Eldritch Horror Theatre

A Key to the true self? A gift obtained by drawing out the pleasure deep within?

So this was the true nature of the so-called Invitation Letter!

This was the first time he had heard such a claim.

Ignoring Betty’s helpful suggestion, Fu Qian fell deep into thought.

Understood this way, however, it perfectly aligned with the anomaly in front of him.

People talked about being blinded by desire, but the scene before his eyes went a step further. Judging by the behavior of the couple on the bed, it felt as if their bodies and minds were operating entirely independently.

So the purpose of the Invitation Letter was to guide a person into this state? And everyone at the banquet had been like this?

Yet that long-haired man was clearly an exception, and according to him, he also possessed an Invitation Letter.

As Fu Qian pondered, Betty pushed her male companion aside and looked at Fu Qian with a soft giggle.

Her companion showed no hint of anger; he simply continued to stare at her with fanatical eyes, thoroughly enchanted.”That was just a joke earlier. I actually already have an Invitation Letter.”

Having roughly grasped the concept of the Invitation Letter, Fu Qian remained curious about how exactly Betty had seen through his disguise back then.

Thus, in the face of her enthusiastic invitation, he chose to keep spouting nonsense.

”No, you don’t! I can feel it.”

Betty shook her head with a seductive smile, but her tone was incredibly firm.

She pointed a finger at her male companion.

”Could it be that you’re feeling a bit shy because of the audience?”

”Trust me, that is just boring hypocrisy.”

As she spoke, she reached out to grab Fu Qian’s arm.

”Once you receive an Invitation Letter, you will even find this to be a highly meaningful act.”

”The pleasure will generate a fascinating resonance. It is a sacred connection.”

A bystander would resonate too?

So the reason he had been exposed back then was that, as a bystander, he hadn’t been affected by those two women’s actions?

He had actually been exposed just like that?

”Thank you for the answer.”

Fu Qian thanked her while calmly pulling his hand away, leaving her to grab empty air.

Recalling the behavior of the majority of the people at the banquet, he was practically certain of where the issue lay.

Looking at it now, his appearance at that banquet probably wasn’t just to get dragged into trouble.

From Betty’s account, whether it was the Invitation Letter or the so-called resonance, almost everything was tied to the extreme channeling of desire.

This was a group that thoroughly explored their own desires and focused on unbridled indulgence.

Such characteristics sounded a little too similar to his current target—the Attendant of Ecstasy.

So his next step was to follow this lead—by figuring out the original organizer of this gathering, for example.

Fu Qian recalled the Old Man whose face had gone completely pale. If nothing else, he knew where the man’s territory was, making him very easy to find.

Having her hand dodged by Fu Qian, Betty didn’t look annoyed at all. She merely let out another enchanting giggle.

The next moment, right before his eyes, her hand bizarrely stretched an inch longer.

Its skin was crystal clear, its five fingers soft and boneless. Looking like squirming pink flesh, the hand—dripping with a damp liquid oozing from its palm—continued to snake toward Fu Qian’s arm.

What in the world?

This grotesque scene made even Fu Qian shake his head.

For a transcendent on the Flesh and Blood Ascension path, such a transformation naturally wouldn’t be anything special, but for it to appear on an ordinary person was deeply unnatural.

Even in a dream.

Realizing something a second later, Fu Qian snapped his fingers and broke out of the dream state.

Returning to the bedroom, the two bodies on the bed still had not stopped their movements.

By now, their bodies were marked by far more than just bruises.

At a glance, crisscrossing red marks covered their entire bodies. As they moved, the welts squirmed as if they were alive.

A closer look revealed something even more wrong.

The hands they had tightly clasped together were now grotesquely contorted.

Ten fingers were twisted and tangled together at angles that would have broken their bones ten times over, forming an unimaginable shape.

Not only that, but right then, Betty—who theoretically should not have been able to notice him at all—slowly raised her head.

She scrutinized Fu Qian with an eerie posture. The next moment, an indescribable moan tore from deep within her throat.

Along with that moan, Fu Qian faintly felt the temperature of his skin rise a fraction, and even a few sensual thoughts flickered through his mind.

This worked too!

Such a shift left Fu Qian inwardly marveling.

The woman in front of him was undeniably an ordinary person, yet she was actually able to affect someone in the Demigod Realm.

Although there might be reasons related to his own constitution, it still heavily challenged his imagination.

Besides, Betty’s consciousness was currently in the dream, so what exactly was the thing ”looking” at him just now?

Fu Qian thought for a moment and decisively canceled the Ring’s effect.

The two people in front of him instantly shuddered.

As their sanity slowly returned, their tangled hands recovered at a visible rate.

It seemed he had been right.

Witnessing this scene, Fu Qian essentially verified his guess—perhaps because they possessed Invitation Letters, the desires within these people’s bodies had ”come alive.”

Usually, it wouldn’t be noticeable, but his action of forcefully pulling them into a dream had caused a separation between their minds and their primal natures.

Their minds entered the dream, allowing for communication.

Meanwhile, their bodies, entirely dominated by their animated desires, not only continued their previous actions but even underwent a peculiar transformation because of it.

This, in turn, fed back into and affected their state within the dream.

Once the dream was dispelled and their minds returned, this mutation was suppressed once more.

For him, this counted as good news.

After all, Betty had been the very first person to see through his disguise at the banquet.

If anything strange happened to her, he would easily fall under suspicion.

Overall, this trip had been quite rewarding. It essentially confirmed that the direction of his investigation was correct.

His next step was to root out that Emissary of Ecstasy step by step and kill them.

...

Leaving the pair to continue their passionate indulgence, Fu Qian headed directly back to the Academy.

If it hadn’t been for the morning hearing, his actions might have been a bit more aggressive.

But now, given Li Weixuan’s earlier behavior—with such a crucial figure watching him with an ambiguous attitude—he undoubtedly needed to leave fewer loose ends.

Otherwise, it was highly likely a case of more haste, less speed.

In fact, less than a quarter of an hour after Fu Qian returned to his office, his door was thrown open.

”Professor Lanaya, did you need me for something?”

Fu Qian sized up the person storming in, a confused look on his face.

”Could it be that the Disciplinary Department has a new mission again?”

...

”Indeed, we do.”

Seeing Fu Qian sitting there perfectly fine, Lanaya stared fixedly at him, her expression somewhat indescribable.

”Jia Yi is dead.”