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

Chapter 260 Beren Awakens

A faint blue light occasionally flashed in his eyes.

Lu Yuan composed himself.

Grayish-white text appeared.

[Target for detection: Buren (Exceptional Knowledge) (Large-scale Inscription) (Believer)]

[A human who has entered the realm of the extraordinary has his own insights into inscription, but seems to believe in something.]

Lu Yuan's smile froze.

'believer?'

My heart sank.

'Could it be that thing behind the copper wall...'

But he forced himself to calm down for two seconds.

'No. Believers, not believers who are extraordinary.'

This distinction is important.

For a believer to be extraordinary means to be corrupted and transformed, and the whole person will change.

But being a believer is merely a mark on the level of faith.

It was not contaminated.

Lu Yuan felt a sense of relief.

He controlled his expression and spoke.

"Berlen, tell me. How did you advance your rank?"

Beren watched Kale leave, and smiled when he heard Lu Yuan's words.

"What, you want to faint once and then advance directly? You're dreaming."

The old man gave Lu Yuan a disapproving look. But he still leaned against the edge of the bed and began to speak slowly.

"I tried to sense the wall with my own senses. But I didn't actually sense anything."

Buren looked a little embarrassed as he said this.

"Logically, the reason I can't sense it is because my knowledge gaps are too large. The inscriptions on the bronze wall are at a very high level; theoretically, unless I gain a deeper understanding, I would never be able to decipher them in my lifetime."

He paused for a moment.

"But when I withdrew my senses, I saw some images."

Berlan's tone changed. It was no longer the smugness from before; it carried a hint of inexplicable confusion.

"There was a huge sun in the sky, rotating. Countless people were bowing before it below."

"I was dizzy and disoriented, and I was also pulled and bumped a few times."

He touched the back of his head.

"After that, I don't remember anything. When I woke up, I had advanced to a higher level."

There was a two-second silence.

"To be honest, I'm starting to wonder if I unintentionally performed some kind of ritual."

The old man's tone carried a hint of unease.

"But I haven't lost anything, my sanity is normal, there are no signs of contamination, nothing has changed, I just inexplicably advanced to the third tier."

After hearing this, Lu Yuan felt completely at ease.

Everything makes sense now.

At that time, he was noticed by the thing behind the copper wall, which implicated Buren.

But the hidden witnesses intervened, taking notice of Buren and also protecting him.

Therefore, Buren was not contaminated or transformed.

But because of that moment of contact, he was branded as a "believer" and in doing so, he crossed the threshold of advancement.

A blessing in disguise.

"Maybe it's just a remnant of an image from an inscription?" Lu Yuan said with a smile.

"You're really lucky."

Beren couldn't figure it out either. He chuckled twice and stopped worrying about it.

Lu Yuan took out nine brain cores from his pocket.

Ghoul brain nucleus.

Each one is engraved with dense, eerie inscriptions.

The dark red glow had faded, but the engravings were clear and the inscription structure was intact.

"By the way, the reason I came to see you this time is also to ask you to take a look at this thing."

Lu Yuan placed the brain core on the shelf by the bedside.

Have you seen anything similar before?

Buren leaned closer.

Seeing the patterns on the brain nucleus, his eyes lit up.

"I didn't expect you to have memorized all the inscriptions in just a few days?"

The old man picked one up from the shelf, twirled it between his fingers, and held it up to the light to examine it closely.

"Let me see what you've done."

Buren looked at it over and over for more than ten seconds.

Then he froze.

Then he picked up the second one. The third one.

The more I looked, the more strange his expression seemed.

"Lu Yuan."

Beren raised his head, his eyes shining even brighter than when he had drawn the inscription out of thin air.

How did you come up with that idea?

He laid out the nine brain nuclei in a row and ran his fingers along the connecting lines between them.

"You made subtle modifications to this inscription. Each one is different, but all of them perfectly fit the internal structure of the ghoul's brain core."

His voice grew faster and faster as he spoke.

"And you've strung them together—nine brain cores, the inscriptions connecting end to end, forming a complete loop."

Boren looked up at Lu Yuan, his expression shifting repeatedly.

"A genius. An absolute genius."

After saying this, the old man seemed to remember something and sighed.

"You chose the bizarre inscription style as your talent. It's a complete waste."

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.

"There was no waste. My path suits me better, and inscription studies were just a side thing."

He paused for a moment.

"Moreover, my ability to carve this kind of thing is related to the strange things I've encountered. If I were a specialist in inscription, I might not be able to carve it at all."

