Chapter 259: Chapter 259
“Lu Renjia,” the one who exchanged a secret glance with Chen Cang, was none other than Jiang Ye himself.
Of course, he noticed the meaningful look in that guy’s eyes.
And naturally, he instantly understood Chen Cang’s intention.
However, he was somewhat surprised—
When he stopped Guan He, he had already exposed his identity as a light-element player.
Unexpectedly, even under such circumstances, Chen Cang still treated him as a subordinate…
Even though Chen Cang was a dark-element player!
There was no denying it; the Protagonist Halo was truly incredible, granting boundless courage and confidence.
It even made a dark-element player dare to take a light-element player as his subordinate…
Jiang Ye, as his subordinate, naturally had to cooperate obediently.
He secretly sent Chen Cang a look signaling that he had received the message, then without further analysis, directly spoke to Guan He:
“As agreed, in this reincarnation cycle, it’s my turn to kill you.”
Guan He frowned slightly, wanting to say there was still time and that she could survive longer in this cycle.
But before she could speak, she noticed the deep meaning in Jiang Ye’s gaze.
A slight surprise flickered in her heart, but in the end, she said nothing and obediently cooperated with Jiang Ye.
This time, Guan He calmly accepted death.
As expected, Jiang Ye discovered—
When he killed Guan He in the reincarnation cycle, he did not receive the “clone killed clone” notification.
It was something he had long suspected, so he didn’t care much and quickly shifted his gaze to Chen Cang.
Chen Cang knew time was tight, so he spoke rapidly:
“Lu Renjia! You know my situation…”
Before he finished, Jiang Ye immediately pledged loyalty:
“I know! With your Protagonist Halo, you will definitely lead us out of the reincarnation cycle!”
Unwavering determination! Absolute trust! Unshakable loyalty!
It was as if Chen Cang was his god!
Immediately afterward, he corrected himself: “No, not leading ‘us’ out of the reincarnation, but leading ‘me’ out of it!”
Chen Cang was instantly very pleased with this Lu Renjia!
As expected, a subordinate worthy of his name!
Not only did he have light-element abilities, but his insight was also sharp and direct!
Only such a subordinate was truly reliable!
Chen Cang was quite satisfied with Lu Renjia.
Because time was pressing, he spoke even faster:
“In that case, we are now considered to have formed a secret alliance!”
“If in this cycle, I can directly break the reincarnation effect, that would be best…”
“Then time wouldn’t reset, and Huang Bo would truly be dead!”
“But the chances are slim; we might still need the subsequent cycles to research and investigate more deeply!”
“On the surface, we will mainly follow your analysis to reduce Huang Bo’s suspicion of me.”
“But behind the scenes, you quietly observe my signals.”
“If you see me make the motion of ‘touching the back of my neck with my left hand’…”
“Then in this cycle, you try to persuade Huang Bo to cooperate with your experiment and die by my hand!”
Yes, die by Chen Cang’s hand!
The best result Chen Cang envisioned was—
In some cycle, he would secretly break the time-reset effect.
Then in that cycle, have “Lu Renjia” cooperate with him to persuade “Huang Bo” to die at his hands.
Pretending it was for an experiment.
“Huang Bo” would think he could revive in the next cycle.
Unaware that this would be his last cycle!
He would truly die at Chen Cang’s hands!
Afterwards, Chen Cang would break free from the reincarnation cycle with “Lu Renjia,” receiving the bounty for the pursuit order in one hand and the reward for breaking the reincarnation grid in the other!
Jiang Ye understood what Chen Cang was thinking.
Before he could respond, the sixth reincarnation cycle of this reincarnation grid was coming to an end.
Whether Jiang Ye was thinking, speaking, or killing Guan He,
His gaze hardly ever left the hourglass screen.
He received Chen Cang’s secret signals with the corner of his eyes.
Even during normal moments, this was the case.
At the cycle’s end, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the hourglass image.
An abnormal situation truly appeared again in the final stage of the hourglass image!
Originally, Chen Cang intended to try breaking the reincarnation with his method.
But he realized that in this cycle, “Huang Bo” died by “Lu Renjia’s” hand.
If this cycle ended, wouldn’t the bounty for the pursuit order go to “Lu Renjia”?
So he understood the cycle couldn’t end now.
Thus, at the end of this cycle, he took no action.
Neither Jiang Ye nor Chen Cang made any unusual moves,
Yet the hourglass showed an anomaly!
At the 178th second of this cycle, the bottom of the hourglass only had two grains of sand left.
One was a blood sand grain, which never flows to the top.
One was an ordinary grain of sand, which flowing to the top would symbolize the end of this cycle.
Under both their gazes—
That last ordinary sand grain did not flow to the top.
Instead, without any blood infection,
It turned red on its own!
It also became a blood sand grain!
The second blood sand grain!
That second blood sand grain naturally did not flow to the top.
The hourglass rotated and inverted.
At the same time, it connected to the start of the seventh cycle—
“Welcome back… my children…”
Hearing this voice again, Jiang Ye was already indifferent.
His gaze immediately locked onto the hourglass screen.
Guan He noticed too, exclaiming in surprise:
“What’s going on? You guys dripped blood on the mirror again?”
Chen Cang quickly explained, “We didn’t! This second blood sand grain appeared automatically!”
Jiang Ye nodded. Google seaʀᴄh noveⅼfire.net
But Guan He was vaguely suspicious.
She guessed that Jiang Ye had secretly conspired with Chen Cang to kill her early.
Perhaps this second blood sand grain was the result of the two of them dripping blood, deliberately teaming up to deceive her!
She no longer trusted the two but did not expose them.
Jiang Ye didn’t explain either but followed the thought and suddenly proposed a bold idea—
“Really, this second blood sand grain was truly generated automatically!”
“I even suspect now—”
“The first blood sand grain we saw at the end of the third cycle,”
“And the second blood sand grain appearing at the end of the sixth cycle,”
“From this perspective, could it be that the appearance of the first blood sand grain had nothing to do with you?”
“Of course, your blood did drip on the mirror.”
“But when I mentioned blood not resetting in the previous cycle, I meant it was strange that your blood wasn’t reset.”
“And now the situation may explain that strange point—”
“The blood you dripped on the mirror actually resets with each cycle;”
“The blood sand we see is not caused by your blood.”
“Instead, every three cycles, a blood sand grain is generated!”
In other words, a blood sand grain should appear naturally at the end of the third cycle.
Guan He’s blood dripping was just a coincidence.
Jiang Ye’s analysis was somewhat reasonable.
But Guan He thought this was too coincidental.
She just happened to drip blood at the end of the third cycle, and the first blood sand appeared;
She just happened to die unseen at the end of the sixth cycle, and the second blood sand appeared.
She still preferred to believe this was Jiang Ye and Chen Cang’s trickery.
Of course, verifying this theory was easy—
Just watch if the third blood sand grain appears at the end of the ninth cycle.
If it appears, Jiang Ye’s inference is correct—
Every three cycle ends, an extra blood sand grain appears.
But if the third blood sand grain only appears at the end of the twelfth cycle,
Then the first blood sand grain was an accident, and normally every six cycles end, an extra blood sand grain appears.
And when all sand grains in the hourglass turn into blood sand grains…
That’s when they are destroyed inside the reincarnation!
While thinking this, Jiang Ye spoke rapidly again:
“Besides the extra blood sand every three cycles, I also noticed something strange.”
Pointing at the hourglass, he said, “Look—”
“The initial state of this hourglass has 180 grains of sand piled in the lower half, among which 178 are ordinary sand grains and 2 are blood sand grains.”
He looked at Chen Cang: “Do you remember the scene at the end of the last cycle?”
“At the cycle’s end, the hourglass showed—178 ordinary sand grains on top and 2 blood sand grains on the bottom;”
“After it rotated and inverted, it became—2 blood sand grains on top and 178 ordinary sand grains on the bottom.”
“But at the start of the new cycle, the previously separated ordinary sand and blood sand merged again.”
“They all appeared at the bottom of the hourglass.”
“If it was just a simple inversion, the blood sand should remain alone on top, not merged with the ordinary sand on the bottom.”
Because time was limited, Jiang Ye spoke very quickly, making it hard for most to follow his train of thought.
But Guan He quickly responded: “You mean—”
“At the junction from cycle end to cycle start, besides the overturned ‘time’ and ‘space,’ there is a third force present?”
“It is precisely that third force that intentionally moved the blood sand originally separated at the top to the bottom, merging it with the ordinary sand?”
After obtaining Zhang Minghan’s memories, Jiang Ye had gained some understanding of so-called secret realms.
Most secret realms originally were just extreme environments.
But after extreme monsters occupied them for a long time, some special effects emerged.
So he had reason to suspect—
This reincarnation mirror palace was composed of two parts.
One part came from the extreme environment;
The other part came from the extreme monsters.
And the power affecting time and space in the reincarnation mirror palace should come from the extreme environment.
The power influencing the blood sand came from the extreme monsters.
He now had an idea forming in his mind.
While he was pondering it, Chen Cang spoke it aloud:
“I’m thinking… what would happen if we moved the blood sand at the bottom of the hourglass to the top in advance?”
“Would the reincarnation time return to 180 seconds? Or would other strange phenomena occur?”