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

The direction has turned northwest.

The main road has become narrower.

The air has changed.

The temperature is slowly dropping.

The breath I exhaled began to produce white mist.

Very shallow scratches appeared on the copper plate underfoot.

It's claw marks.

Lu Yuan stopped and squatted down to take a look.

It's very new.

Something walked here.

Lu Yuan stood up.

The gray and white text flickered at the edge of my field of vision.

[Environmental Awareness: Pollution levels are rising... Please remain vigilant...]

Lu Yuan stopped in his tracks and raised his left fist.

The line stopped.

Everyone held their breath.

He looked into the darkness ahead.

The marching lights couldn't reach the end.

The light was swallowed by darkness twenty meters away.

Quiet.

It's too quiet.

Then everyone heard it.

far away.

It was transmitted very faintly.

The sound of something's foot dragging across the bronze surface.

Sizzle... sizzle...

Not just one.

There are many.

But they didn't get close.

They kept their distance in that darkness where the marching lights couldn't reach.

It's like they're waiting for something.

Bor leaned closer, speaking in a low voice.

"How so?"

"I'm not sure, the quantity seems a bit too much."

Bohr didn't ask any more questions. The short-throw pump's safety mechanism had already been activated.

Wolf stepped forward and stood beside Lu Yuan.

A dark red heat emanated from his body.

He didn't speak.

Just staring into the darkness ahead.

Everyone was looking into the darkness ahead.

The friction sound didn't stop.

They didn't get close either.

The team continued its advance.

Lu Yuan lowered his revolver, signaling to move forward slowly.

The scraping sound continued in the darkness ahead.

But they never got close.

Wolf's body had begun to flicker with fire.

Heinrich's holy light inscription shone brightly, spreading out a golden-white light that illuminated the space beyond the reach of the marching lights.

The light shone on something.

At the first corner.

Several pale white figures.

They crowded around the corner, as if lying in ambush waiting for the procession to pass.

But they are too slow.

The first one peeked out from around the corner, half of its body sticking out.

Its skin was deathly pale, with almost no visible stratum corneum. Its mouth was open, revealing two sparse rows of sharp teeth.

The grayish-white eyes had no pupils.

It took a step. Towards the group.

The foot dragged across the bronze surface.

bark...

Very slowly, like someone who has just learned to walk.

He leaned forward, stretched out his hands, and seemed to want to attack the crowd, but his body couldn't keep up with his intentions.

The gray and white text flickered at the edge of my field of vision.

[Detection Target: Ghoul (Early Metamorphosis)...A small ghoul in the metamorphosis stage]

Early metamorphic form.

Lu Yuan dissected a giant ghoul.

I know this thing is strong, but right now, it's surprisingly weak?

Why are there so many ghouls here? They look like they just mutated. Could there be some kind of mother nest here?

They poured out from every corner.

It seemed premeditated.

But it's too slow.

The pipeline passage is narrow; three or four people standing side by side can block the entire road.

Heinrich's bronze sword swept across, its blade piercing through the extremely thin keratin layer with a single stroke.

Wolf pushed the fire across, and the skin was instantly scorched upon contact, turning the pale skin to a crisp.

Bor's short burst cleared the flanks, and the projectiles penetrated without resistance.

The nun, seeing this, did not make a move; she merely frowned and stepped back.

As one batch of ghouls fell, another batch poured out from an even deeper passage.

A continuous stream.

But they are just too slow.

The team barely slowed down.

Clean up as you go.

The pale white newborn body crumbled like paper in front of everyone.

Then something else appeared mixed in with it.

"Bang!"

Bor's short burst knocked down a large ghoul that charged out from behind the pale white "wall of men".

With a thick stratum corneum, it walks on all fours and moves ten times faster than the newborn organisms.

Compared to the pale white newborn, the threat is on a completely different level.

But this time they brought only top-notch experts.

Heinrich's Holy Light Dagger pierced the neck of the second large ghoul.

Wolf pressed down on the third head with his palm, and the furnace fire poured into his palm, causing the keratin to carbonize and crack from the inside.

Less than a minute.

Clean it thoroughly.

Relaxed.

The team paused briefly.

Rex walked up from the rear.

He took out a communication crystal from inside his coat.

It's a pair with the one Glock left at the relay point.

Rick held the crystal and spoke to it.

"Relay point. Reck reports."

A few seconds later, Glock's voice came from the crystal.

The sound was somewhat intermittent, clearly indicating that the surrounding pollution had caused this result.

"receive."

"A large number of low-level ghouls were encountered between the third and fourth sections of the northwest branch. They were pale white, moved extremely slowly, were in the early stages of metamorphosis, numbered over a hundred, and were mixed with a small number of large ghouls. They have all been eliminated."

He paused.

"These things look like larvae. Did you see them when we were cleaning the pipe network before?"

There was silence in the communication crystal for a few seconds.

Glock's voice came through:

"We did clear out quite a few ghouls during the cleanup a few days ago, but most of them were large ghouls that escaped into the pipe network layer through the collapse gaps. Their numbers were not large. The pipe network layer still has bronze structures. Except for the severely damaged area near Beifang, the structure of other places is basically normal, so the number is scarce."

"As for the pale white larvae? I've never seen them."

Lei Ke glanced at Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan frowned slightly.

"It makes sense that the giant ghoul escaped through the collapse. But where did the hundreds of juveniles come from?"

The bronze structure of the pipeline can suppress the strange phenomena.

