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"Outrageous…"
Tail's voice trembled as he spoke.
This was the first time in his entire life that he had felt genuine fear toward someone who hadn't even revealed their true strength yet.
Too terrifying. What couldn't someone like this do?
The others weren't much better off than Tail. They stared at Giovanni's throat bobbing up and down as he swallowed, their faces twisted into expressions of near-horror.
Even though none of them had taken so much as a sip themselves, just imagining gulping it down like he did made it feel as though something was tightening around their necks, suffocating them.
Especially the timid Huohuo—her soul nearly fled her body.
She asked weakly, "H-he… he won't die from drinking that, right?"
Thinking about that horrifying taste, death was probably unlikely—but it was hard to believe nothing would go wrong.
Only Sylvester, pinching his nose, carefully examined Giovanni, curiosity filling his eyes.
He muttered to himself, "How did he even drink it through the mask?"
"You're outrageous too!"
Tail ground his teeth, looking as though he were staring at two believers of Elation at once.
But Giovanni answered him seriously, "Haha, the power of Elation—mysterious, isn't it?"
Unfortunately, the moment he spoke, the bottle mouth—previously tightly sealed—was no longer obstructed.
Although Giovanni quickly resumed drinking, the terrifying stench born of fermented cultures seized that precious opportunity.
Like a traveler lost in the desert spotting an oasis, like a starving wolf seeing a plump sheep, like a goblin in a cavern encountering a female knight, it surged out in a mad rush.
The group thought they were fine since they had pinched their noses early on, but less than three seconds later, they realized just how naive they had been.
This smell—forget inhaling it—just letting it brush against their lips was enough to make them retch!
They scrambled to cover their mouths and noses, their eyelids clamped shut as if glued together, not daring to open them even a sliver.
Why?
Because the smell was stinging their eyes.
It had broken through the limits of taste and launched a violent assault on the sense of touch instead.
Huohuo curled up on the sofa into a fluffy little ball.
She even had a strange hallucination.
That this wasn't a smell at all—but a ferocious dragon, clutching her tender flesh in its claws, foul saliva dripping from its jaws!
A pale blue glow surrounded Sylvester. He directly used spatial power to wrap himself in a protective barrier, avoiding the same miserable state as the others.
Glancing at the rest—shivering, so frightened they had even forgotten to resist—he couldn't help but find it a little amusing.
Though the people present weren't top-tier combatants of the Xianzhou, the fact that this drink alone could leave them completely helpless meant it had truly reached the pinnacle of culinary lethality.
He then extended the spatial barrier to cover them as well.
"I've isolated the smell for you. You don't need to act like you're facing a great enemy."
Even so, that brief instant of exposure had already left a deep psychological shadow.
They tested each step cautiously—just loosening their grip from their mouths, then slowly opening their lips—taking a full half minute.
When Giovanni's swallowing sounds finally stopped, Huohuo, still worried, was the first to speak.
"Mr. Giovanni… are you still alive?"
By all logic, a Masked Fool shouldn't stay silent like this, right? How could he finish an entire bottle without a single comment?
If Tail could hear her thoughts, he would definitely roar, "Nonsense! After drinking a whole bottle of that, how could he still be alive to comment? He'd be dead from how bad it tastes!"
But even without saying it out loud, Huohuo was still deeply concerned.
A Masked Fool dying from something being too awful to drink… maybe that could be considered a fitting end?
After all, it would be quite amusing. A Masked Fool should like that kind of death… probably.
But the colleagues at the Shackling Prison would be in trouble.
Would this count as suicide, or would Shopkeeper Sylvester be charged with murder?
Before she could get an answer, just as she was about to lower the hand covering her eyes—a sudden burst of laughter rang out.
The laughter was so manic it bordered on insanity, completely different from the courteous Giovanni before. Yet the voice itself left no doubt—it was him.
"Ha… hahaha… HAHAHAHAHA!"
The laughter went on endlessly, interspersed with heavy, ragged breathing.
Everyone finally opened their eyes, staring at Giovanni dancing wildly, flailing his arms and hopping around, utterly at a loss.
This… this looked like a total mental breakdown, didn't it?
"It's over, it's over. He really drank himself sick," Huohuo said sympathetically.
What had he done wrong? He'd just spent a fortune on a drink and taken a sip—no, a gulp.
As if to validate her words, a suffocating surge of Elation power erupted from Giovanni. Laughing and spinning, he radiated it into every corner of the shop.
He looked like his mind had completely lost control.
Qingque, Huohuo, even Tail were all tainted by that power and began laughing along uncontrollably.
Realizing something was wrong, they struggled desperately—but it was utterly futile.
In less than a few seconds, they were already laughing so hard they couldn't straighten their backs.
Yet none of it brought genuine joy. Losing control over their own bodies sent a bone-chilling fear creeping into their hearts.
Tail looked around and discovered, to his astonishment, that Sylvester hadn't been affected at all.
Was he really that strong?
"Haha, I say—trash-can seller—haha."
Tail floated over to the counter and said to Sylvester, "Think of something, yeah? Your stuff drove the customer crazy, yeah? If word gets out, yeah, it'll be really bad for your reputation, yeah?"
"I'll take a look."
Sylvester raised his hand slightly. Power that transcended space and time surged outward, instantly isolating everyone from the influence of Elation.
Then he activated the [Eye of Truesight], capable of acquiring all information within his field of vision.
He was now certain of one thing.
This person was definitely not Giovanni.
From the moment he entered the shop, Sylvester had felt something was off. This person's behavior didn't completely match the Giovanni he remembered.
But since followers of Elation occasionally acting strange was perfectly normal, he hadn't dug deeper.
Now, however, things were different. The level of Elation power he was displaying was far too high—so overwhelming that Tail had no room to resist at all.
That kind of suppression wasn't something even Sparkle could achieve.
More importantly, there was something else—something Tail and the others couldn't possibly perceive.
This power felt… a little like HooH.
Discarding all irrelevant data, Sylvester locked his gaze directly onto "Giovanni."
[Species: Unknown]
[Body Composition: Power of Elation]
[Physical Status: Collapsing and reconstructing]
Sylvester's heart skipped.
This body wasn't human at all—it was a construct of Elation?
And it had been broken by that bottle of drink?
The Power-enhanced edition—no holding back on the ingredients, huh.
Sylvester rapidly flipped through the information, until he finally found the line he was looking for.
As expected.
He clapped his hands lightly, his suspicion fully confirmed.
There could not be a second being with Elation power of this caliber.
No matter how the rest of the information surged past like waves, this single line was burned permanently into his mind.
[True Name: Aha]
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