Eldritch Horror Theatre

The divine kingdom of the King of the Abandoned Prison was filled with Vacuum Flowers?

Honestly, that sentence alone possessed the distinct air of a higher entity.

It even fit tradition to a certain extent. For example, the Full Moon Garden, symbolizing the power of the moon, also seemed to be in full bloom with Flowing Frost Flowers.

But the underlying implications became rather terrifying when considered closely.

Fu Qian had never treated the Vacuum Flowers lightly.

Regardless of Rank, directly bestowing Transcendent power upon mundane Gold—the nature of such a transformation was already extraordinary.

Not to mention the thirteen suns he had witnessed with his own eyes behind the Vacuum Flowers.

And the number of those thirteen suns perfectly matched the number of prisoners he had seen inside the sun back at the Sacred Night Capital.

Putting all this together seemed enough to form a hypothesis: the Vacuum Flowers were a manifestation of some fundamental power in this world.

Not to mention, he had made another interesting discovery shortly before this.Although he had acquired the Three Faces skill some time ago, it was only while savoring the script of His Excellency the Fool in the Ash Sea that he had used its rarest variant, the Blood Face, for the first time—later naming its effect the Breath of Corruption.

As for the Breath’s specific effect, wherever its formless shockwave passed, the affected targets would rapidly breed Transcendent power.

A chaotic Transcendent power—polluted and maddening.

Didn’t that sound a bit like the Vacuum Flower? Fu Qian had indeed felt a similar sense of déjà vu at the time.

If this was only a one-sided argument, there was another point that seemed to corroborate it—

After exhaling it, Fu Qian had specifically examined his own hand and noted that the shape corresponding to the Blood Face was far more bizarre than the other two.

His entire left hand had taken on a torn, shredded appearance, its tendrils looking as if a plant had violently bloomed from the inside out.

That’s right, the aesthetic was incredibly similar to the Vacuum Flower.

In short, transforming the mortal into the Transcendent seemed to be an essential attribute of the Vacuum Flower.

And now, this power was vaguely manifesting in the divine kingdom of the King of the Abandoned Prison?

As the aforementioned materialization of the Bookstore World’s authority concepts, it was not entirely incomprehensible for the Abandoned Prison to contain manifestations vaguely touching upon the essence of Transcendent power.

But what was the significance of the Eldest Son’s Vision in all of this?

Without it, Fu Qian did not believe he could have produced such a scene.

What exactly did this process of interaction represent?

Besides... At that moment, as Fu Qian looked at the lush ”flowers,” he snapped his fingers.

Following that motion, the scarlet mist that had originally composed them began to rapidly sharpen and condense.

In just the blink of an eye, not a trace of the hazy mist remained. In its place were delicate flowers, as thin as cicada wings and crystal clear.

...

Now, it looked even more like a garden.

Sitting on the throne, Fu Qian nodded slightly, quite satisfied with the changes before him.

Yes, his goal in doing this was simple: to permanently preserve these special flowers in a far more reliable manner.

He had even fully taken the restriction of lacking Transcendent Perception into account during this process.

He could only control what was in his line of sight, and any obscured parts couldn’t be generated, right?

Then what if he just changed them to a fully transparent structure? It even saved a lot of material in terms of thickness.

The results proved highly successful. This barren wasteland of a thousand years finally possessed a touch of elegant grace and luxury.

For a moment, Fu Qian even stood up from his throne and walked among the ”flower beds,” not missing a single shape or vein.

This process was not easy. After all, the appearance of a Vacuum Flower was incredibly abstract. Distinguishing their numerous parts one by one consumed a great deal of eyesight and spatial imagination.

Yet Fu Qian never tired of it, perfectly playing the part of a decadent tyrant lingering among the flowers until he had examined every single Vacuum Flower.

”So I wasn’t mistaken. There really are seventy-nine of them...”

When he finally stopped in his tracks, he let out a soft sigh and muttered to himself.

That’s right. Just now, he hadn’t only been sensing their profound and eerie nature; he had also been repeatedly confirming the number of Vacuum Flowers, a much more superficial concept.

And facts proved the saying: do not neglect a good deed because it is small.

Seventy-nine flowers... That perfectly matched his current SAN Value without the slightest discrepancy.

...

Did it even hold extra information?

Fu Qian had never been one to believe in coincidences. In his eyes, the number seventy-nine faintly demonstrated the authority of the Vacuum Flower once again.

Although he had never fully figured out its specific meaning, the SAN Value stat was arguably the most important concept for an outsider.

”When your SAN Value reaches zero, you will permanently lose your sanity.” This was the warning he had received the very first time he entered the Warehouse.

He had even genuinely encountered cases later on where someone lost their sanity due to their SAN Value dropping to zero.

But what was the reason?

What exactly did the SAN Value represent, and what kind of power descended to destroy one’s sanity after it reached zero?

It could be said that Fu Qian had never given up exploring these questions.

And after discovering the unique nature of an outsider’s constitution within the entire Bookstore World, he grew even more curious about the answers.

But regardless, as an administrator’s most important Health Bar, the exact SAN Value stat had always been confidential.

He had faced so many opponents, including troublesome figures like the Blazing Rainbow and Patches, yet all of them seemed forced to merely guess at that number—which clearly proved this point.

Yet now, it was faintly being represented by the number of ”flowers”?

The claim that Vacuum Flowers represented some essential power of the entire world seemed even harder to refute now.

Of course, not believing in coincidences didn’t mean they were strictly impossible. Relying purely on imagination still lacked a bit of persuasive power.

So, was there any way to verify it?

Of course there was.

It was difficult to restore SAN Value, but depleting it was simple.

Perhaps the Pseudo-God Incarnation Ring couldn’t be used at the moment, but Fu Qian hadn’t planned on spending a full 10 SAN Value points for a test anyway—

[SAN Value -1]

At that moment, he snapped his fingers again, activating a skill called ”Mythical Form” that had been collecting dust for a long time.

Yes, flexible application was very important.

With the rapid advancement of his Rank, this skill—which could once drastically amplify his Combat Power—had fallen completely into an awkward position.

But its side effect was incredibly fitting for this exact moment.

Having successfully caused his SAN Value to change, Fu Qian wasted no time. He once again unleashed a sky full of Crimson Frenzy, and then tied the Ribbon over his face.

...

It actually decreased by one here too?

The facts proved that the Vacuum Flowers were even more stable than he had imagined.

Silently taking off the Ribbon again, Fu Qian looked at the scarlet mist. While its form had many differences, it once again displayed that familiar aesthetic, and he expressed his heartfelt amazement.

After strolling through them once more, the number of this second batch was repeatedly confirmed. There were exactly seventy-eight flowers.