Klaus’s eyes flashed with gravity. He knew Lake’s strength better than anyone; his survival methods were easily in the top three in Bronze City.
Yet he was injured before even entering combat??
“Could that be the core of Bronze City?”
Klaus realized that this discovery likely concerned the true secret of Bronze City.
“Those damned parasites in City Hall!! I’m going up there tomorrow. I’m going to see who the hell still won't tell the truth.”
Lu Yuan watched Klaus curse and swear before continuing.
“The Grey Covenant's initial target might have been the thing behind that wall. It's unclear what it is exactly, but it cannot be allowed to come out.”
Klaus remained silent for a long time.
“I’ll keep an eye on it. I’ll make arrangements for Bolen’s situation. You go back and rest first.”
He glanced at Lu Yuan.
“Only you, I, and Lake know about tonight. Until Bolen wakes up, do not mention this to anyone.”
Lu Yuan nodded and turned to leave.
After the door closed, Klaus took a box of cigarettes from his drawer. He held one in his mouth for a long time, hesitating, before putting it back.
“I hope the Polymath Tower finishes up quickly. Bronze City is about to reach its limit...”
Lu Yuan returned to his quarters.
He went to the second floor.
Sitting at his experimental table, he closed his eyes.
Too many things had happened tonight.
The eerie inscriptions, the copper wall, the vortex symbols.
And the prompt about ■■.
Fortunately, the moment it looked at him, the Hidden Witness triggered its protection.
In those flooded images, was it that entity's memory? Or some kind of information projection?
Just then, the symbiotic connection twitched.
His left eye felt a slight sting.
The Knowledge Worm crawled out from the depths of his eye socket.
The translucent, rice-grain-sized body suspended itself before Lu Yuan, the speed of its shifting colors much slower than usual.
It circled Lu Yuan’s face once before stopping in front of his nose.
It let out a series of chattering sounds.
A string of signals that Lu Yuan completely failed to understand came through the symbiotic connection.
It was like some kind of... language?
The Knowledge Worm was speaking.
But Lu Yuan couldn't understand a single word.
The little thing chattered for a while longer, and seemingly realizing Lu Yuan wasn't responding, it stopped.
It hovered in the air for two seconds.
Then it flew to the back of Lu Yuan’s hand and rubbed against it with its body.
It seemed to be confirming he was okay.
Then it retracted back into his eye socket.
The symbiotic connection returned to tranquility.
Lu Yuan looked at the spot on the back of his hand where the Knowledge Worm had rubbed.
There wasn't a trace left.
After the Knowledge Worm retracted, the room fell into complete darkness.
Lu Yuan didn't move.
He sat at the experimental table, looking toward the window.
The curtains weren't fully drawn, and a sliver of faint light from the wall runes filtered through the gap.
The faint light drew a thin line on the floor.
But Lu Yuan wasn't looking at the light.
He was looking at a certain spot outside the window.
“Come in,” Lu Yuan said to the darkness. “What’s the point of staying out there?”
The outside remained silent for two seconds.
Then a figure vaulted in from the edge of the window frame.
The movement was light, and there was almost no sound when the feet hit the floor.
A black hood was pulled low, revealing only a chin and a stretch of pale neck.
She wasn't wearing the grey-white robes of the Holy Church, but a dark short cloak wrapped tightly around her.
It was Agnes.
She stood by the window, tilting her head slightly to look at Lu Yuan.
“How did you notice me?”
Lu Yuan didn't explain. He simply looked at Agnes, his tone flat.
“According to our previous agreement, I will only fulfill my promise after the events in Bronze City have concluded, at the very least.”
“At minimum, we have to wait until the underground exploration has reached a stopping point.”
Agnes stood where she was, not responding to that.
Then she spoke.
“I didn't come to find you for that.”
Lu Yuan’s fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop.
Agnes reached out and pushed back the black hood.
Moon-white long hair cascaded over her shoulders, giving off a cold luster under the faint light of the wall runes.
Her features were exquisite, with high brow bones, a straight nose, and thin, pale lips.
If not for the layer of perpetual coldness in her eyes, her appearance would be the type worshipped in the Holy Church as an “angelic face.”
But at this moment, there wasn't a hint of holiness in her eyes.
A trace of gravity flashed through her calm pupils.
She looked at Lu Yuan.
“Did you find the seed underground?”
Lu Yuan was taken aback. Then his expression turned serious.
“How did you know?”
Agnes ignored Lu Yuan’s reaction. She looked around the room, found a chair, pulled it over, and sat down.
Her movements were natural, as if she had been here many times.
Then she looked at Lu Yuan and continued.
“That thing was the Ascension Society's goal from the start.”
Lu Yuan did not interrupt.
“And a couple of days ago, it seems the Ascension Society clashed with members of the Grey Covenant.”
She paused for a moment.
“Now the Holy Church is also preparing to intervene.”
Lu Yuan’s brow furrowed.
The Ascension Society.
The existence that had established three outposts in the inner city district of Bronze City, suppressing both the Nightwatchers and the Holy Church.
They were also eyeing the seed.
And they had already clashed with the Grey Covenant—this meant that Number 9 of the Grey Covenant might have already been exposed, or at least had come into contact with the Ascension Society.
The Holy Church was intervening as well.
Three factions.
All coming for the seed.
