Lu Yuan was woken by hunger.
When he opened his eyes, the light in the room had already dimmed. The sliver of daylight leaking through the gap in the curtains had a reddish hue, clearly the color of late evening.
Lu Yuan didn't rush to get up, first estimating the time in his head. It had just been dawn when he returned from the Polymath Tower; sleeping until the sky turned dark meant at least a full day had passed.
At the edge of his vision, the grey-white text quietly calculated the tally.
【Sanity: +12... 49/140】
【Sanity: +11... 60/140】
Lu Yuan stared at the two lines of numbers, momentarily stunned.
The Sanity recovered from a sleep had always been a fixed twelve points, never a fraction more. This time, after the twelve points were settled, the number had climbed further on its own by a full eleven points.
But Lu Yuan quickly understood; the extra portion was the potion Margaret had injected into his blood still taking effect.
Yesterday, when the medicinal liquid entered his bloodstream, the grey-white text had mentioned the words "long-acting." It seemed that throughout his entire sleep, the medicinal power hadn't rested, secretly replenishing his Sanity bit by bit.
Half of his 140-point capacity was still empty, but the grogginess in his head had mostly dissipated. He was no longer in that state of sluggishness where he had to process a sentence twice in his mind to understand it.
Lu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and pushed himself up. Just as he was about to get out of bed, a slight sound came from the outer living room.
The movement was very light, like the clink of someone setting down cutlery.
Lu Yuan's hand pressed against the edge of the bed.
This house was assigned specifically to him by the Nightwatchers. There were guards at the door year-round, and normally, no one would enter the house directly.
The first person Lu Yuan thought of was Bo Er; having heard he was back, the fellow would likely stop by for a look.
Or perhaps Kraus had sent someone to summon him.
He threw on his coat, put on his shoes, and walked out of the bedroom.
A person was sitting in the main room.
In a dark grey overcoat with dark green satin piping turned back at the cuffs, the figure held a coarse ceramic bowl, head lowered as they took small sips of the meat soup inside. Hearing footsteps, the person looked up, their expression perfectly composed.
"You're awake."
Lu Yuan stopped at the doorway, looking at the visitor as his brow furrowed.
"A.M.?" He stared at that young face. "What are you doing here?"
A.M. set the bowl down, a look of slight confusion appearing on his face instead.
"Why shouldn't I be here?"
He acted as if he truly didn't understand what Lu Yuan was asking, looking down at the bowl again and scooping up a spoonful of soup.
"Your Nightwatchers' meat soup tastes quite good." He looked up at Lu Yuan. "Are you hungry? If you are, I'll have them bring you another bowl."
Lu Yuan was momentarily speechless.
A.M.'s relationship with the Nightwatchers wasn't so good that he could just casually ask for a bowl of soup in the inner courtyard of the branch. In fact, by all rights, A.M. shouldn't even have the clearance to enter the Nightwatchers' premises.
There was no need to ask where the soup came from; it was clearly ordered using Lu Yuan's name. The Nightwatchers, seeing a guest come to find him, had provided a bowl.
This man truly entered whichever door he pleased.
Lu Yuan didn't dwell on it; doing so would be a waste of effort.
"Bring me a bowl too," he said simply, then turned to wash up.
After Lu Yuan finished washing and came out in clean clothes, he sat down across from A.M., though he didn't touch the bowl of soup.
"Speak," Lu Yuan said, looking at him. "What do you want with me?"
A.M.'s lips curled slightly. He pulled something from the inner pocket of his overcoat and placed it on the table between them.
It was a badge. Made of metal and about half the size of a palm, its surface was polished to a shine. Engraved in the center were three concentric ripples radiating outward, with a tiny dot marking the center.
Lu Yuan's gaze fixed on the ripples.
He recognized this pattern. The shell badge A.M. had thrust upon him months ago bore the exact same three ripples. On the night of the Ritual of Remembrance, he had followed this man in reciting the oath word for word: "The forgotten, I shall remember." As each word fell, a tangible power had flowed into his body—though Lu Yuan seemed to have something else inside him, so he hadn't been bound by it at all.
"Welcome to the Forbidden Lore Society officially." A.M. tapped his knuckles on the badge and pushed it toward Lu Yuan. "This is your badge, and your codename."
Lu Yuan reached out, picked up the badge, and flipped it over.
The back was smooth, except for two words engraved in the center in a script he had never seen before.
The strokes of the script were twisted and strange, yet the moment he looked at them, the meaning surfaced directly in his mind.
Scholar.
"My codename is Scholar?"
"Yes." A.M. nodded. "Based on a comprehensive assessment of your performance during this period, your assigned codename is Scholar, Number Seven."
Lu Yuan gripped the badge, rubbing his thumb over the engravings on the back while another matter turned in his mind.
Joining officially wasn't entirely a good thing for him. While it provided another channel to seek information and assistance, it also meant he was becoming more deeply entangled with the Forbidden Lore Society from now on.
