Chapter 324 The Lost Rick

The eerie inscriptions on the wall twisted even more violently.

Spiral symbols began to appear in large numbers.

Lu Yuan remembered these things.

Last time, Beren almost threw up his sanity after just two glances at it.

This spiral symbol cannot be looked at directly; looking at it too much can have a psychological impact.

Lu Yuan lowered his gaze, using only his peripheral vision to determine direction.

You have witnessed knowledge beyond the realm of reason... Your sanity is shaken...

[Sanity: -1...94/140]

Lu Yuan continued walking forward.

Footsteps echoed in the darkness, as if stepping on the body of some enormous creature.

The inscriptions around him kept rotating and twisting, like silent, turning eyes, all aimed at him.

Lu Yuan ignored everything and just kept moving forward.

Because he noticed it.

There's something that's preventing me from moving forward.

The strange inscriptions are not moving randomly; they are creating interference.

The density of the spiral symbols is significantly higher in the forward direction than on the sides, as if they were deliberately stacked on the route.

Lu Yuan, through his [Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge], vaguely sensed a repulsive will surging from the depths of darkness ahead.

But that will did not come from the inscription itself.

It's what's behind the inscription.

Lu Yuan didn't care. Since the rate at which the corruption of reason was so slow, it meant that it wasn't dangerous. So Lu Yuan was determined to continue forward.

But as he walked, he suddenly realized a problem.

What happened to the copper wall we saw before?

Last time, it took me a few minutes to walk from the corner to the copper wall.

He had been walking for at least ten minutes, and ahead lay only endless darkness and twisted inscriptions.

The journey shouldn't be this long.

[Sanity: -1...93/140]

As this thought arose, the surrounding inscriptions seemed to sense his wavering.

All the spiral symbols on the wall rotated at an accelerated speed simultaneously.

It was no longer the slow, creeping motion, but instead transformed into a rapid, high-speed rotation with a strong sense of pressure.

Countless vortexes spread out on the wall, like countless pupil-less eyes staring at him from every direction.

The space within the pipeline network is distorted.

The copper coin beneath my feet seemed to be tilting, or perhaps stretching.

The light from the marching lights became curved, as if folded by something.

Lu Yuan couldn't tell whether space was truly being distorted or he was hallucinating, but he simply closed his eyes.

Determining direction by breathing.

The concentration of the gray-gold aura was highest directly in front, which was the direction of the copper wall.

No matter how distorted the space is, the concentration of aura doesn't lie.

Lu Yuan opened his eyes, no longer looking at the walls or the inscriptions, but only at the copper coin under his feet, and walked forward step by step.

One step... two steps... and so Lu Yuan continued forward with his head down.

Then, from the darkness, something enormous pressed down upon us.

It's a copper wall.

But it's not the same copper wall we saw last time.

The last time I came, this wall was "very new, as new as if it had just been built."

That's not the case anymore.

The dim light of the marching lamp shone on it, and Lu Yuan saw a wall covered in rubble.

The copper surface was covered with pits, as if it had been repeatedly struck from the inside by something.

In some places, fist-sized bulges have formed, causing the copper sheet to deform from the inside, with cracks extending outwards along the edges of the bulges.

The once quiet inscriptions on the wall are now spreading outwards at a visible speed.

Runes peeled off the walls like living things, swimming along the floor and ceiling toward the pipe network.

This is the source of the spreading inscriptions that Lu Yuan saw along the way.

They ran out of the copper wall.

At the same time, the oppressive aura that had been separated by the silver sheet began to seep in as it approached the copper wall.

It wasn't intense, but it felt heavy, like standing at the bottom of deep water.

Lu Yuan stood in front of the bronze wall and did not go any further.

Grayish-white text appeared.

[Alchemy...Inscription knowledge detected...Analysis in progress...Interpretation failed]

[Current Status of Bronze City: +3...26.2/50]

Lu Yuan looked at the bulges that were being pushed out from the inside.

What's behind the copper wall is being pushed out.

The bronze pillar was pushed out, and the inscription spread outwards, all different manifestations of the same thing.

The seal is loosening.

And it's not slow.

At the same time, the last thing Lu Yuan wanted to see appeared.

[Detection Target: ■■ (Incomplete)]

[A special being who knows [the universe] possesses incredible supernatural power, but it seems to be incomplete. Perhaps if you rescue it, you will receive rewards far beyond your imagination.]

The moment Lu Yuan saw the notification, he turned and left without hesitation.

Fortunately, the message remained unchanged, and the seal was not severely damaged.

Lu Yuan lowered his head, thinking as he felt the pressure around him gradually receding.

He finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Just as Lu Yuan was estimating the time and looked up...

Rick is missing.

There was no one standing a few meters away where Rex should have been.

When the light from the marching lanterns shone through, all that could be seen was the empty copper plate floor and the strange, rotating inscriptions covering the walls.

"Leike?"

no respond.

Lu Yuan lowered his body, placed his right hand on his left wheel, and quickly walked back.

After walking about twenty steps, he saw Rick.

