The grey-white text that appeared suddenly forced Lu Yuan to realize that his hypothesis seemed to be correct.
‘This is getting bad.’
Lu Yuan put down the tweezers and glanced at Bolen.
“I am going to open the ghoul's brain now to confirm if this type of hyphae exists inside.”
Bolen nodded, moved toward the ghoul's head, and pressed his hands against both sides of the skull.
The smaller one was already very weak. Its body twitched slightly, its degenerated eyes were half-closed, and it barely had the strength to struggle anymore.
Lu Yuan's gaze was calm as he continued to cut. The ghoul's skull was harder than its keratinous layer.
It took three passes with the bone saw to cut an opening large enough. This was partly because he was operating entirely with his left hand, while Bolen helped steady the head.
When he pried open the skull cap, a pungent, fishy stench gushed out.
Kail frowned and took a step back.
Lu Yuan did not see any grey notification, so he did not move.
The ghoul's brain tissue had undergone large-scale atrophy and degeneration. Only a thin layer of grey-white brain matter remained stuck to the inner wall of the skull, like a layer of dried-up mud.
This was the same as the ghouls on the surface.
The mutation process rots away most of the brain.
Bolen was right before; their brains were rotted, and by all logic, they should not possess intelligence.
But the thing in the center of the cranial cavity did not belong to the realm of logic.
The atrophied brain tissue had been replaced by a cluster of grey-green crystalline material.
The crystals were shaped like irregular branches.
It looked like an inverted tree.
The main trunk occupied the center of the cranial cavity, about the thickness of a little finger, with its surface covered in dense, tiny particles that refracted a dull green light in the air.
Branches extended from the main trunk in all directions, passing through the residual brain matter and spreading downward along the spine.
Lu Yuan carefully used the tip of his blade to pry open the end of one branch.
The thread-like structure at the tip was integrated with the grey-green hyphae found in the muscle layers throughout the body.
From the brain to the spine, from the spine to the limbs, and from the limbs to the meat sacs in the palms.
It was like an entire web densely woven into the ghoul's body.
【Detected Target: Unknown... Warning... This structure exceeds the current scope of knowledge... and possesses a certain degree of pollution...】
When Bolen saw what was in the cranial cavity, he squatted in place, motionless.
“What on earth is this thing? It actually replaced the entire brain??”
Bolen's voice was slightly strained, and he immediately realized a problem.
“Lu Yuan, you must not touch this thing with your hands... If it can parasitize a greater ghoul, it might be able to parasitize a human.”
Lu Yuan carefully poked the crystalline trunk with the tip of his knife.
The branches trembled slightly.
This thing was alive, too.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +0.5…14.3/100】
Lu Yuan put down the scalpel.
He took off the thick leather gloves, which were covered in black blood and grey-green liquid, and threw them into the pile of copper powder.
The answer was clear.
The greater ghouls in the pipe network had intelligence, not because the ghouls had become smarter.
It was because this grey-green hyphae had invaded their bodies.
It spread along the muscle fibers, eventually constructing new organs within the body to replace the greater ghoul's already small brain, taking over the entire corpse.
The ghoul was just a shell.
The one truly controlling it was the hyphae parasitic within.
The face-hounds were likely the same. The greater ghoul used the meat sacs in its palms to catalyze human mutation; in the end, it was the hyphae using the ghoul's body to manufacture more hosts.
This behavior was likely a command from the hyphae.
This allowed them to expand.
Using ghouls as carriers, face-hounds as scouts, and the pipe network as a conduit.
There was strategy. There was reproductive logic. There was territorial awareness.
Lu Yuan's gaze shifted away from the ghoul's corpse.
The first thing he thought of was not the corpse before him.
It was the Abyss.
Honeycomb-like caves layered one upon another.
Hidden inside were at least tens of thousands of ghouls.
If this hyphae spread from the pipe network into the Abyss...
Tens of thousands of ghouls, each one taken over.
Each one with strategy, coordination, and division of labor.
No longer a herd of beasts that only knew how to charge.
But an army.
Lu Yuan looked at the thread-like object still slowly writhing in the glass dish.
His voice carried a sense of gravity.
“This thing must absolutely not enter the Abyss.”
Bolen looked up at him.
“The pipe network is a conduit.” Lu Yuan wiped the blood from his hands. “Although it is unclear where the specific source of pollution is, it has already spread to the catchment basin. The path from the catchment basin downward might lead to the Abyss.”
“When we retreated last time, I saw a deep green vine; that thing had already bypassed the copper frame.”
“If it is not dealt with, it will eventually follow that passage inside.”
He did not continue.
But Bolen's face had gone pale.
The old man had spent his life working with inscriptions; he had a better concept of the scale of the ghoul nests than anyone else.
Tens of thousands of ‘stupid’ ghouls were already pushing Bronze City to its breaking point.
Tens of thousands of ‘smart’ ones.
He did not dare to think further.
Lu Yuan carefully removed the grey-green crystal, placed it into a glass dish, and sealed the rim with wax.
This sample had to be kept.
Then, he packed his instruments and carried the two dishes back to the Alchemy Workshop.
Bolen followed behind, not saying a word the entire way.
When they reached the stairs, Bolen paused slightly.
“That copper frame.” He spoke. “You said it was bypassed by vines last time, but what about the frame itself? Is the structure still intact?”
“Intact.” Lu Yuan looked back at him.
Bolen nodded.
“If the frame is still there, I can carve a sealing inscription on it; it won't be too complicated.”
“How long will it take?”
“Working on-site, about half an hour.”
Half an hour.
Deep in the pipe network, in the catchment basin surrounded by deep green vines, working for half an hour without interference.
Lu Yuan did not respond and went upstairs.
On the second floor of the Alchemy Workshop.
Glock was already there.
He was leaning against the window with his coat draped over his arm; he had clearly just arrived.
“Bo Er said you were dissecting.” Glock's gaze swept over the grey-green liquid remaining on Lu Yuan's hands. “What was the result?”
Lu Yuan placed the dishes on the table and briefly recounted the dissection results.
Bolen added the verification of the pulsating homology.
Glock listened in silence for a long time.
He tapped his fingers on his knee a few times.
“Are you certain there is a passage between the pipe network and the Abyss?”
“I am not certain. I even suspect that the pipe network layer has no connection to that thing underground.”
“But I cannot gamble. You saw the collapse site; that thing was dug out by ghouls.”
“And the passage on the right side of the catchment basin.” Lu Yuan continued. “The deep green vines surged out from that direction, and that passage extends downward.”
“I don't know if it can dig on its own, but I cannot guarantee it won't.”
Glock did not speak.
“And the vertical shaft.” Lu Yuan continued. “There was movement beneath the cover last night. The edge of the copper powder circle has already started to discolor, and the discolored copper powder has lost its burning ability.”
“At the current rate of corrosion, the copper powder circle will fail completely in three to four days.”
Glock raised his gaze from the map.
“It doesn't fear copper? It's spreading upward too?”
“Yes.”
The room was silent for a few seconds.
“You want to go down again,” Glock said.
“Not want to, must.” Lu Yuan's tone was flat. “But not now. There aren't enough people, and the firepower is insufficient. We need to prepare.”
“What do you need?”
“A large amount of mithril and other similar weapons, exorcism-type grenades; if you can get them, I need a few of those too.”
“A sufficient quantity of mithril to burn the vines near the passage entrance, then seal the passage.”
“Bolen can carve sealing inscriptions on the copper frame. He needs half an hour.”
Glock did not agree immediately.
“The quantity of mithril is not something I can authorize; it requires an application to the branch. You know the stockpile at the defensive position; there wasn't much left after that time in the pipe network.”
“Exorcism grenades are even harder to handle; those are distributed to the edge Nightwatchers bases. We don't have any here at all.”
“However, I will try my best to get them for you.”
“As soon as possible.”
Lu Yuan added: “Three to four days at most.”
Glock did not say anything else this time.
He stood up and picked up his coat.
“I'm going to the branch today.”
He stopped when he reached the door.
“Reinforcements are coming soon. I'll try to get as many as I can.”
After a pause, Glock said one more thing.
“By the way, I received a secret letter from the branch this morning. People in the inner city have recently noticed that several City Hall officials entered the old drainage facility entrance toward the outer city late at night.”
Glock's voice was very low.
“Those facilities intersect with the pipe network. Kraus hinted that the branch is already secretly monitoring them and has prepared for execution.”
“It should be quiet for a while, at least on the surface.”
【Bronze City Status: +1, 7/50】
Glock finished speaking, turned, and left. The sound of a door opening came from downstairs.
Lu Yuan did not speak.
Someone was tampering with the copper plates. Someone was entering drainage facilities at night. The hyphae in the pipe network were accelerating their spread.
The same city. The same time period.
He did not have the energy to pursue that lead right now.
First, solve the problem at hand.
Lu Yuan placed the sealed grey-green crystal sample into a tin box and wrote a brief explanation to clip inside.
