Eldritch Horror Theatre

For a split second, Crystal’s body became perfectly translucent, as if she had transformed into an actual ice sculpture.

Simultaneously, a torrent of frost surged outward with Fu Qian’s table at the center, sweeping across more than half the restaurant.

In just a few seconds, the rather stylish restaurant was transformed into Guanghan Palace.

As far as the eye could see, a layer of exquisite, translucent ice crystals coated everything.

The wrath of a demigod was terrifying to this degree!

Fu Qian clicked his tongue in admiration, once again glad he had chosen a dish that took more than five minutes to prepare.

”What. Did. You. Say?”

Crystal refused to let it go, biting out the question word by word.

”Was there a problem with my phrasing?”

Fu Qian looked surprised.”It’s quite simple. I just wanted to ask if your friend was originally named Akasha, or if she realized her true, essential name after awakening?”

”How could you possibly know...”

This time, even Akasha was stunned.

”You aren’t a traitor to the outsiders, you’re a traitor to us...”

Before Fu Qian could say another word, Crystal’s voice cut in through gritted teeth, as if she had suddenly figured it out.

She was literally gnashing her teeth—four gleaming white canines were visible through her lips.

Their reaction wasn’t surprising. Even the transcendents of Unseen Hill might not fully understand the friendship between Akasha and Crystal.

If Fu Qian really was an outsider, how could he know such specific details?

Unless he wasn’t one at all!

Without a doubt, once Akasha and Crystal latched onto that idea, it would have a severely negative impact on Yuan Fang’s plan.

Little did they know, Fu Qian’s words just now had been deliberately calculated to guide them in exactly that direction—and he felt absolutely no psychological burden in doing so.

After all, Prophet Yuan had already said it himself: whether you act or not, the outcome remains there, unchanging.

”Are you two stupid? If I were really one of your own, would you have failed to even touch a hair on that group’s heads?”

The next moment, facing the two demigods whose expressions had abruptly changed, Fu Qian casually threw out another insult, his attitude undergoing a rapid flip-flopping.

...

As soon as those words left his mouth, the deadly atmosphere visibly faltered.

The fury that had brewed to a peak within the two demigods instantly deflated like a punctured balloon, their eyes turning blank with confusion.

That argument... actually seemed to make some sense.

If this guy truly shared the same origins as them, Yuan Fang, as a prophet, would have at least some grasp on his whereabouts.

Even if there hadn’t been time to stop their sabotage, he could have at least immediately notified someone to head over. How could he have let that group escape so easily?

Unless—

”Unless Yuan Fang is also a traitor, and he and I conspired together long ago, just putting on a show for you.”

Seeming to know exactly what the two were thinking, Fu Qian voiced their thoughts directly, continuing his bluff.

Of course, the second half of that sentence was completely true—the two of them really did have a secret plot.

Could the Prophet also be a traitor?

The two demigods looked utterly dumbfounded, completely unwilling to believe such a possibility.

But if not, how on earth did this guy know those details?

...

”So... you absorbed a portion of the clown’s memories?”

Amidst the confusion, Akasha’s voice rang out the next moment, proposing an answer that actually seemed to make sense.

Of course, such an ingenious explanation was highly unlikely to be her original thought.

To come up with a passable excuse this quickly, one could only say Brother Yuan Fang had worked hard behind the scenes.

In fact, the question he had just asked was originally meant for all three of them.

Fu Qian had absolutely no interest in the love and hate between Akasha and Crystal.

His goal right now was very simple: he needed to extract more information about Unseen Hill from these Natives in front of him.

That included both its past and its future.

Although Yuan Fang had been relatively frank during their long chat just now, he remained tight-lipped about anything unrelated to the plan.

Without pressure, one could not prove the Dao. If he wanted to know more, simply provoking them was useless; Yuan Fang wouldn’t care at all.

And it seemed the only thing that could actually pressure the Prophet was the success rate of his ’pretend to be an outsider’ plan.

Akasha’s reaction just now proved exactly that.

”Why would you assume absorbing memories is even a possibility? Could it be that you also absorbed the memories of this body’s original owner?”

The next moment, rather than confirming or denying Akasha’s guess, Fu Qian threw a question right back at her.

...

The moment that question was asked, not only was Akasha rendered speechless, but even Crystal subconsciously looked over, a strange look in her eyes.

”There was no need to absorb memories. Akasha is my name, and I am a reborn demigod.”

Akasha pondered for a moment; the next moment, her expression turned solemn and her tone firm.

Her meaning was perfectly clear: the body’s name was already Akasha, and after digesting the spider egg, she simply realized she was the reincarnation of the Spider Queen.

...

Hearing that answer, Crystal withdrew her gaze and fell silent for a moment.

”Very well.”

Fu Qian nodded.

”Then I have another question for you. In your earliest memories as a demigod, what was your name?”

”I had no name.”

Akasha answered much faster this time.

”I am an evil, bloodthirsty supercriminal. Nothing more.”

”Are you saying that from the very first moment you gained self-awareness, you were completely certain that you were an evil supercriminal?”

That answer immediately piqued Fu Qian’s interest.

”Yes. That is the essential nature carved into the depths of my soul. I am quite clear on that.”

As she spoke, Akasha even cast a glance at Crystal.

”Just as they are heroes.”

There really was something wrong with this place!

Facing Akasha’s self-description, Fu Qian sighed inwardly.

The title of ’supercriminal’ and that bizarrely shaped carriage gave off far too strong a sense of déjà vu... These were all elements completely unseen in the world managed by the Night Watchers.

From the very moment he had entered this place, that strangely familiar feeling had never faded.

It was as if... all the various things in here had been extracted straight from the brain of someone who came from the exact same place he did.

The people inside were so painfully pure that they almost felt like combined manifestations of certain symbolic wills—such as Akasha’s firm self-recognition as a supercriminal and her identity as the bloodsucking Spider Queen.

After seeping out of consciousness, all of those symbols had been gathered here, slowly grinding down into mud without a single drop leaking out.

...

So the question was: if all of this really did come from the brain of some mysterious fellow earthling, where was that person now?

Was it that saint in the Great Hall?

The saint obviously didn’t possess much in the way of a human will. Judging by its previous performance, it behaved more like an agglomeration of mental debris.

Could it be Yuan Fang?

At first glance, he did seem like a possibility. Although his Rank wasn’t high, he possessed bizarre divination abilities and was intensely passionate about escaping his cage.

But there was one glaring issue. Divination abilities aside, he was fundamentally no different from Akasha and the others—he was similarly ignorant of his past and the reasons for his existence.

Wait... A certain second-rate diviner named Kisaragi Chie had once mentioned that the absolute top-tiers of their industry relied entirely on reading expressions and body language.

What if Yuan Fang also belonged to that type?

What if his so-called ’destiny’ was merely the result of reading the fortune of the entirety of Unseen Hill from a special perspective?

Furthermore, aside from just observing expressions, there was also the matter of analyzing words. Perhaps the answers were simply being ’told’ to him directly.