Chapter 129: Unfathomable! Unapproachable! Invincible!

Liu Kun kept his head down as he mingled with the crowd, wearing a wide raincoat that covered his entire body. The brim of his hat was pulled low, hiding most of his face in shadow, revealing only a section of his jaw wet from the rain.As he slowly shuffled forward with the flow of people, he deliberately made his steps unsteady, carrying a bulging burlap sack in his hand and occasionally coughing twice. He looked no different from the other scavengers who had just returned from making a living in the ruins.

But with just that fleeting glance, though he couldn't see clearly, Cheng Ye's heartbeat inexplicably quickened by half a beat, and it beat faster and faster, like a drumstick pounding chaotically in his chest.

Too strange.

By all logic, since Liu Kun was deliberately hiding his tracks, he would certainly restrain his transcendent aura to the extreme.

Even if there was a possibility of being sensed by other transcendents, he absolutely wouldn't let an ordinary person like him feel anything.

But that feeling just now was very special. The moment their eyes met, something seemed to grip his heart, stirring waves of indescribable palpitations.

Definitely not Liu Kun!

Cheng Ye almost instantly reached this conclusion.

He vaguely sensed that the "thing" that had made eye contact with him seemed to exist on another plane, like looking through a layer of transparent frosted glass, blurred yet real.

Moreover, this thing was very bold, almost brazenly scrutinizing him without any attempt to hide.

Does it think that as an ordinary person, I simply can't detect this kind of surveillance?

Cheng Ye became secretly alert. If he hadn't repeatedly equipped Iron Body and Wild Grass Physique, he would indeed have difficulty sensing this kind of suppression from a higher life level.

But now, he was all too familiar with this feeling.

And the last time he searched Zhang Can, for just an instant, the Collector had amplified this sensation.

Cheng Ye remembered it very clearly, exactly the same as now.

"Could this be a transcendent's special ability?"

Facing a true transcendent for the first time, he indeed had no experience, but his curiosity in his heart overcame that hidden palpitation.

The panel opened.

The Collector's scanning range was about a hundred meters, able to display the compatibility of everyone in his field of vision.

But normally, if he had no particular thoughts, it wouldn't display everything.

At this moment, as Cheng Ye focused his mind, dense question mark names floated up, and Liu Kun was immediately scanned out.

Perhaps due to the inspection station scenario bonus, this compatibility was somewhat surprising to Cheng Ye.

[Liu Kun, 7%, Search Range Available: None]

"Not 0% after all, quite unexpected."

"Good, this means he has no resistance to inspection. Now I just need to find a way to increase the compatibility!"

Cheng Ye took several deep breaths, forming a plan in his mind.

Since he had confirmed that Liu Kun had chosen the passage where he was stationed, there was no need to rush.

To search a transcendent, he had already prepared extensively, from analyzing Liu Kun's behavior patterns to simulating possible conversation scenarios, every detail had been rehearsed repeatedly. ????Ａ₦ƟВËⱾ

Regardless of success or failure, this would be a bold attempt with precious significance for future searches.

Of course, it would be best if he could succeed once.

Cheng Ye wasn't greedy at all.

Whether it was an item or skill, regardless of the specific level, anything searched from a transcendent would certainly not be ordinary goods and would bring enormous help to his current situation!

"Next."

He sent away another scavenger.

Cheng Ye's voice remained steady as usual, revealing no trace of disturbance.

He knew Liu Kun was in the queue, watching his every move through the crowd, but he showed no abnormality on his face, still following his usual habits to conduct inspections meticulously, as if he had completely forgotten about the upcoming search of a transcendent.

And this composed appearance, falling into the eyes of Liu Kun in the crowd, made him nod approvingly despite himself, the furrow under his hat brim slightly relaxing.

As an inspector who had climbed up from the bottom step by step, Liu Kun was naturally not unfamiliar with the past events of the Cheng family.

Even his father Liu Yuan had been one of the batch of inspectors taken away by Cheng Wu back then.

But he never hated Cheng Wu, nor did he think the Cheng family had done anything wrong to the inspection station. Instead, he was grateful from the bottom of his heart for what Cheng Wu had done, and even more admired that almost stubborn adherence to original principles.

Because his father had seven children in total, four boys and three girls.

And he was the fourth, the youngest son.

At that time, his three older brothers were already over thirty, physically strong, and had been struggling in Happiness City's system for many years, having long established deep roots.

But he had just come of age not long ago, could only be considered an insignificant newcomer in the team, doing menial tasks like registering supplies and keeping records every day, without even the qualification to learn patrol duties.

If it really came to seniority for inheriting Liu Yuan's inspector position, it wouldn't be his turn.

When any benefits were distributed, it was always his brothers who got first pick.

He had once thought that this was probably how his life would be, mixing in the shadows of his brothers for basic sustenance, honestly following Liu Yuan's arrangements to be an ordinary clerk, until someday dying in some infection source outbreak.

But after Cheng Wu left with all the core inspectors, everything changed!

None of his three brothers stayed, all following their father Liu Yuan away, leaving only three sisters behind.

The opportunity to inherit the inspector position fell on his head like a pie from heaven with a "smack."

However, just like the troubles Cheng Ye was encountering now, the days of climbing up from the bottom were exceptionally difficult for him as well.

From a bottom-tier trainee inspector to a first-term inspector capable of handling things independently, he had endured countless all-nighters, fought face-to-face with infected entities, and had followed pioneer corps deep into ruins thousands of kilometers away to establish bases.

But compared to Cheng Ye's current situation, he was considered lucky.

Because the Idealist faction was in power then, he didn't need to be swayed by factional struggles, didn't need to take sides, only needed to focus on work without having to maneuver between various forces or guess at superiors' hidden meanings.

Moreover, the Idealist faction's "crazy" reforms made him one of the first batch of inspectors to catch the favorable wind.

Abolishing seniority systems, emphasizing actual performance over background.

Requiring all patrol experience to be documented on paper, forming standardized operation and training manuals rather than relying on veterans' oral transmission.

This perfectly matched Liu Kun's strengths, his clerical foundation bringing enormous help.

In just three years, he climbed from first-term to third-term, so fast that even he felt dazed.

At the same time, his rapidly rising status brought unrestrained expansion of power.

He had once been addicted to this feeling, enjoying treatment that even Liu Yuan had never enjoyed.

A private office, priority access to supplies, residents' instinctive respect, deference from other system members in the buffer zone, even direct contact with Happiness City's upper echelons.

Until the disaster-level infection tide that swept through that winter completely shattered his dreams.

That night.

He witnessed with his own eyes colleagues who used to chat and laugh being torn apart like paper by fusion entities' claws.

He watched the happiness defense line in the buffer zone being breached by infected entities, screams and explosions mixing together into a death march.

For the first time, he truly realized:

People can die.

Even inspectors elevated to high positions die just as easily as ordinary scavengers.

If the Elder hadn't personally intervened at the end, he probably wouldn't have survived to now.

Liu Kun still remembered the scene when the Elder took action. That bulletproof, rocket-launcher-resistant high-level unicorn beetle fusion entity was turned into a pool of stinking flesh with just a light touch from the Elder.

Those infection tides capable of overwhelming multiple sanctuary cities were instantly frozen into crystalline ice sculptures with just the Elder's gentle pass, melting and shattering into ice fragments.

From that day on, a seed took root in his heart.

He wanted transcendence!

Not for more stable power, not for others' respect, but for that kind of life-and-death authority, that kind of strength that would let him always stand in safety, never threatened by anyone.

For this, he could work patrol duty for seventy-two hours straight without sleep, could endure the humiliation brought by factional struggles, could spend countless nights struggling with those obscure transcendent manuals until his head split with pain and his eyes bled.

At this moment, watching Cheng Ye diligently conducting inspections under the rain shelter, Liu Kun suddenly saw a trace of his former self.

What a good kid.

Even facing scavengers covered in mud and water, reeking of sour stench, when even the assisting person couldn't help but frown, Cheng Ye showed no discrimination, still meticulously advancing the inspection process.

When encountering scavengers who spoke incoherently and couldn't even state their names clearly, when the assistant could barely restrain himself from scolding, Cheng Ye didn't lose his temper either, but patiently helped organize their language, bit by bit helping the scavengers piece together information.

When writing the new version of the inspector manual, 40% of the content was personally written by Liu Kun.

Every clause and procedure in it condensed his understanding of the word "standard."

At this moment, he could naturally see at a glance how standard Cheng Ye's performance was. From tone to actions, from attitude to expression, everything perfectly matched the optimal cases in the manual.

So much better than his father Cheng Long!

Liu Kun silently emphasized in his heart, his gaze under the hat brim sweeping over Cheng Ye's focused profile, carrying a trace of barely perceptible approval.

Cheng Long's excellence lay in his bravery during field missions, in his skill when dealing with outsiders but that was confidence accumulated from fighting alongside Pioneer Corps and struggling through that era, carrying the sharp edge of wildness.

But when it came to steadiness and patience within the inspection station, to reverence and adherence to rules, Cheng Long was probably inferior to the current Cheng Ye by a wide margin, hardly qualifying as a "complete" inspector.

"Old Ding could focus on cultivating this kid, might produce another person who does real work."

Liu Kun made a mental note, planning to mention it to Ding Yishan when he returned.

Under the Walker's influence, after going out once, he keenly sensed that the external situation was beginning to become chaotic.

The activity range of mutant beasts was expanding, infected entities' aggression was ridiculously strong, even internal conflicts within the Hundred Ghosts Gang were being amplified, with confrontations and gang wars between ghost leaders becoming increasingly frequent.

When those hundreds of thousands of migrants surged over, the inspection station would inevitably become the first target of impact.

Such good seedlings couldn't be allowed to die in this kind of low-level chaos.

The inspection station had to protect him, waiting for when the situation became truly complex in the future, when he would truly be needed.

As for the debts left by Cheng Long...

Liu Kun's gaze swept toward Quarantine Zone D. Ordinary people couldn't see the situation there clearly from this distance but he was different. Flame Eagle had already soared into the sky, circling above Zone D.

After sharing vision, he could see the sentry carrying the Corrupt Vine core had just finished the inspection process and was quickly walking toward the isolation warehouse.

Everything was going so smoothly that he couldn't help but show a slight smile at the corner of his mouth.

Although discovering that Corrupt Vine could enhance ability limits was an accident, he was a principled person.

Essentially, it was Cheng Ye who had first discovered this unknown infection source, leading to his breakthrough today.

This favor had to be acknowledged.

"I won't stop those kids below transcendent level, but for transcendent level and above, anyone wanting to move against good seedlings from my inspection station has to get past Brother Kun first."

Thinking this, he exhaled a breath of moist white air, collected his thoughts, and continued moving forward with the crowd, the expression under his hat brim returning to ancient well-like calm.

But little did he know that Cheng Ye, sitting behind the inspection desk at this moment, already had towering waves surging in his heart.

The panel in the upper right corner of his vision had never been closed from the beginning.

Initially, he just wanted to keep track of Liu Kun's movements, but unexpectedly discovered that each time he finished inspecting a scavenger, Liu Kun's compatibility would slightly increase.

From the initial 7%, it increased by 1%-3% with almost every person.

Moreover, Cheng Ye had deliberately tested that the more seriously he worked, the more he adhered to the standards in the inspector manual, the faster this compatibility rose.

Up to now, having only inspected 17 people, with at least 40 people still ahead of Liu Kun in line.

The compatibility on the panel had jumped up like it was on stimulants, directly reaching:

[Liu Kun, 41%, Search Range Available: Intelligence (quality fixed reduction 0.5), Items (probability: 15%), Skill Lv1 (probability: 5%)]

"41%?"

Cheng Ye felt somewhat dazed, instinctively blinking his eyes, thinking he had seen wrong but no matter how he refreshed the panel, that number remained rock-steady without the slightest fluctuation.

Only continued steady increases.

"Could it be that Liu Kun appreciates my inspection attitude?"

After reaching this conclusion, Cheng Ye was slightly amazed, but upon reflection, this should be a variation of the recognition pattern.

This morning, his situation analysis gained Ding Yishan's recognition, and compatibility increased.

Now his rule-abiding conduct gained Liu Kun's recognition, and compatibility similarly increased.

In summary, besides intimidation, whether through words or actions gaining the other party's recognition could increase compatibility.

"Not bad, this is actually simpler than I imagined."

Cheng Ye paused, his gaze falling on the parentheses after intelligence and items. As he had guessed, his current rank made searching transcendents quite strenuous.

Intelligence quality was hard-capped at 50% reduction, item search probability also dropped by 10% success rate, and more importantly for skills, it was even lower than when searching Zhang Can, with only a 5% success rate.

But overall, it was still within an acceptable range, not without possibility of success.

There were still over forty people.

If each could increase by 1%, compatibility could rise to at least 80% or above.

This was much simpler than his previous expectation of starting from single digits and slowly grinding after the two made contact.

"Keep working hard!"

Cheng Ye collected his thoughts and focused on inspecting scavengers, but he didn't deliberately perform exceptionally well, just executing procedures as usual.

But even so, purely in terms of strict adherence to the 'Inspector Duty Manual,' he had already surpassed 99% of the people in the inspection station.

He had none of the bad habits of acting on experience, being a standard "academy" graduate but heaven didn't comply with human wishes. Just when Liu Kun's compatibility had risen to 80%, the increase rate suddenly stagnated.

Inspecting the remaining scavengers only caused the value to fluctuate slightly by 0.1, clearly this method of increasing compatibility through standard conduct had reached its limit.

And there were only about ten people left ahead of Liu Kun, no longer enough samples for Cheng Ye to experiment with other methods.

"Should I, search once?"

Cheng Ye's fingertips lightly rubbed under the table. After thinking, he took advantage of the gap after finishing inspection of the previous scavenger to gesture to Snake.

According to convention, it should be lunch time now.

"Sorry everyone!"

Snake immediately understood, calling out loudly to the queuing crowd, "It's already one o'clock, Inspector Cheng hasn't had lunch yet. Please wait 10 minutes. We'll heat up two packets of nutritional paste for each person present. Thank you for your patience!"

As his words fell, the scavengers crowded at the isolation gate immediately cheered.

On such a cold, rainy day, having hot nutritional paste to drink was simply too comfortable. Some even deliberately shouted toward Cheng Ye's direction, "Thank you, Inspector Cheng!"

With this thanks, the panel in Cheng Ye's vision lightly jumped, Liu Kun's compatibility floated up another 0.2, settling at 80.7%.

[Liu Kun, 80.7%, Search Range Available: Intelligence (quality fixed reduction 0.3), Items (probability: 22%), Skill Lv1 (probability: 11%), Skill Lv2 (probability: 0.1%)]

Taking advantage of Snake arranging people to distribute nutritional paste, Cheng Ye quietly pondered.

Compared to the beginning, this reduction had finally weakened considerably.

Especially the item search success rate had risen from 15% to 22%, nearly returning to normal levels.

If he invested all of the Collector's charge values into item search, the success rate would reach 72%.

Not low at all. With his recent luck, he would probably hit the target in one shot but the key was, Cheng Ye didn't have much confidence this time.

He vaguely had a premonition that if he clicked "search items" now, it definitely wouldn't go as smoothly as when he searched transcendent objects from Zhang Can last time.

If he searched out some ordinary item, that would be too much of a loss. Better to throw all four attempts at Lv1 skills and gamble.

