Adrian took half a step back, the sound of his chanting instantly rising in pitch. A faint sliver of holy light swept across, charring the protruding wooden roots into cinders.
“It’s trying to devour copper and searching for a new host,” Lu Yuan said as he sheathed his stripping knife. “This proves its parasitic activity is still present. Fortunately, only this one among the wave of monsters that just rushed out has undergone this woodenized mutation. The situation hasn’t reached the worst-case scenario yet.”
“But the overflow from the bronze pillars has already begun,” Lake added coldly from the side. “If the sealing pillars are eaten away by these things, we won’t even have a way back.”
Lu Yuan straightened up, shifting his gaze away from the still-struggling woodenized greater ghoul.
Before he could explain the subsequent prevention plan to the Archbishop, a very slight, sharp pain suddenly radiated from deep within his left eye.
It was a violent, piercing pain originating from the depths of his consciousness. Something foreign seemed to be turning slowly behind his eyeball, bringing with it a sense of burning agitation. The Knowledge Worm embedded in his left eye throbbed unnaturally and violently beneath his eyelid.
The grey-white text flowing at the edge of Lu Yuan’s vision also began to shake violently.
The originally orderly prompts became blurred in an instant:
【Detected... Sea of Knowledge...】
The burning sensation, accompanied by intense dizziness, caused Lu Yuan to instinctively reach out and cover his left eye.
He closed his right eye slightly, enduring the sharp, high-pitched ringing that echoed continuously in his mind.
The sudden agitation of the Knowledge Worm was conveying a clear message... Above, at the Polymath Tower, the gateway connecting to the Sea of Knowledge was currently enduring some massive tearing and overflow.
The fluctuations transmitted through countless layers of heavy rock and soil were extremely subtle, yet also incredibly vast.
On the surface.
The night sky above the Polymath Tower was now completely filled with eerie colors.
Kraus stood on the circular steps outside the Polymath Tower, the wind whipping his grey trench coat.
He ignored the terrified scholars and mentors kneeling in pain beneath the steps amidst the violent whispers. The Polymath Tower had never been stationed with a garrison; at this moment, only these scholars, who usually devoted themselves to research, were struggling miserably in the chaos.
The river of pale gold light that had been flowing slowly at the tower’s peak had now expanded several times over.
The originally gentle golden halo had transformed into a boiling torrent, erupting upward continuously.
The overflowing light tore several massive rifts in the sky. Multicolored hues poured down from the depths of the rifts, dyeing more than half of the Bronze City’s night sky a sickly dark purple.
Countless eyes on the surface of the river of light opened and closed. Dense whispers echoed in the wind. Wherever they passed, several more low-level scholars standing on the terraces let out muffled groans, clutching their ears as they collapsed.
Hilde’s expression was extremely grim. She quickly drew a row of Inscription Silver Plates from the flat copper case she carried. With a flick of her fingers, the silver needles transformed into several swimming slivers of light in mid-air, attempting to forcibly collect and extract a strand from the multicolored shimmer falling from the night sky to use as a medium for analysis.
As a veteran Inspector, she knew that directly confronting this tide of knowledge was foolish; collecting samples to analyze the anomaly was the only way.
However, the chaotic knowledge contained within the purple halo was too vast. The moment the silver needles touched the multicolored light, the tiny inscriptions engraved on their surfaces collapsed inch by inch due to instantaneous overload. The needle bodies emitted a piercing metal wail, unable to withstand the strain.
“It failed. The sample disintegrated immediately,” Hilde said, putting the blackened silver needles away. Her fingertips were even trembling slightly from the violent feedback.
Before Kraus could respond, Arthur, who had returned to investigate the Polymath Tower, hurried out to meet them.
Beside him, Mentor Calvin Morton was stumbling down the stone stairs. His mage robes were torn and tattered, and his usually meticulous monocle swung violently against his chest. Large patches of greenish-purple bruises were visible on the side of his face, making him look extremely disheveled.
Even so, his voice remained as steady as a scholar’s, though it was hurried and clear.
“Kame is back.” Calvin gripped the stone railing and took a deep breath, looking directly at Kraus.
“He was rescued from your underground cells. He led a group to seal off the Main Control Room and has taken the Old Dean and Selena hostage. He is using his modified scheme to forcibly initiate the Fourth Harvesting. Worst of all, he seems intent on using the Old Dean as the new medium while involving himself deeply in the process!”
Kraus’s fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword as his eyes narrowed. “What about your external defenses?”
“There were no personnel registration records at all. The external defense permissions for the Main Control Room were all locked down by Kame just now!” Arthur added loudly from the side, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. “Quick! To the Main Control Room first! We need to see what that guy is actually trying to do!”
Without any hesitation, the three of them followed Arthur and Calvin, rushing into the heavy stone doors of the Polymath Tower.
The group moved through the dim, spiraling corridors, where the copper wall lamps cast swaying shadows amidst the violent tremors. Arthur led the way at the front, his pace so fast he didn’t even bother to smooth his wind-blown mage robes.
The Main Control Room was located near the base of the main tower. When they rushed out of the corridor and stood before the bronze railings and heavy crystal protection door, the scene inside—visible through the translucent crystal barrier—made everyone’s face darken instantly.
