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

The four of them walked to the corner.

Rex walked at the front, his whiskers spreading silently along the edge of the copper wall.

The beam of the marching lights shone into a fork in the road on the left.

Lu Yuan saw it.

The fork in the road leads to the bottom of a sealed-off vertical shaft.

The shaft is not high, about four or five meters, and the top is sealed with copper plates and gravel.

It was filled with the corpses of ghouls.

Large ghouls and small ghouls were piled up one on top of another, from the bottom of the shaft all the way to the middle.

The corpses were interlocked, their limbs gripped by calluses, as if they had been arranged by hand, forming a rough staircase.

The body was shriveled, as if all the moisture had been drained from the inside.

The stratum corneum collapsed, clinging to the bone contours, and the skin became so tight that it was almost transparent.

The air was thick with the smell of death, suffocating inside the shaft, but there was no putrid stench.

Lu Yuan frowned.

The absence of putrefaction indicates that the flesh and blood from the corpse have been extracted.

The very presence of death was driving away the living ghouls, so this section of the pipeline was unusually quiet.

Seeing this, Buren spoke up.

"Build steps with ghoul corpses to lead upwards. At the same time, use the scent of death to drive away living ghouls and keep them away."

He paused for a moment.

"Killing two birds with one stone."

Klaus offered no comment.

His gaze swept over the shriveled corpses, his expression unchanged.

Rick's tentacles retracted from the keratinous gaps between the large ghouls.

"Something is gestating inside these corpses; it's very weak, but the aura is peculiar."

His whiskers hovered for a moment above the pile of corpses.

"Move what you can carry," Rick continued. "Burn what you can't carry. Let logistics handle it; the keratin and skeleton of the Great Ghoul might have some good alchemical materials."

Klaus frowned as he looked at the pile of corpses.

"So many ghouls...where did they collect them from?"

Obviously, no one can answer that.

The shaft was quiet for a while.

The light from the marching lights flickered on the surface of the shriveled corpse.

Klaus finally nodded.

"We'll arrange for someone to handle this later."

At the edge of Lu Yuan's field of vision, gray and white characters flickered.

[Environmental Awareness: Unknown Life is Being Born...]

[A very weak, yet very special being, is still some time away from arriving in this world.]

Lu Yuan was stunned when he saw this line of text.

"Weak? It seems so; it hasn't even developed environmental awareness yet."

He glanced down at the pile of corpses and thought to himself.

"That shouldn't be anything powerful. When the logistics team comes to move them today, these corpses will either be burned or hauled away, and whatever was inside will most likely die along with them."

Lu Yuan didn't think about it anymore.

The four men climbed up the steps made of piled-up corpses.

Stepping on the soles of the shoes, a sticky sensation was felt.

The sound of the stratum corneum cracking and the squeezing of wet skin mingled together, and the aura of death was stirred up by the footsteps, stuck in the shaft and unable to dissipate.

Beren walked at the back, his cane tapping against the chest of a large ghoul with a dull, hollow sound.

"I never did anything like this when I was young," the old man muttered.

We climbed about two floors high.

A metal mesh spans the middle of the shaft, dividing it into two sections.

The mesh wasn't welded very finely, but it was strong enough to withstand a person's weight.

Above the grid lies the Gray Contract Society's true stronghold.

Klaus climbed onto the grid platform and stood still.

Lu Yuan followed closely behind.

The outpost was more spacious than expected.

The upper half of the shaft has been completely renovated.

The iron mesh served as the floor, and simple shelves and hooks were nailed to the surrounding shaft walls. It was more than ten meters in diameter, more spacious than I had imagined.

The beam of the marching lights swept across.

A simple alchemy table was placed in the center.

There were burn marks, dried liquid stains, and scattered powder on the table.

The traces of the operation are very fresh, and some of the powder has not yet been soaked in moisture.

Next to the alchemy table were several small, sealed white bottles.

Klaus walked over, picked one up, and uncorked it.

The liquid in the bottle emitted a clear, luminous glow, like liquid moonlight.

Klaus leaned closer and took a sniff.

"Lapis lazuli water." His eyes lit up. "And its purity is quite good. It's a good material for alchemy."

"Lu Yuan, come and get a bottle. This stuff is very rare in the Empire. If I remember correctly, your alchemy skills are pretty good too."

Lu Yuan was taken aback upon hearing this, but his body still betrayed him and he walked over.

After all, Lu Yuan has never seen a single alchemical material that can serve as an anchor point for alienation.

I picked up a bottle casually.

[Detection target: Hyaluronic acid worm secretions (rare)]

[A diluted version of the secretions from the Glass Worm can be used to craft many rare potions.]

Lu Yuan looked at the gray text, raised an eyebrow, and realized that's how it is. He then casually stuffed it into the satchel at his waist.

Klaus then put the cork back in its place.

Buren showed no interest in this at all; instead, he poked and poked at the pile of ghoul corpses below.

After putting away the 'Glassy Water', Lu Yuan continued to scan the stronghold with his eyes.

On one side of the shaft wall, ten human-shaped hard shells are arranged in a row.

It is translucent grayish-white, like the shed shell of a living organism.

The inner walls are smooth, and the size is just right to accommodate an adult.

Lu Yuan squatted down and took a look.

This is clearly a "bed" belonging to a member of the Grey Pact.

