War in the Inner City

Afternoon.

The sun is still shining.

Lu Yuan sat on the windowsill on the second floor of the Alchemy Workshop, organizing his equipment.

The Silver-Plated Bullet on the ammunition belt were recounted.

Going down into the cave consumed four Revolver and a Copper Powder canister.

Two Copper-Shell Incendiary Bomb bombs were used, leaving ten bombs remaining.

Use sparingly.

He placed the copper-cased bullets separately into the hard leather pouch inside the inner pocket.

Eeriebane Potion, Invisibility Potion, High-Efficiency Healing Potion.

None of the three bottles were touched.

Good news.

I still have three perfect-quality Sanity Potion left, enough for a while.

As he was loading bullets onto the ammunition belt, he heard footsteps coming from the end of the corridor.

It's very light.

Lu Yuan's hands did not stop.

Lu Yuan.

Agnes's voice came from the doorway.

Lu Yuan looked up.

The nun stood beside the doorway, her white robe now replaced with a clean one.

His complexion was better than when he came back from underground, but the fatigue in his eyes was still there.

"Is something the matter?"

"Let me check on your mental state." Agnes walked in and sat down in the chair opposite him. "The Church has an independent evaluation process for those involved in joint operations."

Lu Yuan glanced at her.

The Night Watcher's inspection has just been completed.

Does the church need to do it again?

I thought the nuns had already left.

"The other two went back first; I still have some things to take care of," Agnes said calmly. "The checkup won't take long."

Lu Yuan loaded the last bullet into his hand and put down the ammunition belt.

"Must?"

You can refuse.

Looking at Agnes in front of him, Lu Yuan roughly understood why she had come.

"Investigate."

Agnes extended her right hand, palm facing up.

Put your hand up here.

Lu Yuan placed his left hand on it.

Agnes's palms had a very faint warmth to them.

Golden light slowly emerged.

[Detection Target: Sister Agnes (Believer Transcendent)]

[A Transcendence being who believes in beings named 'Angel' by humans, but her faith appears to be impure.]

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow slightly upon seeing this notification.

"Interesting."

Agnes closed her eyes.

It lasted for about ten seconds.

Then open your eyes.

"Your mental state is stable." She withdrew her hand.

"It's better than I expected."

"That's fine then." Lu Yuan prepared to get up.

Please sit down.

Agnes's voice wasn't loud, but Lu Yuan stopped.

"When we were underground," Agnes said, looking at him.

"The moment you looked at the Copper Pillar, I sensed your reaction."

Lu Yuan remained silent.

"Resonance," Agnes uttered the word.

"A resonance occurred between your spirit and those bronze creations. It was brief and weak, but it truly happened."

She paused for a moment.

Do you know what this means?

"I don't know." Lu Yuan was telling the truth.

"Copper Resonance." Agnes's gaze never left his face.

"In the church's records, there have been no more than twenty people in the past three hundred years who have been able to resonate with the spiritual essence of bronze Inscription."

Lu Yuan's expression remained unchanged.

But he remembered the number.

"Without guidance, this type of constitution will produce uncontrollable mental resonance when in contact with high-level Inscription artifacts."

Agnes slowed her speech a little, as if she was carefully choosing her words.

"At best, it will cause a significant fluctuation in rationality; at worst, it will erode one's cognition through the reverse influence of the Inscription's content."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yuan recalled the moment he was on the edge of the Abyss, when the grayish-white characters had indeed been beating violently.

However, his rationality remained unchanged.

However, his attention was entirely focused on the experience points and the "resonance response" prompt, and he didn't notice the changes in his rationality.

If Agnes is telling the truth...

That Copper Pillar doesn't just give him experience points.

It can also devour his reason.

This is something you really need to pay attention to.

"The church has a corresponding training system," Agnes continued.

"By training your mind to resonate with the frequency of bronze, establishing a stable channel rather than an uncontrolled resonance, you might be able to reach the Fifth Order."

"Knowledge Transcendent the Fifth Order... what an unattainable existence."

Agnes looked at Lu Yuan with envy and a hint of jealousy...

Lu Yuan remained silent upon hearing this.

Because if that were all there was to it, Agnes wouldn't have needed to come to him at all.

He was, after all, a member of the Night Watcher, and if they told him these things, he would have to tell the Night Watcher.

If their own 'value' is truly sufficient, the Night Watcher will never allow themselves to leave.

"There's one more thing," Agnes said, her tone tinged with emotion. "I'm very interested in your aura."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yuan understood.

