"What are you doing?" Victor lost his composure.

Who could stay calm when their own appearance was copied by someone else?

The clone kept smiling before stretching its body, its bones cracking realistically.

"I’ll borrow your appearance and take a walk around. Only by becoming someone else can I leave my palace and even this world," it said.

"You..." Victor’s face turned red.

"There’s no need to feel so uncomfortable. This body will only last for one day. During that time, you’re free to do whatever you want inside my palace..."

After saying that, the clone turned and walked away.

It disappeared directly without even passing through the palace doors.

Victor looked toward the Sea Spirit King. However, the latter suddenly lay back on his throne and closed his eyes.

His breathing became calm, as though he had fallen asleep.

Victor discovered that he could move again.

He immediately leaped toward the throne.

Buzz!

A shockwave blasted him back, preventing him from approaching it.

The moment he felt that power, he instantly realized it was something he couldn’t resist.

"Victor, you need to calm down," Alexandra said.

"He’s going to use me to do something disgraceful," Victor replied.

He forced himself to calm down, though it was still difficult.

At this moment, he wished Margaret was watching him and would help him.

No... she was probably already aware. She would definitely sense it when he entered a unique place like this.

She simply didn’t want to interfere.

"Maybe not. The Sea Spirit King is an ancient existence. Someone like him should already be bored of most things. Perhaps he only wants to take a look around," Alexandra said.

She didn’t sound convinced herself. She was only trying to comfort Victor.

Victor fell silent and observed the palace.

Only then did he realize there were no doors besides the entrance. There were only walls everywhere.

So how was he supposed to go to another room?

Obviously, he couldn’t.

However, a table caught his attention.

It was covered by a cloth that hung all the way to the floor, and Victor sensed something beneath it—something that seemed the most compatible and powerful for him within the Deep Sea.

He walked toward the table and lifted the cloth covering its underside.

What he found was actually a chessboard made of gold and silver.

The chess pieces didn’t look like ordinary pieces. They resembled miniature knights carrying swords and spears.

Victor had no idea what it was. He touched it, and information immediately entered his mind.

(War Chess!)

It was a World Artifact.

However, it was something even better because it contained knights capable of fighting alongside its owner. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

They would match the owner’s cultivation realm.

Most importantly, unlike ordinary World Artifacts that required the user to drag enemies into a separate world, this one would instead expand into a massive domain, transforming the battlefield itself into War Chess.

Victor simply couldn’t refuse something like this.

It was undoubtedly extremely useful, and honestly, it would be valuable for anyone.

He immediately pulled it out from beneath the table under Alexandra’s curious gaze.

However, Victor didn’t bother explaining. He stored the artifact directly inside his ring.

"Do you sense anything here?" Victor asked Alexandra.

"Yes, but it’s beneath the throne. I don’t know whether I can take it or not," Alexandra replied.

Beneath the throne?

Victor frowned.

If it was beneath the throne, it was probably something even better, yet he hadn’t sensed it.

He was fairly certain the Sea Spirit King controlled what each person sensed within this palace and courtyard.

Perhaps the king could read their powers and determine what suited them best.

But inside this palace, every treasure was obviously valuable to anyone.

Yet the Sea Spirit King had chosen to give something better to Alexandra.

"You should try," Victor said.

Alexandra nodded and finally walked toward the throne.

She remained wary of another shockwave appearing, but surprisingly, nothing happened.

Nothing at all until she reached the throne itself.

Alexandra sighed in relief before stepping behind the throne and checking underneath it.

A shocked expression immediately appeared on her face.

She then reached beneath the throne and pulled something out.

When she withdrew her hand, Victor saw that she was holding an egg.

It was a golden egg covered in red lines that looked strangely alive, as though they were moving even though they actually weren’t.

"What kind of egg is that?" Victor asked.

"I don’t know... I didn’t receive any information, but I can feel life inside it. It should hatch if it’s nurtured properly," Alexandra answered.

"So the treasure you received is a living creature..." Victor revealed a strange expression.

It was definitely the egg of an extremely special creature, perhaps even a dragon or phoenix.

