When Joey walked out of the illusory castle, the first thing he saw were the Special Affairs Bureau investigators waiting nearby.
When these people met the youth’s calm gaze, they immediately became highly nervous, their faces tensing up.
Just a short while ago, they had witnessed him casually breaching the Bureau’s containment line, as if stepping into another dimension, and easily walking into the “castle” that was invisible to them.
And now, had it even been fifteen minutes? They watched as he walked out again nonchalantly, with the previously vanished castle slowly materializing behind him. Through the open gates, they could faintly see figures moving inside.
Such a short time, such a relaxed demeanor – as if he had just taken a quick trip to a convenience store. But those who had been watching the live feed the whole time, who had seen most of what happened through those extremely chaotic and distorted images, dared not think so simply.
The cursed painting that could unconsciously alter human perception was already strange and terrifying enough in their minds. So how terrifyingly powerful must this youth be, who had so easily suppressed it?
Moreover, judging by his demonstrated personality, he didn’t seem like someone who would be easy to communicate with…
Joey’s gaze swept across everyone’s faces, easily guessing most of their thoughts from their expressions and eyes.
Given his persona, he naturally didn’t care about their looks. Since he had abandoned the idea of retrieving the “thoughts” of the Sabbath, he should continue searching for other lost collections… Besides, if he didn’t make the first move, these people would definitely do so.
In everyone’s eyes, the youth wearing a short cape in last century’s style and exuding a classical air merely gave them a casual glance before continuing forward indifferently, clearly showing no intention of further interaction.The leader couldn’t wait any longer. Despite his nervousness, he had to act. Taking a deep breath, he suddenly stepped forward to block the youth’s path. “Excuse me, Mr. Joey.”
The youth paused slightly, raising his eyes to look at him.
His beautiful and elegant appearance was highly deceptive, but Asa, having personally witnessed what had happened earlier, found it truly difficult to suppress the fear that ordinary people feel towards the unknown and mysterious. He could only hypnotize himself and display a standard official smile.
“We’re from the Chenxing Empire’s Special Affairs Bureau. Director Chandler is on his way here and would like to meet with you. Please wait a moment before leaving. We hope you can accept this presumptuous request.”
“Chenxing Empire’s Special Affairs Bureau?” Joey tilted his head. “Is it similar to Yao Country’s Investigation Division?”
—This persona had long known about the Investigation Division from Shi Cheng’s words, but wasn’t familiar with the Special Affairs Bureau.
The person being asked paused briefly, then quickly nodded. “That’s right, we’re the department responsible for handling extraordinary affairs.”
As he replied, the elite Bureau member’s mind instinctively began working. Could this mysterious extraordinary person have some connection to the Investigation Division? Had the Investigation Division already acted ahead of them and recruited him?
…Those cunning Yao Country people!
Then they absolutely couldn’t fall behind – they must not allow such a powerful extraordinary to be completely recruited by Yao Country!
Moreover, if the information from the Spirit Forgers was true, this person should have belonged to their side in the first place…
Joey observed the other’s expressions with interest, watching him go from frustrated to resentful, and finally to determined resolution. He found it quite amusing.
—Actually, as an elite Bureau member, Asa’s expression management was very good, with no obvious emotional leakage. However, Bai Yi himself was extremely sensitive in this aspect, and wearing Joey’s persona had enhanced this sensitivity even further. The emotional changes of ordinary people couldn’t escape his notice.
Thus, Asa, who was secretly determined to snatch the person back from the cunning Investigation Division, heard the youth in front of him smile and speak in a gentle yet irrefutable tone. “Sorry, I refuse.”
Asa, who had just made up his mind, completely deflated.
He persisted. “Um, may I ask why? We are approaching you with absolute sincerity, and the Director greatly admires your demonstrated…”
“My time is precious and can’t be wasted here,” Joey replied airily. “There are still many lost collections waiting for me to bring them back.”
His attitude was too casual, seemingly completely unconcerned about whether this might expose his background or weaknesses, or if others might exploit his care for those collections to set a trap.
Noticing this point, Asa immediately felt he had found a breakthrough to recruit the other party. His heart soaring with excitement, he eagerly spoke. “In that case, our Special Affairs Bureau can definitely help you, save you more time, and help you find all your collections—”
Joey slightly raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”
Asa held up his phone and smiled. “It’s like this – I’m not sure how familiar you are with live broadcasts, but I apologize that Worsey Castle was being live-streamed earlier. Even after the space became distorted, somehow the footage still got broadcast. So we accidentally overheard your conversation with those two Painting Spirits and have some guesses about your identity. Searching for lost items in an unfamiliar era might take quite some time on your own, but in this regard, the Bureau, which can quickly mobilize a nation’s resources, can offer you the greatest convenience.”
“Makes sense,” the youth nodded slightly, seeming somewhat interested. But before Asa’s smile could fully bloom, he heard the next words, “However, prove to me first that you can do it.”
Asa: “…?”
Before Asa could react, a small booklet had appeared in the other’s hand, extended directly to him. “This is the list of the Association’s lost collections. The crossed-out ones have been found. Find at least one item, then we can talk.”
Asa blankly accepted the booklet.
Joey naturally nodded to him and turned to leave.
Finally coming to his senses, Asa turned around, somewhat confused by the other’s actions, and almost instinctively asked. “Wait, where should we find you then?”
Joey seemed to find his question rather stupid and paused for a second before saying, “With your capabilities, just spread the word around, and I’ll naturally come find you when I know.”
With that, he left without further delay, brushing past the other.
…..
“Indeed, because Joey’s persona isn’t very approachable, they’ve become more cautious in their approach? If he were purely a righteous character, they’d probably be persistently pushing boundaries, maybe even trying moral manipulation right now?”
Bai Yi, behind the scenes, drew his conclusions after observation.
“Right now, the time from Joey’s appearance in the castle to everything ending was too short – so short that they received too much new information without enough time to integrate and analyze it… So even if they met with that Bureau Director, it would probably just be meaningless recruitment attempts and superficial goodwill. Joey wouldn’t be so easily moved by such shallow gestures…”
—So really, it would just be a waste of time.
He silently calculated, seeing one possible future after another clearly unfold before him, but regardless of which direction things went, he had already prepared corresponding scripts.
“It will probably take some time, waiting until these people think they’ve gathered enough information and made judgments after thorough consideration, before they approach Joey again. By then, it won’t just be empty promises of goodwill.”
“If these countries’ upper echelons think bigger, perhaps it won’t just be the Bureau or Investigation Division alone appearing before Joey next time…”
“…Now that would be interesting!”
While various countries’ extraordinary organizations were working overtime because of Joey, netizens who knew nothing about this had already exploded with discussion.
Ever since the evil spirits appeared on the exploration show, that strange livestream had captured worldwide attention, with countless people from other countries bypassing firewalls just to watch it.
Just as Bai Yi had thought, this was indeed a grand stage.
Only after the protagonist’s exit did the ripples truly begin to spread.
[…So is this incident over? I’m completely confused. From the moment that classical beauty appeared, the plot went wild like a runaway horse – something about an Artists’ Association, something about ‘Sabbath’, something about Painting Spirits, and that dizzyingly unclear battle process that seemed impressive but incomprehensible. There are too many elements – could some expert please explain?]
[I’m still dizzy and dazed – those battle scenes were too blurry, too dizzying, and too mentally disturbing.]
[I can’t help but wonder, is the TV station’s signal really that strong? It never dropped the whole time and even broadcast the illusory world inside the painting. I wish my WiFi was that stable.]
[You’re off topic. But I can probably guess – it must have been the Painting Spirits’ doing. They knew from the start this was being filmed, and not only didn’t block the signal but let everything broadcast normally. They deliberately wanted to frighten us, making us all watch as the guests got their perception confused in the painted world and slowly became trapped there forever… Isn’t that terrifying?]
[Agreed. They definitely wanted to show us what happens when you trespass in the castle! Given their previous behavior, that was absolutely their intention! The previous disappearances probably happened the same way. Hugging pillow and trembling]
[TV crew member quietly revealing: The news about the disappearances was just hype created by the production team. We’re certain that before this, the castle was completely normal with no supernatural events. We weren’t even sure if it was really called Worsey Castle, we just randomly applied stories we’d heard. Really! We’re all freaking out now too! Just now the director was taken away by some mysterious department…]
[Oh snap!]
[??? So they used evil spirits as a gimmick and got visited by real evil spirits? I can’t help but say they deserved it…]
[Since nothing happened at the castle before, you must have angered them by using Mr. Worsey and their story as a gimmick! Honestly, I also think they had it coming.]
[So to summarize: The production team got targeted for using others’ stories as gimmicks, the enraged spirits went on a rampage, were stopped by the mysteriously appearing extraordinary person Joey, who seems to be from a supernatural organization called the Artists’ Association. The cursed painting was one of their lost collections. Both sides seemed to have abilities related to paintings coming to life, involving mental illusions and such…]
[To be honest, the battle scene was so cool! Both elegant and bizarre! The classical beauty was both strong and beautiful – I’m sold!]
[The production team deserved it, but the spirits were truly cruel!]
[From what they said, they’re not evil spirits anymore and won’t be controlled by hatred or kill indiscriminately, but these past two days of bloody scenes are enough to give me nightmares! I wake up screaming for help every midnight! Is it really okay to just let them go?]
[Honestly, I agree on this point. If they truly aren’t evil spirits controlled by hatred, but self-aware Painting Spirits who just want freedom and won’t kill randomly, then keeping them locked up would be cruel. But didn’t they already kill someone? And in such a cruel way – skinning and bleeding them out! Even if murderers admit their mistakes and repent, they shouldn’t be let go, right? Will they really not do it again?]
[Wuwuwu our Andre suffered so terribly! Surely no one actually believes such cruel spirits won’t kill again?]
[Murder can’t be forgiven, but what if the victim was scum?]
[??? What do you mean? Is there gossip?]
We are currently recruiting. CN/KR/JP Translators/MTLers are welcome!
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/HGaByvmVuw
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter