Eldritch Horror Theatre

Fate was a wondrous thing.

Fu Qian wasn’t spouting nonsense. He genuinely intended to enlighten the captive in his grasp.

The people of the world were mostly like lost lambs, entangled in greed, anger, and delusion.

The crowd sitting outside, endlessly delaying their climb upstairs, was proof of this—and so was this demon lunging at him just now.

Fortunately, the creature had run into him and now had the chance to receive a little help making up its mind.

Of course, in the ways of heaven, there was no such thing as a free lunch.

Its repayment would be helping him verify the effects of entering that door.

”You want to throw him in? I suppose that counts as putting him to good use.”

”But judging from previous tests, as long as a complete body enters the door, the person instantly disappears without exception.”

Crystal had already caught on. She immediately approved of the choice, not finding it cruel in the slightest.It was hard to say how meaningful the results would be, and for the goat-headed demon, this hardly even counted as persecution anymore.

”What about cutting off a piece and throwing it in?”

Fu Qian was trying to consider as many possibilities as he could.

”Same result. Even a High-Tier Transcendent would lose all connection to that severed part of themselves.”

Sure enough, the crowd outside hadn’t been sitting idle all this time. They had already run that exact test.

”Fascinating.”

Giving a slight nod, Fu Qian stepped into the building.

...

It was incredibly empty.

It proved to be exactly like the eye of a typhoon. While a horde of powerful figures circled on the outside, the interior of the building was utterly deserted.

Even the elevator they had taken last time had stopped working, forcing them to use the emergency stairs.

It wasn’t surprising. Although staying inside was theoretically closer to the door, the line of sight was terrible, making it feel far worse to be stuck in here.

Even Crystal grew noticeably quieter after stepping inside.

For a while, apart from the sound of their footsteps on the stairs, only the struggles of the goat-headed demon in his grip added any life to the stifling atmosphere.

Fu Qian, ever mindful of fire safety, was careful to prevent any stray sparks from the demon from igniting the aging structure.

”It really is all gone.”

The ascent proved smooth, with no further obstacles in their path.

The moment he set foot on the eighth floor, Fu Qian quickly verified Crystal’s claim.

It wasn’t just that the room had been emptied. While the rest of the floor was perfectly intact, the Prophet’s former residence felt as if it had been directly erased, leaving a glaring, empty void.

Looking around, only that door on the exterior wall remained.

From this angle, both its size and style were perfectly consistent with how it looked from below.

The only issue was that he couldn’t see the outside world through the doorway. Instead, there was what looked like an endless expanse of Mist.

[Enter, and you shall obtain freedom.]

Even that single line of text beside it matched exactly what Crystal had described.

Aside from those two elements, all that remained was a scattered mess.

Not broken furniture, but blood, ash, eerily colored grease, and even semi-melted bones... all heavily concentrated right in front of that door.

It was obvious that far more tests had been conducted than simply throwing people inside.

Perhaps even rituals.

...

”I haven’t been in here for a while.”

Crystal had undoubtedly noticed the same scene, her voice turning somewhat solemn when she spoke again.

It was clear she wasn’t entirely surprised by the sight, but the mess certainly added a layer of malice to the door and that line of text.

”So, how do I contact you when the time comes?”

With no intention of responding to her observation, Fu Qian stepped right up to the door.

”Did you think I was that naive? You have no reason to contact me, do you?”

Despite his seemingly polite question, Crystal frowned, pointing out the nakedly transactional nature of their relationship.

Clearly, for her, just witnessing Dayun Mingwang’s reaction after entering the door was enough of a reward for this trip.

She held no illusions that he would actually come back and share whatever he found.

”What if I think of another way to use you?”

Fully understanding this, Fu Qian simply nodded and offered the casual reply.

...

Wasn’t that a little too honest?

As the saying goes, evil climbs ten feet higher. Dayun Mingwang’s statement ultimately delivered a powerful shock.

He didn’t make any meaningless promises. Instead, he bluntly reminded Crystal that she still had use value, making his offer to contact her seem perfectly logical.

”True...”

After taking a deep breath, Crystal finally agreed with his logic, though she still glanced over her shoulder.

It wasn’t surprising; did she really expect no one to follow them?

Fu Qian completely understood her reaction. As previously noted, this place was now the absolute core of Unseen Hill’s formation.

The superheroes and supervillains outside might not be bored enough to stop the two of them, but they certainly wouldn’t just ignore this moment either.

”Take this.”

But her hesitation was only temporary; Crystal’s resolve was evidently quite firm.

As she spoke, her fangs rapidly elongated, and her jaw opened to an exaggerated degree, instantly taking on a werewolf-like visage.

Her hand, still fully human, reached into her maw and pinched a sparkling object between two fingers, pulling it out.

...

He had to admit, it was exquisite.

Faced with the offered item, Fu Qian didn’t stand on ceremony and casually took it.

He could see it was only slightly larger than a tooth, looking somewhat like pale cyan Amber.

Its overall shape was just like a piece of crushed ice; the exquisite part was what lay inside.

In perfectly realistic proportions, it contained an entirely naked human woman, incredibly lifelike.

However, apart from a similar hair color, she didn’t look much like Crystal herself.

Regardless, judging from how solemnly she handled it, the item was clearly far from simple.

”Keep this on you. As long as you are in this city, I can sense it... Even if you aren’t here, you can try crushing it if necessary to see if that establishes a connection.”

Having stabilized her emotions, Crystal explained the item’s use, a hint of reluctance gleaming in her eyes.

”Understood.”

Without questioning it, Fu Qian tucked it away.

That this thing held a special connection to Crystal was practically a certainty. Given the method she used to retrieve it just now, if not for its slightly irregular shape, one would almost suspect it was a Golden Core Great Completion.

Moreover, an expert was never easily fooled by petty tricks. In Fu Qian’s eyes, Crystal’s act of pulling the item out of her mouth was likely mostly for show.

If she had just snapped off a tooth, that would be one thing. But from his vantage point, he could practically confirm that this Amber had been pulled directly from the void.

As someone with experience wielding Sword Three Short of One, Fu Qian’s immediate reaction was that the Amber was also some sort of conceptually locked object, and that Excellency Crystal could summon it from anywhere.

It was just that with so many spectators around this time, she had lightly disguised the process.

All in all, this wasn’t a bad thing. If it truly was that kind of conceptual lock, then the effects Crystal mentioned were all the more credible.

”Hold still. Wait for this seat to grant you a serendipitous fate.”

Without sparing Crystal another glance, Fu Qian hoisted the goat-headed demon, issued his instruction, and stepped through the door.