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

It's a dark bronze color and much heavier than the original one.

Lu Yuan took it and put the old key back into his inner pocket.

The new lock turned twice, and the door opened.

A warm feeling wafted out from under the door, like stepping into a room with a fireplace burning in winter.

Lu Yuan went inside.

The room has changed.

The original copper-faced experimental platform was pushed to a corner.

In the center stands a glass dome about half a person's height, with a thick copper base and densely packed isolation inscriptions embedded around it.

The copper box that used to hold the seeds was placed in the corner.

The box was open, and it was empty.

It's obviously already overflowing.

Lu Yuan walked to the glass cover.

Inside the container, the seeds stayed quietly.

But it's completely different from the past few days.

The outer shell is no longer gray; the rough stone surface has faded, replaced by a pale golden luster, like polished amber.

The tentacles, or rather buds, extending from the crack were much longer than when I last saw them.

It's a warm orange color with a slightly translucent texture, swaying gently in a windless room.

It was as if it were breathing.

The entire room was filled with a warm atmosphere.

In Lu Yuan's perception, the warmth spread outwards from the location of the seed, layer upon layer, rippling outwards like waves.

It was a kind of pure 'warmth' that Lu Yuan had never seen before.

At that very moment, the symbiotic connection suddenly throbbed.

Deep within the left eye, the worm of knowledge stirred.

The little thing swam out of its eye socket.

It wasn't the drooling excitement of devouring the core of Von Linde before, but rather a feeling of 'comfort'.

The insect of knowledge slowly stretched its body amidst the scent emitted by the seeds, and the colors flowed and softened.

It felt like soaking in a hot spring.

The emotions conveyed through the symbiotic connection are simple.

Comfortable.

Very comfortable.

It's simply a feeling of comfort.

Lu Yuan watched as the worm of knowledge leisurely swam around twice in the air before retracting into the depths of his left eye.

At the edge of my field of vision, gray and white text appeared.

[Detection target: ? (Hope)]

[A being that absorbed humanity's desires? The first being to be nourished by such desires.]

Clearly, this thing was far beyond Lu Yuan's comprehension, to the point that he couldn't even make out the explanation.

However, the word "hope" is clear.

Lu Yuan stood in front of the glass cover for a while.

The seeds showed no abnormalities.

The growth rate is accelerating, and the direction of growth is not deviating.

Its aura remained warm, unlike its 'brother,' which had somehow received some kind of wish and become that kind of being.

Lu Yuan then turned and walked out of room number seven, locking the door behind him.

The night watchman watched him leave without asking any further questions.

Back at my residence.

Someone had been on the first floor; there was a copper tray on the table with two pieces of bread and a bowl of steaming mushroom soup on it.

There was a small note pressed down next to it.

"Breakfast as instructed by Deputy Chief of Staff Klaus. — Logistics Department"

Lu Yuan recalled the mixed grain rice he had been eating for the past two days and realized he really needed a change of pace, so he picked up the mushroom soup and took a couple of sips.

The soup was alright, but the bread was a bit hard.

After finishing his meal, Lu Yuan went upstairs and sat down at the worktable.

Take the ghoul brain core from the locker.

One by one, the runes were placed on the table. Since there wasn't much to do in the morning, Lu Yuan prepared to continue his bizarre rune development project.

Copper needle. Fixing groove. Symbiotic connection gently pulsating.

The hand rises. The needle falls.

Dark red inscription patterns emerged on the surface of the brain nucleus.

And so, one by one, they quickly got into a familiar rhythm.

The assistance of the knowledge insect no longer requires conscious perception; it simply provides a gentle push at the moment each stroke deviates from its intended path.

The twelve carvings were completed quickly.

Lu Yuan put down the copper needles and flexed his fingers.

[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +1.0…21.1/50]

Only one line of grayish-white text appeared; had he not lost his composure?

Lu Yuan was slightly taken aback.

Previously, when carving brain cores, I would lose one or two points of sanity for every few cores carved. Now, after carving twelve cores in a row, I haven't lost any sanity at all.

He thought about it.

From the beginning of carving the ghoul brain core to now, I have carved sixty or seventy of them.

The same materials, the same inscriptions, repeated so many times, it seems the body has developed some kind of adaptation.

I'm not sure if the concept of "strange resistance" exists in this world.

But the result is clear: at least with low-level materials like ghoul brain cores, he will no longer suffer a backlash.

This means that we can proceed more freely in the future.

And it's not just the brain nucleus.

The logistics department has a lot of ghoul bones, keratin, and even teeth, but no one has used them.

If your resistance is indeed improving, you can try more materials later.

Lu Yuan kept this idea in mind.

I took stock of the inventory.

With the previous stock on the table and in the lockers, there are already sixty or seventy ghoul brain cores. It's unclear how many brain cores will be needed after the Great Ghoul transformation.

However, it's still better to have more.

Lu Yuan decided not to continue, because outside the window, the sun was already beginning to set.

Time to head to the branch office.

Lu Yuan packed his things, went downstairs, and headed towards the branch's main building.

The afternoon sunlight changed from warm yellow to dark orange, casting long shadows.

When they arrived at the branch office, there were already three carriages parked in the courtyard.

The horses lowered their heads to drink water at the manger, their horseshoes making sporadic sounds as they trod on the gravel.

He pushed open the side door of the main building and walked into the assembly room.

The ten watchmen had already formed two rows.

They all wore grey coats, had knives at their waists, and the Night's Watch badges on their chests gleamed dimly in the afternoon light.

Lu Yuan glanced at it.

They were all unfamiliar faces; they must have been temporarily drawn from other teams.

