Eldritch Horror Theatre

This was why one needed to engage in Overthinking.

In Fu Qian's view, the true greatness of thought lay in how effortlessly it could connect disparate elements.

Given enough time, it wouldn't even be hard to make a man admit he was the culprit behind the Big Bang.

The scene before him was a vivid example. In the blink of an eye, the grace of His Excellency the Fool seemed to spread everywhere.

In fact, once those connections were made, the feeling of crossing a point of no return quickly set in—

Su Gao's path in the Transcendent Tier originated from the White Porcelain Doll separated from her body.

Fu Qian even remembered the name she had given the doll: Lady Madeleine.

The latter possessed the "perfect" attribute officially designated by the Warehouse, making it the suspected ideal vessel for various higher powers.

Because of that detail, he had even compared it to his Blank-Slate Demigod state back then.

Due to his handling of the situation, Su Gao ultimately drank the sap of the Fool Tree. This was equivalent to using her "self" to shatter the doll's perfection. Only after the two merged as one did the Warehouse judge the mission complete.

Theoretically, under those circumstances, she shouldn't have been at much risk of becoming a vessel for a higher entity.

Yet during a certain field operation, a forbidden zone universally recognized as low-risk suddenly became hyperactive, forcing her to subject her own mind to death by a thousand cuts right on the spot.

Combining that with the sight of the lake water inverting at the time... had that really not been just a stroke of ordinary bad luck?

He wondered what the Night Watchers made of all this.

It was truly hard to believe they knew absolutely nothing about His Excellency the Fool.

Silently charting out Su Gao's career path, Fu Qian fell into deep thought.

In fact, if he remembered correctly, White Porcelain had seemingly shattered again not too long ago...

The image of that body with its eyes tightly shut, marred by fractures everywhere, naturally surfaced in his mind.

During their joint journey back a thousand years ago, Su Gao had been on the verge of collapse under an immense distorting force. She had only recovered by hacking at the Tyrant to siphon back vitality.

Even so, the cracks on her body had never healed. Instead, they formed a unique, harmonious order, simultaneously giving off an increasingly pure aura.

As the person involved, Su Gao had described that state as feeling better than before, leading him to suspect that she might have completed the Tier 2 ritual ahead of time.

If that was truly the case, then White Porcelain and crystallization, broken yet orderly... it felt as though, along with her rising Rank, the similarities to the Inverted Lake before him were only increasing.

And if these deductions were true, Su Gao's significance to this world could hardly be encompassed by the mere title of High-Tier Transcendent.

Proving this point didn't seem too difficult either; finding an opportunity to gauge the Night Watchers' stance would likely yield significant gains.

He even had a ready-made invitation on hand—the Hongmen banquet proposed by Excellency Stoss just before his departure.

"In truth, we have no reason to fight."

Right on cue, just as his thoughts drifted to the Hongmen banquet, the voice of Excellency Rom rang out once more, stressing that when walking the jianghu, harmony was to be prized above all.

...

Very reasonable.

There was a saying that a friendship forged through conflict meant there was no chance to make acquaintances without trading blows first.

And if one accidentally beat the other to death? Then there was no need to get acquainted at all.

Considering the current situation, after stabbing each other for so long—with Fu Qian doing most of the stabbing early on, and Excellency Rom's recent counterattack failing completely—it seemed they were indeed due to progress to the stage of laughing away old grudges.

Not minding that Rom had only pondered for a moment before rushing to express his feelings, Fu Qian looked over with empathetic understanding. He stayed silent, allowing the other party to continue the performance.

If nothing else, Excellency Rom's delivery was as smooth as if he had memorized a script in advance, without any halting pauses to waste time. His attitude was spot on.

"I can no longer pose any threat. The fact that the power behind you is no longer targeting me is proof of that...

"Even if you make a move, it will be hard for you to threaten me much. This is nothing more than a projection of a fallacy..."

As expected, he didn't disappoint; the ensuing words continued to hold substance.

Far from blindly showing weakness, Rom laid out their current situation clearly, explicitly stating that he wasn't here in his true body either.

"Especially the true curse within this place; I am already utterly unable to break free from it."

...

Oh?

For an ancient god in such terrible shape, Excellency Rom actually sounded somewhat optimistic.

The last sentence was a bit cryptic, but Fu Qian could still attempt to decipher it.

"The true curse"—did he mean the crystallization? That was easy enough to guess.

Just as he had suspected earlier, even though Excellency Rom ultimately used this power to mend himself, his impression of it remained overwhelmingly negative.

Combining this with his previous words, the overarching point he was trying to convey was quite simple—

I can't beat you, but this is only a projection, so you can't truly kill me either.

Even if we fight to the bitter end, it will just result in both of us being driven out and this fallacy vanishing. It holds little meaning for reality.

Besides, there's no need for you to kill me anymore. Because as for the negative effects within this fallacy that can actually be brought back to reality, I am already deeply poisoned by them...

He had to admit, the argument was sound and well-reasoned.

Not only could he not be killed, but trying to kill him might even backfire and stain the attacker. Rom was practically putting himself in Fu Qian's shoes and considering the matter with the utmost care.

Fu Qian gave a faint nod.

As for why he described Excellency Rom as "optimistic" because of this?

It was actually quite simple. The impression the entity gave was that he leaned toward the belief that the scene before them was not the apocalypse.

The Transcendent Terminus—that storm which seemingly represented the concept—was obviously very easy to associate with the "end of the world."

And lately, the question of whether the apocalypse had already occurred, leaving everything before their eyes as nothing more than a false afterglow, had become increasingly impossible to avoid.

Even just recently, Nepheli, the former Dean of the beneficent curse, had burned herself out at the Lighthouse of Moore just to confirm the answer to this question.

And it was obvious that she leaned toward the judgment that this apocalyptic afterglow was real.

Imagine if Nepheli saw the scene before them—what would be her impression of the "crystallization" spreading everywhere?

Honestly, in Fu Qian's view, she wouldn't necessarily see it as a pure curse like Excellency Rom did.

It was exactly because of this contrasting attitude that this bizarrely shaped, transcendent Ancient Higher Being displayed a sense of optimism toward life far greater than that of ordinary people.

One could only say it created a rather bizarre sense of contrast.

"So why is the crystallization a curse?"

Although he had instantly deciphered the meaning, Fu Qian didn't forget to confirm it, asking a question packed with significance.

"If you are worried that my presence will make it harder for you to break free from this fallacy, that isn't a problem either...

"I just need a little time, and I will have a way to lower my external Rank, making me insufficient to leave a mark here, which will result in my expulsion. Amidst that turbulence, it will be much easier for you to escape as well."

Unfortunately, Excellency Rom had absolutely no intention of answering. Completely immersed in his own self-expression, he merely continued to offer new reasons for peace.

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