The grey-white text surfaced at the edge of his vision.
【You have touched Him... and paid the price in Sanity...】
【Sanity: -2... -2... 58/140】
Lu Yuan did not panic.
This was his second time entering the domain of The Man on the Wall. The first time was in the pipe network layer, where he had projected his consciousness through a bridge established by the Knowledge Worm to pull Lake out. On that occasion, he had stood on a small platform only a person wide, with a void beneath his feet. This time, the rock platform was larger and positioned higher.
His sixth sense told him that he could not let the Great Ascendant approach the skull, so he had called out the true name of The Man on the Wall. The associative summoning was successful, and The Man on the Wall had responded. The price was being pulled into this place.
Meeting again meant a trade had to be completed. Otherwise, there would be no leaving.
Lu Yuan had roughly guessed this since his first entry. Lake’s explanation was clear: he had been released only after completing a trade with The Man on the Wall in this domain. Last time, Lu Yuan himself was suspected of having reached some sort of agreement with Him.
But Lu Yuan wasn’t concerned about himself.
What if Kraus, the Count, Adrian, and everyone else whose consciousness was locked by the seed had also been pulled here by The Man on the Wall and forced to make a trade?
Lake hadn't mentioned what wish he had made or what price he had paid. However, judging by his tone and demeanor after returning, he hadn't suffered much of a loss.
But what about those below the tower? Faced with The Man on the Wall’s “State your wish,” what would the Count say? What would Adrian say?
Or what if they remained in a state of paralysis because they refused to make a trade?
This was the fundamental reason why Lu Yuan felt he had to intervene.
Lu Yuan stood on the rock platform, waiting silently.
The grey mist around him began to swirl and surge. Its density increased, and the grey void became thicker. An ancient scent permeated the air—not the roiling colors of the Sea of Knowledge, but more like the smell of something long-sealed finally being opened.
Then, the face appeared.
It emerged slowly from the depths of the grey mist, its outline gradually becoming clear.
It was massive, obscuring the heavens.
Just like what he had seen in the pipe network layer, the head was far larger than anything within normal cognition. The grey mist concealed most of its silhouette, with only half of the face revealed. It had a pale, skeletal texture, with features outlined by pure greyish-white bone.
But this time, the state of The Man on the Wall was wrong.
A visible black patch had emerged at the left eye.
The patch spread from the edge of the eye socket, crawling along the bone fissures toward the cheekbone. Of the two greyish-white eyeballs he had seen before, the left one now had an abnormal layer over it.
Fine, dark patterns floated on the surface of the eyeball, identical in structure to the root system of the seed in the skull’s left eye socket.
That was where the seed had taken root in reality.
The grey-white text appeared.
【Target Check: The Man on the Wall (Contaminated)】
【The tragedy of the defeated. He cannot even control his own shell.】
Lu Yuan looked at the text and fell silent for a moment.
The Man on the Wall did not say “State your wish” this time.
He remained silent for a long time. The half-face in the grey mist was motionless, with only the dark patterns on the surface of the left eye slowly writhing.
Then, He spoke.
“Please state your wish.”
The voice came from the depths of the grey mist. The overlapping echoes were still there, but no longer carried the pressure of muffled thunder. That power had been significantly weakened; the sound waves that should have shattered his consciousness now only caused a slight tremor at the edge of his mind.
【Sanity: -2... 56/140】
“Please.”
This time it wasn't “State,” but “Please.”
The Man on the Wall was lowering his posture.
Lu Yuan did not answer directly.
He looked at the half-face in the grey mist, eroded by the black patch, and spoke.
“If I pull the seed from your left eye, can you let everyone leave?”
The face in the grey mist did not move.
There was no response from within the mist.
Lu Yuan continued.
“The people I need you to release are the transcendents who recently entered the Polymath Tower, as well as a few commoners. You should know exactly who I’m talking about.”
The Man on the Wall’s silence persisted for a long time. The grey mist surged slowly, and the dark patterns on the surface of the left eye began to writhe more frequently.
Lu Yuan waited.
The Man on the Wall would agree. The grey-white text had made it clear: “He cannot even control his own shell.” The seed was parasitizing His remains and using His name to release the domain, yet He didn't even have the power to drive away a single seed.
Such an existence would not normally take the initiative to trade with a rank 2. But Lu Yuan had spoken first, offering to help Him remove the seed. The Man on the Wall had no reason to refuse.
At the same time, Lu Yuan had a deeper calculation.
According to the rules Lake had tested, a wish required an equivalent exchange. How much was the act of pulling a seed from the remains of a forbidden existence worth? It was worth far more than just “letting a few people go.” If he truly helped The Man on the Wall complete this task, he would call in the debt for that difference whenever he needed it later.
The face in the grey mist finally moved.
The left eye, eroded by dark patterns, shifted slightly.
Then, The Man on the Wall spoke a single word.
