The moment Sister Lin vanished, the boy who had taken the mark stepped to the front and passed the mark onto another student.
The light from the remaining sixteen students converged once more, landing upon him.
He moved forward steadily. His skin began to crack, and blood-red insects swarmed out from his body.
The knowledge-derived insects within him seemed to be a better match for the aura of this corpse than Sister Lin's; they survived longer in the blood mist at the edge of the vortex and were annihilated at a slower rate.
He traveled nearly twice as far as Sister Lin.
The path continued to extend through the sea of blood.
But he, too, had a limit.
The moment his insects were completely annihilated, the boy turned his head with a look of helplessness.
“If I'd known, I wouldn't have been so greedy for that bit of truth... Remember your names. Remember our miss—”
Before he could finish, his body came apart and his brain withered, vanishing into the sea of blood.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +4... 53.3/100】
【Inscription (Advanced · Eerie Inscription): +0.1... 21.2/50】
【Pharmacology: +3... 50.8/50】
Another string of knowledge was devoured by the Knowledge Worm.
The Knowledge Worm seemed to sense Lu Yuan's internal emotions. It let out a series of gurgles, as if to say it was no big deal, before continuing to follow the group.
【Sanity: -4... 45/140】
The stream of fragments continued to grow denser. The pressure on the barrier became greater and greater.
The mark was passed again, the light converged again, skin cracked again, and insects swarmed out once more.
Another stretch of road, another life.
Another boy dissipated into the air.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +2... 55.3/100】
On Lu Yuan's end, as the group continued forward, the knowledge he absorbed became less and less.
The blackish-red vortex, which had been rotating at an extremely slow speed, gradually accelerated as the students continued to die.
Deep within that vortex, something seemed to be rising.
Most of the overflowing knowledge was being sucked in by the vortex.
The group was shrinking.
Fifteen, thirteen, ten.
Every person who stepped to the front had a different expression the moment they turned to face the vortex.
Some gritted their teeth, some closed their eyes, and some smiled.
But not a single person retreated.
As the number of people in the group decreased, the time the lead student could endure became shorter and shorter.
The knowledge-derived insects within them died instantly, as if they had met their natural predator.
The blackish-red sea of blood grew increasingly viscous.
From the students' perspective, the towering stone pillars made the magnificent sky above look incredibly sacred and solemn. Countless knowledge fragments danced in the air, and an ever-strengthening pull emanated from all directions.
The group could only focus their minds, constantly resisting this force.
The small girl walked at the very back of the line.
Not just hers, but the runic light on everyone's hands had grown dimmer than before.
The amount of essence being drawn away was increasing.
But no one intended to stop. Everyone gritted their teeth.
They just kept walking.
【Sanity: -3... 42/140】
Finally, only four people remained in the group.
A tall boy walked at the front, followed by another boy, with two girls bringing up the rear.
One was the small girl; the other was someone Lu Yuan hadn't seen before.
“We're almost there. It's a pity I won't be able to see it. Make sure you remember your names so you can go further... I'm going to sleep now.”
The boy's words fell.
The tri-colored knowledge-derived insects dissipated.
This time, the Knowledge Worm didn't absorb a single scrap of knowledge.
The vortex had swallowed everything.
The vortex was finally fully awakened, and the last three students arrived at its very center.
A massive golden light orb hung here. Within it, a shadow with a featureless face was suspended.
In the eyes of the students, it was a sun that condensed all knowledge.
Every color flowed across its surface, while text fragments rotated and merged within.
The truth through the Knowledge Worm's perspective was completely different. That was the heart of this entity.
A massive, dark red organ hung in the deepest part of the sea of blood, its surface covered in dark purple living inscriptions that crawled slowly.
It throbbed once every few dozen seconds. With every beat, the inscriptions on the surface would light up and then dim.
The indistinct shadow was merely a silhouette cast by the inscriptions on the heart's surface.
The remaining boy stared at the light orb before him, looking somewhat dazed.
He raised his right hand.
The runic mark that had been passed down glowed with a pure white luster.
He spoke the activation phrase the Polymath Tower had taught them beforehand.
“In the name of knowledge, I request the opening.”
The light from the mark shot into the surface of the light orb.
From the student's perspective, the shell of the light orb seemed to crack open.
Countless knowledge fragments erupted from the rift, a hundred times denser than any fragments they had seen on the road.
Text, formulas, images, and sounds—knowledge fragments of every form poured out simultaneously.
From the Knowledge Worm's perspective, after the light from the mark struck the inscriptions on the heart's surface, those living inscriptions split open a gap.
Dark red fluid sprayed out from within the heart. Encased within that foul-smelling, blackish-red blood were extremely dense pockets of knowledge, along with endless resentment.
The entire space trembled.
Giant waves rose from the surface of the sea of blood.
At the barrier, the stream of fragments instantly surged to a point where it was impossible to dodge.
Everyone on the Nightwatchers' line was forced to endure it head-on.
The drain on the shared pool of Sanity shifted from "rapid" to "catastrophic."
【Sanity: -2... 40/140】
【Sanity: -3... 37/140】
【Sanity: -4... 33/140】
The deductions were continuous, almost without pause. Every Nightwatcher gritted their teeth.
Because Lu Yuan had not yet called for a stop, they could not stop.
In the storm of fragments, the boy stood at the front, his hands outstretched as he tried to catch a complete fragment from the torrent.
There were too many broken ones; complete ones were extremely rare.
And he was, after all, only a child. The moment he exerted all his strength to capture a complete fragment, his entire body froze.
His eyes widened, and his lips opened and closed soundlessly.
Lu Yuan saw the reason through the Knowledge Worm.
That complete fragment carried a piece of this entity's memory. Upon entering his brain, it was overwriting the boy's own consciousness at an incredible speed.
This was the true meaning behind Sister Lin's repeated warning to "remember your name."
It wasn't a slogan; it was a literal means of survival.
Only by firmly remembering who they were could they avoid being completely overwritten when the complete memories were poured in.
The boy held on for about three seconds.
Then his expression changed, shifting into a look that did not belong to him.
He said something in that ancient language.
Clearly, his brain had overloaded.
In the next moment, he shattered, as if blown apart by endless knowledge.
The instant he shattered, the complete fragment shot out from his body, turning into a beam of intense light that traveled along the runic channel. It pierced through the vortex, through the sea of blood, through the barrier, and shot toward the rotunda.
Inside the room with the sarcophagus in the inner circle of the rotunda.
The pages of the floating, blank tome flipped rapidly to a certain page. Text began to manifest automatically at an incredible speed, filling the entire page.
Calvin stared at the tome and whispered, “The first page... it's actually the first page! It's done!!”
Back at the Nightwatchers' barrier.
When that light passed by Lu Yuan, he felt his Sanity being violently wrenched.
【Sanity: -4... 29/140】
The Knowledge Worm also felt the resentment contained within that fragment.
It instinctively retreated, the shifting colors on its body dimming sharply.
At the center of the vortex.
The boy was gone.
The storm of fragments continued.
Only two girls remained standing before the light orb.
One was tall and thin, her face pale but composed.
The other was the small girl.
The mark passed to the tall girl's hand.
She didn't hesitate, reaching her hand directly into the torrent of fragments.
Her filtering speed was faster than the boy's.
But the moment she accepted a complete fragment, the same thing happened.
Her memories were being overwritten and replaced.
She held on for a few seconds longer than the boy.
Because until the moment she shattered, she kept reciting her name under her breath.
Over and over again.
She tried to pin down her own consciousness with everything she had.
But in the end, she couldn't hold on.
Her body disintegrated, the fragment shot out, and another page of the tome was filled.
【Sanity: -3... 26/140】
Lu Yuan's Sanity was also nearing its limit.
Before she vanished, she slapped the mark onto the back of the small girl's hand.
She didn't speak.
There was no time.
She only gave her a single look.
Only she was left at the center of the vortex.
The storm of fragments roared around her.
Eighteen people had walked to this point, and only she remained.
The small girl stood before the light orb, the mark on the back of her hand glowing quietly.
Her state was different from everyone who had come before.
The storm of fragments diverted automatically around her.
The fragments were actively avoiding her.
A vacuum zone about a meter in diameter formed around her.
No fragments, no blood—nothing.
It was perfectly quiet.
The Knowledge Worm saw this from above, and the information it sent back to Lu Yuan through the symbiotic link carried a distinct sense of confusion.
The small girl looked down at her hand.
The mark was glowing, but the color of the light had changed.
It was no longer that pure white from before; it had turned a pale gold.
Just like the color of the ripples beneath her feet.
She didn't reach out to grab fragments like those before her.
She just stood there.
Then, a rift opened on the surface of the light orb of its own accord.
From the rift, a single fragment drifted out slowly.
Very slowly.
As if it were being handed out.
The fragment hovered before her.
The small girl stared at the fragment for two seconds.
Then she reached out and touched it.
The fragment did not violently pour into her brain.
Instead, it merged slowly along the lines of her palm.
Her body did not disintegrate.
She was not overwritten.
She closed her eyes, standing quietly at the center of the vortex.
About five seconds later, she opened her eyes.
Her expression hadn't changed; she was still herself.
But in her eyes, there was a flash—a flicker of dark purple that then vanished.
The fragment shot out along the runic channel.
This time, it was brighter than the previous two combined—so bright that Lu Yuan, at the barrier, had to turn his head away.
【Sanity: -5... 21/140】
Inside the room with the sarcophagus in the inner circle of the rotunda.
The tome's pages flipped frantically. This time, it didn't just fill one page; it filled five consecutive pages. The density of the text was more than an order of magnitude higher than the previous two times.
Calvin's hands were trembling.
For the first time, Selena's expression changed.
She looked toward the tome, her lips parting slightly.
But Calvin's gaze moved from the tome to the sarcophagus.
Three of the silver needles on the girl inside the sarcophagus had shattered.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +0.5... 55.8/100】
The girl acting as the medium was about to break!
Rate on N.U.
