Calamity of Tomorrow

Li Xiuzhu touched his chin, "I’m certainly not the Sect Hierarch you knew before, but I have indeed inherited the name Li Xiuzhu."

As he spoke, his Primordial Spirit’s power slightly stirred, controlling the power of the Array, and the surrounding stone walls trembled slightly. After a series of twists and turns, a pile of corpses hidden behind the walls was revealed.

Rows upon rows of corpses, some lying on the ground, others leaning against the wall, turned the entire cave into a burial mound—all of them bore the appearance of Li Xiuzhu.

Annie could not help but take a few steps back, looking at these bodies with shock on her face, "What on earth is going on here?"

Li Xiuzhu said, "They are clones, one after another. They replicated their physical bodies, and then transferred their cultivation and memories onto the clones."

Annie, still shocked by what she was witnessing, listened to Li Xiuzhu’s explanation, "...But if that’s the case..."

"Exchanging one brain..." Li Xiuzhu gave a slight smile, "That naturally means they are no longer the same person. They are just two individuals with the same memories."

Annie clenched her fists, trembling uncontrollably, "Did these clones still have their memories before they died? Did they have a sense of self?"

"Yes, they did," Li Xiuzhu said. "They only transferred their cultivation; the memories were simply copied in addition. The memories and consciousness in their original brains remained intact."

Annie stammered, "Then why kill them? Doesn’t that mean they were all killed by the very clones they created?!"

"Because of deformities," Li Xiuzhu stated. "Without their cultivation, their brains still retained knowledge from the Heavenly Dao, which naturally led to madness and eventually deformity. Killing them was the only solution."

Annie asked in disbelief, "Did they know they would be killed before they did this?"

Li Xiuzhu nodded, "Of course, every single one of them knew. They made all sorts of preparations before the transfer to ensure that they would be eliminated."

"Why would they do that?" Annie, grasping her hair, struggled to accept the idea. "Why would they kill themselves like this?"

She imagined retaining her own memories and consciousness, then passing her Primordial Spirit power to a clone, watching a stranger who possessed her memories and cultivation kill her.

It was hard to imagine the mental fortitude required to do such a thing.

She thought back to the Li Xiuzhu who had tried to escape the Array. Had he really gone mad, or did he have regrets?

"I’m sorry, Annie, the person I am now is indeed no longer the Li Xiuzhu you knew from the past," Li Xiuzhu sighed. "The Li Xiuzhu you once liked is long gone."

"Why go to such extents?" Annie cried out. "To repeatedly kill oneself, is it really worth it?"

"As long as the Ultimate Plan can be completed, if it can eliminate the Heavenly Demon and the Heavenly Court, then my death is without regrets," Li Xiuzhu said with a grave expression. "And with every death of mine, another ’I’ will inherit my legacy and continue to strive."

"Annie, do you know how vast the power gap is between humans, the Heavenly Demon, and the Heavenly Court?"

"It is like the difference between the clouds and mud. To close this gap, sacrifice is inevitable."

"If it were not for various reasons that checked and balanced each other, any deviation might have already led to humanity’s disappearance from this planet."

"To contend with the Demon God, we need stronger power. We need to pass on our knowledge and power down through the generations."

"Only by doing so can we complete the Ultimate Plan, thoroughly eliminate the Heavenly Court and the Heavenly Demon, and reclaim humanity’s dominion over this planet."

Annie shook her head continuously, her mind in disarray, finding it very difficult to accept such a method. She looked at Li Xiuzhu and asked, "Why tell me all this? You could have kept it secret from me."

"The research on the deformed," Li Xiuzhu said, looking at Wang Xuanhua in the culture fluid. "I need the help of you who control the Heavenly Diagram route. After all, you are the person I trust the most..."

"Stop talking about trust," Annie said through clenched teeth. "We’ve known each other for less than a day, and you just have a bunch of memories about me!"

...

"I met a person named Li Xiuzhu," Dr. Zhuang sighed. "His case is very interesting. We spent three months exchanging knowledge in this city. He learned my cloning technology, and I learned how to transfer cultivation and memory."

"Through cloning and transferring cultivation and memory."

"I have fulfilled the basic conditions of the Spark Project. The only regret is that only those who are still alive can use this technology to transfer their memories and cultivation to the next clone."

"Those heroes and strong figures who existed in history, I still could not truly bring them back to life."

"But once we commence executing the Spark Project, it can be passed down generation after generation, like passing on a torch, perfectly preserving human knowledge and power."

Kuang Tu thought about his master and couldn’t help asking, "What about the Extreme Bliss Priest and the Vajra Master we just saw? What’s the deal with them?"

Dr. Zhuang explained, "They are failed products I created in the past. After being cloned, they still retained bits of the original’s fragmented memories. Because they did not undergo Primordial Spirit adjustment, they did not deform, even without a successful clone of the Primordial Spirit.

Although they look similar to those people you know, they can indeed be considered different individuals.

And after their death, they were recreated in the distorted realm."

During the conversation, cracks gradually appeared all over Dr. Zhuang’s body. He looked weaker and weaker, as if he might die at any moment.

Dr. Zhuang said indifferently, "It seems I am reaching my limit as well."

He had spent years in the distorted realm, trying with all his might to prevent the further rampage of the Original Dao Repository 03.

This body had, unknowingly, also reached its limit.

The others, seeing Dr. Zhuang’s condition, eagerly posed new questions.

Lv Chongyang, "What’s the difference between the Original Dao Repository and the Dao Repository? Will Zhou Bai have any problems if he continues to cultivate?"

Shang Beibei, "Do you have a record of your cloning technology here? You could leave it to Donghua City."

Yan Hui, "Do you still have contact with the other clones? Are the other places hiding the Original Dao Repository also distorted?"

Faced with their questions, Dr. Zhuang shook his head with a smile. He had long passed this technology on to the clones at other bases, including the underground base where Zhou Bai initially met Dr. Zhuang, which also received this cloning technology.

The clones of Alice, Elsa, and the others that Zhou Bai had seen at the beginning were created through cloning and transferring memories and cultivation.

As for giving the cloning technology to Donghua City, he never even considered it. That would be tantamount to handing the technology directly to the Heavenly Demon and the Heavenly Court.

He looked at Zhou Bai and transmitted mentally, "You got the coordinates, right?"