In the red-lit elevator, it was impossible to sense any vertical movement within this elevator space.

Instead, Lin Dong’s teammates, after staying in the elevator for a while, gradually had their eyes return to normal.

Their vision was slowly recovering.

In their hearts, they collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

And as the elevator let out a “ding,” the number “19” on the elevator button panel darkened.

The elevator doors opened, revealing a dimly lit space.

Li Ku’s intention was clearly to continue exploring this space.

However, the players who had experienced blindness on the 18th floor were visibly more resistant to exploring an unknown space.

They directly asked Li Ku, “This 19th floor isn’t the bottom-most space of the Blood Pool either, is it?”

“What you mean… you don’t plan to explore all the way down from the 19th floor, do you?”

“Rather than that, I think we should go directly to the very bottom space of the Blood Pool?”

Lin Dong respected his teammates, but he didn’t directly agree with their words.

He asked Li Ku, “Did you and Li Si explore floor by floor in the elevator?”

“Our group went directly to the 18th floor to explore because we thought the number 18 might have special significance.”

He didn’t explicitly state that he didn’t want to explore the 19th floor.

Instead, he hoped Li Ku could share some information to help them judge whether the 19th floor was worth exploring.

Li Ku seemed to understand their feelings, so he explained:

“Li Si and I didn’t fully explore floors 1 to 18, but our elevator did stop on every floor from 1 to 18.”

“From what Li Si said, this Blood Pool elevator is very different from the elevators we understand.”

“Its operating rules are primarily spatial rules, seemingly completely different from a normal elevator.”

“Simply put—”

“If you directly press the button for the 101st floor, you won’t actually arrive at the true bottom of the Blood Pool space.”

“And to successfully reach the real 101st floor, according to Li Si, the elevator must stop on every single floor from 1 to 101.”

“So, Li Si and I didn’t carefully explore every floor either. We just had the elevator stop on each floor.”

“Of course, since the elevator stopped on every floor, we also stepped outside the elevator on each floor to look.”

“The first 1-17 floors were all hexagonal spaces that looked like crystal palaces, with nothing particularly worth exploring.”

“It was only on the 18th floor that we saw you all.”

After this explanation, Lin Dong and the others found it acceptable.

“So, you mean that for the 19th floor, we also just step out to take a look and then come back?”

Lin Dong’s teammates said, “If that’s the case, couldn’t you just go out and take a look yourself and then come back?”

However, Li Ku shook his head: “Obviously not.”

“You shouldn’t find it hard to guess, right? This Blood Pool elevator space definitely has problems.”

“If I leave alone and you all stay in the elevator, even if you don’t operate the elevator, when I return to the elevator, I’ll become separated from you all, as if we’re not in the same elevator.”

“Only by leaving together and returning together can we ensure we don’t lose contact.”

After saying this, he thought for a moment and then compromised: “If none of you are willing to step out of the elevator to take a look, then I’ll follow your wishes and not step out either.”

“We’ll just continue letting the elevator go down floor by floor.”

With Li Ku saying this, Lin Dong’s teammates naturally agreed wholeheartedly.

They were clearly somewhat traumatized by the 18th floor, fearing another accident on the 19th floor.

However, just as they all thought the matter was settled…

Right when Li Ku was about to press the button for “20,” Lin Dong made a motion to stop him.

He held back Li Ku’s hand and asked in a deep voice, “You just said that when you and Li Si explored floors 1-17, you found nothing of value in those hexagonal crystal palaces?”

Li Ku frowned: “What? You doubt me?”

Lin Dong shook his head: “No, I don’t doubt you. I doubt Li Si.”

As he spoke, he asked Li Ku again: “When you were in the crystal palaces of floors 1-17, did you see relief carvings on the six walls and the ceiling of the palaces?”

Hearing this, Li Ku was stunned: “Relief carvings? You mean… the kind of reliefs in the auditorium?”

“I didn’t see any! Li Si didn’t mention them to me either!”

Lin Dong’s expression showed understanding: “Then it’s quite clear—Li Si lied to you.”

“Him saying the elevator needs to stop on every floor might indeed be true.”

“But his suggestion to step out of the elevator to look on every floor… was probably because he wanted to use Du Yuheng’s eyes to record the relief carvings on each floor.”

Putting it this way, Li Ku immediately understood:

“So now, Du Yuheng’s eyes are attached to your eyes, meaning your eyes have recorded the relief carvings Li Si saw on every floor?”

