Three symbiotic connections hung quietly deep within Lu Yuan's perception.
They were still alive.
And they were eating.
Lu Yuan had intended to put the sampling bottle back into the bottom of the toolbox, but the moment his hand touched the glass, the situation inside changed.
The faint pulses of light on the crystal's surface suddenly quickened. The intertwining of greyish-green and dark gold became violent, as if some intense reaction was occurring within.
And then... it stopped.
The three Knowledge Worms detached from the surface of the crystal.
They simply fell off.
One by one, they peeled away from the crystal and tumbled woozily to the bottom of the bottle.
The entire process took less than a few seconds.
Lu Yuan stared at the three tiny things in the sampling bottle.
Their bodies were now covered in a distinct layer of green, identical to the greyish-green of the crystal itself.
The once translucent worm bodies were no longer transparent, and the swirling of their colors had slowed down.
It was as if they were stuffed.
【Detected Target: Knowledge Worm (Larva ×3)】
【Absorbed excessive knowledge density in a short period... Currently growing...】
'That's a relief.'
Lu Yuan looked at them, letting out half a sigh of relief.
At least they hadn't eaten themselves to death. It seemed these little things were much tougher than he had expected.
However, the Knowledge Worms he had fished out seemed a bit different from the ones Laurina had obtained.
And their growth rate... was far faster than anticipated.
Inside the sampling bottle, the three Knowledge Worms huddled together as the green luster on their surfaces slowly spread.
Then, Lu Yuan witnessed something he hadn't expected.
The three worms drew closer.
The three grain-sized bodies began to merge, their colors bleeding together and their boundaries dissolving, like three drops of water flowing into the same cup.
Their forms overlapped, their outlines blurred, and then they solidified once more.
They had become one.
Their size hadn't increased.
The creature was still the size of a grain of rice.
But the colors across its entire body had become much richer. The dark gold, deep blue, and greyish-green were no longer swirling separately; instead, they were evenly blended, forming a composite hue that Lu Yuan had never seen before.
At the same moment, the three symbiotic connections in his perception merged into one.
It was thicker.
And clearer.
Lu Yuan could feel that the consciousness of the merged Knowledge Worm was more than one level stronger than before.
It flew out of the sampling bottle.
It didn't ask for Lu Yuan's permission.
It circled the air of the Alchemy Workshop once, as if sensing the surrounding atmosphere.
Then it flew back and hovered right in front of Lu Yuan.
It was very close.
So close there were only a few inches between them.
It was looking into Lu Yuan's eyes.
It wasn't staring at Lu Yuan himself, but specifically at his eyes.
Then, a very clear signal came through the symbiotic connection.
It wasn't language.
It was intent.
'It wants to go in.'
Lu Yuan froze for a moment.
He instinctively took half a step back, but the Knowledge Worm didn't follow. It simply hovered in place quietly.
Waiting for his response.
Lu Yuan stared at the grain-sized worm, thinking for several seconds.
Enter his eye?
The thought made him feel instinctively repulsed.
But the information from the symbiotic connection was clear. The Knowledge Worm wasn't choosing to "hide"; it was choosing to "merge."
It needed a vessel for perception.
The eyes were the most important site of perception, and they were also where the 'key' was kept.
Lu Yuan reconfirmed the intent coming through the symbiotic connection.
It was indeed the eye.
"...Fine."
Lu Yuan nodded.
The Knowledge Worm moved.
A tiny point of light, carrying its swirling tricolor blend, flew toward Lu Yuan's left eye.
The moment it touched his pupil, Lu Yuan's world changed.
Everything brightened.
It wasn't that the light level had increased.
It was that... the world itself had become several shades more vivid.
The originally dim Alchemy Workshop, with its candles burned down to half-stubs, became clear and bright. Every detail was visible in sharp relief.
The wood grain of the table, the cracks in the corners, the dust motes suspended in the air—everything was perfectly clear.
But that wasn't the most important part.
What mattered were the colors.
Lu Yuan saw colors.
The Alchemy Workshop was filled with all sorts of auras. Previously, he could only vaguely capture them when he intentionally used his Knowledge Seeker perception, but now... there was no need.
They were just there on their own.
The most obvious was the aura radiating from his own body.
It was blackish-grey.
Faint, like a thin mist enveloping him, rising and falling slightly with his breath.
'Is this mine...?'
Lu Yuan looked down at his hands. The blackish-grey mist flowed between his fingers.
Then his gaze shifted to the sampling bottle on the toolbox in the corner.
The aura coming from the crystal was completely different.
It was brilliant.
A light composed of greyish-green and dark gold shone through the sampling bottle like a miniature sun, quietly radiating heat in the corner.
The concentration of that aura far exceeded anything else in the Alchemy Workshop.
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow with interest.
Then he turned, walked to the window, and pulled back a corner of the curtain.
He looked outside.
He looked toward the Bronze City.
Lu Yuan's expression froze.
Above the entire Bronze City, a layer of eerie colors drifted.
The distant buildings, the streets, the city walls... everything was shrouded in a mist of varying density.
The outer city wasn't too bad; the mist was thin and ethereal.
But in the direction of the inner city...
It was almost completely filled.
A mass of color so thick it wouldn't dissipate loomed over the inner city. The colors were so complex that Lu Yuan couldn't even distinguish them. Dark purple, greyish-green—countless hues were mixed together.
Furthermore, that mass of aura was writhing.
It moved at an extremely slow speed, but it was definitely gathering toward a specific direction.
