# Chapter 406: Dealing with the People in the Painting
The spiral staircase was an important symbol in his spiritual world. Its appearance meant that his spiritual power had successfully invaded Butterfly Lady's spiritual world, just as Butterfly Lady had summoned a portal in his book tower. The difference was that Butterfly Lady had not exposed her true spiritual world, while Xu Huo had no problem showing her a second time.
The appearance of the spiral staircase seemed to tear a hole in Butterfly Lady's spiritual world. After the white staircase appeared, a liquid like white emulsion covered the original blank space, and the book tower also showed signs of manifesting.
Butterfly Lady watched the person being lifted higher and higher by the staircase and said in a deep voice, "I just told you, don't casually expose your spiritual materialized objects. Even if you bring the book tower in, what can you do? Materialized objects can't be hidden, and I can easily severely wound you!"
Xu Huo didn't respond to her. Butterfly Lady turned to look under the staircase. Once the book tower formed, the first floor's table and the items on it should appear. But unexpectedly, although the book tower had already built five or six floors, the table at the center of the first floor had yet to appear.
"You're quite clever," Butterfly Lady said with a smile. "But the book tower is only this big. Where can you hide your materialized object?"
As she spoke, six zippers appeared around her, and her figure suddenly split into six, each stepping into a different zipper to search for Xu Huo's spiritual materialized object within the rotating book tower.
Xu Huo's book tower was very complex. It had a hundred floors to begin with, and each floor contained at least ten doors, behind which were overlapping rooms. If the central staircase and book tower were considered a complete circle, then countless other circles were attached outside this circle. These circles could rotate on their own and were connected through doors, invisibly turning the book tower into a massive maze.
Entering the maze was easy, but leaving was difficult—Butterfly Lady had learned this yesterday. Yet she still walked in without hesitation for a simple reason: since Xu Huo had expanded his spiritual world within hers, it couldn't be too far from his own world. She didn't need to walk out of the maze; she only needed to break away from his world.
However, no matter how she thought about it, she never expected that in just one day, Xu Huo's spiritual world had changed again.
This feeling was very subtle.
Xu Huo had sought out Butterfly Lady for a sparring session with other motives. Setting aside his own doors to create the painting frame was just an experiment, but he never expected it to succeed so easily—much simpler than when he first opened a door in the mental hospital.
That was why he had fully materialized his spiritual world.
Unless in a special environment, he couldn't enter his own spiritual world. But Butterfly Lady had a method to enter the spiritual world anytime, anywhere. This kind of trial and training opportunity was rare, so he also learned from experience and hid the symbol of his spirit when materializing his spiritual world.
In fact, when he was extensively materializing the painting frames and portals, he never actually entered that door. He was hiding inside the painting. The one who entered the door and lured Butterfly Lady into the book tower was another personality.
He was still staying outside.
Although Butterfly Lady could split into multiple people within the spiritual world, it seemed different from his multiple personalities.
After a brief hesitation, he entered the painting frame five times in a row before wiping the world inside the painting to darkness and then took out the "World Within the Painting."
A new set of footsteps appeared in the darkness. Tu Ge had been running for his life in the painted world for who knows how long.
When he first came in, he searched everywhere for an exit, but the painting frame was dark in all directions. There were paths everywhere, yet nowhere was a way out. No matter where he went, it was the same. Items and tickets couldn't be used either; there was simply no way to escape from the painting. Only when Xu Huo took the painting out would a painting frame appear before him, through which he could communicate with the outside.
After spending a long time in the painting, he resigned himself to his fate. Since he wouldn't starve or die here, staying was fine. He stopped looking for a way out. But this brief peace didn't last more than a few days before a second player entered the painting.
This guy came in without a word and tried to kill him. If he hadn't run fast, he would have died long ago. Even now, he was still on the run.
"I don't know where he gets his fighting spirit. We're both trapped in the painting and can't get out. What's the point of killing me?" Tu Ge stopped to rest for a while, carefully listened to the sounds around him, and confirmed that the other person hadn't tracked him down before sitting down to check his legs.
Here, he couldn't see things, but he could still feel the changes in his legs. Running his hand up from his calf, the rough skin had already spread to his knees.
"Did I really think I could hide here forever?" A few days ago, his feet suddenly felt weak, and then he discovered that the skin on his entire soles seemed wrapped in something. Touching it felt like a rough oil painting surface. In just a few days, this stuff had grown to his knees. He knew it wouldn't be long before he might turn into a real painting, but he would live one day at a time.
The painting frame that had disappeared for a long time suddenly appeared before him again, but no light came from outside. Tu Ge was stunned for a moment. The next second, he saw the painting frame flying toward him. He instinctively protected his head. A few seconds later, when he looked up again, the painting frame was still floating obediently in its original position.
The only thing visible in the darkness was the painting frame. Since it appeared, it meant Xu Huo had taken the item out of his item slot. It was so dark outside probably because it was nighttime.
"I'm about to merge with the painting. Why don't you find a random instance and let me out? As long as you don't kill me, I promise to give you everything, including the backup supplies I've hidden in other districts..."
But before he could finish, his head flew off his neck.
[Congratulations, player Passerby A, for killing a black player.]
Receiving the game notification, Xu Huo walked out of the darkness, kicked the corpse aside, and stepped into the glowing painting frame ahead.
On the other side of the painting frame, the player who had tried to assassinate Xu Huo—the one using a wooden sword—was standing in place, warily looking at the two painting frames that had appeared on his left and right.
The painting frame had appeared before Tu Ge at the same time it appeared before him, but after passing through his body, it stopped behind him, while the painting frame in front hadn't disappeared.
"Is it you? I told you, I won't reveal any information to you. Don't even think about it!"
No one responded to him. A row of painting frames appeared around him, and they began to press in on him.
Seeing light emerge from one of the painting frames, he turned and suddenly charged toward it!
Every previous attempt had failed, but unexpectedly, this time he easily jumped through!
"I'm out—" The ecstatic expression froze on his face. The player looked down at the sword piercing his heart, then looked up in shock.
Xu Huo pulled out the sword and pushed the man down. "You were already out."
The first time the painting frames appeared, both of them had been released. He had just used a little trick on the outside to prevent them from realizing they had escaped the item.