Eldritch Horror Theatre

The Codex was the art of right and wrong. Naturally, that included the principle that there are things to do and things not to do.

The scene before them was clear. Patches had hit his first obstacle while trying to drag the entity out of the pool of blood.

”It’ll break if you force it?”

Fu Qian doubted the deceiver lacked the physical strength. He had to have stopped out of other concerns.

”It will.”

Sure enough, Patches gestured toward the spot where Sanxun had sunk.

”You could say there are two Cores of Law in there right now. You might not have done anything, but the White Tower Codex is already taking effect.

”While it increases the stability of the dream to some extent, it also rapidly multiplies the restrictions.”

Clearly, their guess had been spot on. Ibu and Sha Ming hadn’t found their way to the shipwreck yet.

”And the problem doesn’t stop there. Ever since that thing noticed your Glove, it has been rapidly burning itself out, to the point where I’ve had to adjust my expectations.”That didn’t even sound like the last of the bad news. Soon after, Patches pointed at the Corrupted Blood struggling on the Glove.

”We have half an hour left, at most.”

Oh? Was it really this thrilled to sense Annalise’s aura?

Put that way, it was probably a good thing the Corrupted Blood had only just recognized it.

The countdown had suddenly skipped ahead. Having their window of operation compressed so drastically was terrible news.

However, watching the struggling mass on his Glove, Fu Qian was still prone to looking on the bright side.

Honestly, despite being called Corrupted Blood, it was the cleanest specimen among all the similar entities he had seen.

Patches had explicitly stated that this impulse came from the ”living thread,” but not only did it lack that unpleasant stench, even its scent of blood was remarkably faint, like some shoddy, illegally adulterated knockoff.

So, judging by his tone, even this watered-down reaction was already exhausting the living thread’s strength?

As an important component of the residual dream, this reckless self-combustion would undoubtedly have a massive impact.

If it had recognized Annalise’s Lies right away and entered this state, they might not have even gotten the chance for pointing at nine and discussing heroes earlier.

This was probably a classic case of how misfortune harbors fortune.

Of course, the situation still looked grim. No matter what the Corrupted Blood wanted to do, it seemed banned by the White Tower Codex.

As mentioned earlier, the Law was excessively fierce and pure. Forcibly dismantling it head-on would most likely cause the residual dream to collapse instantly.

But if they did nothing, it would collapse in the blink of an eye anyway.

Even though they had the right direction, this hard-won glimmer of an opportunity now looked like another dead end.

”I’ll hurry, then.”

But as everyone knew, Excellency Patches had already tested his ability to handle dead ends.

Meeting his gaze, Fu Qian nodded.

”Hehe—I’ll leave the hard work to you, then.”

Dumping the responsibility in less than a second, Patches wore an expression that said he hadn’t chosen the wrong person as he offered his verbal encouragement.

”It’s no trouble.”

Fu Qian casually returned the pleasantry.

How did that saying go again—nothing exists outside the mind?

Snap!

With a casual snap of his fingers, Fu Qian activated the Decree of Return.

Everything was as pure as before.

Even when exchanging pleasantries, one had to be reasonable.

Saying it was no trouble wasn’t just empty talk; this was an aura, after all.

Once activated, he just had to stand there without expending an ounce of extra effort.

How should two combatants who both possessed the Power of Law fight when they clashed?

To Fu Qian, this was a question he had considered for a long time.

This power, the ultimate manifestation of order, undoubtedly possessed very distinct characteristics compared to other Transcendent Tier abilities.

In theory, as long as one side seized the initiative or fought on their home turf, the difficulty of a head-on confrontation was immense.

A stark example was Laerdin. Blood Clan Jacques, whose Rank hadn’t even been considered high, casually unleashed a Law Grade restraint and even possessed a legendary one-hit kill.

To draw an analogy, this power was like a system command. As long as the formatting was complete and it was integrated into the directory, it was difficult for anything to escape its restrictions.

It also prevented standard Transcendent Tier beam-clashing scenarios, like one side claiming to be ”invulnerable” while the other side tried to ”pierce” that ”invulnerability.”

Taking the initiative meant exactly that. Latecomers could only act according to the established rules.

More importantly, when Jacques made his move back then, he hadn’t even been backed by a genuine Existence Core of the Law.

According to the analysis in the Chronicles of the Moon, the genuine Core of Law had seemingly engaged in rapid flip-flopping between the two worlds due to the Dark Moon’s methods.

What Jacques had relied on was actually a False Law, similar to the state of the Tree of Corruption.

Right now, although the White Tower Codex was relatively weak, with the return of the genuine Core of Law, it was bound to be even more invulnerable.

So the question was: faced with this kind of invulnerability, how could one fight back?

This was where the phrase ”academic achievements rely on gradual, everyday accumulation” truly showed its weight.

Regarding this subject, not only had Fu Qian considered it for a long time, he had even conducted field tests during his exploration of the Ash Sea.

The King of Angels, the Chief Judge—this higher entity who had appeared in the second act of Etched Intellect had once demonstrated a Power of Law similar to that of the Golden Tree.

That also somewhat explained why the Angel Godhood Sequence, much like the Followers, possessed an effective special attack against SAN Values.

During his confrontation with the Chief Judge back then, especially when facing the near-fatal power of ”Conviction,” he had drawn a precious conclusion: Laws didn’t conflict with one another; they only coupled.

Yes, a fully-formed Power of Law seemed utterly unreasonable, but it wasn’t impossible to handle.

You didn’t need to be strong enough to destroy the source of the Law. You just needed to write your own terms, and the two would automatically couple and coexist.

Someone might ask, what if there was a contradiction between the two? The kind where it seemed normally impossible for both to exist simultaneously.

It didn’t matter. You just had to redefine ”normal.”

He had used a triangle as an example back then. If one strictly demanded that ”the sum of its three interior angles” and ”not equaling 180 degrees” hold true simultaneously, the surrounding space would be forced to become non-Euclidean geometry.

Now, on one side was the White Tower Codex, inheriting the genuine Power of Law and even overseen by the Third Follower. On the other side was the embodiment of Misanthropy, acting as a Pseudo-Law Core. What kind of sparks would they create when they collided?

It was truly something to look forward to. And with just a little thought, it was obvious that the Corrupted Blood caught in the crossfire wasn’t going to have a good time.

But as winding paths lead to a secluded place, perhaps it would find a silver lining and obtain a slim chance of survival?

Of course, the most important thing was that this meant he didn’t need to forcibly dismantle the Codex and shake the foundation of this Divine Dream.

Coming prepared wasn’t just an empty phrase. Ever since he confirmed that the Law would be an important element of this trip, Fu Qian had been ready to apply this research result.

Buzz—facts proved that it triggered an instant reaction.

The Decree of Return, which had always been known for its low-key visuals—so much so that one usually couldn’t even tell it was activated on the surface—actually sparked a bizarre commotion at that moment, as if it had joined the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect.