Failure

Klaus walked very fast.

It took less than ten seconds to get from the conference room to the downstairs, without a single wasted word.

Lu Yuan followed behind him, through the corridor, and down the stairs.

Seeing the Deputy Chief's expression, the young man at the front desk opened his mouth but didn't dare to utter a sound.

Raymond was already at the door.

He should have received the news as well.

Karl was standing next to them, and neither of them had a good expression.

Klaus didn't stop and walked straight out.

Where?

"North Ward, the street closest to our post." Raymond followed him. "Hogger's men arrived first and have already sealed it off."

North Ward.

The direction of one of the three Ascension Society that Hogger had previously marked on the map.

Lu Yuan recalled this detail without saying a word.

The four of them left the branch office and walked briskly north along the streets of the Outer City.

The afternoon sun shone on the gravel road, and occasionally a horse-drawn carriage would pass by.

Nobody knows what happened ahead.

The buildings are getting shorter and older.

There are fewer and fewer pedestrians.

The blockade line could be seen from afar.

Several Night Watcher stood at both ends of the street, holding thick hemp ropes to prevent anyone from getting close.

Hogger stood inside the ropes, arms crossed, his face ashen.

Seeing Klaus approaching, he took two steps to meet him.

"Inside."

The voice was kept very low.

"The situation is more serious than reported."

Klaus didn't answer, but bent down and crawled through the rope to go inside.

Lu Yuan followed him inside.

Then he saw the drag marks.

A dark trail stretched out from the depths of the street, intermittent and winding, extending not far ahead.

It's not blood.

It is a substance that solidifies on the surface of a stone slab, with a color between grayish-white and some other indescribable hue.

At first glance, it looks like the residue of a dried liquid, but it doesn't resemble any known liquid.

The surface of that substance had a subtle sense of movement.

It's not moving, it just looks like it's moving.

The color seems to shift slightly depending on the viewing angle, giving the illusion that it is "still alive" even though it is completely dry.

Everyone present saw it.

No one came near.

Hogger caught up and added in a low voice.

"This morning, just as dawn broke, a street vendor in the North Ward discovered it first. He followed the trail, and before he could even reach out his hand, a stray cat touched the edge of the drag marks."

He paused for a moment.

The cat died on the spot.

Klaus paused for a moment, but didn't turn around.

Hogger continued.

"There's one more thing. The two men who patrolled last night were supposed to pass through this street according to their assignments. But when they thought back on it afterwards, they both said they went through the alley next door."

His tone was somewhat strange.

"They never usually go that way, and they can't explain why themselves."

Lu Yuan shifted his gaze from the drag marks and glanced at Hogger.

There are several widening sections in the middle of the drag marks.

The crawlers stopped, struggled, and then continued forward at those locations.

One section was particularly wide, with surrounding rubble cleared away and messy scratches left on the ground.

It's like someone lying on the ground trying their hardest to stand up, but failing.

So I continued climbing.

At the end of the drag marks, less than thirty paces from the gate of the Night Watcher outpost, there was something lying on the road.

When Lu Yuan approached, the first thing he noticed was the right hand.

The body lay face down on the ground, its right arm outstretched forward, fingers spread wide, gripping tightly into the crack in the stone slab.

All the nails broke off.

The fingertips were worn down to the bone, the cut surfaces gleaming pale in the sunlight.

Several deep scratches were carved into the stone slab.

The direction he was pointing was directly towards the Night Watcher outpost.

He's climbing.

He was climbing until he died.

Lu Yuan's gaze shifted from his right hand to his body.

The corpse no longer resembled a human.

The damage was not caused by external injury, nor by decay; it was due to a change in the structure itself.

The skin became translucent, and the underlying tissues could be vaguely seen, but those tissues were neither muscle nor bone.

It is something that flows.

Like words, densely packed, intertwined, filling every inch of space beneath the translucent skin.

The patterns are still moving.

Slowly, at a speed visible to the naked eye, it spread from the corpse's torso to the limbs, and then dissipated.

Like the tide gradually receding from the sea.

Knowledge is slowly fading from this body.

Where the lines flowed, the translucent skin began to crack.

Fine cracks extended from the torso to the limbs, and dark liquid seeped from the cracks, originating from the same source as the drag mark on the stone slab.

In the area from the left shoulder to the chest, the tissue has split into several pieces from the inside, with the edges curled up, revealing the fading lines underneath.

The face was almost unrecognizable.

The contours of the face were completely eroded by the lines, leaving only a blurry, semi-transparent oval.

