However, while the person had escaped, Jiang Ye's joy and relief did not last long.

In fact, it could be said that before he could even steady his feet, he felt a pulling force!

His current small shadow phantom body could only extend its left hand to act.

Other parts were basically very difficult to move.

In this state, he was still unable to move autonomously.

Yet now, his entire body was actually following the pulling force felt by the shadow phantom body, floating towards the direction the shadow phantom originally intended to go.

This...???

Jiang Ye was shocked!

He remembered the shadow phantom said when bidding farewell to the Formation Master that he sensed something summoning him in the southeast direction...

When Jiang Ye heard it, he only thought it was an excuse the shadow phantom made to run away.

But now, he actually felt a pulling force that seemed to be "summoning" him!

Could it be that there really was some "opportunity" within this Forbidden Zone?

Opportunities were good, but at this moment, Jiang Ye felt no joy at all!

His current mutated body was still practically useless, with almost no ability to act!

Being pulled forward by this strange force now, he was practically like a drifting ghost!

An ordinary person facing an opportunity would probably face life-or-death danger!

In his current state, how could he dare hope for an opportunity?

The most frustrating thing was that there were no clones around to assist him.

This mutated clone also had no survival points and couldn't generate clones on its own...

Previously, Jiang Ye had always relied on multiple clones working together, making everything particularly convenient.

Even if an isolated clone lost contact, it was just a discarded clone that could be sacrificed at any time.

Now, with such a precious mutated clone operating alone, he increasingly appreciated the benefits of having clones.

After brief consideration, he quickly realized the fundamental cause of his current passive situation—

Essentially, it was because his main body, or "Clone Zero's" strength improvement hadn't kept up!

No matter how powerful a single clone was, it was still just one clone.

Even though abilities could be lent to other clones through Clone Fusion...

A single special environment causing loss of contact could drastically reduce a single clone's effectiveness!

Whereas the improvement of his "Clone Zero's" strength could affect all clones!

Back then, just one S-grade Soul Link directly allowed all clones to use clone skills.

Jiang Ye had reason to speculate—

If he mastered SS-grade or even SSS-grade skills...

Perhaps the Soul Link effect could penetrate through loss of contact states?

This idea wasn't baseless.

It was because he suddenly realized with shock—

His current mutated clone wrapped in the shadow phantom's outer layer could actually maintain contact with the shadow phantom over a very long distance! Ṙᴀ𝐍Ȯ𝖇Еş

Regarding the loss of contact effect for clones in Forbidden Zone environments, although Jiang Ye hadn't had time to experiment, he was certain that the clone disconnection effect here should be greater than in the [mist gas] environment.

In the [mist gas] environment, Jiang Ye would lose signal and couldn't sense clones once the distance exceeded 10 meters.

So in the Forbidden Zone environment, it should be at least beyond 10 meters before being unable to sense other clones.

But just now, the shadow phantom ran so far away...

Yet Jiang Ye still maintained contact with it and easily achieved [clone swapping]...

Could this situation be attributed to the special nature of the shadow phantom body?

Regardless of the reason, since it was possible, Jiang Ye naturally hoped—

That after further improvement, he could avoid the clone disconnection effect!

Unfortunately now...

If absolutely necessary, maybe he could hold out until [Clone Fusion] cooled down?

Thinking this, Jiang Ye continued "floating."

He could sense that the direction he was floating towards was getting further and further away from the shadow phantom.

So far that he suspected he might lose contact with the shadow phantom at any moment...

Jiang Ye suddenly heard a strange sound.

It sounded like the "tick" of a second hand moving on an old children's alarm clock.

Very light, but also very distinct.

It seemed to be one tick per second.

No!

Jiang Ye calmed his mind and listened carefully.

He clearly felt that the interval between each sound he heard was faster than the previous interval!

But when he compared intervals separated by several seconds—

The interval time he deliberately memorized didn't seem to have slowed down compared to the interval ten seconds later!

Moreover, if the interval between each second was truly getting faster...

Then with continuous accumulation of intervals, the "tick tick" sounds should become so fast they nearly overlapped!

But after listening for a while, Jiang Ye felt overall that the ticking didn't seem faster than when he first heard it?

This was strange!

He clearly felt the time interval for this second was faster than the previous second...

But the actual time hadn't changed!

Jiang Ye quickly suspected that his perception or memory was faulty!

