First Clone

"Okay, it's time to start with the harder part," Xuefeng said. He could still feel his Spirit Qi inside the clone's body, so everything was going smoothly.

The goal for now was to move the clone around the room. He sat back on the bed and closed his eyes. His Spirit Qi entered every part of the clone. After familiarizing himself with it, he started moving.

Although it was stiff at first, he improved with practice. He began with the fingers, then the toes, and finally moved his arms and legs. When he opened his eyes, he could see his body sitting on the bed. He felt like he was another person.

The moment he opened his original eyes, a sharp pain shot through his head as two images collided in his mind. He quickly closed his eyes, and the pain disappeared. A drop of sweat appeared on his forehead. Panicking at the sudden pain, he reviewed the instructions and found the solution.

He had to split his sight into two parts: one for himself and one for the clone. Fortunately, this was easy to do. He opened his eyes again, slowly this time, and directed one image to one side and the other to the opposite side. Surprisingly, it worked smoothly.

Focusing on the clone, he started walking around the room. After a few laps, the movements became more natural, pleasing him. He stood up and practiced shaking hands with himself. Although a simple exercise, it worked well.

After about 20 minutes, all the basic movements were as smooth as if he were doing them himself. "Wait, if I can do almost everything, can I talk as well?" A crazy thought struck him. If he could further confuse his enemies, that would be impressive.

He analyzed how his vocal cords, tongue, and mouth moved when saying "Hi" and replicated the sequence in the clone's body. "Hi," the clone said in the same way he did.

"It works! The only downside is that I have to remember each word individually. It would take too long to learn every word." He decided to learn only basic phrases for now: "Yes," "No," "My name is Liu Xuefeng," "You look really pretty," and a few others.

After about an hour, he decided to test his new ability on someone else. He decided to visit Wuying, hoping she was still awake.

His clone left through the side door and entered the bathroom. He smelled a pleasant aroma and deduced that Wuying had recently bathed. She usually bathed when she knew he wouldn't be around, but today, she seemed to have changed her routine.

'It must be because of the fight earlier.'

He knocked lightly on Wuying's door and asked quietly, "Are you asleep?"

He had already prepared responses for their conversation. "No, you can come in," Wuying's voice sounded from inside.

Entering the room, he saw Wuying combing her still-wet hair, wearing only a bathrobe. Normally, his face would flush, but now he had to consciously simulate the reaction. Xuefeng quickly added another phrase to his mental dictionary and said, "Let me do it for you."

She looked at him with a curious expression but didn't say anything. She handed him the comb and turned her back. "Go ahead."

'Haha, it worked. She doesn't know,' he laughed internally and approached her. He grabbed the comb, but before he could use it, he felt a sudden pain in his abdomen. He glanced down to see two red blades piercing his body. He looked back at Wuying, dumbfounded.

"Who are you? You are not my Xuefeng," she said, pulling out her daggers. Blood spilled on the ground. She placed the blades at his throat and waited for an answer. The clone didn't move, as the real Xuefeng was in shock. He could feel the pain mentally, but it wasn't real. He severed the connection with the clone as soon as the pain became unbearable.

'What gave me away? Also, I should try disabling the pain receptors to avoid distractions in a fight,' he thought, learning a lot from this exchange.

After the Spirit Qi inside the clone escaped through the wounds, it collapsed to the ground and started deteriorating rapidly. Wuying ran to the door just as the real Xuefeng entered. Seeing the vanishing clone, he sighed. He had spent a lot of time creating it.

"How did you know it wasn't the real me?" he asked, disappointed.

"What? It was your doing?" she asked, surprised, nearly colliding with him.

"Yeah, I just made this clone," he nodded proudly. "What gave it away?" 

"Wait, hold on. Are you saying you made this clone? When did you learn this Spirit Art? I only left you for about an hour and a half," she cried, astonished.

"Well, that's about how long it took me to learn. It's a spirit art made from a combination of all the cloned art I found. It should be better than the original," he replied honestly.

"I have to admit that clone was almost perfect. I thought it was a different person who had copied your appearance. Your smell gave you away," she said, still in shock.

"My smell? How can you remember my smell?"

"I've spent so many years with you that I can tell how you smell. If you tried to trick the Princess, it would work well," she said, her cheeks flushing. She leaned in and took a deep breath. 'Yeah, that's my real Xuefeng,' she thought happily.

"I was about to run into your room to check on you. Your clone came from our bathroom, so it had to pass your room first. I thought something happened to you," she added.

"Oh, so that's it. I guess it's too hard to replicate the smell. I'll just leave it as it is. Nothing is perfect," he mused.

"You said you combined Spirit Arts. How did you do it? I've never seen an art that could replicate your body like that," she asked curiously.

"Oh, I received help from my master. We randomly connected stuff we found and it worked pretty well," he answered casually, sticking to the story. 

"Your master is truly amazing…" Wuying muttered astonished. "Don't tell me you also duplicated the spirit so the clone can gather Spirit Essence?" 

"Eh?! Right, why didn't I think of that? It might work. I'll try that tomorrow since I have almost no Spirit Qi left," Xuefeng slapped his forehead, realizing the important feature he had overlooked.

"Why don't you use Spirit Stones to restore your Qi faster? You should ask the clan leader tomorrow. He'll give you some for your cultivation," Wuying suggested.

"Oh right, I should ask tomorrow," he nodded.

They stood in silence for a moment, and the situation became awkward.

"I'll be going back," Xuefeng said to break the silence 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 down at her robe. It was quite loose around her chest area. She quickly covered herself, embarrassed, and whispered, "Stupid…"