"Do you know that in the Old Era, um, a long, long time ago, Shelter City used to be called a Kingdom..."

"I know, I went to school." Cheng Ye interrupted directly.

"Alright, then I’ll make it short." Luokuke didn’t mind and continued, "In the old days, the kingdom lord would brand their slaves. On one hand, it established ownership, indicating which lord the slave belonged to, to prevent them from being snatched by other lords or becoming untraceable after escaping. On the other hand, it served as an identification mark."

"You’re implying that this mark is a contamination mark left by a certain infection source? Indicating that these two infected individuals are what it claimed, and other sources can’t touch them?" Cheng Ye immediately grasped the core issue.

"That’s one possibility, but the imprint’s significance extends beyond that. I suspect it more likely represents a ’rule.’"

Luokuke pondered as he explained, "You should know, the water ghosts parasitized by the Soul-Snatcher Catfish can never go ashore. If their feet leave the water source for more than a minute, they immediately die. But these two have been on land for at least ten minutes, yet nothing happened. This indicates that the ’explosion rule’ of the Soul-Snatcher Catfish has failed."

He paused, emphasizing his words: "Based on past experience, there’s only one possibility for this situation: a more powerful infection rule has suppressed the explosion mechanism of the Soul-Snatcher Catfish, even fundamentally altering its triggering conditions."

"Are there any related cases?" Cheng Ye inquired.

"Wait a moment." Compared to the daytime, Luokuke’s attitude improved noticeably.

Cheng Ye even got the feeling that Luokuke was already treating him as an equal, a High-level Inspector.

Taking off two layers of rubber gloves, Luokuke didn’t take out the Firewood Communication but instead grabbed the clunky Defense Communication device, clicked a few times, and found an image in the storage.

He then turned the screen, just as before.

What appeared first was an image.

Cheng Ye leaned in to take a look. The plant in the picture resembled the bodhi tree commonly seen in temples, with an exceptionally broad canopy that nearly covered all the land below.

But the "fruits" on the tree were strange: shaped very much like human-essence fruits, with vague humanoid features, hanging from the branches, looking somewhat eerie.

Below was a text description.

[Codename: Tree of Integrity (Special Infection Source)]

[Category: Land-born Bureau, Plant Type, Environmental Range Type, Spiritual Contamination Type]

[Threat Level: SS-]

[Latest Sighting Record: Old Extraordinary Era]

[Ability: Within its coverage, all creatures cannot produce any wicked thoughts]

...

"Tree of Integrity..."

Cheng Ye stared at the words on the screen, mumbling softly.

A plant-type infection source?

This is indeed rare; after entering the New Era, the number of such infection sources has dropped to next to nothing, especially in Stone Province, which is covered by the Extraordinary Curse. Plant-type infection sources capable of rooting and surviving are quite few.

Unless they reached an extraordinary level in the Old Era, they would eventually have all their features slowly drained by the curse and completely perish.

As he continued reading down to the threat level, Cheng Ye’s heart tightened.

SS-!

This is absolutely the highest threat level infection source he has encountered, and its appearance dates back especially far, tracing back at least thirty-five years to the Old Era.

"Why does the ability description only have one sentence?"

"To leave you enough room for imagination." After seeing that he finished reading, Luokuke put away the Defense Communication, explaining, "If the ability’s boundary is too rigidly described, giving you a clear understanding, certain special spiritual contamination infection sources might even reproduce what you imagine. You should understand this, right?"

"Could it even resurrect a Tree of Integrity out of thin air?" Cheng Ye grew increasingly amazed.

"It’s hard to say, but this requirement wasn’t set by the Inspection Station; it’s a rule of the Fire Alliance."

Luokuke shook his head, changing the subject, "Once you’re contaminated by the Tree of Integrity, you’ll have imprints appear on you. The more wicked thoughts you generate, the more and denser the imprints will become. When they reach a certain amount, it periodically brings punishment, each time more severe until it tortures the person to death. The deceased then becomes a fruit on the tree, referred to as ’evil fruit.’

"What’s the use of the ’evil fruit’?" Cheng Ye grew more curious.

Unexpectedly, Luokuke let out a helpless smile: "Do you think this is information a Third-stage Inspector like me should know?"

"Third stage isn’t enough?"

Cheng Ye clicked his tongue, looking at Luokuke’s even more resigned expression, and immediately caught on.

Alright, it seems I’ve put this ’new colleague’ in a tough spot.

"Perhaps when you ascend to a higher stage, you could find the answer. If it’s convenient, let me know as well. I’m curious about the true purpose of the evil fruit." Luokuke said half-jokingly.

"We’ll see. Maybe tomorrow this thing will contaminate us too."

Cheng Ye waved his hand, steering the topic back.

In fact, combining Luokuke’s findings and the description, he could already analyze quite a bit of information:

The spiritual contamination of the Tree of Integrity prohibits humans from generating wicked thoughts.

Then what is the spiritual contamination of this questionable creature? Could it prohibit humans from entering the water?

It sounds absurd, but in this Wasteland Era where even the dead can be revived, some special rules are not entirely unacceptable.

"This infected individual should have the Ghost Water Cave Crab’s infection source. Do you want to retrieve it?"

"Thanks." Luokuke nodded immediately, showing a genuine smile.

Wait?

Thanks for what?

Cheng Ye was momentarily baffled before realizing that, in his view, it was a dirty job best avoided.