Eldritch Horror Theatre

Just as he had been watching intently, how could Demigod Kelsen not be keeping a close eye on a mysteriously dangerous figure like him during such a meticulous operation?

Moreover, he hadn’t deliberately concealed his aura.

Therefore, saving someone didn’t necessarily mean he had to give up the Golden Seat.

Of course, the intensity still seemed a little lacking right now.

Seeing Demigod Kelsen hesitate slightly before unleashing another furious carpet of lightning that blasted the suspected Oathbreaker into a sorry state, Fu Qian sighed and shook his head.

This was clearly an attempt to secure his objective first, braving the risk of a formidable enemy watching from the sidelines.

With victory right before his eyes, it was a reasonable decision.

How about this?

The next moment, Fu Qian took out the Witch-Bestowed Mask and put it on.

...Kelsen finally stopped in his tracks.

In that instant, Fu Qian felt invisible sparks of lightning flicker throughout the Great Hall.

It was obvious that the intensity of this greeting was finally enough.

Staring coldly in his direction, Demigod Kelsen’s hair billowed like burning blue flames, perfectly illustrating the meaning of absolute mastery.

Seizing this opportunity, the fleeing figure finally caught a breather. Brilliant tail flames flickered in quick succession, and then it rapidly vanished into the void.

The only problem was that its concealment wasn’t very thorough.

The next moment, Fu Qian frowned slightly, gazing in that direction.

The concealment itself was flawless; even at this distance, he could no longer sense it.

The problem was, why were the tail flames still there?

Had the electrocution caused an oil leak?

This wasn’t a baseless joke. At the exact spot where the suspected Oathbreaker had vanished, a swarm of translucent One-Winged Butterflies fluttered about, darting rapidly from side to side and trailing different curves in the air.

It perfectly demonstrated the fugitive’s swiftness and fearlessness in the face of danger... and its confusion.

After relying on its tail flames to compose a rapid tune of fleeing to the ends of the earth amid the ruins, the figure finally stopped and stood in place, taking a moment to contemplate the meaning of life.

Demigod Kelsen, who was also watching this scene, managed his facial expressions impeccably, but Fu Qian still seemed able to share in his joy.

Without a doubt, this tail, which seemed designed to interfere with tracking, would instead cause the difficulty of escaping to skyrocket.

In Fu Qian’s judgment, let alone Kelsen and himself, even Gerald and his men could probably keep track of it.

In fact, they were already moving to encircle and intercept it.

As expected, it wasn’t as simple as just dealing with a demigod pursuer.

Sighing inwardly, Fu Qian withdrew his gaze and gave a slight nod to his old friend Kelsen.

...

Kelsen’s reaction seemed to carry a hint of disappointment.

Amid this three-way standoff, he had likely been looking forward to seeing how Fu Qian would react to that somewhat unsuccessful concealment, but it looked as if the latter didn’t care much at all.

It wasn’t ideal, but of course, it wasn’t unacceptable either.

The lightning around his body retracted. Moving at a pace that seemed slow but was actually blindingly fast, Kelsen headed straight toward him.

Seeing the balance broken in the most ideal way, the figure contemplating life also rapidly sprang back into motion.

It seemed to have decisively abandoned any technical dodging and weaving, opting instead to sprint desperately off into the distance.

”Mister Lu?”

Ignoring the fleeing prey entirely, Kelsen entered the Great Hall in the blink of an eye. Staring at the mask on Fu Qian’s face, he spoke coldly.

”Or should I call you Mister Fu?”

He added another question before Fu Qian could even respond.

Demigod Kelsen had clearly recognized his former exploration teammate through the mask, which was quite gratifying.

”So why can’t it be Mister Ji? Your people seem more inclined to believe that is my true identity.”

As he spoke, Fu Qian even flashed the eyeball resting in his palm.

”Heh...”

Judging by Demigod Kelsen’s deep, powerful laughter, the man had fully recovered from the mental deliverance he had recently endured.

”I admit that Your Excellency possesses great means, but some things are simply unnecessary.”

”If you had continued to appear in your previous guise, I might still have had some doubts.”

”But as things stand, I only care about what the Origin Council is actually trying to do.”

Things were actually developing in the best possible way!

Faced with Kelsen’s surprising certainty, Fu Qian quickly drew a conclusion.

The sheer volume of information in those words was quite significant. First, it was obvious that Kelsen had communicated with Gerald and the others, and that he believed the face truly belonged to Ji Ping.

And precisely because it was Ji Ping’s face, Kelsen firmly believed that he was indeed a member of the Origin Council, rather than an enemy impersonator trying to draw aggro.

This was a very delicate piece of logic. In Fu Qian’s view, the only thing that could lead Kelsen to this deduction was if the Ji clan had confirmed it with them: the unworthy descendant of their family and Rebirth Club member, Ji Ping, had turned traitor and defected to the Origin Council.

This wasn’t actually strange. After all, the matter concerning Yasui Tokiyuki involved massive stakes. As a temporarily appeased ally, the Ji clan couldn’t possibly persuade Siren that Yasui Tokiyuki would be immobilized for three months solely based on an excuse like ’we received secret intel.’

During their exchanges, the entanglement between the Rebirth Club and the Origin Council would most likely be brought up, making Ji Ping an unavoidable topic.

Considering that the truth about him was absolutely not something to be shared with outsiders, if Fu Qian were a higher-up in the Ji clan, he would have chosen the exact same explanation—he was a traitor. If they ran into him later, they just needed to beat him to death.

They wouldn’t actually run into him, anyway.

That was why Kelsen said using Ji Ping’s face was an unnecessary move.

Because in his eyes, Fu Qian had clearly failed to account for the in-depth communication between Siren and the Ji clan.

”Truly astonishing! I can’t think of anything in the Wasteland that would interest the Origin Council. You people killed Ji Yicheng too, right? No wonder An Gui expended so much effort only to come up empty-handed.”

It sounded as though Kelsen still had a solid grasp of what the Origin Council was.

”It is truly gratifying that Demigod Kelsen thinks so highly of the Council, but I’m actually quite curious as to why you are here.”

Fu Qian equivocated with utmost professionalism.

”Mister Lu possesses outstanding means; why don’t you take a guess?”

Unfortunately, as a high-ranking official, Kelsen clearly didn’t fall for the trick of answering a question with another question.

”I can only guess a part of it, such as how you appeared here.”

Fu Qian actually didn’t decline, pointing directly at Kelsen.

The demigod was clearly not in his usual attire. Not only was he dressed as low-key as a mere grunt, but bloodstains could even be seen on him.

”First, you aren’t with Gerald and the others, but acting alone in the shadows.”

”And at least up until now, I haven’t seen anything capable of injuring you. The marks on you should be related to the conflict that erupted the moment Siren and the Ji clan came in, right?”

”Gerald provoked a conflict, and then had you take advantage of the chaos to swap places with someone? All for the sake of that ambush just now?”

”Going through so much trouble just to lurk within your own team... it seems you tacitly acknowledged that the target of this trip could easily spy on you?”