Eldritch Horror Theatre

When you are out and about, especially at night, never answer lightly if someone calls your name.

There was no telling what kind of family Excellency Sha Ming had grown up in, but it looked like no one had ever taught him that lesson.

Furthermore, Excellency Patches was truly someone who lived for amusement. Under his control, the two higher entities had originally been completely hidden from everyone else.

Yet the moment he heard Fu Qian call out, he casually let Sha Ming catch a tiny glimpse of the truth behind the scenes.

As for what dragged Sha Ming over, that was simple enough: a gift from the Red Moon, a blood thread known as the Thread of Attachment.

Under normal circumstances, its reach certainly would not have gone that far.

Still, given his current Dream Polluter constitution, as he conceptually claimed this place bit by bit as his own, Fu Qian had already become the deeper host of this domain.

”It’s you—”

In short, Excellency Sha Ming was yanked right in front of him in an instant.

The Big Four of the Rebirth Club were now all gathered in this tiny corner.Clearly not yet stripped of his Combat Power, Sha Ming cried out in shock, though he cut a decidedly miserable figure.

On one hand, flesh torn open by lightning was plainly visible; on the other, even the parts spared by the bolts looked as if they were melting under intense heat.

His gravelly skin drooped in clumps, and even the exposed bones underneath seemed to be warping.

’Was that not even his true form?’

For a moment, even Fu Qian clicked his tongue in wonder at the sight.

He naturally wouldn’t mistake this for the lingering might of the lightning; it was plainly the work of the Calamity Eyes.

Still, the Flame of Frenzy had always specialized in mental torment—how were its ravages showing up on the physical body?

As someone who liked asking why, Fu Qian certainly wasn’t going to let such an anomaly slide.

It looked bizarre, yet it wasn’t impossible.

For instance, the form before him might still be a shapeshifting effect sustained by willpower, rather than his true appearance.

Now that his will had been battered, that transformation was becoming hard to hold together.

Speaking of which, why did this suddenly bring a certain Professor Lisa of the Transcendent Tier to mind?

[SAN Value -1]

Even as he mused, Fu Qian never stopped moving. He activated a crystal-clear Ring with a cold, stark design, and a biting chill shot out from it.

[Heart Seal]

Because the effect of this Ring he had gotten from Senior Solitary King was so overly abstract, this was actually his first time using it.

”Impossible!”

As it turned out, the effect was quite good. Sha Ming instantly abandoned any attempt to figure out his attacker’s identity and let out an incredulous shriek.

[Locks onto a target and consumes 1 point of SAN Value to form a guaranteed-hit freezing crystal.

Upon hitting the target, it causes neither damage nor freezing, but temporarily seals their Transcendent Perception.]

Drag the opponent down to your own level, then beat them with rich experience.

That was the very first impression the Ring Heart Seal gave off.

Of course, that had also created a paradox: if he didn’t have Transcendent Perception himself, how was he supposed to trigger the Ring’s effect in the first place?

Now, with the help of the Burial Scroll, that obstacle was no longer an issue.

And having been hit by the move, Excellency Sha Ming was clearly sorely lacking in experience when it came to playing deaf and blind.

Being born blind and going blind out of nowhere had never felt the same.

And since Excellency Patches was pressed for time, it wouldn’t do to let Sha Ming slowly adjust.

Splat—

There was no chance to dodge, nor anything that could block it.

In that instant, a hand clad in a long black Glove pierced through every obstacle before it and plunged straight into Sha Ming’s warping belly.

A Visceral Attack from the Mechanical King of the Abandoned Prison was unleashed without mercy.

Sealing the heart and locking the mind, overcoming the foe and slaying the body.

Boom—

He didn’t even need to worry about whether pulling out the contents of that stomach would dirty his clothes.

For one thing, the bodily fluid spilling from the torn flesh wasn’t even the color of blood, but a thick, mud-like yellow.

For another, the instant those things left the body, they were completely annihilated right along with the corpse itself, no longer able to carry any information.

Employee No. 001 of the Rebirth Club, Brother Sha Ming—who held the world in his heart while having to endure humiliation and shoulder heavy burdens, an outstanding dual practitioner of limb grafting and the Law—met a grim end that day at the mechanical hand of the Tyrant.

And all he left behind was an utterly unoriginal ”Impossible.”

”Tsk, tsk. Still couldn’t get rid of that bug smell.”

Looking on the bright side, though, at least he had successfully drawn a bad review from a higher entity.

Having watched the whole thing without the slightest intention of stepping in, Patches simply frowned and remarked that the smell was awful.

”A transcendent creature? No wonder.”

Fu Qian understood at once, which in turn answered his earlier question.

Excellency Sha Ming wasn’t human at all, but had transformed from a ”bug”?

No wonder the visual impression had been so peculiar. Besides, one really ought to trust one’s intuition—he had subconsciously thought of Professor Lisa just moments ago.

”So you didn’t actually know? This is the specialty of your own Rebirth Club.”

Patches seemed rather surprised that Fu Qian paid so little mind to his organization’s culture, and hadn’t even bothered to study the resumes of his seniors.

”Oh—you mean this is also the result of limb grafting? He could keep a human form because he grafted on a human Skin?”

Since he was already planning to remake The Club anyway, Fu Qian saw nothing wrong with his ignorance and naturally followed Excellency Patches’s lead to connect the dots.

”Heh, now I really believe you can revitalize the Rebirth Club.”

Sure enough, with a sly grin, Patches gave him high praise, commending Fu Qian’s sharp intuition.

’Our Rebirth Club really is open and inclusive. Humans are transcendent creatures too, aren’t they? If humans are allowed to graft limbs, why shouldn’t limbs be allowed to graft humans?’

Amid the deceiver’s high praise, Fu Qian felt his understanding of the philosophy behind limb grafting broaden once again.

Employee No. 001 of the Rebirth Club had originally been a bug?

And had simply used the principles of limb grafting to slip a layer of human Skin over the outside?

It was easy to imagine that Old Man Lu and the others had most likely been in the dark about this, which made the previously thriving scenes of The Club reek of dark humor in hindsight.

Still, as the founder of The Club, it had to be said that Sha Ming really did possess quite a bit of creative thinking.

It was just a pity that as he grew older, he ultimately failed to keep his edge.

He had actually abandoned the grand highway of limb grafting to throw himself into a crooked path like the Law.

”In any case, that really was efficient. I’ll gladly help myself to the remaining half minute, then.”

Excellency Patches’s praise wasn’t even finished yet, as he went on to express his deep admiration for how Fu Qian had polished off a Tier 2 expert in the time it took to catch a breath.

However, his next words sounded almost overly polite. Fu Qian had merely saved him half a minute, yet Patches acted as if that time belonged to Fu Qian, looking like he had found money on the ground by saving it.

”I’m really looking forward to our next collaboration.”

Without giving Fu Qian a chance to exchange pleasantries, Patches patted his own left cheek the next instant, as if waking himself up from sleep.

”Likewise.”

The motion looked effortless, yet its effect was remarkable.

Amid Fu Qian’s languid reply, the scene before his eyes quietly shattered.

This wisp of a lingering dream, laden with so many obsessions, finally seemed to be fading into nothingness.