Eldritch Horror Theatre

Not looking too good...

Numerous thoughts flashed through Fu Qian's mind. As he muttered to himself, he blurred and vanished from his spot.

He was almost certain that Lu Yi didn't know what he was trying to do.

But meeting this level of obstruction so quickly meant whoever held the home-field advantage likely had a firm grasp of his movements, marking him as their primary target.

It wasn't surprising. After all, his ability to draw aggro had always been terrifyingly consistent.

But did they think this little bit of targeting would be enough? Did they think that, as a fellow swordsman, he lacked Old Man Li's tricks?

With a cold sneer, Fu Qian vaulted the stone platform, charging deep into the corridor with the momentum of a thunderbolt.

He had always been a master of the feint to the east and strike to the west.

Exactly. Fu Qian didn't clumsily imitate the Old Man's actions; instead, he discarded the form to capture the spirit, ensuring his opponent couldn't guess his true intentions.

Golden light suddenly flared as Fu Qian activated the Commandment Residue.

At almost the exact same time, more than one new bite mark abruptly appeared on his dazzling, holy-light vampire body.

Of course, compared to the previous bite, these marks were much shallower.

...

The only thing more troublesome than one hidden target was a whole group of them.

Fifteen. Fu Qian distinctly remembered the exact number of cradles in the Nursery, excluding Lu Yi's.

Aside from the few that were likely still tailing Old Man Li's group, the number assigned to him could easily reach the double digits.

Just because he was only bitten once earlier didn't mean there was only one of them.

Professionals always had to curb the bad habit of taking things for granted.

That was why Fu Qian had opted directly for the indiscriminate shockwave of the Commandment Residue.

And reality once again proved the importance of mathematics. His calculations were spot on: far more than one Tree Infant had rushed over.

Cleaning them up one by one would be quite a waste of effort.

Besides, this special power form of the Commandment Residue seemed somewhat effective against the Tree Infants.

The sudden burst of light had clearly weakened the force of their bites.

...

Truly moving like a streak of light, Fu Qian darted rapidly between the structures, though his route was rather bizarre.

While he was certainly making forward progress, the path he took could no longer be described as merely convoluted.

His advances, retreats, movements, and pauses rivaled Brownian motion.

It wasn't that he was in the mood for such leisure; rather, that pack of Tree Infants clearly possessed movement patterns that defied common sense.

The angle and direction of each assault reminded him of the scene where the Royal Scion escaped through the rift in the building.

Though he couldn't confirm if the Tree Infants were traveling the same way, the influence of the Commandment Residue allowed Fu Qian to grasp enough traces of their incoming attacks to prompt his bizarre evasive maneuvers.

Of course, even so, the bite marks on his body were inevitably increasing.

Furthermore, each mark left a breach in his flesh, constantly spreading dense, spiderweb-like fractures that linked together into patches.

His intense confidence in the Thug's Mental Resistance ultimately had its limits.

Fu Qian could clearly feel the corruption accumulating at an unprecedented rate.

In theory, the Commandment Residue's other form, Resplendent Tyrant, should be more suited for the current situation.

Whether they were truly inside a notebook or not, this non-realistic scenario was obviously perfectly matched for that form's specialized effects.

By directly transforming into the core of distortion and pulling the firewood from under the cauldron to destroy this place, the mission would likely be completed as well.

The reason he didn't choose that option was simple—Fu Qian had confirmed from the very beginning that, despite restoring his Demigod Rank, most of his items and abilities still hadn't returned.

As for the cause, Fu Qian guessed it might have to do with the Anchor Point.

That he could directly restore the Original Sin Sage's abilities with the support of the consensus was, on one hand, because it was something that existed in reality. On the other hand, it likely shared a more essential connection with the concept of the Demigod Realm.

It wasn't that his other abilities couldn't be restored, but rather that he needed to provide a more targeted Anchor Point.

Unfortunately, he clearly didn't have that much time to experiment.

At a certain moment, Fu Qian recognized the scene before him and leapt upward.

...

Surrounded by majestic pillars, Fu Qian stood on an open-air platform in the blink of an eye, the dome of another grand hall directly beneath his feet.

Honestly, such a layout was somewhat strange. An ordinary person would be hard-pressed to imagine this kind of sight atop a roof.

And the reason Fu Qian could find his way here without deviating from his route in the slightest, despite the heavy pursuit and interception, couldn't be simpler—he had been here before.

During the dream of the Ehm Palace scenario that he had explored alongside Sissi Gatsby via the Bronze Madam, this was exactly where the giant brain had been located.

After breaking away from the team, Fu Qian's route had always been clear.

Even though the Tree Infants' interference had forced him to waste quite a bit of extra time.

As for why he came here?

Dodging and weaving the whole way, Fu Qian had already closed in on the former location of the giant brain.

Of course, there wasn't such an abundance of organic matter here now. It had been replaced by a single, empty Chair.

But just as Fu Qian closed the distance to less than ten meters, a wondrous change occurred.

The ferocious Tree Infants, who hadn't given up the chase for even a second, suddenly vanished without a trace.

Even the crying in his ears rang out once again.

Yet Fu Qian's expression didn't grow any more relaxed because of it.

With the pressure entirely gone, he stood in place. He didn't rush to approach the seat; instead, he looked toward a distant pillar.

"Congratulations, congratulations. It looks like Your Excellency has finally reached your destination."

And the very next moment, a teasing voice truly rang out from that spot.

Accompanied by the rhythmic clapping of hands.

Fu Qian didn't respond. With his eyes slightly narrowed, he sized up the familiar figures appearing in his line of sight.

If it wasn't his former teammates, who else could it be?

And walking at the very front was none other than an unscathed, radiant Lu Yi, whose clapping hands hadn't even lowered yet.

The others didn't seem quite so polite; each of them bore complex looks in their eyes and said nothing.

"I can tell that Your Excellency is indeed very familiar with this place. It's just a pity that I seem to be a bit more familiar. After all, the route I chose obviously saved more time."

Seemingly quite appreciative of Fu Qian's current reaction, Lu Yi continued without losing his smile.

"But I'm still very curious. Why did Your Excellency weave so many lies and ultimately ditch everyone to come here? What is it all for?"

Wasn't that simple?

Facing Lu Yi's confidence that the dust had settled, Fu Qian finally thought to himself.

I knew there was a high probability you could see my route, yet I came here anyway—of course it was to wait for you all.

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