Fortunately, the person had already fallen unconscious, otherwise...

Just watching this scene made Jiang Ye's scalp tingle.

He held the large clump of hair that came with the scalp in his hand.

His gaze then fell on the bald patch on top of the head.

This time, the situation was finally different from Tao Sheng's case—

After Tao Sheng's scalp was injured, it automatically healed shortly after.

However, this "mutated body" belonging to Yu Mo had a large chunk of scalp torn off, yet it showed no signs of healing for a long time.

Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then tore off another large piece.

The result was still no healing.

He suddenly remembered something—

When he previously "gave Tao Sheng a haircut," he had also used a chainsaw to cut Tao Sheng's scalp.

At that time, it seemed there was no healing either.

His mind raced as his eyes fell on the hair.

Could it be that...

Areas with hair don't heal?

Only hairless areas trigger the healing effect?

Since he didn't particularly care about Yu Mo's body anyway, he decided to cut the Gordian knot and quickly "shaved Yu Mo's head" with efficient movements.

Of course, it was the kind of shaving that took large chunks of scalp with it...

Just like that, all of Yu Mo's hair was quickly removed along with the scalp.

The entire crown became pitted and uneven, as if gnawed by rats...

In some deeply gouged areas, the skull was exposed.

Unfortunately, in the [Snowflake Vision] state, Jiang Ye couldn't see any of this.

The entire "head-shaving" process relied entirely on touch.

The exposed skull was also detected through touch.

On the skull, he could vaguely feel cracks through touch.

But in his vision, he couldn't distinguish any red color at all.

So he continued scraping the scalp with his knife while simultaneously feeling around the areas where red had appeared on Tao Sheng's skull.

Through this process, he came to a realization—

The Formation Master wasn't actually present in the Forbidden Zone.

He was merely transmitting his voice through the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation Disk.

And he should be able to control the formation disk remotely.

This meant that no matter how ingenious the Formation Master's methods were, within this Forbidden Zone, he could only use the abilities of the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation.

That is, he could only randomly teleport Jiang Ye, but couldn't do anything else.

Of course, this was the case within the Forbidden Zone.

Outside the Forbidden Zone, things might be different.

While feeling the skull, Jiang Ye realized—

His clones within the Forbidden Zone were actually the safe ones.

After all, these clones wouldn't melt away in the light like Xu Gou and the others.

And due to the Forbidden Zone's special effects, where everyone became ordinary people, he wouldn't encounter overwhelmingly powerful enemies.

In comparison, the clones outside the Forbidden Zone were more likely to be targeted by the Formation Master.

If he had a chance to get out, it would be best to have his external clones hide separately for a while to lay low.

The Reincarnation Graveyard, the Mirror Palace secret realm, Salvation's headquarters, within the mist...

All seemed like good places to lay low now.

But perhaps he didn't need his Forbidden Zone clones to send messages.

The external clones should sense danger and find ways to protect themselves.

Just as he was thinking this...

Jiang Ye's fingers exploring the skull suddenly felt a sharp pain.

It wasn't intense pain, just a slight sensation like a mosquito bite.

Accompanying this slight sensation, a bloody color suddenly spread across the black-and-white snow screen in his vision.

The blood color rapidly flowed, quickly occupying his entire field of vision.

Turning his original [Snowflake Vision] completely crimson!

Along with this phenomenon, Jiang Ye could clearly smell blood with each breath.

Simultaneously, he heard exclamations from Xu Gou and the others.

It seemed something had happened there too.

But Jiang Ye couldn't attend to them.

He quickly withdrew his "mosquito-bitten" fingertip, and upon simple examination, felt something slippery.

Bringing it to his nose, it wasn't hard to deduce—

His fingertip was bleeding!

And it was...

Bleeding uncontrollably!

As if some invisible presence was sucking his blood!

What was it?

Was it... the Blood Realm Worm?!

Jiang Ye rubbed the bitten finger more carefully, trying to feel if the Blood Realm Worm was really attached to his fingertip sucking his blood.

Unfortunately, the continuously gushing blood made his fingertip completely slippery, making it impossible to confirm whether such a small Blood Realm Worm was on his hand.

To be honest, even without the blood affecting his touch, Jiang Ye wasn't sure if his insensitive fingers could actually detect the presence of the Blood Realm Worm through touch...

