Chapter 571 Jie Ying’s Doubts

Chapter 571: Jie Ying's Doubts

Blood Epiphyllum’s vines, like tentacles reaching out from the abyss, swelled abruptly, bursting through the darkness like a beast baring fangs, spreading outward until they safely enclosed Su Bai and the others within.

This scene left Jie Ying utterly speechless.

She had seen many players with all kinds of special abilities and seen countless bizarre Eerie Entities, but the blood-red vines before her still made her heart clench.

Looking at the sharp barbs on the vines, Jie Ying could confirm that these were not merely a visual deterrent—they were true instruments of death, terrifying things that could pierce flesh and crush bones.

Just like the withered branches that controlled the nurses.

Like Su Bai had said, and as she herself admitted, Jie Ying had not entered the game normally. Long before Su Bai and the others were pulled into it, Jie Ying had already been wandering the lower floors of the Newborn Ward in 666 Hospital. She’d lost her hearing back then.

The one thing Jie Ying was grateful for was that the Newborn Ward was not in the central area of 666 Hospital. With the help of some special items, she managed to avoid the Eerie Entities in other areas and enter the Newborn Ward. However, the lower floors seemed to be only the periphery. Jie Ying felt like she was wandering a maze, unable to find a route to the core area of the Newborn Ward.

The game scenarios players got into were usually located in the core territories of Eerie Entities. While players who stayed in the nightmare world after beating the game could "freely" walk under the red moon, they couldn’t just waltz into those core areas like they could during games. Most of the time, they could only wander the outer fringes.

Of course, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Even large teams like the Nameless Society or the Candlelight Association, stationed in the nightmare world, would not actively venture into its "depths." Moreover, those core areas were not easy to find.

Only explorers like "Deep Dive" would pull that kind of stupid, hard stuff.

Jie Ying didn’t have her companions’ sense of adventure. This might be why the other members of "Deep Dive" unanimously agreed to let her safeguard another book. In their eyes, Jie Ying, the most cautious one, was the best suited to preserve the truths they had unearthed and the meditation methods they had created through their relentless exploration.

But those missing members of "Deep Dive" probably never imagined that Jie Ying, the most cautious one, after the last of her companions disappeared, would choose to go alone into the dangerous, unknown 666 Hospital.

Even more unexpected was that after wandering the lower floors, totally lost, for a long time, Jie Ying got pulled into a game and sent straight to the fourteenth floor of the Newborn Ward, where she met Chi Yan, Su Bai, and other new traveling companions.

Jie Ying was thankful they showed up. After all, if she hadn’t gotten dragged into the game by accident, she’d still be stuck on the lower floors, unable to find a way up.

But Jie Ying also felt sorry for these players. Her goal was different from theirs from the get-go. She wasn’t just trying to survive seventy-two hours, but to find her three missing companions!

To find them, Jie Ying was ready to go alone to the most dangerous, off-limits places in the Newborn Ward. Unfortunately, according to the game rules, she could not act alone, so she had to stick with the group for now, waiting for the right opportunity.

Along the way, Jie Ying didn’t care about the areas players could explore, believing they couldn’t trap her companions. That was why she zeroed in on the forbidden fifteenth floor.

Losing her hearing was a downside, but for Jie Ying, it let her watch people more closely.

Regarding her fellow travelers in this game, Jie Ying never expected a group of strangers meeting for the first time to be a well-coordinated team. She was just relieved that none of the players—not even the small, thin child—were the type to cause trouble or ignore reason. Such people were not uncommon among players.

The only one who evoked a sense of camaraderie as a Veteran in Jie Ying was Chi Yan. In her eyes, Chi Yan's gaze was unique, as if he had experienced much and lost much.

So when Jie Ying noticed Chi Yan paying excessive attention to a player named Su Bai, she grew puzzled. Even when leading the team and making decisions on various issues, Chi Yan would repeatedly look to Su Bai.

This made Jie Ying start observing Su Bai as well.

However, as she watched him, Jie Ying's attitude shifted from initial indifference to growing astonishment. The more she focused on Su Bai, the more elusive he seemed.

Perhaps it was because his appearance was too striking that most people were drawn to his superficial allure, overlooking what he truly concealed. When a person's exterior is too prominent, attention inevitably fixates on the surface, ignoring deeper layers. Su Bai was exactly that kind of person—his appearance was inherently deceptive, leading to misjudgment. Yet when you tried to delve deeper, you found his inner self... like an abyss, as if harboring some untouchable danger.

The more Jie Ying observed, the more certain she became—

Su Bai was ultimately unfathomable.

The blood-red vines twisted and spread around them, their dark crimson branches like a jagged maw, coiling layer upon layer to envelop them securely. The thorny vines gleamed with a cold metallic luster in the faint light, each blood-colored spike exuding a piercing sharpness, as if a mere touch would easily pierce flesh and drain the warmth of life.

Jie Ying's gaze fell on the vines before her. Her fingertips tightened slightly, and her heart clenched for a moment.

—This thing was summoned by Su Bai.

He claimed he could summon "small animals," then summoned a nurse connected to 666 Hospital. And now... he effortlessly called forth these strange plants from the terrifying ambush of withered branches to protect them?

She slowly turned her head to look at Su Bai, standing in the center of the vines.

The elegant young man's gray, hazy eyes showed no ripple of emotion. He stood amidst the Blood Vine as if in a domain entirely his own, his expression unnervingly calm, as though everything was under his control.

Jie Ying stared at Su Bai, her voice involuntarily lowering, tinged with an indescribable caution, as she asked—

"Mr. Su, who exactly are you?"

Jie Ying had always believed that she, having followed "Deep Dive" through the nightmare world, knew far more than ordinary players. But facing Su Bai, she felt a lack of confidence.