Ten branches, and these few players already had to watch over several balls each.

Fortunately, their attributes far exceeded ordinary people's, otherwise they really wouldn't have been able to keep up!

And the "tree-like structure" of the Underground Palace staircase clearly had far more than just ten branches.

Li Ku didn't say much more and invested another twenty recording orbs.

Jiang Ye was only responsible for watching the orbs, while he alone had to coordinate the overall situation.

Each orb, which branch line it was on, and when reaching a new branch, how to allocate the orbs...

All of these were things he needed to consider and remember.

With each additional branch, his memory load increased wildly.

Later on, they gradually realized that letters like A, B, C, D were no longer sufficient to record the chaotic branch lines, so they added A1, A2...

Just like that, the newly added twenty recording orbs were quickly distributed again.

And as the branch lines grew more numerous, the shortage of recording orbs also increased.

The third time, Li Ku directly invested all the remaining seventy recording orbs in one go.

Even so, they were quickly distributed.

And their division of labor and cooperation also stopped here.

Earlier, Li Hongbin had said to exchange for a hundred orbs first, and get more if it wasn't enough.

But now, a hundred truly wasn't enough, yet he wasn't too keen on exchanging for more...

"Calculating it this way, the branch lines of this entire staircase maze are too many and too chaotic!"

"The key is that many branching points can appear on each line."

"And each branching point is a new branch line. New branch lines then have a bunch of new branching points..."

"This is endless, it feels like there's simply no end!"

"This maze, with this workload... feels like it's already beyond what just a few of us can accomplish!"

"And honestly, I don't dare think too carefully now about whether we've accidentally made mistakes in the recording orbs and branch lines we've recorded..."

Li Hongbin's attitude clearly carried some complaint.

After all, the whole process was indeed very draining on mental energy.

He alone had to watch over more than twenty orbs.

The numbers of twenty orbs, the numbers of twenty branch lines...

This memory load was too chaotic!

Gong Cheng held a similar attitude: "This tree-like structure feels comparable to an exponential function. The data growth is too massive, the subsequent complexity simply isn't something a few of us can handle..."

"If you ask me, why not just follow these hundred branch lines down and see what their respective ends are?"

These words of discussion were naturally seeking Li Ku's opinion.

After all, complaints aside, they were also very clear that throughout the entire process of dissecting the staircase branches, the one who expended the most brainpower and energy was still Li Ku.

His memory load was the largest, and he also had to manipulate those lines...

Recording these hundred branch lines was almost comparable to a 'Super Brain'.

Li Ku remained silent, not speaking immediately.

It was just that during this process of researching the staircase branches, a thought inexplicably flashed through his mind—

That lush, flourishing World Tree also seemed to branch upwards endlessly into dense, terrifying branches.

The reason Sun People players in Qiankun Land called it the "World Tree" was precisely because that tree was so tall it seemed endless.

Besides, the World Tree ruins were also a terrifying tree-like branching structure that seemed endless.

The difference was—

The tree-like branching of the World Tree was normal branches constantly forking upwards.

Whereas the World Tree ruins were the remaining root system of the World Tree, constantly forking downwards.

The reason that Boss of Exile City was regarded as a divine figure by Moon People players was because he actually managed to relocate the World Tree.

But even such an outrageous divine figure couldn't completely relocate the entire World Tree.

This "inability," all players instinctively attributed to "insufficient strength"...

But thinking about it now, could the fundamental reason actually be that the practical situation didn't allow it?

If the World Tree itself was divided into two infinite parts, upper and lower...

Then, that Exile City Boss could inherently only relocate the upper half.

An infinite root system itself was fundamentally impossible to completely relocate!

The reason Li Ku associated these thoughts was naturally because he felt—

This staircase maze that could be understood as a "tree-like structure" seemed very similar to the situation of the World Tree's root system!

And the reason he came to this "instance" was through the hidden passage of the Blood Pool Elevator.

And the Blood Pool Elevator was identified as leading to the World Tree ruins...

Li Ku couldn't help but speculate—

Among the infinite branches of this staircase, could there be one that leads to the way back?

This speculation initially gave him a sliver of hope for returning.

But soon, hope turned into despair.

If there truly were infinite branches...

Then finding that one path back among the infinite branches...

That hope was too slim, wasn't it?

As long as there was no difference in time flow rate inside and outside the instance.

