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

The ghoul let out a painful howl and rolled wildly on the ground.

The ghouls behind them tried to climb over the charred corpses of their companions, but their own mycelium was also ignited.

One after another.

The entire entrance to the narrow passageway has been transformed into a furnace.

The veteran, missing his little finger, stood to the side and nodded in Lu Yuan's direction.

We can hold this position; the slag works exceptionally well, not to mention the copper powder.

The main battlefront.

The giant ghoul finally moved.

The first one squeezed into the passageway, its horny armor scraping against the passageway walls with a screeching sound, and charged towards the army formation.

Heinrich was clearly furious after what had happened.

Upon seeing the approaching ghoul, they advanced instead of retreating.

"Cohesion".

Heinrich then let out an angry shout.

The four people in the back row closed their eyes at the same time.

The holy light inscriptions on the armor surged, and all the light flowed along the inscription chains in one direction—Inrihi.

Golden energy gathered around him, and dense patterns of light appeared on the surface of his armor.

He drew an extended sword, and holy light surged from its blade.

Take a step forward.

The longsword slashes horizontally.

The golden-white blade of light sliced ​​through the neck of the giant ghoul. Its keratinous armor shattered like burnt pottery shards in the face of the condensed holy light, and the blade cut all the way to the bottom.

The head flew off.

The grayish-red muscles on the cross-section instantly charred in the holy light.

Black blood gushed out.

The headless torso lunged forward two steps before crashing to the ground.

one strike.

The armor of the four people in the back row dimmed a little.

The second large ghoul stopped.

Something flashed in its grayish-white eyes; clearly, it had learned a lesson from the death of the first one.

It changed course, bypassing the battlefield flank and heading straight for Buren along the walls of the water collection chamber.

Wolf blocked its way.

He has completed the preparation and preparation for the forging of his entire body.

Dark red patterns covered his entire body, cheeks, and the backs of his hands.

Something is burning beneath every inch of skin.

His breath seemed to carry sparks, and every step he took left charred marks on the bronze surface.

The short sword was no longer dark red, but a bright orange-red, like an iron billet just pulled from the furnace.

The giant ghoul charged forward.

Take a picture of the forelimbs.

Wolf didn't even dodge; the short sword slammed directly at him.

The moment the short sword pierced through, the furnace fire poured from the blade into the ghoul's body.

The ghoul's grayish-red muscle fibers charred and cracked in the furnace fire, burning through the mycelium all the way.

The ghoul's body began to carbonize from the wound site outwards.

Cracks spread along the keratinous nail, and black carbonized powder oozed from the cracks.

The entire body collapsed with a crash, shattering into a pile of charred remains.

Wolf kicked the remaining corpse to pieces.

His eyes were coldly fixed on the distance.

Lu Yuan watched from behind.

"If the charging speed could be even faster... the Iron Guard would be even more terrifying."

The number of ghouls that subsequently surged in began to decrease.

Without the command of the Great Ghoul, the vanguard coordinated attack quickly disintegrated, with each unit fighting its own battle.

Heinrich directed the Holy Armored Army to clear out the enemy in batches.

The Iron Guard Battalion delivered the finishing blows from the flanks, two strikes each, clean and swift.

The terrain of the passageway is a natural meat grinder, with a front light curtain suppressing and slowing down the animals, and side fires precisely harvesting them.

With a limited number of players entering, the defending side holds a significant advantage.

The battle lasted for about twenty minutes.

The pace became increasingly relaxed.

Beren finished carving.

The blue-white light changed from intermittent to continuous, and from dim to bright.

The inscriptions lit up in segments on the surface of the copper frame, with dark gold lines extending outwards from the frame and spreading along the copper structure to the walls of the passageway.

The inscription has been activated.

On the copper wall at the entrance of the passage, in the area where the inscriptions are lit, the mycelium is frantically shrinking, withering, and falling off.

The ghoul that was rushing in seemed to have bumped into something; its skin started smoking, and it roared as it retreated.

It's sealed off.

Buren removed his hand from the copper frame.

He fell backward, and Kai'er caught him.

The old man's face was as white as paper, but his eyes were bright.

"It's done."

Lu Yuan walked to the bronze frame and placed his palm on it.

The lingering warmth of the dark gold inscriptions still lingered, and the bronze surface felt slightly warm in my palm.

The direction of the inscription lines is perceived through the palm.

[You witnessed the reverse engraving technique... This is a method of engraving inscriptions hidden inside an object onto the outside using special techniques, which can greatly enhance the effect of the inscription... but it is extremely easy to damage...]

[Inscription (Basic): +0.3…0.9/10]

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +0.3…17.5/100]

The battle is over.

Status check: No one has been killed.

Burren was mentally exhausted, but Kel said he just needed a rest.

"The losses were smaller than expected." Heinrich walked over, sheathing his bronze sword. "The terrain of the passage was a great help."

Wolf nodded.

"The furnace consumption is 30% less than expected. My men still have spare capacity."

Lu Yuan did not respond immediately.

He stood in the center of the water collection room, his gaze sweeping over the surroundings.

The inscription is lit at the entrance to the passage on the right.

Temporarily sealed off.

On the left, at the two small openings, the slag was still burning slowly, but new mycelium had already emerged from the gaps at the edges.

At the maintenance access point directly opposite, the copper powder gradually changed color due to the corrosion of mycelium.

"Berlen," Lu Yuan spoke. "How long can your inscription last?"

