Eldritch Horror Theatre

’Crimson Frenzy. It really is.’

Unlike the silent cellmate across the way, Fu Qian had naturally noticed the two visitors long before they opened the door.

His perception was blocked, but only to a certain degree.

It would be a bit much to expect Siren’s mass-produced pillories to completely blind a Tier 2 transcendent.

Fu Qian was simply curious about their intentions.

That, and the creeping cold—which was why he had asked about the ice earlier.

The chill was genuinely bone-piercing, even for a transcendent.

Clearly, some rather terrible changes were taking place in this prison. His cellmate knew nothing about them—but he wasn’t entirely oblivious either.

Fu Qian somewhat believed the man’s claims of having undergone four or five months of mental cultivation. If a little noise was enough to make him snap today, there had to be an objective reason for it.

That patch of blood-red lines crawling under his sleeve was unmistakably Crimson Frenzy.Fu Qian remembered the unique curse perfectly; he had encountered it shortly after taking over as the administrator.

The severity here was definitely milder, but it was virtually identical to what Shadow Nightmare had displayed back in the Safe House at Eldest Miss Wen’s old home.

It seemed Team Leader Tan Mingxue’s horror at the time hadn’t been an overreaction after all.

Even as a Tier 2, he was still being affected by it.

According to Team Leader Tan’s explanation, if left unchecked, it would heat the victim’s blood until it boiled.

Ultimately, the flesh would rot away. The bloodlines would migrate to the surface of the skin, peel off completely, and even become living, independent entities.

Truly not a pleasant prospect.

Additionally, the few benefits Team Leader Tan had mentioned back then—like boosts to speed and strength—were clearly spoken from the perspective of ordinary experts.

Experiencing it firsthand, Fu Qian found the enhancement for himself to be virtually nonexistent.

”How could this be...”

While Fu Qian marveled at this, his cellmate, having just confirmed his own condition, was clearly struggling to accept their current predicament.

It made sense. This was something even the Night Watchers found tricky to deal with. Compared to sitting in a cell, losing his freedom, or enduring psychological torture, the mental pressure brought by this curse was far worse.

”I told you I don’t know. Of course, you can stay here and slowly figure it out on your own—what about you?”

Unfortunately, no one was in the mood to offer him counsel at a time like this.

Footsteps sounded. Fu Qian knew the person who had untied him had already stepped aside, and that last question was unmistakably aimed at him.

”Heh... interesting.”

With another hoarse chuckle, Fu Qian finally rolled his sleeve back down and turned to look.

She had shoulder-length black hair and dark eyes. While her strength was decent, she made no attempt to hide her age—faint fine lines were already visible at the corners of her eyes.

Of course, even so, she looked far better in the same ill-fitting gray prison uniform than he did.

”Let’s go.”

Exuding the aura of a seasoned veteran, Fu Qian neither answered her question nor asked any of his own. He simply took the lead and walked out.

......

The legendary Lotus Hell couldn’t be much worse than this, could it?

Stepping out of the cell under their watchful eyes, he felt the temperature plummet once more.

Freezing mist could faintly be seen rolling through the air. Long icicles hung down, to the point that the very contours of the Corridor had changed, and the side paths were nearly obscured.

Taking in the sight before him, Fu Qian believed that no matter how frenzied his cellmate might be, just standing out here would be enough for him to feel the chill.

”Our people are right behind there.”

At this moment, the dark-haired woman actually followed him right out, looking in the same direction as she explained.

She pointed toward the heaviest concentration of frost—the corner of the fork Fu Qian had just noticed, which looked almost completely sealed off by ice at a glance.

The reason it was significantly worse there than elsewhere was a particular feature: a downward-jutting stone ceiling could be seen there, making it very suitable for frost condensation.

Honestly, the necessity of such a decorative arrangement for a prison was virtually nonexistent.

Even on the stone floor of the same material beneath their feet, one could see overly exquisite decorative patterns.

It seemed this underwater prison hadn’t originally been built for its current purpose, but was remodeled later.

”How many people are there?”

Observing quietly, Fu Qian didn’t act deliberately aloof, casually checking their numbers.

The reason these two had run over to open doors and release people was, of course, not out of pure goodwill, but to gather all the strength they could unite on the path to survival.

When they had revealed the Crimson Frenzy on their bodies a moment ago, one could see their infections were indeed much more severe than what he and his cellmate had.

Combined with their subsequent explanation, the grim reality of the current situation was not hard to understand.

On one hand, the Crimson Frenzy—which made many transcendents turn pale at the mere mention—had silently spread throughout the entire prison, and it looked like almost no inmate was spared.

On the other hand, a severe cold that even ordinary transcendents couldn’t withstand had attacked this place, making their survival situation even more difficult.

Still, one had to look on the bright side. The cold was indeed biting, but their gradually boiling blood made up for it.

Combined, most of them wouldn’t even need to rush to put on extra clothes.

”Not many. More than half the cells are empty, and not everyone could hold on long enough to be released... We don’t have much time left to keep doing this, either.”

Gently shaking her head, the dark-haired woman plainly recounted the current situation.

”Understood.”

Fu Qian nodded, understanding what she meant.

Even if only a fraction of the cells held people, this place was clearly quite large; there was no need to rush to such a pessimistic conclusion.

But gathering manpower was for the sake of better escaping with their lives, and they didn’t have much time left.

They couldn’t just exhaust themselves gathering a team, only for their own bodies to succumb to the outbreak of the Crimson Frenzy and be conveniently executed, could they?

”What exactly is going on... is the path back up still there?”

Amid their brief exchange, a new voice came from behind; it was unmistakably the cellmate joining the discussion.

After the initial shock, he had clearly finally thought through his situation and quickly hurried out to catch up with them.

”It’s gone. We’re still looking for a way out.”

The dark-haired woman shook her head again, not holding his earlier hesitation against him.

Though this had nothing to do with being magnanimous; everything was just to survive.

They had already spent the effort to open the door and release him, and had found a potential asset with a lighter degree of corruption. How could they casually give him up?

The fact that she hadn’t hurried Fu Qian while he stood there looking at the scenery already demonstrated her attitude quite well.

Saying what she did earlier was just to give the cellmate a bit of a sense of crisis.

”Why? Has the passage been completely cut off? But even if it is, can’t we just break open this place and swim up from the outside?”

However, it seemed to have been a little too successful; in that moment, the cellmate once again failed to control his emotions.

”Because we can no longer swim...” the dark-haired woman said, her voice calm and low as she took the lead.

”The sea has also frozen over.”