Talk it out?

Hah!

Jiang Ye thought to himself, what the hell is there to talk about?

The problem is clearly with you!

What could you possibly have to say about me?

But despite his internal cursing, he obviously didn’t directly tear into Lin Ling. Instead, he asked directly:

“How exactly do you want to ‘talk it out’?”

“Well…” Lin Ling’s voice transmitted through the voice transmission bead sounded light and airy.

Immediately after, her figure reappeared on the 1st floor beside Jiang Ye.

She raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat surprised:

“I thought you would shift the blame onto me, like questioning my actions inside the elevator that you couldn’t see.”

Jiang Ye rolled his eyes at her and stated bluntly:

“This blame doesn’t belong on my head to begin with!”

“I’ll first listen to what you have to say, then naturally I’ll be able to determine whether you intentionally made the experiment fail, or if you genuinely followed my instructions but the experiment still failed.”

“Hah.” Lin Ling let out an ambiguous light laugh, “Since you put it that way, I need to show some sincerity…”

As she spoke, she flipped her right hand and handed Jiang Ye a talisman.

Jiang Ye was surprised, looking at the talisman then back at Lin Ling:

“This? What does it mean?”

Lin Ling raised an eyebrow, her tone serious and solemn:

“I genuinely wanted to trigger the ‘Safe Exit’ and find that hidden space.”

“But the two failed experiments undoubtedly prove—”

“Either you lied to me and deliberately played me;”

“Or your line of thinking itself is wrong.”

“Right now, I’m temporarily trusting you, so let’s proceed with the second scenario—your thinking is wrong.”

“Having me disguise as you and exactly replicate your experience cannot trigger the ‘Safe Exit’ in the elevator.”

“Then, we can try a different approach.”

“That is—have you personally exactly replicate your experience.”

“Of course, bring me along during this process.”

When she said “bring me along” these three words, she gestured with her eyes toward the talisman in her palm.

Jiang Ye’s mind quickly processed this, instantly understanding her hidden meaning.

Yet precisely because he understood instantly, he became even more incredulous, widening his eyes to confirm:

“You mean to say…”

“To ensure there’s only me in the elevator…”

“You want me to use this talisman to seal you, turning you into one of those small wooden dolls…”

“Then take the wooden doll to trigger the ‘Safe Exit’ and reach that hidden dwelling?”

As he voiced this speculation, his tone couldn’t hide his astonishment.

Yet Lin Ling remained calm and composed: “Correct.”

“This…” Jiang Ye swallowed, hesitantly taking the talisman.

After some thought, he deduced: “Since you dare to let me use this talisman on you…”

“You must have a way to release the seal yourself even after being sealed by this talisman, right?”

Lin Ling gave him a “that goes without saying” look.

Jiang Ye thought it over carefully and felt this approach might work.

Having a discarded clone take Lin Ling into the hidden dwelling…

Even if the discarded clone turned into a fake clone again, the loss wouldn’t be significant to him.

But he confirmed again: “When you’re sealed by this talisman into a doll, can you sense what’s happening in the outside world?”

At this question, Lin Ling gave him another meaningful look: “What? Worried I might sense that the process you follow is different from what you told me?”

“Of course not.”

Jiang Ye shook his head, deliberately lowering his voice with a serious expression: “I’m just a bit curious—”

“While you’re in doll form…”

“If I do some saucy things to you, would you be aware of it…”

?

??

???

Lin Ling almost actually slapped him flying!

She took a deep breath and gave Jiang Ye a cold look: “What do you think?”

“I think…” Jiang Ye stroked his chin thoughtfully, “You probably can’t sense the outside world, but to prevent me from actually doing something, you’re deliberately saying you can sense it :)”

“……”

Lin Ling’s face went wooden, and she suddenly reached out to grab the talisman, trying to pull it back from Jiang Ye’s hand.

But Jiang Ye held on firmly, not letting go.

Lin Ling said with cold eyes: “I’m now thinking we should go back to the first approach and have a proper talk with you.”

“Aiyo~” Jiang Ye quickly waved his hand, “Do I look like someone who would take advantage of people in vulnerable situations?”

“I’m super righteous, okay!”

“Look at my classmates—not only did I not rob them, I very generously let them leave the 4444 Apartment to develop;”

“And Yang Wenchao and Wan Xin, I didn’t kill them for survival points either.”

“And those female classmates, no matter how good-looking, I didn’t take advantage of my strength to do whatever I wanted…”

“Ahem, ahem…” He suddenly coughed lightly, secretly checking Lin Ling’s expression.

