Eldritch Horror Theatre

Fu Qian had always dabbled in the secondary sector, and based on the sights before him, he quickly revised his assessment.

Visibility in the space was low, making it impossible to see where the massive grasping arm had come from.

Even so, a fleeting glimpse of its striking design left a deep impression.

It was unmistakably organic. Dark red and structured like a long, regular chain, it swung in elegant arcs.

The grasping end, however, was much thicker. At a glance, it resembled a rapidly branching tree canopy—or the dendrites of a neuron.

That had been Fu Qian's immediate thought. He recognized the shape from old biology classes, making the sight all the more surreal.

Viewing it through that lens made the concept of "chemical bliss" feel far more fitting.

Neurons transported pleasure, while the individuals in the Nutrient Capsules, entirely ignorant of the world's true nature, were brought here for infusions.

Another interesting detail stood out: the Nutrient Capsules on each platform gave off distinct lusters that perfectly matched their respective infusion stations.

For instance, the bliss supplied through the Umbilical Cords required regular replenishment, so the grasping arms constantly picked the Nutrient Capsules up and set them back down.

At the same time, drug resistance would incrementally build. The infusions required constant upgrading, causing older supporting structures to be discarded—hence the sheer number of dried Umbilical Cords.

Because he had efficiently chosen to sever his connection to bliss, the entity behind the scenes had tried to create a decoy, driving the grasping arm to move his Nutrient Capsule to a lower-tier infusion platform and activate a temporary substitute.

Of course, it ultimately failed to get its way.

While silently sorting through his thoughts, Fu Qian watched the dendrite grasping arm carry the Nutrient Capsule off into the distance until it vanished from sight.

Meanwhile, another arm swung over and seized the already-empty Nutrient Capsule right in front of him.

Neither the gash on its surface nor its significantly lighter weight seemed to strike the arm as anomalous and affect its operation.

Given its close proximity, he could observe it with perfect clarity.

The tangled, slender tips of the arm swiftly coiled around the Nutrient Capsule. Gripping it tightly as if lined with countless suction cups, it lifted the pod with ease.

It carried the pod in a different direction than the previous one, bypassing Fu Qian entirely in the process.

...

It truly operated like a pre-programmed assembly line, devoid of any obvious subjective will.

That raised the question: if his Nutrient Capsule really was driven here by the entity behind the scenes, how did it manage that?

Did it hack into the production system? Or had it usurped the role of factory foreman?

What the Upper Heaven looked like truly challenged the imagination.

But one thing was imaginable: if that entity had ascended through its Awakening one layer at a time just like him, it likely experienced this exact same process.

It would have come to this place, walking naked through a factory of flesh and blood.

Stepping aside, Fu Qian sat down along the edge of the platform.

He couldn't find a path down from the elevated workstation; its design process clearly hadn't considered the need for one.

Fortunately, the side right in front of him had the gentlest slope of the entire platform.

Combined with the obvious fleshy material below, sliding down shouldn't pose much danger despite the height—and indeed, it didn't.

A moment later, Fu Qian landed on a floor patterned with muscle-like textures.

It was slightly rougher by comparison, but a layer of surface mucus significantly reduced the friction on his body. The moment his slide ended, Fu Qian was already back on his feet.

It should be in that direction.

The surroundings remained completely unresponsive. Without pausing, Fu Qian quickly picked a direction and set off.

It was the same direction the grasping arm had taken the Nutrient Capsule.

...

It really was an automated factory.

The floor was somewhat difficult to traverse, but Fu Qian maintained an impressive speed, quickly passing four infusion stations.

He encountered zero interference along the way and saw no other freely moving humanoids like himself—though there were plenty of captive ones.

After climbing an incline, Fu Qian finally reached the boundary of the area.

It was a curving wall of flesh that towered upwards, enveloping everything within.

Its surface was a bizarre, uneven structure covered in ridges and grooves resembling a cerebral cortex.

At the same time, Nutrient Capsules—identical to the one he had just occupied—were embedded within many of those grooves, each holding the faint silhouette of a human.

All of them were completely silent.

It seemed that when they weren't receiving infusions, the occupants just stayed embedded in this perimeter wall, peacefully enjoying their bliss.

Furthermore, scanning the edge of his vision, he could still spot his own vacant capsule, confirming he hadn't taken the wrong path.

Even from a distance, the nearly empty shell was still recognizable.

What was truly interesting, however, was that right next to it sat another highly recognizable empty shell.

He could see that the liquid inside had been drained without a single drop left.

The Former Residence of the Ancient One?

That was practically Fu Qian's first reaction.

After all, he hadn't exactly arrived with peaceful intentions. With the threads of fate intertwined, it was perfectly normal to wind up close to the traces his target had left behind, right?

That was the emotional angle, of course. Logically speaking, very few people possessed the ability to reach this Third Heaven, open a Nutrient Capsule, and walk out. The odds of it belonging to that entity were not low.

Overall, this first step of exploration had yielded some rather interesting information.

It also yielded another harvest: proving that choosing to leave the Nutrient Capsule early had been the right call. Given the capsule's height on the wall, climbing down intact right now would clearly be quite difficult.

As for his next move... Let's step into the shoes of that former awakened one. Where might they go after coming out to search for the next opportunity?

Fu Qian scanned his surroundings, constantly mapping the structure of the area in his mind. At a certain moment, his gaze naturally fell upon a specific location.

There was no other reason for it; it was simply too classic.

Unlike the workstations he had just passed, this structure connected to the perimeter wall of flesh, forming a straight staircase leading upwards.

In a setting like this, it was only short of having the words "I Am the Path of Ascension" carved directly into it.

Anyone who saw it after breaking out of their Cocoon would probably want to walk over and take a look—but Fu Qian didn't want to.

It was very striking, but when he had attempted to step into the Ancient One's mindset just now, a faint impulse—or rather, a spark of inspiration—had genuinely surfaced, and it pointed to an entirely different location.

It was an infusion Tower with a familiar shape. Even the faint luster rippling across the Tower's body looked somewhat familiar—it was identical to his own Nutrient Capsule.

That was his original charging spot, suspected to deliver the highest potency of medicine in this place.

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