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

Lu Yuan didn't waste the rest of the afternoon.

Sitting at the lab bench, I continued to identify the ninth symbol on the bone fragment.

This symbol is more difficult than the previous ones.

The line splits into three branches in the middle, each branch bends and then converges back to the main line, forming a nested structure.

After staring at it for almost two minutes, my temples began to throb slightly.

[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +0.1...3.5/50]

[Sanity: -1...82/120]

Lu Yuan rubbed his temples and put the bone fragment down.

Nine now.

We're just one short of the ten thresholds that Dol Hawke mentioned.

However, I have important business to attend to this afternoon.

There's no rush with the symbols.

I had lunch at the logistics canteen.

After returning, I leaned against the bed and closed my eyes to rest, and took the opportunity to walk around the guard twice.

[Defense I: +0.3...8.8/10]

The outline of that river deep in my mind became a little clearer.

When I opened my eyes, the light outside the window was already off-center.

It's afternoon.

Lu Yuan returned to the second floor of his residence and took inventory of his equipment.

The 'Flame' bullets were filled, and Lu Yuan also added two gold-plated enchanted bullets just in case.

I took two bottles of premium holy water from the locker and stuffed them into my waist pocket.

This thing can not only restore sanity, but also combat pollution; it's bizarre.

Lu Yuan didn't bring the bronze sword at all. Apart from dealing with ghouls, it was not as effective as a revolver against other strange creatures.

Moreover, it has problems with both hardness and strength.

Close the toolbox.

Lu Yuan headed to the location of the mission indicated by Klaus.

Soon, the three met at the entrance of the branch's underground passage.

Beren leaned on a cane and carried a flat leather bag in his other hand.

It is a portable inscription tool kit.

A set of tools for basic inscription analysis in the field, with three blank rubbing papers tucked into the side of the bag.

The old man glanced at Lu Yuan.

"The journey for this mission is estimated to take two hours. My legs haven't been feeling well lately, so please walk slowly."

Lake is already here.

After his identity was recognized by some people in the pipeline layer, Rex completely stopped pretending in front of Lu Yuan and the others, and would transform into a worm if he could.

At this moment, Rex's body, composed of fleshy worms, wriggled in the light of the marching lamp.

The short brown hair plastered to a head with indistinct facial features was the only feature that proved it was human.

Rick didn't say much.

Tentacles extended from the sides of the body, silently spreading forward and probing along the copper wall.

"Klaus must have instructed me that this operation is under my command. When I say retreat, the action must be swift!!"

"no problem."

"Um."

The three then entered the pipeline layer.

The further you go into the inner city, the better the condition of the pipeline network.

This section of the pipeline copper plate is intact, with clear inscriptions on the surface, and a dark golden light pulsating within the patterns with a stable rhythm.

Just like Klaus said.

This section of the pipeline has been emptied.

We didn't encounter any ghouls or see any other pollution along the way.

Along the way, the tentacles formed by the Rex worm occasionally contracted, and the light from the marching lamps cast long shadows on the copper walls.

It took about an hour and a half to walk.

Buren stopped.

The cane stood upright on the ground, and a faint blue-white light seeped from the bottom of the cane, spreading forward along the seam of the copper plate.

Beren's face looked somewhat puzzled in the blue and white light.

"Is the inscription's structure broken?"

"And it was done by someone?" Beren squatted down, tapped his cane twice on the bronze surface, and listened to the echo.

"It's a very strange technique; I've never seen it before."

Rick's tentacles silently stretched forward, extending for about five or six meters, before retracting.

"No one has ever walked this road before," Rick's voice came from the writhing body.

"At least not in recent decades. There's no sign of life around, which shouldn't be the case."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yuan looked ahead, but neither the aura nor the gray-white characters appeared. Clearly, there was no danger or anything special about what lay ahead.

Beren stood up and tapped his cane on the ground.

"Keep going."

The three of them found a gap along the edge of the blockade and continued forward.

Then, after turning a corner, all three of them stopped at the same time.

The original smooth copper floors and piped walls have been completely replaced here.

The inscriptions covered everything.

The ground, the walls, the top of your head.

The inscriptions spread out like some kind of living thing, forming a clear dividing line. On one side of the dividing line is the normal pipe network, and on the other side is the territory of the inscriptions.

The pipe network also disappeared.

The water supply and ventilation pipes of Bronze City, as well as all the copper pipes embedded in the walls, were all cut off at the dividing line.

It's as if the builders of the entire Bronze City deliberately bypassed this area when constructing the pipeline network.

Beren stared in shock at what he was seeing.

"How is that possible..."

Beren's voice was forced out through clenched teeth.

He stood in front of the dividing line, his cane on the ground, staring motionlessly ahead.

"The core inscriptions of the Bronze City are only found on the underground bronze pillars and the inner city walls. The pipe network layer has never had independent inscriptions... Why are there so many here?"

He crouched down, the tip of his cane touching the inscription on the ground, a faint blue and white light seeping into the engraving.

The old man's face turned deathly pale under the blue and white light.

"And this isn't a large inscription."

He looked up at Lu Yuan.

"These are strange inscriptions."

At the edge of Lu Yuan's field of vision, gray and white text appeared.

[Detection Target: Mysterious Inscriptions (Ancient)]

[A special inscription used against? that can seal and extract?]

Lu Yuan looked at the incomplete information with a serious expression.

This place is beyond our understanding of the Bronze City.

At this moment, Rex also sensed something was wrong. The worms that had been scouting ahead slowly contracted and all gathered around the main body.

