Eldritch Horror Theatre

There was no mistake. In that special place called the Furnace, which permitted entry but no exit, he had once encountered a former Academy person in charge whose full name he had never learned—Dean Feng.

He still remembered their cordial exchange back then regarding kiting techniques, the Low-Health Qi Burst Kill, and polearms.

Not only his appearance and aura, but even the transcendent Rank displayed before his eyes served as corroboration.

Facts proved he truly was a player who only whittled targets down to critical health without ever securing the kill. Even across parallel space-time, a single glance showed he had no hope of reaching the High Tier, looking thoroughly ordinary even among the front-row audience.

Judging by how white his hair and beard were, it was essentially certain that this was not a younger version, nor had he wasted his years lingering in the Furnace.

Of course, if nothing else, his imposing aura remained. At that moment, the Old Man was squinting slightly, staring intently at the center of the crowd.

Silvery-white, exuding waves of chill, with sharp edges and zero ornamentation—right there sat a somewhat crude-looking... freezer?

One could clearly see a corpse inside with its face covered.

Male, a transcendent, and as dead as could be. Furthermore, due to the unique contamination inherent to transcendents, even the freezer failed to suppress it completely, leaking a distinct trace of the Apocalypse Branch's flavor.

Reaching these two judgments with ease, Fu Qian's gaze shifted to the side of the corpse.

A man and a woman stood on either side, clearly the focal points of this event.

At the same time, the woman happened to be a familiar face.

Excellency Nepheli.

That was right. It was none other than the former dean of the Benevolent Curse Institute who had once walked out.

A white shirt paired with trousers; her styling was remarkably consistent.

Though this time she had chosen to stick to her post rather than walk out, her germaphobia was already showing its symptoms; across the lower half of her face was a veil-like covering.

On top of that, the most important detail was that she was the only Tier 2 present among the personnel.

......

As the saying goes, love the job you do, and sticking to your post always brings rewards.

Given that they had crossed paths numerous times, Fu Qian remained quite confident in his judgment.

Without needing to walk out, Nepheli had evidently achieved astonishing success directly within this Academy, making it all the easier to understand the rising momentum of the Benevolent Curse Institute.

Yet that only made a certain matter all the more curious—just what was worth a Tier 2 personally demonstrating to everyone?

"Everyone is mostly here. Let's begin."

Reassuringly enough, Excellency Nepheli was truly considerate, directly calling out the start the very next moment.

"Just as mentioned before, what we are demonstrating this time is a true Miracle—a great discovery that actually makes me doubt what I've learned."

Without waiting for the crowd to respond, she signaled the person beside her to step aside, ensuring as many people as possible could see the corpse. As she spoke, her voice even carried a faint hint of elevated pitch.

"That is—resurrection from the dead."

Could it actually be such a rare effect?

Listening with rapt interest, Fu Qian vaguely remembered that back on Ye Island, when facing Kisaragi Kana and her peculiar constitution, Su Gao had once lamented that resurrection from the dead was exceedingly rare.

The Benevolent Curse Institute actually managed to achieve even this through a Miracle?

Although the exact form it took remained uncertain, achieving it to even a partial degree was already astonishing.

This Academy right before his eyes, this transcendent path, was truly flourishing.

"Or perhaps it should be called Meria's Resurrection."

Hm?

Amidst his praise, Nepheli's supplementary sentence caused Fu Qian to blink a few extra times, deeply feeling that the price of admission was well worth it.

......

That name was seemingly familiar.

That whip in the hands of Chief Yuan of Shangjing seemed to be called the Meria Flower Ball?

Bestowed personally by his mentor, harboring abhorrent divinity, and possessing terrifying lethality.

Fu Qian naturally held a deep impression of the lethal weapon that had once nearly beaten him apart at the seams.

So much so that he clearly remembered when he inquired about what kind of high-ranking figure Meria was, Chief Yuan's quoted response from his mentor had simply been, "Don't ask."

Throughout the ages, anyone capable of leaving behind a name was a ruthless figure.

And the name of a higher entity surely had a very small probability of repetition, meaning the two Merias were the same person?

Not only possessing abhorrent divinity, but even mastering the authority of resurrection?

Didn't that Excellency's attributes feel a bit too mixed?

His initial preference for the Benevolent Curse Institute stemmed from the obvious abundance of secrets there, coupled with the fact that he had recently been conducting research and wanted to see if Master Yuhun had anything to share with him.

Now it seemed the secrets were even more numerous than imagined.

"Who is Meria?"

Reassuringly as well, without requiring Fu Qian to find a way to guide the conversation, someone else had already displayed academic curiosity.

The person asking was even that Demigod who had traveled all the way along with them and had now squeezed into the front row.

"A noble and benevolent entity."

Regrettably, Nepheli's response this time remained vague.

Yet owing to his understanding of the essence of Miracles, Fu Qian still found it not difficult to deduce from this that Meria truly was the moniker of a certain higher entity.

"Look closely."

Meanwhile, Nepheli had already produced several items in her hands while speaking, walking counterclockwise and placing them in sequence around the corpse.

What was this?

Undoubtedly the preparations for triggering a Miracle. However, Fu Qian, who had genuinely taken the advice and looked closely, found his gaze locked at that exact moment on the item situated to the left side of the corpse.

Crystal clear, radiating chill just like the adjacent freezer, this clearly carved object looked somewhat like a leaf—it was a leaf.

A snow tree.

At that instant, Fu Qian naturally recalled the scene from the Laboratory team-building session last time.

When they were riding public transport together, Classmate Liushuang, who had relaxed somewhat, had shared a special type of plant that never dropped its leaves and turned white when it encountered snow.

Subsequent combination with his research into the Underground Miracles of the Benevolent Curse Institute had led him to suspect that the reason snow trees possessed that color-changing trait exclusively in the region near the Academy was likely because the place had been endowed with a certain transcendent-level attribute.

It was also the reason why the Miracle that made The Ark linger could only be successfully activated right here.

Up to this point, Fu Qian still leaned toward this view, but it came with one unavoidable problem—

As an ordinary plant, by what right did a snow tree form a connection with that kind of transcendent attribute?

Aside from that special candlelight, almost all the props required for activating a Miracle differed from one another, and it was easy to surmise that a certain correspondence ought to exist between them and the higher entity behind the Miracle.

Could the snow tree even be a symbol of Excellency Meria?

If so, didn't that mean the special transcendent attribute bestowed upon this region of the Academy was very likely related to Her as well?

There was even The Ark, that thing which by all appearances looked like a spark left behind by a higher entity for humanity...

"It's appearing. Don't miss this moment."

Amidst his contemplation, Excellency Nepheli's movements were quite brisk.

Accompanied by a reminder, a piece of special candlelight in her hand—similar to the one Professor Ah Kai used—was thrust into the side.

The corpse inside the freezer remained as pale as before—yet its belly swelled up at a rapid pace, bloating into a huge round shape in the blink of an eye, bearing a striking resemblance to the sights witnessed inside The Ark.

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