Time was far too tight.

Clone No. 1 Jiang Ye skimmed the note in almost a single glance, finishing it at top speed.

Actually, the note merely described, in the briefest terms, what the outside clones had done after Clone No. 1 went missing, with emphasis on the origin of this Little Red Snake.

It also listed a few possible approaches the outside clones offered Clone No. 1—

First, Clone No. 1 could choose to take the Little Red Snake and participate in the Extreme Court session.

Perhaps the Little Red Snake might play some role during the court session.

Second, Clone No. 1 could, in a similar way, write down any important information he acquired after going missing and see if the Little Red Snake could carry that message out of the Court of Disorder—that is, deliver the news to the outside clones.

Third, Clone No. 1 could, based on his own situation and deductions, come up with other, better ways to make use of the Little Red Snake.

In short, the outside clones had very little time.

So their research into the Little Red Snake was extremely limited.

And the outside clones did not know how much time Clone No. 1 had before the Court Session started.

If time were plentiful, Clone No. 1 might have been able to use the countdown waiting period to study the Little Red Snake properly.

Of course, those were hypothetical scenarios the outside clones had imagined…

But the reality at this moment was—time was critically short!

When Clone No. 1 Jiang Ye saw the note, the countdown had already dropped to 30 seconds!

Thirty seconds was nowhere near enough to study the Little Red Snake!

He also had no information to deduce whether the Little Red Snake would become key to the Court Session!

So strictly speaking, the outside clones had prepared only two real options for Clone No. 1.

But Clone No. 1 had no idea which to choose!

In that split second, the amount of information he received and the things he was forced to handle were overwhelming!

It made it impossible for him to think calmly; his mind felt like scrambled porridge!

Since thinking was impossible…

He had to rely on instinct!

To be honest, from a human instinctive standpoint, Jiang Ye should have chosen to take the Little Red Snake into the Court Session.

After all, the outside clones risked everything—even sacrificing a clone—to get the Little Red Snake to him…

The Little Red Snake’s path to reach him had been fought through in blood at tremendous cost.

So it was only natural that he should take the Little Red Snake to the Court Session.

Yet when his thoughts paused there and he tried to make that choice…

Jiang Ye inexplicably felt that something was off.

And very wrong!

Time was too tight; he couldn’t contemplate further.

So Jiang Ye made his decision—

He quickly pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote furiously.

At the same time he spoke at high speed to the Little Red Snake:

“Are you confident you can forcefully leave this bizarre, pitch-black space?”

The Little Red Snake still did not speak, only letting out a “hiss—.”

That hiss carried unusual firmness.

Jiang Ye didn’t know what it was trying to convey.

He could only choose to trust that it could do it.

So he rapidly wrote the key information—

About his guaranteed generation of the light clone split mechanism inside the milky-white gas;

About there being no Blank 30 Seconds before the Extreme Court’s Court Session;

About Forced Exit from the Court being subject to Erasure by some invisible rule force…

Most importantly, he hoped the outside clones, while he explored the Court of Disorder, would focus on the Reincarnation Mirror Palace.

Since the Little Red Snake could devour milky-white gas…

Maybe it could also be effective in a cycle grid that appeared to contain milky-white gas.

After writing this, the outside clones could reasonably infer that the Court of Disorder and the cycle grid might have some connection.

In Jiang Ye’s mind, it took almost no time at all to figure out what to write on the paper.

He even had the two adjacent light clones each grab a sheet and write as well.

The problem was, he had too little time left!

And writing could not keep pace with his racing thoughts!

Several clones gripped their pens so tightly their hands whitened!

They scrawled across the paper in a manic hand, as if sitting in the most important exam of their lives.

That frantic tension and sense of running out of time—how painfully familiar it was!

And the truth was, time really was insufficient!

The light clones needed to enter the Court of Disorder to lead the way.

So when the 30-second countdown on the “Yes” option approached zero, the light clones did not hesitate and selected “Yes.”

