Wasteland Border Inspector - Chapter 699

Chapter 699: Chapter 235: Epilogue, Luokuke’s “Death”!_4

But the Ten Thousand Orders Land Conch intervened, not only disrupting all plans but also making the assessment period ambiguous, with no clear end in sight.

“After seventy-two hours, won’t the conch’s spiritual contamination erupt…”

Cheng Ye’s heart suddenly tightened.

He could no longer lie still, immediately turned over to climb up, grabbed the ladder, and quickly descended the watchtower.

But after only a few steps, Cheng Ye’s footsteps gradually stopped, and his tense face unconsciously softened.

There was no anticipated chaos, no panic, nor any sign of a spiritual contamination outbreak.

Outside the residential unit in the parking lot, although only sporadic patrol figures flickered, you could see nearly a thousand residents gathered in the center of the town from the alley beside the supermarket to the main road.

In the central open space, vines were set on fire.

The blazing fire was like an impromptu bonfire party, with fierce flames wrapped in thick smoke rising to the sky, and nearly a thousand people gathered around the firelight, with hardly any sorrow on their faces.

Someone unknown took the microphone, standing beside the fire, passionately recounting tales of wandering the wasteland, interspersing with thrilling encounters and occasionally throwing out humorous jokes.

The whole scene was extraordinarily harmonious, with applause and cheers occasionally drifting in the night wind, dispelling the night’s gloom.

The whole scene was extraordinarily harmonious, with applause and cheers occasionally ringing out.

Cheng Ye stood in place and watched for a moment, his gaze swept over the crowd but did not see the figures of Luokuke and Garcia.

Instead, he saw Wang Kang leading the patrol team back from the street corner. Upon seeing him standing in front of the supermarket, he immediately quickened his pace and rushed over.

“Brother Cheng! You’re finally awake!” Wang Kang ran to him, his tone full of urgency, constantly assessing him up and down, and finally sighed with relief, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, just… too tired,” Cheng Ye said, unable to resist yawning again, his gaze shifting to the distant bonfire, “What is this all about?”

“To pass the time in the evening and liven up the atmosphere, so everyone doesn’t stay indoors overthinking and panicking more,” Wang Kang waved the patrol team to continue to secure the perimeter, only lowering his voice with a heavy expression that was much more serious than before after the team was far away.

Seeing this bitter smile, Cheng Ye’s heart sank, and he asked, “Where’s Luokuke? Garcia? Why aren’t they here?”

“They… their condition is getting worse,” Wang Kang sighed, showing a rare complex expression, “Garcia ‘planted’ himself in the open space on the west side of town, saying it could alleviate the pain. Luokuke… Brother Cheng, you’d better go see for yourself to understand.”

Cheng Ye’s heart sank involuntarily.

It has been four days, and Luokuke used Source Heart Meat Iron, now nearing the 72-hour outbreak period.

He did not immediately go to Luokuke but first turned and walked towards the river, “I’ll check underwater first. Wait for me for a few minutes.”

Arriving at the riverbank, he quickly donned the Obsidian Battle Armor and leapt into the water.

An unexpected situation emerged!

The purple barrier previously blocking the cave by Demon Eye Sponge had disappeared, but at the cave entrance, a bloody energy replaced the barrier, like a thin film sealing the entrance tightly, letting no breath escape.

A day and a night passed, yet Tan Ming and the Ten Thousand Orders Land Conch still hadn’t concluded their battle?

Cheng Ye gritted his teeth, temporarily suppressing his doubts, and surfaced, then hurriedly followed Wang Kang towards the eastern end of the town after removing his armor.

Reinforcements from building ruins, rusted iron, and some scattered recycled items piled in the wasteland not far from the truck.

Not yet approaching, Cheng Ye’s expression became somewhat dazed.

In the dark night, Luokuke was lying at that pile of reinforcements, his posture strange, he held a wrist-thick rusty rebar, sending it mouthful by mouthful, first slowly licking the rust with his tongue, then bit by bit gnawing.

“Creak—”

The creaking sound made one’s teeth ache, exceptionally piercing in the quiet night, but he actually could bite through the hard rebar, chewing it into small pieces.

Swallowing was extremely difficult, with each swallow, a weak rusty iron-colored glow erupted beneath his skin, and as the light flashed, his body uncontrollably trembled, as if enduring enormous pain.

Upon hearing approaching footsteps, Luokuke laboriously turned his head.

In the instant of eye contact, Cheng Ye only felt his head buzz, his vision suddenly blurred.

This… is this still Luokuke?

This… is this still human?

Yesterday, although his body was rusty red, emitting a heavy iron smell, he barely maintained a human form.

But after a day and a night, his face only retained a trace of human form.

Where skin should be, it was covered with dark brown rust, like layers of dried blood scabs, even his eyelids were stuck with heavy iron crust, only showing a bit of turbid gray light through the cracks, and focusing became difficult.

He wanted to speak, but his jaw emitted a rustling metal rubbing sound, like rusty parts barely turning.

The split corners of his mouth did not seep a single drop of fresh blood, only fine iron filings trickled down, falling on the ground with a subtle sound.

The rust had spread from his neck to his collarbone, with the originally protruding Adam’s apple turning into a sharply angled iron lump, moving up and down with weak breaths, each movement accompanied by a sharp scraping sound, as if it might jam the next second.

His hands hanging at his sides, even his nails had long turned into sharp iron spikes, with the skin at the knuckles thoroughly covered by an iron shell, his arms like iron pipes soon to be completely rusted, stiffly.