Eldritch Horror Theatre

As Chief Yuan realized her mistake and immediately resorted to the worst possible option, the atmosphere took a sharp dive.

The one who reacted most intensely wasn’t even the target, but a certain highly adaptable person in charge.

Having never expected Yuan Shan to be so resolute, Grantham paled instantly, looking like a gambler who had bet on the wrong outcome at the very last second.

After all, the previous conversation had made it painfully clear: if negotiations broke down, Ambor would almost certainly flee, and it was highly unlikely they could make him stay.

Under these circumstances, all the consequences would undoubtedly fall onto Gulade’s shoulders. Whatever happened next, it was hard to remain optimistic.

Yet while he was terrified out of his wits, Yuan Shan didn’t even spare him a glance.

Once her mind was made up, she didn’t even bother speaking. Completely disregarding the fact that Ambor’s Rank was a tier above her own, she attacked.

Chief Yuan might have loved to slack off, but when things got serious, she truly stepped up!

Faced with this seemingly familiar scene, Fu Qian marveled once again.

He still remembered the last time she faced Ariel; she had charged forward without hesitation even when facing certain death with zero chance of survival.And now, following her movements, countless black ribbons danced and spun through the air, instantly shrouding the entire room to form a massive, translucent Cocoon.

Fu Qian had seen this move before. When the Shangjing Night Watchers Base Restricted Zone was contaminated by a demigod corpse, Yuan Shan had used a similar method to suppress it.

The purpose of this move seemed to be adding another layer of shielding to this special prison, ensuring Ambor couldn’t escape so easily.

Obviously, even though she was showing her hand, Yuan Shan wasn’t just planning to put up a token effort; she intended to use every means necessary to keep him here.

She truly deserved her title as the Shangjing Chief.

”Stupid and rigid, just like your rules.”

Ambor was visibly shocked that Yuan Shan would actually reject his proposal.

But he was, after all, a formidable overlord who had lived for ten centuries; he wouldn’t resort to the weakling’s behavior of denying reality.

Almost instantly, dense clusters of sharp blades extended from the two bone wings on his back.

And the bizarre patterns covering his entire body were finally fully revealed.

At the same time, an illusory spear descended from the sky, piercing the spot where he stood.

Chief Yuan’s move wasn’t merely a barrier. Inside the Cocoon, attacks could be launched from any position at her will.

However, even such a sudden assault only pierced an afterimage; Ambor’s figure appeared in a distant corner.

Missing her first strike, Yuan Shan was undeterred. With a wave of her hand, numerous protrusions tore out from within the Cocoon once more.

Densely packed illusory spears aimed in unison at Ambor like a reverse-growing sea urchin.

...

”An interesting power. Before today, I might have envied such a talent.”

Because his body had expanded, Ambor’s head almost touched the ceiling.

After offering his praise, he actually reached out and directly grabbed the nearest black spear.

Surprisingly, that almost shadow-like, illusory existence was actually caught firmly in his grasp.

It didn’t end there. The next moment, he squeezed his hand, violently snapping the spear in half with a crisp breaking sound.

”It’s a pity, but the current me no longer observes things from that angle. The essence of power is now much clearer before me.”

”And an attack like this is nothing but a flashy parlor trick.”

”Truly impressive! Did that move just now originate from a certain authority shared by the Progenitor? The conceptual existence of the spear was profaned and corrupted into literal wood?”

Having held back from immediately joining the attack, Fu Qian asked with great interest upon seeing this display.

”You could think of it that way, but the most fundamental form of that power can never be described with language.”

”I understand, I understand. Profound of the profound, right!”

Fu Qian nodded, looking as if he completely understood.

Clang!

Right at that moment, the crisp sound of metal clashing rang out.

Su Gao, who had remained silent all this time, took a step forward, her Curved Sword already in hand.

In the direction she faced, a deformed long wing was slowly retracting, folding back onto Ambor’s back.

Behind her stood the blood-soaked Serana.

Rather than immediately trying to tear through the barrier and escape, this newly advanced Divine Emissary had been spouting nonsense just to launch a sneak attack and kill Serana?

Considering Serana’s condition, if Su Gao hadn’t intervened, that strike would have been incredibly lethal.

”You—”

Grantham’s exclamation rang out right on cue. He seemed completely unable to comprehend why Ambor would still try to attack Serana at a time like this.

They might have had ideological differences, but they were still of the same clan; was the hatred truly that deep?

Unfortunately, Ambor completely ignored him. Showing no intention of responding, he merely stared dead at Su Gao.

To a certain extent, Fu Qian could actually understand the man’s actions.

Even though their relationship was poor, killing Serana purely to vent his anger was a stretch. Old Man Ambor might have possessed that kind of moral character, but he wouldn’t necessarily be willing to risk himself for it.

The reason he did it was likely still because Serana was a demigod.

Even though he couldn’t reach a tacit understanding with Yuan Shan, as long as Serana died, then no matter what happened the next day, the situation would still be framed as Gulade suffering heavy losses.

One demigod dead and another hunted down, all simply because of a single rule violation where hardly anyone was even hurt.

Faced with such a scenario, and considering the overall impact, the Night Watchers might slightly lessen the intensity of their pursuit.

This guy had truly milked every bit of usefulness out of others to the absolute extreme.

”Sharpness beyond imagination! Today truly is full of surprises!”

Staring at Su Gao’s hands, Ambor’s tone was no longer as relaxed as before.

”And even though it’s clearly an ordinary weapon, it actually managed to harm me.”

As he spoke, a sliver of a scratch on his bone wing was already rapidly healing.

”You are absolutely the kind of opponent I least want to face!”

Having successfully leveled up, Old Man Ambor was in excellent spirits, sparing no effort in his praise for the newcomer.

It was a pity that Classmate Su Gao remained completely expressionless, not even offering a grunt in response.

With her weapon in hand, her sole focus was locking onto her target, building momentum, and waiting to strike.

Fu Qian generally referred to this as her hunter form.

In this regard, Su Gao possessed an indescribable combat intuition. The reason she hadn’t attacked earlier was likely because she had sensed this very threat; otherwise, Serana would probably already be dead on the floor.

”But it’s a pity you don’t know what’s good for you.”

Posturing was one thing, but Old Man Ambor’s true tolerance was clearly quite limited. After hitting a wall, he instantly switched from praise to disparagement, criticizing Su Gao and the others.

”In this regard, you should really learn from Mister Fang. For a predetermined outcome, why waste your energy?”

”I’m quite unhappy to hear you say that. It makes it sound like I’ve just been slacking off.”

Without waiting for Yuan Shan and the others to speak, Fu Qian immediately voiced his rebuttal.

”Are you not? Then what are you doing right now?”

”Good question.”

”Naturally, I’m introducing a few unknown variables to this predetermined outcome.”

As he spoke, following the ravings echoing in his consciousness, Fu Qian stopped resisting and directly answered the call.