Eldritch Horror Theatre

The odds of suffering Chastisement for blasphemy until one was barely recognizable as human, while simultaneously receiving the corresponding "Weapon" as a gift, were not exactly zero, but the possibility felt incredibly slim.

Combined with the familiar design of the belt and the fact that Ais was wearing three pieces of equipment at once, Fu Qian knew what the woman in the pool—presumably Sophia—had been used for the second he laid eyes on her.

He also knew what the three newcomers, himself included, had been used for earlier.

The expedition team had suffered a catastrophic blow. Returning to build an organization and stage a comeback was a reasonable enough excuse.

But gathering three people who perfectly corresponded to the three pieces of equipment Ais wore could hardly be dismissed as a coincidence.

There was one more thing. When Madam Yingzhu sent him here and heard Ais mention that the people ahead were getting impatient, her reaction had been noticeably odd.

It was as if this had never been meant as a group activity.

Putting it all together: Ais had a plan. To execute it, she needed to use the Vacuum Flower, along with three volunteers who shared an affinity with her equipment.

Back in that very first building, after he recognized the pattern from Ais's equipment, he had decisively sought out the corresponding gold coin, perfectly filling the final vacancy.

For whatever reason, she was in a serious rush.

Unfortunately, just as the personnel fell into place, the Vacuum Flower had seemingly vanished.

This forced Ais to put her plans on hold and prioritize finding it at all costs—even if that meant turning to a highly suspicious guy like him.

What a coincidence. He was looking for traces of the Vacuum Flower, too.

Which explained why the atmosphere had remained so wonderfully harmonious up until now.

...

Mentally organizing everything he had experienced so far, Fu Qian remained silent.

He wasn't worried about interrupting his own train of thought; he was worried about interrupting Ais's.

She was clearly doing the exact same thing—reviewing everything that had happened and trying to deduce his true purpose for being here.

"A Night Watcher?"

Fortunately, the wait wasn't long. A moment later, Ais's voice rang out through gritted teeth.

"No."

Not wanting fear for her survival to hinder her performance while searching for the Vacuum Flower, Fu Qian gave a straightforward shake of his head.

"Then what exactly are you here for?"

"Do not try to fool me with that childish act again. I will never believe that some delusional young man could achieve all this purely through self-hypnosis."

Ais's tone was highly guarded, her posture tense and on the verge of launching an attack at any moment.

"Unfortunately, whether you believe it or not, I really did come in response to the call of destiny."

Fu Qian let out a sigh, sounding like a man lamenting how misunderstood he was.

"Heh... Then I am very curious. What exactly did destiny call you to do?"

Naturally, a veteran of the jianghu like Ais wasn't going to buy that routine for a second.

Sneering, she refused to get sidetracked and cut straight to the core of the issue.

"So you admit what I just said? That she is Sophia?"

Fu Qian didn't rush to answer. Instead, he studied the body. Without the water to dissipate the heat, the flesh was already burning to a faint red hue.

"What does that have to do with my question?"

Ais's guard was undeniably raised to its absolute peak.

"Of course it does. If you are certain she is Sophia, then I need to continue my inspection."

"Because my goal aligns with yours. I want to find the Vacuum Flower."

Yet, there was not a trace of emotion in Fu Qian's voice.

...

"Why are you looking for it?"

Despite Fu Qian laying his cards on the table, Ais hesitated for a moment, still clearly skeptical.

"The call of destiny. Haven't I said that multiple times already?"

"That is hardly a convincing reason."

Ais was visibly dissatisfied.

"Why do I need to convince you? You have to find that thing, don't you? And what I am about to do is exactly what you have been guiding me to do this entire time."

"I merely hope that things can proceed with more honesty moving forward. What do you say?"

When it came to being convincing, Ais's experience was clearly too shallow. It only took Fu Qian a second to make her realize her mistake.

"...How do I know you aren't just using me? If we actually find it, are you really going to stay this polite?"

Her tone had subconsciously softened, implicitly admitting that she was indeed searching for the Vacuum Flower.

"You don't. You don't even know if I have the strength to stop being polite with you."

"But the choice before you is incredibly simple. You can try to kill me before we find the Vacuum Flower and seize the chance to search for it alone... or we can find it together, and then you can decide if killing me is still necessary. It should be pretty obvious which option is better."

Fu Qian's response demonstrated excellent emotional stability.

"Or... if I confirm that you are truly desperate to find it, I could use my cooperation as leverage and take my time negotiating a few deals with you."

She was the Sage's prized pupil for a reason. Not easily bluffed by a few smooth words, Ais quickly weighed the pros and cons and coldly pitched a third option.

"But you're the one in a rush."

Unfortunately for her, she had picked the wrong opponent.

Fu Qian responded with the key factor almost instantly.

"Of course, you can try to deny it, or you can guess that I'm in more of a rush than you are."

...

"You are right... I suspect the Vacuum Flower has escaped, and now I need to do everything in my power to find it."

That was the beauty of talking to smart people. You only had to drop a single keyword, and they would fill in the rest of the details themselves.

Following his remark about who was really in a rush, Ais fought a mental battle for about half a minute. It was not until a blister popped on the scorching corpse beside them, nearly splattering her, that she finally made her decision.

"So, she really is Sophia?"

That single, simple sentence confirmed a massive amount of information. Visibly satisfied with this progress, Fu Qian pointed at the mound of ruined flesh.

"Yes."

"So what did you use her for?"

"Your guess was already very close."

Once she was forced to cooperate, Ais was incredibly forthcoming, holding nothing back.

"The belt is indeed a 'Weapon,' but it didn't belong to her originally. I ordered her to wear it and face the Vacuum Flower directly."

"You suspect the Vacuum Flower used that opportunity to slip out through her?"

Fu Qian gave a slight nod.

"But that raises a minor issue. Since the Vacuum Flower is so transcendent, why wouldn't it just stroll out on its own? From what I can tell, that door looked completely ordinary."

"The door doesn't matter. What matters is the containment unit behind it, built from special materials."

Ais explained coldly.

"But aside from the path being a bit winding, that giant box didn't even seem to have a door. And even if it did, you couldn't avoid opening it when going in and out."

Fu Qian was equally hard to convince.

"That is because the winding passage itself is the barrier."

To this, Ais finally offered an interesting explanation.

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