The next morning.
When Lu Yuan woke up, he felt significantly better than the day before.
The weakness seeping from his bones had mostly receded, strength had returned to his limbs, and his mind felt much clearer. He clenched his fist, feeling his power gradually restoring.
【Sanity: +12... 82/100】
Lu Yuan was stunned when he saw the greyish-white text.
His Sanity limit had finally begun to recover. However, after three days of rest, it had only regained ten points, leaving him forty short of his original maximum.
He wasn't sure if this was a fixed recovery every three days or if it would gradually increase from now on.
Even with the ten-point recovery, the gap in his Sanity limit remained. That unsettling sensation of being hollowed out at the core still weighed on him.
Fortunately, it no longer hindered his movements.
He tidied himself up, hung ‘Flame’ at his waist, packed his prepared supplies, and pocketed several potion bottles.
When he pushed the door open and stepped into the corridor, he took a deep breath. The morning air in the branch was cool, carrying a faint scent of overnight tea.
Downstairs in the courtyard, Bol was already waiting.
A two-horse Nightwatchers wagon was parked by the side gate. The carriage wasn't large, and the back was piled with four or five wooden crates with nailed lids, each bearing the seal of the logistics department.
The two horses belonged to the branch, their coats a dusty brown, wearing bridles marked with the Nightwatchers emblem.
Bol was leaning against the carriage shaft, stuffing the last piece of bread into his mouth. Seeing Lu Yuan come down, he shoved the bread in, chewed twice, and grunted out a single word through the mouthful.
“Ready?”
Lu Yuan climbed into the passenger seat. The cushion was a bit hard and looked quite old, with smooth wear marks on the wooden boards.
Bol wiped his mouth and shook the reins, setting the carriage in motion.
The branch entrance was deserted in the early morning. In the distance, a few early-rising vendors were setting up their stalls on the street. A patrol from the Imperial Iron Guard had just finished their shift change, and a few soldiers carrying spears walked past the intersection.
A woman carrying a vegetable basket lowered her head to make way for the carriage, walking briskly into a nearby alley.
Toward the city gate, the inscriptions on the city walls shimmered with a very faint, ghostly blue light in the morning sun.
As the carriage passed through the city gate, Lu Yuan felt a sudden weight lift from him. It was as if a pressure that had been clinging to him had vanished, making his whole body feel much lighter.
“Feel a bit lighter?” Bol asked, seemingly noticing Lu Yuan’s reaction.
“Yeah,” Lu Yuan replied, rotating his wrists.
“That’s the effect of the inscriptions on the Bronze City walls. You don’t notice it while you’re inside, but it’s very obvious once you leave.”
Bol flicked the reins and continued.
“You’ll feel that way anywhere there’s protection.”
“I see.”
“But small towns don’t have that luxury.”
As they talked, the city gate receded into the distance.
The main road stretched southward, flanked by rolling hills and pastures. The weather was pleasant, and the early spring air held a touch of chill. On the distant slopes, a few clusters of greyish-white sheep moved slowly, and the occasional distant bark of a dog could be heard.
Bol drove the wagon with the reins resting loosely over his knees. He gazed lazily at the road ahead, clearly having traveled this route many times.
“You know about Gubo Town, right?” he asked.
Lu Yuan shook his head.
“It’s an old town to the south,” Bol said. “It’s called Gubo because it produced two Counts hundreds of years ago. Now, it’s just a small town with about a hundred households, living off an ancient forest—hunting, logging, and growing herbs. The soil in that forest is special, so the herbs grown there are of high quality. The branch has always sourced from them. This time, we’re delivering the pest control medicine they requested.”
Bol patted the wooden crates behind him.
“We just need to deliver the medicine; they’ll handle the rest. We have a small base there with permanent staff responsible for handling low-level anomalies and gathering intelligence in the surrounding area. The base manager is named Harold. He’s retired, has a limp, and has been there for over twenty years.”
Bol paused, adjusted his posture, and shifted the reins from his left hand to his right.
“He’s the one who reported the two candidates?” Lu Yuan asked.
“Correct.”
Bol’s tone shifted slightly.
“The first one is Dunn, sixteen years old.” He paused. “His parents were former colleagues.”
Lu Yuan turned to look at him. Bol’s gaze remained fixed on the road ahead.
“They were from the west branch. It happened five or six years ago; they didn't come back from a mission.”
Bol’s voice softened slightly, but it quickly returned to normal.
“The boy stayed in Gubo Town, and the base has been looking after him. He’s of age this year, and he said he wants to join. This one is basically a done deal; we’re just following protocol.”
The child of fellow Nightwatchers. Parents sacrificed in the line of duty.
Lu Yuan didn't respond, but he made a mental note of it.
This sort of thing likely wasn't rare among the Nightwatchers. Those who dealt with the eerie could fail to return at any time.
The environment a child grew up in after such a loss, only to choose the same path later, said a lot about them.
“And the second one?”
