Lin Ling deliberately paused here, precisely to let Jiang Ye continue along with her words.

Her gaze shifted to Jiang Ye, and she purposely tossed the topic to him.

According to the usual flow, Jiang Ye would now say, “You’re right,” and then go on babbling.

However, Jiang Ye raised his eyebrows slightly but showed no intention of replying.

Lin Ling was somewhat surprised, a flash of contemplation flickering in her eyes.

After a brief moment, she continued according to her guess:

“You want to make a deal with me, agreeing that I won’t probe your clone’s memories in exchange for using the Life Stone again?”

Jiang Ye was silent for a moment, then ambiguously raised an eyebrow and said, “How about it?”

Lin Ling replied directly, “Agreed.”

Yet the next second, Jiang Ye revealed a meaningful, faint smile.

Of course, he quickly reined in his smile and said seriously:

“But I think not.”

“That’s not the deal I want.”

“……”

Damn it, Lin Ling’s eye twitched slightly, wanting to slap him right there and curse, “Are you messing with me?”

However, since there was a chubby guy leisurely watching like an onlooker beside them,

and since she hadn’t fully figured out Jiang Ye’s background, Lin Ling restrained her urge to scold him.

She took a subtle deep breath and then asked Jiang Ye again:

“So, what kind of deal do you actually want?”

This time, her tone was a bit stern.

Jiang Ye smiled again, deliberately using a casual tone to lighten the mood:

“Ah, Sister Lin, don’t be so serious~”

“I already said, I’m not the type to hold grudges when I’m right…”

“Now that we’re still talking about a deal, naturally it has to be a win-win, where you benefit and I benefit…”

As he spoke, he glanced at the onlooking chubby guy as if he suddenly thought of something.

Then, as if deliberately giving this big shot some face, he even cued the chubby guy:

“Of course, it’s best if our onlookers here can also enjoy the show…”

At this, he cast a friendly smile toward the chubby guy.

This made the chubby guy laugh even more heartily, looking like an honest, simple-minded fool…

In contrast, Lin Ling’s eyelid twitched again.

Jiang Ye noticed Lin Ling’s eyes were quite large.

Most people’s eyes narrow to slits when their eyelids droop,

but Lin Ling’s eyes still clearly showed the black pupils beneath her lowered lids, revealing a wooden coldness.

Naturally, Jiang Ye didn’t dare to test her patience further. After bragging about the “win-win” proposal, he smiled amicably and said:

“This is what I’m thinking—”

“You, of course, want to investigate everything related to Jade Flask and enter the hidden space connected to the 9999 red-lit elevator;”

“And I want to figure out exactly what happened to that amnesiac clone…”

“So, we can cooperate perfectly!”

“First, you go and explore the red-lit elevator;”

“I’ll use every method to help you trigger the condition to open the hidden space;”

“Then, most likely, you’ll experience everything my amnesiac clone went through…”

“My amnesiac clone was too weak, so it’s normal it lost its memories.”

“But you’re different—you’re strong and definitely won’t lose memories.”

“When you return from the hidden space, I’ll pretty much know what my amnesiac clone experienced…”

“So, you get into the hidden space, and I find out what happened to my amnesiac clone. Isn’t that a win-win?”

Jiang Ye said this fluently in one breath.

Of course, he deliberately hid something in the middle—

When he helps Lin Ling trigger the condition to open the hidden space, he’ll try to see if he can make Lin Ling become one of his clones…

After all, he wasn’t sure what exactly the hidden condition was.

But it was perfectly reasonable for Lin Ling to imitate his clone’s path while exploring.

So, for caution’s sake, Lin Ling disguising herself as his clone while retracing that path was logical!

In fact, Jiang Ye actually hoped…

If he could get key information about the milky-white gas that caused his clone to go missing, or a way to neutralize it, directly from Lin Ling, that would be even better.

Because, from Jiang Ye’s perspective—

What really matters isn’t what the missing clone experienced;

His true headache was the milky-white gas that caused his clone to go missing!

