Eldritch Horror Theatre - Ch. 65: Omen Must Die (11)
So the legendary calamity actually looks like this.
Returning to the familiar Warehouse, Fu Qian closed his eyes, piece by piece recalling the image he had just seen.
Just glancing at it caused his Sanity Value to constantly drop. That Tree of Flesh and Blood that appeared on the mountain peak was likely of a considerably high rank.
In just that brief moment, his Sanity Value had dropped by a full dozen or so points.
The last time he encountered a similar situation, it seemed to be that Spawn of the Evil God.
If he hadn't upgraded to Thug 2/3, greatly increasing his mental resistance, that hit just now would probably have left him with almost no Sanity Value remaining.
Was that tree the entity Omen was sacrificing to?
Recalling the scene of the Huang Family members standing stiffly, one by one, staring at the sky, it was truly bizarre in the extreme.
He imagined the rest of Xiyuan City wouldn't be much different.
Perhaps some people didn't see it right away, but just like what happened moments ago, those who fell victim couldn't give out any warning, and those who hadn't fallen victim would inevitably look to see what was going on.
Ultimately, they would just line up one by one to turn into idiots, leaving a city full of walking corpses.
So this was the true form of the calamity? It was certainly much more imaginative than a volcanic eruption!
And much more terrifying!
Putting it that way, Omen's continuous murder and sacrifice were just to make this thing descend?
No, not necessarily descend.
Like that time with the Spawn of the Evil God, causing such a massive impact still required relying on a maternal body just to strive for a possibility of birth.
For an entity that looked this much more terrifying, how could it possibly descend just by killing a few Beyonders?
Perhaps it was always there, just impossible to perceive, touch, or communicate with.
And what Omen was doing wasn't making it descend, but making it visible!
Through continuous torture and sacrifice, after killing Huang Jianyuan and his group, Omen had accumulated enough power to eliminate a certain boundary, allowing that tree to appear before everyone.
"The dangerous Omen is lurking, and the Calamity converges along with it."
Was this the true meaning of "lurking"?
Regardless, losing over a dozen points of Sanity Value in one go made this trip a disastrous loss.
However, it wasn't a total loss. At least he got a name.
Huang Yuanchang.
Fu Qian recalled the roster he had seen earlier; this name was on it.
If he remembered correctly, this person was also a Beyonder of the Huang Family, but his aptitude was mediocre. Unable to cultivate the ancestral Human Emperor Qi, he couldn't be considered a core member of the family.
Based on the current situation, his suspicion was exceptionally high.
The time for this mission was far more pressing than imagined. There was no time to eliminate every possibility one by one. Next time, he would just target him directly and kill him first.
As long as he didn't look up at the sky, he still had enough opportunities for trial and error.
Speaking of which, Fu Qian always had a doubt in his mind.
The difficulty of this type of mission simply lay in finding the person. Once the target was locked, the rest was just a matter of how to beat them to death.
Even without using one's brain, just repeating it a few times and using the process of elimination makes it very easy to lock onto the target.
Theoretically speaking, this was still the simplest category of missions.
But why would the description include such despairing words like "regardless of whether there's a way"?
Could it be that Omen was so strong that he was entirely unkillable?
Impossible!
If he was truly an invincible existence, he could just start a massacre directly. Why bother being chased by the Night Watchers, hiding in the east and scurrying to the west?
Full of doubt, Fu Qian touched the Fog Door once more.
[Consume 1 point of Sanity Value. Attempting containment again. Current Sanity Value: 41]
[...1%...3%...7%...15%...31%...63%...100%, Containment Scene loaded]
"Sir, please enjoy your meal."
A familiar voice sounded in his ears. Fu Qian opened his eyes, and the restaurant where the bloody murder occurred presented itself before him once again.
Taking a deep breath of the food's aroma, Fu Qian, just like last time, picked up the staff meal from his plate and put it in his mouth to soothe his wounded soul.
While enjoying the food, he looked toward the direction of the crime scene according to his memory.
In the corner of the restaurant, a black formal dress, a slender neck... a youthful and graceful back was sitting neatly there, while the seat opposite her was completely empty.
Exactly the same as what he saw last time.
And the next moment, as if impatient from waiting, the figure picked up the glass on the table and took a sip.
Hm?
Huh!
She actually didn't die?
Fu Qian's gaze sharpened.
Compared to last time, his actions hadn't changed in the slightest, yet a person who should have died was now alive!
This world line isn't right. This is the first time he's encountered such a situation.
Fu Qian tried looking outside the restaurant and quickly spotted Lu Jun and his partner passing by.
However, these two had absolutely no intention of coming in and were hurrying away into the distance.
Last time, they must have entered because they noticed an anomaly in the restaurant. This time, for some reason, Geng Yue didn't die, so they naturally wouldn't come in.
What exactly was the reason?
Fu Qian's brain began operating at top speed.
Compared to the previous run, his behavior could be said to have no difference whatsoever. Theoretically speaking, he shouldn't have caused any impact on the original course of events.
Moreover, based on his experience last time, this woman should have died before he regained his perception. Otherwise, at such a close distance, it made no sense for him not to notice the process of her murder.
But this time she genuinely didn't die. Something must have caused this situation.
Wait a minute, experience!
A flash of inspiration struck Fu Qian's mind.
If there was any difference between his current self and his past self, it was that during his last attempt, he had learned a few names.
For instance, Huang Yuanchang, and Lu Xing.
Because he knew Omen's name, this woman didn't die?
Su Gao had mentioned before that Omen possessed a beast-like intuition for danger, and it was precisely by relying on this that he repeatedly escaped the Night Watchers.
If these changes were caused by this, then Omen's talent was likely not as simple as mere intuition.
This mission was getting more and more interesting!
Fu Qian thought for a moment, then stood up and walked straight toward the woman in the corner, pulling out the chair opposite her and sitting down.
"I'm sorry, I'm waiting for someone..."
Geng Yue, who was clearly in a bad mood, was about to impatiently shoo him away when she suddenly realized that the wine glass in her hand had somehow ended up in the hands of the stranger opposite her.
"Drinking before a meal is not good for your health."
Fu Qian casually glanced into the glass.
"Miss, are you waiting for someone?"
This guy isn't an ordinary person!
Geng Yue's eyes lit up. Three seconds later, she sighed, shaking her head as if on the verge of tears.
"Yes, but unfortunately, I'm afraid that person won't be able to make it."
"That is truly too impolite!"
Fu Qian nodded, looking her up and down, not missing a single detail.
Feeling his burning gaze, Geng Yue rejoiced inwardly. She quickly adjusted her emotions and did her utmost to display her most elegant posture.
After letting Fu Qian observe her like this for a while, Geng Yue felt smug. Just as the corners of her mouth curled up to speak, she saw the wine glass being pushed back.
"Then you should drink a little more."
...?
Geng Yue's mind was in a daze. Before she could even process what had happened, Fu Qian had already floated away.
As expected, there was something special on her neck.
Leaving the restaurant, Fu Qian recalled the scene he had just witnessed.
On Geng Yue's delicate and slender neck, there was a nearly imperceptible fluctuation of power.
The source was a circle of transparent patterns just below her necklace. The contrast with her skin was minuscule, absolutely impossible to spot without looking closely.
The pattern circled her neck, and its texture bore some similarities to what he had discovered earlier in Lu Xing's small workshop.
There was a 99.9% chance that her husband, Lu Xing, had secretly drawn this on her neck.
And this thing containing runic power would activate at a specific time, cleanly slicing her head off her neck.
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