Chapter 342 The Stubborn Gray Contract Society
It flew out of Lu Yuan's left eye, its wings buzzing, and circled the room twice, its colors becoming more intense than before. Following behind it was a noticeably smaller insect, which timidly peeked out from deep within Lu Yuan's left eye and then cautiously floated out.
This is the little guy that the Gray Pact acquired from some corpse parts they somehow got their hands on.
The worm of knowledge circled Lu Yuan's head, its antennae repeatedly pointing towards the toolbox. The emotions conveyed through the symbiotic connection were quite straightforward.
I'm hungry. I need to eat something.
Lu Yuan glanced at it.
"You want to eat the consciousness crystal?"
The wings of the Insect of Knowledge flapped more rapidly, its body displaying alternating shades of light and dark, and it chirped incessantly.
The little insect huddled behind it, its antennae twitching slightly as it echoed its movements.
Lu Yuan opened the toolbox and took out the sampling bottle wrapped in two layers of cloth from the innermost layer.
A faint light, a blend of gray-green and dark gold, seeped through the fabric seams, pulsating steadily.
He opened the sample bottle and placed it on the table.
"It's edible."
The insect of knowledge swarmed forward.
"But you're not allowed to eat too much."
Lu Yuan grabbed its tail.
"If you get dizzy from eating, we won't give you any more food."
The wings of the Knowledge Worm drooped for a moment, a pitiful emotion emanating from its symbiotic connection. But it obediently restrained its movements, its antennae cautiously touching the surface of the consciousness crystal, and began to slowly absorb it.
The little insect approached, but was swatted away by the Insect of Knowledge with its wing and retreated to the side to wait.
Lu Yuan leaned back in his chair, staring at them.
After a few minutes, the gray text began to move.
[Ancient Music Theory: +1.5...3.5/50]
[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +2...23.1/50]
[Rationality IV: +2...33/140]
The worm of knowledge, having eaten its fill, slowly flapped its wings, its colors now more vibrant than before. Floating in mid-air, it turned and touched the little insect with its antennae.
Then the insect's body began to turn transparent.
It gradually seeped into the body of the worm of knowledge.
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.
"Did you eat your companion?"
The worm of knowledge shook its head and chirped a long string of responses. The images transmitted through the symbiotic connection were vague, but the general meaning was: this way you can grow better and absorb knowledge faster.
It added another paragraph.
The tone conveyed was somewhat reassuring: it can be separated at any time; it's not like they're actually going to eat each other.
Lu Yuan looked at it for a few seconds without saying anything.
The worm of knowledge buzzed twice and burrowed back into Lu Yuan's left eye.
The presence deep within the left eye is a bit stronger than before.
Lu Yuan rewrapped the sample bottle, put it back in the toolbox, and then collapsed onto the bed.
too tired.
The moment I closed my eyes, my consciousness almost immediately sank.
When I opened my eyes again, the light outside the window had changed.
The hazy morning passed, and sunlight squeezed in through the gaps in the curtains, casting a narrow strip of light on the floor.
Lu Yuan sat up and rubbed his face.
Grayish-white text floats on the edge of vision.
[Sanity: +12...76/140]
After sleeping for about four or five hours, I regained some of my senses.
He got out of bed, washed his face, changed into a clean shirt, and then went upstairs to the laboratory.
Take the ghoul brain core from the locker.
The dark red pebbles gleamed faintly with an eerie aura under the light. Lu Yuan sat in front of the lab table, took out a copper needle, and began to carve.
The copper needle landed on the surface of the brain nucleus, and the symbiotic connection sent a slight feedback. The worm of knowledge, deep within the left eye, coordinated with the fine-tuning of the pen strokes.
Lu Yuan was very fast. His strange resistance to low-level materials meant he no longer had to worry about backlash. He carved one material after another, and dark red patterns rose from inside his brain core, solidified, and took shape.
About an hour later, more than a dozen engraved brain nuclei appeared on the table.
Lu Yuan put the brain core into his pocket, tidied up the experimental table, and then went downstairs out of the branch office.
The midday sun shone on the gray stone pavement of Bronze City. The gas lamps were off during the day, and there were few pedestrians on the road.
Lu Yuan walked along the road toward the branch office area.
The interrogation is about to begin.
The room at the far end of the basement floor.
The lighting was dim, with only an oil lamp in the corner, its flame flickering slightly. Several inscriptions were carved on the stone wall, gleaming with a very faint copper-green luster.
J and Q sat on iron chairs in the center of the room.
Dark silver shackles were locked around his wrists and ankles, their surfaces covered with dense inscriptions that pulsated with a faint light, breathing in sync with the inscriptions on the stone wall.
J kept his eyes closed. After being restrained by the shackles, the light black liquid film on the surface of his skin had dried completely, sticking to his skin like a layer of cracked tree bark. He had not opened his eyes since he was brought in, and his breathing was even.
Q leaned back in his chair, his posture relaxed.
He was in slightly better condition than J; at least his eyes were open. The shackles suppressed his channeling power, but not his mouth. His gaze swept around the room before finally settling on the doorway.
Klaus pushed the door open and came in.
Lu Yuan followed behind.
Klaus did not sit down, but stood two steps away from Q. However, the green aura remaining on his body was still discernible within the suppression range of the sealing array.
Q looked at Klaus and smiled.
"The Deputy Chief of Staff has come in person."
Klaus didn't respond.
He spoke, his voice low and his pace steady.
"We are aware of the memory lock of a fourth-order transcendent being. Your methods can block most external intrusions. Trying to extract something from a living person's brain is something we cannot do with our current methods."
Q's smile remained unchanged.
Klaus continued.
"But you also know that the memory lock is attached to the pathway. The moment the pathway collapses, the lock shatters along with it."
"Kill you, forcibly read your memories at the moment of death. Although the memories will be incomplete, most of them will be obtained."
The room was silent for a few seconds.
Q's smile faded slightly.
"So," Klaus looked at him, "you decide, or we'll take it ourselves."
J never opened his eyes.
Q was silent for a moment, then leaned back in his chair and tilted his head.
"Ask away."
His tone was casual. "I'll say what I can say, and you can't say even if you kill me."
Klaus didn't waste any more words.
"How did the wooden figure come about?"
Q glanced at Klaus for two seconds, then chuckled softly.
"You took all the wooden figures with you, can't you even look at them yourselves?"
He leaned back in his chair, his two handcuffed hands resting on his knees.
"What's inside? You'll find out once you cut it open. The green liquid should be familiar to you. Didn't your Night's Watch handle that Baron von Linde?"
Klaus's expression remained unchanged.
"The possibility of transforming a person into a wooden figure?"
Q laughed again, this time even more clearly.
"In your noble council, more than half of the people drank. You can count how many people were drunk."
He tilted his head, as if recalling something.
"Three outcomes. If you're lucky, your body, pathways, or sanity will improve, which is a win. If you're unlucky, you'll lose control, your entire body will become woody, and there's no saving you. As for the third one..."
He glanced in the direction of the corner of the room, but there was nothing there.
"Turning into a wooden puppet. The probability is extremely low, so low that we can't even control it ourselves."
Lu Yuan stood behind Klaus without saying a word.
What Q said matched the information he had. It was true that more than half of the people at the Earl's meeting had consumed the dark green liquid, but most of them only achieved simple lignification, and the number of wooden figures was indeed very small.
This part is most likely not a lie.
Klaus did not dwell on the matter.
Where is K now?
Q's lips twitched slightly.
"have no idea."
J's eyes were still closed, but his brow furrowed very slightly before relaxing again.
Klaus remained silent for a few seconds.
"Where is the other seed?"
Q glanced at Klaus, and the corners of his mouth curved up again.
"At K's place."
Klaus's gaze darkened slightly.
"The man on the wall."
Q's smile disappeared.
He didn't answer immediately, but instead looked down at the shackles on his wrists and twitched his fingers.
The silence lasted for several seconds.
"There are some things that I don't want to say."
Q looked up at Klaus. His gaze was completely different from before; the relaxation and mockery had all faded, leaving only a calm seriousness.
"I can't say. I really don't believe you're not involved with the person on the wall. Since you know His name, you must have seen His appearance. So, do I still need to continue?"
Klaus's gaze lingered on Q's face for two seconds, but he didn't ask any further questions.
"One last question."
Klaus lowered his voice by half a beat.
"What exactly do you want to do in Bronze City?"
Q looked up at Klaus and remained silent for a long time. Then he smiled, a very faint smile.
He did not answer this time.
J's eyelids twitched, but he still didn't open them, though the corners of his mouth seemed to curve slightly.
Klaus stood there, staring at Q for a few seconds, his eyes gradually turning cold.
But this was expected. Klaus's original plan was to escort the Gray Contract Society back to headquarters, as this would be an extremely valuable achievement.
If things go well, Klaus will at least have the right to make one reasonable request to the central command: he wants to obtain a special medicine for the Guardians.
But that potion was far too expensive, so expensive that even ten years' worth of points accumulated by the branch weren't enough. Klaus wanted to obtain it either by acquiring the medal or by waiting a few more years.
After all, there are quite a few fifth-tier out-of-control extraordinary beings in the Empire, and the production of potions is far too limited...
For a superhuman like the Guardian, who has been stuck here for decades, time has eroded his last path to advancement, and this potion only appeared ten years ago.
Suppressing his murderous intent, Klaus turned and walked away.
As we reached the door, Q spoke from behind us.
"Deputy Chief of Staff."
Klaus did not turn around.
Q's voice became flat.
"You'd better not touch that copper wall in the pipeline layer. This is my final advice to you."
Klaus didn't stop walking; he pushed open the door and went out.
Lu Yuan glanced at Q one last time.
Q was also looking at him, a smile still lingering on her lips. Her gaze swept over Lu Yuan's left eye, lingering for less than a second.
Lu Yuan turned and went out the door.
The door closed behind him, isolating the faint light of the shackle inscription within the stone wall.
In the corridor, Klaus stood a few steps away, his back to Lu Yuan.
"What do you think?"
Lu Yuan thought for a moment.
"The success rate and the wooden figure match the intelligence we have, so they shouldn't be lying."
He paused for a moment.
"I think there's something wrong with that answer about the seed. K is nowhere to be found, and everyone's pushing everything onto K, it's too convenient."
Klaus nodded, his tone carrying a hint of something unreadable.
"yes..."
(That's all for tonight, I'm going to rest.)