Cracks suddenly spiderwebbed across the black ice, and from those dark fissures, countless black snakes erged at terrifying speed!
Just as players within the black ice domain recoiled in shock, instinctively preparing to attack the serpents—
The snakes slithered with unnatural swiftness toward the center where Lin Ling stood.
Upon reaching her vicinity, the creatures abruptly reared up from their sliding motion across the ice, their bodies elongating vertically like sinister banners.
Hundreds of these erected serpents then intertwined, weaving themselves into a towering black curtain!
Jiang Ye felt an eerie familiarity the mont these snakes appeared.
Yes—his mind imdiately flashed to the White-Robed Woman!
A realization struck him: Could the important figure Lin Ling awaited actually be... her?
Or...
No!
As the serpentine curtain condensed into a shape concealing a slender silhouette, the undulating mass suddenly transford into cascading black hair. With a graceful toss of the head, the "waterfall" shortened instantly, settling into normal tresses.
This dramatic entrance using snakes as hair was unmistakably the White-Robed Woman's signature style!
Yet Jiang Ye's shock intensified when—
This woman... wasn't her?
The uncertainty ca from the enormous hat obscuring the figure's face, its purple gauze veil rendering features indistinguishable. But Jiang Ye recognized this attire!
This... wasn't this Zhou Yuling? The very woman who'd amassed 9,999 followers?!
But why would Zhou Yuling mirror the White-Robed Woman's mannerisms?
Earlier, Wu Ying's clone had noted Zhou Yuling binding players as followers—an act that inexplicably reminded Jiang Ye of the White-Robed Woman. Now this serpent-hair entrance reinforced the connection.
This couldn't be coincidence!
Suppressing his voice, Jiang Ye turned to the disguised elder sister: "Our awaited guest is Zhou Yuling?" He burned to ask about Zhou Yuling's appearance but lacked justification.
As his clone in the black ice domain grew convinced of so link between the two won, his No.1 clone in the 4444 Underground Graveyard received a transmission through the White-Robed Woman's glass bead!
This clone had been experinting with fusion—placing two Jiang Ye clones into the sa resurrection coffin in the Reincarnation Graveyard, then having No.1 unearth it from the underground side to check for "dual-soul" rging.
(All clones shared Jiang Ye's singular soul, so "fusion" referred to consolidated attributes.)
Initial tests succeeded—two standard clones rged perfectly.
But anomalies erged during subsequent trials:
Fusing two "variant" clones (those wearing others' faces) sohow produced a Jiang Ye-faced fusion clone!
This aligned with his earlier observations of Yang Wenchao and Wan Xin's fusion—where two bodies entered the coffin but only one erged. Even players' account-burial resurrections followed this pattern.
His theory? The coffin didn't rely revive—it reconstructed bodies based on soul signatures. Despite variant clones' disguises, the chanism recognized Jiang Ye's essence and rebuilt his true form.
Astoundingly, this resurrection thod could bypass what even the Doomsday Apartnt's system rules couldn't detect!
Extending this logic—if Wu Ying and Zhang Minghan's clones were fused, would the result be a Jiang Ye-faced clone? Future experints with disposable variants like Ge Ge could verify this.
As No.1 clone organized these findings and prepared further tests (three-clone fusions, pre-fused clones entering coffins, etc.), the glass bead transmitted a ssage from the White-Robed Woman:
"Your location? Co to my 2064. Let's revisit your apartnt owner assassination mission."
Ironically, just after marveling at others' sharp intuition, Jiang Ye now experienced his own visceral warning—
This voice... might not belong to the "Little Bai" he knew!
Despite identical tone and mannerisms, his instincts scread otherwise. Was this an imposter laying traps? Or...
He desperately wished to see Zhou Yuling's face. Could she and the White-Robed Woman be identical twins swapping roles? But why? Zhou Yuling's na didn't appear in the 4444 player list.
Perhaps the Defenders' Alliance needed the Reincarnation Ghost's identity for exploring the Abyss Restricted Zone or Court of Disorder? If so, Lin Ling must be orchestrating this—her absolute authority would override any objections. Then why the secrecy? Internal traitors? Other sches?
And was this 4444 imposter acting independently or under Lin Ling's orders?
Swallowing his suspicions, Jiang Ye responded via bead: "On my way."
True to his word, he arrived swiftly.
The White-Robed Woman lounged in her usual white bathrobe, raven hair cascading, exuding effortless ease. She gestured Jiang Ye to sit after appraising him with a glance.
Maintaining nonchalance, Jiang Ye sprawled on the sofa and cut to the chase: "Your ssage implied I should skip killing the Apartnt rchant and target the owner directly? Honestly, that seems impossible—have you seen that monstrous woman in 4444? Even our administrator hides from her!"
This was pure probing.
The "White-Robed Woman" studied him oddly before suddenly demanding:
"Are you really Jiang Ye?"
"So impostor wearing a mimic mask, perhaps?"
"Your deanor, speech patterns—none feel authentic."
Damn! The audacity!
Playing the accuser while being the fake herself?!
Fine—if she wanted this ga, he'd play.
Dropping all pretense, Jiang Ye's expression hardened: "How rich—you dare gaslight ?"
"Let's be clear: I sensed sothing off about you the mont you contacted ."
"Can't pinpoint it, but that tension affected my behavior."
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