Lu Yuan looked at Agnes with a scrutinizing gaze.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Aren't you part of the Holy Church too? And your position isn't low.”
Agnes let out a few cold laughs. They were quiet, but carried a loathing that seemed etched into her bones.
“Why play the fool?”
“Joining the Holy Church was never my wish.”
Her tone grew cold.
“And I heard that the seed’s ability... seems to be related to ‘Wish.’”
“The Holy Church’s ‘Wish’ is no good thing.” Agnes looked at Lu Yuan with a direct gaze. “I only came to remind you. Over these next few days, be prepared.”
Lu Yuan didn't give a direct answer. Instead, he asked, “Will you be implicated?”
Agnes fell silent.
She was silent for a long time—so long that Lu Yuan thought she wouldn't answer.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“If this thing falls into the hands of the Holy Church, they will immediately abandon Bronze City.”
“And people like me... will likely be used as cannon fodder.”
The corner of her mouth twitched with a hint of bitterness.
“They’ll have us all sacrificed, all while telling us that believing in the Angel is an honor.”
The room remained quiet for several seconds.
“I still have things left to do.”
A deep emotion flashed in Agnes’s eyes. It wasn't fear; it was hatred.
“I cannot die. At least not yet.”
Lu Yuan looked at her—this nun with “impure” faith, who wanted to enter the Sea of Knowledge, and who had been operating in the shadows since their first meeting.
She hadn't come to ask for help. She had come to trade.
Information for protection. Or at the very least, for a “witness.”
“I understand,” Lu Yuan said. “I will be prepared.”
Agnes stood up and pulled her hood back on, concealing that moon-white hair.
She walked to the window, paused for a moment without looking back, and then vaulted out.
Her movements were just as light as when she had arrived.
Lu Yuan was left alone in the room again.
The faint light of the wall runes still drew that thin line on the floor.
Lu Yuan sat in the darkness.
The Ascension Society, the Grey Covenant, and now the Holy Church. All of them were coming for the seed.
And while the Nightwatchers held the seed, they had no idea what it actually did.
The storm was coming.
Lu Yuan reached out and drew the curtains tight.
However, just then, the floor beneath his feet shook.
It was very light, like someone had struck a hammer in the far distance; the vibration traveled through the foundation, leaving only a faint tremor by the time it reached his feet.
Then came the second tremor.
Lu Yuan’s hand was still on the curtain.
The third one followed immediately.
The entire building was swaying.
The toolkit on the table slid an inch, and glass bottles in the cabinet clinked together.
At the same time, an invisible pressure erupted from the direction of the inner city.
It was like an invisible hand pushing out from the center of the inner city, sweeping across the entirety of Bronze City.
Lu Yuan’s symbiotic connection was instantly squeezed tight.
The Knowledge Worm in his eye socket began to tremble.
Outside the window, every single inscription line on the walls of Bronze City lit up simultaneously.
Ghostly blue light exploded from the surface of the walls, its brightness surging to a blinding level.
The entire wall seemed to be set ablaze. Blue light raced along the inscription pathways from the foundation to the top, from south to north, illuminating every inch of the wall’s silhouette in an instant.
Moonlight and the glow of the inscriptions intertwined, turning the night sky of Bronze City as bright as day.
Lu Yuan yanked the curtains open and leapt out the window, landing on the roof.
He looked up toward the inner city.
In the next moment, Lu Yuan’s pupils shrank violently.
Above the inner city, the vault of heaven had split open.
It wasn't a rift in the clouds. The sky itself had been torn.
Inside the rift, countless dreamlike colors surged out.
Dark gold, deep purple, stark white—countless unnamed colors churned together, flowing slowly and hanging above the inner city like an inverted river.
Something was moving within the colors.
It was text.
Dense, glowing fragments of text tumbled, floated, and sank within the river of colors.
It was the Sea of Knowledge.
The Sea of Knowledge had leaked.
“This is bad—”
In the next moment, the galaxy hanging in the firmament began to collapse.
The dreamlike colors, carrying countless fragments of text, poured down from the sky.
It was as if someone had overturned an entire river.
Glow and text merged into a waterfall, falling toward the inner city.
Just then, several figures surged forth from the direction of the branch.
Lu Yuan could feel it—the aura carried by those figures, each one wrapped in an incredibly eerie presence.
A cyan light appeared; it was Klaus. A grey worm-body blotted out the sky; that was Lake.
A third and fourth followed; Lu Yuan didn't recognize them, but their auras were so intense he could feel them even across the entire North Ward.
Greyish-white text flickered at the edge of his vision.
【Environmental Perception: Detection ???】
【Please stay away.】
The four figures rushed toward the inner city almost simultaneously, their speed so great they left afterimages in the night sky.
Then, in the far distance, a figure appeared near the clock tower.
It was an elderly silhouette. He flickered, each step crossing hundreds of meters.
With every step he took, the surrounding air distorted briefly.
Eerie eyes, pitch-black aura... the black mist shrouding the elderly body was even thicker than the last time Lu Yuan had seen him.
It was the Guardian.
Even he had been disturbed.
Lu Yuan stood on the roof, the night wind blowing the hem of his clothes.
He knew he couldn't help at all.
With an event of this level, he didn't even have the right to approach.
He could only watch.
Rate on N.U.