"This place is strange." Rex's voice came from the insect's body, his tone unusually tinged with discomfort. "It strongly suppresses my mutated supernatural abilities."

Despite feeling a slight discomfort in his body, Beren did not delay.

He took out a rubbing paper from his bag, selected an area with dense inscriptions, and rubbed it onto the paper.

He carefully put away the rubbing paper and looked up at Lu Yuan.

"Shall we delve deeper?"

Lu Yuan glanced at the edge of his field of vision. No new warnings appeared in the gray text.

A brief silence followed.

"Continue. If things don't look good, retreat immediately."

The three of them crossed the dividing line.

Rex's worms stopped probing forward and retreated to within three or four meters of Lu Yuan and Bo Lun, forming a moving protective circle.

The runes around them became increasingly dense.

The space began to expand.

The air around us was eerily frightening.

A chill seeped up from the ground, and exhaled breath condensed into white mist in the light of the marching lights.

The walls and the floor are covered with dense inscriptions.

The air became eerily quiet.

Fortunately, the inscriptions showed no signs of activation; they were simply carved there quietly.

[Environmental Sensing: Pollution source detected...]

The gray and white text appeared several times.

But the pollution doesn't seem to be too serious.

The light from the marching lights was starting to become insufficient.

The light source here has its range compressed by some force. What used to illuminate more than ten meters is now reduced to five or six meters before being swallowed by darkness.

Rick paused for a moment.

Then, from somewhere, perhaps inside the insect's body, four more marching lanterns were taken out.

The tentacles, made of worms, extend out, each tentacle holding a lamp.

Four tentacles spread out in four directions, like an octopus, suspending the marching lights four or five meters away from Lu Yuan and Bo Lun.

As the light spread, the three of them were finally able to see clearly.

Ahead, countless strange inscriptions snaked upwards from the ground, converging on a massive bronze wall.

The copper wall is tens of meters high.

There are no visible signs of assembly; it appears to have been cast as a single piece.

Judging from the inscriptions that extend down the wall, the actual wall seems to be much larger than it appears, with more of the wall hidden beneath the ground.

Moreover, the copper wall is very new.

It looks brand new, like it was just built.

The surface has a dull but clean copper-colored luster, without any rust.

The walls are covered with inscriptions.

The strange inscriptions were mixed with symbols that Lu Yuan did not recognize at all, densely packed, stretching from the bottom all the way to the heights where the light could not reach.

The moment Rick saw the wall, his body reacted.

The tentacles that had been extending out, holding up the marching lights, suddenly retracted.

The four lamps then retracted, the light suddenly dimmed, and the copper wall disappeared back into darkness.

"Hurry up."

Rex's voice came from the insect's body, tinged with obvious discomfort.

"The pressure here is too strong. I'm not used to it."

Lu Yuan glanced at Lei Ke.

This fourth-tier mutated superhuman, during the last battle with the Gray Pact Society, had half of his worms killed and shrunk in size, but he didn't say anything.

Now they're telling themselves to hurry up.

This might really be the core of Bronze City.

Without further ado, Buren took the marching lamp that Rex handed him.

"I'll go over and take a look."

Lu Yuan told Lei Ke, "You wait here," then took a lamp and followed Buren toward the copper wall.

Rex nodded, his insect body shrinking to its smallest size as he stood ready.

Lu Yuan and Bo Lun's footsteps echoed in the empty space.

As they got closer to the copper wall, the two finally saw it clearly.

This wall is indeed very new, so new that it doesn't seem like something that should exist underground. The inscriptions on it don't shimmer and flow like those on the inner city walls; they are simply carved there quietly.

What is most eye-catching is the presence of numerous swirling symbols where the branches of the inscription connect.

Lu Yuan's gaze had just swept over those vortex symbols...

The world before my eyes began to distort.

The wall was spinning, the light from the marching lamp was spinning, and my hands were twisted into a pretzel at the same time.

It's an illusion.

Extremely intense hallucination.

Lu Yuan abruptly shifted his gaze and lowered his head.

The hallucinations subsided.

But Buren didn't react as quickly as him.

The old man visibly swayed the moment he saw the vortex symbol.

Then he suddenly lowered his head, his face turned pale, and bent over, dry heaving several times.

Nothing came out, but the feeling was obviously unpleasant.

"Strange inscriptions...that's really scary..."

As he spoke, Buren straightened up, his body trembling slightly.

My eyes have become docile, no longer daring to look directly at those vortexes.

"Just a couple of glances and it almost drained my sanity."

He stood up shakily, his eyes fixed on the swirling symbols.

Beren took out the remaining two sheets of rubbing paper from his bag.

This time he was very cautious, choosing an area outside the vortex symbol. He placed his hand on the surface of the copper wall and quickly imprinted two inscription structures.

Keep the rubbing paper safe.

Then he turned to look at Lu Yuan.

His expression was very serious.

"I'll use my abilities to investigate later. You stay away."

"If you find something's wrong with me, just knock me out and carry me away."

He paused for a moment.

"What's sealed beneath the eerie inscription is definitely related to the supernatural. And this is the core of the Bronze City. I suspect there might really be something hidden inside."

"Um."

Lu Yuan took a few steps back.

His mind was already focused on his chest, connected with the timekeeping, ready to flee at any moment.

Moreover, he would try to avoid looking directly at the copper wall, because at the moment he approached it:

[Environmental awareness: Detected ???... Please move away immediately!!]