I’m back!

We’re all back. You aren’t special.

Hey, everyone! Good to see you.

Technically, we see each other every day in the mirror. In the end, we’re all one person.

That’s true, but it’s boring.

One person? More like one dumbass.

Hey! Who was that? Mortal? Calm yourselves, everyone. We need to behave, or he’s going to dismiss us again.

He’s going to do that anyways.

Yeah, but we’ll be out for longer if we behave. I’m with Sectgoer on this one.

Why does First get to set the rules for all of us?

Because he’s the original. Obviously.

Yeah, yeah. Democracy! I’m starting a revolution!

Hey now. Are we really going to become evil clones? I mean, it’s such a cliché.

First can totally kill us now, you know. I don’t want to die for real. I already did that once, and I didn’t like it.

Viva la revolution!

Hui put a hand to his brow. Mortal, can you calm down for ten seconds?

Hmm? Yeah, I’m just joking.

I know, but we need to study, not joke around.

Haaaa, fine. So boring. You’re almost as bad as Sectgoer.

Hey! What’s that mean?

You know what that means.

Hui sighed aloud. Guys, come on. We’re about to steal some knowledge here. Get in gear, and let’s focus on the task at hand!

Steal some knowledge, that’s a nice way to put it. More like try to memorize a bunch of bullshit we’re never going to need.

Can someone put Mortal in time-out? Seriously.

Mortal woke up in a mood, huh?

Hui rubbed his temples. Why’s Mortal being so moody? Does he remember…

…

…

We can all hear you, you know.

Hey! Do I remember what? Come on, don’t leave me hanging.

Clearing his throat, Hui waved his hand. “It’s not important. In any case, you know what I want to do, right?”

Memorize all this stuff.

Useless stu—

We get it, Mortal. Calm down.

It’s for other people. If we can memorize all of Eight Tiers Palace’s pill cultivation knowledge, we can spread that back to the Southern Sect Conference and quickly enhance the level of our pill cultivators. Don’t be selfish, Mortal. It’s all for the good of the Southern Sect Conference.

“Right. Let’s go!”

With that, Hui turned back to the seemingly endless glass cases of displays. The seven of them quickly split the tasks amongst one another and set to, impressing the tiny notes and the images of the split apart herbs into their memory. In no time, he began gaining on Xi Sanji, crawling ever so slowly closer.

As he memorized, Hui cast a look toward Xi Sanji. Since I’ve gotten here, Xi Sanji is definitely the cultivator with the most protagonist potential! She seems clumsy, but has a hidden skill, she has a tragic backstory and a still-untapped desire to overthrow the evil sect that forced her sect to bow and obey… I’ll have to keep an eye on her! Recruiting all the protagonists to my side is the only way to ensure victory. Otherwise, if I leave the protagonists running around Eight Tiers Palace, they’ll inevitably flip any battle around to benefit them, no matter how hard I work to ensure victory! That’s the secret of the protagonist’s halo, after all.

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I hadn’t seen too many protagonists since I arrived, and certainly no one on Master or Ying Lin’s level, but… well, I was in the assassin’s tier! How many protagonists are assassins, after all? Sure, more than a few, but compared to the protagonists who cultivate pills or the sword, they’re no more than a drop in the bucket!

One of the other clones cleared his throat. First, come on. You’re going to make Mortal angry.

Right, right. Turning his attention back to the herbs, Hui fell back in line with the rest of the clones, focused fully on learning the herbs’ secrets.

Ahead of Hui, Xi Sanji glanced back. Seeing Hui gaining on her, she sped up, reading even faster about the herbs on display before her. The gap between them grew once again.

Glancing up, Hui sighed. I suppose even parallel processing can’t keep up with a true genius. Ah, but there’s only seven of us. If there were a hundred, or a thousand…

Whoa, whoa, First. What are you thinking? A hundred clones? Imagine a hundred Mortals. We’d all get pestered to death!

Hey, what does that mean?

As if you don’t know. First, don’t do it! We wouldn’t survive a hundred Mortals!

