Chapter 218: Chapter 218

In a flash, Jiang Ye planted three Corpse Whisper Bone Charms in front of the Wordless Tombstone.

This time, it felt as if a mysterious force allowed the three bone charms to stand firmly upright.

On their smooth, jade-white surfaces, a faint shimmering glow flowed.

With a focused thought, Jiang Ye asked the Wordless Tombstone:

“If I hand over the Reincarnation Key to the Wandering Merchant, will I still be able to freely enter and exit the Reincarnation Graveyard using Clone Swap?”

That question seemed to be accepted by the Wordless Tombstone.

Within the star-map humanoid silhouette carved into the tombstone’s surface,

the hand pressed against the figure’s mouth briefly lit up.

Then, on the Cost bone charm, the required price for this question appeared: eyeballs ×2.

Thanks to his Flesh Weaving glyph pattern ability, Jiang Ye could easily create large quantities of eyeballs.

But he wasn’t entirely sure whether eyeballs generated through Flesh Weaving would count toward the cost.

Either way, he decided to try it first.

With a wave of his hand, two eyeballs identical to his own appeared in his palm.

He then offered them sincerely in front of the Cost charm.

In an instant—whoosh—the eyeballs vanished into thin air.

At the same time, the Yes charm lit up with brilliant radiance and fell toward Jiang Ye’s direction with a soft clack.

That meant—his guess was correct!

Even after handing over the Reincarnation Key, he could still freely enter and exit the Reincarnation Graveyard!

Jiang Ye felt immediate relief.

He reset the three charms and asked another question:

“If I hand over the Reincarnation Key to the Wandering Merchant, will I still be able to use the Wordless Tombstone?”

Soon, the cost once again displayed: eyeballs ×2.

And the answer was the same: Yes!

With the two biggest concerns cleared, Jiang Ye felt completely at ease.

Especially since the cost was almost negligible.

However, with two consecutive “yes” answers,

Jiang Ye couldn't help feeling a bit skeptical.

After a moment’s thought, he set the bone charms again and asked:

“With my current strength, can I convert Defender Lin Ling into one of my clones?”

This time, the cost was only: eyeball ×1.

And the answer was: No!

As expected. That was within Jiang Ye’s predictions.

And it seemed the simpler the question, the lower the cost?

From that angle, maybe those earlier questions that cost two eyeballs were pretty low-tier in the tombstone’s eyes?

Jiang Ye went on to test a few more questions—

“Did the original 9999 Administrator truly die?”

“Can the deceased Yu Hu be resurrected?”

“If I rely on Reincarnator or other concept-level methods, can Yu Hu be resurrected?”

These contrasting answers under different phrasing gave Jiang Ye a jolt.

He instantly realized—

The Wordless Tombstone only answered based on normal conditions.

But in this world, exceptions to normal conditions were always possible!

Like how, under usual rules, veteran players couldn’t enter other apartments after arriving in 0000…

Yet somehow, a Defender broke that rule!

And like the Mystic Arts held by the Reincarnator,

Which could alter concepts and influence rules!

Same with the Observer’s mystic arts from before—

They turned the impossible into possible!

These kinds of abilities could completely overturn the tombstone’s judgments!

Pondering this, Jiang Ye rephrased the question that concerned him most:

“If I hand over the Reincarnation Key to the Wandering Merchant, is it possible that he could use his authority, abilities, or connections to enter the Reincarnation Graveyard freely before the end of this apartment cycle?”

This question was more specific—

It involved the Wandering Merchant’s power, skills, network, and imposed a time limit.

Visibly, the Wordless Tombstone responded much more slowly than before.

But he didn’t have to wait too long. On the Cost charm, the price appeared:

From his previous offerings, Jiang Ye could feel—

Even though these were generated via Flesh Weaving,

Once offered, those eyeballs were truly gone for good.

Originally, he could generate a max of 127 eyeballs.

But with each sacrifice, the number he could create shrank accordingly.

After this 108-eye offering, his Flesh Weaving ability would practically be crippled!

But so what if it was? That ability was dime-a-dozen.

Awakening it again wouldn’t be hard.

With a few dark-element materials, he could easily train it up again.

With that, Jiang Ye sent off the 108 eyeballs.

The No bone charm lit up and fell.

