CHAPTER 393: BLOOD POOL HIERARCHY

"……"

Obviously, if Jiang Ye, this fake bird, could truly function as a divine bird...

Then his role wouldn't just be about delaying the arrival of the Ninth Day.

It would also help Salvation regain his authority.

This counted as Salvation getting a bit of an advantage.

But Jiang Ye didn't mind—he had already mentally grouped Salvation and the apartment bosses together as family.

Between family, there's no such thing as taking advantage.

However, what he was more curious about was—

"Didn't you just say that below one meter in the Blood Pool, it's like the mist gas, cutting off the outside world..."

"So once I'm below one meter in the Blood Pool, how will you give me further instructions?"

The mechanical corner of Salvation's mech mouth lifted, forming a mechanical smile: "You'll naturally know once you reach below one meter in the Blood Pool :)"

"……"

Jiang Ye just found this kind of mechanical smile rather eerie, but he didn't say much more before Salvation alone enveloped him again in a deeper-colored mist gas.

Then he heard him say: "If you're ready, we'll act now."

Jiang Ye: "Ready."

This deep-colored mist gas isolated him from the outside world, and Jiang Ye couldn't see the changes in the external environment.

But he vaguely sensed that Salvation had taken him elsewhere.

The surrounding air seemed slightly more damp and cold compared to Salvation's villa apartment.

He didn't speak, and neither did Salvation.

Soon, Jiang Ye felt a downward falling sensation.

Because the deep mist blocked his vision, Jiang Ye neither saw the Moon Phase Clock nor the Blood Pool.

But this downward falling sensation was probably because he had been thrown into the Blood Pool...

For the first one or two seconds, there wasn't any special feeling.

But quickly, he saw the deep mist enveloping him stained with blood color.

At this moment, the mist turned into blood mist, looking quite similar to Xiao Hei's blood mist.

But soon, this blood mist was also rapidly eroded.

Around Jiang Ye, there was no longer any covering.

Even the clothes on his body were quickly completely eroded.

And his skin felt a burning pain!

Even this burning pain rapidly invaded his flesh, blood, lungs, and organs, making Jiang Ye feel like all the blood in his body was boiling!

This pain was slightly less intense than the pain of Lightburn, but it was still unbearable.

Jiang Ye couldn't help but instinctively raise his hand to press the most uncomfortable spot on his left shoulder.

But this movement startled him!

He quickly withdrew his hand, then cautiously extended both hands, performing exploratory movements like making fists, pressing palms together...

This exploration made him discover—

Not just the left shoulder that had no solid feeling when pressed earlier...

His entire body seemed to have transformed from solid flesh and blood into a liquid blood person!

And it seemed that after completely changing from a solid person to a blood person, the pain on his body gradually dissipated...

Jiang Ye wanted to take out a mirror to see what he looked like now.

However, in this Blood Pool, other objects seemed to be instantly eroded to nothing?

But...

Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then quickly took out a previously prepared damaged Clone Replica Mirror from the Clone Shared Space.

If this thing got destroyed too, it would just waste a few survival points.

Fortunately, this thing wasn't destroyed by the thick blood surrounding him.

Jiang Ye quickly swam to the replica mirror and took a look at his current ghostly appearance.

Sure enough...

The him in the mirror had truly become a blood person!

Logically, since the surroundings were all blood water and he had become a liquid blood person, he should quickly merge with the surrounding blood water. ṘаNỘ𝐁ƐṤ

But from the mirror, it wasn't hard to see—

His body didn't seem to mix with the surrounding blood water.

And the blood color of his blood person body was deeper than the surrounding blood water.

So even in the same color scheme of blood water, his unique blood person could still vaguely make out a human shape.

But, only a general outline.

The blood person in the mirror not only had no facial features but also lacked the organs below that confirmed gender...

Overall, it looked like a child had randomly drawn a human shape with a red pen...

It was just so damn eerie.

Jiang Ye raised his hand and moved his feet in front of the mirror, feeling that this blood person was... both sinister and somewhat ridiculous.

Another point was—

Although the Clone Replica Mirror wasn't destroyed, after his blood person looked in the mirror for 30 seconds, no mirrored blood person was replicated.

Meaning, the Clone Replica Mirror was ineffective against blood persons!

Could it be that his blood person form no longer counted as a living being?

Jiang Ye tried to open his mouth, but he had no mouth and couldn't make any sound!

But clearly, he had no eyes either, so how could he see the Clone Replica Mirror and blood water in front of him?

