Asking for Cheng Ye's perspective was merely an offhand gesture by Downs.

From the beginning, he never expected to get any constructive opinions from this trainee inspector who had been born and raised in the inner city and never set foot in the wilderness.

But now Cheng Ye's answer brought him some surprise, some unexpectedness, and also a bit of... being caught in a dilemma.

He instinctively felt that if he gave Cheng Ye more information and showed him all the currently collected intelligence, he might get a more operational plan.

But rules were rules. The intelligence in his hands required at least second-term inspector clearance to review, let alone for a trainee inspector like Cheng Ye.

Even letting him know about this problem was only because Ding Yishan had already pushed him to the forefront.

"You sit over there first. There's black tea and coffee on the table. Help yourself if you want to drink anything."

Downs pointed to the reception area, indicating for Cheng Ye to sit down.

Then he stared at the documents on his desk, looking for over ten minutes, sometimes writing furiously, sometimes stopping to ponder.

But in the end, he still crumpled up a sheet of paper he had written and threw it hard into the nearby trash can.

It wouldn't work.

Greater Camphor dared to poach Double Moon Lake because behind them stood Rainbow Sanctuary City.

This was an industrial sanctuary city with a scale no weaker than Happiness City, but they had gone down the wrong path in earlier years, throwing themselves wholeheartedly into developing new energy sources, completely abandoning their old industrial foundation, wanting to carve out a new path.

Only in recent years had they realized their mistake and begun frantically making up for their shortcomings, snatching people and technology everywhere, wooing settlements large and small to serve as raw material bases.

Behind this was the influence of the wasteland's entire situation about to welcome the next period of transformation.

In the first ten years of the New Era, humans could only cower in sanctuary cities, sealing everything off and developing their foundations as much as possible.

From year ten to twenty-eight, they gradually began expanding outward.

Pioneer teams, exploration camps, and military corps of all sizes sprouted like weeds, grabbing every territory they could occupy and marking every resource they could find.

Sanctuary cities everywhere began rapid development, but as time passed, they had also exhausted most of their new forces and were forced into a period of recuperation.

As of now, the recuperation period had lasted seven years.

Without unexpected developments, it would take at least another five to ten years before the next round of major expansion could begin.

However, some sanctuary cities couldn't resist jumping the gun, wanting to lay the groundwork for the new expansion before other sanctuary cities reacted.

If Happiness City responded in the manner Cheng Ye suggested, Rainbow Sanctuary City would never sit idly by.

When that time came, the two sanctuary cities would inevitably clash at Double Moon Lake.

This wasn't the result Happiness City's upper echelons wanted to see at present. Continuing to accumulate strength was what should be done during the recuperation period.

After all, losing one Double Moon Lake, Happiness City still had hundreds of settlements that could supply nutritional paste raw materials.

Even if all these settlements turned against them, with Happiness City's accumulated resources, it would be enough to maintain supplies for a million people for at least two years.

These two years would be completely sufficient for the legion to strike out and plow through all the rebellious settlements in the surrounding area.

"Your answer is excellent enough to earn 80 points."

Downs leaned back in his chair, turned his whole body around to face Cheng Ye directly.

"And this excellence isn't just based on trainee inspector standards. Even if you were a second-term inspector with access to more intelligence and reached these conclusions, I would still give you the same score."

This was an old man who liked to grade people.

But it wasn't really an annoying habit.

At least in Cheng Ye's view, Downs had his own clear set of standards, far better than those who practiced double standards.

"However, as I said, the specific intelligence can't be shown to a trainee inspector like you, but I can tell you that the idea just now won't work."

"It won't work, but actually we don't need to do anything. We just need to wait quietly for a while, and Double Moon Lake will die on its own." Cheng Ye responded.

"Hmm?"

Downs was stunned, raised his eyebrows, and made an expression that said continue, I'm listening.

"I don't know how nutritional paste raw materials are specifically produced, but agricultural settlements that develop to a certain stage will always transition toward industrial settlements, will always have dreams of becoming sanctuary cities. But as trading partners, we definitely don't want to see yet another sanctuary city rise up, which means the stakes we have to invest will only increase."

"Only the longer they remain in the agricultural stage, the more beneficial it is for us."

Cheng Ye said tentatively, his gaze unconsciously falling on Downs's face, but he caught no extra expressions.

Combined with Downs's earlier promise, his heart immediately made a judgment, and he grew bolder.

"When we can't offer more stakes, at this point, Double Moon Lake needs to face a difficult choice."

"Seek inward, continuing to cooperate with our Happiness City while finding ways to develop industry themselves, not placing hope in nonexistent support, strengthening themselves from the foundation."

"Seek outward, trying to take output originally worth only 1 and repeatedly jump between various forces to exchange it for 10 in value, thereby developing to the same level as these forces."

After these two sentences, Downs's expression indeed showed a visibly slight change, his demeanor becoming more serious.

He just hid it well, and in the blink of an eye, returned to calm.

"Continue."

"Double Moon Lake chose to seek outward, completely exposing their ambitions. They don't want to be trapped in the agricultural stage and yearn to advance further. At this point, Greater Camphor comes knocking, telling Double Moon Lake we can support you, not only purchasing nutritional paste at higher prices but also giving you what you want, helping you develop to our scale."

Cheng Ye paused, "Station Chief Downs, I'd like to ask, have nutritional paste prices in the market really risen?"

As his words fell, Downs lapsed into silence, but his gaze suddenly sharpened.

After a long moment, he gently shook his head, "The celestial anomalies haven't affected harvests. Many settlements are waiting for better prices, which actually triggered raw material panic buying after harvests were confirmed. Prices haven't risen, they're even falling."

"So as I said, we don't need to do anything now, just watch quietly."

Cheng Ye's voice was gentle, "Soon, we'll be able to see Greater Camphor's purpose. But by the time we confirm their purpose, Double Moon Lake should be close to death, either becoming Greater Camphor's puppet or simply being replaced by Greater Camphor."

"Close to death?"

Downs couldn't help shaking his head, but didn't refute, only saying gravely, "Seeking inward, how easy is that? As you said, neither Happiness City nor Greater Camphor wants to see Double Moon Lake develop. Maintaining the status quo is best."

Cheng Ye didn't pick up the thread, but smiled lightly.

But this smile made Downs pause, the gloom on his face instantly dissipating, similarly revealing a faint smile.

"This should be... giving them empty promises?"

"No, Station Chief Downs, this is what I mean by irreplaceable!"

Cheng Ye stood up and returned to the position where he had stood after entering, saying softly, "The land in Shi Province that can be cultivated is only this much. Double Moon Lake actually has irreplaceable advantages. If they focus on developing industry and chasing sanctuary cities' footsteps, it becomes a dead-end path you can see to the end."

"What they should do is continue deepening their advantages, digging out more potential from this land, such as opening more farmland, planting more crops, researching crop improvements, maximizing yield as much as possible."

"At the same time, investing in developing their own industry to possibly become a sanctuary city."

"If they're weak enough to be crushed at will yet expose their ambitions prematurely, then what awaits them is either being replaced by other settlements supported by Happiness City, or being crushed and devoured by Greater Camphor with ulterior motives."

Cheng Ye's voice wasn't loud, but carried a certain weight of certainty, as if stating a fact that had already been verified.

"Alright, what Double Moon Lake's ultimate fate will be still needs time to verify."

Downs waved his hand, smiling and shaking his head, "It's fine to say these things to this old fool, but once you leave, forget everything, don't mention today's events to anyone."

As he spoke, he pulled out two blank trainee evaluation forms from his desk drawer, wrote perfect scores with bold strokes, then picked up his seal and stamped twice with loud thuds.

"This is what you deserve."

"Thank you, Station Chief Downs."

Cheng Ye hurriedly took the evaluation forms, glanced at them, and carefully put them in his bag.

Never mind the current factional alignment version, even in the past when the inspection station was unified, getting these things was no easy task.

Because they represented substantial recognition.

They represented that his answers just now had earned the recognition of Downs, the duty station chief.

"As for that piece of information, you've already gotten quite a bit from me."

"Thank you for your generosity."

Cheng Ye bowed slightly.

Having lived from Cheng Wu's era to today, Downs was indeed a wise inspector.

The probing between them stopped at just the right point, with a perfectly comfortable feeling.

"Where's your badge?"

Cheng Ye hurriedly took out his badge and handed it over. Downs scanned it on his defense communicator and performed some operations.

Ding.

Cheng Ye's defense communicator at his waist chimed with a notification.

"I've opened up some formal inspector privileges for you. But just look at these and keep them in mind. Before you're officially promoted, don't waste any contribution points."