He wasn't the freaking Princess and the Pea!

But this uncontrollable bleeding was most likely related to the Blood Realm Worm!

Jiang Ye had just considered whether he should use his bleeding to "contaminate" the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation Disk.

But in the next moment, he felt it again—

That terrifying sensation of having his soul sucked out, just like when the Little Red Snake had drained his blood!

And he had a premonition that this situation would be similar to last time—

His other clones must be experiencing this astonishing shared fear of life and death!

However, having experienced it before, his other clones should be calmer mentally.

After all, it was just psychological fear—no physical pain or damage.

Only...

The Jiang Ye formed from the fusion of 3 SSS-grade light clones, who was currently bleeding continuously, had additional panic.

Damn it, if he couldn't stop the bleeding quickly...

Wouldn't his precious clone formed from 3 SSS-grade light clones soon turn into a desiccated corpse too?!

And in this environment outside the Formless Domain, could this desiccated corpse still transform into a Formless Leaf?

Regardless of whether it could or not, Jiang Ye didn't want to die!

He currently only had these 2 clones in this Forbidden Zone.

One had been dissected by himself, with a completely bald head, condition unknown, unable to move.

The other was having its blood frantically sucked...

No!

He needed to preserve another freely movable clone!

Thinking this, Jiang Ye attempted to undo the fusion of this clone.

But to his astonishment...

In this state of frantic blood-sucking, he couldn't undo the clone fusion at all!

What the hell?!

As Jiang Ye tried to do something else, he discovered that this blood-drained clone had already become completely immobile!

You've got to be kidding me?!

I was just thinking the Formation Master couldn't do anything to my Forbidden Zone clones...

And now I've managed to get myself killed?!

Had he really been too bold and overplayed his hand?

But when he saw the Blood Realm Worm released by the shadow phantom before, it didn't suck blood?

Was it because his current body wasn't mutated, so it was sucking his blood?

He was completely numb...

Jiang Ye wasn't feeling too good overall.

But there was no time for regret.

This blood-drained body quickly became immobile, and its consciousness gradually blurred...

At this moment, there was no longer any of Jiang Ye's consciousness in this area of the Forbidden Zone marked by the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation.

One clone, drained of blood into a desiccated corpse...

The other clone, scalped...

Just, together, dying quite elegantly...

However!

Just as Jiang Ye's consciousness in this Forbidden Zone was about to completely disappear.

Abruptly, another stream of Jiang Ye's consciousness burst in!

It was a consciousness that had been lost contact with but now reunited!

The Jiang Ye about to completely turn into a desiccated corpse keenly detected this.

That consciousness, like a final rally before death, cleared for a moment, synchronizing all information since losing contact to the other clone...

Of course, being in a life-and-death situation.

This dying clone consciousness naturally had no time to identify which clone this intruding one was, what it had experienced, or how it had also entered this Forbidden Zone...

The precious clone formed from 3 SSS-grade light clones just like that became a desiccated corpse, lying stiffly on the ground.

At least, although his actions were suicidal, he managed to pass on the message.

However, what this already-dead Jiang Ye clone never knew was—

The clone that received his shared consciousness wasn't anyone else.

But precisely that one—the mutated clone residing within the shadow phantom!

Essentially, it wasn't that this mutated clone actively came.

Because this clone had no ability to move independently.

He was like a fetus in its mother's womb, only moving according to the mother's movements.

It was the shadow phantom's active approach that allowed him to enter this Forbidden Zone.

And the shadow phantom happened to approach at this exact time...

Making Jiang Ye increasingly certain—

The thing sucking his blood was indeed the Blood Realm Worm!

However, Jiang Ye wasn't too discouraged.

Because he realized—

Having his blood drained by the shadow phantom's Blood Realm Worm seemed to benefit him too.

That mutated clone parasitizing within the shadow phantom originally couldn't have such clear consciousness.

It was roughly around the time the Blood Realm Worm drained Jiang Ye's blood.

That the mutated clone within the shadow phantom gradually gained clearer consciousness, allowing it to synchronize with the information shared by the light clone.

This feeling was simply like a form of inheritance.

The death of the light clone just happened to awaken the mutated clone's consciousness...

However, the shadow phantom seemed unaware of all this.

The mutated clone had been in a daze before, completely unaware of what the shadow phantom had experienced.

