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

But there weren't many people on the street.

The dim yellow light of the gas lamps illuminated sections of the ground, with darkness between the lamps.

Occasionally, the sound of a horse-drawn carriage wheel rolling over the stone slabs would come from afar and then quickly disappear into the distance.

The river of light overhead flowed slowly across the night sky.

The pale purple glow was more pronounced than during the day, covering half the sky.

Lu Yuan walked behind Holger.

The revolver is inside the jacket; judging by the time, the weapon I ordered before should arrive soon.

Franz and Konrad walked on either side of the procession.

Besides the four of them, there were three Night Watchmen from the executive level following behind.

Seven people.

The footsteps were very light.

Turn two street corners.

We arrived at Zhuguan Lane.

The alley is short, ending at a large cast-iron gate.

Above the porch was an eagle emblem, made of bronze, which gleamed dimly under the gaslight.

The light in the gatehouse was on.

Holger stopped in front of the gate.

He glanced back at everyone.

He didn't speak, but made three gestures.

Franz on the left, Conrad on the right, and the rest of the men followed him.

Franz and Conrad, along with two night watchmen, disappeared silently into the alleyways.

Holger waited for about thirty seconds.

That's enough for both sides.

He stepped forward, raised his hand, and knocked on the door three times.

The iron gate made a dull thud in the night.

The doorman's curtains moved slightly. A pale face pressed against the glass, looking outside.

Hogel took out the Night's Watch badge and held it up at eye level with the doorman.

"Night watchman, routine security check. Open the door."

The sound wasn't loud, but it was crystal clear in the quiet night.

The doorman hesitated for a few seconds, then the sound of the door latch moving rang out.

The cast iron gate was ajar.

Holger did not give him a second chance to hesitate.

He reached out and pushed open the door, then stepped inside.

Lu Yuan followed behind him.

The last watchman was in charge of controlling the gatehouse, covering its mouth and holding it down, making almost no sound.

The front yard is not big.

It is paved with stone bricks, and neatly trimmed shrubs are planted on both sides.

Directly in front is the main building, a three-story stone structure with faint light shining through its pointed arched windows.

The rightmost window on the second floor was lit up; it was clearly the Baron's study.

Holger did not pause.

He led a night watchman straight through the front yard, pushed open the main building door, and his footsteps echoed rapidly on the stone stairs.

Lu Yuan did not follow him upstairs.

He walked toward the right side of the main building.

The basement entrance, marked on the floor plan, is at the end of the corridor between the main building and the annex.

Two short shouts came from upstairs.

"The Night Watch enforces the law; those who resist die!"

Then came the sound of furniture colliding, not loud, more like someone hurriedly getting up and knocking over a chair.

A few seconds later, it was quiet.

It's clear that everything is under control.

Lu Yuan was not distracted.

At the end of the corridor is a half-closed wooden door.

Behind the door are downward stone steps.

He pushed open the door and went downstairs.

The stone steps are very steep.

Every few steps along the wall, a copper wall lamp is embedded, its candlelight dim, casting long shadows.

The air has changed.

The deeper you go, the stronger the smell becomes.

This isn't the smell a wine cellar should have.

Beneath the sour, fermented wine lay a layer of something else... an indescribable stench of decay.

Lu Yuan paused for a moment.

"It smells somewhat similar to the smell in the Beifang pipeline network."

Not exactly the same.

But he couldn't forget that sweet undertone.

This is the scent that the mycelium core emits.

The stone steps lead to the bottom.

The basement is not big.

Twenty to thirty square meters.

It used to be a wine cellar, with several rows of oak wine racks standing against the wall, on which a few bottles of wine covered in dust were placed.

But the wine rack was pushed to one side.

There are obvious scratches on the ground in the middle, and something has been moved frequently.

Several wooden crates were piled up in the corner.

The lid of the box was not completely closed.

Lu Yuan walked over and lifted a lid.

empty.

A very thin layer of grayish-green powder remained on the inner wall.

"Lapis Lazuli Water."

Residue after drying.

The composition is consistent with what Bor previously found in the warehouse basement.

He put down the lid of the box and looked at a few more boxes. The four or five wooden boxes were in similar condition; they were all empty, with a thin layer of grayish-green residue hanging on the inner walls.

Clearly, this was used for transshipment, and the contents inside have already been moved.

Lu Yuan stood in the center of the basement. At first glance, he didn't see any obvious traces.

But Lu Yuan didn't just passively observe.

Close your eyes.

Perception unfolds.

The river of reason surges in the mind, and the seeker's perception spreads outward from the body.

The atmosphere of the basement was peeled away layer by layer, revealing the residue of crystal water.

Under these influences.

There's another layer.

Extremely pale.

An aura that was almost completely concealed.

It was a faint trace that almost vanished into this space.

It carried an aura that Lu Yuan had never seen before.

If the cellar hadn't been a sealed space, this aura might have completely dissipated by now.

"It seems someone is deliberately concealing their presence, and it doesn't seem to be the Gray Pact..."

And something else.

"Who? The Church? The Ascension Society? Or something that existed even earlier?"

Lu Yuan stood up and slowly walked along the wall.

My fingers glide lightly across the stone wall.

As I walked behind a row of wine racks, my fingertips touched something wrong.

There is a very shallow crack in the stone wall, which is different from the texture of the other walls.

Lu Yuan pushed the wine rack aside.

There is a shallow, hidden compartment on the stone wall behind.

It's about the size of a palm and is embedded in the wall.

There was only one thing inside.

A small piece of wood, about the size of a thumb, with fine lines on the surface, like tree bark.

Lu Yuan took out the fragments.

The moment I picked it up, gray and white text appeared.

