Eldritch Horror Theatre

“Oh? So the one stirring up trouble is right here.”

Another explosive revelation. By the looks of it, Amber had completely lost her ability to speak.

The Black Doctor’s role in this entire incident suddenly seemed far more active—

For his own reasons, he had been lurking near the Prophet, who had closed his doors to all visitors...

One day, he heard the Prophet’s dying words. By the time he rushed over to investigate, everything had changed beyond recognition, leaving behind only a door leading who knew where...

He hadn't stepped through it right away. Instead, he took a guess at where it led and wrote down the very sentence that had thrown the entire Unseen Hill into turmoil...

Later, as more and more people took notice, he posed as a clueless bystander and played the part of the brave first pioneer...

However, the sight that greeted him on the other side of the door left him with a shattered dao heart. So demoralized was he that he went nowhere, simply slumping here like a puddle of mud to quietly wait for whoever came next...

And when someone finally did arrive, he couldn't hold back from relentlessly mocking them...

“A brilliant move. You wrote the perfect message in the perfect place, riding the tide and fully capitalizing on the Prophet’s mysterious disappearance.”

Although some of the details were rather despicable when closely considered, Fu Qian still offered his sincere praise.

“A pity, really. They’re all just a bunch of incompetents who don’t even dare to open their eyes.”

The Black Doctor showed absolutely no remorse. In fact, the mockery in his eyes grew even heavier as he looked at Amber.

...

That was genuinely hard to refute. After all, on the other side of the door, the ground was still covered in the marks of their tentative probing.

The Black Doctor was clearly mocking the fact that since he had stepped through, not a single one of the Native demigods had the guts to follow him.

The only one who did make it through had to be brought in by an outsider.

“Including you...” the Black Doctor added, shifting his target. “Just because you walked in doesn’t mean you’re any braver. As an outsider, the significance of certain actions is entirely different.”

He pointed his spearhead straight at Fu Qian, delivering his blunt critique without an ounce of politeness.

“Fair point. My cost of trial and error is obviously much lower.”

Always one to respect the facts, Fu Qian nodded and readily agreed.

“You left behind such a misleading message when you had absolutely no idea what was on the other side? And now you’re accusing people who didn’t know the truth of lacking courage? Isn’t that a little shameless?”

Others, however, weren't quite as good-tempered. Hearing that the man standing right in front of her was the one who wrote those words, Amber couldn't hold herself back anymore.

A chill swept through the air, and the flame of the Lantern flickered wildly, making it look as though she was about to strike at any moment.

“If that’s how you want to put it, you might want to consider the fact that when I went in, there was no message at all.”

Unfortunately, that clearly wasn't enough to pierce the Black Doctor's defenses. The man merely offered a cold reminder.

...

Well said. False hope was still hope.

The way the Black Doctor viewed that door was obviously entirely different from how the others saw it.

With that message there, the others might have felt doubt and anxiety, but for him, there hadn't even been room for doubt. To him, the other side of the door had been pure, unadulterated unknown.

Generally speaking, the psychological pressure the Black Doctor had to shoulder was significantly greater.

Yet even under those circumstances, the rest of them still hadn't been able to overcome their fear.

Hmm...

Amber clearly possessed some capacity for logical reasoning. After being countered like that, she instantly fell silent, her killing intent evaporating.

“Admirable courage. But judging from your earlier behavior, you weren’t planning on showing yourself, were you?”

Fu Qian made no effort to help Amber argue her case. He simply glanced at the rapidly depleting oil in the Lantern and steered the conversation back to the Black Doctor.

After all, it was just a makeshift tool; lasting this long was already impressive enough.

Before he had asked Amber to locate him just now, the man hadn't made a single sound other than eavesdropping. No matter how you looked at it, he seemed completely demoralized—a man with a shattered dao heart who had simply given up.

“Would there be any point? Do you think I want more answers? Or do you think I want to learn more about just how ridiculous fate can be?”

The Black Doctor's reaction fit the mood perfectly. His tone wasn't depressed, but it was utterly hollow.

“Or perhaps we could discuss how to get back to the other side?”

This time, however, Dayun Mingwang offered a slightly different opinion.

...

“Why would you think I’d have any desire to do that? Go back just so we can all be played for fools again?”

Looking genuinely taken aback, the Black Doctor seemed entirely unable to comprehend why Fu Qian would even suggest such a thing.

“It might be a bit too quiet here, but to me, the other side of the door is far more boring. It’s not even as entertaining as sitting around and guessing who’s going to wake up next.”

The firm resolve he displayed made it clear that he had lost absolutely all interest in the farcical games being played on the other side.

“So you didn’t even try?”

Fu Qian didn't refute his words; he merely gestured at their surroundings.

“...I looked into it a little. But unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any way back. You might have better luck trying an outsider’s method.”

It just went to show that even if someone had no real interest in doing something, spend enough time staring at it, and they’d eventually give it some thought.

After a brief hesitation, the Black Doctor admitted that he had, in fact, done a little exploring to find a way back, even if he had found absolutely nothing.

“Is that so...”

Fu Qian adopted a thoughtful expression for a moment.

“Then let me ask it another way. Does Your Excellency know how to get back through the door you opened?”

...

“I don’t know what you mean. Or did you just fail to understand what I just told you?”

For a split second, this silent realm of death seemed to tremble, immediately followed by the Black Doctor's incredulous response.

And even as he spoke, his body silently materialized further away, striking a highly vigilant posture.

“Your story is great, but your character still has a few contradictions.”

In all fairness, the Black Doctor's reaction couldn't really be called a guilty conscience; it was simply the standard reaction of a normal person encountering a complete lunatic.

But Fu Qian made no move to chase him. Instead, he displayed the sheer persistence of a lunatic, offering a critique of the man's performance.

“Do you know why I had her search for the first demigod who entered?”

He pointed at Amber as he spoke, who was currently looking rather bewildered herself.

“While it wasn't overly difficult, making the decision to step through that door still required a fair bit of courage.

“And in my opinion, someone with that level of courage might very well leave that message behind as a prank. But the chances of them simply curling up here and losing all their fighting spirit upon seeing this so-called truth? That isn't very likely.”

The Lantern's flame had begun to jump erratically; it could go out at any moment.

Fu Qian didn't push his luck. He lightly tapped the lampshade and set the Lantern down, allowing a golden radiance to slowly rise from his own body instead.

“So earlier, when Amber found her target so quickly, all I felt was a sense of contradiction and artificiality.

“However, that contradiction isn’t impossible to explain. What if that person hadn’t relied on courage to step through the door? What if they had some other trump card? Say, for instance, they already knew exactly what was on the other side? In short—”

Without warning, Fu Qian casually waved a hand. A line of blood—visible only to him—instantly dragged the silent Black Doctor right up to his face.

“Whether Akasha is here or not, as long as the First Warrior is here, I’m going to assume there’s a problem with him.”

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