Even an outsider like Jiang Ye would have such reservations.

So someone like Chen Cang, who clings to powerful allies, would naturally be even less willing to trust a Sun Person player.

Sure enough.

After a brief silence, Chen Cang said with firm certainty, "No."

"Even if that Sun Person really can save me..."

"That label of 'Sun Person' itself is probably more dangerous than being inside this giant toad's stomach!"

"So..."

The rest of his words went without saying.

Chen Cang's stance was already clear.

He refused to tie his fate to a Sun Person.

This outcome did not surprise Jiang Ye.

Guiwen Jiang Ye fell silent.

The Cheng Lin identity that Jiang Ye was using while sitting beside Li Si, after a moment of silence, spoke bluntly to Li Si:

"It's probably because you're a Sun Person that Chen Cang rejected Pain Sharing."

That sentence sounded casually stated, but it carried an undercurrent of meaning.

After all...

Neither Salvation Domain nor Pain Sharing inherently provides the players affected by those skills with a chance to "communicate."

Without any "communication," why should Jiang Ye claim that Chen Cang rejected Pain Sharing out of fear of a Sun Person?

So Jiang Ye's remark was illogical.

By rights, Li Si should have questioned it.

But he didn't.

It seemed...

He simply believed Jiang Ye.

In other words, he assumed there existed some kind of "communication" channel between Jiang Ye and Chen Cang...

A strange wariness rose in Jiang Ye's chest.

His gaze toward Li Si became openly scrutinizing.

Li Si ignored that scrutiny, paused a moment, then asked deliberately, "So..."

"As long as I remain a Sun Person, I absolutely cannot latch onto the protagonist's thigh?"

Jiang Ye stayed silent, which counted as tacit agreement.

At the same time, a startling idea suddenly sprang up in his mind. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

His eyes widened and he couldn't help but say, "You wouldn't..."

Sure enough, Li Si took a deep breath, then laughed as if relieved, and answered affirmatively, "Yes."

"Like I said from the start — those not of my kind have different hearts."

"If someone wants to bind themselves to the protagonist, they can't continue to be of a non-protagonist kind."

"So either Chen Cang evolves into a Sun Person;"

"Or I must fall and become a Moon Person."

"Oh no, from the Sun Person perspective, the change from Sun Person to Moon Person is called a 'fall.'"

"But if you step outside the identity of 'Sun Person' and view this shift from a godlike, identity-free vantage point..."

"Then perhaps it isn't called a 'fall.' It's merely an identity transformation."

"Like before the Qin dynasty was established, Li Si was from Chu."

"But from the end of history looking back... everyone is Han."

Li Si said this lightly.

The shock in Jiang Ye's heart quickly calmed at that line.

Indeed, from within the current situation, a Sun Person voluntarily turning into a Moon Person seemed insane.

Any Sun Person or Moon Person likely couldn't comprehend such a thing.

However...

Viewed outside the immediate constraints, it wasn't so hard to understand.

After all, Li Si wasn't a pure Sun Person.

He had transformed from Moon Person into Sun Person.

As he said —

At his core, he was Han!

That identity gave him more reason to abandon the lofty Sun Person identity.

Moreover, when he forcefully detached himself from the present and took that so-called "god's-eye perspective"...

His thinking naturally elevated.

Although currently the Sun People hold life-and-death power over the Moon People,

since the "protagonist" is a Moon Person...

the future might belong to Moon People!

Li Si's daring choice in the present...

Viewed across the long river of history, might be correct.

In fact, it probably is correct.

Based on later developments...

the Sun People most likely were truly annihilated.

Sorting these thoughts out, Jiang Ye's initial shock soon turned into understanding.

So he did not press or question further, he simply watched Li Si quietly.

His look said — please begin your performance.

Li Si was silent a moment, then suddenly smiled.

He went on to explain, "Like the poor getting rich is hard, the rich becoming poor is very easy."

"For a Sun Person to fall and become a Moon Person is actually simple. There are many methods..."

"What I am unsure of now is which method to choose."

Jiang Ye thought for a bit and indeed could imagine several ways for a Sun Person to fall into being a Moon Person.

None of those methods seemed worth hesitation.

Then...

Jiang Ye suddenly thought of a rather peculiar method of falling.

The desperate curse that several Sun Person players discovered while frantically experimenting not long ago —

the Curse of Despair!

When the Curse of Despair acts on hybrid Sun-and-Moon People, it produces the Featureless Bald effect;

and if that effect is inflicted on a Sun Person...

a Sun Person who loses all hair might very well directly fall into being a Moon Person.

But...

Jiang Ye glanced at Li Si and raised an eyebrow:

"You wouldn't actually want to try the Curse of Despair, would you?"

As expected, Li Si hesitated briefly, then shook his head:

"I am indeed curious how a Sun Person would feel with that faceless bald head..."

"But I truly lack the guts to endure the unseen price the Curse of Despair might demand."

Well, that settled it.

Jiang Ye felt exasperated and couldn't help but tease, "You expect me to give you some courage to bolster your guts? So you want me to coax you?"

"..." Li Si was silent, then finally shook his head. "Forget it."

He put his hand over his eye socket.

His palm moved slowly and pulled the eyeball out of the socket...

The eyeball had been normal inside the socket.

Once removed, it revealed itself as a mechanical eyeball.

Li Si then produced a pure black bamboo tube and shoved the two mechanical eyeballs inside.

Next he plunged two fingers into his empty eye sockets...

In an instant, his hair caught fire, emitting a pungent, foul smell.

After his hair burned away completely, he slit the skin on his wrist and let the fresh blood soak the mechanical watch.

During this process he swallowed an Exile Fruit.

Dark, strange glyph patterns representing the Glyph Pattern Ability slowly emerged on his bald scalp.

Then, with practiced motions, he put on a wig, drew a black ribbon to cover his eyes, and told Jiang Ye:

"OK, the transformation is complete."

Jiang Ye's expression was hard to read.

His gaze landed on the black bamboo tube, then on Li Si, becoming especially complicated.

After a pause he said bluntly, "Well, you castrated the mechanical eyeballs for sure. Someone who doesn't know might think you became a eunuch..."

What kind of name is Li Si — you should just be Zhao Gao!

More importantly...

Jiang Ye scanned this "Li Si" from head to toe, then hesitated and said:

"This kind of identity shift doesn't seem quite right, does it?"

"Right now, calling you a 'Moon Person' is less accurate than calling you a 'Sun-and-Moon Person,' isn't it?"

"The prison watch for Moon People corresponds to their identity."

"But your prison watch is essentially a Sun-and-Moon person's prison watch."

"And your mechanical eyeballs weren't destroyed, you kept them inside that bamboo tube..."

Jiang Ye had assumed this guy genuinely had the guts to become a Moon Person.

But this kind of transformation...

was not what Jiang Ye had imagined.

Li Si insisted, "No matter what you think, I am undeniably a Moon Person now — I have the Glyph Pattern Ability, and I've lost my authority ability."

"Without authority, I obviously cannot Erase other Moon People."

"If that still can't convince that 'protagonist'..."

"Then I can hand this over to him."

With that, Li Si offered the black bamboo tube holding his eyeballs.

This felt like a eunuch handing over his last possession.

Jiang Ye looked at the tube, dumbfounded: "How am I supposed to hand this over?"

"Then I'll hand it over —" Li Si reached toward Jiang Ye, "use Target Anchor."

Jiang Ye passed him the dark purple crystal chip.

Li Si didn't take it, he simply tossed the bamboo tube onto the chip...

The whole tube seemed to be thrown into the chip's spatial field.

Li Si then told Jiang Ye, "Now you can ask Chen Cang if he received it."

Jiang Ye stayed silent.

From Guiwen Jiang Ye's viewpoint, indeed a bamboo tube seemed to miraculously appear in Chen Cang's hand.

Chen Cang froze, "What is this??"

Guiwen Jiang Ye immediately switched into "seniors" mode and pretended to be profound:

"This is the sincerity that Sun Person sent you."

"Inside that tube are the mechanical eyeballs that represent all his authority, the enforcement eyeballs."

"To win your trust... just now he voluntarily abandoned his Sun Person identity and fell into being a Moon Person."

