Eldritch Horror Theatre

Inside the Sword Prison, Fu Qian and "Ji Liushuang" sat staring at each other in mutual bewilderment and helplessness, unaware of how much time had passed.

"It" clearly hadn't expected Fu Qian to be arrogant enough to demand a life-or-death showdown right then and there.

In truth, Fu Qian had been planning this ever since it struck with the Heart-Probing Sword.

He had been relentlessly searching for a way to truly destroy the Legacy of the Sword Heart.

Physical destruction had already proven useless, and the entity could hide or relocate at will, moving with extreme stealth, unpredictability, and elusive speed.

So once he confirmed that it was desperate to eliminate him—treating him as a source of corruption—Fu Qian's strategy was simply to bait it into attacking.

Now that the entity had finally exposed itself in a spiritual form, there was no way he would let the opportunity slip by.

"We are pure spiritual entities right now. We cannot attack each other in here."

It stared fiercely at Fu Qian for a long time before finally breaking the silence.

"Why not?"

Fu Qian looked far more relaxed.

......

"Fine!"

Ji Liushuang burst into laughter.

"Even a spiritual form will eventually dissipate over time, but it will take far longer than you can possibly imagine!"

"The flow of time in here is completely different from the outside world. Don't expect anyone to find us!"

"...Are you genuinely prepared to sit here doing nothing with me for a hundred years?"

"A hundred years? That is a bit long."

Fu Qian blinked.

"So please, keep that appearance. At least it's easy on the eyes."

Heh!

Ji Liushuang sneered coldly.

Time moved at an agonizing crawl in that absolute void.

As an experienced shut-in, Fu Qian was usually an expert at killing time, but it was a shame he didn't even have a book on hand.

Worse, he couldn't sleep in his spiritual form, robbing him of yet another simple pleasure.

That didn't matter, though. This whole situation was entertaining in its own right.

"1, 2, 3... 99... 999... 9,999... 99,999... 999,999..."

Fu Qian started counting, using the numbers to measure out his patience.

......

......

......

"You absolute psycho!"

After an unknown amount of time, Ji Liushuang, who had been sitting as still as an old monk in meditation, abruptly shot to her feet.

Losing patience already?

For a supposed High-Tier Existence, it really didn't have much patience!

"Since you're so eager to die."

Its words even stumbled a bit, perhaps from sitting motionless for so long.

"Then I'll gladly grant your wish!"

As if making a final decision, Ji Liushuang's body abruptly exploded into a burst of multicolored light, flooding the entire void.

"Let's play a game."

......

"Hey! Which way do we go?"

When his five senses returned, Fu Qian realized the pure white space had vanished. He was standing in what looked like a shopping mall, with Ji Liushuang talking right next to him.

The mall was massive, and all the lights and escalators were running. Yet, the place was completely deserted except for the two of them, giving it an inexplicably eerie atmosphere.

Where was the entity? Did it run off after spouting all that nonsense?

Fu Qian wondered.

"Hurry up, that thing is going to catch us!"

When Fu Qian didn't immediately react, Ji Liushuang grew anxious, visibly restraining herself from tugging at his sleeve.

He realized she was acting strange. She seemed terrified and frantic, yet she refused to look him in the eye, acting almost as if she were awkwardly throwing a tantrum.

Just as he was about to ask what "that thing" was, a massive crash echoed from the floor below, sounding like something violently shattering a glass storefront.

......

Ji Liushuang glanced back. Her face turned stark white, and she bit her lip hard to keep from screaming.

They were being hunted by something?

This scene obviously wasn't reality. It seemed this was his final life-or-death match against the entity.

Could the entity have dragged him into Ji Liushuang's subconscious, turning it into their final battlefield?

In that case, whatever was chasing them from below was highly likely to be the entity's avatar.

If he got caught, he would lose.

A sudden realization struck Fu Qian.

"This way."

Fu Qian grabbed Ji Liushuang, practically dragging her as they sprinted up the escalator.

This mall was clearly constructed from Ji Liushuang's subconscious. He never would have guessed she was such a fan of shopping.

The number of floors was absurdly high, and all the storefronts were wide open, making it nearly impossible to find a secure place to hide.

Meanwhile, the sounds of pursuit never ceased for a single second.

No matter which direction they ran, the thing was rapidly closing the distance. Absolutely nothing could slow it down.

The screech of tearing metal echoed throughout the massive mall.

This game was completely rigged!

Fu Qian complained as he ran.

He had already tested his strength and realized he was currently nothing more than an ordinary human.

And yet, the entity could rip through solid steel with its bare hands.

It made sense, though. If the entity didn't have an overwhelming advantage, it never would have initiated the game in the first place.

Just as he hauled Ji Liushuang up another floor, Fu Qian finally caught sight of the pursuer.

It was a humanoid creature standing over two meters tall. Its limbs were disproportionately long, and it was entirely hairless, exposing pallid, grayish-white skin.

Despite appearing to be made of ordinary flesh and blood, Fu Qian watched it tear through a metal rolling shutter with its bare hands as easily as ripping wet paper.

"Ah!"

Ji Liushuang finally let out a terrified scream, her entire body trembling violently.

Whether she screamed or not hardly mattered, though. Fu Qian had already noticed the creature was charging directly toward them in a straight line, as if it had a built-in navigation system. It didn't bother with detours.

The chase continued. Fu Qian dragged Ji Liushuang all the way to the top floor. By now, he could feel his stamina plummeting, and Ji Liushuang could barely stay on her feet.

Without a word, he pulled her into a dead sprint for another dozen meters until they found a bank of passenger elevators.

He rapidly hit the call buttons on every single door. As soon as the first elevator opened, he shoved Ji Liushuang inside.

"I'm sorry!"

Ji Liushuang finally spoke, tears shimmering in her eyes.

"I shouldn't have insisted on looking at that thing. You warned me it wasn't right, but I just wanted to be stubborn and defy you..."

"It's fine."

Fu Qian stepped into the elevator right behind her and rapidly jabbed the button to go down.

As the doors slowly began to slide shut, Fu Qian stared silently ahead. The monster's heavy footsteps were closing in fast.

Just a split second before the doors sealed, a pallid, elongated claw jammed its way into the gap.

Screech!

The metal elevator doors were pried apart like wet cardboard, violently forced open. The elevator jerked to an immediate halt.

A long, narrow head poked inside. A single eye centered on its face locked onto the two of them.

Got you!

Even though it lacked normal human facial features, Fu Qian could clearly sense that it was smiling.

In that instant, Ji Liushuang gripped Fu Qian's arm so tightly it hurt.

"This is all my fault... But really, I was so happy you came out here with me!"

Tears were streaming down Ji Liushuang's face.

So the girl's deepest obsession was just having an old father figure take her to the mall? That was an incredibly low bar.

"I've always wanted to call you—"

"It's okay."

Knowing exactly what she was about to say, Fu Qian reached out and gently patted her head, cutting her off.

"You are my pride."

He raised his head. Half of the monster's body had already squeezed into the elevator car. Its long, skeletal claws reached forward inch by inch, as inevitable as the footsteps of the God of Death.

Instead of shrinking back, Fu Qian stepped forward, reached out, and firmly shook the monster's hand.

Three eyes met. The atmosphere froze.

"You..."

A low, hoarse growl escaped from the monster's throat.

"Wondering why I'm perfectly fine?"

Fu Qian tilted his head up at a forty-degree angle, gazing at the giant decorative balls hanging from the mall's ceiling.

"I was just thinking. If this battle is decided purely by our willpower, why on earth should I lose just because you caught me?"

"If my guess is right, the lethal condition for me in this dreamscape isn't actually getting caught. It's the fear of failure that comes from getting caught."

"The moment that mental flaw appeared, it would project directly into the Sword Prison, meaning I truly lost our battle of wills. That would result in my soul being completely obliterated."

"That's exactly why you were trying to mislead me this whole time. You attacked me from every angle to make me believe that getting caught equaled a loss, all to trigger my fear."

"Honestly, you're quite pathetic, resorting to cheap tricks and deception in a life-or-death struggle. Naturally, from your perspective, you thought you had a high chance of winning."

"Too bad for you. A real man fears absolutely nothing—not even failure itself!"

"You'll never understand the highest peak of willpower!"

......

"The sword intent is quite a nice concept. In my eyes, it represents being indomitable and resilient in the face of repeated setbacks, combined with comprehension pushed to its absolute limits. It is the true crystallization of power and wisdom."

Fu Qian snorted with utter disdain.

"No matter how high your Rank is, trash like you doesn't deserve to bear the name of the sword heart!"

As Fu Qian delivered his verbal beatdown, the entire dreamscape began to collapse, and ripples undulated across the monster's body.

"In a game governed by rules like this, if you want to introduce a way to eliminate your opponent, you also run the massive risk of exposing yourself to the exact same threat. Otherwise, you wouldn't have waited until you were about to rot away in meditation before finally taking the risk."

"Since I didn't lose, someone else has to bear the consequences now, right?"

Before he even finished speaking, waves of anguished wails echoed all around them, causing the entire space to tremble violently.

A split second later, the dreamscape and the Sword Prison shattered one after another. When his senses returned, Fu Qian found himself back in the office.

The sword was still pointed squarely between his eyebrows. However, the one holding it—Ji Liushuang—now wore an expression of sheer bewilderment and confusion.

"Nice sword,"

Fu Qian complimented casually.

[Mission completed. Designation 2-010 Containment successful.]

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