Jiang Ye, who had no memories, felt in his cognition that this was still the "first time" he had seen such a scene of iron chains wrapped around a cross.

He just instinctively felt this image was somewhat gloomy, inexplicably giving people a sense of oppressive gloom.

Naturally, Li Ku immediately thought of the strange cross he had forcibly absorbed into the cracks in his body on the 44th floor of the Blood Pool Elevator.

The image Jiang Ye described was quite similar to the one Lin Dong had described back then.

However, in Lin Dong's description, the iron chains on the cross were connected to the reliefs in the six-sided palace that they couldn't see with their naked eyes.

But now, the iron chains on the cross were extending along the threads he had probed, leading into the staircase of the underground palace...

Could it be...

That there were also reliefs inside the staircase of the underground palace?

At this moment, Li Ku realized something else—

The place where he obtained the cross was the 44th floor of the Blood Pool Elevator.

The apartment where this tombstone underground palace was located now was the 4444 Apartment.

It felt like there should be some connection between the 44 of the Blood Pool Elevator and the 4444 of the apartment.

While Li Ku was pondering in his heart, Jiang Ye inexplicably saw some clues from his expressionless face.

He directly asked, "Do you know something about this shadowy cross wrapped in iron chains?"

Li Ku nodded, "I have indeed seen this cross before. It might be related to a certain item inside my body."

Jiang Ye asked again, "Then should we continue our attempt?"

"Continue! Of course, continue!" Li Ku thought, since he had the Death State granted by the cross.

Even if something unexpected happened, the consequences shouldn't be too severe.

As he said this, the two iron wires wrapped around Guan Ce continued to retract towards the direction of his crack eyes.

This continued retraction process didn't encounter any more surprises.

However, from the perspective of Jiang Ye and the others, it seemed as if the iron chains on the cross were slowly moving.

As if being pulled by a tremendous force.

Every time Guan Ce was pulled an inch closer to Li Ku by the threads, the iron chains on the cross also seemed to move an inch.

Until Guan Ce, bound by the black threads, was completely sucked into Li Ku's crack eyes...

The cross-shaped shadow behind Li Ku also completely disappeared.

As if that image was just a projection of the Guan Gong Eyes.

Since Guan Ce, who possessed the Guan Gong Tattoo, had been taken in, the projection naturally disappeared.

The air was silent for a moment before Jiang Ye tentatively asked Li Ku, "How is it?"

Li Ku hesitated, "Currently, there doesn't seem to be anything unusual, but to be safe, do you want to wait a bit longer?"

Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then switched to sending him a message:

[Inside that dark space, can you see everything?]

Li Ku nodded and also switched to messaging: [Basically, yes, and it's considered an omniscient perspective.]

[Omniscient perspective?]

Jiang Ye was startled and quickly asked: [What do you mean? Could it be that after I enter that dark space, you can read my mind?]

[Uh...] Li Ku immediately denied: [Of course not mind reading.]

[Omniscient perspective means I can see you from all 360-degree angles. But that's it—no X-ray vision, and no mind reading exists.]

Jiang Ye breathed a sigh of relief, hesitated briefly, then said: [Then try bringing 'Ji Zixuan' in.]

Li Ku nodded, and then two more threads extended from his crack eyes, wrapping around "Ji Zixuan."

This time, without the projection of the Guan Gong Eyes, Li Ku didn't experience any abnormalities.

Very smoothly, Jiang Ye's Ji Zixuan clone was also pulled into the eye crack.

At that very moment, the Ji Zixuan clone and Jiang Ye directly lost contact!

Jiang Ye couldn't sense the Ji Zixuan clone.

The Ji Zixuan clone also couldn't sense Jiang Ye!

For the amnesiac Jiang Ye, this was the first time such a situation had occurred. He instantly panicked and directly asked Li Ku:

"Inside... is everything okay?"

Li Ku and Jiang Ye weren't friends, so they couldn't send private messages. He could only verbally say, "It's fine, everything is normal."

Hearing him say that made Jiang Ye suspicious instead, and he couldn't help but ask, "Did the Witch Gui not return to normal? That dark space of yours should be able to block the infant's crying and laughter, right?"

"Earlier, when capturing monsters, they rushed desperately into your dark space. I suspected it was because that space could block the infant's crying and laughter, allowing the monsters to return to normal."

So, when choosing to let the Ji Zixuan clone enter the dark space to achieve the [clone kills clone] effect, Jiang Ye also had a private motive: he wanted to see if the out-of-control Witch Gui could return to normal inside the dark space.

If the Witch Gui could return to normal, he should be able to obtain more information.

Even if the Witch Gui would instantly lose control again after coming out.

But Jiang Ye could consider entering the dark space himself.

That way, the two clones meeting inside the dark space should be able to share the memories of the Witch Gui returning to normal.

The plan was perfect, but Li Ku said "everything is normal."

After being questioned, Li Ku's answer was: "The Witch Gui seems... to still be in the red-eyed, amnesiac state."

Jiang Ye judged that Li Ku probably wasn't lying.

After a moment of silence, he simply made a bold decision—

"How about you ask the Witch Gui if I can also go in and take a look?"

Li Ku was somewhat surprised, but after a moment of silence, he nodded in agreement, "Alright."

Thus, the level 0 Jiang Ye clone was also bound by Li Ku's threads and entered the crack eyes.

Jiang Ye only felt his body being squeezed for a moment before arriving in a pitch-black space.

At the same time, he also sensed the Ji Zixuan clone again, about half a meter away from him.

Apart from that, in this darkness, two pairs of red dots were particularly conspicuous.

One pair belonged to the out-of-control eyes of the Ji Zixuan clone.

This proved that Li Ku indeed hadn't lied—

Even though there was no infant crying or laughter here, the Ji Zixuan clone was still in a red-eyed state, and the Witch Gui had not returned to normal.

It seemed as if the curse causing the Witch Gui to lose control had already been cast on it. Without breaking the curse, even if removed from the range of the infant's crying and laughter, the Witch Gui couldn't return to normal?

However, even though the Witch Gui hadn't recovered, the Ji Zixuan clone's consciousness was still normal and could share with Jiang Ye.

Besides, the other pair of red dots in this darkness was obviously the tattoo on Guan Ce's body—the Guan Gong Eyes!

In the pure darkness where nothing could be seen clearly, these two pairs of red dots were exceptionally eye-catching.

Seeing that there really was no abnormality, Jiang Ye didn't delay any longer. He directly began smearing Skin Sand on Guan Ce's face in the dark.

It was indeed like a blind man feeling an elephant. He judged Guan Ce's chin based on the position of the red dots on his body.

Then, starting from the chin, he slowly applied the Skin Sand bit by bit.

The application was a bit messy. The final [mimic mask] formed couldn't be seen clearly in the dark, but felt bumpy to the touch.

In the darkness, Jiang Ye also couldn't see his own face clearly.

But it didn't matter. He directly used the Ji Zixuan clone to try putting on that bumpy mimic mask.

After the mask effect took hold, the face formed wasn't bumpy but was clearly Guan Ce's face.

The reason he was certain it was Guan Ce's face was that at that moment, Jiang Ye sensed the Guan Ce clone!

Just like sensing the Administrator 4444 clone, there was a sense of connection, but no shared consciousness.

Up to this point, everything went smoothly.

The Guan Ce clone had already formed.

Guan Ce himself was still in a dazed state.

It seemed effortless for Jiang Ye to kill him!

However...

The Guan Gong Tattoo on Guan Ce's body, especially those red Guan Gong Eyes, still looked eerie in the darkness.

Jiang Ye hesitated slightly before using the Ji Zixuan clone to send another message to Li Ku:

[Since this dark space is your domain, if Guan Ce suddenly reacts when I attack him, you should be able to protect me, right?]

Li Ku replied: [Basically, a ninety-nine percent chance I can keep you safe.]

Jiang Ye had basically figured out that this Li Ku was quite cautious.

A ninety-nine percent chance probably meant nothing would go wrong.

Thus, the Ji Zixuan clone wearing Guan Ce's mask took out a long-bladed weapon from its storage space...

He originally intended to try piercing Guan Ce's heart.

However, in this pitch-black environment, his amnesiac self seemed to lack the accuracy to stab the heart in one strike.

So Jiang Ye simply decided to use the long blade to stab Guan Ce's throat.

And his throat happened to be exactly where the red Guan Gong Eyes were located!

In Jiang Ye's memory, this was his first time killing someone!

—Using the proxy administrator's Erasure Effect to kill the burly thugs didn't count.

With a crisp "clang—" sound, the sharp tip of the long blade, clearly aimed at the red dot, seemed to hit some equally sharp metal!

Even the sound of metal collision, transmitted through the vibration of the long blade, made Jiang Ye's head buzz and feel numb!

His head was buzzing, but no prompt for [clone kills clone] sounded...

Instead, in his vision, he saw the originally stationary red dot start moving!

Holy shit! Something went wrong after all! Did Guan Ce recover from his dazed state after being attacked?!

Jiang Ye instinctively wanted to call for Li Ku to save him.

But unexpectedly, Li Ku sent him a message: [It's over! That 0.1 percent probability happened!]

??

Damn?

Jiang Ye didn't even have time to curse before seeing another message from Li Ku:

[The Guan Gong Tattoo actually detached itself from Guan Ce's body!]

[And in the dark space, I actually have no control over this independent Glyph Pattern that has separated from the physical body!]

???

What the hell?!

The amnesiac Jiang Ye only felt his head buzzing and going numb again!

What did independent Glyph Pattern mean?

Judging by the tone, Glyph Patterns shouldn't be able to detach independently from the physical body?

But this Guan Gong Tattoo had detached from the body and wasn't under Li Ku's control?!

Jiang Ye didn't know what this meant, but he instinctively swung his blade again, stabbing at the position he had just stabbed, which no longer showed a red dot.

"Pfft—" That was the sound of the blade piercing flesh and blood.

Immediately after, he indeed heard the prompt in his mind as expected—

[Ding!]

[Clone kills clone. You may choose:]

[1. Convert clone to survival points]

[2. Clone revival]

Indeed!

Li Ku hadn't lied to him!

Originally, seeing that pair of red dots move, Jiang Ye instinctively thought it was Guan Ce moving.

But according to Li Ku, the Guan Gong Tattoo had detached from Guan Ce's body and moved on its own...

Guan Ce was still in a dazed state!

So Jiang Ye didn't think twice and stabbed again.

This time, [clone kills clone] was achieved perfectly smoothly.

Jiang Ye originally thought that since the Guan Gong Tattoo depended on Guan Ce's existence, the tattoo should be somewhat affected after Guan Ce was killed.

But that wasn't the case!

In his vision, the red dot was still floating and flickering in the dark space, like a magical ghostly shadow!

It wasn't attacking Jiang Ye, which made Jiang Ye even more uneasy!

If...

Guan Ce was so easy to kill, and when killing Guan Ce, the Guan Gong Tattoo wasn't on Guan Ce's body...

Then would it be possible that after Guan Ce became a clone, this Guan Gong Tattoo would take over Jiang Ye, just like it had taken over Guan Ce's body?

Previously, Jiang Ye thought that between the Guan Gong Tattoo and Guan Ce, Guan Ce was the dominant one.

But now, the tattoo had actively detached!

This inevitably made him suspect that between the two, the eerie Guan Gong Tattoo was actually the dominant one!

This worry made him not immediately choose to revive the clone.

Instead, he sent a message to Li Ku:

[This tattoo is too bizarre! I now seriously doubt that even if I successfully seize Guan Ce's body, I might not be able to perfectly use this Glyph Pattern ability!]

[What I'm worried about now is, after seizing Guan Ce's body, will this tattoo have any effect on me... like making me dazed like Guan Ce?]

Dazed...

Li Ku felt in his heart that Guan Ce's dazed state was very similar to the Sun and Moon People who had no souls.

No soul... so was that physical body controlled by the Guan Gong Tattoo?

From this perspective, Li Ku even felt this Guan Gong Tattoo was somewhat like Sun People players!

Its red eyes also resembled the mechanical eyeballs of Sun People players...

But Sun People players were "clean" and didn't have Glyph Pattern abilities.

Yet the Guan Gong Tattoo was clearly a type of Glyph Pattern ability!

Li Ku could understand Jiang Ye's concerns. After some thought, he suggested:

[If you're afraid something might go wrong, I have a skill here that can briefly preserve your life, but it can only protect you for 100 minutes.]

[I'll send you the skill description to look at, and then you can decide for yourself whether to take the risk.]

Saying this, he sent the SSS-grade [Salvation Domain] skill description to Jiang Ye.

The skill wasn't hard to understand. Jiang Ye glanced at it and thought of the earlier choice about "trust" and "betrayal."

And this skill, without triggering the 「Salvation」 judgment, could also directly serve as a life-preserving skill.

Not to mention, between his clones that shared consciousness, there was no need to worry about betrayal at all.

Thus, after a bit of thought...

And pressured by the psychological stress brought by the constantly flickering red dot, Jiang Ye quickly made a decision:

[Then try letting me (Ji Zixuan) and Jiang Ye share the Salvation Domain.]

After he stated his position, Li Ku added: [In a normal environment, the Salvation Domain will create a Holy Light illumination effect on the two people affected by the skill.]

[But honestly, I'm not sure if the Holy Light from the Salvation Domain can penetrate into this dark space where no light enters...]

[If it can't, then the skill might not take effect either.]

[Now, I'm going to start casting the skill.]

Jiang Ye understood that Li Ku's [Salvation Domain] skill was probably also being used in the dark space for the first time.

He waited quietly, also somewhat worried that the Holy Light couldn't shine through and the skill wouldn't take effect in the dark space...

However—

After a brief wait, two beams of white light shone upon him and "Ji Zixuan" respectively!

At the same moment, the floating, flickering red dot representing the Guan Gong Eyes in the darkness suddenly seemed to be frozen by something!

Suddenly, the red dot stopped moving!