Dripping blood on the walls of the hexagonal palace…

Li Ku listened to Wan Xin’s description of the process and specifically confirmed with him—

Wan Xin and the others, with their naked eyes, had not seen any reliefs on the walls either.

Of course, it was possible Lin Jing had seen them and simply hadn’t told Wan Xin.

In any case, what Wan Xin saw seemed to be the same as what Li Ku and others saw with ordinary eyes: walls that were empty, devoid of reliefs.

After confirming this, Li Ku specifically asked what the "Void Mirror Palace" was.

Once he understood the "Void Mirror Palace," he confirmed that Lin Jing and his group of five truly came from this "dungeon"!

He wasn’t in a hurry to ask Wan Xin how they had gotten from the Doomsday Apartment’s "dungeon" to the Doomsday Prison.

Instead, he continued quietly listening to Wan Xin recount his experiences.

According to the "Void Mirror Palace" situation…

Dripping blood on the wall should have caused the entire wall to collapse, revealing a new hexagonal space.

But that didn’t happen.

According to Wan Xin’s description—

His original intention was just to drip a drop of blood to cooperate with Lin Jing’s experiment.

As a result, the moment his bleeding finger touched that wall, he felt as if something had bound him, instantly freezing him in place!

Especially the finger pressed against the wall—it felt like something had bitten it!

What’s more, the blood from his finger was being continuously sucked away by the wall!

At that moment, Wan Xin was terrified to the extreme!

He wanted to call for help, but he couldn’t make a sound.

Lin Jing and the others clearly saw his situation, but they were indifferent.

Only Yang Wenchao had some conscience, but even he couldn’t save him.

The suction force from the wall was too terrifying!

Soon, Wan Xin felt as if all the blood in his body had been completely drained!

But his consciousness didn’t dissipate.

Instead, it seemed to be sucked into the wall, trapped inside some special container.

His consciousness also wanted to cry out for help.

But that container trapping his consciousness seemed to immobilize even his thoughts, confining him within it.

He heard a "drip drip" sound of water.

And occasionally, a "bang bang" sound of giant rocks falling.

These sounds seemed very close to him, yet also seemed unrelated to him.

So he just gave up and waited to see if Lin Jing and the others could rescue him…

In that state, he wasn’t sure how much time passed.

Trapped in consciousness, his perception of time seemed blurry and distorted.

It was only once, when the sound of falling rocks seemed to come more frequently than usual.

Then he felt that the container trapping his consciousness seemed to have its seal broken!

His consciousness could move!

Not only that…

He seemed to have bumped into many other trapped consciousnesses!

Those consciousnesses… had they been trapped longer? Their mental states seemed unstable.

He heard all kinds of ghostly screams and shouts—some laughing, some crying…

According to Wan Xin’s words—

"It’s like… similar to that crying and laughing baby sound I’m hearing now."

"By the way, what the hell is that noise? Can it stop?"

Clearly, Wan Xin vaguely recognized it.

This place seemed to be…

The underground Burial Ground of the 4444 Apartment!

It seemed he had revived again from a burial ground coffin!

But that was strange! He shouldn’t have had any resurrection slots left!

And why, after being revived, was he still wearing a prison watch? Still in the form of this youth named "Gao Xiang"?

Not his original appearance…

For a moment, Wan Xin even wondered if he had fallen into some illusion.

Were the Li Ku and Jiang Ye before him just figments of his imagination?

He didn’t dare ask these questions, of course.

As for the baby’s crying and laughing sounds lingering in the air, Li Ku didn’t answer him either. He just urged:

"Then what? After your consciousness was freed, did you just appear here?"

Wan Xin shook his head. "Not exactly."

"After my consciousness was freed, besides the ghostly screams around me, there seemed to be a stream of consciousness pushing me forward."

"I’m not good at controlling my consciousness body, and I couldn’t stay behind as I wished, so I just had to go with that stream, drifting along…"

"That stream of consciousness was very fast; I couldn’t see clearly what was around me."

"When it slowed down, I found myself in a pitch-black underground area, faintly able to see a complex network of roots!"

"Is that, perhaps, what you call… the World Tree ruins?"

Li Ku didn’t answer that question, just signaled for him to continue.

So Wan Xin went on: "My consciousness body seemed to be sucked into a thin, weak root… and then I felt that excruciating pain again, like my blood was being forcibly drained!"

"Yes, even though I was already a consciousness without blood, I seemed to feel my blood being madly drained…"

"That pain was countless times more intense than when the wall had sucked my blood!"

"And it wasn’t just pain—that suffering carried a fear I could hardly bear…"

"At that moment, I thought that if I could just escape that pain, I’d gladly die!"

"But at that point, I was just a shred of consciousness; I had no idea how to die!"

"Just when I thought I would live forever in that extreme pain and fear… I seemed to suddenly die?"

"Or rather, I suddenly reincarnated?"

"It was as if I instantly went from that despairing consciousness into this coffin, with a new physical body…"

"And then, you dug me out."

In summary, Wan Xin really didn’t know what he had gone through.

He could only describe what he had experienced and felt from his perspective, and most of that was just feelings.

But his descriptions gave Li Ku plenty of information!

The dripping water sounds and falling rock sounds he heard while trapped…

Weren’t those the sounds from the 18th floor of the Blood Pool Elevator just before the monsters revived?

Li Ku had personally witnessed the monsters’ revival, and combining that with Wan Xin’s description…

It seemed that after being sucked into the wall, Wan Xin had experienced a monster revival alongside them!

Moreover, Wan Xin’s account opened a new perspective for Li Ku!

Previously, Li Ku had always thought the monster revival happened only on the 18th floor of the Blood Pool Elevator…

But now it seemed that was only because he was on the 18th floor at the time, so he only saw what happened there.

The actual monster revival…

Might have covered all floors of the Blood Pool Elevator!

And possibly spaces he hadn’t even seen!

At that time, the revived monsters had indeed scattered and flown away.

So, according to Wan Xin’s account…

Maybe they were all drawn by a "stream of consciousness," surging together into the World Tree’s root system?

But then, did Wan Xin die in the World Tree’s roots and then revive in a coffin?

Or did he have something special about him that caused this unique revival?

Li Ku had many guesses in his mind.

And the administrator also gained a lot of information from Wan Xin’s description.

In his mind, thoughts were churning, and he was deeply shaken.

In fact, he bypassed Li Ku entirely and asked Wan Xin directly:

"When you were trapped in the coffin… did you hear any other sounds?"

Wan Xin didn’t know this Ninth Day Administrator 4444.

But seeing that he seemed to be with Li Ku and Jiang Ye, he answered honestly: "I didn’t hear anything."

"But then again, maybe it was because I spent too little time in the coffin."

Wan Xin remembered that Yang Wenchao had been dug out too quickly from the coffin before, missing the chance to communicate with some mysterious senior.

And he, clearly, was even unluckier than Yang Wenchao—this time, he hadn’t been in the coffin long before being dug out…

Jiang Ye, having lost his memory, didn’t know anything and couldn’t glean much useful information from Wan Xin’s description.

But hearing the administrator’s question, he immediately pressed:

"Could the other players revived in those coffins hear anything?"

The administrator shook his head. "Not exactly."

"I just thought that this young friend here is wearing a watch on his wrist, so maybe he would be chosen…"

His words were deliberately vague.

Jiang Ye pressed on: "Chosen by what?"

The administrator just shook his head again, not answering.

His gaze was fixed squarely on Wan Xin’s prison watch, and he asked in a gentle tone:

"From what you said, your identity isn’t the 'Gao Xiang' shown on this watch?"

"You obtained this identity by wearing someone else’s watch?"

Wan Xin had just thought that this administrator was on the same side as Li Ku and Jiang Ye.

But from the brief exchange between the administrator and Jiang Ye, he sensed something off.

It seemed the relationship between the administrator and Jiang Ye wasn’t exactly friendly?

So he didn’t directly answer the administrator’s question; instead, he looked to Jiang Ye for permission.

The implication was clear: if Jiang Ye told him to answer, he would answer.

This behavior made the administrator’s expression sour.

Jiang Ye, on the other hand, felt a bit awkward, thinking to himself, Buddy, I really don’t know you!

Wan Xin then asked Jiang Ye: "Have I really returned to the underground Burial Ground of the 4444 Apartment?"

