The force field of The Man on the Wall and the power of the City of Chains crushed against each other on the Great Ascendant. Two distinct forbidden forces used his metal skeleton as their battlefield, with eerie green and dark light flashing alternately across his surface.
He walked very slowly, each step a struggle against both powers simultaneously, yet he was indeed drawing closer.
The Great Ascendant was gambling—gambling that the power the City of Chains had granted him was enough to contend with the Authority in Lu Yuan’s hands.
Lu Yuan watched his approach with an indifferent expression.
At the exact moment the Great Ascendant took his third step, a change occurred overhead.
High above the Polymath Tower, the Sea of Knowledge diversion channel that had been hanging in the sky was suddenly stirred. The river of light, which had been flowing slowly, abruptly accelerated. A massive amount of river water spilled from the channel, penetrating the dome and pouring down in a continuous stream.
The dreamlike river water fell upon Lu Yuan.
Carrying both warmth and weight, the water flowed down his shoulders, soaking through his clothes and clinging to his skin.
Deep within his left eye, the Authority throbbed violently, resonating with the falling water. With every drop that landed, Lu Yuan felt the power within him grow more substantial. His entire being was buoyed by a force from the deepest depths.
The Sea of Knowledge was responding to the holder of the Authority.
Lu Yuan began to radiate light, far more intense than when the Authority had first been activated.
The Great Ascendant’s footsteps halted as a sense of unease washed over him.
He watched the river water fall upon Lu Yuan, seeing the glow brighten as it was nourished by the flow. The playfulness and the gambling spirit in his silver-grey pupils vanished together.
All that remained was an expression Lu Yuan had seen many times before—the stiffness of a man realizing he had made a grave miscalculation.
Lu Yuan looked at him and finally spoke.
“Deprivation.”
The moment the word left his lips, the power of the Authority, bolstered by the water of the Sea of Knowledge, spread outward in a brand-new way. This was the power of the key itself—the Authority of the Sea of Knowledge, the stripping of all forbidden powers.
An invisible ripple radiated from Lu Yuan, passing through the air and striking the Great Ascendant’s metal skeleton.
The eerie green chains wrapped around the Great Ascendant began to clatter violently. The luster on the links was erased inch by inch, and the ghostly green shimmer peeled away, dissipating into fine specks of light.
The Great Ascendant’s pace faltered, but he refused to accept it.
“How is this possible?”
His voice echoed from his metal chest, carrying true agitation for the first time.
“You can mobilize such a powerful Forbidden force?”
Lu Yuan did not answer.
He maintained the output of Deprivation. The water continued to pour from above, each drop sustaining the Authority’s power. His Sanity continued to drain, and grey-white text flickered at the edge of his vision.
【Sanity: -3... -3... 44/140】
The Great Ascendant did not simply surrender.
He let out a low growl, a dull resonance vibrating from his metal chest. The remaining eerie green chains on his body flared up, their links igniting with eerie green flames—the exact same color as the burning green eyes on the walls of the City of Chains he had seen on the night of his induction.
Chains wreathed in fire erupted from the Great Ascendant, surging toward the falling water of the Sea of Knowledge.
The power of the City of Chains was striking back. Pushed to the brink by Deprivation, it attempted to swallow the source of the Authority in reverse.
The chains and the river water collided in mid-air.
“Overestimating yourself.”
Lu Yuan let out a cold laugh as he watched the chains attempt to sever his connection to the Sea of Knowledge.
In this moment, utilizing the power of the key, Lu Yuan understood all too well just how immense this power was.
The moment the eerie green flames touched the river water, they emitted a violent hiss. Those flames struggled for less than two seconds within the water before being completely submerged.
Under the washing of the river water, the links of the chains rapidly lost their luster, turning into grey, hollow shells that snapped and fell away piece by piece.
The resistance had failed.
The Great Ascendant’s metal skeleton trembled violently. The remaining eerie green luster was stripped away layer by layer by the Authority. The chains began to burst from the outermost layer, their broken links dissolving into ghostly green light that vanished into the air.
The joint plate of his left shoulder, no longer supported by the chains, let out a piercing metal-on-metal screech as the entire arm slumped down.
The Great Ascendant could no longer hold out.
The moment the last of the chains vanished, Lu Yuan saw it.
A rift tore open in the space behind the Great Ascendant. It only existed for two or three seconds, but it was enough for Lu Yuan to clearly see what was inside.
It was that city again.
The black, towering ancient city appeared in his vision once more. Its walls were embedded with burning green eyes, and the entire city sloped toward the center like a funnel. Deep within the funnel, a massive cocoon of chains was faintly visible, and the curled-up silhouette within was writhing.
It was exactly what he had seen the night A.M. recruited him.
But His reaction had changed.
The silhouette within the cocoon turned slowly.
“I remember you, human.”
The voice appeared directly in his mind. Last time, He had said, “Save me... leave...” This time, there was only fury. The low voice carried a malice born of being offended, each word pressing deep into Lu Yuan’s consciousness.
