Eldritch Horror Theatre

Excellency Sorndil did not show himself even after the three Greed Worms disappeared into the distance. Night had fallen over Moore, leaving it peaceful and quiet.

From Fu Qian's perspective, given the explosive nature of their conversation—and the fact that he hadn't deliberately tried to flush out any eavesdroppers—that Siren demigod definitely wouldn't have slipped away early.

Ultimately, faced with what had been a shocking mess, Sorndil did exactly as the Greed Worms had done: he accepted the enlightenment from the Rebirth Club and roughly figured out the situation.

After some consideration, he decided to prioritize the big picture and refrain from picking a fight with this mysterious organization for now, avoiding any unnecessary complications.

This was not because he was a pacifist or known for having a broad tolerance, but mainly because the situation did not look completely unsalvageable just yet. There was still hope.

Going by the recent conversation, the casual pointers from the Rebirth Club's ambiguously aligned representative had unexpectedly neutralized many of his threats.

Take Anjing's sabotage plan, for example.

With the three kaishakunin gone, those designated sacrifices remained completely ignorant of their own perilous situation. As long as they were immediately apprehended and restrained, that threat would be entirely neutralized.

Furthermore, the mysterious demigod they had previously confronted in the Realm of the Dead actually belonged to the Rebirth Club, suddenly making his behavior make sense.

Theoretically, from Sorndil's perspective, he did not even need to figure out the Rebirth Club's true objective for this trip. He only needed to patiently wait for the next storm, at which point things would be far more peaceful.

Of course, his best move right now would be to keep an eye on this mysterious demigod in the room—

Click!

Fu Qian did not linger. The next moment, he opened the door and left, heading straight for the pier.

So, what effect would a room full of dead people really have?

Fu Qian was naturally preparing to enter the sea again. As for whether Sorndil was watching him leave, how much inner turmoil he was experiencing, or what conclusions he might ultimately draw, Fu Qian could not care less.

Taking a deliberate detour here before leaving was primarily to harvest a bit of reputation for the Rebirth Club.

Now that his goal had been achieved, there was no reason to waste any more time.

Naturally, on his way to the pier, Fu Qian did not mind taking a moment to mull over a minor detail from his earlier conversation with Laurie and the others, analyzing the ongoing gamble between Anjing and Siren.

He was fairly certain that the group in the office was there to sabotage Sorndil's advancement.

But how exactly would they sabotage it? By dying here.

——

What impact would dying here have? The Wise Dead——the balance of life and death.

His previous experiences in the Realm of the Dead had already taught him quite a bit about this. The core principle was simple: whenever the storm raged, every intelligent being cast a reflection within it, thereby establishing an index for the balance of life and death.

If the balance remained unbroken, everything would return to normal once the storm passed; at most, they might subconsciously gain some spiritual enlightenment.

If the balance was broken, they would either be trapped in the Realm of the Dead, just like Serana.

Or they would completely step onto the Road of No Return, officially becoming one of the "dead."

But what if someone in Moore died outright during the storm?

No matter how you looked at it, wouldn't that thoroughly shatter the balance of life and death?

This side would lose a room full of living people, while the other side would gain a bunch of lucid dead.

Under those circumstances, wouldn't the existential state of the miraculous creature experience some slight turbulence, perhaps causing the storm to end early?

Yes, as far as Fu Qian could see, this was the greatest significance those people's deaths could bring.

Logically speaking, given Moore's total population, there would naturally be several deaths every day. It shouldn't be anything unusual.

But firstly, these deaths had to occur precisely during the storm, and secondly, these were a group of transcendents. The resulting imbalance would likely be far greater, so it wasn't contradictory.

Taking this premise into account, the strange maneuvers from both Siren and Anjing suddenly made perfect sense—Sorndil wanted to take a risk in order to advance, and he had convinced his organization to support him.

They clearly possessed some understanding of the Wise Dead's nature, which was why their first move had been to evacuate all their own personnel, leaving behind only the crew on the ship.

Otherwise, if Anjing wanted to cause trouble, all they had to do was launch an attack against Siren's grassroots personnel.

But even with such preparations in place, their opponents clearly also possessed some understanding of the Wise Dead's nature and quickly devised a countermeasure: if we can't kill your people, we'll kill our own.

Thus, Moore suddenly gained an Escort Agency Office, as well as a group of mercenaries ready to strike at any moment.

He had to admit, this back-and-forth genuinely felt like vicious hand-to-hand combat.

As for why they would outsource such a critical operation to external contractors?

It was indeed a slightly illogical aspect. Logically speaking, even within the same organization, arranging for the killers and the victims not to know each other would not be too difficult to pull off.

But when combined with another question, it actually wasn't hard to guess the answer: why did Sorndil insist on——

Seeking such a thrill at a time like this?

He had already established that it was highly likely the Wise Dead only became more active after Sorndil began his operation, so that reason did not hold up.

So, compared to normal, was there anything else special about this point in time?

Of course there was. The conflict between Siren and Anjing was currently in full swing, and the Night Watchers were undoubtedly well aware of it.

As everyone knew, the Night Watchers did not care if a bunch of transcendents slaughtered each other, but involving ordinary people was a strict taboo.

Was it possible that forcefully interrupting the storm by shattering the balance of life and death would trigger side effects that harmed ordinary people?

Considering the tight correspondence between the two Moores, this should not be considered a baseless guess.

During normal times, they might have gotten away with it. But during such a tense period, if anything went wrong, not only would Siren be in trouble, but Anjing, as their enemy, would definitely be suspected and unable to escape involvement.

In other words, Excellency Sorndil was truly taking a desperate gamble this time, turning a disadvantage into an advantage, and using the tense situation to openly provoke Anjing.

By attempting to advance right in front of their faces, he was betting that, compared to usual, Anjing would be even more afraid to cause trouble, because it would be even harder to clear their name.

And if a disaster really did happen, Siren's hidden motives might not stay buried, but Anjing would undoubtedly bear the primary responsibility.

In this Autumn of Many Troubles, if they were targeted by the Night Watchers on top of everything else, they might very well collapse entirely.

It was risky, but it was a remarkably ruthless calculation.

Siren's upper echelons had likely taken this into account as well. Coupled with the chance for driving a tiger to devour a wolf, they would not lose no matter how things developed, which was why they were willing to waste resources doing this right now.

Unfortunately, without Emperor Yasui's restraint, the Anjing Group's radicalness was a notch higher than expected, and they had actually struck ruthlessly to sabotage him.

However, by using their own people to die and hiring external assassins, they had set up a small safety belt, allowing for a slight buffer if something really went wrong and they were investigated.

Of course, it seemed nothing would go wrong now, and Excellency Sorndil could continue with his grand scheme——

A moment later, standing on a passenger liner that was finally departing the port, Fu Qian and a figure in the darkness of the pier gazed at each other from afar.

Though in his estimation, Sorndil did not have much of a chance left.

Excellency Nepheli's lingering embers were already fading, and the Wise Dead were finally settling down.

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