They ranged in age from their early twenties to their thirties, and their expressions varied, but they all had one thing in common: a tense look in their eyes.

They knew what they were going to do.

I know at least part of it.

Klaus stood in front of the assembly room.

The dark gray shirt was no different from usual.

There was an open wooden box on the table in front of him.

Eleven metal rings were stacked inside the box.

"Everyone's here."

Klaus's voice wasn't loud, but the assembly room immediately fell silent.

He scanned the area.

"This mission is related to the Tower of Knowledge. It's related to the river of light above your heads."

No one spoke, but Lu Yuan noticed that two people in the front row unconsciously glanced upwards.

Everyone has seen that river of light.

Everyone knows in their hearts that it's not a good thing.

"The mission is extremely dangerous."

Klaus's tone became somewhat heavy.

"But according to the Night's Watch code, we don't have the option to 'decline'."

He took a metal ring out of the wooden box and held it in his palm.

The ring is engraved with intricate patterns, its bronze color shimmering with a hint of silver.

"Pathfinders call this thing a 'rationality ring'."

The moment Lu Yuan saw the ring, a scene flashed through his mind.

In Sandworm Town, Morris handed him a similar metal ring.

"It allows us to utilize the other party's rationality to a certain extent."

The same thing.

Lu Yuan kept quiet.

Klaus continued.

"Once you put it on and it's active, everyone's sanity will be shared. You can access other people's sanity, and others can access yours."

He put the ring back in the box.

"Near the sea of ​​knowledge, reason is your shield. Sharing can prolong the barrier's duration and can even save lives in emergencies."

He paused for a moment.

"But there is one rule: people whose rationality has been drained will lose their ability to act on the spot, so don't use it recklessly, and remember to follow instructions."

An older watchman in the back muttered under his breath, "To be incapacitated on the spot... what's the difference between that and being dead?"

The person next to him nudged him with their elbow.

He shut his mouth.

Klaus clearly heard it, but he wasn't angry; he just said a few more words.

"Don't worry, the sanity ring will preserve your last shred of sanity, and the connection will automatically disconnect in this situation."

"You shouldn't have been involved in this incident, but the matter at the Tower of Learning is of utmost importance, so we have no choice but to send those of you below the third rank."

After Klaus finished speaking, he took out the sanity rings one by one from the box and distributed them in turn.

Each Night's Watchman would glance down at the ring before slipping it onto his wrist.

It was Lu Yuan's turn.

He took the ring and put it on his left wrist.

On his right wrist, Maurice's ring was still there.

Two rings were placed on either side of the cuff.

Nobody noticed.

After Klaus finished distributing the items, his gaze swept across everyone's faces.

"This mission will be led by Captain Lu Yuan."

Several pairs of eyes turned towards them from the assembly room.

The youngest watchman in the front row was clearly taken aback for a moment, his lips moved slightly, and he had obviously heard of Lu Yuan's name.

"Follow Lu Yuan's orders in everything, do you hear me?"

The right hands of all ten watchmen fell onto their left shoulders at the same time.

The movements were synchronized.

"clear."

Klaus nodded.

He looked at Lu Yuan.

He didn't say anything more.

She just slightly raised her chin. Remember to go.

Three horse-drawn carriages drove out of the branch office gate.

The wheels rolled over the stone pavement, making a rhythmic clattering sound.

Lu Yuan sat in the first carriage.

There were three night watchmen in the carriage. The one closest to him, sitting opposite him, was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old and looked somewhat uneasy.

After the carriage had been moving for a while, he suddenly looked up.

"Captain Lu, should we go straight into the tower after we arrive?"

"We'll follow your instructions when we arrive," Lu Yuan said.

The square-faced night watchman nodded and asked no more questions.

Outside the window are the streets of the inner city.

The building was much taller than the outer city, with frosted glass windows and copper lanterns hanging in the porch.

The gas lamps have been lit.

Dusk is falling.

The river of light overhead was brighter than during the day.

A pale purple glow filled the sky, and the dreamlike colors flowed slowly. Occasionally, a few luminous fragments fell from the river and disappeared.

The night watchman in the carriage glanced up through the gap in the curtains, then quickly looked away.

Lu Yuan did not look at Guanghe.

He silently went through the formation diagram that Klaus had given him in his mind.

At the entrance. A barrier of reason. Two lines of defense.

Gatekeeper.

The carriage gradually slowed down.

The outlines of the buildings ahead became visible in the twilight.

The Tower of Learning.

The gray-white stone structure gleamed with a faint purple halo under the reflection of the river of light, and the dome structure at the top of the tower was faintly visible, with the faint light of the gold-plated patterns flowing slowly on it.

The entire tower was trembling slightly, emitting a continuous low hum, like a giant heart beating.

The carriage stopped in the square in front of the main gate of the Bo Xue Pagoda.

Eleven people got off the bus one by one.

There were already people waiting in the square.

Calvin Morton stood on the steps of the main entrance.

The monocle reflected the light coldly in the twilight.

Standing next to me was Selena Winter, the female mentor who hadn't uttered a single word at last night's meeting.

His face was upright, his eyebrows and eyes were sharp, and his expression remained indifferent.

Calvin's gaze swept across the front of the group.

It landed on Lu Yuan.

It paused for a moment.

He hadn't expected Klaus to send Lu Yuan.

But he immediately began to assess what this meant.

The next moment, Calvin's expression returned to normal.

It was as if nothing had happened.

He bowed slightly to Lu Yuan.

"Captain Lu."

The monocle flickered in the last rays of twilight.

"plz follow me."