Eldritch Horror Theatre

'It looks like I won't have to personally test whether the ability to return from the dead is still there,'

Seeing Kisaragi Kana calmly discuss her own ordeal while her sister turned pale with fright, Fu Qian thought to himself.

Healing so rapidly after taking a knife to the chest, combined with her recent advancement to the Transcendent Tier, made it easy to assume she had gained an extraordinary regenerative ability.

However, as someone who had witnessed her resurrect from being sliced into cooking ingredients, Fu Qian arrived at a different conclusion—the effects of the Miracle Potion inside Kisaragi Kana had been present this entire time.

Yet she had only truly become a transcendent the night before last, as a direct result of Yasui Tokiyuki's actions.

Just as he had discussed with Su Gao earlier, such a transformation meant there was a high probability that this genius had inadvertently aligned with the laws of cultivation under the influence of notoriety.

'So does that make Kisaragi Kana a dual genius in both supernatural abilities and cultivation right now? The legendary dual cultivator of magic and martial arts?'

'That's a bit overpowered!'

Fu Qian fell into deep thought for a moment, but Kisaragi Kana misunderstood his silence.

The newly advanced transcendent smiled and took two steps forward.

"Do you know the greatest benefit of possessing such surging vitality?"

"What is it?"

Fu Qian played along and asked.

"It means I can be ravaged at will."

She gently brushed her pink fingernails over her own skin. After her advancement to the Transcendent Tier, her constitution far surpassed that of an ordinary person, making Kisaragi Kana look as if she were practically glowing.

A moment later, she leaned in closer, her voice and gaze turning simultaneously hazy and seductive.

"Don't want to give it a try? I know you'd like it."

'You'd better hope those perverts from the Apocalypse Branch don't hear about that kind of request.'

Faced with this undisguised temptation, Fu Qian rubbed his chin, his mind recalling the image of her body sliced open and disemboweled just days prior.

"It sounds like a great idea under the right circumstances, but I haven't had much free time lately."

Oh?

Kisaragi Kana clearly hadn't expected to be rejected even under these circumstances.

"So, what are Mister Dancy's plans next?"

"I'm going to the place where Violetta grew up."

Faced with her relentless questioning, Fu Qian pointed at Su Gao with perfect ease.

Su Gao's eyes flickered slightly, but she remained silent.

"I imagine it must be a very beautiful place."

Sizing Su Gao up with a clearly hostile gaze, Kisaragi Kana slowly nodded after a long moment.

"I hope you both have a wonderful time."

"But you will be coming back, won't you, Mister Dancy?"

The next moment, she turned back to stare deeply at Fu Qian.

"I will."

Fu Qian nodded casually.

"There's plenty of good food here."

...

"Are we really going to the place where I grew up?"

After leaving the divination hut and walking in silence for a while, Su Gao looked at Fu Qian and asked the question in all seriousness.

"As the old saying goes—since we're already here..."

Fu Qian flashed a mysterious smile.

"Although the Grandpa Ai Lei you mentioned has already passed away, it's rare for us to be in the area. Wouldn't it be nice to drop by and take a look?"

"We don't have anything left to do here. Slipping away amidst the chaos is a solid plan. Just look at Nepheli—she set a perfect example."

"It's true, we have nothing left to do."

Su Gao let out a soft sigh.

"Judging by Kisaragi Kana's behavior, the lingering influence has been completely eradicated. As for Rebecca..."

"Sometimes, people are simply forced to grow up."

Knowing what she was about to say, Fu Qian didn't offer any empty comforts about Rebecca possibly turning back to normal.

'Buying osmanthus and carrying wine is no longer like the journeys of our youth.'

There was no turning back on certain paths, regardless of the reason for starting down them.

"Given the chaos that just broke out, if we leave straight away, won't Gin Kazuhiro overreact?"

Su Gao didn't question his decision, but another issue came to mind the next moment.

They had already gathered more details about the recent incident on their way over.

The chaos Sybil caused had ultimately resulted in civilian casualties. Given Gin Kazuhiro's firm belief that everything was under his control, there was no doubt he was in a foul mood right now.

"Don't worry. If he actually had the spine to intercept two unknown demigods directly, he wouldn't have let Yasui Tokiyuki skirt the rules like that."

Fu Qian waved it off, signaling her not to worry.

"Understood. Should we set off right now?"

Su Gao was decisive and ruthless as well; once a decision was made, she didn't waste time second-guessing it.

"We'll set off right now."

Fu Qian nodded.

"But before that, we need to head back and collect your salary. You are on paid vacation, after all."

...

"Kisaragi Kana's state seems rather complicated."

Night had fallen. Inside their suite on the luxury train, Su Gao gazed out at the rapidly passing night scenery and brought up her observations.

From the time they had returned to pack their things until now, Gin Kazuhiro hadn't made a single move against them.

And while she still harbored a few regrets, the sense that everything was settled truly allowed Su Gao to feel like she was on vacation.

"To my senses, her healing ability might be astonishing, but there's still a distinct difference between that and returning from the dead."

"It's difficult to wrap my head around. She possesses both a supernatural ability and the feedback of cultivation simultaneously—two completely different categories of power? I've never seen a precedent for this."

"Neither have I."

Fu Qian fully leaned into the posture of a man on vacation.

"Do you remember what Nepheli said before she left?"

"That the foundation of the transcendent world is chaotic, and that spirit and flesh are indistinct and muddled together?"

Su Gao remembered it very clearly.

"There was another line too. That some things which should exist had gone missing, like a missing piece on a map."

...

The anomaly surrounding Kisaragi Kana had always been a major focus of this trip.

Before today, even though he knew exactly what had happened to her, the underlying reasons had remained unclear.

But just as Kisaragi Chie had said, he had indeed reaped some gains from this journey.

Just earlier, during his conversation with Nepheli, she had revealed several critical pieces of information.

Aside from the chaotic foundation of the transcendent world, she had also disclosed the true purpose of the Miracle Potion.

The Miracle Potion experiments weren't meant to discover a way for ordinary humans to obtain transcendent power; they were designed to locate those missing laws.

Combining that statement with Kisaragi Kana's situation, Fu Qian seemed to understand the significance behind the Warehouse assigning him that mission back then—it hadn't wanted the special case of Kisaragi Kana to be noticed by Nepheli or the Origin Council.

So it was worth hypothesizing: if he had done nothing back then, and Kisaragi Kana's resurrection from the dead had been discovered, what would it have led to?

Based on his understanding of Nepheli's words, her original intention for conducting such exhaustive testing was her belief that some things which should exist in the transcendent world had gone missing. Like a piece vanishing from a map, she wanted to find that piece.

Could it be that if the potion really had an effect on Kisaragi Kana, it would mean to Nepheli that a piece which should have disappeared hadn't, making it abnormal instead?

And she would inevitably explore the cause of this abnormality, which the Warehouse hadn't wanted her to explore.

In fact, even for him as the executor, there wasn't much information in the mission summary.

Fortunately, his thirst for knowledge had led him to launch his own side project.

Now, Fu Qian already had a faint suspicion.

Could it be that Kisaragi Kana's innate talent in cultivation had caused a formula that should have been ineffective to take effect, as if it had filled in the missing piece?

The female swordswoman Veil had once mentioned that there was no concept of cultivation during the Mythological Era—including the sword path, none of it had existed.

Could it be that certain things were extracted from the original transcendent system, and that was what allowed the concept of cultivation to emerge?

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