' The Bronze Sin is the Last Bronze Inscription Artifact, so I resonate with it. Walking this path won't be easy.'

'Besides, the church isn't exactly a good thing either, so her purpose is most likely...'

Agnes continued, talking to herself.

"I sensed the anomaly on the surface, but I wasn't sure," Agnes, looking at Lu Yuan. "After spending some time together underground, I can now confirm it."

"You possess the aura of Sea of Knowledge."

Lu Yuan's expression remained unchanged.

But a question arose in his mind.

Sea of Knowledge.

That ocean, composed of countless colors and words, is a place where only one in a hundred people ever set foot.

That was the Taboo of all, a boundary that even highly advanced Transcendence beings with Knowledge Path might not be able to reach.

How could a low-ranking Believer Transcendent discern the aura of the Sea of Knowledge?

"You've been there." Agnes looked at Lu Yuan.

"No," Lu Yuan said calmly.

This is the truth, and it isn't the truth either.

He was pulled inside by a seashell once, but strictly speaking, that didn't count as "entering" it.

He was vomited up before he could even get his footing.

"But I was indeed involved."

Agnes's eyes narrowed slightly.

Lu Yuan looked at her and continued.

"And I know who can enter the Sea of Knowledge."

Agnes paused for a moment when those words were spoken.

But Lu Yuan caught it.

"But I have a question," Lu Yuan said with a hint of doubt. "Why do you ask that?"

Agnes did not respond.

"You are Believer Transcendent," Lu Yuan continued. "The Sea of Knowledge and the Believer Path have nothing to do with each other. If you enter there, there is no other possibility but death, right?"

Agnes fell silent.

Lu Yuan did not press further.

"You don't need to tell me." He looked back out the window. "I can't help you."

There was a few more seconds of silence.

Agnes sighed.

"If you'd like to join the church, you can contact me." She stood up, her tone regaining its previous calm. "I didn't write these things in my report."

Lu Yuan did not respond.

Agnes walked to the door and didn't stop.

The white hem of the robe disappeared at the end of the corridor.

Lu Yuan sat on the windowsill, still clutching a bullet that hadn't been loaded into the ammunition belt.

He glanced down at his own shadow.

The layer returned to its original state.

But when the golden light swept over it just now, it clearly showed a slight contraction.

Agnes was unaware.

But that doesn't mean it won't happen again next time.

Lu Yuan began to think about it.

Agnes longs to enter the Sea of Knowledge.

A Believer Transcendent, wanted to step into that Taboo.

The system said her faith was "impure".

Now this sentence has a specific meaning.

She did not include the topic of the Sea of Knowledge in her report.

After all, if a nun showed such interest in Taboo Domain, she herself would be subject to scrutiny if this were to get back to the church.

"But this place is getting more and more chaotic..."

After thinking it over, Lu Yuan found a place to rest.

When the fourth night arrived, Lu Yuan naturally woke up.

[Sanity: +12...101/120]

Looking at his nearly full sanity, Lu Yuan felt a great sense of relief.

At this moment, the Wall Runes gradually lit up, but Lu Yuan noticed that the brightness had decreased slightly.

The light had thinned by the time it reached the edge of the position.

Clearly, the recovery rate is not keeping up with the consumption.

Arriving at the base of North Spinning District.

The nuns are still there.

The nun who remained on the ground stood alone on the high place.

Agnes did not return.

Only three white figures merged into one.

"Only one nun tonight?" Boer's voice carried a hint of unease.

Lu Yuan looked up at the high place.

There was indeed only one white figure.

No one notified him.

Agnes didn't mention it when she left.

"I don't know," Lu Yuan said.

Boer's expression wasn't good.

But he didn't ask any more questions.

Everyone is on alert.

The gun barrel was pointed at the cave entrance.

I waited for ten minutes.

There was no movement.

Twenty minutes.

There was no movement.

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

[Environmental Perception: Very few Source of Pollution detected...]

Just like during the day.

Lu Yuan frowned slightly.

In the quiet of last night, he could sense something brewing below the cave entrance.

There's nothing tonight.

Half an hour passed.

There wasn't even a roar from the cave entrance.

Boer's Short Shotgun barrel had drooped slightly.

"Didn't you receive a notification?" he asked in a low voice.

Lu Yuan did not answer.

He walked to within three meters of the edge of the cave entrance and squatted down.

There was no sound at all.

Last night, in the same spot, he could hear faint tremors and lingering screams from a great distance.

Tonight, even those remnants have vanished.

It was as if everything underground had been removed at the same time.

Lu Yuan stood up.

"Why?"

