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

The sudden appearance of gray and white text forced Lu Yuan to realize that his speculation seemed to be correct.

"This is getting bad."

Lu Yuan put down the tweezers and glanced at Boren.

"I'll open up the ghoul's brain now to check if this kind of mycelium is inside."

Beren nodded, moved toward the ghoul's head, and pressed his hands against the sides of the skull.

The smaller one was already very weak. Its body twitched slightly, its degenerated eyes were half-open and half-closed, and it barely had the strength to struggle.

Lu Yuan's eyes remained calm as he continued his strike. The ghoul's skull was harder than its keratin layer.

The bone saw made three cuts to create a sufficiently large opening. However, because he operated the entire time with his left hand, Beren helped to hold it in place.

When the skull cap was lifted, a strong, fishy stench wafted out.

Kel frowned and took a step back.

Lu Yuan didn't see the gray notification, so he didn't do anything.

The ghoul's brain tissue had shrunk and degenerated extensively. Only a thin layer of grayish-white brain matter remained, clinging to the inner wall of the skull like dried mud.

This is the same as the ghouls on the ground.

The alienation process will rot most of your brain.

Buren was right; their brains were rotten, and logically they couldn't possibly be intelligent.

But what's in the center of the brain cavity is not normal.

The atrophied brain tissue was replaced by a mass of grayish-green crystalline material.

The crystals are irregularly branched.

It looks like a tree growing upside down.

The main trunk occupies the center of the brain cavity, is about the thickness of a little finger, and is covered with dense, tiny particles that refract a dim green light in the air.

Branches extend outwards from the main trunk, passing through the remaining brain matter and spreading downwards along the spine.

Lu Yuan carefully used the tip of his knife to pry open the end of a branch.

The filamentous structures at the tips are connected to the gray-green hyphae in the entire muscle layer.

From the brain to the spine, from the spine to the limbs, from the limbs to the fleshy sacs in the palms.

It was like a densely woven net inside the ghoul's body.

[Detection target: Unknown...Warning...This structure is beyond the scope of current knowledge...and contains a certain degree of contamination...]

When Buren saw what was inside the skull, he squatted there without moving.

"What the hell is this thing? It actually replaced my whole brain?!"

Beren's voice was a little hoarse, and then he immediately realized a problem.

"Lu Yuan, whatever you do, don't touch this thing... It can parasitize giant ghouls, it might even parasitize humans."

Lu Yuan then carefully touched the main crystallized stem with the tip of his knife.

The branches trembled slightly.

This thing is alive too.

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +0.5…14.3/100]

Lu Yuan put down the scalpel.

He took off the thick leather gloves, which were stained with black blood and grayish-green liquid, and threw them into the pile of copper powder.

The answer is already clear.

The giant ghouls in the pipe network are intelligent, not because ghouls have become smarter.

It was these grayish-green mycelia that invaded their bodies.

It spread along the muscle fibers, eventually building new organs within the body, replacing the already small brain of the Great Ghoul, and taking over the entire body.

Ghouls are just shells.

The real controller is the mycelium that lives inside it.

The same applies to the face-dog. The giant ghoul uses the fleshy sacs in its palm to catalyze the alienation of humans; ultimately, it is the mycelium that uses the ghoul's body to create more hosts.

This behavior is most likely an instruction from the mycelium.

This allows them to expand.

Use ghouls as carriers, masked dogs as outposts, and pipe networks as channels.

They have strategies. They have reproductive logic. They have territorial awareness.

Lu Yuan shifted his gaze from the ghoul's corpse.

The first thing that came to his mind was not the corpse in front of him.

It is an abyss.

The honeycomb-like caves are layered upon each other.

There are at least tens of thousands of ghouls hidden inside.

If these mycelia spread from the pipe network into the abyss...

Tens of thousands of ghouls, each one was taken over.

Each one has a strategy, coordination, and division of labor.

They are no longer a pack of charging beasts.

It is an army.

Lu Yuan stared at the filamentous object still slowly wriggling in the glass container.

His voice carried a hint of solemnity.

"This thing must never enter the abyss."

Buren looked up at him.

"The pipeline is the channel." Lu Yuan wiped the blood from his hands. "Although we don't know exactly where the source of the pollution is, it has already spread to the collection chamber, and the channel leading down from the collection chamber might lead to the abyss."

"During the last retreat, I saw a dark green vine that had already wrapped around the copper frame."

"If we don't do anything, it will eventually go down that passage."

