By the time Lu Yuan realized this, his heart had already sunk halfway.
But now was not the time for such thoughts, as leaving was no longer an option.
Since this thing couldn't affect him, he had better take this opportunity to figure out exactly what was happening at the Polymath Tower.
Lu Yuan pushed that sense of oppression to the side of his consciousness.
His attention returned to the twenty-three metal frames in the inner ring.
Twenty-three students—perhaps only these twenty-three were qualified.
Their brains were still active, but their bodies had been hollowed out, replaced by insects, and transformed into containers.
All of this was authorized by the Empire.
Looking at those frames, Lu Yuan felt a flicker of an indescribable emotion.
At that moment, the symbiotic link pulsed violently.
The Knowledge Worm had completely awakened from its slumber, clearly sensing those knowledge-derived insects.
But the Knowledge Worm's only reaction was disgust. It was clear that Lu Yuan had overlooked a detail until now.
His Knowledge Worm seemed entirely different from the insects studied by Laurina and the other students.
His worm was caught from the Sea of Knowledge, while Laurina and her group had converted theirs through knowledge.
Thinking of this, Lu Yuan offered a brief moment of comfort to the Knowledge Worm.
The little thing was clearly unwilling to look further, curling up into a tiny point in the deepest part of his left eye.
Lu Yuan withdrew his attention from the symbiotic link.
At that moment, the inner ring barrier became blurry again, signaling that the internal adjustments were finished.
He looked away.
Standing closest to him was a square-faced Nightwatcher in his early thirties. Noticing something, the man opened his mouth as if to ask a question.
Lu Yuan shook his head.
The square-faced Nightwatcher closed his mouth.
Calvin's voice drifted over from the inner ring.
It wasn't loud, but it was clear in the circular hall, with the stone walls echoing every word back to them.
“Prepare to begin.”
As Calvin's voice fell, Lu Yuan signaled the Nightwatchers to activate their Sanity Rings.
As all the Nightwatchers funneled their Sanity into the rings on their wrists, the grey-silver metal rings grew slightly warm, and the fine patterns on their surfaces lit up with a faint glow.
The Sanity Ring on his right wrist was fully activated.
A strange sensation washed over him.
Lu Yuan could sense the Sanity status of the other ten people.
The Nightwatchers present had varying levels of Sanity.
The Sanity of the ten rank 2 Nightwatchers ranged from the thirties to the fifties.
Some were solid, some thin; some were stable, while others fluctuated slightly.
His own was at 63.
Even so, Lu Yuan’s was the highest among the eleven. In fact, it was significantly higher than anyone else present.
By a simple estimation, the eleven of them linked together possessed roughly four to five hundred points. Such a Sanity value was already immense.
Lu Yuan etched this number into his mind.
Then, he nodded to the Nightwatchers on either side.
No words were needed.
The ten men simultaneously pressed their hands into the palm-print grooves.
The moment their palms touched the copper surfaces, an inscription array lit up beneath their feet.
A pale blue light.
It spread rapidly along the floor's patterns, lighting up the lines between the eleven markers one by one until a complete ring was formed.
Light flowed beneath their feet.
Lu Yuan felt his Sanity being drawn by some force—not drained, but rather “stretched.”
A layer of his consciousness was peeled away from his body.
In the next instant, his vision changed.
He “saw” a churning field of colors.
Dark purple. Pale gold. Greyish-green.
Flowing slowly at the edge of his consciousness.
The branch channel of the Sea of Knowledge.
It was right before him.
Colors churned, and countless text fragments flickered on the surface—some in the Imperial Language, some he didn't recognize, and some that didn't even look like any language at all.
Lu Yuan did not move.
Calvin's words still echoed in his ears.
Remember, you must not enter.
Eleven portions of Sanity gathered in the array's circuit, constantly condensing.
A barrier emerged simultaneously in both the conscious and physical space.
A translucent barrier shimmering with pale blue light.
As Sanity continued to flow in, the barrier stabilized.
It stood between the Sea of Knowledge branch and reality.
A small amount was deducted from Lu Yuan's Sanity.
【Sanity: -3... 60/140】
The moment the barrier formed, the pressure to maintain it was immense.
The aura of the Sea of Knowledge branch crashed against it like a tide, wave after wave. Countless words, images, and sounds flooded toward them.
The Sanity pool began to deplete at a visible rate.
However, a wave of warmth suddenly drifted in from the perimeter.
It was the Church's blessing.
The dozen or so Church personnel in platinum robes had simultaneously activated their blessing inscriptions.
Faint golden holy light rose from the outer ring, enveloping the Nightwatchers in the middle ring in layer upon layer of radiance.
Lu Yuan felt that power in his conscious space—soft and warm. In the next moment, the onslaught from the Sea of Knowledge was weakened by more than half.
Greyish-white text surfaced.
【You have received an Angel's Blessing... Sanity maintenance consumption significantly reduced.】
As the pressure from the Sea of Knowledge plummeted, Lu Yuan's consciousness returned to reality. At that same moment, a tremor came from beneath his feet.
