manynovel Chapter 304: Martial-Forbidden State, Field Duty Mission!
Chapter 304: Martial-Forbidden State, Field Duty Mission!
Lifting his backpack, Cheng Ye slowly rowed the small wooden boat back to the bluestone pier.The area remained unrepaired, retaining its original, somewhat dilapidated flavor.
However, looking past the pier, the borders of Dabo Town had abruptly expanded by nearly half over the past ten days.
Although the construction machinery borrowed from Wenlu County had been returned, the five-kilometer area radiating from the town center had been completely cleared.
This not only left an ample buffer zone but also laid a solid foundation for future construction.
A massive crane stood in the middle of the buffer zone, methodically hoisting steel rebar, cement, and other materials. Workers were busy laying basic pipelines while rushing to build the town wall, which would be crucial for the coming winter.
The flood wall served as the first line of daily defense, capable of blocking infection sources that washed ashore from the river.
The town wall, on the other hand, was the core reliance for resisting the winter infection tides. It was a matter of life and death for the entirety of Dabo Town.
Faced with the most fundamental safety needs, all non-essential architectural planning—even the Research Institute—had to temporarily step aside.
Turning to look inside the town, the past ten days had brought a similarly complete transformation.
Walking in from the entrance, the originally chaotic areas had become orderly. The various departments that previously only had foundations were now fully constructed and operational:
[Department of Livelihood] occupied two connected buildings, with Hou Genbao serving as the director. They were responsible for registering resident information, tallying survival needs, and tracking population flow to provide precise data support for the town's planning.
[Public Security Bureau] was located in a courtyard made up of three buildings. Wu Zhihong took on the role of chief, overseeing border patrols, mediating resident conflicts, and cracking down on theft and pillaging to maintain peace and order throughout the town.
[Materials Department], as a core department of Dabo Town, was entirely under Luo Xiaoxue's charge. They coordinated resource collection, distributed supplies according to needs, and managed the reserve warehouses to ensure the basic survival provisions of all residents.
[Department of Construction] had two independent buildings for its offices, with Huang Sheng serving as the director. He led construction work such as architectural planning, erecting defensive fortifications, and optimizing the town's layout.
[Medical Affairs Department], spearheaded by Zhu Xiang, was responsible for treating sick and injured residents, stockpiling basic medicines, and conducting epidemic prevention education. At the same time, they trained grassroots first-aid personnel to build a solid health defense line.
And finally, the [Industrial Department], which currently only had a basic framework. Not only did it lack professional staff, but even the director's position remained vacant.
These six departments completely covered all of Dabo Town's operational needs at its current stage.
To avoid bloated administration and wasted resources, aside from the Public Security Bureau and Materials Department—which had complex and heavy workloads—the full-time staff of every other department was kept to between ten and fifteen people.
It was worth noting that Dabo Town's second-phase drifter recruitment plan had officially launched, bringing in an additional 1,700 drifters.
The town's total population had now reached five thousand.
Compared to Wenlu County's population of over a hundred thousand, this might not be worth mentioning. But considering how recently Dabo Town had been established, it was already quite an impressive achievement.
According to the plan, they expected to continue taking in drifters through the winter, eventually stabilizing the population at between ten and fifteen thousand people, forming a gathering place capable of self-sustained operation.
As Cheng Ye walked along the town's main road toward the collection and sales station, the surrounding residents cast reverent glances his way. Some instinctively stopped and stepped aside to let him pass, while others greeted him in hushed tones, their eyes full of reliance.
At first, he hadn't quite gotten used to this feeling of being surrounded, but over time, he gradually came to understand:
Human gathering places in the wasteland truly needed a backbone.
It was just like how An Xingfu had left Happiness City many years ago, yet his name was still appended to every important public announcement. It wasn't just to highlight the shelter city's legacy, but to steady the hearts of the people.
If even the City Lord—the symbol of their core—was nowhere to be found, Happiness City's public morale would have likely scattered amidst factional disputes long ago.
Making his way back to his office on the third floor of the station, Cheng Ye sat down and pulled out ten pouches of yellow nutrient paste from the box under his desk.
Tearing open a pouch, the viscous paste flowed slowly down his throat, carrying a faint scent of osmanthus.
Even without equipping new skills or performing any skill fusions, his natural daily energy requirement had already reached a staggering fifteen pouches of yellow nutrient paste.
'I'm eating more and more, and my body's digestive burden is growing along with it...'
Cheng Ye drank eight pouches in a row before a sudden sour, bloated sensation hit his stomach, prompting him to hastily stop.
When equipping a skill, the Collector assisted in converting energy. No matter how much nutrition he took in, it could be absorbed precisely without causing waste or bodily strain.
But natural intake was completely different. Not only did he have to consider his gastrointestinal absorption efficiency, but he also had to endure the metabolic pressure.
Fortunately, the nutrient paste was fully optimized for maximum absorption efficiency, making it far easier for the body to accept than regular food.
After resting for about five minutes, the bloating gradually subsided. Cheng Ye finished the remaining two pouches before pulling out a specialized instrument to measure his bodily stats.
[Current Energy Rating: 142]
'It went up another two points.'
A hint of gratification flashed in Cheng Ye's eyes. 'Compared to the 97 I had when I left the hospital, it's already increased by 47 percent. That's almost half.'
He opened his research notebook. The first dozen pages were densely packed with the names of the skills he had searched for over the past few days, along with the fusion processes and results. The back pages, meanwhile, recorded the changes in his bodily stats and the subtle sensations he experienced after each evolution.
Turning to the third page from the back, he added his latest Energy Rating to the list.
From the shifting data, it was clearly evident that the margin of increase was gradually diminishing.
It wasn't just that his skill fusions had hit their current limit; the natural enhancement of his physical constitution was also fast approaching the ceiling of his existing life tier.
'Although my physical evolution is nearing its limit, there's no cap on the fusion of physique-type skills. In fact, they can continuously elevate my potential and energy digestion capacity...'
Cheng Ye was quite satisfied with this. He flipped to the next page of the notebook, where the words "Life Tier" stood out strikingly at the very top.
Continuously fusing Lv.1 and Lv.2 skills brought benefits far beyond just Vortex Lungs and Floating Sand Bones—two skills with specialized utilities.
The steady elevation of his life tier was the true, core harvest.
The expansion of his skill bar was the most direct manifestation of this: it had straight-up added two independent slots. And unlike skills such as Heart-Protecting Fire or Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse—which elevated his life tier but still needed to occupy a slot—the slots gained from physical evolution were genuine, permanent perks. They would always remain, even if he unequipped those two special skills.
This meant that even with the Minor Nature Physique and the Black Jade Fir Tree's Undying Blessing in a semi-permanent state, he still had three fully free skill slots at his disposal.
When spending his days in town, these slots could be used to equip skills to assist his learning.
For instance, Jiang Chuan's twelve Limit-Breaking Tendon Gates. He had already searched and recorded all of them, and he could now equip and practice three gates simultaneously.
Ordinary people needed to rely on special postures and train bitterly for over three hours a day to open a Tendon Gate. Even those with outstanding talent needed two months to break through just one, while average folks took at least half a year. Opening all twelve Tendon Gates required a total of six years of intense effort.
However, judging by the notes in his notebook and his own insights, while it might also take him about two months to break through one Tendon Gate, he could multitask. By equipping three skills at once, he was effectively training at triple the speed.
He estimated that by the middle of next year, he would be able to clear all twelve Tendon Gates and officially enter the Embryo-Holding Stage. His efficiency far surpassed any so-called genius!
Meanwhile, when he went out on missions, those three skill slots could instantly be swapped for three combat skills, maximizing his combat power.
Cheng Ye opened his interface again and expanded the skill bar.
The originally complex and varied assortment of skills had been streamlined to the absolute limit following multiple rounds of fusion.
Using "Hundred Martial Arts Master" as the foundational framework, he had fused it with the Limit-Breaking State, Cold Weapon Mastery, and other related skills, ultimately constructing an entirely new combat-enhancing skill:
[Martial-Forbidden State (Lv.3: Perfect): Massively enhances weapon mastery, unlocks additional strength and speed.]
After practical combat testing, the new "Martial-Forbidden State" not only fully retained the lock-on aiming ability of the original "Hundred Martial Arts Master" but had also achieved a breakthrough in effective range and duration.
Currently, its maximum lock-on distance extended to 250 meters. Its maximum sustain time had increased to 12 minutes, while its cooldown had been shortened to 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, the complementary boost to his strength and speed was around thirty percent. His comprehensive combat power had taken a qualitative leap forward compared to before.
Using "Adaptability" as the core, he had fused it with Surfing Through Waves, Perception, Camouflage, and several other survival-type skills, ultimately forging a brand new survival-enhancing skill:
[Wilderness Walker (Lv.3: Perfect): Grants additional ability buffs when situated in different environments.]
