In the dark monts before dawn, four figures silently erged from an abandoned sewage outlet downstream of London.
Lin Jie was the first to step onto the slippery riverbank.
He turned back, reaching out a hand to help Evelyn, who was following behind.
Although this young lady of the Marconi family had grown accustod to harsh environnts during their travels, this assaulting stench still made her involuntarily furrow her brow, tightly covering her mouth and nose with a handkerchief.
Julian and William followed closely behind.
They had changed into the tattered clothes of dockworkers and the lowest poor, "borrowed" from Dorset Street.
Their faces were sared with coal dust, masking their original skin tone and features.
But this could only deceive human eyes.
"We need to enter the main city district."
Lin Jie lowered the brim of his hat, his gaze fixed on the vast shadow shrouded in mist in the distance.
Countless gas lamps flickered in the fog, like a field of burning embers.
The do of St. Paul's Cathedral lood faintly in the night, and the heavy chi of Big Ben carried on the wind, announcing the four o'clock hour.
"It's still a long way from here to Richmond."
William said in a low voice, "If we take the main roads, we will definitely encounter patrols."
"London is under martial law now. Anyone wandering at night will be questioned."
"We're not taking the main roads."
Lin Jie shook his head.
"We walk the shadows."
The four of them moved swiftly along the riverbank's flood embanknt.
They avoided the brightly lit docks and checkpoints, deliberately choosing those narrow, filthy, garbage-and-rat-filled alleyways.
This was the path once ntioned by the King of the Sewers, Pip.
It was the hidden network belonging to the city's underbelly, to the forgotten.
Half an hour later.
They entered the Lambeth district.
Here, dense rows of red-brick terraced houses lined the streets, and the sll of coal smoke in the air grew heavier.
Although it was late at night, the distant roar of factory machinery could still be heard.
A gas lamp by the roadside caught Lin Jie's attention.
It was a very ordinary Victorian-style street lamp.
The cast-iron lamppost was carved with intricate patterns, a pale blue fla burning inside the glass lamp cover, emitting a hissing sound.
But Lin Jie sensed sothing was wrong.
That feeling didn't co from sight, but from the extrely sensitive-to-spiritual-fluctuations White Vulture's Mark within his body.
Whenever he neared that lamp, a faint, prickling sensation would spread across the skin of the back of his hand.
As if being scanned by so invisible ray.
"Stop."
Lin Jie raised his hand, signaling the team to halt.
He stood in the shadows, staring intently at that street lamp.
"What's wrong?" Evelyn whispered, instinctively wanting to put on her Echo Goggles, but Lin Jie stopped her.
"Don't use your Armant."
Lin Jie's voice was cold.
"Look at that lamp cover."
Julian narrowed his eyes, peering at the top of the lamp cover in the faint light.
There, beneath the tal cap used to vent exhaust, seed to be a small, additional device.
It was a brass sphere the size of a walnut.
The surface of the sphere was densely engraved with minute patterns; if you didn't look closely, you'd think it was rely decorative ornantation.
But at the center of that sphere was embedded an extrely tiny, turbid gray crystal.
That crystal was flickering with a faint light in an extrely regular rhythm, synchronized with the flicker of the gas lamp's fla.
"That's..."
Julian sucked in a sharp breath, his face turning pale.
As a learned mystic, he had seen the blueprints for such things at the Association.
"An Aether Snare."
Julian's voice trembled.
"Its core is an alchemical crystal extrely sensitive to Aether fluctuations."
Julian pointed towards the end of the street, where another street lamp stood.
"Look, every lamp has one."
Everyone followed his finger.
Sure enough.
Along that street extending deep into the fog, every fifty ters, there was such a gas lamp.
"They form a network."
Julian's speech quickened.
"These snares monitor the ambient spiritual concentration in real-ti."
"Once there is any abnormal spiritual reaction—like the Armants we carry, or the use of so alchemy—that crystal will change color and transmit the signal to a central control center through the underground gas pipes."
"In other words..."
William tightened his grip on his gun.
"As long as we walk the streets carrying this equipnt, on Ackerman's map, we are moving red dots."
This was a despairing discovery.
London's main city district had been woven into a vast surveillance net.
No wonder those Inspectors could so precisely capture every "heretic." In this city, even the light was their eyes.
"We can't discard our Armants."
Lin Jie analyzed calmly.
"Without Armants, we can't even approach the Underground City."
"We must find a way to block this surveillance."
His gaze fell on the leather bag Julian carried.
Inside was a roll of black tape.
Although Barton had said this thing was a one-ti consumable, in the ruins of Tintagel, that segnt of seal hadn't been completely exhausted.
"Use that."
Lin Jie pointed at the bag.
"Barton said this thing can seal senses, seal our own sense of presence."
Julian imdiately understood Lin Jie's aning.
He carefully took out the roll of black tape, its surface still emitting a light-devouring, profound texture.
He tore off four small strips, each only the size of a fingernail.
"Stick this on yourselves."
Julian distributed the tape to everyone.
"Put it on the most conspicuous spot, like a collar or cuff."
"Mr. Barton taught a little trick."