As for Clone No. 1…

He had prepared for death, thinking—

Even if he were erased, the Little Red Snake should at least be able to take the notes out on its own, right?

However, the expected Erasure did not occur!

Even the light clones who selected “Yes” did not vanish on the spot to take part in the so-called “Court Session”!

Instead…

The entire impenetrable, pitch-black waiting area suddenly rippled with a strange motion!

This movement seemed to come from beneath their feet and from all directions at once!

It was as if the entire black-hole-like space was undergoing some cataclysmic change!

Yes—cataclysmic! That description fit best!

In that instant Jiang Ye nearly believed—

He was inside a special space of “primordial chaos opening,” watching heaven and earth be rent apart…

Amid that unusual motion,

a faint light appeared in the distant darkness…

The sensation was as if a beast named “Heaven and Earth” had been sleeping and slowly opened an eye slit.

A feeble beam of light seeped through that slit…

At that moment, every player in the pitch-black waiting area, Jiang Ye included, had their gaze toward the light become somewhat blurred!

And in that blurred gaze…

they all vaguely saw—

something rising up slowly…

not the sun,

but a stout form like a huge tree.

It was faint, but on that giant tree, hanging like ginseng-fruit, were humanoid leaves…

At the same time,

the players’ minds in the waiting area heard the announcement ring again:

[Ding!]

[The Extreme Court has reached its number for opening; the Formless Tree has successfully “revived”!]

[Now announcing the pre-Court Session rules for the Extreme Court—]

[During the pre-Court Session, the “waiting area” temporarily transforms into the “Formless Domain.” The original waiting area rules become invalid; the Formless Domain rules are as follows:]

[1. The Formless Tree has generated 99,999 Formless Leaves. Each Formless Leaf represents one slot for the Court Session.]

[2. Players may bind a Formless Leaf through a “blood-drip acknowledgment” to secure a Court slot.]

[3. Players who bind a Formless Leaf will remain in an “undying” state within the Formless Domain.]

[4. If a player who has bound a Formless Leaf “dies,” the Formless Leaf will be ejected.]

[5. In the Formless Domain, killers will be Erased;]

[6. In the Formless Domain, those who bleed will be Erased;]

[7. In the Formless Domain, players bound to two Formless Leaves simultaneously will be Erased;]

[8. In the Formless Domain, anyone who damages a Formless Leaf will be Erased.]

[9. When all Formless Leaves are in a bound state, and the number of bound Formless Leaves reaches 99,999, the Extreme Court will officially hold its Court Session!]

[The above are all rules for the pre-Court Session stage.]

The announcement ended.

The pitch-black space clearly changed the moment the announcement finished.

Jiang Ye didn’t know how other players felt.

But in that instant, all of Jiang Ye’s clones present in that space were no longer in a missing state!

At that moment, Jiang Ye was certain—

The ninety thousand clones he had previously generated were indeed all Light faction!

And this restored connectivity seemed to imply—

The original waiting area space contained milky-white gas, whereas the current Formless Domain did not?

At least that was Jiang Ye’s immediate interpretation.

Other players’ immediate focus, however, mostly zeroed in on the somewhat contradictory rules.

Rule 3 said players who bind Formless Leaves are “undying,” yet Rule 4 said if a bound player “dies,” the Formless Leaf will be ejected…

Veteran players in the waiting area quickly reasoned—

The “undying” state in Rule 3 likely only means they cannot be killed by other players.

But if someone is irregularly Erased, they would indeed “die,” and their bound Formless Leaf would be ejected.

This tension between the two rules was somewhat tolerable.

But Rule 6…

Those who bleed will be Erased.

Yet Rule 2 requires dripping blood to acknowledge binding a Formless Leaf.

How could the blood-drip binding process not involve bleeding?

Then there was Rule 8…

If Formless Leaves can be damaged…

Then combined with Rule 9, couldn’t a single damaged Formless Leaf prevent the entire Extreme Court from ever opening?

Also, Rule 9’s wording was weird.

