Kraus gripped Lu Yuan's wrist and, with a light tap of his toes on the edge of the cliff, leaped with him into the bottomless abyss.
A sensation of weightlessness followed, and then a violent gale rushed up from below. The drop was easily dozens of meters deep.
After falling from above, the light in the entire space seemed to be swallowed by something. Nothing could be seen, save for a hot, bloody wind blowing directly in their faces.
The wind grew fiercer the further down they went, and that massive heartbeat drew closer and closer with it.
In the next instant, Kraus touched down, his bone armor absorbing most of the impact.
The two landed on a surface that was soft, warm, and sticky underfoot, their feet sinking in slightly. The ground beneath them was clearly made of flesh as well.
Lu Yuan managed to make out his surroundings by the faint dark red shimmer around them, as the grey-white text popped up in his vision.
【Environmental Perception: Forbidden aura detected. Please stay away immediately.】
【Environmental Perception: Pollution concentration is continuously rising...】
A flood of warnings flashed repeatedly, instantly cluttering the edges of his vision. Lu Yuan forced them down. He knew they were already extremely close to that piece of flesh.
Only then did Lu Yuan realize they had landed on a protruding rock platform midway down the abyss. Beneath them, it was still pitch-black and bottomless.
The heartbeat originated from below. With every beat, the flesh of the entire abyss rose and fell in tandem.
The accumulated patterns on the bronze pillars flared to life the instant the heartbeat fell, only to dim once more. In that rhythmic pulse, it was as if the entire abyss were breathing.
Aided by the faint dark red shimmer, Lu Yuan caught sight of the bases of the bronze pillars below.
There lay a massive silhouette composed entirely of flesh.
The base of every bronze pillar was plunged deep into that mass of flesh, their shafts directly connected to it. It was impossible to tell whether the pillars were embedded in the flesh, or if the flesh had crawled up and overtaken the pillars.
The flesh spread out from the very bottom of the abyss, stretching beyond the limits of vision. Its uneven surface gleamed with a wet sheen under the faint dark red light.
Surrounding the few bronze pillars at the core were countless thinner ones, far too many to count.
The sealed piece of flesh had long since merged with the bases and shafts of these pillars. It stretched into thin, fibrous threads of meat, tightly wrapping the entire bottom of the abyss without leaving a single gap.
The interconnected mass of flesh was still throbbing.
With every beat of the heart, the clinging flesh swelled in response, the pulse traveling from the base to the shafts and then spreading outward.
The entire Bronze City had been built solely to suppress this entity.
Lu Yuan instinctively clenched his fists.
Back in the North Ward pipe network, merely looking down from the top of the hive's abyss had been shocking enough. But this time, he had truly reached the deepest depths.
The “piece of flesh” that the City Builder had sealed back then was likely no longer just a piece of meat.
As he kept his gaze fixed on it, the grey-white text finally surfaced before him.
【Target Detected: Forbidden ?? (Severed Limb) (Reviving)】
【The severed flesh of an existence from above the starry sky, seemingly polluted by something. Over the long ages, it has birthed its own consciousness. Perhaps one day, it will be crowned within this abyss.】
The moment the grey-white text appeared and Lu Yuan saw it clearly, an extremely powerful sensation of being watched welled up in his heart.
【Warning: You are being watched by the abyss. Sanity check in progress...】
【Check successful.】
【Warning: You are being watched by the starry sky. Sanity check in progress...】
【Check failed. Sanity -3... 132/140】
Lu Yuan frowned slightly.
In the next instant, the key in his left eye emitted a faint glow, enveloping his entire body. The various miscellaneous Sanity checks vanished at once.
At the same time, the piece of flesh pinned below began to stir. Its base spread and squirmed outward, as if growing agitated.
Deep within Lu Yuan's left eye, the Knowledge Worm had already awakened.
It poked its head out to take a look, only to scramble back under the key in a frantic rush the very next moment.
Lu Yuan could feel the emotions it transmitted—tension mixed with wariness, but notably, no fear.
During its time wandering the Sea of Knowledge, the little creature had likely encountered many similar things. It was not terrified, merely tense, especially since the authority this entity possessed was incomplete.
Simultaneously, the cold sensation on Lu Yuan's left leg suddenly erupted.
As if provoked by something, the black mist surrounding The Suspended Drowner abruptly contracted, shrinking into a tight little ball that clung closely to Lu Yuan's left thigh bone.
The emotion it projected was far stronger and clearer than before—sheer, unadulterated terror, as if it were trembling from head to toe.
It desperately shrank backward, wanting to get as far away from this thing as possible, but it was ultimately bound to Lu Yuan's body.
The black mist surged frantically over his thigh bone.
Lu Yuan activated his Authority in his consciousness, and the teardrop-shaped key turned slightly, releasing a sliver of aura.
