106: Chapter 106 The Show Begins

Tu Ziguan's words were like an extremely fine, extremely cold needle, transmitted from the other end of the jade token, piercing through the silver-white Void Realm in Xie Feng's right eye socket, and plunging into a certain corner of the deepest part of his consciousness.

Xie Feng held the jade token and stood in place.

The Centurion in the corridor glanced back at him, probably sensing his spiritual energy fluctuation.

Xie Feng waved his hand to indicate that he was fine, then exchanged some casual banter with Tu Ziguan, and then found a corner to sit down.

If it weren't for the fact that he didn't smoke, he would really want to light up a cigarette right now.

The Bloated Woman Cult.

Full name: The Bloated Woman Cult.

Worshipping the Incarnation of Nyarlathotep: the Bloated Woman.

This Incarnation is worshipped almost exclusively in the Asian region and has close ties with the underground society.

Their main weapons are sickles, used to slash the victim's torso and then sever their limbs; they rarely use firearms.

The order has long maintained ties with the Deep Ones settlement in the East China Sea, so a considerable portion of the order's members are Deep Ones half-breeds.

He had checked this information countless times when TRPGing in Blue Star, and could recite it with his eyes closed.

Xie Feng had fallen into a misunderstanding previously.

He had always thought that Tu Ziguan's world didn't have Cthulhu because that world didn't have Cthulhu novels and games.

But novels were novels, and reality was reality.

Their two worlds were completely opposite, just like the two sides of a coin, presenting completely different patterns despite being made of the same material.

Nyarlathotep's methods were always so eerie and terrifying; He had given such obvious hints yet they hadn't been discovered.

Xie Feng finally knew why Tu Ziguan could see Cthulhu's name without being blocked by cognitive isolation, because Tu Ziguan lived right inside the world of Cthulhu.

Tu Ziguan could sometimes receive Mythos knowledge, but couldn't see the mark on Xie Feng's body, presumably because Nyarlathotep at the Sect was playing tricks, not wanting to expose these intelligence to Xie Feng so early.

Tu Ziguan didn't have any knowledge of the Cthulhu Mythos in his head, just like a white mouse that had never been exposed to microorganisms, not even knowing what the pathogen causing the infection was called.

Xie Feng pressed the jade token back against his ear.

"Tu Wu. The Bloated Woman Cult you just mentioned, have you ever met their leader in person?"

"No, I've only heard the elders in the family mention it. I heard before that it was a female leader, but now it seems to be a black male."

"Sigh..."

Xie Feng suddenly understood Emperor Zhou Weixi's feeling; he was also a bit exhausted now.

The Black Man — — THE BLACK MAN

One of Nyarlathotep's many humanoid Incarnations.

Xie Feng fell completely into a mad contradiction: should he tell Tu Ziguan?

Xie Feng completely couldn't guess where Nyarlathotep's next move would land.

If he told Tu Ziguan, would he develop mental problems, would he go mad?

Why did Tu Ziguan never have mental problems in his past life? How did he transmigrate? Was it Nyarlathotep's doing?

If he didn't say anything, would Tu Ziguan be plotted against by Nyarlathotep out of ignorance? Would new problems arise?

The trolley problem was placed right in front of Xie Feng.

The black slurry from the three-lobed eyeball slowly flowed out of his eye socket, and Xie Feng began restlessly biting his fingernails, until bright red blood welled up from his fingers and the taste of rust appeared in his mouth.

Auditory hallucinations of whispering laughter rang in his ears.

The Centurion was about to come over to call Xie Feng, because he saw that Xie Feng had bitten off half of his thumb's nail and the flesh underneath.

"Are you alright, buddy?" Tu Ziguan's voice was by his ear, but Xie Feng couldn't hear it at all.

Suddenly, Zuo Ciyuan's jade token violently vibrated, and a wave of fluctuation covered Xie Feng's entire body, instantly snapping Xie Feng back to clarity.

"Fuck, almost got plotted against again, that was a close call to going crazy." Xie Feng looked at his knuckle, half of which was gone, and temporarily stopped the bleeding with his spiritual power. The Centurion came over with a frown and called someone to bandage Xie Feng up.

