Chapter 702: Enlightenment

Pray tell, how could a Puppet comprehend a Domain on its own?

That was obviously impossible.

No matter how strong a Clone was, essentially it was still just a shell controlled by Zhou Huai's consciousness.

Without an independent Soul, without its own obsession, how could it comprehend the rules of heaven and earth?

Zhou Huai furrowed his brow and summoned the System in his mind.

"System, since the Clone has no self-awareness, how can it cross the threshold of a Rank 70 Domain?"

He hadn't held very high expectations for the System originally.

As a result, a crisp mechanical voice immediately sounded in his mind:

[Ding! Reporting to the host, you can choose to consume a certain amount of resources to upgrade the smart core ai System inside the Clone.]

[The current smart core ai version is 1.0. If upgraded to version 2.0, the smart core ai will become even more intelligent.]

[At that time, you can shape an exclusive 'virtual personality' for the Clone's smart core ai. Clones with a virtual personality will possess independent emotional logic and simulated obsessions, greatly increasing the probability of comprehending Domain skills!]

Virtual personality?

Upon hearing this, a flash of brightness immediately crossed Zhou Huai's eyes.

There was even such an operation?

To be honest, as the number of Clones grew increasingly large and their Rank got higher and higher, Zhou Huai truly felt somewhat overwhelmed.

Every battle required frequent switching of consciousness. Although the smart core ai 1.0 had extremely high obedience, its subjective initiative was truly a bit lacking, and most of the time it could only rigidly execute orders like a programmed robot.

If the smart core ai inside them could be upgraded and endowed with a virtual personality, that would simply be for the best!

This was equivalent to cultivating a batch of self-aware and absolutely loyal super thugs for himself!

"System, upgrade immediately!" Zhou Huai gave the order without hesitation.

[Ding! smart core ai System is upgrading…]

[Upgrading requires consuming a large amount of computing power and time. At the fastest, it will take two days; please patiently wait, host.]

Two days?

The time wasn't considered too long; he could completely afford to wait.

Having resolved a major worry regarding the Clone Domain, Zhou Huai was in a great mood.

Only then did he have the mind to check the brand-new skills Li Er comprehended at Rank 40 and Rank 50 after consecutively rising thirty Ranks.

Opening the panel.

[Rank 40 Skill: Eyes of Years (Active). Consume 10,000 Mana and Karma, see through the fog, and peer into the past and future of an item or a person. The deeper the level of peering, the greater the consumption.]

Zhou Huai raised an eyebrow.

Seeing through the past and future?

This already involved the scope of the Law of Time! As expected of the Great Sage Li Er who practiced Word of Law, his skills were more Heaven-Defying than the last.

His gaze continued to move downward.

[Rank 50 Ultimate Skill: Enlightenment (Active). Consume a massive amount of Karma to forcefully transform an ordinary person into a Professional! Or reshape the profession of an existing Professional and re-transfer! At highest, they can transfer to S-Rank!]

[Note: This skill belongs to defying heaven and changing fate; using it will suffer extremely terrifying Heavenly Dao backlash! The higher the grade improved, the stronger the backlash suffered!]

"Hiss—"

Seeing the introduction of this Rank 50 skill clearly, Zhou Huai couldn't help but gasp.

He couldn't help but call it Heaven-Defying!

Especially the phrase "turning an ordinary person into a Professional" completely subverted the inherent cognition of the entire Great Xia and even all of humanity!

In this world, everyone only had one chance to change classes when they reached eighteen years old.

If they failed, or awakened a lifestyle or Trash class, their life was basically set, and they could only become cogs at the bottom of society.

As a result, this [Enlightenment] skill was equivalent to directly granting ordinary people a second chance at Rebirth!

What was even more Heaven-Defying was the second half.

Forcefully raising the Professional's grade! The highest it could reach was S-Rank!

What did this mean?

This meant that as long as Zhou Huai was willing, he could completely mass-produce S-Rank Genius figures!

"How is this still any Great Sage…" The more Zhou Huai looked at Li Er, the more he felt he looked just like an agent of the will of heaven and earth in the mortal world.

No, strictly speaking, he himself was the Puppet master behind the scenes.

He wasn't even acting anymore!

He directly gifted him the authority to modify the world's rules as a skill?

"Since I have such a divine skill, it would be a waste not to use it." A smile curled at the corner of Zhou Huai's mouth, and he immediately had a candidate in mind.

No, two candidates.

With a thought, he issued a summons through the internal communication of the Eternal Night Guild.

In just a moment.

The metal door of the underground Cultivate room was pushed open.

Jasmine and Qin Ming walked in quickly with solemn expressions.

With a "thud".

The two of them simultaneously knelt on one knee, their movements uniform, their eyes filled with fanatical awe.

"Subordinate Jasmine!"

"Subordinate Qin Ming!"

"Greetings, Master! I wonder what orders the Master has for summoning us?"

Zhou Huai leaned against the broad back of his chair, his gaze quietly sizing up the two people before him.

Feeling quite emotional.

Jasmine was the first core subordinate he took in in Donghai City.

From that initial little girl who struggled at the bottom, was ignorant, and even somewhat timid, she fought her way up and grew into the intelligence chief of the Eternal Night Guild today.

Zhou Huai had seen all the bitterness and hard work along the way.

But he was even clearer that Jasmine's talent was truly limited.

She was originally just a C-Rank support-type Professional—[Hawkeye Summoner].

Her skills were pitifully few, only capable of summoning a few fragile magic little birds to act as high-altitude vision to scout intelligence. In today's high-end games where things could destroy the heavens and earth at every turn, her self-preservation ability was almost zero.

As for Qin Ming, although he was slightly stronger than Jasmine, he was merely a C-Rank Assassin Professional.

Being able to reach the position of Vice Guild Leader of the Eternal Night Guild relied entirely on his daring, aggressive wolfish nature and resilience.

But with the development of the Guild, the talent Bottleneck of the two had become increasingly obvious.

Zhou Huai raised his hand slightly, and a gentle invisible force lifted the two up.

"Get up."

Zhou Huai looked at them, his tone calm yet carrying an unquestionable power.

"Calling you here today is for nothing else."

"I, your Master, am going to bestow upon you a stroke of good fortune."

Good fortune?

Jasmine and Qin Ming looked at each other in dismay, both seeing a trace of bewilderment in each other's eyes.

What good fortune?

Giving top-tier equipment? Or handing out some divine medicine capable of forcefully raising Ranks?

But in their cognition, the upper limit of a Professional had long been locked by the grade at the moment of class transfer; no matter how they raised it, a C-Rank could never defeat an S-Rank of the same Rank.

Although they didn't understand why, relying on an almost blind and absolute trust in Zhou Huai, there was not the slightest bit of panic or doubt in their eyes.

Qin Ming lowered his head and cupped his fists: "Everything is at the Master's disposal!"

Zhou Huai did not explain much. With a movement of his mind, not far away, the Taoist-immortal figure of the Great Sage Li Er materialized out of thin air.

"Jasmine, you go first," Zhou Huai said.

"Yes!" Jasmine stepped forward two steps without hesitation, standing still in front of Li Er.

Zhou Huai controlled Li Er, slowly raising his right hand to hover above Jasmine's head.

"Enlightenment!"