Eldritch Horror Theatre

Was Blazing Rainbow also looking for the Inverted Lake?

It wasn’t surprising that Excellency Patches spoke so freely, casually throwing that name around without the slightest hesitation.

Being a veteran of similar standing, and having pulled off that impersonation stunt last time, he clearly wasn’t worried about retaliation from that entity.

But forcibly linking Blazing Rainbow and the Inverted Lake like this carried staggering implications.

At least for Fu Qian, all his experiences traveling between Moore and the Ash Sea, and even his findings within the Wisdom of Endless Etching, flashed before his eyes in that moment. During his multiple visits to the Crystal Research Academy, he had encountered a scholar behind a door who commissioned him to find a notebook.

Unlike the others, this scholar was later proven to have abandoned his obsession with the constantly incalculable falling point, believing instead that light was the answer to everything.

At the time, Fu Qian had wondered why this felt so reminiscent of Excellency Blazing Rainbow’s style. Out of habit, he had chalked it up to the lingering traces of the corresponding higher entity.

Logically, though, the situation was a bit unusual. It was later proven that the falling point had a faint connection to the Deity Burial Ground.

Therefore, the various higher powers that appeared there—such as the Chief Judge, who was suspected to be the King of Angels—could to some extent be understood as having leaked through this channel, an alternative form of ”falling from the sky.”

Not only did this faintly align with the researchers’ theories, it even made the survival tactics of the Wasteland development Covenanters make sense.But here was the problem: Blazing Rainbow had never died, had He?

A certain ten-jin cat had personally verified that Blazing Rainbow was an ancient Deity who had remained in hiding until now, still in good condition. He shouldn’t be in the same situation as the Chief Judge.

So if Blazing Rainbow didn’t ”fall from the sky,” how could the traces left in the Inverted Lake be explained? He had actively sought it out.

Yes, his own past speculations seemed to coincide perfectly with Excellency Patches’s words.

But there was a minor divergence. The latter’s phrasing implied that Blazing Rainbow was scheming after the Inverted Lake, just as He had schemed after The Abyss.

It was just that He had been unable to find a way in for a long time, leaving only a few footprints behind.

”He found it.”

Fu Qian shook his head at that moment, making no attempt to hide it.

”Hehe—looks like you really did find it.”

Patches wasn’t annoyed. In fact, he looked like he’d been caught red-handed.

”After all, I had to find the place before I could find Him inside.”

Fu Qian remained just as impassive, casually finishing the thought for him.

Indeed, it would be far too naive to think that just because they were having a decent chat, anything coming out of this guy’s mouth was actually credible.

Patches bringing up Blazing Rainbow just now was certainly important intelligence, but the information this guy provided was usually poisoned.

The claim that ”Blazing Rainbow sought the Inverted Lake but failed to get it” had very low credibility in Fu Qian’s eyes.

It felt more like a test Patches was using to see if Fu Qian had actually been there, or if he merely knew the name of the place and was trying to bluff him.

”That’s true. Though it does seem a little illogical. If He already found the place, why didn’t He just take the Inverted Lake for Himself? How did you, or even Rom, get a chance to lay a finger on it?”

The test was still ongoing. Even as he agreed, Patches raised another question.

”It is an interesting question. Considering I’m not too familiar with Blazing Rainbow either, I can only guess. Maybe it was for the same reason He pointed the way for that exploration team back then?”

This was the brilliance of a deceiver. He never engaged in meaningless chatter; any casual remark struck right at the heart of the matter.

Unfortunately for him, Fu Qian simply plagiarized what Patches had said about Annalise, casually bringing up a certain bloody incident.

”It looks like—you had quite a lot of fun in that place.”

His smile finally fading a fraction, Patches tilted up his bald head. Looking up from below with an almost comical movement, he clicked his tongue.

”Besides, look on the bright side. You might not have surpassed Blazing Rainbow, but you’ve at least surpassed your predecessors.”

In the next moment, not only did he admit that he had been misleading him earlier, but he even plagiarized Fu Qian’s famous quote.

As expected, everything had to have an explanation.

The exploration team Fu Qian mentioned was, naturally, Claudora’s group from back then.

After obtaining clues about the Wise Dead and the Inverted Lake, the Academy had organized an elite force to explore the Ash Sea.

Yet who could have known they would be met with total disaster? Under the crystal curse, the entire group was nearly wiped out, leaving only Claudora stored inside a Jar.

Patches’s words made it very clear. Some of the speculations regarding that old unsolved case had finally received a bit of validation.

Another senior from the Academy, Nepheli, had once revealed a detail about that exploration mission.

When that team was in Moore, they actually hadn’t found the Wise Dead at first. However, refusing to give up when they should have just packed up and gone home, they decided to try their luck in the Ash Sea one last time.

Surprisingly, their luck held out. Even without the guidance of the Lighthouse, they actually stumbled upon the place by pure coincidence.

But it was exactly this luck that robbed them of any chance to return home safely, albeit empty-handed.

Fu Qian had thought this experience sounded fishy the moment he heard it. Later on, it inevitably became linked to Excellency Blazing Rainbow.

What exactly did that entity want to do with the Inverted Lake?

Regarding Patches’s question, one guess was that Blazing Rainbow never intended to claim the lake for Himself, but was instead researching the crystal curse as well.

After all, due to the Inverted Lake’s unique properties, absorbing it might not necessarily be beneficial.

But how could a character like Blazing Rainbow—who seemed to value His own life so highly—not care about a crystal curse that involved the apocalypse?

At the same time, because He valued His life so much, He wouldn’t want to touch that kind of thing directly.

Under those circumstances, what was to be done?

Simple. He would definitely recruit a few grad students—cough, tools—to touch it for Him.

In fact, the group from the Academy might not have even been the only victims.

”You flatter me. I actually found an even earlier group of researchers in there.”

Responding with casual modesty, Fu Qian brought up those Brain Jellyfish—a group of academics whose very traces had been quietly erased from history.

”They were as well.”

Patches gave his confirmation with an understated ease.

”Just like growing crops.”

Just as expected. Grad students were harvested batch after batch, just like crops.

Excellency Blazing Rainbow’s exploitation of researchers was simply too ruthless.

Further confirming that the research into the falling points was also related to Blazing Rainbow, Fu Qian sighed emotionally for a moment, recalling his own crop-harvesting theory back in Moore.

”Hehe—you actually did quite well in that regard yourself. So, what happened to Rom in the end?”

Sure enough, Patches couldn’t hold back for long, letting out his signature laughter once again.

Gesturing to their surroundings, he clearly held Fu Qian in high regard, feeling that his methods of exploitation were equally authentic.

”Dead.”

Fu Qian made a harvesting gesture.