So far, only two discarded clones went missing, which was still tolerable…

But if important clones go missing later on…

Or if after the Court of Disorder, when the original returns, that milky-white gas causes the original to go missing again…

That was something he absolutely couldn’t accept!

Therefore, aside from rescuing the original, Jiang Ye hoped to completely eliminate the hidden danger from the strange milky-white gas before the original fully returns.

Of course, Lin Ling at this moment might not agree to his so-called “win-win” deal.

And he could use Lin Ling’s attitude toward the “win-win” proposal to test whether the clone disappearance incident was related to her.

Jiang Ye’s current speculation was—

The hidden space connected to Jade Flask, the red-lit elevator, and the milky-white gas appearing around the Soul Resting Mound that caused clones to go missing…

The mastermind behind all this was indeed the apartment faction.

Namely, Salvation, the apartment boss, and the like.

However, there might be a mole within the apartment faction.

That mole was the 0000 Administrator, whom Jiang Ye suspected had a special relationship with Lin Ling.

In other words, from the perspective of authority and identity, the 0000 Administrator belonged to the apartment faction.

But in essence, he might be loyal to Lin Ling.

Therefore, the minor troubles the apartment faction caused Jiang Ye were also passed on to Lin Ling through the mole 0000.

So, the mastermind behind the clone disappearance was still the apartment boss;

But Lin Ling, through the mole, also knew something about these matters.

Now, it was up to Lin Ling how to respond to Jiang Ye’s “win-win” deal.

As Jiang Ye explained this deal, no emotion appeared on Lin Ling’s face.

She was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking seriously about something.

Almost at the same time, the Zhou Qiming clone in the black ice domain, after confirming that Lin Ling should already know they were about to explore the chess grid containing the Three Life Stone Staff, deliberately put the staff back into the grid…

Finally decided—

“Since our target all along is that key grid ahead, we naturally have to go in and explore.”

He looked at Lin Jing: “What do you think?”

Lin Jing thought for a moment, then solemnly said, staring at the target grid:

“No matter what we think, let’s explore that target grid first, then gather and discuss?”

Jiang Ye nodded.

The four of them tacitly agreed the target grid probably had no danger.

But they still cautiously crossed the boundary between grids…

In an instant, all four almost simultaneously reached the target grid.

It was quite a coincidence—the scene in this target grid was somewhat similar to the first grid they saw when entering the black ice domain.

The only difference was—

On this vast plain, there was a cliff hanging high above.

More precisely, a cliff peak.

To the naked eye, it looked like the cliff was split in two by the grid boundary.

Most of the cliff was in another grid.

Only the tip of the cliff, like the “tip of an iceberg,” protruded into the target grid they were on.

If you switched from 3D to a flat map, it was like drawing part of a cliff at the edge of a white sheet of paper.

Besides this iceberg-tip cliff,

The “constellation” in this target grid was also clearly different from other grids.

Other grids’ constellations, no matter how spread out, were full of countless stars but no moon.

Yet this grid’s night sky had no stars at all.

Instead, a bright full moon hung above that abrupt cliff peak.

Ouyang’s gaze swept the entire grid first and immediately muttered:

“This key grid isn’t actually a blank grid…”

“So my earlier guess was wrong?”

He wasn’t sure.

After scanning the entire scene, he frowned and asked Wu Wang:

“This endless plain… where’s the treasure you mentioned? You don’t mean we have to dig underground, right?”

Wu Wang didn’t answer.

Lin Jing, however, looked at the moon over the cliff and said with confidence:

“If I’m not mistaken…”

“That thing should be the treasure you’re talking about.”

Ouyang naturally noticed the unique full moon in this grid.

Hearing this, he suddenly realized: “So this moon… is a prop?”

At the moment Jiang Ye saw the full moon, he immediately thought—

That must be the giant orb at the top of the Three Life Stone Staff!

So the full moon in this grid was probably the Three Life Stone Staff!

Just then, he heard Wu Wang also look at the moon and say:

“Didn’t you notice? Inside that full moon, there seems to be a blurry… embryo?”

