pjbooks Chapter 1019 Under Inspection
Chapter 1019 Under Inspection
The wooden door of the outpost opened.
The person who stepped out of the gate was not an ordinary sentry, but a middle-aged man wearing the standard black armor of the Overwatch Council. His face was resolute, with a long scar on his chin, and a silver eagle emblem embedded in his right shoulder armor—the insignia of the deputy captain of the Overwatch Council's field operations team. His name was He Yun, one of the highest-ranking officers in charge of the outposts guarding the outer perimeter of the Canggu Mountains, and a long-time comrade-in-arms of Mo Yuan.
After stepping out of the wooden gate of the outpost, He Yun did not rush to meet him. Instead, he stood at the entrance, his gaze fixed on the figure walking unhurriedly along the dirt road across the open plain three or four miles away. His right hand hung naturally at his side, his fingertips less than three inches from the hilt of the sword at his waist—not in a position to draw his sword, but certainly not in a relaxed posture either.
On the watchtower behind him, the young scout had already lowered the communication stone and was nocking an arrow, its tip locked onto that direction. On the makeshift walls on either side of the outpost, four other sentries were also in position, their crossbows and shortbows already cocked. This was a standard sentry formation—not to attack first, but to be ready to respond to any unexpected situation.
Lin Qiye stopped about a mile from the outpost.
He stood in the middle of the dirt road, the morning breeze blowing from behind him, gently swaying the hem of his tattered robes. His entire body was covered in dried, dark brown bloodstains and grayish-white crystalline dust, and there were several small, not-yet-fully-healed cracks on his face, making him look like a survivor who had crawled out of some brutal battle. But his eyes were as calm as if he had just returned from a walk in his own backyard.
He raised his right hand, palm facing outward, indicating that he meant no harm. Then he spoke, his voice not loud, but clearly audible across the open plain: "Special Operations Team of the Oversight Council, Class B Deacon Lin Qiye, returning after completing mission. Requesting passage through the outpost back to the city."
He Yun's gaze lingered on him for about five breaths, then he slightly turned his head and called out to the watchtower, "Put away the arrows."
The young scout put away his bow and arrows. The sentry on the wall also lowered his crossbow slightly, but didn't lower it completely.
He Yun then stepped down the wooden steps of the outpost and walked along the dirt path towards Lin Qiye, stopping about ten zhang away. He sized up Lin Qiye, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly, before speaking, "Second-Class Deacon Lin Qiye, where is your mission report?"
"Captain Mo Yuan and Scout A Jiu should have returned to the North Gate sometime between yesterday evening and this morning. They have a complete report," Lin Qiye said calmly. "I returned via the western foothills of the Canggu Mountains, which took longer than their route."
He Yun frowned even more. He knew the news Mo Yuan had brought back and had also heard the initial assessment of Lin Qiye—extremely dangerous. But standing before Lin Qiye, he felt no threatening aura that would instinctively alert him. The young man before him stood there, his aura so restrained that he seemed like an ordinary steward who had just entered the beginner stage of cultivation; he could hardly even sense any fluctuations in his Origin Qi.
This sensation did not relax He Yun; instead, it sent chills down his spine.
He had been stationed on the outskirts of the Canggu Mountains for many years, and had seen far too many people emerge alive from the depths of the mountains—some were insane, some were taciturn, some were covered in wounds, and some looked perfectly normal. But regardless of their condition, their Origin Qi fluctuations would be unstable for the first few days after leaving the mountains, as if their internal Origin Qi circulation had been disrupted by harmonic pollution, requiring time to return to normal. He had never seen anyone emerge from the depths of the Canggu Mountains with their Origin Qi fluctuations becoming even more stable and restrained than before they entered.
It was as still as a stagnant pool.
Stagnant water is often the most dangerous – because you never know what's lurking beneath the surface.
"Routine checks are required when passing through the outpost." He Yun suppressed his doubts, maintaining a professional calm in his voice. "According to the regulations of the Oversight Council, any deacon returning from the Canggu Mountains must undergo source gas testing and pollution level assessment at the outpost. Only after confirming safety can they be allowed to pass."
"Sure," Lin Qiye replied readily.
He Yun turned to the side and gestured "please," leading the way and guiding Lin Qiye into the sentry post.
The outpost's interior appeared larger than its exterior, constructed from a mixture of large logs and thick rammed earth, divided into inner and outer sections. The outer section was a hall approximately twenty paces square, with a roughly hewn stone floor, several source energy lamps hanging on the walls, and spare crossbows and arrows and ration bags piled in the corners. In the center of the hall stood a simple wooden table, upon which rested a palm-sized detection talisman. The talisman's surface was engraved with intricate array patterns, and embedded in the center of these patterns was a transparent crystal core the size of a fingernail.
He Yun pointed to the wooden table: "Place your hand on the detection rune stone, input a wisp of source energy, and activate the detection array."
Lin Qiye walked to the wooden table, extended his right hand, palm down, and pressed it on the detection talisman stone.
The moment his palm touched the surface of the runestone, an extremely faint wisp of dark golden source energy emanated from his palm, darting into the runestone's array patterns like a tiny snake. The amount of that source energy was precisely controlled—like a drop of water falling into a bowl of water, just enough to activate the array patterns, but not enough to cause the runestone to produce any readings beyond the normal range.
The transparent crystal core on the detection runestone lit up, emitting a soft, pale yellow light. The light stabilized for a moment, then gradually dimmed, eventually returning to its inactive state. The entire process lasted less than three breaths, without any abnormal fluctuations, alarms, energy leakage, or even a trace of harmonic contamination.
He Yun stared at the detection rune stone that had returned to silence, his pupils contracting slightly.
He had witnessed countless source energy tests. A normal test result should show the crystal core lighting up, then displaying different colors and durations depending on the source energy attributes and contamination levels of the person being tested. Pale yellow indicates safety, stability, and harmlessness. However, the problem was that—people emerging from the depths of the Canggu Mountains, even without harmonic contamination, would experience a degree of distortion in their source energy due to prolonged exposure to a high-concentration energy environment. The readings on the testing rune would typically fluctuate for a short period, alternating between pale yellow and light blue, requiring a period of thorough purification to return to full stability.
Lin Qiye's test result was a completely uniform, pale yellow color, as stable as a standard sample that had been preserved in a laboratory for a hundred years.
This gave He Yun a strong sense of unease—like someone who had just crawled back from the battlefield, with not a trace of gunpowder on his body, as clean as if he had just walked out of a bathhouse.
However, the results of the talisman test were objective, and He Yun had no reason to detain someone who had passed the test. After a few moments of silence, he spread out a register on the wooden table, quickly wrote a few lines, then took a metal nameplate from his waist, placed it on the table, and pushed it in front of Lin Qiye: "Source gas test passed, pollution level assessed as zero. Deacon Lin Qiye, permission granted to pass through the outpost. This is a temporary pass; return it at the reception desk at the north gate of the Supervisory Institute upon returning to the city."
"Thank you." Lin Qiye picked up the nameplate, put it in his pocket, and turned to walk out of the outpost.
He Yun stood at the gate of the outpost, watching the figure walk further and further away along the dirt road until it became a small black dot in the morning light and finally disappeared behind the hills at the end of the plain before he turned his gaze away.
"Vice Captain, he..." The young scout peered down from the watchtower, hesitating to speak.
"Is he the one who came out from the depths of the mountains?" He Yun asked in a low voice without turning around.
"It's... Lin Qiye, the one Captain Mo Yuan mentioned in his report." The scout's voice carried a barely perceptible tension. "We... are we just going to let him pass like this?"
"What else can we do but release him?" He Yun paused, a complex emotion lurking in his voice, one he himself was unaware of. "Besides—even if we don't release him, do you think this outpost can keep him here?"