Eldritch Horror Theatre

Mother?

He had to admit, the Clown’s answer actually lived up to his expectations.

Even though the crying hadn’t shown any obvious effect so far.

But considering it had appeared almost simultaneously with the Ash Descent, Fu Qian was fairly confident that the group orchestrating things from behind the scenes had some grasp on it.

They hadn’t disappointed him. They really did have the relevant knowledge, even if the information itself was highly unusual—

”Everyone’s mother?”

Because it was so absurdly abstract, it actually didn’t sound like complete nonsense. Fu Qian casually asked for confirmation.

”Yes, including those self-righteous demigods, and even me—”

The Clown seemed to find it comical himself. His smile grew increasingly exaggerated as he pointed to himself.

”Even His Excellency the Angel of Death. In short, everyone.”...

Interesting. A conceptual biological mother?

The more he spoke, the more exaggerated it sounded. It seemed that not only the group who had dropped fast asleep, but even the demigods couldn’t escape this suppression by seniority.

If that was still somewhat comprehensible, what about the team behind the Eternal Night Plan, or even the person in charge? Could they not escape it either?

This was truly extraordinary, practically a Law Grade existence. His choice of topic was correct.

Nodding slightly, Fu Qian felt very satisfied with his intuition as an academic leader.

But this was only the beginning. If this was true, more details about the Eternal Night Plan seemed to be becoming clearer.

For example, why had every monster and freak in this place managed to learn what was clearly the Ji Clan’s ancestral secret?

At first glance, this was an easy question to answer. After all, based on his previous mission experiences, he could basically infer that the source of the Ji Clan’s Bloodline Power was right here, where The Deep converged.

It was shared with them in a special way by Ji Feng, the Ji Clan ancestor who controlled Unseen Hill.

Even the Mother of Gospel, who had always harbored ill intentions, had tried to use this channel, guiding the creation of the Ji Clan’s Golden Generation in an attempt to smuggle herself across using the Bloodline Power.

In comparison, these characters in Unseen Hill could practically be treated as NPCs in Ji Feng’s dream. Their relationship was only closer, not more distant. Wasn’t it perfectly normal for them to receive a little of that grace?

It certainly sounded fine at first, but there was a minor detail here—the Ash Descent was induced by the Angel of Death’s team. It was a core part of the Eternal Night Plan.

Regardless of whether it fundamentally represented Ji Feng’s will, this meant that to this team, the Ash Descent was a controllable method.

That is, within their plan, they indeed had a way to manipulate it.

How exactly was the Ash Descent triggered? This had originally been a rather difficult question to grasp, but when considering the Ji Clan as an example, it suddenly seemed like he had a reference point.

Mother... What title could represent Bloodline Power better than this?

Was it possible that the Ash Descent on these people right now was of the exact same nature as the Ji Clan’s, also being an ancestral legacy?

A bunch of monsters and freaks sharing one biological mother might be hard to imagine.

But don’t forget that in his earlier discussion with Cass, it had already been theorized that the bloodline inheritance of Transcendent Tier power could be much more conceptual and abstract.

For instance, right now, it was like forcefully writing both humans and ghosts into a family tree, thereby granting them inheritance rights...

And this also seemed to explain, to a certain extent, why that crying was only heard after the Ash Descent had expanded.

Furthermore, as it deepened, the crying grew clearer.

At that moment, Fu Qian deeply felt that his current research topic on bloodlines had gained another precious case study.

Of course, there was still a very practical question right in front of him: How did A Wei force a group of people to acknowledge a mother?

”Interesting... So that’s why those guys are sleeping so soundly?”

A series of thoughts flashed by, but they didn’t delay Fu Qian from offering his praise.

Clap! Clap, clap!

What answered him was actually the Clown’s enthusiastic applause.

”The Angel of Death’s brilliant plan has finally found an audience who knows how to appreciate it!”

...

The words were complimentary enough, but it was hard to hear any respect for his superior in them.

In Fu Qian’s eyes, the Clown didn’t even need to finish a single sentence to be fired eight times over.

”You’re exactly right. The core of the entire plan is to let every single person in Unseen Hill be embraced by the word ’Mother’.”

Unfortunately, the Clown was completely oblivious and continued to share core secrets.

”Achieving this isn’t easy, or at least that’s what His Excellency the Angel of Death said... It’s a guidance that only he can accomplish.”

The last sentence was clearly an imitation, but unfortunately, his reenactment of the originally domineering line felt rather off.

”You just believed him because he said so?”

He could imagine the scene, but Fu Qian also believed in the rebelliousness of this bunch of super criminals. He didn’t think they were so easily persuaded.

”It’s reasonable enough. After all, he already proved earlier that he could guide the actions of others—at the same time, although Mother’s power is incredibly strong, she is completely unable to communicate with the outside world, and it seems only he can utilize it.”

The Clown sounded surprisingly easy to persuade. His last sentence was clearly just like the previous one, repeating what A Wei had said, and it contained a massive amount of information.

”There’s actually a real ’Mother’?”

Fu Qian was suddenly very intrigued.

”Of course there is. She’s not even a demigod, just like me.”

The Clown replied crisply, placing a hand to his ear at that moment in a listening gesture.

”With crying this real, did you actually think it was fabricated?”

...

”Makes sense.”

At that moment, Fu Qian signaled that he couldn’t fault the logic.

With the Ash Descent filling the sky, although the crying within it wasn’t particularly loud, the details were noticeably fuller.

So much so that one could almost picture the scene—a young woman sobbing.

It wasn’t even a contrived sort of sadness; exactly as mentioned before, it carried a dreamlike haziness.

”Not a demigod, yet she has a bunch of demigod offspring... Not bad. What exactly does she look like?”

It seemed like idle chatter, but in reality, everyone was carefully managing their boundaries.

For example, the Clown clearly knew that if his answers lacked sufficient weight, this tacitly agreed-upon stalling tactic would likely fail.

Yet in such an atmosphere, Fu Qian was muttering to himself, unexpectedly focusing on someone’s appearance.

”Hmm... Like that.”

After a brief silence, the Clown actually gestured toward The Lake.

Silently, the Rubber Duck he had thrown down earlier had already reached the center of The Lake.

And the overlap between the two worlds was quite obvious by now.

So much so that the overlapping crowd at the bottom of The Lake in that spot was already incredibly clear.

At the same time, a figure lay quietly on the surface of the water, seemingly floating in the void.

Her face couldn’t be seen from this angle. Her platinum-blonde hair spread out softly, and her clothes were indeed in a youthful style.

”I see. I might actually know her name...”

Fu Qian sighed in realization at that moment.

”Sophia.”