Chapter 424: Surpassing Imagination
Translator: Mercurial_ Editor: DarkGem
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the sixth shadow devil king was the five shadow devils combined into one. And it possessed extremely terrifying strength.
It defense was even more monstrous than that of Li Yunmu, it had more formidable vitality compared to him, as well as more powerful battle prowess and even assassination skills which Li Yunmu didn't have.
Moreover, also it had true sight which could see through all traps of the enemy.
But the sixth type of shadow devil, the shadow devil king had a limitation—there could only be one shadow devil king at a time. It meant that even if Li Yunmu had eleven shadows and could easily create two shadow devil kings, he could only create one.
Moreover, in the future, even if the number of his shadows increased, he would still only be able to congeal one shadow devil king.
However, even so, Li Yunmu still knew that this shadow skill was excessively formidable. He couldn't deny that he was quite excited at that moment.
In fact, he almost couldn't control himself and picked it without looking at the other two abilities.
But in the end, he managed to take hold of himself and didn't make any rash decisions. He thus went to look at the two other new abilities provided by the system after it had upgraded to the sixth level.
The second ability was also related to the shadows. It bestowed them the ability to reproduce.
When Li Yunmu looked at the that word, he almost couldn't believe his eyes.
But he checked again and again, until he became certain that he wasn't mistaken or that his eyesight had went awry.
Motherf*cker, this second choice does indeed bestow shadows with the ability to reproduce!
"System, are you certain that there are no problems with the ability choice provided by you?"
Li Yunmu bit his teeth and questioned the system to confirm that there was no mistake with the data he was seeing.
Such an ability choice completely overturned his worldview.
[Host needs not make a fuss about it. Since the shadow possess intelligence and thoughts, they are also life-forms existing within the universe. Because of that, there's nothing surprising about them possessing the ability to reproduce. But it isn't like what host is imagining,] the system calmly replied.
Its words caused Li Yunmu to sink into a dilemma. That ability choice had truly frightened him. It went completely contrary to his previous thinking. But he couldn't be hasty in making a choice.
However, the system's explanation was quite reasonable. Since the shadows were a type of life-form, then naturally they could reproduce.
But clearly, according to the system, their reproduction wasn't the same as that of humans who gave birth to the next generation by having s*x. Perhaps the shadows didn't even have the concept of male and female.
While thinking about it, Li Yunmu's thought process immediately changed. The shadow devil king had indeed excited him, but it wasn't as impressive as the reproduction ability for the shadows.
It could be anticipated that if Li Yunmu chose the option of reproduction, then the number of shadows under his control would begin to grow even more rapidly.
But the premise was that Li Yunmu got an answer to a very important question—what was the efficiency of shadow reproduction?
[Pardon me, before you make your decision host, there's a reminder. Before the system has formally evolved to the sixth level, the reproduction speed of the shadows will remain unknown. The only thing which is clear is that the reproduction speed of shadows is related to their strength. The stronger they are, the deeper is their foundation, and the higher their reproduction speed, and vice versa!]
This time, the system had spoken up by itself, without waiting for the Li Yunmu to ask it anything.
"You mean it is related to my strength?"
[Yes.]
Li Yunmu turned silent.
"Then how long will the descendants of shadows take to mature? Moreover, will they be loyal to me like the shadows?"
Li Yunmu asked the questions to which he wanted to know the answers for the most. Shadows' maturing cycle and loyalty were the largest concerns to him.
If the descendants failed to satisfy him in either of the two criterias, then the ability was completely useless.
[Maturing period depends upon the number of experience points used on them. As long as host is willing, host can cause a newborn shadow to grow into a mature adult who possesses the same level of strength as the first generation shadow. As for their loyalty…
[They wouldn't be innately loyal to you, but they would be greatly influenced by the thoughts of the first generation, and their loyalty toward you would grow.]
The system gave the answer which Li Yunmu desired the most. He was full of excitement, but also a little regretful.
Everything was perfect except for one small flaw…
Li Yunmu's heart was broken at that moment. Although they required experience points to mature, they would become an enormous assistance to Li Yunmu. Besides, he may lack everything, but the one thing he didn't lack for was experience points!
After descending to the Origin World where he could use shadow hack continuously for twenty-four hours every day, his experience points had been increasing exponentially. Even the forty million experience points which he required to congeal the twelfth shadow would be collected in no time.
With that, it was clear that he didn't lack experience points. If his shadows came to possess the ability to reproduce, he wouldn't need to use experience points to congeal more shadows, but could have the existing shadows produce offspring.
As long as their numbers grew large enough, their population would increase greatly, and Li Yunmu clearly understood this point.
However, the worry in his heart was that they didn't possess eternal loyalty toward him. If the second, third, and further generations of the shadows weren't like Li Yun and the others who were loyal to Li Yunmu come hell or high water, it was quite possible that after spending a lot of effort, he would only bring a terrifying race into the Origin world which couldn't be controlled and possessed endless potential.
When he thought about it, he couldn't help but become cautious.
"What about the third choice?"
After coming upon those possibilities, Li Yunmu instantly stopped thinking about the second ability. He decided to take a look at the third choice.
[The third ability would evolve the system's research capabilities,] the system said. It didn't provide a clear explanation, just gave a rather vague answer.