Buzz—!
The steam guns in the hands of all the grey-clothed men suddenly began to tremble violently, as if they had come to life, desperately trying to break free from their masters' hands.
"This is..." The leader of the grey-clothed men turned pale with shock, desperately trying to pull the trigger.
But it was already too late.
Old Morgan suddenly clenched his right fist, which was filled with a metallic luster.
"Explode."
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four explosive sounds rang out almost simultaneously!
The barrels of the guns in the hands of all the grey-clothed men backfired instantly!
The exploding metal fragments, as if they had eyes, embedded themselves into their palms and faces with no blind spots.
Gas masks were shattered, and blood mixed with shredded flesh splashed everywhere as screams instantly echoed through the rainy night.
"Ahhh! My hand!"
The team of grey-clothed men, who had been incredibly arrogant just a moment ago, were now all kneeling on the ground, clutching their bloodied palms and wailing in pain.
Old Morgan slowly withdrew his hand, the metallic luster on his skin gradually fading, and his face turned slightly pale.
He walked to the leader of the grey-clothed men and stepped on the man's face, pinning him directly to the ground.
He looked down at him from above.
"Who gave you the guts to come and cause trouble for the Nightwatchers?"
"Letting you take the asset was only out of respect for your chairman. Get out!"
A few minutes later.
Supporting the unconscious man, the grey-clothed men fled into the rainy night like stray dogs.
Quiet returned to the clinic, leaving only shattered glass and bloodstains all over the floor.
Lu Yuan walked out from behind the counter and frowned as he looked at Old Morgan's slightly trembling hand.
It was obvious that the move Old Morgan had just used had also been extremely taxing on himself.
"Old Morgan, are you alright? Do you need me to take a look?"
Lu Yuan asked.
Old Morgan shook his head, took out a small silver flask from his pocket, and took a swig of liquor.
"I'm fine. Take the injured brothers down first."
As Old Morgan's words fell, several more masked Nightwatchers appeared from outside at some unknown time.
After taking away the injured hidden sentries, the clinic returned to its original silence.
Only the intermittent sound of rain could be heard.
"Who were those people?" Lu Yuan asked.
"The Ascension Society."
Old Morgan wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth, his gaze gloomy. "A bunch of lunatics."
"Unlike us, who use the transcendent to combat the Eerie, these pieces of trash believe that 'flesh is weak, mechanical ascension.' They are obsessed with combining various transcendent items with machinery, performing living body modifications in an attempt to create so-called 'perfect humans.'"
"If they weren't also loyal to the Empire, the Ascension Society would have been completely eradicated long ago! Their methods are no better than those cultists."
Speaking of this, Old Morgan glanced at Lu Yuan and then at the operating table.
"Kid, you got lucky today. These people have deep roots in the upper echelons of the Empire. Keep a low profile from now on."
Lu Yuan nodded, looking at the bit of black suture thread remaining on the operating table, lost in thought.
The Ascension Society had a connection with the Iron Whale.
Because the stone inside that man's mechanical device contained the aura of the deep sea.
Lu Yuan had enough reason to suspect that the stone was the ore brought back by the Iron Whale.
"It seems the waters of Gelimu Port are even deeper than I imagined..."
【Gelimu Port Status: +5, 32/50】
The rain finally stopped at dawn, but the air in Gelimu Port was still filled with the smell of damp coal soot.
Several craftsmen from the logistics department were repairing the shattered clinic door through the night, the sound of hammers hitting wooden boards sounding exceptionally crisp in the quiet night.
Old Morgan didn't leave immediately, instead taking a rare moment of leisure before dawn.
He leaned against a chair that hadn't been caught in the crossfire, holding a rolled cigarette, his cloudy eyes staring at Lu Yuan, who was cleaning the floor.
"The next time you encounter those things from the Ascension Society, remember to run as far away as you can."
Old Morgan struck a match and took a deep drag. Amidst the swirling smoke, his expression was more serious than ever before.
"You've only just reached Entry in the transcendent pathways. The Eerie Pathway leans toward support and analysis in the early stages; fighting head-on is not your strength. Don't pit your brain against their fists."
Lu Yuan stopped his broom and asked the question that had been circling in his mind for a long time.
"That move just now... making the gun barrels explode directly, what ability was that? Was it from your transcendent pathway?"
"Yes."
Old Morgan stretched out his right hand, covered in callouses and scars, and made a grasping motion in the air. "That is the core ability of the 【Knowledge Pathway · Rank 3: Deconstructor】—【Structure Mastery】."
"Structure?"
"Exactly. Everything has a structure. Buildings have load-bearing walls, firearms have firing pins and springs, and the human body has bones and blood vessels."
Old Morgan exhaled a smoke ring, his gaze deep.
"As long as your knowledge reserve is sufficient and you can instantly analyze the construction of things, you can cause a collapse or a reorganization by forcibly interfering with their internal structure."
"I could draw the blueprints for those firearms with my eyes closed."
"So I only needed to move my fingers and slightly fiddle with the structure inside their gun barrels..."
As he spoke, Old Morgan's fingers trembled slightly, and ash fell onto his trench coat.
"However, great power comes with a great price."
He sighed, looking at his trembling hand.
"This move is extremely taxing on Sanity. I'm getting old, my Sanity limit is decreasing, and recovery is slow. This old body of mine needs a break."
Lu Yuan's heart shook slightly upon hearing this.
No wonder the Nightwatchers only had Old Morgan as a knowledge-based transcendent; normally, stepping onto the transcendent through knowledge shouldn't be difficult.
It turned out Old Morgan was actually a Rank 3 transcendent. As long as he sat in the base, any enemy relying on machinery and structure would be nothing more than a pile of toys that could be scrapped at any moment in front of him.
Is the power of a knowledge-based transcendent this strong? Lu Yuan felt a sense of anticipation for his own abilities after advancing in Forbidden Lore.
"Alright, get some rest early. Those lunatics shouldn't dare to come looking for you again anytime soon."
Old Morgan patted Lu Yuan's shoulder and walked into the night with a hunched back.
The logistics personnel who had finished repairing the clinic left along with him.
After seeing Old Morgan off, Lu Yuan returned to the operating table.
There was still a puddle of black blood that hadn't been cleaned up, left by the man who had been taken away earlier.
Lu Yuan stared at the puddle of blood, the images he had seen during the surgery flashing through his mind, specifically the 'Deep Blue' embedded in the core of the mechanical kidney.
"Maybe this could be useful."
Lu Yuan found a pair of brass forceps from the cabinet, carefully picked up the blood-stained gauze, and placed it in a sealed iron box.
He then covered it with a heavy lead lid and snapped the lock shut.
After doing all this, he placed the box on a shelf in the corner of the clinic, hidden among a pile of miscellaneous items.
Only then did he lie back down on the bed, preparing to rest for a while.
The next morning.
Thin mist shrouded the streets, and the wagon of an early-rising milkman rolled over the cobblestone road with a rumbling sound.
Rate on N.U.
