Chapter 64: Combat Techniques Acquired, Miao Yang's Luxurious Panel!

"You don't need to give me the secret medicine formulas. Just sell them to me at cost price in the future."The bus started moving.

Cheng Ye waved his hand. Where did he have the time now to look for crystallized cores and concoct these secret medicines?

As for whether these secret medicines could form a product line to make money, if it were feasible, Master Tian would have tried it long ago.

"Uh, Inspector Cheng, the price I quoted you for the liniment is actually the cost price. When market prices rise, the raw materials might even sell for around 85 coins."

"This material is easy to find. However much you want, I can make that much."

"But I only have two and a half bottles total of those two medicines. I'm giving you two bottles and keeping half a bottle to save my life."

After Master Tian finished speaking, without waiting for Cheng Ye to ask questions, he explained again:

"The main materials for the energy secret medicine and life secret medicine aren't crystallized cores, but pool frog hearts. These things only appear on dried riverbeds in winter each year, and you have to find them fresh to make them."

"And I haven't left the shelter city in winter for many years, so the medicines get used up more and more."

Pool frogs?

Cheng Ye silently noted this name in his heart and took the medicine list Master Tian handed him for a glance.

Mm, indeed very complex.

Dozens of materials densely packed, he wondered how Master Tian had figured out how to concoct them.

"I didn't develop them. It was from a job I did before..."

Master Tian paused, "Payment from an employer."

"Given voluntarily, or did you demand it?"

"I suppose it was voluntary."

Hearing the teasing in Cheng Ye's words, Master Tian seemed somewhat awkwardly embarrassed, "My name is Tian Wuying. Inspector Cheng, if you don't mind, just call me Shadow."

"Forget it then. That would be like assassins making contact. Master Tian sounds more natural."

Cheng Ye declined with a smile.

Back then, to prevent him from being suppressed by Cheng Long's generation at the checkpoint, Liu Bi had repeatedly instructed him for several days, insisting he address everyone as equals, not to call them Uncle B but Brother B instead, wanting to help elevate his seniority so that even though they were all inspectors at the checkpoint, he wouldn't have to call everyone uncle or elder brother when meeting them.

But Master Tian was already over fifty. If he really called him by a peer's form of address, it would be rather awkward.

"As you wish."

Master Tian smacked his lips, "Inspector Cheng, you're a good person."

"A good person?"

Cheng Ye shook his head and looked out the window. There seemed to be a trace of dark clouds gathering on the horizon.

Though not obvious, they pressed heavily in his field of vision, inexplicably raising a sense of stagnation in his heart, making it difficult to generate other thoughts.

"Did you listen to this morning's weather forecast?"

"I did. Today happened to be Little Sun's broadcast, 99% of people wouldn't miss it."

"When will it rain?"

"Seems like they said in two days, or three days. Anyway, the rain line is still near our Chuan City area."

"Three days later..."

Eighty years ago, Shi Province's characteristic was frequent rain. Although he'd never heard of flood disasters breaking out, rainy seasons lasting one or two months were common.

Chuan City, where Happiness City was located, compared to previous years, this year's rainfall actually wasn't much.

But the problem was the abnormal weather patterns. Every time it rained, it was heavy rain, sudden rain, which made accurate forecasting difficult.

Cheng Ye hummed and then stopped talking, leaning against the car window to doze for a while.

When the car slowly came to a stop at the terminal, he got up and pulled coins from his pocket.

"Five hundred coins. Tomorrow bring me three more bottles, and the rest is payment."

One bottle was 80 coins, six bottles were 480, with 20 coins as labor fee.

"Alright."

Master Tian didn't stand on ceremony, happily accepting the five 100-denomination Happiness coins and blowing on them in his palm.

"Are you very short of money?"

"Not particularly short now, just preparing for winter in advance."

"Going out to hide this year?"

"Mm, this year is somewhat abnormal. I have a hiding spot outside, no problem hiding for ten days to half a month."

Master Tian spoke frankly without evasion. This wasn't a secret in the buffer zone.

How could they completely block large-scale infected tides? Even if they could stop most of them, just one or two that slipped through the net could force people into desperate situations.

Therefore, many people with connections would hide outside the city before winter and return in spring.

It was another type of migratory bird, going exactly opposite to Happiness City's migratory bird plan.

After getting off the bus, surprisingly, Lee Matteo also got off another bus, and the two happened to meet.

"Don't you usually arrive right on time every day?"

Cheng Ye took out his defense communicator to check. It was only 7:42, not like Lee Matteo's usual style.

"Don't mention it, the buffer zone is almost packed full of Stand-In Starfish infected entities. The pressure is enormous!" Lee Matteo sighed, but his feet quickened to get beside Cheng Ye, lowering his voice to ask, "How was it? Did the two tricks I taught you yesterday work?"

Hey, he's here to claim credit.

Cheng Ye smiled and pulled out a bottle of liniment from his backpack, "Liniment with added crystallized core, good effects, thanks!"

"How embarrassing."

Lee Matteo accepted it, his face creasing into a flower with his smile.

Although he didn't lack these small items, Cheng Ye's attitude made him feel very pleased inside.

"I guess with your nature of getting to the bottom of things, you must want to ask why not use this method, and why other inspectors don't use it either, right?"

Predicting Cheng Ye's question, Lee Matteo explained on his own, "Everything has a probability of error. Perhaps the method I taught you only has a one in ten thousand failure rate, but if you're unlucky enough to hit that one, to encounter this kind of starfish that can't be detected, then the price you'd have to pay..."

Speaking to this point, he paused, tapping his fingertip on the identity badge pinned to his chest, "Do less, make fewer mistakes; do nothing, make no mistakes. Our inspector equipment hasn't been updated for over ten years, we're still using that worthless three-piece set, long since caught up to by other shelter cities. I know you want to mention those two gadgets in the box, those are just toys the tech faction uses to comfort us. Infected entities that can be detected by them, I can identify with one glance."

"Station Chief Ding has applied for funding so many times without getting it, let alone support. Facing the increasingly numerous and strange infection sources now, we can only rely on inspector experience to handle things."

"The core of this work is to block infected entities from flowing into the buffer zone, not to give scavengers and caravans green lights to promote buffer zone economic development. That's not something we should be concerned with."

"Mm, I understand."

Cheng Ye nodded. Actually, after using this method yesterday, he had realized the problem.

If isolation inspections were too lenient, scavenger entry and exit frequency would inevitably increase.

And the higher the frequency, the risk of parasitic infection would climb geometrically.

The current strict rules actually acted like an invisible gate, both curbing the chaos of high-frequency comings and goings, and indirectly warning those venturing outside to be careful, that once there were abnormalities, the consequences would be unthinkable.

"Also..."

Lee Matteo paused, his gaze glancing toward the distant isolation gate, "That guy coming toward you is one of Harlin's people. If you don't want to pledge allegiance to the Westerners, I don't need to teach you what to do, right?"

"Who?"

Cheng Ye followed his gaze and immediately frowned. He hadn't expected it to be the Western inspector who had relieved him yesterday.

Scopy Raymond.

Yesterday he had been in a hurry to get weapons and hadn't bothered to chat. He hadn't expected the other party to actually come after him?

Seeing Lee Matteo walking beside Cheng Ye, Scopy frowned.

This old troublemaker was really like a persistent ghost.

He had specifically come early today to block Cheng Ye, but hadn't expected Lee Matteo to also arrive early for once.

Could this guy be doing it on purpose?

"I'm out of here. Handle it yourself."

After the reminder, Lee Matteo picked up his pace. When passing Scopy, their eyes clashed hard for a moment, then he went straight through the isolation gate.

A qualified old troublemaker wasn't someone who avoided worldly conflicts.

You had to know how to disgust people, make opponents feel apprehensive, so those inexplicable troubles would naturally decrease.

"Inspector Cheng!"

Scopy put on a smile and quickly stepped forward, "I want to discuss something with you..."

"Go ahead."

"You go on duty at the front isolation buffer zone, and I'll take advantage of this morning to also do a warehouse release, trying to free up more isolation slots in our Quarantine Zone A. How about it?"

"?"

Cheng Ye was stunned, not understanding what this guy meant.

Could he be here to steal contribution points?

Hmm... no, that's not right. If that were the purpose, Lee Matteo had no need to mention it earlier.

"Sure, no problem!"

While thinking about Scopy's purpose, Cheng Ye's mouth wasn't slow, immediately agreeing.

Meet force with force, adapt to circumstances.

Since someone was happy to be a free overtime model worker, why wouldn't he take them up on it?

"Then it's settled. You go on duty first, I'll come over after I grab some breakfast."

After reaching an agreement with Cheng Ye.

After reaching consensus with Cheng Ye, Scopy watched him leave, then immediately stepped aside to call on his defense communicator, "Lord Dario, I've agreed to the warehouse opening matter. I guarantee there won't be the slightest mistake."

"You'd better!" Dario's dissatisfied growl came through the receiver, "A trainee inspector dares to open warehouses, damn it, is he tired of living?"

Harlin had just instructed him to watch Cheng Ye closely, absolutely not letting the Easterners use the opportunity to kill him and frame the Westerners, stirring up united hatred.

Who would have thought this kid would actively seek death? A trainee inspector getting involved in warehouse opening, wasn't he crazy?

"Watch him closely when he's on duty too. He can die anywhere, just don't die at our North Station."

"Don't worry, I'll watch him every step of the way these next few days."

Four o'clock in the afternoon.

Cheng Ye clocked out with a strange expression on his face.

It had to be said, today's work was ridiculously easy.

Whenever there were vehicles waiting for inspection, Scopy would find an excuse to come take a look, saying something about how fourth-stage inspectors also needed to observe trainee inspector methods, lest they be left behind by the times.

What? Fourth-stage observing trainees?

I'll be damned if I believe that.

But it was fine. According to the current situation, the North Station should be problem-free for the next few days.

Even if he insisted on seeking death, Scopy would definitely stop him.

"This situation changed too quickly. He Fei's death really stirred up too many variables..."

Walking out of the checkpoint, Cheng Ye couldn't help but sigh.

The Stand-In Starfish had temporarily suppressed the conflicts between the Eastern and Western factions. At least before this disaster was overcome, the opposing sides should temporarily set aside their disputes and weather the crisis together.

"This is good too. No one watching me, no one deliberately targeting me. Perfect time to quietly prepare."

Getting on the bus, Cheng Ye quickly cast these trivial thoughts aside.

Be bold when you should be bold, be cautious when you should be cautious.

Now, whether it was him or other inspectors, their minds had already wandered far.

Before this disaster was overcome, no one should waste half a thought on power struggles.

"This medicine is truly miraculous. The recovery speed has indeed increased!"

Miao Yang stared at the gradually fading bruises on Cheng Ye's leg for a long while, confirming that this medicine's effects were indeed superior to the liniment he made.

No, superior by several levels.

The injury recovery speed was at least 40% more effective, almost catching up to the Blood Dragon Corps' special injury medicine.

"I'll leave you one bottle."

Cheng Ye pulled out a bottle from his bag and handed it over.

"How much?"

"80."

"That's too expensive." Miao Yang opened the bottle cap to smell it carefully, couldn't help but click his tongue, "Scavengers generally use injury medicine around 10 coins. Like the Blood Dragon Corps basic injury medicine I used on you, the cost is only around 18 coins."

"Sometimes it might be very useful."

"What use could it have? When we get injured, we can just go back and lie down. How comfortable."

Miao Yang chuckled, completely missing the hint in Cheng Ye's words.

From this reaction alone, he could analyze that with his current status, he still didn't know about the Stand-In Starfish news.

"This injury is healing quickly. I feel in three more days it won't affect your activities."

After helping Cheng Ye apply the ointment, Miao Yang began massaging with special techniques to ensure the medicine was absorbed.

Taking advantage of this gap, noticing the cooperation level had reached 50%, Cheng Ye immediately initiated a search.

The panel flickered.

Lines of phantom text rapidly combined.

[Miao Yang]

[Lv1 Skills]: Blood Dragon Corps Standard (Training Methods, Combat Techniques, Killing Methods, Rapid Medical Treatment), Basic Perception, Tough Physique, Basic Trap Making, Basic Military Training, Iron Lungs, Basic Camouflage, Basic Wilderness Survival, Basic Weapon Making, Basic Medicine Making, Basic Command

[Lv2 Skills]: Locked

[Lv3 Skills]: Locked

"14 skills..."

Scanning the panel at a glance, Cheng Ye was somewhat dumbfounded.

Miao Yang's Lv1 skills were actually one more than Chu Yunfeng's?

And before searching Lv2 skills, he hadn't been clear about the Collector's skill classifications.

Now judging by the names, 'Tough Physique' and 'Iron Lungs' should be talent skills.

"For the current situation, Lv1 standard Combat Techniques are enough for me to use."

Miao Yang had mentioned before that while the Blood Dragon Corps' standard combat techniques weren't particularly sophisticated, they were most suitable for laying solid foundations for beginners.

Once decided, the panel flickered.

What surprised Cheng Ye was that this search actually failed?

[Search failed, returning action points '2' (Lv.1)]

The panel displayed a notification.

This was the first time he'd encountered a search failure.

"Could it be because the inspector position naturally comes with a hidden search buff that increases success rate?"

Glancing at the charge level that had dropped back to 2% in the upper right corner, Cheng Ye wasn't anxious.

With a 50% probability sitting there, failing once was within reason.

Moreover, Miao Yang wasn't like Chu Yunfeng, difficult to contact. Once the charge level was sufficient, he could come search anytime.

"Alright, I'll demonstrate the Blood Dragon Corps standard combat techniques. Inspector Cheng, observe the essentials first. When your injury heals, you can practice with me."

"Mm."

Cheng Ye nodded, staring intently at Miao Yang, wanting to try if he could acquire the skill through his own ability.

However, after just watching for a few minutes, he immediately abandoned this idea.

Combat techniques required diligent study and practice, move by move. Even with his amazing imitation ability, it would take considerable time to figure out and practice.

Currently still injured, he couldn't practice at all.

Moreover, it was just a Lv1 skill. If he came to search again tomorrow, he might easily acquire it.

Peaceful times always passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, two days later.

[Search successful]

[Civilization Collector has successfully recorded: Blood Dragon Corps Standard Combat Techniques (Lv.1)]

Looking at the notification that popped up on the panel, Cheng Ye immediately perked up.

"Finally successful!"

Perhaps the previous two times had exhausted his luck, or perhaps his guess was indeed correct that inspectors had a hidden buff during duty.

After failing twice in a row, it wasn't until the third search that this Blood Dragon Corps Standard Combat Techniques finally entered his skill slot.

"But it's not a loss either. The charge level still has 47%, so I can search again soon, and action points have accumulated to 5!"

Unloading the completely useless Dragon Force Embryonic Form, he replaced it with Blood Dragon Corps Standard Combat Techniques.

Cheng Ye stood up, his body trembled slightly, then quickly returned to normal.

"What's wrong?"

Miao Yang stopped, asking somewhat curiously.

"Come on, I've already learned it by watching. Let's practice together!"