Eldritch Horror Theatre

It used its unfolding process as a shield, struck back the moment it finished, and exploited the opponent’s presumed desire to save a hostage to maximize its own advantage.

It wrung every bit of utility out of the situation—quite fitting for its intellect.

The only comfort was that the entity hadn’t been naive enough to think it could simply walk away. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have cooperated so nicely in setting up this scene.

A crisp ring echoed. The Eternally Lucid Mind’s supernatural-expelling effect activated, freezing the turtle-necked dragon’s massive body in place.

Clearly, for an entity of its type, this was a completely novel sensation.

The bell wasn’t enough to reduce it directly to nothingness, however. Instead, in that instant, its distinctly inhuman body gained a trace of fleshy frailty, as though it had degraded into a wild beast.

A beast even more robust than he was.

Unfortunately, it couldn’t recognize this advantage itself.

The moment this unbelievable change struck, it abruptly aborted its ambush and retreated with uncoordinated movements, a reaction that thoroughly exposed its mindset.

And Fu Qian’s nearly simultaneous follow-up attack only deepened its confidence in a certain guess.Then, it found the man’s fingers to be as sharp as blades, gouging a deep wound into its chest and abdomen before tearing back out.

Almost in that exact same moment, however, this unprecedented sense of powerlessness rapidly dissipated.

”You’ve been misleading me!”

It swung its clawed arms repeatedly. Though the subconscious counterattack failed to injure its opponent, it successfully forced him back.

Staring at Fu Qian—who was indeed standing there with a smile—a voice echoed from its massive body.

”You didn’t care if that man lived or died at all! You just wanted to trick me into coming out, making me drop my guard against your trap from the very first second!”

...

He was, ultimately, only holding a false rank. Even with the Calamity Authority stacked on top, his ability to seize opportunities and his lethality after ringing the Handbell were still far inferior to the true King of the Abandoned Prison.

Unfortunately, these resentment-fueled words failed to stir any ripples in Fu Qian’s heart. Instead, he was sighing deeply over something else.

The reason he had managed to shake off the Eternally Lucid Mind’s influence a step ahead of the monster was very simple.

Appropriate baiting, coupled with the opponent’s spot-on comprehension, had ultimately secured the desired result: when he used the item, the Pseudo-God Incarnation effect still had a sliver of duration left.

Relying on that Rank advantage, he had bought himself a tiny window of time.

This was also why he had praised the turtle-necked dragon for its cooperative attitude earlier.

If its unfolding speed had been just a fraction slower, ringing the bell wouldn’t have been necessary; it would have only given the opponent a chance to use its physical advantage to swat him away.

Even so, just as his past experiences with it had shown, the Eternally Lucid Mind couldn’t buy that many windows of opportunity against Tier 2 combatants and above.

The last time he instantly killed the Blood Clan elder Shafal, it was largely because he had acted as the true King of the Abandoned Prison.

Regardless, this Visceral Attack—even if its Depth wasn’t quite there—had already secured him a considerable advantage.

As for the entity’s accusation, its intended meaning wasn’t hard to parse.

It simply thought he had feigned concern for the hostage’s life, letting it follow that train of thought to continuously exploit the situation, ultimately believing it could find an opening by attacking the hostage.

Little did it know, the Old Man’s life or death had never factored into his calculations at all; instead, he had reverse-engineered a trap around that exact assumption.

Of course, understanding it was one thing. Fu Qian only had two critiques regarding this mindset. The first was that human hearts are no longer pure; telling the truth always resulted in no one believing him.

The second was that the path of the transcendent was truly unfair.

Given this guy’s IQ, it felt on par with the sword heart he had encountered at the Academy back then. Both operated purely on bestial survival instincts viewed through the lens of a high Rank, completely devoid of true life wisdom.

However, never mind the sword heart wreaking havoc in the Sword Comprehension Institute—the thing in front of him was almost certainly a Tier 2 entity, which was simply unreasonable.

Fortunately, Fu Qian had a wealth of experience in dealing with targets who couldn’t be reasoned with.

For example, using practical action to make it realize the world’s disparities.

Activating Blood Crusade, Fu Qian couldn’t even be bothered to comment anymore; he simply chose to enter a higher-level perspective.

...

Silence spoke louder than words here.

Fu Qian’s calm and decisive reaction yielded immediate results.

The source of the sin plague, already tottering under that Visceral Attack to the point where it could barely maintain its form, likewise didn’t say a word. Dragging a messy pile of entrails torn from its body, it smashed its way outward and dashed toward freedom.

However, no houses collapsed and no structures fell. Astonishingly, it left no breach at all in the direction it had bolted.

The most physical momentum paired with the most conceptual effect?

Witnessing this scene, Fu Qian clicked his tongue in wonder.

Although the sprinting turtle-necked dragon’s flocculent body didn’t resemble a living creature, it at least looked like a solid mass.

Yet the moment it hit the obstacle, it became as weightless as if it lacked a physical body, passing through without any resistance.

Of course, this didn’t mean it had truly left no impact. Fu Qian could clearly sense a trace of transcendent concepts clinging to the spots it had brushed against on the wall, where cracks were now breeding like living things.

Much like the mucus left behind by a crawling snail, it hadn’t truly ignored the obstacles; rather, it had corroded a path for itself on a certain conceptual level.

Very reasonable. Otherwise, wouldn’t it have been easier for this guy to escape by drilling underground? Wait a minute—although it hadn’t gone into the ground, it seemed to be heading up into the sky.

While making these internal critiques, Fu Qian crossed the obstacle completely unimpeded and looked at the massive figure soaring outside.

Wasn’t that transition a bit too seamless?

Of course, Fu Qian hadn’t forgotten the pair of wings on this guy’s back.

But didn’t you treat all matter as nothingness just a second ago? How are you suddenly making use of aerodynamics now?

Faced with this adaptive change, Fu Qian sighed deeply at the sheer shamelessness of it, even as he revealed himself and activated the Thread of Attachment.

The wings striving for freedom instantly plunged back into captivity.

Facing the source of the sin plague once more, even without hearing any desperate roars, Fu Qian could still sense the intense unwillingness in its heart.

And with another solid Visceral Attack, the entity’s already deformed body finally exploded into the air, fluttering like a sky full of silk ribbons.

No notification of task completion chimed, but Fu Qian wasn’t surprised.

The next moment, his figure vanished from the spot again; only this time, what he activated wasn’t the Blood Crusade.

Extreme Hunger Infection.

He instantly traversed the vast sky. When he reappeared, Fu Qian seemed to be suspended in nothingness.

However, without a shred of hesitation, a Burning Frost version of Myriad Tentacles erupted at full force.

Boom!

Within a standard spherical outline, countless lines and planes sliced and tore through space. Immediately after, a sense of weightlessness washed over him, and Fu Qian’s body plummeted from midair.

Accompanying him was a shockwave laden with endless resentment, as well as a massive body that slowly manifested by his feet without a single sound of impact.