At this point, Li Ku became curious again: “Speaking of Du Yuheng’s eyes… do they have some other function I don’t know about?”

Lin Dong remained silent, not answering, seemingly hesitating and thinking.

And the Witch Gui Jiang Ye suddenly shoved his entire being right in front of Lin Dong.

Seeing Lin Dong’s pupils contract sharply, Jiang Ye understood: “Du Yuheng’s eyes can see me.”

As soon as this voice sounded, all the players in the Blood Pool elevator were suddenly shocked!

“What the hell?!”

“Who?? Who’s talking?!”

Li Ku also instantly entered a state of alert.

Only Lin Dong, on the contrary, breathed a sigh of relief and immediately tried to reassure everyone:

“It should be a monster… that you can’t see…”

“Monster…” Li Ku pondered, his voice suddenly alarmed, “Could it be… Li Si?”

Lin Dong shook his head: “Probably not.”

Jiang Ye directly asked him: “What do I look like in your eyes?”

The others instantly didn’t dare to make a sound.

Only Lin Dong remained, answering honestly: “It’s a kind of black with a sense of light. It looks…”

“Very similar to the black color the relief fish in the auditorium turned from white, also like a kind of burned black.”

As he spoke, Lin Dong took out that eerie wooden ornament depicting two infants embracing and said to Jiang Ye, “It’s also very similar to this black.”

“And I noticed, you seem to have a strong emotional reaction to this wooden ornament?”

Jiang Ye was curious: “I am pure black, meaning I have no facial features. How can you see my emotional fluctuations?”

Lin Dong shook his head: “I can’t really explain it clearly. I can just vaguely sense fluctuations in the dark, luminous sensation from you.”

“Based on those fluctuations, I can roughly judge your emotional state.”

“Including the vision granted to me by Du Yuheng’s eyes, which also seems different from normal human vision.”

“It can see relief carvings that you can’t see, and this monster, and also…”

Lin Dong paused, clearly hesitating about whether to say it.

But in the end, he still spoke: “And also, the text that occasionally drifts off you all.”

“Some of it is garbled code, some appears as complete information.”

“This should be what Du Yuheng called the [Mind Reading] talent?”

As he spoke, Lin Dong looked at Jiang Ye and said truthfully, “Since I’ve confessed this much, I won’t hide it from you either.”

“When Du Yuheng was still at the school, he said he saw the two characters ‘Jiang Ye’ on Zhou Qiming.”

“And the reason I’m certain you’re not Li Si is also because I saw the two characters ‘Jiang Ye’ on you.”

“So… are you Zhou Qiming who fell unconscious in the auditorium? Your physical body is unconscious, but your soul became a monster and has been following us?”

“……”

Jiang Ye didn’t answer.

Lin Dong speculated further: “Or, are you Jiang Ye? You just have some connection to Zhou Qiming?”

Jiang Ye still didn’t answer.

He directly asked: “Besides ‘Jiang Ye’? Is there any other information?”

“There’s a lot of disordered text. Saying it looks like garbled code, yet it also seems to form its own writing system? I can’t really distinguish it well.”

Lin Dong stared intently in Jiang Ye’s direction for a while, looking genuinely troubled.

Jiang Ye didn’t press him, just asked again: “You stopped Li Ku from starting the elevator because you wanted to be like Li Si and also go to the 19th floor to see the reliefs?”

Lin Dong nodded, then shook his head: “I have that intention, but I’m not certain. So I’m saying it out loud for everyone to discuss together.”

Li Ku naturally supported going to the 19th floor to take a look.

After all, they had seen floors 1-18.

Apart from that 18th floor, he hadn’t encountered any danger.

Even the danger on the 18th floor wasn’t really dangerous.

The ones still hesitant were Lin Dong’s teammates.

The impact of the monster’s awakening on them was a double blow, both physical and mental.

Also, the fear brought by sudden blindness wasn’t something ordinary people could endure.

However…

Lin Dong’s teammates weren’t ordinary people to begin with.

When the benefits were uncertain, they were indeed unwilling to take risks.

But now that they knew every floor had recordable relief information…

And Li Ku had already confirmed that floors 1-17 were almost without danger…

So, after some consideration, Zhang E was the first to express: “Then let’s all go out and take a look.”

“Since Li Si recorded the relief information floor by floor, that information is probably important.”

“Now, President Lin has inherited those eyes that can record relief information, so naturally we shouldn’t waste that effect.”

