Eldritch Horror Theatre

”You...”

In that instant, Serana seemed to understand a great deal.

”What’s wrong?”

Fu Qian shot her a curious glance.

”This is... an extremely important transcendent item of mine...”

She was clearly trying her hardest to find the right words.

”And?”

”So... could you give it back to me?”

Huh?

Hearing her request, Fu Qian stared in disbelief.”Didn’t you investigate me? Didn’t you do your homework? How could you possibly entertain such an unrealistic idea?”

”For someone with over five hundred years of life experience, you’re really no different from Taylor!”

...

For a brief moment, Serana fought the urge to risk it all and attack him.

Losing her transcendent item was one thing, but for this guy to actually say she was no different from a moron like Taylor was an absolute insult.

The worst part was that she couldn’t even refute it.

After all, thinking about it carefully, while their methods had differed, the essence was practically identical.

They had both known about this bastard’s vile nature, yet they had both placed their family’s secret treasures right in front of him, thinking they controlled the situation, only to suffer a massive loss.

No wonder he had asked for such detailed instructions on how to activate and deactivate it just a moment ago.

The more Serana thought about it, the higher her blood pressure spiked.

Calm down!

Ancient Reminiscence was important, but staying alive took priority.

Leaving aside her current injuries, even if she were in perfect condition, the outcome of a fight against this guy’s unpredictable methods would be hard to say.

Moreover, he was clearly provoking her to attack. This was his turf; if she showed up at his door, got herself killed, and had her things snatched away, the Night Watchers wouldn’t even have a reason to intervene.

She couldn’t let him get his way.

”Fine!”

After some internal rationalization, the Blood Clan lady finally made up her mind and decisively admitted defeat.

...

Serana’s departing silhouette looked rather desolate.

Even under the bright sun, she gave off the vibe of a heartbroken wanderer at the end of the world.

Watching her leave, Fu Qian sighed in quiet reflection.

Placing his loot on the counter, Fu Qian casually fished out the Abyss Notes and set it down right next to the new item.

The local gangs... were way too polite!

They were practically falling over themselves to deliver gifts.

Were the Blood Clan really just a bunch of simpletons?

Although neither of the two spoils of war on the counter possessed any direct offensive capabilities, they were undoubtedly items of a very high Rank.

In Fu Qian’s eyes, they were actually far more valuable than purely destructive weapons.

After all, since solidifying his form, lethality was no longer a weakness of his.

The strike that had injured Serana earlier perfectly proved this point.

The physique of a Demigod Grade vampire was as fragile as paper before him.

She had even activated that semi-ethereal state—which clearly offered special defensive buffs—yet it remained completely useless, as half of her body was directly torn apart.

In contrast, the special effects of these two items could actually come in handy—though, just like with the notebook he obtained earlier, Fu Qian wasn’t in any rush to experiment with this eyeball.

During their conversation just now, Lady Serana had inadvertently revealed a piece of information.

Following their previous conflict, the reaction of the Gulade Family had been somewhat unusual.

They had constantly pulled petty tricks at first, but after suffering a setback, they had done a sudden one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. The degree of this rapid flip-flopping was simply too extreme.

This wasn’t a schoolyard fight; this was a powerful family with the confidence to pull stunts right under the noses of the Night Watchers.

Not to mention, the legendary Blood Clan was inherently proud. It was hard to imagine how they could accept acting in a way that would make the other conglomerates laugh them out of the room.

When things are abnormal, there must be something sinister at work!

For them to be acting so obediently, could it be that there was something incredibly important they urgently needed to do, and they couldn’t afford a single hiccup along the way?

That was a reasonable explanation.

Moreover, this plan must have come up suddenly, right around the time of the Gan Zuoxun incident. After all, they had been very proactive with their little tricks before that.

Interesting!

Feeling as though he were watching something quietly brew in the shadows, Fu Qian stowed his loot away and stood up.

Before he figured out what was really going on, it was best not to undertake any dangerous explorations. After all, his SAN Value was currently down to just a few dozen points.

It would be better to go have a chat with Chief Yuan.

...

”What do you want this time—holy shit!”

Inside the Night Watchers Base, in Chief Yuan’s office, a familiar scene played out once more.

Fu Qian had barely taken two steps through the door before Yuan Shan jumped to her feet.

”You... I... The Gulade Family—did you really wipe them out?”

”Even I didn’t receive a single whisper of news. You worked way too cleanly!”

”What do you think I am, a god?”

Fu Qian scoffed at Chief Yuan’s wild imagination.

”Besides, I think you have some sort of misunderstanding about me. I’ve always believed that the benevolent are invincible.”

...

”Then what’s with the thing you’re carrying?”

It was clear that while Yuan Shan didn’t quite buy the whole ”the benevolent are invincible” nonsense, she was at least reassured that Fu Qian hadn’t actually exterminated the Gulades.

”Are you talking about this?”

Considering her agitated state, Fu Qian decided against pulling out the Abyss Notes to give her a fright. Instead, he simply fished out his newest spoil of war.

”I knew it!”

Staring closely at the orb Fu Qian placed on her desk, Yuan Shan looked as though she was about to pull her hair out.

”Another one!”

”And if I’m not mistaken, this is Serana’s personal transcendent item, right? She’s never even let anyone else in the Gulade Household touch it. Where did you get it?”

”Just because she doesn’t give it to others doesn’t mean she wouldn’t give it to me.”

Fu Qian spoke with extreme nonchalance.

”Who knows, maybe they have a special tradition. Passing things to outsiders instead of insiders, or something like that.”

The hell kind of tradition is passing things to outsiders instead of insiders!

Drawing on past experience, Yuan Shan keenly realized that if she kept bickering with him, there would be no end to it. She immediately took a deep breath and forcefully changed the subject.

”Did Serana come looking for trouble?”

”Yeah.”

Seeing her take the initiative to bring up business, Fu Qian nodded.

”Because of the notebook?”

”You could say that.”

”That really is her style. She’s always been that brazen!”

Yuan Shan snorted, a hint of displeasure creeping into her voice.

”And then she failed to get what she wanted, and you even snatched away her transcendent item?”

”What do you mean, ’snatched’? Do you think I run a black-market shop?”

Fu Qian expressed his dissatisfaction with her phrasing.

”I really can’t imagine how you managed it. Ancient Reminiscence... I’ve heard quite a lot about that thing. Even by the Night Watchers’ standards, it’s considered an excellent transcendent item.”

Yuan Shan rolled her eyes at him.

”But since you’ve already come out so far ahead, it’s hard for me to help you seek justice. At most, I can give them a subtle warning.”

”There’s no need. Is it not delightful to have friends visit from afar? Besides, as far as I know... it seems they’ve already issued their own warnings internally.”

”What do you mean?”

Yuan Shan’s eyes flickered, picking up on the hidden implication.

”I’m actually quite curious about it myself.”

Fu Qian didn’t hide anything. He explained the internal ban within the Gulade Family that Serana had mentioned, as well as the reasons why Taylor and she had separately come to cause trouble.

”So that’s how it is!”

After listening to Fu Qian’s account, Yuan Shan fell into deep thought.

”They really have been acting strangely obedient. It’s completely out of character for them.”

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