He didn't continue.

But Burren's face had turned pale.

The old man had spent his entire life working with inscriptions and had a better grasp of the scale of ghoul lairs than anyone else.

Tens of thousands of "stupid" ghouls have pushed Bronze City to its breaking point.

Tens of thousands of "smart" ones.

He didn't dare to think any further.

Lu Yuan carefully removed the grayish-green crystals, placed them in a glass container, and sealed the opening with wax.

This sample should be kept.

Then he packed up his tools and took the two vessels back to the alchemy workshop.

Buren followed behind, without saying a word.

When he reached the top of the stairs, Buren paused for a moment.

"That copper frame," he began. "You said last time it got tangled in vines, what about the frame itself? Is the structure still intact?"

"Complete." Lu Yuan turned to look at him.

Buren nodded.

"If the framework is still there, I can carve a sealing inscription on it; it's not too complicated."

"How long will it take?"

"The on-site operation will take about half an hour."

half an hour.

Deep within the pipeline network, in a collection chamber surrounded by dark green vines, I work undisturbed for half an hour.

Lu Yuan didn't reply and went upstairs.

Second floor of the Alchemy Workshop.

Glock is already here.

He was leaning against the window, his coat draped over his arm; he had clearly just arrived.

"I heard from Bor that you were going to perform an autopsy." Glock's gaze swept over the grayish-green liquid remaining on Lu Yuan's hand. "And the result?"

Lu Yuan placed the instruments on the table and briefly explained the autopsy results.

Buren supplemented the verification of pulsatile homology.

After listening, Glock remained silent for a long time.

He tapped his fingers on his knee a few times.

"Are you sure there's a passage between the pipeline and the abyss?"

"I'm not sure, I even doubt that the pipe network layer and that underground thing have any connection."

"But I don't dare to gamble. You've seen the collapse; that thing was dug out by ghouls."

"And the passageway to the right of the water collection chamber," Lu Yuan continued, "is where the dark green vines emerge from, and that passageway extends downwards."

"I don't know if it can dig on its own, but I can't guarantee it."

Glock remained silent.

"And there's the shaft," Lu Yuan continued. "There was movement under the cover last night. The edge of the copper powder ring has started to change color, and the discolored copper powder has lost its ability to burn."

"At the current rate of corrosion, the copper powder ring will completely fail in three to four days."

Glock looked up from the map.

"Not afraid of copper? And it's spreading upwards too?"

"Um."

The room was silent for a few seconds.

"You want to go down there again," Glock said.

"It's not a matter of wanting, it's a matter of needing." Lu Yuan's tone was calm. "But not now. We don't have enough manpower or firepower. We need to prepare."

"What do you need?"

"A large quantity of mithril and other similar weapons, and exorcism grenades—if I can get them, I'd like a few too."

"Use enough mithril to burn the vines near the entrance of the passage, and then seal the passage."

"Berlen can engrave the sealing inscription on the bronze frame. It will take him half an hour."

Glock did not agree immediately.

"I can't approve the amount of mithril myself; I need to apply to the branch. You know the stock on the ground; after the pipeline was used up, there's not much left."

"Exorcism grenades are even more difficult to deal with. Those things are issued to the Edge Watch bases, and we don't have any here."

"But I'll try my best to adjust it for you."

"As soon as possible."

Lu Yuan added, "At most three to four days."

Glock didn't say anything this time.

I stood up and picked up my coat.

"I'm going to the branch office today."

He paused when he reached the door.

"Support will be here soon, I'll ask for as much as possible."

After a pause, Glock added another sentence.

"By the way, I received a confidential letter from the branch this morning. Someone in the inner city has noticed that several officials from the city hall have been entering and leaving the old drainage facility entrance in the outer city late at night."

Glock's voice was very low.

"Those facilities and pipelines overlap, Klaus implied that the branch was already secretly monitoring them and prepared to take action."

"Things should calm down for a while, at least on the surface."

[Current Status of Bronze City: +1, 7/50]

After Glock finished speaking, he turned and left, and the sound of a door opening came from downstairs.

Lu Yuan remained silent.

Someone is tampering with coins. Someone is entering and exiting the drainage system late at night. Bacterial hyphae in the pipe network are spreading rapidly.

The same city. The same time period.

He doesn't have the energy to follow that line right now.

Let's solve the immediate problem first.

Lu Yuan put the sealed gray-green crystal sample into a tin box and tucked in a short note inside.

