Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 297: Manifest Without, Concealed Within, the Fundamental Forces of the Universe!

For his first attempt at information breakdown, Cheng Ye had not harbored much expectation. He treated it simply as a way to accumulate experience and see a new function in action, never imagining he could break down a skill that would drastically boost his strength.But when the breakdown prompt popped up, he inevitably froze, his mouth falling open in sheer astonishment.

'What is going on?'

'How could a physique talent be extracted from the Heaven-Man Martial Domain? And a Level 3 one at that, rated as a Perfect Grade Talent?'

Blinking in disbelief, he used his Intent to directly jump to the Skill Bar.

It wasn't until he confirmed that a pale red talent, slightly dimmer than the Hundred Martial Arts Master, had indeed appeared in his Skill Bar that he couldn't help but exclaim, "Could it be that Tan Ming's path really works? Can Humans truly cultivate through their Belief, returning to their original nature and growing stronger the more they train?"

Compared to extracting a Perfect Grade Talent itself, the underlying implications were obviously far more valuable.

It was already known that the Heaven-Man Martial Domain was a special information-type skill. If one used magical Rune designations to bear its existence, assuming the Heart Lake Martial Domain consisted of twelve characters in total, then the function of "information breakdown" was to dismantle those harmful, or interfering characters, preserving the Core characters to manifest as a skill.

The entire process only achieved breakdown, not creation. Therefore, the Water-Gathering Physique was merely a fragment of the Rune. As the Rune's owner, Liu Bi naturally possessed this physique talent as well.

Unlike those geniuses born with innate physique talents, Liu Bi had actually relied on his cultivation in the Heaven-Man Unity Realm to forcefully bridge his own talent gap?

Plugging his Collector in to charge, Cheng Ye immediately hurried back to the recycling station. He found Liu Bi sitting in his room, studying the foundational information of East Peace Town.

Although not adept at such clerical work, Liu Bi's attitude was remarkably earnest. He meticulously reviewed all the documents sent by Li Matai, pondering over how to develop East Peace Town's agricultural foundation.

"What is it?" Seeing Cheng Ye rush in so hastily, Liu Bi paused for a moment and stood up right away. "Did Yu Yong go berserk?"

Having just taken Yu Yong to experience the Heaven-Man Martial Domain today, he had been feeling somewhat uneasy the entire day.

He couldn't shake the feeling that Yu Yong's thoughtful expression meant he had already crossed the threshold, which could potentially trigger major trouble at any moment.

"No, it has nothing to do with him," Cheng Ye replied, shaking his head. "Brother B, take a seat first. I want to ask you something regarding the Heaven-Man Martial Domain."

"That is a relief."

Liu Bi let out a long sigh of relief. The two sat down at the simple desk, and he teased with a smile, "You are already a core Inspector now, and next year you might even go to Leaping Wilderness to take up the post of Station Master. How are you still so impulsive?"

Cheng Ye couldn't exactly respond to that. He couldn't let Liu Bi know that taking the position of Station Master was purely to burn himself out to light up Happiness City.

Cheng Ye just smiled. Organizing his words, he lowered his voice and asked, "Brother B, how is your talent?"

"My talent?" Liu Bi stared blankly.

"I mean the kind of innate talent you were born with, carried in your genes."

"I wouldn't call it ordinary, but there is nothing special about it either. Besides, I have spent my whole life in Shi Province and have never studied plants. The fact that Yiyi likes planting those cabbages is just because Sister Luo wanted to enlighten her and help her understand the world."

Liu Bi shook his head gently, clearly misunderstanding and thinking Cheng Ye was still investigating the origin of Liu Yi's psychic abilities.

He paused, furrowing his brows slightly as he recalled, "I was born in New Era Year 1, in Sha Province. My father was a Drifter back then. He wandered all the way to Shi Province and eventually joined the newly founded Happiness City. After I was born, I suffered from long-term malnutrition, but my body developed at a decent pace. By the time I was about five, my physique had already caught up to that of other kids who were eight or nine."

Serving as the primary Combat Power in Cheng Long's small group, Liu Bi's talent certainly couldn't be too bad.

But with only this slight gap compared to ordinary people, Cheng Ye could almost conclude with certainty that the Level 3 Water-Gathering Physique was absolutely not innate.

However, he didn't voice his doubts, opting instead to quietly listen as Liu Bi continued.

"In New Era Year 8, when I was eight years old, I met Mr. Xiacang, who was touring through Happiness City. He was already sixty-two at the time and wanted to take a final disciple in the last stage of his life. The age limit was set under ten, so he could pass on his martial arts philosophy. Back then, my father had already joined the Inspection Station and earned a meager income. He sent me to the temporary martial arts gym Mr. Xiacang opened, hoping I could practice martial arts to strengthen my body."

"Before accepting anyone, Mr. Xiacang would feel the bones of every child. If my talent had been outstanding, he definitely would have noticed. Unfortunately, out of nearly four hundred apprentices, my talent could only be considered below average."

"Below average..." Cheng Ye echoed.

That made it even more certain.

As a Great Martial Master from the Old Era, Mr. Xiacang would never make a mistake when it came to assessing talent through bone palpation.

"Then how did you end up standing out?"

"I didn't stand out at all." Liu Bi shook his head repeatedly, his face full of nostalgia. "I was eliminated in the initial three-month assessment. The kids who entered the gym with me had far better talent. Many of them could smoothly perform an entire training routine, while I couldn't even memorize the complete sequence. I could only mimic others clumsily."

"Huh? You actually failed the assessment?"

Cheng Ye was stunned, never expecting Liu Bi to have a trash-to-treasure underdog backstory.

"Hehe, my head was completely filled with thoughts of how to get a full meal back then. How could I have the mind to ponder over martial arts?"

Liu Bi chuckled freely. Having such thoughts in that era was nothing to be ashamed of.

"Mr. Xiacang opened the temporary gym firstly to take on a final disciple, and secondly to raise funds to tour the wasteland. There were quite a few people traveling with him—over two hundred in total. The daily expenses were massive, so studying in the gym required a tuition fee. My father coughed up nearly a year's worth of savings just to buy me that spot."

"When I was eliminated, Mr. Xiacang, afraid that people might complain, didn't hide anything. He imparted the entirety of his Rosy Cloud Concealment Method, and the manual was this thick."

As Liu Bi spoke, he used his fingers to demonstrate the thickness.

Having read documents all day, Cheng Ye made a rough mental estimate. That thickness equated to at least a hundred pages.

"Was it a legendary martial arts manual?" he asked curiously.

"You could say that," Liu Bi nodded. "It contained simple illustrations depicting every stance and move, encompassing the three methods of training, fighting, and killing. We didn't have photocopiers back then. Every single stroke was hand-drawn by Mr. Xiacang's disciples, making it incredibly precious."

"After receiving the Rosy Cloud Concealment Method, I started figuring it out and practicing it myself every day, slowly tracing the illustrations and gradually feeling the movements.

Mr. Xiacang stayed in Happiness City for over half a year. In the end, he couldn't find a satisfactory disciple, so he left and continued his tour to his next destination."

"With nothing to compare it to and no one to teach me, I trained and comprehended it on my own. I kept at it for more than ten years. When I was sixteen, it was the third year after your grandfather led his people away. The Idealist Faction was in power, and things internally were highly chaotic. My father had also managed to become an Administrative Officer."

"Unfortunately, his luck was poor. While on duty alongside an Inspector, he ran into a dangerous Infection Source. The Inspector sacrificed his life on the spot, but my father didn't flee. He bought time with his own life and sent a warning to the Inspection Station, averting a massive disaster. Afterward, he was made a poster child for the structural reforms, and I smoothly filled the vacancy left by the sacrificed Inspector, becoming a Trainee Inspector."

Liu Bi's experiences weren't exactly smooth sailing, but he managed to catch the tailwind of the era.

Because the Idealist Faction elevated the status of Inspectors without limit, any meritorious deed was heavily publicized and amplified.

An Administrative Officer refusing to flee in the face of danger and steadfastly fulfilling his Responsibility was the perfect propaganda material.

"After becoming an Inspector, my days grew far more perilous, so I trained even harder. Later, I happened to meet your Sister Luo... well, anyway, as my horizons broadened, I eventually realized that through those ten years of bitter training, I had already unknowingly stepped into the Heaven-Man Unity Realm, even forming a rudimentary Heaven-Man Martial Domain."

"Ah?" Cheng Ye was thoroughly shocked. "You mean, Brother B, you had already achieved Heaven and Man in One when you were still a Trainee Inspector?"

"Yeah," Liu Bi nodded candidly. "The Rosy Cloud Concealment Method didn't mark any realm distinctions, and I had no one to discuss it with. On top of that, my father strictly forbade me from stepping outside the Buffer Zone, so I didn't even have a sparring partner. Training day after day just like that, I somehow stumbled my way through every step of the martial path."

Scratching his head with a sheepish grin, he continued, "By then, Mr. Xiacang was already seventy and nearing the end of his lifespan. Taking advantage of a Field Duty assignment as a Trainee Inspector, I traveled to his final resting place in Hai Province, sending him off one last time at a place called the 'Ends of the Earth.' When he discovered that I had cultivated to Heaven and Man in One just by following the illustrations, he accepted me as his final disciple right on the spot."

"Did you ask Mr. Xiacang how you managed to reach such heights despite your poor innate bone structure and talent?" Cheng Ye followed up.

Liu Bi nodded earnestly. "You guessed right. That was the very first thing I asked him. Initially, Mr. Xiacang thought I was speaking nonsense, still bitter about being eliminated back in the day. It wasn't until I used one hand to execute the Rosy Cloud Concealment Method and floored all of his disciples that he believed I had truly reached this stage entirely on my own."

Cheng Ye was instantly dumbfounded. This underdog script was far too textbook, without a single deviation.

Even the final face-slapping moment of showing off was brilliant. Mr. Xiacang must have been given quite a fright.

He couldn't resist pressing further, "Then what was Mr. Xiacang's answer?"

"He told me that people possess two kinds of talents."

Liu Bi's gaze grew serious. "One is an outward-manifesting talent, which refers to what we commonly talk about—physique, combat intelligence, learning ability, linguistic talent, and even danger perception. Outward talents are visible and describable. The other is a concealed inner talent. This 'concealment' is the very origin of the 'Cang' in Mr. Xiacang's name."

"He could feel that whenever the morning sun rose, a special power would exist in this world, and absorbing this power could grant miraculous abilities. And I, too, possessed this concealed inner talent."

Liu Bi paused, his voice deepening. "As long as my mind remains tranquil, I can perceive that force driving the cycle of all things and the natural evolution of the world. Although I can't actively absorb it like Mr. Xiacang, merely maintaining this state causes my Strength to steadily increase, and my outward-manifesting talents gradually grow stronger along with it."

'Outward-manifesting? Concealed within?'

Cheng Ye listened in sheer bewilderment, never anticipating that the "Cang" in Xiacang held such profound significance.

'Do Humans really possess a talent capable of perceiving the world's special forces?'

"I rarely speak of this to others."

Seeing Cheng Ye's face filled with shock, unable to recover his wits for quite some time, Liu Bi let out a sigh. "It sounds too unbelievable. To those who haven't felt it, it's like a made-up story. Nobody would believe it."

"Don't be discouraged. It's fine if you haven't felt it. This talent only became prominent for me after entering the Heaven-Man Unity Realm; before that, I thought it was just an illusion. Perhaps once you find your own Belief, you'll be able to perceive this special force too."

"So when you were training Yu Yong this morning, you were helping him find this power?"

"You guessed right. My martial domain can help calm your minds, allowing you to unearth that perception."

Liu Bi nodded. "Yu Yong's talent is incredibly strong. I can feel that he has already realized the existence of this force. The next step is to seek, study, and master it. If he can capture a trace of this power, he might have a chance of suppressing the Infection Source and surviving. But a Malignant Infection Source... it's hard to say what the final outcome will be."

Having suddenly acquired a massive amount of information, Cheng Ye lowered his head in deep thought, constantly sorting out the threads of what he knew.

Liu Bi's experiences, transformations, and sensations perfectly corroborated Shi Xu's bold hypotheses.

On Earth, and perhaps throughout the entire universe, aside from the known fundamental forces like gravity and electromagnetism, it was highly likely that a series of base forces yet to be explored by humanity remained hidden.

These forces existed objectively, governing the underlying logic of the material life cycle, Energy circulation, and the like. Yet, just as the Research Institute could not decipher the source of the Green Jewel Bugs' abilities, humanity currently possessed no Instruments capable of capturing and studying these fundamental forces.

The so-called "concealed talent" was perhaps a "receiver" for these fundamental forces. Those who possessed this talent could perceive or even absorb a specific base force.

Like Mr. Xiacang, who could directly absorb the purple aura arriving from the east at the break of dawn.

And although Liu Bi couldn't actively absorb it, he could passively grow stronger after sensing the fundamental force.

'Then what exactly are the Runes?'

'They are likely the "formulas" of these fundamental forces, serving as the carriers to wield and bear them.'

'Tinder Rail Mountain was forged from Runes, capable of smelting stones and transforming them into a mountain range. This implies that Torch might have already grasped the fundamental force formula for the metamorphosis of matter.'

"Brother B, I suddenly have a new train of thought. I am heading off first!"

Cheng Ye stood up abruptly and left in a hurry, leaving Liu Bi to shake his head with a helpless laugh.

However, upon returning to his room, Cheng Ye placed a pen and paper in front of him but hesitated to write for a long time.

He had formed a hypothesis, and it had been verified, yet the problem seemed to have looped right back to the original starting point.

Those with concealed talents couldn't even describe this miraculous ability themselves, only able to summarize it broadly as "perception."

For a layman attempting to decipher the Runes, the first step was memorizing their forms, the second was understanding their functions, and the third was finally mastering their usage.

Now came the most critical question: how to memorize them?

Without any clues whatsoever, Shi Xu had researched for so many years yet remained stuck in square one.

Thinking back to what Liu Bi had just said, Yu Yong had already realized the existence of this force. He could potentially serve as a breakthrough for the research.

Of course, the most direct and brute-force method was still to continue raising the Rank of the Collector.

At its current Level 3, even though it could search for Level 4 skills, it still remained incapable of collecting Runes.

"The significance of Runes might far exceed my imagination. Never mind modifying or using them, even just being able to collect and memorize these Runes would yield immeasurable benefits."

Cheng Ye finally raised his pen, jotting down the bold letters for "Rune" on the paper.

But right after writing it, he tore the page straight off, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it into the trash can.

Overthinking was pointless; taking practical action was what truly mattered.

Right now, his Rank progress was already nearly halfway there, and Level 4 was well within reach. As long as he could complete the promotion and unlock the Rune collection function before winter arrived, he would have plenty of time to study them later. There was no need to waste his currently precious time.

Thinking of this, Cheng Ye simply packed up all the documents on the desk, grabbed a set of bedding, and drove directly to the Hydroelectric Station.

"Inspector Cheng? What are you doing?" Wu Rui, who was out on patrol, immediately froze when he saw him carrying luggage as if he planned to move in long-term. "Rest assured, before the Militiamen are fully trained, we will be standing guard here. Absolutely nothing will go wrong."

"It's nothing, the town is just too noisy, while it's quiet here," Cheng Ye explained with a smile. "I can pull an all-nighter handling work here, and it won't disturb anyone else."

Hearing him put it that way, Wu Rui paused and said no more.

Now that electricity had been restored, the Residents were all working overtime through the night, rushing their tasks. The sounds of hammering and machinery simply never ceased.

The Hydroelectric Station was two kilometers away from the town, making it indeed significantly quieter and perfect for focusing on work.

Once Wu Rui departed, Cheng Ye found a clean corner to roll out his bedding. He neatly arranged his documents and patiently flipped through them while waiting for the Collector to reach full charge.

'There has never been a moment that made me feel more at ease and content than right now!'

He no longer had to sneak around stealing electricity, worrying about being discovered. Instead, he could use it as he pleased. Moreover, the charging wattage was frighteningly high, far exceeding the efficiency he had in the Buffer Zone.

More importantly, he still had a plethora of fuseable skills on hand. His Strength was far from reaching a bottleneck where no further advancement was possible.

It could even be said that every single kilowatt-hour could now be directly converted into immediate Strength. Not a single drop of power would go to waste!

Soon enough, at one o'clock in the morning, the interface lit up right on time with a prompt indicating the charge was full.

Cheng Ye's lips curled into a grin. Suppressing the excitement surging in his chest, he carried out his routine "harvest."

'Here it comes!'

The Ze Ye Physique, humanity's most crucial outward-manifesting talent, which had seen no changes whatsoever for two whole months.

'The Rank promotion happens right now!'