"Can I take off this watch now?"

The administrator instinctively wanted to answer for Jiang Ye.

But considering this unlucky guy wasn’t giving him any face, he just said to Jiang Ye instead:

"With this watch, exploring the Underground Palace will be much more convenient."

The implication was clear, but his tone wasn’t particularly polite.

Wan Xin’s heart raced—he thought, Just how strong is this guy to show no respect for Jiang Ye?

Still, he waited for Jiang Ye to signal that he could take off the watch before obediently removing it.

Once the watch was off, Wan Xin indeed returned to his own appearance.

He handed the watch directly to Jiang Ye, showcasing his loyalty as a subordinate.

Jiang Ye weighed the watch in his hand.

He could clearly see the administrator’s almost undisguised covetousness for it.

What he was thinking was…

Could he use this watch to take down the administrator’s clone?

The administrator probably wouldn’t agree.

If he accidentally alerted him, it would only make things worse.

Besides, for the renewed exploration of the Underground Palace, he might still need the administrator.

The perfect opportunity to kill the administrator could be inside the Underground Palace.

If he really couldn’t get out of the Underground Palace, then, according to the administrator’s claim, he could use the resurrection method to leave.

And when the administrator used that resurrection method, that would be the perfect moment for Jiang Ye to "seize the body"!

Thinking this, he put the watch away and said to the administrator with a smile:

"Since it’s useful for exploring the Underground Palace, I’ll keep it for now. We can use it when we start the exploration."

The administrator squinted slightly but didn’t say much, accepting Jiang Ye’s decision.

He directly asked Li Ku: "This coffin was opened by you. So now, do you still need me to demonstrate my way of opening a coffin?"

In his heart, Li Ku hoped the next coffin would reveal Lin Jing, or even Lin Dong.

More teammates meant a higher chance of passing the dungeon.

So he nodded. "Let’s open another one."

Before long, Li Hongbin had dug up another new coffin.

Again, it was a pitch-black wooden coffin covered in eerie patterns.

This time, the administrator took over personally.

He casually took out a palm-sized miniature black box.

It looked quite similar to the "bone ash box" he had used earlier to contain a monster.

But in size, it was a bit smaller than that box.

It looked like a mini version of a bone ash box.

Jiang Ye couldn’t help but speculate—

Could this bone ash box the administrator took out also be a fragment of a full item?

That is, something that had split off from the complete version of the bone ash box?

As he thought this, he saw the administrator press the miniature bone ash box against a square-shaped pattern on the front of the wooden coffin.

To the naked eye, the miniature bone ash box seemed to embed itself into that pattern!

Immediately afterward, all the patterns on the pitch-black coffin began to be absorbed by the miniature black box—just as they had been absorbed by Li Ku’s black thread earlier!

Once the special patterns were fully absorbed, the coffin became ordinary.

And the administrator’s miniature bone ash box showed no visible changes.

This time, no sound of a plea for help came from inside the coffin.

Li Ku didn’t rush to open it either. Instead, he asked the administrator with some curiosity:

"This bone ash box of yours—is it also a fragment item? Would you mind showing me its info?"

The implication was…

Li Ku’s Detection Technique couldn’t see through the info on the bone ash box!

Jiang Ye was secretly alarmed, but the administrator explained:

"It’s not that I don’t want to show you; I can’t even examine this thing’s information myself."

"But I can tell you in advance—"

"This suspected fragment item, the bone ash box, was actually something I discovered while exploring the Underground Palace."

"If it really is a fragment item…"

"Then perhaps its complete version is also hidden deep within the Underground Palace."

These words were loaded with meaning, and they made Li Ku think back to the projection from Guan Gong’s Eyes—

In the paper world explored by those two stick figures, wasn’t there a stick figure trapped inside a square frame?

Could that square frame be the complete version of the bone ash box?

Or perhaps the complete version of the bone ash box… was a coffin much larger than this one?

This bone ash box could absorb the special patterns from the resurrection coffin…

Could it be that the bone ash box and the resurrection coffin were somehow connected?

As Li Ku pondered this, he heard a faint scraping sound—

The coffin, now stripped of its special patterns, seemed to be having its lid quietly pushed open from within…