The 11% probability seemed slim, but it precisely demonstrated the special nature of transcendent skills.

The rarer something was, the more worth pursuing.

Even just a Lv1 skill might bring him a completely different transformation like the Dragon Force Embryonic Form had.

"So... it seems I need to display quick wit again."

Cheng Ye took a deep breath, moving his gaze from the Skill Lv1 option to search intelligence.

Since recognition gained through behavior had reached its limit, and he couldn't subject Liu Kun, a transcendent, to any special punishment or intimidation, the next focus naturally had to shift toward ideological recognition.

Using words to leverage Liu Kun's recognition, making compatibility climb another level.

Moreover, whether from curiosity about Liu Kun personally or exploration of the transcendent world, he was somewhat curious about what Liu Kun actually cared about.

Of course, with experience from two previous searches, the moment he pressed search intelligence, what he silently recited wasn't something concrete.

Like what Liu Kun most valued in inspectors, or what Liu Kun wanted to see in inspectors.

But rather:

"Search for Liu Kun's secret he least wants others to know."

A very vague request.

The moment the command was issued, the Collector panel suddenly began flashing, countless garbled characters flying and reorganizing like out-of-control fireflies in his vision, more violently than any previous search.

Moreover, the flashing text in the past had always been ink black, but this time, Cheng Ye couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

The edges of that garbled code were actually faintly tinged with dazzling fire red, radiating restless energy.

"Worthy of being a transcendent, everything about them is special."

Cheng Ye sighed inwardly. Before his words finished, his vision began rapidly losing color like spilled ink. Everything around him, the crowd outside the isolation gate, Snake's back, the forms on the table...

Everything shattered like glass, dissolving into countless points of light.

Buzz.

The reorganized intelligence space took shape in the blink of an eye.

Looks familiar?

Cheng Ye instinctively pressed pause, not rushing to examine the core content, but controlling his view to fly around and explore within the space.

The layout here looked familiar, very much like the underground room beneath Uncle Dong's shop.

There were spiral staircases leading down, bright wall lamps hanging on the walls.

The difference was that this one was much larger, estimated at least eighty square meters.

Moreover, there was a silver-gray medical bed in the center with metal restraint straps embedded at the edges. Next to it stood a large cabinet sealed to the top, with frosted glass doors through which one could vaguely see rows of syringes and reagent bottles inside.

In the corner were also piled several medical monitoring devices that Cheng Ye had only seen in movies, with dark screens and data cables coiled around the machines like snakes.

This place... looked like a miniature medical room, yet carried the cold atmosphere of a villain's laboratory.

Was it within the buffer zone, or in the ruins?

Cheng Ye tried to break through the underground room's boundaries, but as soon as his view explored beyond the stairway entrance, it hit a vast void where nothing could be seen, clearly already exceeding the intelligence search range.

He retracted his view, returning to the underground room, took a deep breath, and clicked play.

Heavy footsteps immediately echoed in the space. The stairway door overhead was pushed open with a "creak," and Liu Kun walked down with a grim expression.

He took off the wide raincoat, revealing tight combat clothing underneath.

Cheng Ye immediately switched perspective, wanting to zoom in for observation but the next second, he instinctively held his breath, his brain feeling like it had been hit by a heavy hammer, buzzing with noise.

It's it, that's it!

That gaze from "another plane" that he had sensed before had finally taken concrete form.

It was perched on Liu Kun's shoulder.

It was a giant eagle.

Its entire body was covered with feathers like flowing flames, each one trembling slightly, flowing with golden-red light like countless sparks trapped within the quills.

When its wings were folded, they were still half a meter wide, but when spread, they almost occupied half the underground room.

Its golden beak and talons gleamed with cold, hard light, as if they could easily tear through steel. But most terrifying were its eyes, not the pupils of ordinary birds, but two pools of burning magma, currently locked dead onto the camera's direction over Liu Kun's shoulder.

Even though this was just virtual eye contact within the intelligence space, even though reason told him he was absolutely safe at this moment, Cheng Ye still felt fear from the bottom of his life.

It was like a seedling that had finally broken through the soil's blockade looking up to see a thousand-year giant pine standing proud in snow, its courage to grow frozen solid.

It was like a traveler crawling on the earth looking up at Mount Everest, feeling only his own insignificance and smallness before absolute majesty.

It was like humans looking up at the night sky, suddenly realizing the vastness of the universe, only to be shocked into recognizing themselves as mere glimmers in the dust.

His current meeting with this flame giant eagle's eyes was exactly this feeling.

As if all the blood in his body had instantly frozen, even his thinking became sluggish!

"What... what is this?"

Cheng Ye couldn't help but press pause, forcibly restraining the fear, confusion, and various indescribable emotions in his heart.

He tried to zoom in the camera, wanting to observe this mysterious giant eagle more carefully.

But what pained him was that once he pulled the view within three meters range, even in the intelligence space, he felt like his brain was about to explode, his temples throbbing, eyes going black in waves.

That was a rejection from the depths of his soul, as if warning him:

Unfathomable!

Unapproachable!

Invincible!

Cheng Ye abruptly pulled back the perspective until he retreated five or six meters away, and that tearing sensation gradually subsided.

He wanted to breathe heavily to relieve the tension, but unfortunately, there was no complete physical form within the intelligence space. He could only stare blankly at Liu Kun with the giant eagle perched on his shoulder in the image, digesting all the sensations alone.

Was it the manifestation of Liu Kun's transcendent ability? Or a transcendent creature in symbiosis with Liu Kun?

Cheng Ye's heart beat like drums, but it wasn't fear, it was excitement!

An existence of this level, and the Collector could actually capture traces of it, even construct intelligence imagery.

Simply incredibly powerful beyond imagination!

After calming down for over ten seconds, he clicked play again, deliberately pulling his view back to over seven meters away.

This distance allowed him to see details clearly while not triggering that tearing rejection.

In the image, Liu Kun walked straight to the center of the underground room, stopping before that sealed large cabinet.

He raised his hand to press the fingerprint lock on the side of the cabinet door. After a soft "beep," the frosted glass door slowly slid open.


Cheng Ye frowned slightly, clicking pause again to examine carefully.

Unlike the instinctive fear when seeing the flame giant eagle, he was much more familiar with the contents of the cabinet.

On layer upon layer of metal shelves, dozens of transparent isolation boxes were neatly arranged, each containing different forms of infection sources.

Many he had seen, including quite a few Deathwhisper Tentacles that he had personally eliminated but his gaze quickly focused with Liu Kun's movements.

"Corrupt Vine?"

Inside the glass containment box, a mass of dark green vines covered with fine thorns, even in the solution, could be seen slightly writhing.

Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment, not expecting the unknown infection source he had previously discovered to appear here.

Liu Kun placed the containment box on the nearby operating table, then took out several sets of reagents labeled with tags from the lower drawer.

He returned to the pile of instruments, connecting pipelines and adjusting parameters with practiced movements, his fingertips dancing on panels full of buttons at dizzying speed.

Having never encountered such equipment, Cheng Ye could only understand partially, vaguely guessing that Liu Kun was conducting some kind of test.

Complex waveform patterns jumped on the instrument screens. As sets of transparent, light green, and deep purple reagents were injected into the containment box, the mass of Corrupt Vine seemed to have its life force drained, gradually stopping its writhing, its color fading from dark green to gray-brown.

Seeing this, a flash of barely concealed joy crossed Liu Kun's face.

He pulled off the upper half of his combat suit and lay directly on that cold medical bed.

The flame giant eagle that had been perched on his shoulder let out a low cry. As its wings flapped, the sharp claws at the tips of its feathers lightly scratched Liu Kun's right arm, opening a wound about twenty centimeters long.

But blood didn't gush out. Instead, as if guided by some force, it formed tiny blood beads on the skin's surface.

