The Guardian leaned halfway against the wall, his white hair hanging over his shoulders, as pitch-black aura seeped intermittently from his body.
Lu Yuan closed his eyes, pressing his entire consciousness into the symbiotic link.
The infusion continued. The Knowledge Worm pushed forward inch by inch within that Rank 5 body, followed by the grey-purple medicinal fluid that slowly seeped along the gaps forced open by the insect.
The old man's voice rose again—raspy and intermittent. It was the most Lu Yuan had heard him speak since they met.
Initially, Lu Yuan didn't pay much attention. Maintaining the symbiotic link consumed all his energy; his Sanity was slowly dropping as he focused on every push of the worm.
But as he listened, he realized the Guardian was trying to distract him.
The old man knew he was pushing himself to the limit and consuming his own Sanity, so he spoke to draw Lu Yuan's attention away from the worm.
"After Rank 5, the city becomes a cage," the Guardian's voice was very low. "But it is also this cage that protects me."
Within the symbiotic link, the worm moved half an inch along a section of dim pathway foundations. It encountered an area densely packed with eyeballs and stopped, waiting for the medicine to seep through.
"Even for a Rank 6..." The Guardian paused. "Once they are suppressed into the seals at the very bottom of this city, they cannot get out."
Lu Yuan's thoughts faltered for a split second between the worm and those words.
The underground seal—the thing behind that copper wall in the pipe network layer.
During the interrogation, Q had said it was best not to touch that copper wall.
The "deepest seal" mentioned by the Guardian referred to the same place.
"What is sealed underground?" Lu Yuan asked instinctively during a gap in the symbiotic link's demands.
Given that the Guardian had been in the Bronze City for hundreds of years, Lu Yuan assumed he must know something.
"I do not know." The Guardian's breathing grew heavier. "I have spent most of my time guarding my own pathway. This city is much older than I am."
He stopped for a long time before continuing.
"That thing underground... there are indeed rumors, but it hasn't moved in nearly a century."
The Guardian's voice lowered further, his brow furrowing slightly, clearly enduring something painful.
"The activity down there only started in the last two years."
Lu Yuan noted this but did not respond. The worm pushed forward another segment within the symbiotic link, and he diverted a sliver of consciousness to stabilize it.
The Guardian did not stop, though this time he spoke neither of the city nor the seals.
"You remind me of someone."
Lu Yuan's movements paused almost imperceptibly.
"Someone who also walked the path of Forbidden Lore hundreds of years ago." A faint emotion entered the old man's voice—it was hard to tell if it was nostalgia or something else. "He didn't speak much, but he had a pair of eyes that wanted to see everything clearly. He was very much like you."
"The Knowledge Worm—I first heard of it from his mouth. Not only that, he told me many things."
"He said he was going to a deeper place," the Guardian continued. "Underground, or perhaps into the sea, I cannot say for sure. But he left a sentence before he departed."
The old man paused for so long that Lu Yuan thought he wouldn't finish.
"He said that if one walks this path to the end, they might meet a truly tragic death."
The voice trailed off.
"I never saw him again after that."
"Sir, please stop talking for now," Lu Yuan whispered. Maintaining the symbiotic link was already taxing; he feared the old man might suffer if he continued to exert himself.
The Guardian shook his head. "I know my own body."
"A little more won't hurt."
He continued, his voice even softer than before, with each sentence separated by a faint humming as he suppressed the eerie mutation.
But this time, he couldn't finish.
With the second half of his sentence still stuck in his throat, the Guardian's body suddenly jerked.
Pitch-black aura exploded from every part of his body simultaneously, its concentration doubling within two seconds.
Black eyeballs bulged out in dense clusters from beneath the skin of his neck, the back of his hands, and his forearms. All the ones he had previously suppressed returned, and the internal balance collapsed in seconds.
Within the symbiotic link, Lu Yuan perceived a catastrophic change.
The Knowledge Worm was halfway through the second main channel when the space before it rapidly constricted.
The narrow passage the Guardian had cleared was gone. Eyeballs surged up from deeper tissue layers, clogging every gap between flesh and bone.
The worm was squeezed with nowhere to go.
Its antennae probed a crevice only to be repelled; it tried again and was repelled once more.
It curled into a ball, its tri-colored shimmer dimming to the minimum. A sense of frantic pressure from all sides transmitted through the symbiotic link—the worm's body was on the verge of being crushed.
The infusion stopped as well.
Losing its forward pull, the grey-purple mixture stagnated in the middle of the channel. The warm orange luster flickered amidst the surrounding black eyeballs, fading rapidly.
Lu Yuan withdrew most of his consciousness and made a quick calculation.
From the incision to this point, they had only cleared one-third of the way.
The plan provided by Specialized Research gave a ten percent chance of success if fully completed; stuck at one-third, the probability dropped below ten percent.
The remaining two-thirds were packed with eyeballs. The worm couldn't pass, and the medicine couldn't be delivered.
The Guardian was still convulsing, and the speed at which he could re-suppress the eerie mutation was much slower than before.
Lu Yuan opened his eyes. He had to do something else.
With the medicine stuck halfway, both the Grudge and the eerie mutation remained in the body. These two forces would tear each other apart, making things worse than if he had done nothing at all.
He went through the cards in his hand within seconds.
