Kraus watched him.
Silence hung in the air for several seconds. The only sounds in the pipe network layer were the faint crackling of the march lamp's flame and the subtle friction of the inscriptions writhing on the distant copper wall.
Kraus's gaze remained fixed on Lu Yuan's face. Lu Yuan couldn't quite identify the expression in those eyes; it felt more like Kraus was confirming something he had already sensed but hadn't voiced.
“Very well.”
Kraus gave a slight nod.
“But before that, let's take a look.”
The three of them walked toward the copper wall.
Glock and two other Nightwatchers were left at the edge of the inscription diffusion zone. Kraus glanced back at Glock.
“Stay here and keep watch. Retreat immediately if there's any abnormal movement.”
Glock nodded, clutching his communication crystal as he leaned against the wall. The two Nightwatchers took up positions on either side of the passage.
The three continued deeper into the area.
The suppression of the high-density inscription zone soon made itself felt. Lake's tentacles retracted one by one, and the slow writhing on his body's surface, which had just begun to recover, stiffened once more as if he were being squeezed by something from the outside.
“The suppression is stronger than last time,” Lake's voice sounded muffled, as if coming from behind a thick cloth. “My abilities are being severely compressed.”
Lu Yuan fished an inscription silver plate out of his inner pocket and handed it to Kraus.
“Keep this close to you. It can weaken the suppression. I'm barely affected by it myself.”
Kraus took it and weighed it in his hand. His thumb brushed over the inscriptions on the silver plate's surface. Without asking about its origin, he tucked it directly into the inner lining of his coat.
Lu Yuan noticed that Kraus's pace didn't change at all, but after the silver plate was in place, the dimming of the dark green glow on his bone ring noticeably lessened.
“Lake, stay here,” Kraus stopped and looked back at Lake. “Lu Yuan and I will go in.”
Lake nodded and leaned against the copper wall, his tentacles fully retracting into his body. At this moment, his form looked no different from that of an ordinary thirty-year-old man, with only the excessively stiff face beneath his short brown hair betraying his true state.
Kraus and Lu Yuan continued deeper.
The reach of the march lamp's light was compressed to less than five meters, leaving only a thick, heavy darkness beyond its glow. The eerie inscriptions on the walls writhed and twisted slowly, their strokes stretching and regrouping as they drifted silently across the copper surface.
“Don't look at the twisted inscriptions; they'll drag your Sanity right out of you.”
Lu Yuan lowered his head, avoiding the swirling spiral symbols while warning Kraus. He relied on his aura vision to judge the direction. The concentration of the grey-gold aura was highest directly ahead, pointing steadily toward the copper wall.
Kraus walked half a step to his right. The dark green light on his bone ring was significantly weakened, but his pace remained steady. Clearly, his Sanity was much more stable than Lake's.
After walking for about ten minutes, the copper wall appeared.
The number of bulges had nearly doubled, densely packing the copper surface in various sizes.
In several places, the copper had been pushed outward from the inside by nearly a finger's width, the copper skin stretched to its limit. Surrounding cracks spread out like spiderwebs in all directions.
The largest crack was wider than before. As the light from the march lamp shone into its depths, Lu Yuan saw a faint light, but it wasn't the ghostly blue of the inscriptions.
The color was dark and greyish, like a distant fire seen through turbid water, flickering on and off.
The rate at which the inscriptions were peeling off had also accelerated. Strands of runes detached from the copper surface, crawling along the floor and ceiling toward the pipe network like living creatures.
One such inscription was passing right by Lu Yuan's feet. He stepped aside to avoid it, and the inscription slid silently past his boot.
The entire wall was moving.
It heaved with a slow, rhythmic pulse, as if something behind the wall were breathing.
Kraus stood before the copper wall, motionless.
The light from the march lamp fell on his face. Lu Yuan couldn't see his expression, only his gaze scanning the bulges one by one, very slowly.
This was the first time Kraus had seen this wall with his own eyes.
He had read Bolen's report and heard Lu Yuan's description, but no matter how detailed the words on paper were, they couldn't compare to standing here for even a single second.
Kraus reached out his right hand, his fingertips stopping half an inch from the copper surface. A trace of dark green light emerged from his bone ring, extending toward the wall.
The moment the light touched the copper surface, it trembled.
Kraus pulled his finger back without touching the wall.
He stood there, staring at the largest crack for a long time. The dim, greyish light deep within the crack flickered unsteadily.
Grey-white text jumped out at the edge of Lu Yuan's vision.
【Bronze City Status: +3... 32.2/50】
Lu Yuan pushed this line to the back of his mind and crouched down.
He pulled a few sheets of thin paper and a small charcoal pencil from his pocket.
Choosing several groups of inscriptions that hadn't yet detached from the wall, he covered them with the paper and quickly rubbed the side of the charcoal pencil over the surface.
Each rubbing took only a dozen seconds. His technique was fast. The inscriptions writhed under the paper, but his rubbing speed was faster than their peeling rate.
After finishing four rubbings, Lu Yuan folded the paper and tucked it into his inner pocket.
“I'm planning to send these to Bolen...”
Lu Yuan added a brief explanation.
Kraus seemed to be confirming something; his silence served as tacit consent.
Lu Yuan stood up, his brow furrowed as his Sanity dropped slightly once more.
“Let's go.”
The two of them headed back. The copper wall heaved slowly behind them, the greyish light flickering in the depths of the cracks.
On their way back, they passed the bronze pillar monitoring point.
The Nightwatcher stationed there immediately stood at attention when he saw Kraus.
“Vice Director.”
Lu Yuan noticed the change at a glance. The pillar had risen even further since his last visit, and two new marking lines had been added to the wall, each significantly higher than the last.
The Nightwatcher opened a logbook.
“The speed is increasing. Based on current measurements, the thing below seems to be getting more active.”
He flipped a page and lowered his voice.
“Furthermore, the other pillars are moving as well. It's not synchronized—some are faster, some slower—but they are all rising.”
Kraus didn't speak. He slowly rubbed his bone ring, his gaze falling on the staggered marking lines on the pillar's surface.
“Continue recording. Report any changes immediately.”
He turned toward the exit of the pipe network.
“Back to the branch.”
By the time they returned to the branch, Glock had already arrived, and everyone had been gathered.
The door to the first-floor meeting room was open, and the oil lamps were turned to their brightest setting. A map of Bronze City's underground was spread across the long table, with several circles marked in different colors of ink.
Glock stood by the window, clutching his communication crystal with a grim expression.
Bo Er sat at the table, facing the map, his finger pressed against a specific coordinate in the pipe network layer.
Margaret leaned against a cabinet by the door, holding a stack of supply manifests. She looked exhausted, but her eyes were sharp and clear.
Lake was the last to enter, closing the door behind him.
Kraus walked to the head of the table and stood still. He didn't sit down; instead, he leaned his left hand on the edge of the table, facing the map.
“The copper wall hidden beneath Bronze City is having issues, though we still don't know exactly what it is,” Kraus said concisely. “The bronze pillars are rising at an accelerated rate.”
Glock's expression grew even grimmer.
Bo Er's finger pressed harder against the coordinates of the copper wall on the map, creating a small crease in the paper.
Margaret looked down and flipped through her manifests, her lips pressed into a thin line.
“We will proceed with two objectives simultaneously.”
Kraus's gaze swept over everyone present.
“First, the Grey Covenant. We must deal with them before the dive. We can't jump into the Abyss with knives at our backs.”
“Second, the dive. We can't wait any longer on the copper wall and the bronze pillars. We have to find out exactly what's happening down there.”
No one spoke in the meeting room.
Kraus looked at the map, moving his finger from the copper wall coordinates to the inner city district.
“Jie and Nine have my tracking marks on them. I can activate them to lock onto their positions for a period of time.”
He paused for a beat.
“But the Grey Covenant isn't just the two of them.”
Lu Yuan picked up the explanation.
“The Grey Covenant uses a poker-based hierarchy. We've currently confirmed several rank 4s.” He pointed them out one by one. “Nine: physical combat type, mutation transcendent. You wounded them severely, and they have a tracking mark. Jie: mental erosion type, also severely wounded, with a tracking mark. J: liquid control, eerie transcendent. They escaped by liquefying during the last retreat and don't have a mark.”
He stopped for a second.
“And then there's K. Their specific abilities are unknown, but their existence is confirmed.”
Glock frowned. “K? When was that confirmed?”
“Before the ambush on Kraus, I judged that the Grey Covenant must at least have someone with the codename K.” Lu Yuan didn't elaborate further. “According to the poker hierarchy, we have Nine, J, and Q. It's highly probable that K exists as well, though we have no direct evidence yet.”
Lake spoke up from his position by the door.
“There's one more.”
The others turned their gaze toward him.
“I saw a rank 4 in the pipe network layer once. It wasn't Jie, Nine, or J,” Lake said softly, but every word was clear. “An exceptionally powerful one. I might not be a match for them.”
Bo Er looked up at Lake. Glock's hand tightened around his communication crystal.
“That person appeared once in the pipe network and then vanished,” Lake leaned against the doorframe. “Their identity is unknown. It could be K, or someone outside the numbered ranks.”
Kraus's finger paused on the map.
Lu Yuan ran through the numbers in his head. The enemy had four confirmed rank 4s: Nine, Jie, J, and Q. There was also the potential K and the one Lake encountered, making a maximum of six rank 4s.
On their side, Kraus was still recovering and only had one afterimage left. Additionally, there was Lake, whose combat strength wasn't particularly outstanding.
Two against six.
Kraus had clearly done the math as well, but he didn't linger on the disparity.
“The forces we can mobilize,” he continued directly. “Let's start with our internal strength.”
His gaze swept over the people present, finally landing on Margaret, who was holding the stack of supply manifests by the door.
“Margaret.”
Margaret looked up and met Kraus's gaze.
“If necessary,” she said softly, her tone devoid of hesitation.
Kraus gave a single nod and said nothing more.
Lu Yuan glanced at Margaret. She was still holding that stack of supply manifests, looking tired and slouching. To anyone else, she looked like an ordinary Nightwatcher exhausted by logistics work.
But the way Kraus had called her name said everything.
She was also rank 4.
Rate on N.U.
