Chapter 256: Chapter 256

Of course, this so-called “dripping” of anti-gravity sand should more accurately be called “rising.”

There wasn’t much sand left in the hourglass.

They could see that soon, the sand in the lower half would completely rise to the upper half.

Jiang Ye and Guan He both guessed that once all the sand in the lower half had flowed to the upper half, time would reset.

The total time was roughly around three minutes.

After some thought, Guan He, seeing time was about to reset again, quickly arranged:

“If time really resets in a moment, then in the next reincarnation—”

“I will deal with Chen Cang first, and you keep watch here.” Updates are released by novèlfire.net

“See if this hourglass was here from the start or if it appeared only after I killed Chen Cang.”

“Look at the exact time of each reincarnation, accurate to the second.”

Obviously, Guan He mentioned a word—reincarnation!

Indeed, the time resets they were experiencing were like a three-minute reincarnation.

No matter what happened during those three minutes, they would return to the starting moment when entering the Mirror Palace’s central zone.

But because they shared consciousness with other clones,

Jiang Ye knew that outside time was not reversed but flowed normally.

This made him wonder—

If he used Clone Fusion near the end of these three minutes,

and then everything in the central palace grid reset to three minutes earlier,

while outside time flowed normally,

would his Clone Fusion status be removed or continue?

If calculated according to the time inside the palace grid, the fusion state should end because time was reset;

but if based on outside time, it should persist because time itself was not truly reset.

In this way, he might gain more information from the contradiction between inside and outside time rules.

Could the clone inside the grid successfully use Clone Fusion?

Jiang Ye thought about it and tried directly, randomly fusing with a discarded clone.

The result... success!

His eyes flickered, and he didn’t argue with Guan He’s arrangement, just nodded: “Alright, I’ll follow your lead.”

Shortly after this sentence,

the two watching the hourglass together saw—

once all the sand in the lower half flowed to the upper half,

the entire hourglass carved onto the mirror surface suddenly started moving!

To be precise, it started spinning!

As if an invisible hand was flipping the hourglass over!

At the moment the hourglass was flipped, the sand in the upper half shifted with the change of position and became the lower half.

After that, the two could no longer see the scene.

Because everything had returned to the “starting point.”

In their minds, that ancient and cold voice rang again:

“Welcome back... my children...”

The first time they entered the central palace grid of the Mirror Palace, their focus was on the words “welcome” and “children.”

But after experiencing two time resets in a row,

hearing the phrase again suddenly made them realize the word “back” held another deeper meaning!

They really had come back!

And with the arrangements made before the last reincarnation ended,

this new reincarnation—

Jiang Ye immediately looked toward the hourglass on the mirror surface!

Guan He instantly used a light skill to kill Chen Cang!

Chen Cang’s first reaction was: “Ah, I’m dead again...”

Damn it! I’m the protagonist!

Maybe the key to breaking the time reset lies in me!

That damn Huang Bo! He can’t get over it and killed me again!!

Chen Cang died in great anger.

But Guan He didn’t care at all.

She flashed beside Jiang Ye and directly asked, “So? Was the hourglass there from the start, or did it appear after I killed Chen Cang?”

Jiang Ye: “It was there from the start. And at first, the upper half had no sand.”

Guan He then speculated: “In other words, when all the sand in the lower half flows to the upper half, time resets.”

“So, maybe the way to break this palace grid is to stop the sand in the hourglass from flowing?”

“Didn’t you guys break the mirror with blood before? Maybe now we can drip blood onto this mirror surface with the hourglass...”

“Perhaps if we break this mirror surface, we can solve the time reset problem?”

Jiang Ye could feel Guan He really didn’t want Chen Cang to live.

She was eager to break the time loop, now that Chen Cang was already dead.

However, Jiang Ye felt this time reset problem might not be so easily solved.

He thought of the Clone Fusion experiment he did in the last reincarnation.

A strange phenomenon had appeared—

From the perspective of his light clone, the Clone Fusion effect did disappear with the time reset.

But the outside clones did not sense that the discarded clone fused with him had lost the fusion effect!

The contradiction still existed!

Inside the palace grid, Clone Fusion disappeared;

outside the grid, Clone Fusion still existed!

So, what was the actual state of that fused discarded clone now?

Could it be like Schrödinger’s cat box, where fusion and non-fusion states exist simultaneously??

Jiang Ye felt something was off.

Guan He didn’t know what he was thinking and urged, “What are you thinking? Do you think I’m wrong?”

Jiang Ye shook his head: “I think you have some reason. Why don’t you try dripping blood on the mirror now?”

Guan He wanted to ask why he wasn’t the one dripping blood.

Jiang Ye continued: “Maybe the timing of dripping blood matters.”

“If we don’t succeed in breaking the mirror with blood in this reincarnation...”

“Then in the next reincarnation, you can drip blood at the exact moment the reincarnation begins. Maybe that time is special.”

This was also an experience Jiang Ye learned from Yang Wenchao.

