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

The headless torso stood there blankly.

Everyone is waiting for it to fall.

But it did not fall.

The baron's body stood in the center of the study as if unaware that his head was gone, his feet firmly planted on the stone slabs.

"Come with me..."

The baron uttered his last words from his chest, after which the sound within his chest began to change, like tree roots burrowing in the soil, or something frantically expanding inside his body.

Hogel's blade dripped with a grayish-green liquid as he stared at the headless torso, his gaze suddenly changing.

The baron's neck was seen to have exploded open.

Wood fibers gushed out from the fracture.

The gray-green branches, like compressed springs suddenly released, shot straight to the ceiling with a tearing sound.

The thickest one, about the thickness of a forearm, smashed through the bricks above, sending debris raining down on him.

Meanwhile, roots pierced through the soles of the baron's boots from his feet and embedded themselves in the stone slabs.

The sound of the stone slabs cracking mingled with the muffled thud of the floorboards vibrating.

The whole building was shaking.

The furniture in the study was swallowed up by the branches, the bookshelves were knocked over, half of the wall lamp was swept away, the brass lamp base fell to the ground and rolled, and the lamp oil was spilled all over the floor.

The flame of the overturned brass lamp had not yet gone out, and the oil stains on the ground were ignited, with a thin line of fire shooting out between the cracks in the stone slabs.

But the branches spread faster than the flames.

The gray-green branches pressed down on the fire line, extinguishing most of it, leaving only a few scattered flames dancing in the corners.

Grayish-white text exploded in my field of vision.

[Detection Target: Von Linde (Alienated, Out of Control)]

[The host's consciousness has died. The parasite has taken complete control of the body and is expanding uncontrollably.]

Weaknesses: Fire; Core (deep in the chest cavity, not fully formed).

"Retreat!"

Holger grabbed the injured night watchman by the collar in the corner and dragged him toward the door.

The night watchman gritted his teeth, pressing hard on the wound on his shoulder, blood seeping through his fingers.

As he was being dragged along, his heel tripped on the gravel, and he groaned but didn't cry out.

Franz reacted faster.

He slipped from the study door into the corridor the moment the branches burst open.

With his back against the wall, he holstered his pistol at his waist, his eyes fixed on the direction of the study, and his lips pressed into a thin line.

Clearly, he was very unhappy that his shot hadn't penetrated the wooden chest cavity.

As Lu Yuan stepped back, a newly sprouted branch swept past from the side.

Lu Yuan dodged to the side.

The branch grazed his side and struck the stone slabs of the corridor, sending pebbles and dust flying half a meter high. A few fragments hit his calves.

The four people left the study.

The corridor was filled with dust.

"The alienation has spiraled out of control; its nature has changed."

Holger's voice was very low, and it was somewhat indistinct amidst the creaking of the growing branches.

"No need to hide anymore. This thing is no longer human. It betrayed the Empire for power and, according to Imperial law, should be executed!"

No further explanation is needed.

The original plan was an assassination, clean and efficient, leaving no trace. But now von Linde has become a monster.

Executing mutated beings is the Night's Watch's duty, a matter of course, and there's no need to hide it.

He glanced at Lu Yuan.

"Step back."

Footsteps sounded from the other end of the corridor; it was Conrad coming from the backyard.

He saw the gray-green branches pushing out from the study doorway, the cracks in the wall, and the night watchman crouching in the corner, clutching his wound.

His steps faltered for a moment.

"The backyard is cleared, and the private soldiers over at the annex are all under control." He lowered his voice, his gaze fixed on the branches.

"What is this thing?"

"Baron." Hogel offered no further explanation.

Conrad didn't ask any more questions, but he could tell from the twisted branches that this thing was a type of pollution.

Needless to say.

Holger's hand was pressed tightly against the bronze plaque at his waist.

Franz put away his pistol and placed his right hand over the inside of his left wrist.

The outline of something was faintly visible beneath the cuff.

Conrad didn't speak, but his breathing rhythm changed.

The eerie aura emanating from the three people surged at this moment.

Just at this time.

Lu Yuan, who was hiding at the farthest point, suddenly felt his symbiotic connection throb.

The little worm of knowledge churned wildly deep inside his eye socket.

An overwhelming surge of excitement rushed over him through the symbiotic connection, as if someone had set fire to Lu Yuan's mind.

My left eye felt slightly hot, and a fleeting afterimage of color flashed at the edge of my vision.

Lu Yuan was so overwhelmed by this sudden surge of excitement that he almost lost his composure.

Lu Yuan steadied his breathing and, following the direction of the symbiotic connection, used the perception of a seeker of knowledge to observe the interior of the study.

A scent wafted from the branches in the room.

It was some kind of extremely ancient form of knowledge that Lu Yuan had never seen before.

Those grayish-green fibers resembled the blood vessels of some ancient plant, containing a highly dense remnant of knowledge.

These remnants are not formed in words or theories, but rather in a more primitive, almost instinctive form of knowledge.

Like natural inscriptions on a ghoul's brain core.

It wasn't learned, it was something it was born with.