The reason he felt this second's interval was shorter than the last...

Perhaps because the memory of the previous second had been stretched?

Yes!

Jiang Ye had heard a theory before—

As children, we always felt a day was plentiful, and a year was especially long.

But as we grow up, people feel that years pass by quickly.

Online, some attribute this different perception of time with age to changes in the era.

As children without internet, not addicted to phones, that's why time felt slow.

Grown up, with information explosion, too many new things scattered attention, consuming time, naturally making time feel fast.

Like a poem says—in the past, things were slow.

So, people's perception of time's speed is caused by technological development.

But besides this somewhat literary explanation...

Jiang Ye had actually seen another perspective from a scientific angle.

This scientific perspective first used money as an analogy for time—

Assuming you have 100 dollars, spending 50 would be painful.

But assuming you have 1 million dollars, spending 500 wouldn't hurt.

People's perception of things also has a "reference frame."

100 dollars and 1 million dollars are two different reference frames.

So, age 10 and age 40 are naturally different reference frames too.

Finally, Jiang Ye remembered, that blogger concluded—

People's perception of time and many patterns exhibits a logarithmic balance.

Logarithm, mathematical symbol log.

Galileo once said, give me time, space, and logarithms, and I can create a universe.

The mathematical principles involved, Jiang Ye couldn't be bothered to understand.

But some vivid examples were easy to understand—

The most intuitive was still the money example.

Assuming an environment without inflation or deflation, a person's daily wage is 100 dollars.

The first time he receives this 100, he would excitedly feel this amount is substantial;

The tenth time he receives 100, he would gradually calm down, become indifferent;

The hundredth time he receives 100, he would feel 100 dollars isn't enough to spend;

The thousandth time he receives 100, he would feel 100 is far too little...

Essentially, this 100 dollars hasn't changed.

But people's perception of 100 has changed.

And to balance this perception—

What this person needs is an increasing daily wage.

Numerical growth is needed just to achieve perceptual balance.

In other words, to make a person's perception of time no longer produce the illusion that a year felt long as a child but short as an adult.

Then it could actually be determined—

At age 1, one year is only 10 days;

At age 10, one year is 100 days;

At age 20, one year is 200 days...

If each year's time is in a "growing" state.

Then the perceived duration of one year can achieve "balance."

Of course, the world doesn't revolve around one person.

So in reality, it's impossible to specially set time for one individual.

Everyone can only share the real natural time.

But this Doomsday Apartment was clearly different from reality.

Here, there was no time of spring, summer, autumn, winter under natural laws.

Here, time could be defined.

However...

The time here was exactly the opposite of the perception balance setting.

To achieve perception balance, the first day in the apartment should be the shortest, with subsequent days gradually lengthening...

But the actual situation was that the first apartment day was the longest, with subsequent times becoming shorter...

Wait!

Thinking this far, Jiang Ye suddenly had a shocking realization—

Was the time of later apartment days truly shorter than previous days?

Could it be that it was only the players' perceived time that became shorter?

The discrepancy between perception and reality could naturally increase as the data itself grew larger.

When a single day under apartment time was sufficiently long...

The error in players' perception of each day would only be greater!

So perhaps, each day's time was identical, and only the players' perception was faulty?

No! That's not right!

Those who truly recorded time were the top-tier seniors of the entire Doomsday Apartment!

Not to mention the existence of the Moon Phase Clock...

If it was truly just a perceptual error, how could those seniors have all failed to notice?

Unless...

Besides perceptual error, there was also factual-level misdirection?

Jiang Ye thought of many things in that instant.

But soon, he gathered his thoughts.

After all, the issue of apartment time was still quite distant from him currently.

Right now, what he should truly focus on was the suddenly heard, perceptually faster but factually unchanged, second hand ticking sound...

This sound seemed deliberately enhanced with omnidirectional stereo sound effects;he couldn't tell exactly where it came from.

He only felt...

Tick tick...

This sound seemed heavier than ordinary clock hand movement sounds.

After all, the onomatopoeia for general clock sounds leaned more toward tick tock...

Just as he was thinking, Jiang Ye suddenly heard a "boom" reverberation in his mind!

This feeling was as if something had exploded inside his head!

It directly stunned him, leaving him dazed and distracted for quite a while!

When he regained his senses, he realized—

That "boom" sound sounded very much like a temple bell being struck.