Lu Yuan's pupils constricted for a moment.
'What is that?'
But in the next second, his eye suddenly stung.
A sharp pain flared.
His vision blurred for a moment before returning to normal.
The Bronze City outside the window reverted to its quiet nighttime state. The faint glow of the runes on the city walls flowed peacefully, just as they always did.
He could no longer see anything unusual.
Lu Yuan rubbed his aching eye.
'The duration is too short.'
Clearly, that had been an enhancement brought by the Knowledge Worm.
And from the connected consciousness, a trace of exhaustion drifted through.
The little thing was tired too.
The recent fusion and the vision they had just shared had cost it a great deal of energy.
Lu Yuan didn't push it. Instead, he looked down at the edge of his vision.
Greyish-white text was scrolling past.
Line after line.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +5.0... 35.4/100】
【Imperial Language: +7... 263/1000】
【Inscription (Basic): +11... 11.9/10... Limit broken, experience overflow... Inscription (Advanced - Pending): 1.9/50】
【Basic Medicine: +10... 13.8/20】
Lu Yuan stared at the string of numbers, his breathing hitching slightly.
All of this was feedback provided by the Knowledge Worm after eating the consciousness crystal.
A thumb-sized crystal, chewed on for less than a few seconds, had yielded this much.
Forbidden Lore had jumped by 5 points in one go.
5 points.
He had fought desperately in the pipe network for several battles, and combined with the overflow from the consciousness crystal, he had only gained less than 2 points total.
Now, the Knowledge Worm had fed him 5 points in seconds.
The Inscription progress was even more exaggerated.
The limit for Basic Inscription was 10, but it had been smashed through directly, triggering an automatic advancement and raising the limit from 10 to 50.
This cycle... it was truly up and running.
While Lu Yuan was digesting these numbers, he suddenly felt another movement.
From his chest.
The Timekeeper pocket watch.
The pocket watch that had long since merged with his body let out an extremely faint tremor at the moment the experience flooded in.
It was as if something had touched it.
But it only lasted for an instant before subsiding.
Lu Yuan looked down at his chest, his brow furrowing slightly.
Was there a connection between the Timekeeper pocket watch and the Knowledge Worm's feedback?
Or... was there some kind of resonance between the things sealed within the consciousness crystal and the Timekeeper pocket watch?
The exhaustion from the symbiotic connection grew even stronger.
The Knowledge Worm had already fallen into a deep sleep.
Lu Yuan received no answer.
Lu Yuan suppressed this question for the time being and walked back to the table, placing the sampling bottle back into the bottom layer of the toolbox.
The frequency of the light pulses on the crystal's surface remained the same.
It seemed the Knowledge Worm hadn't left any physical mark on it.
Lu Yuan closed the toolbox and straightened his back.
The sky outside the window was very dark.
The faint glow of the city wall runes and the scattered lights in the distance were the only light sources in the nighttime Bronze City.
What time was it?
Lu Yuan walked to the bed and pulled the pocket watch from under his pillow to check.
'Two in the morning.'
Since returning from the Polymath Tower, between fishing, opening the pinhole, waiting, the contract, and the Knowledge Worm's fusion... this whole ordeal had consumed most of the night.
His current status:
Sanity 79/120. Not low, but not exactly abundant either.
Forbidden Lore 35.4/100, fresh from the increase.
A Knowledge Worm was living in his eye, currently asleep.
Lu Yuan stood by the window, looking at the deep night outside for a few seconds.
Time to sleep.
Tonight's gains had already far exceeded his expectations.
The Knowledge Worm, the symbiotic contract, the feedback cycle, the enhanced vision... each one on its own was a qualitative leap.
But that vision he had just seen...
That mass of eerie, contracting colors above the inner city...
What was it?
Lu Yuan pulled the curtains shut and lay back on the bed.
The moment he closed his eyes, a faint warmth came from the symbiotic connection.
The little thing had curled into a ball in his eye socket, sleeping soundly.
Lu Yuan closed his eyes as well.
Too much had happened tonight; his brain needed a rest.
He would think about the rest tomorrow.
...
Morning.
Sunlight squeezed through the gaps in the curtains, casting a thin streak of light on the floor.
Lu Yuan was awakened by the sound of knocking on the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
It wasn't hurried, but it was persistent, one knock after another, as if the person was certain someone was inside.
Lu Yuan opened his eyes, his mind not yet fully awake.
An annoyed restlessness came from the symbiotic connection; the Knowledge Worm had been woken up as well.
'Who is it?'
There were Nightwatchers on duty outside the Alchemy Workshop, so normally no one would come directly to knock on the door.
Unless it was a Nightwatcher himself.
Lu Yuan rolled out of bed, threw on his coat, and walked to the door.
He pulled it open.
Standing outside the door was a short old man.
He barely reached Lu Yuan's waist.
A serious, almost comical expression hung on his wrinkled face. A messy white beard was piled on his chin, and he wore an old leather apron of indistinguishable color, which was covered in clinking little tools.
He looked up, sizing Lu Yuan up from bottom to top with a solemn gaze.
Then he spoke.
"Aren't you going to invite me in?"
He rubbed his hands together.
"It's quite cold standing out here."
Lu Yuan looked at the little old man who didn't even reach his waist, his brow furrowing slightly.
At the edge of his vision, greyish-white text appeared.
【Detected Target: Dwarf (Inscription Master)】
【A special existence that helps humans choose an inscription direction, but is prone to tricking them.】
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