The galaxy hanging in the firmament began to fall.
Lu Yuan stood on the roof, the night wind filling his sleeves, his whole body frozen in place.
The dreamlike colors, carrying countless glowing fragments of text, poured down from the torn sky, faster and faster.
Dark gold, deep purple... countless colors churned into an inverted river, plunging toward the inner city.
Lu Yuan clenched his hands, preparing for the worst.
‘If that thing hits the ground of Bronze City directly...’
He didn't dare think further.
The aura of the Sea of Knowledge, even a single drop of residue, could instantly mutate an ordinary person into something neither human nor ghost. This was an entire river.
However...
The moment the river of light was about to touch the tops of the inner city buildings.
It didn't fall.
Lu Yuan’s pupils shrank.
The end of the river of light, about a hundred meters above the inner city, seemed to be held by some force.
It dropped directly into another space.
Lu Yuan saw it.
Directly beneath the river of light, a void quietly split open.
It was a patch of pure “nothingness.”
Like a blank space gouged out from reality.
The river of light poured into that void.
Dreamlike colors continued to overflow from the rift in the firmament, pouring down this channel, and then being swallowed the moment they touched the void.
Silently.
Like water flowing into the ground.
Glowing text fragments tumbled and collided during the fall. Occasionally, a few were swept out of orbit by air currents, spiraling in mid-air before dissipating into the night.
Like fireflies, a flash, and then gone.
Lu Yuan’s heart, which had been hanging in his throat, finally settled.
‘Thank goodness...’
He took a deep breath, the night wind filling his lungs, icy and piercing.
‘Thank goodness it didn't fall directly onto the ground.’
As long as the pollution hadn't overflowed directly, there was still room for maneuver.
The Polymath Tower’s inscription system might be abnormal, but it was at least still functioning.
That void was likely some kind of emergency mechanism of the Polymath Tower itself.
Or an experimental device of the mentors.
Whichever it was, at least for now, the Sea of Knowledge had not overturned directly onto Bronze City.
The rest would be left to Klaus and the others.
Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze.
The figures rushing toward the inner city had long since vanished into the depths of the night.
Klaus’s cyan light, Lake’s sky-blotting grey worm-body, and the Guardian’s elderly silhouette shrouded in black aura.
He could only trust them now.
At least it was better than standing here staring blankly.
Lu Yuan took one last look at the sky above the inner city.
The river of light was still flowing.
It was slower than before, but showed no sign of stopping.
The void hung steadily in mid-air like a giant mouth, quietly swallowing the knowledge fragments falling from the sky.
The light of the inscriptions on the walls had gradually receded from the blinding blue-white of a moment ago back to a normal eerie blue.
Lu Yuan’s gaze swept past the inner city toward the outer city.
In the distant residential areas, gas lamps were lighting up one by one.
Windows that had been dark were now glowing with a faint yellow light.
The residents of the outer city might not know what was happening above the inner city.
But they felt it.
The tremors of the floor, the flare of the wall inscriptions, the indescribable pressure in the air.
Since the ghoul incident, the outer city residents had developed an instinct.
At night, light the lamps.
No matter what happens, keep the lights on.
One gas lamp after another connected into a warm yellow river of stars in the night.
Facing the cold, falling galaxy overhead from a distance.
Lu Yuan watched for a few seconds.
Then he vaulted back into the window from the roof.
His feet hit the floor with a light thud.
Within the symbiotic connection, the Knowledge Worm was curled into a ball, quiet and still.
The invisible pressure from before seemed to have affected it too, as if it had been frightened.
Lu Yuan rubbed his left eye, soothing the little guy not to be afraid, and then lay back down.
But this time, Lu Yuan couldn't sleep. He stared at the ceiling for a long time before giving up.
‘Forget it.’
Lu Yuan sat up and walked to the experimental table on the second floor.
He turned the march lamp down to its lowest setting, casting a circle of dim yellow light on the surface.
Lu Yuan opened the side compartment of his toolkit and took out the thin copper needle with the sharpened tip.
Then he fished out two ghoul brain cores from a cloth bag on the shelf.
Thumbnail-sized, greyish-white, and relatively hard.
He had already successfully carved one before.
The greyish-white text had evaluated it as “Crude,” and useless on its own.
But it was followed by a sentence.
“Perhaps it will only have some slight effect if three are strung together.”
Lu Yuan had always remembered that sentence.
It was just that too many things had happened, and he hadn't had the time.
Now, since he couldn't sleep anyway.
He might as well carve the remaining two. Besides, he knew the logistics department had a massive supply of ghoul materials that hadn't been inventoried yet.
Lu Yuan had asked Margaret for some. She had already sent quite a few brain cores, and she said more materials were on the way.
While he was at it, Lu Yuan wanted to see what would happen once all three were gathered.
Lu Yuan placed the two brain cores side by side on the experimental table.
He also took out the finished one he had carved earlier from his toolkit as a reference.
The eerie inscription symbol on the surface of that brain core was still there. The lines were rough, the turns weren't smooth enough, but the engravings were clear.
The dark red glow had long since faded; now it was just a small greyish-white stone with carvings.
