Such cruel words, however, did not cause any waves.

Xu Gou's expression remained unchanged as he nodded in approval.

He continued cutting flesh along the bones that were already devoid of flesh and blood.

Since there were no internal organs and no blood flowing out, the entire process of skinning the flesh looked like scraping mud off a skeleton, appearing not particularly complex.

Of course, the effort required for the entire process was still considerable.

But it wasn't a problem for a mutant like Xu Gou.

Moreover, halfway through the skinning, he even swapped tasks with Peng Gu.

Thus, the skinning process proceeded smoothly for all areas except the skull.

However, among those densely packed black cracks, none of the bone seams showed anything special.

But that was fine.

The group quickly turned their attention to Tao Sheng's head.

What was rather eerie was—

For an ordinary person who had all the flesh cut off their body except for their head, it would be absolutely impossible to remain alive.

Yet Tao Sheng had merely fallen unconscious.

He appeared to still be breathing.

Therefore, the key to this body was most likely in the head.

Peng Gu had also expended quite a bit of effort, so he handed the knife back to Yu Mo, continuing the "task rotation."

Yu Mo swallowed, looking as if he couldn't bear it, yet excitement flickered in the depths of his eyes.

Hesitantly taking the knife, he began operating on Tao Sheng's head.

First, he ripped off Tao Sheng's wig.

Hmm...

Originally, this guy's scalp was sparse, but he still barely had a few strands of hair left.

However, after Jiang Ye kindly gave him a haircut with a chainsaw, not a single hair remained on the top of his head.

Of course, a particularly distinct Glyph Pattern was also clearly visible on his scalp.

When Xu Gou and Peng Gu were skinning the flesh, they had also seen the Glyph Pattern on Tao Sheng's chest but didn't pay it much mind.

Now, seeing this guy's bald scalp also bore a Glyph Pattern, surprise finally flashed in their eyes.

Seeing the excited Yu Mo about to directly cut into the Glyph Pattern area on the scalp, Xu Gou suddenly spoke up with a suggestion:

"Perhaps we should try cutting out the intact Glyph Pattern flesh. We can study it later when we have time."

Xiao Bai actually knew about this—

Within the Defenders' Alliance, due to the existence of the Raven Feather, the Defenders had confirmed that Glyph Pattern Abilities could be extracted.

And since Glyph Pattern Abilities and Glyph Pattern tattoos complement each other, naturally, some Researchers had also tried cutting out the flesh bearing Glyph Pattern tattoos from players for study.

In fact, it wasn't just within the Alliance;

it seemed some extreme monster raisers had also attempted to study the Glyph Pattern flesh on living people.

However, no conclusive results were ever obtained.

But this line of thinking had always existed.

So when Xu Gou mentioned it now, Xiao Bai inwardly agreed.

But Yu Mo was somewhat troubled.

After all, compared to the torso, the amount of flesh on the entire head was much less.

The flesh on the scalp was similarly tricky to handle.

However, having just witnessed Tao Sheng being skinned alive firsthand, Yu Mo naturally didn't dare offend anyone.

So he shifted the blade away, moving it outside the range of the head Glyph Pattern, first drawing a circle to outline the Glyph Pattern section.

However, after drawing this circle, just as he prepared for the next step, he found the freshly drawn circle had simply vanished!

Of course, this "disappearance" was essentially a self-healing of the wound.

Yu Mo was shocked, then quickly tried making a cut on another part of the bald head.

Sure enough, the wound automatically healed very quickly too!

His eyes widened, and he turned to look at Xu Gou.

Xu Gou and the others, closely monitoring the process of Tao Sheng being skinned, had naturally noticed this anomaly as well.

Peng Gu quickly deduced: "It seems the item he'd rather die than hand over voluntarily is nurtured within this head!"

"And..." his voice barely concealing astonishment, "even though this is a Forbidden Zone, the item hidden in his head seems unaffected!"

"This is also most likely the reason why this guy is still alive despite being skinned like this!"

Yu Mo also nodded vigorously, agreeing with this assessment.

But his dilemma was: "So now, with the wounds self-healing, how should we handle the head?"

Xu Gou thought for a moment, then pointed at Tao Sheng's neck: "Start from here, work upwards from the bottom, peeling off the facial features and flesh towards the scalp."

Yu Mo nodded and moved the blade again.

The scene that followed was somewhat brutal.

Tao Sheng lacked internal organs, but he had facial features.

The sight of the facial features being peeled off was rather horrifying.

However, the more common Glyph Pattern Ability, Flesh Weaving, most often involves advancements related to facial features.