Liu Kun grunted, cold sweat seeping from his forehead, but immediately reached for a transparent tube beside the medical bed, pressing one end firmly against the wound.

What amazed Cheng Ye was that the other end of the tube was actually connected to the containment box with the Corrupt Vine!

As Liu Kun pressed the valve on the tube, the solution mixed with the Corrupt Vine itself in the containment box was slowly drawn out. Streams of gray-brown vines writhed along the tube walls, seemingly gaining autonomous consciousness as they burrowed into the wound, merging with his flesh and blood.

The moment of contact produced a "sizzling" burning sound from the wound, white smoke rising, the air seemingly filled with a scorched, fishy smell.

Eerie blue-black patterns spread from the wound across his entire body at visible speed, crawling over his neck, wrapping around his cheeks, even drilling into the corners of his eyes.

Liu Kun's body began trembling violently, his face contorted with pain, his lips bitten bloody, yet those eyes burned with an almost insane satisfaction.

"Almost... almost there..."

Liu Kun muttered in a low voice, his tone hoarse as if ground by sandpaper, each word carrying suppressed obsession to the extreme, "Once my strength advances further, no one will be able to manipulate me anymore, no one will be able to order me around, no one will be able to... ignore me!"

The flame giant eagle standing on the operating table gently nuzzled his cheek with its beak, as if comforting him, but the light in those eyes burning with magma blazed even brighter, even casting a golden-red glow throughout the entire underground room.

Cheng Ye stared blankly at this scene, his brain somewhat crashed, unable to process it for a moment.

Liu Kun was actually actively fusing with infection sources to enhance his own strength?

Did all transcendents do this, or was this... a new path Liu Kun had developed himself?

Cheng Ye couldn't quite figure it out, but just from current observation, he instinctively sensed something was wrong.

After fusing with the Corrupt Vine, Liu Kun's gaze began to scatter, his originally steady face twisting into an almost maniacal expression, his mouth intermittently erupting with crazed roars:

"Fake, it's all fake, all the respect is fake!"

"Strength, only strength is real. I want to use my fists to tell everyone what rules mean!"

"Those who don't understand how to follow my rules must die! Even if they're transcendents, even if it's Yuan Gang!"

"Yuan Gang, I want you dead, I want you kneeling before me, following my rules!!!"

Yuan Gang?!

Wasn't that one of Happiness City's deputy city lords?

Happiness City had two deputy city lords in total. Yuan Gang was the executive city lord, responsible for Happiness City's management, and aside from the Elder, appeared most frequently before residents among the high-ranking officials.

The other was named Duke Morrison, responsible for energy and armaments in the industrial zone, stationed year-round in the industrial area, rarely appearing in public view.

Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment. He could even dredge up the face corresponding to this name from deep in his memory.

Every year on Happiness City's Founding Day, Yuan Gang would wear a crisp white uniform, standing on the high platform in Inner City Plaza addressing residents with a gentle smile and steady tone, like a loving patriarch.

His predecessor, due to outstanding performance in poetry and literature, basically attended Founding Day activities and had seen Yuan Gang up close more than once, even receiving encouragement with Yuan Gang patting his shoulder.

Liu Kun had a grudge against Yuan Gang?

And judging by this tone, it wasn't just a grudge, it was bone-deep hatred, even shouting things like "kneel before me."

Cheng Ye was pondering when the intelligence space in front of him suddenly began shaking violently, rapidly splitting into countless flashing points of light.

It was over.

[Intelligence Target: Liu Kun]

[Specified Direction: Secret he least wants others to know]

[Intelligence Quality: 0.7 level (fixed reduction 0.3, specified target unreduced)]

[Current Replay Count Available: 4]

25% charge value, absolutely worth every penny spent.

Not only did it let him see Liu Kun's transcendent power manifestation, it also let him know the secrets in Liu Kun's heart.

Following rules?

Cheng Ye was thoughtful. After suppressing all curiosity about transcendents, he already somewhat understood how to increase compatibility next.