Eldritch Horror Theatre

The room's layout was as familiar as ever, but as Fu Qian walked in, Yuan Fang—seated on the massive Deck Chair—was much quieter than before.

He tossed out a greeting without turning around. A moment later, he finally pulled his gaze from the window, sat up, and sized his visitor up and down.

Compared to his last visit, Fu Qian's outlandish appearance was every bit as striking.

"Hello."

Ignoring the Prophet's scrutiny, Fu Qian strolled forward.

He didn't take a seat this time, however. Instead, he went straight for the balcony and joined Yuan Fang in gazing out the window.

A man had to have some basic courtesy. Covered head to toe in sticky spiderwebs, sitting down would only ruin the man's sofa.

"What should I call you?"

This behavior was entirely too casual. Yuan Fang stared at Fu Qian's face for nearly half a minute before finally asking the question.

"Yuan Fang. Or you can call me Prophet."

Prophet Yuan nodded. Not only did he introduce himself, he even offered a solemn apology.

"My apologies. They might have been a bit on edge because of my request for a private meeting."

Fu Qian remained standing. Seeming to grasp the courtesy behind the gesture, Yuan Fang looked at the sticky white webbing covering his guest with deep shame.

"Inviting you over like this was a last resort. Please forgive me."

"Aren't you being a bit too friendly?"

Prophet Yuan's attitude had shifted so drastically that even Fu Qian looked curious.

"Unknown origins aside, no matter how you look at it, I'm tied up in a massive mess right now, aren't I?"

He pointed out the window as he spoke.

At that moment, the flames at the center of The Lake were even more blinding than before, having already spread across the entire Great Hall.

Framed by the circular surface of the water, it looked like a lit, gigantic candle.

It was hard to imagine what state Old Man Chaumont and his group were in right now.

"Indeed. No matter how you look at it, you are someone who ought to be disposed of, which is why Ballard and the others don't understand my decision."

Yuan Fang let out a long sigh, his eyes fixed on the giant candle outside.

"But what I want to say is... thank you!"

"With your help, I have finally seen the truth and the future. The true future!"

Oh?

Faced with this classic charlatan-style declaration, Fu Qian furrowed his brows.

"Are you trying to say the flames outside are the future of this place?"

"Yes."

Yuan Fang nodded without hesitation.

"For reasons even I cannot understand, I share a special connection with this world—if we can call it a world."

"It allows me, at certain moments, to catch glimpses of what you might call the future."

"Some call it destiny, but I know it isn't. In truth, those visions couldn't be called a future at all. They were nothing more than the final ripples before drowning, reeking of decay. But today—"

He looked at Fu Qian with absolute solemnity.

"A miraculous trajectory of fate has convinced me that this world will truly come alive."

So this guy really could see his fate now.

Although Yuan Fang's choice of words was excessively mystic, Fu Qian understood his meaning. It also confirmed why he had been intercepted with such precision.

"You saw us go to the lakeside just now?"

"Of course."

"And then you called people to stand guard over there, but didn't tell them exactly why?"

"One must always take precautions, no? While I don't know how you found that place, the moment I realized they were outsiders, I knew why they had come."

Yuan Fang's tone was utterly certain.

"In fact, I've known for a long time that there was a latent spread of flames there. I just treated it as a sort of pollution and hidden danger, and it was giving me a headache trying to figure out how to handle it. If the outsiders could take the pollution away, that would have been for the best."

Sure enough, it matched his earlier deductions. This guy hadn't actually wanted to borrow a knife to kill.

Fu Qian nodded silently.

"And just now, after glimpsing my fate, you realized the true meaning of the flames. You then relayed some information to Ballard and Crystal, which resulted in them waiting for me there at precisely the right moment?"

"Yes. My apologies; because it was so rushed, they might have been a little impolite."

Yuan Fang confirmed all of Fu Qian's deductions and apologized once again.

"Even if it wasn't rushed, with those two, they wouldn't have been very polite anyway."

Fu Qian waved his hand dismissively.

His earlier instinct had indeed been correct. After being embraced by the specters, his integration with this world had deepened. Yuan Fang had clearly been able to perceive his existence from that moment on.

"What I'm more curious about is, what is this 'true future' you mentioned?"

Fu Qian asked calmly.

Between the two encounters, Yuan Fang's shift in attitude was simply too drastic.

The last time, his outward stance suggested he wanted to use Fu Qian to lay a trap, luring Chaumont and the others inside to eliminate them by the hands of a saint.

But based on his subsequent analysis and Yuan Fang's recent candor, he could basically confirm his true goal: he wanted the hunting squad to take their harvest—the flames—and leave quickly, perhaps even helping to purge the pollution from Unseen Hill in the process. It was a classic attempt to kill two birds with one stone.

This time, however, his stance had done a complete one-eighty. He now sincerely hoped the flames would spread and forge a brand-new future.

And the catalyst for this shift was the very act of Fu Qian actively allowing himself to be infected by the specters and deeply integrating into this world, which had allowed Yuan Fang to see this "future."

"This place is a prison."

At Fu Qian's question, Yuan Fang's expression instantly turned solemn.

"Not only is there nowhere to escape on a physical level, but we are also bound on the level of destiny."

"Ballard, Akasha, and even Crystal... all of these people. From the moment they appeared here, the only ending I could foresee for them was their complete obliteration across endless cycles of samsara, eventually turning into mindless ashes. Every cycle has already been predetermined. It made me incredibly weary for a time."

"But just now, under the blessing of the flames, I saw a completely different future. Full of unknowns, brimming with limitless vitality—that is true destiny."

"And the initial flames were ignited precisely by you leading the outsiders there."

"You are the true Savior. Everyone will truly 'come alive' because of you."

"One day, they might even be able to escape this place and reach the land where the outsiders dwell!"

That might just be the reason I'm here.

Seeing the exhilaration on Yuan Fang's face, Fu Qian sighed inwardly.

His objective for this mission was extremely clear: Extinguish the Flame.

Looking at it now, the reason this mission even existed was likely because something had caused the flames to appear, granting The Prisoners a chance to escape.

This perfectly aligned with Yuan Fang's claims.

The problem lay in the most crucial detail: his own objective was undoubtedly at odds with the future Yuan Fang had seen.

Previously, through step-by-step deduction and elimination, it had seemed safe to conclude that actively integrating into the world was the key to completing the mission.

Yet now, the future brought about by this integration looked like the flames spreading across the entirety of Unseen Hill. Wouldn't that be a guaranteed failure?

So this time, did he have to fight against fate itself just to complete the mission?

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