Dark-type players covered all over with eyes, noses, or mouths weren't particularly rare either.

So the people present here were somewhat accustomed to such sights.

Yu Mo, originally a Reincarnation Ghost himself, naturally had little psychological burden.

His only psychological burden was that the person he was operating on was his cousin.

Yet his movements with the knife were crisp and efficient, not sloppy in the slightest.

Soon, the once living Tao Sheng was completely skinned alive into a skeleton.

However, what differed from an ordinary skeleton was—

Every bone of this skeleton bore black cracks.

Even stranger, the part of his scalp where hair should grow, due to its self-healing ability, simply couldn't be peeled off.

But after Yu Mo tried a few more times, the group collectively discovered—

This self-healing ability wasn't inexhaustible.

As Yu Mo made small, repeated cuts on the scalp.

Although the scalp still healed quickly, the originally flesh-colored scalp gradually lost its color...

It looked as if it was becoming thinner and transparent.

Of course, Yu Mo could tell from the feel of the knife that the scalp wasn't actually getting thinner.

But the increasing transparency was visible to the naked eye.

And as the scalp gradually became transparent, they could see through it...

The skull beneath that part was indeed also covered with black cracks.

And, just as they had hoped, they found the special spot among the cracks growing on the skull!

It wasn't, as Xiao Bai had speculated, a larger crack.

But beneath the Glyph Pattern covering the scalp, within one of the black cracks, there was a faint flicker of red!

Xu Gou and the others, seeing that hint of red, all concluded it must be the special item Tao Sheng would rather die than voluntarily surrender.

But Jiang Ye, who had witnessed the shadow phantom causing player mutations during the chess game, recognized it at a glance—

That hint of red seemed to be the blood-colored worm, called the Blood Realm Worm, that the shadow phantom injected into the mutating players when they weren't paying attention during the mutation process!

Back then, this blood-colored worm was implanted into the mutating player's heart.

Yet on Tao Sheng's body, forget a heart, there wasn't a single internal organ.

Jiang Ye had thought that the blood-colored worm had transformed into the blood-colored patterns covering his body.

He never expected to see this Blood Realm Worm again, hidden within the cracks of this skull!

So, was the special item Tao Sheng mentioned actually this Blood Realm Worm?

Right!

Jiang Ye suddenly remembered—

The shadow phantom had said that players mutated by his hand enjoyed a "deathless" benefit!

No wonder Tao Sheng was still alive even after being skinned alive just now!

So, even now, reduced to a skeleton, Tao Sheng might still not be dead!

And this deathless state linked to the shadow phantom was clearly related to this Blood Realm Worm parasitic within the skull bone seam!

The question was, was there any relationship between this Blood Realm Worm and the Glyph Pattern on Tao Sheng's head?

Thinking this, Jiang Ye gave Xiao Bai another hint.

So, Xiao Bai, staring at the red within the skull bone seam, seemed to think of something and asked Xu Gou:

"You're a mutant too. Does your scalp also have a Glyph Pattern like Tao Sheng's?"

Jiang Ye originally thought—

Perhaps Tao Sheng, being the shadow phantom's biological son, was a more special case.

And other mutants like Xu Gou probably didn't have such Glyph Patterns.

Otherwise, wouldn't they know about it themselves?

Yet, to his surprise...

They really didn't know!

Xu Gou said with a look of exasperation: "I'm not bald;

how would I know if there's a Glyph Pattern hidden beneath my thick hair?"

Ah, this...

Xiao Bai added matter-of-factly: "Then why don't you shave your head now and see?"

However, Xu Gou refused without a second thought.

He didn't state it explicitly, but his words hinted at something, his voice obscure:

"Don't even talk about shaving my head;

I won't use any items or abilities that consume hair!"

After a pause, he lowered his voice and said:

"I've heard a saying within the Heavenly Net Organization—"

"All of our player's organs and tissues can be easily self-healed through Glyph Pattern Abilities."

"Severed arms can regrow, severed heads can be reattached, even flesh and limbs dismembered into fragments can be restored to their original state..."

"But only hair, once lost a single strand, is completely and utterly gone, it won't grow back!"

"Including the commonplace Glyph Pattern Ability Flesh Weaving, all organs can be manipulated in various ways. But no one has ever managed to do anything fancy with hair."

Here, Xu Gou paused, looking at Xiao Bai: "Of course, you and Zhou Yuling are exceptions."

"..."

Hearing this, Xiao Bai felt somewhat shaken and surprised inwardly.

And Jiang Ye...

He had previously heard in the Court of Disorder from Boss Q—

All apartment players have approximately 100,000 strands of hair on average.

Even if some players have less hair, it was consumed within the apartment...

And the Formless Tree happens to have roughly 100,000 leaves as well.

At the time, Jiang Ye wasn't sure if Boss Q's speculation was correct.

But he certainly kept the concept of "hair" in mind.

Now hearing Xu Gou mention this again, he naturally felt even more that—

Perhaps within this Doomsday Apartment, hair truly was a rather special existence...

Damn it!

And he had thought that having a lot of hair meant using his hair for the Thread Blood Puppet's string puppets was practically free!

Now it seemed that every ten strands of hair he consumed were precious!

Jiang Ye felt a momentary pang of regret.

But on second thought, it didn't matter—

Other players only have themselves, with about 100,000 strands of hair.

But Jiang Ye, he has thousands upon thousands of clones carrying the load.

From this perspective, ten strands of hair weren't such a big deal.

However...

Jiang Ye's gaze swept over Tao Sheng's transparent scalp, then landed on Xu Gou's head.

Xu Gou's hair volume was quite normal, and he had given a reasonable explanation, so his refusal to shave his head was understandable.

But through this matter of "shaving one's head"...

Jiang Ye suddenly remembered.

He did know one bald person.

A special bald person...

The Mask Master!

Most bald people in the Doomsday Apartment were disguised using the mimic mask!

The only truly bald person was the Mask Master!

And now, the Mask Master had become Jiang Ye's clone...

Jiang Ye naturally had to worry—

Could lacking hair become a fatal weakness?

And, why did the Mask Master have no hair?

What did he use his hair for?

And this almost bald Tao Sheng, what did he use his hair for?

And Salvation!

Previously, when the shadow phantom used Salvation for mutation experiments, Salvation handed over 1000 strands of hair twice...

Since both Xu Gou and Boss Q knew hair was different.

Then Salvation couldn't possibly not know!

If that's the case, how could Salvation bear to spend 1000 strands of hair on experiments?

Could it be that the two failed experiments back then were because the hair Salvation provided was problematic?

Or, like Jiang Ye, Salvation, due to a clone ability, could possess hair beyond the ordinary?

Unfortunately, Jiang Ye here had been cut off from the outside world since the Forbidden Zone spread.

Otherwise, he could directly use the clone near Salvation to ask him.

For now, without answers to these questions, Jiang Ye's gaze returned to the blood-colored hint within the skull bone seam beneath the transparent scalp.

For a moment, he even considered having Xiao Hei's body emerge from within Xiao Bai's hair.

However...

As Yu Mo continuously cut the scalp with the knife, and the scalp continuously healed itself.

Tao Sheng's skeleton-like body finally showed an abnormality—

After the scalp became completely transparent, the Blood Realm Worm within the bone seam also faded from a intense bright red to a paler color!

Just as Yu Mo suspected that continuing might damage this precious "item,"

The few people gathered around Tao Sheng suddenly smelled a strange, bloody scent.

A chilly, damp, cold, rotten-reeking bloody scent...

Emanating from the black cracks covering all the bones of Tao Sheng's body.

And accompanying the emergence of the scent, Xiao Bai was the first to spot something with her sharp eyes:

"There's something!"

The others followed her gaze and indeed saw—

The black cracks on the bones seemed to twitch!

After waiting a moment longer, the group saw with their own eyes—

Thread-like black worms, as fine as black smoke, wriggled out from the black cracks!

This sight startled the group, causing them to step back repeatedly.

Xiao Bai, standing further away, however, truly had remarkable courage. She actually took a step closer, staring intently at the black thread worms.

Her posture seemed as if she wanted to collect them for study.

However, Xiao Bai didn't get a chance to make any move.

From the location of the chubby guy's figure, a "projection" from the void suddenly shot out a Double-Layered Array Disk—the Ghost Valley Soul Shepherd Formation!

This Array Disk, currently unrestrained, floated inexplicably above Tao Sheng.

The next second, the Array Disk began operating spontaneously, without anyone controlling it!

A "buzzing" sound, unlike the chaotic struggle against the iron wires before, accompanied a rhythmic pattern!

And with this abnormal movement of the Array Disk, the enclosed space they were in seemed to spin and turn upside down.

The people felt no vibration under their feet, nor any sensation of rotation themselves.

Yet they clearly "saw" the scene before them spinning and transforming!

And when this rapid spinning ended...

They suddenly saw—

Tao Sheng, who had just been skinned alive into a skeleton by them, had already vanished without a trace!