Obviously, Jiang Ye’s situation with the “blood-drip acknowledgment” for the Formless Leaf was quite special.

Because he wasn’t using just one single clone for the “blood-drip acknowledgment.”

Instead, under the tree, from the Zhang Minghan clone, to the 6 clones generated by Zhang Minghan…

A total of 7 clones.

The blood mist they emitted spread out into long blood chains, rushing uniformly and simultaneously towards the “Formless Leaf” on the tree.

In other words…

This was equivalent to 7 people simultaneously performing acknowledgment on a single “Formless Leaf”!

So naturally, this result was worth anticipating.

In fact, before those blood chains truly surged towards Jiang Ye, he was also quite looking forward to the outcome in his heart.

However, when the blood from all 7 clones surged towards him…

He discovered—

He had been looking forward to nothing!

Dammit!

After all that grand, spectacular display, even being considered an “anomaly” by these strong players!

Yet the result had no “anomaly” at all!

To some extent, one could say nothing happened!

Of course, looking at it from another angle, Jiang Ye realized—

The effect of these clones’ blood surging towards the “Formless Leaf” where he was located seemed to be the same as blood surging towards the crescent blood mark on the “Formless Tree.”

The blood from the second clone generated by Zhang Minghan quickly drained completely, turning into a desiccated corpse.

Then, that desiccated corpse turned into a new leaf on the Formless Tree.

The only difference might be…

The blood from these clones flowing to the “Formless Leaf” where the main body was located seemed to be faster than flowing to the “Formless Tree.”

In just over ten seconds.

Including Zhang Minghan, all seven clones…

Had all turned into “Formless Leaves” hanging from the branches!

For a moment, there were no more Jiang Ye clones under the tree.

And on the tree, there were a total of 9 Formless Leaves hanging.

One of them contained Jiang Ye’s main body.

The other eight were all transformed from clones.

Of course, if Jiang Ye wished, he could merge those eight “Formless Leaves” into his main body at any moment.

However, this kind of merger would be a completely “irreversible” fusion.

That is, once merged, the fusion effect could not be undone.

For now, Jiang Ye did not act rashly.

And when the strong players under the tree saw that Jiang Ye indeed did not perform “blood-drip acknowledgment” but instead all turned into “Formless Leaves”…

This result inevitably left them somewhat disappointed, but also a bit relieved.

Jiang Wenxing was gone, Jiang Ye was gone too…

Wait, not exactly.

Jiang Wenxing could only be considered missing in action;
who knows if he might suddenly reappear at any time?

And Jiang Ye, only his clones in this location were gone;
he should still have nearly ninety thousand clones hiding somewhere.

Obviously, these strong players did not know that the light and shadow around the Nomadic Merchant earlier were actually Jiang Ye’s clones.

They only assumed Jiang Ye still had ninety thousand clones floating around outside…

However, based on his recent performance, even though Jiang Ye was suspected of having eliminated Jiang Wenxing, he posed almost no threat to them.

Sure, the kid had many clones, his blood was special, and the ability of the Dice of Fate came from who knows where.

But each of his clones was just a level 0 small Calamity.

They had zero defense.

A simple cut on the skin to make him bleed…

Could immediately cause him to lose a clone on the spot.

After experiencing this brief process of “Jiang Ye’s failed blood-drip acknowledgment,”

These strong players, who had been arguing incessantly, now calmed down again.

For the time being, let’s assume Zhou Yuling made a valid point—

Jiang Wenxing’s inheritance might not actually be something good.

What if Jiang Wenxing wasn’t dead and came back looking for the few items he dropped?

Of course, the real reason had to be—

After arguing for so long, they genuinely didn’t know who ended up with the inheritance.

Thus…

In the quiet atmosphere, the strong player who first attacked Jiang Ye’s clone spoke up proactively:

“Regardless of whether Jiang Wenxing is truly dead or not, since he is no longer here, let’s try not to mention him anymore.”

“Right now, our top priority is still to figure out how to achieve ‘blood-drip acknowledgment’ for the ‘Formless Leaf’ without ‘bleeding’.”

“Although there are only nine Formless Leaves now, which doesn’t meet the quantity requirement stated in the announcement.”

“However, other problems can be overcome with effort.”

“The key issue now is still this ‘blood-drip acknowledgment’ problem…”

When the other strong players saw this particular strong player—the first one to target Jiang Wenxing’s inheritance—actually take a step back voluntarily and suggest not mentioning Jiang Wenxing…

They couldn’t help but suspect internally—

Could it be that this guy, who was the first to rush towards Jiang Ye back then, used some method unnoticed by everyone else to take Jiang Wenxing’s inheritance from Jiang Ye?

Otherwise, how could he give up so easily on the inheritance of a Reincarnator?

Just as someone was about to voice their doubt.

They heard that strong player state bluntly:

“To be honest, a new idea recently occurred to me…”

As he spoke, this strong player turned his gaze towards Zhou Yuling.

Zhou Yuling didn’t have much fondness for this strong player.

After all, he was the one who attacked Jiang Ye’s seventh clone and was the first to rush over trying to forcibly seize Jiang Wenxing’s inheritance.

Including the earlier chaotic battle and the subsequent ceasefire, this guy seemed to be subtly in a leading role.

Clearly, this strong player was quite powerful.

However, whether he had used some disguise or not, Zhou Yuling couldn’t recognize him.

She only felt that his face was extremely unfamiliar, never seen before.

In fact, Zhou Yuling also suspected a bit…

Could Jiang Wenxing’s inheritance have fallen into this guy’s hands?

But she also understood that as long as they kept bringing up the inheritance, the disputes would continue endlessly.

On the other hand, the matter of “blood-drip acknowledgment” mentioned by this unfamiliar strong player was something Zhou Yuling genuinely cared about.

So, she cooperatively stopped mentioning Jiang Wenxing and proactively said:

“If you have one hundred percent confidence in your idea…”

“Then right now, instead of publicly sharing your idea with us here, you should be taking direct action to perform acknowledgment on one of the 9 ‘Formless Leaves’ on the tree.”

“So, if you have something to say, just say it directly.”

The strong player then smiled slightly and praised unreservedly: “As expected of someone who works for the Defenders’ Alliance. Working with Sister Zhou must be quite effortless.”

A casual compliment, yet it sparked a guess in Zhou Yuling’s heart.

This unfamiliar strong player, who was likely disguised… might know her?

Or perhaps, has some connection with the Defenders’ Alliance?

After all, most people defined Zhou Yuling either as a “Defender” or as “someone from the Defenders’ Alliance.”

But this strong player referred to Zhou Yuling as “someone who works for the Defenders’ Alliance”…

Superficially, it seemed no different from directly calling her “someone from the Defenders’ Alliance.”

But in reality, Zhou Yuling essentially indeed only worked for the Defenders’ Alliance and wasn’t actually a member of the alliance.

Could this unfamiliar strong player possibly know about her situation?

Or perhaps, knows about the internal situation of the Defenders’ Alliance?

Various conjectures arose in Zhou Yuling’s heart.

And this unfamiliar strong player continued:

“Actually, my idea is very simple—”

“We need to carefully define what exactly constitutes ‘bleeding’.”

“I heard that within the Defenders’ Alliance, they developed a special serum called [Blood Poison Corpse Water] for exploring the Abyss Restricted Zone.”

“Players injected with this serum have mutated and coagulated blood;
even if their skin is cut, they cannot bleed.”

“Of course, if we directly use this [Blood Poison Corpse Water], while it avoids the ‘bleeding’ problem, it also prevents us from performing ‘blood-drip acknowledgment’…”

Zhou Yuling nodded, growing increasingly curious about this strong player’s identity.

Then she saw this mysterious strong player continue:

“So, obviously, if we want to perform ‘blood-drip acknowledgment’ on the ‘Formless Leaf’, this [Blood Poison Corpse Water] cannot be used.”

“But perhaps we can use a similar principle?”

“What I mean is… like this!”

As he spoke, this unfamiliar strong player suddenly raised his hand.

His finger pointed towards a young strong player near him.

The young man was listening intently when suddenly being pointed at;
his entire body stiffened instantly.

Yes, he literally “stiffened” froze.

Because a laser-like blue energy suddenly shot from the mysterious strong player’s fingertip.

After hitting the young man…

He was directly frozen into an ice sculpture!

Clearly, that was no ordinary ice.

Otherwise, given the strength of the players present, they could easily break free.

But that young man couldn’t break free!

For a moment, the atmosphere under the Formless Tree became tense again!

These strong players had just been relieved that Jiang Wenxing’s threat was gone…

They didn’t expect this unfamiliar strong player to be so formidable as well!

Although probably not as abnormal as Jiang Wenxing.

But here, he clearly could command some authority.

Just as the other strong players were shocked by this mysterious strong player’s strength.

They saw this mysterious strong player explain to Zhou Yuling:

“Seeing this, you should have guessed, right?”

“My idea is simple: use such ‘ice sculptures’.”

“Normally cutting the skin to draw blood would undoubtedly lead to Erasure.”

“But if we create such an ice sculpture, then chop off a little finger from the ice sculpture.”

“Afterwards, I’ll remove the ice effect on that isolated little finger…”

“At that point, the blood flowing from the severed limb might not trigger the Erasure of the original body?”

“Of course, I know this idea might not necessarily succeed.”

“So, we need to conduct an experiment…”

Alright, yet again, “conduct an experiment.”

