With a “bang” sound.

A flame suddenly exploded in mid-air.

The punk figure was enveloped under the eerie glow of the flame.

Although the guy didn’t seem to have external injuries, he couldn’t stop screaming as if enduring unbearable, immense pain.

Jiang Ye possessed Guiwen’s memories and naturally knew—

That unique flame was Wu Wang’s exclusive Glyph Pattern Ability—Extreme Netherfire Seed.

This ability was similar to Administrator 4444’s Glyph Pattern Ability [Gluttonous Body].

Each advancement of a Glyph Pattern Ability represented a mutation in a different direction.

The stronger the things [Gluttonous Body] devoured with each advancement, the stronger the owner of that Glyph Pattern Ability would become.

For example, the [Entropy Reaper] that Jiang Ye had Administrator 4444’s 4th-stage [Gluttonous Body] devour had effects comparable to conceptual-level weapons!

As long as it didn’t encounter the [Raven Feather] that countered Glyph Pattern Abilities, it could basically move around unimpeded.

This type of Glyph Pattern Ability had an extremely high upper limit.

But correspondingly, the risks were high, advancement was more difficult, and the lower limit was ridiculously low.

Among veteran players, they liked to call this type of Glyph Pattern Ability that different people could develop in unique ways as “custom-tailored” Glyph Pattern Abilities.

Of course, ordinary players without strength or background couldn’t walk this custom-tailored path.

For example, the earliest 1010 administrator that Jiang Ye converted into a clone, although fortunate enough to awaken [Gluttonous Body], could only advance to stage 3 before hitting a wall.

Wu Wang’s path with his custom-tailored Glyph Pattern Ability was equally difficult.

If not for obtaining the support of [Eternal Witch Gui] as his backer, Wu Wang relying solely on himself would never have grown to his current level.

His [Extreme Netherfire Seed] also couldn’t have reached stage 8 like now and been custom-tailored into nearly all-round powerful capabilities.

Speed, spatial displacement, various complementary auxiliary abilities, and most importantly, killing power—it lacked nothing!

Of course, having already reached stage 8, [Extreme Netherfire Seed] didn’t have much room for further improvement.

Moreover, as a Glyph Pattern Ability, a single Raven Feather could easily extract it…

This was the biggest fatal flaw!

Jiang Ye was actually quite curious whether these cross-district “big shots” might have Raven Feathers that countered Glyph Pattern Abilities.

However, to his surprise—

The punk was trapped in the mid-air flames, screaming continuously;

The three “big shots” were also surrounded by flames, their expressions grim.

But aside from the punk, the other three didn’t seem to have any intention of struggling or resisting.

And it was quite obvious.

The leader Feng Cheng, from the very beginning, only had a defensive posture without any counterattack intention.

As the flames completely enveloped them, Feng Cheng looked solemnly at the black cloak in the air and coldly uttered:

“Reincarnation Ghost big shot, are you sure you want to interfere in this matter? Aren’t you afraid of disrupting the Novice Apartment’s reincarnation cycle?”

At these words, Wu Wang’s figure in the air indeed paused.

However, after a moment of silence, Wu Wang—who had been quite taciturn when acting with Lin Jing and others—now coldly drifted down a sentence:

“If this were previous Novice Apartments, those words could indeed threaten me.”

“But—times have changed.”

Not only did he need to quickly rebuild trust due to his betrayal of Guiwen.

More crucially, this session’s Novice Apartment was truly too turbulent.

Even the powerful Guiwen vaguely had intentions of abandoning the reincarnation cycle.

Within their Hundred Ghosts Alliance, they were similarly uncertain about their own future fates.

If those threatening him with reincarnation matters were the apartment boss or higher-ranking apartment administrators,

He might indeed need to deliberate.

But, mere newbie players.

Even if they had truly met the apartment boss, so what?

Even if they were acting under Administrator 9999’s orders, so what?

They were just a few pawns.

However…

Wu Wang reconsidered and suddenly thought of Jiang Ye.

Also a newcomer, yet someone Wu Wang didn’t dare underestimate.

Thinking this, Wu Wang ultimately restrained some of his temper.

The flame enveloping the punk in the air quickly dropped to the ground.

And the black cloak figure flashed, retreating back behind Jiang Ye.

The punk now seemed to no longer feel pain.

His screaming stopped, but his expression remained twisted.

He had known beforehand that the A-Z 26 novice districts didn’t necessarily mean District A had the strongest newcomers.

Because players were randomly distributed.

But Reincarnation Ghost strength was more likely that District A was stronger than B, which was stronger than C…

So before crossing districts, Administrator 9999 had also reminded them not to provoke Reincarnation Ghosts.

Of course, he had also reassured them that Reincarnation Ghosts wouldn’t easily provoke them either.

He truly hadn’t recognized earlier that the black-cloaked man standing directly behind Zhou Qiming, not saying a word, would actually be a Reincarnation Ghost big shot!

Who the hell could have imagined that!

A powerful Reincarnation Ghost was actually willing to provide protection for a newcomer?!

Why? For what reason?! Wasn’t it said that after the Reincarnation Key fell into the Nomadic Merchant’s hands, Zhou Qiming had been abandoned?!

Could it be that Zhou Qiming still had other value to exploit, that he had latched onto another powerful backer?

The punk Liu Re had extremely high self-esteem.

Actually, he originally wasn’t called Liu Re, but Liu Hai…

He felt that name didn’t suit him, so he changed it to Liu Re.

Meaning that he wasn’t someone to be messed with.

Anyone who dared provoke him would receive hundredfold retribution!

Including now, even though so easily subdued by the Reincarnation Ghost, Feng Cheng and the others completely lacked any intention of confronting the Reincarnation Ghost head-on…

But he, Liu Re, refused to accept it!

His punk hairstyle was disheveled, bangs covering half an eye.

The remaining exposed half-eye contained wolf-like ferocity!

He didn’t look at Wu Wang, but instead looked toward Zhou Qiming’s direction, gritting his teeth and shouting:

“What I said earlier was ‘let’s spar a bit,’ I didn’t mean to damage relations! What do you mean by directly having the Reincarnation Ghost take action!”

Jiang Ye wasn’t sure if Wu Wang had been threatened by Feng Cheng’s words.

But seeing this punk able to yap wildly again naturally displeased him.

He thought for a moment, then looked directly at Liu Re and said:

“Oh, you mean you and me, one-on-one sparring?”

“Naturally.” Liu Re barely stood up, suppressing his emotions, fixing his hairstyle. “Feng Cheng said earlier, we came to District A not to cause trouble!”

“If you don’t believe me, ask the 21 people we brought—they’re all your District A players, and we haven’t touched them at all!”

“Including facing you all, we’ve been polite, not planning to damage relations!”

Liu Re sounded quite indignant while saying this.

However, Jiang Ye couldn’t be bothered listening to his raspy duck-voice nonsense.

He suddenly thought of something, smiled abruptly, and said in an odd tone:

“Just non-injurious 1v1, right? Perfect… I hope you won’t regret it :)”

After saying this, he directly gave Wu Wang a meaningful glance.

This guy Wu Wang was indeed efficient.

He instantly released the punk Liu Re, while the flames surrounding Feng Cheng and the other two continued jumping.

The punk who had been screaming nonstop just moments ago now reacted quite swiftly again.

His figure disappeared from the spot once more.

However, the next second…

With a “bang” sound.

A human-shaped ice sculpture fell heavily from the air.

It was clearly… Liu Re.

His entire body was frozen into an ice sculpture, theoretically unable to move at all.

But his frozen face rapidly twisted into an expression of extreme agony!

Meanwhile, Jiang Ye flashed to the ice sculpture’s vicinity, staring at it for a while.

After thinking, he signaled Wu Wang to release the remaining three as well.

And these three were indeed polite and composed, still not showing any intention to fight.

Jiang Ye directly waved them over:

“Come, all of you come look, see if you have any methods to break this ice sculpture effect?”

The three were stunned by his commanding tone as if they were his subordinates.

After exchanging glances, the shrewd-looking man in white coat seemed to think of something, and after receiving Feng Cheng’s confirming look, stepped forward:

“Then let me try.”

Saying this, he casually raised a hand, sending flames at the ice sculpture.

Of course, the ice sculpture showed no reaction.

Instead, Wu Wang looked at the flames released by the white coat and actually proactively said: “Can I try too?”

Jiang Ye was actually conducting experiments at this point, so he nodded: “Alright, you try too.”

“Everyone present, if you have any ideas, you can all try.”

Wu Wang didn’t waste words, once again enveloping the ice sculpture with his Extreme Netherfire Seed.

Initially worried about disrupting Zhou Qiming’s plans, he only used 3rd-stage Glyph Pattern power.

However, seeing the ice sculpture indeed unaffected by the flames, he gradually increased to 5th stage, 7th stage, even 8th stage…

Result: the ice sculpture didn’t even develop a single crack!

After a moment, Wu Wang withdrew his flames, no longer attempting.

The white coat saw this, narrowed his eyes, then actually crouched down and touched the ice sculpture with his hand.

After feeling various parts of the ice sculpture like taking a pulse, he suddenly flipped his hand and took out a small knife.

With casual effort, he cut off the entire ice sculpture’s hand…

However, the severed ice sculpture hand still didn’t melt.

