Eldritch Horror Theatre

There were actually living creatures inside this hidden special zone?

Was it only hidden from outsiders like him, while creatures of the Ash Sea could come and go freely?

That moment's discovery wasn't just interesting—it was practically groundbreaking.

"Excuse me."

There was a reason he made this judgment. Even through passive perception, Fu Qian could confirm in that moment that the thing behind the stone beam really did resemble a marine creature—

Drifting and undulating, stretching and contracting like silk.

At Fu Qian's greeting, a wisp of fluorescent light actually flared from behind the beam.

Then, a translucent tentacle probed out from behind the stone beam.

A jellyfish?

The rest of its body that drifted out afterward also gave a strong visual impression of a marine creature.

It just looked somewhat paradoxical. The uppermost umbrella bell, for instance, wasn't shaped like a bell or a saucer, but rather like... a brain?

As bizarre as the description sounded, Fu Qian found it incredibly fitting in that moment.

The fluorescence was indeed emitting from this creature, and the dozens of thread-like tentacles beneath it made for a textbook jellyfish design.

Yet its very core was a standard human brain.

Even if its overall texture had that gelatinous quality unique to a jellyfish.

"It's fine."

That wasn't even the most absurd part. A moment later, Fu Qian received a voice transmitted straight from that brain.

It didn't just look like a brain; it actually possessed the ability to communicate?

...

As the saying goes, politeness takes you anywhere. No matter the other party's appearance, it never hurt to be a little courteous.

Faced with such a fluent response, Fu Qian was quite satisfied with this surprise harvest.

The Brain Jellyfish's cognitive ability felt even higher than the behemoth's from before. Either way, this was good news.

The only pity was that, given its tiny size and low Rank, its nature leaned heavily toward being small fry in the Ash Sea rather than the brain of the Fallen Angel outside.

Exactly. He shouldn't be so rigid in his thinking.

Since the exterior was already anthropomorphic, why couldn't the internal brain be identical to a human's?

While he was indeed looking for a head, that didn't mean he couldn't search for its various components separately.

The moment he saw the shape atop the tentacles, Fu Qian had thought of this and made a quick assessment.

Unfortunately, the possibility seemed genuinely slim.

"Did you calculate it?"

The next moment, before Fu Qian could offer any more pleasantries, the Brain Jellyfish continued speaking, aiming a question at him.

Calculate?

Not only did it sound much more polite than most higher entities, but it even seemed to have academic pursuits?

For a moment, even Fu Qian marveled inwardly.

"Calculate what?"

He didn't overly cherish his precious time for once. He simply stood there, attempting to engage the creature in discussion.

"The fall point... I feel like I'm close to finding the answer, but my notes seem to be missing."

The Brain Jellyfish actually answered very quickly, its tone laced with audible frustration.

Its notes were missing? He truly wasn't wrong; it really did have the air of an intellectual.

Fu Qian listened carefully, showing no impatience at all toward the subsequent complaints.

"That is indeed a bit terrible... So, the fall point of what?"

After waiting for the other party to finish and offering a serious bout of empathy, he took the opportunity to humbly ask for guidance.

The reason was simple: that term gave him a massive sense of déjà vu.

Just a moment ago, he had been recalling the scene of the higher entity descending from the sky.

"The fall point of the Star, of course. You..."

To his gratification, he actually got an answer once again.

The Star's fall point?

It seemed to differ slightly from his imagined higher entity, but generally speaking, terms like 'falling star' didn't seem too out of place when applied to an Angel or a higher entity, did they?

Moreover, when the Brain Jellyfish answered, its final tone had noticeably shifted, as if it realized its conversational partner's identity was questionable and might be fishing for its data.

Even its drifting body pulsed a bit faster in that instant.

"I know, but is the Star's fall point really the Source of Ash? The more I calculate, the more I doubt this question. Is it possible that our assumed premise is wrong from the start?"

Sensing this, Fu Qian didn't hesitate. Instead, he vented a similar scientific frustration.

With such a massive reaction, it clearly wasn't a good idea to continue asking straightforward questions. He needed a more roundabout approach.

The claim that the Star's fall point was the Source of Ash was, of course, something he made up on the spot.

How could he confirm the other party's theoretical foundation based purely on a few fragmented words? This was Fu Qian's own theoretical foundation.

He had just been wondering if the higher entity that fell during the Long Night could be the origin of the Ash Sea.

With such a hypothesis voiced, His Excellency the Brain Jellyfish's reaction was undoubtedly something to look forward to.

The worst-case scenario was simply that the words wouldn't align—that the other party's calculated fall point had nothing to do with the ash's origin, making it even more alert.

But under those circumstances, it would have been hard to communicate much further anyway, so it wouldn't be a huge loss.

But if the other party took a different attitude, the payoff would be massive—

"Are you crazy?"

The facts proved it really was a different attitude; His Excellency the Brain Jellyfish sounded utterly incredulous.

"Did you hide my notes?"

The next moment, its voice turned gloomy, leveling a severe accusation against Fu Qian.

...

This actually involved a dispute over academic direction?

Others might be completely baffled, but for Professor Fu, who had spent years maneuvering with sweeping control within academic circles, certain trains of thought were far too easy to understand. He sighed inwardly at that moment.

Perhaps the imagined resolution to an academic disagreement was supposed to be brimming with gentlemanly grace.

Quoting classics, citing sources, calculating, and deducing until the indisputable truth was laid bare—the correct party going down in history, and the wrong party bowing in heartfelt submission, expressing gratitude for the lesson...

But one couldn't rule out that, much of the time, the methods could be far more unpretentious—like cutting the power, burning notes, or secretly altering experimental data.

His Excellency the Brain Jellyfish clearly seemed well-steeped in these arts, instantly thinking of such competitive methods—but that was still competition.

No matter how poor its tone was, one could say it proved to a certain extent that the theory regarding the Source of Ash might truly be its theoretical foundation.

Furthermore, according to general experience, once a dispute reached this level, any further explanation or communication usually became useless—oh?

Sure enough, before the words even faded, a new change came over the jellyfish.

Its already translucent brain practically turned the color of water in that moment.

Looking through that clarity, there were actually spots of light flickering inside—it was exactly the Star Map he had been studying earlier.

Just as Fu Qian felt a strong sense of familiarity, the bright lights within the Star Map locked onto his body with a bizarre affinity, immediately generating an exaggerated pulling force.

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