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

The girl tilted her head and smiled somewhat helplessly.

"It really is you, Uncle! Do you remember what I said before I came in?"

Lu Yuan remembered that she said, "So it was you who had been calling me."

"I've actually been hearing about it since I was very young, even before I entered the Tower of Learning."

The girl spoke casually.

"I always thought there was something wrong with my brain, but after entering the Tower of Learning and venturing into this vast ocean, I heard things much more clearly."

She smiled, the exact same smile she had in the vortex, tilting her head to reveal a hint of her front teeth.

"I wasn't arrested; I walked in on my own, as you saw."

Lu Yuan knew that when her heart ruptured, it was her own hand that broke.

"So you should go first; that barrier outside won't hold for much longer."

The worm of knowledge drifted to Lu Yuan's side.

The symbiotic bond throbbed slightly for the first time after the break. The body of the Worm of Knowledge was still frozen, but after leaving the area of ​​the temple inscription, the frozen state loosened.

Lu Yuan looked at the girl standing inside the blood-red ring.

A blood-red dome thousands of meters high, with inhuman remains scattered everywhere.

Lu Yuan gritted his teeth.

"I can take you away."

"No need," the girl shook her head, her smile still on her face. "I don't have much to cherish when I go back, so I'll just stay here."

The rotation of the five heads suddenly accelerated for a moment, almost imperceptible, but Lu Yuan noticed it.

After receiving the answer, He prepared to see the guest off.

Lu Yuan's left eye rippled.

The seeker's senses caught the last trace of the girl's scent at the last moment.

The gray text quietly recorded a line of information.

Lu Yuan was about to speak.

Suddenly, the girl's aura surged.

The mark on the back of her hand suddenly lit up.

From her body, a fragment of knowledge burst forth, shooting into the distance along the half-dead inscription channel.

This is not the kind of fragment that slowly merges and then emerges before.

This was the last one she threw out voluntarily.

Lu Yuan's consciousness was violently pulled away from the palace by the expelling force.

On his way back, the shockwave from the fragment caught up with him.

[Rationality: -10...-10...98/140]

On the other side of the barrier.

Lu Yuan's body trembled violently as his consciousness returned to his body. His left eye was in excruciating pain, and his hands were still gripping the bronze tabletop.

Inside the round hall is the coffin room.

The impact of the last fragment pierced through the inscription channel, carrying an immense force as it slammed into the scripture.

Calvin felt as if he had been shoved from behind, as if struck by lightning, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

Selena let out a muffled groan and knelt down. Her hands were still pressed tightly against the grooves of the coffin, but her fingers had completely lost their color.

Both of them fainted one after the other.

But the floating bronze scripture did not stop.

Runes poured down like a torrential rain, instantly filling the unfinished blank page eight. Turn the page. Page nine. Filled. Turn the page.

Page 10.

The last page.

The rune was finished with its final stroke.

The scripture was closed.

Inside the round hall, Lu Yuan's fingers clenched tightly around the edge of the groove on the table as if in spasm.

The palms were deeply indented by the sharp edges of the copper grooves, and pale red blood seeped between the fingers.

Warm liquid trickled down between his fingers and dripped onto the copper surface, but the pain only confirmed one thing for Lu Yuan.

I came back on my own.

At this moment, Lu Yuan's ears were ringing, as if he had been pulled up from the bottom of the water. The sounds of the world seemed to be separated by a layer. Someone was saying something, but the voice was indistinct, and he could only hear intermittent noises.

Lu Yuan's field of vision darkened at the edges.

My left eye still aches, as if something has just been moving violently deep inside my eye socket, and the aftershocks haven't subsided.

When the Worm of Knowledge was expelled, it retracted its left eye, but it had eaten too much in the Sea of ​​Knowledge and its size had increased. The moment it was pushed back in, a throbbing pain came from the inside of its eye socket.

Fortunately, the symbiotic connection continues to pulsate intermittently.

The worm of knowledge is still alive, thankfully.

Lu Yuan took a few seconds to refocus his vision.

The inscribed path beneath our feet is going out.

The light from the inscription dimmed in concentric circles, from the inside out.

The pale blue veins gradually faded in the cracks between the stone slabs, and the lines connecting the marked points sank into the darkness one after another.

The flow of the river of light above the dome suddenly slowed, the dreamlike torrent weakened into a trickle, and then slowly returned to calm.

The feedback from the inscription channel has completely disappeared.

The weight that had been pressing on everyone's minds vanished within seconds.

The ten Night's Watchmen breathed a sigh of relief almost simultaneously.

The person closest to him swayed and was caught by the person next to him. Someone in the back row knelt down on one knee, clutching his temple, his teeth clenched so tightly they were grinding.

The Night Watchman who had taken over command when Lu Yuan's consciousness left his body stood at the left-hand marker, his face pale and his lips cracked, but he was still standing.

His gaze immediately fell on Lu Yuan.

"Captain Lu! You're back?!"

His voice was clearly brimming with excitement.