The white coat looked at Jiang Ye, and from his expression it was clear…

This didn’t count as “breaking the ice sculpture effect.”

So the white coat carefully studied the separated hand.

After a moment of silence, someone actually stepped forward from the former classmates group who had been background characters!

Lu Shen!

He directly approached, cut the entire ice sculpture into pieces, then politely distributed them to everyone present:

“This way, convenient for everyone to research together?”

Former classmates: “…” What? Bro? You’re so bold?

This is a cross-district big shot’s body, you little nobody just cut it up like that?!

Feng Cheng and the others also twitched slightly at the corners of their mouths, but didn’t refuse the ice sculpture fragments.

Jiang Ye’s eyes flickered, then he glanced at the slightly chubby otaku next to Feng Cheng.

The next second, that otaku also turned into an ice sculpture under everyone’s watchful eyes!

Instantly, the gazes looking at Jiang Ye became stunned and terrified.

Jiang Ye smiled: “One ice sculpture might not be enough to use :)”

Saying this, his gaze turned to Feng Cheng.

Visibly, Feng Cheng’s entire face stiffened.

He quickly spoke: “No need! I declare you the winner!”

“We can accelerate negotiation progress, prioritizing your wishes… Could you please release my two brothers first?”

Jiang Ye had actually used different types of Ice Crystal Tear Drops on the punk and the otaku.

He originally wanted to use this opportunity to carefully study the differences between the two.

After all, that white coat seemed quite interested in research.

However, since this big shot had spoken…

And Wang Lingling’s voice in his mind was growing increasingly faint.

Jiang Ye temporarily set aside the experiments and released the ice sculpture effects on both.

The otaku’s body remained intact, showing no changes after the ice effect was removed.

But the punk who had been cut into pieces, upon thawing, let out even more desperate, piercing screams from his separated head than when trapped in flames:

“Ahhhhhhh—”

“Kill… kill me!”

“It hurts! It hurts too much!”

“This… this damn… light… ahhhh…”

His voice instantly became hoarse from screaming.

At first he could still say something, but later directly turned into “ahhh kill kill kill”…

Oh.

Jiang Ye raised an eyebrow, not expecting experimental results to appear so quickly…

That’s right.

Of the two Ice Crystal Tear Drops he threw, the one given to the punk was his newly researched modified version!

Not exactly a “modified version” though.

He remembered that “Water Bears” could be awakened with “water” after triggering cryptobiosis.

Causing the originally suspended Water Bears to rapidly revive.

And since Boss Q specifically mentioned similarities between Water Bears and Luminox Larvae…

So Jiang Ye tried—

Could the offspring larvae that directly entered cryptobiosis in the Reincarnation Apartment be awakened by “light”?

Although his light clone was trapped, Jiang Ye still retained clones of his light clone.

So he tried using light-based skills.

In his conception, the cryptobiotic offspring larvae might be awakened by light, turning back into living Ice Crystal Tear Drops?

However, that didn’t happen…

Instead, the slippery “black engine oil” on his arm showed signs of solidifying.

It didn’t seem difficult to forge a black ribbon.

So black ribbon refinement actually required light?

Jiang Ye couldn’t help thinking—

No wonder such good items as black ribbons were only available from the Defenders’ Alliance.

While the apartment boss possessing Luminox Larvae didn’t produce black ribbons himself.

Perhaps he simply didn’t know that black ribbon manufacturing required light!

And the Defenders’ Alliance had long-term cooperation with reincarnating light players in the Novice Apartment.

This cooperation clearly included manufacturing black ribbons!

They really had this all figured out perfectly!

On one side, supporting light players who could create Lightburn…

On the other side, using light players to manufacture black ribbons that could suppress Lightburn pain.

They had this supply-demand market completely under control!

After figuring out how to create black ribbons, Jiang Ye naturally experimented and manufactured them.

And since experiments needed to be conducted on both fronts—

He exposed the cryptobiotic offspring larvae to light, so naturally he also needed to try exposing living offspring larvae to light.

After all, in the courtroom, the large handful of Ice Crystal Tear Drops that Boss Q displayed showed unusual phenomena under the [Dice of Fate]’s Holy Grail light.

So Jiang Ye thought that pure light-based abilities might also affect Ice Crystal Tear Drop effects?

However, the result of using light skills on Ice Crystal Tear Drops only made them appear shinier, brighter, and more translucent.

But they didn’t show the unusual phenomena seen in the courtroom under Holy Grail light.

Jiang Ye originally thought this approach might be wrong.

Just as he was about to change his research direction,

That punk happened to be provoking, so he gave him one Ice Crystal Tear Drop that had been exposed to light…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep