Eldritch Horror Theatre

"How does it taste?"

Temperament was an abstract concept, but more often than not, it was truly difficult to conceal.

It took the exact duration of a Burial Scroll for Fu Qian to meticulously savor and finish the pomegranate juice and sausage.

His absolute focus and visible delight made it a bit difficult for the shop owner to look directly at him, but the infectiousness of his enjoyment was astounding.

After watching the entire process from the corner of her eye and seeing Fu Qian take a deep breath of satisfaction, the Old Lady finally couldn't resist conducting a little customer satisfaction survey.

"Not bad, just a bit pricey."

Fu Qian's evaluation was as dramatic as it was sincere. As he spoke, his gaze drifted to a spot nearby.

It clearly belonged to the category of historical buildings mentioned earlier. Its white exterior had yellowed over time and was now heavily mottled with mold, positively teeming with life.

More importantly, its design was distinctly odd. It looked like several square boxes stacked on top of one another, appearing at first glance like a poorly aligned tower of blocks.

His bluntness completely disregarded the expected politeness of a customer survey, prompting the Old Lady to offer a slightly awkward explanation.

That made sense. Given the local climate, it was hard to expect the fruit to be particularly delicious. Reaching this level of quality showed real effort.

"I understand... What was that place originally used for?"

Showing no dissatisfaction with her explanation, Fu Qian kept his gaze fixed on the building and asked in a casual, conversational tone.

"I'm not entirely sure about that... I only know it was abandoned for a long time before they finally repainted it. Now, it's actually a pretty nice spot to stroll around in."

Unfortunately, despite her age, the Old Lady didn't seem to know much about it either. She shook her head as she followed his gaze toward the structure.

"It was a slaughterhouse."

And herein lay the sheer wonder of life—a voice suddenly answered his question.

Just as the shop owner and her customer were at a loss, a passing pedestrian who had clearly overheard their conversation chimed in.

...

"I only heard about it in passing. Although the layout looks a bit impractical, rumor has it that the place was originally designed for slaughtering cattle."

She was a woman in her forties with a lean face and relatively thin hair casually pinned up. Exuding an air of complete leisure, she strolled right under the shop's parasol as she spoke.

"It's definitely hard to imagine. But if the white walls were painted later, it makes a little more sense."

Regardless, the building before them hardly looked like an abattoir, but since she seemed so certain, Fu Qian casually played along.

"Unfortunately, I heard the walls were white even before the new coat of paint."

The woman continued with her surprising claims.

"Apparently, they believed doing so would purify the resentment lingering in the flesh, ensuring that anyone who ate the meat wouldn't be tainted by sin force."

Even this subsequent explanation surprisingly sounded somewhat reasonable.

Purifying resentment to avoid sin force... So the meat didn't just leave the factory with a quarantine certificate, but even came with an indulgence?

"That makes a lot of sense. Now I kind of want to try it."

Fu Qian clicked his tongue in admiration.

"Next time, you should package this story with your sausages. Just claim the entire production process faced that direction, allowing the ingredients to be purified."

Not stopping there, he even glanced at the shop owner and offered her some marketing advice.

Hmm...

It was obvious the Old Lady was still a bit skeptical because of how bizarre the story sounded.

However, the elderly tended to be particular about certain things. As she pondered the idea, she surprisingly voiced no objections.

Excellent. For a story to be infectious, the first step was to believe it yourself. It seemed she was already getting into character.

"Thanks for sharing. How should I address you?"

Nodding slightly, Fu Qian turned back to the helpful pedestrian.

"Is that important?"

The woman let out a soft chuckle. She was quite free-spirited, evidently having no intention of adding unnecessary formalities to a chance encounter.

It truly wasn't important.

"You're right."

Giving another slight nod, Fu Qian was, for once, genuinely convinced.

After all, he already had a name for her—Laywoman Tooth-Throat.

...

A leisurely afternoon tea, a few random passersby whose origins didn't matter, all chatting together about a meaningless topic.

While such an experience was undeniably pleasant, there simply weren't that many coincidences in this world.

As it turned out, he hadn't managed to fish up a bat, but he had caught a bug.

The Greed Worms had indeed come to Moore to stir up trouble, and Gene wasn't the only one.

That's right, this newcomer was one of the most devout believers of the King of the Abandoned Prison within the Greed Worm Clan.

Her passing by and their chance encounter moments ago had been nothing more than a performance.

Of course, other than sharing the same gender, the appearance of the woman before him vastly differed from his memory of Laywoman Tooth-Throat.

The reason Fu Qian could be so certain was quite simple. For one thing, under the scan of his Vision Radar, no superficial disguise could hide the essence of a transcendent.

For another, as the object of the Greed Worms' faith, he might not be able to answer their prayers remotely at the moment, but failing to recognize his own favored one when standing face-to-face would be severely underestimating the weight of the title "higher entity."

All in all, his casual question about the neighboring building earlier had genuinely stemmed from curiosity.

But Fu Qian had been equally curious about how exactly this fake pedestrian planned to insert herself into the conversation.

As it turned out, she had clearly put in a lot of effort, having even dug up such an obscure piece of local trivia.

As for why Laywoman Tooth-Throat absolutely had to be faking it? Why couldn't she just be genuinely out enjoying life and sharing a random anecdote?

Previously, she had hidden so thoroughly that even a dignified demigod like Excellency Serana couldn't find a single trace of her. Yet now she was suddenly taking a stroll in a completely new disguise, and coincidentally wandering right near what was suspected to be Serana's stronghold... Even if Laywoman Tooth-Throat's brain truly operated on such an abstract level, Old Man Laurie would have slapped some sense into her long before she tried.

The bugs were a true example of if one suffers, all suffer.

Of course, this raised another question: if she wasn't just out for a walk, then what was the purpose of her current actions?

It was indeed strange. However, in Fu Qian's eyes, it wasn't completely inexplicable—the bat was searching for the bugs, but weren't the bugs also searching for the bat?

...

Don't forget, His Excellency the King of the Abandoned Prison had personally set the tone back then: this was a trial of mutual pursuit.

The Greed Worms seemed to be giving it their all as well. Could it be that they had also found a trace of Serana?

Though it was hard to say whether the Anjing Company was actually providing them with assistance.

Regardless, for the historically cautious Insect Swarm, only the sudden disappearance of a hard-won glimmer of hope could force them to act so boldly, right?

As for how they managed to lock onto him?

This could even be considered proof that he hadn't come to the wrong place.

Losing their target in a flash, only to have a suspicious individual suddenly appear in the vicinity—investigating him was simply human nature.

Even if her approach was a bit resolute...

"A name is far from enough to define a person, and the same goes for the physical form."

Amidst his thoughts, Fu Qian noticed that Laywoman Tooth-Throat seemed exceedingly satisfied with his reaction. She ordered a glass of sweet wine from the shop owner and gazed into the distance, casually sighing with emotion.

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