With that answer, Jiang Ye finally exhaled deeply.

And based on how the Wordless Tombstone had responded, he couldn’t help but realize—

Since the tombstone dared to give a clear answer,

It must have full knowledge of the Wandering Merchant’s powers, abilities, and network.

Which meant the Wordless Tombstone’s level of “conceptual comprehension” was probably omniscient!

There might be even more secrets hidden within this tombstone.

But for now, Jiang Ye wasn’t in a rush to dig them out.

By now, he had few eyeballs left from Flesh Weaving anyway.

After a short pause, he asked the tombstone one last question:

“Does the Wandering Merchant harbor malice or killing intent toward me?”

This answer took Jiang Ye by surprise.

But it did put his mind more at ease about the upcoming trade with the Wandering Merchant.

He didn’t have many eyeballs left, so he stopped asking questions.

As for the other Oathkeeper Tombstone, he didn’t attempt to bind it for now.

With a quick Clone Swap, he exited the inner space of the cross-shaped tombstone.

But he didn’t leave for real.

After emerging from the internal space, he immediately fused with his Light-type clone again and activated Light and Shadow Escape.

This time, instead of entering through the graffiti-covered door at the base of the tombstone,

He headed to the very top of the monument.

Based on Lin Ling’s statement, there should be twelve tombstones in the Reincarnation Graveyard.

Yet in the icy crystal space he’d just entered, he’d only seen two.

Jiang Ye suspected this massive cross-shaped tombstone might house other internal spaces.

So he tried entering from a higher point, hoping to discover the other ten tombstones.

However, when he entered through the top using Light and Shadow Escape—

He once again felt a tremendous force pressing down from above.

In an instant, it was like getting smacked by Buddha’s Palm.

Boom! He crashed to the ground in human form.

And the place he landed… was still that icy crystal space.

The tombstones were still just the same two.

Jiang Ye frowned and exited the cross again.

This time, he tried entering from the left end of the horizontal stroke of the cross.

Once more, that crushing force slammed him down.

The moment he looked around—still the icy crystal space.

According to his theory—

If the cross tombstone truly held multiple internal spaces,

Then the icy crystal space should be the bottom-most space in the vertical stroke.

So getting slammed down when entering from the very top made some sense.

But why did entering from the left of the horizontal stroke also drop him into the bottom vertical space?

It didn’t align with the internal spatial logic.

Maybe the internal structure of the tombstone wasn’t what he imagined.

Jiang Ye thought of something—

Yang Wenchao could only enter the Reincarnation Graveyard in his mechanical undead form at midnight.

The internal spaces of this cross-shaped tombstone also changed with time?

With that in mind, he stopped experimenting with Light and Shadow Escape.

Coincidentally, the fusion with the Light-type clone expired at that moment.

While the Administrator clone stood within the icy space, still pondering before the Wordless Tombstone,

The now-separated Light-type clone, Huang Bo, suddenly heard a voice in Room 6996 of Apartment 9669:

“You brat… disappearing and reappearing like that—what kind of spatial technique is that?”

Almost as soon as the voice rang out, Huang Bo transformed into light and shadow.

Even though he recognized the voice as belonging to a fellow light-type user—He Xingyue—

He still instinctively dodged into Light and Shadow Escape.

It was only because he sensed it was a fellow light user that he didn’t immediately flee the scene.

Instead, he responded from within his light-shadow form:

“Didn’t you act like we were parting ways for good before? Why’re you here again now?” ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ ɴovelfire.net

He Xingyue’s tone was unreadable as she replied calmly:

“You escaped from the Defenders. That proves your strength.”

“You should already know about the Light-type organization, right?”

“But to be honest, not many people in the organization are willing to approach you...”

“The reason being—no one knows how long you’ll live.”

That logic wasn’t lost on Jiang Ye, even if she hadn’t said it aloud.

Jiang Ye raised an eyebrow and didn’t immediately pass on the message Lin Ling had entrusted to him.

Instead, he replied with subtle meaning:

“So, now you’re reaching out because you think I’ll live a long time?”

“Or… is there something useful about me that you want to take advantage of?”

His tone wasn’t exactly friendly.

But deep down, Jiang Ye had a very good feeling.

Just like the time when Wu Ying had sensed someone would commission a custom disguise mask—

This was the same kind of good feeling :)