"You were unaffected."
There was no confusion left in his tone.
Clearly, the Great Ascendant had confirmed it. When he first asked on the stairs, he had still been probing. Now, his tone had changed completely.
A dull click came from his mechanical joints as the Great Ascendant tilted his head slightly. The movement looked stiff on his metal frame, but its meaning was clear.
He was reassessing Lu Yuan.
After a brief pause, the Great Ascendant spoke.
"That makes sense."
"Since A.M. chose you, you must have something exceptional about you."
Lu Yuan's expression did not change.
But something in his mind suddenly tightened.
A.M. Andre Morris. The young man behind the counter of that Outer City bookstore, holding a teacup, dressed in a long dark-gray coat with deep-green satin trim at the cuffs.
The Great Ascendant knew him.
Not merely knew him. The phrase "chose you" meant that he knew what had happened between Lu Yuan and A.M.—the ritual of remembrance, joining the society, things no third party should have known.
And he belonged to the same circle.
The Great Ascendant's silver-gray pupils shifted slightly before he continued.
"Combined with the information gathered during this period, it seems you've indeed forged a path of your own in terms of sanity."
A trace of scrutiny flashed through his silver-gray eyes.
"Not bad."
Lu Yuan did not respond.
From the beginning, the Great Ascendant had not merely been a representative sent by the Ascension Society. His silence during the meeting, his cooperation upon entering the tower, his initiative in approaching Skull, pulling out the Seed through the gap in its jaw—none of it had been improvised. He had been waiting for this opportunity all along.
At the same time, he had been secretly observing everyone, including Lu Yuan.
Without looking