"I... holy crap?!" Chen Cang was stunned!

"Weren't Sun People supposed to be so high and mighty in this era?! How could any Sun Person willingly abandon their identity..."

After the shock, he pondered and muttered, "Protagonist Halo..."

"He didn't give up his Sun Person identity for me, he did it for my Protagonist Halo!"

Guiwen Jiang Ye agreed, "Yes, because of your Protagonist Halo he believes the 'future' belongs to Moon People, so he willingly fell into being a Moon Person."

Worried Chen Cang might not believe him, he added, "Also, this Sun Person was originally a Moon Person who evolved into a Sun Person."

"Now his fall counts as returning to his ancestral roots."

Chen Cang fell silent for a long moment.

Then suddenly blurted out, "Eternal Witch Gui..."

"You used to need me to brief you on information about this era..."

"So why now do you not only know Sun People, but can also use Pain Sharing to bind someone with a Sun Person?"

"And that Sun Person willing to help me... you must have stoked that, right?"

Chen Cang's shock came from the feeling that this Eternal Witch Gui had been with him all along...

yet it seemed to suddenly grow stronger right under his nose.

Jiang Ye of course wouldn't explain that.

He simply maintained his "seniors" persona and pretended to be mysterious:

"To be able to nest Inner Demons inside someone who has the Protagonist Halo, of course I have methods you don't know."

Fine.

Said like that, Chen Cang grew more satisfied with this "portable old grandpa's" golden finger.

He even suspected, "You wouldn't have done Nesting Inner Demons on that Sun Person as well, would you?"

Jiang Ye actually had thought of that.

But he kept up the mysterious act and didn't answer, saying instead, "He is no longer a Sun Person."

Chen Cang understood the implication, held the bamboo tube in one hand, and after thinking aloud he murmured:

"If this person is that sincere..."

"Then I'll reluctantly agree to Pain Sharing and bind my fate with him."

After he said this, Jiang Ye used Pain Sharing on the chip anchored to Chen Cang.

The Pain Sharing mark immediately appeared in Chen Cang's view.

It required his consent before the mark could attach to him.

Chen Cang chose to accept.

At the same time, another Pain Sharing mark attached itself to Li Si.

With this, Jiang Ye, Li Si, and Chen Cang were, awkwardly, tied together.

Jiang Ye asked Li Si, "And then?"

"What other method do you have to rescue the protagonist and latch onto his thigh?"

Li Si took back the dark purple crystal and countered with a question:

"I want to ask first —"

"That 'newborn' who was swallowed together with Chen Cang into the giant toad's stomach, what is its current state?"

Jiang Ye did not need to ask; Guiwen's perspective already showed it.

"The liquid inside the giant toad's stomach must be highly corrosive."

"That huge sphere that looked like a 'newborn' was enlarging as it was swept away by the long tongue."

"But once it entered the toad's stomach, it stopped growing. Its surface has been corroded by stomach acid and now looks pitted..."

After that brief explanation, Jiang Ye couldn't help asking, "You don't mean..."

"You want that 'newborn' which can no longer be born to be forcibly birthed inside the toad's stomach?"

Li Si did not think his idea was absurd; he replied earnestly:

"With Chen Cang's Protagonist Halo, he might be able to do it."

"And if the newborn truly hatches... there's a high chance it will possess some special ability!"

"And that ability will most likely counter the giant toad."

"Perhaps it's exactly this countering effect that causes the giant toad to prevent any 'newborn' from ever being born."

That analysis made sense, but the problem was:

"Do you know how to sustain a newborn inside the toad's stomach long enough for it to be born?"

"First..." Li Si's tone shifted subtly, "if I'm not mistaken, Chen Cang is currently using the unborn 'newborn' as a stepping-stool, standing on it to keep the newborn above the stomach acid?"

Jiang Ye was silent a moment, then couldn't help twitching the corner of his mouth.

"You don't mean..."

"You want Chen Cang to lift the 'newborn' up and use his own flesh and blood to prop it up as a stepping-stool?"

"Yes." Li Si nodded, justified, "That will effectively reduce the stomach acid's harm to the newborn."