Eldritch Horror Theatre

The raging waves slapped his face.

The person who had suddenly appeared—likely Excellency Serana—clearly had no intention of treating her captive with any leniency.

Fu Qian was still soaking in the water, yet the interrogation had already begun.

He had no complaints about this, though. No matter how he looked at it, he had simply been struck by the boomerang of fate.

How Serana had shown up here remained a mystery, but there was little doubt as to why she was here.

Back in Shangjing, he had executed a clever scheme that set this demigod up as an example for the Greed Worms, while also convincing her that they harbored malicious intentions. This prompted her to hunt them down and subject them to the tempering crucible of suffering.

Not much time had passed since then, but evidently, her efforts had yielded results.

Though the nature of these results was rather peculiar—boarding a Siren ship to catch a Greed Worm?

It felt like she had skipped quite a few logical steps to get here.

But if he remembered correctly, their stance had been the exact opposite. They had been hired by Anjing to cause trouble for Siren.

In fact, during that very operation, they had been unlucky enough to run into the troublemaking Cass. As a result, they were afflicted by the poison of the Tumor Flower and barely made it back alive.

Even if Serana had investigated the matter and learned they were highly active in the conflict between the two organizations, shouldn't she have boarded Anjing's ship to look for them?

Not to mention tracking them all the way to a remote place like Moore.

"Very good. You get to live a while longer."

While Fu Qian was busy marveling at the bizarre twists of fate, his honest response seemed to have had the desired effect.

The figure behind the bats let out a cold laugh, making it sound as though Fu Qian had indeed just snatched his life back from the brink.

Before the words even faded, shadows surged forward and enveloped him once more, completely obscuring his vision.

...

"I ask, you answer. Do not ask 'why' at any point. Do you understand?"

Not long after, before his vision even returned, Fu Qian felt a sudden warmth surrounding him.

The fierce storm still raged on, but it had been shut out. He could hear the violent rain battering against the windows.

The only pity was that the outfit he had so painstakingly put together was still completely drenched.

"Understood."

As for the voice echoing by his ear, in all honesty, it sounded absolutely nothing like Excellency Serana. However, Fu Qian didn't mind playing along for the moment.

It wasn't surprising. During such a sensitive period, no matter how eager she was to track down her target, a dignified demigod personally intervening carried far too many implications.

As long as she had even the slightest sense of familial duty, Serana would certainly disguise her identity to some extent.

Her effort to keep a low profile had been plainly obvious back on the ship.

"If you don't mind, why don't you reveal your true face?"

Fu Qian's consistent cooperation seemed to satisfy his interrogator somewhat. A moment later, the shadows obscuring his vision were withdrawn.

A figure completely shrouded in shadows stood before him, gesturing for Fu Qian to drop his disguise as well.

"Sure."

Fu Qian remained as cooperative as ever. He casually dispelled his temporary disguise—revealing the disguise he had crafted before that.

...

While his interrogator fell silent, Fu Qian didn't waste any time. He casually inspected his surroundings.

He had to admit, the place looked exactly as he had imagined.

As it was a classic port city, even an ordinary residence like this one exuded a distinct architectural style.

Even the windows he had noticed earlier bore special reinforcements, clearly designed to withstand unpredictable weather.

The musty smell wasn't too heavy, and the space was fairly large. The furnishings and layout even showed a touch of refined taste.

It seemed that even though she had traveled a long way to conduct a covert operation, Excellency Serana still maintained certain standards for her accommodations.

"...Who are you?"

Though she likely wasn't in the mood to care about interior decor, the 'new' face Fu Qian revealed had clearly delivered quite a shock.

"You can call me Laurie."

Fu Qian replied without batting an eye, displaying the unshakable composure of a great commander.

In fact, the name he had just given did indeed belong to the person in charge of the Greed Worms.

"I thought your name would be Gene... Where is he now?"

It was hard to say how much 'Serana' actually believed that name, but at the very least, she didn't fly into a rage and immediately resort to torture. Instead, she offered up another name of her own accord.

...

So she really had come tracking that fellow down. You could almost call it a mutual pursuit.

More certain of her identity than ever, Fu Qian felt deeply satisfied.

Gene was the unfortunate fellow who had been struck by Tumor Flower Blooming, and he was also one of the more radical members of the Greed Worms.

Consequently, the risk of him being targeted by Serana was naturally among the highest.

On the other hand, as the most senior member of the group, the sage-like Laurie possessed a far superior philosophy of survival. There was a good chance Serana didn't even know what he looked like.

If he had claimed to be anyone else, there was a high probability it would have provoked a hostile reaction, ruining this delightfully harmonious atmosphere of communication.

This was a victory for logic.

Of course, there was another key reason: out of that entire group, he only seemed to know those two names.

He couldn't exactly introduce himself as Laywoman Tooth-Throat, could he?

Besides, Excellency Serana seemed incredibly confident that Gene was aboard the Siren ship.

"I don't know. I've been looking for him myself."

Having silently summarized his findings, Fu Qian didn't forget to share this detail, smoothly continuing to answer her questions.

"You're lying..."

Unfortunately, playing the role of a captive was never easy. In the blink of an eye, the interrogator's tone turned utterly freezing. A sudden, piercing chill gripped his back, making it feel as though his spine were being carved out and exposed to the air.

...

It actually was being exposed to the air.

As a specialist in the domain of flesh and blood, Fu Qian had an extremely precise grasp of his own physical condition.

It was easy to confirm that this wasn't an illusion. At that exact moment, it truly felt as if a razor-sharp blade had sliced across his back, neatly carving through his muscles one by one.

However, his blood flow and pain receptors had been sealed off simultaneously, which was what created that bizarre sensation.

He had to admit, as an interrogation technique, there was some genuine creativity behind it.

For a transcendent, fighting and killing were everyday occurrences. Ordinary physical pain simply didn't carry much deterrent value.

By completely stripping away the pain, it forced the victim to focus all their attention on the critical area and truly feel their own fragility.

"Ever since we left Shangjing, considering how sensitive the situation had become, all connections between us were temporarily severed."

Even though Serana hadn't explained her reasoning, Fu Qian had a pretty good idea of why she had immediately called his bluff.

She was, after all, a demigod backed by Gulade. It only stood to reason that she would have grasped some of her targets' core characteristics.

If the Greed Worms could share their perceptions, then his claim that he was 'also looking for Gene' obviously wouldn't hold water. No matter how you looked at it, it was a blatant lie.

What Excellency Serana didn't know, unfortunately, was that the actor standing in front of her had already thoroughly observed the Greed Worms. His excuses were always backed by solid evidence.

For instance, the only reason Gene had been able to push his radical strategy in the first place was precisely because their shared perception had been severed. Otherwise, there was a high probability that the organization would have stopped him.

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