The Fire That Broke Out
Oden, who had been observing from within Lu Yuan's mind, also realized this and couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement within Lu Yuan's consciousness:
"The Heretic of your time have come up with far too many tricks, even managing to concoct something that bypasses the Transcendence Path."
Lu Yuan silently asked Oden in his mind:
"Oden, this thing is called the Spores at the Boundary of Illusion and Reality. Did you ever hear of such a thing in your time?"
"Spores at the Boundary of Illusion and Reality —I've lived this long, and I've never even heard of such a thing before."
Oden shook his head dismissively in his mind.
Just as Lu Yuan and Oden were pondering the changes in the Heretic methods, the Dwarf craftsman standing next to Lin En suddenly realized something, and a look of understanding appeared on his face:
"Wait a minute, Consultant Lu, if what you're saying is true, doesn't that mean all the metal components we dismantled on the perimeter were Contamination by these spores?"
The Dwarf craftsman felt increasingly uneasy and quickly shouted:
"In other words, the brothers we sent to investigate that place before would inexplicably suffer from amnesia as soon as they stepped inside. We always thought there was something supernatural or strange inside, or some Pathway Contamination Potion's components, which is why we went there to search!"
"Because entering that place from the front will cause amnesia, we can't just fly up into the sky to investigate, and we don't have a suitable airship or anything like that, nor do we have a patrol fortress. So a couple of days ago, someone had a sudden idea to see if going up from the bottom would also cause amnesia. They went into a steam supply maintenance area underground in the West District, and in the middle of the area, very close to the steam heating pipes of Watch City but not yet actually connected, they accidentally found this part and disassembled it!"
Upon hearing the Dwarf craftsman's description of the location of the middle of the steam heating pipe, without the Dwarf saying anything more, everyone present felt a sudden chill and broke out in a cold sweat.
Because everyone present had considered a chilling consequence: the spores in the middle of the pipe were only in the experimental stage and had not yet been truly connected to the heating Pipe Network because the temperature of the hot steam in the heating pipes was relatively high.
But if one day the spores there have fully grown, and someone turns off the heating, the heat that was originally supplied to the whole city will turn into cold air. These spores will be blown out through the heating pipes, affecting everyone in the entire Watch City who is indoors.
If all the rooms with heating are Contamination, then the people of Watch City will be completely wiped out!
Upon realizing this, everyone present instantly understood that something was wrong. If that were to happen, the entire Watch City would be doomed.
Therefore, everyone is now focused on finding the source of the problem and eliminating the spores completely, otherwise Watch City will suffer a huge loss.
So everyone immediately gathered together to discuss it, Lin En quickly looked at Lu Yuan to confirm again:
"Advisor Lu Yuan, since these things are afraid of high temperatures, surely Flame can destroy them?"
Lu Yuan nodded and said:
"Absolutely no problem. Anything with a high temperature can easily destroy it. However, I'm not sure about the specifics of the spores at the very core. But theoretically, it should be the same, since this thing should be a special kind of thing that grows on some kind of plant."
Hearing that Flame could indeed suppress this thing, everyone immediately prepared to set off. Before leaving, Lin En asked Lu Yuan to help prepare several more bottles of the same heat-generating potion so that everyone could carry them with them and be fully prepared to explore that horrible place first.
When counting the number of people to depart, Lin En and the others initially didn't want Lu Yuan to go on the risk due to safety concerns, but Lu Yuan spoke up directly:
"I want to go too."
Lu Yuan insisted on going along because he planned to personally collect some of these [Spores at the Boundary of Illusion and Reality] to see what they were all about.
After all, he naturally had to get his hands on something he had never seen before, and even Oden had never heard of it.
Lu Yuan turned back to the potion-making station next to him and quickly prepared several bottles of warm fever-reducing potions, which were then distributed to the group. After everyone had carefully stored the potions away and gathered their personal equipment, Lin En led Lu Yuan, the Dwarf craftsmen, and several guards out in batches through the various hidden tunnels leading from the workshop out into the outside world.
After emerging from the tunnel and stepping onto the streets of the Outer City, you can see that the streets are still filled with ordinary residents going about their daily lives in Watch City, and the shops on both sides of the street are open for business as usual.
Although the martial law surroundings looked very serious, ordinary people in the city could at least maintain a normal life.
Lu Yuan, Lin En, and the group of Dwarf did not linger on the street, but walked briskly along the streets and alleys leading to the West District.
Just as they crossed the street corner, someone buying or selling something at a shop stopped what they were doing, glanced up in the direction Lu Yuan and the others had left, as if confirming something in their mind, and then, using the eaves of the shop as cover, secretly passed a message out in some discreet way:
"It seems the people at the Knight Academy have discovered our deployment. They should either speed things up or destroy it altogether."
Lu Yuan and his group were completely unaware of this and continued to advance towards that place along the route in the West District.
According to the Dwarf, it's quite a distance from here to where the parts were to be dismantled; it would take at least several tens of minutes to get there.
The Dwarf's name was also learned during the conversation; he was Baron Hawke, Dwarf craftsman who had been stationed in Watch City for a long time.
However, while everyone was chatting, before they actually arrived at the location, a blinding light suddenly rose from the direction leading to the underground gas supply maintenance site, and a raging fire broke out!
The Flame burned fiercely where they shouldn't have, showing no signs of extinguishing and instead growing larger and larger.
So when everyone saw the black smoke rising in the distance and wondered why there was a fire there, the Dwarf craftsman and Lin En, who were walking in front, suddenly changed their expressions and realized that the place where the fire started was clearly the place where they had found the parts earlier!
"Oh no, that's where we found the parts! Get there quickly!"
The Dwarf craftsman exclaimed in surprise. Upon seeing this, Lu Yuan and the others did not hesitate for a moment and immediately quickened their pace, rushing towards the place where the fire had started.
But by the time they rushed to the scene, the guards patrolling nearby had already extinguished the Flame.
They frowned as they saw the group arrive, and then stepped forward to check their identities.
But the appearance of Baron Hawke caused them to retract their orders; clearly, they were all aware of Baron Hawke's presence.
Baron Hawke ignored them and strode over to the nearest guard, asking, "Were you on patrol together? Did you see anyone after the fire started?"
"Reporting to the Master Craftsman, no, we rushed here as soon as we saw the fire in the distance. No one approached us during that time, and the Flame was extinguished by the fire itself, not by us."
Upon hearing this, Baron Hawke and the others exchanged glances. Someone had known about their movements beforehand and had prepared for destruction; their whereabouts had been discovered!
Therefore, all traces left at the scene were completely burned away by the fire.
Seeing this scene, everyone present couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness, and Lin En and the Dwarf craftsmen beside him also had helpless expressions on their faces.
Watch City, after all, a massive city with a population of nearly one million and a large number of personnel stationed within it. No matter how many of those Contamination Heretic have infiltrated, they cannot take over Watch City in one fell swoop. Therefore, they must adopt an unprecedented approach.
Conversely, Watch City is so large, with nearly a million people living there. Even if they knew someone was secretly watching them and had taken precautions beforehand, they couldn't possibly turn the entire Watch City upside down and search it one by one.
Just as everyone else was at a loss and feeling helpless in the face of the blackened entrance, Lu Yuan, who was standing in front of the entrance, had a slight change in his gaze, because there was still a faint gray-black aura left in the entrance that had been burned black.