With the first person stating their position, more and more people gradually voiced their agreement.

Soon, everyone reached a consensus.

Lin Dong asked Jiang Ye again: “Will you come with us?”

Jiang Ye thought for a moment and nodded.

Thus, the group left the Blood Pool elevator together.

Sure enough, as Li Ku had said, the 19th-floor space was still an empty hexagonal palace.

What normal eyes saw was just an empty palace.

Only Lin Dong’s eyes swept over the ceiling and the six walls of the palace.

Having laid everything out in the open, he didn’t need to conceal things like Li Si did.

He just openly recorded the seven surfaces one by one.

Jiang Ye suddenly spoke: “I want to share your perspective.”

Lin Dong was startled: “Share perspective? How?”

“I’m going to try to possess you. Try not to resist.”

Lin Dong thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

So Jiang Ye attempted to seize his body.

He was attempting a peaceful, semi-possession, wondering if he could achieve the same dual-soul fusion state as with Du Yuheng.

However, the result was…

Lin Dong’s consciousness still fell into a state of suspended animation.

His body was completely taken over by the Witch Gui Jiang Ye.

Jiang Ye didn’t mind either. He directly used Lin Dong’s vision to look at the seven reliefs.

He hadn’t shared Zhou Qiming’s memories.

He had only heard He Yuliang and Du Yuheng describe the auditorium reliefs.

And the relief scenes he saw now with his own eyes were clearly different from the auditorium reliefs described by Du Yuheng and He Yuliang.

The reliefs seen on this floor were actually scenes of various beasts reduced to nothing but skeletons.

It was as if giant beasts had their flesh and blood devoured, turning into skeletons.

Including the lower parts of the six walls, there were indeed relief fish schools.

It’s just that those fish schools also appeared as white fish bones.

Not like white feather-like leaves.

At the same time, as Jiang Ye blinked, images of the palace reliefs from floors 1-18 automatically appeared before his eyes.

All of them were skeletal reliefs of beasts and humans.

Because only bones remained, some human skeletons could still be recognized at a glance.

But the bizarre skeletal remains of beasts were very difficult to distinguish.

Jiang Ye spent some time, barely memorizing the 19 relief images, and then left Lin Dong’s body.

Lin Dong looked dazed, with a hint of fear, but didn’t say much.

After seeing this floor, he said to Li Ku, “Let’s continue to the next floor.”

So, the group returned to the Blood Pool elevator and continued to the next floor.

20th floor, they all left the elevator together again, obtaining another relief image.

Next, 21, 22, 23…

Going down floor by floor, it was indeed as Li Ku had said, nothing happened.

Lin Dong’s teammates gradually relaxed their guard.

Until the elevator stopped on the 44th floor.

When Li Ku organized everyone to leave the elevator again, Lin Dong spoke up:

“Wait. In my vision, I see some unusual light fluctuations behind the elevator on this floor.”

Li Ku paused his movement and asked, “Then… should we still go out?”

Lin Dong asked his teammates: “I probably need to go out. What about you all?”

The group pondered for a moment. Zhang E expressed: “If we prepare properly, we should be able to minimize the danger.”

“Besides, it might not necessarily be danger; it could be an opportunity?”

So, after everyone stated their position, they entered the 44th-floor space even more cautiously than before.

It was still a hexagonal palace space, but it was no longer empty.

The first thing they saw was that in the very center of this 44th-floor palace space stood a black cross!

The other players were merely curious, but Jiang Ye recognized it at a glance—

That black cross…

Wasn’t that the [Reincarnation Key] he had traded to the Nomadic Merchant?

Or, to be more precise…

It was an enlarged version of the [Reincarnation Key]?

This group of players didn’t go blind this time. They all cautiously approached the black cross.

Jiang Ye, meanwhile, was pondering whether this thing could also allow players to switch to a Death State like Administrator 4444?

Or…

Could the person who obtained it directly gain the authority and identity of [Administrator 4444]?

Wait!

This bizarre Blood Pool space had quite a few people who had already come down before them!

The strange existence formed from the Giant Skeleton…

The Curse of Despair versions of Chen Cang and He Yuliang…

And that batch of Sun People players who were with Qi Lin were also suspected to have entered the Blood Pool space.

Then there were people like Lin Jing and others.

Could it be that they were the first team to reach this 44th floor?

So this enlarged [Reincarnation Key] was still left here?

Or… had someone already been here before but didn’t take the [Reincarnation Key]?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep