It flew out of Lu Yuan’s left eye, wings buzzing as it circled the room twice, its colors appearing a bit more vibrant than before. Following behind it was a significantly smaller insect, which poked its head timidly out from the depths of his left eye before drifting out cautiously.
This was the little fellow he had recruited from the corpse pieces the Grey Covenant had obtained from who-knows-where.
The Knowledge Worm circled Lu Yuan’s head once, its antennae repeatedly pointing toward the toolkit. The emotion transmitted through their symbiotic link was very straightforward.
Hungry. Wanted to eat.
Lu Yuan glanced at it.
“You want to eat consciousness crystals?”
The Knowledge Worm’s wings beat more urgently, the colors on its body alternating between bright and dim as it chirped incessantly.
The little insect shrunk behind it, its antennae swaying slightly in agreement.
Lu Yuan opened his toolkit and fished out the sampling bottle wrapped in two layers of cloth from the innermost compartment.
A faint shimmer, a mix of greyish-green and dark gold, seeped through the gaps in the cloth, pulsating steadily.
He opened the sampling bottle and placed it on the table.
“You can eat.”
The Knowledge Worm pounced toward it.
“But don’t eat too much.”
Lu Yuan pinned its tail down.
“If you eat yourself into a stupor, I won’t give you any more.”
The Knowledge Worm’s wings drooped for a moment, and an aggrieved emotion came through the symbiotic link. However, it obediently restrained its movements, its antennae cautiously touching the surface of the consciousness crystal as it began to absorb it slowly.
The little insect approached, but the Knowledge Worm swatted it aside with a wing, making it wait to the side.
Lu Yuan leaned back in his chair, watching them.
After a few minutes, grey-white text began to flicker.
【Ancient Music Theory: +1.5... 5.9/50】
【Inscription (Advanced · Eerie Inscription): +2... 23.1/50】
【Sanity IV: +2... 33/140】
The Knowledge Worm finished eating, its wings fanning slowly. The colors flowing across its body were much more vivid than before. It floated in mid-air, turned around, and touched the little insect with its antennae.
Then, the little insect’s body began to turn transparent.
Bit by bit, it merged into the Knowledge Worm’s body.
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.
“Did you just eat your companion?”
The Knowledge Worm shook its head and chirped a long string of responses. The images sent through the symbiotic link were blurry, but the general meaning was: this would allow for better growth and a faster rate of absorbing knowledge.
It added another part.
The emotion it sent carried a sense of “don’t worry”: they could separate at any time; it hadn't actually eaten the other.
Lu Yuan watched it for a few seconds but didn't say anything more.
The Knowledge Worm buzzed twice and burrowed back into Lu Yuan’s left eye.
The sense of presence deep within his left eye was slightly thicker than before.
Lu Yuan re-wrapped the sampling bottle, stuffed it back into the toolkit, and then collapsed onto his bed.
He was too tired.
The moment he closed his eyes, his consciousness sank almost instantly.
When he opened his eyes again, the light outside the window had changed.
The grey morning had passed, and sunlight squeezed through the gaps in the curtains, casting a narrow bright strip on the floor.
Lu Yuan sat up and rubbed his face.
Grey-white text floated at the edge of his vision.
【Sanity: +12... 76/140】
He had slept for about four or five hours, and his Sanity had recovered a fair amount.
He got out of bed, washed his face, changed into a clean shirt, and then went upstairs to the laboratory.
He took out a ghoul brain core from the storage cabinet.
The small dark red stone emitted a faint, eerie aura under the light. Lu Yuan sat at the experimental table, took out a copper needle, and began to engrave.
As the copper needle touched the surface of the brain core, a slight feedback came through the symbiotic link, and the Knowledge Worm assisted by fine-tuning the strokes from deep within his left eye.
Lu Yuan’s speed was very fast. His eerie resistance toward low-level materials meant he no longer had to worry about backlash. He engraved one after another, and dark red patterns surfaced from within the brain cores, solidifying and taking shape.
In about an hour, more than a dozen engraved brain cores sat on the table.
Lu Yuan put the brain cores into his pocket, tidied the experimental table, and then went downstairs and out of the branch quarters.
The midday sun shone on the grey stone roads of the Bronze City. The gas lamps were extinguished during the day, and pedestrians were sparse on the streets.
Lu Yuan walked along the road toward the branch office area.
The interrogation was about to begin.
...
In the basement level of the branch, in the room at the very end.
The light was very dim, with only a single oil lamp in the corner. The flame flickered slightly, and several circles of inscriptions were carved into the stone walls, glowing with a very faint copper-green luster.
J and Q sat on iron chairs in the center of the room.
Dark silver shackles were locked around their wrists and ankles. The surfaces of the shackles were covered in dense inscription patterns, their shimmer pulsating in synchronization with the inscriptions on the stone walls.
J had his eyes closed. Under the suppression of the shackles, the thin layer of black liquid film on his skin had dried completely, clinging to him like cracked tree bark. He hadn't opened his eyes since being brought in, and his breathing was steady.
Q leaned against the back of his chair, his posture relaxed.
His state was better than J’s—at least his eyes were open. The shackles suppressed his pathway power but not his mouth. His gaze circled the room before finally landing on the door.
Kraus pushed the door open and entered.
Lu Yuan followed behind him.
Kraus did not sit down. He stood two paces away from Q, but the residual aura of green light on him was still discernible within the range of the sealing array’s suppression.
