Eldritch Horror Theatre

This...

For a split second, Ji Liushuang almost gave in to the urge to rush forward with them.

However, a voice echoing in her mind held her impulse in check.

”Do you know what Ambergris is? ...It’s best not to do things you don’t understand.”

Fu Qian’s words hammered against Ji Liushuang’s heart, giving her a moment of hesitation as she watched the group charge toward the blood pool.

A moment later, she felt profoundly grateful for that sliver of hesitation.

Leading the charge were the strongest two, Huang Zhaoyan and Yuan Xin. Because Huang Zhaoyan was the least injured, he leaped high into the air, almost exactly as Fu Qian had, aiming directly for the center of the pool.

But just as he reached the apex of his jump, a spiraling tentacle suddenly shot out from the putrid sludge at the edge of the blood pool.

”Ah!”

Screaming in agony, Huang Zhaoyan had no room to dodge as the tentacle pierced straight through his calf.An instant later, the tentacle retracted, dragging him down and burying him completely in the rotting sludge.

Horrified by the sight, Yuan Xin, trailing close behind, hesitated between advancing and retreating. The next moment, two more tentacles shot directly toward him.

Yuan Xin desperately dodged the attack but lost his balance, plunging half of his body into the pool.

The blood pool wasn’t deep. Yuan Xin pushed against the ground to stand back up, only to find countless tentacles hidden in the sludge gripping him tightly, rendering him completely immobilized.

...

The three trailing behind, who had been wading through the liquid, froze in shock. They scrambled to retreat, only to realize they were already unable to move.

In the blink of an eye, all five were hopelessly trapped.

”Save me!”

Collapsed at the outer edge of the blood pool, Yuan Xin cast a look of pure despair toward Ji Liushuang, who was still on the shore.

He could already feel the area around his wound rapidly going numb. The terror of death quickly suffocated his heart. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Huang Zhaoyan was completely submerged in the sludge.

...

Watching the gruesome scene unfold, the feeling of surviving after a catastrophe washed over Ji Liushuang. Her limbs went weak, and her heart pounded wildly in her chest.

She couldn’t help but look back toward Fu Qian in the center of the blood pool.

His words just now were a warning to me!

He had planned everything out from the start! He even anticipated this exact scenario!

Everyone’s reactions were entirely within his expectations!

The group in the pool was already starting to succumb one after another. Listening to their agonized wails, Ji Liushuang couldn’t bear it. She wanted to save them.

”It’s best not to do things you don’t understand.”

But Fu Qian’s words surfaced in her mind once more, making her ultimately just turn her head away.

In the center of the blood pool, Fu Qian merely spared them a single glance before looking away.

He felt not a shred of sympathy for that group.

There’s no cure for stupidity!

It was true that humans possessed a survival instinct, and resorting to any means necessary to live was understandable, but that didn’t mean they could stop using their brains.

Blindly imitating others without understanding the underlying logic was nothing more than gambling with their lives.

What made you think that just because these things on the perimeter didn’t react to me, they wouldn’t attack you?

By this time, he had already unleashed Visceral Attack on Feng Yunhong three consecutive times. The man was practically bleeding a river.

However, this merely slowed down Feng Yunhong’s recovery speed.

The facts proved the man hadn’t been lying; as long as he remained in the pool, his Health Bar was infinite.

”Die!”

Feng Yunhong had gradually regained his mobility, and his counterattack arrived right on cue.

The hand clamped around Fu Qian’s throat squeezed with deranged force. Fu Qian felt a sickening crunch as the bones in his neck shattered into a mess.

But in the blink of an eye, the surging vitality inside his body instantly repaired the bones.

Too bad for you. It seems my Health Bar is infinite now, too.

What a miraculous feeling!

However, Feng Yunhong’s absorption rate was still clearly far superior to his own. Continuing like this definitely wouldn’t work.

Fu Qian thought for a moment, then shifted the target of his fourth Visceral Attack, stabbing directly into his own body.

Boom!

He felt as if his body had been entirely hollowed out.

