Chapter 3005: Eating Until Fat

Was this the downside of spoilers? What should have been a perfectly good twist couldn't stir up the slightest emotional ripple.

The fact that he spoke in unison with Old Man Stoss certainly didn't mean Fu Qian had learned some form of mind reading.

Even Inner Demon Zen Cultivation lacked the ability to directly read someone's thoughts.

In fact, Fu Qian had discovered long ago that this world was quite lacking in such abilities.

One could manipulate dreams and pry into them.

One could guide things according to the "trend" to induce corruption.

But even an entity as strong as Patches the Deceiver seemed only able to mislead from a higher level, rather than printing out real-time thoughts like a transcript.

Take the mission where they first met on Ye Island, for example. Though Patches had altered his perception of time to make him believe he had to stall until after eight o'clock...

...the entity clearly lacked a contingency plan for Fu Qian deciding to kill ahead of schedule by declaring, "It's high noon."

Was it because of the sea of mind? Did it grant humanity's rather unsophisticated thinking a special kind of protection?

But theoretically, as an outsider, he was rejected by the sea of mind just like the higher entities.

To Fu Qian, this had always been an interesting paradox. Applying it to the current situation, it meant he couldn't actually read what Stoss was about to say.

The reason he could speak in unison was because that line was originally spoken by "Professor Fu" himself.

Faced with the audacious inner demon and the read-and-burn Temporary Folder, the Blasphemy Monarch's response was extremely simple: pull everything in, allowing its own "body size" to expand madly.

You want to digest it? I'll give it all to you.

You want to selectively digest it? Dream on.

It was like facing a snake about to swallow him whole, and choosing to frantically eat until fat.

Let's see if you can swallow fast enough to turn all my efforts into nutrition delivered right to your door.

Or if I can grow fast enough to tear your body apart.

To be fair, it was a good idea. It wasn't even some shady, underhanded scheme that couldn't see the light of day.

Proximity to vermilion turns one red. After crossing paths so many times, His Excellency the Blasphemy Monarch seemed to realize that when dealing with Professor Fu, a straightforward open scheme worked much better.

In short, the Old Man "Stoss" standing there hadn't just swapped his face; he had already suffered a double blasphemy.

Swallowed by the Blasphemy Monarch, then delivered together straight into the jaws of the inner demon.

Squelch—

But as everyone knew, the basic premise of a viable open scheme was that it had to withstand brute-force cracking.

With a light tap from Fu Qian, Old Man Stoss's neck was cleanly severed. His head rolled to the ground, followed by his collapsing body.

Yes, he had chosen to strike directly.

As for what that seemingly invisible blade actually was?

It certainly wasn't the newly acquired Karmic Bond. It was just an Air Bullet.

Long ago, when he first fully became the Mechanical King of the Abandoned Prison, he had noted the changes to his extraordinary power.

For example, without deliberate control, his erupting tentacles would more closely resemble the texture of Mechagodzilla.

And without any shaping, the form of the Air Bullet would naturally develop toward standard geometric shapes.

Now, however, he had just added a bit of extra carving, turning the bullet into a sharp crescent moon.

As for why Old Man Stoss was so frail, the reason was simple. He was just a Temporary Folder created as an initial attempt, and the characters inside were so crude they were hardly better than flat textures.

Furthermore, Professor Fu was a bit curious about the cinematic feel of a head falling from a neck. He deliberately suppressed his instinct to dodge, ultimately taking the head off with a single shot.

"A nice attempt," he said.

However, the vitality of a transcendent seemed to still be on full display.

After spinning a few times on the ground, the severed head spoke without any hindrance the next moment, even wearing a mocking expression.

"Taking out everything that might cause trouble while it's still relatively easy to distinguish...

"I'm glad to see you have such thoughts and confidence, but weren't you a bit too soft? I thought you would aim straight for the head."

By the end, the tone was completely uncamouflaged, delivering a sharp critique purely in the identity of the Blasphemy Monarch.

Considering the contest currently underway, such behavior was undoubtedly unrestrained.

But it also proved the previous point once again: this time, it was an entirely fair and open scheme, without relying on the slightest bit of verbal misdirection.

"How are you supposed to see anything if I aim for the head?" he asked.

Though all the entity earned in return was still Professor Fu's mockery.

This time, he was even speaking with the head still on his neck. Fu Qian shook his head naturally, recalling the entire process of the head dropping to the ground just now while rhetorically asking how summer insects could speak of ice.

"Besides, you definitely don't know what a gradient experiment is," he said.

Without waiting for a retort, he snapped his fingers. The severed head on the ground, along with the headless body, was instantly swallowed by flames.

It was even the golden flame that Old Man Stoss had been looking for just moments ago.

...

This time, the world fell quiet.

Faced with the Flame of Frenzy, which specifically targeted formless entities, the Old Man in the Temporary Folder didn't have the strength to resist.

In passing, a conclusion seemed to be drawn: could the Blasphemy Monarch's open scheme truly be cracked like this?

Eating more and more food to get fat definitely made digestion difficult, but roasting it with fire from time to time to burn off the added portions solved the problem, and maybe even improved the taste.

In short, from severing the head to burning it with the Frenzied Flame, it was fundamentally the same line of thought, just a difference in force—which was the aforementioned gradient.

As for why the damage inflicted on Old Man Stoss precisely burst forth as fire?

It was very simple. Because it didn't originate from the Calamity Eyes; he had literally just lit him on fire.

In the Inner Demon State, Professor Fu was far more than just a master of the Zen Dao. Every bit of authority belonging to the King of the Abandoned Prison was equally at his disposal, including the thoroughly restored Flame of Frenzy.

This was never some switch between a primary and secondary persona. Even if he truly fell into the inner demon and couldn't get out, it didn't mean Master Yuhun would be reborn from within his body.

In fact, if that were the case, it would be much easier to deal with.

The reality was far more delicate and far more dangerous than that.

Because what had shifted was merely an Anchor Point of his own self-perception.

It determined which of the two—Fruit and Sugar—served as the fundamental baseline in Professor Fu's form of existence.

Whether to command the inner demon in the identity of the King of the Abandoned Prison, or to completely refine this Skin using the Zen Dao.

"So that's how it is... I have to say, it perfectly fits your identity, on every level," the voice said.

At this moment, Professor Fu's academic thinking seemed to have also elicited praise from the Blasphemy Monarch.

Yet this exclamation, thick with mockery, didn't come from the only surviving Puppet Demigod.

It was a ubiquitous, majestic, and echoing voice.

Not only did it sound nothing like Professor Fu or any alternate persona, but one could intuitively sense its inhuman nature.

But these were irrelevant details. Just like the "past life" the Blasphemy Monarch had shown him back then, the instant the voice sounded, Fu Qian felt a connection that transcended flesh and even the soul.