Dissecting the Great Ghoul

It was past midnight.

Lu Yuan leaned against the base of the ruins behind the position, his eyes closed.

The Revolver rested on his knees, and the hammer was cocked.

The area around the collapsed cave entrance was quiet; for the fourth consecutive night, no Ghoul emerged.

But tonight there were sounds that hadn't been heard before.

It didn't come from the cave entrance.

It's the direction of the shaft.

I first noticed it around 2 a. m.

An intermittent scraping sound came from beneath the cast iron cover of the shaft.

It's very light.

It wasn't the sharp, claw-like scratching of metal; it was more like something soft slowly wriggling against the inside of the cover.

The sound lasted for a few seconds, then stopped.

It rang again after a while.

There is no pattern.

Lu Yuan opened his eyes without disturbing anyone else.

He got up and walked to the location of the shaft.

The cast iron cover plate is still in its original position. I smashed it back in yesterday and then covered it with gravel.

The Copper Powder Ring around the edge of the cover plate is still there.

But when Lu Yuan squatted down, he noticed something was wrong.

The edge of the Copper Powder Ring, the section closest to the gap in the cover plate, has changed color.

The originally dark red Copper Powder has turned grayish-green in several places.

He picked up a small pinch of discolored Copper Powder with his fingertips and smelled it under his nose.

There was no burning sensation.

The strange burning ability of Copper Powder comes from the meaning it has been given.

When normal Copper Powder comes into contact with Source of Pollution, it generates heat, repulsion, and the combined temperature and repulsive forces are enough to kill low-level supernatural organizations.

However, copper doesn't seem to be very effective at this point?

A grayish-green substance is slowly seeping out from the gaps in the cover plate, gradually corroding the active ingredients in the Copper Powder.

The scraping sound rang out again.

Right below the cover plate.

Lu Yuan placed his hand on the surface of the cast iron.

Cold.

But a very subtle tremor could be faintly felt under the fingertip.

Something is wriggling on the other side of the cover.

Sticking close to the metal plate, it tentatively pushes outwards.

"Think of the following."

Lu Yuan withdrew his hand and stood up.

The Copper Powder Ring is still working as a whole; only a small section closest to the gap in the cover plate has changed color, which accounts for about one-tenth of the entire circumference.

At this rate, it will likely remain completely ineffective for another three to four days.

However, the Copper Powder can be replaced, so the threat is not significant for the time being.

Lu Yuan remained silent.

He walked back to his position, woke up Boer, and said only one sentence, "Add another person to keep watch on the shaft side, and change the Copper Powder every two hours."

Boer glanced at him, didn't ask why, and nodded.

The scraping sound continued several more times throughout the night.

Each time was very short, and I felt very careful.

As the sun rose, it became daylight.

The seventh night has ended.

When the Wall Runes lit up, Lu Yuan stood at the second-floor window of the Alchemy Workshop and visually estimated the brightness. By the time they covered the North Textile District, the light from the runes had become just a thin veil.

Bolen went to check the section of the Conduction Network he had repaired early in the morning.

He looked unwell when he returned.

"The backflow is accelerating," the old man said, uttering only this one sentence.

But there's no better solution at the moment. The Pipe Network Layer can't be restored anytime soon.

Lu Yuan, meanwhile, was looking at the edge of his field of vision. At that moment, grayish-white text quietly appeared.

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

[Defense I:+0.3...4.9/10]

"Let's observe for now..."

Lu Yuan moved his right hand; the laceration on the web of his hand had scabbed over, but he still felt a pulling sensation when he clenched his fist.

Moreover, I have important business to attend to today.

Dissect those two Ghouls.

Lu Yuan went to the back of the Alchemy Workshop to check on the condition of the two Great Ghouls.

The Copper Powder Ring is intact.

The smaller one was quieter than yesterday.

The bleeding from the severed limbs had stopped, but the grayish-red fibers were still wriggling extremely slowly, as if the body was still trying to heal.

Its degenerated eyes were half-closed, and its body was curled up in a ball.

The larger one was still writhing silently. Its shattered jaw opened and closed, emitting a muffled hissing sound.

The grayish-red fibers at the site of the amputation were more active than those of the smaller limb, extending one by one from the cut surface, slowly exploring in the air, and continuously healing.

