The eerie inscriptions on the walls twisted even more violently.
Spiral symbols began to appear in large numbers.
Lu Yuan remembered these things.
Last time, Bolen had nearly vomited up all his Sanity after just a couple of glances.
These spiral symbols couldn't be looked at directly; staring too long would cause a mental shock.
Lu Yuan lowered his gaze, using only his peripheral vision to judge his direction.
【You have witnessed knowledge beyond reason... Your Sanity has been impacted...】
【Sanity: -1... 94/140】
Lu Yuan continued to walk forward.
Footsteps echoed in the darkness, sounding like he was stepping inside the body of some massive creature.
The surrounding inscriptions spun and twisted constantly, like a series of silently turning eyes, all aimed at him.
Lu Yuan ignored everything and just pushed forward.
Because he had sensed it—something didn't want him to continue.
The movement of the eerie inscriptions wasn't random; they were creating interference.
The density of the spiral symbols was significantly higher in his path than on the sides, as if they were deliberately stacked on his route.
And Lu Yuan's 【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker】 perception vaguely caught a repulsive will surging from the depths of the darkness ahead.
But that will didn't come from the inscriptions themselves.
It came from what was behind the inscriptions.
Lu Yuan didn't care. Since the rate of Sanity pollution was so slow, it meant it wasn't that dangerous, so he was determined to push on.
But as he walked, he suddenly realized a problem.
Where was the copper wall he had seen before?
Last time, it took about a few minutes to get from the corner to the copper wall.
Now he had been walking for at least ten minutes, and ahead was still endless darkness and twisted inscriptions.
The distance shouldn't be this long.
【Sanity: -1... 93/140】
As this thought emerged, the surrounding inscriptions seemed to sense his hesitation.
All the spiral symbols on the walls began to spin faster simultaneously.
It was no longer the original slow writhing, but a rapid, high-speed rotation with a strong sense of pressure.
Countless vortices opened on the walls, like countless pupil-less eyes staring at him from every direction.
The space of the pipe network was distorting.
The copper plates beneath his feet seemed to tilt, then seemed to stretch.
The light from the march lamp became curved, as if it had been folded by something.
Lu Yuan couldn't quite tell if the space was actually distorting or if he was caught in a hallucination, so he simply closed his eyes.
He relied on auras to judge the direction.
The concentration of the grey-gold aura was highest directly ahead; that was the direction of the copper wall.
No matter how space distorted, the aura concentration wouldn't lie.
Lu Yuan opened his eyes, no longer looking at the walls or the inscriptions, only staring at the copper plates under his feet, walking forward step by step.
One step... two steps... Lu Yuan kept his head down and pushed forward.
Then, in the darkness, a massive object loomed over him.
It was the copper wall.
But it wasn't the same copper wall he had seen last time.
Last time, this wall was "very new, so new it looked like it had just been built."
Now, it wasn't.
As the dim light of the march lamp hit it, Lu Yuan saw a wall riddled with scars.
The copper surface was covered in pits, as if it had been repeatedly struck from the inside by something.
In some places, fist-sized bulges protruded, the copper skin deformed from the internal pressure, with cracks extending outward from the edges of the bulges.
The inscriptions on the wall, which had been quiet before, were now spreading outward at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Lines of runes peeled off the wall like living things, crawling along the floor and ceiling toward the pipe network.
This was the source of the spreading inscriptions Lu Yuan had seen along the way.
They were escaping from the copper wall.
At the same time, the pressure that had been kept at bay by the silver plates began to seep in as he neared the copper wall.
It wasn't intense, but it was heavy, like standing at the bottom of deep water.
Lu Yuan stood before the copper wall, not moving any further.
【Alchemy... Inscription knowledge detected... Analyzing... Analysis failed】
【Bronze City Status: +3... 26.2/50】
Lu Yuan looked at the bulges being pushed out from within.
The thing behind the copper wall was pushing outward.
The bronze pillars being pushed up, the inscriptions spreading outward—they were all different manifestations of the same thing.
This seal was loosening.
And not slowly.
At the same time, the prompt Lu Yuan least wanted to see appeared.
【Target Detected: ■■ (Incomplete)】
【A special existence of Knowledge ■■■, possessing incredible transcendent power, but He does not seem to be whole. Perhaps if you rescue Him, you could obtain rewards beyond imagination.】
The moment Lu Yuan saw the prompt, he turned and left without hesitation.
Fortunately, the prompt hadn't changed; the damage to the seal wasn't severe yet.
Lu Yuan kept his head down, feeling the pressure gradually recede as he thought.
Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Just as Lu Yuan estimated the time and looked up.
Lake was gone.
The spot where Lake should have been standing a few meters away was empty.
The march lamp's light swept over, revealing only the empty copper floor and walls full of rotating eerie inscriptions.
“Lake?”
There was no response.
Lu Yuan lowered his body, his right hand moving to his revolver as he walked back quickly.
