"Second question." He didn't dwell on the previous topic. "Why the rush to pull me in?"
He looked at Morris.
"I'm only rank 1. It shouldn't be worth this much effort from you."
Lu Yuan intentionally lied about his rank, wanting to see how much Morris actually knew.
The corner of Morris's mouth twitched slightly.
"In terms of strength alone, it's indeed not worth it."
He wasn't being polite.
Lu Yuan's expression remained unchanged as he waited for him to continue.
"But you've encountered those things, and yet you're sitting here talking to me."
His gaze landed on Lu Yuan, carrying a scrutinizing intent.
"Furthermore, the residual records belonging to you are the most severely distorted. Normally, you should have been the one most deeply affected."
"But you didn't die, and you didn't even go mad."
"That's more important than strength."
Lu Yuan understood. So that was it.
As Morris spoke, Lu Yuan noticed something.
Morris had used a very vague term.
"So you've also encountered... those things? How much do you remember?"
Lu Yuan watched Morris quietly.
"The same as you."
Morris didn't give a direct answer, but that actually made Lu Yuan breathe a sigh of relief.
It was as he had expected.
Morris's department was a gathering of people following the "voids."
They knew something had been erased, but they only knew that much.
Lu Yuan hid the answer in the depths of his heart.
But before Lu Yuan could speak again, Morris's next words deviated from his expectations.
"Has your shadow changed lately?"
Lu Yuan instinctively shook his head.
Morris smiled at Lu Yuan's slight shake of the head.
"Don't be nervous." Morris's tone became casual. "If I wanted to investigate your shadow, I wouldn't need to ask you."
"Besides, it's normal for the shadow to change. It's something you brought out of the Sea of Knowledge. Whether it's good or bad, no one can say for sure yet."
His fingers tapped the armrest twice more.
"People from the imperial headquarters have arrived. They went straight to the Polymath Tower, bypassing the Nightwatchers. People from the Ascension Society have also set up three monitoring points in the outer city. Your people are being sidelined."
"There are only so many seats at the table. If you don't sit down, someone else will take your place."
He wasn't rushing him because he was impatient.
It was because other forces were closing in.
The Polymath Tower? The Ascension Society? Other departments from the imperial headquarters?
He didn't know.
But Lu Yuan made a note of it.
"Last question."
Morris waited.
"Allen." Lu Yuan's voice was calm, but his gaze was fixed on Morris's eyes. "It wasn't your doing?"
No emotional fluctuation could be seen on Morris's face.
Silence lasted for two seconds.
"No."
The voice was very flat.
"But what he had in his hands is related to us."
Lu Yuan waited for a moment.
Morris didn't continue.
"That's all I can say."
Just like their first meeting, very little information was given.
Lu Yuan didn't press further.
Morris stood up and straightened his coat.
"By the way."
Morris seemed to remember something of minor importance.
"Bronze City is about to have problems."
Lu Yuan's eyes flickered slightly.
"What kind of problems?"
"I don't know," Morris continued. "The documents regarding the records of Bronze City are mostly lost. As for what's hidden underneath, I'm not very clear either, and it's none of my business."
'Underneath?'
"Your first mission after joining: find out what's going on with Bronze City. Be as detailed as possible."
A hint of teasing flashed between Morris's brows.
"As for the reward, anything the Empire has can be given to you. Oh, more importantly, you have to survive first."
Before Lu Yuan could respond, Morris had already walked to the curtains.
He looked back at Lu Yuan.
His expression was faint.
"Good luck."
Then he moved.
Lu Yuan didn't see how he left.
In the blink of an eye, Lu Yuan was the only one left in the room.
It was as if the half-hour conversation had never happened.
But Lu Yuan didn't move. After waiting a bit longer, he turned his gaze to the chair where Morris had been sitting.
Because during the oath, Lu Yuan had clearly seen a stream of never-before-seen eerie green knowledge involuntarily oozing from Morris.
It had enveloped him and then gradually receded after the oath vanished.
But a fair amount still remained, lingering in the air.
Morris couldn't see it; Lu Yuan was certain of that.
"Now, let's see what this organization of yours is truly hiding..."
An inexplicable glint flashed in Lu Yuan's eyes.
Then, the Knowledge Seeker was activated.
【Sanity: -1... 110/120】
The moment his Sanity dropped, a very faint sound, like glass cracking, echoed in Lu Yuan's mind.
A crack was pried open in Lu Yuan's cognitive boundary.
His vision began to twist and spin.
All light in the room was filtered out. After a moment of pitch darkness, only the things that shouldn't be seen remained.
The eerie green residue in the air was no longer a vague aura.
It had a shape.
Strand by strand, like elongated silk threads, it slowly spread outward from the position of the chair.
Those threads weren't static; they were writhing at a slow frequency.
Lu Yuan felt a chill down his spine the moment he saw those threads.
But he didn't close his eyes.
Then, that eerie crack began to flicker.
Lu Yuan saw it.
It was a city.
A pitch-black, towering ancient city that pierced the clouds—perhaps 'night heights' would be a more accurate description.
This was a place of almost pure night.
No starlight, no moon.
Burning green flames were on the city walls every few steps.
Were those torches? The ancient city in Lu Yuan's vision was twisting. As his gaze delved deeper, he saw clearly.
Those weren't torches; they were burning eyes of various sizes.
The eyes were embedded haphazardly into the city walls, resentment and distortion flickering within them.
Seeing this, Lu Yuan forcibly averted his gaze.
He couldn't look any longer.
【Sanity: -5... -5... -5... 95/120】
The image continued to deepen.
In Lu Yuan's vision, all the walls, all the writhing burning eyes, and all the crawling patterns...
All of them slanted in the same direction.
The entire city was like a giant funnel.
At the center of that funnel, chains were everywhere.
It took Lu Yuan several seconds to realize they were chains.
Because they were too dense.
Extending from every direction of the city walls, the quantity was so great that the concept of "individual strands" was lost.
It had become a material—a tightening cocoon made of chains.
There was something inside the cocoon.
Lu Yuan couldn't see it clearly.
It wasn't that he didn't want to see it clearly; it was that his vision experienced a sort of "slipping" phenomenon at that position.
The moment his gaze reached the surface of the cocoon, it would slide away uncontrollably.
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