Calvin did not use the main entrance.
After crossing the iron fence, he headed straight around to the west side of the main building, with Lu Yuan following behind.
The main building of the Polymath Tower stood silent in the night, its grey stone walls covered in dead vines and its windows pitch black, devoid of light.
Behind them, the ten Nightwatchers marched in two rows, the sound of their boots on the gravel ground steady and restrained.
On the west side was a narrow door.
It was half a head shorter than a normal door, and the copper decorations on the frame had been corroded by time into a dark green. it looked more like the entrance to a logistics passage.
Calvin took out a copper identification token and pressed it against a sensor. With a mechanical whir, the door slowly opened.
Behind the narrow door was a descending stone staircase.
The air suddenly turned cold.
Once inside the passage, the gas lamps vanished, replaced by dark blue runestones embedded in the copper walls. These stones clung to the walls with a faint glow, casting the stone steps in the color of the deep sea.
Calvin walked at the front, his pace neither fast nor slow.
Selena brought up the rear.
The eleven Nightwatchers were sandwiched in the middle, following silently.
“This harvesting mission is divided into three zones,” Calvin’s voice came from the front. He didn’t look back as he spoke.
“The first zone is the outer perimeter, handled by the Church. They will use a blessing barrier and holy light inscriptions to prevent the aura of the Sea of Knowledge from leaking out. You will not have direct contact with the Church personnel.”
“The second zone is the Sanity barrier zone, which is where you will be stationed. You will construct a barrier powered by Sanity at the outer ring of the branch channel entrance. You are the final line of defense. If anything inside breaks through the harvesting zone's restrictions, you must stop it.”
“The third zone is the harvesting core zone, handled by the Polymath Tower.”
He paused.
“You don't need to worry about the Polymath Tower's part.”
When mentioning the third zone, Calvin's speaking speed noticeably quickened.
Clearly, he didn't want to linger on the topic.
Lu Yuan walked in the middle of the group, listening while sensing the changes in the passage's aura.
The further down they went, the denser the atmosphere in the air became.
He didn't even need to use the Knowledge Worm.
With just his perception as a Knowledge Seeker, he could detect an incredibly dense aura, similar to that of the Sea of Knowledge, drifting up from the depths of the passage. This aura made Lu Yuan feel heavy.
It was as if his entire body was being pressed underwater.
The symbiotic link pulsed slightly.
Deep in his left eye, the Knowledge Worm twitched in its state of digestion.
It sensed something, but it clearly wasn't hostile, otherwise the little thing wouldn't have stayed asleep. The Knowledge Worm simply shifted and then curled back up.
“If something goes wrong inside and the barrier can't hold?” Lu Yuan asked at that moment.
Calvin didn't turn back.
“Does that mean nothing can come out, including your people?”
Calvin's footsteps faltered.
It was so brief it was almost unnoticeable.
He didn't answer.
But Selena spoke up from behind.
“It does.”
Her voice was cold. After saying that, she returned to silence and continued walking forward.
Lu Yuan didn't press further.
The passage continued downward.
The material of the walls changed; they were no longer made of stone bricks but of solid rock, the surface rough and marked with chisel tracks.
Faint colored glimmers seeped from the cracks in the rock walls. Clearly, the aura of the Sea of Knowledge had already permeated the rock itself.
The further down they went, the denser the glimmers became.
Eventually, the walls of the entire passage were glowing.
Weakly flowing colors seeped from the stone crevices, winding along the rock walls.
It was like walking inside a giant blood vessel.
At the end of the passage was a copper door.
There were no inscriptions on the door, only densely packed rivets. Hundreds of copper rivets were arranged in concentric circles, from the edge of the door to the very center.
The copper door stood open.
The brilliance emitted by the Sea of Knowledge flooded out from the gap.
Lu Yuan stepped over the threshold.
He entered a massive underground hall.
The vault was extremely high, at least thirty meters up.
The entire hall had been hollowed out from a single block of underground rock, with chisel marks still visible on the walls.
In the center of the vault was a circular opening, about five or six meters in diameter, with a brass trim around the edge.
Looking up through the opening, one could see a field of flowing colors, like a giant eye staring down from above.
That was the branch channel of the Sea of Knowledge.
The layout of the hall was exactly as Calvin had described.
In the outermost ring—the first zone—over a dozen Church personnel in platinum robes were already in place, standing quietly at their respective positions.
Blessing inscriptions formed a massive ring on the ground, with soft golden light flowing through them.
Lu Yuan scanned the crowd but didn't see Agnes.
The middle ring—the second zone—was for the Nightwatchers.
Inscription circles were drawn on the ground with eleven equidistant markers. Each marker was embedded with a copper instrument, shaped like a low pedestal with a palm-print groove on the surface, surrounded by inscriptions.
The markers were connected by an inscription array on the floor, forming a complete circular circuit.
