Eldritch Horror Theatre

Legend had it that a master once took his enemy’s daughter as a disciple, guiding her until he manipulated a tragedy of kin turning against kin. Only then did his hatred subside.

While the current situation couldn’t exactly be compared to that—since Wen Li was theoretically trying to save a life—it was hard for Weilong and Professor Yang not to feel a similar sense of tragedy.

Following their earlier reminder, Professor Fu quickly made a flexible adjustment.

As Wen Li took a deep breath and finally stepped forward at his instruction, a heavy, desolate mood filled the air.

Professor Yang looked ready to storm out in disgust. Yet, in the silence, Weilong ultimately chose not to voice any objections.

This joint consultation was rapidly becoming indescribable.

”Keep it on a loop. Don’t stop until I say so.”

Professor Fu continued to pile on the pressure, specifically instructing Wen Li to ensure the treatment ran its full course.

”Mhm.”

She offered neither hesitation nor questions, simply giving a light nod as her gaze fell upon the still-incomplete face before them.The corpse-like body suddenly gave a faint tremble.

...

Every single face was distinct.

As the artistic healing commenced, Fu Qian carefully inspected the faces gathered beneath the target’s feet.

He concluded that this was completely different from the Laria Family’s situation.

The features were noticeably distinct from one another. This wasn’t a case of searching for one perfect face among a pile of rejects; it felt more like the person had entirely forgotten what they looked like.

His earlier comment about the faces appearing to climb hadn’t been mere rhetoric, either. He could clearly see that they still retained some sort of vitality.

In fact, as they overlapped and interlocked, they didn’t just fuse with one another—they were actively integrating into the victim’s body, draping over it like a bizarre robe of skin.

Considering there were both male and female faces in the mass—and that a few even looked somewhat familiar—Fu Qian found it enough to prove the truth of Old Man Weilong’s earlier claims.

The ”pollution” stripped from countless victims had piled together to create this horrific state.

The way this overlapping pollution interacted was ruthlessly ravaging the victim’s cognition.

If they hadn’t been forcibly sedated, they would have gone completely insane by now.

Of course, there was no sedating them now.

A Demigod Tier Kaleidoscope packed an impact that could not be underestimated.

Even without hearing the music directly, the audience’s reaction made it clear that Wen Li was strictly following his orders. She had indeed chosen a cheerful melody.

Muscles tensed and veins bulged; the sheer power of the music radiated from the victim’s mangled body.

Even the multitude of faces clustered around their lower half broke into wide, synchronized smiles.

...

It’s about time.

Feeling the beautiful emotions transmitted by the melody, Fu Qian silently told himself.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noted that Old Man Weilong and Professor Yang didn’t seem to share in the joy. They simply watched on with stiff expressions.

It wasn’t surprising. Immense power was one thing, but an old mindset was still an old mindset. It was only natural for them to reject new things.

Then let’s see how Impermanence, or Master Yuhun, performs.

At that moment, Fu Qian reached into his coat. A single drop of blood welled up from his finger and smeared across a soft object hidden inside.

The Burial Scroll—the Witch’s Parting Gift, and arguably the greatest prize he had claimed from his previous operation.

A single drop of blood was enough to activate it, though it required a one-day cooldown between uses.

This was one of the key factors in his earlier assessment that the timing was right.

As for why he had gone to the trouble of reaching into his coat instead of just letting his chest bleed directly onto it?

His wardrobe had suffered far too much wear and tear lately. Fu Qian figured he ought to be a little more frugal.

The second reason the timing was right had to do with the victim’s current state, as well as the current state of Linghui as a whole.

He hadn’t pushed the situation to this point just to fray the two old men’s nerves—

A bizarre sensation washed over him, like a newborn opening its eyes for the very first time.

In that instant, Fu Qian confirmed that the Pope’s idea actually worked. Even in this world, the Artificial Sensory Component had been successfully matched and activated.

More importantly, he sensed that the two demigods in front of him weren’t the only ones watching him right now. There were many, many other eyes fixed on him from across the Linghui Courtyard.

...

Not bad at all.

He didn’t spend too much time savoring the thrill of briefly regaining his sight, nor did he signal Wen Li to stop. In that moment, Fu Qian simply offered an indiscriminate response to all the eyes watching him.

Just as he had noted earlier, his recent series of maneuvers had indeed been driven by an ulterior motive.

And his current discovery proved just how necessary that ulterior motive had been—were Old Man Weilong and the others really completely fine?

Anyone looking at the victim’s horrific state would naturally assume, by pure contrast, that the rest of them had fully recovered.

That assumption was only reinforced by the Linghui Courtyard’s expertise in such matters.

But respecting professionals was one thing. Fu Qian had pointed out early on that self-reflection was an incredibly difficult task, and that sometimes, professional knowledge itself became a hindrance.

He currently lacked the inspiration to directly verify Weilong and the others’ conditions.

But even before activating the scroll, Fu Qian had maintained his good habits, directly mapping out a deduction for the worst-case scenario.

After all, there was no guarantee the scroll would work, and even if it did, its duration might be less than ideal.

For the Linghui Courtyard, the best possible outcome following his and Cass’s earlier warnings would have been a thorough self-examination that completely eradicated their hidden inner dangers.

A slightly worse outcome was what they were seeing right now: the hidden dangers hadn’t been eliminated, but they were being contained through special methods.

But there was also a worst-case scenario, one where they merely thought they had it under control—harboring the corruption without realizing it and collectively shifting the blame onto a single person, resulting in a tragedy akin to the Passion.

Such a scenario would be even more misleading than if they had all miraculously recovered.

And if that worst-case scenario were true, what exactly was the current state of Old Man Weilong and the others?

It was precisely to answer that question that he had engaged in so much rapid flip-flopping and abstract behavior just now.

Chief Yuan’s special recruitment, Wen Li’s melody... every single action was calculated to leave them at a loss for how to react or comment.

And sure enough, Old Man Weilong and Professor Yang had been staring blankly for longer and longer—just like His Excellency Ariel back in Shangjing.

Yes, confused without even realizing it. Fu Qian’s immediate suspicion was that they had entered the state of a holy fool.

He already had experience dealing with this phenomenon: when faced with overly complex changes, the reactions they computed would suffer a lag.

Admittedly, Old Man Weilong and Professor Yang were managing to look a bit more natural about it than Ariel had.

Unfortunately for them, in the eyes of a careful observer, their delayed responses only made them look increasingly suspicious.

There was still one lingering question, however. Both men exhibited similar delayed reactions, yet their interactions with each other remained perfectly normal. Was it possible that Classmate Xiao Ai was connected to a network?

He hadn’t seen anything like that while dealing with Ariel—though he had encountered networked situations before.

Back in Baerluk, during that real-time, improvised group play.

A play where quite a few of the actors had also been elderly men.