Lu Yuan suddenly came to his senses and staggered back a step, his waist slamming into the wooden cabinet behind him with a dull thud.
He bent over, bracing both hands on his knees as he gasped for breath.
Cold sweat dripped from his brow onto the stone slab floor.
Countless fragments churned through his mind.
The lingering perception of the worm, Laurina's voice, the colors of the Sea of Knowledge.
[Sanity: -10...65/120] [Forbidden Studies—Seeker: +2.5...25.9/100] [Pharmacology: +1...34.4/50] [New Knowledge Entry Unlocked: Knowledge Worm Pathway (Basic)] [Warning: Your existence has drawn the attention of a certain being...]
Lu Yuan stared at the final line for two seconds.
There was no time to think about it.
He forcibly steadied his breathing and adjusted his current state to prevent anyone from noticing anything amiss when he left.
After making a few simple adjustments, Lu Yuan restored the laboratory cabinets and everything else as closely as possible to their original state.
Only after confirming that he had left no obvious traces did Lu Yuan turn and head toward the door.
Outside the window was the night sky.
The faint glow of the city wall runes was the same as when he had arrived, and the distance was silent and still.
The laboratory had returned to normal as well.
Empty cabinets, empty walls, empty windowsills.
The lingering aura of the Sea of Knowledge on the small table had completely dissipated, drained dry by the Seeker's ability. Only a thin layer of dust remained on the tabletop.
Just as Lu Yuan's hand touched the doorframe.
A tremor suddenly ran through the floor beneath his feet.
It was very faint.
So faint that it would have been impossible to notice if the entire building had not been utterly silent in the dead of night.