Preparing for the Depths

Night fell. The ninth night.

The rustling sound persisted, denser than the previous night.

It came from beneath the ground, seeping up from underfoot, as if countless fine threads were slowly crawling across the back of the copper plates.

Lu Yuan sat on a raised wooden board, eyes closed. He was simultaneously studying the Guard technique while remaining vigilant for any sign of ghouls.

By the time dawn broke, Bolen's shout had startled half the defensive position.

"It's broken!"

Lu Yuan rose from the board. The old man had already rushed to the first-floor entrance, leaning on his cane. Kail followed close behind, his face deathly pale.

"The second section of the conduction pathways is completely severed," Bolen's voice was urgent and heavy. "It's not natural wear; it was corroded through from the inner wall. The pipe body has split wide open."

Lu Yuan followed the two to the conduction pathways.

The breach was not large—about a palm's length, splitting longitudinally along the pipe wall. The copper at the edges of the tear had turned dark brown, and the inner wall was covered in a layer of wet, greyish-green film. It was still writhing.

The soil beneath the breach was discolored. Normal soil was dark brown, dry, and gritty. But within a half-meter radius directly below the breach, the soil had turned black, its surface gleaming with a greasy sheen. Lu Yuan stepped on it with his toe, and it sank, with greyish-green liquid seeping from the edges.

"The pollutants have seeped from the pipe into the soil," Bolen squatted nearby, his expression grim. "I spent three days repairing this, and it's ruined overnight."

Lu Yuan did not hesitate. "Cut it off. Sever both ends of the pipe, seal the openings with copper, and abandon this section of the pathway."

Bolen opened his mouth to speak, but ultimately just nodded. There was no point in repairing something that could not be saved.

Kail took out his tools and made a cut on either side of the breach. The contaminated pipe section was removed entirely, wrapped in oilcloth, and tossed into the copper powder bucket. The open ends were plugged with copper pieces wrapped in specialized cloth, then sealed with a layer of packed copper powder. The gap was temporarily closed.

However, another piece of the North Ward's runic coverage was gone.

After dealing with the pipe, Lu Yuan went to check the vertical shaft.

When he reached the cover plate, Lu Yuan stopped. This time, there was no sound beneath it. The rustling that had been omnipresent the night before had completely vanished.

The copper powder circle remained. The discoloration range was similar to the night before and had not continued to expand. The greyish-green fine threads that had grown from the gaps in the cover were still there, but they were no longer writhing. They looked as if they had withered.

Lu Yuan squatted beside the cover, listening for a long time. There was not a sound.

He walked to the other two drainage covers. They were equally quiet. The discoloration rate of the copper powder circles had slowed significantly, and no new hyphae were growing from the gaps. All the manhole covers were silent.

The rustling beneath the ground had vanished. The hyphae were no longer trying to break through here.

This was not good news.

Just as Lu Yuan was about to speak, rapid footsteps approached from the distance. It was the patrol Bo Er had sent out. A young Nightwatcher ran over, gasping for air.

"The furthest east side of the North Ward... near the Old Dye House..." He bent over, catching his breath. "An old drainage outlet has been pushed open."

Lu Yuan's expression darkened.

"The greyish-green stuff is pouring out from inside, spreading across the ground. The foundations of three nearby buildings have already changed color."

Lu Yuan looked grim. The incident had already been reported. Clearly, the Nightwatchers had not come up with an effective plan. No wonder the hyphae had gone quiet; it had simply stopped pushing against this defensive position because it had found an easier exit.

Moreover, the entire North Ward's underground pipe network was as dense as a spiderweb, with hundreds of drainage outlets, inspection wells, and ventilation shafts. It was impossible to seal them all. The only solution remained the same: return to the catchment basin and sever it at the source.

"Agnes's side will have to wait. Seal the pipe network first."

"Take me there." Lu Yuan picked up his revolver.

Bo Er was already gathering men. Lu Yuan took three Nightwatchers and rushed to the east side of the North Ward.

The Old Dye House was a somewhat dilapidated cluster of buildings; few people had lived here even before the war. There were low brick houses, broken windows, and most of the roofs had collapsed.