"At least three months, provided the copper frame structure is not physically damaged," Buren replied, leaning against Kel.

"However, with the help of the Bronze City's power, I can theoretically last longer."

"What about the other three entrances?"

Upon seeing this, Buren shook his head.

"Most of them are stone structures, and there are very few bronze structures. Most importantly, I observed that the other structures are not connected to the Bronze City. My inscriptions will be worn away in two days at most."

"So how do we solve this now?" Bor asked.

"If that thing could take a detour, it would just exit through another shaft. Wouldn't what we're doing be pointless?"

Lu Yuan looked at the pulsating cross-section of the main vine.

"Bohr is right. Besides, this is only a sub-core. The main body that the thing is connected to is still deeper. As long as the main core is there, new nodes will grow sooner or later."

He turned to Wolf and Heinrich.

"Your people are in good condition. The passage has been sealed by the inscription, so no new ghouls will come in from that direction. We are under little pressure."

"I want to push this thing a little deeper and see what it's connected to at the other end."

Wolf glanced at the main vine.

How deep?

"Confirm the direction of the main core, then come back; it should take at most half an hour."

Heinrich thought for a moment.

"Alright, Buren will stay here. I'll leave two guards, and the rest will follow."

Wolf did not object.

"The entire Iron Guard Battalion is following up."

Lu Yuan nodded.

Just as they were about to give the order to depart—

wrong.

Lu Yuan's thoughts were interrupted.

It wasn't the sound that interrupted me, but a feeling.

It comes up from the soles of your feet.

Pulsating.

got stronger.

It became rapidly stronger.

Lu Yuan lowered his head.

The main vine is swelling.

The vein-like patterns bulged up at a visible speed, as if something was surging inside, frantically pouring into it from the depths.

On the other side of the inscribed, sealed passage, something was shining in the darkness through a dark golden light curtain.

Grayish-green light.

Not just a little.

It's a large area.

At the base of that vine, during the few minutes they were discussing their in-depth plans, a new flower bud was forcibly sprouted.

The flower bud appeared out of nowhere and swelled to more than a person's height in a few seconds, with dense gray-green veins appearing on its surface, emitting an eerie glow in the darkness.

It heard it.

The thought struck Lu Yuan like a bolt of lightning.

"Can it even understand human speech?"

The veins on the surface of the flower bud lit up simultaneously the instant it expanded to its limit.

Grayish-green fluorescence emanated from every stripe, converging into a visible ripple that spread outwards from the center of the flower bud.

The moment the shockwave swept through the water collection chamber, Lu Yuan felt as if a needle had been plunged directly into his temple.

[Warning: Extremely high sanity pollution detected...]

[Sanity: -5...110/120]

Lu Yuan took a step back, his mind going blank for a moment.

But only Lu Yuan was still standing.

Others don't have that kind of strong rationality.

Wolf's body stiffened for a moment, the dark red patterns flashed violently, and the surging heat wave instantly subsided.

The flickering flames on his body gradually dissipated.

Wolf bent over, braced himself on his knees, and gasped for breath.

Three members of the Iron Guard Battalion even knelt down on one knee.

Heinrich's army was in even worse shape; the holy light of the four men in the back row dimmed by half almost simultaneously, and the holy light trembled violently under the impact of the contamination.

Clearly, when faced with a challenge of reason, the Holy Armor Army is no match for the Iron Guard Battalion.

Buren lay motionless in Kel's arms.

Kai'er herself was pale.

Bor leaned against the wall of the passageway, his face ashen and his expression contorted.

Lu Yuan looked around.

Everyone.

Everyone except him was stunned to varying degrees.

"It was scared."

This was Lu Yuan's second thought.

It is not attacking.

It's preventing them from going deeper.

The flower bud remained quiet throughout their entire battle.

They remained quiet as they discussed the inscriptions, tallied the casualties, and organized the equipment.

It didn't burst open until they decided to push it deeper along the vines.

It is fear.

"It's afraid; afraid we'll find the core."

"This should be its weakest point."

"Everyone drink the sanity potion! Immediately!" Lu Yuan shouted.

Wolf was the first to react, pulling out a small bottle from his pocket and gulping it down.

The Iron Guard soldiers followed suit.

Heinrich took out standard-issue medicine from the armored army's medicine box at his waist and distributed it to the soldiers.

Bohr also downed a bottle.

Lu Yuan himself did not drink it.

110 points is more than enough.

About thirty seconds later, the effects of the drug began to appear.

Wolf straightened up, and the dark red lines stabilized again, but were a shade lighter than before.

Heinrich's army had restored its basic energy chain, but its radiance was noticeably less than before.

Two men from the Iron Guard Battalion had their dark red patterns on their short swords completely extinguished, as the furnace fire had died out.

Lu Yuan observed the state of everyone.

This team is no good.

In-depth planning is no longer possible.

But he didn't intend to leave just like that.

At the edge of my field of vision, gray and white text flickers.

[Environmental awareness: Pollution concentrations are decreasing rapidly...]

Looking at the notification, Lu Yuan suddenly realized something.

These green vines don't seem to be very powerful to begin with.

When we first came in, the sprawling vines could be crushed with a single step.

Moreover, the bronze sword could be easily inserted into the core of the water collection chamber.

That means they can withstand the scorching of mithril for a little longer.

"So if we can deliver a fatal blow before it recovers—not necessarily killing the main core, but just severely damaging it so that it can't grow new nodes for several months..."

Lu Yuan made a decision.