Eldritch Horror Theatre

"So soon?"

And judging by Jia Yi's tone, the scene was likely another gruesome one.

The news Jia Yi brought clearly took Lanaya by surprise.

Exchanging a glance with Fu Qian, the two tacitly avoided mentioning their previous conversation.

"Is there any news from the Academy?"

Unfortunately, Jia Yi hadn't forgotten, directly staring the two of them down as he asked.

"Not yet."

Lanaya shook her head slightly, offering no further explanation.

They couldn't completely rule him out just yet, but any suspicions concerning Li Weixuan were even less likely to be shared with the Yuan Clan now.

Ignoring Jia Yi, she spoke in a tone that brooked no argument.

The Academy's long-standing authority was evident here. Jia Yi was clearly dissatisfied, but after a moment of hesitation, he kept his objections to himself.

...

"It's the work of the same person."

Inside the devastated warehouse, Lanaya whispered to Fu Qian.

She was remarkably professional, drawing this conclusion after only a few brief glances.

She didn't lead the Academy Disciplinary Department for nothing.

Fu Qian had roughly understood earlier that, depending on their focus, Academy instructors were broadly divided into two categories: research and combat.

Research-focused instructors primarily concentrated on studying transcendent power and training students, whereas combat-focused instructors emphasized personal cultivation while handling more field operations.

Lanaya was undoubtedly an elite among the latter.

"Indeed."

Fu Qian agreed with her assessment.

The scene in this second warehouse was nearly identical to the first.

The killer had clearly just left, and the bodies had yet to be collected.

Beneath crisscrossing wounds, the blood had yet to even coagulate.

Judging by the number of corpses, the Yuan Clan had temporarily added personnel, but sadly, it had done no good.

"At least Tier 5 in strength, and the sword intent is overwhelmingly brutal."

Lanaya sighed softly.

"They slaughtered these people like livestock."

"Even within the Academy, there aren't many with this level of power. How could..."

"Only a few minutes passed between receiving the alarm and losing contact."

Beside them, Jia Yi looked exceptionally grim. This string of incidents made it incredibly difficult for him to answer to his superiors.

"Are the items gone again?"

Fu Qian glanced further inside and found the space completely bare.

"Yes, just like the last warehouse. Most of them were transcendent materials."

"The Academy doesn't lack cultivation resources..."

Lanaya looked at Fu Qian, her implication clear: if the culprit were from the Academy, they would have no motive to murder for loot.

Especially Li Weixuan!

Almost everyone agreed that if he managed to advance to the Demigod Realm, he was a shoo-in for the next Dean of the Academy.

Would he kill and rob people over a lack of cultivation resources? The very idea was laughable.

Yet this terrifying level of strength inevitably brought that person to mind.

Jia Yi's subordinates had already retrieved the surveillance footage.

However, the usable footage was even shorter this time, cut off almost instantly.

The culprit's methods were clearly becoming more practiced, leaving no traceable clues behind.

"With such consecutive massacres, the situation is worse than we anticipated."

After surveying the area, Lanaya's expression abruptly turned serious as she turned to Fu Qian.

"Head back and find Dean Li. Report the situation here to him."

Before Fu Qian could respond, she patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry. I'll keep tracking the clues on this end. Just hurry back as soon as you can."

"Understood!"

Fu Qian nodded without saying anything more.

There were clearly no valuable clues here, so having both of them stay was pointless.

Lanaya specifically telling him to report to Li Weixuan was clearly an excuse to have him verify the man's whereabouts.

If he could confirm that Li Weixuan had been at the Academy the entire time, then with everyone else cleared of suspicion, everything else would be easy to handle—they could even wash their hands of the matter entirely.

And if it really did involve him, the Academy would at least have time to consider their next move.

Seeing Fu Qian leave so decisively, Jia Yi visibly hesitated, worrying that the Academy was withholding information.

Unfortunately, Lanaya's reasoning was airtight, leaving him with no grounds to object.

...

Fu Qian retraced his steps back to the Academy.

Instead of heading straight for his target, he checked the information on his Identity Card and located the Apocalypse Branch first.

The reason was simple: he had absolutely no concept of the Academy's layout.

Even if he was going to interrupt Li Weixuan, he first needed to know where the man was cultivating in seclusion.

The core area of the Apocalypse Branch was an exceptionally grand three-story building.

Almost the moment he stepped through the door, Fu Qian sensed something wrong.

This smell!

Fu Qian caught the intense stench in the air with some surprise.

For some reason, it even brought a sense of déjà vu.

As he walked briskly forward, he searched his memories.

A few seconds later, he finally remembered where he had encountered it before—the underground Sealed Zone at the Shangjing Night Watchers Base, coming from that special corpse.

Because the Blood of Thorns had been taken, that corpse had mutated, filling the entire Sealed Zone with an unbearable stench and forcing Yuan Shan to personally keep watch down below.

The Night Watchers hadn't disposed of it, and the Apocalypse Branch had actually requested it for research?

These people truly operated with complete freedom, with zero restrictions or taboos. No wonder they had a bad reputation.

Fu Qian recalled the earnest warnings Lanaya had given him on the way.

Although it presented itself as a unified institution to the outside world, strictly speaking, the Academy was a conglomerate of several organizations. The connections between them weren't actually that tight, and their philosophies and characteristics varied wildly.

Unlike the Sword Comprehension Institute, which pursued the sword path, the Apocalypse Branch lived up to its name—almost all of its members were directly awakened ability users, similar to Wen Li.

This led the people of Apocalypse to hold little reverence for transcendent power, viewing the human body more as a miraculous mechanism instead.

Not only were they passionate about researching the origins of special abilities, but they even tried to decode and replicate them.

This was a completely different approach from the Sword Comprehension Institute's focus on cultivating the mind and body, leading to constant friction between the two factions.

Under these circumstances, heading over to the Sword Pavilion for no good reason was just asking for trouble.

Those people treated cultivation as the Heavenly Dao itself; how could they tolerate being treated like laboratory animals for observation?

Recalling Lanaya's words, Fu Qian soon found his office and ran a search for the information he needed.

This included, but wasn't limited to, the layout of the Sword Comprehension Institute, the operating hours of the Sword Pavilion, and so on.

He had to admit, the task Lanaya had given him was rather tricky.

After all, in the Academy's previous investigation, Li Weixuan's status of cultivating in seclusion without responding had already been established as the official conclusion.

Showing up at his door right now and saying he needed to take a look inside to clear his suspicion would most likely not go over well.

Even so, checking up on him was absolutely necessary, whether for Lanaya's request or his own mission.

And the sooner, the better.

Fortunately, Fu Qian had already come up with an idea on the way over.

After confirming that the Sword Pavilion was still open, he made some brief preparations and headed out.

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