Several pieces of fabric lay scattered beside the body; their texture and cut were typical of the style worn by noblemen in the inner city.

On a stone slab not far to the right, there is a twisted and deformed metal button with the Merchants' Guild's logo on it.

No need to touch it.

The scattered items were enough to confirm the identity.

Raymond stood three steps away, his face ashen, without uttering a word.

Karl took a half step back.

Hogger stood at the edge of the blockade line.

Klaus crouched down.

Without touching the corpse, he slowly raised his left hand, hovering it above the body.

Lu Yuan noticed a ring on the ring finger of his left hand.

I've never seen this before.

The ring is made of a material that is neither metal nor stone, but a dark, almost bone-like color, with extremely fine patterns engraved on its surface.

Klaus closed his eyes.

Fingers slightly spread, palm facing down.

Lu Yuan couldn't see what he was doing, but he could sense the changes around him.

At the edge of my field of vision, grayish-white text jumped out:

[Target detected: Klaus (Eerie Transcendence)]

[A contract was made with an extremely rare and bizarre human who still retains their human identity.]

Lu Yuan glanced at it.

"Looks like another monster."

Lu Yuan's expression remained unchanged, and he quietly took half a step back.

The texture on the ring's surface is now shiny.

A thin layer of gray mist spread from the ring finger to the palm, then down from the fingertip to touch the fading lines on the surface of the corpse.

The instant the Gray Mist came into contact with the corpse.

The Gray Mist contracted rapidly as if it had been scalded, retreating along the fingertip back into the ring.

The patterns on the ring had mostly darkened, with only a few lines remaining faintly visible.

Klaus opened his eyes.

He pulled his left hand back and placed it on his knee.

It was a subconscious action.

The Deputy Chief was far from as calm as his face suggested.

Klaus stood up.

"Don't touch it."

His voice was no different from Peace. But before he said that, he paused for a moment. During that pause, his gaze swept over everyone present.

"Don't touch it, nobody."

Lu Yuan stood still, unlike the others who retreated.

Because at that moment, he sensed something else entirely.

The aura of knowledge.

The concentration is extremely high.

Even though it was already decaying, the residual concentration was still far greater than any he had ever encountered before, even dozens of times higher than that of the Hive students in the Tower of Erudition.

At the edge of my field of vision, grayish-white text began to flicker.

[Unknown knowledge detected: Knowledge Inscription Studies... Parsing failed... Insufficient knowledge... Parsing failed...]

A series of failures followed.

But then...

[Forbidden Studies - Seeker: +0.1...+0.1...+0.2...]

Lu Yuan paused for a moment.

Despite all the failed analyses, simply standing next to this corpse allowed my experience with Forbidden Studies to grow passively.

The fading aura of knowledge is like a shattering mirror; the complete reflection is no longer visible, but a small fragment of the image remains on each shard.

The Seeker's senses automatically absorb these fragments.

He calmly steadied himself.

On the surface, they were observing a corpse.

Actually, he was waiting for those numbers to finish ticking.

[Sanity: -2...-1...101/120]

Reason is being passively depleted.

This is the price to pay.

The closer you stand, the more you absorb, and the faster you consume it.

This opportunity must not be missed.

The absorption continues, and the aura fades with each passing second.

Lu Yuan stood there for a few more seconds.

In those few seconds, something else emerged from the dissipating aura.

Screen.

It's not a complete picture; it's fragmented pieces.

Colors surged.

An ocean.

A blurry Human Form figure floated on the surface of the ocean, its posture relaxed, as if it had walked in on its own.

There was no struggle.

He was clutching a very small object in his palm.

It is glowing.

But the light changed the next moment.

The fragment, like a pendant, dragged the Human Form down into the depths of the ocean.

The Human Form began to struggle, but still refused to give up what it held, desperately trying to swim upwards.

But the light from the fragments grew brighter, and the pulling force became heavier.

He couldn't hold on any longer.

But he couldn't let go.

The fragments stuck to my palm, as if they had grown into my flesh.

The Human Form was pulled into the depths, where the strangely colored seawater surged in from all directions.

The body began to swell and twist.

The skin became transparent, and the internal bones and muscles were covered and replaced by layers of text.

He's no longer like a human being.

The image shattered.

The last segment.

Dark.

A twisted body was curled up somewhere.

The fragments in my palm were shattered and burned away, leaving only ashes clinging to my skin.

But then the hand started to move.

It's not about standing up.

It's climbing.

The image completely disappears here.

Lu Yuan stood still, his expression unchanged.

