Chapter 32 - First Clone
"Okay, it's time to start with the harder part." He could still feel his Spirit Qi inside the clone body, so everything was a success.
The goal, for now, was to move with it around the room. He sat back down on the bed and closed his eyes. His Spirit Qi entered every part of the clone and after familiarizing himself with it a bit, he started moving.
Although it was a bit stiff at the start, he got better and better with more practice. First, he started with fingers, then with toes and finally moved his arms and legs in a whole. He also opened his eyes and he could see his body sitting on the bed. He felt as if he was another person.
The moment he opened his original eyes as well, he suddenly felt a pain in his head and two images collided in his mind. He hurriedly closed his eyes and the pain disappeared. A drop of sweat emerged on his forehead.
He panicked a little cause of sudden pain but after scanning the description once again, he found the solution.
He had to separate his sight into two parts, one for himself and one for the clone. Fortunately, it was quite easy to be done.
He opened his eyes again, this time slowly and forced one image into one side and another into the other. Surprisingly, it worked really smoothly.
He focused on the clone and started walking about the room. After a few circles, it was getting more and more natural which made him pleased.
He stood up and trained giving handshakes to himself. Although it was a simple practice, it worked just as fine.
After about 20 minutes, all the basic movements were as smooth as if he was doing it himself.
"Wait, If I can do almost everything, can I talk as well?" A crazy thought suddenly came into his mind. If he could confuse his enemies even further that would be super impressive.
He scanned how his vocal cords, his tongue and mouth move while he says "Hi" and repeated the same sequences in the clones body.
"Hi," the clone said in the same way he did.
"It works! The only downside is that I have to remember all the words one by one. It would take so much time to remember how to speak each word." He decided to learn only basic words for now.
"Yes" "No" "My Name is Liu Xuefeng" You look really pretty" and many others.
After about an hour he decided to test his new ability on others. He decided to visit Wuying, hoping she is still not asleep.
His clone left through the side door and entered the bathroom. He could smell the nice aroma so he deducted that Wuying was bathing recently. She usually bathed when she knew that he won't be near, but now she somehow decided to do it with him in the courtyard.
'It must have been because of the fight earlier.'
He knocked on Wuying room door lightly and asked quietly "Are you asleep?"
He already predicted what they could talk about and learn those sentences.
"Yeah, you can come in." Wuying voice sounded from the inside.
After entering the room, he saw Wuying combing her still wet hair wearing only a bathrobe.
Normally his face would flush a little but now he would have to especially do it. Xuefeng quickly added another sentence to his dictionary and said: "Let me do it for you."
She looked at him with a weird expression but say anything. She passed him the comb and turned her back towards him. "Go ahead."
'Haha, It worked. She doesn't know.' He laughed in his mind and approached her. He grabbed the comb but before he could do anything with it, he felt something was stuck inside his abdomen.
He glanced downwards and saw two red blades that passed through his body. He looked back at Wuying dumbfounded.
"Who are you? You are not my Xuefeng." She pulled out her daggers and blood spilt on the ground. She placed them on his head and waited for his answer.
Unfortunately, the clone didn't move as the real Xuefeng was in shock. He could feel the pain but it was just in his mind. He severed the connection with the clone as soon as he the pain was unbearable.
'What gave me away? Also, I should try deleting the pain receptors, so I don't get distracted during the fight.' He learned a lot from this exchange.
After the Spirit Qi inside of his clone escaped through the holes in his stomach, it collapsed to the ground and started deteriorating at the speed visible to a naked eye.
Wuying ran towards the door and at the same moment, the real Xuefeng entered. Looking at the vanishing clone he sighed. He spent a lot of time to create it.
"How did you know, it wasn't the real me?" He asked disappointed.
"What? It was your doing?" She asked surprised seeing him and almost collided with him.
"Yeah, I just made this clone. What gave it away?" He nodded proudly.
"Wait, hold on. You made this clone?! When did you learn a Spirit Art? I only left you for about an hour and a half." She cried astonished.
"Well, I'm a genius. I even connected a few Spirit Arts and created a new one. It's even better now." He shamelessly said. She would find out sooner or later.
"That clone was almost perfect, I thought it a different person which just copied your appearance. The thing that gave you away was your smell." She said still in shock.
"My smell?" How can she remember my smell?
"I spent so many years with you that I can tell how you smell. If you tried to trick Princess it would work well." She said as her cheeks flushed. She leaned over and took a deep breath.
'Yeah, that's my real Xuefeng.' She thought happily.
"Also I was just about to run into your room to check on you. Your clone came out of our bathroom, so it had to pass your room before. I thought something happened to you." She added.
"Oh, so it's like that. I guess it's too hard to replicate the smell. I will just leave it as it is. Nothing is perfect." He thought out loud.
"You said you combined the Spirit Arts. How did you do it? I have never seen an art that could replicate your body like that." She asked curiously.
"Oh, it's nothing. I just randomly connected stuff together and it worked pretty well." He answered with a straight face.
"Really…" She was quite suspicious but she still chose to believe him. It's not like he had the reason to lie.
"Don't tell me you also duplicated the spirit, so the clone can also gather Spirit Essence?" She asked speechlessly.
"Eh?! Right, why didn't I think of it? It might actually work. I will try that tomorrow, as I have almost no Spirit Qi left." Xuefeng slapped his forehead. He didn't think of such an important feature.
"Why don't you use Spirit Stones to restore your Qi at the faster rate? You should ask clan leader tomorrow, he will give you some for your cultivation." Wuying suggested.
"Oh right, I should ask tomorrow." He nodded.
They stood for a moment in silence and the situation got awkward.
"I will be going back." Xuefeng decided to break it and excused himself.
"Mhmm." Wuying nodded with her head lowered.
"By the way, I could see everything from up here." He said before swiftly leaving.
Wuying looked at her robe and it was really quite loose around her chest area. She quickly covered herself embarrassed and called out quietly "Stupid…"