“Granted.”
The voice was very soft. There was no muffled thunder, only a single word from the depths of the grey mist, falling into Lu Yuan’s consciousness with clarity and certainty.
In the next moment, the grey mist contracted violently.
The rock platform vanished from beneath his feet. Everything in his vision was swallowed by greyish-white as his consciousness was suddenly pushed out by some force.
Lu Yuan’s vision exploded.
Everything at the top of the tower returned to his sight in an instant.
His first reaction upon his body’s return was not to check his surroundings.
It was to activate Timekeeper.
Acceleration.
How long had he been in the domain? How much time had passed outside? Had the Great Ascendant already touched the skull?
There were no answers to these questions. Before the answers appeared, Lu Yuan did not intend to face any possibility at normal speed.
The flow of time diverged. Everything in the space at the tower’s peak slowed down in Lu Yuan’s eyes.
【Sanity: -1... 55/140】
Then he saw the Great Ascendant.
He was right in front of the skull. His metal arm was still extended, held in the posture just before touching the head, with five metal fingers spread out less than an inch from the greyish-white bone surface.
The man was frozen in place, motionless.
But things were moving inside his body.
Within every gap of the mechanical skeleton, something was writhing. Black tendrils, identical in structure to the seed’s root system in the skull’s left eye socket, were squeezing out from the joints with branching filaments, slowly crawling along the surface of the metal frame.
A metal plate at the shoulder joint was being pushed up from the inside, creating a gap from which a clump of black roots squeezed out halfway, swaying in the air.
Lu Yuan approached a few steps while under Timekeeper: Acceleration.
The Great Ascendant’s silver-grey pupils were still there, but they no longer moved. The two metal spheres embedded in the smooth plate reflected the faint light from the dome, without focus or direction.
The grey-white text appeared in the corner of his vision.
【Target Check: Great Ascendant (Ascension Society) (Parasitized)】
【An eerie creature whose entire structure has been replaced by machinery. At this moment, a powerful seed root system is parasitizing his body. Perhaps he is already dead?】
Lu Yuan stared at the grey-white text for a moment.
When he had first checked the Great Ascendant in the branch meeting room, the text had evaluated him as “non-human,” “extremely strong eerie resistance,” and “everything seems fine.”
Now it had changed to “eerie,” “parasitized,” and “perhaps he is already dead.”
His eerie resistance had been breached. The seed’s roots had entered through the cross-section of his severed arm. After the pressure from The Man on the Wall extinguished the flames on his body, the roots—no longer suppressed by high heat—had spread frantically within the mechanical structure, ultimately parasitizing his entire body.
Lu Yuan also finally understood something else.
The reason the Great Ascendant was unaffected by The Man on the Wall’s domain was because of the seed roots within him. The seed was parasitizing the remains of The Man on the Wall, and the Great Ascendant also had the seed’s roots inside him. They shared the same source. The force field of The Man on the Wall identified him as “part of the seed,” so it didn't pull him into the domain.
Everything had been calculated from the very beginning.
But the seed had ultimately consumed him as well.
Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze and turned toward the hovering skull.
The greyish-white bone surface still bore the faint shimmer of silver-white cracks triggered by the associative summoning, but the light was fading. In the left eye socket, the seed’s roots still held their ground, dark filaments writhing and emitting a faint black glow.
Lu Yuan stepped closer twice, then stopped.
He needed a tool.
Deep within his left eye, the Knowledge Worm had fallen into a slumber after entering the range of the Infinite Domain. Since stepping onto the ground floor of the main tower, the symbiotic link had become blurred and weak, and the Knowledge Worm’s feedback had almost completely vanished.
The residual force field of The Man on the Wall shrouded the entire main tower, suppressing even the Knowledge Worm.
Lu Yuan exerted his consciousness toward it through the symbiotic link.
The link conveyed a heavy resistance. Lu Yuan increased his consciousness output and pushed again.
The Knowledge Worm crawled out from the depths of his left eye.
Its antennae hung limply, and its multi-colored glow flickered on and off at a frequency much lower than normal. It hovered before Lu Yuan for a moment, its antennae twitching with clear weariness and protest.
Lu Yuan ignored its mood.
He looked at the seed roots coiled in the skull’s left eye socket and conveyed a thought through the symbiotic link.
“Can you eat it?”
The Knowledge Worm’s reaction was violent.
The colored halo on its body flashed incessantly, and the emotion transmitted through the symbiotic link was extremely clear: No.
Absolutely not.
Lu Yuan received the message.
The Knowledge Worm wasn't being a picky eater; it was afraid. The nature of the seed was beyond the Knowledge Worm’s feeding range, and direct contact would be dangerous.
Lu Yuan pulled his hand back from the skull.
If it was something the Knowledge Worm couldn't eat, it was definitely something he couldn't touch.
Rate on N.U.
