I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

Grayish-white text kept popping up, but Lu Yuan forcibly ignored it, pushing it to the bottom of his field of vision, and followed closely behind Klaus.

But just as he ran into the thick fog, he suddenly discovered a new problem.

The connection between the first four fragments is gradually weakening.

The few thin threads that had been holding onto the fragments were gradually being pressed down by something, growing weaker and weaker.

Lu Yuan immediately realized that it was this fog that was severing the connection between the fragments.

His heart sank little by little.

It's true that this thing can block perception, but I never expected it could even cover up the extremely subtle connections between fragments.

If this fog continues to spread, will the fifth fragment still be found? Ever since we came up from the abyss, the fifth fragment seemed to have vanished without a trace.

Before he could think it through, a foul-smelling gust of wind rushed out from the alley on the right.

A large ghoul roared as it charged toward Lu Yuan.

Without turning his head, Klaus unleashed a dark green crystalline fragment that instantly pierced the creature's head, slamming it into the wall.

After the muffled thud, the thing didn't move again.

Klaus continued on his way without saying a word.

The two quickly passed through several narrow alleys in the outer city. When they were almost at the entrance to the pipeline layer, Klaus suddenly stopped.

Lu Yuan couldn't stop in time and almost bumped into his back.

Klaus pressed one hand to his side, signaling Lu Yuan not to move.

His bone armor had covered his entire body, and green light flickered between the seams of the armor.

At the same time, Lu Yuan's gray text displayed a new notification.

[A high-risk pollution source has been detected. Please move away immediately.]

Lu Yuan looked ahead.

The fog was so thick that you couldn't see anything more than a few steps away.

But right in the middle of that white mist, there was a pair of eyes.

It was light white, almost blending into the fog, and could not be distinguished at all without careful observation.

Those eyes hovered in mid-air, at a height roughly where two adults were stacked on top of each other, quietly watching this side without blinking.

It was right there, about ten steps away from them.

Klaus's breathing stopped completely at that moment, and Lu Yuan could feel that his body was very tense.

Those eyes lingered in the thick fog for a few moments.

His gaze slowly swept over Klaus, then lingered for a moment on Lu Yuan's face behind him.

It did nothing.

Those pale white eyes turned slightly to the left, moving towards the inner city.

The fog swirled around it, and before Lu Yuan could see its full form, it sank into the deeper white fog.

Those were travelers passing through the fog.

Lu Yuan recognized him; it was the same person he had encountered on his way back to the city.

The traveler in the fog has left.

Klaus stared stiffly in the direction it disappeared before his tense body slowly relaxed.

This was the first time Lu Yuan had seen him like this.

He knew in his heart that Klaus had truly felt the power of that thing.

It's no wonder that a fourth-tier peak deputy chief is nervous when he encounters a truly high-ranking figure.

Lu Yuan stood behind him, feeling nothing except for the gray text prompts.

The two people's perception of that thing was on completely different levels.

Klaus didn't mention what had just happened.

He took a deep breath, suppressed his breathing, and gestured for Lu Yuan to follow.

Lu Yuan followed his steps, but his mind was racing with something else.

The direction the traveler in the fog headed was towards the inner city, beneath which lay the very flesh and blood churning and raging in the abyss.

When I encountered it on the way back to the city, it said, "Something is about to wake up." Could it be referring to this piece of flesh?

Lu Yuan kept quiet; there was no need for him to say anything more about this news at the moment.

The peculiar existence in the fog has already come true, and Klaus has his own way of dealing with it; as for the piece of flesh underground, does he even need to remind him?

Klaus led Lu Yuan through the last alley, the most polluted area.

He rushed into the collapsed area.

Lu Yuan followed closely behind, and as soon as he entered, he smelled the burnt odor.

After walking down only a few dozen steps, the light ahead dimmed.

Looking deeper in, it was pitch black, with the occasional faint, dark red glow emanating from something in the darkness.

Margaret was just below, not far away.

She was half-squatting by the passageway, with several night watchmen lying beside her.

Two of them had already woken up, sitting against the wall, their bodies still wrapped in pale blue silk threads, their eyes somewhat vacant. The others remained unconscious, also wrapped in the same silk threads.

The person closest to her was the most seriously injured.

Large sections of flesh were missing from both arms from the elbows down, and the exposed sections revealed bluish-white bone, but there was not much blood seeping out.

That's a third-tier battalion commander.

Klaus glanced at the people on the ground, his gaze darkening slightly before settling on Margaret's face. "Where's the Blue Knight?"

Margaret stood up and pointed into the deeper darkness. "Someone went down."

Klaus pursed his lips. "You didn't keep up?"

"I tried." Margaret's voice held a hint of reluctance. "The contaminant that spread was too polluting; my supernatural abilities couldn't withstand it."

Klaus did not ask any further questions.

He bypassed the watchmen on the ground and strode a few steps into the depths of the passage.

Lu Yuan followed behind him, his gaze sweeping over the Night Watchmen who had been rescued by the Blue Knight.

