For the past four years, Ethan had been training diligently, completing the system’s side quests with unwavering determination. His main mission was always completed on his birthday, a tradition that had become a symbol of his progress and growth.
Today marked his fifth birthday, and just like the previous four, his family was present to celebrate with him. Aurora, his mother, Anthony, his father, and his grandfather all gathered around, their faces filled with love and pride.
Despite the warmth of his immediate family, Ethan had rarely ventured outside the confines of his home. The other branch families whispered and speculated about his seclusion, some even suggesting that his lack of spirit talent had made him a prisoner in his own house, a stain on the Drake family’s reputation.
His parents, noticing the toll these rumors were taking on their son’s self-esteem, tried to reassure him and boost his confidence. They had taken him to the main family three times, twice to request a spirit core on his behalf, despite Ethan’s insistence that he didn’t need one. Each time, they were turned away, told that a spirit core would be useless to someone without spirit talent.
Unbeknownst to his family, Ethan was far from disappointed by these rejections. In fact, he was thrilled, for today marked a significant milestone in his journey—the formation of his second clone, an elder cultivation level clone.
Since his second birthday, Ethan had learned that his clones could cultivate independently, growing stronger with each passing day. His first clone, now almost at the vanguard cultivation level, had been sent outside the Drake family region to train and gain real battle experience, which Ethan could access whenever the clone engaged in combat.
Through his tireless efforts, Ethan had reached the middle stage of the adept cultivation level. As his family prepared to wish him a happy birthday, he was suddenly pulled into the system space—a realm where time stood still, allowing him to interact with the system freely.
A system prompt sounded, "Do you wish to condense a clone?"
"Yes," Ethan answered with certainty.
Buzz. At that moment, the true power of the Nine Heaven Spirit Core was triggered. A transparent figure appeared before him, slowly coming to life as the system’s voice echoed, "The clone has inherited the properties of the Nine Heaven Spirit Core."
Ethan felt a deep connection to the clone as it began to gain color, its appearance mirroring his own. Once the clone had fully materialized, the system announced, "The Nine Heaven Spirit Core clone has been condensed successfully, and the clone side quest has started."
There were two ways for his clone to progress in cultivation: manual cultivation, absorbing and refining spirit energy, and completing the system’s clone side quests, which could only be accomplished by the clone itself.
"Side quest: Training Path—Kill 10 ascendant rank monsters. Note: You can only kill with the clone’s strength and cannot borrow or use strength from external forces. The task limit is 5 years."
"Task reward: Awakening power—Divine Drake Transformation, Divine Ability—Print the Drake, Supreme Domain—Third Layer of Fire Domain. This task is exclusively for the Nine Heaven Spirit Core clone."
With this new challenge before him, Ethan felt a surge of excitement and determination. The path ahead was fraught with danger and uncertainty, but he knew that with the system’s guidance and his own unwavering resolve, he would emerge stronger than ever before.
"Ascendant level monsters? Does the system truly grasp the horror of facing an Ascendant?" Ethan mused silently. His understanding of the realm hierarchy—Initiate, Novice, Adept, Vanguard, Elder, and Ascendant—was rough but enough to gauge the stakes. The highest he knew directly was the Ascendant rank, but that only came from observing his grandfather, who was a half-step Ascendant. Even so, that was just a shadow of the real Ascendant realm, which was far beyond.
To ascend from a half-step Ascendant to a true Ascendant was an almost impossible feat—one that only about one in a hundred half-step Ascendants managed to accomplish. Transcending the mortal realm was a perilous journey with minuscule success rates, requiring breaking free of mortal limits—an act that was almost never seen. Once fully Ascendant, one could reign as a dominant overlord, or become an elder among the nine top families of the human continent. No one would dare provoke such beings.
Asking him to kill ten Ascendant beasts? That was fantastically out of reach—if even possible at all. Even with his clone at the peak of the elder rank and the combined strength of his entire family, it still might not be enough. Monsters of the same rank—Ascendant—were not only stronger than humans at the same realm but could even fight across realms, crossing levels with terrifying ease.
Wait—the power of the domain?
Suddenly, Ethan recalled—the reward for completing his mission was a Rank 3 Domain. That implied his clone’s current domain was Level 1 or 2. He checked, and sure enough, his clone’s domain was at Level 2.
Waking in the system space, Ethan immediately felt the power emanating from his clone. It was so intense that for a brief moment, he wished he’d never experienced this power directly. Because it was unlike anything he’d known from his grandfather, who was a half-step Ascendant.
In fact, that power was utterly insignificant in front of his clone’s strength. In comparison, his grandfather’s power was almost like that of an ant—the clone could crush his grandfather with a single hand, a single strike.
The domain—this was power that belonged to a realm far beyond the Ascendant rank. Ethan could sense that his clone not only understood such power but could wield it freely—an understanding that enabled him to control a Level 2 Domain.
Realizing what that meant, Ethan took a deep breath, feeling a rare chill in his lungs. The task of killing ten Ascendant monsters suddenly no longer seemed impossible. His gaze sharpened—since the system hadn’t specified that the monsters had to be at a specific level of strength, he decided he would target only the weakest among them.
He would focus on those with the least resilience, the ones he could take down without pushing his clone to its limits. A new path opened before him—one that he didn’t dare hope for just moments before. Now, it was within reach.
In this moment of clarity, Ethan understood—climbing even into the lower ranks of the Ascendant realm was a matter of time, calculation, and patience. He would use the system, his clone, and his growing strength to carve his way forward. Because in this world, power was everything—and now, he knew, he was no longer just an observer."