Under normal circumstances, ghouls will not go inside.

Hundreds?

"Keep pushing forward, maintain contact," Glock's voice came from the crystal.

Rex put away the communication crystal and retreated to his rear position.

The team set off again.

The deeper you go, the more stable the frequency of encounters becomes.

Not too much, not too little.

Occasionally, a few pale white newborn creatures would dart out from the side fork.

Occasionally, one or two large ghouls could be seen.

But the ghoul knew this group was not to be trifled with.

Instead of charging blindly, they hid deep in the side passages, only daring to show themselves after the main force had passed.

Lu Yuan heard the sound of claws running across the bronze surface twice, both times heading into the distance.

Along the way, at each fork in the road that he didn't go into, Lu Yuan used his bronze sword to carve arrows and numbers on the entrance wall.

There are too many forks in the road.

The pipeline network is more complex than I imagined.

About an hour and a half later.

The structure of the passageway ahead has changed.

The copper plate is thicker.

The sound of stepping on it was deeper and more solid.

The pipelines went from dense to sparse, and then to completely disappeared.

At the end of the passage is a large space.

The top is more than twice as tall.

There are almost no pipes on the four walls.

The copper surface is clean and the vein patterns are very faint.

It's like the end point of a structure; it looks like there's nothing there.

Beren, leaning on his cane, walked to the center of the space and stopped.

The old man slowly squatted down and placed his palms on the copper surface.

Eyes closed.

A few seconds later, a bluish-white light seeped from the fingertips into the ground.

"There's something inside."

He stood up, pointing his cane at the wall directly in front of him.

"Help me dig it up."

Heinrich glanced at Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan nodded.

Two armored knights used their bronze swords to chisel open the bronze plates on the surface of the wall, revealing a layer of compacted earth and stone behind them.

As the earth and rocks were continuously dug away, a copper pillar was revealed.

This bronze pillar is embedded inside the wall and is about one meter in diameter.

The surface is covered with inscriptions, almost identical to the one from Beifang.

But the runes on this one are glowing.

The dark golden luster flowed within the inscription patterns; it wasn't strong, but it was definitely functioning and was almost perfectly intact.

Buren practically lunged at him.

He threw his cane on the ground, placed his hands on the surface of the bronze pillar, and let the blue and white light seep in.

My hands were trembling.

Lu Yuan did not disturb him and waited for a long time.

Beren then turned around and lowered his voice.

"Captain Lu, come here."

Lu Yuan walked over and looked at Boren.

"Try putting your hand on it."

Lu Yuan realized what Bo Lun wanted to do.

He placed his palm on it, and it felt slightly warm to the touch. Then, Lu Yuan could sense something slowly flowing inside the bronze pillar.

"Can you feel the flow of the patterns inside?"

Lu Yuan nodded.

"You felt it."

Burren's eyes lit up.

"You're a genius! Cough cough, think about it yourself."

But Lu Yuan nodded, clearly indicating that this was what Bo Lun was referring to regarding the choice of inscription studies.

Without saying anything more, Beren took out rubbing paper and charcoal pencil from his tool bag, unfolded them, and stuck them on the surface of the bronze pillar, quickly rubbing the side of the charcoal pencil against it.

With practiced skill, the patterns of the inscription gradually emerged on the white paper.

Everyone watched in silence.

A few minutes later, Buren put away the rubbing paper, rolled it up, and stuffed it into his tool bag.

He turned to face the crowd.

"My deduction is correct."

Beren's voice returned to normal.

"In the four directions beneath the Bronze City, there is a bronze pillar in each of the four cardinal directions, with identical patterns of energy transmission and inscriptions. They together form a complete seal."

He patted the bronze pillar.

"If we dig downwards from here, we'll definitely uncover more structures. At that point, we might be able to unravel the secrets of all the runes in Bronze City, and even gain complete control over the city."

There was silence for a few seconds.

Beren shook his head and muttered to himself, "It's just that relying entirely on autonomous operation right now is such a waste."

Lu Yuan wrote down those words.

The gray and white text flashed briefly.

[Current Status of Bronze City: +2...17/50]

However, just as everyone was preparing to leave for the next location, Wolf leaned against the wall in the distance. Dark red patterns flickered irregularly through the gaps in his gloves.

Lu Yuangang noticed.

Wolf suddenly stood up straight.

He froze, the dark red lines spreading upwards from the gloves, from his arms to his neck, the color changing from dark red to white.

"Suppress him!" Lu Yuan immediately reacted and shouted.

The two from the Iron Guard Battalion reacted the fastest.

Since they both used the furnace route, the two approached Wolf as soon as they saw that he was in trouble.

The dark red patterns on their bodies lit up simultaneously, flames rising along their skin, and they pounced on Wolf from the left and right, locking his arms in place.

Fire against fire.

But it didn't work.

Wolf's body temperature was far above normal.

The moment one person's palm touched him, white smoke billowed out, and a large scorch mark appeared on his forearm. He groaned and let go. The other person gritted his teeth and held on for two seconds before being thrown away.

"Bang!"

It crashed into the copper wall.

Lu Yuan's eyes quickly swept over Lei Ke, but he didn't move at all, only pretending to be preparing to make a move.

At that moment, the nuns in the group moved.

He crossed his hands and drew several handprints.

An angel's blessing; a pale golden film covered everyone except Wolf.

You have received a blessing from the angels; your physical body will experience a slight enhancement in the short term.