Eldritch Horror Theatre

Many things had both pros and cons, but under the right circumstances, even a drawback could prove useful.

For instance, one of the symptoms of being influenced by the Crystal Tyrant was the recovery of a sliver of Transcendent Perception.

This wasn't a good thing. Fundamentally, it was the exact same phenomenon as the current distortion of his sense of self.

Yet, within this descent into corruption, he could briefly become a little sharper.

Of course, a slight boost in sharpness was nowhere near enough to see through His Excellency Rom's concealment techniques.

This was where his accumulated academic knowledge came into play.

Back on Ye Island, during his conversations with Nepheli, he had tried to deduce the mechanics behind this top-tier stealth technique.

He had even used the "Raven Feather" case for comparison and verification.

His final conclusion was that the core of the technique involved hiding within a specific individual's cognition.

Given that this was likely being executed by the very pioneer of the technique, Fu Qian had never underestimated how hard it would be to spot him.

However, his refusal to underestimate the difficulty didn't mean giving up. It meant looking for a way to detect him from the very beginning.

And he had indeed reaped a small reward: there had to be a host.

The reason this stealth technique was so astonishingly effective was that it functioned like an extra layer of encryption.

The host's very existence masked the parasite's presence, making the host an indispensable part of the equation.

Applying this to the current situation, Fu Qian had deduced early on that the seamless onset of the Etched Intellect was the result of a mutual convergence.

Both the Inverted Lake and Fu Qian himself—having willingly swallowed the Divine Flesh—served as its anchors.

Aside from them, the only somewhat independent entity left was A Fei.

This meant that even if an entity of His Excellency Rom's caliber could perfectly conceal himself within a vessel as weak as A Fei, his potential host options were limited to exactly three.

The rest, including the Crystal Tyrant, were theoretically derivatives of the Inverted Lake and lacked independence.

Putting himself in Rom's shoes, which one would he choose?

The most dangerous place was the safest? Hide directly within the cognition of the King of the Abandoned Prison, exploiting the host's lack of Transcendent Perception to hide in the darkness under the lamp?

It sounded brilliant in theory, but the risks were astronomically high.

Had the Tyrant truly lost all Transcendent Perception? Could his entire performance have been a trap, resulting in Rom throwing himself straight into the net?

Even if the loss of Transcendent Perception was genuine, might there be some method to temporarily restore it? If so, it would look even more like a setup.

Doing so meant surrendering the core advantage of the stealth technique. Knowing His Excellency Rom's style, the odds of him making that choice were microscopic.

What about A Fei?

Setting aside the hunter's unstable mental state, he was pitifully weak to begin with. Amidst the current massive upheaval, A Fei looked as though he could shatter into pieces at any moment.

With those two options eliminated, the only viable choice left was the "Fool."

It was also the most controllable option. If Rom could pull it off, he would perfectly exploit the home-field advantage and erect incredibly high defensive barriers.

Case in point: right now.

Fu Qian needed to recover his perception while simultaneously blurring his sense of self. Only by looking through the Crystal Tyrant's perspective could he catch the faintest glimpse of his target.

After all, as mentioned earlier, the Crystal Tyrant was fundamentally a derivative of the "Fool."

As a result, the side effect of blurring his own identity effectively granted him access to the Fool's perspective.

It proved that right up until the end, His Excellency Rom refused to take even the slightest risk, opting for the safest, most advantageous strategy.

But there was no need for regret, no room for second-guessing whether he should have chosen differently.

Because the moment this reckless transformation was completed, it didn't matter which vessel Rom had chosen.

If Fu Qian couldn't spot his target through the eyes of the Tyrant or the Fool, he would have simply executed A Fei.

Of course, that wasn't necessary anymore.

Just as Fu Qian had evaluated earlier, His Excellency Rom truly wasn't suited for direct combat.

The Tyrant completely ignored the Spikes that erupted like a stress response from the body. Smashing right through them, Fu Qian instantly tore horrific wounds into that bloated frame.

Roar—

Amidst that roar of endless resentment, Fu Qian delivered a rare Visceral Attack to serve as a lavish funeral.

...

I told you to embrace Overthinking.

There was no need for a second strike. His Excellency Rom's hastily repaired body instantly collapsed.

The Tyrant's full-force blow was further amplified by the power of His Excellency the Fool.

As a result, the resilient higher entity couldn't endure the single strike, plunging straight into unstoppable annihilation.

This included the little Roms, the tiny Roms, and the tiny Rom IIs fleeing in every direction above...

Fu Qian even paid special attention to A Fei, noticing the hunter's body faintly trembling in that moment, as though he had suffered a mild shock.

Not bad. That was very Rom.

Hiding everything inside A Fei might not have been a good choice, but leaving a tiny spark behind was obviously a smart move. He had so many descendants, after all.

Although he didn't witness it firsthand, Fu Qian was certain that the shockwave of the Visceral Attack had meted out the exact same fate to whichever little Rom or tiny Rom had been hiding inside A Fei's cognition.

All of His Excellency Rom's scheming had ultimately come to nothing.

To Fu Qian, however, this was a completely unsurprising outcome.

As he had mentioned before, no matter how advantageous the situation seemed, this was fundamentally just a ghost encounter.

His Excellency Rom's numerous arrangements appeared exquisite, but to a professional, his sole winning condition was actually incredibly fragile: his opponent wouldn't think of, or wouldn't dare to, equip the Crystal Tyrant Armor.

Unfortunately, to an academic pioneer and professional at pulling Deity aggro like Fu Qian, neither of those points presented much of an obstacle.

As long as he was prepared to pay the price.

In just a brief moment, Fu Qian felt the boundaries between himself and the encasing Crystal Tyrant Armor begin to blur, both physically and mentally.

But as he had established earlier, pros and cons often coexisted.

For example, aside from his Transcendent Perception growing increasingly acute, it seemed he had also triggered a loot drop effect—

Beneath the Visceral Attack, His Excellency Rom hadn't just failed to leave an intact corpse; his annihilation had even erupted with wondrous visual effects.

A significant portion of the numerous blood-red crystals Rom had used to repair himself hadn't shattered alongside him. Instead, they visibly scattered and rained down in every direction, looking exactly like a massive loot explosion.

The problem was that Fu Qian hadn't achieved godhood through the sword path. Wasn't this loot-dropping spectacle the exclusive patent of Classmate Liushuang and their lineage?

While such a sight was always pleasing, Fu Qian—who always insisted on logic—was much more curious about the underlying cause. Sure enough, there was another master at play.

His curiosity quickly intensified. As the falling blood-red crystals collided with the dense web of similarly colored crystalline marks, they seemed to trigger a critical fulcrum, causing the entire scene before his eyes to violently collapse.

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