Worried this big sister might suspect he was implying she wasn’t good-looking or something…

However, Lin Ling’s expression remained normal, seemingly unconcerned with his meaningless sophistry.

Then came the main event…

Following this sophistry, Jiang Ye finally brought up the key point:

“Besides—”

“It’s just a doll, all hard and stiff, what could I possibly do to it?”

“Could it be that if I do something to the doll, you would actually feel it?”

“To be honest, those mini wooden dolls made from sealing players… essentially, they should be just containers similar to props, not the players themselves, right?”

“What’s the principle behind a player transforming from a normal physical body state into a doll container?”

He even wanted to ask further—

What was the principle behind Lin Ling using so many dolls as chess pieces?

But just asking this much already made Lin Ling’s look at him quite subtle.

She indeed didn’t answer, instead directly releasing her grip on the corner of the talisman.

“Right, just a doll.”

“Whatever you do to the doll has nothing to do with me.”

“And the previous two experiments, going through the entire process, basically took no more than one and a half minutes.”

“So, after you use this talisman in your hand to seal me, the seal will automatically release after one and a half minutes.”

“When the seal releases, if I don’t appear in the hidden dwelling…”

But just asking this much already made Lin Ling’s look at him quite subtle.

She indeed didn’t answer, instead directly releasing her grip on the corner of the talisman.

Clearly, she had given Jiang Ye plenty of face and made sufficient concessions.

To be honest, Jiang Ye hadn’t expected her to go as far as sealing herself into a doll.

If even after going this far, they still couldn’t enter the hidden dwelling…

Then this “blame” would indeed have to fall on Jiang Ye.

And Lin Ling would definitely settle this account with him thoroughly.

Jiang Ye thought about it and still didn’t refuse:

“Alright. Before I was just helping you, but now I also really want to see what secrets that hidden space that caused my clone to lose memories is hiding.”

“Then, as you said, we’ll see the results in one and a half minutes!”

As he spoke, he raised the talisman toward Lin Ling while giving her a meaningful look.

Lin Ling’s expression remained calm as she nodded slightly.

Then Jiang Ye threw the talisman toward her, and Lin Ling offered no resistance whatsoever.

Thus, the talisman swiftly stuck to Lin Ling’s forehead.

And like all the players she had previously stuck talismans to…

This time, it was Lin Ling’s turn to become a mini wooden doll!

Lying quietly on the ground like a lifeless wooden prop!

Since there was only one and a half minutes, Jiang Ye obviously couldn’t do anything to the doll.

However, he still upheld his inner sense of justice…

After picking up the doll, the first thing he did was slap it flying…

“Thump—”

Thus, the talisman swiftly stuck to Lin Ling’s forehead.

Then that clone also gave the doll a slap in the direction of Jiang Ye No. 2…

Heh heh heh!

Two perfect slaps, taking less than two seconds.

Though completely useless.

But they vividly expressed Jiang Ye’s righteous feelings…

Since time was limited, he took the doll into the red-lit elevator.

But just after entering the elevator, Jiang Ye thought again—

He could totally continue brutally abusing the Lin Ling doll for seventy or eighty more seconds!

Until just a few seconds before triggering the “Safe Exit,” then use the Clone Shared Space to take out the doll!

Tsk tsk, perfect!

But to be honest, this kind of simple brutal abuse was really just psychological victory…

Psychological victory alone was rather boring.

Maybe find a little buddy to show off to?

Coincidentally, right now on the radiation soil of the Abyss Restricted Zone.

Jiang Ye’s clone fused with Xiao Hei was still maintaining contact with Xiao Bai.

Mainly him asking Xiao Bai all sorts of questions.

Like how exactly she privately raised that little black snake…

Like why she thought he could resurrect the little black snake…

Like what it would mean after the little black snake was resurrected, would mutations occur or something?

Of course, Jiang Ye didn’t directly say he had already completed the little black snake’s resurrection, and that the resurrected little black snake had turned into a little red snake…

Through deliberate concealment, he vaguely inferred—

The resurrected little red snake and Xiao Bai seemed to no longer maintain that mother-child nurturing relationship.

After all, Xiao Bai didn’t seem to sense the little red snake’s resurrection.

And the resurrected little red snake obeyed Jiang Ye’s commands, showing no intention of looking for Xiao Bai.

Because of this, it was rather difficult for Jiang Ye to indirectly probe for information about the little red snake from Xiao Bai.

Xiao Bai only mentioned why she privately raised the little black snake.

Nothing more than wanting to give herself an extra trump card.

Of course, this was the subjective reason from her perspective.

The objective reason that enabled her to achieve this trump card was—

Probably starting from the last two Novice Apartments.

