Chapter 3183: Gubao and the Young Lady

In the pitch-black wooden hut, Su Xiao sensed his surroundings. He didn't leave immediately; he didn't understand the current situation, so exploring this wooden hut first was the best choice to infer the situation of the World in a Painting.

Light shone through the gaps in the wooden boards. After a preliminary sensing, Su Xiao determined the general situation: the wooden hut he was in was a room, and outside this room was a corridor.

Overall, he was in an ancient castle. The castle had two floors, and outside the castle was chaos and darkness, as if this castle were the only thing left in the entire world.

Su Xiao pressed one hand against the wooden wall on the inner side of the room. After a crystal layer wrapped around his left hand, he pressed through the wooden wall with a crack.

Noise came from the hole, like the sound of a rushing river, roaring. A black-purple fluid was rushing outside the wall. Strangely, this black-purple fluid did not surge in through the hole in the wooden wall.

Su Xiao tried to touch the black-purple fluid rushing past outside the wall with his hand. His hand was stained wet. After the black-purple liquid stained his hand, it emitted a purple fluorescent light. After a few seconds, the black-purple fluid on his hand was gradually stripped away, pulled back into the torrent outside the wall by an invisible force.

【Prompt: Your Sanity Value dropped by 1 point.】

The prompt appeared. Su Xiao's 330 points of Sanity Value slid to 229 points. Although the Sanity Value only dropped by one point, in the dark, he felt the sense of threat in the surroundings increase by one level. If his Sanity Value dropped very low, he would be subject to unknown interference. Below 1 point, that would be his death date.

Su Xiao could clearly sense that after his Sanity Value dropped below 1 point, a very bad situation would occur. There was a 99% probability of death. As for that 1% possibility of survival, it was something he never wanted to gamble on; he couldn't win the gamble, and he didn't have that kind of luck.

Su Xiao opened the team channel. A scene that gratified him appeared: the member avatars representing Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, Amu, Baja, and Benny were all lit up, meaning they were all within the real-time communication range.

Su Xiao: "Sanity Value statistics."

Su Xiao: "329/330."

Baja: "210/210."

Amu: "195/195."

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang: "113/113."

Benny: "112/112."

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang: 【Attached image (dog head mocking the ones above).】

Su Xiao wasn't surprised that Baja's Sanity Value cap was 270 points. Don't forget, Baja's Sky Bloodline came from an Ancient God, the Dominator Sothoth; this was once a very powerful Ancient God.

Regardless, Baja had some connection to the Ancient God system, so its sanity was top-notch. As for Amu, this simpleton didn't fear many things; it feared hunger.

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Benny's Sanity Values weren't high, but they weren't low either. After all, they had made it to the eighth tier and experienced all kinds of big scenes.

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, Amu, Baja, and Benny were all on the first floor of the castle. Su Xiao wasn't in a hurry to meet up. The known intelligence now was that one couldn't leave this castle.

It wasn't that this place was sealed; the semi-fluid rushing past outside represented darkness, chaos, etc. Su Xiao estimated that only this castle was left in the World in a Painting, and other places had been swallowed or stolen.

Su Xiao took two 【Scroll Fragments】 from his storage space. The texture of the 【Scroll Fragments】 was similar to cloth, but very tough. If Su Xiao hadn't guessed wrong, this thing had characteristics similar to a World Core.

In the World in a Painting, there was a 【World Painting】, which was the hub of this world. Only when the 【World Painting】 was complete was this world complete. Every time a piece was torn off the 【World Painting】, a part of the World in a Painting would disappear. The part that disappeared would be filled by that kind of black-purple semi-fluid.

Although this was a World in a Painting, it was also a real world, a world on the verge of extinction.

Su Xiao pushed open the wooden door of the room. The walls on both sides of the corridor were built of black rock, somewhat damp and cool. The fire in the brazier on the wall was burning, but the firelight it cast wasn't strong, as if the firelight, brightness, etc., of this world were about to pass away.

Passing through the damp, dark corridor, Su Xiao arrived at the reception hall on the first floor. It was very large. The carved benches revealed age amidst their exquisiteness. The fire in the fireplace was burning weakly, and the deer head specimen hanging on the wall seemed to be watching everyone.

On the right side of the reception hall, this area had no furniture. Four paintings hung on the wall. The contents of the first two paintings could be seen clearly, while the last two paintings were covered in dense chains.

Su Xiao looked at the first painting. The pointed architecture in this painting was Gothic dark style. The colors of the entire painting were heavy, dark, oppressive, and heavy. Amidst this, it revealed a unique mystery and an attraction that made it hard for people to refuse. Even knowing it was dangerous, one couldn't help but explore it. This was the charm of dark art.

Below the frame of this painting, there were two characters branded onto the frame after melting black metal. These two characters were: Nightmare.

Su Xiao looked at the second painting. The content of this painting was very concise: a sandy yellow desert and the sun above the desert. Apart from that, there was nothing else.

The last two paintings were wrapped too tightly by iron chains. Su Xiao didn't rashly use his blade to slash them. Under such circumstances, only a simpleton would do that.

After observing the two paintings, Su Xiao's gaze turned to the corner of the wall. Beside the wall, a drawing board was stuck on an easel. A white-haired little girl was sitting in front of the drawing board. Because of her height, she had to sit on a high stool to draw on the drawing board.

This little girl was about fourteen or fifteen years old. The lower half of her face wore a silver face mask, covered in silver rivets, revealing a sense of cruelty amidst the magnificence.

【Warning: You are spying on the Young Lady.】

【Warning: Please do not commit any acts that harm the Young Lady. If the Young Lady is harmed, you will become the absolute mortal enemy of powerful existences such as the Nightmare King, the Blazing Sun Monarch, etc., and you will be rejected by the World in a Painting.】

【Prompt: The Young Lady is a neutral unit and will not be affected by Charisma attribute negotiations. The Hunter's Charisma attribute is -9 points; the Young Lady will not develop initial hostility toward you because of your Charisma attribute.】

【Current Young Lady Friendliness: 0 points (Friendliness exceeding 20 points allows entry to the second floor of the castle).】

【Prompt: The Hunter can hand over the obtained scroll fragments to the Young Lady. Each scroll fragment can increase the Young Lady's Friendliness by 5 points.】

【Prompt: After all participants in this world have arrived, the Scroll Contest will officially begin!】

【Prompt: The Scroll Contest is close to a World Contest.】

【Prompt: The World in a Painting is an extremely special world. This world can produce numerous unique resources. After this world is repaired, it will no longer send contractors to this world, but only send employees to execute resource missions.】

Seeing these prompts, Su Xiao felt slightly surprised. He had "inadvertently" obtained two 【Scroll Fragments】. Now it seemed that this was clearly a form of entry qualification.

In a flash, Su Xiao remembered the origin of the second 【Scroll Fragment】; it was a mission reward from Reincarnation Paradise. This was somewhat "coincidental."

Obviously, Su Xiao was fighting on behalf of Reincarnation Paradise this time. Some of his opponents were from the Void, and some were from other Paradises. It could be said that this was a World Contest with fewer people.

As for how to seize this world, the method was very simple: the 【Scroll Fragments】 of this world were limited. Before the progress of this world ended, whichever side obtained more 【Scroll Fragments】 would be the final winner.

By then, the 【Scroll Fragments】 obtained by several parties would return to their original places, allowing the World in a Painting to recover. As for the extent of the recovery, it would depend on how many 【Scroll Fragments】 the parties could find back.

This was winner-takes-all; the 【Scroll Fragments】 found by others were all working for nothing. Losers eat dust? Think beautifully. If you lose in the World in a Painting, you won't even have dirt to eat; you can only eat farts, commonly known as losers eat farts. ===== CHAPTER 3184 =====