Lu Yuan first pinched a small amount of copper powder from his toolbox and sprinkled it on the outer wall of the sampling bottle.
The moment the copper powder touched the glass, there was no reaction.
Separated by a layer of glass, the copper powder could not sense the contents inside. Or rather, the aura released by the crystal in its dormant state was weaker than the copper powder's detection threshold.
Lu Yuan wiped away the copper powder, put on his gloves, and carefully unscrewed the bottle cap.
The moment the bottle mouth opened, a chill seeped out from within, as if something extremely subtle had brushed against his skin.
【Sanity: -1... -1... 70/120】
Lu Yuan sprinkled a bit more copper powder, letting it fall on the edge of the bottle mouth.
This time, there was a reaction. The copper powder warmed slightly and its color deepened a shade, but the obvious burning rejection seen when dealing with the eerie did not occur.
It was somewhere between having a reaction and having none.
“The concentration of pollution it emits isn't strong, so where is the danger?”
At least until he figured this thing out, he didn't intend to touch the crystal itself.
He turned the sampling bottle around, letting the crystal face him.
Dark gold patterns meandered across the greyish-green crystal body.
The dark gold was the mark left by the etching of the copper pillar runes, and the greyish-green was the color of the hyphae itself.
Two things from completely different sources had been compressed into a thumb-sized space by high temperatures.
What was sealed inside might include quite a few other things as well.
He just didn't know if the things inside could be extracted.
The greyish-white text had given the same answer twice: insufficient knowledge, unable to analyze.
Since the prompts were unreliable, he could only rely on his own eyes.
Lu Yuan held the sampling bottle up to the window, letting the afternoon sunlight pass through the glass and shine on the crystal.
The dark gold patterns became even clearer.
No.
It wasn't just clarity.
Those patterns were moving.
It wasn't an illusion.
Lu Yuan blinked and refocused his gaze.
The patterns were indeed flowing.
They flowed at an extremely slow pace, drifting lazily.
Against the greyish-green background, the dark gold patterns were like water weeds at the bottom of a river, pushed by an invisible undercurrent, meandering in the same direction.
Lu Yuan brought the bottle closer.
The shell of the crystal was translucent.
Through that thin layer, he could see patterns deeper inside.
Layer upon layer, like countless streams flowing at different depths, independent of each other yet vaguely following a common trend.
It was like opening a window on the surface of the water.
He could see things flowing beneath, but he couldn't see where they were going, let alone identify what was flowing.
Lu Yuan stared for a long time, trying to find a regularity in the direction of the patterns.
He found none.
The flow speed fluctuated, and the direction slowly shifted as if being pulled by something.
But the rhythm of the pulse didn't change, still flickering on and off.
There seemed to be no connection between the flow of the patterns and the pulsing.
Lu Yuan placed the sampling bottle back on the table.
He looked around and picked up a clean, wide-mouthed glass bottle from the shelf.
He walked to the water bucket in the corner, scooped up half a bottle of fresh water, and returned to the table.
Then, he carefully poured the crystal from the sampling bottle into the wide-mouthed glass bottle.
The crystal sank to the bottom.
The fresh water covered the crystal by about two finger-widths.
The pulsing did not stop.
The greyish-green and dark gold glimmers filtered through the water, casting faint spots of light on the glass wall.
Lu Yuan took another identical wide-mouthed glass bottle, filled it with the same amount of water, and placed it beside the first.
Two bottles of water: one with the crystal soaking in it, one with nothing. Placed together, any difference would be obvious at a glance.
He wrote a few lines in his notebook.
“Soaking in fresh water; observe water color, odor, and temperature.”
“If the water changes, feed a small amount to a living creature—for example, that infected greater ghoul...”
“Initial trial timed for eight hours.”
The tip of his pen paused.
He added another sentence.
“If obvious mutation or pollution appears, dispose of the crystal immediately.”
He closed the notebook and set his fountain pen aside.
Lu Yuan looked out the window. The sun had already drifted toward the city walls; most of the afternoon had passed.
The water in the wide-mouthed glass bottle appeared unchanged.
This thing wouldn't yield results so quickly.
Lu Yuan rubbed his temples.
Fatigue radiated from his mind, and his body was reminding him that it was time to sleep.
After all, he hadn't truly rested since going into the pipe network.
With the business at the Polymath Tower tomorrow night, he had to sleep today to recover as much Sanity as possible.
Lu Yuan set a bottle of Sanity-stabilizing potion upright within easy reach.
He lay on the bed, pulled over a blanket, and closed his eyes.
As if finally given permission, his body was immediately overcome by a sense of heaviness.
Just as his consciousness began to sink...
Greyish-white text jumped out without warning at the edge of his vision.
【Ancient Music Theory: +1... 2.4/10】
Lu Yuan's consciousness snapped awake instantly.
He stared at that line of text.
Ancient Music Theory.
He hadn't touched the sandworm bone flute in a long time, and he certainly hadn't come into contact with anything related to Ancient Music Theory recently.
Where did this experience come from?
Before the text faded, a second line floated up immediately after.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +0.1... 23.4/100】
The third line.
【Basic Medicine: +1... 3.8/20】
Three prompts flashed in succession, with less than a second between them.
Then, all was quiet.
Lu Yuan's gaze moved from the greyish-white text to the wide-mouthed glass bottle on the table.
The crystal remained at the bottom, still pulsing on and off.
It was as if nothing had happened.
There was no Sanity consumption, no physical discomfort.
Lu Yuan glanced down at the edge of his vision; the Sanity value hadn't budged.
【Sanity: 70/120】
He looked at those three growth records.
Ancient Music Theory, Forbidden Lore, Basic Medicine.
Three completely unrelated skill domains increasing simultaneously.
There was only one possibility: this crystal contained those things.
And now, it was seeping out.
Instead of feeling joy, Lu Yuan became instantly alert.
How was its leakage calculated? Did a fixed portion leak out over a period, or was it leaking all the time, and it just happened to leak knowledge for which he had an experience bar...
Lu Yuan decided to continue observing.
Since the prompts labeled it dangerous, it definitely wouldn't be this simple; there had to be something he hadn't discovered yet.
He continued to watch the crystal.
Waiting.
Time passed bit by bit.
The sun sank behind the city walls.
The sky gradually darkened, and the runes on the walls of the Bronze City began to glow. This time, the light was noticeably clearer than in previous nights.
It was obvious that the corrosion of the Bronze City's pillars by the mass of hyphae in the pipe network layer was gradually receding.
The inscriptions on the city walls were slowly recovering, and the energy suppressing the eerie was beginning to return to normal.
Lu Yuan sat at the table, having watched the crystal for an entire afternoon.
But nothing else happened.
The crystal's pulse frequency remained unchanged.
The greyish-white prompts did not pop up again.
The water soaking the crystal, for now, also remained as it was.
Night gradually fell.
Outside the alchemy workshop, the lights on both sides of the street began to flicker on.
The workers responsible for reconstructing the North Ward were still at it. Blood-stained ground was being washed and painted over, and sections of the ground were being replaced with new materials. As for the pipes damaged by the reverse infusion, Lu Yuan didn't know if they were being repaired.
Lu Yuan's eyelids began to grow heavy.
After a long silence, Lu Yuan decided to give up for now.
With the business at the Polymath Tower tomorrow night, he had to ensure he got some sleep today to refill his Sanity as much as possible.
First, he needed to find a place to store the crystal. Lu Yuan carefully poured out most of the water from the wide-mouthed glass bottle, slid the crystal back into the sampling bottle, and tightened the cap.
Just as his fingertips touched the wall of the bottle.
The greyish-white text surfaced again.
【Imperial Language: +5... 256/1000】
【Pharmacology: +1... 33.4/50】
Immediately followed by—
【Sanity: -10... 60/120】
Lu Yuan's body suddenly stiffened.
It wasn't because of the sudden drop in Sanity.
It was because of his right hand.
The skin on his fingertips was turning greyish-green.
Starting from the base of the nails, it spread along the knuckles toward the back of his hand, as if something were flowing beneath the skin.
It lasted for about two seconds.
Then it quickly receded.
However, there was no prompt from the greyish-white text.
This instead made Lu Yuan even more uneasy.
Sanity had been deducted, and his body had undergone a change, yet the system said nothing.
Either this change did not count as pollution.
Or the system could not detect it.
Neither possibility was good news.
Lu Yuan stared at his hand for a long time.
Everything looked normal, but he was certain of what he had seen.
Greyish-green, the exact same greyish-green as the hyphae.
Lu Yuan decisively pulled the stopper from a bottle of Sanity potion and gulped it down.
【Sanity: +8... 68/120】
Taking potions in quick succession would lead to diminished effects, but Lu Yuan didn't want to worry about those side effects for the moment.
Lu Yuan set down the empty bottle and looked back at the sampling bottle.
The crystal still shimmered with gold and green light.
Lu Yuan leaned back against his chair.
Two triggers.
First time: Ancient Music Theory +1, Forbidden Lore +0.1, Basic Medicine +1. No cost.
Second time: Imperial Language +5, Pharmacology +1. Sanity -10, and a clear glow had bored into his body.
The interval was about seven or eight hours.
The cost of the second time far exceeded typical Sanity consumption.
-10—this number was not small in any scenario.
More critical were the physical changes.
The green light that had shimmered on his fingertips at that moment was definitely not a hallucination.
This crystal contained more than just knowledge.
Was the first time truly without cost? Or had he simply not noticed it?
Lu Yuan had no answer.
Two sample points weren't enough for him to draw any conclusions.
But one thing was clear: the function of this crystal far exceeded his imagination, yet he could not grasp its true meaning.
Lu Yuan wrapped the sampling bottle in three layers of special cloth and stuffed it into the bottom layer of his toolbox.
He pressed copper powder on top of it.
He closed the lid.
Lu Yuan stood up and walked to the window.
It was very dark outside. The faint glow of runes flowed on the distant city walls, brighter than in previous days.
Lu Yuan fished the slip of paper from his pocket and took a look.
Tomorrow night, second chime of the clock tower, East Gate of the Old Council Square.
He folded the paper and put it back.
He pulled the curtains shut, lay back on the bed, and closed his eyes.
Sanity: 68.
It wasn't high enough, but a full day of rest tomorrow should recover some more.
Rate on N.U.
