Eldritch Horror Theatre

He was right; it really did look like someone had gone inside.

While highly commending the old man's performance, Fu Qian also agreed with his assessment.

The two of them now stood before the bizarre building, and the traces were clear.

A stylish door—one that perfectly matched the building's stacked-box architectural style—had been brutally destroyed.

Although it looked just as ancient and decayed, it was far from being jammed shut. Yet dense clusters of holes now riddled the door, as if someone who couldn't find the key had angrily executed it by firing squad for five solid minutes.

It certainly achieved the desired effect; the largest hole was wide enough for a person to pass through.

Someone had beaten them here and forced their way in. The scene practically leaped into his mind.

"Looks like it. So, you didn't know about this beforehand?"

Fu Qian agreed while observing the damage, though his actual focus lay elsewhere.

The old man shook his head, indicating this was truly unexpected.

"Then why did you suggest we come here to look?"

Fu Qian pressed, pointing out the contradiction.

"Because there are more people here."

The old man's tone was perfectly matter-of-fact. As he spoke, he stepped through the breach first.

It actually made a certain amount of sense.

Fu Qian naturally followed right behind him, finding the situation deeply amusing.

Regarding the old man's earlier directions, someone else might have assumed he had seen something from the roadside that prompted him to point them this way.

But in Fu Qian's judgment, the chances of Excellency Serana being spotted were incredibly low.

She always operated with a secretive style when out and about—so stealthy she practically wished she could tuck her head into her pants. If she ran into a suspicious place like this, wouldn't she be even more careful?

Not to mention that a casual remark proves prophetic; this place really did match the style of the Dominator of Death.

So the real reason he had asked just now was to peek into the thought process of a Wise Dead and observe his mental state.

The facts proved that his level of wisdom was still increasing—that suggestion was genuinely made without a single shred of evidence.

You had a higher chance of finding someone where there were more people. It was simple, yet brimming with life wisdom.

...

Was Moore related to the God of Death?

Although he hadn't discovered anything of the sort during his last visit, their encounters along the way made it impossible to ignore the possibility now.

Wise Dead. If his assessment of the old man was correct, that title alone was enough to let one's imagination run wild.

Even the fact that Laurie and the others had appeared here felt like the guiding hand of fate.

They received the Enlightenment of the King of the Abandoned Prison, racked their brains to find the demigod favored by Him, and ultimately stumbled upon traces of the Dominator of Death instead.

At the same time, the Blood Clan Demigod, who believed they were searching for the Dominator of Death, had followed them right to this very spot.

It was all a bit too dramatic. Was this the true demeanor of an Ancient Higher Being?

Even when half-dead, their influence still acted like the unseen hand of heaven.

If that was truly the case, then his investment in the Greed Worms had more than paid off.

Not only could he use them to test matters of faith and have them help pull off a prison break, but now, to some extent, they were genuinely helping him come into contact with the legacy of the God of Death.

However, this also inevitably brought up a few new questions.

For example, the most obvious one: did the God of Death actually have a hand in the tragedy of the Academy Exploration Team?

That was shocking news. According to Cass, the two keywords he had left behind were the hard-won fragments salvaged from the exploration plan back then.

That meant the people from the Academy came here back then just like he was doing now—armed with this information and aiming for a specific target.

So, did they ultimately find the Wise Dead?

If they did, did that mean they had visited Moore, just as he suspected?

Then, inside this dying Moore, would there be traces left behind by them?

...

"There really is quite a crowd."

Amidst his thoughts, the wind and rain abruptly ceased.

Equally soaked to the bone, Fu Qian noted that the architectural structure behind the door looked rather complicated.

At a glance, it was divided into four floors from top to bottom. The height of a single floor was staggering. In addition to stairs, there were even connecting rails, giving it a very unique style.

Actually, considering the talk about eliminating sin force, it wouldn't have felt too strange even if this place had been styled like a sacrificial altar.

But as an academic worker who valued the integration of industry, education, and research, Fu Qian felt that while the internal structure was unique, it genuinely carried the aura of an assembly line factory. Whoever designed this place back then was quite the character.

However, while these industrial outlines still remained, they had long since been eroded by all sorts of flashy, superficial displays.

The Old Granny selling juice was right; this place had clearly been developed into a new commercial hub.

Numerous shops unleashed their imaginations, maximizing the unique atmosphere of this place to flaunt themselves and become as eye-catching as possible.

And there were indeed a lot of people. At a glance, it was a sea of milling ox heads.

That's right, literal ox heads.

Despite having the limbs and torsos of humans, everything above their necks took the shape of an ox.

They were of different breeds, but their shared trait was that their heads didn't quite match the size of their bodies.

Wait, hadn't he seen a scene like this before? Back in the Nightmare Corridor, there was Sister Ox-Head who liked to pluck off heads.

Fortunately, to his relief, the crowd didn't make a sound. They merely wandered quietly up and down the different floors, looking remarkably leisurely.

"Indeed. Most of the people are here. Their hearts are neither strong enough nor calm enough. This place is the most suitable for them."

Casually acknowledging that the figures before them were also one of the forms the dead took, the old man didn't stop walking. He led Fu Qian further up, passing by the bizarre humanoid figures one by one.

...

Their hearts weren't strong enough, so they needed an indulgence?

Carefully avoiding brushing against any horns, Fu Qian found the old man's words deeply interesting.

Despite being the largest group they had seen so far, the old man's evaluation of them was clearly the lowest.

However, Fu Qian could still understand the underlying meaning.

It was obvious that this building, with its special symbolism, provided some kind of psychological support for the dead walking within it, allowing them to exist stably in this form.

As they passed by, he could clearly see that they weren't wearing fake ox masks. These were genuine constructs of flesh and blood, so much so that there wasn't even the sound of idle chatter.

"Is the person you're looking for in here?"

Amidst this bizarre scene, the two of them had already made their way up to the top floor. Leaning against the railing and gazing out, the old man hadn't forgotten their original reason for coming here.

"I don't see her. Though a few of them have red eyes, I'm absolutely certain those ones are male. Speaking of which, what's with the fire on their bodies?"

Fu Qian, naturally having already made his observations, gave his conclusion directly and casually threw out a curious question.

"Why don't you tell me? After all, it wasn't there before."

The old man turned to look at him. His tone remained as calm as ever, but his words were shocking.

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