Eldritch Horror Theatre

Abandon the light and plunge into darkness—this time, it was a literal, sudden drop in brightness.

Returning to the Warehouse, however, Fu Qian's movements remained as smooth and fluid as ever. Without wasting a single second, he snatched the Emissary Mask from the table.

The instant he put it on, his other hand smoothly grabbed a heavy handbell named sedatives.

The scene shifted once more, finally returning him to the side of that faint, ghostly light.

Except this time, Fu Qian had changed his outfit, drastically altering his entire aura.

He still wore Grimshaw's face, but those gentle, wise eyes now evidently came with an accessory.

Even though it could no longer make a sound, he held the sedatives in a textbook bell-ringing grip.

Combined with its exquisite design and the scratches marring its surface, the handbell carried an ancient, sagacious feel that dramatically shifted Fu Qian's image toward that of a spellcaster.

Of course, he held this pose for only a single second before stepping out onto the suspension bridge.

It wasn't strange. The time it took him to go home and change was more than enough for her to catch up, overcome her hesitation, and forge bravely ahead.

......

Truth be told, this place looked far more like the hollow left behind by a growing tree than a magma channel.

He hadn't intentionally sped up, but given the lack of branching paths, he simply crossed two consecutive suspension bridges and wove through a series of turns until the space ahead abruptly opened up into a sheer cliff.

This was clearly the central region of the volcano. The cliff dropped off directly from the rock wall of a massive, circular pit.

Not only was the drop beneath his feet pitch-black like an abyss, but the pit itself was incredibly wide. Looking up, he could see the distant sky high above.

Yet there was no stifling, scorching heat here. Instead, the temperature had plummeted to a bizarre low.

Studying the massive channel below—which looked as though a colossal tree had sprouted from the earth's core to form it—Fu Qian was absolutely certain that the surrounding air was nearing freezing.

Amidst this freezing chill, he could also spot more traces of human activity.

Embedded in the pit's stone wall were multiple crisscrossing iron chains, which had been used to construct a spiraling plank walkway descending into the depths.

The walkway wasn't continuous; it broke into segments that disappeared into caves along the rock wall, clearly indicating that portions of the path continued inside the stone.

Not bad. Very persistent.

He could feel the years of tireless exploration poured into this place, and Fu Qian completely understood the drive behind it.

A landscape this extraordinary, existing in a world with the Transcendent Tier, meant that the Huang Clan ancestors must have been utterly captivated the moment they saw it. Choosing to settle by the mountain and explore its mysteries was perfectly natural.

Though it seemed that enthusiasm had faded in recent years.

For instance, even the Blood Lion, a legend the clan still spoke of with great relish, had only considered coming here after running completely out of hope.

Of course, it was exactly that desperate act that had reignited the clan's fervor.

And fortunately, it seemed this renewed fervor hadn't been wasted—

Although there was no sign of the main force, from this vantage point, it was quite easy to spot Madam Xiao Ying just a short distance below.

She was currently crouching down, carefully inspecting a figure lying on the ground. She had clearly found something immediately upon entering.

But the far more important discovery was that neither of them was standing on the cliff face or the plank walkway. They were suspended in midair.

......

An invisible path? The last time he had encountered a similar scene was back in the Underground Ruins of the Blind Eye Society.

And yet, the level of abstraction here felt even more extreme.

Studying the two people a short distance away, Fu Qian confirmed that even with his current senses, he couldn't trace the contours of the surface they were resting on.

It was just like the path he had taken to get down here.

While her courage was commendable, Madam Xiao Ying hadn't made it very far. It was easy to confirm which route to take to catch up to her.

However, as Fu Qian moved along his planned route, he quickly ran into a roadblock.

Halfway down an otherwise perfectly intact plank walkway, an invisible barrier suddenly blocked his path. It was a dead end.

This wasn't just a simple network of invisible paths. The interior of this unique auspicious geomantic land felt more like an entire, invisible, bizarre building had been crammed directly inside it.

Or perhaps the riddled branches of a colossal tree?

Fu Qian naturally recalled the vision he had witnessed before—that unending cycle of blooming and tearing flesh.

Intuitively speaking, however, it felt much closer to the former.

While probing for a new route, he noticed the invisible structures around him were sharp and angular, lacking the smooth curves of biological tissue.

"Ah—"

Amid his silent observations and critiques, his presence was finally noticed, successfully prompting a scream.

Xiao Ying, who had been propping up the body and quickly examining it, sensed something. She glanced up casually, only to recoil in horror at the sight of a figure standing there and scrutinizing her.

Defying orders to come all this way, surviving the bizarre spatial shifts, and facing the unsettling discoveries from her inspection had clearly pushed her accumulated psychological strain to the limit.

Now that the tension had completely detonated, her scream was undeniably piercing.

"Why are you here?"

But she was ultimately an experienced combatant. She forced herself to choke off the scream after just a single breath, clamping her mouth shut so hard it looked like she might bite her tongue off.

Staring dead at Fu Qian, she didn't even pause to catch her breath before firing off her question in absolute shock.

"I should be the one asking you that."

Fu Qian, however, wasn't fazed in the slightest, firing the question back as naturally as breathing.

"You aren't supposed to be part of this operation, are you?"

"I... but..."

Righteousness brings confidence. Faced with his resounding tone, Madam Xiao Ying choked on her words entirely.

Of course, there was a reason he felt so righteous.

"But... weren't you supposed to be keeping guard outside too?"

After some effort, Xiao Ying finally attempted a counterattack.

And her words weren't baseless.

Emaciated and with a sallow complexion, the face Fu Qian currently wore was none other than Huang Jianyuan's.

What better identity to use when he wanted to efficiently talk down to her from a position of high authority?

That was why he had effortlessly swapped faces on his way down.

"Why would I stay outside? What on earth are you talking about?"

And he fully committed to the face. With just a few words, his expression clouded over, his tone and demeanor turning severe.

"Didn't you spot me and chase me inside—"

Staring at Fu Qian in utter disbelief, Xiao Ying's muttered question came to an abrupt halt as she finally noticed his outfit.

They really were different... There were two Huang Jianyuans—wait a minute!

As if realizing something, Xiao Ying held her breath and warily inspected Fu Qian's outfit again, and succeeded only in looking even more bewildered.

'Too naive. Why do you think I went home to change?'

Aside from looking entirely different from Huang Jianyuan's, this outfit was also completely distinct from Captain Qiao's.

Fu Qian merely scoffed inwardly while letting his expression morph into one of complete impatience.

"Are you done making a scene?"

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