"If you don't perform a wide-area seal, but compress the sealing range to the extre, affecting only the wearer themselves..."
"Then it will form a one-way cognitive barrier."
Lin Jie took the piece of black tape and stuck it inside the collar of his trench coat.
The mont the tape adhered, a strange sensation enveloped his entire body.
He felt as if an invisible mbrane separated him from the surrounding world.
The touch of the wind passing over his body beca dulled; the ground beneath his feet seed to grow more distant.
"This is concealnt." Julian whispered.
"Let's go." Lin Jie pulled his collar up again.
With this protective coloration, they finally had the qualification to traverse this steel jungle.
The four of them quickened their pace, passing through Lambeth, crossing Waterloo Bridge over the Thas.
The wind on the bridge was strong.
Fog churned over the river surface, shrouding the flowing water below and the distant buildings in a blanket of haze.
Occasionally, patrol police cars roared past, but those officers didn't notice these four hurrying pedestrians.
Under the effect of the Curator's Seal, they were like a few specks of dust dissolving into the all-encompassing fog, utterly inconspicuous.
After two hours of forced march.
The sky lightened slightly, and they finally arrived at the Richmond district in southwest suburban London.
This was a gathering place for the middle class and the wealthy; the air was filled with an atmosphere of peace, affluence, and boredom.
But this was only the surface.
When Lin Jie neared the street where the Weston ho was located, the feeling of being watched appeared again.
This ti, it wasn't from the street lamps.
It was from people.
"Stop."
Lin Jie led the others to hide behind so bushes in a corner street park.
He took out the monocular telescope, observing the situation ahead through the gaps in the leaves.
The Weston ho was a two-story house with an attic, a small garden in front.
At this mont, that house looked very quiet.
Curtains tightly closed.
Front door firmly locked.
Even the milk box by the door was stuffed with uncollected newspapers. This was very abnormal.
Arthur was an old-fashioned police officer with an extrely regular life; he would never allow his ho's facade to be so slovenly.
Lin Jie moved the telescope, observing the area around the house. A black carriage was parked across the street.
The carriage's curtains were drawn tightly shut, but the wheels were deeply pressed into the ground, indicating people inside, and more than one.
At the entrance of the bakery diagonally opposite, there was a cleaner sweeping.
That cleaner's sweeping motions were chanical; his eyes kept glancing, intentionally or not, towards the Weston's front door.
Moreover, that cleaner's hands had thick calluses—the kind left by long-term gun handling, definitely not from holding a broom.
"Surrounded."
Lin Jie lowered the telescope, "At least three hidden sentries, plus a mobile team in the carriage."
"They've turned this place into a cage."
"Do we assault it?" William asked, already checking his firearm.
"No." Lin Jie shook his head.
"If we act, the people inside will be in danger. And it will expose our trail, drawing the main force."
"I'll go in alone." He looked at William.
"You stay outside for support. If I don't co out in ten minutes, or if I give a signal, then you act."
"Create chaos, draw those sentries away."
William frowned, seeming to want to say sothing, but ultimately nodded.
"Be careful."
Lin Jie took off his heavy trench coat, wearing only a dark shirt and trousers.
He strapped Silencer to the outside of his thigh, checked the Gravity Dancer boots on his feet.
Then, like a black cat, he silently slipped out of the bushes.
Using the street's blind spots, he circled to a drainage alley on the side of the house.
This was the narrow gap between two villas, no more than a ter wide, dark and damp.
Lin Jie looked up.
On the second floor was a half-open window—the Weston's bathroom.
The wall was made of red brick, its surface sowhat slick.
For an ordinary person, this was a cliff face.
But for Lin Jie, wearing Gravity Dancer, this was a smooth path.
He took a deep breath, his body suddenly leaping up, the tips of his toes tapping against the wall surface.
The parasitic anchor cluster cores in the soles instantly hardened, the imnse friction firmly pinning his body to the vertical wall.
Without the slightest pause, he used that force to push off again, leaping towards the opposite wall.
"Tap, tap, tap."
A few bounds.
He had already climbed to the height of the second floor.
Lin Jie grabbed the edge of the bathroom window, gave a light push, and his entire body slipped into the room like a wisp of smoke.
The bathroom was a ss, the sink piled with unwashed towels, the mirror coated with a layer of dust.
He pushed open the bathroom door, entering the hallway. The house was perated with a stale sll of tobacco and anxiety.
All the furniture was covered in a layer of dust; shattered ceramic fragnts were scattered on the floor.
Lin Jie lightened his footsteps, heading towards the master bedroom.
From there ca a sound of pacing, extrely suppressed, like a trapped beast.
Lin Jie stopped at the bedroom door, reaching out to gently knock.
"Who?!"
A frightened, low roar ca from inside, followed imdiately by the sound of a gun bolt being worked.
"Arthur." Lin Jie said softly, "It's ."
The sound inside abruptly ceased.
After a few seconds, hurried footsteps approached, and the door lock was violently twisted open.
The door opened, revealing Arthur's haggard face.
This once spirited old patrolman now looked as if he had aged ten years overnight.
His eyes were sunken, bloodshot, his beard stubbled, his hair disheveled.