Authority targeted eerie inscriptions and low-level eerie mutations; it was completely unsuitable for a Rank 5 and wouldn't suppress it in the slightest if used recklessly.
As for The Man on the Wall, the success rate given by Specialized Research was less than ten percent, with too many variables.
Suddenly, a very slight vibration came from his chest. It was the Timekeeper.
The pocket watch that had long since fused with his body sensed his high-speed cognitive processing.
Acceleration—his most frequently used ability—had only ever been applied to himself; he had never projected it externally.
However, the Knowledge Worm was a symbiote, directly connected to him.
Back at the branch quarters, when the worm had eaten the consciousness crystal to provide purified feedback, the Timekeeper pocket watch had also vibrated once.
He had suppressed his questions then, not looking deeper into it.
Now it surfaced. There was some connection between the Timekeeper and the Knowledge Worm that he hadn't yet figured out. At the moment of feedback, the two had resonated.
If resonance truly existed, could Acceleration be transmitted through the symbiotic link?
There was no precedent; no one had ever tried this with the Timekeeper pocket watch.
Lu Yuan had no other choice.
He connected his will to the Timekeeper. The vibration in his chest became clear, and the watch's structure, fused deep within his bones, began to resonate. A sense of acceleration spread within his body.
He did not let the acceleration fall upon himself; instead, he pushed it entirely into the symbiotic link channel, toward the worm.
The channel shook violently for a moment.
Most of the acceleration surged forward along the channel, while a small amount leaked outward, affecting several nearby eyeballs. Those black pupils rapidly constricted and dilated, recovering in less than half a second.
It was his first time projecting it, and his precision was lacking. Lu Yuan tightened the boundaries of the channel, suppressing the overflow.
The worm received the acceleration.
A violent tremor ran through the symbiotic link. The tri-colored shimmer flared from its dimmest state, and the curled body unfurled in half a second.
Its speed underwent a qualitative change, shifting from a crawl to a dash. The worm, which had previously been repelled upon touching an eyeball, now wove through the gaps at a speed visible to the naked eye, pulling the medicine along with it.
Grey-white text began to flicker.
【Sanity: -1... 48/140】
【Sanity: -1... 47/140】
【Sanity: -1... 46/140】
The consumption of projecting the Timekeeper's power was far greater than using it on himself.
There was additional loss as the acceleration passed through the symbiotic link; every second cost more than it would if applied to his own body.
Sweat beaded on Lu Yuan's forehead as the numbers dropped with every flicker.
But the worm was advancing at an incredible speed.
The second half of the second channel was forcibly penetrated. The medicine poured in, the warm orange luster trailing along the channel walls.
One-half.
【Sanity: -1... 39/140】
The worm charged into the third section. The eyeballs here were packed even tighter, with almost no gaps to speak of. However, the Knowledge Worm under acceleration was fast enough to weave between the spheres, deforming as it was squeezed only to spring back. Its colored shimmer flickered constantly within the black pollution.
Two-thirds.
【Sanity: -1... 31/140】
Lu Yuan's fingers began to tremble, and the grey at the edges of his vision was spreading. His Sanity had reached a dangerous level.
But he could still hold on. He could always sacrifice a bit of his limit to restore his Sanity.
Maintaining the symbiotic link was also draining him. With both projection and guidance weighing on him, the world before his eyes began to distort slightly.
The worm burst through the final stretch of the third section, its colored shimmer leaving a blurred afterimage as the medicine followed closely to the deepest depths.
【Sanity: -1... 25/140】
At the end of the channel, the worm's antennae touched the boundary of the torso core.
The medicine reached its destination. The warm orange luster flared for a moment at the deepest point, connecting with the grey-purple spread throughout the channel to form a complete line.
Lu Yuan cut off the acceleration.
The pocket watch stopped resonating, and the sense of acceleration faded from his body.
The worm's speed plummeted back to a crawl, its colored shimmer dimming significantly as it transmitted a sense of total exhaustion.
Lu Yuan's body couldn't stop shaking, and the grey in his vision had spread to nearly a third.
【Sanity: -1... 22/140】
【Calculating results...】
The grey-white text stopped at that line, providing nothing further.
Lu Yuan leaned against the wall, gasping for breath. He had done all he could; the rest was up to fate. On the Guardian's side, the surge of the pitch-black aura had noticeably lessened. The eyeballs were still on his skin, but the frequency of their appearance had slowed from several per second to one every few seconds.
The eerie mutation hadn't vanished, but it was slowing down at a visible rate.
But in the next moment, the Guardian's body suddenly arched.
The two forces within the Guardian seemed to clash. The pitch-black aura exploded outward, and eyeballs erupted from beneath his skin simultaneously—densest on his cheeks, with pupils scattering in all directions.
The Guardian's spine bent at an unnatural angle, and he slid down the wall, falling onto his side on the floor. The stone tiles cracked.
Lu Yuan was pushed back half a step by the force of that aura. With a flick of his finger, he used the faint connection to forcibly withdraw the damaged worm.
Hurried footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor. Kraus rushed in, his bone ring already extended into a short-blade. Dark green light enveloped his left hand as he stopped three paces from the Guardian. He didn't retract the blade, his eyes fixed on the old man writhing on the ground.
"Get back," Kraus said in a low voice, clearly prepared for the possibility of Lu Yuan's failure.
Everyone present knew the consequences of a Rank 5 eerie transcendent losing control.
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