Chapter 32: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Flock of Orioles

“130 units of consciousness energy?” Zhu Xianyao froze for a moment.

She stared at the Su Chen standing in the middle of the Origin Formation, the wind whirling around him furiously, and bit her lip as she said, “You’re only missing 130 units?”

“Yes, I’m sure of it!” Su Chen said resolutely. “If you have any way of boosting it, then hurry up and use it. If we miss this opportunity, we won’t get any more chances!”

He could sense that they were so close to completely opening it.

“Okay! I’ll give it to you!” Zhu Xianyao yelled.

She suddenly sprang into motion, leaping towards Su Chen.

“Xianyao!” Zhu Baiyu realized what she was going to do and called out. He reached out his hand to grab her, but Zhu Xianyao nimbly dodged his outstretched hand and flew to Su Chen’s side, then cradled his neck.

She stared at Su Chen.

Then, she kissed him.

A deep, long kiss!

Su Chen was totally stunned by this action. He wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words, so he could only stare at Zhu Xianyao, totally in a daze.

However, he could sense that this kiss had imparted a strange consciousness energy into his body that carried with it Zhu Xianyao’s will, her thoughts, her mood, and even traces of her memories......

These emotions all surged into Su Chen’s mind.

Su Chen understood that Zhu Xianyao was using some kind of special technique to transfer her own consciousness power over to him.

Consciousness power and soul power were equivalent.

What they called consciousness power was actually the power of one’s soul.

Because of this, when she sent her consciousness power over, Su Chen could sense her mood, her youthfulness, and all kinds of other subtle parts of her consciousness, all ineffable. These things were not clear and were incredibly complicated, but they all rushed into Su Chen’s mind simultaneously, making him feel like he had suddenly turned into Zhu Xianyao albeit just for a brief moment.

An instant later, Zhu Xianyao pulled back, her face red as she said, “Hurry up!”

She wouldn’t have done this unless it was absolutely necessary.

If this little fatty hadn’t changed the way she viewed him during these past few days, she also would not have done so.

But no matter what, she had already done it. In that moment, Zhu Xianyao’s heart was thrown into turmoil again.

Su Chen didn’t know that what Zhu Xianyao had done was called Budding Affection.

Once affection started to bud and the roots had taken hold, they would only love one person no matter how many storms they had to weather for it.

The Budding Affection technique primarily transmitted a feeling of love. Consciousness power was just brought along for the ride.

Now, to raise Su Chen’s consciousness power, Zhu Xianyao was forced to attach her feelings to Su Chen.

She thought that she was choosing You Tianyang, but she didn’t realize that she had fallen for the same person twice.

After being kissed, Su Chen’s consciousness power shot up again. The tens of thousands of consciousness tendrils rose high into the air, all rushing towards the hole simultaneously. Su Chen could sense that the invisible existence was finally manifesting itself. A blue energy vortex appeared on the ceiling of the main hall seemingly out of nowhere.

The energy vortex slowly descended until it was right before the fireplace in the main hall. It floated above that fireplace, which flickered before unleashing a blindingly bright blue light.

After quite some time, the blue light disappeared. A path had appeared in that fireplace with no visible end. No one knew where it would lead.

“The door has appeared!” Zhu Baiyu said excitedly.

“Kapius’s secret stashes do indeed exist,” Su Chen muttered.

It had to be said that the method Kapius had chosen was both simple and effective. The secret stash was probably kept in an isolated void. The entrance was placed at this fireplace, but it was concealed by large amounts of consciousness energy. The requirement of 1500 units of consciousness power basically excluded most races apart from the Spirit Race.

But there was no mechanism that was unbreakable. Even the requirement of 1500 units of consciousness power had been reached under everyone’s joint efforts.

As they watched the entrance open, excitement appeared on everyone’s face.

“So that’s what you were looking for?” Culler muttered. “This castle does indeed have secrets that have yet to be uncovered, but this is actually a way to open them up.”

“Even if you know now, it’s already too late.” Zhu Baiyu dragged Culler and walked over towards the fireplace. Origin Energy began to sneak its way into every corner of Culler’s body. At the same time, he raised his hand, and a special rope bound him securely. Zhu Xianyao then tapped his finger at the center of Culler’s forehead, and a streak of light snuck its way into his forehead.

Culler didn’t mind. He chuckled darkly and allowed them to do as they pleased.

Once he had taken care of this, Zhu Baiyu tossed Culler into the portal.

The opening of the portal on the fireplace rippled as a faint blue glow began to emanate from it. Culler had already disappeared.

A blurry image appeared on Zhu Xianyao’s hand. The image was of a dark, gloomy room.

“There are no dangers. Everything in the surroundings is normal. The spatial fluctuations are a bit unstable, so it’s confirmed that this leads to an isolated void.”

Zhu Baiyu’s expression grew more focused. “It seems like this is a Projection Void.”

“Projection Void?” Zhu Xianyao was stunned. “You’re telling me that Kapius opened a Projection Void here?”

Zhu Baiyu nodded his head seriously.

A Projection Void was a projection of the real world.

It wasn’t a genuine isolated void but an illusory realm of sorts.

But unlike dream-realms, which were purely consciousness voids, Projection Voids were the physical manifestation of these illusory realms. It was the other side of the figurative coin of true voids.

It was very difficult to understand the principles behind a Projection Void. One needed to have a sufficiently deep understanding of spatial principles in order to grasp them.

The Spirit Race were all known for having incredible consciousness power. No one had expected Kapius to also be quite proficient in spatial-type magic, and Projection Voids to boot.

“Are there any inherent dangers to Projection Voids?” Su Chen asked.

“It’s hard to say,” Zhu Baiyu said seriously. “Projection Voids are the shadows of true voids. They are real projections, but they also exist by their own set of rules. Nothing that happens inside needs to obey common sense, so we need to be extremely careful when exploring.”

“If that’s the case, them we’re in even greater need of cannon fodder,” Su Chen said.

“That is indeed the case,” Zhu Baiyu chuckled, then turned around and gestured. Culler’s subordinates were all swept into the fireplace portal by this gesture of his.

Having taken care of this, Zhu Baiyu said, “Let’s go. We can go in now too.”

Everyone began to enter one after another.

Shortly after the Zhu Clan’s people entered, Shi Mingfeng and the others also appeared in West Laina Castle.

Since both the Zhu Clan and Culler’s people were no longer there. The Immortal Temple was able to enter without any incident.

Shi Mingfeng took a glance at the fireplace and chuckled, “Projection Void...... Who would have expected that Kapius would actually set up a Projection Void. Thankfully, the Zhu Clan was here; otherwise, it would have been very hard to find this place. Let’s go and take a look.”

He took the lead to enter the fireplace.

The fireplace continued to ripple and emit beams of blue light as the Immortal Temple’s soldiers walked through one after another.

Not long after they went in, another group of people appeared in West Laina Castle’s main hall.

The person in the lead was the Sand Race Leader, Pall.

As he stared at the fireplace, Pall chuckled. “See what our esteemed guests have brought us? Kapius’s secret stores...... Hahahaha, I said a long time ago that humans are never to be trusted. Thankfully I never fell for their tricks from the very beginning, though I didn’t expect there would be two groups of humans trying to steal my treasures.”

“They aren’t on the same side. We can wait for them to kill each other off before attacking,” one of the Sand Race individuals said.

“That’s a good idea, Doug.”

The eagle-eyed Sand Race individual behind Pall said, “But Leader, Culler is in their hands.”

“I know. But you saw yourself, Salk, that there are two groups of them. We can wait for them to kill each other off before making a move.”

“Then what about Culler?”

“May the Heavens protect him. Your younger brother’s sacrifice will not be in vain,” Pall said as he patted Eagle Eye.

As they spoke, they also walked into the Projection Void.

No one noticed what was going on beneath the main hall.

Within the dungeon.

He Xu glanced up at the ceiling.

He smiled slightly and said to himself, “Su Chen was absolutely right; those Sand Race individuals aren’t easy to fool at all. It’s time for me to regain my freedom.”

As he spoke, he took out his Origin Ring from his trousers and pulled out a vial of medicine, then dumped it into his mouth.

The energy he had suppressed finally surged forth. Cracks could be heard all over He Xu’s body.

He unleashed a palm strike on one of the columns of the jail cell. It shattered in half, and He Xu strode out of the cell towards the fireplace.

Of course, he didn’t notice a pair of eyes glittering in the shadows watching everything going on.