Lu Yuan closed the book and looked downstairs.
Laurina was cleaning the vessels at the workbench, occasionally checking the clock on the wall.
Then, the noise downstairs stopped.
"Time's up."
Lu Yuan walked quickly downstairs.
On the workbench, the solution in the glass beaker had turned into a steady, deep amber.
The surface was calm, with a very thin layer of oily sheen.
Laurina lifted the glass lid and leaned in for a closer look.
"We can try now."
As Laurina spoke, she took a glass dropper and a set of small measuring cups from a drawer, lining them up on the table.
Then she looked at Lu Yuan.
"The badge."
Lu Yuan took the copper badge from his pocket and placed it in the center of the workbench.
Laurina didn't rush to start.
She first flipped the badge to the back, her finger tracing along that fine seam to confirm its position.
Then she flipped it back to the front, finding the area where the lines on the clock-patterned badge were most dense.
"The trigger point should be here." Her fingertip pointed slightly above the center of the dial. "The convergence point of the three main lines."
Her logic was clear; this badge came from technology over a decade old, an unfinished version that wouldn't be overly precise.
It was just a matter of guessing.
She would test groups of acid concentrations and catalyst ratios one by one, changing only one variable at a time.
The first three drops produced no reaction.
The luster of the bronze surface didn't even change.
Laurina stopped and stared at the badge's surface for two seconds.
"The concentration direction is fine. The ratio needs adjustment."
The fourth drop. At the intersection of the lines, a wisp of extremely thin white smoke emerged, nearly invisible, but it was definitely there.
Laurina's eyes narrowed slightly.
"The direction is correct."
She didn't hesitate, directly adding more acidic solvent to increase the concentration.
The fifth drop. The white smoke thickened slightly, and a faint heat rose from the bronze surface.
And then.
Click.
A very soft sound came from inside the badge.
The fine seam on the back cracked open a small gap, but it didn't open completely, getting stuck as if the internal mechanism had moved halfway and stopped.
Laurina's brow furrowed slightly.
"Almost. The catalyst is still not enough."
She was silent for a few seconds, her gaze scanning the workbench.
Then she grabbed the bottle of hemlock extract from the corner, used the dropper to take a tiny amount, and added it to the measuring cup.
"The synergistic effect of hemlock and silver leaf powder should make up the difference."
She stirred it evenly.
The sixth drop.
The moment it fell, the white smoke at the intersection flashed and disappeared.
Immediately after.
The seam split open silently.
Like an old wound being slowly torn apart, it expanded from the center to both sides until the entire crack was wide open.
The workshop was very quiet.
Lu Yuan stared at that crack.
A very faint aura leaked from within.
It was an aura of knowledge that only he could feel.
Extremely weak.
Like the final trace remaining after being sealed for over a decade.
Even his newly acquired ability couldn't be triggered by it.
"It's open."
Laurina took a pair of extremely fine tweezers from a drawer.
"Let me."
The tip of the tweezers probed into the crack, carefully prying open the hidden compartment.
The space inside was smaller than expected. There was only one thing inside.
A piece of metal foil, as thin as paper.
Laurina gripped the edge with the tweezers, pulled it out gently, and laid it flat on a clean white cloth on the workbench.
The color of the foil was close to the badge itself but slightly lighter, with a matte texture that didn't reflect the oil lamp's light, as if it had been intentionally treated.
Two things were etched onto it.
On the left, a set of numbers arranged in a clear format: Imperial standard mapping coordinates.
Six sets of numbers, arranged in two rows, accurate to two decimal places.
On the right, a symbol.
The same ripples—three rings of ripple lines spreading from the inside out, with a small dot in the center.
Lu Yuan looked at the symbol, then took out the shell badge Morris had given him from his coat and placed it next to the foil.
The two ripple symbols were placed side by side.
The difference was obvious.
The ripples on the one from A.M. were more exquisite, with even and smooth lines, and the spacing between the three rings was strictly equal—the work of a professional craftsman.
The one on the foil, however, had lines of varying thickness and uneven spacing; in some places, scratches from the etching tool slipping could even be seen. It was cruder, more primitive.
It looked like an early version of the same pattern, but the core elements were identical.
Lu Yuan put the shell badge back into his coat.
Laurina tilted her head as she watched.
"The etching technique is poor," she judged directly. "It's not the work of a professional alchemist. The control over line depth is bad, there are burrs at the corners, and the acid etching time was uneven. It looks like someone traced it using something else."
"Can you recognize the coordinates?" Lu Yuan asked.
Laurina frowned slightly, looked at them for a few seconds, and shook her head.
"They aren't near Bronze City; the range of values is too far off."
Lu Yuan noted the coordinates in his notebook one by one.
A set of coordinates pointing to an unknown location, and a symbol related to a certain mysterious organization.
Sealed inside a hidden compartment of a badge carried by a traitor of the Ascension Society.
Gregory was a core member of the Ascension Society, but the things hidden on him pointed in a different direction.
Pushing the deduction this far was the limit. Anything further would be pure speculation and meaningless.
Lu Yuan carefully placed the foil between the blank pages of his notebook and closed it.
Laurina had already begun cleaning the workbench.
Halfway through washing, she asked casually.
"Is this stuff useful for your investigation?"
"Not sure yet," Lu Yuan said.
"Be careful. Also, after a while, I might be leaving this place," Laurina said, looking at Lu Yuan.
"The Nightwatchers sent someone to talk to me. In the current state of Bronze City, they can't ensure my safety. Once the people from headquarters arrive, I'll have to go."
"When?" Lu Yuan asked after a brief silence.
"I don't know, but it'll be a while. If you run into any danger, you can come with me."
Lu Yuan looked at the serious-faced Laurina, smiled, and finally nodded.
"If there's real danger, I'll definitely run faster than you."
Laurina rolled her eyes at Lu Yuan and said no more.
Setting aside his joking mood, Lu Yuan looked at the notebook in his hand. It was a small gain, but better than nothing.
Lu Yuan helped her wash the last few vessels and dried his hands.
"Tomorrow, I'll try making a new batch of potions using sandworm blood." Laurina hung the rag on the edge of the sink. "If you have time, help me process those sandworm skins. The scale patterns need to be scraped clean first, otherwise they're useless."
"Sure."
Lu Yuan went upstairs.
He turned off the lights, leaving only a small oil lamp.
He didn't practice Guard tonight. His Sanity was sufficient, and there was no rush to push himself.
Lying in bed, he stared at the faint light reflected by the bronze runes on the ceiling.
He went over today's findings in his mind.
Coordinates. Ripples. Metal memory material. And that wisp of knowledge aura that only he could sense.
At this very moment, Lu Yuan seemed to suddenly understand the role A.M. played in Bronze City.
'Forget it, it's not important...'
'Tomorrow, I'll go to the archives first to compare those coordinates.'
Thinking this, Lu Yuan rolled over and habitually looked at the window.
The light from the oil lamp shone from behind him, casting his reflection on the window glass.
His gaze paused for a moment at the edge of the reflection.
That layer of stuff was still there.
There was no obvious change from last night—it hadn't worsened, nor had it faded.
It just wrapped quietly around the silhouette of his shadow, a thin layer, as if it had grown onto it.
The greyish-white text still didn't jump out.
Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze.
It had been three days, and even he couldn't say for sure what this was.
But what he could confirm was that it wasn't a hallucination.
Keep it in mind for now.
Lu Yuan extinguished the oil lamp.
Rate on N.U.
