85: Chapter 85 The Terror of the Permanent Halo

"Fear Imprint" Aura!

This was a God-Tier Aura known to Lin Muyang that had terrifying effects and severe consequences; he had never used it before because, once activated, the impact was permanent!

"Fear Imprint (God-Tier Aura)": Plants an indelible imprint of fear upon the target. When the target comes into contact with any information related to the Aura caster or their designated summon through any means (seeing, hearing, thinking), they will fall into uncontrollable, extreme fear, accompanied by effects such as mental disorder and loss of sanity.

The gaze full of evil thoughts and greed that Lou Tianyu had just cast toward little Feng Ling made Lin Muyang sick, like a venomous snake. Even if he didn't take his life, he had to completely ruin this guy so he would never dare to have any inappropriate thoughts again!

Of course, the activation of "Fear Imprint" also required a condition check: the caster's mental attribute must exceed the target's.

Among Lin Muyang's many God-Tier Auras, there were quite a few that carried such attribute checks, and there was even the more overbearing "Absolute Command"; as long as one's mental attribute reached double that of the target, one could directly issue mandatory instructions and control all of the opponent's actions.

Although the conditions were harsh, the power of its effects was equally heart-stopping.

At this moment, Lin Muyang's eyes were cold, his mind locked onto Lou Tianyu, and "Fear Imprint" was quietly activated.

An invisible and intangible yet soul-piercing imprint of fear, like the most vicious curse, was deeply branded into the deepest part of Lou Tianyu's consciousness!

From now on, whenever he came into contact with even the slightest bit of information related to Lin Muyang and the young women—a name, an image, a sound, or even just a vague association—it would trigger this imprint, dragging him into an abyss of extreme fear, causing mental derangement and the collapse of his sanity!

And at this moment, Lou Tianyu was subconsciously recalling the Lin Muyang and that blonde loli he had just seen...

Suddenly!

A supreme terror originating from the trembling of his soul, incomprehensible and irresistible, like ten-thousand-year-old ice mixed with scalding venom, instantly submerged all of his consciousness!

"Ah—!!"

"No! Don't come over! Aaaaaah!!"

A scream so shrill it didn't sound human erupted from Lou Tianyu's throat! The terror on his face was twisted to the extreme, his eyes bulging as if he were seeing the most terrifying scene in the world.

Lin Muyang timely lifted the suppression of his other Auras.

Lou Tianyu, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, leapt up from the beach, clutching his head with both hands. While emitting heart-rending screams, he completely lost his sense of direction, stumbling and scrambling as he fled frantically in the direction away from Lin Muyang!

"Third Young Master!"

The two bodyguards were completely stunned! One second they were still confronting Shen Yanshan and applying pressure, and the next, their young master was fleeing for his life like a madman! They couldn't care about anything else and hurriedly turned to chase after him.

Shen Yanshan and his daughter, Shen Muyao, took in everything, and their hearts were similarly stirred by stormy waves.

They had not detected any obvious energy fluctuations or skill activations, only seeing Lou Tianyu suddenly kneel, lose his voice, and then suddenly flee like a madman... This eerie and unpredictable method made them immediately think of the mysterious "senior" behind Lin Muyang.

"Is it that incomprehensible ability again?" Cold sweat seeped from Shen Yanshan's forehead, and his awe for that "senior" deepened by another layer. Baldness, diarrhea, freezing, blindness, kneeling, going mad... This big shot's methods were simply impossible to defend against, and just thinking about it made one's blood run cold!

Shen Muyao also subconsciously took a small step back, her gaze toward Lin Muyang becoming even more complex, containing both relief and undisguisable fear. Offending such a person would have terrible consequences.

"Continue with your work." Lin Muyang's voice came over calmly, as if everything that had just happened was just an insignificant interlude.

"Uh... okay, okay!" Shen Yanshan snapped back to reality, hurriedly responded, and turned to urge his men to speed up the progress. But a trace of doubt rose in his heart: Was this kid, Lin Muyang, a bit too calm? The one that senior was protecting should be the fairy in white on the reef, right? Why did it feel like Lin Muyang was more like the one in charge?

Could it be that Lin Muyang had a close relationship with that young lady, or even... Shen Yanshan didn't dare to think deeply and quickly suppressed the messy thoughts.

On the other side, under the torture of "Fear Imprint", Lou Tianyu only wanted to flee by instinct from the source that brought him endless fear. He stumbled along the way, ran more than three hundred meters, and rushed to the edge of the woods next to the beach.

The two bodyguards followed closely behind, neither daring to forcibly stop him for fear of hurting him, nor daring to stay too far away.

Perhaps it was the distance, or perhaps it was the brief numbness of his spirit after extreme fear, but Lou Tianyu, having rushed into the woods, suddenly felt the bone-gnawing sense of fear recede like a tide. He stopped, gasping for air, his eyes gradually regaining focus as he discovered he could see again and could speak again.

"I... am I okay?" He muttered to himself, still shaken, and recalling the experience just now, he still had lingering fears, but a feeling of humiliation and anger immediately surged in his heart. A ruthless look appeared on his face, and he turned to the bodyguards who had caught up and said: "Let's go! Go back immediately to gather men, bring everyone we can, and go back to take that kid..."

However, the moment the three words "that kid" flashed through his mind, the image of Lin Muyang and the vague impressions of the few young women related to Lin Muyang triggered a fatal switch!

"Boom—!"

The giant wave of fear that had just receded, now even more surging and violent, ruthlessly swallowed him again!

