Lu Yuan did not know how long he had slept.
He woke up once in the middle of it, his throat painfully dry.
He fumbled for the kettle by the bed and gulped down a few mouthfuls. The water was a little cold, with the distinctive astringent taste of a copper container.
Then Lu Yuan collapsed again.
He slept deeply this time.
Undisturbed, his consciousness seemed to sink into a bottomless well, leaving nothing behind.
When he opened his eyes again, the angle of light filtering through the gap in the curtains had already shifted lower.
Afternoon.
And not the same afternoon as before he slept.
Lu Yuan stared at the beam of light for two seconds and assessed his condition.
His mind was much clearer. The muddled feeling left behind by sustained high pressure had finally faded.
The Gray-White Text at the edge of his vision was clear and stable. The Copper Wall patterns no longer writhed, and there were no extra hallucinations.
[Sanity: 79/120]
The moment Lu Yuan saw his sanity value, he realized he had probably slept for two days.
"Much better."
Lu Yuan sat up and stretched. The window faced north, overlooking the branch's inner courtyard.
The courtyard was quiet. Two Night Watchers were conducting their routine patrol in the distance, their footsteps unhurried, no different from usual.
No one came knocking.
It seemed Klaus had given the order.
Lu Yuan was about to get out of bed and wash his face.
When the Symbiotic Link suddenly twitched.
It was not a faint restlessness.
It was a very clear, direct urging.
As if someone had tugged on a thread in Lu Yuan's mind.
The Worm of Knowledge had awakened.
And it had not just awakened.
The signal from the Symbiotic Link told Lu Yuan