Eldritch Horror Theatre

"If you leave now, I can pretend I didn't see anything."

Wearing an expression of perfect impatience, Fu Qian didn't even wait for her to speak before smoothly ordering her out.

"The reason I disobeyed orders and came in is because there really is a special situation outside..."

After what looked like a brief internal struggle, Madam Xiao Ying simply couldn't believe anyone could swap disguises that fast. She dismissed the possibility that someone had impersonated Captain Qiao, only to immediately disguise themselves as Huang Jianyuan and follow her inside.

Despite her lingering confusion, she quickly defended herself, unwilling to just accept his suggestion and leave.

"Impossible! He has no reason to come here!"

After recounting Captain Qiao's situation outside exactly as it had happened, Madam Xiao Ying received the exact same response.

Fu Qian frowned deeply, his face full of sheer disbelief. Fortunately, it distracted him enough to momentarily forget about kicking her out.

"Not only that..." Xiao Ying breathed a small sigh of relief, clearly not finished with her shocking news. "When I came in just now, I encountered something strange."

"You."

Hmm?

This brief exchange brought something akin to murderous intent to Fu Qian's brow.

"That's right, it was you. You told me you'd received orders to stand guard there and not let anyone in."

Showing no fear, Xiao Ying gave a quick, concise rundown of what had happened earlier.

"Me? Guarding the door... do you think that's possible?"

He had listened carefully, but the suspicion on his face hadn't faded in the slightest. A moment later, Fu Qian let out a cold laugh.

"True. I also find it hard to imagine you'd be willing to accept that kind of job."

Xiao Ying's tone was equally blunt.

"But anyway, that's why I mistakenly thought you'd followed me in just now."

...

"Just as I thought, that guy Blood Lion has ulterior motives for returning this time."

Faced with such a dense influx of information, Fu Qian ignored Xiao Ying's confrontational attitude, sinking into deep thought while wearing Huang Jianyuan's face.

A few seconds later, he let out another cold laugh, speaking disrespectfully of the West Plain Huang Clan's pride.

"I bet he's the one who orchestrated all of this."

"You mean... this invisible path wasn't originally here?"

Without directly responding to Fu Qian's overly sharp critique, Xiao Ying looked down at her feet and gently laid down the person she had been carrying.

As she had already confirmed, the man was as dead as could be.

Her only points of reference were the mangled, bloody corpse and the blood splattered in midair.

Even so, the trail of blood spreading downward seemed suspended in the void, unable to stain anything else and reveal further traces.

"What else? Do you think the walkways around here were built just for fun?"

Although Xiao Ying's words perfectly proved that she hadn't snuck in here before, Fu Qian's response was as blunt as ever—and it made sense.

If this Invisible Palace inside the Volcano had always existed, the surrounding plank walkways—which would have been obstructed by it—would have been completely pointless.

As a result, despite her composed demeanor, Xiao Ying couldn't find a way to argue against it.

"So what's going on with him?"

Fortunately, she had no intention of arguing, instead shifting her attention directly to the corpse.

"I don't know."

Fu Qian took two steps forward to inspect the body closely, tossing out a rather shocking casual response.

"How could you not know... and why are you operating alone?"

Xiao Ying, who had just begun to relax, instantly threw her guard up again at his words.

"Because I was ordered to guard the door back there, so I disobeyed and snuck in."

Unfazed, Fu Qian didn't even bother to look up.

...

"You were indeed ordered to guard the door, but the one from earlier wasn't you?"

This time, Madam Xiao Ying's stunned silence lasted far longer.

It wasn't until Fu Qian had thoroughly examined the corpse from head to toe that she finally seemed to snap out of it.

Of course, utter confusion immediately followed.

"What exactly is going on? And why did you deny it at first?"

"Denied what? I clearly said it was impossible for me to accept a door-guarding job."

Finally standing up to survey their surroundings, Fu Qian casually retorted again.

This...

Recalling their previous conversation, Madam Xiao Ying was utterly at a loss for words.

"So... you also don't know why he died here?"

However, her nerves were rather resilient. After a brief internal struggle, she pushed forward with a new question.

"I don't know, but it's clearly quite unusual."

"Clean, smooth wounds, as if pierced by sharp blades. They're all over his body."

Fortunately, Fu Qian didn't answer a question with a question this time, opting to actually share his findings.

"Aside from massive blood loss, his insides are an absolute mess."

"I thought the same..." Xiao Ying agreed instantly. "But I really can't imagine where a sword path master could have suddenly appeared from, let alone carry out such a brutal slaughter right in front of the entire team."

While confirming she had made the same observation, she also raised the obvious question that came with it.

"It's simple. You've never seen a true sword path master."

Unfortunately, Fu Qian reverted to his old habits the very next moment, giving a cold, disdainful laugh.

...

"If you had ever actually wielded a sword, you'd know these wounds weren't inflicted from the outside."

'As if you ever have—'

"Not inflicted from the outside?"

Madam Xiao Ying's unvoiced retort, which was practically written all over her face, was instantly derailed by his words, causing her subsequent question to sound somewhat shrill.

"Yes."

Fu Qian's cold laugh continued, shooting down her assumption once more.

"They came from the inside, not the outside. It's as if sharp blades grew right out of his internal organs before piercing through his muscles and skin."

'Such a thing actually happened...'

Even though his description was completely bizarre, Xiao Ying couldn't help but visualize the gruesome scene, suffering an even stronger psychological impact than before.

"How could this happen..."

Muttering to herself, she stared down at her feet. Her face rapidly drained of color, as if she were experiencing vertigo for the first time.

"I don't know, but you can take your time figuring it out."

Unfortunately, Fu Qian had lost all interest in answering her. He didn't even seem to care whether she chose to press onward or retreat, instead walking at a leisurely pace into the depths of the void, further away from the stone wall.

Even though the path was completely imperceptible to his senses, the current him didn't even need to test the ground first. By simply adjusting his center of gravity slightly as he walked, he could course-correct at a moment's notice without ever breaking his stride.

And although he was only moving at a strolling pace, Madam Xiao Ying watched him in utter disbelief.

Watching blankly, she seemed to have lost the courage to even step onto the path he had already safely traversed.

After everything that had just happened, she finally found herself hesitating over whether to press forward or turn back.

Slowly standing back up, Madam Xiao Ying remained silent, unconsciously backing away toward the path she had come from.

"Ah—"

But just a few breaths later, she let out an agonized scream.

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