The old man’s lips moved slightly, his voice so low only he could hear it, his raspy tone carrying an ancient exhaustion.
The beam of light dissipated completely, and the Sea of Knowledge above the Polymath Tower returned to silence, as if nothing had happened at all.
The Guardian’s domain was withdrawn at the same moment.
The heavy pressure on Lu Yuan vanished abruptly. Air flowed once more, the wind returned, and the sounds of the distant battlefield flooded back into his ears.
Lu Yuan took a deep breath. His limbs felt weak, and his knees nearly buckled.
He looked up toward the Guardian.
The old man’s hunched figure still stood there, his pitch-black aura slowly receding. The black eyes closed one by one, sinking into the depths of the shadows.
Lake’s insect swarm began to retract after the Guardian withdrew his domain. The grey insect carpet covering the entire workshop ruins receded rapidly toward the center, revealing the battlefield beneath.
Kraus stood in the center of the ruins.
The green light on his bone sword had not yet fully faded, and the blade was stained with greyish-white fluids. At his feet, Nine’s body lay on the gravel ground, his head separated from his torso. The chitinous cross-section at the cut glowed with a dark green crystalline luster.
Nine’s head had rolled two steps away. His mouth was still opening and closing, and his eyes were still darting around. His chitinous vitality meant he wouldn’t die for a while, but that was all; Kraus had clearly spared his life for the moment.
J was slumped against the wall, his entire body withered. His skin clung tightly to his bones, and the wrinkles on his face were as deep as if they had been carved, making him look decades older.
Margaret’s extraction had almost sucked the moisture from his body, even draining all his blood. Most of his pitch-black hard shell had cracked and fallen off, revealing greyish-blue skin underneath.
Margaret stood before him, the pale blue water film still wrapping her arms. Her face was flushed, her breathing a bit rapid, and a lingering battle-high remained in her eyes.
Q huddled in the corner, his mass two-thirds smaller than when the battle began. His surface was riddled with holes, and black liquid constantly seeped out and was drawn back in.
He looked the most pitiful, but the expression on his grey-white face was relatively stable. His core had not been pierced by the two hooded figures.
The attendant had not looked up at the disturbance in the Sea of Knowledge at all.
At the same moment the light beam from the Sea of Knowledge dissipated, he had already moved. Purple light erupted from his narrow-bladed longsword as he cleaved through Jie’s final defensive bones, the second layer of the skeleton shattering under the searing purple glow.
Jie’s eyes were wide, the burned half of her face contorted as she screamed.
“No! You can’t give up on me!”
She didn’t finish her sentence.
The narrow-bladed longsword pierced through her neck. Purple light spread along the blade, instantly charring the flesh at the cut.
Jie’s body withered rapidly under the purple glow. Her skin charred and peeled off, and her bones carbonized. Within seconds, her entire frame became a blackened husk.
The attendant held Jie’s head, retreating behind Kraus with an expressionless face. Wisps of smoke still rose from the burned scars on the head in the embers of the purple light.
Kraus glanced at the attendant but said nothing.
He tilted his head slightly toward Margaret, signaling her to slow down and not kill J. Margaret withdrew half her strength, and the luster of the pale blue water film dimmed significantly.
The two hooded figures did not deliver a killing blow either. The pale figures’ claws released Q’s body, and their bladed-teeth arms stopped their grinding and cutting. They stepped back twice, silently withdrawing from the battle.
Kraus permitted all of this.
Adrian stood at the edge of the clearing revealed after the insect swarm retracted.
His gaze was fixed on the seed from beginning to end—that greyish-brown seed wrapped in J’s residual black water.
His middle-aged frame was wrapped in a deep grey ordinary coat. His face was kind, and a hint of a smile even touched the corners of his mouth.
“Truly interesting.”
His voice wasn't loud, and his tone was peaceful, as if he were talking about an amusing matter that had nothing to do with him.
“If those old fogeys at the imperial center found out about this, I wonder what would happen?”
Before Adrian’s voice had even faded, footsteps echoed on the streets surrounding the workshop ruins.
Arthur Heinz stepped out from around the corner.
He wore a white belted military uniform with a gold-inscribed red cloak trailing behind him on the ground. It was far more formal than the deep grey robes he usually wore at the Polymath Tower. This was the formal attire of an imperial special inspector, and every gold pattern marked exactly who stood behind him.
Vice Dean Kame followed half a step behind him, his face looking extremely grim.
Kraus was the first to step forward.
The bone sword was still in his hand, its green light not yet faded. He looked at the white military uniform and the gold-inscribed red cloak on Arthur, his expression cold.
“Envoy.”
Kraus’s voice wasn't loud, but every word carried weight.
“It seems you’ve forgotten your original purpose?”
Arthur stood his ground, his gaze sweeping over the battlefield, over Nine’s severed head, over J’s withered body, and over Jie’s charred remains, finally landing on Kraus’s face.
A brief silence followed.
“When did you find out?”
Kraus looked at him as if he were looking at a fool.