[Detection Target: Unknown plant fiber (deceased)]

Lu Yuan's fingers tightened.

Plant fiber.

"Berlen's report mentioned that the molted material from the Grey Pact contained trace amounts of plant fibers, the source of which has remained unknown."

"Now the same thing is in von Linde's cellar."

Just as Lu Yuan was putting the fragments into his inner bag...

A noise came from upstairs.

This is not the sound that should be heard during normal control procedures.

The sound of furniture breaking and dull thuds.

Then came a short, agonizing scream.

Lu Yuan reacted quickly, stuffing the fragments into his pocket, pulling out the revolver, and turning to go upstairs.

Stone steps, two steps at a time, connecting corridors, side entrance of the main building, and stairs.

Second floor, towards the study.

The door had been kicked open.

Lu Yuan rushed to the door.

The inside was a complete mess.

The desk was overturned on the ground, the chair was broken into pieces, a brass lamp lay on the ground, its oil spilled everywhere, and the flame flickered on the stone slab.

A night watchman lay in the corner, a gash torn open in his shoulder, deep enough to expose the bone.

Gritting his teeth, he pressed on the wound, and blood seeped out from between his fingers.

Holger stood in the center of the room, his sword drawn, the blade coated with a layer of black liquid.

And by the window...

Baron von Linde stood there.

Or rather, something that used to belong to von Linde is standing there.

Holger's knife left a deep wound on his body, diagonally from his right shoulder to the side of his neck.

They almost chopped his head off.

But he did not fall.

What was seeping from that horrific wound was not blood.

It is a grayish-green, viscous liquid that seeps out like resin.

The skin around the wound is changing at a visible rate, hardening and becoming rough.

The bark-like texture spread outwards from the wound, covering half of the neck and climbing up the jaw.

Grayish-white text appeared at the edge of the field of vision.

Grayish-white text exploded at the edge of my field of vision.

[Target for detection: Von Linde (in progress of alienation)]

[A human who gained power by embracing an unknown curse, but unfortunately, he has not yet mastered this power.]

Weakness: Fire

The baron's head, hanging beside his shoulder, had a ferocious expression, his eyes flashing with anger, and his mouth opening and closing.

"The power they promised me...is...eternal..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

The Baron then made his move.

The speed was faster than Lu Yuan had expected.

The baron reached behind the overturned desk with his right hand and picked up a short sword that looked like a decoration.

But judging from the cold glint it gleamed, it was clearly a real combat sword, with the family's eagle crest engraved on its hilt.

With a backhand slash, the baron's sword, whistling through the air, hurtled straight for Hogel's throat.

Holger turned his head to avoid it, his blade held horizontally.

The two blades clashed together, producing a crisp metallic sound.

The Baron followed.

The second sword strike. Calamity.

The third strike. A stab.

The Baron's movements weren't particularly skillful, but they were swift and decisive.

The signs of formal training are obvious; even the nobles in the inner city who run mines have never missed a swordsmanship lesson.

Holger took two steps back, parrying the third sword with his blade while simultaneously slashing backhand.

The blade sliced ​​through the baron's forearm.

The skin cracked.

What's seeping out isn't blood.

It is a grayish-green mucus.

The skin around the wound began to harden, and bark-like patterns spread outward from the incision, covering half of the forearm.

The baron glanced down at his arm.

There was no panic.

Instead, he laughed.

The smile looked particularly distorted in the lamplight.

"Look... this is what they gave me..."

Lignification begins to accelerate.

It spreads from the forearm to the shoulder, and from the shoulder up to the side of the neck.

The skin on half of my face became rough.

A dark green growth bulged out of his left eye socket, squeezing the eyeball into a sunken shape.

My right arm suddenly swelled up and the skin burst open.

It wasn't filled with flesh and blood, but with grayish-green wood.

These pieces of wood are densely intertwined and have hardened into a rough, branch-like structure.

The branch-like object swept towards Hogel.

The force has completely changed.

Holger parried to the side, the blade striking the wooden branch with a dull thud.

He was jolted back two steps, his shoes leaving two white marks on the stone slab before he regained his balance.

Holger's expression changed upon sensing this.

"The Bronze City didn't sense you?"

The baron laughed arrogantly.

"This is the power He has given you! Die, all of you!"

Just then, Franz rushed in from outside. Holding a short gun, he got close and fired a shot.

"bump!"

The bullet lodged in the Baron's woody chest cavity, but didn't penetrate; the layers of woody fibers acted like armor, holding the bullet in place.

The baron's body grew increasingly stiff and less human; wherever he went, gray-green filaments sprouted outwards, and woody fibers tried to take root.

Lu Yuan finally found an opportunity, and his revolver, now equipped with a copper-cased incendiary bomb, was already aimed.

"Bang!"

A burst of scorching orange-red flame shot from the muzzle.

The incendiary bomb hit the Baron's right shoulder.

Flames exploded on the woody surface, accompanied by the sounds of burning and cracking wood.

The Baron staggered backward from the impact, and a string of flames shot up from the branch-like object on his right.

Holger's knife has arrived.

The moment the branches cracked from the heat, he spun around and thrust his blade precisely into the already deep, bone-revealing wound on the Baron's neck.

This strike was made without any hesitation.

"Snap—"

The blade sliced ​​through the last layer of muscle and cervical vertebrae that were not yet fully lignified.

The baron's head detached from his torso.

It spun around and flew out, crashing into the wall, bouncing to the ground. Gu Lulu rolled twice before coming to a stop face up.

On that half-wooden face, the remaining right eye was still moving.

His mouth was still opening and closing.

They're still saying the same thing.

"...strength..."