Now, awakened by the light clone's sacrifice, he could only sense that this guy seemed to be randomly rushing around in the Forbidden Zone, probably searching for something.

If he wasn't mistaken, the shadow phantom should have sensed the Blood Realm Worm's presence and was looking for the one that had drained Jiang Ye's blood.

But the area where that Blood Realm Worm was located should be affected by the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation.

Every time the shadow phantom approached, he was quickly randomly teleported away.

Just like when previous players tried to enter the Forbidden Zone but were repeatedly teleported away, unable to enter.

After several attempts, the shadow phantom seemed to realize this too, stopping his random rushing like a headless fly and settling in one place.

As he stopped, the mutated Jiang Ye within him quickly organized the information inherited from the light clone.

Learning about the light clone's speculation about the Forbidden Zone's effects and the existence of "Beyond the Heavens," he was greatly shocked.

But he had already been shocked by these emotions before.

This Jiang Ye naturally quickly accepted these speculations, calming his emotions.

Soon he realized—

This shadow phantom was quite unusual within the Forbidden Zone!

People like Xu Gou and others were quite uncomfortable in the Forbidden Zone, as if they might melt in the light at any moment.

But the shadow phantom didn't seem to have such feelings at all.

And Jiang Ye could see—

The shadow phantom moved very quickly, completely unlike an "ordinary person"!

This made Jiang Ye can't help but suspect...

Could it be... that the "special" in special permission status referred to this?!

Or was it only the shadow phantom who was like this?

Since this mutated clone of Jiang Ye couldn't move anyway, he contemplated while quietly awaiting the shadow phantom's methods.

This guy had clearly realized the existence of the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation.

Now that he had stopped, did he have some way to counter it?

Yes, the shadow phantom had thought of a way to deal with it.

That was—

To remove this mutated Jiang Ye from his body!

As Tao Sheng had previously revealed to Xiao Bai, the shadow phantom's ethereal body was extremely special.

He was basically in an un-targetable state.

This state almost made him invincible.

After all, many, many methods couldn't affect him.

But of course he had weaknesses too.

This weakness lay in—

His body could nurture monsters!

Nurturing monsters could make him stronger.

He could use those monsters' Glyph Pattern Abilities.

Meanwhile, through the monsters, he could interact with the outside world.

But these monsters that gave him powerful means also became his weaknesses.

For example, the Guiwen Master could easily strip away his Glyph Pattern Abilities.

Mainly, he could feel it himself—

A body nurturing monsters was ultimately different from his monster-free ethereal body.

His body without monsters could go almost anywhere.

Formations like the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation supposedly shouldn't be able to affect him.

So, the shadow phantom attributed the formation's effects to Jiang Ye.

As long as he discarded Jiang Ye, he should become un-targetable by the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation, allowing him to quickly retrieve the Blood Realm Worm...

However, this incompletely mutated Jiang Ye was, after all, entrusted to him by the Guiwen Master.

And the monsters the shadow phantom originally nurtured had all been taken by the Guiwen Master.

If he really removed Jiang Ye from his body, it would mean turning against the Guiwen Master.

Not only would he not get back his carefully nurtured monsters, but he would also make enemies of the Guiwen Master and other powerful players...

The shadow phantom stopping here now was actually uncertain whether to go this far for that mutated Blood Realm Worm.

But he didn't hesitate for long.

After all...

He was currently in the Forbidden Zone!

Before, he didn't understand, thinking that if he fell into the Forbidden Zone, he would meet a miserable end with little chance of survival.

But actually being here, he discovered he had advantages here!

This un-targetable shadow phantom body didn't suffer like other semi-mutated Defender players.

Although his vision was affected, he wasn't in life danger and could still move freely within the Forbidden Zone!

It was even quite likely that the "Forbidden Zone opportunity" the old woman had grandly promised might ultimately fall into his hands!

These personal experiences in the Forbidden Zone ultimately gave the shadow phantom considerable confidence.

So what if he made an enemy of the Guiwen Master?

The Guiwen Master in this Forbidden Zone might not fare as well as him!

Thinking this, the shadow phantom's giant hand suddenly reached into his body, grabbing the pure black mutated Jiang Ye.

The now-conscious mutated Jiang Ye: ???

Brother, what are you doing??