Eldritch Horror Theatre

”Where are you going?”

The man blocking Fu Qian was a massive, broad-shouldered brute.

He looked to be in his thirties or forties and stood nearly two meters tall. The exposed muscles of his arms were heavily knotted, making him look like an oiled tank in the sunlight.

”Heh.”

Faced with the blunt demand, Fu Qian simply offered a sinister smile and said nothing.

”Your hand looks a little unusual. Do you mind answering a few questions?”

Fu Qian’s reaction instantly sharpened the big man’s gaze. Staring coldly, he waved a hand, and the rest of his group moved up from behind to surround him.

”I do.”

Fu Qian completely ignored the men surrounding him, not even bothering to turn his head.

Boom!Before he even finished speaking, a heavy, muffled impact rang out.

Fu Qian turned and saw that the big man had smashed a fist into the adjacent building, kicking up a cloud of dust.

”My patience has limits. Now... do you mind?”

The man’s gaze was like a knife, and his smile was ferocious.

Fu Qian cast a single glance at the heavily calloused fist before looking up.

This was a massive archway built of gray stone. It stood half as tall as the Black Spire at the Night Watchers Base and looked quite ancient.

”You want to see my hand?”

Fu Qian raised his right hand toward him.

”That’s right!”

Sensing Fu Qian’s unnatural calm, the burly man retracted his arm and stared intently at him. The others in the group were also on high alert.

”Sure!”

Under the intense gaze of the group, Fu Qian slowly pulled back his wide sleeve—

A massive black fist covered in a thick carapace appeared before their eyes.

The big man gasped on instinct. But before he could react, the emaciated old man before him swung his right arm, slamming that heavy fist ruthlessly into the stone archway.

Boom!

An earth-shattering roar followed.

Web-like cracks spidered across the stone before the massive archway completely gave way, showering down rubble like rain.

This...

In that instant, the burly man felt his brain short-circuit. He stood there, completely stunned.

In his daze, a falling stone block nearly smashed into his head.

Fortunately, someone beside him yanked him back, letting him narrowly dodge the impact.

Realizing how narrowly he had just dodged death, the big man snapped back to his senses and hastily scrambled backward while his companions scattered for cover.

Once they recovered their wits, the group all turned their eyes back to Fu Qian, who was still standing directly beneath the collapsing archway.

They watched the old man unhurriedly retract his heavy fist, only to suddenly swing it out again.

The heavy fist instantly deformed into a long, black-and-red whip, snapping out to wrap around a stone pillar a short distance away.

The whip contracted violently. Like a massive bird, Fu Qian instantly crossed over ten meters, darting cleanly out from the shower of falling rubble.

Before they could even react, the withered old man bounded away with a few quick leaps, his figure swiftly vanishing from sight.

...

The group stared at the ruins before them, exchanging dismayed glances.

They were in Shangjing, after all. Although this wasn’t exactly a bustling district, there were still plenty of pedestrians around.

The sudden collapse of the stone archway had provoked a chorus of screams, and now that the dust was settling, a fair number of onlookers had already gathered along the street.

”He’s highly suspicious, but he isn’t someone we can handle.”

The burly man gritted his teeth.

”Contact the Base immediately!”

After issuing the order, he couldn’t help but stare at the ruins again.

That was practically the might of a god!

Always proud of his own physical strength, he couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if that punch had landed on him instead.

...

”Done so soon?”

When Fu Qian returned, Wen Li was visibly surprised.

She had assumed that since he went out to cause a scene, he would have at least tangled with them for a while.

”That was enough. I can leave the rest to Chief Yuan.”

Fu Qian offered no further explanation. He gave a brief greeting and went back to his room to rest.

Mhm.

Wen Li tactfully refrained from asking more.

Not long after Fu Qian had retreated to his room, she knocked on his door and handed him a phone, wearing an odd expression.

Fu Qian took it and brought it to his ear. A long silence emanated from the other end of the line.

Being a patient man, Fu Qian simply placed the phone on the table and remained equally silent.

Sigh!

A long moment later, a drawn-out sigh came from the phone. Yuan Shan’s voice was full of complex emotion.

”You really know how to cause trouble!”

”You’re welcome.”

”Honestly, just showing your face would have been enough.”

”That would have been too deliberate. Don’t you think this was much more natural—and eye-catching?”

”Hasn’t the attention of all those prominent families been successfully diverted? And doesn’t the Chen Clan finally have a clear target to focus their efforts on?”

”That much is true.”

Yuan Shan’s voice was full of melancholy.

”But it brought a lot of heat down on us, too. Not only does everyone now firmly believe you’re the killer, but they’re also demanding to know how we could let a dangerous individual with obvious limb grafting traces into the city.”

”Furthermore, the disguise you chose was far too recognizable. You were quickly identified as Lu Ming, a man who was already presumed dead.”

”That was the whole point. Having a known name makes it much easier for them to connect the dots!”

”Yeah, and wild speculations are flying everywhere now. Some say Lu Ming faked his death to secretly advance to the Demigod Realm, and after succeeding, he came straight to Shangjing to exact revenge on the Chen Clan. They’re even guessing that Chen Xing, who advanced not long ago, has already met with foul play.”

”Does the Chen Clan even have a grudge against Lu Ming?”

”Does it matter?”

Fair enough. The power of human imagination was truly limitless!

Fu Qian deeply agreed.

”But taking a massive step back, couldn’t you have chosen a different spot? A perfectly fine century-old building, completely smashed to pieces.”

”It’s still better than flattening a person or two, isn’t it? For someone in the Demigod Realm to make an entrance without causing any collateral damage would look way too fake. Even TV dramas wouldn’t film it like that.”

...

”Fine... anyway, please just stay indoors for the next couple of days. Don’t cause any more trouble.”

Yuan Shan ultimately accepted Fu Qian’s reasoning, though she still made sure to warn him.

”Understood.”

Fu Qian agreed and casually hung up.

Although Yuan Shan had called mainly to vent her frustrations, it was also her way of telling him that everything was under control.

Now, it all depended on her ability to call in backup.

In truth, there was another reason he had chosen to disguise himself as Lu Ming—one he hadn’t mentioned to her.

The Rebirth Club and the Origin Council. Judging from Deng Feizhou’s words before his death, it was obvious these two organizations didn’t get along.

By pulling a stunt like this, Ariel might even suspect that his peers were moving in to steal his business.

Fu Qian was actually quite looking forward to seeing how the Divine Emissary would react upon hearing the news.

...

Events proved that Ariel was quite cooperative; he remained completely quiet for the next two days.

During this time, the Night Watchers naturally locked down the city and launched an intensive search for the grafted one, Lu Ming.

The Chen Family gritted their teeth even harder, determined to hunt down this murderer.

Unfortunately, even after a dragnet search, the target seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth. They couldn’t find a single trace of him.

Meanwhile, Fu Qian, the prime culprit behind it all, was currently enjoying good food and drink over at Wen Li’s place, spending his vacation in perfect peace.