Lu Yuan returned to the Alchemy Workshop to retrieve dissection tools.

When I opened the door, Bolen was already waiting on the first floor.

The old man stood at the doorway, leaning on his cane, with his Toolbox at his feet.

Kael was carrying another box on his back, looking somewhat nervous.

Before Lu Yuan could speak, Bolen spoke first.

"I've been thinking about something all night."

Lu Yuan looked at him.

"Why would those two Great Ghouls in the Pipe Network do something like that?"

Bolen's voice wasn't loud, but he spoke faster than usual.

"Those that charge up from the ground, no matter how large they are, are just weird. They don't know how to take detours, they don't cooperate, they howl when they get hit, and then they keep charging."

"But the two in the Pipe Network are different; one is catalyzing humans, and the other is directing the Face Hound."

"This is unreasonable."

The old man looked at Lu Yuan.

"During the Ghoul Mutation process, the brain tissue undergoes extensive degeneration and atrophy. According to basic knowledge of Inscription Studies and the Occultism, the brain volume of Second Order or higher Ghoul is less than one-third of its original size."

"Your brain is rotten. How could you possibly become smarter?"

Lu Yuan did not respond.

Because he also wanted to know the answer.

"There's one more thing," Bolen said, pointing to his Toolbox. "I want to see if those two things have any clues related to the backflow in the Pipe Network."

"I've spent my entire life repairing Inscription, and I'm more sensitive to the corrosion and Contamination of copper than any of you. If there are traces of Pipe Network Source of Pollution in the Ghoul's body..."

He paused.

"I can tell the moment I touch it."

Lu Yuan glanced at him.

The old man's eyes were shining again.

It looked exactly like the Copper Pillar I saw at the edge of the Abyss.

Aren't you afraid?

"I'm afraid," Bolen answered without hesitation. "But I'm even more curious."

Lu Yuan remained silent for two seconds.

"They told me beforehand that some tissues might have residual Contamination."

I know my limits.

The three walked to the back of the Alchemy Workshop.

Boer and a Night Watcher stood guard on the perimeter.

Start with the smaller one.

Larger Living for later comparison.

Lu Yuan spread out the set of professional equipment that Laurina had left behind on the open ground next to him.

Knife, bone saw, tweezers, glassware.

He pulled a pair of thick leather gloves from the bottom of his Toolbox and put them on.

Kael helped by handing him tools.

Bolen crouched at the Ghoul's head, his Toolbox open, a blue-white glint flashing in his eyes, ready to act at any moment.

Lu Yuan picked up the scalpel.

The laceration on the web of my right hand hasn't fully healed yet, and my fingers feel stiff when I hold a knife.

The first cut into the stratum corneum was slightly off-center.

He switched to using his left hand as the primary grip, with his right hand only providing auxiliary support.

The stratum corneum was harder to cut than expected.

It's not because they're thicker; quite the opposite, the keratin of the Pipe Network Ghoul is thinner than that of those on the ground.

But the density is much higher.

It was difficult for the blade to cut in; it felt like cutting a piece of compressed, hard leather.

Bolen leaned closer and placed his hand on the cut surface of the stratum corneum; a faint blue-white light flashed for a moment.

"Abnormal density." The old man gently scraped off a layer of shavings with his carving knife and rubbed them between his fingertips.

"The arrangement is extremely dense, as if it had been compressed by some external force; this is not a naturally grown structure."

Lu Yuan didn't stop, and continued cutting downwards.

The muscle layer is exposed.

Between the grayish-red muscle fibers, a large number of filamentous structures were densely intertwined.

Grayish-green.

The color is exactly the same as the substance flowing back into the Copper Pipe of the Pipe Network.

Like Fungal Hyphae, they permeate between muscle fibers, winding, intertwining, and almost growing together with the muscle tissue.

Lu Yuan used tweezers to hold one section.

Carefully peel it from the muscle fibers.

It is about two centimeters long, a little thicker than a hair, and has extremely fine textures on its surface.

He held the tweezers up to his eyes.

The filamentous thing moved.

It's not a rebound caused by straightening; it's a spontaneous creeping motion.

The small, grayish-green piece on the tip of the tweezers began to slowly curl and then stretch after detaching from the Ghoul's muscle tissue.

Both ends were blindly groping in the air.

