Chapter 1224: The Stick Insect of the Sacred Night Capital (End)

"How much longer?" He was asking, naturally, about the remaining duration of his Pseudo-God Incarnation.

At first glance, it sounded like impatience.

But how could an ancient higher entity harbor such shallow emotions?

In truth, this was an unconventional form of courtesy.

He had just mentioned having two questions left. After he asked the first, his counterpart had chosen to ask one in return, and upon receiving an answer, signaled that he could continue.

It was both fair and cooperative.

In response, Fu Qian hadn't lied at all.

Within three minutes at most, he would fall from the Rank he had forcibly maintained until now.

He would be a completely spent force.

"Like I said earlier, I can sense that you aren't inclined to expose yourself, yet you're secretly accumulating power. I want to know why."

Fu Qian had been curious about this for a long time.

From everything he had seen recently, the entire world seemed to lie beneath some kind of shadow.

And who better to clear up this confusion than an ancient Divine Entity who had stayed hidden for countless years and was even secretly plotting?

"Does it have to do with the Long Night a thousand years ago? Or is it a threat from the stars?"

He elaborated, not hesitating to share his guesses.

Based on the known circumstances, this was the most reasonable possibility Fu Qian could think of.

He didn't think Blazing Rainbow's concerns stemmed from the Warehouse.

It was obvious the Warehouse was already riddled with holes. For the Goddess of Sins in her weakened state, or for entities like Patches, it might still be their primary object of hatred or fear.

But an entity like Blazing Rainbow—who was already planting spyware to send the Administrators to a fully automated cremation—should have a completely different stance.

In fact, as an overperforming Scavenger who had repeatedly ruined its plans, he felt he should have drawn more of its hatred.

Today's operation was proof of that.

...

Unfortunately, Fu Qian didn't know if the question he had asked so eagerly was too profound, but it actually plunged the ancient higher entity into silence.

Time ticked by, yet Blazing Rainbow's voice still didn't sound in his mind.

The rainbow-colored figure didn't make a single move either.

It was so quiet that one could easily suspect it planned to drag things out for the full three minutes.

In fact, time was almost up. The final countdown had already begun.

Yet Fu Qian remained full of anticipation.

"Nights and Nightmares... are both too long."

Diligent effort pays off. Given his utmost sincerity as a listener, Fu Qian finally heard that voice. He even seemed to detect a hint of emotional investment within it, making it feel all the more real.

The only issue was that Blazing Rainbow seemed to suffer from a common fault among great figures: the answer was somewhat obscure, and its true meaning required guessing.

"But you don't need to worry. Yours will be longer."

Unfortunately, Fu Qian no longer had the chance to guess.

Along with Blazing Rainbow's supplementary explanation, a rainbow hue—similar to the Indigo Witch's previous disco lighting but clearly much more exalted—filled the cabin once more.

Standing within it, Fu Qian felt no heaviness, yet he knew full well he was already like a bug in Amber.

Obviously, the entity was confident in its countdown and had no intention of giving him any chance to escape.

Keep distinct matters separate. Its logic was extremely clear.

As for that final supplementary remark, it sounded like his treatment after his SAN Value hit zero would challenge the imagination in its sheer tragedy.

If it could even pull that off.

The next moment, Fu Qian's consciousness locked onto his left eye.

...

A fully prepared higher entity was terrifying.

Along the way, it could be said that every possible path to survival had been blocked off step by step.

Even the world itself had been twisted by Dislocation, completely eliminating any possibility of completing the task.

The entity's gaze was omnipresent. Victory seemed inevitable; the only difference his efforts had made was the margin by which this being would win.

The only catch was that the same held true for himself—all his efforts so far had merely influenced how he would win.

Eye Within the Eye.

It could not be used to observe any other existence, and therefore it would not be observed by any other existence.

This reward, suspected of plagiarizing the Pure White Angel's authority, was the essential embodiment of "ignorance." Because of its special properties, it was a truly hidden trump card.

And its effect—giving up thought to enter a fateful hangover that not even a Deity could interfere with—seemed perfectly suited for this situation.

The only problem was that, since it could only be used once, he couldn't entirely confirm its effects based on its vague description—

Was the hangover the state he had been in after gouging out his eye back then? That wasn't hard to understand.

Did "not even a Deity could interfere" mean that no higher entity could meddle with his sleepwalking?

That challenged the imagination a bit. After all, it was hard to picture the cage he was currently trapped in just vanishing into thin air.

And even if an ancient higher entity locked onto him with full force, it would still never find a trace of him again?

That was even harder to imagine. It felt a bit too optimistic.

Fortunately, he didn't need that optimism.

The key to the Eye Within the Eye was simply "giving up thought."

Blazing Rainbow's purpose in orchestrating all this was very clear—to annihilate his will.

But what if his will was already gone?

Fu Qian didn't care in the slightest whether his body would become indestructible upon activation or be crushed into Residue.

Death had always been an opportunity to escape.

The Warehouse might not be able to merge the history of a successful mission into the future, but what if its staff member died?

No matter how he thought about it, that fell into a completely different category.

Even if Blazing Rainbow restrained its emotions, cared for him meticulously, and didn't let a single hair fall from his head, it still wouldn't matter.

There was another crucial node—the real-world time when he entered the task.

He knew from the task involving the Greed Worm Covenanter, Jiang En, that a mission would last at most until the real-world time of his entry; if he still hadn't succeeded by then, it would be directly judged a failure.

Simply put, the historical segment intercepted by the Warehouse had a set length.

And this mission had begun on the following evening.

In other words, even if Blazing Rainbow didn't kill him and ignored the risk of exposure to stand guard over him, in less than twenty hours he would most likely fail and be kicked out anyway.

That was also one of the reasons he had been so satisfied when the Warehouse responded to his arrangements.

You could destroy a hungover body, but you couldn't wake a hungover soul, even if you were a God.

Up to this point in the mission, that was the most beautiful realization.

This series of thoughts organized itself in Fu Qian's mind at the speed of light.

And the Pseudo-God Incarnation would end in ten seconds.

As long as he blinked, there was an overwhelmingly high chance he would win this round...

Fu Qian didn't blink...

Because the next moment, the light vanished from his eyes.

...

[Current task completed, Designation 3-1003 successfully contained]

It actually worked. Now this was a proper Sacred Night Capital.

In the absolute darkness, listening to the notification ringing in his ears, Fu Qian expressed his satisfaction that the Sacred Night Capital had finally returned to its true essence.

Beneath his vanishing yellow robes, the thumb of his left hand gently stroked an extra Ring.

The invisible, icy band felt like a slender, freezing hand clasping his own in the darkness.

[Dark Moon Ring]

[The sole contract ring bestowed upon the Knight from a foreign land; the crusade has no end, but you will forever remain by the side of the Dark Moon.]

[Burning Frost: Moonlight burns like frost, bestowing an icy facade upon all things transcendent.]

[Time-Moon Slumber: Absolute, lightless darkness is the best place to bid farewell. Nelgria grants you a single chance to share in this solitude.

Upon activation, the freezing Lightless Night will descend. Under this final sanctuary of the Pope, her hurried Templar Knight may finally sleep soundly.]

The Witch still made no sound, but the moment the Dark Moon had appeared just now, this Ring had manifested, followed by the explanation ringing out.

The tone was mechanical and rigid, but the voice that read out the name Nelgria carried a familiar languor.