The number of Mist Monsters born in her 「Dense Forest Space」 was significantly higher than in previous sessions.

The resurrected little red snake and Xiao Bai seemed to no longer maintain that mother-child nurturing relationship.

After all, Xiao Bai didn’t seem to sense the little red snake’s resurrection.

Overall, her process of raising the secret little black snake was actually the same as those little black snakes on her head.

Jiang Ye couldn’t help but think—

If he took all the little black snakes on Xiao Bai’s head, soaked them in his blood, and threw them into the Reincarnation Graveyard for a “blood bath rebirth”…

Then could all the little black snakes become little red snakes?

And after this change, those little black snakes might also change masters like the resurrected little red snake?

Following this line of thought, Jiang Ye couldn’t help but speculate—

Perhaps resurrection methods caused by the Reincarnation Graveyard could erase original master-servant relationships for players?

However, these thoughts remained just thoughts in his mind.

When he urgently asked Xiao Bai to borrow the little black snake, she refused.

Naturally, she would be even less likely to cooperate with experiments.

At most, after returning from exploring the Abyss Restricted Zone, if those little black snakes were still around, he could consider experimenting.

Jiang Ye’s subsequent conversation with Xiao Bai wasn’t as urgent as before when he needed to arrange for a clone to take the little red snake into the 【Court of Disorder】.

And on the chessboard, when the chubby guy summoned the Guiwen Grandmaster.

Jiang Ye, because he felt the Guiwen Grandmaster’s hunched, rugged figure resembled the old woman beside Yuan Qiu, indirectly probed Xiao Bai for information about that old woman.

Xiao Bai still told him everything she knew.

But unfortunately—

“Essentially, my base is in the Novice Apartment.”

“So I’m not very familiar with the situation of the Defenders’ Alliance located in the Doomsday Apartment.”

“But based on the information I’ve encountered…”

“That old woman’s strength or status should be above my sister Zhou Yuling.”

“Even suspect she might not necessarily be weaker than Lin Ling!”

Hearing this, Jiang Ye was naturally shocked!

After all, from the information he got from Zhang Minghan, that old woman was just sent by Yuan Qiu’s father Yuan Yihong to protect Yuan Qiu…

And Yuan Yihong’s strength was clearly inferior to Lin Ling’s.

So someone Yuan Yihong sent to protect his daughter couldn’t possibly be stronger than Lin Ling!

Xiao Bai still told him everything she knew.

Shocked, he pressed further:

“Someone with strength comparable to Lin Ling, yet willingly acts as a bodyguard for Yuan Qiu?”

“Could that old woman’s true identity be Yuan Qiu’s mother?”

“……” Xiao Bai didn’t give a clear answer to this speculation.

However, she ambiguously mentioned:

“I vaguely feel… Yuan Qiu’s status in the Defenders’ Alliance shouldn’t be simply as Yuan Yihong’s daughter.”

What?

Jiang Ye was shocked hearing this and pondered further.

Since they were just chatting idly anyway, he directly voiced his speculation:

“If your ‘feeling’ is correct…”

“Then either Yuan Qiu is pretending to be weak while actually being strong, possessing considerable power?”

“Or perhaps she might be an extremely special ‘experimental subject’?”

Jiang Ye felt it was probably the latter.

Although that little girl seemed to immediately notice something different about Zhang Minghan—such terrifying intuition was indeed rather unbelievable.

But in Zhang Minghan’s memories of interacting with the little girl, there was no sense of her pretending to be weak.

Rather, Zhang Minghan’s guesses about the girl vaguely confirmed her unusual experiences.

Maybe she really transformed completely from a monster into a Defenders player…

Then in the Defenders’ Alliance, she indeed might be an extremely special experimental subject.

So, that old woman protecting Yuan Qiu wasn’t arranged by Yuan Yihong.

But simply protecting that experimental specimen.

Thinking this, Jiang Ye asked Xiao Bai:

“I found it strange before—given Yuan Yihong’s concern for Yuan Qiu, he shouldn’t agree to her exploring the Abyss Restricted Zone…”

“At the time I thought the little girl was acting on her own, heading toward danger wherever it was.”

“Now it seems her coming to explore the Abyss Restricted Zone was probably arranged?”

Although that little girl seemed to immediately notice something different about Zhang Minghan—such terrifying intuition was indeed rather unbelievable.

“Wait, stop talking for now.”

Rather, Zhang Minghan’s guesses about the little girl subtly confirmed her unusual experiences.

Her expression turned extremely serious as her eyes scanned the surroundings.

And the radiation soil beneath her feet was now faintly vibrating!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep