Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 226: Power Supply Sacrifices, Shi Province's Turning Point!

Mental Pollution, Cognitive Impairment.Up until this moment, Cheng Ye had never truly realized just how exaggerated the difficulty of containing an Immortal Object was.

Only ordinary people who had been polluted could see the traces of an Immortal Object, allowing them the possibility of approaching and attempting to contain it.

However, completing the containment process required power several times, or even dozens of times, greater than that of an ordinary person.

These two points were inherently contradictory.

Therefore, human containment of Immortal Objects had always relied solely on overwhelming numbers, exhausting the Immortal Object's energy until its Mental Pollution effect began to fade before making a move.

Otherwise, it would be just like the current situation. Even if one saw the original form of the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch, there was still no way to approach it, let alone contain it!

Their gazes met, and Luo Kuke noticed Cheng Ye's slightly twitching expression.

Luo Kuke froze for a moment before pointing at the dharma conch in the center of the lake, asking in astonishment, "You can't be unable to see it, right?"

"I can see it."

Cheng Ye gritted his teeth, a hint of bitterness rising in his throat. He could finally understand exactly what kind of pain Huang Liang and his group had endured when they were polluted.

At this very moment, his ears were filled with the sound of countless flying insects buzzing around him, completely composed of fragmented and meaningless whispers.

His originally clear cognition was being forcibly twisted by a power, and the colors before his eyes were a complete mess.

Red vegetation turned green, green moss turned purple, and the brown earth was dyed azure. In contrast, the distant lake water, which should have been glowing with fluorescence, had turned into a bizarre pitch black.

This was Mental Pollution?

For others, this process might have occurred slowly and unconsciously.

But for him, having just unequipped Heart-Protecting Fire while being so close to the dharma conch, the impact of the pollution was dozens of times clearer.

It felt as though an invisible, giant hand was forcibly reshaping his cognition, repeatedly "telling" him:

The world is meant to be like this. Everything you understood before was wrong. This is how the world should operate. Your past cognition was entirely incorrect.

"It is like this. That's right, it's just like this..."

Cheng Ye knew clearly that if he resisted this twisted cognition, there was a high probability it would trigger an even fiercer wave of pollution.

Muttering to himself in his heart for a few seconds, he forced himself to follow the "logic" of the pollution and accept the scene before his eyes.

Once the chaotic impact gradually faded, he suddenly opened his eyes. The disordered colors instantly returned to normal, his shaking vision stabilized, and the dizziness in his head completely vanished, as if the previous chaos had merely been an illusion.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Luo Kuke asked, extremely nervous.

"I'm fine. I'm just like you now; I can completely see it."

Cheng Ye did not mention the word pollution, quietly sweeping his gaze behind him.

Fortunately, the purple Light Gate used for entering and exiting could still be seen, and no bizarre changes had occurred in the world.

This Mental Pollution was likely a method of screening used by the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch, filtering out things that were harmful to it and releasing the harmless ones into its domain.

"Like me?"

Luo Kuke's expression shifted slightly before he gently nodded, wisely choosing not to press the topic.

Being inside the Demonic Eye Sponge, the most important thing for the two of them to do right now was to quickly figure out the status of the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch.

As long as an Infection Tide was not triggered, the simple first stage of Mental Pollution was still safe. Even upon reaching the second stage, it could be suppressed using one's own Belief.

"This conch is so massive. Direct containment is definitely out of the question; we have to find a way to lower its energy first. Otherwise, even if we can get close, there's no way it'll fit into a Containment Box," Luo Kuke said, his brows knotting tightly as he gazed at the conch in the center of the lake, which stood dozens of meters tall.

A Containment Box could isolate the influence of Infection Sources and Immortal Objects from the outside world, but the prerequisite was actually fitting them inside.

Moreover, the stronger the Containment Box, the smaller its size.

Like the three Extinction-level Containment Boxes they had brought in, each was only the size of a shoebox. Compared to the dharma conch before them, they were truly not worth mentioning.

"Lowering its energy..."

Cheng Ye's heart skipped a beat. Sweeping his gaze over the dense throng of Crab-men, he suddenly realized something and somewhat understood why the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch's size was so gigantic.

When the Abyssal Water Cave Crab was captured, its volume was at most the size of an adult's fist.

The Extinction-level Containment Box they brought could easily hold it, but its current scale was more than a hundred times larger than what was in the intelligence reports.

Analyzing the variables, either a new, powerful Infection Source had appeared afterward to supply energy to the dharma conch...

Or, the densely packed Abyssal Water Cave Crab Infected Bodies and Fusion Entities had become the energy source for the dharma conch.

But with such a massive swarm of Infected Bodies covering the area, how could they possibly clear them out with just the strength of two people?

Cheng Ye pondered inwardly, gesturing for Luo Kuke not to approach just yet.

He then walked to the side, opening his personal interface to first check the specific cost of unequipping Heart-Protecting Fire.

[Transcendent Talent "Heart-Protecting Fire" has been successfully unequipped.]

[Detected that the gap in progress between the Transcendent Creature (Searing Hawk) and the talent is too large. The unequip operation will not reduce its growth rate.]

[Transcendent Creature (Searing Hawk) has been temporarily locked. Upon re-equipping the "Heart-Protecting Fire" skill, the mental connection will be automatically reconstructed.]

"Huh, it actually didn't drop?"

The unreduced growth rate significantly lessened the unease in Cheng Ye's heart.

With a shift of his consciousness, he sank into his Spiritual Body Space.

Benefiting from the nourishment of the Living Water Essence earlier, the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse had actively shrunk its body a bit more. Now only about two meters in size, it appeared even more condensed. Feeling his gaze, it actually released a faint, fiery craving, as if urging him to seek out more essence and more life energy.

On the other side of the space, although his consciousness could not penetrate the area where Little Flame was, he could see the little guy still lying on the ground, sleeping soundly without any abnormal reactions.

"Transcendent Seed... Transcendent Talent..."

Cheng Ye muttered to himself, suddenly struck by realization. "So Heart-Protecting Fire is merely a 'bridge' establishing the connection between me and the Searing Hawk, not the Searing Hawk itself?"

Previously, he had subconsciously assumed that Heart-Protecting Fire was equivalent to the Searing Hawk. It was only now, after unequipping the skill, that he fully understood. The Searing Hawk's seed had already permanently taken root within his body; Heart-Protecting Fire was just a tool to maintain their mental connection.

This made things simple. According to the interface's prompt, as long as the Searing Hawk's progress hadn't caught up to Heart-Protecting Fire, this skill could be unequipped at will without worrying about damaging the Transcendent Creature itself.

The only question was, once he re-equipped Heart-Protecting Fire, would his cognition that had been twisted by the dharma conch be able to recover?

Confirming there were no worries regarding the skill, Cheng Ye didn't rush to investigate the outside world. Instead, he once again tapped into the intelligence space of the "Command Chamber Patterns."

It was here that he had previously collected the Essence of the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch. At that time, when the Abyssal Water Cave Crab approached the lake, the dharma conch seemed to be transmitting some sort of message. But back then, he hadn't been polluted and completely couldn't understand its meaning.

The intelligence screen flickered a few times, quickly jumping to the scene where the Abyssal Water Cave Crab, bound by Chamber Patterns, arrived in front of the lake.

The moment the dharma conch began to bloom with purple mist, Cheng Ye held his breath and focused, zooming in his perspective to stare intently at the dharma conch in the footage.

Accompanied by an invisible ripple transmitted from the screen.

The ripple carried no specific sound, yet just like the previous pollution, it etched its meaning directly into his mind, clearly surfacing as two complete sentences:

[Bring back more Sacrifices. Bring back stronger Sacrifices!]

[The Deity grants you, bestows upon you, empowers you!]

"Sacrifices?"

"Deity?"

Cheng Ye's pupils contracted sharply as a terrifying thought instantly took shape in his mind.

Could it be that the Infection Sources caught by the Demonic Eye Sponge, and the Crab-men it created, were all Sacrifices dedicated to the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch?

And the purple mist released by the dharma conch was a reward for the Demonic Eye Sponge?

Wait... Earth-element Chamber Patterns, water-element Chamber Patterns?

As he was pondering, the intelligence screen shattered with a boom before his eyes, leaving only one final chance for playback.

Cheng Ye turned to look at the endless sea of Crab-men by the lakeside, suddenly fully understanding why the Rongdong environment was so bizarrely Full of Vitality.

The Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch was originally an Immortal Object created by Transcendent beings from Antarctica, meant for environmental modification.

Now that it had ended up in the Rongdong of the White Water River, it had unexpectedly developed intelligence and even formed a partnership with the Demonic Eye Sponge.

The Demonic Eye Sponge was responsible for capturing Sacrifices to provide energy for the dharma conch. In return, the dharma conch released Energy Feedback to the Demonic Eye Sponge while simultaneously transforming the Rongdong's environment, continuing to fulfill the "Original Intention" of its creation.

If this process continued indefinitely, perhaps all of Shi Province would gradually be transformed into a place Full of Vitality.

But at the same time, wouldn't the Demonic Eye Sponge, which continuously captured Sacrifices, also keep growing, eventually breaking through the Ruin-level to become a terrifying Extinction-level Infection Source?

The fact that there was such a connection between an Infection Source and an Immortal Object made Cheng Ye feel somewhat amazed for a moment, but upon further reflection, he found it horrifying.

How many years had the Demonic Eye Sponge been stationed beneath the White Water River?

Just how many Sacrifices had it captured for the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch?

If no one had noticed Dabo Town, and no one had discovered the Demonic Eye Sponge and this Immortal Object, after several years, the dharma conch's transformation radius would expand from the Rongdong to the surrounding areas. Attempting to contain it then would require a Cost a hundred or a thousand times more terrifying than now.

After all, looking at it right now, there were no less than a hundred thousand Crab-men swarming around the lake, packed so densely there was no end in sight.

If human lives were used to offset the dharma conch's energy, even throwing in three to five hundred thousand people probably wouldn't counterbalance the Offerings of these Crab-men. Let alone the massive Demonic Eye Sponge and the other Infection Sources hiding deep within the Rongdong.

"These guys... they're all still alive! They're just being controlled by the Immortal Object's Mental Pollution!"

Luo Kuke had scouted the surroundings and walked back, his legs trembling.

Over a hundred thousand Crab-men! Even if they were just dragged out during an annual winter, they could form an Infection Tide of Disaster-level proportions, bringing quite a bit of trouble to Happiness City.

"There's no turning back. We have to find a way to lower the dharma conch's energy level first, otherwise, containment is completely impossible."

His expression was ugly, but suddenly, as if thinking of something, he hastily added, "Fortunately, the Crab-men aren't without weaknesses. They were revived by Death-Whisper Tentacles. As long as we make them realize that they're already dead, we won't even need to lift a finger—they will Collapse on their own."

"It's not that simple."

Cheng Ye shook his head gently, his tone grave. "Did you forget that we're currently under the Immortal Object's Mental Pollution? I tested this during combat. Have you ever seen them speak?"

"Even if they could hear our words, they would subconsciously ignore any information harmful to them. Even if you told them straight to their faces that they were already dead, those words wouldn't reach their cognition. It wouldn't work at all."

The weakness of the Death-Whisper Tentacle was cognition, but the current Mental Pollution acted exactly like a shield, firmly blocking that weakness behind it.

"Then how do we drain its energy? Don't tell me we have to kill these Crab-men one by one?"

"Don't panic. Let me think..."

Cheng Ye took a deep breath, raising his head to sweep his gaze across the entire Rongdong environment.

Right now, it was no longer a matter of figuring out how to protect the Residents participating in the assessment; it was a situation where everyone was unable to even fend for themselves.

A few thousand or even ten thousand Crab-men—he could still activate his starfish mode and directly suppress them.

But a hundred thousand Crab-men swarming out in full force? Even a massive shelter city like Happiness City would have to treat that seriously.

Relying solely on individuals, only he and Luo Kuke would be able to survive using their Obsidian Battle Armor. The others would have absolutely no way to block such a massive offensive.

"Vitality..."

Cheng Ye crouched down, wiping his fingers across the grass before bringing them to his nose to sniff lightly.

The Vitality here was indeed completely out of place with the outside world, perfectly isolating the Petrification Curse beneath Shi Province.

Was it that the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch had the power to combat the curse?

No.

If it possessed such an ability, it would have started expanding its influence to the outside world long ago, rather than just holing up in the Rongdong to strengthen itself.

Cheng Ye closed his eyes, various lines of thought rapidly connecting in his mind.

The Chamber was capable of isolating external rules, so naturally, it could keep the underground Petrification Curse outside.

Meanwhile, the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch could modify the internal space of the Chamber. By all accounts, this was a win-win for the Demonic Eye Sponge.

It won once by gaining abilities, and won again by having its Chamber space transformed.

Then... what if he destroyed the Chamber space, causing its ability to isolate external rules and the Petrification Curse to disappear?

What if he let "Tan Ming," who had transformed into a supernatural curse, discover the flourishing Vitality within the Rongdong space?

An incredibly bold idea arose in his mind. Cheng Ye halted his thoughts and began deducing the feasibility of the entire process.

Against an Infection Source like the Demonic Eye Sponge, which was invincible in group combat, backed by the sanctuary of an Immortal Object's domain, without overwhelming numbers, even Transcendents or Elders would be completely helpless.

And even if someone wore Obsidian Battle Armor, even if someone was like him and used an Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse...

As long as the Demonic Eye Sponge released its purple barrier and curled into itself, it would enter an invincible state.

Once night fell, countless Crab-men could surge onto the shore and employ human wave tactics.

Under the shroud of the Immortal Object's pollution, this was an entirely shameless fighting style. Only his equally "shameless" method of infiltrating and analyzing could be considered Using Their Own Methods Against Them.

"Whether it works or not, I have to cause some trouble for it. Otherwise, the pressure tonight will be way too intense!"

With his mind made up, Cheng Ye stood up, his thoughts turning crystal clear again.

During this grueling first day, he had not only found the exact location of the Immortal Object, the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch, but also figured out a general direction for containment.

This progress was far faster than expected, absolutely exceeding the expectations of the research personnel waiting outside Dabo Town.

As long as they could buy another day of daylight, or at least prevent a Catastrophic Disaster from occurring tonight, they could figure out a way to find the core of the Demonic Eye Sponge and execute containment.

And without the cover of the Demonic Eye Sponge's Chamber, and without the restriction of the Chamber Patterns, these Infection Sources and Infected Bodies...

It would be chaos!

The more chaotic, the better!

"Let's go. I have an idea I want to go back and try out."

Cheng Ye exhaled, turning around and no longer looking at the dharma conch in the center of the lake. Together with Luo Kuke, he hurriedly retraced his steps back toward the entrance they had come from.

Over ten minutes later.

The two finally reached the purple Light Gate. The moment they stepped through, that Biological Elevator-like sensation of transport washed over them again, and their bodies slowly began to enlarge.

By the time they returned to the first layer of the Chamber, both of them had fully restored their original sizes.

Surprisingly, the authority granted by the Pass-Chamber Patterns seemed even higher than imagined. Right as they returned to the first layer, a gap automatically split open in the Chamber wall, perfectly sized for the two of them to pass through, saving them the trouble of finding an exit.

Passing through the gap, they encountered no obstacles on the rest of their journey, swiftly surfacing from the water.

"It's six o'clock!"

As they reached the shore, the pattering drizzle had ceased at some unknown point.

Luo Kuke immediately grabbed his Defense Terminal, stating the time on the screen as his whole body trembled.

It was unclear whether he was cold from the river water or inwardly dreading the arrival of nightfall with unparalleled resistance.

"I'm going back down once more. You head back to the Camp to organize our manpower. Tonight will likely be a sleepless night; we need to make preparations in advance."

"Don't worry, do what you need to do, leave the Camp's matters to me." Knowing that Cheng Ye was about to head down for another round of slaughter, Luo Kuke directly picked up the Purple Blade and handed it over.

Cheng Ye took the Purple Blade, nodding at Luo Kuke without further words, his body rapidly sinking into the water.

Like an Agile fish, he quickly reached the Demonic Eye Sponge's defensive purple barrier.

The barrier that could withstand the Earth Fire Power could only leave its gates wide open in the face of the Passage Padded Garment.

He landed at the bottom of the water, looking at the tentacles drooping limply on the ground. With a thought, the invisible shrinking power instantly enveloped his body.

Once his size was reduced to the extreme limit of over sixty centimeters, an unreasonable, one-sided massacre began.

Perhaps intimidated by the sheer number of Crab-men earlier, as Cheng Ye watched the tentacles sever one after another under his Purple Blade, he was instead exceptionally calm.

The pitiful Demonic Eye Sponge couldn't find a trace of him, nor could it capture his aura. It could only act as a stationary target, allowing him to harvest the tentacle eyeballs.

In the blink of an eye, over a hundred tentacles were shattered into Low-Grade Source Energy. Cheng Ye stepped back slightly. Looking at the Recharge Value completely refilled to 100% on his interface, he immediately chose to Extract Trait.

First was the intelligence on the "Nature Trait." This new rare Trait could now undergo Rule Analysis.

Investing 50% of his Recharge Value, he selected the direction of Rule Analysis, temporarily storing it in the Intelligence Space.

The remaining 50% was invested into the "Symbiotic Chamber Pattern," locking the direction onto the Disaster-level Infection Sources captured by the Demonic Eye Sponge, thereby freeloading the Grace Reward from the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch.

With his energy depleted, Cheng Ye flashed a rare grin, gripping the Purple Blade as he stepped forward once again.

Another hundred tentacles were severed. The Demonic Eye Sponge's exposed tentacles drastically dropped from over a thousand initially to just over five hundred, losing nearly half.

Just like before, half the energy was used to search for information on the internal Disaster-level Infection Sources.

The other half was saved up. After the next round of harvesting was completed, pooling together 100% energy, he directly exchanged it for a physical Item related to the "Command Chamber Patterns."

"Huh? Why is it a Remote Control?"

Looking at the extra black equipment in his Pendant space, shaped like an Old-fashioned Radio with several Raised Buttons on the front, Cheng Ye was full of curiosity, though his hands never stopped moving.

Like a hardworking farmer methodically harvesting in his Farmland, tentacles broke one after another, and eyeballs burst into Corrosive Water. The Demonic Eye Sponge's aura became visibly weaker.

"Looks about right?" Glancing at the Demonic Eye Sponge, which now had only three hundred tentacles left, it had completely lost the ferocity he'd seen during their initial daytime encounter, and could only flail them around in vain.

Cheng Ye stopped what he was doing. While charging off the tentacles was fast, he couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be situations requiring sudden bursts of energy tomorrow. Keeping the Demonic Eye Sponge as a charging station meant he could just come back whenever he needed more. It wasn't going anywhere anyway.

With a light kick of his legs, he propelled himself above the sponge that covered the Rongdong.

"Tan Ming, oh Tan Ming, someone is secretly farming here. Don't disappoint me now!"

Cheng Ye forcefully swung his blade, but unexpectedly, the sponge around the Rongdong entrance was surprisingly tough.

It was like hacking at cowhide; when the Purple Blade landed, it was actually forcefully bounced right back up.

Buzz!

An invisible ripple flashed past.

It was... the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch!

Cheng Ye's eyes went wide. His figure retreated violently as he prepared himself to have his mind blasted.

But to his surprise, the ripple swept right over him without lingering for even a fraction of a second, continuing its expansion into the distance.

"Getting polluted has this kind of benefit?"

Cheng Ye was startled, then looked down, finally realizing what was happening when he saw the Chamber Patterns covering his body.

Could these Chamber Patterns actually fool even the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch into thinking he was one of its own?

It seemed he had stumbled onto some kind of exploit. Overjoyed, Cheng Ye simply returned to the shore to grab his last remaining Bomb.

He planted the Bomb at the Rongdong entrance, setting it to detonate in ten seconds.

Activating Accelerated Energy to its fullest, Cheng Ye rushed back up to the water's surface and leaped onto the dock.

Boom!

A faint explosion sounded, making the ripples beneath the water even more prominent.

After a few seconds passed and the ripples vanished, he reentered the water and dashed toward the explosion site.

The Chamber covering the Rongdong had finally been breached. A hole roughly the size of a palm was now leaking river water inward.

At the same time, a streak of bizarre, naked-eye visible red aura was seeping inside, as if searching for something.

However, the sponge was frantically repairing the breach. The red aura that had just managed to squeeze through the edge was immediately forcefully expelled.

"It's working!"

Cheng Ye's eyes lit up. The path was already open, how could they not let Lord Tan in?

"I, hack, hack, hack, hack, hack!"

Aiming at the breach, Cheng Ye exerted every ounce of his strength to relentlessly hack and slash at the hole.

Although his blade kept bouncing off with every strike, the sponge's repair speed slowed down, no longer preventing the red aura from penetrating inward.

Very soon, a terrifying mental fluctuation seeped out.

Faintly sensing something amiss, Cheng Ye immediately sheathed his blade. Disregarding how much aura was still pouring into the gap, he turned tail and fled with all his might.

This was all he could do.

The difficulty of breaching the Chamber without containing the Demonic Eye Sponge was simply far too great.

But as long as it caused some trouble and bought some time, surviving tonight would be a massive victory.

Muttering to himself in his heart, Cheng Ye surfaced from the water.

By the time he returned to the dock, the sky had turned pitch black, with only the last trace of a bright orange-red glow hanging on the horizon.

However, Dabo Town was brightly illuminated. Two Searchlights had been set up; one beam shone toward the temporary residential area in the red zone, while the other swept across the defense line in the blue zone. The beams of light were exceptionally striking in the night sky.

Cheng Ye stored away his Obsidian Battle Armor and changed into a standard set of Protective Combat Armor. He still wasn't quite used to his bald head, but hidden beneath the helmet, no abnormalities could be seen.

One day had passed.

He took a lap around the town and found that Dabo Town had transformed once again. Many abandoned civilian dwellings had been demolished, leaving the streets spacious and tidy.

Behind the granary in the red zone, temporary residential units had been erected on the leveled open ground, easily capable of housing over four hundred people. In the blue zone, built atop the foundation of the parking lot, new Defensive Facilities and two Sentry Towers had been constructed.

One faced the White Water River directly, while the other overlooked the town center. The Searchlights hanging on the towers could be moved at any time; wherever an anomaly appeared, they could instantly lock onto it for observation.

Walking to the granary entrance, Cheng Ye saw Luo Kuke leaning against the wall, sleeping soundly. His breathing was so heavy it looked like he had passed out.

It was no wonder. He had barely closed his eyes since last night. There might be a fierce battle tonight, so he could only use this brief window of time to desperately recover his Stamina.

Seeing him approach, Garcia fell silent for a moment before actually taking the initiative to speak. "Inspector Cheng, you should go rest. I will lead the men on duty tonight, and I'll wake you if anything happens."

"It's fine, I can still hold on."

Although Cheng Ye said so, returning to the Camp, he too felt bouts of Weakness.

After fighting for an entire day, even with the Living Water Essence replenishing his Stamina, his Vigor was almost completely depleted.

Climbing the Sentry Tower directly facing the Riverside, he leaned against the icy wall and took out the Command Chamber Patterns Remote Control to study it.

Fumbling around and pressing a few buttons, Cheng Ye roughly grasped the logic of its usage. The buttons corresponded to different command frequencies, which might be useful for interfering with the Demonic Eye Sponge's control over the Crab-men.

Just as he figured out the general usage, sleepiness washed over him completely.

The moment he thought of the fierce battle awaiting them tonight, he didn't even have the mental energy to check the extracted intelligence. Leaning against the wall, he fell into a deep sleep.

Outside Dabo Town.

A day had passed, and the research team had elevated the surrounding research capabilities by several levels.

The Research Institute had mobilized nearly more than half of its portable precision equipment, erecting a temporary research base on the open ground outside the town.

When the sky turned completely pitch black, the color-steel houses in the base emitted bright lights, and the "beep-beep" sounds of running Instruments echoed continuously.

Suddenly, inside one of the laboratories, the alarm of a monitoring device blared urgently.

Staring at the sharply plummeting curve on the screen, a researcher's eyes instantly lit up. He swiftly printed out an energy intensity report and, clutching the papers, sprinted toward the innermost color-steel house.

Knock, knock, knock!

Urgent knocking sounds echoed.

"Enter," came Shi Xu's steady voice from within the room.

The researcher pushed the door open, holding up the report and urgently reporting, "Team Leader Shi! Just now, the energy intensity of that Ruin-level Infection Source inside Dabo Town suddenly dropped, and it dropped by more than half!"

