Actually, it had always been a mystery to Luo Lan why Qing Zhen's clone would join the Qing Consortium. Back on the Sacred Mountains, Li Shentan's clone and Chen Wudi's clone had also appeared. However, they were hostile the moment they met. In the minds of those two clones, they were actually eager to prove they were superior to their original selves.
That was because the Pyro Company had told them they were born from the genes of Li Shentan and Chen Wudi, but they should be more powerful than their original selves because they were enhanced by the blood of God.
But as long as their original selves were still around, the clones would just remain as clones, and Li Shentan and Chen Wudi's clones were not willing to live in the shadows of others.
But as it turned out, those clones were indeed no match for their original selves. Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, it was because their willpower was different.
Meanwhile, Qing Zhen's clone, Qing Shen, was more puzzling. Right from the beginning, he had no hostile intentions towards his original self. Furthermore, he said he wanted to go to the Southwest immediately after he met them. It was as though he had foreseen something and said that Qing Zhen would need him as his double.
This puzzled Luo Lan a great deal. He once had an opportunity to ask him, "Have you never thought of taking his place?"
At that time, Qing Shen answered with a smile, "I'm different from the other two clones. I'm smarter than them, so I know the difference between me and Qing Zhen. Sometimes, having self-awareness is also a form of wisdom, isn't it?"
All this while, a minority of those who knew about Qing Zhen's clone gradually felt that Qing Zhen's charisma was probably too strong. As such, even his clone was won over and willingly became a part of the original's plan.
However, Luo Lan somehow felt that things were not that simple. It was not that he suspected Qing Shen of having any evil intentions, but that he felt that he had some other motive.
Recently, Qing Shen had been interacting with Luo Lan quite a bit due to his role as Qing Zhen's body double. After getting to know each other better, he would occasionally crack some jokes.
Although there was still some estrangement between them, it was no longer as tense as before.
Luo Lan looked at Qing Shen's annoying expression and suddenly asked, "You seem to understand the two of us brothers quite well, don't you?"
"Of course." Qing Shen said with a smile, "I even know you two arranged for a fight with the other members of the Qing Consortium when you were young. You led Qing Zhen and went to look for Qing Yi and his elder brother to beat them up. In the end, you got beaten up badly instead, yet you kept Qing Zhen protected. Later, you two became friends with Qing Yi and his brother after the fight and had a lot of dealings with each other in private. However, the old fogeys of the Qing Consortium's board did not know about this. I guess you all became friends because you could sympathize with one another. After all, you were the marginalized members of the Qing Consortium, so you couldn't compare to those in Qing Yun's group."
Currently, Qing Yun was dead, while Qing Yi had become the Qing Consortium's military commander. He was now subordinate only to Qing Zhen and Luo Lan.
Meanwhile, Qing Yi's elder brother was the principal of the Qing Consortium's university in Stronghold 111. Qing Zhen had invited him to take a role with the Board, but it seemed that Qing Yi's elder brother preferred working at a place like the university.
Qing Shen, the clone, said with a smile, "The amount of attention the Pyro Company paid to you two is beyond your imagination. Of course, the Pyro Company also had other goals. At that time, they had already started searching for the hosts for those three drops of God's blood. But you might not have expected that you were actually the focus of their attention at the beginning. It was only later that it switched to Qing Zhen. Of course, the facts have proven that Qing Zhen is indeed more capable. You won't get angry if I say that, right?"
"I already know that my little brother is much more capable than me, so there's nothing wrong with admitting to it," Luo Lan remarked. "But why would the Pyro Company target nobodies like us? There were clearly many more successful candidates they could've chosen."
"I don't know either. They only said that the younger the candidates were, the better. Otherwise, they would've cloned Zhang Jinglin," Qing Shen answered. "But I've always been curious about something. Is it fun to participate in a gang fight? Why do you always fight in the streets until your face is all bruised and swollen? You're clearly a member of the Qing Consortium, yet you still stooped to the level of those street thugs…."
Luo Lan turned unhappy. "Why do you keep bringing up me getting beaten until my face was all bruised and swollen? You should at least see how badly I beat up my enemies first, right? They were even more seriously injured than me! Besides, there's something wrong with the phrasing of your question. What's so fun about a gang fight? That's a world of loyalty and revenge. You wouldn't understand!"
Qing Shen smiled and said, "I would've liked to have joined you all in a gang fight too, but it's a shame that I wasn't born into the world at that time. But according to the Pyro Company's statistics, you've participated in a total of 17 fights and lost five of them."
"Is the Pyro Company sick in the head? Why would they even record something like that? Did they have too much funding or what?" Luo Lan said with a dark expression, "Also, my little brother isn't as smiley as you. If you want to be my little brother's body double, you should act more professionally. Quit with the smiling! By the way, to differentiate between the two of you, I'll call you Third Brother Qing!"
Luo Lan had given the clone a nickname purely because he wanted to annoy him, and the name "Third Brother Qing"1 was really quite unpleasant to hear.
However, Qing Shen did not mind at all. Instead, he said with a smile, "Who's Second Bro? Qing Zhen? Then you're the eldest? I'll call you Big Bro from now on then."
Luo Lan was stunned. Why didn't Third Brother Qing have any temper at all? It was as though he was a person who did not know how to get angry. He carefully sized up Third Brother Qing and said, "You don't seem to have my little brother's character at all. Instead, you're like a lunatic that I know!"
"Lunatic?" Third Brother Qing recalled, "Are you referring to Li Shentan?"
"Yes, exactly." Luo Lan laughed.
"Speaking of Li Shentan, it seems like there hasn't been any news of him in a long time," Third Brother Qing recalled. "I wonder where he went?"
"I heard he went typhoon watching," Luo Lan answered casually.
…
At this moment, in a mountain range to the south of the Central Plains, mist covered the top of the densely forested mountains. This place was south of the Zhou Consortium.
Over the many years since The Cataclysm, the city that was originally here had gradually collapsed, and a vast arboreal ecosystem had overtaken the ground it used to stand on.
Some people said the southern coastline had changed. Before The Cataclysm, the landmass was much larger. But now that the sea level had risen, much of the landmass had been flooded with water. Coupled with the tectonic movements, the landscape here was completely different.
But not many people had really gone there to have a look. After the climate change, the wilderness and forest to the south of the Zhou Consortium had become much more dangerous. There were poisonous creepy-crawlies everywhere, and a huge miasmic zone became a natural barrier to visitors.
At present, only a tiny group of herb collectors would venture out here. It was as though this place had become a forgotten, secret realm.
Two people, an adult and a child, were slowly advancing through the forest. Si Liren floated in midair and looked at the endless forest in front of her. She sighed and said, "Li Shentan, did you point us in the wrong direction again?"
"You're not allowed to call me Li Shentan. You have to address me as Big Brother Shentan. That's more endearing!"