102: Chapter 102 Memory Flood, Night Raid

The blood-colored Slaughter Mark, which had been suppressed deep within his Sea of Consciousness by the Mind Ape, suddenly began to tremble violently.

Like a trapped beast in a cage, it struggled desperately, trying to break free.

Lin Ye's expression changed, and he frantically circulated the Mind Ape Visualization Method.

The black ape manifested once again, reaching out with its massive palm to press down on the Slaughter Mark.

But this time, it couldn't hold it down.

The mark exploded with a bang!

Of course, it didn't actually explode; rather, countless memory fragments gushed out from it.

Hundreds and thousands of disorganized memories flooded into Lin Ye's mind like a bursting torrent.

These memory fragments all came from the beasts Lin Ye had slain using the Slaughter Mark.

Running, preying, fighting, mating, dying.

Some memories were clear, while others were quite blurry, with only one or two images flashing by.

Lin Ye's head buzzed, and double vision began to appear before his eyes; he nearly lost his footing.

These memories were too chaotic, as if countless hands were tearing at his brain simultaneously.

He felt his consciousness being torn apart, crushed, and then pieced back together.

Fortunately, Lin Ye's spirit attribute was high enough that no matter how the torrent of memories washed over him, he could still maintain a sliver of clarity.

The Mind Ape Visualization Method then began to circulate frantically, and notifications of proficiency increases rang out incessantly.

In the Sea of Consciousness, the Mind Ape let out a roar and then smashed the incoming memory fragments one punch at a time until they were completely crushed and suppressed.

Finally, the Slaughter Mark grew quiet and stopped spewing out memory fragments.

Lin Ye opened his eyes and gasped for air, his eyes faintly red—a sign of excessive mental exhaustion.

"Good grief, this Cultivation Technique is far too sinister," Lin Ye muttered to himself.

The Slaughter Mark absorbed not only the target's essence, energy, and spirit, but also their memory fragments.

One or two wouldn't matter, and he could barely withstand ten or a hundred, but with thousands of memories stacked together, even with Lin Ye's Soul strength, he nearly failed to hold on.

Luckily, he had cultivated the Mind Ape Visualization Method to the Flowing Water Realm, providing him with decent mental resistance; otherwise, he might not have withstood this wave of impact.

And this was just from killing some beasts with little intelligence.

If it were humans with their complex emotions and desires, absorbing so many memory fragments at once might just drive him to schizophrenia.

"It seems I'll have to use this thing sparingly in the future."

Lin Ye took a few deep breaths, slightly calming his fluctuating state of mind.

Then, with a thought, the blood-colored vision faded, and the world before him returned to normal.

The surging killing intent also receded like a tide back into the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.

The Killing Life Creation Art was useful, but it couldn't be used as a regular method.

It was only worth activating when facing a truly formidable enemy.

After all, using the Slaughter Mark to kill fodder offered little gain and had significant side effects; it really wasn't worth the cost.

Glancing at the Black Bear's corpse on the ground, Lin Ye stepped forward, grabbed its left leg, and dragged it toward the city gate.

This was the corpse of an Eighth-Grade Exotic Beast; it couldn't be wasted.

Perhaps the smell of blood on Lin Ye was too strong, or maybe the lingering aura of the Eighth-Grade Exotic Beast remained; along the way, the beasts avoided him one after another, fearing they might block his path.

Meanwhile, with the death of a top-tier Eighth-Grade Exotic Beast, the beast swarm fell into a panic, and their offensive inevitably weakened significantly.

On the other hand, their own side's morale soared, and the defense line, which had been somewhat precarious, stabilized once again.

The Ranked Martial Artists who were fighting other exotic beasts one-on-one also became pumped up as if they'd been given a shot of adrenaline upon seeing this.

No longer stingy with the innate qi in their bodies, they all began to use their ultimate moves, making the exotic beasts suffer miserably.

Although exotic beasts have much stronger physiques than human Martial Artists of the same rank.

But if Innate True Qi is used without regard for consumption, exotic beasts are simply no match for humans; such is the power of martial arts.

While exotic beasts also have Qi in their bodies, it's mostly used for daily consumption or to activate Bloodline Talents during battle; they simply cannot use it as freely as humans.

The entire battle lasted a full day, and only as the sky grew dark did the beast tide gradually recede.

But Lin Ye knew very well that this battle was far from over.

The beasts attacking the city today were merely cannon fodder within the beast tide.

Their role was only to exhaust the human side's stamina; the real test had only just begun, and they absolutely could not let their guard down.

Although exotic beasts couldn't compare to desolate beasts in terms of danger, they couldn't be ignored entirely.

After all, if a beast tide were truly that easy to deal with, it wouldn't be something people spoke of with such fear.

...

The night deepened, and Lin Ye sat cross-legged in a corner by the city gate, eyes closed as he circulated the Basic Breathing Method.

The beast tide could return at any moment, and he had to conserve his energy.

Time slowly reached the third watch of the night when suddenly, the ground began to vibrate!

Urgent horn blasts immediately rang out from the city walls; the defenders were startled awake from their sleep, grabbing their weapons and rushing to the embrasures.

Lin Ye opened his eyes, picked up the black iron heavy staff beside him, and leaped onto the city wall.

In the night, by the light of the fires on the city wall, a large wave of beasts could be vaguely seen surging through the darkness.

Their speed was faster than during the day, and their momentum was even more ferocious.

It wasn't that the number of beasts in the tide was greater than during the day, but rather that the individual strength had increased.

After all, those that could survive until now were mostly elite individuals among the beasts, with combat power far beyond that of ordinary beasts.

They trampled over the corpses and bloodstains left from the day, frantically surging toward the city walls.

"Fire arrows! Fire arrows!" Mayor Wang's voice rang out from the gatehouse, his tone carrying obvious exhaustion.

Swish, swish, swish!!

A large volley of arrows took to the sky, but due to limited visibility, most of them missed their marks; the occasional sound of an arrow piercing flesh failed to cause much damage to the beast swarm.

This was the defense of elite monsters; ordinary arrows were already hard-pressed to inflict fatal wounds.

The beast swarm quickly reached the base of the wall; unlike ordinary beasts that simply crashed into the wall blindly, they formed a living ladder, stacking layer upon layer, showing surprising intelligence.

"Rolling logs! Boulders! Quick!"

Seeing this, the defenders dared not delay and hurriedly pushed down the rolling logs and boulders beside them, but to little effect.

They still couldn't stop them from trampling over their companions' corpses to continue charging up; soon, beasts climbed onto the wall and engaged in close-quarters combat with the defending soldiers.

"Boom!"

Just then, a loud bang also came from the direction of the city gate.

Dozens of massive elite wild boars gathered together and crashed into the gate simultaneously.

From a distance, they looked like a massive battering ram of flesh and blood.

Faced with such a violent impact, the city gate also began to buckle.

The cracks on the door bolt grew deeper, and the iron plating was severely deformed by the impact.

In the next second, the city gate shattered.

That's right, the entire bluestone door panel was snapped in half from the middle, and in an instant, stone fragments flew everywhere.

The beast swarm flooded in frantically through the gap, like a bursting flood, carrying a heavy smell of blood and stench.