Eldritch Horror Theatre

A higher entity who had cowered for millennia, an ancient Divine Entity who had laid overlapping traps to drag him into the abyss and incinerate him, was now suddenly offering a truce.

It hadn't uttered a single complaint about being dragged into this shared prison, either. It had simply stepped in to help resolve the predicament.

Fu Qian had outgrown his belief in such instant, unquestioning submission shortly after learning to read.

That was what had led to his earlier conclusion: the more something looked like Blazing Rainbow when it emerged, the less likely it was to actually be Blazing Rainbow.

And this understanding of higher entities naturally extended to his current companion. A trickster who had failed to harvest his SAN Value, whose painstakingly cultivated Covenanters he had wiped out, and who had even lost his horse—would this guy really be kind enough to answer his questions upon their reunion?

Fu Qian would have found that kind of plotline impossible to swallow even before he was literate.

Thus, this was absolutely not some ploy of releasing in order to capture. Without a shred of hesitation, Fu Qian chose the route where the friendship of gentlemen is pure as water, merely asking Patches about the trick he had just pulled.

Although Patches could vanish at any moment, Fu Qian believed that this would be the secret he was most willing to share before he did.

"Heh... it's quite simple, really. Just like what's happening right now."

With a highly punchable snicker, he even broke out his signature move, dropping straight into a crouch with his arms dangling loosely at his sides.

"This conversation is clearly taking place, yet no one else knows it's happening?"

Naturally, Fu Qian didn't need the entity to elaborate. True to form, he already had a list of possible answers lined up the moment he asked the question; he just needed a bit of verification.

"Exactly. Now, guess how I did it."

Thrilled by such an attentive audience, Patches laughed even harder and gestured for him to continue.

...

How he did it...

Fu Qian's gaze swept over the squad, who had once again fallen into a stalemate.

Just as he had judged, they were entirely oblivious to this conversation.

But keeping in line with the entity's answer, Fu Qian didn't think Patches was simply communicating with him through some illusion in a mental landscape.

That kind of trick would be far too crude for him.

The reason Sha Ming and the others couldn't notice anything was essentially the same as why the tethers still seemed to exist even though the chains were invisible...

"Their awareness of our current state—was it wiped directly from their minds?"

His deliberation lasted only a split second before he gave his answer.

"Hehehe... to be exact, it was removed from their cognitive processing. A simple wipe would be far too easy to notice."

His guess had clearly hit the mark, and Patches even offered a deeper explanation.

So that's how it is.

I knew it. How could this guy actually be kind enough to help someone break out of a cage?

Furthermore, bypassing someone's cognitive processing entirely was an incredibly slick trick.

During their previous clashes, Patches had already demonstrated his ability to warp inner thoughts. Given that this projection possessed nearly the nature of his peak strength, being able to directly wipe their awareness was hardly surprising.

But making his victims completely oblivious to the erasure itself? That was truly miraculous.

And he couldn't forget that the targets included at least two Tier 2s.

So, the true effect of that burst of light just now wasn't actually freeing anyone from the cage. It just made everyone stop realizing they were still inside?

Take those two who collapsed on the ground, for instance...

"Actually, while they were moving just now, the laws were still in effect, continuously carving fresh wounds into their bodies..."

"It's just that you hid everything related to the laws. You made everyone—even the victims themselves—blind to the changes caused by them?"

Fu Qian casually verified his theory, his gaze falling upon the corpses slumped in front of the Golden Codex.

Blinding people to the existence of a cage rather than actually breaking it—that definitely sounded like a trickster's handiwork.

It even subtly aligned with the advice Brother Sanxun had offered earlier.

"It wasn't until Sha Ming's movements transferred so much damage that their bodies completely gave out, causing them to drop dead on the spot?"

"If that's the case, you didn't just trick their perception. You tricked their bodies, too, didn't you?"

Twisting perception was a convenient catch-all explanation, but Fu Qian had never liked such intellectual laziness.

Besides, reducing him to a mere mental surgeon would be severely underestimating the mighty power of an ancient God.

"I see you haven't picked up any bad habits and let your brain turn into a mere decoration."

Far from being annoyed by Fu Qian's further deductions, Patches's face even crinkled with a hint of pleasant surprise.

"Self-will is certainly an interesting material to work with, and the easiest to manipulate... but it isn't everything."

"Exactly. The scope of what I can mark as hidden is far broader than that. If you want to comprehend it, try expanding the concept of 'consciousness' to 'biology' first."

Life...

So, right up until the moment they collapsed, even their bodies failed to "realize" that they were already torn to shreds?

That seemed to explain everything.

Sha Ming's slow, measured steps—taken just a moment ago to build up the tension—had actually been transmitting Chastisement to everyone.

It was just that the resulting damage had been temporarily hidden right up until the moment of their deaths.

Clearly, those peaceful years were never so simple.

They might have looked like they had miraculously escaped, but in reality, this rescue squad could have dropped dead at any second, entirely wiped out while still clinging to bright fantasies of the future.

"Biology... so is that thing alive too?"

After feigning a moment of deep thought, Fu Qian jutted his chin toward the distant Golden Codex, racing against the clock to utilize his consultation time.

"Oh? What makes you say that?"

Patches wasn't quite as forthcoming this time, replying only with a faint, ambiguous smile.

"Regardless, this scene has shifted a bit too drastically. And given Sha Ming's connection to that book, it's surprising he didn't notice anything amiss."

Fu Qian spoke with casual confidence, completely unfazed.

"Simply explaining it as everyone's perception being twisted—wiping away their awareness of still being in the Mind World—might make logical sense, but it still feels a bit of a stretch."

"And Blood Lion is clearly dead. His mental projection world should obviously be dominated by this thing now."

"You just suggested I expand the scope to biology, so I naturally thought that if the book is alive, it must have been caught in your trick to some extent too. That explains the environmental shift in a much more elevated way."

"What a pity..."

After a brief silence, the first sound to ring out was Patches letting out a sigh of regret.

"It's hard to say what it's been through all these years, but it has certainly gotten a bit lively."

Naturally, this didn't stop him from confirming Fu Qian's theory: the squad hadn't been the only victims of his trick.

Like a biological organism itself, the Record of True Transcription had been stripped of its awareness of the "mental projection forged by laws," resulting in this bizarre, superimposed state.

"Clever. To think you'd come up with a way to trick me into lifting it myself in an instant..."

And he wasn't the only one speaking up.

Over on the other side, Sha Ming had stopped in his tracks. It seemed he had finally figured it out as well.

"It's a pity, but if my guess is right, this guy won't be sticking around for much longer, will he?"

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