Dissection conclusion, living nature of the hyphae, pulsating homology, risk to the Abyss.
Those who could understand would understand.
Lu Yuan did a few things at the defensive position.
The monitoring of the vertical shaft was changed from once every two hours to once every hour.
After each check, the range of discoloration of the copper powder circle was reported to determine how strong the corrosive ability of this grey-green substance against copper really was.
The complete record of the dissection was dictated to Kail, and he was told to write it down.
Two copies in total.
One left at the Alchemy Workshop, one handed to himself.
Then, he checked all available weapons.
Including previous supplies, there were a little over three hundred and eighty silver-plated bullets.
Twenty-four copper-cased incendiary rounds.
One canister of mithril remained.
Just this little bit of supplies.
It wasn't even half of the reserve they had at Gelimu Port.
‘Sigh.’
Lu Yuan stood behind the Alchemy Workshop, looking at the larger, still-caged living greater ghoul.
It curled up within the copper powder circle, its shattered jaw still opening and closing silently.
The grey-green thread-like patterns on the grey-red muscle membranes were denser and deeper than those on the smaller one.
The crystal in the cranial cavity must be larger, too.
A more mature host.
Lu Yuan watched it for a few seconds, then turned and went back to the Alchemy Workshop.
In the afternoon.
Glock had not returned yet.
Lu Yuan decided to go to the inner city himself.
He needed to see the state of the inner city with his own eyes and, incidentally, prepare for entering the Polymath Tower.
The samples and the explanation also had to be handed to the scholars at the branch as soon as possible; relying on Glock to pass messages was too slow, and some things needed to be explained in person.
He temporarily handed the frontal defense over to Bo Er.
Before leaving, he gave a few instructions.
The ammunition distribution would remain unchanged. Abnormalities at the tunnel entrance should be sealed with copper-cased incendiary rounds; don't be stingy.
The vertical shaft copper powder circle should continue to be checked every hour.
If the conduction pathways Bolen was monitoring experienced a sudden acceleration of the grey-green backflow, cut them off immediately. It was better to sever that section of the pathway than to let the backflow surge out from the surface interface.
The larger living greater ghoul should remain caged.
It might be needed later.
“Be back before dusk,” Bo Er urged.
“Yes.”
Lu Yuan had walked the road from the North Ward to the inner city several times.
There were almost no civilians on the streets. Occasionally, someone would peek half their face out through a door crack in a building, see Lu Yuan's Nightwatchers badge, and shrink back.
The traces of combat on the walls were becoming denser. Bullet holes, scorch marks, dried blood stains.
In some places, the area covered by blood was quite large, extending from the wall to the ground, trailing for several meters.
The copper ground beneath his feet had lost its luster in some areas.
Without the inscriptions, the copper's power to suppress the Eerie dropped significantly.
The closer he got to the inner city, the more patrols there were.
Nightwatchers, church nuns, and occasionally armed personnel wearing different uniforms could be seen.
Everyone had the same expression on their faces.
Exhaustion.
In the distance, toward the Old Council Square, the remnants of the holy light barrier had not been completely removed, even during the day.
Pale golden beams of light flickered in and out of existence.
After the water supply was cut off, people were queuing up on the side of the road.
The line was long.
They were waiting for the church's water purification technique.
A nun stood at the front of the line, her hands glowing with a faint white light, slowly pouring water into an iron bucket.
The speed was very slow.
The people in line waited in silence. There were elderly, and there were children.
When Lu Yuan passed by, a few people looked up at him.
Their eyes were hollow.
Lu Yuan did not stop.
Inner city. Nightwatchers branch.
Glock was inside discussing business.
Lu Yuan did not go in.
He handed the tin box to a clerk at the branch and instructed them to pass it to the scholar in charge of analysis.
“Do not touch the contents directly.”
The clerk looked at the box and nodded.
Lu Yuan waited in the hallway for a while.
There were more people coming and going than usual.
He hadn't seen a few of the faces before, and the style of the badges on their chests was different from those local to Bronze City.
A batch of reinforcements from headquarters had arrived.
He didn't know who they were or how many.
When Glock came out, his complexion was not good.
“The mithril situation?”
“Kraus said he would find a way. We are responsible for the weapon reserves of the outer city, and the consumption these past two days has been too severe.” Glock's voice was very low.
“The weapons in the inner city are not within our jurisdiction, and those old fogies are having a very unpleasant time because of the Polymath Tower incident.”
Lu Yuan did not speak.
It was expected.
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