Eldritch Horror Theatre

Great minds think alike. At that moment, the clown and Fu Qian looked like a pair of villains critiquing a junior.

Their final verdict was that this junior inspired no awe whatsoever—leaving them brimming with disappointment.

"How could you..."

As for the subject of their critique, he clearly couldn't accept this sudden shift in circumstances, let alone understand how the clown was still able to move.

"Don't interrupt."

Unfortunately, the clown simply waved a hand, entirely uninterested in letting him join the conversation.

The next moment, the mummy made of long white feathers truly stopped making a sound.

Not only that, but his rapidly dissolving body—which had looked ready to scatter into the wind at any second—instantly halted its disintegration.

"To think his first instinct in this situation was to run, rather than risk a little danger to figure out what was happening and look for a chance to drive a wedge between us. He truly is far too mediocre."

Seeing the situation turn sour, His Excellency the Angel of Death had decisively prepared to flee. Though this wasn't his true body to begin with, he hadn't wanted to leave behind even the traces of a projection.

He had even used his own words as a smokescreen to cover his retreat. He likely never actually cared to know the answer to his question.

"Aside from his Rank, this guy has almost nothing on the Lord. Though perhaps his arrogance is a level higher?"

Fu Qian delivered this harsh critique without holding back, directly comparing A Wei to the former Lord.

"Heh... how did you know I could hear you?"

Letting out a string of low laughter, the clown clearly didn't mind Fu Qian evaluating his former boss this way. He directly pulled the topic back to himself, curious how Fu Qian had figured out he was faking it.

Roar—

Before Fu Qian could answer, a beast-like roar rang in their ears. Holler, who had been swatted away moments ago, had rallied and launched another attack.

After all, they had been teammates once. Fu Qian had held back slightly just now, refraining from using his normal punch.

Shh—

This time, the clown simply pressed a finger to his lips to shush him.

Urgh—

A familiar scene played out again. Holler, already lunging through the air, had his roar instantly cut off. His entire body froze like a sculpture in mid-air.

Carried by the angle and momentum of his leap, he grazed past Fu Qian and the clown before plunging headlong into the dried-up bed of The Lake, tumbling all the way down to the bottom.

As for the other Demigod Realm combatants, they seemed far more subdued.

Ever since A Wei's initial gasp of shock, they had just been wandering in place, completely ceasing their attacks. Even the ghosts had stopped.

It made perfect sense. A Wei had been using his control over Unseen Hill to forcefully project his will and issue commands; now, they had simply lost their commander.

As for why Holler hadn't stopped?

To Fu Qian, the answer was simple. As he had noted earlier, Holler's mind was no longer clear. He likely wasn't acting on a lingering command, but out of pure instinct, lashing out at whatever was in front of him.

"Because your taste in these matters is vastly superior."

Watching the Ash Emissary tumble all the way down to the lakebed didn't delay Fu Qian from answering the clown's question; he even took the opportunity to praise the clown's character.

"Besides, in this place, Rank might not be that important."

...

The world was a vast, desolate expanse.

According to what A Wei had just said, the degree of Ash Descent throughout the entire Unseen Hill had to be quite high by now.

Yet even though the descent of the eternal night likely meant the failure of his mission, Fu Qian still stood leisurely over the dried lakebed, holding forth as if discussing the virtues of heroes over warm wine.

"You have an extraordinary sense of smell and a keen eye for chaos, but a boring mess is even more tedious than boring rules. When you told me I was in a team led by A Wei, I already had my doubts."

"Stirring up trouble is certainly your hobby, but with such a mediocre character in charge, it was hard to imagine his plans bringing you much amusement."

Fu Qian pointed at A Wei, who was frozen in place.

The latter didn't seem completely petrified; he looked to have retained his consciousness, though he was far more restricted.

"Of course, a little amusement is still amusement. Especially seeing how things played out—at the very least, those carriages you hate so much were destroyed. So agreeing to play along seemed harmless enough. But there was a timing issue: A Wei had already been here for quite a few days."

Fu Qian hadn't just relied on his intuition; he had clearly taken the objective conditions into account as well.

"If this team of yours had been formed yesterday and mobilized today, I would have found the setup a lot more reasonable."

"But after all this time, you still hadn't come up with a way to escalate the fun, and instead just let him carry out this tedious subjugation plan? I didn't buy it."

Fu Qian clearly had a lot of confidence in certain aspects of the clown's personality. The next moment, he tapped his own head.

"Not to mention there was another minor detail. Did A Wei ever tell you that the one who sent him in here was a clown dressed exactly like you?"

"I figured the chances of that were pretty high. With such an interesting backstory in play, wouldn't that have piqued your interest even more?"

...

Do good deeds and ask not of the future.

Fu Qian was naturally referring to the moment he had sent A Wei inside. In order to let the Natives of Unseen Hill experience a breath of freedom, he had specifically chosen the clown's appearance back then to give them a sliver of false hope.

And although A Wei seemed to have kept a low profile since arriving, if the clown had known about this, he would have undoubtedly approached A Wei's plan with far greater enthusiasm—and in turn, taken much more initiative to spice things up.

"In fact, that was the very first thing A Wei told me."

Sure enough, the clown confirmed he was fully aware of the minor detail Fu Qian had brought up.

"Although he was clearly just probing me, things instantly became much more interesting, so I decided to show him a little more patience."

As he reminisced, the clown wiped a hand across his face, and two more eyes popped open within his pitch-black eye sockets.

"What a pity... He was even more tedious than the original bunch. Toward the guide who sent him inside, he harbored only fear and vulgar speculations."

"In contrast, I was much more inclined to believe your claim of providing psychological counseling. You aren't here to seize control over the eternal night like he is, are you?"

His appearance was only growing increasingly abstract. Looking at Fu Qian with that bizarre face, the clown freely returned the praise, engaging in a bit of obligatory mutual flattery.

"Of course not. I'm actually here to stop the eternal night—or even to thoroughly stamp out the dark side."

Fu Qian looked deeply gratified by the validation, to the point that he even openly shared his strategic objective for the trip.

"Oh? So just because you believed I had a more brilliant plan, you let him do as he pleased without stopping him? What if I truly hadn't intervened, and he succeeded after that countdown?"

The clown seemed rather surprised by this candor, not having expected to have such high hopes pinned on him.

"Then I would fail, and it would simply prove that I overestimated you."

Fu Qian's tone made it sound like the most natural thing in the world.

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