The daytime dive disturbed the nest, so normally tonight should be even more ferocious than the previous three nights.

But they didn't come.

I can't figure it out.

Glock arranged for shifts to be stationed behind the lines.

There was no movement during the first half of the night, and the first batch of Night Watcher were changing shifts began to retreat to the rear to rest.

Lu Yuan was also substituted.

He didn't return to the Alchemy Workshop. Instead, he found a relatively intact wall in the ruins behind the position and sat down against it.

I also organized all my experience panels.

[Sanity: 101/120]

[Sanity IV (Experience): 1/120]

[Sanity Barrier: 0/3 (Damaged)]

The Sanity Barrier can only be repaired slowly when sanity is at full.

Since the last time he was shattered, his rationality had almost never been at its peak.

[Pharmacology: 32.4/50]

[Pharmacognosy: 19.2/50]

After Laurina left, these two experience points stopped increasing.

I originally planned to use it for logistics and grind for experience points.

[Imperial Language: 251/1000]

As for Imperial Language...

Lu Yuan hadn't paid much attention to this experience.

However, once this skill reaches 250 points, the suffix reading feature disappears completely.

But now growth has slowed down, and it seems to have stagnated.

[Ancient Music Theory: 1.4/10]

[Basic Medical: 2.8/20]

[Forbidden Studies - Seeker: 13.5/100]

[Defense I:4.3/10]

Lu Yuan diligently "cultivates" every day, but he only gets a 0.3 bonus per day.

We haven't found a breakthrough yet; we can only wait and see.

[Current Status of Bronze City: 3/50]

[Current Status of the Auris Empire: 2/100]

After confirming all the experience points, Lu Yuan quickly organized his belongings.

[Perfect Quality Sanity Potion x3]

[Eeriebane Potion x1]

[Invisibility Potion x1]

[High-Efficiency Healing Potion ×1]

[Copper-Shell Incendiary Bomb x10]

[Silver-Plated Bullet x47]

After categorizing the items one by one, Lu Yuan glanced at the gray notification; the Ghoul still showed no sign of appearing.

Leaning against the wall, he continued to work on defense.

I don't know how much time passed.

Boer patted him on the shoulder.

"Captain, look over there."

Lu Yuan opened his eyes and turned his head in the direction he was pointing.

South.

Inner city direction.

The sky is wrong.

At first, it was just a blurry orange-red mass, clinging to the edge of the building, like a large fire in the distance.

Then the light gradually intensified.

That was Holy Light!

Several white beams of light shot into the sky from the direction of the inner city, then crisscrossed, forming a dazzling twilight in the night sky.

Immediately following, a muffled explosion came from afar.

A sound.

Two sounds.

Then they merged into one.

Everyone on the position stood up.

"It's towards the Old Council Square." Glock had somehow appeared on the field.

"The Holy Light Array is fully activated."

There was something in his voice that Lu Yuan rarely heard.

Disturbed.

The orange-red color in the sky lasted for nearly an hour.

Twice, the white Holy Light suddenly surged, its brightness so intense that even the North Spinning District Position could feel a slight warmth.

That's the church giving its all.

Then the light beam begins to decay.

The orange-red flames actually shone even brighter for a while after the Holy Light faded.

In the distance, the faint sound of buildings collapsing could be heard, heavy and muffled, one after another.

It wasn't until around four in the morning that things gradually quieted down in the inner city area.

The fire was not completely extinguished, but it stopped spreading.

Not a single Ghoul emerged from the entrance to the cave at North Spinning District.

Daylight broke.

The fourth night has ended.

The news gradually reached North Spinning District in the morning.

The first thing to arrive was the Night Watcher's internal bulletin that Glock had received.

"A large-scale outbreak occurred at the Collapse Point of the Old Council Square in the inner city, with the number of Ghoul exceeding ten times the peak at the North Spinning District, and more than one giant individual appeared."

Glock's voice was somewhat solemn as he read the report.

Especially when reading the words "giant individuals".

"You haven't received any news?" Lu Yuan asked, frowning.

"No." Glock folded the report. "I haven't received any news from the branch office."

Then came the news from the logistics line.

"The Pipeline at the Waterworks Hub have malfunctioned. Ghoul have gnawed through the main pipeline underground, cutting off half of the inner city's water supply."

The messenger was a logistics soldier who had been evacuated from the inner city; his left arm was in a sling, and his face bore the marks of smoke.

"The inner city is currently using the church's Purification Water Art as an emergency measure, but it cannot cover all areas."

Finally, there was Laurina's letter.