Heavy and distant, yet seemingly carrying a power that penetrated the soul...

And this bell toll only sounded once.

Would it later appear sounding twice?

As Jiang Ye pondered this, he soon heard the tick tick of the clock hand again.

At first he didn't pay much attention.

But soon, he suddenly realized—

In his perception, he felt this ticking sound that occurred every second had stopped when the bell toll sounded, and later gradually became louder...

But was that the actual situation?

No!

If he wasn't mistaken...

The ticking didn't have a process of stopping or becoming softer/louder!

It was just that the overly strong bell toll drowned out the faint ticking.

And because of the strong contrast, after the bell toll ended, when he heard the ticking again, he had the illusion that the ticking had become louder!

Yes! This kind of perceptual illusion doesn't only exist for time.

Anytime senses are involved, discrepancies can appear!

The most widely known are generally visual discrepancies.

For example, in "Detective Conan," there were several consecutive episodes about visual perception issues.

So, human perception and the truth of the world constantly have discrepancies!

Like when sitting in a moving car, you feel the scenery outside is moving backward...

Like not long ago when the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation operated, Jiang Ye and others felt that Tao Sheng had disappeared.

Actually, it was all of them, along with the enclosed space formed by the black giant snake surrounding them, that had been teleported to a different location.

Like right now...

Jiang Ye always felt he was floating toward his "front."

Evidence for this was the pulling force he felt, seemingly summoning him forward.

Additionally, he sensed the shadow phantom was moving away from him.

The shadow phantom was dealing with the Formation Master, so it should naturally be stationary.

So with this distancing and the pulling force combined, Jiang Ye naturally felt he was moving forward.

But there was another possibility—

This pulling force indeed acted on him, but perhaps he wasn't moving?

Perhaps the shadow phantom, or even the entire area encompassed by the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation where the shadow phantom was, was being pushed further away as the Forbidden Zone spread?

While pondering, Jiang Ye felt somewhat anxious.

Because when he first heard the ticking, he was unprepared, so he didn't record how many ticks occurred before the first bell toll.

And because the first bell toll was too intense, he also missed how many ticks occurred between the first bell toll and when he noticed the ticking again...

He had a premonition that later there might be bell tolls of 2 sounds, 3 sounds.

If there was some pattern between them...

Then he might have already missed this pattern!

Hiss...

Wait!

If it really was as he speculated—

He himself wasn't moving, but the Soul Herding Array where the shadow phantom was located was spreading outward...

Then could the speed of this Forbidden Zone's spread be influenced by the ticking sound?

And the 1st bell toll might mean the Forbidden Zone's spread had broken through some kind of defense line?

Just as he thought this, he suddenly felt again—

The shadow phantom that was originally moving away from him at a constant speed...

The speed at which it was moving away was gradually slowing down!

Could it be that the Forbidden Zone's spread speed had slowed down?

But the ticking hadn't slowed down!

So, was the shadow phantom moving toward his direction?

Had it escaped from the Formation Master's hands again?

Or perhaps...

Jiang Ye suspected more that perhaps the Formation Master had perceived the changes in the Forbidden Zone!

Actually...

Jiang Ye guessed half right.

Indeed someone had perceived the nearly silent spread of the Forbidden Zone.

And there was a high probability that the Forbidden Zone's sudden crazy expansion was also brought about by this person!

When the shadow phantom was teleported back to the center of the Soul Herding Array, his whole person was stunned!

Again!

But this wasn't scientific!

His solitary shadow phantom body should be in an untargetable state!

Was this Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation so overpowered? It easily teleported him back again??!

So...

Was the Formation Master dissatisfied with his running away?

Finished, finished!

The shadow phantom thought about how just speaking with a slightly deeper meaning made the Formation Master immediately show him a displeased expression.

He felt that this time, having been teleported back, he probably wouldn't get any favorable outcome.

He focused intently, not daring to breathe heavily, could only rapidly operate his brain, thinking about how to protect himself...

Of course, he also held onto a sliver of hope.

Perhaps the Formation Master could only teleport him and still had no other means to kill him?

After all, this was a Forbidden Zone!

However, he thought until his brain felt tied in knots...

That Formation Master still didn't give him a quick resolution!

Just as the shadow phantom was becoming impatient and preparing to speak proactively—

He suddenly realized—

Could it be...

That the Formation Master actually didn't know he had returned?