Right after Jiang Ye finished speaking, a sudden “Woah!” burst out from the voice transmission bead he held in his hand.

And that “Woah!” was his own voice!

Of course, this “Woah!” came from one of his discarded clones stationed far away in the ruins of the Void Mirror Palace, guarding the original silver-white vortex spot.

Because that discarded clone suddenly turned its head as if sensing something…

It directly faced Zhou Yuling, who was holding the voice transmission bead.

That discarded clone’s “Woah!” was transmitted through the voice bead in Zhou Yuling’s hand to Jiang Ye’s Clone No. 1.

This almost blew Jiang Ye’s cover.

After all, his Clone No. 1 almost let out that same “Woah!”

To prevent Zhou Yuling from learning more about his clone-sharing ability…

Jiang Ye immediately put on an act.

The Clone No. 1 holding the voice bead and the discarded clone facing Zhou Yuling almost spoke at the same time.

But they said different things from different perspectives—

Clone No. 1 Jiang Ye: “What the hell? What’s going on? Why is my own voice coming out of this transmission bead?”

Discarded Clone Jiang Ye: “What the hell?! Sister Zhou, you really scared me to death!”

The two clones’ different reactions barely hid the secret that his different clones shared perspectives and consciousness.

Zhou Yuling glanced at the discarded clone, then at the voice transmission bead in her hand, her eyes thoughtful.

Obviously, she deliberately staged this to probe his cloning ability!

Jiang Ye was fully aware but pretended to be oblivious to her test.

At this moment, the discarded clone seemed to have just realized something and asked even more surprised:

“What? Sister Zhou, weren’t you supposed to be inside the Mirror Palace secret realm? How come you’re outside of it again??”

“Could it be you also have clone abilities?”

“Or… are you a fake Zhou Yuling??”

Saying this, the discarded clone’s stance turned cautious, and it took half a step back.

Zhou Yuling thought for a moment and then said into the voice transmission bead, “Since I ran into your other clone, I’ll connect directly with your other clone, okay?”

Clone No. 1 seemed to consider briefly, then nodded in agreement: “Alright.”

So, Zhou Yuling put away the voice bead and looked at Jiang Ye’s discarded clone.

Facing the discarded clone’s puzzled and wary gaze, she glanced around once more before sighing helplessly:

“I’m not a fake Zhou Yuling, nor a clone. I really came out of the Mirror Palace secret realm…”

Jiang Ye’s eyes widened: “How did you get out? You found a way to leave the secret realm?”

“Sort of.” Zhou Yuling’s expression was complicated, but before Jiang Ye could ask more, she said straightforwardly, “My way out of the secret realm was very simple—it was death.”

“Didn’t I just tell you that the final ‘Mirror Puppet’ boss is ridiculously strong?”

“In fact, not long ago, I was slapped to death by that boss…”

Her tone was subtle at that moment but soon returned to normal.

“I left the secret realm by dying and then reviving.”

“You can simply think of it like the underground graveyard in the 4444 Apartment. I also have a fixed resurrection point, and that resurrection point is outside the secret realm, so I automatically left the secret realm…”

Zhou Yuling’s casual words sent chills down Jiang Ye’s spine!

First, he hadn’t expected…

When Guiwen stomped with that giant ‘Mirror Puppet’, he thought he missed Zhou Yuling, which was why she disappeared under his foot…

But he didn’t expect!

Just one stomp, and Zhou Yuling actually died!

And the other piece of information he didn’t expect was…

Zhou Yuling’s attitude toward death and resurrection was so casual!

She even used the term “fixed resurrection point”!

Could it mean…

She had quite a lot of resurrection chances?

That’s why she died so calmly?

A strong resurrection ability was definitely a powerful trump card.

If an ordinary player met an opponent with many resurrection methods, it would be extremely troublesome.

But Jiang Ye…

He loved these kinds of opponents!

He liked those who had so many resurrection methods that they weren’t afraid of death!

Just like the Mask Master, didn’t he also rely on resurrection methods to let Jiang Ye stab him with a knife repeatedly…

So much so that Jiang Ye didn’t even use the Time-Limited Instant Kill, almost getting a clone for free!

Because his “clone kills clone” effect took priority over all resurrection methods!