My back was soaked with cold sweat.

At the edge of my vision, the grayish-white text flickered a few times:

[Forbidden Studies - Seeker: +0.1...1.1/100]

The breath had dissipated.

The numbers stopped changing.

Lu Yuan took a step back.

The movement was natural, no different from others who kept their distance out of instinctive discomfort.

No one noticed what he saw or absorbed in those ten seconds.

Before turning his gaze away, Lu Yuan noticed one last detail.

Allen stretched his right hand forward, in a way that everyone could see.

But the left hand is different.

His left hand was clenched into a fist and curled up in front of his chest.

But through his Seeker mind, he vaguely sensed a faint remnant of knowledge in the palm of his left hand.

It almost completely dissipated, leaving only a trace.

The texture of that aura was the same as that of the seashell in the Viscount's Residence's collection room.

It has turned gray.

Clearly, he did not accept the so-called "invitation".

Lu Yuan kept this judgment in mind and remained silent.

After issuing the lockdown order, Klaus turned and walked back.

The body must not be touched for now, and it should not be moved. It should be sealed up on-site and await further handling by designated personnel. Incidentally, Klaus needs to question certain individuals: Did Bronze City really conduct an inspection?

The entire area marked with drag marks was sealed off, and a reverse search was conducted along the route.

Notify the Merchants' Guild representative, but first confirm the level of danger before allowing family members to approach.

He paused for a moment as he passed Lu Yuan.

"What did you see?"

Everyone else retreated, but Lu Yuan stood still for a few more seconds.

Klaus noticed.

Lu Yuan hesitated for two seconds.

"The things on the corpse are dissipating," Lu Yuan continued. "My Eerie Knowledge Transcendent; I just sensed something very strange, but I can't recognize it."

He paused for a moment.

"The direction is deep into the Outer City."

Klaus's gaze shifted slightly, heading southwest.

That direction leads to one of the Ascension Society's Outer City outposts, which Hogger had marked.

But he didn't say anything.

He simply nodded.

"Let's go back."

Outside the blockade, Raymond and Lu Yuan stood side by side for a while.

The street was quiet. The setting sun slanted through the gaps between the low houses.

"You should hold back on your abilities," Raymond said.

"The Contamination is severe; be careful not to see anything you shouldn't."

"Yes, I will," Lu Yuan replied softly.

When they returned to the Alchemy Workshop, it was just before dusk.

Laurina sat at her workbench, several sealed bottles in front of her; the fishy smell of Sandworm blood had faded considerably.

Hearing the door open, she looked up.

His gaze lingered on Lu Yuan's face for a moment.

Then he got up, walked to the medicine cabinet, took out a bottle of Sanity Potion, and placed it on the table.

"I drank it."

Lu Yuan uncorked the bottle and drank it all in one gulp.

[Sanity: +10...111/120]

He sat down by the window.

Those fragmented images still lingered in his mind; clearly, the son of the Merchants' Guild hadn't been able to withstand it.

And we didn't encounter that sound, or whether we were pulled up.

He recalled his experiences at the Viscount's Residence.

I was drawn into the Sea of Knowledge by seashells.

The voice said, "Not enough. You're not qualified."

Then he vomited it out.

So who exactly is the owner of that voice? The master of the Sea of Knowledge? What kind of being is that? Why would I be given special treatment?

Lu Yuan sat on the chair for a long time, until it was completely dark.

Laurina tidied up her workbench.

"I've made a new batch of potions that might be useful to you. Remember to pick them up tomorrow morning."

"And you don't look well, you should get some rest."

After speaking, Laurina turned and went upstairs.

Lu Yuan did not move.

The bronze runes on the city wall glowed in the distance, and pale light shone through the windows, casting blurry shadows on the floor.

He did not light the oil lamp.

My gaze unconsciously fell on the windowpane.

But something caught my eye out of the corner of my eye.

His silhouette was reflected in the windowpane.

The faint light from the Wall Runes shone through from the outside, giving the outline a dark gold edge.

But beyond the edge, there's another layer.

It's very faint, almost invisible.

The shape of the shadow is changing.

It's not a problem with the lighting, nor is it a problem with the angle.

Something that doesn't belong to him is growing along the edges of the outline.

The gray text did not appear.

No prompts, no warnings, nothing at all.

Lu Yuan stared for a few seconds, then fell silent.

Then he stood up and went upstairs.

Back in the room, no lights were turned on.

I walked to the window and drew the curtains.

Without light, there is no shadow.

In short, whatever it is, be careful.