Q looked at Kraus, the corners of his mouth curving upward.
“The Vice Director came in person.”
Kraus did not respond to him.
He spoke, his voice not loud and his pace steady.
“We are well aware of the memory locks of rank 4 transcendents. Your pathway can block most external intrusions. With our current means, it is impossible to forcibly extract information from a living person’s mind.”
Q’s smile did not change.
Kraus continued.
“But you also know that a memory lock is attached to the pathway. The moment the pathway collapses, the lock shatters with it.”
“By killing you and forcibly reading your mind at the moment of death, the memories might be incomplete, but we can still obtain most of them.”
The room fell silent for a few seconds.
Q’s smile faded slightly.
“So,” Kraus looked at him. “Will you speak yourselves, or shall we take it ourselves?”
J never opened his eyes.
Q remained silent for a while, then leaned back against the chair and tilted his head.
“Ask away.”
His tone was casual. “I’ll tell you what I can. What I can’t, I won’t say even if you kill me.”
Kraus wasted no more words.
“How were the wooden men produced?”
Q looked at Kraus for two seconds, then gave a soft chuckle.
“You took all the wooden men. Can’t you see for yourselves?”
He leaned back, his shackled hands resting on his knees.
“You’ll know what’s inside once you cut them open. You shouldn’t be strangers to that green liquid. Didn't you Nightwatchers handle that Baron von Linde yourselves?”
Kraus’s expression remained unchanged.
“The probability of a human transforming into a wooden man?”
Q laughed again, more visibly this time.
“In your noble meeting, more than half of them drank it. How many turned? Count them yourselves.”
He tilted his head as if recalling something.
“There are three outcomes. For the lucky ones, their bodies, pathways, or Sanity will be enhanced—consider it a gain. For the unlucky ones, they lose control, their entire bodies woodenized beyond saving. As for the third type...”
He glanced toward a corner of the room where nothing was present.
“They become wooden men. The probability is extremely low, so low that even we cannot control it.”
Lu Yuan stood behind Kraus and remained silent.
What Q said matched the information he had. More than half the people at the Count’s meeting had indeed consumed the deep green liquid, but most of them only reached a state of simple woodenization. The number of wooden men was indeed very small.
This part was most likely not a lie.
Kraus did not dwell on this question.
“Where is K now?”
The corner of Q’s mouth twitched slightly.
“I don’t know.”
J still had his eyes closed, but his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly before relaxing again.
Kraus was silent for a few seconds.
“Where is the other seed?”
Q glanced at Kraus, and the corners of his mouth curved up again.
“With K.”
Kraus’s gaze darkened.
“The Man on the Wall.”
Q’s smile vanished.
He didn't answer immediately. Instead, he lowered his head and looked at the shackles on his wrists, his fingers twitching.
Silence lasted for several seconds.
“There are some things I don’t want to withhold.”
Q looked up at Kraus. His gaze was completely different now; the relaxation and mockery had vanished, replaced by a layer of calm seriousness.
“It’s that I cannot speak of them. I truly don’t believe you haven't been involved with The Man on the Wall. Since you know His name, you must have seen His face. So, is there a need for me to continue?”
Kraus’s gaze lingered on Q’s face for two seconds, but he did not press further.
“One last question.”
Kraus’s voice dropped half a step.
“What exactly did you come to the Bronze City to do?”
Q looked up at Kraus and remained silent for a long time. Then he smiled, a very faint smile.
He did not answer this time.
J’s eyelids flickered. He still didn't open them, but the corners of his mouth seemed to curve slightly as well.
Kraus stood in place, staring at Q for a few seconds, his gaze gradually turning icy.
But this was within expectations. Kraus’s original plan was to escort the Grey Covenant members back to headquarters because they represented an exceptionally rare achievement.
If handled well, Kraus would have the right to make at least one reasonable request of the imperial center. Kraus wanted to secure a special potion for the Guardian.
But that potion was far too expensive—so expensive that even the points the branch had accumulated over ten years were not enough. To obtain it, Kraus either had to earn that medal or wait a few more years.
After all, there were quite a few fifth-rank transcendents losing control in the empire, while the production of the potion was incredibly low...
For someone like the Guardian, a transcendent who had been stuck here for decades, time had already eroded his final path upward, and this potion had only appeared ten years ago.
Suppressing the killing intent in his heart, Kraus turned and walked out.
As he reached the door, Q spoke behind him.
“Vice Director.”
Kraus did not look back.
Q’s voice had become flat.
“You’d better not touch that copper wall in the pipe network layer. Consider this my final piece of advice to you.”
Kraus did not stop. He pushed the door open and walked out.
Lu Yuan took one last look at Q.
Q was looking at him too, that faint smile still hanging on his lips. His gaze swept over Lu Yuan’s left eye, pausing for less than a second.
Lu Yuan turned and left the room.
The door closed behind him, and the shimmer of the shackle inscriptions was sealed within the stone walls.
In the corridor, Kraus stood a few paces away with his back to Lu Yuan.
“What do you think?”
Lu Yuan thought for a moment.
“The success rate and the matter of the wooden men match the intelligence we have. He probably wasn't lying.”
He paused.
“I think there’s a problem with the answer about the seed. K’s whereabouts are unknown, so pushing everything onto K is far too convenient.”
Kraus nodded, his tone carrying a trace of something indefinable.
“Indeed...”
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