41: Chapter 41: The World of Classic of Mountains and Seas is Misjudged; He Will Be the Only One to Undergo the Trial of Classic of Mountains and Seas!

Demon Suppression Division provincial capital branch, underground intelligence room.

Three rows of communication magic arrays operated simultaneously. Over a dozen intelligence officers wearing headsets sat at their respective workstations, their fingers swiping rapidly across the consoles.

The young man at the workstation in the corner suddenly stood up.

His pupils dilated, "... Ah? Fa... Faked, right?"

The colleague next to him tilted his head and glanced at him, "What's wrong?"

He took a deep breath, speaking in a tone he himself found absurd, "Qingzhou northern suburb, ghost domain number T-0317, mid-stage fierce ghost, suspected to be at its peak... has been killed?!"

The colleague's brow furrowed even deeper, "Did a four-star bigshot make a move? Can't the provincial capital spare anyone?"

"No."

The colleague was stunned.

"It's a first-test trial-taker named Lin Ye, from Qingzhou University..."

More than a dozen people in the intelligence room raised their heads at the same time, over a dozen pairs of eyes simultaneously locked onto that young man, their expressions uncharacteristically uniform.

"Say that again?"

The middle-aged man sitting in the front row took off his headset.

His name was Fang Guoping.

As the communication supervisor of the Qingzhou branch, he had worked in the Demon Suppression Division for twenty-two years. He had handled tens of thousands of battle reports and seen all kinds of outrageous intelligence.

But his expression at this moment told everyone present that he really had never seen this one before!

The young man turned the display screen halfway so everyone could see the content on it.

After reading it, Fang Guoping fell silent for a full dozen seconds.

Then he picked up the phone on the desk and dialed a three-digit extension.

"Director Chen, there is a situation that requires you to take a look personally."

The person on the other end of the phone said something.

"It's not a drill."

Fang Guoping's voice was unusually steady, "Qingzhou has produced a newcomer who solo-killed a fierce ghost! It has been confirmed, and the source is the frontline reconnaissance team, confirmed with their own eyes!"

The other end of the phone fell silent for a very long time.

So long that Fang Guoping thought the line had disconnected.

As for the name Lin Ye, they had actually received news of it a few hours ago.

A young man whose initial test score blew up the strength tester and broke the highest record in history!

However, they didn't take it to heart.

They simply thought such a thing was due to a malfunction of the strength tester or something similar, and merely gave a casual instruction to first check if it was a malfunction or other reasons.

They planned to make a decision after the results came out.

Already, someone had gone to Qingzhou University to handle the handover.

Yet at this moment, there seemed to be no need for an investigation.

Director Chen's voice carried a tremor.

"Send the detailed battle report over, now! Also... notify the archives office to pull out all of Lin Ye's files! Everything!"

"Notify the Resource Allocation Department as well, and have their person in charge come over immediately. Right now!"

The phone hung up.

Fang Guoping put down the receiver, slowly leaned back against the chair, and closed his eyes to rest.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas World?

For the past three years, the Classic of Mountains and Seas World had been classified as wasteland-level, a newcomer's graveyard...

But now his intuition told him that everything needed a refreshed understanding!

Could it be... the Classic of Mountains and Seas World was actually a top-tier resource realm?

It was just that the students who went before lacked the ability themselves, so none of them came out alive?

Regardless, three years had passed.

Next year's otherworldly plane refresh would make the Classic of Mountains and Seas World history forever.

And Lin Ye was very likely the only successor of the Classic of Mountains and Seas World, and the only trial-taker who could freely travel back and forth through the Classic of Mountains and Seas World!

Fang Guoping opened his eyes and picked up the microphone again, "Connect me to the provincial capital, Eastern District Headquarters, encrypted channel..."

...

As Lin Ye paced forward.

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan was just about to say be careful.

The middle-aged woman wearing a floral nightgown suddenly let out a creepy laugh, "You've come just in time!"

More than twenty figures pounced simultaneously!

Their toes left the ground, arms stretched forward, fingers spread into claws. Everyone's movements were as neatly synchronized as puppets manipulated by the same hand.

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan's psychic energy anchor emitted a sharp alarm.

He instinctively drew his blade, the edge clearing its scabbard by three inches, and shouted, "Watch out!"

The next second.

Lin Ye simply stamped the zhulong staff onto the ground!

A bright golden wave rippled out from the end of the staff where it touched the ground, spreading outward along the surface.

The wave swept across the soles of those twenty-plus people, and their bodies stiffened simultaneously.

Then, one by one, they went limp.

The woman in the floral nightgown lay on the ground, propping up her upper body, "I... Why am I on the street..."

When memories returned to her.

She suddenly grabbed fiercely at Lin Ye's trouser cuffs, "My daughter! My daughter is still inside! I beg you! She's only seven years old! She's inside!!"

