The dead can... live.

If memory serves, the original phrasing should be—

The living can die, and the dead can live again.

Those who are born and cannot die, and those who die and cannot be reborn, are not subject to the extremes of feelings.

So...

Putting aside the original context of that line,

its meaning here is—

People who are alive can die.

People who are dead can be resurrected!

Does this...

Does this, to some extent, eliminate "death"?!

For a moment, Lin Dong recalled the question Li Si had asked him before this chaos—

Did Sisyphus ultimately eliminate death?

If he placed that question into the present situation...

Could it be understood that death in this world was erased by some absurd existence?!

Lin Dong couldn't help but exclaim, "Those horrific sounds of wailing and howling just now... could they be the damned rushing out of hell, dead and revived demons?!"

"Those people who were already dead... have they really come back to life?!"

From Lin Dong's tone, his inner shock was obvious.

Jiang Ye, on the other hand, followed Li Si's line "the dead can live" and thought of a classic quote—

We can be both of God and the devil.

Since we're trying to raise the dead against the stream of time.

That was a line from Detective Conan, spoken by Vermouth.

It seemed to encapsulate the purpose of the Dark Organization.

Haibara Ai translated the line as—

We are simultaneously God and devil because we attempt to defy the torrent of time and make all the dead return from the yellow springs.

In short...

Bring the dead back to life.

Jiang Ye suddenly thought of the room where Guiwen long dwelled—Room 2218 of Apartment 4869.

And that room was filled with the scent of Sherlock Holmes' Baker Street, flat 221B.

Holmes...

4869...

APTX-4869.

This appeared to be a drug developed by a dark organization to enable "revival of the dead."

The organization called it a failed product.

So Gin used it as a poison and gave it to Kudou Shinichi.

Then Shinichi's body regressed from seventeen to seven, becoming Detective Conan.

Haibara Ai, and even Vermouth, also used the same drug to reverse aging.

Speaking of reversing age...

Among players of this era, the phenomenon is common!

Especially Sun People players, who even use the degree of age regression to rank players.

A newborn infant is regarded as the highest authority level.

Beyond this era, in the later Doomsday Apartment, cases of age regression also exist.

That Evil Infant Wulie!

He even used the effect of age reversal to dodge Lightburn's lethal effect!

He survived from Day Seven of the Doomsday Apartment to Day Eight...

In an instant, Jiang Ye connected all these pieces.

He suddenly realized...

There also seemed to be a mysterious "Dark Organization" in this world!

And the extreme ideology of that "Dark Organization" strangely paralleled the one in Conan!

Jiang Ye's shock deepened—

Why do those Sun People players exist at all?

At first, like the other Moon People players, he thought these Moon People had been forcibly drawn into this doomsday world.

Sun People were thought to be natives of this world.

But now...

Perhaps those Sun People players were not natives at all!

Maybe they were experimental subjects, even without their own awareness!

Not a single lab rat.

But a whole group—every last one!

The so-called Qiankun Land might actually be an experimental base!

And the mastermind behind the entire base could be an existence akin to the "Dark Organization"!

All the Sun People players' pursuit of age regression...

They thought it sprang from their own quest for "authority," a self-generated life goal.

But in reality...

Maybe it was all lies!

Their life goals were assigned by the hidden player behind the chessboard!

So the "rebirth state" they sought...

Perhaps it was actually the hidden player's objective!

The goal of that Dark Organization-like entity!

Suddenly Jiang Ye thought of Lin Ling's chessboard.

That gigantic chessboard floating above the Black Ice Domain.

He also remembered...

how he had been sealed by Lin Ling as a chess piece—the ten thousand puppet clones.

Later, those ten thousand puppet clones appeared above the rooftop of Sun and Moon Tower in Qiankun Land.

At the time, Jiang Ye sensed the ten thousand puppet clones and was puzzled, wondering why they appeared there.

Now, looking back...

Perhaps it's because the entire Qiankun Land is a chess game!

