Chapter 329 New Speculation

As Klaus emerged from around the corner, the light from the marching lights first illuminated his shadow.

The shadows were stretched long and fell on the bronze wall. Three more men followed behind: Glock and two Night's Watchmen, all armed and moving quickly.

Klaus didn't rush forward.

His gaze first swept over the bronze walls on both sides of the passage, paused for a moment on the strange, slowly writhing inscriptions on the walls, and then fell on Lu Yuan and Lei Ke in front of the passage.

Rex leaned against the copper wall on his right, and the worm-like body resumed its slow wriggling, but all the tentacles were retracted to his sides. Lu Yuan squatted next to him, one hand still on his knee, in the position of someone who had just stood up from the ground.

Klaus looked at him for a few seconds without saying a word.

He raised his left hand, and the bone ring on his ring finger emitted a faint dark green light. The light emanated from the surface of the bone ring, extending forward along Klaus's finger, first sweeping over Rex, and then turning towards Lu Yuan.

The dark green light fell on the two of them, without changing color or fluctuating, and quietly swept over them before withdrawing.

"It's not contaminated."

Klaus withdrew his hand, a hint of helplessness appearing on his previously serious face. Then, Klaus's gaze fell on Rex.

"explain."

Rex did not change his posture, with the back of his head against the copper wall and his eyes half-closed, as if he were giving a routine report.

"During the interrogation of the Gray Pact's third-tier member, the Swarm Worms were reading his memories. The third-tier member had a scene in his mind: a gigantic head, gray mist, and kneeling followers receiving commands. When the Swarm Worms encountered that memory, my consciousness was directly pulled into it."

Klaus didn't interrupt. Glock stood half a step behind him, clutching the communication crystal in his hand, his expression shifting from confusion to seriousness.

"That's it." Rex's tone remained unchanged. "The head from the Gray Contract's third-tier memories. The one on the wall. He's waiting in that space."

Klaus's expression didn't change, but Lu Yuan noticed that he paused for a moment while rubbing his fingers on the bone ring.

Rex continued, describing the space as being filled with gray mist. Beneath his feet was a rock platform about three or four steps square, surrounded by bottomless void. Broken pieces of the platform floated at different heights, rendering any supernatural power useless when standing on them.

"He is trapped in that space, unable to leave. But He can pull people in."

Rick's gaze lowered slightly.

"Before I was ejected, I fell a short distance and saw the entire stone wall. There were several figures on the steps, blurry and their faces indistinct. In my third-tier memories, all the extraordinary beings from the Gray Pact had been to that space and knelt before Him."

He stopped.

Glock opened his mouth slightly, but no sound came out.

"The rest are sealed off," Rick said, his voice even lower. "They can't say."

Klaus looked at him but didn't ask any further questions.

Lu Yuan stood up and took over the conversation.

"After Rick was pulled in, I built a bridge with the bugs and sent my consciousness in as well."

Klaus turned his gaze to him.

"I also saw the person on the wall," Lu Yuan said succinctly. "He was interested in something about me, but couldn't touch me. Further details were also sealed away."

The passageway was quiet for a few seconds.

Klaus's fingers tightened slightly on the bone ring, a dark green luster flashing between his fingers. He didn't ask "what thing," nor did he ask "what was sealed." Everyone present understood that information sealed by an existence of this level was impossible to answer even if asked.

Glock finally couldn't hold back any longer.

"What exactly is the person on the wall? An existence trapped in space? How did it..."

"Glock." Klaus glanced at him.

Glock shut up.

Klaus was silent for a moment, his fingers slowly turning half a circle around the bone ring. The light from the marching lamp cast flickering shadows on his face.

Lu Yuan waited a few seconds before speaking.

"There's something about those two third-tier members of the Gray Contract Society who came to manage the network layer that just doesn't make sense."

Klaus looked up at him.

"Back then, three members of the Gray Pact Society—Ring, 9, and J—were simultaneously trying to kill you in the inner city," Lu Yuan said slowly, one sentence at a time.

"If the operation at the pipeline level was also arranged by the Grey Contracts, at least a Tier 4 escort should have been sent. For a mission of this level, delivering the goods near the Copper Wall, they might encounter Rex or patrolling Night Watchmen along the way. Two Tier 3s wouldn't even have any cover; they'd just be running towards the Copper Wall with the boxes."

He paused for a moment.

"The force allocation is off. All the fourth-tier units went to surround and kill you, but only two third-tier units were lost on the pipeline side? Either the Gray Pact commander is out of his mind, or it wasn't even the same order."

Rex straightened up from the copper wall.

"It wasn't an organized effort. They came of their own accord."

Glock frowned. "Unauthorized action? Two Tier 3s?"

Lu Yuan didn't look at Glock; his gaze was fixed on Klaus's face.

"The man on the wall can pull people into that space. The Grey Covenant members kneel before Him. If He could deal with each person individually..."

He paused for a moment.

"Those two Tier 3s probably each got something from Him, and then came here to die."

No one spoke in the passageway.

Klaus's finger remained still on the bone ring.

Lu Yuan lowered his voice.

"There's one more question."

