Nine's situation was slightly better, but not by much. The cracked armor on the ribs was slowly repairing, but the residue of the crystalline erosion had never been completely cleared. The newly grown carapace was thinner than before; the body was desperately filling the gaps with insufficient materials.
J withdrew his gaze. They needed time.
Sprout quickly, little seed...
At that moment, without warning, a faint green light suddenly lit up on Jie's body.
The light shone through from beneath the skin, spreading along the burn marks on half of her face. Something buried deep within her flesh had been remotely activated.
Simultaneously, the wound on Nine's ribs also lit up. Green light seeped through the gaps in the bandages, tinting the white cloth a pale green.
The bowl in J's hand froze.
His gaze instantly locked onto the light on Jie.
Jie opened her eyes and looked down at the green glow seeping from her body. Her expression shifted.
Q stood up from the window and was already heading for the door.
J didn't need an explanation. In Bronze City, only one person could leave a green light on Jie and Nine!
Kraus had found them!
J set the bowl down gently on the workbench. He rose quickly, but without panic.
“There's no time. Prepare to break out.”
His voice was low and level.
Jie sat up from the corner and coughed. Her aura fluctuated violently before gradually stabilizing. Her skin began to flicker.
Meanwhile, Nine had already stood up, pulling a hand back from the floor patterns. The carapace-like skin began to take on a deeper greyish-white hue.
J glanced at the ritual area. The seed was still floating, the wooden constructs were still kneeling, and the dark patterns were still glowing faintly. The ritual hadn't stopped.
Without hesitation, black liquid surged from his sleeves, spreading rapidly across the floor. It enveloped the floating seed and the pattern base beneath it, coiling the entire mass back and dragging it behind him.
“Take everything. Let's go.”
...
Outside the workshop.
The tracking crystal in Kraus's hand emitted a steady green glow, its beam pointing precisely at the stone building a hundred meters away.
The group surrounded the building instantly. As they drew closer, a faint sound came from inside, and an aura began to rise.
Clearly, they had noticed as well.
Kraus was in no hurry to charge.
He spoke in a low voice.
“Capture whoever comes out.”
His gaze swept over the formation behind him. He spoke slowly, but every word was clear.
“Jie and Nine are injured; don't give them a moment to breathe. J is the most slippery, so you can ignore him for now.”
Lake grunted in response from the back. “Got it.”
Kraus nodded and glanced at Lu Yuan.
“Don't get too close.”
“Understood,” Lu Yuan replied briefly.
Just as Kraus was about to raise his hand and give the order, a calm voice came from behind.
“Wait a moment.”
Adrian, dressed in an ordinary dark grey coat, stepped forward. He looked kind and spoke at a leisurely pace. “Let me apply some buffs first. Don't be in such a hurry to die.”
Kraus paused for a second before nodding. “I'll leave it to you, Archbishop.”
Adrian said no more and raised his hand.
Golden light slowly spilled from his palm, flowing up his arm and sinking into the fabric of his dark grey coat before overflowing from the collar and sleeves.
A tome rose from his chest.
Its copper cover had worn edges, looking ancient. The book opened on its own, its pages turning slowly in the windless night as the dense scripture upon them began to glow.
Golden radiance surged from every page, spreading outward to envelop Kraus, Lu Yuan, Lake, and everyone behind them.
Greyish-white text popped up at the edge of Lu Yuan's vision.
【You have received the Angel's Blessing.】
【You have received the Angel's Protection.】
【You have received the Angel's Focus.】
【Your Sanity, eerie resistance, and physical attributes have been moderately increased. You have gained the favor of the light; the erosion of pollution will be significantly reduced for a short time.】
Three prompts appeared simultaneously.
A warm power seeped from the surface into his body, spreading through his blood vessels to his limbs. The last time Lu Yuan had felt something similar was in the Polymath Tower's underground rotunda during the collective blessing for the Church's outer circle. That time, four lines of text had appeared, and his Sanity had increased by fifty points.
This time there was no prompt for Sanity recovery, but the sensation was very similar—a warm shell wrapped around him, shielding him from the night's chill and the oppressive weight of the Bronze City's inscriptions.
Lake's reaction was the most obvious. The slowly writhing flesh on his body accelerated the moment the golden light covered him, its activity visibly spiking.
The dark green light on Kraus's bone ring flickered frantically.
Two afterimages appeared behind him.
After the ambush in the narrow street, only one had remained, but it had recovered during this time. The two afterimages were staggered, their outlines blurred as if they might dissipate at any moment.
The bone ring began to transform. The bone-colored material extended and swelled along his finger, condensing in his palm into a bone-colored longsword. Green light ran along the spine of the blade. Unlike the bone blade from the narrow street, this was a complete sword, more than twice the length of the short blade.
Kraus gripped the bone sword and looked toward the stone building.
“Little rats.”
His tone carried a hint of chill that carried far into the empty night.