Jiang Ye's mind swam, myriad thoughts flashing across his head.

If anyone in this era could play such a massive game...

Then the answer, with high probability, would be... a Reincarnator!

Someone like Jiang Wenxing the Reincarnator!

Jiang Wenxing...

the Jiang Wenxing who vanished in the Formless Domain.

Later Zhou Yuling mentioned she had sensed Jiang Wenxing at the root of the Formless Tree!

So perhaps the root of the World Tree in this era also hides Reincarnator secrets!

After these thoughts, Jiang Ye suddenly considered...

the Reincarnation Mirror Palace and the Mysterious Existence of the underground Burial Ground.

Previously, he suspected these two mysterious presences might be Sun People players who hadn't died completely in the Doomsday Prison era.

Now...

there remained a significant chance they really were Sun People players.

In other words...

those two were pawns spanning from the Doomsday Prison to the Doomsday Apartment!

Maybe in later times, all pawns, all experimental subjects, were destroyed...

but two test subjects were preserved.

Maybe even they didn't know they were test subjects?

They kept pursuing the fake lives and false goals the hidden player had set for them.

An experiment that spanned an unknown number of years...?

Of course.

This was only Jiang Ye's conjecture.

But he suddenly remembered...

as a light clone, he once asked Lin Ling about the mysterious presence in the Burial Ground's tombstone area.

Lin Ling had looked complicated and answered—illusion.

Now, in retrospect...

Lin Ling very likely knew the truth about that presence!

Yet she told the light clone it was... an illusion.

These details deepened Jiang Ye's suspicion.

And if his guess was correct...

those aloof Reincarnators who don't meddle in worldly affairs were indeed laying out a grand game...

Then their goal might be exactly the lifelong pursuit the Sun People test subjects were given—

the rebirth state?

A newborn infant?

No!

Perhaps the Sun People players' ultimate pursuit was more extreme than "rebirth"!

What exists more extreme than a newborn infant?

A prior life!

Maybe what they hoped to achieve by defying time's torrent was not merely to resurrect the dead.

But to...

return to a previous life!

From a Reincarnator's perspective...

Return to the previous reincarnation cycle!

Hiss...

Jiang Ye realized.

Perhaps it wasn't only the endlessly reincarnating "Jiang Ye" who wanted to escape the cycle.

Those ancient Reincarnators...

even if they hadn't reached the Nomadic Merchant's level of infinite reincarnation,

as long as the number of cycles was large enough...

they would inevitably develop different ambitions!

So returning to the previous cycle might be the way they imagined to break free from reincarnation?

Therefore...

the Doomsday Apartment looping from the tail end of Day Eight back to the prison era of Day One or Two...

Is that an intrinsic mechanism of the Doomsday Apartment?

Or did those Reincarnators actually defy the torrent of time and achieve such traversal?

In a flash, Jiang Ye felt...

compared to Li Ku's idea of "unification," perhaps the Reincarnators' grand cause was the real world-changing ambition.

While Witch Gui Jiang Ye mulled over these shocking thoughts,

Lin Dong snapped out of his stupor.

He was still in tatters, gripping the iron chain with one hand.

His blinded eyes groped for Li Si's direction, then gave up.

He suddenly spoke into the air with resolute certainty:

"If I'm not mistaken... you never intended to stop this so-called 'curse'!"

"Before the bell struck the eighth time, stopping me from closing the iron chain would have been the real prevention."

"When the chaos began, you told me to close the iron chain..."

"I don't believe you didn't know—it was already too late by then!"

"With us alone, we couldn't stop that onslaught!"

"So this curse named 'the dead can live'... you deliberately caused it!"

After saying this, Lin Dong waited for Li Si's response.

But Li Si did not answer.

Lin Dong inhaled deeply and continued in a low voice:

"The Curse... the Curse of Despair..."

"Are He Yuliang's and Chen Cang's Curses of Despair the same kind?"

