Eldritch Horror Theatre

There was even a fated duel to watch? Coming back this time was definitely worth the price of admission.

They truly lived up to their reputation as the Twin Prides of Shangjing. Before they even grasped the situation, they were already clashing head-on.

"You don't even know this?"

Marveling at the spectacle, Fu Qian decided he couldn't miss out on the fun. He immediately chimed in to give Taylor a grand introduction.

"A genius of Shangjing, a rising star of Gulade, and a member of the pureblood Blood Clan."

His tone was crisp and perfectly serious, devoid of any teasing. If Chief Yuan had heard it, he would probably wonder if Fu Qian had suddenly decided to act like a decent human being.

As for why he chose to introduce South Taylor when bringing up Northern Jiang En first would have made more logical sense?

It was simple. While he might have had some ties with Brother Jiang En, Taylor Gulade was an important commercial partner—a crucial ally who had provided immense support when Fu Qian was just starting his business.

While this seat might not be a man of many words on a normal day, showing a little blatant favoritism at a crucial moment was perfectly fine.

Unfortunately, people were always sensitive to fairness. Almost as soon as Fu Qian finished speaking, Jiang En sneered, not even bothering to wonder how Fu Qian knew them.

That undisguised disdain instantly shattered the aloof, non-competitive persona he usually maintained.

"Heh, pureblood Blood Clan..."

Before Taylor could react, Jiang En aggressively zeroed in on the next point, directly targeting the very label South Taylor simultaneously took pride in and found deeply humiliating.

"Jiang En... it really is you."

This was a highly lethal strike. Without needing any name announced, Taylor instantly recognized his sworn rival.

"I knew it!"

Taylor's rich imagination was fully on display. Before Jiang En could even respond, Taylor seemed to have connected the dots and unearthed the buried truth all on his own.

...

It was great to be young. It looked like all Fu Qian had to do was sit back and enjoy the show.

Sitting upon the Ruined Throne, Fu Qian had always known the importance of giving the youth a chance to shine.

And it seemed Brother Taylor didn't disappoint. He immediately deepened the conversation, shifting their exchange from simple mutual attacks to mutual slander.

"Why can't it be me? Do you think I have no right to judge you?"

His reaction was just a bit sluggish in his "sleepwalking" state; Jiang En's train of thought hadn't quite caught up yet.

"How could I... even if you don't, the thing behind you does."

Taylor, however, was fully in the zone. Even though he didn't have eyes, he still turned his head and "looked" toward Jiang En as he spoke.

"The thing behind me? What thing is behind me?"

Sometimes, catching the ball was more important than the pitch. Such a vague accusation actually startled Jiang En, to the point that a faint hint of guilt slipped into his voice.

"Still won't admit it? Quite the acting skills."

Taylor's momentum continued to rise.

"Just like how you acted as if you were seeing that Emblem for the first time."

...

Just as expected. The power of a wildly overactive imagination was formidable.

It was no wonder people loved watching matches in The Octagon. This one-on-one brawl might lack the rich, chaotic elements of the Blood Wedding, but it delivered a deeply satisfying, tit-for-tat thrill all its own.

Fu Qian could generally guess what Taylor meant by his "it really is you."

"Seeing that Emblem for the first time" undoubtedly referred to the Emblem of the King of the Abandoned Prison.

As for when this was said? He just so happened to know that too, considering he had single-handedly orchestrated the entire event.

While trapped in the Nightmare Corridor, he had asked Brother Taylor to probe Jiang En. Through Jiang En, he then broadcasted the Emblem and the honorific name of the King of the Abandoned Prison to all the Greed Worms.

The motivation he had provided Taylor was, naturally, the truth behind the corpse-looting incident.

Using the information gathered from his dream, Taylor had deduced that the mastermind behind the corpse-looting was connected to Jiang En, which prompted him to conduct that test.

Meanwhile, he had assigned a task to Eldest Miss Wen: to use her emotional manipulation abilities to goad Jiang En into desperate denial, right up until the Emblem was flashed before the Greed Worms' eyes.

This perfectly aligned with Taylor's recent description.

Although the subsequent fallout of that event had temporarily cleared Jiang En of suspicion in the eyes of Taylor and the Gulade Family, that was the charm of having a sworn rival—whenever something major happened, they were the first person to come to mind.

After enduring a string of recent defeats, Taylor's self-confidence had taken a massive hit. Running into Jiang En here had clearly reignited his previous suspicions.

Specifically, the suspicion that Jiang En had been connected to Dayun Mingwang—and by extension, the King of the Abandoned Prison—all along.

As to why?

It was simple. Jiang En had ended up in this place because he had tentatively invoked the King of the Abandoned Prison due to the curse on his body. So, how had Taylor arrived here?

Fu Qian had already raised this question, and after some observation, the answer wasn't hard to guess.

Given his tense state and his thirst for the truth, it was obvious that the immense pressure had put Taylor in an exceptionally foul mood.

Although he had been strictly ordered not to sleep, indulging a rebellious streak—muttering the name of the King of the Abandoned Prison to subconsciously test his luck—was exactly the sort of thing this kid would do.

Driven by that initial impulse, his consciousness had genuinely stumbled across his sworn rival inside. How could he not instantly connect the dots and conclude that this bastard had fooled him all along?

The logic wasn't exactly bulletproof, but since they were in a dream state, raw emotion clearly took precedence.

...

"What Emblem? That was the first time I'd ever seen it."

His sworn rival had clearly grasped Taylor's accusation as well.

This was evident in the fact that while he was still denying it in one breath, he had already pinpointed exactly when Taylor was referring to in the next.

The core reason for this contradiction was, naturally, their bizarre mental state, which completely stripped away their ability to maintain any real cunning.

As for why he had sounded guilty earlier upon hearing the phrase "the thing behind you"?

That wasn't strange either. Jiang En had already suspected that the curse on his body was the work of some higher entity.

Being exposed so suddenly—even if their conversation was like chickens talking to ducks—was more than enough to deeply rattle him.

Ultimately, it came back to the same truth: a sworn rival was a sworn rival. This mutually destructive collision was no joke.

"Heh... I thought it was suspicious how vehemently you denied it back then. Normally, given our relationship, your reaction should have been much more ambiguous, no matter the situation."

Ignoring the little slip-ups in Jiang En's words, Taylor's momentum continued to build as he pressed the inconsistencies from that incident.

He wasn't wrong. Even Eldest Miss Wen had discussed that exact point with him.

Fu Qian merely nodded in agreement.

After discerning Taylor's intentions back then, Jiang En had originally planned to play the riddler and mess with his rival. Unfortunately, under the insidious influence of a Psychic Type ability, he had opted for vehement denial instead.

Hmm...

As soon as Taylor said this, Jiang En actually fell into a brief silence. It was painfully obvious that he was terrible at lying right now.

Since the curse on his body had already made him suspect the King of the Abandoned Prison, it was perfectly normal for him to look back and notice the anomalies in his past behavior.

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