After walking about twenty paces, he saw Lake.
Lake was standing there.
Motionless.
That body composed of worms was completely still, all the tentacles hanging stiffly in mid-air as if frozen.
On the face beneath the short brown hair that barely maintained a human shape, there was no reaction.
Lu Yuan called out twice, but there was no response.
He reached out and touched Lake's shoulder.
The skin made of worms was icy cold, and the internal writhing had completely stopped.
But he was still breathing.
Extremely faint, almost imperceptible, but still there.
【Target Detected: Lake (Eerie Transcendent) (Mental Abnormality)】
【The target's consciousness is suspected to have been pulled elsewhere by an external force...】
Lu Yuan's pupils contracted for a moment.
Consciousness pulled away?
What was going on? Did the entity behind the copper wall ignore him only to take an interest in Lake?!
Lu Yuan didn't rashly try to wake Lake.
He didn't know what the consequences of a forced intervention would be.
But he couldn't just wait.
Lu Yuan crouched next to Lake and hoisted him onto his shoulder, judging Lake's condition by sensing the state of the worms on his body through contact.
In any case, he absolutely couldn't let Lake stay here any longer.
If the entity behind the copper wall really had its eyes on Lake, moving him a certain distance away might reduce the danger somewhat.
Meanwhile, Lake was no longer in the pipe network layer.
He was standing on a cliff.
Surrounded by a grey void.
No sky, no earth, only this small, neatly cut rock platform beneath his feet.
The platform wasn't large, about three or four paces across; beyond the edge was nothing but bottomless dark grey mist.
Lake looked down at his body.
Still human.
Not the combat form composed of worms, but the human appearance he hadn't used in a long time.
A face in its early thirties, short brown hair—ordinary enough to blend into a crowd without a second glance.
He tried to channel his eerie power.
But there was no reaction.
His entire transcendent power felt like it had been siphoned dry. It wasn't suppressed; it simply didn't exist.
It was as if he had never stepped onto a transcendent pathway.
But Lake didn't believe it. He should still be in the pipe network layer; everything before him was an illusion, an illusion.
Lake's heart was filled with vigilance.
He looked around, his gaze sweeping over the silhouettes vaguely appearing in the grey mist.
Beyond the rock platform at his feet, more platforms were suspended intermittently in the mist above and below.
Some were larger than his, some only the size of a palm.
They were scattered at different heights, like a dismantled staircase.
Higher up, only the vague outlines of a few platforms remained.
Further away, nothing could be seen at all.
Only a grey expanse.
Where exactly was this?
Had he been pulled in?
Lake thought of Lu Yuan, who had been walking ahead.
He was further ahead. If Lake had been pulled in, wasn't Lu Yuan's situation even worse?
Lake tried to move.
He could walk, but it was pointless.
The platform was only three or four paces wide; walking to the edge meant stepping into the void.
He tried calling out.
The sound left his mouth and was swallowed by the grey mist, without even an echo.
A sense of familiarity rose in Lake's heart.
Something he had seen before...
Then the voice came.
“State your wish.”
A voice came from deep within the grey mist.
It wasn't the voice of a normal person.
It sounded like dozens of people speaking at once, each with a slightly different tone, overlapping into a low rumble of thunder within the mist.
Lake's whole body jolted, and he looked up sharply.
Above the grey mist.
A massive silhouette loomed.
It was a head.
No, 'a head' wasn't enough to describe it.
The size of the thing was far beyond Lake's comprehension.
The grey mist obscured most of its outline; only a small section of the jawline and the curve of half a lip could be seen.
The lips didn't move, but the voice certainly came from that direction.
Just that small exposed portion already occupied the entire sky above Lake's head.
Lake froze in place.
Because he suddenly remembered where this was.
This was exactly the memory the Swarming Worms had extracted from the Grey Covenant's mind in the interrogation room.
Right now, he was standing inside that very scene.
And he could hear it clearly.
“State your wish.”
The same words were spoken again.
The voice was closer than the first time.
The grey mist parted slightly to the sides, and the outline of the head became a bit clearer.
Lake saw its eye.
Only one.
A massive, pupil-less greyish-white eyeball.
It slowly turned from the mist, aiming at the rock platform below.
Aiming at Lake.
Lake's breath hitched for a moment.
There was no emotion in that eye, no wisdom, and no threat.
It was simply looking.
Like an existence far beyond human comprehension looking down at an ant.
It wasn't contempt.
It was... simply not caring.
Lake stood on the rock platform, his fists clenched.
He was a rank 4 eerie transcendent.
But right now, he had no power at all.
Faced with this thing, there was nothing he could do.
The head seemed to have waited long enough.
The grey mist suddenly surged outward, as if something deep within it had awakened.
The third time.
“State your wish.”
This time, the voice no longer came from afar.
It rang out directly inside Lake's mind.
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