He had already caught a glimpse of what lay behind this organization during the incident with the Great Ascendant—it was that City of Chains that imprisoned the curled silhouette. That being said, things had reached a point where he had to accept this badge whether he wanted to or not.
"Number Seven." Lu Yuan looked up. "Does that mean, including me, the Forbidden Lore Society only has seven people in total?"
A.M. finished the last sip of soup, set the bowl down, and wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Yes," he said, looking at Lu Yuan. "In the Empire, how many people can touch the Forbidden and still come out whole? And among them, how many are fit to enter our Forbidden Lore Society?"
Lu Yuan remained silent, looking down as he turned the badge over and over.
"I see. What about the previous badge?"
"That counts as your authorization. You can give that badge to others to temporarily recruit them; just remember to have them recite the oath."
A.M. watched him tuck the badge into his shirt, then suddenly shifted the topic.
"So, did you heal the Guardian?"
Lu Yuan's hand didn't stop as he stowed the badge, but he gave a cold laugh in his heart.
As expected.
This man hadn't slipped into the Nightwatchers' branch and sat in his room for half the day just to officially induct him into the society.
After all this circling, the true purpose finally showed its head.
Hearing this, Lu Yuan neither admitted nor denied it, throwing the question back instead.
"Where did you hear that?" Lu Yuan didn't even raise his eyelids. "Besides, what makes you think a rank 2 Knowledge transcendent could save a rank 5 whose pathway has spiraled out of control?"
The string of counter-questions didn't make A.M. frown; instead, it made him laugh. He didn't play coy.
"There's nothing strange about it. In the Empire to this day, there have been a total of four cases where a pathway rampage of rank 5 or above was stabilized."
"In every single case where one was stabilized, without exception, it was inextricably linked to the Forbidden." He paused, his gaze landing on Lu Yuan's face. "It's not hard to see that you have some kind of forbidden existence behind you. Calculating it that way, it's not surprising you could pull the Guardian back from a rampage."
"As for the source of the news," he shrugged, "the Great Ascendant told me."
"Also, your methods are quite good." A.M. tilted his head, studying him for a few more seconds. "I didn't expect the Great Ascendant to be stupid enough to try and imprison The Man on the Wall on his own authority. It was you who stopped him."
Lu Yuan remained outwardly impassive, but he quickly processed those few sentences in his mind.
Four cases. On the way Margaret had carried him back, she had mentioned the same number—he was the fifth case. The two accounts aligned perfectly; the weight of this matter was truly not light.
This is getting a bit troublesome...
A.M.'s information had come from the Great Ascendant. On the night the Guardian was treated, the Great Ascendant had been in the Polymath Tower and had witnessed some of it, so he had immediately reported it to A.M., who was also in the Forbidden Lore Society. It seemed they had been exchanging information all along.
As for the comment "you have some kind of forbidden existence behind you," Lu Yuan didn't respond at all. A.M. was only circling the periphery; he hadn't mentioned a single word about the key or the worm in Lu Yuan's left eye. Ultimately, this man guessed he had a backer but couldn't be sure what that backer actually was.
A.M. didn't press him for a statement, continuing on his own.
"Based on your performance this time, combined with your previous missions, I'll credit you with three points first."
"These three points," A.M. held up three fingers, "you can use to ask me three questions, or you can save them and have me do one thing for you in the future."
Lu Yuan wasn't in a hurry to answer.
With such a thing placed before him, he had to think clearly about what to ask and what to keep. A.M. knew far more than he did, but every word that came out of this man's mouth was carefully selected. Asking something too shallow would be a wasted opportunity; asking something too deep, A.M. might not be willing to answer, and it would instead reveal what Lu Yuan most wanted to know.
He arranged the priorities in his mind and spoke.
"First question." Lu Yuan looked at him. "How many existences like the one in the City of Chains actually stand behind the Forbidden Lore Society? You've been borrowing their power all along, just like making a deal with The Man on the Wall. Surely there's a price to pay for this borrowing?"
A glint of interest flashed in A.M.'s eyes.
"Good question." He didn't dodge it. "The society currently relies on two. As for which two specifically, I cannot tell you."
"The borrowing of power is real, and the amount we can borrow is not small." He paused. "But the price is very heavy. You'll understand just how heavy it is later on; I won't say more."
Lu Yuan's heart stirred.
Two? He had originally only glimpsed the City of Chains on the night he joined, and he had assumed that was the society's entire foundation.
It seemed this society had been established much longer than he thought, and there were more things suppressed beneath it than he had imagined.
He noted this and asked the second question.
"Second question. Does everyone who has ever stepped into the Sea of Knowledge inevitably bring something back with them?"
A.M. didn't answer immediately, instead throwing a question back.
"The thing you brought out," he looked into Lu Yuan's eyes, "has it already started to cause some trouble?"
Lu Yuan did not answer directly, instead waiting for A.M. to continue.
Rate on N.U.
