Chapter 241: Chapter 241
Yuan Qiu: "What's weird about her? I think you're weirder than she is!"
Jiang Ye felt relieved.
This young mistress's intuition was completely off.
She probably hadn't seen through his counterfeit identity.
During his moment of silent exasperation,
He watched as the young mistress also injected herself with the [Blood Poison Corpse Water].
In the blink of an eye, her fair and tender skin turned dark green all over, making her resemble a green goblin...
While pinching her own greenish tender skin, she urged him: "What are you waiting for? Inject yourself too. Don't tell me you think Sister Zhou would harm you?"
Jiang Ye thought to himself: Right now I suspect you're all conspiring against me!
But I have no proof...
After some consideration, he stopped sending private messages and spoke directly:
"Do you remember what I told you about needing to retrieve my modified mask from the Mask Master's Shop?"
Zhang Minghan's clone immediately flashed to "Zhou Yuling's" side and briefly explained the situation to her.
Finally, he said: "I also have some minor matters to discuss with that Mask Master. I wouldn't dare delay everyone's time."
"Why don't you all proceed to the Abyssal Depths first? I'll catch up later."
Though separated by purple gauze, Jiang Ye could sense this fake "Zhou Yuling" sizing him up.
After a moment of silence, she suddenly waved her hand and produced two blood-red eyeball-like items.
She handed one to Jiang Ye.
"Wear this tracking eyeball. When you're done, you can use it to quickly locate our main group."
Jiang Ye knew full well this was a two-way tracking device.
He could use it to find the fake Zhou Yuling's group,
And the fake Zhou Yuling could likewise track him.
But it didn't matter. Jiang Ye directly fused the tracking eyeball into his own eye to show he would indeed join them later.
The fake Zhou Yuling said nothing more after that.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Zhang Minghan's clone flashed away to the Mask Master's Shop.
Jiang Ye No.1 in the Mist Train had been zoning out for too long.
Just before the real Zhou Yuling's patience ran out,
He finally snapped back to attention, lightly tapping the table twice with his fingers.
Then, with completely composed expression, he looked at Zhou Yuling and slowly enunciated word by word:
"Bringing me to this Mist Train reveals three things—"
"First, the light faction is powerful."
"Extremely powerful—beyond anything I imagined. Perhaps even powerful enough to overthrow the entire Doomsday Apartment if united."
"The dark faction players think they're the protagonists of this whole Doomsday Apartment..."
"Little do they know, this seemingly glorious dynasty is rotten to the core, ready to collapse at any moment."
"Who's to say darkness itself isn't a form of light?"
This was quite a bold statement.
But it didn't matter—he wasn't concerned about Zhou Yuling's reaction as he continued:
"Second point: the light faction is strong, but the Defenders are stronger."
"All that mumbo jumbo with the black and white paper wasn't just to help me sense Huang Bo, was it?"
"You wanted to tell me—"
"That despite the light faction's immense power, you Defenders control all light faction players, perhaps even hold their weaknesses."
"The reason is simple—either the light-concealing items or the [HIV blood] itself has issues, or other materials were tampered with..."
"Third, the Mist Train."
"Although you claim this is just an abandoned train car for private conversation,"
"The fact you Defenders can enter the mist..."
"Means you possess things ordinary players can't access. Your strength doesn't come solely from light."
After listing these three points without waiting for Zhou Yuling's response, Jiang Ye continued:
"What if I refuse to join the Defenders' Alliance? Will you kill me? Erase my memories?"
"Do you have that kind of memory-wiping ability?"
Unfortunately, Zhou Yuling answered none of these questions.
Her attitude remained friendly but her tone was resolute:
"You will join the Defenders' Alliance—that's beyond doubt."
"But as I said, I won't force you."
As she spoke, she placed her hand on the table, and a contract materialized beneath her palm.
"This is the original contract regarding the [Court of Disorder]."
"I've made some modifications—take a look."
She slid the contract toward Jiang Ye, who skimmed through it.
It basically stated Zhou Yuling would help him obtain the bounty reward, and in return he'd provide 90,000 clones to assist her in clearing the Court of Disorder.
The added clause required Jiang Ye to join the Defenders' Alliance with all 90,000 clones after clearing the Court.
Refusal would require repaying the entire bounty reward.
Additionally, everything seen and heard in the Mist Train must remain strictly confidential.
Jiang Ye had never opposed participating in the Court of Disorder.
So he wasn't particularly resistant to this contract.
As for joining the Defenders' Alliance with 90,000 clones...
Truthfully, with his main body still missing, having 90,000 "Jiang Ye" clones join—or even all his clones join—wasn't a big deal.
After all, besides "Jiang Ye" clones, he still had hidden variant clones like Huang Bo, Qu Xing, Li Zhi, and Fu Xi.
Not to mention converted clones like Wu Ying, Ge Ge, Zhang Minghan, and Administrator 4444.
As long as his main body didn't join any faction,
He could freely infiltrate any organization with his clones.
Thus, Jiang Ye felt little resistance toward this contract.
He was mainly considering—
Although he'd obtained the blood drop to sense Huang Bo,
He could still find an excuse to confront the fake Huang Bo during the actual operation.
Ideally, he could kill and convert the fake Huang Bo into a clone.
That would allow him to infiltrate the light faction for more intel.
But after Zhou Yuling's revelations, he'd lost some confidence in killing the fake Huang Bo.
Moreover, the fake Huang Bo was likely being played by Guan He—
That guy had dual souls and combined light-dark attributes...
Not only would he be harder to deal with,
Jiang Ye also worried about potential complications when converting such a dual-souled entity into a clone...
Alternatively, he could first secure the real Huang Bo's bounty reward.
With 90,000 puppet clones assisting him, dealing with Guan He would be easier.
But once he claimed the bounty, he'd lose motivation to kill the fake Huang Bo...
So he needed another way to improve his odds against Guan He's clone!
Jiang Ye's gaze fell upon the "Blood Corpse" with Administrator 4444's face.
This fake Administrator 4444—who knew how useful it would be?
After careful consideration, he addressed Zhou Yuling again:
"From what you've said, you won't help me when I go after Huang Bo for the bounty."
Zhou Yuling nodded: "Not that I won't—I can't."
"First, I'm currently in Reincarnation Ghost form—I should fear light;"
"Second, the bounty matter shouldn't involve core Defenders members." This update ıs available on N0veI.Fiɾe.net
"So I won't be involved from start to finish—you'll have to handle it alone."
Jiang Ye nodded. This had pros and cons.
The pro was that killing the wrong person would be easier to explain away.
The con was the risk of Guan He turning the tables and him suffering an unexpected defeat.
After brief consideration, Jiang Ye pushed the contract back:
"I'll sign if you add one more clause."
Zhou Yuling: "Go ahead."
Jiang Ye: "During the Court of Disorder operation, if my core interests are seriously threatened, I retain decision-making autonomy."
Even followers had such rights.
Cooperation was one thing—no sane person would agree to suicide missions.
Zhou Yuling wanted to say the contract already had similar provisions,
But upon closer inspection, the meanings differed slightly.
So she agreed without hesitation.
Thus, both parties signed the contract.
Jiang Ye began contemplating how to "accidentally" kill the fake Huang Bo.
Meanwhile, in the Mirror Palace secret realm,
The real Huang Bo—disguised as "Lu Renjia"—had been studying his enclosed mirror cell for hours without progress.
He was considering secretly using [Light and Shadow Escape], since no one was around to notice...
Just as this thought crossed his mind,
The mirror he'd been examining suddenly shattered with a loud crash.