"Li Ku, stop for a moment, and everyone behind—stop…"

The administrator immediately took a stern tone to handle the sudden situation, but he only spoke halfway before turning and discovering—

There was no one following behind at all!

They seemed to have vanished into thin air all of a sudden!

Li Ku noticed the change as well.

In an instant, black lines shot from the fissures in his body and wrapped around the administrator's neck.

The administrator instinctively assumed that Li Ku’s action had caused the disappearance of the people behind them…

Yet the black lines coiling his neck did not constrict with force.

Instead Li Ku’s questioning voice was razor-sharp: "What’s going on?"

"Weren’t they right behind you? How could they suddenly disappear?"

The reaction—

The administrator realized the situation, swallowed his anger, furrowed his brow, and clarified:

"It wasn't me! I don’t know why they suddenly disappeared either!"

"Even the compass needle shifting—when I explored before, I never encountered something like this!"

As he spoke, a thought struck him and he hastily analyzed:

"I suspect… their disappearance might be related to the compass needle's change!"

"Before the compass changed, they were all following right behind me."

"When the compass malfunctioned, they vanished…"

"I suspect the space in this burial ground might, like the underground palace stairs, contain seams of cross-domain 'space.'"

"However, these seams might be invisible to our naked eyes."

"The recent compass anomaly might have been a sign of some spatial change."

"For example… perhaps at the moment the compass shifted, the space we were in was 'warped,' causing the compass needle to move. We stepped into the warped new space, while they remained in the old space?"

That explanation did have a certain plausibility.

But Li Ku did not fully trust the administrator.

He stared closely into the old man’s eyes and could detect no clear sign of lying.

After a moment of silence, he frowned and asked, "If we retreat now…"

He didn't need to finish the sentence.

The administrator understood what he meant and also frowned: "Directly retreating is probably not possible."

"The compass needle's direction changed, and the space we occupy changed too. If we simply move backward, we would likely only move to the rear of this 'new space.'"

"And how should we retreat? Retrace the path we just took? Or go opposite the direction the needle points?"

"Neither of those retreat methods seems wise."

Li Ku inhaled barely noticeably, his tone calm and indifferent: "So you mean…"

The administrator’s implication had already become obvious:

"This compass, when in my hands, never malfunctioned."

"Now that it’s fallen into your hands and such an anomaly appears…"

"I suspect maybe you can use it to lead us toward the true secret of this space."

"Perhaps only by uncovering the true secret of this space can we hope to recover those who went missing."

He paused briefly, then advised Li Ku: "Those people who disappeared aren’t simple folk themselves; you probably don’t need to worry about them too much."

Li Ku looked at the compass in his hand and was silent for a moment.

After a long while, he finally turned to follow the compass's guidance:

"You mean, let me continue moving in the direction the compass indicates…"

"Then—stick close."

Saying that, Li Ku stepped forward in the new direction.

The black lines wrapped around the administrator’s neck, however, did not retract.

The administrator’s heart skipped a beat, but he said nothing further and quickly followed.

This time he almost pressed himself up against Li Ku’s back, as if terrified of getting lost.

It seemed he did not want to be cut off from Li Ku like those behind them.

Yet after Li Ku walked less than three meters in the new direction, he suddenly stopped.

The administrator was alarmed: "What? The compass changed again?"

But when he peered, the compass had not moved—the needle still pointed to the new three o'clock direction.

The administrator, with sharp senses, quickly realized—

"It’s not the compass, it’s the grave mounds in this new space…"

Almost as he spoke, the nearby visible expanse of grave mounds began to make strange noises.

Soil atop the mounds slid suspiciously.

As if…

Something was trying to crawl out from those graves!

This…

"The new space formed after the needle turned really is different from the path I walked before!"

The administrator sounded both excited and wary, instantly switching into a guarded combat posture.

His words also implied he had never encountered such a situation previously.

With several booming noises, creatures indeed crawled out of those restless mounds!

What shocked both the administrator and Li Ku was that—

Those "creatures" were all "Jiang Ye"!

They all looked like Jiang Ye, but their eyes had been gouged out; they appeared as empty, soulless puppets!

Both the administrator and Li Ku were alarmed.

Li Ku reflexively used the Detection Technique on those puppet Jiang Yes, but could detect nothing.

Instead, those puppet Jiang Yes, as if they could see them, surged toward the two of them with troubling coordination.

Li Ku's voice tightened as he blurted toward the rear: "What is this? These things… we—"

He spoke in rapid succession but was forced to unleash the black lines from his fissures to block because the puppet attack came so fiercely.

Yes—block.

Li Ku did not intend to directly kill them.

He wanted to ask the administrator what to do.

Should they fight? Or was there some other way to counter this?

But he only reached halfway through his sentence when he sensed something wrong.

First, the black lines he shot out, when they wound around those puppet Jiang Yes, suddenly lost control!

One by one the black lines wrapped around the puppets.

But instead of choking them, the lines ceased to obey Li Ku the instant they bound each puppet!

This bizarre situation greatly startled Li Ku!

As he tried other methods, he saw that the administrator behind him could not withstand the puppet Jiang Yes’ assault!

One puppet Jiang Ye’s hand easily thrust into the administrator’s back!

That hand seemed entirely normal; the nails were not particularly long.

Yet in front of that hand, the administrator’s back split open like soft tofu!

Moreover…

After the finger plunged into his back, the administrator did not scream.

His eyes immediately went vacant—lifeless!

That state…

Was very similar to the earlier blanking of Guan Ce!

Only Guan Ce’s blanking had not altered his physical body much.

This administrator, however, was instantly frozen into an ice sculpture!

The next second the ice statue shattered!

The shattered ice chips quickly turned into vapor and dissipated into the air!

Just like that—one casual strike and the administrator was killed in an instant!

More terrifyingly—

Before Li Ku could use any offensive measures, he inexplicably felt a chill travel along the black lines he had released, up into his own body!

He had no time to react—his entire body froze into an ice sculpture as well!

In that moment, Li Ku felt the hairs on his arms stand up and his scalp tingle!

A strange fear unlike anything he had known—beyond the fear of death—overcame him!

Just when he thought he would shatter into ice fragments and vanish like the administrator…

He kept hearing cracking sounds.

The rays that had shot from the fissures in his body snapped off at the source.

It was as if the frozen black lines fell to the ground.

At the same time, Li Ku’s terror subsided.

He was immobilized and unable to do anything, but he had not died like the administrator.

Meanwhile,

Jiang Ye, who was stationed in the underground burial ground, received the administrator’s signal—

A small flower in the burial ground’s plant section suddenly combusted and vanished.

This was the administrator's signal to Jiang Ye to begin opening graves and coffins to release the revived administrator.

Jiang Ye did not break the agreement and immediately began to dig graves.

His hands worked continuously, while his consciousness focused on other clones—

At the very moment the administrator and Li Ku discovered the disappearance of the people behind them,

The players who had been following the administrator naturally experienced changes as well.

Jiang Ye didn’t know how the others fared.

But his two clones were in two very different states!

From the burial-ground Jiang Ye's perspective, the Guan Ce clone immediately went offline at that instant!

As if that clone had suddenly died!

The Ji Zixuan clone, though still sharing consciousness…

Also went black, as if falling into a void!

His five senses seemed sealed!

Unable to perceive anything—couldn't see, hear, or feel!

Jiang Ye's mind jolted; his first thought was—

Should he trade this useless Combat Power 5 Trash clone to replace the void-stricken Ji Zixuan clone?

If there was danger to life, sacrificing that worthless clone would obviously be the most cost-effective choice.

But he soon thought—

Why didn't Guan Ce clone's death trigger Clone Sacrifice?

So perhaps Guan Ce clone didn't die, but simply went offline?

One clone was offline, the other wasn't…

Could it be that the Ji Zixuan clone had something special?

For example… those red eyes?

Thinking this, Jiang Ye didn't rush to swap clones.

Instead he attempted to activate the red-eye vision with the Ji Zixuan clone.

This time his brain did not twinge painfully.

The view did not change; it remained pitch black.

However, his seemingly sealed five senses suddenly began to return!

He realized he seemed buried in soil, with earth compressing around him and a faint burnt smell.

At the same time, either because his body was being squeezed or because of the smell, he found it hard to breathe!

Could he be buried in a grave mound?

Because of the breathing difficulty, Jiang Ye did not delay and pried the soil above him with his hand, trying to crawl out of the mound.

Fortunately, although the soil felt oppressively heavy, it was not hard to dig.

A few shoves and Jiang Ye adjusted his position.

He then kept crawling toward the surface.

In under three minutes he actually crawled out!

Outside was indeed the grave-mound area.

But—

Almost the instant he emerged, a nearby figure slammed a heavy hammer down on his head like a whack-a-mole!

In that instant, Jiang Ye felt his skull split!

The burial-ground Jiang Ye also immediately lost shared consciousness with the Ji Zixuan clone.

That feeling—without doubt—was clone death!

What the hell? The Ji Zixuan clone died just like that? Clone Sacrifice didn't trigger?

What on earth was happening?!

A clone with red eyes had been so casually taken offline?

Something felt very, very wrong—nine-tenths wrong!

As Jiang Ye spiraled through his thoughts, he suddenly felt—

The dead Ji Zixuan clone seemingly revived and the shared consciousness returned!

The restored Ji Zixuan clone was equally bewildered—

He saw before him a sullen youth with astonished eyes.

This youth looked like he'd never slept a day in his life, sporting heavy dark circles under drooping eyelids and a listless expression…

Like a walking corpse!

But this sullen youth was clearly alive.

When he saw the revived "Ji Zixuan," his own eyes widened, as if witnessing something unbelievable.

Holding a hammer in his hand…

It wasn't hard to deduce that this youth had just smashed the head of the Ji Zixuan who crawled from the grave mound like a mole!

Jiang Ye was stupefied and instinctively prepared to attack the youth who had smashed his clone's head.

But the youth suddenly took a few steps back, then wavered, moving his withered lips as he said:

"Clone? You… what's wrong with you?"

Those words shocked Jiang Ye!

What did he mean?

The revived "Ji Zixuan" pulled back his attack and glared at the youth.

The youth hesitated a long time before testing out another question: "You… why—"

Clearly he was holding something back and didn’t speak plainly.

Jiang Ye’s mind raced and a thought hit him suddenly—

Could this sullen youth also be a clone?

Had the Ji Zixuan clone’s death and revival triggered a "clone kills clone" revival effect?

But why, despite the two clones being so close, was there no shared consciousness or even sense connection between them?

This was too strange. Jiang Ye instinctively felt suspicion.

After hesitating, the sullen youth finally asked a complete question:

"I clearly chose revival… why is there no resonance between you and me?"

"Are you… really me?"

Those oddly phrased sentences might confuse most people.

But Jiang Ye…

He stared at the sullen youth for a long moment and replied:

"I can't sense you either. What you just used on me was… kill and revive?"

Their exchange sounded like coded signals.

The sullen youth seemed to understand Jiang Ye, and added:

"I've never met you, but you should remember me…"

"I am… Zhou Qiming."

Zhou Qiming?

Jiang Ye did remember the name, but only in writing.

Li Ku had told him that Du Yuheng’s eyeball had picked up Jiang Ye’s mind-reading signals from both Guiwen and Zhou Qiming.

Jiang Ye had conjectured that Zhou Qiming might be another one of his clones.

But the youth before him…