Thinking carefully, physics taught that when discussing light and imaging, the eye's lens focuses external object light onto the retina, forming an image that's upside down and reversed left to right.

It's only when the optic nerve transmits signals to the brain that the brain processes and adjusts the image to normal.

So human vision ability essentially relies on the brain.

This is similar to the illusion ability in the Doomsday Apartment—when many people are under illusions, the scenes they "see" don't pass through the eyes but are directly presented to the brain.

So now that Jiang Ye had no eyes but could still "see" the surrounding blood water and the Clone Replica Mirror...

Perhaps it followed a similar principle to seeing under illusions?

He just briefly thought about it without dwelling too much, then put away the Clone Replica Mirror and carefully examined the surroundings.

In this blood water, Jiang Ye's vision was limited, only able to see about 3 meters around him.

And within about 3 meters, it seemed to be all blood water, nothing else.

Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then experimentally tried swimming upward.

But he felt that the blood water above formed pressure on his blood person body, making it difficult to swim upward.

He wasn't the type to force himself, so he tried swimming downward.

Then he discovered that the blood water below seemed to form an upward buoyancy against him, making it quite difficult to swim downward too...

This feeling was very strange, making Jiang Ye think of those layered colorful drinks in a glass...

So, with the density of his blood person body, he probably could only stay in this layer of blood water?

Since moving up or down "across blood water classes" was difficult to achieve, Jiang Ye simply moved horizontally within this layer of blood water.

While pondering in his heart—

If he switched to another clone that differed significantly from this one...

Would the formed blood person be assigned to a different layer of blood water?

But in the current situation, this blood person clone was disconnected from the external clones and Salvation.

This message couldn't be sent out for now.

While thinking and swimming, Jiang Ye suddenly saw in the blood water ahead, for some reason, a hollow bubble space had formed!

He swam around the bubble space several times, confirming that this thing wasn't fragile and wouldn't easily break, then tried swimming inside...

And indeed, he managed to swim into this bubble space!

Moreover, he discovered that this blood person body seemed capable of pushing this bubble space to continue swimming!

Jiang Ye felt delighted and prepared to continue swimming in the originally explored direction within this bubble space.

But unexpectedly...

Just after pushing the bubble space for a short while, the bubble barrier of the bubble space suddenly lit up!

This faint light...

Felt somewhat familiar!

Sure enough!

Moments later, the bubble barrier condensed into a light screen form!

And on the light screen, Salvation's mech figure soon appeared, with the background still being Salvation's villa apartment hall.

Jiang Ye widened his eyes—oh no, he no longer had eyes...

That Salvation mech, though expressionless, seemed quite surprised and doubtful.

He tentatively asked: "Who are you?"

Jiang Ye knew that Salvation didn't recognize him in this blood person form.

He really wanted to say, I'm the fake bird Jiang Ye!

But he couldn't make any sound...

No choice, he tried writing "Jiang Ye" on the light screen.

Although as he wrote, the blood sticking to the light screen flowed downward, making the whole scene exceptionally eerie...

But Salvation looked carefully and naturally discerned those eerie characters "Jiang Ye."

Salvation's face was... emmm, mechanical face had no expression.

After a long pause, he finally spoke:

"So you're not dead, but you've become this half-alive, speechless form?"

Jiang Ye drew a checkmark (√) on the screen.

Salvation: "……"

Jiang Ye then wrote "moon" and "nine" on the screen.

Salvation understood he was asking if the current Moon Phase Clock could delay the Ninth Day's arrival.

So Salvation explained: "It's not certain yet..."

"But first, I'll have the bubble take you somewhere. Then we'll see if your blood person body can serve some purpose?"

Jiang Ye nodded, then indeed saw the bubble move on its own without him pushing it.

It seemed this bubble space was something Salvation specifically left in the Blood Pool.

Who knew what it was—it actually hadn't been eroded by the blood water.

But the bubble didn't swim fast either, feeling about the same speed as Jiang Ye's own swimming.

He didn't want to just wait, so he drew a series of horizontal lines on the light screen.

Salvation thought for a moment, then asked: "You discovered that the Blood Pool water has layered phenomena?"

Jiang Ye nodded, then pointed at himself, made upward and downward movements, and finally drew an X.

Salvation understood: "You tried swimming yourself, and this blood person can't swim upward or downward?"

Jiang Ye continued nodding, then looked at Salvation.

Salvation thought for a moment and explained to him:

"I do know about the Blood Pool water layering phenomenon. Different creatures thrown into the Blood Pool will probably die at different layers."

"Based on speculation between me and several apartment bosses—the more powerful the creature, the closer to the Blood Pool bottom their death layer in the blood water."

"And creatures that die immediately after being thrown in die in layers closer to the Blood Pool surface."

"So we all believe that the Blood Pool water layers become more powerful from top to bottom."

"Boss A and several other more powerful apartment bosses personally explored the Blood Pool water—they reached about the third layer from the top and didn't dare go further down..."

"And my most powerful mech could only reach the fifth layer, and even there, it was eroded by the blood water, resulting in heavy losses."

"Also, I explored with the Crow, and the Crow only reached the tenth layer before not daring to go further down."

Jiang Ye nodded, confirming his speculation about the blood water layering was correct, then pointed at himself toward Salvation.

Salvation shook his head: "I don't know which layer you're in either, but it should be within ten layers. Because my bubble can only move within 10 layers."

"Once the bubble takes you to the blood water center, follow my instructions, and I'll probably be able to determine which layer you're in."

Jiang Ye nodded, indicating understanding.

He originally thought he might be more powerful than the Crow, perhaps reaching layers deeper than where the Crow had been?

Now it seemed he had overestimated himself.

But that was fine—if he were truly more powerful than the Crow and reached layers below 10, wouldn't he be completely disconnected from Salvation?

Probably, Salvation didn't think he'd be more powerful than the Crow either, so he didn't explain much beforehand.

Like this, after swimming with the bubble for several minutes, Jiang Ye finally saw something other than blood water.

At first glance, he instinctively thought it was the Blood Pool's rock wall.

It looked like a black stone wall with an uneven surface.

The concave areas still accumulated blood water.

But as the bubble moved, he suddenly realized—

That wasn't the Blood Pool rock wall.

But... a stone pillar?

Because the stone pillar was too thick, and Jiang Ye's field of vision was only about 3 meters, he mistook the stone pillar for a rock wall.

As the bubble moved, he roughly estimated the stone pillar had a diameter of over ten meters...

About twelve or thirteen meters?

While estimating in his heart, he heard Salvation's voice from the light screen again, asking:

"About how thick is the central stone pillar you see?"

Only then did Jiang Ye remember that Salvation had just said the bubble was taking him to the Blood Pool center.

So where this stone pillar was located should be the Blood Pool center.

He thought for a moment, then wrote "10～15" as an answer on the light screen.

After all, visual estimates aren't necessarily accurate.

But when Salvation saw this answer, he slightly shook his head, his tone somewhat disappointed:

"So it seems you're probably around the 3rd to 4th layer..."

"Such a shallow layer probably isn't enough to affect the Moon Phase Clock."

"……"

Well, Jiang Ye felt a bit discouraged.

He originally fantastically thought his layer would be more impressive than the Crow's...

Turns out it's only about the same as the apartment bosses.

And those apartment bosses reached the third layer and could still leave alive.

While his neither-dead-nor-alive blood person form isn't even recognized by the Clone Replica Mirror...

But thinking carefully, aside from having the "Light faction" attribute, this clone of his was quite ordinary in other aspects.

Its level was completely unimproved at level 0.

That it could survive to the third layer and become this blood person form was probably due to the special nature of his blood...

Thinking this, he stopped dwelling on it.

Including Salvation now saying:

"But your current situation is indeed special—perhaps you can still have some impact on the Moon Phase Clock..."

As he spoke, Jiang Ye felt the bubble space he was in stop moving.

Now the bubble space barrier was divided into two parts.

The slightly bright part displayed as the light screen for communicating with Salvation.

The other non-light-screen part allowed Jiang Ye to see the outside scene through it.

This part of the barrier outside showed an extremely close stone wall.

But unlike the stone wall Jiang Ye saw earlier—

The indentations on this part of the stone wall seemed to follow certain patterns.

The blood water accumulated in the indentations looked like leaving blood-colored stripes on the stone wall...

While Jiang Ye was studying those blood-colored stripes, he heard Salvation give instructions:

"The indented areas of this central stone pillar are constantly absorbing blood water from the Blood Pool."

"So the apartment bosses and I have been continuously throwing creatures into the Blood Pool year after year..."

"The side of the stone wall where you are now has the most obvious blood water absorption effect in this layer."

"So now, you can try having your blood person body approach the stone wall indentations and see if it actively absorbs your blood..."

Then Salvation reminded: "Of course, this action carries risks."

"You can try whether your blood person body can be cut..."