Eldritch Horror Theatre

No wonder they said fear stems from insufficient firepower. Was this the legendary physical exorcism of an inner demon?

At that moment, Fu Qian was fairly certain the Mushroom World he had just seen was gone. The poisoned state had been violently dispelled.

Yet this reckless feat brought no sense of accomplishment; it only made him frown.

The momentum was massive, the methods bizarre, and he had even faced two sword path saints leading the vanguard. But after building the atmosphere up to its absolute peak, you were telling him it was already over?

His strategy for this operation had always been clear: the more toxic, the better, right up until he could have a face-to-face exchange with the Fungal Emperor.

To achieve that goal, he hadn't even used detoxification methods like the Decree of Return.

And this was it?

As he'd noted earlier, his Insight had granted him the initiative in this confrontation.

So based on his original expectations, he should have been able to witness a bit more of it.

Yet the moment he pushed a step further, that source of power withdrew completely, leaving absolutely no trace behind—just like Meria.

Withdrawing his gaze from the starry sky, Fu Qian thought of Master Yuhun's earnest, preaching face.

......

There simply was no Meria.

Her honorific name, her symbol, her Emblem, and her authority all existed, but she did not exist in history.

Master Yuhun's claims about that mysterious higher entity had certainly left a deep impression.

He even had to admit that this information had delivered the intended mental shock—inciting doubt about the authenticity of the world.

If, upon first hearing it, he could have dismissed it as the wild fantasy of a paranoid lunatic...

...then now, he seemed to have encountered more than one concept perfectly aligned with that fantasy—

For example, Excellency Nepheli seemed to firmly maintain that the apocalypse nineteen years ago had been real.

Even Blazing Rainbow had stated that the night and the Nightmare were far too long.

The world might not be mere distracting thoughts, but it didn't seem entirely real either.

Most astonishingly, another case seemed to have genuinely appeared right before his eyes, possessing the same unique circumstances as the Meria he had spoken of.

......

A lack of harvest was still a harvest in itself; he had emphasized this more than once.

This attempt might not have allowed him to witness the supreme majesty of the Fungal Emperor, but with just a little thought, he could see the consistency between that entity and the Excellency Meria Master Yuhun had spoken of.

Two fungal-adapted sword path saints were, without a doubt, an astonishing display of authority.

The "truth of the world" exposed when that surface was torn away, and even the Chastisement that fed back when it was completely crushed, made him truly believe there was a source of power behind all this.

Yet in a single instant, that source of power vanished without a trace.

If Master Yuhun had seen this, his Dao heart would have stabilized by at least another five percent.

Wait a minute—wasn't Master Yuhun currently his inner demon? So theoretically, "he" really had seen it.

Of course, an inner demon was an inner demon. It might provide some inspiration, but it could forget about ever shaking this seat's grand Dao heart ambitions.

Snorting coldly, Fu Qian toyed with the object in his palm, having already pulled out another metal cylinder.

......

Claudora Flesh. He had just asked Professor Lisa to requisition it earlier.

Considering the origin of the mushrooms, if he wanted to deduce the essence of the Fungal Emperor, this item was entirely unavoidable.

It was a known fact that this flesh suffered from a special curse. But because of that very curse, it also possessed divinity, allowing it to assimilate almost any type of Transcendent.

Then, through its integration with the Insect Swarm, it maintained a delicate balance, ultimately leading to the miraculous transformation from insect to mushroom.

To summarize: an inclusive divinity, other lifeforms hidden within the Insect Swarm... and this auspicious geomantic land known as the Academy.

That last point couldn't be forgotten.

A fundamental prerequisite for the Fungal Emperor's might to manifest into the world seemed to be this exact testing location.

And through his previous deductions, he had just linked this place to the name Meria...

Were they the same entity?

Blinking, Fu Qian arrived at an incredibly wild hypothesis.

Compared to questioning whether the entire world was flawed, attributing the anomaly to a single individual was clearly a far more reasonable and scientific line of reasoning.

The Snow Tree Goddess being the Fungal Emperor might sound far too wild, and there was no concrete evidence to support it, but in Fu Qian's eyes, this was a victory for logic.

He had seen his fair share of higher entities by now, existing in a dazzling array of states. There was even a suspected three-in-one contestant out there, so was this really all that unbelievable?

Rather than attributing the shared abnormalities of the Fungal Emperor and the Snow Tree Goddess to some extreme conspiracy theory about the world itself...

"They are identical because they are fundamentally the same entity"—wouldn't that be a much simpler explanation?

......

He was indeed the King of the Abandoned Prison, but more importantly, he was a leading academic.

Academic workers had to rely on logic; otherwise, they were nothing but charlatans.

Darkness blurred past his eyes. There was no longer any repulsive force impeding his advance, and Fu Qian's conclusions were arrived at seamlessly.

It still lacked solid evidence, as he had noted earlier, but logically, it held up for now. In short, he hadn't taken those sword strikes in vain.

He had specifically checked a moment ago; the intense confrontation didn't seem to have left any obvious impact on the surroundings.

At the same time, the wounds on his own body were absolutely real, and the discomfort of having his head lobbed off still lingered.

In any case, during his subsequent investigations into Meria, he could conveniently try to prove this hypothesis.

Besides that, Chief Yuan's teacher, Old Man Henry, seemed to know a few things.

Not only had he gifted her the Meria Flower Ball, but he had even strictly forbidden her from asking too many questions about it. He felt like he should find an opportunity to chat with the old man again.

As for why he was so interested in Meria?

It obviously wasn't just because of Master Yuhun. He hadn't forgotten the apocalypse he had witnessed previously.

If he remembered correctly, when the Mother of Gospel breached the barrier, the opening she had exploited was the Miracle initiated by "Nepheli"—Meria's Resurrection.

Beyond the Snow Tree Goddess and the Unseen... the concept of an apocalyptic starting point seemed even more staggering.

Regardless, within this world, Excellency Meria was an exceptionally significant figure.

From that perspective, today's overtime had yielded an excellent harvest.

Even regarding the matter of Professor Ah Kai.

That was right. Fu Qian had never forgotten that detail, and a certain coincidence was simply too glaring to ignore—for instance, the fact that the professor seemed to have gone missing as well.

Just like the Snow Tree Goddess and the Fungal Emperor.

And he had even gone missing during his research into "tales of Deities."

Creak!

As the scene he had witnessed in the office flashed through his mind, Fu Qian reached out and pushed open the door in front of him.

"Professor Fu, you're back."

His round trip hadn't taken long, but behind the doors of the Laboratory, Wen Li was now sitting entirely alone, lost in thought. Upon hearing the noise, she immediately turned her head.

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