Eldritch Horror Theatre

"In such a hurry to leave?"

The car's horsepower was decidedly average, and his heart was currently ill-equipped to handle much strain, so Fu Qian drove with considerable care. He crossed the checkpoint at a crawl.

But the unexpected always arrived uninvited. Just as the driver's seat crossed the checkpoint line, a voice suddenly rang out.

It certainly wasn't Su Gao, nor was it the staff member waving him through.

Its hoarse, grating tone was even worse than Rachel's earlier disguise.

But as the saying goes, one shouldn't judge by appearances. The tone and meaning of the words were actually quite friendly, like a host urging a traveler from afar to stay.

The problem was that the local scenery was mediocre, and as for culture, there wasn't so much as a bird in sight—

Fu Qian hit the brakes, catching a trace of sweet fragrance drifting into his nose.

This was no ordinary olfactory experience. It carried faint echoes of his first direct encounter with the Witch.

Spoiled hormones, festering torsos, pustules on snow-white skin... With a single shallow breath, his neural synapses seemed to turn soft and feeble.

And he didn't want them to have power. The urge to drown himself in the intoxication grew rapidly.

All in all, it was a highly effective invitation to stay.

As for that enthusiastic local—Fu Qian looked up and spotted a hunched humanoid figure.

It was definitely a stranger. Although its facial features were relatively distinct, it was hard to even tell whether it was male or female.

For one thing, it looked genuinely androgynous. For another, its body was poking out of a pit.

Aside from two arms propped against the edge to keep itself from sinking and drowning, it revealed only a tiny portion of its upper torso.

In fact, it was a puddle of water.

Paired with the cloying sweetness and sweltering heat of the surroundings, it gave the dizzying illusion of someone soaking in a hot spring.

That wasn't the most important part. Fu Qian was absolutely certain that this spot was exactly where the guard booth used to be.

Now, not only had the staff member been swapped out, but absolutely everything had changed beyond recognition.

...

Just as he'd expected. This wasn't an ordinary checkpoint crossing.

He had anticipated some changes to the scenery, but for it to happen so swiftly was still rather startling.

Fu Qian didn't rush to answer the invitation. For the moment, he simply scrutinized his surroundings.

It wasn't just the checkpoint that had changed beyond recognition; even the road he had taken to get here had completely shifted in appearance.

The dilapidated look of years of disrepair was entirely gone, replaced by a landscape overflowing with biopunk flair.

Rather than a vast swath of eerie architecture, it looked more like a coral reef gleaming in bizarre colors.

Its foundation was a lustrous white, and the sections further up seemed eager to fully express genetic diversity, overlapping to form a psychedelic, colorful tree.

But that was only an initial impression. Looking closer, he could see that the structures were excessively smooth and lustrous; their texture was likely nowhere near as hard as coral.

Even their physical structure was an illusion; they looked more like overlapping layers of membranous tissue.

Wait a minute. He really had seen this kind of structure before.

Fu Qian suddenly recalled his academic exchange with Professor Yi'an, the rising star of the Linghui Courtyard, and even his final Demigod Form.

Was it really Excellency Stomach?

He had always said the Warehouse was petty. Jumping around all the time would inevitably bring punishment.

...

So what was this place? Excellency Stomach's Divine Domain?

An overwhelming sense of déjà vu from certain sights made Fu Qian quickly realize his previous guesses were probably correct.

The mention of the "Sanctuary" was no coincidence. The Warehouse's current mission was very likely targeting Excellency Stomach.

And he had to admit, the scene before him possessed a rather strong personal style.

Not only had all the structures in sight transformed into a configuration resembling the Tree of Ecstasy, but the road beneath his wheels was no exception.

Its overall color was a bit duller, but a closer look revealed that the surface supporting his tires was no longer the hard, heavily pulverized pavement from before. It was likewise formed by overlapping layers of membranes.

And these membranes were exactly as supple as one would expect. The car, which wasn't particularly heavy, pressed a visible curve right into them.

He could even see slightly murky mucus oozing from the gaps in the webbing.

He could sense its warmth without needing to touch it. That bizarre, sweet scent was radiating from within it as well.

So was this place still the sea of mind?

For a moment, Fu Qian recalled his earlier speculation.

Considering the type of power Excellency Stomach wielded, it wouldn't be too strange if He—or His Divine Domain—had some connection to the sea of mind.

But if this liquid was the seawater, wasn't this sea of mind a bit too heavily polluted?

Amidst his reflections, Fu Qian glanced again in his original direction of travel—the area theoretically past the checkpoint.

The aesthetic was somewhat similar, but the overall atmosphere seemed much cleaner, as if the pollution was gradually fading.

So if he kept driving, he could leave safely?

Which was exactly the goal Su Gao and the others hoped to achieve on this trip?

If that was the case, shouldn't his own destination—the Sanctuary—still be located where the Dark Sanctuary was?

He had to admit, the view in that direction was truly awful.

If Su Gao had really followed him here, she probably would have felt the urge to stop him from descending into depravity.

Very naturally arriving at a conclusion, Fu Qian rested his gaze on the figure who had urged him to stay, and shifted the car into reverse.

What a pity that there was no one left to keep him in check. This professor was determined to descend into depravity.

...

As it turned out, until he had completely backed up, the person soaking in the hot spring didn't speak another word.

Its earlier passionate entreaty seemed to be nothing more than commercial courtesy.

Fortunately, Fu Qian never minded such details anyway. Professional ethics were still ethics, after all.

"Then I'll look around a bit more. Is the Sanctuary in that direction?"

While the other party remained silent, he not only expressed his acceptance of its advice but even met its gaze and asked a question in return, pointing toward the Dark Sanctuary.

"The Sanctuary... it's best you don't go there."

This time, the other party actually replied, though its words were somewhat unexpected.

Just a moment ago it had told him not to be in a rush to leave, and now it was advising him against going deeper?

Faced with this technique of left and right fighting each other, any traveler would inevitably be confused.

Yet its tone was genuinely serious, as if guiding a lost lamb.

"So that really is the Sanctuary."

Since Fu Qian was always in the habit of looking on the bright side, he still managed to extract an optimistic takeaway from the answer.

"...Turn back."

Seeing that the car was already in motion and that the driver was completely ignoring its advice, the bather seemed to have exhausted its limited dialogue template, leaving only a dry warning.

What a pity. Both depravity and pleasure were so incredibly wonderful; how could those intoxicated by them be easily dissuaded?

In the blink of an eye, Fu Qian had already turned the car around, heading straight into the intensifying sweltering heat.

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