I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

The water collection chamber is just ahead.

Lu Yuan paused for a moment as he rushed in.

The small passageway on the right.

When I arrived, the dark green vines were quietly spreading along the edge of the passageway, hidden by the copper frame.

It's different now.

Vines sprouted out.

They bypassed the gaps in the copper frame and spread outwards along the stone brick walls of the collection chamber.

It wasn't moving fast, but you could see it wriggling.

The gray-green eyeballs at the tips of each one opened.

They were all facing them.

They were still inside the passageway when we arrived.

Less than half an hour had passed.

Was it the commotion that startled them? Or were they already expanding all along? There was no time to think about it.

"Go through! Don't touch the wall!"

Six people plus two dragging ghouls rushed through the center of the water collection chamber.

The tip of a vine emerged from a crack in the stone bricks of the ground, right at Bor's feet.

Bohr stomped on it and broke it.

A grayish-green liquid oozed from the broken surface.

It rushed out of the collection chamber.

The area of ​​the crawlers.

The gray-white figures on the wall all became restless, their limbs rapidly adjusting their positions on the wall, creating a rustling sound.

But the lights are still on.

The light from two sandworm oil lamps illuminated the procession.

The crawling creature dared not dismount.

They were stuck to the ceiling, their grayish-white mouths opening and closing, their teeth gleaming under the light.

Lu Yuan was running at the back, looking back as he ran.

Darkness writhed deep within the passage behind them.

Not a metaphor.

It is indeed wriggling.

The vines had already extended from the direction of the water collection room, slowly advancing along the walls and ceiling.

Behind the vines, in the darkness further away, the sounds of claws and roars grew closer.

The two large ghouls being dragged were still bleeding, leaving long trails of black blood on the bronze surface.

Lu Yuan took out mithril from his waist.

The bottle gleamed with a silvery-white sheen.

Without hesitation, he tossed the mithril high into the passage behind him.

The glass bottle tumbled in the air, landed in the puddles, and shattered.

boom.

The silvery-white flames exploded instantly.

That was no ordinary fire; it was a refining fire that burned with "spirituality."

Silver flames engulfed the passageway several meters behind them, burning from the ground to the ceiling, covering every corner.

The vines clinging to the wall withered and curled instantly in the silver flames, and the gray-green eyeballs exploded.

Several of the fastest-chasing masked dogs rushed into the area of ​​silver flames, but before they could even bark, their bodies disintegrated and turned to ash in three seconds.

The two crawlers on the ceiling were not spared either.

However, the effect of mithril is short-lived.

After about a minute, the silver flames began to fade.

But this period of time is enough to create distance.

Light appeared ahead.

Sunlight filtering through the shaft opening.

White, warm sunlight.

The six people accelerated almost simultaneously.

"Hang the thing up first!" Lu Yuan shouted.

Bor threw one end of the rope up to the shaft opening, where the young night watchman caught it and pulled it up with all his might.

The first large ghoul, its torso bound by a rope, stumbled and scrambled upwards through the shaft, its severed limbs scraping against the shaft walls with a grating sound.

The veterans supported it from below, while two people pulled it from above.

It crashed to the ground with a thud.

The second one, too, was faster.

Then there are people.

Bol went first.

Buren and Kel followed closely behind.

The veteran missing his little finger was second to last.

Lu Yuan was the last.

He looked back from the bottom of the shaft.

The silver flames of mithril have been completely extinguished.

In the darkness at the end of the passage, something is gathering again.

a lot of things.

Several new vines are spreading back along the charred walls.

The gray-green eyeball at the top slowly opened in the darkness.

Lu Yuan turned around and grabbed the escalator with his left hand.

The moment his right hand gripped the iron ladder, the cut on his thumb and forefinger split open, causing Lu Yuan to wince in pain.

The moment the sunlight hit his face, Lu Yuan flipped onto the ground, turned around, and smashed the cast iron cover plate back onto the ground.

bang.

Boer picked up the copper powder can and sprinkled a thick layer of copper powder around the edge of the lid.

"That's enough," Lu Yuan said.

He leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

The sun is shining brightly.

Although the air on the ground isn't exactly good, it's like a completely different world compared to the air in the pipe network.

Two large ghouls were thrown onto the bronze surface.

It had no limbs, no jaw, only a grayish-red torso wriggling on the ground.