“……”

The word “embryo” made Jiang Ye’s eyelid twitch slightly.

But indeed, from the chessboard scene before, the posture of Wang Lingling curled inside the orb of the Three Life Stone Staff was very much like a baby in a womb…

From this perspective, Wang Lingling was very likely the body Lin Ling chose for the resurrected Jade Flask?

Besides Wang Lingling’s suspected physical body, Lin Ling also seemed to want the Guiwen soul entity trapped inside the Three Life Stone Staff?

As he was thinking this, he heard Ouyang ask Lin Jing: “Shall we now go explore atop the cliff?”

Jiang Ye didn’t know Lin Jing’s thoughts.

But when he carefully examined the iceberg-tip cliff, he wasn’t too surprised to find—

The entire cliff’s color, material, and feel were very similar to the Witch Gui cremains.

Of course, that meant it was also similar to the Next Life Stone inside the Three Life Stone Staff…

Thinking this, Jiang Ye looked at Lin Jing, wanting to hear his opinion.

Lin Jing noticed his gaze, thought for a moment, then calmly analyzed:

“Based on general experience, great temptations always come with great risks.”

“I don’t know who your ‘boss’ is or how you know about this treasure.”

“But from your earlier conversation, we can infer—”

“This treasure seems to be bait to lure your boss.”

“So even if we see it now, if we want to obtain it, we’ll likely fall into a trap set for your boss.”

This analysis was sound, and Jiang Ye nodded.

Lin Jing continued: “Also, that cliff tip that seemed to suddenly appear gives me a very bad feeling.”

“Rushing to explore the cliff probably won’t end well.”

“So my current thought is—”

“We should explore the other grid where the cliff extends from another space.”

“What do you think?”

Jiang Ye thought the same.

But he added:

“If the entire cliff is split between two grid spaces…”

“Then I think we should explore both spaces simultaneously.”

“That is, send two people to the grid suspected to contain the other part of the cliff;”

“And the other two remain in this grid to see if anything changes.”

This was a more rigorous approach.

However, splitting up meant…

According to Jiang Ye’s previous strict team attitude, this split action definitely couldn’t be Zhou and Wu versus Lin and Ouyang.

Two people from the same faction would surely be separated.

Ouyang wasn’t very happy about this.

However, Lin Jing directly agreed and said straightforwardly:

“Then you and I will go explore the other grid.”

“Ouyang and this big shot stay here?”

Jiang Ye thought the same and nodded approvingly at Lin Jing.

On the chessboard, after some thought, Lin Ling agreed to Jiang Ye’s “win-win” deal.

But she said bluntly: “Signing a contract for every deal wastes too much time…”

“This time, since it’s a ‘win-win,’ let’s just make a verbal agreement.”

“Later, after I send off these two big Buddhas and finish my business, I’ll go with you to Apartment 9999 to walk the path your amnesiac clone took. How about that?”

Jiang Ye thought about it but didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he suddenly said:

“The win-win plan just now wasn’t fully explained.”

“Didn’t I say—besides ‘you benefit, I benefit,’ I also want our impartial onlookers to benefit.”

“So, based on the win-win plan, I want to add one more thing—”

“I want to arrange one or two clones to explore the Abyss Restricted Zone.”

Actually, he originally had a Zhang Minghan clone to explore the Abyss Restricted Zone.

But Zhang Minghan was sent by the chubby guy directly to Zhou Yuling’s followers faction.

Next, Zhang Minghan’s clone was to explore the Court of Disorder.

So on the Abyss Restricted Zone side, there was no Jiang Ye clone.

This was a perfect chance to send some clones there.

Of course, he said this for the chubby guy’s “benefit.”

But deep down, he had doubts.

After all, Zhang Minghan exploring the Abyss Restricted Zone was basically excluded by the chubby guy.

He was worried the chubby guy intentionally didn’t want him exploring that area.

Lin Ling had no particular thoughts on this.

She simply raised an eyebrow toward the chubby guy and said:

“This extra condition might require your opinion.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep