To be precise, the situation of the Eternal Witch Gui was always very special.

After it refined its physical body into cremains, the entire entity existed long-term in a soul form.

In soul form, it was generally invisible to the naked eye.

Therefore, many tasks were inconvenient to complete while in this soul state.

Thus, most of the Eternal Witch Gui’s actions were carried out by parasitizing other beings.

For example, when it first established the Hundred Ghosts Alliance, it was parasitizing a monster.

Of course, that monster which established the Hundred Ghosts Alliance did not survive until now; it became history long ago.

After all, in the Yangtze River, the waves behind push the waves ahead, and the front wave inevitably dies on the shore.

Later on, the Eternal Witch Gui successively parasitized many monsters.

Its Glyph Pattern Ability called Nesting Inner Demons was only able to advance to the eighth rank through continuous parasitism.

The eighth-rank Nesting Inner Demons theoretically allows eight nests to be built.

However, the Eternal Witch Gui’s spirit attribute was only 1600…

Well… when Jiang Ye previously checked the data panel, he thought that 1600 spirit attribute was quite high for Witch Gui.

But as his perspective broadened and he learned about the Witch Gui’s survival time, he felt that 1600 spirit attribute was actually quite poor…

Compared to the eighth-rank glyph ability, this attribute was ridiculously low.

But it wasn’t entirely the Eternal Witch Gui’s fault.

It’s naturally very difficult for a soul form to raise its spirit attribute.

Over such a long survival time, being able to figure out how to improve the spirit attribute and raise it to 1600 was already quite an achievement.

However, the 1600 spirit attribute meant that among the eight nest slots allowed by the eighth-rank glyph ability, only three were currently used.

Originally, five were used…

But two of those belonged to two rather useless Reincarnation Ghosts in Apartment 9999.

And Apartment 9999… had been swept clean once by Jiang Ye’s Light Clone.

Those two Reincarnation Ghosts, which had been nested by the Nesting Inner Demons, became cannon fodder under the Light faction’s skills at that time…

However, this had little impact on the Eternal Witch Gui.

When the target of the Nesting Inner Demons dies, after roughly 24 hours, the corresponding nest slot recovers.

After all, nest slots do not disappear after the nest target dies.

So currently, the Witch Gui’s situation was:

The eighth-rank Nesting Inner Demons had eight nest slots in total.

Two slots were cooling down, three were in use, and three slots were vacant.

Among the three in use, one was on Guan He.

The other two were on two Reincarnation Ghosts.

One of those Reincarnation Ghosts was one of the current leaders of the Hundred Ghosts Alliance, and the other was a high-ranking member.

They were also the two longest-parasitized nest targets of the Eternal Witch Gui.

These two nest targets were already very strong.

But when they were weak early on, it was only with the Eternal Witch Gui’s assistance that they grew rapidly.

Furthermore, those two Reincarnation Ghosts were able to reincarnate in the Novice Apartment and gain influence in the Hundred Ghosts Alliance all thanks to the Witch Gui’s help.

However, assistance is assistance, help is help.

No matter what, this Nesting Inner Demons ability was ultimately exploitation of others’ freedom.

Therefore, neither those two Reincarnation Ghosts nor Guan He herself felt any gratitude toward the Eternal Witch Gui.

On the contrary, they all wanted desperately to break free from the Witch Gui’s control.

But breaking free from control was never easy.

The Witch Gui’s Nesting Inner Demons also had the power to control their life and death.

With just a thought, the Witch Gui could destroy the inner demon nest.

If the inner demon nest was destroyed, the corresponding nest target would immediately die!

Including if the Eternal Witch Gui’s cremains were destroyed, causing it to die completely…

Then the inner demon nests would be destroyed as well.

Those nested by the Witch Gui’s inner demons would also die with it.

So it was essentially a life-and-death contract.

The lives of the three inner demon nest targets were completely controlled by the Eternal Witch Gui.

Therefore, on the surface, they naturally dared not offend the Eternal Witch Gui.

However!

According to the Eternal Witch Gui’s memories, those two Reincarnation Ghosts it had long parasitized and which grew stronger had clearly developed some twisted thoughts.

Because of their strength, the Witch Gui naturally did not want those two nest targets to die.

Yet a soul form could not simultaneously inhabit two physical bodies.

Plus, this time in the Novice Apartment, the Witch Gui’s attention was more focused on Guan He.