The innermost ring was at the very center.
It was separated by a translucent barrier.
The scene behind the barrier was blurry; one could only see indistinct figures moving and the outlines of some instruments and equipment.
But Lu Yuan noticed a detail.
Metal frames were arranged in a regular pattern on the floor of the inner ring.
Something was tied to them, but he couldn't see clearly.
Calvin had already reached the middle ring.
He stood beside one of the copper instruments and turned around to face the eleven Nightwatchers.
His monocle flashed in the shifting colors of the hall.
“Stand at your marked positions and place your hands on the instrument pedestals.”
He pointed to the palm-print grooves.
“Once the array starts, it will draw on your Sanity to construct a mental barrier.”
“During this time, your consciousness will be brought before the branch of the Sea of Knowledge.”
Calvin's tone grew heavier as he said this.
“Remember, you must not enter.”
“You are only responsible for using your Sanity to stabilize the barrier.”
“Once the harvesting begins, do not look inside.”
Calvin looked at Lu Yuan with an expression that carried something unsaid.
“This is a piece of advice.”
Lu Yuan met his gaze for a moment, and Calvin didn't look away.
One final sentence.
“If your Sanity isn't strong enough, participating in this mission could lead to permanent damage.”
After saying that, he didn't linger.
He turned and walked toward the inner ring.
Selena followed behind him. She didn't look at Lu Yuan as she passed, her pace steady and her gaze fixed forward.
Lu Yuan watched their backs pass through the translucent barrier and disappear into the blurry light and shadow.
Then he turned around.
The ten Nightwatchers stood in place, waiting for his command.
“Get in position,” Lu Yuan said in a low voice that reached everyone’s ears.
“Don't touch the instruments until I give the signal.”
He scanned everyone.
“Don't look around.”
The ten men dispersed and walked toward their respective markers.
Each stood before an instrument, the palm-print grooves on the pedestals faintly shimmering with a cold light.
Lu Yuan walked to the twelve o'clock position, directly facing the branch channel entrance.
No one spoke.
They waited for the inner ring to finish its preparations.
The waiting process was quiet.
The surface of the inner ring barrier changed constantly, sometimes murky and sometimes becoming clear enough to see almost everything inside.
Back and forth.
It was like someone was adjusting the transparency of a window.
Lu Yuan stood at his marker, his gaze fixed on the barrier.
The moment the barrier became almost completely transparent again—
Lu Yuan finally saw it.
The things tied to the metal frames in the inner ring were people.
More than twenty of them.
They were in the uniform of Polymath Tower students—blue-hued robes with silver IDs on the cuffs.
They sat on the metal frames, their heads held in place by circular instruments, their eyes closed.
Their bodies slumped forward slightly.
They looked like they were sleeping.
But it clearly wasn't sleep, because an indescribable aura emanated from each of them.
Lu Yuan activated his Knowledge Seeker perception, and in the next moment, his vision changed.
Beneath the students' blue-hued robes, there were no normal human bodies.
Their skin was intact, but that was all that remained.
The bones and flesh inside their bodies had been completely replaced.
By insects.
Thousands of tiny insects were intertwined, replacing bone and muscle to barely maintain the outline of a human body.
In his hazy vision, only one thing about those students was real.
Their heads.
Their brains.
The insects hadn't eroded the brain; they bypassed the interior of the skull, cradling the brain in the center with a mesh woven from their bodies.
Cradling it carefully.
Clearly, the brains were containers.
The students' bodies were already dead.
Only their brains remained alive.
Living containers.
Greyish-white text surfaced quietly.
【Target Detected: Polymath Tower student (hive)】
【A group of pathetic humans who used special methods to explore the secrets of knowledge. Now, aside from their consciousness, they can no longer be called human.】
Lu Yuan stared at the last line of greyish-white text for two seconds.
‘Is this the Polymath Tower's plan?’
At the same instant that thought flashed through his mind—
A familiar sense of pressure bore down from above.
It didn't come from the student vessels.
It came from higher up.
From a place far higher than this hall.
The entity within the main tower.
He had been targeted twice during his last visit—that cold gaze that belonged to no human.
It was happening again.
Clearly, “Him” had noticed him again. Before Lu Yuan could think further, the greyish-white text appeared.
【You have caught Him's attention. Sanity check in progress... Check successful. You are unaffected.】
The pressure didn't recede.
Instead, it grew heavier.
【Your presence has offended Him once again. Sanity check in progress... Check successful. You are unaffected.】
Clearly, with his Sanity cap reaching 140, he was fully capable of withstanding it.
【Sanity: 63/140】
Despite this, cold sweat broke out on Lu Yuan's back.
Because he suddenly realized that this thing seemed to be monitoring the Polymath Tower at all times. Did that mean the entire tower had already been judged by “Him”?
He had the greyish-white text to warn him, but what about the others?
Rate on N.U.