[Current Buffs:
Land (Endurance permanently increased by 15%; Speed permanently increased by 5%)
Underwater (Vision permanently increased by 5 meters; Water Affinity slightly enhanced)
Frigid Zones (Triggered below -20 degrees Celsius: Grants minor cold resistance)
Scorching Zones (Triggered above 40 degrees Celsius: Grants minor heat resistance)
Harsh Terrain (Stamina recovery speed permanently increased by 15%)]
Looking solely at the buff attributes, Wilderness Walker wasn't particularly outstanding. However, its core advantage lay in its incredible adaptability and inclusiveness.
In the future, no matter what type of survival skill he searched for, he could directly fuse it into this skill, transforming it into a new environmental buff. It could truly be called a sustainably evolving survival trump card.
Aside from these two core skills, the strengthening effects of his Mountain Physique went without saying.
After upgrading it by dismantling materials, Cheng Ye had thoroughly tested it while repaying the Cost. Although the skill didn't enhance his pain-shielding ability, it massively boosted his physical defense.
Paired with the Silver Arowana defense trait inherent to his physique, ordinary cold weapons were now completely unable to break his defense. His melee survivability had experienced a qualitative leap.
The four skills he acquired from Li Matai had also yielded results after fusion.
Regrettably, no matter how he tried to induce a mutation, he couldn't unlock any new types of blessings.
More crucially, the original blessings conflicted with the Undying Blessing, as well as with other blessings of the same kind. Their cooldown times stacked rather than refreshing independently.
This completely uprooted his idea of collecting dozens or even hundreds of Hymns of Fortitude to achieve unlimited health regeneration.
Besides these, the skills he had yet to fuse all came from Liu Bi.
Namely: [Spirit-Nurturing Embryo], [Tiger Roar Saber Technique], [Heavenly Rule Spear Art], and [Rosy Cloud Concealment Method].
The fusion threshold for Lv.4 skills was simply too high. Lacking sufficient materials to support it, Cheng Ye temporarily abandoned any attempts related to them.
Because the Tiger Roar Saber Technique and the Heavenly Rule Spear Art could be gradually learned by equipping them long-term, eventually internalizing into his own instinctive combat techniques, there was no rush to fuse them immediately.
'During head-on melee combat, equipping the Spirit-Nurturing Embryo, Rosy Cloud Concealment Method, and Mountain Physique will form an offensive and defensive system. If I encounter a firearms ambush, I'll swap the Rosy Cloud Concealment Method for the Martial-Forbidden State, and swap Mountain Physique for the Heavenly Rule Spear Art to enhance my ranged counterattack capabilities.'
'When traveling normally, all three skill slots can be used to learn skills—like simultaneously breaking through the Limit-Breaking Tendon Gates. Once I enter specialized terrain, I'll switch to Wilderness Walker to adapt to the environment.'
As Cheng Ye mapped this out, his train of thought grew increasingly clear.
Given the limitations of his skill slots, blindly piling up skills was far inferior to precise combination.
Only by flexibly swapping them out according to the situation could he achieve a combat power multiplier greater than the sum of its parts.
Flipping to the end of the notebook, he found his notes on Runes.
The Water-Gathering Rune had been fully recorded by the Collector, complete with detailed information. However, the dot-shaped "、" rune dismantled from the Still Water Martial Domain couldn't even be considered fragment-grade right now. Writing it out completely failed to evoke that special energy fluctuation.
'I wonder if after promoting my rank and recording the rune to get complete information, there will be a way to mend these broken runes...'
Deep in thought, Cheng Ye slowly closed the experiment log.
A moment later, the notebook on his desk gave a slight flash and vanished without a trace, sinking into the pendant on his chest.
His various explorations and theories regarding the runes wouldn't matter much if someone else saw them. But this experiment log—documenting every search, fusion insight, and his exact trajectory of growth—would easily expose his anomalies if it fell into the wrong hands.
Hiding it inside the pendant was undeniably the safest choice. The palest ink was better than the best memory; in the future, whenever he had new insights or data, he could pull it out to record them at any time. It was both secretive and convenient.
Having organized his thoughts while sitting in the spacious chair, Cheng Ye put on his jacket and headed downstairs.
Jiang Chuan had already returned to the buffer zone to report back, once again leaving Mu Shuang alone in Dabo Town.
