Lu Yuan pulled out several more sets and turned to face the rest of the group.
“Ghoul brain cores, connected with Eerie Inscriptions.”
His explanation was minimalist as he handed them out.
“Once activated, they release a ghoul’s aura, which can briefly mask human transcendent fluctuations in an environment like the one below. One set for each person.”
Agnes looked down as she took them, the dark red brain cores pulsing slightly against her fingertips. She didn't ask any more questions; she simply nodded and handed a set to each of the two nuns behind her.
When Adrian received his, his brow furrowed slightly.
The old Archbishop looked at the brain cores in his palm, his fingertips unconsciously flicking the connecting wires.
“Items made with Eerie Inscriptions,” he said in a low voice. “It feels a bit uncomfortable for a Believer transcendent to touch such things.”
He paused, then tucked the brain cores into the inner lining of his robes, his movements slightly faster than usual.
“But they are usable. In a place like that below, one cannot be picky about methods.”
Lu Yuan walked over to the Blue Knight and handed her a set.
The Blue Knight looked down at the items in his hand.
Her expression shifted.
From the moment she had entered the square until now, this was the first time the Blue Knight had shown any clear emotion. A trace of shock surfaced in her grey-blue eyes, mixed with an irrepressible curiosity. She took the brain cores, turning them over and over, her thumb tracing along the dark red connecting lines.
“You made these?”
Lu Yuan nodded.
The Blue Knight didn't ask further and tucked the brain cores into the inside of her cloak, though her gaze lingered on Lu Yuan for an extra two seconds.
The Great Ascendant was the last. Although it wasn't clear if a Great Ascendant could use them, Lu Yuan had brought plenty, so giving him a set was no trouble.
When Lu Yuan handed them over, the Great Ascendant’s silver-grey pupils didn't even shift toward him. A metal hand reached out, took them, and tucked them into a spot within his black robes. He didn't spare them a second glance from beginning to end.
Lu Yuan rewrapped the remaining brain cores and tied the small oilcloth pouch back to his waist.
He stood up, his gaze returning to the opening beneath their feet.
The sight below was far worse than he had expected. Massive patches of scavenger fungus covered the collapsed walls below, with thick, greyish-white hyphae coating the rock surfaces and creeping upward along the cracks.
Even the underside of the bronze protection plates they had just pushed aside was covered in a thin layer of hyphae, the surface marked with shallow trails of corrosion.
The scavenger fungus swayed slightly. Even though there was no wind, they were moving.
The scent of rot continued to surge up from the opening, even stronger than when the copper plates were first moved.
The shaft fell silent for a few seconds.
Everyone was looking down.
Adrian took a step forward.
The old Archbishop took a tome from his robes. It wasn't large, about the size of a palm, with a dark gold leather cover that was somewhat worn at the corners. He held the tome in both hands and whispered a prayer.
His voice wasn't loud, but the air in the shaft vibrated slightly.
The cross holy emblem on his chest lit up.
Pale gold light overflowed from the surface of the holy emblem, flowing along Adrian’s hands and into the tome. The cover of the tome glowed for a moment, and then the entire book rose slowly from Adrian’s palms, hovering in mid-air and flipping open on its own.
The sound of the pages turning was crisp in the silent shaft.
A pale gold blessing halo spread out from the open pages, enveloping almost everyone in the shaft.
Only when the halo reached the Great Ascendant did it disperse on its own. No golden traces touched the silver-grey metal surface, and the Great Ascendant didn't seem to care.
Lu Yuan felt a very thin layer of warmth coat the surface of his skin. It wasn't intense, but it was steady, clinging to his skin without dissipating.
A line of grey-white text jumped at the edge of his vision.
【Detected Blessing of Light: Minor purification, increases your resistance to pollution for a long period.】
The tome did not return to Adrian’s hands. It hovered about an arm’s length above the team, its pages turning slowly as it continuously emitted the pale gold halo.
“Let’s go,” Lake said.
Lake was the first to jump down.
The Descendants followed immediately after, the clanging of their metal joints echoing in the space below.
Adrian, followed by Agnes and the two nuns, was the third group to descend. The tome moved downward with them, the golden halo sweeping across the walls at the edge of the gap.
Wherever the holy light passed, the scavenger fungus withered and then died in large patches.
The greyish-white hyphae began to turn yellow and curl at the edges. Once dried, they silently peeled away from the rock walls, turning into fine powder that drifted away.
Patch by patch.
Wherever the tome went, the scavenger fungus died.
Lu Yuan stood at the edge of the opening, looking down. The halo from the tome was clearing a clean path. The powder from the dead hyphae drifted at the edge of the halo for a while before falling into the deeper darkness.
The Blue Knight walked past Lu Yuan and vaulted down. Her grey-blue cloak traced an arc at the edge of the opening before she sank into the depths.
Lu Yuan was the last.
He grabbed the edge of the opening, and just as he was about to vault down, a faint vibration reached him from the distance.
Lu Yuan’s hands paused for half a second.
He looked up.
High above, far in the distance, a few strands of colored shimmer drifted by, and fragmented text gradually dissolved and vanished in the high altitude.
Lu Yuan only looked for a moment.
Then he vaulted down.
Kraus stood at the edge of the opening, watching Lu Yuan’s figure sink into the darkness.
The last person was down.
Glock was waiting nearby for his instructions on whether to slide the copper plates back into place.
Kraus was just about to speak.
Another dull vibration came from the sky.
It was directly overhead.
Kraus looked up toward the Polymath Tower.
The floating river of light above the Polymath Tower—that part of the Sea of Knowledge filled with dreamlike colors—usually flowed slowly and never lost control. But at this moment, it suddenly burst.
Countless cracks exploded across the surface of the river of light, and a massive amount of light surged out from the fissures. Multi-colored knowledge fragments spilled out in all directions, swept by the night wind and drifting over the Bronze City.
Kraus’s eyes narrowed.
The Polymath Tower itself seemed to have been activated by something. The long-dormant inscriptions on the tower suddenly lit up, dark gold patterns swaying frantically as they spread from the base to the spire. The light of the inscriptions surged toward the cracks in the river of light, like countless hands desperately trying to hold down a tearing wound.
The gap was barely sealed.
The overflow from the river of light slowed to a trickle, with only a few stray fragments still drifting in the night sky. But the light of the inscriptions didn't stop swaying; the entire Polymath Tower was trembling.
Everyone in the square stopped what they were doing.
Kraus turned his head, his gaze locking directly onto Arthur.
Glock turned as well. Hilde turned as well.
Arthur stood where he was, the color draining from his face.
He looked completely stunned.
“Someone started a Fourth Harvesting.”
Arthur’s voice was tight.
“This is bad. I have to get back!”
He finished speaking and turned to run, the hem of his Inspector robes fluttering in the night wind as his footsteps hammered urgently against the gravel, disappearing down the street toward the Polymath Tower.
Kraus stood in place, his gaze returning from the direction of the Polymath Tower.
His expression darkened.
If the leak of the Sea of Knowledge wasn't suppressed, the consequences would be harder to clean up than the ghouls underground.
“Glock.”
“Sir.”
“You guard the exit. Do not slide the copper plates back; keep the way clear. The Holy Armored Army and the Iron Guard are to stay put and maintain the original blockade.”
Kraus pulled a communication crystal from his waist and gripped it in his palm.
“Notify me immediately of any situation below.”
Glock took command and gave a nod.
“Hilde, come with me.”
Kraus said no more and turned to stride toward the Polymath Tower. Hilde followed behind him, and the two figures soon vanished at the end of the street.
In the distant residential districts, lights began to turn on one by one. The vibration had woken people up; windows were pushed open, and blurry figures leaned out to stare toward the Polymath Tower.
No one shouted, but more and more people woke up, and more and more windows lit up.
Underground, Lu Yuan didn't hear what was happening on the surface.
The bright spot above the shaft had shrunk to a pinprick of light the moment he vaulted down, and soon even that point disappeared.
The holy light from the tome led the way ahead.
The passage extended downward, much wider than the shaft in the pipe network layer. The remains of the scavenger fungus turned to powder after the holy light passed, drifting in the air and swept behind them by the airflow generated by the team.
Grey-white text jumped at the edge of his vision every so often.
【Environmental Perception: Pollution concentration rising...】
【Environmental Perception: Pollution concentration continues to rise...】
Lu Yuan ignored it and continued following the team down.
They walked for about another ten minutes.
The Descendants in front stopped.
Lake stopped as well.
Because the passage had reached the bottom.
Lu Yuan walked to the front, the light from his march lamp cutting through the air.
Before them was a massive collapsed space.
But this collapse was on a completely different scale from the one he had seen in the North Ward.
The sinkhole in the North Ward could at most accommodate three or four people walking abreast, barely enough for a small team to pass through.
But this one before them could fit at least dozens.
The light from the march lamp found a landing point on the opposite wall, at a distance so great that Lu Yuan had to re-estimate the dimensions of this space.
The entire collapse had been forced open from underground by something. There were signs of compression and tearing everywhere on the rock walls, and the remains of the copper pipe network were embedded in the rock cross-sections, twisted into various angles.
It was easy to imagine that something had once emerged from this hole.
And it wasn't small.
The group stepped out of the passage one after another and stood at the bottom of the collapse, the gravel and soil beneath their feet making a faint crunching sound.
Several branching passages wound out from the walls of the collapsed area. Some tilted downward, others extended horizontally, their pitch-black entrances only visible for the first few meters in the light of the march lamps.
Lu Yuan scanned the area.
The holy light from the tome seemed much thinner in this vast space, its golden halo only covering a range of about a dozen meters around the team; beyond that was endless darkness.
Lake stood at the very front, a short blade having appeared in his hand at some unknown point.
Adrian’s chanting grew quieter.
No one spoke.
Then the grey-white text surfaced.
【Environmental Perception: Detecting a large number of pollution sources approaching. Please be careful...】
Lu Yuan instinctively tensed his body the moment the text appeared.
“Something’s coming.”
His voice was very low, but in the silent space, everyone heard it.
Adrian looked up at almost the same moment. The old Archbishop’s hand pressed against the holy emblem on his chest, his expression turning grim.
“I feel it too.”
They glanced at each other.
It wasn't coming from one direction.
It was coming from every direction.
The next moment—
In the darkness, countless pairs of eyes lit up.
Rate on N.U.