“Are you going to keep hiding?”
Lu Yuan stood a short distance behind Kraus to the right. He shifted his gaze from Kraus to his left.
Margaret.
She was no longer clutching a supply manifest, and her face no longer looked weary.
Her aura exploded in full force. A pale blue light emerged from her body, condensing into the outline of armor.
Some liquid substance flowed over her body and solidified, covering her shoulders, forearms, and chest.
A massive amount of water vapor rose around her, diffusing into the night with a salty tang.
The person standing beside him now was unrecognizable from the Margaret he knew.
【Target Detected: Margaret (Eerie Transcendent) (Special)】
【A human with a special constitution who seems to be favored by the sea and is contracted with a specific eerie entity from the deep.】
Seeing this long string of prompts, Lu Yuan couldn't help but take a few more steps back.
A special constitution and a special eerie entity... no wonder Kraus said she was strong.
Lake stood at the rear. His tentacles had already begun to spread. Clearly, while the Grey Covenant was waiting in the shadows, Kraus was doing the same.
The Count's attendant stood on the right. This time he was equipped with a narrow-bladed longsword, which was already halfway out of its scabbard. His aura erupted, purple light swirling around his body from his feet to his shoulders.
His pathway was somewhat similar to Kraus's dark green.
The moment the purple light spilled out, a wisp of white smoke rose in the darkness further away.
The two hooded figures moved silently forward two steps from the shadows, following closely behind Kraus.
Their hoods were pulled low, obscuring their faces. Their auras were extremely restrained, yet their presence was no weaker than any rank 4 present.
Lu Yuan silently took a few more steps back.
Yeah, I'll just watch.
The Grey Covenant didn't wait for Kraus's side to make the first move.
A dull cracking sound came from inside the workshop.
A woman's silhouette appeared—clearly Jie. She took a small object from her bosom. Lu Yuan couldn't see what it was, but he could feel a brief surge of aura spreading from inside the building.
In the next moment, the inscriptions of the entire Bronze City were activated.
The inscriptions on the inner city walls began to emit a ghostly blue light. The glow started from the nearest wall and rippled outward in circles, spreading along the exterior of the stone workshop, the walls on both sides of the street, and the distant rooftops.
The city's pressure suddenly descended.
The air grew heavy, and every breath became more labored than usual. Lu Yuan felt it—an invisible pressure squeezing in from all sides, exactly like when he had watched Kraus being suppressed in the narrow street.
It was the Bronze City's inscription suppression against transcendents.
Last time in the narrow street, it was this suppression that had shortened Kraus's bone blade, caused his afterimages to vanish, and sent his aura plummeting.
The Grey Covenant, on the other hand, was unaffected. They seemed to have some special means to bypass the Bronze City's detection.
This was Jie's opening move. She knew they were surrounded, but she also knew the Bronze City's inscriptions would suppress the enemy. Being able to hide in the inner city was one of her trump cards.
The moment the ghostly blue inscription suppression spread to their area...
It failed to take effect.
Adrian's golden blessing light flared up at the exact moment the inscription suppression arrived.
Golden light and ghostly blue light collided at the interface. There was no sound; the golden light simply laid there steadily, blocking the inscription suppression outside.
The luster of Kraus's bone ring did not dim.
The tentacles on Lake's body did not wither.
The three layers of blessings on Lu Yuan heated up simultaneously, spreading from his chest to his limbs and insulating him from the inscription suppression.
Lu Yuan suddenly understood why Kraus insisted on inviting someone from the Church. It wasn't just about adding another rank 4 combatant. Without the Archbishop's blessing, the Bronze City's inscription suppression would have given the Grey Covenant the home-field advantage.
A second surge of aura came from inside the workshop.
Jie's expression changed. She realized the moment the inscription suppression was neutralized by the golden light that her Bronze City card had missed.
Without hesitation, her face darkened as she condensed a powerful mental shock and blasted it toward Kraus.
A mental erosion wave rippled outward.
Lu Yuan was completely unaffected this time.
On the street last time, Jie's Sanity shock had still managed to affect Lu Yuan to some degree.
But with the support of the blessings, Lu Yuan didn't feel a thing.
Lu Yuan looked at the opposition and already had an idea. If these were the only cards the Grey Covenant had to play, then they were staying here for good.
Only a few seconds had passed from the Grey Covenant's initial move to its failure.
Inside the workshop, Nine's carapace armor began to condense. Greyish-white chitin spread along his arms and shoulders, with black liquid constantly surging from the gaps.
J was already moving.
The moment Jie's two opening moves failed, he had already made his assessment.
He saw the green glimmer on Jie and Nine; clearly, the previous ambush had given Kraus the chance to plant a marker.
He saw the golden blessings—the Church had joined the fray this time. He also saw the purple light leaking in from the flanks; the Count's people were clearly here as well.
Rate on N.U.
