An expression of utter shock appeared on Li Yang's face.
As it absorbed the energy, the severed section of the octopus clone's tentacle was regrowing at a speed visible to the naked eye, and its other tentacles seemed to be getting longer.
After the initial shock, Li Yang's eyes filled with delight.
'I'm so stupid! I thought only I could practice this Cultivation Technique, but the octopus is a living creature, so why can't it cultivate? In the TV shows I watch, humans fight monsters, and the monsters can cultivate, too.'
His heart filled with joy, Li Yang focused his attention on the octopus clone's situation.
'It's absorbing energy so quickly, much faster than I do!'
Under Li Yang's watch, the octopus clone's severed tentacle completely regrew in just three minutes.
'So hungry!'
As it absorbed the energy, Li Yang felt an immense hunger coming from the octopus clone.
A small fish happened to swim by, and the octopus clone moved with astonishing speed. Its tentacle shot out like a bolt of lightning, instantly snatching the fish.
'The octopus clone's strength has increased, too.'
Li Yang took a moment to feel it. Just like an improvement in his own physical fitness, the cultivating octopus clone had also grown stronger!
It caught and ate a few more fish, and then the octopus clone resumed its cultivation!
After cultivating for a while, it became hungry again.
The octopus clone had no choice but to stop and continue catching small fish and shrimp to eat.
One hour… two hours…
Just like that, the octopus clone ate when it was hungry and cultivated when it was full. Four hours passed in a flash!
By this point, Li Yang himself had already stopped cultivating, as his energy absorption had reached its limit. But the octopus clone hadn't!
Even after four hours, it could still continue absorbing energy!
Moreover, as it absorbed energy and constantly devoured its prey, its body was continuously growing larger!
Previously, the little octopus's tentacles were only about a dozen centimeters long, but now, they had reached a length of thirty centimeters, giving it a total span of sixty centimeters!
'What's going on? Why doesn't the octopus clone's energy absorption have a limit? And it's growing so incredibly fast!'
Its size had doubled or tripled in just a few hours! It was unbelievable. What kind of creature could grow so quickly?
Li Yang was baffled, but more than anything, he was overjoyed.
The larger octopus clone was clearly more powerful, and the strength in its tentacles was undoubtedly several times greater than before!
'Keep absorbing! Let's see just how big this octopus clone can get!' Li Yang thought excitedly, not stopping the process.
As he cultivated, he found he needed less and less sleep. Even staying up all night had no effect on him anymore.
In the blink of an eye, the night was over, and Li Yang hadn't slept a wink.
He had been monitoring the octopus clone the entire time!
By now, each of the octopus clone's tentacles had reached sixty centimeters in length, giving it a total span of 1.4 meters when fully spread out!
To put it in perspective, the octopus Li Yang had encountered before was only three meters across! In just a single night, this little octopus clone had already grown to half that size!
'Incredible! Truly incredible!'
Li Yang marveled to himself. 'It must be because of the Body Refining Technique!'
It had taken him a week to successfully complete the first stage of the Cultivation Technique. Now, in just one night, the octopus clone was already most of the way through the first stage, seemingly without any bottlenecks or saturation points.
'There's still paperwork to do for the fishing boat, and it'll be a few days before I can head out to sea. For now, I'll have the octopus clone hold off on searching for precious marine life and focus entirely on cultivation!'
With this in mind, Li Yang had the octopus clone stay put, wanting to see just how far its cultivation could progress.
Delaying the fishing boat's departure was no problem. The stronger the octopus clone became, the more places it could explore and the better it could fend off any dangers.
...
Over the next few days, the octopus clone fell into a routine: cultivate relentlessly, then eat. In the blink of an eye, three more days had passed!
In those three days, the octopus clone's full span had reached four meters!
A four-meter behemoth! It was even larger than the octopus that had fought Li Yang before!
Having grown to this stage, its energy absorption finally reached a state of saturation.
'So that's how it works. The octopus clone's progress with the Cultivation Technique is tied to my own,' Li Yang finally understood.
He was currently cultivating the second stage of Body Refining. The octopus clone had cultivated without any bottlenecks until its progress matched his own. Once it reached that level, it could no longer practice the Cultivation Technique without limit.
The cultivation progress of his main body affected the clone.
'Since it's reached saturation, I'll head out to sea tomorrow!'
WHOOSH!
At the bottom of the ocean, a massive four-meter octopus moved without restraint, surging forward with the air of an overlord.
'Haha, with a body this big, the octopus clone's speed is at least dozens of times faster than before!'
Before, as a small octopus of only a few dozen centimeters, it was not only weak but also very slow. Now, however, its speed was astonishing, allowing it to explore the ocean with incredible swiftness!
And don't be fooled by its four-meter span; this was a *cultivated* octopus. The power in its tentacles could utterly overwhelm any ordinary giant octopus of the same size!
'Huh? A swordfish?' Suddenly, the octopus clone spotted a familiar figure—the very swordfish that had injured it before—and immediately shot forward.
Seeing the behemoth, the swordfish was terrified and immediately tried to flee, but its speed was no match for the octopus clone. It was caught in less than two seconds.
'Haha! You injured me before, now you can obediently become my next meal!'
The poor, sixty-centimeter-long swordfish was soon reduced to nothing but bones.
The nearby fish and shrimp saw the huge monster instantly kill the swordfish and scattered in terror, not daring to come any closer. The domineering octopus clone then swam rapidly toward the ocean depths. It was moving at nearly a hundred meters per second—a truly terrifying speed!
The octopus clone rampaged on like this for three hours. At its speed, the area it had surveyed in that time was immense.
Just then, Li Yang's eyes lit up.
The octopus clone had arrived at a spot in the deep sea. A huge, densely packed school of fish was swimming there, numbering at least two thousand.
'A school of large yellow croakers!'