By the time he got back, Qiankun Land might have experienced several rounds of 「solar eclipse」!

However, Li Ku's nature was firm; he wasn't one to give up so easily.

First, his speculation might not be entirely correct.

Second, even if the way back was hidden among one of the infinite branches...

He wasn't completely without hope.

A probability of one in infinity indeed almost equaled zero.

But the premise of this probability was pure guessing.

Perhaps he could use some methods to narrow the target down to a certain part of the infinite branches!

Li Ku quickly calmed his emotions.

Facing the complaints of Li Hongbin and Gong Cheng, his gaze suddenly fell upon Guan Ce, who was still in a dazed state.

At this moment, Guan Ce was so dazed that to the naked eye, he looked like a complete puppet dummy.

And the Guan Gong Tattoo on his body was visibly becoming increasingly deep black and eerie.

Li Ku only glanced at him briefly before quickly averting his gaze, secretly sending a message to "Ji Zixuan":

[Witch Gui, is your seize the body ability completely unusable now?]

Seize the body ability??

Jiang Ye was shocked: What? My Witch Gui clone actually has a seize the body ability!

Sorry, just found out...

Of course, he didn't directly reply this to Li Ku.

After some mental deliberation, he vaguely guessed Li Ku's idea.

Li Ku had asked if he could still seize bodies after looking at Guan Ce.

So this guy obviously wanted the Witch Gui to seize Guan Ce's body.

And the purpose of seizing Guan Ce's body was also clear.

He probably wanted to continue leveraging the power of the Guan Gong Eyes.

Guan Ce had just said that the Guan Gong Eyes were a "Glyph Pattern effect."

This kind of effect was like a skill, usable frequently.

Li Ku probably wanted to use the Guan Gong Eyes to see the bottom situations of each branch more clearly.

In his heart, Jiang Ye also approved of Li Ku's idea.

But the problem was...

The Witch Gui was in an out-of-control state, hiding in Ji Zixuan's Heart Demon Nest, and simply couldn't perform seize the body on Guan Ce!

Even if he did seize the body, a completely out-of-control Witch Gui probably couldn't use the Guan Gong Eyes normally either.

Jiang Ye was just about to explain that he couldn't use seize the body methods...

However, before clearly replying to Li Ku, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration!

Seize the body wouldn't work...

But...

[clone kills clone], that seemed possible!

If the effect of [clone kills clone] was as he speculated...

Then he could use clone shared consciousness to simulate the effect of the Witch Gui seizing Guan Ce's body!

Moreover, in the current situation, achieving [clone kills clone] on Guan Ce didn't seem too difficult!

Ji Zixuan's spatial equipment contained some Skin Sand that could be used to make a [mimic mask]!

And Guan Ce, in his completely dazed state, looked very easy to kill!

However...

Jiang Ye still had some concerns.

One was Guan Ce's current obviously abnormal dazed state...

This state had a slight possibility of affecting him after [clone kills clone].

Then there was Guan Ce's eerie Guan Gong Tattoo; who knew if it would have any negative effects on him?

And then there was another previously considered hidden danger—

Would the act of using [mimic mask] to achieve [clone kills clone] alert Administrator 4444?

After some deliberation, Jiang Ye carefully replied to Li Ku:

[In my current state, forcibly using the seize the body ability might lead to complete loss of control.]

[However, I've discovered that the mimic mask item seems to be able to assist my seize the body.]

Li Ku's mind stirred, directly asking: [How does it assist? Do you need me to do something for you?]

Jiang Ye trusted Li Ku enough to directly state:

[You probably guessed it too—the amnesiac me used your Prison watch to exchange for the administrator's mask, likely also aiming to seize the administrator's body.]

[So one of my concerns now is—if I expose my method of using the mimic mask to seize Guan Ce's body, then Administrator 4444 might become wary.]

[Do you have any means to completely block any possible investigation by Administrator 4444, to help me keep the secret of the mimic mask assisting seize the body?]

After this question was posed, Li Ku fell completely silent for a while.

From this silence, Jiang Ye sensed that Li Ku probably could do it, but it might expose some secret of his?

He didn't urge Li Ku for a reply, waiting quietly.

Li Hongbin and Gong Cheng were also waiting for Li Ku's reply—whether to continue increasing the recording orb workload or to first explore the bottoms of the hundred paths...

Li Ku remained silent for about two minutes, then suddenly looked at Jiang Ye.

