Chapter 440: Bloodhide Coat and Solar Eclipse

13:00 exactly?

Wasn’t it said that “class” wouldn’t start until 13:30 in the afternoon?

Jiang Ye cast a puzzled look at Song Jie.

This time, there was no need to actively ask. The savvy youth took the initiative to explain:

“This is the class bell. It will ring continuously from exactly 13:00 until 13:30, a full half hour.”

“Under this half-hour of class bells, we sinners will be in a state of ‘boiling blood.’ The specific manifestation is feeling very hot.”

“Can you feel it?”

Song Jie asked Jiang Ye in return.

Mainly because he felt Jiang Ye’s situation was special; he might not necessarily experience the “boiling blood” state.

But soon, without needing Jiang Ye’s answer, he got his answer.

Visibly, Jiang Ye’s entire body temperature rose, turning red.

His originally quite fair face showed an abnormal redness, looking like he had just finished strenuous exercise.

The two newcomers belonging to Lord Leopard were in a similar state.

They were even more obvious than Jiang Ye. Sweat visibly seeped from He Yuliang’s body, soaking his clothes.

He had just sold blood, so he was already uncomfortable. Now he felt increasingly dizzy and lightheaded, his breathing becoming difficult, as if he might not catch his breath at any moment.

That Lord Leopard gave him a casual glance and continued from Song Jie’s words:

“Newcomers feel worse the first time they enter the ‘boiling blood’ state. You’ll get used to it later.”

“Usually during this time, we go to the ice rink to practice drawing the patterns for the Blood Skin Coat, to increase the success rate of garment-making.”

“Now is a good time to take you to the ice rink.”

With that, these two teams of veteran players, under the continuous ringing of the “class bell,” led Jiang Ye and the other three newcomers to the fourth floor of this No. 4 teaching building.

Jiang Ye suddenly thought: if the teaching building is compared to an apartment…

Then does the fourth floor of the No. 4 teaching building correspond to the number “44”?

What Song Jie and Lord Leopard took them to was a room on the fourth floor named “Ding Mao.”

If the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches are converted to numbers…

“Ding Mao” also seems to be exactly “44”?

Then can this “Ding Mao” room on the fourth floor of Building No. 4 be understood as Room 4444?

As Jiang Ye pondered, Lord Leopard directly pushed open the door to “4444.”

A wave of cold air rushed out from the classroom.

However, in the “boiling blood” state, this chill actually made them feel cool.

And this cool classroom also looked more like a normal classroom visually.

The vast classroom space was arranged with 8×12 sets of desks and chairs, 96 in total.

The first row near the blackboard was already filled with 12 people.

Two people were also seated in the second row.

Further back, players sat sparsely, heads bowed as they carved something.

It seemed those 14 people in the first two rows…

Their eyes weren’t vacant or numb, but they also didn’t have the composed, steady demeanor of Student Council members.

Judging by their clear, foolish gazes…

They should all be newcomers?

And these newcomers hadn’t gone to sell blood.

Meaning they weren’t short on time.

So this batch were likely genuine, pure newcomers.

Their initial crimes were probably just “crimes” under high moral standards, not involving real crimes like “murder.”

Following this line of thought, Jiang Ye realized something else—

Why did that unfamiliar youth who came with He Yuliang also resort to selling blood?

There were two possibilities—

He, like He Yuliang and Jiang Ye, was a “transcender” who crossed time and space.

Most “transcenders” from the Doomsday Apartment basically had blood on their hands, naturally “heavily sinful,” so their initial time was less than a day.

The other possibility was that guy was a genuine criminal among the pure newcomers, someone who had killed in reality.

Thinking this, Jiang Ye secretly sized up the unfamiliar youth again.

Meanwhile, Lord Leopard tapped the blackboard with his knuckles and explained to them:

“The pattern on this blackboard is the one you need to weave onto the Blood Skin Coat.”

“You can first memorize the direction of this pattern, or you can directly go to the seats in the second row and experiment on ice skin while looking at the pattern on the blackboard.”

“Each seat can automatically purchase ice skin. The price is cheap, 1 minute per sheet.”

“The texture of ice skin is very similar to that of the Blood Skin Coat, making it perfect for practice.”

“And now, your practice time is only half an hour.”

“If your success rate doesn’t reach 50% after half an hour, you’ll bear the consequences.”

Under this reminder and warning, Jiang Ye and the others naturally dared not take it lightly.

