Chapter 33: Inanimate Spirits

As soon as he stepped through the fireplace portal, Su Chen felt something dragging his body through space.

It was a very strange feeling, as if his body was becoming as flat as a board. His surroundings distorted into a weird perspective, as if the world around him was also being flattened at the same time.

Thankfully, this feeling only persisted for a brief moment. An instant later, he discovered that he had been transported into a dark and gloomy room.

The room was musty and dark, and no traces of light could be seen at all. However, it was still possible to vaguely make out the surroundings. For instance, the room was square, there was a bed in the corner, and next to the bed was a table with a rug underneath it and a lamp on top.

But regardless of if it was the bed, the table, or the light, they were all grey.

The entire room looked like it had been drawn with black ink. Only the people were in color.

Yes, the clothes that Su Chen and the others were wearing had preserved their color, making them the only source of color within this grey space.

“We’re in the Projection Void now?” one of the guards asked curiously.

“It’d be more accurate to say that this is a void projection of the real world. Anything that isn’t alive can take form in this place, so we call them Inanimate Spirits,” Zhu Baiyu said.

“Inanimate Spirits? Then what about the spirits of living objects?” someone asked.

“Then you’re in a dream realm, silly.”

Everyone chuckled lightly.

“Don’t you feel like this place is very familiar?” someone asked.

“It seems like it’s Xu Guang’s room. I recognize his underwear.”

Everyone began to laugh again.

The young Zhu Clan guard Xu Guang’s face flushed thoroughly red. He ran over to his bed and was about to pick up his void-projected underwear.

Su Chen grabbed his hand. “Don’t touch anything.”

“It’s just a pair of underwear,” Xu Guang said.

He didn’t take Su Chen’s words to heart and reached out to grab the underwear.

At that instant, the underwear suddenly leapt into the air and opened its mouth wide, chomping at Xu Guang.

“Ah!” Xu Guang howled heartrendingly.

The underwear’s bite was quick and savage, severing his hand immediately.

Everyone simultaneously attacked, unleashing a barrage of Origin Skills on it.

The underwear jumped into the air and cried out shrilly, “No!”

Then, it turned into scraps of cloth that floated through the air.

These scraps floated through the air, looking just like shadowy strips that slowly faded out of existence.

“What is that bloody thing?” Ba Lieyuan yelled in shock.

“Just as I said, Inanimate Spirits!” Zhu Baiyu emphasized. “Since they’re Inanimate Spirits, they naturally have their own consciousness. You cannot use common sense here; be as careful as you can, because you have no idea what will suddenly come alive and do that to you.”

He walked over and glanced at Xu Guang. “Are you alright?”

Xu Guang’s forehead was beaded with sweat. “I’m fine.”

“Don’t touch things so carelessly next time.” Zhu Baiyu gave Culler a shove. “Let the Sand Race go first.”

Everyone pushed the Sand Race individuals along as they walked out of the small room.

As a void projection of the real world, they were currently still in West Laina Castle. However, the entire castle had taken on a grey hue, as if it were an old property that had been long since abandoned. If you added in a strange laugh echoing in the background and some shadows floating through the air, it would look just like a haunted castle.

There were no ghosts in the Projection Void castle, but the castle had no shortage of strange and bizarre things within.

They had just walked out of the room when they saw a broom floating in the air. The broom had two arms branching off from it and a single eye on the main shaft. It was quite badly surprised when it saw everyone and cried out, “Oh my God!”

Then, it immediately turned around and ran, leaving behind a trail of dust in its wake.

The dust floated in the air but didn’t return to the ground. Instead, it morphed into a human face that took a good look at the newcomers before turning into an arrow made of dust and shooting off towards another corner of the castle.

A few paintings were hung on the wall, and the people in the paintings all came to life, beginning to clamor, “Look! There’s some humans.”

“What’s so strange about that? Aren’t we humans too?”

“You’re joking! We aren’t humans, we’re just pieces of art!”

“But we’re humans inside a painting, and so we are humans.”

“No, humans in paintings aren’t humans.”

“They are!”

“They are not!”

“They are!”

“They are not!”

Their argument became more intense. The people within the two paintings suddenly stepped out of the paintings and began to physically brawl with each other.

An old man in a nearby painting who was smoking a pipe sighed. “Those two sure love to fight.”

“That’s not their fault,” the “Bishop” on the nearby painting replied, “Who told Caulk to scheme away his businesses?”

Most of the paintings hanging in this place were of the former owners of this castle. The castle had exchanged hands a few times in a not-so-aboveboard manner, so some of the figures in the paintings actually held grudges with one another.

Su Chen and the others had been guests in West Laina Castle for the past few days and knew a bit about the history of the castle.

However, they never would have expected that this history would manifest itself in such a fashion once they entered the Projection Void world. Their horizons were vastly broadened.

The people within the two paintings were still arguing, while the other paintings were watching the commotion and whispering to one another. However, they didn’t show any signs of wanting to attack these strangers.

The old man smoking the pipe took the initiative to say, “Welcome, guests from the real world.”

“Welcome? I thought that you would want to drive us away,” Zhu Baiyu said.

“Why would we drive you away?” The old man was stunned. “We’ve been in this dead place for an eternity and have long since grown sick of it. We’ve always been hoping for something new to happen and make things interesting. But the only thing here apart from projections are more projections, and so there will be never anything new to play with. Now that guests have finally appeared, why wouldn’t we welcome you?”

“But it seems like not everything here thinks the same way you do. See, a pair of underwear bit off my friend’s hand just a moment ago.”

“Oh, you’re talking about the new guy.” The old man understood.

He nodded, and a pair of underwear suddenly appeared in midair.

It was the same underwear that had bitten off Xu Guang’s hand.

Didn’t we kill it? How is it alive again? Everyone was stunned.

“Don’t be surprised! Don’t be surprised!” the old man began to chuckle. “Don’t forget that this place is just a projection of the real world. Everything here is just a projection of the real world, so as long as the object still exists in the real world......”

“Then the void projection won’t die,” Su Chen answered.

“Exactly!” the old man laughed.

“So as long as we return to the real world and burn his underwear, this guy will really die, right?” Su Chen said.

The old man’s smile froze, and that frenzied underwear was dazed.

It began to yell, “No, you cannot do that!”

“You were the one who attacked me first!” Xu Guang said, enraged. “The first thing I’m going to do when I get back is burn you to ashes!”

“Do it, do it! I’d rather be turned into ashes than be your underwear!” the pair of underwear howled madly. “You always use me to do those disgusting things. Every time you fantasize about that female master of yours, you shoot out that evil stuff, and you never wipe me clean! It always ends up getting all over me. I’ve had enough, enough, I tell you!”