Chapter 586: A Clone?
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In the valley ahead, chains stretched into the sky, the other ends attached to black spheres.
From a distance, they looked like black hydrogen balloons floating in the air—if not for the chains holding them down, those balloons might have flown up into the sky.
But those chains themselves appeared to be metallic, and those black spheres, over a meter in diameter, seemed to be made of black rock, not resembling hydrogen balloons at all. How could they possibly float midair, keeping the metal chains taut?
The group of people all had complex expressions on their faces. Wei Shoucheng said, "Strange, how could there be metal chains in such a place? Could there really be intelligent life here?"
"I wouldn't be surprised by anything in this place," Wei Shouxin said with a wry smile.
Within the area of those chains and black spheres, Lin Shen and his companions saw the beetles they had observed earlier pushing marbles away.
Those beetles, pushing the marbles, actually began climbing those chains as thick as a person's arm.
They had six legs, with the front two controlling the marbles and the back four gripping the chain to climb up, looking somewhat clumsy and hilariously comical.
"Could it be that those black spheres are the beetles' nests? But there are no crevices on the black spheres for them to enter, so how would they get in?" Lin Shen wondered aloud.
Naturally, no one could provide an answer, as Wei Shoucheng and the others were also seeing these things for the first time.
"That's not right!" Wei Shoucheng suddenly pointed to where the chains were connected to the ground and said, "Look, those chains don't seem man-made, but rather like they've grown naturally."
Following his direction, Lin Shen indeed saw that at the point where the chains met the ground, there were metal strands resembling roots on the chains, burying into the underground.
As bizarre as it was, those metal chains did indeed look as if they had grown right out of the ground.
While the four were marveling at the oddity, one of the beetles had already pushed a marble onto the top of a black sphere.
Because their attention had shifted to the metal chains, none of them had seen how the beetle had managed to get the marble to the top of the sphere.
Unlike what they had imagined, after placing the marble on the top of the black sphere, the beetle just climbed back down instead of entering the sphere, confirming it was not their nest.
While Lin Shen was speculating why the beetle placed the marble there, the black sphere unexpectedly cracked open without warning.
The black sphere, which seemed to have no fissures at all, split into several sections, blossoming like a flower.
The marble fell into the expanded black sphere, but Lin Shen and the others were not fixated on the marble.
Because inside that black sphere, they saw a familiar face.
"Changhen Dongli!" Lin Shen exclaimed in a hushed tone.
With a blue spherical helmet adorned with a pair of fleshy antennae, who else could it be but Changhen Dongli?
But unlike Changhen Dongli, the creature inside the black sphere didn't just have a blue helmet on its head, its body was also covered with a blue carapace, akin to a snug-fitting suit of blue armor.
When they had previously encountered Changhen Dongli, he had a blue helmet on his head, but his body was bare.
The creature seated within the black sphere, though it looked exactly like Changhen Dongli, had a blue carapace on its body and did not have the wolf-tooth-like weapon in its hands.
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Lin Shen and the others all had grim expressions on their faces; they had already exhausted all their means to kill a Changhen Dongli, and it was only with great difficulty that they had managed to slay him.
Inside this black sphere, there shockingly was another creature identical to Changhen Dongli, and that wasn't even the key issue.
What was more terrifying was that the number of these black spheres suspended in the air was incalculable. Just within their view, there were no fewer than hundreds of them.
If each black sphere contained a creature similar to Changhen Dongli, how would humans cope if these creatures came to life?
Face hundreds or thousands of Changhen Dongli? Even if the Wei Family were to lay down their lives, it wouldn't be enough to cover this deficit.
"Damn it, what exactly is going on here?" Lin Shen couldn't help but curse softly.
He had Death Powder and Fei Zai (Fatty) by his side, so he wasn't afraid of the Nirvana Creatures; even if they encountered Changhen Dongli again, he wouldn't be afraid.
But that was under the circumstance of encountering a single Changhen Dongli. Now, there were hundreds, even thousands of Changhen Donglis here, which would shake anyone's heart.
Carefully examining the Changhen Dongli seated in the black sphere, his entire body was enveloped in a transparent liquid. Between his body and the base of the black sphere, there were many transparent tubes connected, which on Changhen Dongli's body looked somewhat like the infusion tubes used for IV drips.
After the bead fell into the black sphere, it dropped into the thick liquid below, and then the bead slowly dissolved into the viscous liquid.
Before long, colorful liquid appeared inside those transparent tubes, similar to IV drips, and was transported into the creature's body.
"To think that the bead with strong hallucinogenic toxicity could be used as nutrient solution for that creature, can they actually eat this to survive?" Wei Shouxin said with a complex expression.
"Wasn't it said that Changhen Dongli was the last of the Dongli Clan? Wasn't it said that he had exterminated the Dongli Clan? What's going on here? Isn't this a member of the Dongli Clan?" Wei Shoucheng said with a face full of confusion.
"It's also possible that this is Changhen Dongli," Lin Shen paused before adding, "Previously Changhen Dongli had said that he was a member of the God-making Race, and at that time I already had some doubts. Now it seems, perhaps Changhen Dongli was just an experimental subject of the God-making Race, and it's very possible that this one inside the black sphere is Changhen Dongli's clone."
"Very likely, if this is Changhen Dongli's clone, then does he possess the same strength as Changhen Dongli? If in the other black spheres there are also the same clones, with the same strength..." Wei Shouxin didn't finish speaking, but everyone knew what the outcome would be.
At that moment, more beetle-like creatures pushed beads to the top of the black spheres, which then opened one after another.
The expressions on Lin Shen and his group turned exceedingly grim; within those black spheres, each one held a Changhen Dongli seated within.
Their appearances were all identical to Changhen Dongli, with blue helmeted compound eyes, though their carapaces varied in completeness.
Some Changhen Donglis had carapaces that were very complete, covering even the face. Experience new stories on empire
Some Changhen Donglis were mostly bare, with little to no carapace, except for the blue helmet.
While others had carapaces, they were incomplete, only covering part of their bodies.
As the black spheres opened one by one, more and more Changhen Donglis appeared in front of Lin Shen and his group, causing them to feel increasingly terrified.
It was only speculation before, with a sliver of hope that perhaps the other black spheres were empty, lacking creatures like these suspected Changhen Dongli clones.
Now that hope had been shattered; nearly every opened black sphere contained a Changhen Dongli, meaning that in all the black spheres, or at least in most of them, there was such a Changhen Dongli.
"They seem to still be in slumber; let's take this opportunity to get rid of them," Wei Shoucheng said firmly.