Eldritch Horror Theatre

’Just as I said, plenty of time!’

Fu Qian felt deeply gratified by this decisiveness.

Though he didn’t think it still possessed the ability to make him overlook a mental blank of this magnitude.

But since it was being so tactful and saving him some SAN Value, it had barely managed to qualify as voluntarily abandoning its crime.

When it came time to settle the score later, he could consider giving it an appropriate discount.

In his excellent mood, he noticed Niniane seemed to have slightly adapted to her new mode of movement, trying to inch closer to him.

Even her mouth was working hard to move, as if she wanted to say something.

’Is time already up?’

Realizing something, Fu Qian looked down at his body. Sure enough, his Dazzling Fashion had expired.

She had probably just tried to speak to him using her previous method, but unfortunately, he could no longer hear her.’In that case...’

For the sake of fairness, Fu Qian didn’t say a word. He simply turned and walked away.

The moment he noticed the anomaly, he quickly pinpointed its cause.

It was a long, drawn-out call reminiscent of a whale song. It crossed the endless waters and resonated with him in a bizarre way, granting him a special influence over his surroundings.

The trait was indeed rushing to meet him halfway. That Higher Existence couldn’t stop it, so it chose to make the process unobservable instead.

Of course, before following the sound to its source, there was one more thing he needed to do.

...

Not bad. It was comforting that this place wasn’t too far from Vivian’s Floating Island.

Moving like a gale, Fu Qian sprinted wildly across the sea, entirely unconcerned whether his arrogant posture would provoke the higher entity who had already stayed its hand.

In fact, he was somewhat looking forward to seeing how it would react to being provoked.

Soon, the giant tree on the Floating Island came into view.

The fishmen were still gathered in their original spot, though they no longer looked as peaceful as before.

It wasn’t surprising, considering the song calling out to them had grown much more anxious.

Equally unsurprisingly, the Delanley duo had actually sailed their ship back, keeping their distance as they gazed at the Floating Island from afar.

Fu Qian completely understood their reasoning. With no idea how to escape, the ship was one of the few bargaining chips they had left to trade, and the buyers were undoubtedly the people on the island.

...

”Care to explain your actions?”

Beside The Lake on the island, Fu Qian, having returned with supreme arrogance, smiled as he looked at Vivian’s giant face.

Her singing had stopped moments ago. Now, her expression carried obvious anger as she questioned him coldly.

Tier 2 coercion, terrifying to this degree!

”I thought you’d want to explain yourself first.”

Not only had she been slacking off, she had even damaged the tools of production. No capitalist could tolerate that.

While he completely understood her attitude, Fu Qian showed no signs of embarrassment. He simply gestured toward the cave entrance with his chin.

By now, The Lake on the island was much livelier than during his last visit.

Led by Lane, the members of the Poaching Squad stood quietly in a circle around the entrance, completely oblivious to their conversation.

Of course, judging by their vital signs, they were all still perfectly alive—just trapped in a state of bewilderment.

Considering that the being before him was a Divine Emissary who had likely swallowed a mermaid, her ability to do this wasn’t surprising in the least.

With that gap in Rank, even if her singing was terrible, a single burp would be enough to entrance the whole squad.

The only question was: why entrance them?

According to what Vivian had said earlier, these humans weren’t sufficient to serve as detoxification vessels.

”This? I don’t know why they came here either.”

Faced with Fu Qian’s terrible habit of answering a question with a question, Vivian surprisingly didn’t look too angry. She merely let out a cold laugh.

”Why don’t you ask them for me?”

The moment she spoke, Lane’s group shuddered in unison, slowly snapping back to their senses.

As they subconsciously took in their surroundings, they shuddered twice more.

’They didn’t even get to speak a word before being reduced to this state?’

Seeing the obvious shock on their faces when they spotted Vivian, Fu Qian shook his head inwardly.

”No matter what, please believe we mean no harm!”

The next moment, without Fu Qian even needing to speak, Lane’s group—having heard Vivian’s last remark—clearly grasped the tense, confrontational atmosphere.

After a rapid exchange of glances, Lane addressed Vivian respectfully.

”Our ship unintentionally drifted into this place. We were trying to find a way out and followed the singing here.”

As he spoke, Lane signaled his entire group to slowly back away while keeping their eyes on Vivian, showing they posed absolutely no threat.

In both word and deed, their sincerity was maxed out.

Squelch!

Unfortunately, right as they took their third step back, a bizarre sound echoed and every single one of them was lifted into the air.

As if dominated by an invisible force, the entire squad was crushed into a single ball of flesh a second later.

The sound of bones shattering rang out like firecrackers. The meatball fell heavily back into the water, showing no signs of breaking apart.

”Excellency...”

As expected of the team’s person in charge, Lane, despite spewing blood from his nose and mouth, still managed to secure a prime spot on the surface of the meatball, directly facing the giant, beautiful face.

”Please don’t misunderstand. We really have absolutely no connection to him!”

’He still hasn’t grasped the situation!’

Seeing that this decisive and ruthless man still hadn’t realized where the real problem lay, Fu Qian shook his head inwardly.

Realizing they were caught in a standoff, rapidly cutting ties and deciding to stand by was normally a smart choice.

What Lane said was even the truth.

They had no relationship with him. In fact, they had already fallen into an irreversible chain of suspicion earlier. No matter what Fu Qian said or did, a seasoned jianghu veteran like Lane would definitely send him to his grave if given the chance.

Actually, this was why they had boarded the island with a speed that shocked even the Delanley duo.

Since Fu Qian had already come up first, they felt they had no other choice.

If there were benefits to be had, they absolutely had to follow closely and not fall behind.

If there was danger, they could confirm his death while maximizing their observation of the sacrifice to gather information.

Fu Qian actually didn’t mind this at all. Everyone was just trying to survive out here. It was completely normal if they didn’t understand his ocean-like magnanimity.

The problem with Lane and his crew was their stupidity—they didn’t understand why they had even lived this long.

Given the massive gap in Rank, their posturing was completely meaningless.

To Vivian, the only value these ”ants” held was the possibility that they might have a positive relationship with him.

It didn’t need to be much. As long as there was even a tiny connection, it would give her one more ounce of leverage against him.

Unfortunately, Lane had immediately denied that possibility.

”My explanation is done. Your turn.”

Without a doubt, Vivian completely ignored Lane’s final earnest plea.

During this time, she had clearly confirmed through observation that all traces of the Glove were gone from Fu Qian. At once, her killing intent spiked to astonishing levels.

”Isn’t it obvious?”

Sensing her mood, Fu Qian leaped straight to the cave entrance, found a spot to sit, and studied her from close range.

”I destroyed the Glove. The trace of Vivian’s pure ego inside it died and dissipated with it.”

Looking at that face contorted with extreme fury, Fu Qian continued with a smile.

”Just like Edral...”

”And Ji Feng...”

”Stella...”

”Liliana...”