Tragedy

They were everywhere, from the ceiling to the floor, occupying every inch of the walls.

Varying in thickness, the largest were as wide as a wrist while the thinnest were like strands of hair, woven into a living net.

They were pulsing, contracting and expanding rhythmically; the entire hall felt like the heart of some massive living entity.

The cloyingly sweet scent in the air was so thick it was nauseating.

Lu Yuan shifted his gaze from the roots to the middle of the hall.

The leader of the tree-men who had escaped on the street earlier that day was there.

But he was no longer human.

His body had fused into the wall. Flesh and twisted branches were entwined like a wrung-out rope.

His limbs were gone, and the outline of his torso was nearly vanished. Only the curve of his ribs could still be seen in his chest, faintly visible through the gaps in his torn skin.

Greyish-green roots pierced through his waist and abdomen, pinning him to the rock wall. Only his head retained a semblance of a facial outline, lolling to one side with blurred features.

Yet, he was smiling.

His face showed joy, the corners of his mouth upturned as if he were looking at something he loved.

The thread left by the Knowledge Worm was connected to him, clearly marking the end of the trail.

Lu Yuan didn't look at him again.

Because there were more things around the hall.

Dozens of people were embedded in the walls.

They were all alive.

At first glance, Lu Yuan knew these people were beyond saving.

The boundaries between their bodies and the roots had become nearly indistinguishable.

Greyish-green branches were inserted into the top of each person's head, running through their entire bodies before emerging from between their legs and sinking into the ground.

Meanwhile, the branches grew inside them, pushing their internal organs and skeletons to the sides. Through the places where the skin had burst, one could see inside: ribs were forced open at unnatural angles, and organs were squeezed into flat slices of meat, wedged in the gaps between the branches and the skin.

The color of that flesh had turned grey and black, yet it was still writhing.

Thicker branches grew horizontally from their waists and ribs, wrapping around their limbs and torsos, twisting continuously.

Like wringing a soaked hemp rope.

Human bodies underwent impossible distortions under the strangling force of the branches.

Spines were twisted into spirals, and ribs pierced through skin from the sides, their tips sticking out and draped with strands of dried fascia.

Flesh was slowly squeezed out from the gaps between the branches. It no longer flowed; instead, it looked like meat paste pressed out bit by bit, solidifying on the surface of the greyish-green roots into a dark brown shell.

In some places, the shell had cracked, revealing fresh, oozing red underneath.

Some people had been twisted more than once.

The one closest to Lu Yuan had their entire torso twisted nearly a hundred and eighty degrees, face forward but chest backward.

Two arms were pulled apart to the sides by branches, stretched taut, with elbows bent backward and the bones of the forearms clearly visible under the skin. Fingers were splayed open, the skin at the tips shriveled and grey, yet the nails were still growing, curving as they dug into the nearby roots.

Further away, there was an even smaller body.

Lu Yuan's gaze lingered on it for only a moment before moving on.

But their heads.

Everyone's head was perfectly preserved.

The faces had not been invaded by branches; their features were clear, and the color in their skin had not even fully faded.

It was as if they were being intentionally preserved.

The main branch inserted from the top of the head left a circular entry point at the skull. Around the edges grew a ring of tender green rootlets, like the root system of some parasitic plant digging into the soil, constantly sucking something out.

These people's bodies were fertilizer.

But they seemed to still retain consciousness.

In the very center of the hall, a patch of ground had been cleared.

Roots were woven here into a circular structure resembling an altar, the grain of the wood fibers identical to those on the mutants in the street.

Three humanoid constructs knelt on the altar, identical to the "wooden man" the tree-man had clutched while fleeing earlier.

Their surfaces were covered in fine bark textures, and they bowed their heads in a posture of devout kneeling.

A fourth wooden man was being settled into place.

Roots reached up from the ground, writhing slowly to fix it into a kneeling position.

Greyish-white text flickered rapidly at the edge of his vision.

【Target Detected: Imperial resident (parasitized)】

【Target Detected: Sandworm Town resident (parasitized)】

【Target Detected: Bronze City resident (parasitized)】

【A group of humans being used as root fertilizer, yet they seem to retain clarity and consciousness.】

Lu Yuan fell silent for a moment upon seeing this.

It wasn't just locals from Bronze City.

There were those from Sandworm Town, and those labeled "Imperial resident" had been brought from even further away.

His gaze swept over the four wooden men on the altar, then returned to the pierced bodies on the walls.

The memory of the abandoned house he had discovered while investigating the missing persons cases with Raymond came to mind. A woodenized body had been lying on the floor before being snatched by unidentified individuals, and the entire building had been burned clean by a blue-white fire.

There were four here; including the one lost from the warehouse, that made at least five.

They had been lurking in Bronze City for a long time.

【Target Detected: Unknown array... Insufficient knowledge, analysis failed...】

Bolen stood two steps behind Lu Yuan, leaning on his cane and staring motionlessly at everything before him.

