……

No need to say more.

Among the components of the [Three Life Stone Staff], the staff handle that resembles ordinary dead wood is most likely formed from the desiccated corpses of players.

The question is…

Is it one corpse? Or a large number of corpses?

Of course, it's also uncertain—

Would Jiang Ye's desiccated corpse be different from that of an ordinary player?

Previously, Lin Ling asked him to try dripping blood, probably also wanting to see if his desiccated corpse was different from ordinary players', right?

At that time, Jiang Ye was wary of Lin Ling, so he didn't drip blood.

And now, in the environment of the Forbidden Zone, in the state of a yin realm person, it seems like even if he wanted to drip blood, he couldn't…

Wait!

Jiang Ye was pondering something in his heart.

On the surface, he remained expressionless, staring at the spout embedded with the Three Life Stone, while also asking Zhao Dongliu:

"This spout, was it the handle of the former Three Life Stone Staff? Is this thing now formed only from Lin Jing's desiccated corpse alone? Or were the desiccated corpses accumulated in the past not wasted either?"

Zhao Dongliu said meaningfully, "Of course they wouldn't be wasted."

Jiang Ye met his gaze, and in the exchange of their eyes, a thousand unspoken words seemed to be hidden.

Actually…

Jiang Ye quietly transferred a Luminox Larva offspring larva to a nearby clone.

Then, he began his fearless experimental plan again!

The clone carrying the Luminox Larva offspring larva silently retreated to a corner.

Then silently disappeared.

Although these actions were only completed discreetly, avoiding attention.

Jiang Ye certainly didn't believe they truly went unnoticed.

At the very least, he was sure—

Zhao Dongliu, who was chatting and laughing with him on the surface, must have noticed the minor movements of that clone.

Including Wu Wang, who was as low-key as a background prop, should have noticed as well.

And then there's Lin Jing…

Who knows what kind of perspective this guy has within the Next Life Stone.

However, these were all clever people.

They noticed the minor movements of Jiang Ye's clone but didn't point it out.

And that clone that disappeared carrying the offspring larva…

Naturally, it used [Clone Fusion] to silently merge with the mutated clone within the bell tolls!

At that time, the mutated clone was hearing the bell toll for the ninth time.

"Dong—Dong—Dong—"

The distant, lingering sound of the bell toll seemed to echo endlessly in a boundless, empty environment, its reverberations lingering for a long time.

According to the pattern of the bell tolls, this time's toll should be nine strikes.

While paying attention to the deafening bell tolls, Jiang Ye tried to catch the faint, concealed "click" sounds amidst the tolling.

At the same time, he multitasked, dividing his focus to sense the Luminox Larva offspring larva within this mutated body after the clone fusion.

Speaking of which, this mutated body was really a bit strange—

That mutated Blood Realm Worm was seemingly parasitic on him.

But in reality, the worm's range of activity was limited only to the layer of shadow phantom surrounding the mutated body.

And the Luminox Larva offspring larva was the same…

Normally, when Jiang Ye transferred the Luminox Larva offspring larva to other clones, the offspring larva would parasitize within the clone's body.

But this time, after the clone fusion, the offspring larva's range of activity was also limited to the shadow phantom surrounding the mutated body.

It felt like…

Neither the Blood Realm Worm nor the offspring larva dared, or could, parasitize within that pure black version of the mutated body.

Additionally…

Jiang Ye soon discovered—

The reproduction speed of this offspring larva within that ring of shadow phantom body was much faster than in a normal environment.

In the blink of an eye, roughly by the time the seventh bell toll sounded.

His shadow phantom body was almost filled with a large number of reproduced offspring larvae!

And as the offspring larvae reproduced more and more…

Jiang Ye finally experienced the side effect previously mentioned by Apartment Boss Q—

His originally sensationless pure black mutated body, amidst the crowding of numerous offspring larvae, actually felt a thread of cold!

It seemed like, if this continued…

This body of his would also completely freeze!

And the facts proved that this feeling soon came true!

As the offspring larvae reproduced frantically within the shadow phantom body.

The number of offspring larvae in the shadow phantom body quickly reached its limit!

And under the effect of the limit number of offspring larvae, that originally unselectable, seemingly non-existent, void-like shadow phantom body actually began to show signs of freezing out of thin air!

Thus, it was as if a ring of ice had formed around Jiang Ye's pure black mutated body!

In this state, he became even more immobile!

And also increasingly felt the cold that seemed to seep into his bones!

Even through this ice, the originally deafening bell tolls seemed to be isolated and much weaker.

This phenomenon surprised Jiang Ye a bit.

He originally thought that strange bell toll was directly ringing in his mind…

But now, it could be physically blocked by ice?

Jiang Ye had no time to ponder deeply. Because the bell tolls were weakened, he had to focus even more intently on listening.

It was also at this moment that his completely numb mutated body inexplicably felt another sensation…

A faint, itchy feeling, as if insects were crawling on him!

This sensation wasn't strong, but it was truly hard to ignore.

He even suspected this itchiness was a deliberate interference with his listening to the bell tolls!

However, if Jiang Ye could observe himself from a bystander's perspective, he would discover—

On his completely frozen shadow phantom body, numerous thin, blood-red lines had quietly spread!

They looked like enlarged versions of the blood-colored patterns on mutants!

When these blood-red thin lines spread inch by inch to the top of Jiang Ye's head.

That subtle itchiness turned into a scalp-crawling sensation!

It felt as if countless energies within his body were rushing towards his scalp!

Under this intense stimulation, Jiang Ye could no longer listen to the so-called bell tolls at all!

He only felt that, under this seemingly out-of-control energy impact, his mutated body might explode at any moment!

This…

Could it be that because of the changes in the shadow phantom body, it could no longer suppress his mutated body?

Jiang Ye felt a pang of panic.

He did want to try canceling the clone fusion.

But just like in the Court of Disorder—

This time's clone fusion could not be canceled!

Great! He was utterly numb…

What made Jiang Ye even more helpless was—

Amidst the terrifying scalp assault…

This mutated Jiang Ye, amidst the terrifying sensations, quickly had his consciousness scatter as well!

It was as if he truly couldn't withstand the energy impact and had completely exploded…

In short, from the perspective of the clone with Zhou Qiming's identity—

This mutated clone soon lost itself in the terrifying, scalp-crawling impact and completely lost contact!

Jiang Ye couldn't determine whether he had just fallen unconscious, truly exploded and was destroyed, or had some other experience…

However, at the moment the situation spiraled out of control, Jiang Ye actually tried to have that mutated clone perform a clone swap with a clone in the black ice domain.

But the result was that the clone swap simply didn't happen!

Until the mutated clone completely lost contact…

Because the mutated clone lost contact, the medium maintaining the connection with the desiccated corpse also disappeared…

Jiang Ye could no longer know the perspective of that desiccated corpse.

And the Blood Skin desiccated corpse clone also completely lost contact.

This state left Jiang Ye somewhat helpless.

He, along with Zhao Dongliu and the others, explored for a long time.

The various cross-region seniors dispersed across different chess grids of the black ice domain gradually gathered.

The dying punk, after completely losing the ability to scream, was thrown into the massive pot body on Zhao Dongliu's orders.

Perhaps because Jiang Ye's black cloth was stuck to the pot body.

The punk thrown into the pot body gradually recovered, though he still appeared unconscious.

Of course, Jiang Ye knew he was just playing dead and couldn't be bothered to deal with him.

In the end, a total of 75 people gathered around the pot body!

Among them, 25 were Jiang Ye's clones.

There were originally 26, but one clone was sacrificed for [Clone Fusion]…

24 cross-region seniors.

There should have been 26 seniors from each region, but Lin Jing turned into stone, and the punk was thrown into the pot…

18 old classmates.

Hmm… This group was pretty useless, basically acting as the atmosphere squad.

Then, there were Ouyang, Wu Wang, the He Lulu trio, and three other chess pieces, making a total of 8 people.

Because everyone was in the "yin realm people" state, having lost their abilities.

So even though there were many people, they couldn't actually fight.

At most, they could just bicker a bit.

Of course, even though everyone had become "ordinary people," Jiang Ye still held absolute authority within the team thanks to the effect of the Luminox Larva offspring larva.

Jiang Ye originally wanted to test Zhao Dongliu's "mutation" idea.

To see if these yin realm people could mutate within the Forbidden Zone…

But as a result of his bold attempt, even the mutated clone ended up losing contact.

So this idea died before it could be born.

Zhao Dongliu, being a professional researcher, did propose other ideas.

Including those cross-region "seniors," they basically all contributed their brains and offered some ideas.

Unfortunately, after practical attempts, they had to despairingly admit—

Even the cleverest housewife can't cook without rice!

And the environment of this Forbidden Zone truly had neither rice nor means to cook!

This group of "clever housewives" really couldn't accomplish anything!