Yet before this aura could even reach his left leg, The Suspended Drowner went still on its own.
The mass of black mist was still trembling slightly, but it had indeed stopped struggling. Its two hollow, black eye sockets slowly closed, as it apparently realized there was no escape.
Lu Yuan stared at the contracted black mist on his left leg for a moment. “This thing is starting to make its own judgments,” he thought.
He stopped channeling his Authority and withdrew his attention.
Kraus was currently standing at the edge of the rock platform.
The green light on his bone ring had stopped flashing. The thread that had guided the special individual's retreat route had snapped completely here, pointing into the deeper darkness.
Kraus's eyes were covered in a layer of green light as he stared unblinkingly at the mass of flesh at the bottom of the abyss.
Lu Yuan did not approach him immediately. His attention was pulled away by something else.
Deep in his consciousness, the thread connecting the first three fragments suddenly snapped to its absolute limit, pointing straight as an arrow toward a bronze pillar half-buried in the flesh of the cliff wall to his right.
The fourth fragment was clearly right there.
Without any hesitation, Lu Yuan bent low and ran toward the bronze pillar.
Most of the pillar's shaft was embedded in the flesh of the cliff wall, leaving only a palm-wide strip of bronze exposed.
He did not dither. He did not know if the flesh below would truly go berserk, but he knew with absolute certainty that if he revealed he had “interacted with the fragments,” the entity down there would stop at nothing to eliminate him.
It already possessed consciousness, and it would surely remember what the City Builder had done to it back then.
Lu Yuan pressed his hand against it.
A cold sensation washed over him, and his consciousness plunged downward.
The moment his consciousness touched the fragment, a fragmented memory violently flooded his mind.
Lu Yuan saw a silhouette.
The figure was extremely tall and thin, wearing a robe from some unknown era, standing in a pitch-black space.
He held something in his hands, but the image was blurry, and Lu Yuan could not make out what it was.
The scene tore. The tall figure seemed to make some sort of deal with a tiny figure standing before him.
He took the crown off his head and handed it down, and the small figure below reached out to receive it.
It was a massive golden crown, inlaid with seven glass beads of different colors.
Perhaps they were not glass beads; Lu Yuan did not know what they were either. He only saw them radiating a dreamlike luster in the pitch-black space, exuding an indescribable warmth.
The scene shifted again.
The figure who had received the crown approached a bronze wall. After making some simple preparations, they placed the crown inside.
The moment the crown sank into the bronze wall, the wall slammed shut with a heavy rumble, and golden light erupted from the seams.
In the final frame, the person turned around.
Hovering beside him was a golden, sun-like entity. Lu Yuan could not see it clearly; the image was severely distorted, leaving only a blurry outline and an indescribably ancient aura.
The grey-white text finally popped up.
【Bronze City: 4/5】
【Bronze City Status: +1... 44.2/50】
Lu Yuan's mind reeled.
The information contained in that vision was actually quite sparse, but the aura it exuded gave Lu Yuan the illusion that he was peering at some forbidden existence.
Only then did Lu Yuan realize that a barrage of Sanity checks had popped up before him at some point, but under the protection of the key, they had all succeeded.
The tier of this existence was extremely high. Even a glimpse of partial knowledge would have severely damaged his Sanity, but fortunately, he had the Key to the Sea of Knowledge.
The crown in the vision appeared incredibly sacred and powerful, and its luster carried a trace of warmth.
But this feeling was quite different from what Lu Yuan had observed before.
When he had previously glimpsed the scenes within the walls of the Bronze City, they had exuded an extremely unsettling aura, entirely unlike the image before him now.
Had another change occurred?
There was no time to dwell on it.
The moment the fragment was activated, the flesh below seemed to be provoked.
In the distance, Kraus had already stood up.
The green light on his body was fading, and the luster of his bone ring dimmed. His expression was calm, but Lu Yuan felt that his eyes were different from before—as if something had been added, yet also as if something had been lost.
Kraus did not take anything from below.
He cast one last look at the mass of flesh, then turned and walked toward Lu Yuan.
“Let's go, quickly.”
His voice was kept very low, leaving no room for argument.
Lu Yuan did not speak, nor did the situation allow him to ask.
The heartbeat echoing through the surrounding abyss grew heavier and faster.
The flesh coiled around the bronze pillars now surged toward Lu Yuan and Kraus's position as if driven mad.
A faint, indistinct shadow constantly churned up from below. The flesh, like magma, splashed upward in violent bursts.
The entity had lost its temper.
Or rather, it had been provoked.
A scorching, bloody wind blew directly into their faces from below. A new line of grey-white text popped up before Lu Yuan.
【Environmental Perception: Forbidden aura detected. Please escape.】
Kraus's bone armor solidified in the same instant, covering his entire body as dark green crystals burst from the seams of the armor.
The green light on his bone ring flared to life.
“Hold on to me.”
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