In the center of the Main Control Room, the cover of the main control sarcophagus, where the little girl had previously lain, was now wide open.
The mutated girl, who had originally served as the harvesting medium, had been heartlessly tossed onto the cold, hard stone floor.
In the center of the sarcophagus now lay the Old Dean of the Polymath Tower. The old man’s eyes were tightly shut as countless ghostly blue energy lines extended from the complex pipes surrounding him, piercing deeply into his limbs and temples. His facial muscles spasmed slightly from the intense pain.
Kame and the black-robed man, K, stood side by side next to the sarcophagus.
Kame’s hands were empty of anything but a dark, fragmented piece of matter.
This fragmented matter was shard-like, with extremely sharp obsidian-like edges. It radiated an endless suction, swallowing all the surrounding light.
A massive amount of knowledge fragments flowed frantically through the interlaced copper pipes and energy networks, pouring continuously into the Old Dean’s body. They were then transformed into a purer, ink-like flow of light that fell like thread ends into the black stone fragment in Kame’s hand.
Sensing the movement outside, Kame turned his head. Through the protective crystal, he gave Kraus and the others a smile that could almost be described as gentle.
“You’re late.”
The raspy but clear voice was transmitted through the voice pipe above the Main Control Room.
Arthur lunged forward, pounding heavily on the hard crystal door, but he forced himself to restrain the urge to use his transcendent powers to break in.
The harvesting had already begun.
K stood beside Kame, the corners of his mouth curling beneath his hood. He watched Kraus and Arthur outside with amusement, his voice carrying undisguised mockery and playfulness:
“Didn’t expect this, did you, Kraus? No need to rush, and no need to try and interfere. Once this harvesting concludes successfully, everything... will naturally come to an end.”
Kraus’s knuckles turned white from the force with which he gripped his longsword. He turned his face, his eyes filled with a coldness that seemed capable of freezing the air. “Can we force our way in?”
Arthur breathed heavily, his gaze sweeping over the energy pipes that had already begun to tremble slightly. He forced himself to calm down from his initial panic. After staring at the frantically resonating marks inside the Main Control Room for a long time, he finally shook his head with great heaviness.
“No.” Arthur gave a bitter smile, a trace of defeat in his eyes. “If we force the door, the defense mechanisms here will directly shatter the energy circuits. The harvesting has already begun, and all the energy of the Polymath Tower is being diverted to stabilize the channel connecting to the Sea of Knowledge.”
“Once a forced entry causes an energy interruption, the channel above will collapse instantly. When that happens, the entire Sea of Knowledge will lose its constraints and pour downward. Once that massive tide erupts, the rampaging knowledge whispers will submerge the entire Bronze City in an instant.”
Kraus’s voice was ice-cold. “So we can only stand here and watch them carry out the harvesting?”
“Yes, we can only watch.” Arthur’s sigh was incredibly bitter. “The main control permissions were originally locked with mine. I don’t know how he bypassed all the security keys... but right now, we truly have no choice.”
Outside the door of the Main Control Room on the surface, low alarms echoed amidst a near-deadly standoff.
Meanwhile, in the sinkhole area at the lowest level of the abyss.
Lu Yuan lightly pressed his somewhat feverish left eye. After a few seconds of intense dizziness, the burning sensation finally subsided slowly. He reopened his eyes, his gaze sweeping across the now-silent engagement zone before him.
The rubble floor was covered with the blackish-red remains of the greater ghouls.
The wood-armored greater ghoul, which the Blue Knight had bound tightly with threads, was still struggling frantically in the mud. However, the fine, light-blue threads bit deep into its greenish-grey flesh, preventing it from breaking free even slightly.
“Take it and send it back to the surface.”
Archbishop Adrian glanced at the mutant on the ground and gave the order in a heavy voice. A tall Descendant stepped forward, extending its broad metal arms to hoist the thread-bound woodenized monster onto its shoulder. It would be escorted back to the surface by this Descendant to be handed over to the scholars and Nightwatchers for targeted research.
“The rest of you, continue advancing.” Lake drew his short-blade, flicking away the blackish-red gore. He cast his gaze deeper into the channel.
The swift and bloody slaughter just now had clearly served as a major deterrent to the ghoul population deeper within.
Greater ghouls possessed a significant degree of sanity and a fear of the strong; they were not stupid. Upon discovering that the prey before them possessed insurmountable combat power, the countless pairs of eyes hidden in the channel corners and dark crevices began to shrink back in cowardice.
Amidst a flurry of dense, hurried sounds of bone friction and claws scraping against rock walls, the remaining ghoul population began to flee frantically toward the deeper reaches of the abyss.
The channel returned to an oppressive silence.
“Don’t lower your guard. We’re getting closer to the center of the seal down here.” Lu Yuan took a deep breath to steady himself. He glanced at the grey-white text in his vision, which had returned to normal, and followed the team’s pace as they moved slowly into the darkness deeper underground.
The moment the exploration team rounded the next rock corner, the two Descendants walking at the very front stopped dead in their tracks without warning. A faint grinding sound came from their mechanical joints, and the faint light in their cold white eye sockets suddenly went out.
Rate on N.U.
