Eldritch Horror Theatre

The recent attack hadn’t robbed Yuan Shan of her judgment.

Even if the attacker truly wanted her dead, that method wouldn’t have been a smart choice. Unfortunately, the name Blazing Rainbow made her teacher overly paranoid—

Yuan Shan’s thoughts suddenly froze. In her field of vision, the teacher shielding her not only failed to respond, but vanished into thin air.

Like stepping through a mirror, his figure appeared in the distant void the very next moment, tearing apart Fang Xun’s... afterimage?

As she stared in growing disbelief, the one who had been passively defending also vanished from his spot.

...

That works too?

At the same time, Fu Qian was no less shocked than Yuan Shan.

His disappearance was naturally the result of activating Blood Crusade.

Given the current situation, there was no reason to stay tangled up with Old Man Henry.After that rather intense probe, he knew the old man was still slightly affected and didn’t plan on calling for backup anytime soon.

Combined with his earlier failure to commit suicide, he could practically confirm that Blazing Rainbow was dead set on a violent resolution. It was willing to pay a price just to get rid of him.

The only reason it hadn’t done so yet was obviously because its true body needed time for a Descent.

After all, this was a historical branch spearheaded by the Warehouse, and its Covenanter was still a traitor.

During this process, the entity used its infiltrated power to ensure he couldn’t commit suicide to escape. At the same time, it had guided Henry straight to him at the very first opportunity, delaying his actions to stop him from advancing the mission.

None of these moves were unexpected. Given the entity’s level of hatred, Fu Qian could perfectly imagine the spectacular fate awaiting him once it truly descended in its complete form.

Having his SAN Value drop to zero would likely be getting off lightly.

So his current course of action was simple, a choice between two options: go all out to complete the task, or go all out to draw the Night Watchers’ aggro and let them kill him.

In the next moment, Fu Qian activated Blood Crusade without the slightest hesitation, heading straight for the soon-to-be-victimized casino.

There was no need to deliberate over this choice. You should never, under any circumstances, place your bets on others.

The only problem was that despite vanishing from his spot, a claw still struck at him with unmatched precision.

Old Man Henry had completely ignored his state change and followed right after him.

...

No wonder Blazing Rainbow had such confidence in its cat.

Amidst the psychedelic overlapping of blood-red dimensions, Fu Qian pushed his speed to the absolute limit. He dodged one claw after another while observing this ferocious hunter acting like an old steed in the stable.

He was absolutely sure there was no blood mist or anything similar rising from the old man’s body.

However, currently covered in interwoven silver and black, the old man was clearly in a very special state.

It was as if his fundamental concept had changed, shifting from Henry into ”Fang Xun’s pursuer.”

This conceptual binding to his target allowed his pursuit to ignore all obstacles, never losing its mark.

The Night Watchers truly are Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!

Faced with this wondrous ability, Fu Qian couldn’t help but marvel for a moment.

At the same time, with a sharp click, he slipped the Sweet Dream Head Cage straight onto his head.

So you can ignore everything, huh? Let’s see you try my invulnerability on for size. Do you even know what it means to be armed to the teeth—

Because of the motion of donning the head cage, Fu Qian—whose appearance was growing increasingly bizarre—was almost disemboweled by a claw.

Shockingly, the old man still hadn’t lost track of his target or dropped out of the Blood Crusade state.

To think such a thing is possible... This is way too well-suited for assassination work!

Marveling even more, Fu Qian canceled the Blood Crusade himself and reappeared behind a streetlight in the Sacred Night Capital.

No problem. If he won’t exit, I will!

Crack!

This rather artistically designed piece of public infrastructure was instantly destroyed by Old Man Henry, who appeared right behind him.

It really is a relentless pursuit. He actually followed me back out.

Unfortunately, no police officers chased after the old man to bring him to justice for vandalizing public property.

Shaking his head secretly, Fu Qian didn’t hesitate for a single millisecond before activating Blood Crusade once again.

Transcendent Tier power was terrifying, to be sure, but what was even more terrifying was the person wielding it.

...

The illusory, blood-red dimension returned to tranquility once more.

Naturally, the same was true next to the streetlight outside.

Having finished destroying public property, the old man was standing completely unfazed on the spot, staring blankly.

It was obvious that the Sweet Dream Head Cage’s gaze isolation effect wasn’t meaningless.

Just because Henry could pursue him and return to the Real World from there didn’t mean he could pull off the far more difficult reverse traversal.

After some rapid flip-flopping, Fu Qian had finally succeeded in shaking his pursuer.

Of course, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for the old man. After all, if he really kept pestering him endlessly, Fu Qian would only be wasting time, but Henry would be losing his beautiful retirement.

Alright, now that the chase is over, time to head for the vault—hm?

In the next moment, having taken a few steps through the blood-red space, Fu Qian noticed a certain change.

Outside, Henry had actually taken a step in the exact same direction.

That works too?

Believing it to be a coincidence under these circumstances would be too optimistic. Old Man Henry couldn’t get in and couldn’t see him, but he could still follow him across dimensions?

That’s way too relentless. Could this be the legendary hunting of the second dimension?

His marveling didn’t delay Fu Qian’s movements. He still headed straight for his objective without hesitation.

If Old Man Henry really did follow him all the way, Fu Qian just hoped the man would be able to control his grief and indignation when he saw the money in the vault later.

...

This is the place.

Although he hadn’t planned a route in advance, finding the casino’s heavily guarded area was still far too easy for Fu Qian.

The dense cluster of security personnel served essentially the same function as a signpost.

Out of respect for their efforts, Fu Qian specifically walked along the designated paths rather than taking the shortest straight line between two points.

The direct consequence of this was that Old Man Henry—who found it terribly inconvenient to come down and was tracking him from a distance on the upper floor—continuously bumped into wave after wave of people before finally coming to a halt, his emotions complex.

It seemed that on one hand, he couldn’t understand why his target was heading this way, and on the other, he didn’t want to cause any more chaos.

Fu Qian didn’t think Henry was usually this cautious. That sense of restraint was most likely guided by Blazing Rainbow.

The trace of special light that had permeated the area earlier had become more gentle and natural, making it difficult to discern.

The other party’s grasp over this spacetime was becoming increasingly precise.

Fortunately, so is mine.

In the next moment, Fu Qian appeared inside the heavily guarded vault, walked past the neatly stacked banknotes, and opened a Box off to the side.

...

This should be it.

Looking down at the contents of the Box, Fu Qian couldn’t help but sigh at the wonders of the world.

It was a middle phalanx bone. Just as Garcia had said, regardless of shape or size, it was highly realistic. It looked more like an orthopedic consumable than a work of art.

At the same time, he could entirely confirm that this wasn’t a body part taken from a living creature, but rather a manufactured product.

The craftsmanship was quite excellent. He couldn’t spot a single flaw, and the entire thing was as delicate and smooth as White Porcelain.

Or perhaps it really was White Porcelain.

This was exactly the reason why Fu Qian marveled.

The moment he saw the finger bone, Fu Qian thought of the Doll in the Rotten Forest.

Although the final gathering team had failed, that clearly hadn’t been the first wave of harvest.

He had been curious earlier about what the Doll fragments would be used for, and now it seemed he had found a small answer.