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

Lu Yuan closed his eyes and focused all his attention on that sense.

Gunfire and flashes continued to erupt outside the branch's perimeter. Klaus's green-glowing bone sword and the Blue Knight's scarlet sword aura clashed and appeared repeatedly outside the window.

But Lu Yuan couldn't care less about any of that at the moment.

He had to find the last fragment as quickly as possible.

At the current pace, Lu Yuan is certain of only one thing: Bronze City will most likely be destroyed before he can fill in those numbers.

Even now, he still can't see where Bronze City's victory lies.

This time it's different from Grimport. Grimport was utterly powerless; what emerged from the depths of the sea was simply beyond human control.

But can this piece of flesh and blood really stop it? So many fourth-tier beings, plus the fifth-tier guardian, all seem so powerless in front of it.

Four fragments were flying towards Lu Yuan.

The moment his consciousness connected with the four fragments, an extremely faint tremor emanated from the depths of the earth, desperately trying to break free in his direction.

The flesh and blood underground were writhing wildly.

The bronze pillars, completely covered in flesh and blood, and the bases of the bronze pillars, wrapped in a large amount of flesh and blood, all began to stir.

The moment the fragments flew out of the bronze pillar, the flesh and blood underground silently trembled in fury, layer upon layer surrounding them from all directions, trying to push the flying fragments back down.

It had been searching for these fragments for a long time without success. Now that it had finally discovered what had sealed it for so long, it was not about to let them escape so easily.

But is its obstruction effective? No.

The fragments simply don't buy into that.

Those defensive lines and barriers made of flesh and blood, even the living tissue that had completely wrapped the bronze pillar, did not hinder the flying debris at all.

The fragments seemed to exist in this world entirely, passing straight through those things as if nothing could stop them.

Lu Yuan sensed that the four fragments flying from different directions were getting closer and closer.

First, a warm sensation rose from the soles of his feet, passing through the ground and the foundation of the branch, and subtly touched his senses.

That aura carried an indescribable sense of familiarity.

He opened his eyes, and four blackened stones emerged from the crack beneath his feet. Each stone was about the size of a palm, and its surface was engraved with inscriptions he could not understand.

The inscriptions were similar to those Lu Yuan had seen in the bronze pillars, but even more ancient. The patterns seemed to be naturally formed, with extremely deep strokes, each one embedded in the stone-like material.

Four stones swirled in from all directions, then converged on their own, slowly rotating in front of Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan was at the branch office at the moment, and he was all alone there, so no one noticed what was happening.

Klaus and the Blue Knight were still providing cover at the front, while the Night Watchmen's gunfire continued unabated. Everyone's attention was focused on the dark red flesh and blood surging toward the branch.

The stones moved closer together and finally fit together perfectly.

There was no unusual phenomenon or much noise when they closed. They simply and quietly came together, the patterns on their surfaces connecting with each other, and the previously broken inscriptions reconnecting.

Lu Yuan looked down at the suspended rock in front of him.

It's black and gold, slightly wider than a fist, with inscriptions on its surface that glow faintly in the dark, exuding a calm and dignified aura.

There is a clear notch on the far right of the stone, with a regular shape, which is obviously reserved for the fifth fragment.

Grayish-white text appeared in my field of vision.

[Special inscription artifact detected, parsing... Parsing failed.]

Target detected: Gold Token

[A special token crafted for forbidden purposes, containing boundless power, but it is not in its complete form at this moment.]

[Current Status of Bronze City: +1...]

Lu Yuan ignored those lines of text, but he knew he was on the right track.

He stared at the gap, focusing his senses back on the incomplete object formed by the four fragments, using the assembled four pieces to connect with the fifth.

This time, he finally found the direction of the fifth fragment. The aura was much clearer than before; although still somewhat blurry, he could finally discern its approximate location.

That direction leads to the inner city.

Lu Yuan checked it several times, his brows furrowing.

He had assumed that the fifth fragment, like the previous four, was hidden inside a bronze pillar underground, encased in flesh and blood.

But that aura clearly came from the inner city.

He followed his senses, traversing the streets of the outer city and the towering, flesh-and-blood wall, finally landing in the direction of the Tower of Learning in the inner city.

Lu Yuan was taken aback at first, then remembered what the person on the wall had said earlier.

"You will come looking for me."

He didn't take those words to heart when he heard them.

But now that I think about it again, the meaning of those words has become extremely clear.

That old bastard, he planned this all along.

The fifth fragment was most likely retrieved by the person on the wall beforehand.

Lu Yuan twirled the golden token with a missing corner. Although it was given such a name by gray and white characters, it was entirely black.

He almost cursed out loud.