The old man's face was grim.

It wasn't fear, however, but fury.

“Is Bronze City a sieve?”

Bolen’s voice carried a hint of hoarseness as he looked at Lake.

“It’s been infiltrated to the core, and no one noticed?”

Lu Yuan didn't respond because he couldn't refute it.

Bronze City's arrays couldn't detect the Forest Seed.

The chase with the tree-men had spanned two streets, yet the arrays had shown no reaction.

When the mutation erupted at Baron von Linde's mansion in Crown Cast Lane, Bronze City hadn't moved either.

And now, a nest this large was hidden beneath the inner city, with dozens of living people pinned to the walls as fertilizer—and who knew how long they had been there.

No one had discovered it.

Not even the Nightwatchers.

“Get ready.”

Lake didn't answer Bolen, but his voice suddenly turned low.

Lu Yuan turned to look at him.

Lake was no longer maintaining a human form. His body below the neck was writhing violently, the shards of his dark grey uniform bursting open. Grey meat-worms crowded together, churning and struggling as if provoked by something.

Lu Yuan's perception received a signal at the same instant.

【Environmental Perception: High-level source of pollution detected. Recommend moving away.】

The shadows deep within the hall moved.

A person stepped out from the darkness behind the altar.

Greyish-white skin, lean, of medium height.

His form flickered slightly in the air—a residue unique to the fading of a stealth state, like the final ripple on a water surface.

A tiny metal pendant hung around his neck.

On the pendant was a relief of half an eye.

Just seeing his silhouette, Lu Yuan knew it was the Grey Covenant.

But this person wasn't anyone he had seen before.

The shadows in two other directions of the cellar also moved.

A second person stepped out from behind the stone steps on the left, moving slowly as if they had been hiding by the door waiting for them to enter. A third person jumped down from a crack in the rock wall on the right side of the ceiling, landing soundlessly.

Three people.

Three in total.

Lu Yuan's perception lingered on each of them for a moment.

Their aura intensities were completely different.

The leader, the man whose form was constantly flickering, had the strongest aura.

At the edge of his vision, greyish-white text appeared.

【Target Detected: Grey Covenant member (mutation transcendent)】

【A transcendent based on Glazed Water, fused with a certain mutation source; body structure has deviated from conventional mutation pathways.】

At least rank 4.

The other two were rank 3.

Lu Yuan’s hand rested on the “Flame” at his waist, his thumb hooking over the hammer.

Rank 4, Grey Covenant, and still active in Bronze City.

During the incident in the pipe network, Kraus had practically purged much of the Grey Covenant’s strength in Bronze City.

A rank 4 lieutenant had been crystallized, two rank 3s were either dead or captured, and the leader had liquefied and escaped.

But Kraus had mentioned later that there was a rank 4 member with the codename “9” who had never revealed his whereabouts.

Lu Yuan looked at the man with greyish-white skin. Something that didn't belong to Glazed Water was flowing under his skin, and his aura was heavier than any Grey Covenant member he had encountered in the pipe network.

It seemed it was him.

The leading man stood by the altar, his greyish-white skin appearing almost transparent under the dark green glow of the roots.

He first glanced at Lake.

“So you're Lake?”

His tone was calm, as if confirming a name.

“I’ve heard my companions mention you. I didn't expect you to actually find this place.”

His gaze moved from Lake and swept over the tree-man leader who had fused into the roots on the wall, his face showing disgust.

“What a waste.”

He didn't hide the disdain in his voice when he said this.

“To bring a tail here... nothing but trash only fit to be fertilizer.”

Having said that, his gaze landed on Lu Yuan, pausing for two seconds as if he were sizing him up.

“You were the one who left the clues, weren't you?”

The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

“An interesting Nightwatcher.”

Right at that moment.

The “fertilizer” on the walls reacted.

It was unclear if they had sensed the presence of outsiders or if the voice of the Grey Covenant leader had disturbed something.

The bodies twisted within the branches began to writhe. The movements were extremely faint, so small they looked like twitching, but in the silence of the hall, they were strikingly clear.

Those heads, fixed at skewed angles, were turning desperately.

Someone opened half an eye.

A clouded eyeball rolled in the greyish-green glow, centering on where Lu Yuan stood.

Mouths opened and closed. Branches blocked most of their throats, so their vocal cords could only squeeze out a tiny bit of sound.

Whimpering.

Blurred, intermittent, and broken, like someone shouting with their mouth covered.

A second person opened their eyes.

Then a third.

A fourth.

More and more eyes opened in the darkness, and more and more whimpers came from every corner of the walls, merging into a low, desperate hum.

Lu Yuan understood.

Those whimpers, trapped in throats and reduced to nothing but breathy sounds.

Every single one was saying the same thing.

“Save me.”

The leader of the Grey Covenant stood by the altar, listening to those sounds with a look of enjoyment on his face.

As if he were listening to the music of bagpipes.

“Stay, all of you!”