Eldritch Horror Theatre

So that was it.

According to Excellency Nepheli, Senior Ariel seemed to have survived his tribulation and become a Buddha on the spot.

The process was similar to what he had imagined, but to Fu Qian, the details held many points worth pondering.

A suspected sanity drop to zero that drove his will into madness, while his transcendent form simultaneously lost control... that fell into a relatively reasonable category.

But it even came with a Divine Trait? And after digesting it, he had directly ascended to Tier 2?

No wonder Nepheli had made that guess. It looked exactly like being interrupted at the critical moment of advancement and suffering qi deviation.

Furthermore, there was another key point: it even involved technical support from Rom.

"Rom was also involved in the later processing?"

Fu Qian asked for confirmation amidst his marveling.

Unsurprisingly, there were indeed more minor details.

Additionally, it was apparent that while Nepheli was still unwilling to call that big shot by name, she no longer shied away from discussing him.

"But theoretically, He did participate, because He was the one who guided me to find the Tyrant's Boon."

Oh? That was an interesting piece of information.

No wonder the Origin Council had served Excellency Rom like loyal steeds for so many operations. They really had been granted a lot of shared knowledge.

The miracle known as the Tyrant's Boon was practically confirmed to originate from the King of the Abandoned Prison. Given such profound knowledge combined with a rather poor state of being, the probability that Rom was also an ancient veteran was extremely high.

"We seem to have strayed a bit far. I recall you wanted to know about matters related to the Chen Clan?"

Just as Fu Qian was pondering this, Nepheli suddenly halted her sharing, seemingly finally remembering that their theme this time wasn't intelligence exchange, but technical exchange.

"I was the one who steered the topic away. Please continue."

Fu Qian nodded, admitting his mistake without hesitation.

...

"But you said I actually didn't have to answer."

Nepheli's tone just now had carried a somewhat meaningful flavor.

Alongside the reminder, she seemed to be implicitly mocking Fu Qian's lack of firm dedication to their technical exchange.

Yet with astonishing secrets right in front of them, the person involved genuinely showed no intention of digging deeper. He switched back to the main topic in a single second, which suddenly made her feel a bit less invested.

"You can choose not to answer. In that case, let's move on to the next question."

Fu Qian remained as easygoing as ever, not forcing the issue.

"The Chen Clan's problem actually isn't too complicated... In my eyes, there's nothing wrong with their so-called cultivation method.

"The reason their progress has been so slow over the years, rendering them unable to touch divinity like a certain ancestor of theirs, to the point of seemingly declining step by step, is simply because they aren't very suited for cultivation."

Although the questioner fully respected her personal wishes, Nepheli hesitated briefly before ultimately deciding not to pass up the opportunity to share her insights.

And those few short sentences proved that Fu Qian's expectations hadn't been let down.

Excellency Nepheli had done a lot of homework on that unremarkable family; she hadn't just rigidly applied a cookie-cutter operational plan.

"So the Chen Clan really does have an ancestor who was a High-Tier Transcendent?"

Satisfied, Fu Qian quickly played along and asked.

"Demigod Realm or higher, and he definitely walked the same path."

She answered without hesitation. It was obvious that Nepheli was very confident in this point.

So did the path of cultivation really have everything one could ask for?

He had previously compared the pros and cons of several paths to godhood. Among them, although cultivation seemed somewhat illusory, it also had visible advantages.

For example, it looked safer, conserved more materials, and didn't strictly require searching for bizarre and peculiar items.

And now, hearing Nepheli's explanation, it wasn't just extreme comprehension specialists like Li Weixuan from the Sword Comprehension Institute; even people like the Chen Clan, who relied on a specific cultivation method, could definitively achieve High Tier.

That lowered the barrier of entry quite a bit.

Theoretically, an inheriting family like this should find it easier to flourish and prosper than the Laria Royal Family, who relied entirely on the genetic lottery—so why had they ended up in such a state?

Nepheli didn't speak, seemingly giving Fu Qian time to ponder this question.

"But the current Chen Clan aren't the descendants of that person?"

Taking almost no time at all, Fu Qian blinked and asked.

...

One should never form the mental habit of complicating simple problems.

A family's inheritance growing weaker with each passing generation was indeed a frequently seen trope.

There were even some classic explanations for it, such as an Age of Dharma Decline or the collapse of the Heavenly Dao.

However, to Fu Qian, chalking the cause up to such unverifiable factors meant giving up on thinking about the problem entirely.

In contrast, he was far more inclined to lean toward easily overlooked sociological and ethical reasons.

For example, unworthy descendants.

"...I now believe that the Academy's recent achievements have your contributions in them."

Nepheli, who had originally maintained a faintly testing posture, let out a long sigh at that moment.

"That's right. I spent a long time eliminating possibilities one by one before finally leaning toward this as the likely explanation.

"Despite his considerable achievements, it seems the bloodline of that Chen Clan ancestor didn't successfully pass down for many generations. Very quickly, they ended up raising the Offspring of others."

...

This was the formidable aspect of the home-stealing tactic.

Also, it seemed she hadn't completely abandoned the mindset of a scientific researcher.

Listening to Nepheli's description, although the process of reaching the conclusion had been a bit convoluted, she actually agreed to some extent with the "unworthy descendants" explanation.

That is to say, Chen Xing, the Old Man who was hell-bent on restoring his ancestor's glory, and even the other members of the Chen Family, might actually have nothing to do with that ancestor.

This was also why the cultivation method, despite being proven effective, had never produced a new existence in the Demigod Realm.

The massive foundation of Houhai Manor had long since been subjected to a turtledove occupying the magpie's nest.

And the dark humor lay in the fact that the turtledove didn't know this, and had even gone so far as to sacrifice its proudest heir in order to recreate its ancestor's glory.

"You flatter me. I only offered some casual guidance on a conceptual level; it still relied on the hard work of the youths.

"So in your view, there's also a degree of compatibility between bloodlines and cultivation methods?"

As for the validation from a former Academy higher-up, Fu Qian didn't claim the credit, and in the next moment, he continued strictly sticking to the topic of discussion.

"It's not just a view; I've seen more than one real example. Cultivation is also a matter of talent."

Nepheli sighed once more.

"So how did you end up solving this kind of innate defect?"

Fu Qian undoubtedly appreciated this approach of speaking with facts, and he immediately continued asking for guidance.

"It's very simple... The Blood of Thorns extracted from special corpses, despite being called an unclean thing, can also be considered an advanced form of life.

"Through suitable methods, it can be utilized to make up for the gap in talent to a certain extent, though the effects might be rather twisted."

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