The drainage outlet was in the northeast corner of the workshop complex. It was a square opening, half a meter wide, which should have been covered by a copper plate. But the cover had shattered into several pieces and lay scattered around.

The greyish-green substance poured from the inner wall of the drainage outlet, spreading across the ground in all directions. It covered a radius of about ten meters—a thin layer like a web slowly unfolding. Its surface bore the distinct greyish-green patterns of the hyphae, and it was still slowly creeping forward. The foundation of the nearest brick house was already filled with the greyish-green thread-like objects between the bricks.

"Try not to touch it," Lu Yuan commanded quickly. He squatted down and inspected the inner wall of the drainage outlet. It was pitch black inside, and he could hear a faint, slight writhing sound. It was still being pushed out from the depths.

"Burn it, then seal the opening with copper powder. Isolate this area and notify Glock."

Following Lu Yuan's order, sandworm oil was poured onto the spreading hyphae. After preparing the firebreak, a match was dropped. The green hyphae began to curl at a rate visible to the naked eye.

But, alarmingly, this thing did not seem to fear fire very much. As the sandworm oil it was clinging to was almost completely consumed, the hyphae had not yet died.

Lu Yuan's expression darkened, and he had the Nightwatchers sprinkle copper powder. Only when the copper powder was poured did the edges of the greyish-green fungal layer show a clear contraction response.

Copper was still effective, but it only slowed it down; it could not eliminate it.

Lu Yuan stared at the pitch-black drainage outlet. The hyphae in the pipe network were far smarter than he had imagined. This was going to be another tough battle.

It was nearly noon when he returned to the Alchemy Workshop. As Lu Yuan went upstairs, he heard movement outside. It was not the sound of footsteps, but the sound of wheels—many wheels.

The heavy sound of crushing gravel echoed from the south. Lu Yuan walked to the window. It was a convoy. Four heavy cargo carriages led the way, followed by six covered military vehicles.

The carriages were heavily laden, their axles creaking. Beneath the tarps of the military vehicles, one could see rows of neatly arranged figures.

Riding beside the lead carriage was Glock. Beside him were two other men. One wore full silver-white plate armor, with a spreading holy light emblem cast into the center of the breastplate—the Holy Armored Army. The other wore a dark grey regulation longcoat, with a badge Lu Yuan had never seen before pinned to his collar: a silver sword piercing a gear on a black background. Based on his appearance, he was likely from an imperial unit.

The convoy stopped in front of the Alchemy Workshop. Glock dismounted and nodded to Lu Yuan. "They're here."

The commander of the Holy Armored Army dismounted first. He was in his early thirties, with a stern face; every plate of his silver-white armor was engraved with miniature holy light inscriptions. "Holy Armored Army, Seventh Battalion, ordered to support the North Ward defensive position," his voice was not loud but very clear. "Squadron Leader, Heinrich."

The man from the imperial unit also walked over. He was older, around forty, with a faint old scar on his face. "Imperial Iron Guard, Second Detachment," his voice was deeper than Heinrich's. "Detachment Leader, Wolf."

The Iron Guard. Lu Yuan had seen this unit in the Nightwatchers' internal files. They were special operations forces directly under the empire, not subject to any local branch, and answered only to headquarters. The fact that the Iron Guard had been deployed meant headquarters was finally taking this seriously.

Glock walked to Lu Yuan's side and lowered his voice. "Fifteen from the Holy Armored Army, twelve from the Iron Guard. With our men, it's enough."

He took a list from his coat and handed it over. "Ten canisters of mithril, five exorcism grenades, ten holy light scrolls, two cases of copper-cased incendiary rounds, four thousand silver-plated bullets, and various potions."

Lu Yuan glanced at the numbers. It was a completely different scale from the pathetic stock they had on the position before.

"This is enough for now," Lu Yuan felt a rare moment of relief.

While unloading the cargo, Bolen watched as crates of weapons and ammunition were carried down. "Should have done this long ago..." he muttered quietly.