The four fragments were scattered in the bronze pillar underground. He had gone to great lengths to collect them, but the last one had already been taken by the person on the wall.

No wonder he felt the direction was uncertain when he sensed the fifth piece; that fragment wasn't underground at all, but hidden by the person on the wall.

Lu Yuan suddenly remembered the black stone that Came had been holding when she was fishing earlier.

Looking back now, it was probably around that time that the person on the wall made a deal with Came, forcing Came to use the Sea of ​​Knowledge to completely wash away the restrictions on that stone; otherwise, I wouldn't have been completely unable to sense them.

The person on the wall deserves to die.

This thing was waiting for him to find it from the very beginning; the fragments were the bait.

It had calculated that this forbidden scholar would eventually gather the last key and come to it sooner or later.

What did it see? Does it really have the ability to foresee the future?

Lu Yuan took a deep breath, put the golden token back into his pocket, and made no sound.

Klaus was still fighting desperately at the front, while thousands of residents were still evacuating.

He still hasn't been able to collect the fifth piece, and the thing the person on the wall has is definitely not given away for free; it must have its own conditions.

While Lu Yuan was agonizing over this, he was unaware that the person on the wall was in a much worse situation than he had imagined.

On the first floor of the main tower of the Tower of Learning, the guardian had slowly stood up from his chair.

His dark aura had mostly dissipated; his two attacks had nearly drained the little reserves he had barely managed to recover.

But he couldn't care less about that at the moment; the scene outside the window had already exceeded his worst expectations.

The guardians originally intended to rely on themselves and the people on the wall to control the flesh and blood underground.

After all, it was something sealed by the bronze pillar for countless years. Even if it broke free, it shouldn't be much stronger.

But the reality completely defied his expectations. This thing was terrifyingly powerful, having long since disregarded all the limitations imposed by bronze.

The plant roots embedded in its flesh and blood made it immune to ordinary methods, leaving it only able to confront things head-on with the most primal force.

Unfortunately, my current situation is terrible, and the person on the other side of the wall is all show and no substance.

The city walls on all four sides completely collapsed.

The bronze city walls, now completely turned to blood and flesh, were collapsing towards the inner city at the same time.

Four colossal walls, obscuring the sky, collapsed from their tops, and dark red flesh, enveloped in golden light, surged into the inner city's streets and buildings. Bricks and stones shattered, and entire buildings were swept away and engulfed by the dark red torrent.

The Night Watchmen and noble private soldiers who hadn't yet retreated into the Tower of Learning in the inner city were mercilessly swept up in the blood and flesh, and the Guardians could sense them disappearing one by one.

In the northwest corner of the inner city, two figures were still struggling, their flesh and blood reaching their chests. After only two breaths, they disappeared, completely submerged in the torrent of blood and flesh.

The entire inner city is being filled at a visible rate.

The guard stood by the window, feeling an extremely rare sense of powerlessness.

He had lived for hundreds of years and had dealt with all sorts of strange beings. Since becoming bound to the Bronze City, he, at the early stage of the fifth rank, dared to clash with fifth-rank experts; upon reaching the fifth rank, he boasted that as long as the Bronze City stood, he would possess power infinitely close to the sixth rank.

But as he grew older day by day, and as the Bronze City gradually decayed, there was never a time when he felt so insignificant.

He knew he was no match for this thing, perhaps not even at his peak.

He had nowhere to hide. The Tower of Learning was both the foundation of his existence and his prison; he could go nowhere.

In mid-air, the gray head of the person on the wall hung behind the guardian, the features formed by condensed mist trembling violently.

The fear that surfaced on that face, which should have been dignified and ancient, even overshadowed the guards.

Because it had seen that picture, it thought everything would go as it expected, but the current situation is completely different from what it anticipated.

It now resides inside the skull, already half-crippled, and can exert very little power.

When this blood and flesh truly surge into the Tower of Learning, it too will be unable to escape being swallowed up.

Although it couldn't die, it didn't want to fall into a deep sleep again.

The tide of fate has begun to turn, and it must seize this opportunity.

It didn't want to taste defeat a second time.

It stared out the window at the massive waves of flesh and blood pressing in from all sides, its misty eyes rolling for a long time before finally settling.

"Make your move," the person on the wall spoke, his voice no longer carrying that lingering echo.

This is the first time it has proactively offered to help.

The guardian neither answered it nor looked at it; only the dark aura rose again, and the old man's white hair moved slowly without wind.

In a corner of the Tower of Learning, the visitor from the mist hangs quietly.

It sensed the emotions of the guards and the people on the wall, and its gaze swept across the window, bringing a rare sense of relief.

It has wandered through several empires and seen too many things, but this empire has remained quiet all along.