The rift closed, and the phantom vanished.
Grey-white text jumped violently.
【Detection of a gaze from an unknown existence... Check in progress... Success】
【Sanity: -2... 42/140】
The Great Ascendant lost all external support. His metal skeleton froze completely, his pupils dimmed, and the sound of internal gears grinding came to a halt.
This time, no eerie green luster surged out to save him; the power of the City of Chains had been stripped clean by the Authority. He stood rigidly in place, like a metal sculpture drained of all power.
Lu Yuan didn’t spare him a second look.
He turned and strode toward the skull.
The seed was still embedded in the left eye socket, its roots extending deep into the bone of the skull. From the perspective of the Authority, the seed’s color remained that extremely dense dark hue, but the shell of flames had completely died out.
The moment Lu Yuan approached, the seed sensed him, and it actually displayed a flash of human-like fear.
Then, a dense dark aura suddenly erupted from the seed’s surface, surging toward Lu Yuan like ink blooming in water.
This aura was laced with an erosive force that acted directly on the mental level. By the time it reached a point three paces in front of Lu Yuan, it had thickened to a degree visible to the naked eye.
But the water from the Sea of Knowledge was still pouring from above.
The dreamy river of light enveloped Lu Yuan’s entire body, each drop forming a flowing film over his skin. The moment the dark erosive aura touched this film, it was silently neutralized, flowing around him and dissipating into the air.
Lu Yuan did not slow down.
He reached out his right hand and snatched the seed.
It felt ice-cold, with a rough outer shell.
The seed let out a piercing shriek.
A howl on the conscious level flooded Lu Yuan’s mind—sharp, piercing, and striking directly at his awareness. Clearly, his earlier perception was correct; this seed possessed its own consciousness.
During its time parasitizing the remains of The Man on the Wall, it had drawn enough nourishment from the roots to develop a primitive sense of self-awareness.
And now, it was caught.
Grey-white text jumped out.
【You are under a Sanity attack... Check in progress... Success】
【Sanity: -2... 40/140】
At the same moment as the howl, the roots at the base of the seed abruptly changed direction. The fine, black filaments that had been burrowing deep into the skull’s bone shot out from the bottom of the sphere, lashing toward Lu Yuan’s palm in an attempt to pierce his skin and burrow into his flesh.
Lu Yuan felt a stinging sensation in his palm—dense, wave after wave of prickling pain.
But he did not let go. This seed could do no more than inflict such superficial wounds.
The moment those roots touched his skin, the power of the Authority reacted.
Enveloped by the water of the Sea of Knowledge, every filament that tried to pierce him was erased the instant it made contact, turning to ash and drifting from between his fingers.
The seed struggled for several seconds. The roots shot out and were erased repeatedly. After four or five attempts, it completely ceased its efforts to take root, and the howling gradually weakened.
Lu Yuan tightened his grip.
The seed was slowly compressed within his palm. The remaining black flames on its surface died out inch by inch. Once the flames receded, the seed’s original form was revealed—a small black sapling, the kind that had just begun to sprout, tender and fragile.
With a sudden surge of strength, Lu Yuan ripped it out of the skull’s left eye socket.
The grey-white text continued to jump.
【Authority... Sanity: -2... 38/140】
The moment the seed was removed, Lu Yuan felt a disturbance deep in his left eye.
The Knowledge Worm moved. It retreated rapidly from the vicinity of the key, curling up in the deepest corner of his left eye. The emotion transmitted through their symbiotic link was clear: fear.
The Knowledge Worm was terrified of the aura clinging to the key.
Lu Yuan briefly probed deep into his left eye and saw the reason.
The color of the key had changed. Faint streaks of black had appeared on the dreamy, teardrop-shaped surface, slowly permeating from the edges toward the center.
Those black streaks were gradually merging with the key’s original color, and the boundaries between the two were becoming increasingly blurred.
The key had absorbed a portion of the seed’s power.
Whether this was good or bad, Lu Yuan couldn’t tell. But the Knowledge Worm’s instinctive recoil suggested a few things.
He had no time to think.
The moment the seed was pulled out, a beam of silver-white light shot up from the skull’s left eye socket.
The pillar of light pierced through the dome and shot straight into the night sky above the Polymath Tower. The black patterns that had occupied the skull’s face for who knew how long began to loosen, receding from the edges of the eye socket and fading away ring by ring, revealing the pale bone beneath.
At the same instant the light shot skyward, a heavy thud echoed from behind.
As if everything inside had been completely drained, the Great Ascendant’s metal skeleton toppled over backward, slamming into the stone surface of the circular platform. The sound of metal hitting stone rang through the top of the tower for several seconds before fading away.
With the seed removed, the roots inside his body lost their source of nourishment. The Authority had drained the seed’s power, and the roots along with it. The Man on the Wall had regained control over His own remains and had taken revenge on the accomplice parasitizing Him.
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