Eldritch Horror Theatre

A professional compiler must have the courage to fill in the details.

To avoid wasting time with hesitation, Fu Qian hadn’t let Jiang En choose which body part to sacrifice.

When instilling the ritual, he had explicitly directed the man’s will to focus on a single tooth.

He made this choice for two reasons: on the one hand, it was a relatively small sacrifice for the misguided youth; on the other, it carried the pleasant symbolism of ”gritting one’s teeth.”

”Generally speaking, the closer you are to your limit, the higher the probability of success.”

Beside him, although Wen Li couldn’t perceive the details of the tooth, she still had a holistic grasp of Jiang En’s condition, silently noting the key points.

The sheer speed of this progression had shocked her at first.

But recalling her own recent experience, she soon made peace with it.

When she advanced to Tier 4, from receiving her enlightenment to successfully wrapping up her celebration banquet, it seemed like less than an hour had passed in total...

”It makes sense. Deviation needs time to gestate, and the fear of death rises exponentially.”Fu Qian quickly agreed with her assessment.

”Mhm... That’s what Chief Yuan said back then, too. Her interpretation of this ritual’s essence is that by adopting a posture that transcends death, one provokes the disgust of a High-Tier Existence, which then acts to eliminate the anomaly.”

...

”Disgust... that is a very accurate word.”

Casually praising Chief Yuan, Fu Qian looked into the distance.

The protagonist of the ritual, Jiang En, was currently lying in a pool of blood.

Neither the barriers nor the darkness hindered his observation in the slightest.

As a recognized genius for years, Jiang En was naturally a professional when it came to bloodletting.

The location, angle, and depth were all perfect. He had even utilized the wound left behind after the Toothed Throat was removed.

And amid this relatively steady drain of his life force, Jiang En was pouring out all his strength to project an unyielding will.

It was a pity he didn’t know that the true essence of his actions lay solely in provoking disgust.

Then, by leveraging the reaction born from that disgust, he would break through his limits at a specific moment.

The ultimate meaning of his personal struggle was merely to borrow someone else’s power. It carried a somewhat dramatic sense of irony.

As for why a High-Tier Existence would bother with such trivial matters? Fu Qian felt he could actually empathize.

Eliminating anomalies was a survival instinct.

And this kind of deviation from biological nature was exactly that—an anomaly.

If this ritual hadn’t come from an Apocalypse but was designed by a person, its original creator could be called a master—and a madman.

”So... when is the right time to make a move?”

Prompted by Fu Qian’s reaffirmation, Wen Li seemed to realize Jiang En’s true situation. She let out a soft sigh at the treacherous nature of the supernatural path before asking.

”No rush. I believe this is a good opportunity for Brother Jiang En.”

Fu Qian smiled mysteriously.

”He possesses a talent he isn’t even aware of.”

...

”What the hell is wrong with that guy?!”

In fact, even as he spoke, Fu Qian was listening to a fury-filled voice through a faint connection.

Laywoman Tooth-Throat, who was always proactive, was acting even more intensely this time.

And the target of her outburst was naturally Jiang En, who was currently in death seclusion.

Just as he had speculated, Jiang En’s abnormal behavior had quickly drawn the attention of the Greed Worms.

The group, already gathered together, was now engaged in another heated discussion.

”When we were going to dispose of him safely back then, weren’t you the one who said keeping him around might be useful? That he could at least monitor the Night Watchers’ movements?”

Almost as soon as Laywoman Tooth-Throat finished roaring, someone mocked her sarcastically.

”Well, look at us now. We have absolutely no way to stop him. That guy is messing around on his own over there, and he’s dragging us down with him.”

”How was I supposed to know he’d do something like this? And aren’t I affected even more than you?!”

Already in a foul mood, Laywoman Tooth-Throat roared even louder.

The reason for the group’s intense reaction was simple. Given the characteristics of the Greed Worms, the life draining from Jiang En was currently being shared with the rest of them.

Just like how Daneta hadn’t died when her head was crushed during her fight with him, the Greed Worms truly shared their burdens and blessings in the most literal sense.

This was also why Fu Qian had said Jiang En possessed a talent he didn’t know about.

If his will was resolute enough, the Greed Worms could afford him a very, very long deviation process, maximizing the ritual’s success rate.

As for why Laywoman Tooth-Throat had the most intense reaction?

The reason was equally simple. It had been confirmed during their previous encounter that, within their single-line organizational structure, she was Daneta’s superior, and Jiang En was a newcomer brought in by Daneta.

After Daneta died, she undoubtedly became the direct link to Jiang En within the Insect Swarm, naturally bearing the brunt of the transmitted damage.

Of course, getting emotional was useless. As mentioned earlier, they were too far away to intervene. For a group that had just narrowly escaped, turning back was a truly difficult choice to make.

”Laurie... what do you think?”

Laywoman Tooth-Throat soon managed to suppress her emotions. She looked at a figure beside her, hesitated for a moment, and asked for his opinion.

...

With his completely white hair and beard, and a steady demeanor, the man called Laurie was none other than the elderly auction host.

This was likely the reason for Laywoman Tooth-Throat’s hesitation.

As the person in charge of the entire team, Laurie’s seniority was undoubtedly very high, which meant he wasn’t heavily affected by Jiang En at the moment.

However, his overall condition was the least optimistic of them all, because the Typhoid Terror still loomed over him.

For a team capable of hosting an auction, they still had some foundation to draw upon.

Although the fifty-nine-minute mark had passed long ago, their various efforts had helped sustain him until now.

Yet, from Laurie’s demeanor, one could tell that the Greed Worms had exhausted their tricks and were already prepared to give up on treating him.

It truly wasn’t suitable to disturb him in this condition, but the situation was urgent, and Laywoman Tooth-Throat clearly couldn’t afford to care about that.

”What he’s doing... is very strange.”

Under her expectant gaze, despite his complex emotions, Laurie ultimately chose to contribute what little energy he had left, analyzing the situation in a low voice.

”Although all we can see is his self-harming behavior, followed by this continuous drain on his life, that bottle in his hand is clearly special, and its appearance was very abrupt.”

”Given the current circumstances, it’s hard to say if he’s actually using such a bizarre method to end his own life.”

You’re not just casually comforting us because you’re about to die yourself, are you...?

Although he couldn’t see their exact expressions, the brief silence that followed allowed Fu Qian to mentally fill in the others’ thoughts.

For this group, far too much had happened between early this morning and now.

After all, if Laurie was truly instantly killed by ”divine punishment,” the backlash they would suffer wouldn’t be optimistic either.

”Then what do we do? Just wait like this?”

A moment later, it was still Laywoman Tooth-Throat who voiced her bewilderment, her tone already slightly weaker.

”What else can we do? A simple calculation tells you that even if we risked returning to Shangjing right now, we wouldn’t make it in time anyway.”

Letting out a long sigh, Old Man Laurie’s expression unexpectedly carried the open-minded acceptance of knowing the mandate of heaven.