Wasteland Border Inspector - Chapter 695

Chapter 695: Chapter 234: Tan Ming Appears, Inheriting the Creed!

“Accept my primordial belief, and you may wield the power that lets all things flourish with vitality, drawing forth the marvel of grass and trees bursting into luxuriance; from this step you become Extraordinary, reaching the realm of using the body to master the thought.”

“Accept my belief of withering, and you may grasp the power to strip and devour vitality, drawing dry bones together into an army that rampages; from this step you become Extraordinary, reaching the realm of using thought to master the body.”

“Choose one of the two, and you may leave this place.”

A multiple-choice question still showed up!

Cheng Ye’s heart pounded wildly. This was the price of recklessly borrowing external power: the fuller the benefits you gobble up now, the heavier the shackles that follow.

Only… he hadn’t expected that even Elder Qian couldn’t stop Tan Ming, and that he’d be directly kicked out of the cavern.

No.

To be precise, before Elder Qian appeared, Tan Ming had originally wanted to decide on his own and brand him with a rune for control.

After Elder Qian appeared, Tan Ming’s thoughts hadn’t changed, yet he gave Cheng Ye a certain right of autonomous choice.

Is it possible not to choose?

The moment Cheng Ye’s gaze flickered, that vanished oppressive force came surging back, even stronger than before, as if it would crush him to pieces in the very next second.

He hurriedly shook his head, suppressed his fluke mentality, locked his eyes firmly on the two runes floating before him, and at the same time quickly summoned the Collector panel, trying to record these two runes.

One withered, one newborn.

The blood-colored rune on the left clearly corresponded to Tan Ming’s current belief: not allowing any plants to grow on the land of Stone Province, relying on extracting vitality and converting it into mineral resources to maintain some kind of balance.

The green rune on the right, however, brimmed with an extreme, overflowing vitality. It should correspond to Tan Ming’s belief while he was alive—wanting to transform the barren Stone Province into a land where all things thrive, even cultivating Extraordinary Plants in ordinary soil. This goal was even more outrageous than the Ten Thousand Orders Land Conch’s “Reconstruction Plan.”

If he inherited that belief, wouldn’t he have to help Tan Ming complete these tasks?

But if he chose the rune of new life, would he really be farming openly on Lord Tan’s head?

Could this be a trap? What if the moment he reached out to touch it, Tan Ming immediately turned hostile and ground him into dust?

Cheng Ye wasn’t sure, but the Collector did not go on strike. It quickly materialized these abstract things into two entries that a Collector could understand.

[Tan Ming’s Withered Rune: a special rune containing a belief constraint]

[Current rune recorded (due to rank limitations, parsing is temporarily unavailable; please continue to raise your rank to unlock permissions)]

[This rune contains a chain mission. After accepting it, the Collector must complete all missions (mission content cannot be modified; please continue to raise your rank to unlock permissions)]

[Current First-Link Mission: Expand Territory (extend Tan Ming’s power to other regions)]

[Mission Reward: obtain permission to use a special power]

[Mission Penalty: None]

…

[Tan Ming’s Vital Rune: a special rune containing a belief constraint]

[Current rune recorded (due to rank limitations, parsing is temporarily unavailable; please continue to raise your rank to unlock permissions)]

[This rune contains a chain mission. After accepting it, the Collector must complete all missions (mission content cannot be modified; please continue to raise your rank to unlock permissions)]

[Current First-Link Mission: Vigorous Growth (open up and plant ten mu of fields, and complete one harvest)]

[Mission Reward: obtain part of the runes of the Ten Thousand Orders Land Conch]

[Mission Penalty: None]

…

“What?”

“These two runes are chain missions?”

On the surface, Cheng Ye put on a frown, as if deep in thought, but his peripheral vision was locked tightly onto the panel’s information, waves roaring in his heart.

So these runes weren’t fixed “Power Containers” at all. Instead, they were like human written language—when “written” with different logic, they carried different meanings and bound missions.

Tan Ming actually mastered this script, could actually create rules so casually?

Choosing the Withered Rune meant he had to spread Tan Ming’s withering power beyond Stone Province, or into environments similar to the cavern, continuing to maintain that rule of trading plant vitality for mineral resources.

Choosing the Vital Rune meant he had to fulfill Tan Ming’s unfulfilled wish: planting Extraordinary Plants on the barren Wasteland.

His gaze landed on the “no penalty” below, and Cheng Ye felt uncertain.

Did Tan Ming remove the penalties for Elder Qian’s sake, or because of his own status as an envoy?

If he chose the former, he’d be able to obtain the power of the Blood Shadow Corps.

Having already experienced once how terrifying that power was, Cheng Ye didn’t quite dare imagine: if he unleashed that power in the outside world, he might be able to hold off a small-scale infection tide by himself, his combat power skyrocketing!

If he chose the latter, he could actually obtain the runes of the Ten Thousand Orders Land Conch.

Although he still didn’t know what those runes were actually good for, they would certainly be parsable for traits.

The Crab-men in the cavern were almost wiped out by now. Among the traits collected in the illustration, the aquatic trait, the one with the highest accumulation, had only just barely broken past 40%; the other traits had only just broken past 10%.

If he could get rune rewards, wouldn’t he be able to use the Collector to exchange for the Ten Thousand Orders Land Conch?

Good grief, Old Tan was handing out benefits?

Cheng Ye’s thoughts spun, and his gaze quickly settled on the word “chain” in chain mission.

The first link had rewards but no penalties—but what about the missions that followed?

Would there be time limits and penalty clauses starting from the second link? Maybe even death for failure?

Tan Ming clearly had a sufficient grasp of human nature: hook you in with sweets first; once the person accepting the rune completes the first link, they won’t have the right to refuse what comes after.

But if he could steady his own heart and simply not complete the missions, then the rune would have no effect at all.

Except—

Tan Ming would never have imagined that his Collector could parse and even modify runes. No matter how harsh the later missions became, Cheng Ye would still have room to maneuver.

With that thought, Cheng Ye closed the panel and stopped hesitating.

Half a minute had already passed. If Elder Qian had any way to break through the blood-colored barrier, he would have made a move by now.

Since there was no response, if Cheng Ye wanted to leave, he could only choose one rune.

Turning this over in his mind, he cautiously reached toward the green rune, while closely watching Tan Ming’s reaction.

If the other side suddenly turned hostile, he could still pull back in time.

But Tan Ming merely shook his head slightly, his eyes holding a faint “speechless” look at Cheng Ye’s overcautiousness. Then he gently lifted his chin, as if saying there was no need to be so restrained.

Whoosh!

The green rune flared suddenly, a soft yet non-dazzling green light wrapping around Cheng Ye’s right hand and, actually seeping through the Obsidian Battle Armor, branding a faint green rune mark onto the back of his hand.

That’s it?

Before Cheng Ye could recover from his shock, the other blood-colored rune in front of him “shattered” with a boom, turning into a sky full of red mist that dispersed into the air.

Immediately after, a gentle force lifted his body, slowly floating him toward the gate of light.

Tan Ming had already turned away, focusing all his attention back on the Ten Thousand Orders Land Conch in the lake. The scarlet glow around him began to surge, clearly preparing to settle the final opponent.

But in the next second, he turned his head in surprise as a broken, somewhat urgent voice came, carrying obvious expectancy:

“Lord… Lord Tan… that Withered Rune… I want that too!”

…