The old man nearby also recovered, "My grandson is too... Our whole family is... That voice, that voice made us recite some scripture. We had to recite it, otherwise it would hurt, hurt straight to the bone... We didn't mean to, we really didn't mean to..."

The others also recovered one after another.

Over twenty emotionally collapsed ordinary people had their voices intertwining together, turning into a chaotic mess.

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan squatted down and supported the woman's shoulders, "Don't panic, we are people from the Demon Suppression Division. You all leave the town first, and we will rescue your family members. I swear!"

Li Yan and Fang Hao went to help the others.

Pulling people up from the ground one by one, checking whether their consciousness was clear.

After finishing all this.

They couldn't help casting a glance in Lin Ye's direction.

That stomp just now not only released the mental control of over twenty people, but also purified the resentment contamination along with it.

They had never even heard of such a method!

Lin Ye did not participate in their aftermath cleanup.

The dragon-shaped mark on the inside of his wrist was burning hot, at a temperature even higher than when he absorbed Hongxi's resentment crystals on the mountain.

It was like some organ that had slumbered for too long suddenly waking up, smelling the scent of its prey.

He raised his head.

In the direction of the town center, separated by layers of old buildings and winding streets, a wave of resentment was rhythmically expanding and contracting.

The rhythm was very slow. With each contraction, the gray mist in the air grew a fraction denser.

Lin Ye licked the corner of his mouth.

The fluctuations of Resentful Spirit-class ghosts were always chaotic, and fierce ghost-class fluctuations carried an intense oppression.

But this one...

It was heavier, steadier, and purer! Like a mass of blackness compressed repeatedly to the ultimate limit.

It had not yet formed, but just sniffing the aftershocks of that aura made the zhulong seal already begin to tremble slightly with excitement.

At least half a tier higher than Hongxi.

"Decent nourishment."

He had to quickly develop the zhulong seal to be stronger. If he returned to the Classic of Mountains and Seas next time and saw the old man Zhulong...

Seeing his rapid growth, the other party might be pleased and give him something else, which wasn't impossible.

Lin Ye hooked the corners of his mouth and strode toward the town center.

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan had just settled the woman in the floral nightgown when he raised his head and found that Lin Ye had already walked a dozen meters away.

He hurriedly got up and called out to Li Yan and Fang Hao to follow.

The further inward they went, the thicker the fog became.

The fog at the town entrance was still just a grayish-white veil, but by the time they reached the third street, it had become so thick as if soaked in diluted milk, with visibility less than ten meters.

The fishy, sweet smell in the air grew heavier and heavier, mixed with an unspeakable, undefinable stench of decay.

Even more fatal was the oppression on a mental level.

"It hurts so much..."

Fang Hao felt as if someone was slowly stabbing a blunt needle into his temples, and every step consumed several times more willpower than usual.

"I... Me too..."

Li Yan was the first one who couldn't hold on, his steps starting to stagger, and a fine layer of cold sweat popped out on his forehead.

"Hang in there!"

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan patted both of their shoulders, "Don't embarrass yourselves in front of a young man, being so weak."

But in fact, he was also gritting his teeth and holding on hard.

His psychic energy anchor could hardly work properly in this environment. He couldn't detect anything.

Experience told him that this wasn't ordinary resentment contamination, but some kind of domain-based mental suppression.

The other party's mere existence was altering the rules of this area.

"I want to too, Captain Zhao, I feel like my brain has been soaked in swill..."

Li Yan's voice was muffled.

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan was just about to speak when Lin Ye ahead suddenly stamped his foot.

Golden light exploded.

The moment that golden radiance swept past, the fog within a radius of twenty meters evaporated all at once.

That viscous oppressive feeling in the air shrank back abruptly as if it had been scalded.

Li Yan felt as if a layer of wet rag had been lifted off his head, instantly clearing his mind.

He breathed heavily, raising his head to meet Lin Ye's back directly, and suddenly blurted out a head-scratching complaint:

"How the hell is this like carrying a whole-team purification totem..."

Fang Hao pushed his glasses, his expression much more relaxed, "Th-thank you, you really are my dear dad!"

"I'm not that old yet."

Lin Ye smiled slightly, "Stay close to me, don't stray too far. Let's head to the town center first."

The three nodded and quickly followed.

But as they walked, looking at Lin Ye's back, Li Yan's voice carried a hint of genuine confusion.

"Is he really not tired?"

He had just fought a fierce ghost on top of the mountain, came down without resting, didn't even drink a sip of water, and now he was walking at the very front clearing the way again.

Are you sure he didn't secretly cultivate some perpetual motion machine cultivation method?

Fang Hao didn't speak, but his gaze betrayed him—he was curious too!

"Alright, you two be quiet."

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan had only one thing churning over and over in his mind.

From entering the town until now, Lin Ye's breathing rhythm had never changed at all.

Whether facing controlled townspeople, enduring mental contamination, or actively releasing that dark golden energy.

Lin Ye's breathing always remained as steady as if he were taking an afternoon nap.

This was not physical stamina that a newcomer should possess.

Among the many three-star trial-takers Investigator Zhao Pingchuan had contacted, none of them could achieve this extent!

"Captain Zhao, is someone coming ahead again?"

Li Yan's voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan raised his head, his pupils contracting sharply.

At the end of the street, in the direction of the crossroads, a dense crowd of people was surging from all directions.

The quantity was so large that there were probably over a hundred people!

Streets, alley entrances, apartment building doors, and even the windows of the second and third floors.

They vaulted directly out of the windows, crashed onto the ground, got up, and joined the crowd.

Everyone maintained that eerie forward-leaning posture, wearing uniform smiles on their faces, chanting scriptures in their mouths.

Over a hundred people turned toward them simultaneously, stepped forward simultaneously, accelerated simultaneously, and then started running wildly at the same time.

The sound of footsteps was like beating drums, and the entire street was shaking!

"What the fuck?"

Li Yan was startled and drew the tactical short blade from his waist.

Fang Hao took out two spiritual talismans from his pocket and pinched them between his fingers.

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan slightly bent his legs, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. His psychic energy anchor opened a perceptual net in front of him, calculating the distance, the angle, and the timing of the first engagement.

His brain was also spinning wildly.

Among these hundred-plus people, how many could be knocked unconscious, how many must be avoided, how to maintain the formation, how to plan the retreat route...

Then, they saw Lin Ye step forward.

A kind of golden energy similar to the one just now, only even more intense this time, suddenly burst outward.

Like a ripple, it silently swept across the entire street.

There was no earth-shattering movement.

But the effect made people's scalps tingle even more than any commotion.

They saw...

The first townspeople to rush close suddenly stopped their steps, their bodies still maintaining inertia and leaning forward, but their consciousness had already snapped.

His knees went soft, and his entire person crashed onto the ground like a sack of sand, sliding half a meter before stopping.

Then came the second, third, and fourth person...

All the rushing townspeople, regardless of gender, age, or distance, fell neatly like wheat ears harvested by the same invisible sickle.

When the golden light receded.

The street returned to silence.

Over a hundred people lay sprawled across the ground, breathing steadily with serene expressions, as if they had collectively fallen asleep.

"No way? Over a hundred people?!"

Li Yan's hand holding the tactical short blade froze mid-air, his mouth open, his jaw unable to retract as if its spring had been dismantled.

"Brother Lin, what kind of ability is this? It's too awesome!"

The two spiritual talismans in Fang Hao's hands silently slipped from between his fingers.

Then he let out a sigh of relief.

With their meager combat power, fighting over a hundred ordinary people would get them beaten into meat patties by a mob.

Let alone people controlled by eerie forces.

Fortunately, the big daddy was here!

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan's combat experience told him that facing over a hundred mentally controlled townspeople, the safest approach was to maneuver, contain, divide, and defeat them one by one...

That was the fighting style of a normal person.

But Lin Ye...

Cleared the field directly?

He didn't dwell on it; now wasn't the time. He walked over to the nearest townperson and squatted down, checked the pulse, flipped open the eyelids, and scanned once more with his psychic energy anchor.

"These people..."

"Rest assured, they're just unconscious."

Lin Ye said, continuing on his way.

Investigator Zhao Pingchuan fell silent for two seconds.

"... Alright!"

The rest of the journey became a breathless repetition in rhythm.

Every time they crossed a street, a new wave of townspeople would surge out from buildings, alleys, and behind the rolling shutters of shops, numbering anywhere from dozens to a hundred. Their smiles, the scriptures in their mouths, and their forward-leaning postures were identical, as if pressed by the same invisible hand hitting the same switch.

And Lin Ye's response method was equally identical.

Human Emperors Coercion would automatically trigger the moment a townsperson stepped within a fifty-meter radius. With a sweep of golden light, the crowd would collapse limply in batches like machines unplugged from power.

And most of the time, Lin Ye himself didn't even realize that the coercion had activated on its own.

"It seems that Human Emperors Coercion is getting more and more practiced with use, almost becoming a passive skill..."

This meant that as strength increased, many skills could display greater potential and utility.

Li Yan had gone from his initial shock to a subtle state between numbness and worship.

"Another batch fell..."

"Mhm."

Fang Hao responded with a hum. This feeling of hanging out with the big daddy was motherfucking awesome!

The street finally came to an end.

The town central plaza appeared in their field of vision.

The plaza was very old, paved in the center with long-faded red floor tiles, broken at the corners, with moss squeezing out from the gaps.

But what made Investigator Zhao Pingchuan's pupils contract sharply was the old locust tree in the center of the plaza.

The locust tree itself wasn't strange; the old locust tree in Heqiao Town had a history of at least several hundred years and was recorded in the local county chronicles.

What was strange was its appearance right now!