Xie Feng squatted under the eaves of the corridor, the gauze wrapped around his thumb stained red in a small patch by the seeping blood.

He thought of the matter of the Mirror Tomb.

Showing off and being arrogant, taking everything upon himself—Xie Feng had already suffered this kind of loss once in the Mirror Tomb, and couldn't afford a second time.

If Nyarlathotep wanted to play, they truly couldn't stop Him, but at least they couldn't remain blindfolded anymore.

Xie Feng re-injected spiritual power and pressed down on the Spirit Stone.

As Xie Feng explained sentence by sentence, the other end of the phone also fell into silence.

"You haven't been polluted, your spirit has no abnormalities, and your spiritual power has no Mythos aura. He has a cult in your world, but that doesn't mean He has touched you."

"He simply took a fan from your world, cut it into a veil, and shoved it to me."

"You should be safe for now. What you need to do is know about this matter, and then wait for me to return."

"After returning, we'll study it together. Calm down, Tu Wu, you aren't carrying this alone."

The other end of the jade token fell silent for another moment, and then Tu Ziguan took a breath. "Fine. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anyway, if He really wants to play with me, I can't stop Him either. You're going to catch bugs during tomorrow's morning court session, right? Don't drive yourself crazy again; I certainly don't want to set up a cenotaph for you a second time."

Xie Feng let out a laugh, then took the jade token away from his mouth, cutting off the spiritual power.

The Centurion leaned over and pulled him up from the ground.

After returning to his room, Xie Feng didn't sleep, nor could he sleep.

Leaning against the couch, the Shaggai Insect in his head was still sending signals outward with Mental Energy, at a frequency denser than before.

That Shaggai Insect was humming happily in ecstasy.

Every bit of neurotransmitter transformed from stress was like aged wine to it, smooth upon entry with a lingering sweet aftertaste.

The violent emotional fluctuations of high stress, madness, self-blame, and regret made it so ecstatic that it didn't even want to leave.

It rolled over in the bottom wall of Xie Feng's lateral ventricle, comfortable enough that its tiny legs curled up simultaneously, emitting extremely subtle mental fluctuations:

"You are the highest-quality host I have ever parasitized."

"Really, won't you consider long-term cooperation?"

"I just need to absorb a little bit of your stress every day. With you having so much stress, giving me some isn't a loss at all."

"And I can help you vent your emotions; I'm free."

Xie Feng raised his finger and struck his temples heavily twice. Cthugha's faint heat surged upward along the Meridians, and the bug trembled in the choroid plexus, but still chattered incessantly.

Until Xie Feng used magic to grab out two big slaps that made it see stars, this Shaggai Insect finally shut up.

But it hadn't shut up for long before it started emitting extremely fine, extremely soft satisfied trills.

Early the next morning, as the eunuch read aloud, the morning court session began.

This damning morning court session lasted for over two hours. Xie Feng stood at the very end of the military officials' ranks, leaning against the palace pillar, the hood of his cloak pulled extremely low to cover his entire face.

He hadn't slept all night last night; the Shaggai Insect had hummed in his head all night. Now, relying on the spiritual power of a Fourth Realm Cultivator to forcibly prop up his spirit, he managed not to fall asleep right there in court.

Emperor Zhou Weixi sat on the dragon throne, listening to the Minister of Revenue report the final batch of figures for the autumn grain allocation.

The emperor's spirit wasn't too good today either; the frequency of him holding his teacup was much higher than usual, making it look like he hadn't slept well last night either.

Duke Yong stood at the very head of the military officials' ranks, his hands pressing on his lion-patterned belt.

Xu Liujing stood near the back of the civil officials' ranks, his moon-white court attire ironed impeccably, glancing at Xie Feng out of the corner of his eye ever since Xie Feng entered the hall.

"Xie Feng."

Emperor Zhou Weixi put the teacup back on the armrest of the dragon throne. His voice wasn't loud, but all the civil and military officials in the court immediately quieted down.

"The matter I ordered you to investigate, how is the investigation going?"

The main show had arrived!