He didn't know what had happened here, but the pollution could even corrode human flesh; just looking at those wounds made it clear.

Klaus stopped deep in the passage.

Before him, at the edge where the stone wall and bronze meet, several swirling patterns were slowly spreading along the remaining bronze.

They weren't moving very fast, but you could see them moving with the naked eye.

Klaus frowned.

A dark green afterimage appeared behind him, and bone armor spread from his right arm, its green light enveloping his palm.

He bent down slightly and touched the rotating inscriptions.

The moment the green light touched the inscription, Lu Yuan witnessed something he had never seen before.

The green light in Klaus's hand began to distort.

The extraordinary power enveloping his palm seemed to be stirred from within by something, and the green light swirled in his hand, its color gradually becoming murky.

The swirling runes followed the green light and crawled back towards the back of his hand at an astonishing speed.

Klaus's expression changed.

The bone armor on his right arm instantly solidified into a dark green crystal, sealing the corrupted power inside.

The next moment, he flung it outward with force, and the solidified crystal, along with the rotating inscription attached to it, detached from his arm, crashed to the ground with a crack, and shattered into several pieces.

The fragments fell to the ground, but instead of disappearing, they continued to twist.

Klaus looked down at his right hand, where the peculiar power still lingered in his palm.

If it had been a second later, that thing would have burrowed into his body.

"What exactly is this thing?" His voice carried a hint of confusion he had never felt before.

Lu Yuan did not answer. In his vision, gray and white text had already popped up.

[You have encountered an unknown and strange inscription; analysis failed.]

[Some kind of mutated, eerie inscription... perhaps this is the true eerie inscription.]

It was yet another kind of knowledge beyond his comprehension.

Before he could think any further, Klaus straightened up, staring at the several inscriptions that were still spinning and spreading, his face extremely grim.

He couldn't get down.

His extraordinary abilities are too sensitive to this kind of pollution; even a slight touch would leave him unable to protect himself, so going down would be pointless.

He rushed here, but there was nothing he could do.

Looking at Klaus's expression, Lu Yuan immediately understood.

Instead of retreating, he crouched down slightly, stretched out his left hand, and gently touched the nearest inscription.

Klaus's gaze swept over them abruptly.

Lu Yuan's fingertips had already touched the inscription.

Nothing happened.

There wasn't a trace of that pervasive, bone-deep sense of pollution. The inscription was still spinning, and he could feel an extremely faint tremor beneath his fingertips, but apart from a brief dizziness when his gaze fell upon it, there was nothing else.

The swirling patterns touched his fingers, but instead of moving forward, they slid past the sides of his fingertips and continued to spread.

Lu Yuan had probably already guessed why he was unaffected.

He simply pressed his entire palm against it.

The rotating inscriptions surged beneath his palm, winding around the edge of his hand, but never crawling onto his body.

His forbidden path was quiet and peaceful; apart from the message "Analysis failed," no other gray text appeared. His rationality did not decline, and his body felt no discomfort whatsoever.

Klaus stared straight at him.

"It won't pollute you?"

Lu Yuan raised his hand and looked at his palm.

"From what we can see right now, it certainly won't cause any pollution," Lu Yuan continued. "Aside from feeling a little dizzy when looking at it directly, there's nothing else to it."

Klaus remained silent for a few moments, his gaze shifting back and forth between Lu Yuan's hand and the rotating inscription, unable to figure it out for a while.

Lu Yuan knew exactly what he was thinking.

A fourth-tier transcendent being was corrupted upon contact, while a second-tier being was unharmed; this is illogical.

But he didn't intend to explain. He already knew in his heart that these things couldn't corrupt him, mostly because of the key to the sea of ​​knowledge in his left eye, that authority.

This had been verified a long time ago, which gave him the confidence to take direct action.

"I'll go down and take a look," Lu Yuan said.

Klaus looked at him, his lips moved, but he didn't say anything for a moment.

Lu Yuan could tell what he was thinking.

He didn't want a second-tier warrior to take the risk, but he couldn't go down himself, and the Blue Knight was alone down there, not knowing what was going on.

If the seal on the pipeline layer really collapses, the entire city will perish with it. Things couldn't get any worse. Most importantly, Lu Yuan suspects that the last fragment is either behind the copper wall or in the flesh and blood, and finally in the hands of the people on the wall, because only they can sever the connection.

Therefore, no matter what, Lu Yuan must go there in person.

"Give me a marching lamp," Lu Yuan added. "I need some light."

Klaus asked the night watchman for a marching lantern and handed it to him. It was filled with sandworm oil, and only sandworm oil could be lit in this kind of place.

The firelight wasn't very bright, barely illuminating a few steps away.

Klaus was silent for a moment.

Of the three afterimages behind him, the one in front suddenly left his body, floated to Lu Yuan's front, froze behind him, and then disappeared.

"This afterimage can shield you once," Klaus said. "Only once. Once it shatters, get out of there as quickly as possible."