His voice was not loud, but every Nightwatcher remaining in the square heard him.
Before long, Margaret arrived.
She had been nearby. Her rank 4 perception range covered the entire area surrounding the sinkhole exit; she had sensed an anomaly of this magnitude herself.
Margaret stood beside the Amalgamation for two seconds.
Her gaze swept over the places where flesh and metal were intertwined on the Amalgamation’s back, then glanced at the inscriptions on the copper plates on the ground that were currently scorching the roots.
She had dealt with far too many polluted entities and anomalous samples; her role as logistics director made her reaction to such things faster than most combat personnel.
She raised her right hand.
The moisture in the air condensed into a sphere of flowing water above her palm, with a pale blue light shimmering beneath the surface.
The water quickly expanded and extended, draping over the Amalgamation from above and enveloping it along with the charred root remains on the surrounding ground.
The water film tightened, sealing off the internal air from the outside.
With a slight twist of Margaret’s wrist, the water lifted the Amalgamation off the ground and moved it steadily toward a pre-prepared sealed container—a thick-walled vessel resembling glass, its inner walls engraved with simple isolation inscriptions.
The Amalgamation was placed inside. The cover plate closed, and the crisp sound of the seal latching shut echoed in the night wind.
Margaret looked down at the contents of the container.
“Don’t touch it,” she said, turning to Glock and the surrounding Nightwatchers.
After a pause, she looked at the container again.
“This thing is a bit strange.”
She didn’t explain further, because she truly couldn’t say exactly what was strange about it yet. From the outside, one could only see flesh and metal fused together; as for what was happening inside, it couldn’t be judged by appearance alone.
At that moment, new footsteps came from within the sinkhole.
The footsteps were light and hurried, the sound of someone climbing the ladder.
The hem of a greyish-white robe flipped up from the edge of the sinkhole, and a young nun climbed onto the surface, thin beads of sweat on her forehead and her breathing slightly hurried.
“Bishop Adrian sent me back with a message.” After identifying herself, the nun spoke quickly.
“A new type of pollution has been discovered underground—wooden roots that can devour metal, with copper being particularly affected. The internal structures of the Descendants have been eroded, and they have all retreated to the rear. The exploration team is continuing to push deeper.”
When Margaret heard the words “devour metal,” her gaze moved away from the nun’s face.
She looked back at the sealed container beside her. The Amalgamation lay quietly inside, its blue-grey flesh and dull metal intertwined, the details blurred through the thick glass.
But now it made sense.
The reason why the Descendant and the ghoul had fused into this state and what role the metal-devouring roots played—though the specific process was still unclear—the phrase “devouring metal” tied the whole thing together.
“Understood,” Margaret said, retracting her gaze. “I will handle things up here.”
...
The sound of the nun’s footsteps gradually faded in the channel.
The team resumed their advance.
However, the formation had changed. With the Descendant phalanx moved to the very rear, the front line was now open. Lake moved up to lead the way, short-blade in hand, the blade held against the inside of his coat. The Blue Knight followed half a step behind him to the side, her grey-blue cloak pulled in slightly in the narrow channel.
Adrian’s tome floated above the team, its pale gold blessing halo continuously spreading forward. Wherever the holy light passed, the scavenger fungus on the rock walls curled and withered in patches, peeling off as greyish-white powder.
The channel was gradually widening.
The incline was also increasing. The gravel floor beneath their feet began to slope downward, the angle growing steeper with every few dozen steps. The smell in the air was changing as well; the metallic tang of copper rust and the sickly sweetness of rotting meat alternated, wafting into their nostrils in waves.
At the edge of Lu Yuan’s vision, the grey-white text floated quietly.
【Environmental Perception: Pollution concentration continues to rise...】
He had already grown accustomed to this line. Ever since entering the abyss, it would pop up every so often, and the concentration only ever increased.
The number of hive openings along the way was growing.
The cracks and hollows on both sides of the rock walls were densely packed with caves of various sizes, their edges marked with claw scratches and dried bodily fluids.
Occasionally, eyes could be seen glinting in the depths of the darkness—one pair, two pairs, sometimes a whole cluster.
But they did not rush out. The deterrent of the previous slaughter remained; these greater ghouls huddled in their caves, merely watching from afar as the team passed.
Lu Yuan observed the openings as he walked.
He noticed a change.
The deeper they went, the higher the proportion of ghouls showing signs of Forest Seed pollution. In the shallower levels, he would occasionally see one or two individuals with bluish skin and wooden bark-like crusts on their joints mixed in among the ordinary ghouls.
But at this depth, he could see one with obvious infection characteristics almost every two or three openings.
The team approached a wide junction.
The channel split into three directions here, and the space at the intersection was considerably more spacious than before.
The hive openings ahead were even denser, layered upon each other at various heights on the rock walls, with shadowy silhouettes crowded together inside.
To the naked eye, those ghouls were all mixed together; some had normal skin color, while others were vaguely blue-grey, but in these lighting conditions, it was difficult to accurately distinguish which had been parasitized by the Forest Seed and which were still ordinary greater ghouls.
Lu Yuan did not speak.
He reached for the small oilcloth pouch at his waist and pinched out a small amount of copper powder.
With a flick of his fingers, the copper powder scattered onto the ground at the junction ahead. The fine metal particles glinted briefly under the light of the march lamps as they fell among the gravel and soil.
The effect was almost instantaneous.
Within the hive openings, most of the ghouls had no reaction; the ordinary greater ghouls continued to huddle and hide, as the copper powder was actually harmful to them.
However, several openings deep in the shadows suddenly erupted in a commotion.
The sound of heavy claws scraping against cave walls rang out. Three, four, five greater ghouls suddenly surged out from different openings, rushing toward the spot where the copper powder had fallen.
Their movements were urgent to the point of madness as they jostled each other to pounce on the ground, their mouths pressed against the gravel as they desperately devoured the scattered copper shavings.
Every single one that pounced out had varying degrees of blue-grey wooden bark-like crust on its body, dry wooden textures at the joints, and the bulging outlines of roots beneath their ribs. All were characteristics of Forest Seed infection.
Lake took a step forward. With a flick of his wrist, his short-blade traced an arc, cleanly severing the cervical spine of the nearest infected individual, which collapsed to the ground with its head lolling to the side.
The Blue Knight’s fingertips twitched, and several pale blue threads streaked through the air, precisely piercing the foreheads of the remaining ones. They were dead before they could even stop devouring the copper shavings on the ground.
The junction fell silent once more.
Lu Yuan mentally calculated the statistics; the infected individuals that had just rushed out accounted for about thirty to forty percent of the total number of ghouls in this area.
Considerably higher than the upper levels.
He stowed away his oilcloth pouch without explaining what he had just done. Adrian glanced at the corpses of the infected lying next to the copper shavings, and the old Archbishop’s expression darkened further.
“The number of infected is actually this high? If this continues, I fear the greater ghouls below will all have become these things.”
The team continued forward.
Beyond the junction, the channel narrowed again for a stretch, then turned a corner at a large rock outcropping.
The moment they rounded the corner, the space ahead suddenly opened up.
A massive natural cavity appeared before them. The light from the march lamps hit the far rock wall, but the distance was so great that one had to re-estimate the dimensions of the space.
And in the very center of the cavity stood a bronze pillar.
Lu Yuan’s footsteps faltered slightly.
This bronze pillar was different from the four Bronze Sins that had emerged from the ground above.
It was thicker, its diameter at least twice that of the bronze pillars in the pipe network layer.
The surface of the pillar was densely engraved with Ancient Large-scale Inscriptions, the flow and style of the patterns perfectly consistent with the four on the surface—the fifth pillar of that network.
【Target Detected: Bronze Sin (Lightly Damaged)】
【An object crafted by a legendary artisan, and the only remaining large-scale bronze inscription artifact. Unfortunately, it failed to withstand a certain kind of erosion...】
Lu Yuan’s expression changed when he saw this. The worst-case scenario had indeed appeared.
The underground greater ghouls were indeed continuously eroding this thing.
Furthermore, a large number of greater ghouls were entrenched around the bronze pillar. Unlike those in the channel who hid in hive openings, these were densely gathered around the pillar; some were clinging to the pillar itself, while others crouched near the base. Many of them showed obvious signs of Forest Seed pollution.
The inscriptions on the bronze pillar were flickering.
The light pulsed erratically, like something struggling to maintain its final operation. Some of the inscriptions had already gone out completely. The lower part of the pillar was entwined in a layer of blue-grey roots, which were slowly climbing upward, devouring the inscriptions and corroding the copper surface along the way.
Adrian came to a halt.
The old Archbishop stared at the bronze pillar for a long time. The tome floating in mid-air stopped with him, the golden halo enveloping his shoulders.
“An extension node of the sealing matrix,” Adrian’s voice was very low. “The inscriptions are still functioning, but the speed of erosion far exceeds that of repair. At this rate, it won’t hold for much longer.”
The grey-white text at the edge of Lu Yuan’s vision jumped.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +0.3... 73.4】
【Bronze City Status: +3... 38.2/50】
If the entire network truly was several times larger in scale, how many more pillars were down here? Was every single one being eroded by the Forest Seed?
As the exploration team approached the bronze pillar, the swarm of ghouls entrenched around it became restless.
The several greater ghouls on the outermost edge were the first to stand. Their heads turned toward the team, their cloudy eyes reflecting the light of the march lamps. Low growls squeezed out from deep within their throats, spreading from one to the next.
Lake took a step forward.
Before the first pouncing greater ghoul could even get within three steps, he lopped off half its head with a single strike. The blade made a crisp sound as it cut through the cranium, and blackish-red ichor sprayed out, splashing onto the gravel floor.
The Blue Knight moved at the same time.
Pale blue threads fanned out from between her fingers, stretching into several swimming streaks of light at the edge of the holy light. Two greater ghouls pouncing from the side were pierced through their skulls by the threads; steam rose from the translucent holes as their massive bodies crashed to the ground, splashing mud everywhere.
In the face of rank 4 power, these things posed no threat at all.
Lu Yuan stood in the rear, motionless.
His gaze moved away from the center of the skirmish, scanning the ghoul swarm startled by the chaos. One detail caught his attention: the infected individuals with blue-grey wooden bark-like crusts did not rush toward the team during the gaps in the battle.
They were moving closer to the bronze pillar.
The ordinary greater ghouls fled in all directions after being scattered, retreating toward the hive openings and the depths of the channel. But the behavior of the infected was the opposite; in the chaos, they instinctively gathered toward the bronze pillar, as if drawn by the residual copper aura of the pillar.
Just as the ghouls on the periphery were nearly cleared out, a dull thud echoed from the dark depths behind the bronze pillar.
It was the massive noise of bone grinding against bone, heavy and long-drawn, as if something of immense size was adjusting its posture.
The ground vibrated slightly, and the gravel beneath their feet skipped a few times.
Lake stopped in his tracks, and the Blue Knight’s threads tightened slightly.
A massive silhouette slowly crawled out from the shadows behind the bronze pillar.
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