New Improvement

Bronze City, Headquarters the Night Watcher.

Raymond pushed open the door to the duty room.

Inside sat a middle-aged man, flipping through documents. Seeing Raymond enter, he put down his pen, his brow furrowing slightly.

"What's wrong so late?"

"There's an emergency to report," Raymond said, "Regarding the inner-city disappearances."

The middle-aged man leaned back in his chair, his expression turning serious.

"Explain."

Raymond gave a brief report on today's investigation: the discoveries at three crime scenes, the same methods used in the disappearance of the Tower of Erudition, the encounter at the Outer City mansion, members of the Ascension Society, and an unidentified man in black robes.

He paused at the end.

"There's one more thing. We found strange signs of activity in that house."

The middle-aged man stopped moving.

"What did you say?"

"Strange," Raymond said calmly, "Within the Bronze City."

The room was silent for a few seconds.

The middle-aged man lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

Are you sure?

I saw it with my own eyes.

The night outside the window was dark and nothing could be seen clearly.

After a long silence, the middle-aged man finally spoke, his voice very low.

"Since the founding of Bronze City, nothing like this has ever happened. It's common knowledge that the supernatural is almost unable to move about in this city."

He turned around and stared into Raymond's eyes.

"Keep this matter confidential for now, and absolutely do not cause panic. File a separate case for unusual cases; give it higher priority than missing persons cases."

He paused.

"Three days. If there is no substantial progress within three days, the leadership will be transferred. During this period, other teams will be dispatched to investigate, but they will act independently."

"I will also report this separately."

Raymond nodded.

"Clear."

Emerging from the duty room, only the sound of footsteps remained in the corridor.

"The disappearances and strange occurrences are very likely connected," Helen said.

"I know," Raymond said, his voice tinged with weariness, "But nothing is certain right now."

"That man took that strange thing away..." Helen frowned, "What exactly do they want?"

Raymond did not answer.

He stopped and looked into the darkness at the end of the corridor.

"Go back and rest first. We'll be busy tomorrow."

The lights in the Alchemy Workshop were still on.

When Lu Yuan pushed open the door, Laurina was sitting at the table with several formula notes spread out in front of her and a row of neatly stacked medicine bottles next to her.

Hearing the door open, she looked up and her gaze lingered on Lu Yuan's face for a moment.

I didn't ask anything.

He simply got up, walked to the cabinet, took out a bottle of clarifying medicine, and placed it on the table.

"I drank it."

Lu Yuan didn't stand on ceremony, uncorked the bottle, and drank it all in one gulp.

A familiar cool sensation spread from my throat, as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water into my brain, and the vague and heavy feeling of fatigue subsided somewhat.

At the edge of vision, grayish-white text appeared:

[Sanity: +10...58/120]

Laurina's perfect quality potion works as well as always.

Thanks.

Laurina nodded, her gaze sweeping over Lu Yuan's coat.

What was burned?

Her voice was calm, but Lu Yuan knew she had figured something out. The lingering burnt smell on her coat was obvious, a remnant of the Ruined House being destroyed by blue and white Flame.

He did not answer.

Laurina didn't press the matter further and turned back to continue organizing her formula notes.

Lu Yuan returned to his room, took out two items, and sat down in a chair.

A broken seashell.

A thin, yellowed booklet.

The shell was cool to the touch, smooth, and showed no reaction.

After being forcibly activated in the Viscount's Residence's collection room, it fell silent, as if it had completely exhausted some kind of energy.

Lu Yuan put the seashell back in his pocket and picked up the thin booklet.

<Knowledge Path Guide>.

This was what Mo Shui gave him before he left. Back in Grim Port, he had only had time to learn the First Order of "Defense," and hadn't had time to study the rest in detail.

Tonight's experience made him realize one thing: he wasn't being able to use his rationality anymore.

Especially after reaching the Sanity IV, even if new strange occurrences are encountered, experience points do not increase at all.

Right now, I've inexplicably filled in the gaps in the Sea of Knowledge and obtained the Key to Sea of Knowledge, but I'm not qualified to enter it anymore.

Furthermore, regarding the enemies encountered in Bronze City, if a conflict were to break out, the current reserves of sanity would simply not be enough to sustain the situation.

We must find more efficient ways to restore sanity.

This book is the best choice right now.

Lu Yuan opened the book, skipping over the basic meditation methods he had already read, and continued reading.

The Ancient Imperial Language in the book is still obscure, but it is much smoother than the first time I read it.

The Second Order of defense is described in the book as follows:

"Reason is not a static pool, but a flowing river. Only when you have truly experienced the impact of knowledge can you find the direction of this river."

"Only by finding the flow direction and widening the river channel will you have a chance to go further."

Lu Yuan's finger stopped on this section.

He thought of the Sea of Knowledge.

That ocean of countless colors and words, where knowledge surged and flowed. The instant he was pulled in, his rationality plummeted from 120 to 67; that feeling... he'll probably never forget it for the rest of his life.

It wasn't pain, it was a loss of control.

It's like standing on the edge of a cliff, with the ground beneath your feet crumbling piece by piece, and you can only watch yourself fall bit by bit.

This is the "weight of knowledge".

Lu Yuan closed his eyes and adjusted his breathing according to the method described in the book.

It's not about deliberately recalling that fear, but rather trying to feel that "flow".

Where does reason flow from? Where does it go?

At first, I didn't feel anything.

But after about ten minutes, Lu Yuan vaguely sensed a change.

It was very faint, like something slowly turning deep in my mind, its direction a little clearer than before.

At the edge of my field of vision, gray and white text flickers:

[Defense I:+0.1...+0.1..0.5/10]

The guard jumped five times in a row before gradually stopping.

Lu Yuan opened his eyes, but did not continue.

Forcing oneself to cultivate defensive techniques when one's rationality is below 60 has already caused discomfort to arise deep within the mind.

Close the book.

Now that we've found a direction, it means there's an increased possibility of improving our rationality.

Standing up, Lu Yuan looked out the window.

The silver and blue stars converge to form the Milky Way, with a bright moon hanging nearby.

The moonlight shone on the floor, casting his shadow.

The shadow is normal.

But Lu Yuan felt that... the edges of the shadow seemed a little "thicker" than usual.

He glanced at it again.

That feeling disappeared.

It might be a hallucination caused by a lack of rationality.

Lu Yuan didn't think much of it, closed the door, and lay down.

Exhaustion quickly dragged consciousness into darkness.

The next morning.

When Lu Yuan arrived at the agreed-upon location, the others were already there.

Raymond sat at the head of the long table, several documents spread out in front of him.

Helen was on his right, her Notebook open, filled with dense writing.

Karl leaned against the wall, arms crossed. Ryan and Amy sat opposite him, both with noticeable dark circles under their eyes.

"Everyone's here." Raymond's voice was flat. "Tell me the situation."

Helen spoke first.

"Last night's report has been submitted. The opinion is: the case of suspicious activity should be filed separately, kept confidential, and given higher priority than the missing persons case."

She turned a page of her notebook.

"Three days' deadline. No substantial progress. Leadership transferred."

Karl frowned, but said nothing.

Raymond didn't explain further, simply announcing, "Summarize the clues."