Thus, those two Reincarnation Ghosts spent less time forcibly occupied by the Witch Gui’s soul.

They had more free time to act on their own…

According to the Witch Gui’s memories, during those periods of free activity, the two Reincarnation Ghosts seemed to be secretly plotting something behind its back.

So Jiang Ye suspected—

Could the disappearance of the Witch Gui’s cremains be related to those two inner demon-nested Reincarnation Ghosts?

Could it be that these two Reincarnation Ghosts, relying on their strength, took advantage of the Witch Gui not wanting them dead?

No matter what…

In Room 2218, Jiang Ye’s figure flashed.

Quickly, he found a special puppet shaped like a plague doctor.

Then, he tied “himself” up with red thread.

Afterward, the Eternal Witch Gui’s soul transferred from the Void Mirror Puppet’s body to the specially made plague doctor puppet.

Then, the plague doctor puppet moved and left Room 2018, heading straight to the first-floor lobby.

Because Apartment 4869 had experienced the Midnight Ring event, almost no living players remained in the entire apartment.

At the front desk in the first-floor lobby, there was no administrator present.

Instead, a wooden puppet was acting as a stand-in.

Of course, the 4869 administrator assigned a puppet to act not only because there were no people in the apartment.

It was also because Qu Xing had not stopped killing administrators recently.

Almost all apartment administrators were nervous and hiding wherever possible.

Jiang Ye’s Qu Xing clone was also about to reach Apartment 4869.

However, the plague doctor puppet parasitized by the Witch Gui arrived first.

This plague doctor puppet immediately attacked the wooden puppet stand-in, then shouted angrily out of nowhere:

“Where’s the administrator? Come out right now!”

The voice was low and deep, and should not have been unfamiliar to the current 4869 administrator.

Sure enough, the 4869 administrator showed face quickly at the administrator’s front desk position.

Seeing the familiar plague doctor puppet, the administrator visibly relaxed.

But the 4869 administrator’s face was extremely stiff, looking like a failed cosmetic surgery on a snake-like man…

Even his relieved expression was very awkward.

It was unknown whether this guy truly had a botched surgery, but his facial stiffness and voice stiffness were both very obvious.

He cautiously spoke to the plague doctor puppet in a fawning tone:

“My little ancestor, please tell me your orders…”

Such flattering words spoken with such a stiff voice sounded extremely discordant.

But according to the Witch Gui’s memories, the 4869 administrator’s face and voice were always stiff like this, so Jiang Ye didn’t dwell on it.

He directly asked, “During the time I was away, did any suspicious people come to the apartment?”

The stiff 4869 administrator thought for a moment, then shook his head stiffly: “No…”

“You don’t mean those few people from before, do you?”

After the Midnight Ring ended, a few people had indeed come to Apartment 4869.

They were Light faction players targeting Guan He.

Later, the Eternal Witch Gui also inquired about this.

So 4869 naturally thought it wouldn’t ask about those people again.

Jiang Ye knew those people from memory as well.

But at that time when the Witch Gui returned to the apartment, its cremains were still intact.

So it should be…

Jiang Ye asked 4869 again: “Did those people come back later?”

4869 continued to shake his head stiffly: “If they didn’t use items to deliberately hide member list information, then they probably didn’t return.”

Jiang Ye thought carefully. Guan He was a newly parasitized nest target of the Witch Gui.

She hadn’t been exposed to too much information.

Therefore, the Light faction figuring out the Witch Gui’s situation and stealing the cremains within such a short time was unlikely.

So the focus was still on the two Reincarnation Ghosts from the Hundred Ghosts Alliance and Lin Ling, who had gained the Witch Gui’s memories.

However, if Lin Ling had come, 4869 would not have failed to notice.

And if Lin Ling had deliberately used some method to hide herself…

Honestly, Jiang Ye thought that with Lin Ling’s personality and way of doing things, she wouldn’t keep secrets about what she was doing.

So now, he leaned more toward the two Reincarnation Ghosts being responsible.

While he was thinking, the 4869 administrator’s pitch-black, strange eyes rolled around.

On his stiff face appeared an expression of hesitation, as if he wanted to say something but held back.

Jiang Ye found the face strange and frowned, asking:

“If you have something to say, just say it.”

4869 seemed to want to smile ingratiatingly, but his face was too stiff to do so.

So he could only continue with his stiff voice to speak flatteringly:

“Big shot, I have some news I want to share with you.”

