Eldritch Horror Theatre

Early morning, Shangjing, smog.

Eyes that had beheld the glory of a Deity were truly extraordinary. It still took Fu Qian some effort to digest the Ancient Reminiscence.

In exactly four and a half seconds, the Gulade Family Secret Treasure vanished completely.

He hadn’t even gotten a chance to practice the complete activation method Serana had taught him a single time.

But considering its contents weren’t exactly meant for outsiders, she probably wouldn’t mind... right?

Perhaps, given the deep camaraderie they had forged in battle, she might even offer to help keep it a secret.

Basking in that optimism, Fu Qian stroked the fangs on his chest as both his mouths sighed in unison.

Filtered through a sage’s Insight, he naturally hadn’t come away empty-handed.

They just weren’t the gains he was looking for.

...That final Lightless Night during the battle for the Sacred Night Capital had been somewhat unexpected.

It wasn’t that the Pope’s assistance was surprising. In fact, at least half his reason for bringing the Blasphemous Embrace was precisely that possibility.

Fu Qian had always counted the Pope’s potential help as one of his trump cards.

He had even considered whether he should contact her in advance to get her input on the two traits.

After all, while possessing absurdly immense power, her mental state was also much more stable than the Red Moon’s.

If he could have obtained reliable advice, he could have just taken the correct trait straight to a safe place to digest.

This was undoubtedly a tempting option, but Fu Qian ultimately hadn’t taken it.

On one hand, in his judgment, since this was the Blazing Rainbow’s meticulously plotted scheme, the chances of the Pope providing useful advice from across dimensions might be slightly higher than the Red Moon’s, but not by much.

At the same time, with both traits already gathered, it would have been nearly impossible for him to cause such a massive commotion without alerting the Blazing Rainbow.

This meant both the Blasphemous Embrace and the Pope would be exposed prematurely.

Paying such a price for a low-probability opinion was a trade Fu Qian ultimately deemed unworthy.

His estimation proved mostly correct. According to the Blazing Rainbow’s final words, the biggest reason she could provide a decoy option was because, as a Higher Existence of this world, she could read the traces of the new trait’s birth.

The Pope was clearly not within this system.

Therefore, asking her for advice was less effective than dealing the Blazing Rainbow a heavy blow at the critical moment.

In the end, the Pope had indeed been a huge help, though her method had been rather unconventional.

Ever since he fired that arrow, he had cycled through different environments and states multiple times, yet there had been zero response from her end.

Including now.

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like something had gone wrong.

As the saying went, worldly affairs are hard to predict. He still remembered that during their last chat, she had even urged him not to die.

...

As for why he had eaten the Ancient Reminiscence, it was actually quite simple.

The Pope had vanished for no apparent reason, her fate unknown. As a Templar Knight, how could he not rush to her rescue?

He had committed to that idea the moment he slipped on the ring.

But there was a critical problem right now. Although the Dark Moon reliably appeared every time he blasphemed the sun, establishing a connection clearly relied on the Pope’s authority.

Not to mention, what he needed to do this time went far beyond simply connecting a line.

Since earlier, every state switch and equipment change had been about adding variables one by one, repeating operations outside of a mission to see if he could provoke a response.

Unfortunately, there was still no movement on her end. It seemed that no matter what he did, he was powerless to affect whatever had happened on the other side of the Dark Moon.

But only seemingly.

For an academic, the initial response to anything they didn’t know how to do was that it could be learned.

That was precisely the purpose of bringing a full loadout from the Warehouse this time.

Based on certain possible connections, he would use Insight to deduce and test a method for a self-service rescue operation.

It would be wasteful, and it might not even yield results, but a mere ”might not” was enough.

...

Given the Ancient Reminiscence’s conceptual ties to the moon, Fu Qian had placed it first on the list.

The results proved that he had indeed gained something.

Fu Qian attempted to translate the new enlightenment in his consciousness into his usual reward format.

[Quiet Reflection and Wandering]

[Continuously cast down moonlight around the body. Targets hit will fall into a special deceleration. Once the deceleration accumulates to a certain degree, they will face the ancient majesty deep within their hearts. The deceleration accumulation is equally effective on oneself.]

The destruction of the Ancient Reminiscence had directly provided him with an ability.

And at first glance, it reminded him of the Moonlight Glade he had seen inside it.

Sure enough, one shouldn’t speak carelessly. He had just joked about not seeing a lunar orbital cannon, and now he seemed to have become the launcher himself.

In all fairness, this harvest wasn’t bad at all. A cool orbital strike from the sky was one thing, but facing the ancient majesty after the deceleration accumulated felt a lot like looking directly at a Deity—it would probably offer a solid crowd-control effect.

However, that phrasing of ”deep within their hearts” clearly didn’t sound like it could reach another world.

Preliminary judgment: useless for his current situation.

But it didn’t matter. For an academic, pivoting to a new perspective when a path was blocked was a basic professional quality.

Fu Qian parted his fangs slightly as he pulled the mask off his face and tossed it in.

If approaching it from the concept of the moon showed no connection, he would try something directly related.

This was, after all, an item born from the Witch’s power.

...

The Pope was truly extraordinary. Digesting the mask took even longer than the Ancient Reminiscence.

A moment later, Fu Qian was uncharacteristically stunned. His first reaction was to check a nearby Mirror.

Right before his eyes, his facial features rapidly morphed into another face, while his Transcendent aura dissipated in inverse proportion.

That was right—Fu Qian wasn’t stunned because he hadn’t gained anything. The concealment effect was still preserved in a special way. The only problem was...

[Dazzling Visage]

[Block observation and completely conceal Transcendent aura. As long as your exterior is gorgeous enough, no one will care about your interior.]

Without waiting for the concealment to complete, Fu Qian canceled the newly acquired ability.

But even so, he still recognized the face in the Mirror.

As long as the exterior is gorgeous enough... Pope, you really aren’t modest at all!

He definitely wasn’t mistaken. The face in the Mirror belonged exactly to the Cosmic Pretty Girl, Nelgria.

Combined with the details of this enlightenment, was the true essence of the Bestowed Mask actually that it contained the Pope’s real face, suppressing everything through her Transcendent charm?

Recalling that face, which seemed to forcibly instill the very concept of ”beauty” into its surroundings, Fu Qian found it simultaneously absurd and completely logical.

But if that was the case, it would be far too weird for him to use it again...

Amidst his sighs, Fu Qian fell into thought, his entire figure rapidly mutating into a non-human, ferocious beast.

This wasn’t bad.

Watching the changes in the Mirror, Fu Qian finally nodded. After shifting into a non-human form, the ability didn’t forcibly overwrite his face with the Pope’s.

Instead, the face of the ferocious beast didn’t seem entirely obedient, automatically developing toward the most delicate and pretty appearance possible.