Eldritch Horror Theatre

Swift as the wind.

It didn't even have eyes, but for a moment, the snake's movements were remarkably agile—even if it still missed.

Fu Qian moved in near-perfect synchronization with it, shifting in the exact opposite direction.

Even without the startled Classmate Liushuang stepping back, the distance between her and the snake's head remained constant.

Of course, this meant the snake's head was now closer to Professor Lisa.

Failing to catch anything in its lunge, it lapsed back into its previous sluggishness.

But it recovered much faster this time. As if locking onto a new target, the snake's head whipped around like a dragon swinging its tail, striking straight at the much closer Lisa.

Naturally, Professor Fu took another step to the side. The snake head's targeting system maintained its exceptionally stable operation, leaving it with nothing to show for its efforts yet again.

"What on earth is this thing? It's disgusting!"

It truly was.

Theoretically, if she were to revert to her true form, she would have a similar body type. However, Fu Qian firmly believed that even if Professor Lisa did so, she would be far more aesthetically pleasing than this.

"Not just disgusting on the outside, but ugly on the inside too."

Holding the box, Fu Qian offered his own unsparing critique.

After missing two consecutive strikes, the snake's head seemed overcome by profound confusion. It swayed from side to side, hesitating to make another move.

"What do you mean?"

Although she had Professor Fu's agreement, Lisa still found his choice of words somewhat baffling.

"Double standards."

Fu Qian sneered, his tone laced with righteous indignation.

"Classmate Liushuang, you, and me. There are clearly three people here, and I'm even the closest. So what does it mean by lunging twice and then freezing? Is it discriminating against me because my clothes are shabby?"

......

But your clothes actually are shabby...

Entirely unable to empathize, Lisa could only silently roast him in her mind.

Still, he wasn't entirely wrong. It was normal for this thing to crave transcendent flesh. Yet out of the three people present, it had been incredibly eager to attack her and Ji Liushuang while consistently ignoring the closest target.

It was a bit unusual... but whatever the reason, it definitely wasn't what this guy was claiming.

"Because of divinity? You're too strong, so it prefers to devour weaker transcendents?"

Lisa quickly came up with a possibility.

"That is certainly one explanation."

When it came to academic research, Fu Qian was always fair. He didn't blindly deny the theory, though that didn't mean he fully endorsed it, either.

After all, the Crystal Blessing that had contaminated Claudora and the others was notoriously indiscriminate. Fu Qian had heard from the victims themselves that even Tier 2 combatants weren't immune to it.

"Could it be gender? Does it tend to target women?"

Classmate Liushuang, who hadn't voiced an opinion in a while, frowned in thought before offering her own insight.

And it was, undoubtedly, highly controversial.

Seriously... how did you even come up with that?

Professor Lisa looked over, her gaze a mix of shock and near-helpless exasperation.

It wasn't completely illogical, but in her view, such a bizarre train of thought really shouldn't be coming from this fine young woman.

Are the drawbacks of working in a place like that finally showing? Strictly speaking, shouldn't this count as a form of mental pollution too?

From the corner of her eye, Professor Lisa shot a glance at the chief culprit.

"Makes sense. I think that's the more likely probability, too."

A moment later, she was left utterly speechless as Professor Fu clapped his hands together with a serious expression, clearly favoring this idea.

......

What do you know? I've already encountered this kind of gender discrimination once before, and it was even from a former Academy member.

Seeing Professor Lisa's reaction, Fu Qian simply scoffed inwardly.

His agreement was entirely objective. Compared to the divinity theory, he genuinely leaned toward this possibility: the flesh that had been cleaved by the axe was only interested in women.

One source of inspiration for this came from Excellency Nepheli's psychological germaphobia.

As for how Classmate Liushuang came up with the idea without that context?

Simple. She had her mother's example right in front of her; the previous victim had also been a woman.

Add herself and Lisa to the mix, and three consecutive targets were more than enough to draw an empirical conclusion.

Speaking of which, this brought up the question of why Fu Qian had thought to use the Claudora Flesh to test the Axe of Rebellion in the first place.

On one hand, the testing data provided by the Academy indicated that this Divine Flesh could fuse with and assimilate any transcendent.

On the other hand, through his interactions with Claudora during a previous mission, he knew that the Crystal Blessing had a miraculous effect of supplementing and perfecting one's abilities.

Even if the resulting effects differed somewhat from the original after being supplemented, it didn't stop Fu Qian from pondering the deeper reasons behind it.

The absolute core point was the basic prerequisite for achieving such an effect: did the Crystal Blessing seem capable of automatically identifying transcendent power?

How else could it provide targeted enhancements?

It possessed an alternative kind of universality. In a sense, the Divine Flesh before them could be considered a corrupted version of it.

Applied specifically to this project, since the Hand Axe's effects were difficult to confirm, was it possible that this mass of Divine Flesh might react to its stimulation? Could it undergo specific changes to physically manifest the Hand Axe's effects?

Put simply, Fu Qian was treating the Claudora Flesh as a type of universal stem cell, capable of targeted differentiation based on what it came into contact with.

The only concern here was whether this Divine Flesh could simulate things to such a precise degree, assuming the axe was indeed a specialized weapon against the Ji Clan bloodline.

To his relief, a change did eventually occur.

So, was the conclusion that the Hand Axe had a special affinity for women?

From this perspective, he even had an additional case to corroborate it: Madam Sissi had also been cut by it.

And if they temporarily proceeded with this conclusion as a foundation, the next question was: why was it interested in women?

It couldn't possibly be just like Excellency Nepheli, could it? Or perhaps—

Having waited in silence for a long time, Fu Qian finally caught the snake head's new movement.

After a bout of aimless swaying, it still showed absolutely no interest in attacking him. Instead, it rapidly coiled up and plunged straight back into the mass of flesh.

......

This is simply outrageous.

In that moment, Fu Qian felt like a piece of food that it would rather starve to death than eat.

Of course, his righteous indignation didn't stop him from drawing further conclusions.

The "snake" hadn't given up completely and melted back into itself. Instead, it pierced the flesh like a foreign object, instantly causing the mass to writhe much more violently.

As the flesh trembled, its physical properties changed once again, gradually becoming translucent.

It reached the point where its internal structure, transformations, shape... and even its head-to-body ratio became visible.

Indeed, there was a baby inside.

Was this the real reason the snake's head had targeted women?

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