Return to the Pipe Network Layer

The distribution of Mithril.

"Ten cans plus the one that was already at the position, making a total of eleven cans," Lu Yuan continued.

"Boer and I will each take two cans, the Holy Armor Army and the Iron Guard Battalion will each take two cans, and the remaining three cans will be left at the shaft entrance as a backup for evacuation."

Neither Heinrich nor Wolf had any objections.

"Five Exorcism Grenade. I'll take two, Boer will take one, and the Holy Armor Army and the Iron Guard Battalion one. Ten Holy Light Scroll, six for the Holy Armor Army, and the remaining four will be left in the rear."

"Everyone get six hours of rest before the operation." Lu Yuan stood up. "Ammunition will be distributed tonight."

He looked at Bolen.

"Are the tools ready?"

Bolen patted the Toolbox beside him.

"Anytime is fine."

The old man spoke with anticipation in his eyes. Clearly, he was looking forward to re-entering the official website.

As the meeting adjourned, Wolf passed by Lu Yuan, who felt a faint heat rising within him.

Wolf's body temperature seemed abnormally high.

Lu Yuan glanced at him again, but the other man didn't notice and had already walked out the door.

It was dusk.

Lu Yuan stood behind the Alchemy Workshop, inspecting the equipment.

Revolver, 120 Silver-Plated Bullet, 12 Copper-Shell Incendiary Bomb, two canisters of Mithril, and two Exorcism Grenade.

The laceration on the web of my right hand has completely scabbed over.

Boer walked over, holding a brand-new bronze sword in his hand.

"Here you go." He handed over the sword. "This one's a bit harder."

Lu Yuan took it and weighed it in his hand. It was a bit heavier than the last one, the blade was thicker, and the hammer marks from the forging were denser.

"It's the Holy Armor Army uniform brought in from the supplies," Boer continued. "It's better than what we used before."

Lu Yuan hung the bronze sword at his waist.

Night fell.

The runes lit up.

The atmosphere on the position was much more relaxed than the previous nights, after all, there were dozens more people and boxes of weapons and ammunition.

Everyone was preparing for the early hours of the morning.

Lu Yuan sat on the wooden plank, looking in the direction of the cave entrance.

It's quiet over there, and the same is true over at the shaft.

But the night air carried a sweet scent, stronger than during the day, from the direction of the breached drainage outlet on the east side of North Spinning District.

We can't wait any longer, because nobody knows where the green Fungal Hyphae in the Pipe Network Layer has spread to.

3 a. m.

Everyone gathered at the shaft entrance, without saying a word.

The twelve members of the Iron Guard Battalion stood at the forefront, their long, dark gray coats remaining motionless in the night wind.

Wolf stood at the head of the group, expressionless, his right hand resting on the roughly shaped short sword at his waist.

The eleven people behind him wore identical standard short swords at their waists, with Gear patterns engraved on the hilts, the same as the badges on their chests.

The fifteen members of the Holy Armor Army were in the center.

Heinrich made a gesture, and the Holy Light Inscription on his silver-white armor glowed faintly.

Lu Yuan and Boer stood behind the Holy Armor Army.

Bolen leaned on his cane, his Toolbox slung over his shoulder, with Kael standing close beside him, the two sandwiched in the middle of the formation.

Four Night Watcher brought up the rear, with the old soldier missing his little finger leading the way, his bronze sword clutched in his hand, his expression calm.

There were thirty-five people in total.

Glock remained on the ground.

Both the shaft opening and the eastern drainage outlet needed to be monitored, and he led the remaining Night Watcher to coordinate the ground Defense Line.

Two people were left on guard at the front of the position. The young man who had been frightened when he went down into the Pipe Network last time was one of them. This time, Lu Yuan did not let him come down.

Agnes's schedule was confirmed last night; she can enter the Tower of Erudition the day after tomorrow.

The Pipe Network Layer was resolved tonight. I'll get ready and head to the Tower of Erudition the day after tomorrow.

I hope it goes well.

"Down."

Wolf was the first to lift the cast iron cover and climb into the shaft.

The sound of the iron ladder echoed through the well walls.

As Lu Yuan followed the Holy Armor Army up the iron ladder, he noticed the moment his hand gripped the horizontal bar—the surface of the iron ladder was covered with an extremely thin layer of grayish-green film.

It wasn't there when I came down last time.

Although the Fungal Hyphae gave up on breaking through the ground from the shaft, it had already taken root inside the shaft wall.

The membrane covering the stairs is so thin that it cracks when you step on it, revealing the rusty iron underneath.

The entire iron ladder, from top to bottom, has crossbars on every single one.

Lu Yuan didn't stop, he continued downwards.

When Boer stepped on the membrane behind him, he muttered something.

"Will direct contact cause Contamination...?"

"No, that won't happen."

We arrived at the bottom of the shaft, at the Pipe Network inlet.

Thirty-five people landed one after another, Wolf's men had already lined up on both sides.

In addition to the stench of decay, the air was filled with a sweet, cloying aroma.