Rex stood still.

Not moving at all.

The worm-like body was completely still, all its tentacles hanging stiffly in mid-air, as if frozen.

Beneath the short brown hair, on a face that barely maintained a human form, there was no reaction.

Lu Yuan called out twice, but there was no response.

He reached out and touched Rick's shoulder.

The worm's skin was cold, and the internal movement had completely stopped.

But he was still breathing.

It's extremely faint, almost imperceptible, but it's still there.

Grayish-white text popped up.

[Target for detection: Rick (mysterious and extraordinary) (mentally abnormal)]

[The target's consciousness appears to have been drawn elsewhere by external forces...]

Lu Yuan's pupils contracted for a moment.

Is consciousness being drawn?

What's going on? Could it be that the being behind the Copper Wall hasn't attacked me because they've taken a liking to Rex?!

Lu Yuan did not rashly attempt to awaken Lei Ke.

He didn't know what the consequences of forcibly intervening would be.

But we can't just wait like this.

Lu Yuan squatted down next to Lei Ke, picked him up, and judged Lei Ke's condition by sensing the changes in the state of the worms on his body.

In short, no matter what, we absolutely cannot let Lake stay here any longer.

If it really is the being behind the Copper Wall that has its eye on Rex, then as long as I take Rex away a distance, I can reduce the danger to some extent.

At this moment, Lake is no longer in the pipeline layer.

He stood on a cliff.

All around was a hazy, gray void.

There was no sky, no earth, only this small, neatly hewn rock platform beneath my feet.

The rock platform was small, about three or four steps square, with an endless expanse of dark gray mist beyond its edges.

Rick looked down at his body.

It's still in human form.

It wasn't a combat form made of worms, but rather a human form that he hadn't used in a long time.

He had a face in his early thirties, short brown hair, and was so ordinary that he wouldn't stand out in a crowd.

He tried to summon strange powers.

But there was no response whatsoever.

His extraordinary power seemed to have been drained, not suppressed, but completely nonexistent.

It's as if I've never embarked on the path to the extraordinary.

But Rick didn't believe any of this. He thought he should still be in the pipeline layer, and that what he was seeing was just an illusion.

Rex was filled with vigilance.

He looked around, his gaze sweeping over the faint outlines emerging from the gray fog.

Beyond the rock platform beneath his feet, more rock platforms floated intermittently in the mist above and below.

Some were bigger than his, while others were only the size of a palm.

They are scattered at different heights, like a dismantled staircase.

At higher elevations, only the faint outlines of a few platforms remain.

You can't see anything beyond that.

It was just a hazy gray expanse.

Where exactly is this?

Were they pulled in?

Lei Ke thought of Lu Yuan, who was walking ahead of him.

He was walking ahead; if he were pulled in, wouldn't Lu Yuan be in an even worse situation?

Rick tried to move his feet.

You can walk, but it's meaningless.

The rock platform is only three or four steps away; once you reach the edge, you'll find yourself in empty space.

He tried shouting again.

The sound came out of his mouth, but was swallowed by the gray mist, without even an echo.

A familiar feeling welled up in Rick's mind.

Something that felt strangely familiar...

Then the sound came.

"Your wish is granted."

A voice came from the depths of the gray fog.

It's not a normal human voice.

It sounded as if dozens of people were speaking at the same time, each with a slightly different tone, which overlapped in the gray fog to form a deep thunderclap.

Rex was jolted and looked up abruptly.

Above the gray fog.

A huge outline was faintly visible.

It is a head.

No, it cannot be described as "one".

The size of that thing far exceeded Rick's comprehension.

The gray fog obscured most of its outline, leaving only a small section of the jawline and the outline of half a lip visible.

The lips didn't move, but the sound definitely came from that direction.

Even the small portion that was exposed already occupied the entire sky above Rex's head.

Rex stood frozen in place.

Because he suddenly remembered where he was.

This was essentially an interrogation room, where the swarming insects absorbed memories from the Gray Pact's mind.

The person standing before me is the so-called "person on the wall".

He is now standing in that scene himself.

And it was heard very clearly.

"Your wish is granted."

He said the same thing again.

The sound was closer than the first time.

The gray fog receded slightly to the sides, making the outline of the head clearer.

Rick saw its eyes.

There is only one.

A huge, grayish-white eyeball without a pupil.

It slowly turned out of the mist and aimed at the rocky platform beneath its feet.

It aimed at Lake.

Rick's breath caught in his throat for a moment.

That eye held no emotion, no wisdom, and no threat.

It's just watching.

It's like a being far beyond human comprehension, looking down at an ant.

It's not contempt.

Yes... I don't care at all.

Rex stood on the rock platform, his fists clenched.

He is a fourth-order bizarre transcendent.

But at this moment, he had no strength left in his body.

He couldn't do anything about it.

The head seemed to have waited long enough.

The gray fog suddenly surged outwards, as if something had awakened from the depths of the fog.

The third time.

"Your wish is granted."

This time, the sound no longer came from a distance.

It came from within Rick's mind.