Yang Wenchao encountered a bug entering the Reincarnation Graveyard, which had a zero-o’clock time requirement.

Hearing this, Guan He’s eyes lit up, thinking it made a lot of sense.

Because she also thought zero o’clock was indeed a very special moment.

The apartment even issued announcements specifically for that special time.

If every day was considered a reincarnation,

then zero o’clock was both the start and end of the reincarnation.

If the three minutes inside the palace grid was considered a smaller reincarnation,

then the start and end of this mini reincarnation should also have special significance!

Guan He agreed with Jiang Ye’s idea.

But she still tentatively said, “How about you try dripping blood to break the mirror instead?”

After all, she knew blood was a very special thing inside the apartment.

She wasn’t sure what the consequences of dripping blood would be.

Jiang Ye knew her little thoughts and shook his head:

“Dripping blood probably has to be done by you.”

“After all, the start time of this three-minute reincarnation is a fleeting instant, and only the fastest Light and Shadow Escape can catch this moment.”

Guan He frowned: “But you’re also light.”

Jiang Ye nodded: “I am light, but I can’t reveal myself.”

“I am Lu Renjia, you are Huang Bo. Right now, you are the only light exposed in the apartment.”

“If Chen Cang sees me, Lu Renjia, using Light and Shadow Escape, do you know what consequences there would be?”

“Besides, Chen Cang has the Protagonist Halo; even if you want to silence him, it won’t be easy.”

“So this matter can only be done by you.”

Jiang Ye’s analysis made sense.

Guan He thought about it and really couldn’t argue.

Even if she wanted to switch identities with Jiang Ye now, playing Lu Renjia while Jiang Ye played Huang Bo,

once time reset, they would return to the state of entering this reincarnation palace grid.

At that time, she would be the light-type Huang Bo...

At this moment, the three minutes were about to end again.

Guan He gritted her teeth, preparing to try dripping blood to break the mirror by breaking her finger.

When the last few grains of sand were about to flow to the upper half, she asked Jiang Ye:

“Have you calculated the exact time of reincarnation? Is it exactly three minutes? Or is there a second-level error?”

Jiang Ye stared at the hourglass scene and answered directly:

“It should be exactly three minutes, or 180 seconds.”

“The sand in the hourglass should be exactly 180 grains.”

Guan He’s eyes flickered and she said no more. She waved her bleeding finger and flicked a drop of blood onto the mirror surface.

At the same time, her gaze fixed on the hourglass.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ye’s clone outside the reincarnation palace grid sensed that the previously fused discarded clone had lost fusion status and returned.

Inside the palace grid, Jiang Ye’s clone witnessed—

the drop of blood flicked onto the mirror by Guan He seemed to come alive, actively flowing toward the hourglass in the upper right corner of the mirror.

It even quickly merged directly into the last grain of sand in the lower half of the hourglass image.

That grain, originally just a hollow sand-shaped engraving, instantly turned blood red.

Immediately, something different from the last reincarnation happened—

Last time, the hourglass started to flip only after all the sand flowed from the lower half to the upper half...

But this time, the blood sand was still in the lower half, yet the hourglass flipped early!

It was as if the reincarnation time was one second earlier than the previous three minutes!

Jiang Ye’s eyes shifted in alarm. He wanted to say something to Guan He, but there was no time!

The next second, with the hourglass successfully flipped, they returned to the reincarnation starting point again.

“Welcome back... my children...”

At the moment this voice marking the reincarnation start sounded again,

Guan He immediately followed the previous reincarnation’s arrangement and used Light and Shadow Escape to instantly appear at the hourglass on the mirror surface.

another Light and Shadow Escape intercepted her at the same speed without hesitation!

Accompanied by the interception was Jiang Ye’s voice:

“Stop! Don’t drip blood on the upper part!”

Guan He was shocked by this voice and indeed gave up on dripping blood at “zero o’clock.”

She ended the Light and Shadow Escape effect and returned to Huang Bo’s form.

Her ugly face looked at Jiang Ye with undisguised shock.

Without her saying it, Jiang Ye knew what shocked her—

He had told her to drip blood at the reincarnation “zero o’clock,”

and clearly said he couldn’t reveal his light identity.

Yet now, Jiang Ye was willing to reveal his light identity to stop her!

Sure enough, Chen Cang, who had escaped a disaster this reincarnation, stiffened and was dumbfounded sensing the two light auras!

He looked at Lu Renjia in disbelief and finally realized—

this guy was also a light-type player!!

But Chen Cang couldn’t care about that now.

He vaguely saw that these two light-type players seemed to have a conflict.

So as soon as the reincarnation started, they fought.

Even Guan He, who had killed him three times, didn’t kill him immediately this time.

Chen Cang seized this chance and shouted loudly:

“You two fight me if you want, but could you please stop killing me!”

“After all, with the time reset setting, killing me is useless!”

“Keeping me alive might help find a way to break the time reset!”

Guan He glanced at him and indeed didn’t attack.

But she didn’t respond either; instead, she frowned at Jiang Ye and asked directly: “What do you mean?”