Like a severed worm.

Lu Yuan paused for a moment.

Bolen's face came closer.

Upon seeing that wriggling thing, his pupils suddenly contracted.

"It's alive?"

He ignored Bolen.

Lu Yuan placed the filamentous material into a glass container.

It landed at the bottom of the glass, paused for less than a second, and then began to slowly crawl along the inner wall of the vessel.

A very thin, grayish-green wet trail was left where it had climbed.

Then it touched a small piece of Ghoul muscle residue left at the bottom of the vessel.

They crawled inside.

It moves so fast that the naked eye can barely keep up.

Just two seconds.

The fragment changed color from grayish-red to grayish-green, and its surface revealed the same filamentous patterns as those inside the Ghoul's body.

[Detection target: Unknown Fungal Hyphae (unknown subspecies)]

[Characteristics: Suspected to be a variant of a known Carrion Fungus, with an unknown evolutionary path. Morphologically similar to Carrion Fungus, but with significant differences in color, activity, and growth pattern.]

[Note: An unclear symbiotic relationship exists between this Fungal Hyphae and the individual Ghoul... Analysis interrupted due to insufficient knowledge.]

[Weakness: Unknown.]

[Forbidden Studies - Seeker: +0.3...13.8/100]

Lu Yuan stared at the glassware.

This is not the Ghoul's own organization.

This is a separate living thing.

A type of Fungal Hyphae that parasitizes Living.

It can invade the Host's body, penetrate and spread along muscle fibers, and transform the Host's tissues into its own.

Bolen stared at the vessel for a long time.

"The Contamination in the Pipe Network..." the old man's voice was a little hoarse. "Is it the same thing as this?"

"I'm not sure, but I suspect it's related." Lu Yuan frowned, picked up the scalpel, and turned it towards the Ghoul's forelimbs.

After cutting through the skin, Lu Yuan discovered a structure that the Ghoul on the ground did not have.

A fleshy sac.

It is about the size of the tip of an adult's thumb and is embedded deep in the muscles of the palm.

Its interior was filled with a grayish-red mucus, exactly the same as the secretions used by the two Great Ghouls to catalyze the Mutation of humans.

[Detection target: Subcutaneous Parasitic Cyst (dormant)]

[Inclusions: Composition unknown, highly similar to the secretions of a certain high-level Ghoul... Insufficient knowledge.]

[The inner wall root structure appears to be homologous to the blue Fungal Hyphae... analysis interrupted.]

Lu Yuan completely dissected the fleshy sac.

The inner wall was covered with a root system consisting of grayish-green filaments.

It's not a simple appendage.

The roots have grown into the walls of the fleshy sac.

The filamentous material wrapped around the sac wall like vines, and the roots penetrated the sac wall, growing together with the part of the Ghoul's own body that could originally secrete mucus.

"This Ghoul sac didn't grow on its own," Lu Yuan said, looking at the still-pulsating mass of flesh. "It's a new organ constructed by filamentous substances within the Ghoul's body."

Bolen didn't speak; clearly, he had also noticed. The structure of Ghoul was described in the most basic books. Anyone with even a little knowledge of the Occultism knew that this thing shouldn't exist inside Ghoul.

He pulled something out of his Toolbox.

A small fragment of Copper Pipe, a sample taken yesterday from the break in the Conduction Network, has a dark brown corrosion layer on its inner wall.

He placed the Copper Pipe fragments next to the dissected flesh sac.

One hand held the Copper Pipe, while the other hand pressed against the fleshy sac.

Close your eyes.

A faint blue and white light emanated from both hands simultaneously.

It's very quiet.

Kael to the side, not daring to breathe.

A dozen seconds passed.

Bolen opened his eyes.

His expression changed.

"This thing actually pulsates?... And the pulsation rhythm is even regular??"

Bolen showed a look of astonishment.

"The pulsation intervals inside this thing perfectly match the rhythm of the backflow in the Pipe Network?"

They share the same origin.

Waves of grayish-green substance flowed back into the Pipe Network. Deep corrosion formed on the inner walls of the Conduction Network. Living filaments inside the Ghoul's body. Dark green vines with eyeballs in the Water Collection Chamber.

It's highly likely that they are the same thing.

[Current Status of Bronze City: +1, 6/50]