“That’s not a hard problem to solve.” The administrator flipped his hand and pulled out a few talismans. “I can use these to seal you into mini wooden dolls.”

As he spoke, he also took out a doll with a talisman stuck to it and showed it to Li Ku.

“Like this, you’ll be portable for me to carry, and you can follow me when I use the [Carefree Dao Stone].”

The words were shameless enough to make Yang Wenchao’s eyelid twitch slightly. He silently wondered if this administrator was treating Li Ku like an idiot.

Of course, Li Ku wasn’t stupid. There was no way he would accept such a passive arrangement.

However, he didn’t refuse outright either. Instead, he turned the tables and said:

“How about you give me the talisman instead? I’ll seal you all up and carry you around?”

Hearing this, the administrator didn’t seem surprised at all.

He showed no trace of anger whatsoever. Instead, he simply smiled and said, “Alright.”

With that, he waved his hand, and a talisman materialized out of thin air right at the center of Li Ku’s forehead.

In that instant, Yang Wenchao and Wan Xin’s pupils constricted.

Because they knew—

That talisman had already been activated!

The next second, Li Ku would turn into a mini wooden doll!

But then...

The next scene was completely unexpected.

Li Ku wasn’t frozen at all. Instead, he casually snatched the talisman into his palm and even frowned at the administrator, asking:

“Only one? Are you planning to take just me to explore the underground palace?”

The administrator watched as he grabbed the talisman into his palm, his pupils sharply contracting.

After a moment of silence, his expression stiffened slightly, but he maintained his composure and said, “Oh right, that was my oversight. There’s only one talisman... Let’s try a different method.”

He seemed to be hinting that he wanted the talisman back from Li Ku.

But Li Ku wasn’t stupid.

He could tell that the old man’s thrown talisman had likely been meant to be used on him.

It just didn’t work for some reason.

Li Ku’s eyes, filled with cracks, calmly gazed at the talisman in his hand.

According to the administrator, this talisman could turn a person into a mini wooden doll...

That was another type of “physical body modification” item!

And the reason it didn’t work on him might be...

Li Ku casually glanced at the cracks on his body.

His current physical body might be somewhat special.

Perhaps that was why some “physical body modification” items couldn’t be used on him?

Thinking this over, he didn’t bother arguing with the administrator and simply stored the talisman in his space—basically not intending to return it.

The administrator’s face shifted through a series of expressions, but in the end, he didn’t say much more.

He flipped his hand and produced a few blank cards.

Taking a deep breath, he handed one to each person present and explained:

“These are [Portable Apartment Cards], containing a built-in portable apartment space.”

“Once inside the portable apartment space, it’s just like entering a normal apartment room. You can easily exit the space just by opening the door.”

“If you don’t believe me...” The administrator looked at Yang Wenchao. “He can use a recording orb to give you a demonstration.”

Li Ku stared at the blank card in his hand, paused for a moment, and asked, “Is this another broken item like the [Time-Limited Instant Kill Card]?”

The administrator nodded. “Yes, it should be considered a broken item.”

“The white portable apartment has a very basic interior space. Calling it an apartment, it’s comparable to the bottom-level honeycomb rooms in the Doomsday Apartment.”

“Once you’re inside, you’ll probably only have a few square meters of living space.”

“Also, this space only has a 2-hour usage limit.”

“If the cumulative usage exceeds 2 hours, the card will expire.”

“The ones I’m giving you are all new cards, each with 2 hours of time.”

“In a bit, after you enter the Portable Apartment Card, I’ll use the [Carefree Dao Stone] with the cards, and naturally, I’ll bring you all to the underground palace location marked by the [Carefree Dao Stone].”

“Of course, the portable apartment essentially belongs to the player using the card, so once you’re inside, you can easily leave the apartment at your own will.”

With that, the administrator gave Yang Wenchao a meaningful glance.

Yang Wenchao didn’t say anything. He just held the recording orb and used the blank card in his hand.

In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from where he stood.

Meanwhile, the recording orb in the administrator’s hand reflected his current scene—

Just as the administrator had said, it was a very small hexagonal space, completely empty with no furniture.

It was only slightly bigger than the bottom-level honeycomb rooms in the Doomsday Apartment.

On the room’s door, a countdown timer starting at 2 hours was displayed.

Yang Wenchao specifically used the recording orb to capture the entire room’s appearance before dragging the orb with him and pushing the door open.

And as he pushed the door, sure enough, his figure reappeared in the spot where he had vanished.

The time on the blank card also stopped counting down.

It seemed the card’s effect was consistent with the administrator’s explanation.

Jiang Ye stared at the white card in his hand and couldn’t help asking, “Does this Portable Apartment Card come in higher tiers with more luxurious interior spaces?”

The administrator’s expression shifted slightly, but he only said, “I only obtained these cards by luck. Please return them to me after we’re done.”

Jiang Ye didn’t mind returning them, but he silently thought—this administrator really had a lot of good stuff!

If he could actually get a clone like that...

He’d probably hit the jackpot in no time, right?

Guan Ce also had quite a few good things, but there was no time to sort through them now.

Jiang Ye couldn’t help asking the administrator again, “Is our privacy guaranteed inside the portable apartment? Can you see what we’re doing in there?”

The administrator shook his head. “Of course not.”

“The portable apartment isn’t under my jurisdiction.”

“Of course, if the full version of the [Portable Apartment] is bound to an owner, then the full version’s owner might be able to see what’s happening in every portable apartment.”

“But...”

The administrator deliberately paused and said meaningfully, “It’s said that there’s a group of big shots even more powerful than the apartment boss. They don’t operate in the Doomsday Apartment but live long-term in the mist.”

“Those mysterious strong players are said to use [Portable Apartments].”

“Since those top-tier strong players live in large numbers in portable apartments, the full version of the [Portable Apartment] most likely has no owner.”

“Even if it does, the owner can only be the Nomadic Merchant.”

The administrator said it as if it were common sense, but Li Ku’s heart was shaken.

Jiang Ye had asked the question out of concern about exposing secrets inside the portable apartment.

But the administrator’s answer seemed to reveal...

That for those top-tier mysterious strong players, they didn’t mind exposing secrets to the Nomadic Merchant?

Or rather, exposing secrets to the Nomadic Merchant wasn’t considered exposing secrets at all?

It was at this moment that Li Ku realized...

He might have been underestimating that mysterious Nomadic Merchant all along?

The administrator didn’t bother explaining why the full version of the [Portable Apartment] could only belong to the Nomadic Merchant. Instead, he urged again:

“If there are no more questions, we should get moving, right?”

Li Ku nodded but emphasized, “I need to experience the effect of this [Portable Apartment] myself first.”

The administrator nodded. “Alright.”

So, the players who had received the [Portable Apartment Cards] all took turns experiencing the portable apartment.

The results were pretty much the same as what Yang Wenchao had shown with the recording orb.

There was even something the orb couldn’t show—

Once they entered the portable apartment, they became its owner.

They could directly see the view outside the room’s door.

Although the viewable field was limited, it meant they weren’t trapped in a completely sealed room.

Instead, they had a clear perception of the outside situation.

Overall, the portable apartment was indeed a good item.

After trying it out, Li Ku was mostly satisfied.

Of course, he still suspected the administrator might deliberately toss their Portable Apartment Cards into some dangerous space.

But if that were the case, a straightforward trap would actually be easier to handle than all the scheming.

Li Ku sent a few more messages to Jiang Ye, finalizing their plan.

And so, after everything was settled...

Their group at the burial ground was roughly divided into three teams—

The administrator, “Guan Ce,” Li Hongbin, and Gong Cheng were one team, with the administrator in charge.

Li Ku, “Ji Zixuan,” and Jiang Ye were one team, with Li Ku leading.

Yang Wenchao and Wan Xin were one team, naturally with Yang Wenchao in charge.

A total of eight people, leaving Jiang Ye at the burial ground to provide support.

The administrator said that if something went wrong, he would use his revival slot to resurrect in the resurrection coffin.

At that point, he would send Jiang Ye a signal, and Jiang Ye would be responsible for digging up and opening the coffin at the burial ground.

Originally, the administrator hadn’t planned to give this task to Jiang Ye.

But Jiang Ye decided to stay at the burial ground and not join their underground palace exploration, so he took the task on himself.

The administrator didn’t say much. After a brief instruction, he gave Jiang Ye a warning:

“Don’t think that if you don’t open the coffin for me, I’ll be trapped inside the resurrection coffin forever.”

“After a player stays in the resurrection coffin long enough, there’s another way to escape.”

“So, I advise you not to try anything clever.”

Jiang Ye nodded nonchalantly.

His reason for staying at the burial ground wasn’t to screw the administrator over with the coffin.

It was to take on the coffin-opening task, which would get him a mini bone ash box.

That was perfect for him to study the bone ash box.

Besides, if necessary...

His clone outside the underground palace could use [Clone Swapping] with Guan Ce and Ji Zixuan.

So essentially, the clone left outside the underground palace was also a spatial anchor Jiang Ye had prepared for himself.

Of course, unless absolutely necessary, he didn’t plan to abuse [Clone Swapping], so as not to accidentally expose something.

There was no help for it—without memories, caution was the better part of valor.

Once everything was arranged, the seven players besides Jiang Ye and the administrator all entered their portable apartments.

Then the administrator collected the seven Portable Apartment Cards with people inside, held the [Carefree Dao Stone], and vanished from the spot.

Jiang Ye, left behind in the underground burial ground, simultaneously sensed the perspectives of three clones.

Well, it was more like two perspectives.

First was the perspective of the burial ground Jiang Ye.

Second was the perspective of Guan Ce and Ji Zixuan’s clones inside the portable apartment.

On top of that...

He could also sense the situation of Guan Ce and Ji Zixuan’s clones through the connection between them.

In an instant, those two clones appeared at the location where the administrator had been.

Through the peepholes in their portable apartments, Guan Ce and Ji Zixuan quickly saw what was “outside the door”—

These Portable Apartment Cards were probably being held in the administrator’s palm.

They saw a dim, shadowy space filled with what seemed like endless grave mounds.

This environment...

It wasn’t the underground palace stairway Jiang Ye and Li Ku had explored at all!

It was a place similar to the underground burial ground but much larger!

So...

Could this be the lowest level of some stairway branch—the “White Light World”?

If so, were they all turned into stick figures now, just like those two cannon fodder from before?

Ji Zixuan’s clone focused his red eyes, trying to make out something in this space.

But the moment he concentrated, everything went black, and a sharp pain shot through his brain!

It seemed... like a lack of spirit attribute?

But Jiang Ye had a faint feeling it might not be a lack of spirit attribute. Instead, the red-eye vision had simply captured a void of blackness.

In other words, his “everything went black” was a visual effect!

Just as he was about to analyze further, he saw Li Ku, Yang Wenchao, and the others appear one after another in the peephole perspective.

Clearly, they had all exited the portable apartments.

Jiang Ye didn’t want to stand out, so Guan Ce and Ji Zixuan’s clones quickly pushed open their doors and left the portable apartments as well.

The administrator indeed collected all their [Portable Apartment Cards] and then stared at the surrounding environment, saying in a low voice:

“We’ve arrived. This is the third location anchor marked by the [Carefree Dao Stone].”

Li Ku immediately scanned the environment, also catching Yang Wenchao’s expression change.

He asked directly, “What? Is this... the hidden space you and Wan Xin explored using that ‘Mechanical Undead State’?”

Yang Wenchao’s gaze swept across all four directions before he frowned and said, “It’s very similar, but not quite the same.”

“That terrifying cross-shaped tombstone isn’t here. There isn’t even a tombstone zone—just endless grave mounds...”

“It’s like the limited burial mound area in the underground burial ground got turned into an infinite version here?”

At that, Yang Wenchao seemed to think of something and proactively asked the administrator:

“Have you explored this place? Does it have boundaries?”

This seemingly simple question sent a jolt through the hearts of Li Ku and the others who had seen the “Paper World” images.

They had personally seen that when those “stick figures” explored the paper world, the paper’s area extended outward as they explored!

If the administrator couldn’t find a boundary...

Then this situation might be exactly like the “Paper World” those two cannon fodder had fallen into!

That is, the edges of this grave mound world would extend outward as they explored!

Thinking this, Li Ku placed great importance on the administrator’s answer.

But what surprised him was—

After thinking briefly, the administrator flipped his hand and produced an antique compass.

The compass needle spun for a moment before pointing in one direction.

The administrator looked at that direction and said, “I only explored in this direction.”

“All other directions are forbidden from exploration.”

“Forbidden from exploration?” Wan Xin blurted out. “Is that a privilege rule? Or a direct order from someone?”