Eldritch Horror Theatre

A misfortune for the sect.

Just as he was lamenting the founder of the Rebirth Club neglecting their proper duties, Fu Qian suddenly realized that as the organization’s current pillar, he was in the exact same situation.

He dabbled in limb grafting and the Law, popping up everywhere except at his actual post.

In fact, theoretically, his own behavior was even more egregious.

After all, the prosthetics he grafted were things like Three Faces, and his Law was merely a pseudo-core like Misanthropy.

”It truly is a brilliant method. Had I not noticed the anomalies in the Law here, even I would have found it difficult to confirm his true Rank.”

Different positions brought different concerns. While Fu Qian fretted over the organization’s work ethic, Excellency Patches was entirely focused on the aforementioned concealment effect.

His evaluation was evidently high. He noted that without the preconceived knowledge that the Archipelago was influenced by the Power of Law—and that someone might use it to hide their Rank—even he wouldn’t have easily deduced the Master’s true strength.

”It’s another reason he’d rather expose himself to stop us from advancing. Once he went inside, he likely would have been exposed anyway.”

Fortunately, Fu Qian was quite adept at multitasking. He smoothly agreed with Excellency Patches, adding a few more details.”It’s clear enough in hindsight, but it’s still quite gratifying to see you navigate so accurately while walking in the dark.”

As expected, the better Fu Qian performed, the happier Patches became. He chuckled and cast a glance ahead.

”It looks like Sha Ming is the mastermind behind all this, the top player in this lively spectacle—how do you plan to deal with him?”

Top player. Deal with him.

Wasn’t that quite a sudden pivot?

Hearing the question, Fu Qian sighed inwardly, thinking that Excellency Patches truly lacked the dignity of a higher entity and relied on terribly bombastic phrasing.

Still, he could understand why the question was asked—Brother Sha Ming seemed to have reached a stalemate.

From the moment he revealed his true form until now, Fu Qian and Patches had been chatting for quite a while, yet the bow of the ship remained entirely silent.

The revelation of his true form wasn’t some illusion visible only to Fu Qian and Patches.

On the contrary, Old Man Ibu, who was already at a disadvantage, was visibly stunned into silence watching Sha Ming suddenly burst out of his disguise.

First, why did his opponent suddenly transform? Second, why transform when he already had the absolute upper hand?

His sanity was taking a severe hit.

Crucially, Ibu wasn’t the only one silent; the man himself was even more dumbfounded.

Sha Ming certainly knew he hadn’t wanted to transform, but the question was: who did this to him?

Ibu, standing opposite him? Let alone a mere demigod, this was a disguise bolstered by the Law—

One could only say this was perhaps the aura of a true higher entity. Excellency Patches tore off whatever he wanted and looked at whatever he pleased, completely unconcerned about the societal impact of ripping off someone’s disguise.

In short, the situation was deadlocked. It even looked like it could remain that way for quite some time if no one intervened.

”His vision is limited. Aside from having a slightly higher Rank, how is he any different from the Master we saw earlier?”

Unfortunately, Fu Qian truly had no intention of intervening. He took a single glance and shook his head.

”The Power of Law demands fierce, unblemished purity, yet he twisted it into a trap for backstabbing. Relying merely on petty scheming to cut corners, I’m afraid he’ll struggle to advance another step for the rest of his life.”

”Isn’t that because you dismantled the ladder to his advancement? Besides, it looks like he did a decent job. Even in this unstable state, he still managed to make that scrap of paper take effect again.”

Professor Fu’s strictness was entirely unexpected.

For a moment, Excellency Patches couldn’t help but speak up in his defense, as if he had already forgotten he was the one who just reached out and ripped off the man’s disguise.

Moreover, what he said didn’t seem entirely wrong.

Earlier, they had deduced that the White Tower Codex hadn’t revived on its own, but rather had a driving force behind it.

Now, on one hand, Sha Ming appeared to be that driving force; on the other, judging from the current state of the Archipelago, he was driving it quite well.

Aside from this Divine Dream, everything as a whole was rapidly undergoing formatting.

If he could use Fu Qian to excise the tumor that was the Laboratory, he might even manage to create a Heavenly Kingdom on Earth in the future.

That’s right. In Fu Qian’s view, this was the likely motive behind Sha Ming’s painstaking efforts to send him in here.

”Mysterious background,” ”unpredictable temper”—these were the exact evaluations Sha Ming had personally given earlier.

What kind of considerations would generally prompt someone to send such an uncontrollable pawn into the most critical nexus of the entire situation?

The pawn might not heed your warnings, obey your commands, or even spare a glance at your bribes.

From Sha Ming’s perspective as a schemer, had he never considered the risks involved?

The probability of that was far too small.

The possibility Fu Qian leaned toward was that, just as he himself didn’t care about the fifteen-minute warning, Sha Ming didn’t care at all about the pawn’s true goals.

”As long as you go in once”—the signs were already evident in that overly broad condition.

When you shoved an uncontrollable beast into a prison cell, you might not be able to guarantee anything else, but the beast tearing the cell apart was a near-certainty.

Sha Ming’s target was this residual dream itself—you can wreak as much havoc as you want; if I start worrying, I lose.

”That’s true. It’s not easy to pull that off.”

Pondering Sha Ming’s sinister intentions didn’t delay Fu Qian from offering a fair assessment.

”But—” This time he didn’t even need Patches to play along, as Fu Qian immediately pivoted.

”I just suspect that he wasn’t the one who did this.”

”With the artifact spirit lost and its connection to the Dream of the Deity severed, it’s truly hard to imagine how it could be brought back to life, not to mention that Sha Ming lost the Record of Honored Truth.”

”As for this current strength that looks like Tier 2, it’s hard to say whether it’s even genuine.”

Amid the Clamor of the Archipelago, Fu Qian toyed with the folding screen in his hand and spoke with assurance, taking the opportunity to demonstrate the sensitivity of his Calamity Radar.

Indeed, the final losses in West Plain didn’t seem to have affected what Sha Ming gained back then.

He still seemed to retain the Tier 2 status he had successfully ascended to with the help of the Record of Honored Truth.

Even so, Fu Qian remained skeptical about his ability to achieve something on this scale.

Gradually formatting an entire region—even the old gentleman of the Golden Tree in West Plain was only capable of that much.

”Hmm... that does make sense. Let me take a look.” Whether he also remembered that old friend was hard to say, but Patches listened carefully.

He nodded and unexpectedly reached out his hand once again, aiming for the folding screen in Fu Qian’s hand.

However, he didn’t snatch the item back. Instead, he tapped his finger against it three times.

Ding, ding, ding—

A crisp, clear sound rang out, giving off the distinct impression of someone summoning a genie.

Oh?

There was actually an unusual reaction.

A faint radiance lit up, seeping out from every character on the screen. It coalesced into a smoky, mist-like mass before struggling into a humanoid shape.

”Impossible—” came a somewhat familiar roar.