Still, Victor had no interest in keeping pets.

He couldn’t bring himself to envy Alexandra.

His gaze swept across the palace once more.

The other treasures were clearly hidden.

What else could he do here?

After all, the Sea Spirit King had said he was free to do anything inside the palace.

But the problem was that he couldn’t see any other doors.

If there had been even one bedroom, he could have brought Alexandra there to make love.

Victor walked toward one of the side walls and touched it.

It only felt incredibly thick.

BANG!

He punched it hard.

But it was like an ant punching a wall of steel.

His hand bruised instantly.

"Boy, do whatever you want, but don’t make too much noise. I’m concentrating on my clone." Suddenly, the sleeping Sea Spirit King opened his eyes and spoke.

Apparently, he wasn’t completely unconscious.

"How do I get to another place?" Victor asked.

"You really aren’t very smart."

Victor, "..."

If anyone else had called him stupid, he would have slaughtered their entire clan.

But here, he could only pretend he hadn’t heard it.

"This palace is a World Artifact, and I haven’t restricted your access. Do you know what that means? It means you can teleport anywhere within the palace except outside of it," the king continued before closing his eyes again.

"Victor, it’s true. This really is a World Artifact," Alexandra said as well.

She began teleporting, though only within the hall itself.

Her body flickered from one point to another.

Victor suddenly felt foolish.

Inside a World Artifact, movement could be controlled with thought alone. One only needed to connect their mind with the artifact’s power.

When he tried it, it truly worked that way.

He could sense the entire palace, divided into countless rooms despite having no doors at all.

"Eh..." He suddenly became startled by one particular room.

Whoosh!

He instantly teleported there.

It wasn’t a special room, but there was a mirror inside.

What was interesting was that the mirror displayed the beach above.

It obviously wasn’t a painting—it was more like a live broadcast.

Victor saw people moving around, students returning from beneath the sea, and ships arriving at the harbor.

"The Heaven Mirror," Alexandra said as she appeared beside him.

"How can this thing display scenes from another place?" Victor asked.

"There’s an invisible eye connected to the mirror. Wherever that eye looks, the image appears here," Alexandra explained.

Hearing that, Victor tried to pull the mirror away, but an invisible force protected it.

It couldn’t be taken.

Unfortunately, he also couldn’t control what the mirror displayed.

It continued showing the beach above.

Then a few moments later, Victor froze.

Because he saw himself.

Of course, it was actually the Sea Spirit King.

He emerged from the sea and stepped onto the shore with an indifferent expression.

Victor felt that the resemblance was perfect.

The Sea Spirit King truly understood his personality and knew exactly how he usually behaved.

However, Victor was certain the king hadn’t obtained his memories.

After all, a cultivator’s memories were hidden within the soul, protected by willpower.

It would require penetrating deeply into his being to obtain them, and Victor hadn’t sensed anything like that earlier.

If the king could even access his memories, Victor could only say the man was absurdly overpowered.

He would even know about Victor’s memories from Earth if that were the case—but that clearly wasn’t true. Otherwise, he definitely would’ve interrogated him already.

Victor’s heart began beating nervously.

He was worried the Sea Spirit King would do something stupid and embarrass him.

Even Alexandra looked nervous.

The man passed through the beach and entered the city.

Victor let out a deep breath.

Once the king went far enough, he could no longer observe him.

"Wait..." Victor suddenly realized another problem.

"What is it?" Alexandra asked.

Victor stared sharply at his ring, and his expression immediately worsened.

"My Heavenly Library Key is gone," he said.

Alexandra, "..."

It was no longer a secret that Victor possessed that key since he had obtained it publicly.

He simply hadn’t used it yet.

Since it had been stored inside his Storage Ring, it should have been impossible for it to disappear.

But it had.

Even the Storage Ring couldn’t prevent theft from the Sea Spirit King.

Victor reappeared in the main hall.

"King, so you’re actually a thief?" Victor asked even though the man’s eyes remained closed.

Yet his words caused the king’s eyes to open.

"Why? Do you object? What exactly can you do about it?" he mocked.

"You truly have no shame," Victor replied.