The vision cut out again.
This segment had lasted the longest.
Bronze pillars braced upward from the earth.
One after another, they formed a continuous expanse, with countless pillars arranged in the rock layers surrounding the abyss.
Inscriptions lit up simultaneously across all the pillars. The patterns spread from the surface of each one, interconnecting and weaving together to form a massive net of light that draped over the entire underground space.
The radiance extended all the way up from the depths.
Boiling molten copper was poured onto the ceiling of the rock cavern. The liquid copper flowed along the rock surfaces, solidifying and tightening as it interlocked with the bronze pillars below.
Finally, the city walls took shape.
The inscription patterns flowed from the walls down into the network of underground pillars, making the entire enclosed structure a single, seamless entity.
Then, Lu Yuan saw the man.
He stood among the bronze pillars. His face was swallowed by the bronze glow, obscuring his features and leaving only a silhouette.
He was clutching something in his hand.
The object was glowing. A faint bronze light seeped through the gaps between his fingers, identical in color to the inscriptions.
The man raised his hand.
The bronze light flared intensely.
The inscriptions on the walls lit up, the inscriptions on the pillars lit up, and deep within the rock layers beneath the ground, every single line ignited at once. Bronze light bled through the earth and stone, illuminating the entire area with brilliant clarity.
The entire network was in operation.
The entire city was responding to the object in his hand.
The man did not move.
The bronze light flickered between his fingers as he stared down at the object in his hands, his body perfectly still.
Then, he tightened his grip.
The bronze light shattered between his fingers, breaking into several pieces.
The man opened his hand.
The fragments fell from his palm, scattering into the abyss before him.
As they fell, the pieces drifted apart, each descending in a different direction.
Lu Yuan saw one piece fall toward the nearest bronze pillar on the left. The moment it touched the pillar, the inscriptions pulsed once, accepting it before returning to a calm state.
Another piece fell further away, swallowed by a different pillar.
One by one, they all sank into bronze pillars located in different directions within the abyss.
The man straightened his back.
He stood on the edge of the abyss, remaining motionless for a long time. The inscriptions on the bronze pillars settled, their light becoming dim and stable once more.
Then, he suddenly turned his head.
The movement was abrupt. He had sensed something.
His gaze turned in a specific direction.
He was looking directly at Lu Yuan. Startled, Lu Yuan watched as the vision shattered completely.
Lu Yuan’s hand snapped back from the bronze pillar.
His fingertips were numb, a sensation that traveled up his entire arm. His left eye was still burning, and the Knowledge Worm rolled several times deep within his socket before slowly settling down.
He didn't know how long he had been standing there; perhaps only a few seconds.
Behind him, the wreckage of the Amalgamation was still steaming. Adrian’s holy light still hovered over the bronze pillar, incinerating a newly sprouted root. It seemed no one had noticed his lapse.
His breathing was slightly more hurried than usual.
At the edge of his vision, grey-white text popped up.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +2... 75.4】
【...Inscription Residual Information: Traces of the same pathway detected...】
【Bronze City Sealing Hub: Potential for external control exists... Conditions unknown...】
Lu Yuan stared at the last line.
External control.
“The person who forged these things follows the same pathway as I do.”
“He held an object that could make the inscribed walls and the entire city’s sealing system respond simultaneously.”
“But he crushed it with his own hands.”
Lu Yuan closed his eyes for a moment.
“The fragments were scattered into the abyss, falling into different pillars. He didn't destroy them; he left a backup plan.”
“But he chose to ensure no one could ever hold it in its entirety again. Including himself.”
That final image surfaced again. The man turning his head, his gaze crossing the span of countless years to look directly at him.
Lu Yuan didn't know what that look meant, or if the man had truly seen him.
“Why not leave it for future generations?”
He couldn't answer that question. Perhaps there were more images hidden in the other bronze pillars.
He thought for a few seconds.
When that man forged the seal, the surroundings were scorched earth and an abyss, with the ground covered in corpses. At that time, there were likely no ghouls underground. The scavenger fungus and ghouls were things that had bred later as the seal decayed. In the man's view, scattering the fragments into the bronze pillars was placing them in the safest possible location.
It was just that hundreds of years later, the safest place had become the most dangerous.
Lu Yuan stood up.
At the edge of his vision, the grey-white text jumped again.
【Bronze City: 1/5】
【Bronze City Status: +1... 39.2/50】
He stared at those lines for two seconds. There was no further explanation. Only a number.
The inscriptions on the bronze pillar continued to pulse. The ends of the patterns pointed deeper. Toward the abyss.
There were more bronze pillars there.
And perhaps, more fragments.
Covering his still-hot left eye, he looked in the direction the inscriptions indicated.
There was only darkness.
“What happened just now?”
Agnes’s voice came from behind him. Lu Yuan turned to see the nun watching him with a scrutinizing gaze.
“You were pressed against that pillar for a long time.”
Lu Yuan released his still-numb left hand and clenched his fist to regain sensation.
“The flow of the inscriptions,” he said, his tone flat. “Based on the direction the patterns are extending, there should be another bronze pillar ahead.”
Agnes didn't respond immediately.
Her gaze moved from Lu Yuan’s hand to his left eye and back again. After a few seconds, she withdrew her gaze without further questioning.
Lu Yuan glanced at Lake.