Shi Xu's hands continued to type rapidly on his keyboard, his gaze locked tightly onto the scrolling data streams on the screen. Without even raising his head, he asked, "Have you analyzed its basic model?"

"We have a general direction; it should be a sponge-type organism," the researcher hurriedly replied. "But there's no matching existing model. Its size is far too massive. The monitoring data shows that it occupies almost several kilometers of the riverbed."

"What about the energy readings of the Immortal Object?" Shi Xu's fingers finally paused for a moment.

Mentioning this, the researcher's expression instantly turned grim. "There are almost no changes in the Immortal Object's readings. The current data makes it impossible to determine if its energy supply is directly related to that sponge organism. After all, the Immortal Object's energy intensity has remained extremely stable, completely unaffected by the sponge's Weakness."

"Your speculative conclusion?" Shi Xu finally looked up, staring at him with a sharp gaze.

Cold sweat beaded on the researcher's forehead as he tightened his grip on the report. "The speculative conclusion is that a stable energy supply exists within the space where the Immortal Object is located. Combining the information Inspector Cheng sent back earlier with our tracing of the Abyssal Water Cave Crab Infected Bodies..."

He paused, lowering his voice. "Previously, an Infection Tide broke out upstream at Yueye Shelter City, coupled with catastrophic flash floods. At the time, over two hundred thousand people went missing, and their whereabouts remain unknown to this day. We have already sent a dispatch urging Yueye Shelter City to provide detailed information, but..."

"So you're saying these two hundred thousand people might all be inside the space where the Immortal Object is located, acting as its Power Supply Sacrifices?" Shi Xu's expression instantly shifted.

This was the absolute worst-case scenario. Once there was the life force of two hundred thousand people acting as a continuous supplement, the energy this Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch could unleash would definitely not be lower than its initial design target—the average power estimated by the Transcendent beings in Antarctica when they created it.

"We currently can't ascertain the specific state of those lifeforms, but the probability is extremely high," the researcher shook his head with difficulty.

"Additionally, we also discovered other anomalies in the monitoring data..." The researcher was just about to continue his report when he was cut off by Shi Xu.

"I've already seen it." Shi Xu moved his gaze back to the screen, sliding his fingertips across the touch panel to pull up a three-dimensional energy distribution map.

In the map, the bottom area of the White Water River was covered in a dense swath of green. The energy level curve representing Vitality was astonishingly high, even surpassing the life density of the greenhouse zone in the Inner City of Happiness City.

"This is its core function?" Shi Xu stared at the screen, a thread of inexplicable shock flashing through his eyes.

In the barren Shi Province, eroded by the Petrification Curse for so many years, it had been far too long since anyone had seen such vigorous plant Vitality.

It was truly hard to imagine that the might of the Myriad Command Earth Dharma Conch could actually suppress the supernatural curse, acting directly upon the land to reshape its Vitality.

If they could seize it, wouldn't that become Shi Province's turning point?

"That will be all. Step out for now, and have the others keep a close eye on the monitoring data. Report back to me immediately if there are any fluctuations," Shi Xu instructed the researcher, snapping back to his senses.

"Yes, sir!" The researcher hurriedly nodded, turning around and exiting the room.

However, just a few minutes later, the sounds of the Instruments outside began to blare madly again, as if something had exploded.

The researcher who had previously left rushed back in with a panicked face, only to find that Shi Xu was already standing in front of the screen, staring at the image with an identical look of disbelief.

It was still the same three-dimensional energy distribution map of the White Water Riverbed.

But at this moment, a faint red aura had suddenly seeped into the originally dense green area.

At first, this streak of red aura was merely as thin as a single thread, similar to the sparsely scattered cursed auras in other areas of Shi Province, largely inconspicuous.

But in just a few short seconds, the red aura abruptly expanded and thickened. As if pulled by an invisible force, it transformed into a funnel-shaped current of air and was frantically sucked into the Rongdong at the bottom of the White Water River.

At the same time, a striking red warning popped up on the right side of the screen:

[Detected abnormal elevation in Petrification Curse energy response.]

[Current Energy Multiplier: 15.8 times (Continuously rising)]