Eldritch Horror Theatre

Was the stuffed doll really meant for the tree?

Taking in all of Tan Mingxue's movements, Fu Qian naturally made the connection.

Given her Rank, the odds of her spotting the giant tree with the naked eye were effectively zero.

For the Night Watchers to send her here to take charge despite knowing about the tree's existence meant they definitely had something to fall back on, just as he'd suspected.

Combined with her recent behavior, the likelihood that placing the stuffed doll outside in the middle of the night had something to do with the tree was undoubtedly growing.

Some kind of monitor?

"It seems I really worried for nothing. It's for the best that everything is under control."

Completely unbothered by her tone, Fu Qian met Tan Mingxue's guarded gaze a moment later and sighed, sounding every bit a man who took his duties seriously.

From her expression, she had clearly realized her recent actions were a bit too bold and might have exposed a few secrets. For a split second, even the stability of the dream rippled.

Yet the sheer abruptness of Fu Qian's final question caused her vigilance to suddenly drop.

"Sha Ming and Miranda. You should go back to rest now."

After a brief hesitation, Tan Mingxue finally answered his question.

Of course, an accumulating sense of wrongness prompted her to simultaneously order him out.

"Alright."

Fu Qian naturally had no problem with this, snapping his fingers from outside the dream.

...

Just right. Push it any further, and the traces would be hard to wipe away.

While Tan Mingxue stood by the windowsill in brief confusion, Fu Qian reactivated his Blood Crusade and drifted away.

Through days of practice, his grasp on the balance among dream depth, the target's Rank, and their memories upon waking had grown increasingly masterful.

If he had forcefully asked about the stuffed doll just now, Fu Qian was confident he could still wring out an answer before the dream shattered.

But given such an intense internal struggle, it was hard to say if he could still leave without a trace.

He had already gathered a rich harvest from this trip, especially in confirming that the Night Watchers truly had "everything under control"—they were genuinely enjoying peaceful years rather than hiding a deeper secret.

Fu Qian was prepared to let them maintain this state for now; he didn't want to provoke them too much.

Besides that, there was something very peculiar about that stuffed doll. Although it had already been put away, Fu Qian didn't want to actively "discuss it" for the time being, lest it invite extra risks.

Now then... Huang Zhixun, Sha Ming, and Miranda.

Even though he wasn't familiar with the latter two names, that exchange made it clear that these three were worth paying a little visit when the opportunity arose.

Fu Qian quite agreed with Tan Mingxue's earlier analysis, particularly concerning their motives.

As a group that had arrived full of expectations, their focus on the tree would only be higher than that of the Night Watchers—perhaps even so high that, upon finding it out of reach, they might try digging up clues from the Night Watchers themselves.

Deactivating his Blood Crusade but keeping his aura concealed, Fu Qian—who still hadn't left the building—materialized beneath the window of another room a moment later.

It was an empty room. Since it was late at night, Fu Qian could perfectly blend into the shadows, allowing him to keep a close eye on another shadow lurking in the darkness outside.

...

Almost as good as Old Man Huang Leji.

Easily arriving at this assessment, Fu Qian couldn't help but sigh at the frustrating fate of this Night Watchers Base.

He still remembered his last visit here. The base had also been secretly spied on from the outside, with someone even slipping little bugs inside.

And Fu Qian was absolutely certain that almost at the exact moment Tan Mingxue had leaned out to look over the sill, this figure had quietly appeared out there, keeping tabs on the movements within the base.

They might look like they had everything under control, but a person in charge whose Rank wasn't quite high enough still couldn't deter ambitious schemers.

That's right—Fu Qian had asked for those names for a reason, and he now had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't need to go to The Mountain to find them.

When he had previously visited the Mid-Mountain Manor, he definitely didn't recall seeing an expert of this Rank.

If that reason wasn't enough—just like Xiao Ying from last time, the figure hiding in the shadows was also a woman.

Although her clothes possessed a certain mystique that made her aura hard to pin down, Fu Qian was still certain she was a woman he had never seen before.

Tying this to the Family-Visiting Trio that Tan Mingxue had just mentioned, it was highly likely that while the Night Watchers were monitoring them, they were also monitoring the Night Watchers.

If that was truly the case, he could almost smell their anxiety.

Spying on the Night Watchers was a highly disrespectful act, and the consequences would be incredibly severe if discovered.

If they were merely taking precautions, sneaking straight over to the base to keep watch was simply too extreme.

By comparison, Fu Qian was more inclined to believe that Tan Mingxue's earlier assumption was true. The trio's investigation had likewise hit a bottleneck, forcing them to look for clues from the Night Watchers who might be keeping an eye on them.

And assuming this hypothesis held true, then between the rogue cultivators, the Night Watchers, and the expedition team, every faction out tonight seemed to be offering strong proof that the tree had vanished without a trace.

It seemed he would also return empty-handed from this trip.

Of course, this was still entirely in the realm of brainstorming for now. He still needed to check with the person outside to verify his theory—just like he had done with the bodyguard Xiao Ying back in the day.

...

Speaking of which, even this angle felt a bit familiar.

Fu Qian wasn't in a hurry to go out and catch anyone; instead, he took a look around in the darkness.

The room wasn't particularly familiar, but the windowsill certainly was.

If he recalled correctly, during the night he'd stayed here on his first mission, his room had been right next door.

And Classmate Su Gao had stood in this exact spot for practically the entire night.

And the moment any spying behavior had occurred, she had decisively executed a clean one-sword kill.

Of course, due to the mission reset, that number-one enforcer wouldn't retain any memory of that event.

Going by what he'd seen along the way, she had carried out the plan mentioned in the mission summary—intimidating everyone and minimizing her presence throughout the entire incident—without cutting a single corner.

Classmate Su Gao truly was a solid teammate.

Clicking his tongue in admiration, Fu Qian activated his Blood Crusade once again, his figure vanishing from the spot.

...

Something like this was actually possible?

A few breaths later, Fu Qian stopped in his tracks, studying the figure a short distance away.

Tall, with a slender and well-proportioned figure that was evident even from behind, she proved once again to be another female spy.

But that wasn't the main point. The key issue was that this slender figure was rapidly retreating just as he approached.

Fu Qian didn't think the other party had the ability to detect him, just as he didn't believe her retreat right as he approached was merely a coincidence.

Because this wasn't purely a subjective assumption on his part.

A split second before he stopped in his tracks, his Blood Crusade had deactivated—and he wasn't the one who had deactivated it.

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