Lake was leaning against the rock wall of the cavity, his short blade still in hand. He met Lu Yuan’s eyes, paused for half a second, and gave a slight nod.
Nothing more needed to be said.
Footsteps echoed from the middle of the group. The Great Ascendant walked up to Lu Yuan, his silver-grey pupils exceptionally striking in the dim light. His gaze swept over Lu Yuan’s body and paused.
The brain core was still active, and the turbid aura unique to ghouls covered Lu Yuan, mixing with his own scent.
The Great Ascendant clicked his tongue.
“I didn't expect you Nightwatchers to be able to produce something like this.”
Lu Yuan didn't respond.
The Great Ascendant didn't wait for one.
He turned and walked toward the bronze pillar, standing before it for a while. He stared at the direction the inscriptions ended for a few seconds, his eyes appearing to be cross-referencing something.
Adrian emerged from the other side of the bronze pillar.
The old Archbishop withdrew his holy light, and the tome floated back above his shoulder. He scanned the condition of the team and paused for two seconds.
“Holy water is at sixty percent. Holy light reserves are sufficient. The inscriptions point deeper, and we haven't mapped the distribution of the net yet. Shall we continue further?”
The Great Ascendant didn't answer immediately. His gaze remained on the bronze pillar for another two seconds before he pulled it away.
“Continue.”
The Blue Knight’s fingers moved slightly beneath her cloak, threads flickering between them.
“No problem.”
The team pushed forward.
The passage sloped downward.
The corpse-rot fungus along the path they had come from had all withered.
The ground Adrian had purified left behind faint golden traces, with the hyphae charred to ash that made a dry, crunching sound when stepped upon. This path back was essentially a ready-made escape route.
But after walking less than two hundred paces forward, the situation changed.
The corpse-rot fungus on the passage walls grew significantly thicker. Previously, it had been a thin layer of greyish-white hyphae clinging to the rock; now, it was a finger-thick fungus mat spreading from the floor to the ceiling.
Stepping on it felt elastic, like walking on a layer of moldy leather.
Adrian raised his hand, and the holy light from the tome condensed into a narrow beam, shining on the fungus mat ahead.
The mat charred and withered, peeling off the rock walls in sections and clearing a clean path.
But almost simultaneously, the fungus mats on the sides that hadn't been hit began to spread toward the center.
Greyish-white hyphae crept over at a speed visible to the naked eye, filling the void that had just been cleared.
The speed was unnaturally fast.
Adrian took a holy water bottle from his waist, unscrewed it, and splashed a layer onto the cleared ground.
The holy water seeped into the rock surface, emitting a faint golden shimmer. The hyphae stopped upon touching the areas soaked with holy water, no longer spreading.
The old Archbishop put the bottle away and glanced at the remaining stock.
“The holy water won't last long. If we go any further, the purified return path will be covered over again.”
He didn't slow his pace as he spoke.
The passage ahead branched twice.
Lu Yuan marked the directions in his mind: the right-hand passage of the first fork sloped more sharply downward, and the flow of the inscriptions also leaned to the right.
The left-hand passage of the second fork was wider, but the inscriptions cut off here, indicating there were no bronze pillar nodes on that path.
Lu Yuan pointed to the right, and the team turned into it.
After walking for a while, two ghouls lunged out from a side passage.
The Blue Knight’s fingers flicked, and pale blue threads snapped taut from between them.
The first ghoul’s neck was encircled by a thread and severed before it could even let out a hiss.
The second pounced at Lake, who stepped aside to let it pass before thrusting his short blade upward into its lower jaw.
The two were dealt with cleanly and efficiently.
But there were more behind them.
Three, five... the deeper they went into the passage, the higher the frequency of ghoul appearances. Sometimes, they had just finished clearing one group when the next was already rushing out from the darkness ahead.
The individual combat power wasn't much different—they were all low-level ordinary ghouls—but their numbers were steadily increasing.
Lu Yuan noticed a change.
The proportion of Forest Seed infection among these ghouls was higher, which was not good news.
On the upper levels, it had been around thirty percent. At this depth, nearly half of the ghouls showed traces of blue-grey roots on their bodies.
A few even had their entire forearms replaced by roots, which made a sound of snapping wood when they swung them.
He didn't join the fight. The turbid aura from the brain core was gradually dissipating, but even so, the ghouls didn't give him a second glance as they passed by.
As Lu Yuan followed the team's advance, he pieced together a map in his notebook.
The direction of the passages, the locations of the forks, where the inscriptions broke and where they turned, and the areas where the ghoul density was higher.
The structure of this net gradually took shape on the pages.
The flow of the inscriptions was radial.
Starting from the four Bronze Sins on the surface, they extended downward through the rock layers, branching into multiple lines in the depths to connect to different underground bronze pillar nodes.
Every bronze pillar was an anchor on this net, and the inscriptions continued from those anchors deeper into the earth, connecting to the next one.
This net was much larger than anticipated.
Lu Yuan put away his notebook and kept up with the team.
The darkness ahead continued to stretch out. The passage kept descending. The air grew increasingly damp, carrying a scent of rot. Agnes splashed her holy water once more.
At the third fork, the passage suddenly widened.
The rock walls pulled back to the sides, and the ceiling abruptly rose. A heavy current of air surged from ahead, carrying a sickeningly sweet, thick scent of decay.
The end of the passage opened into a vast space.
Rate on N.U.