Blood was still seeping from the broken surface, and black liquid hissed and emitted thin smoke on the copper surface, as the copper burned their bodies.

But they are still alive.

The thick stratum corneum of the trunk and core are intact, demonstrating an absurdly strong vitality.

Bohr lay panting beside him, glancing at the two creatures and then at the empty scabbard at his waist.

"Damn it," he muttered.

The old soldier, missing his little finger, dragged the ghoul to a place where there was no copper, while the young Night's Watchman went to a corner and dry heaved for a while.

Berlin was still the fastest runner, his eyes shining.

But the first thing he did after he came up was to doodle on the paper, not knowing what to write.

Then scrape off the fungal layer that was stuck to the cane.

The movements were very careful.

Lu Yuan sat against the wall, looking down at his right hand.

The veins on the back of my hand were still throbbing.

I can't use my right hand for the time being.

Lu Yuan's gaze fell on the two still writhing ghoul torsos.

"Move them behind the alchemy workshop," he told Bor. "Find a place to lock them up and sprinkle copper dust around them."

"Don't let anyone else touch it."

Bor glanced at him.

"you want...?"

"Dissection".

Lu Yuan's tone was very calm.

"I want to know what's in their brains."

Inner city.

The Night Watch Division.

Glock stood at the door of Klaus's office, took a deep breath, and pushed the door open to go inside.

The office is small.

The window was half open, and outside were the streets of the inner city. Occasionally, the sound of hammering could be heard from afar, as inscriptionists rushed to repair runes.

Klaus sat behind the table.

A map of Bronze City lay before them, marked with more than a dozen locations in red ink: collapse points, blockade lines, supply routes, and position distribution.

He didn't look up.

"explain."

Glock recounted what had happened.

The copper coin has been touched.

Several months to half a year ago.

But the people at the city hall didn't have any corresponding repair records.

Moreover, the corrosion on the inner wall of the pipeline is more severe than that on the outer wall.

Pollution originates from within the pipe.

Throughout the process, Glock spoke at a slow pace and with clear logic.

After he finished speaking, the office was silent for a few seconds.

Klaus's hand stopped on the map.

Then he looked up.

His expression was cold.

"Some people want to die."

He muttered a curse under his breath.

Glock stood there without saying a word.

Klaus removed his hand from the map and leaned back in his chair.

There was a few seconds of silence.

His gaze fell on a certain spot on the map, paused for a moment, and then looked away.

"You go back first."

"...What instructions did the branch give?"

"The instruction is to go back first," Klaus said in a low voice. "I'll arrange for someone to handle this."

Glock's lips moved slightly.

But in the end, nothing was said.

Sometimes knowing too much is definitely not good news.

"What's the situation in the inner city?" Glock changed the subject.

Klaus tapped his fingers twice on the table.

"The flooding in the Old Parliament Square is still going strong. The volume has decreased slightly compared to the previous two days, but it hasn't stopped. The Church's Holy Light Blockade is being heavily strained, and the nuns' shifts have been reduced to once every three hours. The water supply hasn't been restored yet."

He paused for a moment.

"The collapsed areas in the outer city can only be repaired by ourselves for now. I have asked the inscription masters to speed up the process and repair as much as possible. There will be no reinforcements in the short term."

Glock nodded.

"understood."

He turned and walked towards the door.

As I reached the door, Klaus's voice came from behind me.

"Glock".

"Um?"

"If you find any similar situations, remember to tell me first."

"clear."

Glock opened the door and went out.

The door closed behind him.

In the office, Klaus lowered his head again, looking at the map.

His gaze lingered on a spot in the inner city.

I tapped that spot twice with my finger.

Then I folded the map up.

afternoon.

Glock's carriage came from the direction of the inner city.

When he jumped out of the car, his expression was complicated.

Lu Yuan went to meet him.

The two went up to the second floor.

Glock closed the door.

He briefly recounted Klaus's words.

Lu Yuan nodded.

He was not surprised.

After all, this city is in a terrible state.

It wouldn't be surprising if something strange happened.

"There are a few more things that happened after you left."

Lu Yuan briefly recounted the gray-green backflow and the pipeline tracking from this morning.

Then there are the things encountered in the pipeline network.

"The giant ghoul is deliberately creating an eeriness."

Glock turned around, a rare expression on his face.

"Um?"

"They use their own secretions to catalyze the alienation of humans and create four-legged hunting dogs. The face-dogs and the giant ghouls work together and have a clear subordinate relationship."

Lu Yuan's tone was very flat.

"The giant ghouls on the ground don't act like that; they only know how to charge and bite. These two in the pipeline are different; they have strategy and a division of labor."

Glock remained silent for a few seconds.

You said "these two".

"We brought it back, alive, and it's locked up behind the alchemy workshop."

Glock glanced at Lu Yuan.

My gaze fell on his right hand.

He didn't ask how the two creatures were caught.

"What are your plans to do?"

"Dissection," Lu Yuan continued.

"Compare the pollutants on the ground to see the difference between brain tissue and the pollutant residue in the body."

Glock did not object.

But his expression became more complicated.

After listening, Glock stood by the window with his back to Lu Yuan.

There was a moment of silence.

"No wonder." His voice was somewhat hoarse. "How did Bronze City become like this?"

Lu Yuan did not respond.

Glock turned around.

"There's one more thing." Lu Yuan picked up a letter from the table. "The one you brought back."

Laurena's letter.

The letter was the last one that Laurena wrote before she was escorted to headquarters.

It was folded twice and stuffed into an unsealed kraft paper envelope.

Lu Yuan walked to the window and opened it in the afternoon sunlight.

Laurena's handwriting remains unchanged.

The first half contains the intelligence that Lu Yuan wanted.

The church's blockade line centered on the Old Parliament Square and covered approximately 400 meters.

Outside the blockade line, they are basically ignored at night, and although there are patrols during the day, they are too busy to keep up.

The supplies were stored in the western warehouse of the city. There was only one transportation line, escorted by night watchmen, and the supplies only traveled twice a day during the day.

The city gates were still closed, and there was no external supply.

She estimated the warehouse would last two to three weeks.

The nuns' shifts have been shortened to three hours.

The archbishop did not show up.

But she overheard rumors at the branch that new reinforcements might be arriving soon.

It's unclear who exactly they are.

The handwriting paused here.

"Something's not right at the Tower of Learning."

"The recent allocation of alchemical materials has surged. Several batches of rare high-level materials have been urgently transferred in, all through the Tower of Learning's own internal channels, without going through the branch approval process."

"I discovered this when I was setting up the pharmacy archive for the branch. The consumption rate of some materials didn't match the branch's usage records. The excess materials all went to the Tower of Knowledge."

Then comes the most crucial sentence.

"The Tower of Learning has been sealed off."

Lu Yuan's gaze lingered on those four words for two seconds.

"I'm not sure exactly when it was sealed off. But these past two days, people who went to deliver materials to the Boxue Tower were stopped outside, told it was for 'internal research needs,' and no one other than Boxue Tower personnel was allowed to enter, not even branch staff."

Seal the tower.

At a time when Bronze City was facing the worst ghoul crisis in its history.

As the runes on the city wall weakened and strange things kept emerging from the collapsed openings.

While everyone was desperately defending the city.

The Tower of Learning chose to lock itself away.

Lu Yuan turned the letter over to the other side.

The handwriting in the latter half is even more hurried.

"The escort team departs tomorrow; this is the last letter."

"Regarding what I told you before, the Third Tower Laboratory—the documents are still there. It's not convenient to write them down here; you'll need to go there in person."

"No one else can take it."

The last line of text was written very small, almost touching the bottom of the paper.

"Don't die."

Lu Yuan stared at those two words for a long time.

Then he folded the letter and put it in his inner pocket.

evening.

The sun began to set in the west.

Lu Yuan stood at the window on the second floor of the Alchemy Workshop, looking at the street outside.

My right hand rested on the window frame, and the crack in the web between my thumb and forefinger throbbed with pain.

The Tower of Learning.

What is the Tower of Learning doing?

Lu Yuan's gaze swept across the street and toward the inner city.

In the distance, the spire of the Pagoda of Learning gleamed with a dark, bronze luster under the setting sun.

Outside the window, the last ray of sunlight fell on the runes on the city wall.

The runes glowed faintly.

Then it went dark.

The seventh night has begun.

Lu Yuan closed the window.

I went back to sit in the corner.

The revolver rests on my knee.

Keep watching tonight.

Tomorrow, we'll dissect those two things.

Then--

Let's see what happens on the other side of the Tower of Learning.