These questions...

Li Si did not answer any of them.

Clearly, he was deliberately avoiding them.

His expression was grave. With the black ribbon covering his eyes, he looked around at the sky, then spoke in a heavy tone:

"If it really was the Giant Toad who made a move..."

"Then have you forgotten? The Giant Toad previously directly attacked the 'Newborn' that was born here!"

"So, staying here might no longer be safe for us."

As he spoke, he raised both hands, revealing two dark purple crystal chips the size of fingernails.

One of them bore the likeness of Jiang Ye... oh no, to be precise, "Cheng Lin".

The other bore the likeness of Li Si.

To be precise, not Li Si's original appearance, but his current appearance: wearing a wig, with a black ribbon covering his eyes.

Then—

He handed the dark purple crystal chip labeled [Target Anchor · Li Si] to Jiang Ye. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

At the same time, he casually tucked away the [Target Anchor · Cheng Lin] chip himself.

He then spoke urgently: "Let's split up and flee separately to avoid being caught in one fell swoop by the Giant Toad!"

With that, his whole body flickered, like a pixel in a lagging video frame, and abruptly vanished.

He left Jiang Ye behind, holding the [Target Anchor · Li Si] chip, utterly speechless!

Meanwhile, the oppressive sensation from Chen Cang's [Pain Sharing] still persisted.

For a few moments, Jiang Ye really wanted to remove the [Pain Sharing] mark he had placed on Chen Cang.

However...

Considering the loss of contact with the Guiwen, and also out of trust in Chen Cang's [Protagonist Halo],

He ultimately endured this shared pain...

After stowing the chip, Jiang Ye also flashed away from the spot.

He directly switched to the Primitive State of a Sun and Moon Person, that is, the state of two eyeballs carrying a watch, and sped through the misty Forest of Oddities.

At this point, over 20 hours had passed since he arrived in this world of the Doomsday Prison.

If the time he arrived at the initial prison wasn't zero o'clock...

Then he might have already passed one zero o'clock and moved to the next day.

And if the time he arrived at the initial prison was exactly zero o'clock...

Then it shouldn't be long before he crosses a zero o'clock.

Jiang Ye was somewhat curious about whether crossing zero o'clock in this era would trigger any strange events.

However, when he traveled from the Inner Forest of the misty Forest of Oddities to the Outer Forest area, he quickly discovered—

At this time point, the number of Moon People players appearing in the Outer Forest area had significantly increased!

Based on this phenomenon, it wasn't hard to deduce that the current time was likely after 6 AM.

Between 6 AM and 12 PM was the fixed time for ordinary Moon People players to run instances in the Forest of Oddities to earn survival stones.

So, if it's past 6 AM now...

Then he might have already crossed a zero o'clock six hours ago.

Therefore, crossing zero o'clock in this era seemed to be uneventful...

Thinking this, another bold idea arose in Jiang Ye's mind.

This [Target Anchor] chip given by Li Si felt quite miraculous.

By anchoring a player through the chip, it was equivalent to forcibly locking onto that player.

Afterwards, using a skill on the [Target Anchor] chip at any moment was equivalent to using that skill on the locked player...

What Jiang Ye was thinking was—

If he target-anchored "Jiang Ye".

And multiple "Jiang Ye"s existed simultaneously in the world...

Would the [Target Anchor] effect still only act on the one specific "Jiang Ye" it locked onto?

Or would all "Jiang Ye"s be simultaneously affected by the anchoring effect?

The reason he had this thought was mainly because this fingernail-sized chip clearly recorded the appearance of the anchored target.

He didn't know if the anchoring effect was determined by "appearance" or if some kind of mark was placed on the anchored target's body.

If it was the latter, then Jiang Ye's bold idea was obviously wrong...

While pondering this, Jiang Ye suddenly felt again—

The pain that originally felt like his body was being squeezed into a paper-thin sheet...

Suddenly changed into a pain that felt like his body was being filled with something, swelling wildly.

It was as if Chen Cang had turned into a balloon, inflating madly, about to explode at any moment!

He took a deep breath, finding it really hard to endure such pain.

He was hesitating again, considering whether to retrieve the [Pain Sharing] mark from Chen Cang's body and end this pain?

Right at that moment, the [Target Anchor · Li Si] chip he had stored in his eyeball appeared in his field of vision, floating in the air.

That is to say...

The chip hadn't been taken out of his eyeball.

Yet, a square dark purple light screen suddenly appeared in his vision, displaying the image of Li Si recorded on the dark purple chip.

Jiang Ye was marveling at this sudden phenomenon.

Then he saw the Li Si in the dark purple light screen seem to come alive and speak to him.

Jiang Ye didn't directly hear a sound.

But, just like a Sun and Moon Person player receiving an instruction, a line of dark purple text appeared before his eyes:

[I have an asset in the Forest of Oddities. The blood pool and forest of flesh inside can help alleviate your pain.]

Clearly, Li Si also felt the shared pain becoming more intense.

He was probably worried that Jiang Ye would retrieve the [Pain Sharing] mark from Chen Cang, hence he sent this message.

After all, the [Pain Sharing] skill itself belonged to "Cheng Lin".

Not only could the marked player actively remove the mark at any time,

The skill user, "Cheng Lin", could also actively retrieve the mark.

Moreover, this retrieval could be done easily without needing to lock onto the target.

Li Si had probably seen that Jiang Ye had no intention of clinging to the protagonist.

So he might very well disregard the protagonist and directly retrieve the mark.

To soothe his pain, he sent this message.

Thinking this, the dark purple light screen in his vision directly began to guide him.

The so-called "asset" was actually an instance space.

When a player perfectly clears a Forest of Oddities instance, there is a chance to claim the instance space as their own.

Thus, the original instance space becomes an exclusive personal space.

However, generally, a player can only own one exclusive personal space.

Therefore, somewhat powerful strong players would choose more precious spaces to claim as their exclusive personal space.

This leads to a situation—

A certain instance space is perfectly cleared by a player.

But this player doesn't want to claim this low-value instance space as their personal exclusive space.

Then this instance space has a certain probability of being managed by the player as their "asset".

This concept of "asset" is actually somewhat similar to the board game "Monopoly".

It means the first person to perfectly clear the instance "assetizes" this instance.

Other players who want to enter this already "owned" instance need to pay a price.

For example, spending 1 Heavenly-grade survival stone, or directly consuming 1 day of time.

Of course, among Moon People players, very few would manage "assets" in the Forest of Oddities.

After all, the Forest of Oddities was vast, immensely vast.

The instances players could choose from were as numerous as the hairs on an ox.

It's like, free instances are everywhere, who would be so foolish as to play a paid instance?

Moreover, free instances mean they haven't been perfectly cleared.

Then, players have a chance to be the first to perfectly clear them, turning them into their personal exclusive instance or private "asset".

Therefore, while the existence of assets seems to allow players to make money,

In reality, other players mostly don't buy into it.

Furthermore, the security of private assets isn't as guaranteed as that of personal exclusive instances.

Personal exclusive instances belong to the individual permanently.

Private assets only nominally belong to a certain player.

But this "asset" is essentially still located within the Forest of Oddities.

Other players can see it, can barge in...

They can even... annihilate your "asset"!

After all, the "hair tree" that stands for an instance that has already been perfectly cleared can be cut down.

Although, rashly cutting down someone else's "hair tree" equals making an enemy for no reason, and one might accidentally provoke some powerful being...

So most players don't dare to easily destroy others' private assets.

But the number of Moon People players is as numerous as the hairs on an ox, and their turnover rate is fast.

Inevitably, some troublemakers appear who take pleasure in annihilating others' private assets.

Therefore, this "private asset" thing is something only the top-tier Moon People players would bother managing one or two.

As for Li Si, being someone who evolved from a Moon Person to a Sun Person...

There was no doubt that when he was still a Moon People player, he was obviously among the top echelon.

It was normal for him to have a few assets on hand.

Plus, he had previously revealed—

He had deliberately trained his ability to endure pain...

So, it wasn't surprising that his private asset contained something that could suppress pain.

Only...

Blood pool and forest of flesh?

The name itself sounded very dark-aligned.

Jiang Ye's current "Cheng Lin" clone wasn't essentially dark-aligned yet.

He wasn't very willing to let this clone be tainted by dark-aligned aura.

However...

Actually, it didn't matter.

After a brief thought, Jiang Ye followed the direction guided by Li Si in the dark purple light screen to find his so-called private asset.

And so, in the Primitive State of two mechanical eyeballs carrying a watch, his movement speed was extremely fast.

In the blink of an eye, following the guidance, he arrived before an utterly ordinary-looking hair tree.

When forcing entry, he was required to pay "10 days" of time.

Jiang Ye felt a bit of a sting.

After all, back in the initial prison, among the players who crossed over in the same batch as him, many had initial time of less than a day!

In one go, entering an instance required paying "10 days" of time upfront!

However, anyway, this clone had plenty of time.

Moreover, he could probably get Li Si to reimburse him later.

Or even...

If he got unhappy, he might directly annihilate this asset of Li Si's!

Jiang Ye also thought that since Li Si wasn't afraid of him forcibly annihilating his asset...

Then he probably wouldn't try to trick him.

So, he paid the 10 days of time and entered this instance space.

When the teleportation array appeared beneath his feet, he switched from the Primitive State of a Sun and Moon Person to the flesh-and-blood version of Cheng Lin.

Then, in the form of a Moon Person, he entered Li Si's asset space.

What met his eyes was a scene of hazy black mist.

The air was cold, damp, and permeated with a strong smell of blood.

Amidst the smell of blood, there seemed to be another smell mixed in... a burnt, scorched smell, as if something was charred?

This burnt, scorched smell, mixed with the strong smell of blood, wasn't very noticeable.

Jiang Ye's mechanical eyeball vision directly penetrated the eerie black mist, revealing a blood pool surrounded by dry bones.

Visually, it looked like rows upon rows of dense, fleshless Skulls, sitting around the blood pool with their feet soaking in it.

At the very front of the blood pool stood a Skull as grand as a mountain, also in a sitting posture, with its feet immersed in the blood pool.

This giant Skull wore a creepy smile.

From its mouth, to be precise, from between its teeth, blood was continuously gushing out.

This giant Skull was like a small fountain, constantly dripping blood from its mouth, nourishing the blood pool.

And the water in the blood pool looked red, so red it appeared black, inexplicably eerie!

Of course, Jiang Ye was no longer the Newbie he once was.

Such eerie scenes hardly stirred any emotional fluctuation in him.

What truly surprised him was...

In that red-turning-black blood pool water, two people were already soaking!

To be precise, two Youths!

And the appearance of one of those Youths...

Looked quite familiar?!

Because the black mist obstructed vision.

So Jiang Ye, with his mechanical eyeballs, could see the two Youths in the blood pool.

But the two Youths didn't seem to have noticed him.

The Youth who looked very much like He Yuliang, while smearing the blood pool water on himself, sighed:

"As expected... without the pure black version body, this thing can't be absorbed."

Pure black version body?!

Jiang Ye was startled upon hearing this!

A pure black body could absorb this blood pool?

The key was, why would words like "pure black body" come out of He Yuliang's mouth?

Could it be...

He had seen a pure black body?!

And isn't the pure black body precisely Jiang Ye's mutated clone?!

Moreover, Jiang Ye had two pure black version mutated clones!

Apart from his main body, what he was eagerly wanting to understand was the situation of those two pure black mutated clones!

Thinking this, Jiang Ye almost wanted to directly pull He Yuliang up and ask him where he had seen the pure black body.

But soon, he thought again...

Right now, he was Cheng Lin.

He Yuliang didn't know him at all.

And...

This era was too bizarre.

This Youth who looked exactly like He Yuliang might not necessarily be the real He Yuliang.

While pondering this in his heart...

He saw the Youth beside He Yuliang, as if having also gone through a period of contemplation, speak with a hesitant look in his eyes:

"Without a pure black body, you can't absorb the blood pool here... but your SSS-grade [Luck] still brought you here."

Huh??

He Yuliang possesses SSS-grade [Luck]??

Did he experience the [Salvation Domain]??

So is he a Sun and Moon Person?

Not necessarily...

Perhaps he obtained the SSS-grade Luck effect through other means?

Or perhaps...

His SSS-grade Luck isn't a BUFF, but a... talent?

While Jiang Ye was shocked and suspicious, he heard He Yuliang speak again:

"I don't know... maybe it's because we can still encounter Cheng Lin here."

Jiang Ye: Huh???

Encounter who??

Wait??

What's going on?

Have I been exposed??

Could it be that these two guys are pretending not to see me, but have actually seen me, deliberately saying these things to lure me out??