These four words, repeatedly mentioned by Jiang Wenxing, had almost become an inescapable shadow in the hearts of the strong players present.

Now, hearing them from this unfamiliar strong player’s mouth…

Made them feel the fear of being dominated by Jiang Wenxing not long ago all over again!

Some particularly imaginative strong players even couldn’t help but speculate—

This mysterious strong player who suddenly appeared so powerful…

Could he have been seized by Jiang Wenxing?

This guy was the most likely to have obtained Jiang Wenxing’s inheritance!

So, could it be that what Zhou Yuling said was true—

Jiang Wenxing’s inheritance wasn’t something good!

But rather the key to Jiang Wenxing’s body seizure and rebirth?!

This strong player showed no remarkable performance before, staying low-key like a background character.

Now suddenly revealing a powerful side…

Could it be because he too had only recently been seized by Jiang Wenxing??

This terrifying thought made the atmosphere on site even more tense and heavy.

Zhou Yuling didn’t entertain such an outrageous plotline.

Mainly because she felt that given Jiang Wenxing’s personality, if he truly seized a body and rebirthed, he wouldn’t hide it.

Instead, he would directly reveal the fact of his body seizure and rebirth, forcefully showing off again to shock everyone.

So, Zhou Yuling didn’t think in that direction at all.

The Doomsday Apartment was always full of hidden talents.

Especially the strong players who entered the Court of Disorder…

Every single strong player present probably had their own hidden trump cards for playing dumb and eating the tiger.

Among that one-third of strong players who didn’t participate in the chaotic battle and remained very low-key from start to finish, there were likely hidden dragons, crouching tigers, and players acting weak!

And this mysterious strong player who only showed his strength after Jiang Wenxing disappeared might be some hidden big shot who enjoyed playing dumb and eating the tiger.

Zhou Yuling couldn’t guess his identity. She glanced at the ice sculpture again but still couldn’t discern anything unusual.

So she asked the mysterious strong player again:

“If it’s just about conducting an experiment, you can do it now, right?”

“So… what are you waiting for?”

This mysterious strong player smiled gently.

His unfamiliar appearance was quite ordinary, but he carried a refined, scholarly, gentle, and jade-like demeanor, completely opposite to Jiang Wenxing’s arrogant and gloomy nature.

His words, spoken with a smile, were even more thought-provoking—

“I am different from Jiang Wenxing.”

“Even when conducting experiments, I don’t like killing the innocent indiscriminately…”

Such a statement, easily capable of eliciting goodwill.

Instead made Zhou Yuling feel psychologically uncomfortable to the point of slight nausea instantly.

In that moment, she felt an even stronger aversion towards this mysterious strong player!

Because…

She had once been an experimental subject for the Defenders’ Alliance too.

And the researcher who experimented on her had exactly this kind of gentle, pure, and benign style…

Could it be… the same person?

Probably not.

Researchers for the Defenders’ Alliance generally had no combat strength and could only survive by doing research.

This was usually the case in the Doomsday Apartment.

Players who could develop strength mostly pursued power.

For strong players, doing research was too time-consuming.

So research work was often outsourced by strong players to people who were intelligent but lacked strength, preferably with relevant work experience before entering the Doomsday Apartment.

Anyone with any strength wouldn’t spend their own time on research.

This strong player before her clearly had considerable strength.

So, he probably wasn’t a researcher… right?

However, during this brief moment of thought.

Another figure suddenly flashed through Zhou Yuling’s mind.

It was none other than… Wang Cheng!

Wang Cheng was one of the two supplementary spots among the followers after removing Xu Gou and Peng Gu.

One was Zhang Minghan, the other was Wang Cheng.

Both were forcibly captured by the Card Grandmaster…

At that time, Zhou Yuling had wondered if the Card Grandmaster had any special reason for capturing these two.

Zhang Minghan goes without saying;
he had some interaction with the Card Grandmaster back in the Abyss Restricted Zone.

It was later confirmed by Jiang Wenxing that Zhang Minghan was impersonated by a Jiang Ye clone.

Then, what about Wang Cheng, who was captured together with Zhang Minghan as a substitute?

As various guesses about this mysterious strong player’s identity surfaced in Zhou Yuling’s heart.

This mysterious strong player also stated his intention:

“If the experiment fails and this strong player I froze into an ice sculpture gets Erased directly, that would be too bloody.”

“But if we switch the test subject to Jiang Ye…”

“I don’t mean that Jiang Ye is worthless.”

“But rather, the ‘Erasure’ after Jiang Ye bleeds is different from others—he turns into a Formless Leaf on the tree.”

“So, using him for the experiment, even if it fails, we still get a Formless Leaf.”

Hearing this, Zhou Yuling understood: “So, you want me to contact Jiang Ye’s other clones, ask him to come here and cooperate with your experiment?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep