Follow the path of Dao from infancy

Spring rain drizzled endlessly.

The distant mountains and nearby forests beyond the gate were shrouded in a curtain of silvery rain threads.

The incessant patter of raindrops struck the small fenced courtyard before splattering into the crevices of the bluestone slabs, bringing up the scent of the earth.

In the kitchen stood a kettle of tea, and seated at the mat were two people.

One was Li Hao, the other, also Li Hao.

That's right.

At this moment, the two figures sipping tea and playing chess in this small courtyard were both Li Hao.

Looking at them, they were indistinguishable from each other.

It was only that the other Li Hao appeared somewhat dull, his gaze slightly wooden.

"As expected, not quite as quick-witted," Li Hao remarked.

As Li Hao placed a piece on the board, he won the game again, but he gained no experience from it.

Even a game in this form was determined by the panel as him playing against himself.

But no matter, experience wasn't important; having integrated Chess Tao into his heart, Li Hao enjoyed every match, experience or not.

The figure with the same appearance in front of him was obtained from an ancient painting brought to him by that painter.

The painting was named "Doppelgänger."

It depicted a young girl with a long skirt gazing wistfully into the distance at the setting sun.

A seemingly simple artwork, it contained countless details, blending techniques such as light and darkness, symmetry, and so forth in a way that brought it to life.

Through the thick and thin lines, with but a few simple strokes, the artist had outlined the fluttering hem of the dress, with every fold's play of light and shadow both natural and symmetric, a terrifying level of mastery.

The residual light of the sunset, a light red, also diffused such hues, like flames melting on the canvas, truly ablaze.

With his own Art of Painting at the Sixth Stage, Li Hao felt he was far from reaching this level.

He thought that to meet the requirements for panel collection, he might need skills of the Ninth Stage.

Such a superb artistic conception, scarcely seen in the mortal world: Among the renowned paintings or famous music scores passed down through thousands of years, there were not many.

And each one carried the heritage of a millennium, with extraordinary significance.

This "Doppelgänger" disappeared from the world after being collected, which made Li Hao deeply regretful.

When "Doppelgänger" was integrated into Li Hao's Physical Body Path, it brought an extremely peculiar trait.

Doppelgänger: From one's own flesh and blood, one can construct a shadow physique possessing 30% of the original's capabilities.

If the shadow physique is destroyed, the original remains unharmed.

The original and the shadow have no connection; there is no sharing of memories or vision.

When the shadow physique is destroyed, the property will reset—(Only one shadow physique can be constructed)

The original can give orders to the shadow physique, which will possess the original's basic thought processes.

...

Previously, when Li Hao collected other chess scores and famous paintings, including musical scores, the attributes he received were always to amplify a certain attribute, but this "Doppelgänger" directly provided him with a capability.

Or rather, the previous attributes were also a kind of ability.

For instance, a lethal attribute was an exceptionally eerie power that had a 1% chance of being fatal.

However, the ability from the Doppelgänger was materialized.

This special trait, when used in battle, didn't add much to Li Hao's strength, essentially giving him an extra helper with only one-third of his own capabilities.

After testing, Li Hao found that while it was said to be one-third, the actual combat strength was far less.

Because of the reduced abilities, this shadow doppelgänger couldn't execute the special states of Martial Arts at the Extreme Realm, such as Heaven and Earth Law Manifestation, Divine Power, and Immortal Qi transformation—these were all unusable.

The physical strength was only 300,000 jin.

The energy within was Qi Force, not Immortal Qi, and the total eruption of Qi Force was less than 4 million jin.

To know, royal family members could reach 2 million jin of Qi Force.

Yuan Camp's soldiers were at 500,000 jin.

Only equivalent to twice that of the royal family.

Luckily, the Yin and Yang Dual Pulse wasn't sealed; activating the power of the Dual Pulse resulted in 8 million jin.

That equaled four times the explosive force of the royal family.

Divine Traveling, Control Path, etc., were also reduced, only amounting to about twice that of the royal family.

Considering only this shadow doppelgänger's combat strength, Li Hao estimated that it could suppress some Great Demons of the Unwithering Realm, but if it faced a Demon King, it would likely be squashed in an instant.

Fortunately, Li Hao didn't intend to use this doppelgänger for fighting, but merely as company for a game of chess during his leisure or to help him run errands, which was convenient.

Moreover, the creation of this shadow doppelgänger was effortless, condensed from one of his fingers.

His original's severed finger regenerated, growing back within a few minutes.

But the shadow doppelgänger's healing speed if injured was also significantly reduced; Li Hao had tested it with Li Hongzhuang, and it was only about twice as fast as hers.

All of these were secondary; what truly made Li Hao helpless was that this shadow doppelgänger's chess skills were too lousy, having only about one-third of his own capabilities in this area.

But chess and martial arts were different; playing against someone with only one-third of your own skills was like seeing straight through them, far too inferior, and winning brought no pleasure at all.

The one consolation was that when there was nothing else to do, the shadow doppelgänger could help him with errands, like occasionally clearing out the demons outside the gate.

Unfortunately, the shadow doppelgänger couldn't earn panel experience from its work; otherwise, with experience doubling, that would truly be joyous.

Apart from the attributes brought by this painting, the chess score given by that young chess sage also brought a special attribute.

The name of the chess score was the Qiankun Diagram.

Qiankun refers to heaven and earth; the score extends horizontally and vertically, with 19 horizontal lines and 19 vertical lines, needing 361 pieces to fill!

Li Hao embedded this score into his Control Path and also obtained an unusual trait.

Qiankun Diagram:

One may select any object as a mark and invest half of one's power into it.

Once the mark is destroyed, the power will be released and explode.