Shedding its shell to sleep, and then re-covering itself upon waking, the liquefaction ability granted by the crystal water makes this dormancy method possible.

Klaus noticed it too.

Walk over and count them one by one.

There are ten in total.

"They actually sent out ten at once?"

His voice lowered, as if he were talking to himself.

"There must be something in the Bronze City that they care about very much."

Lu Yuan did not respond.

I took a leisurely stroll around the base.

Scattered supply debris, several shriveled water sacs, and some small, strange objects of unknown purpose.

One of the humanoid hard shells was slightly different from the others.

Something was embedded inside the shell.

Lu Yuan squatted down and reached out to take it.

A palm-sized copper sheet with fine patterns etched on its surface.

Lu Yuan turned the copper plate over and examined it.

The etched image is a partial structural diagram of the inner city of the Bronze City.

The lines are simple and precise, marking the locations of streets and building complexes.

However, the right half of the image was neatly cut off.

Judging from the appearance, the other half of the picture should be in the hands of the fleeing leader.

Lu Yuan's gaze fell on the left half of the picture.

One location there was specially marked as the inner city municipal hall, on the lowest level.

A sealed-off area.

There was a special symbol drawn next to it that he couldn't understand.

"Klaus, do you know what this symbol is?"

Lu Yuan handed over the copper piece.

Klaus took it, looked at it for a few seconds, and his expression darkened slightly.

"Underneath the City Hall..."

Without saying much, he put the copper sheet into the inner bag.

Beren leaned closer, and the old man heard the words "City Hall," opened his mouth, but ultimately asked nothing.

Klaus gave the order.

"Keep the base as it is, don't damage anything, and arrange for someone to conduct a thorough investigation later."

He glanced at the corpses on the stairs below the shaft.

"Let's go check the bronze pillar first."

Klaus looked at Buren.

"How far is the third calculated coordinate point from here?"

Beren thought for a moment, then tapped his cane on the bronze surface.

"Follow the pipeline from your current location; it will take about twenty minutes."

"Let's go, Laker, lead the way."

The four of them descended the stairs made of corpses back to the pipe network level.

Rick walked at the front, his insect-like tentacles constantly scanning the passage ahead.

Following directions, the four men quickly made their way along the copper pipe network.

This section of the pipeline is deeper and older than the previous one.

The inscriptions on the copper plate are almost completely dark, with only a faint glimmer of dark gold occasionally flashing from the depths before disappearing.

In some areas, the copper plate showed signs of corrosion, with a rough, blackened surface and completely broken conductive pathways.

Beren frowned as he walked, tapping his cane twice on the bronze surface.

"This area is completely outside the coverage of the sealing system." The old man's tone was not pleasant. "It's strange that the power of the city wall runes can't reach here."

Klaus did not respond and continued walking.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, Rick stopped.

"arrive."

Ahead was a large space with a similar structure.

Buren was the first to squat down.

The cane is placed vertically on the ground, hands are placed on the top of the cane, and eyes are closed.

A bluish-white glow seeped into the ground from the bottom of the cane, spreading downwards along the seams of the copper plates.

He opened his eyes a few seconds later.

"The bronze pillar is inside."

But his brow furrowed even more.

"wrong."

Beren stood up, walked to the base of the wall, and used his cane to pry open a loose copper plate.

The underlying soil and rock layers are exposed, with obvious traces. The disturbed soil is darker in color and looser in texture, contrasting sharply with the surrounding compacted soil layers.

Buren rubbed some soil between his fingers and smelled it.

"Very new, only a few days ago."

He turned to examine the bronze pillar itself, his cane moving slowly along its surface, a bluish-white light seeping into the inscription patterns.

"The runes are intact and undamaged," Beren's voice deepened. "But there are slight scratches at the base. They were left when something was being retrieved."

He straightened up and looked at Klaus.

"It's obvious that things have been taken from here."

Klaus's expression remained unchanged, but his tone turned colder.

"The fourth one is most likely gone too."

Four seeds, one destroyed, leaving the Night Watch with only one, while the Grey Pact took at least two.

Grayish-white text appeared at the edge of Lu Yuan's field of vision.

[Current Status of Bronze City: +3…20/50]

Lu Yuan remained silent.

He noticed that Klaus took the copper piece from the stronghold out of his inner bag and brought it close to the copper pillar.

The etched patterns on the copper sheet have a faint dark golden sheen.

Buren noticed it too.

He took the copper sheet and brought it close to the copper pillar for comparison. A faint blue-white light seeped from the cane and flowed into the surface of the copper sheet.

The old man looked at it over and over for a long time.

"The etched patterns on the copper sheet are related to the inscriptions on the copper pillar," Berren said slowly, as if carefully considering each word. "The styles aren't exactly the same, but they seem to be from the same type of hand. It's a very strange pattern that I've never seen before."

He looked up at Klaus and casually handed the copper plate back.

"Klaus, do you think the Grey Pact might have been researching the bronze pillar itself, and the seed was just a side discovery?"

Klaus looked at the copper piece in his hand, said nothing, and simply stuffed it into his inner pocket.

Lu Yuan made a mental note of it.

"It's obvious Klaus knows something, and the Gray Contract Society has grand ambitions, but judging from their attempt to seize the Seed, it seems the Seed outweighs their ambitions?"

Klaus turned around.

"Go back, we've seen everything we needed to see."