Eldritch Horror Theatre

Smooth and glossy, it continued to radiate an endless chill.

Fu Qian's bizarre act of staring up at the Wall of the Ice Sea drew everyone's attention, even that of the Scholar, who was already coughing up blood.

From the Sinner Excellency's words, they could tell that Ann was still alive.

Even Jill and the others harbored a faint sliver of hope that she hadn't died so easily.

Yet no matter how hard they scrutinized that terrifying stretch of blackness high above, they couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary.

"Or if you have any preferences, you can just tell me."

Ignoring their confusion, Fu Qian kept his gaze fixed upward and continued.

"...You are courting death!"

The stalemate lasted for a few seconds. Just as Jill and the others began to hesitate, wondering if they should simply run away regardless, a voice actually answered from the dark wall.

It wasn't just an idle threat. A split second later, that biting chill became visible.

A smear of grayish-green rapidly permeated it. A vast expanse resembling both fog and fire surged out from the ice wall.

"Run!"

Having already witnessed its terrible power, Jill moved even before the shout left her lips, bolting away in the blink of an eye.

Prompted by her warning, Li did the same. Thanks to his mastery of physical combat arts, he sprinted even faster than she did.

But after covering some distance, the two of them simultaneously came to a halt.

The reason was simple: they had nowhere else to go.

No matter how outrageously dangerous the situation here had become, there was at least a possible chance of survival. If they fled blindly, they wouldn't even know where they were heading.

Even the Scholar was the same.

Running and coughing violently, the man who had looked on the verge of death had forcefully kept pace with them, only stopping once he had put some distance between himself and the wall.

"I'm fine. Don't be afraid."

Meeting the sudden, vigilant glares from Jill and Li, the Scholar panted heavily and waved his hand, revealing a handful of fine fragments.

"It's a Purification Talisman I traded a high price for. I've kept it hidden on me, so I won't infect you with anything now."

Despite his assurances, the Scholar was clearly in poor shape. Once Jill and the others slightly lowered their guard, he practically collapsed to the side, his bloodless face turned toward the ice wall.

In their line of sight, the Sinner Excellency's figure had been completely swallowed up.

They could even see moths radiating an ominous aura, as if burning with green fire, fluttering and swarming toward him.

...

Boom—

It was already obvious from earlier that the Sinner Excellency not only possessed terrifying lethality, but also held little fear of diseases and curses.

This time, however, the moths were not acting merely as spreaders of foul disease like the fiery serpents from before.

Instead, the moment they closed in, they erupted with a terrifying kinetic force that far exceeded their appearance.

Not only did raging flames billow and rubble fly, but the explosions chained together in an instant, completely burying their target.

"Are you really going to waste your precious remaining time on such a boring trick?"

Unfortunately, even amidst the explosions that seemed to leave the entire building trembling, the Sinner Excellency's voice remained unchanged.

When the brilliant flash faded, the man standing there was unharmed. His gray prison uniform was still perfectly intact, without a single speck of ash on it.

'I knew it.'

While the audience marveled at the grace of a High-Tier Transcendent, Fu Qian was also quite satisfied with how things were unfolding.

The explosions packed a decent punch, but they still lacked the power to pierce through his Blood Crusade.

What was interesting was the form of the attack.

While its color matched the cursed fiery serpents from earlier, its core elements clearly carried traces of Brother White. It had simply swapped out those little flames for moths.

This alone lent a degree of support to his earlier theory: this thing was not Ann. It was simply using her and White's bodies as vessels for a Descent, and had even plagiarized some of their abilities.

"Your arrogance is repulsive."

Even when it reappeared and its physical form had changed, it still didn't forget to masquerade with Ann's voice.

The next moment, right where Fu Qian had been staring, an exaggeratedly massive body leaped up from the ice wall.

...

'Is this... the Dragon of Pestilence?'

Unsurprised by its appearance, Fu Qian studied the massive body soaring overhead.

With twin wings, a long tail, and a hideous massive head, its build truly resembled a giant dragon.

However, from head to toe, it was sketched entirely out of scarlet blood threads, and a blue-green miasma wreathed its entire body, making it look absolutely nothing like a living creature.

In addition to being weightlessly light, every contour and texture on its body seemed to contain endless mysteries, making one not dare to look directly at it.

Especially for the Mid Tiers.

"A Mythical Form! Don't look!"

Almost instantly, the Scholar let out a shriek and directly collapsed to the floor with a thud.

Although he had reacted quickly, in his terrible physical state, he still couldn't withstand it.

In the blink of an eye, blood began to ooze from every visible orifice on his head.

"Aren't you going to find out why you ended up here?"

Fu Qian still stared intently overhead, especially at the source of the giant dragon's voice—on the back of that body stood a human upper torso, similarly sketched in blood threads.

Although the contours were blurry, he could still tell it was a woman.

This Pestilence Knight really was a bit too dedicated, determined to play the role of Madam Ann to the end.

"I've figured it out, and I'm sending you to your death!"

Unsurprisingly, it was the Ann on its back who shrieked. Hanging in midair, the deformed body took a deep breath.

Boom!

It was no longer the cliche hue of gray-green phosphorescent fire. This time, what surged out was black, just like the ice wall.

Furthermore, it didn't carry mundane effects like corrosion or explosions; it felt simply like the manifestation of Death.

Without dodging or activating his Blood Crusade, Fu Qian experienced the wash of the breath and silently reached a conclusion.

It was a wonderful sensation. Under the impact, his body really hadn't changed at all—he hadn't even lost a single hair—but he could still feel something steadily accumulating.

It was as if someone were slowly writing the character for death on him, stroke by stroke.

Once completed, the consequences would be grim.

"Ah—"

Unfortunately, that moment would never arrive.

From the mouth of Madam Ann, who had refused to speak further with Fu Qian, suddenly came a textbook shriek of agony.

Accompanying it was the broad abdomen of the Dragon of Pestilence being ripped apart directly from the inside.

A bizarre creature, similarly sketched in blood threads and covered in sharp claws and fins, forced half its body out like new life breaking its shell. At the same time, one of its sharp claws directly pierced through Ann's body.

'Like I said, time is precious,' Fu Qian noted. 'This Seed of Writhing grew really fast.'

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