Chapter 3208: Soul Chill (Revised)

After the Void Tree's announcement appeared, everyone present had different expressions. Su Xiao didn't care much about this announcement; he had entered many worlds and had never joined the Good/Lawful faction.

Joining the Good faction came with various constraints, and besides, such factions simply didn't want Su Xiao.

No, it wasn't as simple as not wanting him; in most cases, such factions regarded him as a mortal enemy.

As for those two 'good teammates', being assigned to the same faction as those two was normal. According to the Void Tree's announcement, this allocation was based on the cooperation situation in the Nightmare World.

Morei, Luoxi, and others had cooperated before, so they were assigned together. Tianyu's situation was a bit awkward.

Morei, Lilim, and others had a unified attitude toward Tianyu: 'The scumbag might also be an old schemer, so don't take him.'

Regarding this, Tianyu was both depressed and speechless. After being rejected by Morei and the others, he prepared to join Su Xiao, Wood, and Zuiyas's faction.

Tianyu did indeed do so, but not long after, he was hung upside down and one of his eyes was eaten. Thinking of this now, Tianyu still felt palpitations. Fortunately, it was only the eye of his nightmare body that was eaten.

"I was actually classified into the Evil Faction. It must be because I was held back by you two. My Devil Clan has always been neutral."

Wood looked at Tianyu, the meaning of surprise was obvious: 'Little brother, shall we two swap factions?'

Tianyu looked away, pretending nothing had happened.

"This is slander. No matter what, I am a member of the clergy."

Zuiyas, in a white clerical robe, smiled gently. When he didn't want to kill, he really had a bit of the feeling of a member of the clergy.

"There is a problem with this grouping. They actually have five people. It's unfair."

Baha spoke. As the diplomat of Su Xiao's team, of course, he had to stand up at this time.

Hearing Baha's words, Morei and the others didn't speak. They didn't want to speak; their hearts were bitter.

Su Xiao got up and walked toward the Young Lady in the corner of the reception hall. From the moment he entered the Main Painting World until now, the Young Lady had been sitting on a high stool, drawing on the drawing board.

"Canvas and ink are very precious, unique. I will definitely be able to skillfully draw the ideal painting. It will be a cold, peaceful world that warms people's hearts."

The Young Lady's voice was indifferent. In this indifference, a unique gentleness was revealed. Sometimes, she would look at you without saying a word. She was clearly weaker than an ordinary person, yet she could make people feel flustered.

The Young Lady's drawing board was two meters square, and the canvas on it was dull in color, with faint red marks visible.

Su Xiao took out 4 【Scroll Fragments】 from his exclusive room. As soon as he took this thing out, Morei stepped forward a few steps, looking down at the 【Scroll Fragments】 in Su Xiao's hand.

"..."

"Nothing else, mainly because I haven't seen this thing before and wanted to see what it looks like."

Morei smiled broadly. It looked like that, but in fact, she was observing the differences between each 【Scroll Fragment】.

"Don't look. We will have some soon too, no need to be envious."

Moon Apostle pulled Morei aside. Not long after, the two gathered together, muttering something in a low voice, accompanied by increasingly wanton laughter.

Ignoring these two, Su Xiao handed the 4 【Scroll Fragments】 to the Young Lady. The Young Lady put down her paintbrush and took them with both hands, fearing that the 【Scroll Fragments】 would be damaged. She asked:

"Are you thirsty?"

The Young Lady looked at Su Xiao. Her drooping white hair made her cheeks look exceptionally fair. Her pupils were bright red, like the most vivid pigment.

【Hint: Young Lady friendliness +20 points.】

【You have obtained the Painter's Protection (lasts until leaving this world).】

【You can enter the second floor of the Gubao.】

Receiving these prompts, Su Xiao didn't try to continue communicating with the Young Lady. He speculated that only when the friendliness with the Young Lady reached 80 points or more would there be a possibility of negotiating with her.

For every 【Scroll Fragment】 submitted to the Young Lady, the friendliness with the Young Lady increased by 5 points. It was unknown what would happen when the friendliness with the Young Lady reached 100 points. The Young Lady's attitude was unlikely to change; it was very likely that she would gift something or provide key intelligence.

Providing key intelligence was fine, but if she gifted something, one had to seize the opportunity. If one was late, one wouldn't even get to drink the soup.

Su Xiao looked at the Young Lady for a moment and basically determined that physical negotiation would not work. Su Xiao walked toward the corridor at the back of the reception hall.

"Boss, what did the Young Lady say just now?"

"Hmm?"

Su Xiao looked at Baha in confusion, then thought that the sentence 'Are you thirsty' that the Young Lady asked him just now could only be heard by him; Baha and Xiang Bubu Wang couldn't hear it, let alone others.

This intelligence was very valuable. Su Xiao estimated that it was highly likely related to the next Inner Painting World.

The next Inner Painting World was 'Sand Painting', desert, sun, heat, thirst.

A series of keywords appeared in Su Xiao's mind one after another. He knew that this was the advantage brought by submitting 4 【Scroll Fragments】.

Su Xiao certainly didn't only have 4 【Scroll Fragments】. When leaving the Nightmare World, he had a total of 13 【Scroll Fragments】. Excluding the 4 submitted, he still had 9 【Scroll Fragments】 in his hand at this time.

These 9 【Scroll Fragments】 had to be kept for now. Don't forget, there were still two good teammates present. Having one's bottom line figured out by those two good teammates was a very bad situation.

Su Xiao estimated that Wood had 8–10 【Scroll Fragments】, and Zuiyas had 7–9 【Scroll Fragments】.

The way to become the winner of this competition was very simple. At the end, whoever submitted the most scroll fragments to the Young Lady would win.

All the scroll fragments obtained by others would belong to that person. Finally, the Young Lady would piece these 【Scroll Fragments】 together into a canvas. This canvas was the core of the world in the painting, equivalent to the World Core.

Wanting to be the final winner, finding more 【Scroll Fragments】 was the key. Another point was to guard against other participants in the later stage.

The rule of this competition was that the killer inherited all the scroll fragments submitted by the deceased. The existence of this rule meant that until the last moment, anyone could become the winner.

It was imaginable that in the later stage, it would definitely be a joint effort to kill the person with the most 【Scroll Fragments】. Therefore, Su Xiao was not in a hurry to submit too many scroll fragments. Submitting 4 was enough to enter the second floor of the Gubao; he couldn't let Wood and Zuiyas figure out his bottom line.

Walking in the somewhat dim corridor, many portraits hung on the walls on both sides. These portraits were all unfamiliar faces. While moving forward, a portrait caught Su Xiao's eyes: it was the portrait of the Nightmare King.

In this portrait, the headless Nightmare King knelt on the ground. Opposite it was a thick blood gas. In the blood gas, there seemed to be a blood beast grinning and showing a mouth full of fangs.

Su Xiao tried to touch the paint on the painting with his hand. The paint was actually not dry yet. Was this drawn by the Young Lady? Or was it a painting generated by the corridor itself?

Looking at the empty picture frames on the wall, Su Xiao was more inclined to the latter.

Su Xiao continued to move forward along the corridor. After walking for dozens of meters, there were more than ten steps upward in front. At the end of the steps was a pair of wooden doors. The upper half of these wooden doors were glass windows. Inside the glass windows were full of wooden squares, with yellow paper sandwiched inside, making it impossible to see the situation inside. Su Xiao tried to push the door.

Creak~

After the friction sound of the difficult hinges, cold fog surged out from the door crack that was gradually pushed open.

Initially, Su Xiao didn't pay attention to the cold fog surging toward him, but after 2 seconds, he felt a bit cold. After 3 seconds, it was cold to the bone marrow. After 5 seconds, he took out cold-resistant clothing and put it on, only to find that it was of no use at all.

Because Su Xiao pushed open the door to the second floor of the Gubao, the cold fog spread downward along the steps. Not long after, it reached the corridor. Looking at that momentum, in at most one or two minutes, it would surge into the reception hall along the ground.

This cold fog was strangely cold. It wasn't the kind of deadly cold, but it made people feel that their bodies were gradually freezing through.

"Ah~ Achoo!"

Amu sneezed from the cold. After the snot stretched, it crossed a beautiful arc and stuck to his chin. Amu, who had ice-type abilities, started shivering from the cold.

Tut-tut-tut-tut-tut~

Xiang Bubu Wang's right hind leg shivered like an electric motor. He was also very cold, which made him feel wonderful. In his dog life, this was the second time he felt cold; the last time was on the ice field of the Witch World.

Su Xiao discovered the second characteristic of the cold fog: this was 'cold' aimed at the soul. Otherwise, his cold resistance couldn't be higher than Xiang Bubu Wang and Amu.

At the same time, in the reception hall on the first floor, the cold fog drifted over. The first to be affected was the Young Lady drawing in the corner. The Young Lady's expression remained as usual, and she even took off her loose coat.

"Why is it a bit cold?"

Morei tightened her collar, exhaling white gas from her mouth.

"It is indeed a bit cold."

Lilim took out a heart that looked like it had been injected with magma. Devil power representing magma and scorching characteristics surged out from inside, but Lilim soon discovered that this cold-protection method had no effect at all.

"It's getting colder and colder. Is there some kind of transcendent air conditioner in this castle? Who turned the air conditioner temperature to the lowest? That's really wicked!"

"Morei, your imagination is really big."

"This is not the point, okay? It's getting colder and colder. Look, I'm even running transparent snot (sniff~)."

Not only Morei and the others felt cold, but Zuiyas and Wood also felt cold all over. The two walked quickly toward the corridor. Just now, each of them had also submitted 4 【Scroll Fragments】 to the Young Lady.

A few minutes later, Morei, Moon Apostle, Lilim, and Luoxi huddled together, their little faces frozen pale. It was really too cold, and their thinking began to slow down. Moon Apostle, who wasn't very smart to begin with, had a tendency to go 'Aba, Aba'.

"Young Lady, someone is making trouble. Are you not going to care?"

"There must be some way, right."

Hearing the words of Morei and the others, the Young Lady seemed a bit unbearable. Essentially, the Young Lady belonged to the Neutral/Good faction, but she had seen too much and was already indifferent to life and death, whether it was others dying or she herself dying.

Seeing the Young Lady's expression, Morei, Moon Apostle, and others felt encouraged in their hearts.

"After 2 minutes, the soul fog will dissipate. Don't be afraid. The damage caused by the soul fog can be healed by time."

The Young Lady said encouraging words. After Morei and the others whispered to each other, they guessed that the cold fog would dissipate in 2 minutes, and this cold fog would not cause permanent damage and could recover over time.

In fact, the 2 minutes the Young Lady said was not equal to 2 minutes, but equal to 5 hours and 47 minutes.

"Not good, Moon Apostle has started biting her nails. Cheer up, Moon Apostle."

Morei grabbed Moon Apostle's shoulders and shook her. Moon Apostle's ignorant eyes were full of the light of 'wisdom'. ===== CHAPTER 3209 =====