Lu Yuan loosened the tabletop; his finger joints were so stiff he could barely bend them. He moved his wrists a couple of times, revealing a purplish-red bloodstain on his palm.

"They're all here."

He didn't answer the question, but quickly looked around and counted the number of people.

All ten people are still here; none of them have fallen.

But they were all in very poor condition. Several young Night Watchmen were pale and their uniforms were soaked with cold sweat. The one on the right had the worst nosebleed, with blood flowing down to his chin. He wiped it with his sleeve and sniffed hard.

"It's nothing." He noticed Lu Yuan looking at him and grinned. "It's just a minor injury, nothing serious."

Lu Yuan did not correct him. The seeker's senses had recovered somewhat from the chaos just now. He could sense that the night watchman's mental state was worse than it appeared, but now was not the time to say such things.

In the inner circle, the semi-transparent barrier has completely disappeared.

The inner ring's mounting bracket can be seen from the center ring.

The place is now completely empty.

The metal ring instrument was still there, but no one was on it anymore. Some grayish-white powder remained in the recessed area of ​​the seat, which looked like a thin layer of frost in the dim light of the runes in the rotunda.

Those were the remnants after the insect's body disintegrated.

Of the twenty-three students, not one returned, and they didn't even leave their names.

The eyes of several watchmen also swept over there, but no one spoke, and the air was heavy.

No one from the Tower of Learning appeared.

The door to the coffin room was closed. No mentors came out, no support staff, and no members of the Tower of Learning came to hand over the duties to the Night's Watch.

Apart from the eleven of them, only the church staff on the periphery remained in the entire rotunda.

This silence itself is an attitude.

Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze and did not intend to linger any longer. He had completed his task and was clear about the actions of the Tower of Learning.

There was no need for him to linger here any longer, and besides, there was another "He" inside the tower. Lu Yuan didn't want to see anyone from the Tower of Learning, at least not now.

"We're retreating."

The church members methodically packed up their forces on the perimeter.

The pale golden light of the blessing circle was fading away piece by piece. The nuns walked along the circle, stopping at each node, pressing their palms together, and whispering prayers. The light from each node slowly returned to their palms.

The entire process was quiet and orderly, a stark contrast to the disheveled state of the Night's Watch members, who were helping each other up.

The Church's energy expenditure is far less than that of the Night's Watch; their energy comes from the scrolls of blessing and instruments of holy light, and they are only responsible for the periphery.

Lu Yuan glanced over there but didn't see Agnes.

Two nuns walked at the end of the procession, their steps slow and their voices low.

The younger one frowned: "The team leader's decision this time... used up all the scrolls, not a single one was left. Including that Archangel-level one."

The older nun said calmly, "The outcome was good; everyone is safe, and the leader has never mistreated us."

The young nun shook her head, her steps slowing slightly. "I'm not questioning the leader, I just find it strange... most of the blessings are directed towards the Night's Watch's barrier zone."

The older nun did not answer.

"And the order was given the instant the barrier began to fluctuate," the young nun added. "That's an incredibly fast reaction."

The older nun glanced at her.

"Let's call it a day. Don't keep the people behind us waiting."

The young nun said no more.

But his brow was still furrowed.

Go up the stone steps.

The ten watchmen helped each other up the steps. Some stumbled and had their arms supported by the people next to them, while their other hand gripped the rough rock wall.

As Lu Yuan passed through the bronze gate, he glanced back.

The river of light in the dome had completely died out, and the entire rotunda had sunk into darkness, with only the faint blue glow of the remaining runes flickering on the walls. The empty fixtures stood in a circle in the darkness.

Lu Yuan turned back and continued walking.

From the rotunda to the exit, we didn't encounter anyone from the Tower of Learning. The corridor was empty, half of the wall lamps were dimmed, and the runes on the bronze walls had lost their original bluish luster, as if they had been drained.

The Tower of Learning is now a "dead zone," a far cry from the atmosphere I had when I first arrived.

Step out through the narrow gate.

The night wind blew in my face.

The cold wind was very cold in the middle of the night.

But after being cooped up in the underground rotunda for so long, this cold wind actually invigorated me.

Two carriages were waiting in the square.

As Lu Yuan walked, he glanced at the Night Watchmen beside him. There was no formal inspection; he simply walked among them, patted their shoulders, and observed their expressions. When he passed the Night Watchman with the nosebleed, Lu Yuan paused for an extra second.

The gray and white text quietly emerged.

[Target for detection: Night Watchman (mildly impaired sanity)]

[Status: Minor cracks have appeared in the mental barrier; at least 72 hours of rest is required.]

Lu Yuan's expression changed for a moment.

But he did not tell the other party the specific result.

"Have you taken the stamina-stabilizing potion?"

The man nodded: "I'm convinced. I'll be fine after a while. It's alright, Captain Lu."

He paused, then asked in return, "But are you alright? You suddenly stopped moving, which really scared the brothers."

"If something really goes wrong with you, we won't be able to explain ourselves to Deputy Chief of Staff Klaus."