It smelled the same as the one I caught in the night breeze last night, but it was several times stronger and sickeningly sweet, making me want to frown.

Heinrich wrinkled his nose slightly.

Wolf said, "Everyone cover your mouths and noses, don't breathe through your mouths."

The soldiers of the Iron Guard Battalion pulled out the lining fabric from their collars and covered the lower half of their faces in perfect unison.

Lu Yuan covered his mouth and nose with a scarf, Boer did the same.

Bolen took two pieces of cloth soaked in alchemical elixir from the side pocket of his Toolbox, handed one to Kael, and covered his own mouth and nose with it.

"Let's go," Lu Yuan said.

The column began to move forward.

Sandworm Oil Lamp were lit at the front of the Iron Guard Battalion, their pale white light illuminating the passage ahead.

However, the first step into the Pipe Network Layer felt wrong.

Last time, the ground was hard, mixed with some puddles.

The ground is soft underfoot, covered with a layer of grayish-green Fungal Hyphae.

It was completely different from the Carrion Fungus that had filled the passage when the Collapse Pit last time.

Carrion Fungus are velvety in appearance and release acidic spores that are extremely corrosive; they cannot move without the Purification of Holy Light.

The thing underfoot showed no signs of corrosion; on the contrary, it was quite elastic and made a squelching sound when stepped on.

Lu Yuan glanced down. The surface of the Fungal Hyphae layer was slightly concave where he had landed, and then slowly rebounded.

It's not a natural contraction after being compressed and deformed, but rather a very obvious creeping motion.

It's as if the thing under my feet sensed the pressure and is reacting.

With each step he took, the Fungal Hyphae beneath his feet contracted once.

The entire passageway floor seemed to be "watching" them as they walked by.

Wolf noticed it too and glanced back at Lu Yuan.

"Did it know we were coming?"

"I knew it from the very first step we took in," Lu Yuan said in a low voice. "We confirmed it when we dissected the Great Ghoul; these things are intelligent."

Wolf did not say anything more.

The procession continued forward.

They weren't moving fast, and the Iron Guard Battalion in front had already gripped their longswords at their waists.

After walking for about three minutes, the passage began to narrow.

The Fungal Hyphae spread from the ground to the walls on both sides, and then climbed up the ceiling from the walls, gradually eroding the entire cross-section of the passage with a layer of grayish-green Fungal Hyphae.

The further you go, the thicker it gets. At a certain point, the effective width is only wide enough for two people to pass side by side.

The surface of the Fungal Hyphae layer begins to show ridges and spikes, and in some places, thick filaments extend towards the center of the channel, lying across the middle of the road like tree roots blocking the way.

It's difficult to avoid touching the Fungal Hyphae.

Wolf stopped, turned around and glanced at Lu Yuan, then made a gesture.

The four Iron Guard Battalion soldiers in the front row simultaneously drew their short swords.

Wolf placed his right hand on his chest, inside his long coat.

A faint red light appeared at the fingertips.

The color is very dark, like the color of red-hot iron in its last moments before cooling.

The light spread from the fingertips along the back of the hand and disappeared into the cuff.

The four soldiers in the front row did the same thing at the same time: they pressed their right hands to their chests, and a dark red light simultaneously lit up from their fingertips, lasting for about two seconds before going out.

At the same time, the color of the short sword changed.

Dark red lines extended from the hilt to the tip of the blade, like the red-hot iron lines floating on the metal surface, and the air around the edge of the blade began to distort.

A burst of intense heat emanated from the short sword.

The first cut landed on the Fungal Hyphae bundle that blocked the passage.

The moment the blade made contact, the grayish-green Fungal Hyphae contracted violently, the contact surface instantly turned black and brittle, and then shattered into powder.

It's clear that the bacterial layer was directly carbonized.

The carbonization spread about half a meter to both sides from the cut, as if it were conducted along the fibrous structure of the Fungal Hyphae.

With a single slash, a path wide enough for one person was cleared in the middle of the passage.

The Fungal Hyphae layers on both sides of the cut surface wriggled wildly, contracting as if they had been scalded, revealing the copper tube wall underneath.

The second cut.

The third cut.

The four men in the front row of the Iron Guard Battalion cleared the way simultaneously, their dark red blades slicing through the Fungal Hyphae layer, and black carbonized powder fell in droves.

A burnt smell filled the air.

The group moved forward through the path cleared by the four men.

[Detection Target: Believer Transcendent Abilities (Furnace Fire Pathway)]

[... Transcendence beings who worshipped the Pure Furnace... but the inanimate Dead Object responded to them, thus granting them the power of the Pure Fire...]

[Forbidden Studies - Seeker: +0.1...14.4/100]

Lu Yuan watched the movements of the Iron Guard Battalion at the front.

The four of them moved in perfect sync, with the two on the left responsible for the left wall and ceiling, and the two on the right responsible for the right wall and floor. Each swing of their swords generated a distorted wave of heat.

A path was carved out of the dense, green fungal layer.