Wouldn’t saying “when all 99,999 Formless Leaves have been bound” be equivalent to “when all Formless Leaves have been bound”?

After all, Rule 1 already stated the Formless Tree generated 99,999 Formless Leaves.

So “all Formless Leaves” would be at most 99,999.

Of course, only a minority noticed the redundancy in Rule 9.

Most players, once they realized the “do not move randomly” restriction from the waiting area no longer applied, immediately charged toward the Formless Tree located in the “Eye of the World” direction within their view!

At once, light and shadow rippled massively across the Formless Domain; the atmosphere filled with alarm and undercurrents.

And Jiang Ye…

happened to be one of the few who noticed the oddity in Rule 9.

He didn’t merely like nitpicking details…

More importantly—

When he realized he had time and was preparing to try again to use the Little Red Snake to get messages out to the outside clones…

he made a horrifying discovery…

At first he thought—

Where is my Desiccated Corpse?!

The clone body the Little Red Snake had traveled so far to deliver to him!

Why had it suddenly disappeared?!

Was something ghostly stealing corpses??

Then his second reaction was—

Holy shit?!

This is insane!!

Where the desiccated corpse had been lying…

there was now a palm-sized humanoid puppet the color of charred earth??

Rather than calling it a “puppet,” it was more like… a paper cutout? A leaf?

Because this puppet was flat and two-dimensional, like a paper person existing in a two-dimensional world.

And this flat humanoid creature had no facial features…

That “lack of facial features” trait…

paired with the vague shape on the distant Formless Tree that looked like “ginseng-fruit” hanging there…

suddenly gave Jiang Ye a chilling thought!

And that thought was confirmed the instant his fingers touched that humanoid leaf—

[Ding!]

[Congratulations, you have received a “Formless Leaf.” Please bind it quickly!]

“…”

What???

No way??

This???

What the hell?!

When the Formless Tree revived, it split a branch?

By some accident, a Formless Leaf grew right in front of him, across empty space?

Is my luck really this good? Is the Nomadic Merchant spoiling me, and the Formless Tree rushing to hand me a Formless Leaf??

That can’t…

be true, right?

So…

the truth must be…

My clone’s Desiccated Corpse just now?

Turned into a Formless Leaf just like that?!

No way?

Holy shit??

I…

Jiang Ye…

am a Formless Leaf??

Wait, wait, wait.

Sort out the logic…

Strictly speaking, it’s the “Jiang Ye clone” that became a Formless Leaf.

So does that mean Jiang Ye’s true body is the Formless Tree?

The announcement had said…

the Formless Tree revived?

Could the true body be dead and now reviving?

This sudden information left Jiang Ye’s head spinning.

At the same time, the image that had first flashed through his mind when he saw the clone corpse earlier rose up automatically again…

Although he had not yet seen the Formless Tree up close,

if the Formless Leaf equaled the Jiang Ye clone corpse…

then that distant Formless Tree must be hung with a huge number of Jiang Ye clone corpses, right?

Wouldn’t that overlap exactly with the image in his head of many corpses of the same person?

And unlike a pile, those many corpses seemed to be directly hanging on the Formless Tree…

Thinking this, Jiang Ye immediately moved.

He could not wait to see—

what that distant Formless Tree actually was.

By now he also fully understood why Rule 9 was redundantly worded in the announcement.

Because…

“all” Formless Leaves did not equal the 99,999 leaves generated by the Formless Tree!

Because…

Desiccated Corpses drained of blood could automatically become Formless Leaves!

So now, the actual number of Formless Leaves in the Formless Domain was a full 100,000!

Jiang Ye could even personally create Formless Leaves at will!

Therefore, under Rule 9…

given the current situation, to reach the threshold to open the Court Session…

someone would have to damage a Formless Leaf.

But damaging a Formless Leaf would inevitably lead to Erasure…

As Clone No. 1 rushed forward, he stroked the Formless Leaf in his hand, wondering inwardly—

Is this thing actually destructible?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep