Eldritch Horror Theatre

Thousands of tentacles brought an end to everything.

This was a move he had never displayed in the Archipelago.

Considering Old Man Lu and the others had brought their fair share of surprises, Fu Qian felt it was only proper to dial up the intensity in return.

The only problem was the intense sunlight, which put the structural integrity of the Grafting Laboratory to a severe test.

The omnidirectional bombardment ripped the building apart from the inside.

Churning with boiling ice and fire, the eruption blossomed over the Archipelago like a mushroom cloud.

More importantly, empowered by the Resplendent Tyrant Form, the blast wasn't confined to the Archipelago—it detonated right inside the Divine Dream.

This triggered spatial tremors vastly more violent than before.

It sounded like the wailing of the mute tentacles as they suffered severe trauma.

It just went to show that one should never speak too soon.

Soaked in enough alien blood to look like an Avatar, Fu Qian had just been lamenting the lack of feedback from his strikes. Yet, out of nowhere, a perfectly articulate human voice rang out, and the clash of ice and fire came to an abrupt halt.

A familiar human voice, at that.

Fu Qian turned toward the sound. In his suddenly clear field of vision, he saw he was surrounded by a barrier of coiling tentacles.

And there, amidst the mounds of flesh—right next to the beast head Old Man Lu had been using—another head squeezed its way out.

Covered in wrinkles and shaped like a braised egg, who else could it be but Old Man Lu himself?

He even looked to be in a good mood, not the least bit annoyed that his likeness had been repeatedly stolen.

"It's truly gratifying that you still remember my Rebirth Club after all this time."

Meeting Fu Qian's gaze, he chuckled, evidently realizing he'd been recognized, and casually began to reminisce.

What did he mean, his Rebirth Club?

I've busted my ass for so long to build up this massive empire. Aside from serving as a face model, what have you actually contributed to the organization?

Old Man Lu's address was polite enough, but clearly, he hadn't sufficiently studied the art of conversation.

With just his second sentence, he managed to rub Professor Fu the wrong way.

"Naturally. I remember discussing the underlying theories during our first meeting. I've always had a keen interest in limb grafting."

Not bothering to argue over stolen credit, Fu Qian simply snorted and played along with the nostalgia. He casually tore off chunks of his burned flesh and tossed them aside, revealing the fresh skin that had already regenerated underneath.

"Indeed—you are a natural-born base material."

Even a veteran like Old Man Lu couldn't deny that fact.

Watching the wounds on Fu Qian's body heal in the blink of an eye, he couldn't help but praise his immense aptitude for limb grafting.

"It's a pity you're clearly squandering that talent, though. After all this time, this is the extent of your progress?"

But the old man also showed his harsh side. His envy lasted barely two seconds before he sneered, making it clear that the young man he'd once had high hopes for had turned out to be a slight disappointment.

"I am ashamed to admit it, but your progress has indeed been far greater."

Seeming to find nothing wrong with the critique, Fu Qian gave a subtle nod while studying Old Man Lu's two heads.

Perhaps at first glance they looked like two undigested remnants, but their seamless coordination gave off a perfectly unified presence.

"I actually haven't thanked you yet. If not for your actions back then, I doubt I could have achieved this—"

Fu Qian's reaction was so exceedingly natural that it was impossible to tell whether he was being genuine or sarcastic.

Fortunately, Old Man Lu clearly wasn't here for petty bickering. After a brief pause, he proactively began his demonstration.

Before his words had even faded, the colossal silhouette of a body—previously just a vague outline—rapidly solidified, brimming with flesh and blood.

The hazy refraction faded away, replaced by a deep, night-sky blue.

'He seems to have a high level of control over it?'

This scene undoubtedly spoke volumes. For one, the old man wasn't a mere puppet; he was the master of this colossal vessel.

"In all fairness, the process was quite unsettling at first. But once you begin to digest that unease, you realize that our previous methods of limb grafting were far too shallow."

Old Man Lu didn't even seem to be showing off. He spoke as if genuinely sharing his insights on the process.

And as he spoke, another body part squeezed its way out. It was another hand.

This time, the process was much clearer. Though it appeared to "squeeze" out, the hand's movements were remarkably natural, as if it had always been seamlessly attached to his body.

Tracing the arm all the way up to the shoulder, rows of distinct perforations were visible.

The clusters of fine tentacles threaded through the holes, acting just like surgical sutures.

It painted a vivid picture: the old man's various body parts drifting beneath a mountain of tentacles, yet still tethered together in this bizarre fashion.

"Actually, you already thanked me."

Imagining the bizarre spectacle, Fu Qian still refused to blindly defer to authority. Instead, he pointed out a minor loophole in the old man's words.

"At the time, you explicitly stated that you'd always wanted to fuse with this thing but were afraid of the risks. You said that after I pushed you, it resulted in a blessing in disguise."

For the first time since he appeared, Old Man Lu fell silent, but Fu Qian wasn't going to let him off the hook, pressing on with more details.

This wasn't an issue of politeness. Since he claimed to be an academic, logic had to be the foundation for everything.

Making such a rookie error undoubtedly undermined the credibility of his scientific conclusions.

"It's fine—you're completely worth thanking a few more times."

A moment later, Old Man Lu seemed to recall that he had indeed said those words. Clearly remembering the sheer force of the other man's sharp tongue, he wisely decided against trading insults.

"Why are you wasting your breath on him?"

Unfortunately, not everyone possessed such self-awareness.

Before his words had even faded, another anticipated voice chimed in with a familiar line.

'Excellency Kikuchi?'

Given the dual barrage of ice and fire earlier, it stood to reason that there was more than one person left.

Following the sound, Fu Qian successfully spotted another familiar face.

It was none other than the other titan of the Rebirth Club—the very man who had partnered with Lu Ming to set a trap and turn him into a test subject.

Unsurprisingly, his current form was also just a head.

Much like Old Man Lu, he was clearly in that same bizarre, stitched-together state.

"Hurry up and get rid of him! There's something seriously wrong with his form right now. If we drag this out, the consequences could be severe!"

Kikuchi clearly still had his explosive temper, immediately urging the other man to attack.

It had to be said, taking on this form seemed to have improved his situational awareness.

At the very least, Kikuchi's assessment of the threat posed by the Resplendent Tyrant Form was spot on.

The longer he stayed, the more severe the pressure on this space would become.

But that wasn't the main point. What truly mattered was that the two of them seemed perfectly clear on their own situation. They weren't just oblivious to their bizarre condition.

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