Eldritch Horror Theatre

”The match is starting soon. Mr. Fu, we should go—ah, your hand!”

The following evening, the Priestess who had come to escort Fu Qian to the arena covered her mouth and let out another terrified scream.

Fu Qian followed her gaze. He could understand her shock.

In just one night, the watery blue marks had spread from his palm to cover his entire upper arm.

The peculiar stench coming from them had grown much heavier.

Worse, beneath every patch of skin covered by the marks, it felt as though countless tiny insects were gnawing at his flesh.

Fortunately, the corruption wasn’t too deep yet.

Dealing with it wouldn’t be difficult. He only needed to isolate the corruption and shed a layer of skin.

For the current Fu Qian, such a feat would be child’s play.

But he had no intention of doing so.The reason was simple—today was the day of the finals.

It would be his first attempt at killing Bai Jinting.

This thing would soon come in handy.

”Logically, you didn’t need to pick me up personally, did you?”

Fu Qian glanced at the Priestess.

”Today is the finals.”

The Priestess forced a stiff smile.

”If you win the championship, I get an extra bonus. I have to show my sincerity!”

”I see. And here I thought you had placed a bet on me.”

”There is a betting pool, yes, but your odds are the lowest... I bet on everyone else, just to bring you some good luck.”

”Not bad. Learning to hedge your risks at such a young age—your future is boundless.”

...

As it turned out, Demigod Ibu harbored a profound hatred for limb grafting.

The moment Fu Qian stepped into the White Tower, he felt the heavy wave of the man’s disgust.

Once Fu Qian exposed the marks on his right hand, that hostility surged even higher.

Yet Fu Qian made no attempt to hide them. He casually made his way to the preparation room to rest, completely unfazed.

After two days of grueling battles, very few contestants remained. He only needed to eliminate one last opponent to advance directly to the finals.

No shady backstage manipulations occurred this time; Fu Qian’s assigned number soon flashed across the overhead screen.

Standing on the freshly restored arena floor, Fu Qian couldn’t help but marvel. It truly was good to be rich.

The opponent waiting on the other side of the ring actually managed to surprise him for a second.

Pitch-black Armor, a massive shield, a Greatsword, and a horned helmet.

His semifinal opponent was the very same black Knight from his preparation room!

Truthfully, the man had to possess some genuine skill to have made it this far.

Setting aside a towering physique that dwarfed ordinary men, just the sheer weight of that Armor was beyond what any normal person could wear.

Fu Qian had watched one of the Knight’s matches. The man clearly possessed immense combat experience, and his fighting style was neither arrogant nor reckless.

He swung his Greatsword brimming with tiger-like vigor, ultimately flattening his last opponent by a full ten centimeters.

If he had any weakness at all, it was that his realm was simply too low.

Judging from the intensity of his aura, the man was at Tier 7 Peak at best. It was hard to imagine someone at that level wielding such a massive shield and Greatsword with such terrifying ease.

That suit of Armor was likely no ordinary Item.

And of course, his courage was highly commendable.

Over the past two days, Fu Qian had carved out a vicious reputation. An ordinary opponent would likely despair at the mere sight of him; for this Knight to stand earnestly in the arena was an achievement in itself.

After the referee signaled the start of the match, the black Knight first raised his sword in a silent salute, then planted his dark, heavy shield firmly in front of him.

’Judging by that stance, he fears my lethality and wants to play a defensive counterattack?’

’It makes sense, but one shouldn’t be so narrow-minded. You can’t just label an opponent a pure brute-force brawler just because they have immense strength.’

’I’ve always been leaning toward a technical fighting style myself.’

Faced with this turtle-shell defense, Fu Qian instantly closed the distance. He dodged an upward slash of the sword, then planted his palm flat against the shield.

Yes, he simply planted his palm against it.

Fu Qian had no intention of smashing the shield and the man behind it to pieces. Instead, he simply pressed his hand gently against it.

...

The black Knight clearly hadn’t expected such a maneuver. He froze in momentary shock.

But he was a seasoned warrior after all. He quickly pulled himself out of his daze.

His immediate reaction was to pull the shield back and unleash a cleaving strike.

Yet the strike hit empty air again—the shield’s dimensions were simply exaggerated. Fu Qian actually hid behind the shield, moving forward along with it to wedge himself into a blind spot.

The shield had actually become his cover.

...

Remaining calm in the face of danger, the black Knight pushed the shield outward again, only to discover in shock that Fu Qian had vanished.

A moment later, a surging, colossal force slammed into his back.

The black Knight staggered forward nearly ten meters before he managed to stabilize his posture. A mist of blood sprayed onto his chest, dyeing the dark iron Armor an even more ghastly hue.

Using the shield as cover, Fu Qian had slipped directly behind him and planted a kick squarely in his back.

Clang!

Realizing the shield was only working against him, the Knight acted decisively, unstrapping it himself and hurling it aside.

Judging by the crash it made upon landing, its weight was clearly immense.

With his left hand freed, he slowly gripped the wide hilt of his Greatsword, releasing an aura of killing intent several times more chilling than before.

The sound of crashing Armor rang out as the black Knight gripped his Greatsword and chose to launch a proactive assault.

The door-sized Greatsword came cleaving down fiercely toward Fu Qian.

’That’s more like it!’

’Smashing a Greatsword directly into someone’s face is a man’s true romance.’

Facing the black Knight in his ultimate stance, Fu Qian also raised his right hand.

In the next instant, countless tentacles erupted from his right arm. They tangled into a massive, grotesque limb that slammed brutally into the black Knight.

In almost an instant, the latter was launched backward like a baseball. Man and sword flew through the air together before he crashed headfirst onto the edge of the arena.

His helmet fell away, revealing an upper face that looked like a charred corpse.

This was...!

Amid the roaring cheers of the audience, Demigod Ibu shot to his feet, his face turning a livid shade of iron-green.

Down in the ring, Fu Qian—having defeated his opponent and officially stepped into the finals—didn’t bother to enjoy the crowd’s cheers. He simply walked off the arena floor.

”Cong...ratulations!”

When Fu Qian returned to the preparation room, the Priestess stepped forward to congratulate him, her voice trembling.

’Was she terrified by how brutal the scene was?’

’That shouldn’t be it. Slaying that crocodile monster yesterday was much bloodier than this.’

Fu Qian noticed that she was staring intently at his right hand.

’Ah. I see.’

’For quite a few women, that final strike was probably a bit too R-rated.’

’Though it depends on the person. There were definitely female voices screaming in the stands just now, sounding so excited they were about to pass out.’

”Don’t be nervous. This will only take a second!”

Fu Qian patted the Priestess on the shoulder to comfort her, casually delivering a chop to the back of her neck in the process.

’How could it be this fast?’

The second match had already begun, but up in the stands, Ibu frowned deeply.

Fu Qian’s performance just now was completely baffling.

’I thought they only made initial contact last night, but to think...’

’This is clearly a state of initial fusion!’

’Could they have colluded beforehand?’

’These reckless bastards! They don’t consider the consequences at all!’

’Fortunately, the level of fusion doesn’t seem very high yet. I’ll have to keep a close eye on him from now on.’

Still lost in thought, Ibu cast a glance toward Fu Qian’s preparation room.

In the next instant, his pupils suddenly contracted.

Inside the room, Fu Qian was nowhere to be seen.