“Jurgen, eighteen, the son of a hunter.” Bol took a breath. “An incident occurred in the ancient forest a year ago. A deep forest individual broke out—not a normal mutated animal, but something half-mutated and half-eerie. His father and two other hunters were killed. He survived.”
“How did he survive?”
“Not sure.” Bol furrowed his brows. “Harold’s report didn't include many details. By the time the base personnel arrived, it was already over. All they know is that he was injured, but he was conscious and walked back on his own.”
Bol thought for a moment and added, “The base has been keeping an eye on him for a while. They think he has potential, but there’s something about his personality.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s hard to put into words. Harold’s exact words were, ‘He’s not quite right, but not in a bad way.’”
Lu Yuan understood the weight of that statement, as Lake had said something similar before.
Furthermore, such an evaluation carried weight within the Nightwatchers system. Harold had been stationed there for over twenty years; an old Nightwatcher’s intuition wouldn't trigger an alarm for no reason.
Yet, since he hadn't given a negative conclusion, it meant the person truly had something worth seeing.
“You’ll see for yourself when we get there,” Bol said.
Lu Yuan nodded.
“Once we arrive in town, our cover is that we’re just delivering medicine. Don’t mention the recruitment. We’ll stay there under the guise of the delivery, interact with them naturally, and observe them in secret,” Bol continued to instruct. “Also, take a look around the town to see if there are any other suitable prospects. If you see someone good, make a record of it.”
“Understood.”
Bol patted the satchel at his side, which emitted a dull thud.
“There’s a copper box in here containing an eerie fragment that’s been weakened by inscriptions. When opened, it releases a very faint eerie aura within two or three meters. To a normal person, it’s just a momentary feeling of discomfort.”
Clearly, this was a form of verification.
Lu Yuan knew the significance of this item.
For any candidate who might encounter the eerie, the most basic threshold was Sanity resilience.
You could be afraid, you could be nervous, but you could not succumb to terror.
Terror meant losing control. Losing control meant that in the face of the true eerie, you wouldn't just fail to save others—you would get your companions killed.
“When the time comes, find an opportunity to open it near them,” Bol said, glancing at the road ahead. “When you encounter the real eerie, no one is going to tap you on the shoulder and tell you to get ready.”
Lu Yuan recalled the night he first encountered the eerie. The deep night in Gelimu Port and those glowing green eyes were still fresh in his memory.
“Those are the rules. The final decision is up to you. After we bring them back, there’s still a three-month probation period.”
Bol added one last thing.
“The copper box tests the baseline. The things it can’t measure... those are for you to find.”
Lu Yuan grunted in affirmation. It seemed the Nightwatchers’ rules weren't overly complicated.
He then turned his gaze to the sides of the road.
The terrain was beginning to change.
The hills and pastures were gradually receding. Stunted trees began to appear in the grass on the slopes—first one or two, then three or four, until they became small thickets.
The main road forked ahead. Without hesitation, Bol pulled the reins, and the carriage turned onto the southern path.
The trees became more numerous.
At first, there were shoulder-high shrubs, then two-to-three-meter-tall mixed woods. As they traveled further south, the trees on both sides of the road suddenly grew taller.
Before he knew it, the dense foliage overhead had covered most of the sky. Sunlight leaked through the gaps in the canopy, casting dappled, dancing patches on the dirt road.
The wheels rolled over piles of decaying leaves, making a muffled rustling sound quite different from the noise on the hard ground of the main road.
The air changed as well.
The metallic, smoky scent of the Bronze City faded away, replaced by a different aroma.
Earth, decaying leaves, and a cool, damp green scent.
Lu Yuan took a deep breath of this air. It felt cool in his chest, completely unlike the feeling in the city, where every breath felt like something was scratching his throat.
The forest was very quiet.
There was none of the never-ending clamor of the Bronze City. Here, there was only the sound of hooves and rolling wheels, the wind passing through the leaves, and the occasional bird call.
Lu Yuan leaned against the side panel of the carriage, watching the woods on either side.
It had been a long time since he had experienced such silence.
The last time he had been in such an environment was on the road from Sandworm Town to the Bronze City.
Back then, his understanding of this world was limited, his skills were pitifully few, and he hadn't even figured out the Seeker pathway.
What about now?
He was getting closer and closer to becoming a Polymath, and the Timekeeper was beginning to show more possibilities.
Aside from his current combat methods being slightly lacking, he was definitely more than capable of handling minor incidents.
Furthermore, Bol had said that Gubo Town was considered one of the safer towns, given the presence of the base.
It should be fine.
Bol stopped talking as well.
He leaned back in the driver’s seat, the reins held loosely in his lap, looking completely different from the alert Nightwatcher he was in the city. There was even a hint of a relaxed curve at the corners of his mouth.
As the sun slowly dipped toward the west, after traveling on the main forest road for over an hour, a slightly more open stretch of road appeared ahead.
Several wooden stakes lay across the road in the clearing, with a rope stretched between them. Two wagons were parked by the roadside, and several people in greyish-white robes stood on either side of the barricade.
They were from the Church.
END
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