Chapter 699  Blood Avatar

“A… clone?” Phoenix echoed, brows shooting up. Meira blinked twice, flames flickering uncertainly before dying down. Erin, however, did not lower her guard. Her coils shifted, stone groaning softly beneath her weight as abyssal pressure thickened the air. “A blood clone capable of independent action, speech, deception, and combat?” she asked coolly. “One that can project skills, suppress aura, and fool even those bound to you?” Her slit pupils narrowed. “That is not a simple technique.”

Damon chuckled again. “Of course not. Calling it a clone is underselling it a bit. Think of it as… my blood avatar. A remote body grown from my blood, carrying a fraction of my soul, will, memories, and power. It’s an upgraded version of my shadow clone.” There was a little more to it than just this.

Damon was still exploring the skill. While the base skill was something he obtained from one of the werevampires, he was able to combine it with the blood avatar skill Little Red had taught him, and partly the shadow clone technique.

The only drawback was that it needed him to part with a sliver of his soul. As long as he merged back with the clone, the soul fragment would naturally return to him, reintegrating without issue. The process was seamless, but it was not something Damon could afford to abuse carelessly. If the avatar were destroyed before merging back, that sliver of soul would be lost forever. Not enough to cripple him, but enough to hurt. Enough to remind him that this skill was not meant to be thrown around lightly.

Erin gasped lightly, nodding in understanding. She stepped down with a look of reverence in her eyes. “Forgive me, my liege. I was just protecting my ladies.”

Damon waved a hand casually, blood mist curling briefly around his fingers before dissipating. “No need to apologize,” he said lightly. “That instinct is exactly why I trust you with them.”

Erin bowed her massive head, reverence clear in every motion, and the last traces of abyssal pressure drained from the grotto. She once again transformed into her humanoid form. The oppressive weight vanished as if it had never existed, replaced once more by the gentle echo of dripping water and faint ripples across the pool.

“Anyways… ” Damon smiled. “Are you guys up for a last round of meridian opening before the event starts?”

Aurora giggled and hopped and skipped to him, hooking her hands into her hands. “Let’s go, hubby. I want to become as strong as you.” She then started touching him here and there. “Whoa. Everything feels just like you.”

She hummed in obvious satisfaction, fingers poking his arm, then his chest, then circling back again like a scientist confirming experimental results. “Mmm. Same warmth. Same sexy hubby. Awesome! Hubby, can you teach me this technique? Please. Please. Then I can also make a dark avatar and always follow you, no matter where you go.”

Damon’s face twitched. It sounded dangerous to let this naughty vixen follow him around everywhere, but it also sounded fun. “I can help you. Let’s do it after the event.” He laughed and patted her. “For now, let’s do some training, shall we?”

With that, everyone became busy, and Damon started working on their mana pathways.

Meanwhile, back at the campsite, Damon’s main body flashed his eyes open with a big grin. “This skill is truly amazing.” He flexed his fingers, imitating the same actions his blood avatar was doing. He did have some amount of synchronization with his shadow clone, even from a distance, and was able to see what it was seeing, command it, and switch positions with it. The clone was also able to use some of his skills, but it was still like managing an underling. Another entity.

However, this was different. The blood avatar was more like an extension of himself. It was not someone else. It was him, split into two and able to be in two different places. Damon closed his eyes and tried to feel and sense everything happening in the grotto.

After some time, he tried switching his real body with his blood clone, and just like that, he was standing with his women in the pool. He then even seamlessly switched back without any issue.

Damon’s eyes gleamed in excitement. With this clone, he could now do a lot more. Unfortunately, he was currently able to create only one clone, but there were still two blood avatars already in his soul space, busy at work.

Damon knew he could create more, but once again, his soul strength was limiting him. It looked like he would be unable to progress in many areas without improving his soul strength first.

Damon slowly exhaled. Soul strength. Everything kept circling back to it. Bloodline, avatars, high-tier techniques, every truly broken path demanded a soul capable of bearing the strain. Right now, his body and bloodline were racing far ahead, while his soul lagged behind, stretched thin like a blade forged too quickly. If an enemy ever found a way to target that weakness directly… the consequences would be ugly.

It was his most vulnerable foundation at the moment, and also the bottleneck that would decide just how far he could power up before the stronger beings came knocking at his doorstep.

Damon then focused on some of the other vampiric skills he had gained from massacring the vampire army. Perhaps because the souls integrated with the beasts were old souls from a different time period, they had possessed many interesting skills.

All in all, his harvest this time turned out to be extraordinary. First, there was the blood avatar skill. Then there was the bat skill he had just finished testing.

[Murder of Bats: Allows the user to dissolve their physical body into a swarm of blood-forged bats. Each bat carries a fragment of the user’s will, perception, and blood authority. The swarm may scatter, reconverge, or reform into the user’s body at will. While dispersed, the user gains omnidirectional vision and enhanced stealth. Damage dealt to individual swarm units is partially negated, but sustained destruction of the swarm places strain on the user’s soul.]

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