Lu Yuan picked up the first new brain core, holding it in his left hand and the needle in his right.
He closed his eyes, calling up the path of the seventh symbol in his mind.
The symbiotic connection twitched slightly.
The Knowledge Worm had recovered slightly from its fright and sensed Lu Yuan’s intention.
It curled deep within his eye socket, the colors of its body shifting slower than usual.
The first cut.
The strength was controlled better than last time.
The tip of the copper needle sliced into the surface of the brain core with a faint hissing sound.
White powder turned up from both sides of the engraving, and a trace of feedback came through the symbiotic connection.
Lu Yuan made a micro-adjustment to his wrist, and the second stroke followed immediately.
This time, the turn was much smoother than the previous finished piece.
It wasn't that his skill had improved that much, but that the Knowledge Worm’s auxiliary feedback had become more precise.
Last time, it gave a reminder the moment he deviated.
This time, it sent a hint of direction just before he was about to deviate.
It was like the little thing was saying, “Here, a little to the left.”
Lu Yuan followed the feeling.
The final stroke completed the carving.
A dark red glow flickered on the surface of the brain core.
It was a bit brighter than last time.
It lasted for about three seconds before fading.
Greyish-white text flickered at the edge of his vision.
【Inscription (Advanced - Eerie Inscription): +0.4... 3.9/50】
【Sanity: -1... 72/120】
【Basic Eerie Inscription: Ghoul Brain Core (Crude)】
It went up by 0.4.
0.1 more than the first time.
Although it was still Crude, there was clear progress compared to last time.
Lu Yuan placed the carved brain core next to the finished one.
He picked up the last brain core.
He rubbed its surface with his fingers.
A faint sense of anticipation came from the Knowledge Worm through the symbiotic connection.
The little thing also wanted to see what would happen when all three were gathered.
Lu Yuan began the carving.
This time was faster than the previous two.
The Knowledge Worm’s auxiliary feedback was almost instantaneous, like an invisible teacher guiding his hand.
As the final cut fell, a dark red glow lit up from the surface of the brain core.
【Inscription (Advanced - Eerie Inscription): +0.5... 4.4/50】
【Sanity: -1... 71/120】
【Basic Eerie Inscription: Ghoul Brain Core (Common)】
The evaluation had changed from “Crude” to “Common.”
Lu Yuan looked at the text and raised an eyebrow slightly.
Three brain cores, each better than the last.
The last one had even broken through the “Crude” threshold.
He placed the three brain cores side by side on the experimental table.
Two Crude, one Common.
Three identical symbols were quietly carved on the greyish-white surfaces. The greyish-white text had said “strung together.”
How to string them?
Lu Yuan thought for a moment, then held the three brain cores in his palm, pressing them tightly together.
No reaction.
Lu Yuan frowned.
“Strung together” didn't mean physical contact.
It meant through the inscriptions.
He remembered what Bolen had said in the pipe network.
The essence of an inscription is connection.
A symbol is a node, and multiple nodes need to be connected through “pathways” to form a complete circuit.
Large-scale Inscription was like this.
Eerie Inscription should be the same.
Lu Yuan picked up the copper needle again.
He arranged the three brain cores in a straight line, spaced about a finger’s width apart.
Then, using the tip of the copper needle, he very lightly traced two connecting lines on the surface of the experimental table.
Extending from the end of the symbol on the edge of the first brain core to the second.
And from the second to the third.
The lines were very shallow, almost invisible.
But the moment the second line was finished—
All three brain cores lit up simultaneously.
A dark red glow seeped out from the engravings of the three symbols, rapidly spreading along those two nearly invisible lines on the table.
Light flowed between the three brain cores.
The eerie inscription lines on them seemed to come alive, slowly moving across the greyish-white surfaces and adjusting their positions.
Those originally rough turns actually began to self-correct under the drive of the light.
Stiff corners became rounded, and broken lines reconnected.
The whole process lasted about ten seconds.
Then the light withdrew, and the three brain cores dimmed at the same time.
Greyish-white text flickered at the edge of his vision.
【Inscription (Advanced - Eerie Inscription): +1.0... 5.3/50】
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +0.3... 38.9/100】
【Sanity: -2... 69/120】
【Ghoulification (3/3)】
【A little gadget made with the help of ghoul brain cores. It can emit a ghoul aura and attach a weak keratin layer depending on the user’s constitution.】
【Note: This is your first Eerie Inscription work. Though simple, the path has been embarked upon.】
Lu Yuan stared at the last line of text for several seconds.
Ghoulification?
It seemed quite useless?
Lu Yuan held the three brain cores in his hand and looked closely. It was somewhat beyond his expectations.
Could just basic inscriptions and core materials form something like this?
Putting down the brain cores, Lu Yuan leaned back in his chair and looked out the window.
The curtains weren't drawn tight, and moonlight filtered through the gap.
A wave of fatigue came through the symbiotic connection.
The Knowledge Worm had consumed quite a bit during the auxiliary carving process and had now fallen into a deep sleep.
Lu Yuan closed his eyes.
This time, he didn't think about all those messy things.
His consciousness slowly sank.
And at the same moment Lu Yuan closed his eyes.
The inner city.
Rate on N.U.
