Eldritch Horror Theatre

This must be why Old Man Stoss insisted he had encountered a mortal back then.

Watching mortal flesh and blood rise to an equal footing with him in under three seconds, Fu Qian immediately thought of a certain Night Watcher Excellency.

Combined with the previous accounts, it was obvious that his visit to Master Yuhun back then had played out much like this current encounter.

It wasn’t a simple disguise. Fu Qian leaned toward the belief that, just moments ago, he really could have crushed the person beside him to dust with a single slap.

It was a manifestation of authority. The other party truly could exist at any Rank—and Tier 2 wasn’t even the limit.

Because right now, in the vivid clash of their auras, his opponent had matched him perfectly. They were dead even.

Not only did they intimately understand his true Rank, but their own true Rank had to be even higher to calibrate their power with such terrifying precision.

Compared to mere coincidence, this was undoubtedly the more logical guess.

And a scene like this was obviously enough to shatter any transcendent’s worldview.

”It does seem hard to judge... But what did you look like originally?”In this battle of the mind, self-deception was undoubtedly the most irrational choice. Without waiting for Master Yuhun to press further, Fu Qian directly acknowledged his words, only to throw a question back at him.

You tell me the endpoint of all searching is nothing but an illusion piled atop a fallacy. Then I have to ask: what was your starting point?

...

”Exactly like what you just saw. An ordinary person.”

He did not disappoint. Master Yuhun bluntly satisfied Fu Qian’s curiosity.

”The only special thing about me was that I was prone to Overthinking. I would ponder seemingly idiotic questions, like ’Who am I?’ and ’Who is me?’... A state I eventually called ’Chan’.”

Casually digging out one of his own eyes and holding it up to look at himself, Master Yuhun showed not a hint of pain on his face.

Instead, he wore a peculiar expression that, combined with the bloody socket left behind, formed a harmony that felt like an absolute truth of the universe.

”Then, day after day, year after year, I began to reach more places. I witnessed more answers, and I saw that they were all wrong...”

”I also witnessed the stupidity of ordinary people, the stupidity of the transcendent, and eventually proved that it was my own stupidity...”

So it really is the cultivation path? Fairness truly is just a lie.

All roads might lead to Rome, but the road conditions varied wildly.

Fu Qian didn’t question the claim, but hearing Master Yuhun speak of his transcendent life made him think of all those regular transcendents working themselves to the bone.

Shedding rivers of blood just to snatch a trait, suffering half to death trying to figure out a ritual—even the safest method was nothing more than joining a major organization to toiling like beasts of burden.

Yet this Chan cultivator in front of him sounded like he’d spent his entire career holed up as a shut-in, constantly pushing the limits of his imagination.

Though practicing the Dao of the Empty Head so much had eventually left a massive hole in his brain, it had genuinely elevated him to an unfathomable realm.

It was even more unreasonable than that bunch from the Sword Comprehension Institute. Once again, Fu Qian felt the dimensional strike aspect of the cultivation path.

Perhaps only those walking the covenant route could slightly rival this brilliance.

Of course, in a way, this profession relied far more on talent, or rather, comprehension.

Not just anyone could preach the Dao, master the past and present, use a single thread of divine thought to reflect a flawless worldview, and then dedicate themselves entirely to practicing it.

He had already experienced the chaos of this world more than once. Frankly, calling it an ’unstable foundation’ was putting it mildly.

Not to mention the cultivation practices seen back during Akons’s time, where everything was reduced to one’s own delusions.

To digest it, you had to swallow it first, and the sheer amount of filth in there was visible to the naked eye.

If an ordinary person walked this path, they would probably go mad faster than if they worshipped an evil god.

”Stupid indeed. I know how to do that, too.”

Of course, praising his opponent was one thing, but Fu Qian still maintained a serious debating attitude. Shifting the conversation, he pointed at his own face.

In the next second, his facial features shifted fluidly, rapidly transforming into another visage.

For a fleeting moment, his aura faintly resembled that of Melia across from him, combining the beauty of both genders.

Accompanying this, his transcendent aura rapidly plummeted.

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine...

Efficient and resolute. In an instant, Fu Qian plunged into the mortal realm, and his face completely morphed into that of a certain Nelgria, the great Dark Moon Pope.

...

Every gesture and movement fully displayed the true colors of an inner demon.

Activating the Dazzling Visage, Fu Qian wore that gorgeous face—one so stunning it made people ignore any inner depth—and looked across with a silent smile.

The distance between God and man was nothing but an illusion; transcendent Ranks could be molded at will.

You’re right. I can do it, too.

Cult leaders feared demystification the most, let alone having it done twice.

Besides demonstrating a reverse shift from God to man, even purely as a contest of looks, Melia’s originally breathtaking face paled in comparison at that moment.

Of course, Professor Fu was a kind-hearted man. He didn’t maintain this cruelty for long, quickly canceling the effect, letting his transcendent Rank rise from man back to God, and casually delivering a third demystification.

”Fascinating. Yet another incomprehensible fallacy. Choosing you was the right decision after all.”

Under wave after wave of impact, Master Yuhun finally let out a gasp of amazement.

So even after establishing this kind of connection, this guy in front of him still couldn’t see through much? All hail the Pope.

At that moment, Fu Qian’s heart held nothing but praise.

Though it sounded like there might have been some shock value, it didn’t affect the other party’s Dao heart in the slightest.

Against idealism players, exploiting bugs was always a good trick.

But as expected of a Chan grandmaster, even when faced with the incomprehensible, he wasn’t easily shaken—though this ebb and flow still managed to let Fu Qian recover a breath of strength.

Fu Qian could suddenly feel the wind again.

From a moment ago until now, all the effort the other party had put in since appearing had gone to waste.

Inner demons truly are hard to eradicate. Your Excellency still needs to work harder. Please, bring out some stronger moves.

”So why didn’t you choose the other outsiders?”

To prevent the other party from giving up, Fu Qian even proactively offered a prompt.

...

”For instance, that hunter who only appears at night? Too monotonous. He’s nothing but a beastly manifestation of greed, merely hiding in that sort of place, easily lured out to feed by a random piece of Carrion.”

As expected, he didn’t disappoint. Master Yuhun not only answered the call, but the example he brought up was extremely interesting.

Night hunter? So that White-Faced Man from Akons’s time was indeed a predecessor?

”Not to mention, he lost the support of that space-time power a long time ago.”

”The reason you are important is because you are still favored, favored by that ancient fallacy of mine... trying in vain to alter the past and make everything correct, when in fact, there is no such thing as correct...”

While Fu Qian let his thoughts run wild, Master Yuhun continued to display a shocking understanding of the Warehouse, even raising the eyeball resting in his palm.

”Put it on.”