The outskirts of the Sea of Scrap, compared to its core, had less of a lethal, murderous aura and more of a desolate silence.
Ling Feng walked through this buffer zone, each step steady and firm. He was no longer the tense youth who had to constantly worry about the ground collapsing beneath his feet. Within his "spiritual perception," everything around him was transformed into a clear stream of data, displayed in his mind.
He could "see" the minute stress fractures inside a small mountain of compressed waste blocks beside him, formed from years of pressure.
He could "hear" the synchronized "clicking" sounds of a nest of mutant beetles gnawing on a metallic ore vein deep underground.
He could even "smell" the distinct "scents" of different metal elements oxidizing in the air.
For the first time, the world, in his perception, had become so... vivid.
This was the power of "cognition."
The knowledge infused into him by the Regulator was like a key, unlocking the deepest channel of communication between him and the world. He was no longer a passive observer, but an active reader of information.
Just as he was immersing himself in this new experience, a weak, chaotic, yet somewhat familiar life signal suddenly appeared at the edge of his perception range.
The signal was like an oil lamp about to be extinguished in a gale, filled with decay, despair, and a subtle... probing.
Ling Feng stopped, a slight curve forming on his lips that he himself didn't even notice.
He didn't hide. Instead, he changed direction and walked unhurriedly towards the source of the signal.
In the deep shadow cast by the hull of a derelict warship, he saw the hunched figure.
It was the half-mad, half-crazed old scavenger who had warned him before Wind Howl Canyon.
The old man was hiding behind a twisted piece of armor plate, only one cloudy eye visible, staring intently at Ling Feng. His expression was no longer one of cynicism and pity, but of utter shock and disbelief, as if he were looking at a ghost who had clawed its way back from hell.
"You..." Seeing Ling Feng walk directly towards him, the old man's body shuddered. He instinctively shrank back, forcing a few words from his hoarse throat. "...how can you still be alive?"
In his decades of memory, no one who had entered Wind Howl Canyon had ever come out alive.
"I found the answer I was looking for," Ling Feng's voice was calm. He stood before the old man, looking down at him.
This time, he didn't need to judge the man by his appearance. In his spiritual perception, he could clearly "read" the old man's current state—his failing life force, his atrophied organs from long-term malnutrition, and... his chaotic spiritual field, like a candle flickering in the wind.
This old man had once been a wielder of spiritual energy. But his power had long been worn away by time and despair, leaving only a faint echo.
"An answer?" The old man reacted as if he had heard a horror story. He shot up from the ground and grabbed Ling Feng's arm. His hand was as thin as a twig, yet it erupted with surprising strength. "What did 'The Echo' give you?! What price did it demand?! Your memories? Your emotions? Your lifespan?!"
He was frantic, the wrinkles on his face twisting with agitation. This seemed to be the nightmare that had plagued him his entire life.
Ling Feng frowned slightly.
In the past, he might have been intimidated by the old man's crazed demeanor. But now, he simply raised his other hand and gently placed it on the old man's withered wrist.
He didn't use force, only channeling a minuscule thread of spiritual energy into the old man's body through the point of contact.
This was one of the most basic applications in the "Induction Chapter"—Biological Information Reading.
The old man only felt a gentle but irresistible force. His own remaining strength vanished as if it had been swallowed by the sea. He involuntarily let go and staggered back two steps, staring at Ling Feng as if he were a monster.
"You... you..." He stammered for a long time, unable to form a complete sentence.
The young man before him was a completely different person from the pathetic challenger who could barely stand at the canyon's entrance just days ago! The calm, powerful aura radiating from him caused a tremor deep in the old man's soul.
"It didn't ask for those things," Ling Feng withdrew his hand and answered the old man's question calmly. "It asked for 'information.' In exchange, it gave me 'knowledge.'"
"Knowledge..." the old man repeated the word, dazed. The madness on his face gradually faded, replaced by an endless sorrow and regret. "So that's how it is... So... I asked the wrong question all those years ago..."
He had asked for the power to get revenge. And "The Echo," clearly, had disdained such a selfish, low-level question.
Looking at the old man's desolate state, Ling Feng felt no pity, nor any sense of superiority.
To him, this old man was just a living, extremely valuable "data sample." A sample of "failure."
"I need to know what's happening outside," Ling Feng said, his tone not a request, but a statement. "In the days I've been gone, what's been going on in the Rust Belt, especially with the Iron Fist Gang?"
The old man was jolted from his remorse. He looked at the young man, whose presence now felt as deep and unshakable as a mountain. He knew he no longer had any right to stand against him. His animalistic instincts, honed in the wasteland, told him that submission was the only way to survive.
"...The Iron Fist Gang is still looking for you," the old man lowered his head, his voice dry. "Their boss, 'Iron Fist' Buck, has put out a bounty. Five thousand credit points for you alive. One thousand for you dead. It's stirred up every hyena in the Rust Belt."
"And Zhao San?"
"You did a number on him. I heard one of his eyes is blind, and he's still laid up in the civilian district's med-station. But he's put the word out that if you ever show your face in the Ash Market, he'll have the security patrol's heavy mechs blast you to pieces."
Ling Feng nodded.
The situation was worse than he had expected, but it was all logical.
He glanced at the old man, who was now completely non-threatening. He took out one of the high-energy nutrition bars Shi Lei had given him—one he hadn't brought himself to eat—and tossed it on the ground.
"This is your payment for answering my questions."
With that, he turned and strode away towards the residential area of the Rust Belt without another word.
The old man stared blankly at the nutrition bar on the ground, then at Ling Feng's straight back disappearing into the jungle of scrap metal. For the first time, an extremely complex emotion flickered in his cloudy eyes.
It was no longer simple fear or despair.
It was a flicker of something that had been rekindled after witnessing the impossible. A flicker named "awe."