Chapter 152: Six Months Later
Six months had passed since the depot mission.
In that time, Lucas had not participated in any Black Ops missions personally. His Mana Clone had taken his place, traveling with Ethan, Austin, and Kaya while the real Lucas remained hidden in his laboratory beneath the Dark Forest. The arrangement had worked seamlessly. The clone fought with the same techniques, spoke with the same voice, and carried the same mana signature as the original, and no one had noticed the substitution.
Austin's decision to stop hiding his strength had changed the dynamics of their missions entirely. With his Four Leaf Clover Eyes now revealed to the team and his Avatar available for the most dangerous encounters, what had once been challenging assignments had become almost routine. The enemies they faced fell quickly, and the team's reputation grew with each success.
Their first major mission had been hunting down a powerful organization that had threatened the Emperor's family. The organization's leaders had planned to assassinate the Sky Emperor and install a puppet ruler who would answer to foreign interests. The Black Ops team had dismantled the organization in three weeks, capturing or killing every member down to the last accountant.
Their second major mission had been more dangerous. A Moon Class elite had defected from the Hidden City of Sky, taking with him classified information about the city's defenses, troop movements, and intelligence networks. The team had tracked him to a remote fortress in the neutral territories between empires, and the battle that followed had been problematic.
Lucas had received fragments of the fight through his clone's telepathic reports. The defector had been a water cultivator with decades of combat experience, and his spells had flooded the fortress's lower levels, nearly drowning Kaya before Austin's Avatar had torn through the walls and drained the water. Ethan had delivered the killing blow, driving a wind blade through the defector's heart while the man was distracted by the clone's assault.
The team had returned to the Hidden City battered but victorious, and their rankings had been adjusted accordingly.
Now, on their current mission, they were tracking a spy who had sold their identities to the Hidden City of Lightning. The spy had provided detailed descriptions of each team member, including their fighting styles, their mana signatures, and their approximate power levels. The Hidden City of Lightning had used that information to place bounties on their heads, and bounty hunters from across the continent had begun circling.
The team had found the spy a week ago and had been chasing him ever since. He was fast, well-connected, and skilled at covering his tracks, but they were closing in. The clone moved with them, fighting when necessary and reporting everything back to Lucas through their telepathic link.
Lucas was not with them. He was in his laboratory beneath the Dark Forest, standing before a glass tube that contained the most promising result of his clone project to date.
The formation inside the tube was stable.
For months, Lucas had been trying and failing to create a clone body that could survive the integration of a transferred soul. The tissue samples had grown, the mana core had developed, and the elemental affinities had remained stable. But each time he attempted to prepare the body for soul transfer, the structure had collapsed, the cells rejecting the foreign energy that Lucas had tried to integrate.
The current formation was different. It had held for three weeks without degrading, and the mana core inside it had grown to the size of a Copper Stage cultivator's core. The body was not yet complete, and the clone could not survive outside the nutrient solution that sustained it, but it was progress.
Lucas needed more money to continue. The materials required for the fluid that maintained the clone's growth were expensive, and his reserves had dwindled over the past six months. He also needed a different fluid, one that would increase the speed at which the clone matured while simultaneously improving the quality of the final product. He knew what additives would work in theory, but creating the fluid required resources he did not currently possess.
He needed to finish his Mana Beast creation project. The Mana Beast would provide him with a nearly limitless source of energy, which would in turn allow him to accelerate his clone project beyond anything he could currently achieve. The two projects were linked, each one dependent on the other's success, and Lucas could not afford to let either one fail.
He turned from the tube and crossed to his desk, where a stack of reports from his clone waited. The handwriting was identical to his own, and the reports summarized the team's progress over the past six months in dry, factual language that left no room for interpretation.
Ethan had reached the 9 Star ranking and was now one step away from becoming a Moon Class elite. His mana core had expanded, his wind spells had grown more powerful, and his control over spatial magic had improved dramatically under Logan's continued tutelage. If he maintained his current trajectory, he would break through to the Diamond Stage within the year.
Austin, Kaya, and Lucas's clone had all reached the 8 Star ranking. Their combat skills had sharpened, their spells had evolved, and their teamwork had become nearly flawless after months of fighting together. The only thing holding them back from the 9 Star ranking was the need to reach the Gold Stage in their mana core cultivation.
Lucas had already reached the Gold Stage. He had broken through two months ago, during a training session in the Dark Forest that had ended with him standing in the center of a crater of his own making. His mana core had expanded again, as dramatically as before, and the quality of his mana had improved significantly. He was hiding his advancement, still presenting himself as a Silver Stage cultivator to anyone who asked, because revealing his true power would invite questions he did not want to answer.
His physical strength had also increased. He had reached the high level of the Third Pathway, pushing his body beyond the limits that had held him back for months. He could now fight a Moon Class elite without using spells and win. Against a Saint Class elite, his chances were different. If the Saint did not use spells, Lucas had a chance of winning, though the outcome would be uncertain. If the Saint used their full arsenal of spells, Lucas would lose.
He had spent time with Nora during the past six months, though always in secret. The city believed he was on missions with his team, and he could not risk being seen when he was supposed to be elsewhere. He had slipped into the Lotus Clan territory under the cover of darkness, using his Phantom spell to mask his presence, and he had held her in his arms beneath the flowering tree where they had spent so many afternoons together.
He had also visited Elizabeth. The journey to Eldoria took longer than he wanted, but he had made the trip twice in six months, staying for a few days each time before returning to his laboratory. She had played her violin for him in the garden.
Aris had changed the most over the past six months. The blind boy who had stumbled onto Lucas's territory looking for a place to train had become something else entirely. He had taken up bounty hunting, tracking down cultivators who had defected from their Hidden Cities and delivering them to the authorities for payment. His Ore Senses had grown sharper, and his combat skills had evolved into something brutal and efficient.
Lucas set the reports aside and walked to the window of his laboratory. The Dark Forest stretched before him, dark and endless, and somewhere beyond its borders, his team was closing in on a spy who had sold them out for money.
He needed more money. He needed a different fluid. He needed to finish his Mana Beast project.
And he needed to do it all before the Council made its move against the Clover Clan.
The clone's voice echoed in his mind, calm and detached, delivering the update he had been waiting for.
We have him cornered. The interrogation will begin soon.
Lucas nodded to himself and turned back to the tube where his clone formation floated in its nutrient solution.
"Good," he said. "Find out who else he sold us to."