Lu Yuan didn't press for answers.
He glanced at Kraus’s right hand resting on the armrest. The fingertips were trembling ever so slightly, a detail that would go unnoticed without a close look.
The fingertips were pressing down on something, preventing it from spreading outward.
Kraus also noticed Lu Yuan’s gaze.
He removed his right hand from the armrest and tucked it beneath the desk.
“You don't need to know too much,” he said, his tone returning to its usual flat indifference. “The Polymath Tower will clean up their own mess. Several of our people are still injured, and Franz is in the worst condition; the branch’s facilities aren't enough. When Bolen leaves tomorrow, he’ll take Franz with him to headquarters.”
He paused.
“As for the things that flowed out... they are being dealt with.”
Lu Yuan gave a small nod and didn't continue his questioning.
Kraus didn't want to say more, likely because there were things he hadn't fully figured out himself, or perhaps he had, but now wasn't the time to speak of them.
Kraus changed the subject.
“The Count’s gathering begins the day after tomorrow.”
“After the incident at the Polymath Tower, a new agenda item was added to the gathering: the aftermath and future arrangements for the harvesting accident. The Polymath Tower is already making preparations.”
He looked at Lu Yuan.
“You’re going.”
“Me?”
“You participated in the first harvest; you’re the person among the Nightwatchers with the most firsthand understanding of the Sea of Knowledge,” Kraus said directly. “And those abilities of yours might be useful in such a setting.”
Those abilities. He didn't specify which ones.
Lu Yuan understood.
“I see.”
Kraus’s gaze lingered on his face for a moment.
“Go back and rest. We’ll talk more the day after tomorrow.”
Lu Yuan stood up and walked to the door.
He stopped.
“Your injury—”
“It won't be an obstacle,” Kraus interrupted, his tone as flat as before.
Lu Yuan didn't leave. He turned back around.
“I can treat it.”
Kraus’s finger stopped moving.
The office fell silent for a moment.
“What did you say?”
Kraus’s tone didn't change, but the hand resting on the armrest was withdrawn beneath the desk.
“The injury on your body is two types of damage layered together.” Lu Yuan’s voice was very low as he walked back and sat down across from Kraus. “One is an old wound being triggered, and the other is erosion from the Sea of Knowledge. My pathway can analyze it.”
He didn't use the term 'Specialized Research.'
Kraus looked at him, his gaze a bit sharper than before.
“How do you know there are two types?”
“I saw it the moment I walked in.”
Kraus was silent for two seconds. He was likely judging exactly what Lu Yuan meant by that.
“Tell me first, how did you get injured?” Lu Yuan didn't avoid his gaze.
“Handling the leak site,” Kraus said, his tone as flat as if he were talking about someone else. “Something from the Sea of Knowledge came into contact with an old wound, and both flared up together.”
It matched.
“There is something in my pathway,” Lu Yuan said, choosing his words carefully. “It can eat those two types of damage on you.”
When the word 'eat' came out, Kraus’s brow twitched.
It was very slight, almost unnoticeable, but Lu Yuan caught it.
Kraus didn't immediately respond. He leaned back in his chair, his gaze resting on Lu Yuan’s face for several seconds.
Lu Yuan had seen that look before. From the first day, Kraus had looked at him with that gaze—full of scrutiny, weighing him, and occasionally containing something inscrutable. But at this moment, there was something more.
“You don't need to tell me exactly what it is,” Kraus’s voice dropped half an octave. “But I will ask you one question.”
“Ask.”
“What is the success rate?”
“Ninety percent. It just needs to be supplemented with the recuperative potions in the branch’s pharmacy.”
When he heard 'ninety percent,' Kraus was clearly shaken; he obviously knew the severity of his own injuries.
Kraus leaned back against the chair and closed his eyes.
It wasn't for long.
When he opened them again, his gaze had returned to its usual state.
“When?”
“Tonight. We should handle the injury before the gathering. I’ll need a quiet place for about two hours.”
Kraus gave a nod.
“Come find me after midnight.”
Lu Yuan didn't say more and turned to leave the office.
The sound of his footsteps gradually faded down the corridor.
The door remained half-open. Kraus was the only one left in the office.
The bottle of potion he had just drunk from was still uncapped on the desk, a thin layer of dark green liquid clinging to the glass walls.
Kraus leaned back in his chair. The green patterns beneath the gauze flowed slowly, creeping from his wrist up his forearm until they disappeared beneath his sleeve.
Bronze City was quiet as night fell. The ghostly blue light from the wall inscriptions filtered through the window, illuminating his face as he sat lost in thought.
The smell of medicine in the corridor was a bit fainter than when he first arrived, but it hadn't entirely dissipated.
Lu Yuan walked back along the hallway. When he passed the medical ward, he paused.
The door was open a crack, and the light inside was bright. A Nightwatcher wearing the southern squad uniform came out, his face pale. He kept his head down as he passed Lu Yuan without a word.
Lu Yuan pushed the door open.
The medical ward wasn't large, with three beds lined up against the wall. The two on the left were empty, the bedding folded neatly. On the bed furthest to the right lay a man.
It was Franz.
The captain who had been so efficient and direct during the pipe network operation was now lying quietly on the narrow bed, his eyes tightly shut and his face a ghostly grey.
His breathing was shallow, the rise and fall of his chest almost imperceptible.
A bottle of dark green potion hung by the bed, connected to his mouth by a thin tube, dripping slowly.