“A group of rank 4 transcendents skilled in assassination came here, didn't assassinate anyone, and stayed in the Bronze City of all places. Do you take everyone for a fool?”
Arthur did not respond.
“Does the Empire know about your cooperation with the Man on the Wall?”
As Kraus spoke, pale green light began to spill from him, and the luster on his bone sword erupted once more. The two afterimages behind him returned to their positions, hovering to his left and right, their outlines much clearer than before.
Arthur looked at the killing intent radiating from Kraus and remained silent for a few seconds.
“This harvesting plan was formulated by relying on the Man on the Wall.” His voice lowered slightly, his tone calm. “So, what do you think?”
Kraus’s gaze did not waver.
“I asked if the Empire knows!”
Arthur remained silent.
Kraus already had his answer. If the imperial center knew, Arthur wouldn't need to be silent; he could have simply produced the authorization.
The fact that he didn't dare say it meant this had been his own decision from start to finish.
“Arthur Heinz.” Kraus called out his full name. “You have violated the Imperial Code by cooperating with an eerie entity. As the Nightwatchers Vice Director, I have the right to kill you.”
Vice Dean Kame stepped forward first.
“Kraus!”
His voice was shrill, piercing through the ruins of the battlefield. His face was flushed, and the veins on his neck bulged.
“Arthur Heinz is a special inspector sent by the imperial headquarters! His mission was successfully completed; you have no right to act against him!”
He walked forward a few steps, standing in front of Arthur and pointing a finger toward Kraus.
“Once the harvest was successful, the matter was reported to the imperial center! We are just waiting for the official authorization to arrive! What right do you have to pass judgment here!”
His voice grew louder and his speech faster.
“Even if we cooperated with the Man on the Wall, so what? The Empire obtained what it wanted. Isn't that enough—”
He didn't finish.
Kraus’s figure vanished.
In the next instant, a dull thud echoed from the Vice Dean’s face. Kraus’s palm struck Kame’s cheek with such force that he was lifted off the ground, flying sideways and slamming into a stone wall three steps away.
The back of his head hit the wall, and his body slid down to the ground. A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes rolled back halfway.
Kraus withdrew his hand, not even glancing at Kame.
“Noisy.”
His gaze fell back onto Arthur’s face.
“Arthur, do you plead guilty?”
Arthur didn't look at the Vice Dean who had been slapped away.
He knew Kraus was giving him a chance. With Kraus’s strength, if he wanted to kill him, Arthur could only struggle for a few moments at most. The bone sword was still in Kraus's hand, and the two afterimages were still hovering behind his shoulders, but Kraus hadn't moved. He was waiting for a reason.
“My cooperation with the Man on the Wall had only one goal: to open the harvesting channel to the Sea of Knowledge.”
Arthur’s voice wasn't loud, and he spoke steadily, word by word.
“From the current results, the harvest was a success. Furthermore, I have improved the harvesting apparatus and method; the previous accident will not happen again.”
He paused.
“No one wanted to see so many people sacrificed. But the Empire cannot afford to wait.”
Kraus didn't speak, his cold gaze fixed on Arthur’s face.
Arthur looked at the Nightwatchers Vice Director, who was significantly younger than himself, and continued.
“There has been unrest at the Empire’s borders; perhaps you have heard rumors. But do you know exactly what happened?”
Kraus did not respond.
Arthur’s voice lowered another notch.
“To the northeast, the Withered Lands. A massive number of eerie entities have poured out from that region, in numbers far exceeding anything seen before. The border defense line formed by the Withered City simply couldn't hold. A breach has already been torn open.”
He paused for a beat.
“Do you know how many people died there?”
Kraus’s expression didn't change, but the green light on his bone sword dimmed slightly.
“I came from there.” Arthur looked directly into Kraus’s eyes. “I must bring certain things back. The things within the Sea of Knowledge are currently the only means possible to fill the gap in the defense line.”
His tone was neither hurried nor slow, stating nothing but facts.
“In the current world, things are constantly awakening. The Angel gave a prophecy. I had to do this.”
Arthur paused there. He glanced toward where Vice Dean Kame lay at the foot of the wall, a flash of disappointment in his eyes.
“But it is true that some people did things against the Empire.”
He withdrew his gaze and looked back at Kraus.
“Investigate as you wish.”
Arthur said no more.
The ruins remained quiet for a long time. On the gravel ground where the insect swarm had receded, Jie’s charred remains were still smoking. Nine’s severed head had stopped moving, and his eyes no longer darted about. J lay slumped against the wall like a dried corpse.
Kraus looked at Arthur.
The silence lasted a long while.
Eventually, the residual green light on the bone sword extinguished bit by bit. The bone-colored blade receded along his fingers, condensing back into the shape of a bone ring on his ring finger. The two afterimages behind him flickered and sank back into the shadows, vanishing.
“Assemble the team to prepare for the dive tomorrow morning.” Kraus’s voice returned to its business-like calm. “At that time, I will pay you a visit.”
He looked at Arthur.
“I hope what you said is true.”
Kraus turned and gave a grand wave of his hand.
“Take them all away. Withdraw.”
Rate on N.U.
