Eldritch Horror Theatre

The momentum of offense and defense had changed.

This was why one should either show mercy when gaining the upper hand, or wipe the enemy out completely.

After Sword Saint Ah Fei pulled back, the two of them did not immediately resume fighting.

However, the dynamic of their distant standoff had completely flipped from before.

The most obvious change was that Toolman A Fei had reverted from a Shadow, while his opponent had returned to his original form.

Of course, for Fu Qian at this moment, this change no longer hindered his ability to observe both sides simultaneously.

After all, just as the Lord of Intellect had warned, his own condition was also going from bad to worse; his Transcendent Perception was triggering with increasing frequency.

Right now, compared to his largely unchanged opponent, Toolman A Fei's appearance was undeniably striking.

The severed limbs and broken stumps were still there, yet he no longer bore the slightest resemblance to a defeated dog. Instead, his presence was piercingly sharp.

At the same time, the stance of his mutilated body exuded a strange sort of elegance.

The severed arm he had raised earlier to block the attack had still not been lowered.

This made it all the easier to notice the weapon materializing in the empty air above it.

It was very long, yet incredibly plain. From hilt to tip, there was not a single ornament to be seen. It looked remarkably similar to the one he had picked up from the ground at the very beginning—so crude it could barely be called a sword.

Moreover, it did not even have a physical form; it looked like an ethereal projection.

And yet, this very weapon radiated a murderous intent far more exaggerated than the Greatsword from before.

Whether it was sheer weight or a cutting Blade, everything seemed laughable before it.

Could this be the supreme realm of having no sword in hand, but a sword in the heart?

Looking back on the successive upgrades of Brother A Fei's weapons along the way, Fu Qian sighed in admiration.

Of course, the most important aspect was this plain and natural feeling, which actually brought a certain old acquaintance to mind.

The Mycelium Sword Saint of the Academy.

Although Toolman A Fei still looked utterly pathetic and did not wear that distinctive face, much like the weapon currently in his hand, he exuded an advanced sense of having captured the essence while discarding the form.

In contrast, his "face-hugging" opponent suddenly seemed somewhat clumsy.

It truly lived up to the name of Sword Dao Tier 2. However, this change also seemed to foreshadow a certain transformation—

More of a sword saint than Sword Saint Ah Fei himself. After fighting his way through, had his toolman finally abandoned his ego completely and merged with the sword path?

"Like why he didn't upgrade along with him."

Theoretically, he had achieved his ultimate cultivation. Although Fu Qian did not exactly appreciate it, he pointed a finger at Sword Saint Ah Fei as he spoke to the Lord of Intellect with a sigh.

"...Why?"

Although the latter did not have anything resembling a facial expression, Fu Qian could still tell it was not very happy. Acknowledging that Toolman A Fei had indeed upgraded, it shot back a question.

"Because his opponent is absolutely correct right now. If you want to create something even more correct, it's going to take some effort."

Fu Qian did not mind at all and answered earnestly.

Based on his earlier guesses about the mechanism of error correction, the Tier 2 A Fei—having completely erased his sense of self—was undoubtedly the purest form achievable in this position.

So unless the sword path was outright rejected, there shouldn't be any room left for error correction.

And Fu Qian believed that for the Lord of Intellect, such a profound level of denial would at the very least require a considerable amount of extra effort.

"So what? It is the same as I said before—will this change your final outcome? Or do you still not believe that I am immortal?"

It seemed his answer was spot on, forcing the Lord of Intellect to fire off three rapid-fire questions.

"That word is bad luck. Don't throw it around so casually."

Hearing the word "immortal," the far more experienced Professor Fu hurriedly offered a well-intentioned reminder.

After all, he remembered clearly that in the past, everyone who had claimed as much ended up dying in increasingly gruesome ways.

Heh...

In that moment, the Lord of Intellect merely let out a string of laughter, not a single ripple appearing on the folds of its massive brain.

Sshk—

Too bad. No matter how big the brain was, the world didn't revolve around a single person's will. Aside from a commendable sense of optimism, this response didn't change what happened next in the slightest.

Along with a distinct noise, Tier 2 A Fei had already appeared in another position. His posture had also changed—the raised sword was finally lowered.

But a much greater change occurred behind him.

A certain invisible Shadow wielding a Greatsword, halfway through an evasive maneuver, suddenly stopped responding altogether.

Crack!

In the very next second, it even lost its outline.

Fu Qian heard an unusually crisp sound as the humanoid figure shattered explosively, no longer formless.

Without needing Transcendent Perception, he could directly see the broken shards—crystals?

Not a single drop of blood could be seen on the materialized wreckage. Instead, it had shattered into a glittering expanse.

...

It really was crystal.

Fu Qian didn't even need to get close to confirm it; this was precisely what he had been looking forward to on this trip.

The crystal curse or blessing, suspected to be the direct cause of the Academy Exploration Team's total annihilation, had actually only appeared in a scene like this after they advanced all the way to Depth 3.

Indeed, do good deeds and ask not of the future—but why did this future even exist?

Knowing not only that it is so but why it is so—Fu Qian was equally interested in the cause of this windfall.

What a pity. On one hand, the person involved had absolutely no interest in explaining.

After shattering the soul with a single strike, Tier 2 A Fei didn't even turn around, remaining firmly in place as he posed.

"How is this possible..."

On the other hand, it seemed this had even entered the Lord of Intellect's blind spot. Faced with the ground full of Residue, it was equally incapable of comprehending it.

"I think there might be multiple reasons. For instance, first and foremost, it has to do with the sword path."

Fortunately, with an academic leader used to stormy seas acting as a Sea-Calming Divine Needle, Fu Qian nodded slightly and offered a relevant guess.

"Based on my experience dealing with them, the authority corresponding to this Divine Path carries an incredibly heavy murderous intent, seemingly capable of directly destroying a Transcendent form."

This wasn't nonsense, but rather based on his battle with the Mycelium Sword Saint back at the Academy.

After taking a strike back then, he had summarized the feeling: the architecture corresponding to his Transcendent form felt as though it was being forcibly demolished.

If it had been someone of a lower Rank, they might have been instantly cleaved into a pile of Transcendent materials—just like this.

Looking at the glittering ground, it even felt a bit like the Blood of Thorns he was tasked to find the first time he went to Shangjing.

No matter where you put them, they would be treated as heavenly treasures, right?

"But this single explanation isn't enough. There's still an important question to answer: why does it all break down into this one type of material? Isn't the variety a bit too limited?"

Connecting this to his numerous observations over the past few days, Fu Qian wasn't satisfied with a simple explanation and continued to probe deeper.

"How is it possible—"

Unfortunately, the Lord of Intellect had been reduced to a broken record, letting out an even more agonizing shriek in that moment.

Following the sound, he saw that the massive neural hub was actually starting to glitter as well.

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