Anatomical findings: living hyphae, homologous pulsation, and risk of abyss invasion.

Those who can understand it will understand it.

Lu Yuan did several things on the front lines.

The monitoring of the vertical shaft direction has been changed from once every two hours to once every hour.

Each time, the extent of the discoloration of the copper powder ring is reported to determine just how strong this grayish-green substance's corrosive ability is to copper.

The complete record of the dissection was dictated to Kel, who then wrote it down.

There are two copies in total.

One copy is kept at the alchemy workshop, and the other is given to oneself.

Then check all the weapons that are currently available.

With the silver-plated bullets and the previous supplies, we have over 380 rounds.

Twenty-four copper-cased incendiary bombs.

There's still one can of mithril left.

That's all.

It's not even half of what it was back in Grim Port.

"Why."

Lu Yuan stood behind the alchemy workshop, looking at the large, living ghoul that was still imprisoned.

It was curled up in the copper powder ring, its shattered jaw still opening and closing silently.

The grayish-green filamentous patterns on the smaller one's grayish-red flesh membrane are denser and deeper.

The crystals inside the brain cavity must also be larger.

A more mature host.

Lu Yuan looked at it for a few seconds, then turned and went back to the Alchemy Workshop.

in the afternoon.

Glock hasn't come back yet.

Lu Yuan decided to go to the inner city himself.

He needed to see the current state of the inner city with his own eyes, and also to prepare for entering the Tower of Learning.

The samples and instructions also need to be delivered to the scholars in the branch as soon as possible. It's too slow for Glock to deliver the messages alone; some things need to be explained in person.

He temporarily handed over the frontal defense to Bor.

Before leaving, he gave me a few instructions.

Ammunition allocation remains unchanged. Any abnormalities at the entrance should be sealed with copper-cased incendiary bombs; do not skimp on this.

The copper powder ring in the vertical shaft should be checked every hour.

If the gray-green backflow in the Beren channel suddenly accelerates, it must be cut off immediately. It is better to sever that segment of the channel than to allow the backflow to gush out from the ground interface.

The larger, living ghouls remained imprisoned.

We may need to use it again later.

"Be back before evening," Bohr instructed.

"Um."

Lu Yuan had traveled the road from Beifang to the inner city several times.

There were almost no civilians on the streets. Occasionally, someone would peek half their face out from a crack in a building door, see Lu Yuan's Night's Watch badge, and then shrink back inside.

The battle marks on the walls grew increasingly dense: bullet holes, scorch marks, and dried blood.

In some places, the bloodstains covered a large area, stretching from the wall to the ground and dragging for several meters.

The copper floor beneath my feet has lost its luster in some areas.

The bronze that loses its inscription has a significantly reduced ability to suppress strange phenomena.

The closer you get to the inner city, the more patrols there are.

Night watchmen, nuns, and occasionally armed personnel in different uniforms can be seen.

Everyone had the same expression on their face.

exhausted.

In the distance, towards the Old Parliament Square, the remaining light of the Holy Light Blockade had not completely dissipated even during the day.

The pale golden beam of light appeared and disappeared intermittently.

After the water supply was interrupted, people lined up on the roadside.

The line was very long.

They were waiting for the church's water purification technique.

A nun stood at the front of the line, her hands glowing with a faint white light, as she slowly poured water into an iron bucket.

It's very slow.

The people in line waited silently. There were elderly people and children.

As Lu Yuan passed by, several people looked up at him.

His eyes were vacant.

Lu Yuan did not stop.

The Inner City. A division of the Night's Watch.

Glock is inside discussing something.

Lu Yuan did not go in.

He handed the tin box to a staff member at the branch office and instructed him to pass it on to the scholar in charge of the analysis.

"Do not touch the contents directly."

The clerk looked at the box and nodded.

Lu Yuan waited in the corridor for a while.

There were more people coming and going than usual.

There were a few faces he didn't recognize, and the badges on their chests were different from those in Bronze City.

A batch of reinforcements has arrived from headquarters.

It's unclear who or how many people were involved.

When Glock came out, he didn't look well.

"About mithril?"

"Klaus said he'd figure something out. We're in charge of the outer city's weapons reserves, and the consumption has been too high these past two days," Glock said in a low voice.

"The weapons in the inner city are not under our jurisdiction, and those old fogies are having a lot of unpleasantness because of the Tower of Knowledge."

Lu Yuan remained silent.

This was somewhat expected.