Eldritch Horror Theatre - Ch. 28: Devour
Following Wen Li's words, a silent storm swept through the entire space, then quickly dissipated into nothingness.
In terms of intensity, this shockwave was nothing more than a breeze brushing the face, but Fu Qian felt that something was different.
Before he could savor it carefully, an inhuman roar came, vibrating his eardrums until they hurt.
Shadow Nightmare, who was being held by the neck in his hand, began to struggle violently.
Did he get scared out of his mind? Fu Qian glanced at him.
The top-tier assassin who had just been crying out to negotiate was now red-eyed, emitting beast-like purring sounds from his throat, thrashing his body around with an almost reckless abandon for his life.
A cracking sound.
Shadow Nightmare, unable to break free the entire time, actually snapped his own neck the very next moment.
Even stranger, the broken stump was as dry as wood, and not a single drop of blood flowed out.
Shadow Nightmare, with his head broken off, didn't stop struggling; his movements became even more frenzied.
The sound of wind whipped up. Fu Qian twisted his head, dodging a claw swiping at his skull.
As the claw missed, under the powerful inertia, the already deeply decayed arm snapped right off.
Similarly, no blood flowed out, but the dark red blood lines covering the surface of the arm slipped off all at once.
Next were the shoulders, the chest, the upper body.
Like a golden cicada shedding its shell, the dark red blood lines pulled themselves out of Shadow Nightmare's corpse thread by thread, then instantly slipped onto the wall, pressing tightly against it.
The Shadow Nightmare in his hand was now dead as dead could be. Fu Qian tossed the mutilated remains aside.
At this moment, it felt like a grenade had been set off inside his own head.
An incomparably violent bloodlust filled his mind, stimulating every nerve and impacting his cognition until it tottered precariously.
Every single cell in his body became manic; it seemed only the bloodiest slaughter could pacify it.
Hiss!
Taking a deep breath, Fu Qian looked back.
Wen Li had her eyes shut tight, standing motionless in place.
She was still pale and fragile, but the feeling she gave off had noticeably changed, bearing a hint of mystery.
Further away, Tan Mingxue had completely broken down, wrapping her arms tightly around herself, hiding in the corner shivering.
Countless transparent threads formed from hair entangled chaotically around her body, stopping anything from approaching.
Could that invisible storm amplify people's emotions?
Fu Qian's heart stirred, using his remaining shred of rationality to analyze the current situation.
Shadow Nightmare had clearly fallen for it. Earlier, he had been focused solely on escaping with his life, which was why he had desperately tried to break out of his control just now.
He just didn't expect Tan Mingxue to be the same. This woman's courage was smaller than she let on.
And she's a Night Watcher at that!
As for Wen Li, that storm just now clearly emanated from her body; it could be said that she was the source of this anomaly.
From this perspective, his plan to use the pressure and fear of death to stimulate Wen Li was a success.
Although he hadn't received a mission success prompt yet, Wen Li was clearly undergoing a change.
As for whether this was the upgrade opportunity she had mentioned, he could only wait and see.
Crack!
With a muffled thud, Fu Qian forcibly snapped his own right hand.
He had no choice. If he didn't snap it, he would have pounded the people around him into meat paste.
However, it only took a few seconds for the broken hand to steadfastly heal itself.
As long as he interrupted Wen Li, he could stop this.
Amidst the cracking sounds, Fu Qian broke a hand again, standing in place and forcing himself to calm down.
Interrupting Wen Li was easy; the hard part was not interrupting her (physically).
Just then, a sea of blood-red churned before his eyes.
With a shudder, the thing on the wall that had shed from Shadow Nightmare's body actually curled up into a spiked sphere.
Not only that, the sphere was expanding wildly. Countless blood-colored veins twisted together, corroding and devouring everything they encountered.
The closest thing to it was the motionless Wen Li.
In ten seconds at most, she would perish, a genius dying young.
Fu Qian quickly made a judgment.
But if he smashed this thing to pieces, the Crimson Fever would escape.
It wouldn't matter to him, but the problem was even if Wen Li upgraded, whether she could survive was still an unknown.
The moment the two choices appeared in his mind, Fu Qian felt a wave of confusion in his brain, rendering him almost unable to think.
Sure enough, the feeling of conflict had also been amplified.
Seeing that thing grow madly, in the blink of an eye it had expanded several times over, leaving it only a step away from Wen Li.
Eliminate it, but without breaking it. A bit complicated.
The stricter the requirements, the broader the thought process needed to be.
Fu Qian took a step forward. The next moment, he completely released his suppression over his violent bloodlust.
Rip!
With a flash of blood, his newly recovered right hand left a bottomless wound on his own chest.
Driven by the violent bloodlust, his body's metabolism was activated to its absolute limit.
In an instant, the cells at the wound grew wildly, forming rows of sharp fangs.
Taking a deep breath, the fissure on his chest rapidly tore and expanded. In just half a second, it became a gaping maw filled with sharp teeth.
Fu Qian opened it towards the dark red blood mass.
The blood mass, which had expanded several times in size, had nowhere to dodge and was swallowed whole in one bite.
The large mouth snapped shut, and the blood mass began to struggle frantically.
However, no matter how it bashed left and right, it was still firmly suppressed by the cells in their berserk state, utterly unable to find any way out.
After an unknown number of collisions, the blood mass finally ruptured and disintegrated.
A wisp of scorching red mist escaped, but it was still locked tightly within Fu Qian's chest cavity, not a single trace slipping out.
Half a minute later, Fu Qian stepped forward and planted a kick right onto Wen Li.
Ah!
Wen Li cried out in alarm and opened her eyes, jumping up from the ground.
Looking at her agile movements upon getting up, without a doubt, she must be at Tier 6.
Fu Qian could feel the violence in his heart dissipate instantly. It really was her doing just now.
Mental Types upgrading are such a hassle!
"Mr. Fu, thank you for your help."
Glancing around, Wen Li seemed to understand what had happened. A look of pleasant surprise appeared on her face, and she bowed deeply to Fu Qian.
Fu Qian didn't reply, but stared into Wen Li's pupils, which were much deeper than before, as a voice rang in his ear.
[Wen Li died, Containment Failed]
The next moment, the scene before his eyes rapidly fell apart, and Fu Qian returned once again to the familiar Warehouse.
[Rating: Incurably Insane]
[Kill: Shadow Nightmare × 1]
[Special Kill: Crimson Angel × 1]
[Special Kill Reward: Tyrant's Fist]
[Current Sanity Value: 33]
[Play Event Replay?]
To actually fail even this. His intuition had been right; this mission was far more difficult than it appeared on the surface.
Fu Qian took a breath. He didn't do anything like smash a keyboard; he simply stood there and directly selected the event replay.
He needed to confirm something.
Wen Li was clearly standing right in front of him and had successfully advanced to Tier 6, but the prompt was death and Containment Failed.
Unless she wasn't Wen Li!
Skipping everything prior and dragging the progress bar all the way to the end, Fu Qian watched Wen Li get up after bowing.
The exact same face, a vivid expression, but compared to before her upgrade, there was a trace of malevolence deep within her eyes.
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