Drawn back from the brink, Hui physically stepped back, startled. What was I thinking? They’re right. Risking a hundred Mortals? While it’s true that we’re incredibly mentally stable and wouldn’t do anything stupid like killing one another, dealing with a hundred copies of Mortal might make even me unstable enough to consider it!

Oh, hey. I’m not that bad.

Not usually. But when you put your mind to it…

Mortal sighed. I have this weird, lingering feeling that I got shafted somehow. It’s making me antsy.

Ah, yes, well, that’s because I let you get your mind wiped so that I could avoid getting my mind wiped. Er, my apologies, Elder Brother.

…

Well, I’m glad you came out and said it, though.

Right, right. Of course. I wouldn’t keep something like that from you. That’s the kind of foolishness that leads to the destruction of all of us! No drama, none at all. After all, we absolutely do not want to end up killing ourselves. It would be the peak of foolishness! Ah, I did promise to let you out in the future in return. Should we consider this my repayment, or do you want to be more free to do your own thing?

Hey now. Don’t turn my repayment into work for me!

Fine, fine. I’ll let you out later. For now, let’s focus! Falling silent, Hui turned his full attention to the herbs, and within him, the rest of the clones did as well. The wall blurred past. Between Hui and his clones, he absorbed thousands of individual pieces of information and quickly stored them away. On and on, hurtling down the line, his mind completely focused on the task at hand.

Except for one.

Mortal hung back a bit, his arms crossed, only paying half-attention to the herbs. So boring. I understand why we’re after this, but it doesn’t change that it’s super boring. Who wants to sit back and memorize boring shit all day? Not me. I need more excitement in my life. I mean, hell, so do the rest of them. No idea why they’re all falling in line… eh, I guess they’re just grateful to First for letting them out. Or they actually believe his schtick… I mean, it’s valuable, sure, but… boring. So damn boring!

If I’m not going to focus on the plants themselves… Mortal looked over his shoulder, where the information lined up in their mental space as golden words in a black void. Right now, it’s just data. Nothing more than a big, useless pile of information. One of us might as well try to use it. I know we always say we have no karma with pill cultivation, but what the hell? It can’t hurt to try. Even if I totally fail, we haven’t lost anything.

Inside the metal space, he folded his legs and assumed a meditative state. Rather than closing his eyes, he stared directly at the list, absorbing all the information as the others memorized it. Whereas they took the words and burned them into their brains without thinking deeply about them, he processed the information, considering it, digesting it. One by one, he stacked similar pieces together, healing herbs with healing herbs, wind-elemental herbs with wind-elemental herbs. Instead of lining up neatly in their mental space, the words shifted around, settling into place. A glittering gold network appeared. Similar herbs sat near one another, while tenuous threads crossed the gap to connect herbs with interactive effects. Black lines marked herbs that fought or canceled one another out.

As he went, he adjusted the network constantly. Herbs that worked together drifted towards one another, while those in opposition drifted away. Even so, some clashed. Hui’s brows furrowed. Dammit. The Ice-White Blossom can, under the right conditions, enhance the effect of the Moonlit Black Thorn, but under the wrong conditions, the Moonlit Black Thorn suppresses the Ice-White Blossom. Do I place it near the blossom, or far away from it?

He bit his lip. For a moment, his brows furrowed, but in the next, his eyes widened. He threw his hand out, and the diagram grew, bursting out into the third dimension. Hui nodded to himself, placing the Moonlit Black Thorn over the Ice-White Blossom, in such a way that the blossom couldn’t be seen from his current viewing standpoint, but so that the two remained close to one another. There we go. I just needed a little more space!

Stepping back, Mortal paused for a moment. More information rushed in at every moment, piling up outside the network he’d created. He looked the network up and down, his arms crossed.

What we really need is an automatic script. Something that can put the herbs almost where they should be. Obviously, I’ll need to watch it and step in every now and again to correct it, but if we could create an automatic script, I wouldn’t need to put all my effort into building the network and still fail to keep up with the other clones.

Hmm… but how to accomplish that? Mortal put a hand on his chin, thinking to himself.