Eldritch Horror Theatre

This is impossible! How did he do it?

Yuan Shan was well aware of her teacher’s capabilities. That strike just now had absolutely been an all-out attack, with nothing held back.

Even for someone in the Demigod Realm, purging the distortion would theoretically demand a considerable amount of time—assuming their body didn’t collapse first.

Yet this guy was recovering in the blink of an eye.

Judging from this, his eerie voice from the very beginning had likely been completely faked.

Still as awful as ever...

Just a moment ago, she had felt guilty for dragging him into this mess and thought she needed to intervene. Now, looking at that face showing almost no signs of abnormality, Yuan Shan suddenly wanted to grind her teeth.

”I can finally understand why a Tier 2 that even Logan couldn’t handle was scared off by you.”

Right then, Henry’s sigh drifted over.

While she pondered the meaning behind those words, Yuan Shan suddenly felt the pressure on her body lift.Her teacher had released the restriction!

Reacting instantly, Yuan Shan rejoiced as the black bands wrapping her entire body unspooled and scattered.

However, as her vision cleared, she noticed that Fu Qian didn’t look thrilled at all.

What is going on? Don’t tell me this guy hasn’t had enough yet?

”Earlier I thought Logan was just a bit unlucky, but now it seems he entirely deserved to end up like that!”

Before Yuan Shan could figure it out, her teacher’s evaluation continued. The sheer harshness in his tone made her glance over in surprise.

”Failing to recognize a Tier 2 standing right in front of him... If he keeps acting like that, ending up in a sorry state will be the least of his problems.”

...Tier 2?

Upon clearly hearing her teacher’s words, Yuan Shan’s neck stiffened as if it had rusted.

”You’re no different!”

Meeting her gaze, Henry snapped.

”It’s only because Mister Fang harbored no malice. Otherwise, I doubt you would have ended up much better than Logan.”

...

In serious situations, Yuan Shan maintained a deep respect for her teacher.

Facing his sharp critique, her cheeks flushed slightly. She didn’t dare offer a word of rebuttal. Instead, she turned toward Fu Qian, her tone filled with disbelief.

”You’re a Tier 2?”

”It appears so.”

He actually sighed as he said it, sounding utterly devoid of joy.

”Are you really sure I harbor no malice?”

Not only that, but the next moment Fu Qian even looked over at Henry, urging him to carefully reconsider, acting as if he were afraid the old man wouldn’t try to beat him to death.

”Honestly, I’m not too sure myself.”

”Heh... so how exactly did you establish a connection with the Blazing Rainbow?”

Old Man Henry completely ignored his nonsense, circling directly back to the original topic.

”Fine.”

Fu Qian finally seemed to yield.

”This is it.”

He handed over the Lantern.

”Knock on it three times in a row, and it will randomly project an image of a higher entity.”

”And you actually used it? And just so happened to encounter the Blazing Rainbow?”

Fu Qian’s sheer recklessness clearly left Henry a bit stunned.

”What, do you think it’s too much of a coincidence?”

Fu Qian blinked, firing the question back.

...

Henry fell silent for a moment, especially when his gaze landed on that wisp of Distorted Colors inside the Lantern.

So he did find it familiar?

This reaction naturally didn’t escape Fu Qian’s eyes.

He wasn’t worried about the old man overly questioning his story. Henry’s final whirlpool technique clearly shared some similarities with the Distorted Colors inside the Lantern.

That alone was enough to make Henry believe the Lantern shared a special connection with the Blazing Rainbow.

In fact, that detail was exactly what had excited Fu Qian for a split second earlier.

Despite the old man’s bizarre appearance, a trace of the Blazing Rainbow’s power had indeed surfaced on him.

The absolute ideal scenario would have been for ”It” to finally decide to project over and crush him to dust.

Unfortunately, as things progressed, it seemed this was nothing more than a form of compensation Henry had acquired as a corrupted individual.

Even though Fu Qian hadn’t kept a low profile at all and had even provoked him repeatedly, nothing more extreme had emerged.

...

For Fu Qian, this wasn’t good news.

He had already gleaned most of the information the Old Man could offer during their previous exchange. Fu Qian didn’t think he would be able to pry much more out of him this time.

As it stood, Henry’s only remaining value lay in his connection to the Blazing Rainbow.

And after objectively confirming his shift in Rank through the Eternally Lucid Mind earlier, the next most ideal scenario would have been for the Blazing Rainbow to show up and intervene, effectively proving he had made the right choice.

Unfortunately, the entity never appeared.

Fu Qian didn’t think the Blazing Rainbow was releasing in order to capture, using this method to deliberately bait him into making the wrong choice.

Recalling his previous dealings with Patches, Fu Qian believed the perspective of the Divine Entity regarding tasks mentioned back then was the most likely reality. To these superior beings, they could perhaps perceive a task, but they couldn’t distinguish the number of attempts.

Simply put, no matter how many times he restarted, it only registered as a single, continuous instance in their perception.

It was just like how Patches could only determine how many times the Scavengers had failed based on the SAN Value he harvested.

Therefore, the moment it observed him consuming the correct trait, the Blazing Rainbow would never resort to misleading hints.

It truly operated under the principle of ”treating every attempt as the final attempt,” absolutely refusing to tolerate any high-risk, low-reward behavior.

Given the massive disparity in Rank, violently shutting him down would obviously have a much higher success rate.

And Fu Qian was absolutely certain It could pull that off within the task.

Thus, this was equally an open scheme.

He was using the deadly predicament of directly confronting an ancient Divine Entity in exchange for the Blazing Rainbow’s guidance.

...

Theoretically speaking, as long as the Blazing Rainbow didn’t show up to ruin things, it meant the trait he had consumed was a fake.

Even if he appeared to be a genuine Tier 2 and his state was completely stable.

From the moment he consumed it, Fu Qian had been closely monitoring the changes within himself.

Up to this point, he had confirmed the most fundamental change of all—he seemed to have become immortal.

Yes, immortal in the truest sense of the word.

Earlier, as his old injuries fully healed, Fu Qian realized that his body seemed to be entering an unshakeable, perfectly stable state.

Specifically, no matter what happened to his body, it would automatically revert to the exact moment he fused with the trait.

Even if he were to grow a sixth toe, as long as he didn’t actively expend energy to maintain it, the extra appendage would rapidly wither away.

Concepts like aging and physical growth had simply vanished from his body.

It was just like that Eternity spanning across time.

It was precisely because he realized this that Fu Qian had chosen to face Old Man Henry’s Salted Fish Shop Halo head-on with nothing but his physical body, as well as taking the subsequent whirlpool directly.

And the facts proved him right. Even when faced with an attack of the Divine Emissary Grade, his body still stubbornly purged any distortion.

Coupled with the Decree of Return later on, all the unnatural influences imposed upon his body had dissipated completely within moments.

”The world has always been built on all sorts of coincidences.”

Henry finally spoke up, even handing the Lantern back to him.

”I accept your explanation. I can also share the secrets of the Blazing Rainbow, provided you do one thing for me.”

”Oh?”

”Find a rat.”

(End of Chapter)