Buren rolled his eyes.

"You're really good at comforting people."

The old man refocused his attention on his brain core, and his tone became serious.

"However, your idea is indeed ingenious. You've stirred up the residual energy within the ghoul's brain core and solidified it."

He touched the pattern on one of the brain nuclei with his fingertip.

"The most crucial point is connecting them together, activating all nine simultaneously, causing the inscriptions to resonate and maximizing the release of the ghoul aura within the brain core. This makes it truly usable."

Buren placed the brain nuclei back on the shelf one by one.

"I've never seen anything like this before. You've really opened my eyes."

The old man shook his head and gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"However, the bizarre inscriptions do suit you. The idea of one material corresponding to one special inscription gives me a headache just thinking about it. I can't remember them."

He pushed the nine brain cores back in front of Lu Yuan.

"Give me a few of the individual ones later, and I'll take a look."

His tone suddenly turned a degree somber.

"But you must be extremely careful with these nine linked inscriptions. I can sense the eerie aura within them. If this thing leaks out, it will be a form of contamination."

Lu Yuan put the brain core into his pocket.

He nodded.

Buren was silent for a moment, as if he had suddenly thought of something.

"By the way, let's go down again sometime."

Lu Yuan looked at him.

"I have a deeper understanding of the inscriptions now. I'd like to take another look at the inscriptions on that wall."

Buren's tone became serious.

"I suspect that the Bronze City might be alive."

Lu Yuan was taken aback.

"How so?"

Beren sat back on the edge of the bed, rested his hands on his knees, and thought for a few seconds before speaking.

"I've wondered for a long time how the inscriptions on the Bronze City have remained intact for thousands of years."

"When it collapsed into the abyss last time, I thought it was a bronze pillar. The entire city draws some kind of power from the underground bronze pillar, which, along with inscriptions and materials, is transmitted throughout the city."

He paused for a moment.

"But there's a problem. Bronze is the bane of ghouls. When these two things collide, they only repel each other. Forget about absorption; they'd practically explode if put together."

"Therefore, the copper pillar cannot be the source of power. It is more like a conduit."

Beren raised his head and looked at Lu Yuan.

"The real source of power is what's behind that wall."

"The city has been able to function for thousands of years, most likely because of that entity. The bronze pillars draw power from it, the inscriptions distribute and guide it, and the materials bear it. None of these can be missing."

Lu Yuan remained silent.

Buren continued.

"If that was the Gray Contract Society's initial target..."

The conversation stopped.

The two people looked at each other.

There's no need to finish speaking.

If what lies behind the copper wall is released, the Bronze City will lose its source of power, and its inscription system will collapse. And the first target of that being, sealed away for countless years, will be the very city that has imprisoned it for so long.

Lu Yuan thought for a moment.

But is it really that simple?

The gray text suggests that the entity exists at an extremely high level. Could such a thing really be stopped by just one city?

There must be some other insurance that is not known to others.

"Sure," Lu Yuan nodded. "If you're going down, it's best to prepare beforehand. You could even bring Klaus along."

Beren nodded. "No problem. But not today. I still need to familiarize myself with the third-tier abilities."

Lu Yuan chatted with Bo Lun for a few more minutes before getting up to take his leave.

After leaving the medical area, walk back along the corridor.

As he passed the logistics department, Lu Yuan noticed that there were many more people in the corridor.

They were all night watchmen. Their faces were unfamiliar; they must have been transferred from other units.

One of them saw Lu Yuan and quickly went to greet him.

"Captain Lu."

The young night watchman stood straight and saluted.

"As instructed by Deputy Chief of Staff Klaus, we will temporarily take over the patrols for the next few days. If anything happens, you can contact us through this link."

He handed me a small, delicate-looking bronze whistle.

Lu Yuan took it and glanced at it.

"Understood. Thank you for your hard work."

The night watchman nodded and stepped aside.

Lu Yuan put the bronze whistle into his pocket and continued walking.

Afterwards, Lu Yuan returned to the second floor, preparing to continue trying to see what would happen if the two nines were connected.

But the result was completely unexpected.

When the two sets of nine were combined, one of the sets exploded on the spot.

It was as if the structure couldn't withstand it.

It turned into dust.

Looking at the gray workbench in front of him, Lu Yuan realized that the quality of the brain core he had carved was still too poor.

After reaching "nine", it can no longer withstand the subsequent pressure.