Eldritch Horror Theatre

That terrified reaction spoke volumes.

Watching the Frenzied Spirit flee for its life, Fu Qian confirmed his theory.

This doll was indeed Mister Luo's final trump card.

In all likelihood, after his body was pulverized, he had used that perfect synchronization from moments ago to transfer his will into the Frenzied Spirit.

His chosen escape route was also rather interesting.

He headed straight for the Small Island, swiftly bypassing the towering Fool Tree to make a beeline for the center.

"Aren't you... going to chase him?"

One of the two sole survivors, Brother Archer, couldn't help but ask.

Though Fu Qian's appearance was bizarre and terrifying, Mister Luo had just tried to kill them. It went without saying who posed the greater threat.

"You two actually have the time to care about that?"

Unexpectedly, the tentacles on Fu Qian's back whipped around in the next moment and aimed straight at them from afar.

"You have ten seconds."

...

Delin and Brother Archer never expected Fu Qian to suddenly target them. They were instantly frightened out of their wits.

Reacting in perfect unison, the two men spun around and sprinted desperately back the way they came.

Once their figures vanished, the old treant Ai Lei beside him let out a heavy groan and twisted his body.

His single eye happened to be on his scorched half, leaving him completely unable to see right now.

As he shifted, a little girl's head poked out from above. She clung to a branch, coughing uncontrollably.

The situation was obvious.

He had told her to find a place to hide, and she had simply hidden up in the tree.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't a bad idea, but her luck was terrible. That exact spot had been caught in the crossfire.

In truth, Fu Qian had noticed her in the tree long ago. Mister Luo had likely done the same, but neither had bothered to deal with her.

"Good hiding spot, but didn't you come out a little early? Didn't you see those two just run off?"

...

The girl shook her head and stared fixedly at him.

"I can sense you mean no harm."

This look hadn't even scared a little girl?

Marveling at that, Fu Qian slowly retracted the tentacles into his body.

"Why aren't you chasing him?"

The girl watched this intently, then pointed toward the distant Small Island.

"I have a pretty good idea of where he wants to go. I'll let him run for a bit."

"Mhm."

The girl nodded with half-understanding, then pointed at the severed limbs on the ground.

"You didn't like them?"

"We aren't close, but I definitely wouldn't say I like them."

"So that's why you didn't save them just now?"

"If I had tried to save anyone just now, you all would have died," Fu Qian said casually. "Of course, even if that weren't the case, I still wouldn't have bothered."

"Mhm."

The girl gave another soft hum, her thoughts unreadable.

By the time she looked up again, Fu Qian had already leapt high into the air, streaking toward the Small Island in the swamp like a meteor.

Standing in the center of the Small Island, Fu Qian confirmed that Mister Luo, having possessed the Frenzied Spirit, had gone below.

He clearly knew about this place all along.

This made perfect sense. After all, he had planted the tree right next to it. The chances of him never having gone down there were practically zero.

In fact, Fu Qian strongly suspected that both the Serpent-Man and Multi-Brain Sister were related to him.

Following the spiral staircase downward, Fu Qian soon spotted the target of this trip.

The blood-soaked Frenzied Spirit hadn't tried to hide, instead standing openly on the central platform at the very bottom.

Streams of dark red mist seeped from the various tunnels, converging entirely onto its body.

"Keeping busy?"

Fu Qian took two steps forward, his tone as casual as greeting a neighborhood elder.

The billowing mist paused on the spot.

"Just who are you?"

Unsurprisingly, Mister Luo's voice came from the doll, and he sounded very displeased.

"You ruined my plans."

"My apologies. But what exactly were those plans?" Fu Qian asked with keen interest, still in no rush to make a move.

...

Mister Luo fell into a brief silence.

Any fool could see that he was currently at a critical stage, yet Fu Qian showed absolutely no intention of stepping forward to interrupt him, simply allowing him to proceed.

This brought up some very unsettling associations.

He still remembered how it was just like this moments ago. Fu Qian had allowed him to finish synchronizing with the doll and even kill off the nuisance characters, and then...

But regardless, there were no other options left now.

"In the original plan, the First Step was merely achieving synchronization; fusing wasn't meant to be rushed like this," Mister Luo's gloomy voice rang out as he chose to stall for time once more. "This is a rigorous study. It shouldn't be so rushed and risky."

"A study?"

"Exactly. A study that began many years ago..."

"I first learned of this place from a specific record, and I eventually found it here."

"The pervasive weirdness and chaos here pleasantly surprised me. Any creature that enters will inevitably undergo a mutation—a mutation full of mystery and surprise."

"And this is the core of that twisting power."

"To master this power, I conducted many tests."

"At first, it was transcendent creatures, but later I realized I might need sapient humans."

Sapient humans... Fu Qian's first reaction was to think of Multi-Brain Sister.

It seemed she really had been a kidnapped test subject.

"Unfortunately, humans are not only fragile, but more severely, they aren't pure enough. After accepting the infusion, their degree of twisting is even higher than that of transcendent creatures, and the acquired power simply has no way to combine perfectly with the body."

"Looking at the traces on the ground, you must have already seen it?"

"So I had an idea. Since they couldn't combine, was there a way to directly separate them? Thus, I planted the Fool Tree outside."

"Facts proved that my train of thought was correct. The twisted transcendent power precipitated out of the body in the form of a doll, able to peacefully coexist with the original body.

And I obtained a more perfect, purer vessel, a vessel that might truly be able to bear the infusion..."

So that was it!

With Mister Luo's active cooperation, Fu Qian basically figured the whole thing out.

It was obvious. Whether it was the Serpent-Man, Multi-Brain Sister, or the doll-people outside, all of them were this man's test subjects.

Presumably because the workload was too large, he had also sought out that Miyamoto Family, borrowing their influence to operate.

And all of this was for the thing buried down here—the very thing he had just fused with.

"Out of so many selections, this one is the most perfect, with the most unique state I have ever seen. Do you know how it felt after I fused with it?"

"You simply cannot imagine it. Without even seeking them out, you can feel the attention of all sorts of high-level powers, all clamoring to pour themselves into your body."

'I can completely imagine it,' Fu Qian thought to himself. This was undoubtedly very similar to his own Blank-Slate Demigod state.

Mister Luo was right about one thing—the Rank of these dolls was quite high.

"Whatever your purpose is, I can feel that you and I are the same kind of people. Those laughable concepts like morality and justice simply cannot bind you..."

Seeing Fu Qian make no sound, Mister Luo continued his earnest persuasion.

"Why not cooperate with me? Someday, you will also have an opportunity like this."

"I can't think of any reason why we must fight to the death."

"Before, there really wasn't."

Faced with Mister Luo's patient coaxing, Fu Qian sighed and glanced at his quest log.

"But now there is."

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