An indescribable surge of agony washed over him, causing Fu Qian to momentarily freeze.

Feng Yunhong blanked for a second before bursting into manic laughter.

”Trying to kill yourself to escape the torture? Keep dreaming! Now, even death is no longer a luxury you get to choose!”

”You don’t know shit.”

Fu Qian snorted.

”This is called a Low-Health Qi Burst Kill—”

The next second, the massive wound on his body violently tore open, forming a literal bloody maw.

This sight is seemingly familiar!

Fu Qian let out a sigh and took a massive gulp of his surroundings.

Nearly half of the surrounding blood was instantly drained.

”You’re insane!”

Feng Yunhong roared, caught between shock and fury.

”There’s no way you can digest all of that! You’ll only explode and die! You’ll be finished soon!”

”You don’t need to remind me. I can already feel it.”

Fu Qian grimaced, baring his teeth in pain.

Unlike when he had absorbed it through his wounds earlier, swallowing the blood directly flooded his body with extreme vitality Turbulence. On top of that, an endless cacophony of noise erupted inside his head.

”But that doesn’t matter...”

He forced a smile at Feng Yunhong.

To overcome a stronger opponent, one had to be adept at utilizing absolutely every advantage at their disposal.

For example, the word ”soon”—

Means absolutely nothing to me!

I couldn’t care less what happens to me when that time comes.

But you don’t have that luxury!

Fighting through the agonizing sensation of his body being pushed to the bursting point, Fu Qian swallowed another massive mouthful of blood right in front of Feng Yunhong’s terrified eyes.

His hands didn’t stop either. Fu Qian struck him with yet another Visceral Attack.

With the tides shifting, Feng Yunhong’s condition deteriorated rapidly.

”You... maniac!”

Finally, amidst Feng Yunhong’s desperate curses, a final Visceral Attack from Fu Qian shattered his physical body, reducing him back into a blood form.

”No—”

Feng Yunhong only got halfway through his scream before Fu Qian swallowed him whole.

It was over.

Fu Qian collapsed onto the ground. The meager amount of remaining blood continuously surged into his body, repairing his wounds—even mending his severed arm and broken fingers completely.

Of course, this was merely a superficial fix. The chaotic vitality surging inside him was on the verge of slipping entirely out of his control. Driven purely by instinct, the energy rampaged wildly. He felt bloated, sensing that his body could blow to pieces at any moment.

But this was enough.

Even though his insides were an absolute wreck, Fu Qian could sense that his current state was powerful beyond belief. In terms of pure life force alone, he was even stronger than Li Weixuan had been.

He could even feel his very existence being actively rejected by his surroundings; the space around him felt thick and viscous.

Sure enough, the sheer power he had forcefully stacked with blood and vitality had finally breached the limits of the Furnace.

Next, he just needed to walk over to the barrier to prove whether his theory was correct.

Fighting against the extreme lack of coordination across every part of his body, Fu Qian struggled to his feet.

”Hahaha!”

Just as he was about to move, a voice cackled wildly right in his ear.

And he meant literally right in his ear.

Fu Qian could vividly feel a mouth forming just beneath his left ear, spewing out Feng Yunhong’s voice.

”You madman, you’ll never be able to destroy me!”

”All I have to do is wait for you to burst! I’ll just go through the Rebirth process again, but you will soon be entirely obliterated, body and soul!”

And it wasn’t just him. Dozens of other deranged voices erupted into mocking laughter all over Fu Qian’s body.

Men and women alike—they had to be the transcendents Feng Yunhong had devoured.

His reckless act of swallowing everything whole seemed to have restored their vigor as well.

It seems that existing in this form for too long really does rot your brain!

”Alright, I get it. You don’t have to keep repeating yourself.”

Fu Qian muttered weakly.

”But what happens if I walk through the barrier before then?”

...

In an instant, both Feng Yunhong and the countless voices echoing in his mind went dead silent.

”We’ll all have our souls obliterated together, won’t we?”

Fu Qian let out a laugh as he walked.

”Well, isn’t that just fantastic!”