After several attempts, feelings of anxiety and despair spread through the crowd.

Even Jiang Ye himself began to doubt himself, thinking he had acted too boldly, without considering the consequences…

It was also at this time that he experienced the despair his main body felt when it lost contact with the outside world in the Time-Stop Prison.

Because of this similar feeling, Jiang Ye couldn't help but suspect—

Perhaps the environment of the Time-Stop Prison itself was somehow related to the Forbidden Zone?

He couldn't help but wonder if he should have explored the Forbidden Zone only after fully obtaining the Time-Stop Prison as his personal exclusive reward?

Of course, he also tried the attempts his main body made for self-rescue—

Because he couldn't touch anything in the yin realm person state, he froze his left shoulder area and then used the frozen fingers to try to find the crescent moon birthmark on his left shoulder.

Of course, the result was still a failed attempt.

Just as everyone was in despair…

And Jiang Ye also suspected that this batch of clones might need to wait for outside clones to rescue them, like his main body once did…

Finally, an anomaly appeared!

This group of 75 people almost simultaneously heard faint "click, click" sounds!

Zhao Dongliu, true to his former identity as a researcher, had truly sharp perception.

Almost the moment the faint sounds first rang out, he caught them and immediately raised his hand, saying in a deep voice:

"Everyone, shut up! Listen carefully! There's a sound!"

At his prompt, everyone quieted down.

And the 25 Jiang Yes were experiencing this for the second time.

His mind stirred, focusing intently on listening, and this time, carefully and meticulously counting the clicks.

25 clones, all concentrating intently.

And the other 50 players also listened attentively at first.

But soon, when they realized nothing else changed besides the clicking sounds, they started discussing again.

The first to speak was still the relatively confident Lu Fang:

"This sound seems like the ticking of an old-fashioned alarm clock's second hand, but the interval between these 'clicks' seems to be shortening?"

He sounded uncertain.

And his cousin Lu Shen quickly concluded:

"It sounds like it's shortening, but if you compare over a longer time, you'll find the interval between clicks isn't actually shortening!" 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

As he spoke, he even directly explained: "This might be like the 'shadow diamond illusion';our perception is being confused."

The 25 Jiang Yes were enough to record the clicks.

So Jiang Ye also paid attention to their discussion.

Hearing Lu Shen immediately conclude that their perception was being confused, he was somewhat surprised.

However, he soon used Lu Shen's statement to ask Zhao Dongliu:

"I remember besides [Personality Split], you also have an SS-level skill called [Time Illusion]? Could these clicking sounds be your doing?"

He of course knew it had nothing to do with Zhao Dongliu, but he was seizing the chance to probe.

Zhao Dongliu was clearly also recording the clicks.

He was a bit slow to respond, barely managing to answer while distracted:

"In the Forbidden Zone, SS-level skills cannot take effect. This confused perception has nothing to do with me!"

Not long after he finished speaking…

Everyone present simultaneously heard an exceptionally powerful bell toll!

And Jiang Ye immediately noted in his mind—

Before the first bell toll, there were 118 clicks.

If one click equals one second, then that's roughly 2 minutes?

And during the ongoing bell toll, the clicks were truly suppressed and hard to distinguish.

Jiang Ye could only vaguely guess based on the previous pattern—

During the bell toll, the clicks probably sounded 4-5 times?

As the lingering echoes faded, Jiang Ye continued counting carefully.

Zhao Dongliu divided his attention to compare answers with him: "Before the bell toll sounded, how many clicks did you hear?"

Jiang Ye didn't give a specific number, casually replying: "About 120."

Zhao Dongliu nodded: "Me too."

The others present also silently noted this information and began paying attention to the clicks.

Unfortunately, when the bell toll ended, they hadn't been paying attention, so now they didn't know where to start counting.

So they could only rely on the power of the masses and continue discussing.

Lu Fang hadn't counted the clicks at all and could only continue speculating:

"Why do these clicks and bell tolls sound, and what do they represent?"

"Do you think that terrifyingly loud bell toll could be a death knell? For whom does the death knell toll?"

"Or perhaps… these clicks and bell tolls with temporal significance… could they be the channel through which we travel through time?!"

With this last speculation, Lu Fang's tone couldn't hide his excitement, which also stirred up eager anticipation in others.

Lu Shen glanced towards Jiang Ye and Zhao Dongliu's direction, then suddenly walked to the pot body and asked towards the Next Life Stone:

"Lin Jing? Do you have any particularly unique feelings?"