Eldritch Horror Theatre

Following Wen Li's words, a silent storm swept through the space and quickly dissipated.

In terms of intensity, the impact was barely a breeze against his face, but Fu Qian sensed that something had fundamentally changed.

Before he could pinpoint what, an inhuman roar tore through the air, vibrating against his eardrums until they ached.

Suspended by the throat in Fu Qian's grip, Shadow Nightmare began to thrash violently.

'Did fear drive him mad?' Fu Qian shot him a glance.

The top-tier assassin who had just been begging to negotiate now had bloodshot eyes. Bestial gurgles tore from his throat as he thrashed with complete disregard for his own life.

Crack.

Unable to break free, Shadow Nightmare thrashed so hard his neck simply snapped.

Stranger still, the break was as dry and shriveled as dead wood, without a single drop of blood leaking out.

The wind whistled. Fu Qian tilted his head, dodging a claw aimed straight at his skull.

The strike missed. Carried by the immense momentum, the already severely decayed arm snapped right off.

Again, no blood spilled. Instead, the dark crimson bloodlines covering the arm's surface slipped entirely free.

Then came the shoulder, the chest, and the rest of the upper torso.

Like a cicada shedding its carapace, the crimson bloodlines pulled themselves from Shadow Nightmare's corpse thread by thread, slithering over to the wall and pressing tightly against it.

The Shadow Nightmare in his grip was as dead as could be. Fu Qian casually tossed the mangled corpse aside.

Right then, it felt as though a grenade had gone off inside his own head.

An overwhelming, frenzied bloodlust flooded his mind. It battered every nerve, hammering his thoughts until they teetered on the brink of collapse.

Every cell in his body turned manic, as if only the most gruesome slaughter could soothe them.

He drew a sharp breath.

Taking a deep breath, Fu Qian glanced back.

Wen Li stood perfectly still in her original spot, her eyes squeezed shut.

She remained pale and fragile, but the feeling she gave off had distinctly shifted, now cloaked in a faint veil of mystery.

Further away, Tan Mingxue had completely broken down. She huddled in the corner, clutching herself tightly as she trembled.

Countless transparent threads formed from her hair tangled wildly around her body, stopping anything from coming near.

'Did that invisible storm amplify people's emotions?'

Fu Qian's mind raced, forcing his remaining reason to analyze the current situation.

Shadow Nightmare had clearly been affected. His primary urge had been to flee for his life, which explained why he had just frantically tried to escape Fu Qian's grip.

He just hadn't expected Tan Mingxue to succumb too. This woman was far more cowardly than she let on.

'And she calls herself a Night Watcher!'

As for Wen Li, that storm had explicitly originated from her. She was undeniably the source of this anomaly.

From that perspective, his plan to use the pressure and terror of death to stimulate her had succeeded.

Although he hadn't received a mission success notification yet, Wen Li was clearly undergoing a transformation.

As for whether this was the promotion catalyst she had spoken of, he would just have to wait and see.

Crack!

With a muffled snap, Fu Qian forcefully broke his own right hand.

He had no choice. If he didn't break it, he would end up pulverizing everyone around him into meat paste.

Yet, in mere seconds, the shattered hand firmly healed itself.

'As long as I interrupt Wen Li, this will stop.'

Amidst another sharp crack, Fu Qian snapped his hand again, standing in place and forcing himself to calm down.

Interrupting Wen Li was easy; the hard part was not breaking her in the physical sense.

Just then, a mass of blood-red churned in his vision.

With a violent shudder, the thing that had slithered out of Shadow Nightmare onto the wall actually curled into a spiked sphere.

Not only that, the sphere was expanding wildly. Countless blood-colored veins twisted together, corroding and devouring everything they encountered.

The closest thing to it was the motionless Wen Li.

In ten seconds at most, she would perish, a tragic case where heaven envies the talented.

Fu Qian quickly assessed the situation.

But if he smashed that thing to pieces, the Crimson Frenzy would leak out.

It wouldn't affect him, but even if Wen Li managed to promote, whether she could survive it was still a complete unknown.

The very instant those two choices appeared in his mind, Fu Qian felt a wave of chaotic confusion crash over his brain. He could barely think.

Sure enough, his feelings of conflict were also being amplified.

He watched the entity grow crazily. In the blink of an eye, it had ballooned to several times its original size, leaving it just a single step away from Wen Li.

'Kill it, but without breaking it. A bit complicated.'

'The stricter the requirements, the more flexible the approach needs to be.'

Fu Qian took a step forward. In the next moment, he completely released his restraint on the frenzied bloodlust.

Squelch!

A bloody glint flashed. His fully regenerated right hand carved a bottomless gouge directly into his own chest.

Driven by the violent killing intent, his body's metabolism kicked into maximum overdrive.

Almost instantaneously, the cells around the wound multiplied like crazy, morphing into rows of sharp fangs.

Taking a deep breath, he allowed the fissure in his chest to rapidly tear open and expand. In barely half a second, it became a gaping, bloody maw filled with razor-sharp teeth.

Fu Qian thrust the maw open toward the dark crimson blood mass.

The swollen blood mass had nowhere to hide and was swallowed whole in a single bite.

The maw snapped shut, and the blood mass began to thrash frantically.

Yet no matter how hard it rammed and battered against his insides, it was utterly suppressed by his manic cells, completely unable to find a way out.

After countless desperate impacts, the blood mass finally ruptured and dissolved.

A cloud of searing red mist leaked out, but Fu Qian kept it sealed tight inside his chest. Not a single wisp escaped.

Half a minute later, Fu Qian walked over and kicked Wen Li.

"Ah!"

Wen Li jolted awake with a startled shriek and immediately leaped off the floor.

Seeing how nimbly she scrambled to her feet, there was no need to ask—she had definitely reached Tier 6.

Fu Qian could feel his inner frenzy instantly dissipate. As expected, she really had been the cause.

'A Psychic Type promoting is such a hassle!'

"Mr. Fu, thank you for your help."

Sweeping her gaze across the room, Wen Li seemed to realize what had transpired. A look of pleasant surprise lit up her face as she gave Fu Qian a deep bow.

Fu Qian didn't reply. Instead, he stared into Wen Li's eyes, noticing her pupils were far deeper than before. At that exact moment, a voice chimed in his ear.

[Wen Li is dead. Containment Failure.]

The next moment, the scene before his eyes rapidly fractured and collapsed. Once again, Fu Qian found himself back in the familiar Warehouse.

[Evaluation: Madness to the Marrow]

[Kills: Shadow Nightmare × 1]

[Special Kill: Scarlet Angel × 1]

[Special Kill Reward: Tyrant's Fist]

[Current SAN Value: 33]

[Play Event Replay?]

To think it had actually ended in failure. His intuition had been right all along; this mission was far more difficult than it appeared on the surface.

Fu Qian inhaled deeply. He didn't do anything drastic like smash an imaginary keyboard. Instead, he simply stood where he was and selected the event replay.

He needed to confirm one thing.

Wen Li had clearly been standing right in front of him, having successfully promoted to Tier 6, yet the system prompt declared her dead and issued a Containment Failure.

'Unless that wasn't Wen Li!'

He skipped the entire beginning, fast-forwarding all the way to the end. Fu Qian stared at Wen Li as she straightened up from her bow.

It was the exact same face with a flawlessly replicated expression. Yet, compared to before she leveled up, there was the faintest trace of something wicked hiding deep in her eyes.

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