Klaus looked at him.

"Leike was targeted after his third-order memories were read in the detention room," Lu Yuan said, slowing his pace. "But his consciousness was truly taken away later, in the pipeline layer."

He glanced at Rick. Rick didn't speak, but nodded slightly.

"In other words, accessing the memories of the person on the wall is enough for Him to find you. You don't need to be near the copper wall, you don't need to be in His space. Reading a memory is enough."

Glock's expression changed.

Lu Yuan did not stop.

"But this is only one way we know of," he said in a low voice. "The Gray Pact has been lurking in Bronze City for so long, and every one of them has contact with the One on the Wall. The Third Order was contacted through memories, but what about the Fourth Order? Through what channels did the more core members of the Gray Pact establish contact with Him?"

The passageway was silent for two seconds, and the flame of the marching lights flickered.

"Memory is just a door," Lu Yuan said in a very low voice. "How many other doors does He have? We don't know."

Rex spoke up. "The Gray Pact needs a sufficiently concealed contact point within the city. It needs to be able to shield against perception and accommodate forbidden-level communication channels."

Lu Yuan continued, "Where in the city could you find such conditions? A sufficiently deep history, a sufficiently complex underground structure, and a sufficient amount of knowledge and extraordinary shielding methods..."

Three voices rang out almost simultaneously.

"The Tower of Learning."

Klaus. Lu Yuan. Rex.

Glock opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

The passageway fell completely silent.

The Knowledge Tower's plan to harvest knowledge from the sea, Arthur Heinz's accelerated experiment, the suppression of the Night's Watch, and the resistance Klaus encountered when he stormed the Knowledge Tower.

At that moment, everything in Lu Yuan's mind came together.

If there is some connection between the person on the wall and the Tower of Learning, and if the Gray Pact made contact with Him through the Tower of Learning...

Just how many people in the entire Tower of Learning were implicated?

What about the imperial officials who operate through the Tower of Learning?

Klaus's face darkened considerably.

Glock's face was deathly pale. His hand holding the communication crystal trembled, and his lips moved twice, but he ultimately said nothing.

Klaus closed his eyes.

The cold air from the pipeline filled his nostrils, carrying a faint smell of rust. The light from the marching lamp cast deep shadows on his face.

He opened his eyes a few seconds later.

"Stop."

His tone was firm and left no room for negotiation.

"This conclusion remains unchanged for now."

Glock opened his mouth.

"No evidence." Klaus's voice was low and clear, muffled in the corridor. "If we go and disturb the Tower of Learning now, we'll alert them. The person behind the walls is bound by rules, but He can see some things; at least He knows a lot about the Gray Contract Society."

The hand loosened from the bone ring.

"All we can do now is solve the immediate problem."

Glock closed his mouth, but the expression on his face clearly showed that he had a lot to say but couldn't swallow it down.

The Tower of Learning is one of the Empire's core institutions in Bronze City. If the tentacles of the Man on the Wall are indeed hidden inside, then many of the things that happened before make sense.

But precisely because it makes sense, we must not act rashly.

Klaus turned to Lu Yuan.

"You went to see the copper wall last time. What's the situation there?"

Lu Yuan tidied up his words.

"There's something behind the copper wall. I confirmed it last time I went, but my senses can't analyze it, so I can't determine exactly what it is." He chose his words carefully. "Berlen's exact words were that what's behind the copper wall might be the source of the Bronze City's power. But he didn't draw a conclusion."

Klaus did not interrupt.

"This time when I went back, the condition of the wall was much worse than last time." Lu Yuan reached out and gestured on the bronze wall.

"Bumps and cracks; the density has at least doubled. The inscriptions are peeling off the wall, spreading in streaks towards the pipe network. Last time I was here, the boundary of the inscription spread was still quite deep; this time, it's all over the wall as soon as I turned the corner."

Klaus's gaze darkened.

Lu Yuan held up two fingers.

I have two judgments.

"One." He held up his index finger. "The people on the wall want to release what's behind the copper wall. The Gray Contract Society calls that place 'the root,' and the severed limb they intercepted earlier was meant to be sent there to 'feed.' If the people on the wall are constantly sending things into the copper wall through the Gray Contract Society, then the accelerated corrosion of the copper wall makes sense."

"Two." He raised his middle finger. "The Abyss has a problem. The copper wall is part of the seal structure, as is the bronze pillar. If what's below is moving on its own, it's causing the seal to loosen, and the deterioration of the copper wall is just a chain reaction."

He lowered his hand.

"No matter which one, the result is the same."

Lu Yuan's gaze fell on Klaus's face, and his tone turned cold.

"If the inscribed defenses of Bronze City collapse, the ghouls will return. This city is a crucial stronghold in the western territories of the Empire; then, with tens of thousands in the inner city, plus the surrounding towns and villages..."

He didn't finish speaking. He didn't need to finish.

The passageway was quiet for a few seconds.

"We must dive down. We need to find out what's going on down there." Lu Yuan's voice was steady as he rattled off his speculations.

He paused for a moment.

"But before we dive, the Gray Pact must be dealt with. We can't take people with knives in our backs with us into the abyss."