He Yuliang and that youth stared at the blackboard for a while, determined that the complex pattern couldn’t be directly memorized, and went straight to the seats in the second row, ready to experiment while looking at the blackboard.

Jiang Ye’s memory was actually average, at least far from photographic.

But he had a Grudge Memory talent, so he directly pressed his head against the blackboard.

Yes, this time, he once again tried to use his brow to contact an object to steal memories.

However…

Who knows what origin this blackboard had.

The memory images he stole were not only brief but also somewhat strange.

The overall feeling was like dense rays of light shining into a piece of darkness.

This time, Jiang Ye quickly regained his senses.

Surprisingly, this memory theft didn’t stir up hatred or any other emotion in his chest.

He just saw, without any emotion, rays of light penetrating pure darkness.

Those rays were densely packed, appearing without any pattern, like cracks appearing out of nowhere in the darkness.

Yet the pattern formed by those cracks…

Exactly matched the pattern presented on the blackboard.

Which was the pattern they needed to carve when making the Blood Skin Coat.

Jiang Ye pondered slightly, then also walked to the second-row seats.

After spending 1 minute to buy a sheet of ice skin, he understood where the chill in this classroom came from.

This ice skin not only had an icy texture but also constantly emitted cold air, which just suppressed the “boiling blood” state induced by the bell.

Jiang Ye had also felt hot enough to sweat earlier.

Now sitting before the ice skin was like entering an air-conditioned room on a hot summer day, feeling quite cool.

He picked up a long needle already prepared on the desk and glanced in He Yuliang’s direction.

He saw He Yuliang already holding a long needle, carving on the ice skin.

However, he probably didn’t control the strength well.

The pattern carved by his long needle was clearly wrong.

On the original pattern, other cracks that shouldn’t be there appeared.

But since it was just practice, even though he made a mistake, he didn’t directly abandon the ice skin. Instead, he continued trying to control the strength, striving not to create more cracks.

The other unfamiliar youth had even worse control over strength.

With one careless move, there was a “crack” sound. The entire piece of ice skin he was working on split completely, utterly ruined.

No choice, the youth had to spend another minute to buy a new sheet of ice skin.

Jiang Ye withdrew his gaze and looked at Song Jie again.

These veteran players like Song Jie seemed to have already memorized the pattern.

They didn’t need to look at the blackboard, so they also gave up the good positions in the first and second rows to the newcomers.

They sat in the back rows, heads bowed as they manipulated the long needles.

Jiang Ye observed carefully and soon noticed—

Superficially, Song Jie’s long needle slid smoothly across the ice skin, leaving a trace.

But in reality, his long needle wasn’t sliding continuously across the ice skin.

Instead, it was like threading a needle, tapping the ice skin one point at a time.

It was just that his tapping speed was so fast it looked smooth, as if directly sliding on the ice skin.

Wait!

Jiang Ye soon discovered that Song Jie was doing this on purpose.

Because other veteran players nearby tapped even faster, so fast it was invisible to the naked eye!

Song Jie was intentionally letting Jiang Ye see.

But…

As veteran players, why didn’t they directly tell the newcomers this technique?

Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then tried holding the needle himself, lightly tapping on the ice skin.

The first tap was too light, leaving no mark on the ice skin.

Only by gradually increasing the force did he make a faint small dot.

Then, shifting the needle tip slightly along the dot.

Tapping repeatedly like this, the “line” he created by “dotting” didn’t produce unnecessary cracks like He Yuliang’s ice skin.

However, his operation speed was much slower than He Yuliang’s.

Initially, Jiang Ye didn’t follow the pattern on the blackboard to carve. He simply familiarized himself with drawing lines on the ice skin using the long needle.

Only after becoming basically proficient with the dotting method for line drawing did he try to outline the pattern on the blackboard.

It was then he discovered…

The image that had just appeared in his mind through [Grudge Memory] seemed to have become his own memory, directly engraved in his mind!

In short—

The pattern he needed to carve was directly memorized by him!

This effect truly rivaled a photographic memory!

Jiang Ye, without showing any change, began carving the pattern.

To ensure no deviation from the pattern in his mind, his already slow dotting speed became even slower.

But slow as it was, there should be a success rate.

As long as he focused enough and no accidents occurred, he should succeed this time.

When operating the sewing machine, there shouldn’t be much problem either.