"The dead can live... were they replaced by some 'dead' entity?"

"And you, you actually want this curse to spread across the world!"

This time Lin Dong's tone grew more certain.

As if, in blindness, he had seen Li Si's true intentions more clearly than ever.

Witch Gui Jiang Ye also realized this.

Lin Dong probably wasn't wrong.

Even if Li Si acted solemn, as if the curse was a terrifying unforeseen threat,

his behavior revealed he never intended to stop the curse.

Instead, he anticipated it!

He may even have facilitated it!

Sure enough...

After a moment of silence, Jiang Ye saw the one-eyed Li Si curl the corner of his mouth into a faint smile.

He chuckled, his voice brightening: "Yes, I did it on purpose."

"The dead can live... how can that be a curse?"

"He Yuliang and Chen Cang, are they dead? No, they are not."

"They merely assumed a different form and continue to live."

"Not only them... all those who died can live again in another form!"

"Even..."

"Your eyes cannot see, your body is in agony..."

"What meaning is there for you to suffer living like this?"

"Why not... let me give you a different way to live!"

With that, Li Si waved his large hand.

That Hidden Hand detached from his body and clamped toward Lin Dong's throat.

In an instant, Lin Dong's throat seemed invaded by a strange corrupting force!

At that same moment, the usually expressionless Li Ku suddenly leapt up in fury: "Are you insane?! You dare harm someone from my people?!"

With that shout, from the split scars on Li Ku's face, hairlike thin threads shot out and instantly wrapped around Li Si's entire body.

At the same time he bellowed, "Let go of Lin Dong!"

In that instant, Li Si's pure-black hand had to release Lin Dong's throat.

But he obviously wasn't willing to give up, and retorted to Li Ku: "I'm not crazy!"

"I spelled it out clearly! I'm merely giving them another way to live!"

"Those guiwus, they have minds and Glyph Pattern Abilities! They are alive!"

"Actually, they are even more reliable than ordinary players!"

"Don't forget the darkness you worship!"

"As players, even if they awaken Glyph Pattern Abilities and become dark-type creatures..."

"Are you one hundred percent sure they won't betray the darkness?"

"I can tell you for sure—there's only one species that will never betray the darkness!"

"That is the guiwus! They are one hundred percent, pure dark creatures!"

"Only they will never turn against us!"

"Turning Lin Dong and the others into guiwus, giving them another way to live... not only solves their present suffering, it benefits our grand cause even more!"

Li Si spoke grandly; Lin Dong felt like swearing!

Unfortunately, the black hand had damaged his throat; he could barely breathe and couldn't make a sound...

Surprisingly, Li Ku seemed somewhat swayed by Li Si's words.

Fortunately, Lin Dong still had other underlings.

Though sightless, they could tell what had happened from the sound.

One underling couldn't help but roar in anger:

"Save your pretty words! If turning into a guiwus and 'another way to live' are so good, why don't you turn yourself into a guiwus first?!"

Li Ku approved of this retort.

His eyes, formed by abyssal cracks, turned to Li Si again.

Even without expression, his doubt was clear.

He even said bluntly: "He makes sense."

"I now think it would be better for you to become a guiwus for my grand cause."

Saying that, Li Ku tightened those hairlike black threads coiling around Li Si, as if to change Li Si's mode of life as well...

"No!" Li Si naturally rejected, "A guiwus can only possess a single Glyph Pattern Ability!"

"If I become a guiwus, wouldn't all my Glyph Pattern Abilities be wasted?"

This argument indeed persuaded Li Ku.

However...

Suddenly, the right eye that belonged to Du Yuheng flew out from its socket!

That detached right eye emitted an odd mechanical voice:

"Of course not, it won't be wasted:)"

"You know I can store your Glyph Pattern Abilities for you."

"If you obediently become a guiwus, this eye of mine can still lend itself to you. Wouldn't that mean you retain all your Glyph Pattern Abilities?"