The girl hadn't been able to sit still at first, wandering all over town every day. But lately, she had grown much quieter. She had scavenged a few balls of yarn from somewhere and was now clumsily learning how to knit a sweater.
"Mu Shuang, we're heading to East Peace Town," Cheng Ye said as he reached the first floor, rapping his knuckles on the window of the guard room.
"Got it!" Mu Shuang immediately set down her balls of yarn, stood up, and hurried to the parking lot to get the off-road vehicle.
The vehicle drove out of the town entrance, passing the long-closed Dabo Inspection Station. From afar, they could hear the roaring machinery of construction wafting over from Wenlu County.
After half a month of preparation, the new layout plans had officially been implemented, kicking off another construction boom in the county town.
It was just a pity that many of the original buildings had to be demolished and rebuilt, inevitably wasting a tremendous amount of manpower and resources. But there was no other way.
Rather than leaving potential hidden dangers, it was better to take this chance to completely overhaul the planning. While there would be short-term impacts, it was undoubtedly worth it in the long run.
After getting onto the national highway, the vehicle's speed gradually picked up.
When they turned onto the road leading to Lower Sand County, Cheng Ye couldn't help but feel a little surprised. This road used to be riddled with potholes and was incredibly difficult to navigate. Now, just like Wenlu County's initial county road, a one-meter-wide isolation zone had been cleared on both sides. The artillery craters on the road had also been filled and leveled with rammed earth, making for a perfectly smooth ride.
Driving a bit further ahead, their field of vision suddenly opened up.
East Peace Town, originally swallowed by the wilderness, had now carved out massive swathes of farmland through sheer human effort. It was around three in the afternoon, and densely packed figures were still toiling away on the field ridges. At a rough glance, there were no less than six or seven thousand people.
At the junction where the road met East Peace Town, a temporary guard post had been set up. The sign bearing the words "East Peace Inspection Station" was particularly eye-catching.
The post was completely empty. They waited for about ten minutes before seeing Liu Bi rushing over, wearing a baggy undershirt.
Compared to a few days ago, Liu Bi's complexion was even darker. Beads of sweat clung to his forehead, but the smile on his face was brighter than ever.
Clearly, staying in East Peace Town to manage the pioneering efforts allowed him to fully utilize his strengths. For him, this was actually a deeply fulfilling kind of enjoyment.
"Why didn't you call before coming straight over?" Liu Bi asked as he pushed open the door to the inspection station, sounding a bit surprised.
"I finished up my work on my end, so I came over to check on East Peace Town's progress."
"That fast?" Liu Bi raised an eyebrow, turning back into the guard post to grab a canteen and a metal basin. "I thought you wouldn't be wrapping things up until around the fifteenth."
"It's about on schedule, just two days early." Cheng Ye took the canteen and poured the water, while Liu Bi held out his hands underneath to wash away the mud and dust.
"Come on, let's go inside and take a look!" Liu Bi wiped his hands with a towel and enthusiastically waved them over, leading the way past the inspection station.
Compared to Dabo Town's orderly construction rhythm, the outskirts of East Peace Town inevitably looked a bit chaotic.
Field ridges crisscrossed, and temporarily built shacks were scattered about haphazardly. In the distance, people were still felling trees and leveling the ground.
However, compared to the fragmentation and stagnation of the previous "one town, two systems" setup, the place now oozed with vibrant vitality. Everyone's face carried the hope for a stable life, and even the air was rich with the scent of soil and sweat.
"Before, Song Hai and Li Matai just hid in the town and completely ignored the active infection sources in the surrounding area. Since coming here, I've scattered about and contained over thirty of them. Thankfully, they were all of the lowest level, so there were no unexpected casualties. Right now, a three-kilometer radius around the town has been thoroughly cleared. Excluding the area occupied by the town itself, we've genuinely carved out roughly five thousand acres of arable land."
"At this rate, opening up twenty to thirty thousand acres of farmland by next spring will be absolutely no problem!"
Liu Bi explained as he walked, his tone brimming with motivation.
Cheng Ye couldn't help but be amazed. Liu Bi had been in East Peace Town for less than two weeks; achieving such progress was practically a miracle!
However, looking off into the distance, the sight of several agricultural machines busily working in the fields instantly answered his doubts.
Human labor had its limits, but machines could operate continuously. The efficiency gap was naturally miles apart.
