Eldritch Horror Theatre

Ultimately, the farce that had essentially started because of Fu Qian quickly came to an end.

"Professor Ni, if you don't trust Dean Casi's judgment, you can verify it yourself using your own methods. I believe no one will object."

After reprimanding the two men, the female instructor from the Sword Comprehension Institute swept her gaze across the crowd and proposed this directly.

"Hmph!"

Ni Huayuan immediately took the out she offered, stepping forward under everyone's watchful eyes.

Regardless, the stalemate had finally broken.

"Do you mind if I take a look?"

Walking up to the corpse on the ground, Ni Huayuan glanced at Kamakura Ki.

"Sorry for the trouble, Professor Ni."

In fact, in Fu Qian's eyes, even that one second of hesitation was merely for show.

How could he possibly refuse?

Ni Huayuan's polite question was nothing more than a gesture.

This was the sorrow of the weak. Faced with a threat they could not resist, they had no choice but to seek help from others—and such help rarely came without a price.

Even if that price took a subtle form, like serving as free observational material.

"Thank you."

As if striving to draw a clear line between himself and an abrasive figure like Casi, Ni Huayuan obligingly offered his thanks before pulling back the clothes covering the corpse.

It was a uniquely styled hooded robe. Kamakura Keiji had just taken it off to wrap his grandfather's perforated body.

The corpse's hideous face was exposed, quickly drawing a few quiet sobs from the onlookers.

After silently examining it for a moment, Ni Huayuan reached out and wiped a bit of blood from a wound.

It was dark red, yet showed no signs of coagulating.

A moment later, he rubbed two fingers together. The blood actually began to vaporize, boiling and dissipating outward until it instantly transformed into a plume of red mist.

The red mist rose into the air, coalescing without dissipating, and soon outlined a humanoid silhouette.

The red figure then began to move.

Its arms hugged itself tightly, and its original posture—kneeling and looking up—rapidly collapsed. It could be seen trembling uncontrollably.

Even though the shape was blurry, one could still imagine the agony.

The trembling lasted for about ten seconds before the figure finally collapsed heavily, slowly falling completely still.

Was this the Death Fragment Reenactment?

Standing to the side, Fu Qian watched with keen interest.

After all, having previously killed one of their people, he had done some research on the Academy's Linghui Courtyard.

Compared to Apocalypse, they focused much more on the mental domain and possessed a wide variety of methods.

Seeing it today, it indeed had a well-deserved reputation.

The scene before him even felt a bit like channeling spirits, though vastly more rudimentary.

The entire process only recorded a fraction of the deceased's posture. No other details could be seen, and it seemed utterly impossible to converse with it.

But even so, judging by the reactions of the surrounding audience, they were undoubtedly deeply shocked. Such methods were presumably quite rare.

And regardless, compared to Casi's far more abstract approach, this could be considered highly intuitive and easy to understand.

So much so that the grief and indignation radiating from the Kamakura Family members dimmed considerably.

After all, blurred as it was, even a fool could see that the deceased hadn't suffered any external attacks; he had simply collapsed on his own, bit by bit, from start to finish.

If one still insisted he was murdered by some treacherous villain, the only remaining option would be to check if he had been poisoned.

In the quiet air, even Ni Huayuan fell into a momentary silence.

"The Linghui Courtyard certainly has a multitude of methods."

At that moment, Casi chimed in from the side, marveling on cue.

"I wonder what Professor Ni's conclusion is? Could you help interpret this for us?"

He was quite a character!

This blatant act of fanning the flames earned a surge of appreciation from Fu Qian.

The Dean of Apocalypse definitely had a completely different vibe compared to people like Li Weixuan.

Having a leader like this was likely one of the reasons the Apocalypse Branch's research atmosphere was so vibrant.

"It appears it truly has nothing to do with Mister Yun."

Not wanting to let the two men start bickering again, the female instructor provided a timely summary and looked toward Kamakura Ki.

"We've found him. Shouldn't we head back first? Time is precious."

"All right."

Kamakura Ki immediately agreed, deeply sharing the sentiment.

In any case, the man was already dead. Obsessing over his cause of death wasn't more important than the lives of the living.

Every second delayed increased the risk that everyone else would meet the exact same fate.

In fact, he had just been harboring a faint fear: if it had been proven that this newly advanced demigod was the killer, how on earth would they handle it?

...

The group's current location was on The Mountain, an area covered with massive white boulders.

Near the large gate where the three of them had emerged, several uniquely shaped stone houses could be seen. It was unclear if these were where the Tombkeepers had once lived.

Of course, they had undoubtedly long since been abandoned.

The working environment for the current Tombkeepers of the Kamakura Family had vastly improved.

As a special guest, Fu Qian joined the ranks under the scrutinizing gazes of the Academy members. Following Kamakura Ki's lead, they made their way down and soon arrived at a magnificent courtyard situated at the foot of the mountain.

It seemed the Academy members had also just arrived. The first thing Kamakura Ki did was have someone arrange resting quarters for the investigation team. Even Fu Qian received the same treatment, as if Kamakura Ki was terrified the group would merely take a cursory glance and leave.

What palpable despair!

Generally speaking, it was incredibly easy to identify the Kamakura Family's transcendents: one only needed to check for bloodstains on them.

And their population was even more prosperous than the briefing had described. In Kamakura Keiji's age group alone, Fu Qian spotted several similarly styled individuals, and their Rank wasn't particularly weak either.

For an ordinary family of transcendents, this would obviously be a good thing.

Unfortunately, the current anomaly had instantly turned this gift into a curse.

Along the way, almost everyone they passed had bloodstains sullying their clothes to some degree.

At a glance, they looked like half-slaughtered lambs.

In comparison, Kamakura Keiji could actually be considered one of the better-off ones.

...

"How does Mister Yun view the Kamakura Family's problem?"

Perhaps because he had caused Ni Huayuan to suffer a setback earlier, Casi seemed quite appreciative of Fu Qian. He became the only person willing to strike up a conversation with him.

If I knew how to look at it, I would have proceeded to the next stage already.

Fu Qian sighed inwardly.

That said, the Kamakura Family's situation was indeed somewhat unusual.

According to the mission description, as "cursed" swordsmen, whenever they engaged in combat, even if their slashes missed, severe lacerations would continuously appear on their opponents' bodies. It was a bizarre and difficult fighting style to deal with.

Right now, no matter how one looked at it, this felt like their own power was causing a backlash.

The question was, why the backlash? He needed to find the cause.

"I can't confirm anything."

A moment later, Fu Qian shook his head with absolute honesty.

"The form of their power is too peculiar. In fact, whether this can even be considered the sword path is open to debate."

"As expected of a Sword Dao Demigod."

Casi expressed his approval of Fu Qian's assessment.

"The Sword Comprehension Institute holds a similar view regarding the nature of the Kamakura Family's Cursed Swordsmanship. If it weren't for that, their people would have been the ones leading this team."

As he spoke, he looked up, only to see Kamakura Ki rushing over.

"Dean Casi, someone else just collapsed."

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