Thinking this, Jiang Ye moved his wrist, pretending to rest, and asked Song Jie in the back row:

“I’m a bit curious. What exactly is the use of the Blood Skin Coats we make by operating the sewing machines?”

Song Jie first glanced at the ice skin on his desk, confirmed the pattern drawing was fine, then patiently explained:

“The Blood Skin Coats will be transported to normal cities for those with authority levels to use.”

As if knowing Jiang Ye would continue asking, he further explained:

“In normal cities, there aren’t just normal suns and moons; phenomena like ‘solar eclipses’ or ‘lunar eclipses’ frequently occur.”

“And whenever a ‘solar eclipse’ appears, the humans in those normal cities must wear Blood Skin Coats.”

“Otherwise, they have a probability of automatically growing tattoos under the ‘solar eclipse’ environment and awakening Glyph Pattern Abilities.”

After saying this, Song Jie hesitated for a moment, then added:

“Besides pure newcomers, the Land of Exile might also have humans exiled from normal cities.”

“Many of those exiled humans were banished from normal cities because they accidentally awakened Glyph Pattern Abilities.”

I see…

Jiang Ye nodded while recalling the image of a ‘solar eclipse’ in his mind.

A solar eclipse is a phenomenon where the moon moves between the Earth and the sun, blocking the sun’s rays.

Jiang Ye was fortunate to see a total solar eclipse once in middle school.

Back then, in broad daylight, the originally bright sky completely darkened.

Looking up, you could vaguely see a faint ring of light, which was the sun being covered by the moon.

Middle school had physics and natural science classes.

So the teacher at the time also explained the principle of a total solar eclipse.

However, Jiang Ye, who knew the principle, inexplicably felt a very strange sensation.

Because the teacher’s explanation was—

The sun’s diameter is 400 times that of the moon.

And the distance from the sun to Earth is also 400 times the distance from the moon to Earth.

This coincidence makes the sun and moon in the sky appear almost the same size to us.

It is also because of this coincidence that we can see total solar eclipses.

Yes, what Jiang Ye found strange was precisely this “coincidence”!

Even though the teacher also said that from the universe’s perspective, the sun, moon, Earth, and even the entire Milky Way are insignificant.

Yet here, such a coincidence exists.

Actually, there are many “coincidences” regarding life originating on Earth.

The teacher called these “coincidences” the romance of life.

But to Jiang Ye, this “romance” was utterly terrifying upon closer thought.

Because they seemed more like one meticulous design after another!

However, regarding the design of the “world,” Jiang Ye was merely a tiny human, not daring to speculate recklessly.

But what about this world of the Doomsday Prison?

Jiang Ye, driven by curiosity, directly asked: “Do the sun and moon in this world also appear the same size?”

Song Jie was taken aback, then nodded: “They are the same size. So ‘total solar eclipses’ and ‘total lunar eclipses’ also occur.”

“And in this world’s setting, once a ‘total solar eclipse’ or ‘total lunar eclipse’ appears, the duration is quite long.”

“And during the entire ‘total solar eclipse,’ humans in normal cities might even need to consume four or five Blood Skin Coats.”

“That’s why, among our different prisons, other reform-through-labor activities appear randomly. But operating the sewing machines is a daily required course.”

“Oh right, during a ‘total solar eclipse,’ we sinners in the Land of Exile can get some benefits.”

“For example, Glyph Pattern Abilities advancing, some people awakening new Glyph Pattern Abilities, and some lucky ones might even awaken dark-type talents!”

“Of course, like you, if you want to enter normal cities in the future, then during a solar eclipse, you’ll also need to wear a Blood Skin Coat.”

Jiang Ye visualized the appearance of the Blood Skin Coat and couldn’t help asking: “Do those wearing Blood Skin Coats look, on the outside, like the corpses in the cafeteria, covered in blood-colored patterns?”

Song Jie nodded: “Yes, covered in blood-colored patterns, but they’re fake patterns.”

Jiang Ye asked again: “Then do you know if there are living people covered in real blood-colored patterns?”

“This…” Song Jie thought for a moment and shook his head. “Probably not. Those covered in blood-colored patterns are either corpses or people wearing Blood Skin Coats.”

However, as soon as he finished speaking, Lord Leopard sitting in the row behind him snorted disdainfully and said: “That just shows your lack of knowledge.”

“I’ve heard that in Exile City, there are ‘living dead’ covered in real blood-colored patterns!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep