Eldritch Horror Theatre

Inverted Lake, Etched Intellect, Depth 3.

A Fei carried his blade in hand, stepping over the gray Feathers scattered on the ground.

He moved slowly. Fortunately, the Feathers remained perfectly still; not a single one brushed against him.

It wasn't a deliberate attempt at drama, but Fu Qian had to admit the scene looked straight out of a martial arts epic.

Even if they were actually deep underwater, with only a bean-sized flicker of light illuminating the gloom.

Discovering his logistical support was this good—that a walking armory was following right behind him—had clearly given the hunter, A Fei, a bit of a shock.

Once that initial shock faded, however, his overly straightforward mindset brought him a genuine sense of security, allowing him to stride forward with firm resolve.

Fu Qian simply followed behind him, unhurried and relaxed.

This was already his third bout of Etched Intellect here. The location was undeniably growing more familiar, though not necessarily any clearer.

Although Fu Qian didn't think there were clear levels of severity between bouts of Etched Intellect, it truly felt like he was sinking deeper into a dream.

So, why had things developed this way?

First, the Inverted Lake was undoubtedly the core.

Etched Intellect had never triggered this frequently in a single location, let alone transitioned so seamlessly from one bout to the next.

Second, no matter how he looked at it, his own presence as the trigger couldn't be ignored.

Whether its effects were positive or negative, Etched Intellect was theoretically his own ability.

He had gained it by using Insight on flesh corrupted by this place.

In short, it was a mutual attraction.

The Place of Chaos combined with his Sin-Seeking Body to forge this unending fallacy.

It had even dragged in other higher entities drawn by curiosity, entangling them in endless, varied manifestations.

So why was this the Place of Chaos?

No matter how he looked at it, the situation wasn't exactly optimistic, but at that moment, Fu Qian only cared about this ultimate question.

...

Theories about the Academy's exploration accident from years past had actually started to take shape.

A much older institution, the Stargazer Academy, had moved an observation point into the Ash Sea's Inverted Lake to study the origin and end of the world.

However, due to some accident, they ultimately met their demise there.

By chance, the Academy had found related clues and organized a powerful expedition team.

Little did they know, their operation had been shrouded in Shadow from the start. The ancient powerhouse Blazing Rainbow, for example, had played a special role in it.

The team was nearly wiped out, and the Inverted Lake vanished once again.

A seamless yet tragic chain of events. But what was the cause of it all?

The location of the crash site was forbidden knowledge. Not only had he lost a massive amount of SAN Value there, but he had also witnessed the price the Stargazers paid for forcibly approaching it.

But was it truly the origin of the world, or the end of the Transcendent Tier?

Or was it both?

The strangest thing about the Stargazers was that whenever they spoke of calculating the answer, they never clearly distinguished between the two.

Both the beginning and the answer?

That was a bit too abstract, though there was currently no way to rule out the possibility.

Furthermore, even if he set that question aside for now, what was the connection between the crash site and the Inverted Lake?

The latter was suspected to be linked to the Divine Path Su Gao had taken, which meant it almost certainly involved a higher entity. Was it caused by Their fall? Or was it some failsafe left behind for Their return?

He couldn't forget that during his previous exploration, he had discovered numerous large-scale Miracles within the Ash Sea. They appeared to originate from different higher entities, making the place truly resemble the traces left behind after the fall of the gods.

And what was the relationship between those gods and the entity of the Inverted Lake?

There was simply too much missing information. The myriad of clues were too tangled to form a clear picture. Fortunately, he could grasp onto one point right now: that entity was highly likely not the Sun, nor was it Blazing Rainbow, nor the Chief Judge.

In other words, They had not yet made an appearance.

But in the current, more chaotic situation, the chances of finding Them seemed a bit higher.

Also, he couldn't forget there was one more thing that hadn't appeared yet—the crystal.

That crystal was likely the root cause behind the annihilation of the Academy's team, yet there was still no trace of it...

While he silently pondered, the tentacles around his Prosthetic Eye rapidly extended into a small hand, lifting the eye straight out of his socket and waving it in front of his face a few times.

Unfortunately, it didn't trigger any special reaction.

Fu Qian suspected that even if he threw the eye away, everything around him would likely remain unchanged.

Because, as established earlier, he was fundamentally the core of the Etched Intellect. The item merely acted as a catalyst.

"Going outside?"

Just as Fu Qian was performing this rather gruesome maneuver, A Fei stopped walking up ahead and turned back to ask.

Moving deceivingly fast, the two of them had already retraced their steps, arriving back at the hall behind the door.

A Fei seemed to want to confirm whether their next focus would be inside the building or out by the lake.

"No need. There is still plenty for you to clear out inside."

Fu Qian shook his head decisively, not even bothering to retract his Prosthetic Eye.

...

The sight was certainly shocking, but having already witnessed the walking armory, A Fei managed to stomach it.

Without a word or a moment of hesitation, the next second, he truly followed the instructions and continued forward.

Fu Qian continued to follow.

He certainly wasn't doing this out of boredom. Going through the trouble to cultivate this talent naturally had a purpose.

As he had organized in his thoughts earlier, the current top priority was to try and find the crystal and the possible master of the Inverted Lake.

But as for how to actually find them, given the severe lack of intelligence, he didn't seem to have many ideas—key word being seem.

A true professional knew how to seize things in the midst of chaos, rather than merely outputting a plan based on inputted intelligence. Any machine could do that.

He had already tried role-playing and applying violent pressure during the previous two attempts.

They had yielded some results, but overall, it had been like opening blind boxes—taking whatever happened to come out.

Thus, Fu Qian figured he could improve upon that foundation—by having a Proxy role-play and apply violent pressure instead.

...

That's right, they were still going to knock on doors and kill people.

Cooking up complicated schemes when clearly lacking intelligence was just trying to be too clever for one's own good.

The ensuing plan was actually quite simple: continue sweeping through the area, but have the appearance of an evil god.

Corrupting and tainting, using other individuals to execute his will.

For instance, aside from some verbal brainwashing, when he had brushed his hand against A Fei's blade earlier, he had casually attached a Calamity Blessing to it, urging the man to pass the blessing on to others.

At first glance, it seemed superfluous. How was it any different from doing the killing himself?

It was entirely different. Believers were both the hardest-hit areas and the buffer zones in the power struggles between evil gods.

If a massive King of the Abandoned Prison simply crushed everything in his path, it would be difficult for the opponent to make a move. A significantly weaker enforcer of his will, however, might just gather more karmic sins along the way.

A seemingly insignificant tweak might just prove to be the key to success.

As for the specific route?

"This way."

Fu Qian recalled the locations they had previously visited, compared them against the sections that were still relatively intact, and gestured toward a flight of stairs leading up.

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