Lu Yuan walked to the bedside and looked down at him for a few seconds.
Grey-white text jumped into the edge of his vision in a dense cluster.
【Forbidden Lore: Specialized Research activated】
【Analyzing target status: Franz (Eerie Transcendent)】
【Status Analysis: Deep coma. Sanity severely damaged; consciousness is in a state of self-imposed isolation and cannot wake up voluntarily. The damage carries residual marks from the Sea of Knowledge, which are slowly eroding the host's consciousness foundation.】
【Calculating solution...】
【Solution Generated: Worm Erosion (Optimal Version)】
【Principle: Use knowledge-derived insects to delve into the deep layers of the host's consciousness to devour the residual marks of the Sea of Knowledge piece by piece, while using high-concentration Sanity potions to maintain the host's consciousness foundation and prevent collapse.】
【Estimated Success Rate: 18%】
【Note: Knowledge-derived insects have a natural ability to erode and digest Sea of Knowledge marks, but the host's consciousness foundation is already extremely fragile; the intervention process itself carries the risk of further puncturing the consciousness.】
【Solution Generated: Sanity Infusion (Stable Version)】
【Principle: Continuously inject high-level Sanity potions to maintain consciousness activity and wait for the host to reject the residual marks on his own.】
【Estimated Success Rate: 4%】
【Note: The rejection process takes an extremely long time. During this period, the marks will continue to erode, and there is a high probability the host's consciousness will collapse before the rejection is complete.】
18%.
Lu Yuan withdrew his Specialized Research and stood by the bed without moving.
The best solution was only 18%. This was simply impossible to attempt; if it failed, Franz would certainly die. However, headquarters had many people; if they had a professional Knowledge Pathway, there might be other ways later.
Lu Yuan looked at Franz’s face, remained silent for a moment, and finally turned to leave the medical ward, gently closing the door behind him.
Back in his room, he opened the window, letting the cool night air flow in.
The ghostly blue light from the distant wall inscriptions reflected off the opposite rooftop in distinct lines.
He was just about to take off his coat.
A sound came from the corridor.
It was the sound of a cane, moving at a steady pace. Lu Yuan was all too familiar with that sound.
Bolen appeared at the doorway. Kail followed half a step behind him.
“You’re back.”
Bolen’s tone wasn't surprised. News traveled fast within the branch; Lu Yuan had run into Glock when he arrived, Glock had run into someone else, and word had spread throughout the branch in no time.
“Come in and sit.” Lu Yuan pushed the door open wider.
Bolen entered, leaned his cane against the table, and sat in a chair. His complexion wasn't good, with dark shadows beneath his eyes, looking as if he hadn't slept well for days.
Kail stood beside him. The gauze on his shoulder had been removed, revealing a patch of newly healed skin that was a noticeably different shade than his tanned surroundings.
Clearly, his injury was healed.
Bolen didn't beat around the bush.
“Kail has made his choice.”
He glanced at Kail beside him.
“Dark Inscription. Grimm has confirmed it.”
Lu Yuan’s gaze rested on Kail.
Dark Inscription.
On the day they got the inscription direction tablet, Bolen had said that there were only two people in the empire who had reached the third rank in Dark Inscription, and one of them was likely dying. It was far more dangerous than Eerie Inscription.
Kail had chosen this path.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Kail’s voice was deeper than before, no longer the nervous adolescent tone he had when he first arrived at the branch.
Lu Yuan didn't say more.
“Good.”
Bolen continued.
“His injury is healed, so we’re preparing to leave.”
He pressed his finger against the head of his cane.
“I originally wanted to wait until we could go back to the pipe network layer, but after this incident, we can't wait any longer.”
“Kraus has already reported the events in Bronze City to headquarters, and they’ve dispatched a special inspector who is on his way. But I can't wait for the inspector to arrive before I leave; headquarters is pressing hard.”
He paused.
“Franz is coming with us as well. The branch can't handle his injuries; he has to be sent to headquarters.”
Lu Yuan could tell that there was more behind the phrase 'pressing hard.' Headquarters clearly realized that the branch could no longer guarantee the safety of a rank 3 Inscriptionist like Bolen.
“The inscriptions in the pipe network layer...” Bolen’s tone took on a different quality. “I only managed to make a rubbing of a small portion of the engravings on one of the copper pillars.”
He looked at Lu Yuan.
“If you have the chance to go down there again later, help me make more rubbs. Those inscriptions are of great value to Large-scale Inscription; they’ll be useful back at headquarters.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“The address is...” Bolen thought for a moment. “Auris Empire, Triumphant City, Nightwatchers Headquarters. Attention: Bolen.”
After saying this, he reached into his robe and pulled something out.
It was a piece of coarse grey-white cotton cloth wrapped around something small enough for Bolen’s palm to cover. He unwrapped the cloth and placed it on the table.
Three silver plates.
They were about the size of a palm and so thin they were almost transparent, with smooth, rounded edges.
The surface of each plate was engraved with extremely fine inscription patterns. The flow of the lines was identical to the ones on the walls of Bronze City; Lu Yuan had seen those patterns countless times on the city walls and couldn't mistake them.
Grey-white text appeared at the edge of his vision.
【Target Detected: Inscription Silver Plates (Inscription Artifacts) (3/3)】
【A type of medium that uses Large-scale Inscription to create a 'backdoor' in certain inscription creations, allowing the user to draw upon a small amount of similar inscription power.】
Rate on N.U.