Wolf himself did not do it.

He walked behind the four people in the front row, his gaze sweeping across the cut surface of the Fungal Hyphae, occasionally glancing at it in a particular direction.

He was observing the Fungal Hyphae's reaction, just like Lu Yuan.

"Very strong." Lu Yuan made a mental note of it.

The texture of the walls on both sides began to change, the passage narrowed, and the gray-white surface revealed the faint outline of a human body.

Living Wall Area.

Lu Yuan said, "There's something embedded in the wall ahead. It might reach out. Last time it grabbed blindly, but this time it's uncertain. Don't lean against the wall, and don't slow down."

The Iron Guard Battalion did not react, but their formation tightened slightly, with each side giving way by half a step.

The speed of the vanguard remained unchanged, the dark red blades continuing to cut the Fungal Hyphae, carbonized powder falling all over the ground.

Enter the Living Wall Area.

The grayish-white arms were still inside the wall, but their surface was covered with grayish-green filamentous patterns. The Fungal Hyphae had invaded the Living Wall.

Lu Yuan noticed that all the faces embedded in the wall had slightly turned towards the direction of the group.

They are watching.

But the Iron Guard Battalion didn't give them a chance to see.

The four people in the front row maintained the same pace, their dark red blades sweeping along the walls on both sides, carbonizing the Fungal Hyphae and the Living Wall together.

Before the grayish-white arm could even extend, it was sliced into charred pieces along with the wall, falling to the ground hissing and emitting black smoke.

The fracture site lacks blood vessels and muscle structures; instead, it is covered with dense, grayish-green filamentous tissue.

The inside of these arms has been completely replaced by Fungal Hyphae; the outside is human skin, and the inside is densely packed with Fungal Hyphae.

The tissues carbonized by the furnace fire died directly.

The strangeness of the Living Wall clearly indicated that something was wrong.

A flicker of fear appeared on that otherwise expressionless face, and his pale hands and body, half-embedded in the wall, writhed in agony.

But it was completely useless.

The Iron Guard Battalion's short swords slicing through this strange creature was like cutting tofu; they saw no resistance whatsoever and carved a path through it.

The carbonization from the furnace fire can permanently kill the Fungal Hyphae tissue. This is the most important piece of information to date.

As the column passed through the middle, several arms still peeked out from the recesses not covered by the Iron Guard Battalion's blades.

A soldier of the Holy Armor Army had his shoulder armor clamped between two arms from above and below with tremendous force, and his body was violently pulled against the wall.

The Holy Armor Army nearby reacted swiftly, severing the arm with two quick strikes of their bronze swords and pulling the man back.

Without a furnace fire, the Fungal Hyphae at the broken edge of the bronze sword began to wriggle after a few seconds, attempting to rejoin itself.

The soldier glanced down at his shoulder armor; two light gray-green corrosion marks had appeared on the silver-white armor plates.

The two men in the back row of the Iron Guard Battalion noticed this and took a half step back. They used their short swords to make several more cuts along the concave wall, completely carbonizing the remaining arm.

The team pushed through the Living Wall Area.

The arms that hadn't yet been carbonized neatly retracted into the wall behind them, especially those in the head area, which remained motionless as the procession passed by.

The Iron Guard Battalion responsible for clearing the way ignored the fire walls that hadn't yet been extended, and the column continued forward.

As they continued deeper, the situation at the Pipe Network Layer became increasingly dangerous.

The entire pipeline, except for the water discharge point, was covered with a thick layer of green Fungal Hyphae on its curved walls.

These Fungal Hyphae are very well developed.

In some places, the lights even hang from the walls, taking on a somewhat "dreamlike" quality when illuminated by the Sandworm lamps.

This is the Crawler's area.

Lu Yuan still gave prior instructions. "There's something on the ceiling that's afraid of light. Don't bother with it unless you attack it first; it's very difficult to kill."

The soldiers leading the way acknowledged.

When the light from the Sandworm Oil Lamp shone on them, Lu Yuan saw them.

The grayish-white figures clung to the ceiling, far more numerous than before, their surfaces also covered with grayish-green Fungal Hyphae.

The light shone on their faces.

They narrowed their eyes, neither retreating nor roaring, but simply continued to stare at the ranks below.

Seeing the pale green color on the Crawler' faces, Lu Yuan knew that they had also been parasitized by the Fungal Hyphae.

It also seems to have gained "light-resistant" capabilities.

"Wait... the Great Ghoul gains intelligence, the Crawler gains light resistance... this thing can give the Weird an evolution???"

A chill ran through Lu Yuan's heart, but no matter what, he had to execute him as soon as possible.

The Crawler watched the procession below. This time, they neither retreated nor left. They moved forward, hugging the ceiling, silently following, always maintaining a distance of about ten meters from the procession.

Wolf looked up for two seconds, then looked away.

"Should we try killing that thing on top of our heads? Otherwise, we might get into trouble."

"You can give it a try."

As Lu Yuan finished speaking...