A high-level trick like feinting east and attacking west was, of course, not something this "horse" had done on its own.
After all their interactions, Fu Qian had gained a pretty good understanding of the Celestial Cult's style.
In a word, they were "upright."
Just like the laws they believed in, they were ruthless and merciless when acting within what they considered reasonable bounds. But once they reached a line they wouldn't cross, they had the self-control to hold firm.
Along the way, as a new case that had caught their interest, he'd been exposed to nightmares, disease, and corruption in turn, and finally even let a bloodsucker connected to the corruption bite him.
Clearly, that had pushed them to their limit.
Fu Qian didn't doubt that Reginald could handle the problem in front of them. But he could easily imagine what the cult's response would be once this was over.
Judging by Amira and the other man's attitude, the moment they got out, the observation plan prompted by his "special" nature would be firmly concluded as a failure.
Aside from follow-up visits and deciding whether he needed to be committed to a psychiatric hospital, they most likely wouldn't invest any more resources in him.
The World Within the Painting might even be treated as an ordinary group dream.
But Fu Qian wasn't going to let that happen before he'd wrung every last resource the cult could offer out of them.
So now he needed to give them a "successful" result, so he could keep scamming them for funding—no, so they'd increase their investment in research.
And so, just as the little horse threw itself at him, Fu Qian used a Thread of Concern to yank it over.
The result was pretty good. Fu Qian was sure his movements had