He clutched an old-fashioned double-barreled shotgun tightly in his hands, the muzzle trembling slightly.
When he saw Lin Jie standing at the door, tears instantly welled up in his clouded eyes.
"Lin..."
Arthur's voice choked; the gun in his hand clattered to the floor.
This strong man completely broke down at that mont.
"You finally ca..."
"Lily... Lily was taken by them."
Lin Jie entered the room, closed the door behind him, and pulled the curtains shut for good asure.
He supported the swaying Arthur, pressing him into a chair.
"Calm down, Arthur."
Lin Jie's voice was steady and firm, like a shot of adrenaline.
"Tell what happened. Every detail."
Arthur tremblingly pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, trying to light one, but his hands shook so badly he couldn't hold the match.
Lin Jie took the match, lit it for him.
Arthur took a deep drag; the spicy nicotine helped restore a bit of his senses.
"It was three days ago." Arthur's voice was hoarse.
"That night, Lily kept having nightmares."
"She was shouting sothing about 'roots,' sothing about 'mother.'"
"I thought she had a fever, wanted to call a doctor. But... when we went into her room."
Deep fear surfaced in Arthur's eyes.
"Her room... had changed. Flowers were growing from the floor."
"Not ordinary flowers. They were glowing, purple, like they were made of tal."
"Those flowers were tangled around her bed, like a cage."
"Not long after, those people ca."
Arthur covered his face in agony.
"They called themselves a 'Special dical Unit.'"
"They had a docunt stamped with an official seal, saying they needed to perform 'mandatory isolation treatnt' on Lily."
"I wouldn't let them in. I pointed my gun at them."
"But that leader... he just looked at , and I couldn't move."
"I could only watch as they put Lily into that iron box."
"They didn't even let her put on shoes."
Lin Jie's eyes turned cold.
That description of "couldn't move" sounded very much like so alchemical potion targeting nerves, or the effect of so Grotesque Armant.
"Where did they take her?" Lin Jie asked.
Arthur looked up sharply.
"That leader told the driver an address. St. Mary's."
"St. Mary's Closed Ward."
Lin Jie frowned.
St. Mary's Hospital, one of London's most famous charity hospitals, located in the Paddington district.
But in I.A.R.C.'s archives, beneath that hospital, there was a secret containnt area codenad "The Morgue."
That was a place specifically for imprisoning and studying containnts with "biological contamination" properties.
They were treating Lily as a containnt object.
"I understand." Lin Jie nodded.
"We'll bring her back. These next few days, don't go anywhere. Just stay here."
"Pretend nothing happened."
Arthur grabbed Lin Jie's arm.
"Please, Lin, she's just a child. She hasn't done anything wrong."
"I know."
Lin Jie gently freed his arm from Arthur's grip. His gaze fell on a small desk in the corner of the room.
There lay a sketchbook.
It was the drawing book Lily usually used for doodling.
At that mont, the sketchbook lay open, displaying an unfinished drawing.
Lin Jie walked over.
When he saw the content of that drawing, his pupils contracted slightly.
It was an extrely abstract, yet strangely realistic-feeling sketch.
It depicted a massive, collapsing city.
Amidst the city's ruins, countless enormous, vein-like roots were breaking through the earth.
Those roots weren't wooden.
They had a cold, hard tallic texture, covered in eyes.
And at the tips of those roots, they cradled a massive heart.
The heart was bleeding; the blood dripped to the ground, transforming into countless twisted human shapes.
The feeling this drawing evoked was extrely oppressive, not just because of the image itself, but because of the residual spiritual fluctuations on the paper.
Lin Jie reached out, removed his glove, and lightly touched the rough drawing paper with his fingertips.
Reverberation Touch activated.
"Boom!"
In Lin Jie's mind, an extrely clear, emotionally charged mory fragnt exploded.
Through Lily's eyes, he saw that mont.
It was the scene of Lily drawing this picture.
Those lines were "carved" onto the paper by her fingers with sheer force.
Her fingers were bleeding, but she seed to feel no pain.
Her eyes rolled back, white showing; she was muttering to herself in so ancient language.
It was Gaelic.
The ancient language belonging to Druid Priests.
"Mother... is waking, she is calling."
"The world... is her womb."
"The roots... are taking hold."
The scene abruptly shifted. Lin Jie saw the floor beneath Lily's feet.
Just as Arthur had said, sothing truly was growing there.
But they weren't flowers; they were translucent roots extending from the void.
Lin Jie sharply withdrew his hand, cold sweat covering his forehead.
That so-called Earth Mother Goddess was using Lily as a coordinate, attempting to descend into this world.
Lily was becoming a door.
"The situation is worse than anticipated."
Lin Jie turned, looking at the bewildered Arthur.
He didn't tell this father the truth. So truths were too heavy for ordinary people to bear.
"Wait for my ssage."
Lin Jie put his glove back on.
He walked quickly to the window, pulling the curtain open a crack.
Outside, the sky was already bright, the fog still thick.
But deep within that fog, Lin Jie seed to see a pair of enormous eyes, coldly observing this false world through Lily's dreams.
They had to go to St. Mary's Hospital.
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