Lu Yuan didn't respond; his attention was on something else. What Glock handed him wasn't just a list—it was the day's newspaper. It smelled heavily of ink, and the edges of the paper weren't even dry. It was an extra edition.

The front page featured an obituary framed in black.

"Deeply mourning the heroic sacrifice of Baron von Klein and three senior officials of the City Hall during the support operation..."

The wording was very deliberate.

"...Baron von Klein encountered danger while organizing the transport of support supplies to the outer city and unfortunately perished. His companions, Deputy Director Leonhart of the City Hall Urban Construction Department, Director Drake of the Waterworks, and Liaison Officer Bloom of the outer city district, all died in the line of duty during this attack."

"Bronze City will forever remember their sacrifice and contribution."

Lu Yuan finished reading and set the paper down. Baron von Klein. Among those who entered the outer city drainage facilities late at night, he was almost certainly one of them. The Director of the Waterworks. The Liaison Officer for the outer city. These were all positions directly related to the pipe network and drainage systems.

"Encountered danger."

It was a very clean way of putting it. Just as clean as the previous announcement regarding "underground anomalous activity."

It seemed Kraus had made his move. He had used the arrival of the reinforcements as a window to clear out those who had been playing dirty. Pushing four corpses into the category of 'danger' meant no one could say anything.

There was follow-up news in the paper. The City Hall issued a statement expressing deep condolences for the sacrifice of the four and announced that their respective positions would be temporarily managed by the Nightwatchers branch until new appointments were made.

Temporarily managed by the Nightwatchers branch.

Kraus had regained control of the outer city's infrastructure. The maintenance of the pipe network, drainage systems, and copper structures—things previously dispersed among various departments of City Hall—had all returned to the hands of the Nightwatchers.

Glock stood to the side, clearly having read the paper as well. The two exchanged a look.

"There's movement at the Polymath Tower as well," Glock lowered his voice. "Kraus took this opportunity to renegotiate terms with the people in the tower. The specifics are unclear, but I heard his attitude was much softer than before."

He paused. "At least in the short term, the Polymath Tower won't be giving us any more trouble."

Lu Yuan folded the paper and placed it on the table. He didn't care about politics, but he cared very much about the results these changes brought. The control of the pipe network had been recovered. The resistance to entering the Polymath Tower had lessened. The reinforcements had arrived. The window of opportunity was now.

Afternoon. Second floor of the Alchemy Workshop. Lu Yuan, Glock, Heinrich, Wolf, and Bolen gathered around the pipe network sketch on the table.

"The target is the catchment basin," Lu Yuan pointed at the spot on the sketch. "The hyphae are spreading upward and downward from here simultaneously. Sealing this point will cut off both directions at once."

His finger moved to the right side of the catchment basin. "This passage entrance is the key. The dark green vines pouring out from this direction have already bypassed the copper framework, and there is a high probability that the hyphae are related to these vines. The minimum goal of this mission is to clear enough space for Bolen to operate."

"Of course, at best, I hope we can go deep into the pipe network and eradicate the source..."

"I will carve the sealing inscriptions on the copper framework," Bolen interjected. "Half an hour."

Heinrich looked at the sketch. "How many hostile targets are in the pipe network?"

"Uncertain," Lu Yuan continued. "Last time I went down, a large number of ghouls and face-hounds emerged after the depths were disturbed. This time, after the hyphae have been spreading for so many days, there will only be more."

"But the pipe network passages are narrow, so the number that can surge up at once is limited. The key is speed. Enter, clear the area, seal it, and withdraw—the faster, the better."

Wolf, who had been silent, spoke up. "The Iron Guard will be responsible for suppressing the passages. The Holy Armored Army's holy light is effective against those things, so they will be responsible for the close-range protection around Bolen. You Nightwatchers will be responsible for the outer perimeter and the retreat path."

It was a concise division of labor.

"One more thing," Lu Yuan said. "There are many mutated things in the pipe network, and they might have changed again. We might not have seen these types outside."

Heinrich's brow twitched, but he didn't press for details.

"When do we move?" Wolf asked.

"Tomorrow at dawn."