Chapter 3033 The Pressure Cooker's Pill

Was this the legendary City-Overturning Love?

Whether it was pure love or a doomed romance, its birth always required the right timing, the right place, and the right people.

The Long-Haired Woman no longer paid any attention to the Long-Haired Man's wound, and their embrace wasn't even that tight anymore.

Yet at a single glance, the two seemed to be embodying the concept of soulmates to its absolute extreme.

Achieving this required more than just the unique geographical advantage of the Birthday Party; it was clearly the result of the high-pressure cooking process orchestrated by Professor Fu.

As for the right timing... the fact that these two had appeared here at this exact moment—did that not count?

Fu Qian hadn't just grabbed random test subjects off the street, of course.

Had he just used the Crowd's characteristics, guessed that Old Man Henry was hiding here, dragged two random people over to pressure them until their heads exploded, and then tried to find clues in the aftermath?

If only things were that simple.

The reason he had carefully nurtured the two ingredients before him was that, in Fu Qian's eyes, their rarity was remarkably high.

Never easily attribute things to coincidence. Did the young couple really just happen to appear here? And then accidentally see the cat?

There was far more than one coincidence here. It was one thing for Old Man Henry to dislike coming back, but for whatever he was monitoring to suddenly have an incident less than an hour after his return? In Fu Qian's eyes, the probability of that was simply too low.

That was why, upon actually tracking them down and confirming that Old Man Henry was indeed here, his first conclusion had been that things were going horribly wrong.

The sense that this was all by design was far too strong.

"Bring them along too?" Yuan Shan asked. She had noticed Fu Qian's movements but clearly misunderstood his intentions, seeking to confirm how to handle the two.

"Only if you can actually bring them," Fu Qian said, shaking his head and clapping his hands.

Hmm?

The sudden noise finally caught the deeply affectionate pair's attention. The young couple looked over in almost perfect synchronization, their eyes equally clear.

"Thanks for your hard work. I wish you a hundred years of harmony." Faced with this scene of a "husband and wife sharing one heart," Fu Qian couldn't help but sigh inwardly, though he still offered his blessings.

Well... as expected, the two didn't respond. They even looked as if they could no longer understand his words.

"They seem to have lost the ability to interpret things. All that's left is a mental projection of each other," Su Gao analyzed softly, speaking up in place of Yuan Shan, who remained silent.

...

Yes, the absolute extreme of a "two-person world" seemed to have appeared right before their eyes.

Su Gao's analysis was certainly correct. Even without the aid of Transcendent Perception, Fu Qian would have reached the same conclusion.

The reason the young couple's eyes were so exceedingly clear was simple: under the extreme pressure just now, they had managed to hold on by providing emotional value to one another, but in the process, they had been forced to discard everything unnecessary.

Their hearts were connected to the utmost extreme, but what those hearts reflected was no longer important, nor did it need to rise to the level of the "conscious mind."

Consequently, they could no longer understand the outside world either—and of course, they had no need to understand it.

Heh...

In the very next moment, the two of them let out strange sounds in unison, as if every single cell in their bodies was relaxing.

A seemingly familiar scene followed. The two embracing bodies rapidly dissolved into flying ash, blending into those nonexistent waves.

"What is that?" Yuan Shan asked. Realizing that she truly couldn't bring them along, she had caught a trace of something unusual in that moment.

Amid the traceless ashes, a strange, vibrant color suddenly bloomed.

At first glance, it looked like a fluff ball the size of a fist. It was formed by intertwining threads of living light, yet it had no clear center.

Its hue was similar to the red mist in the pool, but far more brilliant.

When one's gaze landed on it, they could seemingly gain an intuitive sense of what the "abyss of the human heart" truly was.

Had the pressure cooker actually refined a pill?

"This thing is very special..." Chief Yuan said. She looked as if she had truly felt it. Shifting her gaze away was clearly a struggle, and her voice even wavered slightly.

"Perhaps you can take it back for your report," Fu Qian suggested, clicking his tongue in marvel. He had no intention of keeping this harvest in his own hands, gesturing for Yuan Shan to take it if she was interested.

The main reason was that, to him, the "pill" itself wasn't important; rather, the process of refining it was what mattered. There was no doubt this was an item related to The Abyss, and it even possessed that corrupted divinity.

Yet it came from the Crowd—an entity that hadn't displayed anything belonging to the Transcendent Tier right up until the moment of its demise.

These people who constantly appeared and disappeared within the Birthday Party seemingly existed for far more than just matching the architecture and making the place feel lively.

They shared a much more direct interaction with the fundamental nature of the Birthday Party's power, and the channel for that interaction was "will."

And the difference in "will" between the young couple and the criminal gang was that the latter had been dealt with in a simple, brutal manner, ultimately ending in their heads exploding as they perished.

The former, on the other hand, had been carefully cooked through multiple steps. They had even managed to keep from getting burned by connecting their hearts, allowing the transcendent element to finally manifest within them in an even more perfect form.

...

"All right." Clear on the necessity of taking such an item, Yuan Shan didn't stand on ceremony.

Almost as soon as her voice faded, two black ribbons extended from her body and rapidly coiled around that "pill."

Obviously, no matter how harmless it appeared, she had no intention of touching it directly.

But by doing this... didn't it look even more familiar? Fu Qian looked at the rapidly wrapped black sphere and recalled the first time he had met Chief Yuan in the Restricted Zone. She had been controlling contamination in a very similar manner back then too.

The only difference was that the size had been larger back then. Now, it looked more than ever like a Wuji Baifeng Pill.

Furthermore, there really was a "pill" inside this one.

"And what about the teacher here?" Clearly unable to guess what kind of brainstorming was taking place in Professor Fu's head, Yuan Shan grasped the wrapped pill and glanced toward Henry, who still hadn't made a single move.

"It's fine. Su Gao and I will stand guard here," Fu Qian said, waving his hand to signal her to go ahead and call for backup.

"Thanks for your hard work—" For Yuan Shan, even if she gathered everyone in the Birthday Party together, she clearly wouldn't be able to find anyone more trustworthy than the two in front of her, so she agreed without hesitation.

...

'If I channeled an ultimate skill and killed him right now, maybe the inspiration harvest would be pretty generous?'

Of course, Yuan Shan could never have imagined what kind of thoughts were running through Professor Fu's mind as he looked down at The Abyss in the pool the moment she drifted away. A dignified Pillar of the World, after all, had way more style than something like Father's Amnion no matter how you looked at it.

'What? Since I wasn't the one who triggered this thing, it shouldn't drop any loot if it's killed?'

On the surface, it certainly seemed that way, but he couldn't forget that his earlier question had yet to be answered—how could it be such a coincidence that Old Man Henry ran into an incident the moment he returned?

Was it possible that this was all because Henry was with him this time?

With such a lively scene, it was hard to imagine that Excellency Blazing Rainbow wouldn't step in to get involved.