He didn't speak, but sent a message:

[I do have a method that can block all investigation. But, it carries great risk, and I'm not sure if you can trust me.]

Jiang Ye pondered slightly and replied: [First, tell me specifically how it's done.]

Li Ku: [Every scar on my body connects to a boundless dark space.]

[I hinted to you before when catching monsters that a significant portion of the dark spaces are beyond my control.]

[But there is also a portion of dark spaces that I can control. This portion of space can even be used by me as spatial equipment to store items.]

Here, Li Ku paused.

Jiang Ye directly got his meaning: [You're not going to say you want to put both me and Guan Ce into the dark space within the cracks on your body, and have me perform seize the body on Guan Ce there?!]

Li Ku: [That's my meaning.]

[And there are two risks in doing this—]

[One is the risk I need to directly bear: Guan Ce's condition, as you've seen, his Guan Gong Tattoo is clearly not right, even seeming somewhat similar to the cracks on my body.]

[So, what kind of changes might occur by putting such a dangerous existence into my dark space, I cannot determine.]

[The other risk is what you need to bear—]

[I can tell you clearly, the dark space within the controllable part of the cracks on my body is essentially equivalent to my exclusive personal instance.]

[Oh right, you with amnesia might not know what an exclusive personal instance is. You can simply understand it as—in this space, I am god.]

[Everything within the entire exclusive instance space is completely under my dominion.]

[That is to say, once you enter my dark space, if I harbor even a trace of intent to kill you, I can easily Erase you.]

Hearing this, Jiang Ye indeed fell silent.

Mainly because that "exclusive instance" effect meant he would be handing his life over to Li Ku!

This...

Jiang Ye couldn't help but complain: [You telling me this, do you simply not want me to enter your so-called dark space at all?]

Li Ku shook his head: [No. I proactively revealed the exclusive instance effect to prove my honesty to you.]

[What I think is, if I deliberately concealed these things, you probably wouldn't be willing to enter an unknown space.]

[Conversely, by being frank, you might have a slight possibility of being willing to try.]

"..."

Jiang Ye fell silent again at his words.

Indeed, although amnesiac, he felt he was probably quite suspicious.

If Li Ku didn't explain clearly, and he detected even a hint of concealment, he'd be even less willing to enter that so-called dark space.

But Li Ku laid everything out, appearing exceptionally sincere, which instead made him slightly more willing to believe...

Actually, from a rational perspective, Li Ku had no motive to kill him.

Jiang Ye's point of hesitation was—

Choosing to "trust" was easy, but once "betrayed," he would pay with his life!

Huh?

Why did this pattern... feel somewhat familiar?

Jiang Ye was certain he still had no memory, but inexplicably felt a sense of familiarity.

After a brief daze, he didn't send a message but suddenly spoke to Li Ku:

"I hope the future me won't lament 'I bet and I lost, I accept it.'"

Li Ku said bluntly: "You won't."

Jiang Ye snapped back to reality but said: "I feel like I've heard this phrase somewhere before..."

Li Ku raised an eyebrow but didn't dwell on it: "Then, shall we start now? I'll put Guan Ce in first. If there's no abnormality, then I'll put you in."

Having already made his choice, Jiang Ye nodded silently.

Li Ku took a deep breath. Those crack eyes formed by scars directly extended a pair of black threads that wrapped around Guan Ce.

Then the black threads retracted towards the crack eyes, about to pull Guan Ce into the crack eyes.

But immediately, an anomaly occurred...

Almost the instant the black threads wrapped around Guan Ce.

The eyes of the Guan Gong Tattoo suddenly shot out a red light, aiming towards the direction of Li Ku's eyes.

Li Ku was startled and was about to react when he found the red light had already struck his crack eyes, yet seemed to have no effect?

Just as he was puzzled, he saw Li Hongbin and Gong Cheng, and even Jiang Ye, all looking at him behind with shock and astonishment.

Li Ku instinctively wanted to turn his head to look, but his crack eyes seemed fixed, preventing his head from turning.

Instead, Jiang Ye proactively described it for him:

"This red light illuminated... there's a giant cross behind you..."

"The cross is covered in Iron Chains, and the direction the chains extend is precisely where those threads emanating from your body go."

"Including the hundred extending into the branches of the Underground Palace staircase, and the two wrapped around Guan Ce..."