Eldritch Horror Theatre

The last thing Yuan Shan saw was Fu Qian dropping a pitch-black Iron Cage directly onto his head.

Her bewilderment lasted only a few seconds before the Iron Cage reappeared in his hands.

Of course, Yuan Shan had no concept of it ”returning.” She was busy introducing their destination.

”Welcome to... the Sacred Night Capital!”

”It’s an honor!”

Fu Qian nodded, playing along perfectly once again.

...

Sure enough, a casual reset didn’t come cheap!

After the pleasantries, Fu Qian—having just used Transcendence—immediately looked down at his hands.

Of the two traits, only the Crystal Sun remained.Once consumed, it stayed consumed.

It seemed the egg had dissipated into some unknowable historical fallacy.

In other words, by using his one and only chance to take back a move, he had completely lost the opportunity to embody ”immortality.”

Fu Qian felt entirely indifferent to this.

Activating Transcendence right away might have seemed overly hasty at first glance.

After all, theoretically, only an hour or so had passed since he consumed the trait.

The cautious approach would have been to test it a little longer before deciding. Even if he confirmed something was wrong and chose to abandon it, he still should have used the opportunity to investigate the mission objective and prepare for the final showdown.

But that was only on the surface.

In Fu Qian’s eyes, that apparent maximization of resources carried a risk he simply couldn’t ignore.

Blazing Rainbow wanted to stop him from taking the right path. Aside from showing up to crush him the moment he consumed the correct trait, the entity had a much simpler method: helping him complete the mission after he consumed the wrong one.

Or, alternatively, making the mission impossible to complete.

Either way, the goal was to force him into a mission settlement he was planning to dodge with Transcendence, permanently locking his state.

So, once he consumed the trait and confirmed no interference had appeared, he had to keep any further investigation strictly restrained.

If Blazing Rainbow tampered with the mission, his only advantage was that the entity didn’t know what his actual objective was.

Those predecessors he encountered in The Abyss last time were clearly part of a stage the entity had set up in advance; the mission could only be shared after the Warehouse took the bait.

Otherwise, the mission would likely have completed itself within seconds of him drinking the trait.

In short, for every extra second he had lingered just now, the risks would have multiplied exponentially.

The more he investigated, the more he helped the entity deduce the nature of his mission.

He couldn’t forget that its turncoat cat wasn’t even physically far from him, and was intimately familiar with Midas.

As for why he had put on the Head Cage at the very end, the reason was simple: before activating Transcendence, he needed to review all his decisions in total isolation, double-checking for any signs that his thoughts had been tampered with.

Besides, resetting would also wipe the Head Cage’s cooldown limit.

Just like the Eternally Lucid Mind.

...

”What is all this mess you’re wearing?”

While he was lost in thought, Yuan Shan had guided him outside, once again noticing the assorted junk on him.

Of course, her shock was slightly less intense than last time, considering he was short one egg.

”It sure is lively here at night.”

Ignoring her surprise, Fu Qian gazed out at the seemingly brighter night sky and let out a long sigh.

What a fast reaction!

The moment he used Transcendence, he realized something was different.

A certain extra, omnipresent sensation naturally reminded him of his past experience in The Abyss.

Clearly, Blazing Rainbow had reacted without even waiting for him to consume the trait.

Was it really not going to give him a single loophole to exploit?

Theoretically, once he confirmed which was real and which was fake, he had another, seemingly safer option besides consuming the other trait inside the mission.

He could kill himself immediately after using Transcendence, failing the mission under those circumstances, and take the remaining trait to a safer place to consume.

Somewhere like the Half-Step Moon, or even his own living room.

But just a moment ago, he had already attempted Homecoming, to no effect.

Although the Red Moon’s state was unstable, this isolation was far too absolute.

Unbelievably decisive. Was it because the disappearance of one trait and his entry into history occurred at the exact same time?

In short, it felt like trying to abandon the mission by killing himself was highly unlikely to work now.

And what if he still refused to consume the trait and forced his way through the mission anyway?

That would probably be even more impossible.

Looking at the subtly shifted hues of the Sacred Night Capital, Fu Qian shook his head inwardly.

”Let me show you a magic trick.”

A magic trick?

To Yuan Shan’s bewilderment, he whipped out a silver revolver and pressed it directly against his head.

”Have you lost your mind?”

Unable to comprehend the gesture, she immediately frowned.

Confused as she was, Yuan Shan wasn’t particularly nervous.

He might have struck the classic suicide pose, but the chances of such a weapon successfully killing someone at the Demigod Realm were practically zero—

Yuan Shan’s train of thought was interrupted by a crisp chime.

Pinched between the fingers of his other hand was a crystal-clear Bell, which he gave a gentle shake.

”What exactly is going on?”

By the time Yuan Shan reached the second half of her sentence, she had already triggered Yesterday Once More, retreating as if electrocuted.

The powerlessness of having her transcendent powers dispelled struck her with massive impact once again.

But the next shock was even more intense: right before her eyes, he pulled the trigger.

...

The expected muzzle flash never came. It seemed to be a dud.

Click, click, click...

Before Yuan Shan could even comment, he continued pulling the trigger without the slightest hesitation.

That was the beauty of a revolver. A single dud didn’t jam the weapon; you could just keep firing the remaining... duds?

Under Yuan Shan’s bewildered gaze, the cylinder of Fu Qian’s revolver cycled through a complete rotation.

The result was a total lack of gunfire.

Truly impressive!

He didn’t try to fire again. Marveling at the outcome, Fu Qian lowered the gun and emptied the bullets from the cylinder.

They were all real, of course—finely crafted ammunition from the Night Watchers.

It was just a pity that even combining the Handbell and suicide simultaneously, he still couldn’t shake off the interference.

And this unnatural rate of duds confirmed his grim theory: Blazing Rainbow was indeed here.

Its Rank was also terrifyingly high. The suppression from the Eternally Lucid Mind was practically negligible against it.

Most importantly, Blazing Rainbow’s goal definitely wasn’t as simple as killing him, because dying only meant losing a single point of SAN Value, which would be meaningless.

At the very least, it had to find a way to wipe his mind and turn him into an idiot.

The situation was incredibly grim!

Fu Qian shook his head, looking at Yuan Shan, who had already recovered from the effects of the Eternally Lucid Mind.

”How was that?”

”Brilliant—”

She clearly wasn’t amused, glaring at him through gritted teeth.

”So what was the point of that little stunt?”

”You really can’t tell?”

Faced with her question, Fu Qian looked genuinely surprised as he reloaded the gun.

”You were the one who provided my ammo. Is this really your standard for quality control?”