Downs said, then changed the subject, "Also, I'm personally very satisfied with your later answers, so I want to set aside inspector identities, set aside Eastern and Western factions, and chat with you purely as an elder about something that should interest you."

He held the badge between his fingers, examining it while speaking softly.

"I watched the video of your fight with the fusion body. That fusion body was very interesting, actually able to perceive that it was missing a part."

"Hmm, being able to perceive the loss means it once possessed it, so I immediately investigated its background and found the missing part."

Downs paused, softly uttering four words, "Tianyuan Community."

"Hmm?"

Cheng Ye frowned.

"Don't be surprised. These things about transcendents aren't really secrets to us, but precisely because they're not secrets, even if you know, it won't affect anything."

Downs chuckled, "Well, originally I hadn't planned to say these things, and the command center people also don't want you to come into contact with this now, but your performance today has indeed almost touched this threshold. Telling you in advance doesn't really violate inspection station rules."

"Obsession!"

He put down the badge, raised his head slightly, and their two pair of eyes met.

"To coexist with a transcendent entity and maintain dominance, you must have an obsession that can overcome pollution. For that fusion body, leading Tianyuan Community's development had formed his obsession. But unfortunately, from the moment he left the community, this strand of obsession scattered by more than half, so he could only remain at the fusion body stage."

"Do you know why your grandfather couldn't become transcendent? It's because he had no obsession whatsoever, completely unable to find a way to suppress transcendent entities."

When mentioning Cheng Wu, Downs couldn't help shaking his head, "It was a blessing in disguise. Unable to become transcendent, he could later lead people away, going anywhere without restrictions."

"This..."

Although he had learned long ago from Lee Matteo that Cheng Wu was never able to awaken transcendence and ultimately could only lead people out to the buffer zone to establish the inspection station.

But Cheng Ye never imagined that what was lacking wasn't some gene, but rather... obsession?

Becoming transcendent required obsession?

Then this meant, when the Idealist faction was abandoned and the Original Intent faction quickly gained elder support, could it have been...

As this thought flashed through his mind, Cheng Ye couldn't help but recall streams of information. So far, he had seen four states through the collector:

Parasitic state, possession state, symbiotic remnant state, symbiotic state.

Previously not understanding the meaning of these terms, at this moment with Downs's explanation, the scattered information finally connected.

"So fusion bodies are actually those with some obsession, but not enough to completely overcome pollution, being possessed by pollutants?"

"That's roughly the meaning. Of course, you can also understand it as conviction. In any case, it's a powerful spiritual force. As long as this conviction can support humans through the outbreak period's pollution, they can enter the fusion period. But among a million high-level fusion bodies, not one transcendent may be born."

Downs paused and added, "Well, I've worked at the inspection station for 31 years and still haven't formed an obsession capable of suppressing pollution, so I gave up on transcendence long ago and can do whatever I want without caring about anyone's opinions."

"But remember this well, this obsession is the foundation of transcendents. Once it dissipates or is actively abandoned, transcendents will immediately suffer power backlash and die violently, either becoming transcendent infected entities controlled by their living obsessions, wandering the wasteland year-round trying to complete unfinished business, or becoming transcendent curses that bring disaster to entire regions!"

"For example, the curse beneath our feet comes from a powerful transcendent named 'Tan Ming'."

"His obsession was improving soil and water, making the land able to grow new transcendent plants. But how could such an obsession possibly succeed? Eventually, his power backfired on himself, transforming into a completely opposing transcendent curse."

So this was the source of transcendent curses?

Cheng Ye was stunned and couldn't help following the logic to guess, "So... this curse continuously absorbs plant characteristics, making this land forever unable to give birth to transcendent plants? Even the growth of ordinary plants is affected?"

Downs nodded, showing a teachable expression of approval.

He stood up, seeming both emotional and regretful, "Yes, I really like what you just told me, but I must admit, the broader the ideal, the harder it is to condense into an obsession capable of resisting transcendent pollution. If you continue down this path of thinking, you'll most likely end up like me, like your grandfather Cheng Wu, forever just an ordinary person."

"And these ideals precisely require transcendent power to possibly be realized."

"So you need to think it through. Better to change obsessions early for cultivation. The longer you delay, the harder it becomes to change."

"Otherwise, sooner or later you'll be like Station Chief Ding, trapped to death in this small Double Moon Lake!"

[NEXT CHAPTER]