The development trend of the Satellite City, the quality of the drifters outside, and the overall strategic planning predictions.

The conversation lightened up considerably, and the dishes on the table gradually ran out.

Halfway through the meal, Master Tian glanced at the night outside the window, stood up, and said, "It’s getting late. I have to go back."

"Hang on." Cheng Ye called out to him and turned to head into the basement, soon emerging with a plastic bag.

The plastic bag contained five dried salted fish, four cans of fruit, a small packet of seasoning, and even some leftover black fish fillets which had been packed in.

"Take this home for your family to try, consider it my reward for Tian Lei’s hard work recently."

Master Tian was momentarily stunned and his lips moved as he accepted the plastic bag.

He finally squeezed out a sentence, "Thank you."

Watching Master Tian’s silhouette vanish into the night, Matthew Lee smacked his lips, and his tone suddenly became serious: "Old Tian didn’t tell the truth, he only spoke half of it at most. It seems his caution from his days as an assassin is still there."

"Oh?"

Matthew Lee didn’t answer directly, instead gesturing with his eyes towards the roller shutter of the convenience store.

Cheng Ye understood and got up to pull down the shutter, making the store significantly darker.

"Let’s go, let’s talk in your basement, it’s not convenient here." Matthew Lee picked up the unfinished stir-fried salted fish, while Cheng Ye carried the remaining beer.

The two went to the basement and set up the table again.

Matthew Lee took a piece of salted fish into his mouth, chewing it slowly before speaking: "Farmer, I know."

"You know?"

"Of course, I know." Matthew Lee tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing an insightful smile, "This guy has appeared a few times on the outskirts of the Black Zone, his records are already in the checkpoint’s database, and they’ve analyzed his abilities to an extent. Earlier upstairs, I was deliberately testing him, didn’t expect he really played us, glossing over with vague answers."

"So, what is Farmer’s ability?"

"Planting, harvesting." Matthew Lee lowered his voice, "But it’s not some ethereal belief that’s planted, it’s... strength."

"His ability can forcibly condense and seal a person’s original strength, like planting a seed in the ground, allowing the power to germinate, root, and grow again."

"You know the Tendon Gate in the Martial Path, right?"

Cheng Ye nodded, "I know, I also know the differences between various Tendon Gates, and Embrace the Embryo."

"Then it’s understandable." Matthew Lee continued, "Farmer’s ability is to regress a person’s strength to a time when they were an ordinary person, for example, the ordinary Tendon Gate you trained before will all dissipate, but this power doesn’t truly vanish, it becomes nutrients. When you train again, these nutrients will help you breakthrough faster, and the Tendon Gate you train out will be stronger than before."

"This..." Cheng Ye’s heart sank suddenly, and he immediately reacted, "Could it be he has planted his manifest abilities?"

"Nine times out of ten, that’s the case." Matthew Lee nodded, "He said he ran into the Black Zone in a panic when being hunted, but from my view, he looks more like he was seriously injured and wanted a comeback at his old enemies, feeling his power was insufficient, so he actively found the tribe worshipping the Farmer, asking Farmer to seal his power, waiting for one day when his power grows back to retaliate."

"And harvesting?"

"The day it fully matures, he will instinctively return to the Farmer."

Matthew Lee grinned a toothy smile, but the warmth was absent, "Harvest naturally means reaping all of him, the newly trained power, his life, even his soul, will be sucked dry by the Farmer, becoming Farmer’s own strength!"

"Alright, enough of this topic, let’s talk about something good." Matthew Lee patted the table, and his tone lightened up, "I passed the third assessment, recruitment starts tomorrow morning, at the latest by tomorrow afternoon we’ll go to Dongping Town!"

"How’s that?"

"I can’t talk about the specific exams, it’s the rule." Matthew Lee shook his head, "But the team formation is quite interesting; it’s drawn by lots for teaming up, I got lucky and teamed with Song Hai, but Gu Xinjing wasn’t so fortunate, ending up with Garcia."

"Then the two of them had clashed quite a few times during the assessment due to their differing philosophies, ultimately getting disqualified. Now, they have to fight a resurrection match with other disqualified teams for the next round, whether they can come back is still uncertain."

...

The night gradually dimmed.

Two consecutive days of snowfall had depleted the moisture around Happiness City, and although the temperature was still dropping, the wind blowing across the streets had a biting chill.

But the weather turned cloudy, with a few sparse stars embedded in the navy blue sky, barely revealing the outline of the moon hidden in the overcast clouds.

Master Tian carried the plastic bag, walked briskly through several blocks, soon returning to his old neighborhood.

"Old Tian, didn’t you go out early in the morning? Why are you back so late today?"

"A friend invited me for a gathering, had a little drink." Master Tian smiled and nodded, didn’t explain much, and continued his steps towards the staircase.

Upon reaching the fifth floor, he raised his hand to knock on the door, which quickly opened.

Opening the door wasn’t his wife Xu Jingyun, but his daughter Tian Lei.

"Eh? Dad, didn’t you say you’d be late? Why so early?"

Tian Lei wore a thick sweater, hair casually tied at the back, caught a whiff of aroma from her father, her eyes lit up instantly, "Smells so good! Where did you get to eat meat?"

"Went to a good place."

Master Tian raised the plastic bag in his hand, a rarely seen relaxed smile on his face, "Why did you come back? Didn’t you say the Public Works Bureau would be busy until next week?"

Upon entering, Xu Jingyun was sitting on the sofa knitting a sweater, a radio on the coffee table in front of her playing an evening channel. She looked up upon hearing the commotion, her gaze landing on the plastic bag with curiosity, "Where did this stuff come from?"