Eldritch Horror Theatre

The shape was similar, yet entirely different!

Fu Qian weighed the object in his hand.

Just before Teresa could warp herself completely beyond recognition, Fu Qian had decisively stepped in and removed her skull.

Tossing the corpse aside, he scrutinized the bone in his hand.

Right in the center of the skull was a palm-sized hole with perfectly smooth edges, patched over with some kind of transparent material.

Fu Qian had seen something similar not long ago.

Back in Baerluk, on the members of the See Me Faction.

But it was only similar. A closer look revealed an obvious difference between the two.

In Grace's collection, the piece of skull she had cut from her own head was a perfectly regular diamond—narrow on the sides, long from front to back.

However, the piece cut out of the skull before him was an oval. It even looked a bit like a horizontal eye.

'Surely this thing isn't the Inner Eye?'

Fu Qian wondered to himself, then shook his head. It shouldn't be that simple.

Regardless, he could tell this mark shared some connection with the group in Baerluk.

He remembered suspecting back then that this Skull-Opening Technique probably wasn't Dean Collins's original creation.

Now, that suspicion was practically confirmed.

But that raised a new question. According to the people in Baerluk, they removed a piece of their skulls to bare themselves beneath a Deity's gaze, surrendering their subjective consciousness to completely follow its instructions.

Here, although Teresa had mentioned the ritual belonged to a Deity's wisdom, there were no signs that this group was trapped in a scenario.

Fu Qian glanced at the remains on the ground.

Because of her final suicidal move, Teresa was now little more than a puddle of rotting flesh. Her limbs were still festering and dissolving, twitching unconsciously.

Crack!

Fu Qian squeezed his hand, crushing the skull to powder.

Nothing happened.

This proved the object was not the Inner Eye he was looking for.

Even so, today had been quite fruitful. At the very least, Teresa's words confirmed that his current direction of investigation was correct.

From the looks of things, the members of this mysterious gathering of transcendents were divided into different tiers.

The core members were undoubtedly Rolden and Teresa.

Perhaps due to the Skull-Opening Technique, they clearly held the most secrets and even secretly guided the progression of certain rituals.

A bit further out on the periphery was Shang Shiming's group.

They had a certain level of strength and commanded a few rituals, but they most likely lacked the opened skull.

In fact, a large portion of the rituals they knew probably came from hints dropped by Rolden and his peers.

As for the absolute outermost fringe, that was naturally reserved for new transcendents like himself. Li Min, who had come out of admiration, was in roughly the same boat.

They possessed the least amount of information, firmly relegated to the status of disposable tools.

Speaking of which, just as he was here to find the Inner Eye, Li Min didn't seem so simple either. She most likely had ulterior motives that went far beyond merely seeking a way to break through a bottleneck.

Because of this, she was even on guard against people of unknown origin like him.

Since that was the case, he could put it to good use.

Fu Qian quickly formulated a plan.

Striking the grass to startle the snake had always been his favorite thing to do.

The next moment, he flicked his wrist. A ball of eerie green fire flew out and blasted into Teresa's mutated corpse.

The scorching heat instantly ignited her flesh, filling the air with the scent of roasted meat.

This was the very same fireball Teresa had used in her sneak attack earlier.

Earlier, Fu Qian had seemingly taken it head-on with his face, but he had actually activated the White Ring's effect to absorb and store the attack.

The White Ring's effect proved quite decent, succeeding on the very first try.

As for using it to desecrate a corpse now, it wasn't because Fu Qian had some sick fetish.

"Done."

When he stood back up, the ground held nothing but a charred mass.

Looking at this scene, it undoubtedly appeared as though Teresa had burned to death.

Coincidentally, Ms. Li Min was quite adept at exactly that.

When news of Teresa's death spread, Rolden and his peers would easily deduce that this was related to Shang Shiming's ritual.

And their reaction to a suspicious tool like Li Min would be highly worth looking forward to.

Clang!

Just as Fu Qian stood up, a sound exploded directly in his mind.

That was fast!

Without turning around, Fu Qian knew someone was rushing over at high speed and using this method to pin him down.

It seemed the commotion at the Stone Tower was taken quite seriously. This was most likely the Night Watchers chasing him all the way out.

Since he had deliberately circled the area earlier to lure Teresa out, he hadn't actually gone very far.

Given that his kick had made a rather loud noise, it had unsurprisingly drawn them over.

This wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Since he was already planning to strike the grass to startle the snake, dragging the Night Watchers into the mix and fishing in troubled waters might yield even better results.

The sound that had just appeared in his mind was clearly a Mental Shock of some sort, and the person who cast it was obviously of a high tier.

Struck by such an impact, an ordinary transcendent would most likely suffer severe mental trauma and freeze stiff, even if they didn't completely collapse. It truly was an excellent skill for capturing petty criminals.

Unfortunately, to the current Fu Qian, this had no more effect than a morning alarm clock.

Without a moment's hesitation, Fu Qian leaped forward without looking back.

At the same time, a brilliant arrow of light pierced the curtain of rain, aimed straight at his back.

His momentum unbroken, Fu Qian reached back and fired an Air Bullet.

In that instant, a violent flash of light erupted in the alley.

By the time the glow faded, Fu Qian's figure had already vanished into the night.

...

Almost the second he left, two people rushed into the alley.

Leading the pair was a burly Old Man with gray hair, who stared at the remains on the ground with an ugly expression.

"Transcendent remains."

The middle-aged man beside him drew that conclusion after taking a look.

"Are you sure this is related to what just happened? Could the incident at the Tower Building really be the work of transcendents?"

"I'm not sure, but we can't rule it out."

The Old Man stared intently in the direction Fu Qian had vanished, his voice ice-cold.

"That rat who just escaped was quite elusive."

"And even if it wasn't them, this bunch needs to be put in their place. They've been pulling way too many little stunts lately."

"Understood."

The middle-aged man didn't say anything more, merely giving a low hum of agreement.

"Then I'll make contact and confirm the identity of this corpse as soon as possible."

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