The Chaos of Essence (Bonus Chapter for Silver Grand Alliance "Jekunt" 15)

For a moment, not a sound could be heard.

Even so, Fu Qian felt the dream shudder.

Since Nepheli was nothing more than a nonhuman projection, there was reason to believe the disturbance came from Chie Kisaragi.

The fact that she could be affected to this extent showed how difficult it was for her to associate the image of the King of Leaf Island with death, leading her to doubt herself intensely.

"He... why did he die?"

This time, without needing Nepheli to prompt her, Chie Kisaragi forced the words out herself.

"Isn't it obvious?"

Fu Qian looked surprised, his tone utterly casual.

"I killed him."

"You—"

At Chie Kisaragi's disoriented-sounding voice, the dream grew even more unstable.

Fu Qian didn't try to hold it together. He snapped his fingers and ended the Clear Dream.

Reality returned. Chie Kisaragi wasn't slumped over the table, though. She remained sitting bolt upright, staring at Fu Qian with an indescribable look in her voice.

"So you knew Nepheli was here?"

So she could only exist by relying on an infected person's perception?

Faced with Chie Kisaragi's bizarre way of speaking, Fu Qian sighed inwardly, forming more theories about Nepheli's hiding technique.

"I did."

He nodded honestly.

There was a reason she could infect even demigods with ease and remain so hard to detect.

Nepheli's ability didn't involve forcibly implanting her will in a target. Otherwise, now that everything was out in the open, wouldn't it be easier to simply possess someone and talk to him directly?

Her current state was like a character in a book, existing only when Chie Kisaragi read and imagined her.

With a special technique, she could make her target forget what she had read, achieving perfect concealment.

This method clearly had plenty of limitations and caused no direct