No matter how many resurrection methods you have, as long as you turn into my clone and let me trigger the “clone kills clone” effect…

It’s directly a clone conversion!

No resurrection method could save you!

Because of this, Jiang Ye’s heart was bleeding right now!

If he had known Zhou Yuling was so easy to kill…

When he stomped her to death with Guiwen just now, it would have been better to turn her into his clone first!

What a pity!

From this perspective, Jiang Ye clearly understood—

His “clone kills clone” ability’s difficulty never lay in “killing.”

It lay in how to turn the opponent into his clone!

Including now, he could probably kill Zhou Yuling easily.

But as long as he didn’t turn her into his clone, she could revive easily…

And if he forcibly turned her into his clone without a guaranteed kill,

His biggest secret would have a huge risk of exposure!

So now, while his heart was bleeding, Jiang Ye had to restrain the unbearable urge to turn Zhou Yuling into a clone.

Following Zhou Yuling’s words, he accepted that she left the secret realm through resurrection…

Then he looked confused and said:

“What? The secret realm entrance disappeared, and you left the secret realm…?”

He hesitated and asked, “Do you still have a way to enter the secret realm now?”

Zhou Yuling shook her head: “I entered the secret realm through the silver-white vortex before. How would I know any other ways to enter?”

“Besides, even if I went in, it would be useless. That final ‘Mirror Puppet’ is too terrifying…”

“So in my opinion, we probably have to give up on the Mirror Palace secret realm for now.”

“???” Jiang Ye was stunned when he heard her say that, then immediately got angry: “What? Sister??!”

“You say it so casually—give up for now…”

“But I still have 2,000 clones inside the secret realm!”

“You have a powerful background and many methods, so you can die and resurrect at will…”

“But my 2,000 clones are just weak little Calamities!”

“You died with one slap! Then my 2,000 clones, won’t they be wiped out in minutes?!”

He spoke indignantly, as if furious to the extreme.

But inside, he was not worried at all…

After all, the so-called “final boss” was already controlled by Guiwen.

The fact that Guiwen stomped Zhou Yuling was purely a personal grudge.

Of course, there was no need to stomp his clones.

Jiang Ye even sensed—

Although the entire secret realm was completely sealed with the generation of the final “Mirror Puppet,”

This sealed state was different from the state where clones lose all contact after entering the cycle grid.

In other words, he still maintained contact with the clones inside the secret realm.

Skills like clone swapping could still be used.

The entire secret realm’s closure almost didn’t affect him.

So this burst of anger, this seeming loss of blood, was purely an act.

His acting skills were getting better, and he played it quite convincingly.

Even Zhou Yuling didn’t suspect it for a moment.

She thought for a bit and then asked seriously, “Actually, what I wanted to ask you was—”

“You have 2,000 clones inside the secret realm. Can you still sense them?”

Jiang Ye continued venting emotionally: “Sense my ass, sense my ass!”

“You know very well! Puppet Clones don’t occupy my mental energy. My connection with them is even weaker than with other clones!”

“Now, separated by the secret realm, I’m completely out of contact with those 2,000 clones!”

“I even suspect those 2,000 clones might have been slapped to death by the final ‘Mirror Puppet’ boss just like you!”

“My puppet clones don’t have any resurrection methods!”

“If they get stomped to death, that’s a loss of a full 2,000 survival points. Damn it!”

He acted so intensely that he actually felt angry.

He directly said to Zhou Yuling, “You have to explain this to me!”

“After all, I arranged for 2,000 clones to enter the secret realm to help you quickly generate the ‘Mirror Puppet’ boss…”

“Now that I’ve suffered losses, don’t you think you should take some responsibility?”

“…”

Zhou Yuling originally wanted to probe his connection with his clones.

Unexpectedly, this guy immediately played the blame game with her.

How ridiculous!

This so-called “help” was something he volunteered for.

Afterwards, she had to take responsibility for his losses?

What kind of logic is that?

Zhou Yuling was speechless inside, but since they had just quarreled over the pledge of 10,000 clones, their relationship was already tense.

She didn’t want to fight again over this.

So she didn’t want to argue about who was right or wrong or about logic.

This Doomsday Apartment was never a place for reason.

Here, it was about interests and fists.

But now, both sides didn’t know how strong each other’s fists were.

So discussing interests was a better way to avoid conflict and losses.

Zhou Yuling thought for a moment and then said bluntly:

“We just argued. I don’t want to quarrel with you now.”

“You might as well think about it yourself. If you insist on demanding me compensate you with 2,000 survival points for your loss…”

“How is that any different from when I asked you to pledge 10,000 clones before?”

Hearing this, Jiang Ye sneered inwardly: Haha, now you realize it was unreasonable for me to pledge clones before?

You don’t know pain until the whip is on you!

He said nothing, and Zhou Yuling continued:

“Now that we can’t enter the Mirror Palace secret realm anymore, I plan to quickly explore the Court of Disorder.”

“So we have to talk about that unpleasant topic we discussed before…”

She glanced at Jiang Ye, thought for a moment, then slowly and deeply said:

“Asking you to pledge 10,000 clones might have been a poor choice of words that made you uncomfortable.”

“But as I said before, the Left Alliance really needs those ten thousand men.”

“So how about this…”

“If you agree to go explore the Court of Disorder with me early, then let’s change the wording—”

“It’s not that you’re pledging us 10,000 clones, but the Defenders’ Alliance is borrowing 10,000 clones from you.”

Jiang Ye was about to say, what the heck’s the difference?

But Zhou Yuling explained further:

“Pledging was a forced demand on you due to our lack of consideration before;”

“Borrowing is us continuing to seek your help. And since it’s a ‘loan,’ we’re willing to pay some interest.”

“You just lost clones worth 2,000 survival points, right?”

“So how about we pay you 1,000 survival points as interest for borrowing 10,000 clones?”

“Also, considering 10,000 clones is a large amount.”

“You lending us clones is like lending us money.”

“So we should pledge some assets to you. When we return your clones, you return our pledged assets, how about that?”

“Actually, when you accompany me to explore the Court of Disorder, it’s like lending me 90,000 clones.”

“So now, borrowing another 10,000 clones to help the Left Alliance with other things shouldn’t be hard to accept, right?”

Zhou Yuling’s attitude now was much better than before.

And her rephrasing of “pledging clones” to “borrowing clones” was indeed easier to accept.

If it was pledging, Jiang Ye would be the passive party.

But if it was borrowing, Jiang Ye was the big boss.

According to Zhou Yuling, she would pay him 1,000 survival points interest, plus other pledged assets…

And the borrowed clones would be returned in full later.

Just like with the Court of Disorder, the 90,000 clones still belonged to Jiang Ye and wouldn’t be lost due to the expedition.

To be honest, Jiang Ye was somewhat persuaded.

Mainly because he really wanted to explore the Court of Disorder immediately.

If this matter could be settled, he should be able to enter the Court of Disorder quickly…

Thinking this, he sighed lightly.

But soon, he restrained his expression and adopted a very serious demeanor:

“First, 1,000 survival points are not enough! I want 2,000 to compensate for my 2,000 lost clones!”

Zhou Yuling frowned and hesitated slightly.

Jiang Ye saw this and knew she didn’t find this condition completely unacceptable.

So he raised his second finger and continued:

“Second, because of the earlier Life Stone scam, I don’t accept your item-type pledged assets.”

“So in my opinion, the best pledged asset is 10,000 survival points!”

“I lend you my 10,000 clones, and you pledge 10,000 survival points to me.”

“When you return my 10,000 clones, I’ll return the 10,000 survival points to you.”

“Of course, if you don’t return the clones, I won’t have to return the survival points.”

“When you return the clones, the fewer clones I get back, the fewer survival points I return to you.”

Zhou Yuling’s mouth twitched noticeably while listening.

Jiang Ye said righteously: “My demand isn’t unreasonable, right?”

“After all, the cost price of my 10,000 clones is 10,000 survival points. I’m calculating at that price, which is very fair without any profit margin!”

He spoke as if clones were actual commodities for trading.

Zhou Yuling lowered her eyes and thought for a moment. Whether she consulted Lin Ling, no one knew.

But after a while, she nodded in agreement:

“Fine! Let’s go with your terms—2,000 survival points interest, 10,000 survival points pledge!”

However, just as she made up her mind to agree, Jiang Ye quietly added:

“I haven’t finished speaking yet…”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep