Eldritch Horror Theatre

"This is..."

In that moment, everyone, including Lanaya, froze.

"It is indeed sword intent, but the murderous nature is far too heavy."

Having forced out Fu Qian's reaction, Li Weixuan delivered his expressionless critique.

"Care to tell me which sword you comprehended?"

'This has absolutely nothing to do with which sword.'

Fu Qian thought to himself while suppressing his body's reaction.

"Dean..."

Before he could finish, Jian Jingzheng suddenly leaned in and whispered something into Li Weixuan's ear.

Fu Qian could roughly guess what Jian Jingzheng had just reported.

Lanaya had already given him the relevant files earlier, and he had naturally skimmed the contents.

Anyone with a shred of imagination could connect the sword intent he had just displayed to the slaughterhouse scene in the Warehouse.

And Ruan Shuo had been wearing a mask the entire time.

The trap had actually been set well before they even reached the Academy.

Ruan Shuo's sneak attack had been an attempt on his life, but its true purpose was to use such erratic behavior to make Fu Qian look suspicious.

Even his subsequent reaction fell entirely within "its" calculations, immediately multiplying that suspicion.

By now, Li Weixuan had taken the files from Jian Jingzheng. He thumbed through them, his brow furrowing as he looked up at Lanaya.

"A mere Tier 7 student slaughtered nearly ten transcendents in a row, including Mid Tier ones. Don't you find that a bit too strange?"

"The strength Ruan Shuo displayed indeed vastly exceeded his own realm."

Lanaya had no choice but to take Li Weixuan's opinion seriously, and she quickly explained.

"But we caught Ruan Shuo red-handed at the scene. At the time, not only had he injured and killed several more people, he even tried to ambush Fu Qian. It felt like he had completely lost his mind."

"Lost his mind..."

Li Weixuan murmured, turning his gaze back to Fu Qian.

"So rather than fleeing, he ambushed you? That is indeed irrationally mad."

"Actually, I'm quite curious myself. How exactly did Professor Fu know Ruan Shuo's next target?"

Jian Jingzheng interjected from the side.

'That really is a problem!'

Lanaya couldn't help but shoot him a sideways glance. Fu Qian's previous excuse was a swordsman's intuition, but that definitely wouldn't hold up here.

"In my opinion, this matter is riddled with suspicious points. It isn't appropriate to jump to conclusions."

The look Li Weixuan gave Fu Qian was exceedingly hostile.

"If you please, I would like to invite both of you to come with me to The Committee."

This...

Lanaya looked up. Her intuition still favored Fu Qian.

It wasn't that they were particularly close, but in the brief time they'd interacted, Fu Qian had left a profound impression.

He gave the distinct impression that even if he wanted to murder someone, he wouldn't bother making it this convoluted.

Intuition couldn't be used as evidence, however. The current situation was looking extremely bleak for him.

'Why did you have to strike so ruthlessly!'

Lanaya sighed heavily in her heart. Although she was the one who delivered the final blow, Ruan Shuo's lifeforce had already been thoroughly severed at that point.

It had originally been a straightforward case: the killer caught red-handed. As long as he was left with a single breath, they would have had countless ways to verify the truth.

'What an interlocking chain of traps!'

Staring at the faint killing intent radiating from Li Weixuan, Fu Qian sighed inwardly.

It seemed he had still underestimated "its" capabilities.

Although its initial impression was closer to a wild beast, relying on its intangible control over the Swarm members, the entity undoubtedly possessed terrifying strategic intellect. Any casual move formed a flawless trap.

Through just a handful of simple actions by Li Weixuan and Ruan Shuo, it had made clearing his name nearly impossible.

The last time he felt this thoroughly cornered was when he hunted Ill Omen in West Plain City.

In fact, this time might be even worse, because he was now a member of the Swarm too.

Striking a lethal blow against Ruan Shuo right off the bat, leaving dead men to tell no tales—there was a high chance his action back then had been influenced by "it."

Looking at Li Weixuan, Fu Qian didn't doubt his resolve in the slightest.

His words just now weren't a suggestion; they were an order.

And in this current situation, as long as he was suspected of being the mastermind behind the scenes, his freedom of movement would be drastically restricted.

The crucial issue was that with the Slaughter Sword Intent lingering on his body, clearing his suspicion was virtually impossible.

'What a massive pain!'

"Alright!"

Fu Qian nodded.

There was no other choice right now. If he refused, Li Weixuan would likely attack him on the spot.

Setting aside the horde of experts within the Academy, it had already been proven that physical destruction was utterly useless.

However, as venomous as this trap was, there was one detail "it" had failed to realize.

Earlier, in order to shatter his mind, "it" had bombarded him with a maddening wave of sword intent. It had been excruciatingly painful, yes, but it had also allowed him to harvest something in return.

For instance, every transformation of the sword intent represented a process of the old replacing the new. After experiencing it thousands of times over, Fu Qian had faintly grasped a certain rhythm.

As someone who had never wielded a sword, the sword intent had been forcefully shoved into him. Its integration with him wasn't all that tight.

If "it" could instill the intent into him, there was no reason he couldn't strip it away in reverse.

Once they reached the Academy, as long as they couldn't detect the Slaughter Sword Intent on him, things would be infinitely easier to handle.

"Then let us go immediately."

Seeing Fu Qian agree, Li Weixuan didn't hesitate. He gestured for Lanaya to move out, and even Jian Jingzheng tagged along behind them.

Walking in the middle, Fu Qian glanced over his shoulder and caught Lanaya's mixed look of worry and relief.

'Was she worried I wouldn't cooperate and just start a fight? Looks like I really left quite the impression!'

Fu Qian chuckled inwardly and began attempting to peel the sword intent from his body.

In barely a split second, he felt the fusion loosen.

'Wait a minute!'

Just as he was about to push further, Fu Qian abruptly stopped.

'Something's wrong! There's a problem with "me"!'

He looked at Lanaya again, suddenly realizing what he had overlooked.

Lanaya's reaction just now was undoubtedly rooted in her understanding of his personality.

Because in her eyes, when faced with this kind of baseless accusation, even if he were innocent, he was highly unlikely to cooperate.

This stereotype stemmed from his previous behavior, and it was actually dead-on.

But when he was questioned just now, his first instinct had been to clear his name. That completely contradicted his usual self!

Every single event that had happened flashed rapidly across Fu Qian's mind, and he instantly realized "its" true goal.

The trap "it" had meticulously designed wasn't meant to make his suspicion impossible to wash away—it was to make him voluntarily sever his connection with the sword intent!

Judging by its previous performance, "it" could barrage him with overwhelming data streams of sword intent, but it couldn't sever a connection once it had been established.

This bond was incredibly sturdy—unless he broke it himself.

By manipulating various factors, it had backed him into a conventional dead end, then deliberately exposed a tiny flaw so he would grasp the method to detach the sword intent.

If his guess was right, had he pushed just a little harder just now, "it" would have pushed the boat along with the current to instantly retract the sword intent it had forced upon him.

Once severed from the Swarm, he would lose his leverage against "it."

And then, he would face the exact same scenario as last time—certain death.

Stripping away the sword intent meant losing his only threat. To think he hadn't noticed such a glaringly obvious issue until now.

Sure enough, "it" could distort the cognition of every single individual in the Swarm to a certain degree—including him.

Thank goodness he had chosen to act like a tough guy earlier, leaving such a deep impression on Lanaya.

"That's right. I killed him."

Fu Qian suddenly stopped in his tracks.

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