Countless colors poured down from the vault above.
The Sea of Knowledge began to flow faster.
The river of light extending from the sky to the Polymath Tower began to surge.
It grew faster and faster. The colors grew brighter and brighter. In the next moment...
Everything before Lu Yuan's eyes changed.
The circular hall vanished.
The Church's holy light vanished.
The ground beneath his feet vanished.
Except for the ten Nightwatchers standing with him at the barrier—
The entire Bronze City was gone.
Within his sight, only two things remained.
A pale white void.
And a massive, waterfall-like river descending from the heavens.
The branch of the Sea of Knowledge.
It was right there.
Even closer than before.
Colors churned within the river.
Lu Yuan stood at the barrier's position, staring at the river, motionless.
Then, he saw them.
Over twenty figures approached from the distance.
They were not the figures of normal humans.
Each was enveloped in a different aura. Countless twisted insects gathered and writhed around them. Husks composed of insect bodies moved slowly through the pale void.
The brains encased within those insect bodies flickered in and out of sight.
Like fireflies trapped in cocoons.
They walked toward the Sea of Knowledge.
They passed the position of Lu Yuan and the Nightwatchers' barrier.
One of them suddenly spoke.
“Is this our end?”
The voice came from the husk of insects, carrying an ethereal echo.
“I suppose it is,” another voice answered—the voice of a girl.
“We finally made it. It hurt so much... it was so hard.”
Lu Yuan stood at the barrier.
He didn't speak.
“Could you move aside a little?”
Another girl's voice came from beside Lu Yuan.
He turned to look.
A figure composed of insects was tilting its head, looking at him.
From its shape, it was a girl. Insects writhed continuously across her, forming the outlines of shoulders, arms, and a waist. A brain was faintly visible through the mesh woven by the insects.
She was looking at him.
Lu Yuan remained silent.
He simply lowered his Sanity output, allowing a gap to open in the Sanity barrier beside him.
“Thank you.”
The girl's voice was soft.
Then she turned to look at her companions behind her, who no longer resembled humans.
“Everyone, let's go together.”
She was the first to step inside.
The moment she stepped into the Sea of Knowledge branch...
The insects vanished.
The greyish-white insect bodies peeled away from her like ash blown by the wind, merging into the river.
Her body reconstructed itself—bones, flesh, and skin grew back layer by layer.
She returned to her original form.
A girl in her early twenties.
She had no clothes. The aura of knowledge swirled around her, flowing like gossamer.
She turned back.
She gave Lu Yuan a smile.
“Now, it will be hard work for you all to guard the gate.”
Then she turned and walked inward without looking back.
Her footsteps fell into the river of churning colors.
The other students followed one by one.
One after another.
Lu Yuan did not close the gap.
He stood there, watching them pass by him one by one.
Everyone regained their human form the moment they stepped into the Sea of Knowledge branch.
Insects peeled off, brains were no longer exposed, and complete bodies reappeared.
Some kept muttering, “It hurts... it hurts so much...”
Some had stiff expressions and said nothing.
But at the moment they regained their human forms, they seemed to remember something.
They looked at their hands in a daze.
They paused.
They looked around.
Finally, as if they understood something, they walked toward the first girl without looking back.
“Sister Lin, wait for me!” two or three voices called out as they hurried to catch up.
Lu Yuan's gaze fell on the last person to enter.
It was a girl who didn't look very old.
She was smaller than the other students, and the insect coverage on her was less than the others, as if she had held out for a long time.
After stepping into the Sea of Knowledge, the insects peeled away.
She regained her human form.
Noticing Lu Yuan watching her, she instinctively crossed her arms over her chest.
“Mister, you're being quite rude!”
Lu Yuan's eye twitched.
He didn't answer that.
He only asked one thing.
“Does it hurt?”
The girl seemed taken aback by the question.
She hesitated.
“Actually, it doesn't hurt. Once there are enough insects, you stop feeling anything.”
She reached out and pinched her own arm.
“I can't feel the insects anymore. It's nice.”
“I have to catch up now. I can't talk to you anymore.”
The girl smiled and started walking with a skip in her step.
She had only gone a few paces when Lu Yuan spoke again, for reasons he didn't quite understand.
“Do you regret it?”
The girl's footsteps faltered.
“I don't regret it.”
She didn't turn around.
“I'm happy to contribute to the Empire. My family has been taken care of. And if it weren't for the teachers at the Polymath Tower, I don't know where I'd be. Haha.”
The girl spoke as she walked further and further away.
Her figure gradually merged into that colorful river.
Finally, she disappeared.
Lu Yuan stood there.
Before him was that endless waterfall descending from the heavens.
Twenty-three people had walked inside.
Carrying insects, carrying pain, carrying smiles.
Not one of them looked back.
Lu Yuan stood at the barrier.
Before him were churning colors; above him was the empty, pale white void.
Behind him were ten silent Nightwatchers.
He couldn't describe what he felt.
He simply stood there, watching that river.
He didn't move for a long, long time.
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