 3 Ling Jing Qi Crystals to stabilize the clone.]"
Shen Tian, with the little control he had left, mentally ordered the transfer. Three of the crystals he had just purified disintegrated, their energy flowing into the dark mass twisting on the floor.
The pain threatened to snuff out his mind, but the memory of his past life acted as an iron anchor. A century of humiliations tied him to reality.
The System emitted a final pulse, this time green.
"[Soul severance successfully completed.]"
"[New vessel stabilized.]"
"[Clone’s Cultivation Base: Qi Condensation — Level 5.]"
"[Original’s Cultivation Base: Foundation Establishment — Level 1.]"
"[Warning: The clone shares the System and the Suppression Point balance. However, only the original body can passively generate Suppression Points through cultivation. Quests completed by either body award points to the shared balance.]"
"[Additional Warning: The clone is soul-bound to the original. If the clone dies, the original will suffer severe spiritual damage. If the clone assimilates corrupted energy, the original will be contaminated. This risk is inherent to the severance technique.]"
"[Milestone Reward: +100 Suppression Points for creating a perfect clone.]"
When the process ended, both opened their eyes in unison.
Sitting face to face on the stone floor, two identical Shen Tians breathed in perfect synchrony.
Both bodies carried identical status. Shen Tian’s consciousness experienced the room from two different angles simultaneously. If the body on the left moved a finger, the mind felt the movement; if the body on the right looked to the left, the mind processed the image. It was a single operator driving two perfect vehicles at the same time.
The System’s bond lived in his soul, deeper than any flesh. Both bodies shared the same blue interface, the same Suppression Points, the same functions. It was an unexpected advantage: two bodies, one System. Either half could access the Shop, use Causality Perception, or invoke any function. The only difference was distance: if one body was hundreds of kilometers from the other, the connection to the System remained perfect because the bond was spiritual, not physical.
Shen Tian had used three of the newly purified crystals to feed the new flesh. The external Qi supplied the energy his original body could spare only at the cost of its own strength.
Xue Huang materialized in the room, looking at the scene with her golden eyes wide open. The millennial deity, who had seen empires born and crumble, took a step back, genuinely perturbed.
"You did it..." the Empress whispered, almost breathless. "Someone in Foundation Establishment just split their soul and kept his sanity intact. You are a damn aberration."
Shen Tian looked at his other half. They evaluated their forces.
The body that would remain in the sect kept the Foundation Establishment — Level 1 base. It would act as a perfect biological anchor, overflowing with energy to withstand the exhausting hours of the alchemy furnaces.
The other half—the clone that would travel—stabilized quickly at Qi Condensation — Level 5. It was the exact balance: weak enough to go unnoticed among the cultivators at an auction, yet carrying the physical reflexes, assassination martial arts, and tactical knowledge of an implacable veteran.
Both Shen Tians looked at each other and, at the same time, nodded.
Six days passed.
In the Alchemy Pavilion of the Jinyun Sect, everything functioned with terrifying perfection. The original Shen Tian proved to be the ultimate assistant. He kept Tang Songyang delighted with his thermal efficiency and held brief, constructive conversations with Tang Yuding about the properties of jade roots. Every third day, he reported to Deacon Zhang, handing him meaningless diagrams and maintaining his attitude of a submissive servant.
Every eye in the pavilion accepted the mask completely. His alibi was impregnable because it rested on truth; he truly was there.
The clone, meanwhile, traveled on foot for six days. He used short bursts of Qi in the soles of his feet—the Flickering Shadow Steps—to accelerate his pace. The technique excelled in short bursts, though long distances tested its limits with the endurance of a Qi Condensation cultivator and the experience of a veteran who had walked for years along the paths of the lower world. He could cover a hundred kilometers a day without exhausting himself. He slept four hours at roadside inns, ate what he found, and kept going. Every hour pressed against him.
Hundreds of kilometers away, at nightfall on the sixth day, the wind blew through the iron pines on the descending roads leading to Dust Border City.
A solitary figure walked along the muddy path. He wore a black travel tunic and a wide hooded cloak that completely concealed his features. Shen Tian’s clone halted his march just at the hill overlooking the city, observing the lights of the red lanterns that delineated the narrow streets and night markets.
He put a hand under his cloak and drew out the black silk pouch.
Opening the drawstrings slightly, the pure, concentrated blue flash of the dozens of Ling Jing Qi Crystals illuminated his jaw and his cold gray eyes.
The Black Market Auction would begin in a few hours. Lin Xiao, the man who had once turned him into a cripple to steal his future, would be there, confident in his superiority, believing that the entire world existed solely to serve him as a stepping stone.
Shen Tian retied the pouch and sketched a thin smile that lived only on his lips. A sharp, pragmatic smile of pure calculation.
He adjusted the hood over his head and began to descend toward the lights of the city.