"Ah—!! Don't come over! Go away! Get lost!!"

Lou Tianyu clutched his head and screamed again, his face as pale as paper, his pupils unfocused, as if invisible, terrifying existences were pouncing on him from all directions! He turned and ran, even more frantically and irrationally than before.

The two bodyguards had just breathed a sigh of relief, but their hearts were back in their throats.

"Calming Spell!" The Shadow Warlock immediately cast a spell to soothe the mind.

The spell's light fell on Lou Tianyu, but it was like a clay ox entering the sea, completely ineffective! "Fear Imprint" was an influence at the God-Tier rule level; how could an ordinary mental spell soothe it?

"What on earth is going on?!" The Berserker bodyguard's face turned livid, veins bulging on his forehead. He could no longer care about anything else, let out a low roar, and his strong arms shot out, holding and binding the crazily struggling Lou Tianyu tightly like iron pincers.

Even so, Lou Tianyu still twisted, roared, and kicked violently in his arms, his eyes unfocused, tears and snot streaming down his face. In a short time, the original dashing young master appearance was gone, replaced by disheveled hair, tattered clothes, and a body covered in mud and sand—he was literally a madman who had escaped from a mental hospital.

"Take him back first! Go back immediately!" The Shadow Warlock made a prompt decision. The matter was completely beyond their control and understanding.

The two no longer hesitated, carried the still struggling and howling Lou Tianyu, and took to the air, not caring about the no-fly rules in Tianhai City's urban area, flying at top speed toward the Loushi Group's manor. As for those logistics personnel who came with Lou Tianyu, they had already scattered in fear the first time Lou Tianyu went mad and fled; how could they dare to stay?

...

The Loushi Group manor was brightly lit.

Just a short while ago, Lou Tianyu had set out with his team in high spirits to collect that windfall. In the manor, several young descendants of his generation were discussing it in the hall or in the shadows, quite dissatisfied, thinking that the old man was biased.

Suddenly, a shrill, fear-filled scream came from afar and drew near, piercing the night sky of the manor!

"Help! There's a ghost! There's a monster! Don't kill me! Don't come over!!"

The voice was clearly Lou Tianyu's!

The entire manor was instantly alarmed! Elders, descendants, retainers, guards... all poured out from rooms, training grounds, and various posts, looking with suspicion and uncertainty toward the direction the sound came from.

In the sky, the two bodyguards, usually majestic and awe-inspiring, were in a sorry state as they carried a struggling, mad-looking figure down. The figure's clothes were tattered, hair disheveled, and face twisted with terror—who else could it be but the Loushi family's Third Young Master, Lou Tianyu?

A few minutes later.

In the main hall of the manor, the atmosphere was as oppressive as the silence before a storm.

The old man of the Loushi family, an S-level "Flame Explosion Mage" who was advanced in age but had reached level 162, had a face so gloomy it seemed ready to drip water. Watching his grandson, who was forcibly held in a chair but still couldn't stop trembling, his eyes unfocused, and emitting unconscious whimpers, the anger in his chest was almost ready to blow his top!

"You bastard!!" The old man slammed the table, and the solid wood table instantly cracked, "Who is it?! Who harmed Tianyu like this?! People from Zhongnan City? Good! Very good! Daring to touch someone from my Loushi family, do you really think my Loushi family is made of clay?!"

Hot and violent magical fluctuations radiated from his body, the temperature in the hall rose sharply, and some of the weaker descendants and servants were already pale, retreating repeatedly.

"Gather the men! Immediately! I want to see what kind of person is so rampant, daring to lay such vicious hands on my Loushi family's direct descendant in Tianhai City!" The old man's beard and hair stood on end, furious. Lou Tianyu had good talent and was one of the grandsons he favored; now that he had become like this, he was effectively ruined. How could he swallow this anger?

The hall was filled with righteous indignation, and many people were rubbing their fists, preparing to follow the old man to demand an explanation and, by the way, take back the priceless Frost Blue Whale corpse.

However, just as this anger and restlessness were about to reach their peak.

A faint, emotionless voice that seemed to contain endless majesty and coldness penetrated the barriers of space and clearly reached the ears of everyone present, resounding directly in the depths of their minds!

"Your Loushi family has quite some nerve."

This voice was calm and waveless, yet it instantly made the furious Loushi old man feel as if he had been doused from head to toe with a basin of ice water; the magical fluctuations boiling around him stopped abruptly, and his expression changed drastically!

The other core members and high-level retainers of the Loushi family in the hall, anyone with a bit of knowledge, all turned pale the moment they heard this voice, their eyes revealing uncontrollable fear!

They recognized the owner of this voice!

The voice continued to come, the tone still flat, but carrying an unquestionable warning:

"To have provoked that person, it's already considered lucky that only this kid of yours went mad."

"If you think the Loushi family has existed for too long and want his whole family to end up like him... you can go and try right now."

As the voice fell, the lingering sound seemed to still echo in the hall.

The whole place was deathly silent.

The anger on the Loushi old man's face had long since disappeared, replaced by a complex expression mixed with lingering fear, terror, and disbelief. He opened his mouth but felt his throat dry, unable to say a single word.

The other members of the Loushi family were even more scared into silence, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Because they all knew that the one who had just transmitted the voice to warn them was a true Nation-Guarding Level Expert standing at the pinnacle of the Xia Kingdom!

For even such an existence to personally come forward to warn them, and even with a clear tone of protection... what kind of background did that person from Zhongnan City on the beach have?!