The worms of knowledge wriggled wildly in my eye sockets, their colors shifting so fast they blurred.

The little thing isn't scared; it's drooling.

Lu Yuan's perception penetrated through layers of branches and fibers, going deeper and deeper.

I saw it.

Deepest part of the chest cavity of the headless torso.

A cluster of emerald green light was dancing.

It resembles a heart.

That core knowledge has a very high density.

The idea conveyed by the worm of knowledge was extremely simple.

hungry.

want to eat.

that.

We must eat it.

Lu Yuan quickly realized that this was a good opportunity to assess the Knowledge Worm's abilities and also to test its stealth capabilities.

"Are you sure it's safe to eat?"

The symbiotic connection received an unequivocal affirmation.

"Then let's go."

The worm of knowledge disappeared deep within the left eye.

It simply vanished from the left eye, and the next instant it appeared at the core of the Baron's chest cavity.

Following the veins of knowledge, it found the shortest path, almost like teleportation.

The next moment, the Baron began to wither from the outside in.

The branches that had filled the entire room stopped growing.

First, the thinnest branches at the farthest point.

The grayish-green faded inch by inch, turning into withered yellow, and then into a deathly grayish-white.

Then comes the thick trunk.

The branches were withered and curled up, like dried-up vines that had been drained of all their moisture. They crumbled at the slightest touch, and grayish-white fragments fell to the ground in a soft rustling sound.

The roots curled back from the cracks in the floor.

They became brittle and fragile, and some broke into powder while retracting.

Holger's hand remained on the bronze medal.

But he noticed the changes.

The branches stopped attacking, the polluted smell emanating from the study dissipated at a visible rate, and the entire "tree" that the Baron had transformed into was dying on its own.

"What's going on?" Holger asked Conrad.

Conrad looked at Franz with a bewildered expression.

Franz simply shook his head.

None of the three people made a move, so why is that thing in the room not making any noise?

Ultimately, Holger's bronze medal was never activated.

"I'll go take a look first," Holger said cautiously as he stepped forward.

The wooden structure that had already cracked half of the study died completely.

Only a few thick, jagged tree trunks and a shriveled, shrunken corpse remained, curled up in the center of the study.

It's hard to tell that it was originally a human.

It's impossible to tell that it was once a tree.

There is a sunken cavity in the chest cavity.

It's obvious that something has taken out the core of this thing.

The corridor was filled with a dry smell.

It was as if someone had thrown a pile of dry leaves into the fireplace, burned them briefly, and then immediately extinguished them.

The study was quiet.

At this moment, the Worm of Knowledge had returned to the left eye.

It was quietly digested, hidden deep within its eye sockets.

A profound sense of satisfaction arises from the symbiotic connection.

I'm full.

And they were very satisfied with their meal.

The gray and white text quietly emerged.

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +1.8...43.0/100]

[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +0.6...20.1/50]

[The unknown fragments of knowledge have been devoured by the Knowledge Worm; some information is unanalyzable and has been sealed within the symbiotic body.]

[Sanity: -4...51/120]

Holger stared at the dried-up wreckage in the center of the study.

His brows were furrowed, as if he was forcibly trying to process something impossible.

A rapidly growing mutant withers and dies within ten seconds.

The core vanished into thin air.

No one took action; there was no visible intervention.

Most importantly, Bronze City still hasn't made any move.

This means that a high-level expert, undetectable by the Bronze City, instantly killed the Baron in the study, then left without attracting anyone's attention.

This is abnormal, and impossible!

He knew perfectly well that this was not normal.

But he swallowed back the question that was about to come out. He turned his head and glanced at Lu Yuan.

His gaze lingered on Lu Yuan for less than half a second.

They didn't say anything.

Franz leaned against the wall of the corridor, his pistol still raised, muzzle pointing downwards.

The tree grew wildly and then died on its own in less than ten seconds.

The core is gone.

Nobody has ever touched that thing.

Franz's gaze shifted from the wreckage to Lu Yuan, and then to Hogel.

His lips moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something.

In the end, he simply put the pistol back at his waist.

He and Hogel exchanged a silent glance. Clearly, if it wasn't an outsider who came in and killed the Baron, there was only one possibility.

But neither of them said anything.

Finally, Holger went into the study first.

He crouched down and poked at the wreckage with the tip of his knife.

Apart from the core few branches, the other branches were as brittle as paper, crumbling at the slightest touch of a knife tip, leaving nothing inside.

He walked to the corner again.

The baron's head lay there, the wood grain of the face turned grayish-white and cracked. Hogel turned it over with the tip of his knife.

"Completely dead."

He stood up and sheathed his knife.

"Go through it all, look for anything related to the Grey Pact or that tree."

Franz and Lu Yuan made their move.

The study was in a terrible state.

The walls were covered with scratches and grayish-green powder left by withered branches.

Several pieces of the floorboards were broken, and the holes drilled out by the roots were about the size of a fist.

Three or four stone bricks fell from the ceiling, and rubble was piled on the broken furniture wreckage.

Half of the study was completely destroyed.

It wasn't easy to find it.