"East Peace Town got connected to the power grid, and I applied to Station Chief Lei for agricultural assistance. What you told Li Matai before was spot on—you can only get more support by proving your potential. Right now, we've rented a total of six machines to help clear the farmland. They're all brand new models from the industrial zone. We just have to drive them back into town every day to recharge them. It's incredibly convenient and saves so much hassle."
After Liu Bi happily finished his report, his expression turned slightly worried. "But the wider we spread ourselves, the greater our defensive pressure will be next spring and summer."
Continuing east from East Peace Town lay vast stretches of untouched wilderness.
This meant that East Peace Town and Dabo Town shared practically the same predicament—both had to face threats that could emerge from the wilderness at any time.
Cheng Ye followed Liu Bi for a tour around the town's perimeter, and Li Matai soon hurried over after hearing the news.
The three of them headed over to the area previously managed by Song Hai and climbed to the fourth floor of the newly constructed administration building. Their gazes swept simultaneously toward the boundless eastern wilderness.
The withered, yellow grass undulated along the terrain, churning into golden waves in the wind. It stretched all the way to the horizon, bleeding into the overcast sky without a single trace of human existence in sight.
Meanwhile, the newly forged field ridges of East Peace Town extended slowly from the town borders into the wilderness. The freshly turned earth bore a moist, brownish-red hue that stood in stark contrast to the surrounding withered yellow, practically glowing with vitality.
Looking to the north, one could see the colossal industrial zone. The dark cyan factory buildings stretched out endlessly, practically obscuring half the sky.
Looking to the south, the dilapidated outline of Lower Sand County was visible. With its mottled walls and ruined structures, there was no telling how many unknown dangers lurked inside.
"We have the land now. All that's left for us to do is hold the line and wait for harvest day."
Cheng Ye let out a long breath, a line of poetry suddenly surfacing in his mind.
The road ahead is long and arduous, yet I shall seek the truth far and wide.
Now that the hardest first step had been taken, all that remained was to tread steadily through every step that followed.
Right now, this place was still desolate. There were no crops, and the full scope of their future remained hazy.
But Cheng Ye firmly believed that as long as they slowly accumulated their efforts, they would eventually reach a specific breaking point. Just like with skill evolutions, quantitative changes would inevitably trigger a qualitative leap.
"Have you chosen the location for your field duty?" Li Matai interjected.
"Yeah. I'm heading straight for Light Rainbow."
Cheng Ye pulled out his Defense Terminal and tapped the screen a few times, pulling up the field duty mission interface.
This was a new function added after the advanced Defense Terminal's update. However, the interface remained crude, looking a lot like an early text-based game.
The fluidity had improved quite a bit, but there was a severe lack of functional modules. For example, if someone looked up a specific mission and wanted to access more detailed information, they still had to specially apply to the Inspection Station for paper documents—even though the details were public intelligence, not top-secret information.
Furthermore, a long time ago, back when he had first intended to buy a car, he had already seen this interface on Li Matai's Defense Terminal. So using it for the first time felt perfectly familiar.
Field duty missions were primarily divided into two main categories:
The first category was the procurement missions he had encountered previously, which fell under clerical work.
The material demands for this kind of mission routinely measured in the tons. The inspector wasn't required to personally escort the supplies back; they just needed to head to the designated location and negotiate a supply contract with the provider.
Exclusive transportation channels had long been established between the various shelter cities specifically to handle this kind of material trade.
The difficulty of these missions didn't lie in their physical execution, but rather in negotiating a unified price and finalizing certain supplementary conditions.
However, since Light Rainbow had already become an overlord-tier faction within Guang Province—and had even absorbed the surrounding shelter cities as vassals—trying to bypass them to accept procurement missions within the province was now as difficult as scaling the heavens.
The second category encompassed adventuring missions—such as exploration, peacekeeping, and expansion—which fell under the combat division.
The list Cheng Ye currently had open belonged precisely to this latter category.
After screening all the missions in Guang Province over the past few days, he had singled out three that warranted special attention:
[Overview of Regular External Missions for the Inspection Station (Guang Province)]
[1. Explore the Black Branding Mountain gathering place. Investigate special farmed creatures and the feasibility of producing meat-based nutrient paste. (Difficulty: 2)]
[2. Proceed to the Twin Moon Lake gathering place. Terminate the existing nutrient paste cooperation agreement and recover the relevant cooperation resources. (Difficulty: 1)]
[3. Escort the new batch of diplomatic merchant caravan personnel to the Light Rainbow shelter city to complete their rotation handover. (Difficulty: 2)]