Eldritch Horror Theatre

Accelerate.

In that moment, Fu Qian completely stopped suppressing his intuitive urges, even indulging them a bit further.

The result was practically fanatical.

The initially tough flesh gave way like tofu before the sharp tooth, tearing open to expose the internal structures, yet Fu Qian’s movements didn’t stop.

His intuition really was spot-on.

Under his continuous slicing, something distinct finally emerged—exactly what his intuition had predicted.

A string of glands, connected like a cluster of sweet potatoes.

Because of their semi-transparent structure, he could faintly make out the shimmer of the liquid inside, confirming they were indeed the source of the bliss.

There was every reason to believe the interiors of the other Infusion Platforms held a similar structure. Even so, for his intuition to be accurate enough to predict their exact shape and arrangement was still a bit startling.

Equally startling was the dosage.Though the glands were slender compared to the Infusion Platform itself, given the latter’s massive size, their proportional scale was still staggering.

This was no longer a matter of infusion dosage; there was enough here to draw a bath.

Of course, anyone who had experienced that bliss would find it nearly impossible to commit such a waste. The instant they saw it, their only thought would be to grovel beside it and bask in its aura—Squelch!

Like slashing open a jar, the sharp tooth in Fu Qian’s hand moved again, directly disemboweling the largest gland in the cluster.

“Sorry, recklessly wasting heaven’s gifts has always been the corporate culture of my Rebirth Club.”

The azure liquid twisted into a stream and violently sprayed outward. It was just a pity it lacked a showerhead.

The only comfort was that the water temperature was set just right.

...

Bliss washed over his face, yet an endless sense of sin flourished in his heart.

Even though his actions were entirely rational, self-loathing still surged madly.

Slash—

Driven by intense remorse, Fu Qian could only twist his hand back, dragging the sharp tooth across his own chest to leave a deep gash.

Only through this act of penance did the feeling slightly abate.

Squelch—

Then, in the very next moment, the sharp tooth in his hand moved again, tearing open the second gland.

Another geyser of bliss erupted, and his self-loathing instantly scaled a new peak. Fu Qian felt an overwhelming urge to slice his own forehead open—and he actually did.

Relying on his professional anatomical knowledge, he avoided directly injuring his brain, but the sheer pain was enough to bring his mind a slight measure of peace.

Squelch—

The third gland ruptured as well. His swing carried so much force that it was cleaved straight in half, sending the azure bliss pouring down like a torrential rain.

Slash—

Almost the exact instant it splashed across his body, Fu Qian carved another massive gash into his abdomen, right where the Umbilical Cord had been.

As the saying goes: sinning while doing penance would leave even Satan at a loss.

Through this unhesitating self-mortification, despite the agonizing internal struggle, Fu Qian successfully maintained his mobility.

In the blink of an eye, all the visible raw materials of the chemical bliss had been released, giving him a thorough bath.

That was right. His cutting angles had seemed haphazard, but they were actually chosen with meticulous care.

Standing directly beneath them, there wasn’t a single inch of Fu Qian’s body that hadn’t been drenched.

In fact, because so many of his wounds were so deep, the saturation literally reached his internal organs. A portion of it even flowed directly into his skull through the gash on his head.

This level of potency was vastly stronger than being fed by a single Umbilical Cord.

And its true effects were only just beginning.

“Come on, let me see how you like it!”

“How does this feel!”

...

Of course, there was a “you.”

Intuition might be a useful tool, but in the transcendent world, it had to be used with the utmost caution.

Not to mention that, back in the previous Heavens, Fu Qian had already seen at least three different characters rely on their “intuition” to perform actions that were actively detrimental to themselves.

They might not have seen any issue with it, but as a dignified academic pioneer, how could he possibly be as dismissive of his own behavioral logic?

From the very first second that intuition surfaced, Fu Qian had suspected its true nature.

This substance was the very culprit that had lulled him into a deep slumber in the Second Heaven. No matter how you looked at it, if he wanted to take things a step further, he definitely shouldn’t touch the raw materials of this chemical bliss again.

Yet, the demands of his intuition were the exact opposite.

That was what prompted his subsequent climb up the long staircase, as well as the beautiful wish he made right before climbing—hoping that his intuition would become just a bit stronger.

Reality had indeed proved quite beautiful.

As he stubbornly acted against it, that intuition and urge surged so fiercely that, in the end, they were strong enough to forcibly suppress any opposing behaviors.

The reason he had simply turned around and walked away in that situation—without trying to fight it any longer—was because the answer he was looking for was already crystal clear.

There was a will forcing this intuition onto him, driving him to act.

Just as it had with those three people before him.

And this will was so immensely powerful that, even if it dropped its disguise and relied purely on brute force, it was fully capable of dominating his actions.

There was actually a fairly high chance that the long staircase really was the path to the Upper Heaven, but he would never have been able to reach the end.

Fortunately, there was a silver lining: he had never planned on reaching the end anyway, nor had he planned on ascending to the Upper Heaven.

He had been waiting for this “unkind intuition” for far too long.

...

Did anyone actually expect him to climb to the Ninth Heaven step by step?

When he was almost certain there was a pair of eyes watching him from the shadows?

Especially when he was certain that the entity behind those eyes could directly manipulate the will of anyone within the Realm of Bliss.

Matching speed with speed, displaying staggering efficiency, and breaking through three Heavens in a row.

Even while executing those maneuvers, Fu Qian had never forgotten the examples of those three people.

Because of that, even as he advanced unstoppably, he had never underestimated the difficulty of climbing all the way up.

Even now, having ascended to the Third Heaven, he still hadn’t discovered a method for dominating the wills of others in lower dimensions.

But the method undoubtedly existed—the examples were already right there.

This was undeniably an extremely dangerous threat.

And Fu Qian had no intention of betting his entire counter-strategy on the hope that his unique constitution as an outsider would grant him immunity.

As for why he hadn’t been targeted like this earlier, he was more inclined to believe that a certain condition simply hadn’t been met yet.

Perhaps he just hadn’t been in the Realm of Bliss long enough compared to the others, and the entity needed a little time to invade his brain cells.

Or perhaps it was an even more abstract condition based on mechanics of domination he didn’t yet understand. After all, the entity possessed the perspective of a dimensional strike from the Sixth Heaven—a massive six-tier advantage.

But regardless, meeting those conditions was likely not a very complicated process.

The facts had proven exactly that. Despite operating with such terrifying efficiency, he had still encountered an irresistible domination of his will the moment he reached the Third Heaven.

That intuition from just now had obviously been trying to make him embrace the saturation of bliss and fall back into a deep slumber, meaning his path forward had been severed.

As for his deliberately exaggerated acceleration—his goal had actually been quite simple.

Since this bliss could put him back to sleep, was it possible that the foreign will inside his head would also be affected by it? Might it force the entity to step out from behind the curtain just a little, allowing him to extract a bit of information in return?

Never expect excessively idealized, disproportionate gains; that would only lead to self-deception.

The moment he realized how slim his chances were of ascending to the Ninth Heaven, Fu Qian had conceived this exact method of turning the tables on the consciousness dominating him.

He would exploit the information gap—the fact that his opponent had no idea what his true intentions were.

Given that an opportunity like this would only come once, he had done his best to naturally carve as many gashes into his own body as possible, maximizing both the surface area and the effectiveness of the absorption.

Fu Qian blinked, and a sea of pleasure swallowed him whole.