The vast Sea of Knowledge, with its intense aura, was completely isolated on the other side of the rift, without the slightest leak.
This layer was the thing standing in the way.
Lu Yuan took a deep breath and tried to touch that barrier with his Forbidden Lore perception.
It felt very light.
Like reaching out a finger to touch a thin sheet of paper.
The moment he touched it, Lu Yuan's expression changed.
Because the barrier before him was as thick as a wall.
Lu Yuan's outstretched perception was immediately bounced back.
It was like trying to push a mountain with your hand.
It wasn't that the mountain was resisting you; it was that you weren't even within its consideration.
It was immovable.
Lu Yuan tried a second time.
It was the same.
A third time.
His perception couldn't even stay on the surface of the barrier for more than a second.
This thing was incredibly hard.
At least with Lu Yuan's current methods, it was impossible to shake.
Lu Yuan frowned.
Forcing it open definitely wouldn't work.
Setting aside whether he could even shake this barrier...
If he were to tear this thing... no, he wouldn't even need to tear it.
As long as he tore an uncontrollable gap... the aura of the Sea of Knowledge would pour in. With that concentration, let alone the North Ward, half of Bronze City would be in trouble.
This was not on the same level as the mass of material sealed in the main tower of the Polymath Tower.
That was merely an "effluence."
Just as Lu Yuan was at a loss, greyish-white text surfaced at the edge of his vision.
【Detected Target: Wall of Knowledge... an "absolute" barrier isolating reality from the Sea of Knowledge... but for Forbidden Lore knowledge, it is difficult to prevent...?】
Lu Yuan stared at that line of text.
Especially the last three words.
"Difficult to prevent."
It was even followed by a question mark.
Even the greyish-white text itself wasn't sure?
Lu Yuan looked at that question mark and fell silent for a few seconds.
Then he looked back at the barrier before him.
An absolute barrier.
It was absolute against all forces.
But for Forbidden Lore knowledge... it was "difficult to prevent."
Not "ineffective."
But "difficult to prevent."
There was a huge difference between those two phrases.
Lu Yuan suddenly remembered what happened at the Viscount's mansion.
How was the shell activated?
He hadn't actively opened it.
His Forbidden Lore had resonated with the shell, and then his Sanity had been mobilized uncontrollably, and the shell had simply opened.
During the entire process, he hadn't applied any "force" to the barrier.
It was Forbidden Lore itself that had penetrated that barrier.
Was Forbidden Lore knowledge... itself a part of the Sea of Knowledge?
Or rather, could Forbidden Lore knowledge pass directly through that barrier without triggering any obstruction?
Lu Yuan's heart beat a little faster.
If that were the case...
He didn't need to force the wall open.
He needed to use Forbidden Lore knowledge to "seep" a hole through the wall.
To be precise... he needed to let the barrier "make way" for the Forbidden Lore knowledge on its own.
But at what cost?
When the shell was activated last time, it consumed Sanity.
If he used Forbidden Lore knowledge to permeate the barrier this time, it wouldn't be Sanity that was consumed.
It would be Forbidden Lore experience itself.
Lu Yuan grit his teeth.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: 25.9/100】
This was the Forbidden Lore experience he had accumulated bit by bit from zero until now.
Every 0.1 had been hard-earned.
‘I'll go for it.’
Lu Yuan gripped the shell tightly again.
He decided to try.
The size of a pinhole.
He only needed it to be the size of a pinhole.
If it worked, he might catch a Knowledge Worm.
If it didn't, the lost experience could be regained later.
Lu Yuan closed his eyes.
In his mind, he actively mobilized the perception belonging to a Forbidden Lore Knowledge Seeker.
The churning colors, the flowing fragments of knowledge, that dizzying sense of pressure... he gathered them all together and pushed them toward the shell in his palm.
The rift sensed it.
The colors churning in the gap suddenly accelerated.
The endless colors swirled even more violently.
And then... there was a reaction from the other side of the barrier.
But it wasn't being breached.
It was loosening.
An extremely minute loosening.
Like a gap between bricks in a wall widening slightly.
The Forbidden Lore perception seeped in through that gap.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: -0.1... 25.8/100】
Lu Yuan's brow twitched.
As expected.
The experience was dropping.
But he didn't stop.
Instead, he increased the output.
At this moment, Lu Yuan's perception was like an extremely fine needle, drilling inward along that almost non-existent gap in the barrier.
With every inch he pushed forward, his Forbidden Lore experience dropped a bit.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: -0.1... 25.7/100】
The gap was widening.
No... it wasn't that the gap was widening.
It was the barrier making way.
That "absolute" barrier, in the face of Forbidden Lore knowledge, behaved like a door that recognized its master... it wasn't being forced open, it was moving aside on its own.
But for every bit it moved, it collected a "passage fee."
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: -0.1... 25.6/100】
Lu Yuan stared intently at the fluctuating experience points.
Three 0.1s.
How large was the gap?
He used his perception to measure it.
It wasn't even the size of a needle tip.
Not enough.
Continue.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: -0.1... 25.5/100】
Lu Yuan's palms began to sweat.
One last push.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: -0.1... 25.4/100】
A pinhole-sized channel pierced through that absolute barrier.
Lu Yuan felt it.
The other end of that hole...
Was the sea.
The aura of the Sea of Knowledge seeped through that pinhole. It was extremely faint, so faint that it wouldn't even trigger a fluctuation in Sanity.
But Lu Yuan's Forbidden Lore perception captured it.
It was a very light aura, carrying countless afterimages of color.
Distant, vast, and immovable.
Lu Yuan slowly opened his eyes.
The shell in his palm still looked the same; the crack hadn't widened, and the churning colors had returned to their previous speed.
From the outside, nothing had changed.
But Lu Yuan knew...
Deep within that rift, on that invisible barrier, there was now a pinhole invisible to the naked eye.
He glanced at the numbers at the edge of his vision.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: 25.4/100】
0.5 had been deducted.
A full 0.5 of Forbidden Lore experience.
In exchange for a pinhole.
Lu Yuan felt a pang of heartache.
In normal times, this 0.5 might take several high-intensity contacts to accumulate.
But it was already done.
The pinhole was open.
The channel existed.
It was time for the next step.
Lu Yuan looked down at the shell in his palm, his breathing as slow as possible.
Fishing.
It was time to set the bait.
But how?
Lu Yuan stared at the invisible pinhole, his mind spinning rapidly.
The Knowledge Worm was attracted to systematic knowledge.
The most systematic knowledge he possessed was Forbidden Lore.
Lu Yuan tried to touch the edge of the pinhole with his Forbidden Lore perception while slightly releasing the aura of his own Knowledge Pathway.
He was very careful.
Like sticking a finger into a door crack and gently waving it.
‘Can you smell it?’
He wasn't sure if this was the right way to do it.
To be honest, there was no precedent to follow for "fishing for worms with knowledge."
Laurina's research notes mentioned "capture," but how to capture, what tools to use, and what the process was—all that information had been erased by the Sea of Knowledge, leaving only a fragmented framework.
Lu Yuan could only grope his way forward.
He whispered the basic concepts of Forbidden Lore, and as he spoke, he pushed his aura toward the pinhole.
He wasn't releasing Sanity, nor was he activating any abilities.
He was simply... letting his presence radiate out through that pinhole.
It was like standing by a river and sticking his hand into the water to stir it, letting the scent drift downstream.
One second.
Two seconds.
Five seconds.
No reaction.
Ten seconds.
One minute.
Still nothing.
Lu Yuan wasn't surprised.
It made sense.
A pinhole.
In a boundless ocean.
To "radiate an aura" through a pinhole-sized hole and expect a fish in the sea to smell it and swim over...
What was the difference between this and standing on the shore, throwing a piece of meat into the water, and waiting for a fish to take the bait?
Lu Yuan gave a bitter smile, but he didn't immediately withdraw his hand.
Because he discovered something strange.
At the edge of his vision, the greyish-white text was jumping.
【Sanity: +1... 68/120】
Lu Yuan froze for a moment.
It went up?
【Sanity: +1... 69/120】
It went up again.
Lu Yuan stared at the number, confirming he hadn't misread it.
He hadn't done anything.
He hadn't drunk any potions, he hadn't rested, and he hadn't used any recovery methods.
He was just resting his Forbidden Lore perception on that pinhole, maintaining a weak connection with the Sea of Knowledge.
And then his Sanity started to rise.
【Sanity: +1... 70/120】
Lu Yuan's expression became subtle.
The Sea of Knowledge... could restore Sanity?
He sensed it carefully.
Indeed, something was seeping through the pinhole.
It wasn't an aura, and it wasn't knowledge; it was an extremely thin... nourishment.
The things deep in his mind that had been strained due to long-term consumption were being smoothed out bit by bit.
Like parched soil absorbing a drop of water.
It was minuscule, but it certainly existed.
‘Too extravagant.’
Lu Yuan did the math in his head.
0.5 Forbidden Lore experience in exchange for a pinhole.
Using this pinhole to restore Sanity, it only rose by 1 point every few minutes.
This efficiency wasn't even as good as just taking a nap.
But then again...
【Sanity: +1... 71/120】
This thing didn't cost anything; he just had to maintain the connection.
Lu Yuan thought about it and decided to wait until his Sanity was full before closing it.
Since the pinhole was already open, he might as well use it.
As for the fishing... he would think of another way later.
【Sanity: +1... 72/120】
【Sanity: +1... 73/120】
Lu Yuan leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, letting that weak connection persist.
His mind was already planning the next step.
The pinhole was too small; he had to find a way to open the gap a bit wider.
But opening it wider meant more Forbidden Lore experience loss, and the risk of the aura leaking would also...
Lu Yuan's train of thought suddenly snapped.
Because at this moment, Lu Yuan felt something.
It wasn't a fluctuation in Sanity.
It was his Forbidden Lore perception capturing an anomaly near the pinhole.
Something was moving.
Lu Yuan snapped his eyes open, his gaze falling on the shell in his palm.
The pinhole.
Something was squeezing its way out of that invisible pinhole.
A line.
An extremely thin line, thinner than a strand of hair, was slowly being pulled out of the pinhole.
Its color was unstable, turning dark gold one moment and deep blue the next, exactly like the churning colors in the Sea of Knowledge.
Lu Yuan's breath hitched for a moment.
After the line squeezed out of the pinhole, it didn't fall; instead, it hung in the air, swaying gently like a spider silk caught in the wind.
Then, the front end of the line began to swell.
Bit by bit.
Bit by bit.
Its form gradually unfolded, changing from a line into a grain-sized clump.
Lu Yuan could see it clearly now.
An extremely small, translucent worm-like object.
It had no eyes and no limbs; its entire body displayed that characteristic shifting color of the Sea of Knowledge.
It hovered about an inch above the shell, quiet and still.
【Detected Target: Knowledge Worm (Larva/Primary State)】
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