“Currently, Administrator 0000 is placing a bounty on someone. If you can deal with that person…”

“Are you talking about me?” Qu Xing’s figure appeared almost silently behind 4869.

At that moment, the already nervous 4869 didn’t even turn his head and screamed a deafening scream: “Aaaaaaaaah!!!!”

Even his scream was unusually stiff.

Honestly, Jiang Ye felt a little repulsed by having such a stiff-faced clone of himself.

But stiff face or not, it was better than AIDS.

Besides, appearance was just an external thing.

In reality, he didn’t hesitate at all, and while this guy screamed, he drove two thumbtacks into his pitch-black, strange eyes.

Then, skilled mental control and skilled face-changing…

Hey?? Wait!

Why didn’t his face change?

But no big deal. Qu Xing’s clone had already transformed many administrator clones.

His skills were quite proficient.

Since manually changing the face didn’t work, he directly took out a mimic mask with Qu Xing’s face and made the 4869 administrator wear it.

But then, something strange happened…

The 4869 administrator clearly wore the mimic mask!

Yet his face… still showed no change whatsoever!

What the hell?! What was going on?!

If the face doesn’t change, the clone can’t transform!

If the clone doesn’t transform, how can the clone kills clone effect be triggered?!

Jiang Ye was completely baffled!

Could it be that this 4869 administrator knew something in advance, so he deliberately used some method to make his appearance unchangeable?

Or was it…

That his stiff face was exactly why he couldn’t change faces?

Jiang Ye pondered a lot, but it only took a moment.

Qu Xing’s clone wasn’t hung up on this one administrator.

So he directly changed the plan and left Apartment 4869.

Meanwhile, the Witch Gui clone pretended that it had rescued the 4869 administrator.

Looking at the administrator regaining consciousness, it said bluntly:

“The one you mentioned, the one who attacked you? They are quite strong to have escaped from my hands…”

The 4869 administrator looked terrified, first glancing left and right, then looked again at the plague doctor puppet with lingering fear, cautiously saying in a stiff voice:

“Did you save me, big shot?”

The plague doctor couldn’t make facial expressions, but Jiang Ye’s tone was arrogant: “What else?”

“Phew… thank you, big shot! I’m lucky to have you!”

Jiang Ye didn’t want to ask directly about the face, so he pretended to ignore him and prepared to leave.

Then suddenly remembering something, he turned back and asked:

“I actually wanted to ask a long time ago—”

“Why is your face and voice so stiff?”

“Failed cosmetic surgery? Or some other reason?”

Uh… the 4869 administrator’s already stiff face looked even stiffer now.

He was silent for a moment, then cleared his throat twice and lowered his voice:

“This is because…”

“Before I became an administrator, I was maliciously buried in a pit of Skin Sand…”

“I was buried for a very long time, and many human skin masks were made using my face, probably more than ten thousand…”

“Then my face became stiff like this…”

“And with Skin Sand applied on my face, I no longer have any sensation…”

“Even when wearing a mimic mask, my face won’t change at all…”

Although his voice was still stiff, the emotions behind his words were somewhat suppressed.

Apparently, he had suffered hardships similar to Zhang Minghan’s weak childhood.

Listening, Jiang Ye was secretly shocked!

He asked without expression, “Exactly how long were you buried in the Skin Sand pit?”

4869 shook his head: “I can’t say exactly how long… but it was long enough that even applying Skin Sand on my face could no longer make a mimic mask before I was released…”

So…

After being buried in a Skin Sand pit for a certain period, a person’s appearance becomes completely fixed and unchangeable!

According to Jiang Ye’s concept of the “container”…

Could this be understood as—

Skin Sand having the ability to solidify the “container”?!

And such a solidified container can’t change faces, so naturally it can’t become Jiang Ye’s clone!

So this 4869 administrator…

Is completely incapable of becoming his clone?

Jiang Ye’s thoughts raced, but the plague doctor puppet didn’t reveal any expression.

He asked 4869 again: “Do you know if anyone else besides you was buried in a Skin Sand pit?”

4869 nodded: “At the early eighth day of the Doomsday Apartment, there were probably dozens of people who experienced this, but they were all the lowest-level trash. Over time, they probably all died. After that, such incidents became very rare…”

“So now, those still maintaining such a stiff face are extremely rare, probably just me?”

“But Skin Sand pits themselves aren’t so rare.”

“If a strong person wanted to make ten thousand mimic masks again, creating stiff-faced people like me should be quite easy.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep