Free Web NovelChapter 317: Chapter 164: Passive Trait: Furious Gaze Demon Suppression
The canyon was still dead silent. Only the wind whimpered as it blew across the corpse-strewn ground.
Lin Ye got his bearings, then his figure blurred as he sped back the way he came.
As he passed a familiar grove of twisted, dead trees, a sharp screech echoed from overhead.
A lone elite of the Stone Ghost Race had spotted him and was about to sound an alarm.
Lin Ye glanced up at it and, with a flick of his finger, sent a strand of golden Gang Sha whistling through the air.
’Perfect. I needed a ride.’
A few seconds later, the ferocious light in the Stone Ghost Race elite’s eyes vanished, replaced by absolute loyalty.
It obediently lowered itself, prostrating before Lin Ye.
Lin Ye vaulted onto its broad back.
The Stone Ghost Race puppet gave a mighty flap of its wings, kicking up a swirling cloud of dust. It then shot into the sky with Lin Ye, becoming a black shadow that flew toward the rift entrance.
BOOM!
A tremendous crash, accompanied by violent tremors, rocked the entrance to the Nirvana Tower’s rift.
The expressions of the instructors on guard duty changed drastically. They shot up from their posts almost simultaneously, Gang Sha erupting from their bodies as they prepared to face a powerful foe.
"What was that noise!"
"Something just came crashing down!"
All eyes were locked on the roiling cloud of dust ahead.
Soon, the dust and smoke slowly dispersed.
A slender figure stood quietly in place.
Behind him, the massive, three-meter-tall body of a Stone Ghost Race elite was rapidly dissolving. It melted into a pool of writhing black slime that seeped into the ground and vanished.
A dead silence fell over the entrance.
The gazes of all the instructors were frozen on the figure, their eyes filled with shock and doubt.
’That young man... Did he just fly back riding on that Stone Ghost?’
’And what’s with this intangible aura he’s giving off?’
Every instructor present was at least at the Mid-stage of the Gang Condensation Realm.
They could clearly sense that the young man before them was, at most, at the Early Stage of the Condensing Gang Realm. His aura even carried a hint of the instability that comes with a recent breakthrough.
Yet just by standing there, his every move exuded a heavy, oppressive pressure.
’This feeling... They had only ever felt it from the training camp’s strongest student, Dongfang Zhen!’
The most senior instructor stepped forward from the group. Suppressing the shock he felt, he asked in a low voice, "Who are you? Show me your combat bracelet."
This was standard procedure. They had to confirm the identity of anyone returning to rule out the possibility of a high-level alien in disguise.
Lin Ye shook his head. "I don’t have my bracelet. I gave it to the people I was saving so they could get back."
At his words, looks of shock appeared on the faces of all the instructors.
"You saved people?"
"Those three missing students... you’re the one who saved them?" an instructor blurted out.
Another instructor’s pupils contracted as if he’d just remembered something. "You’re Lin Ye?" he exclaimed.
Lin Ye nodded, feeling a little puzzled.
’Did I become famous overnight or something?’
The moment these instructors heard his name, the way they looked at him changed.
Upon receiving confirmation, the wariness on the lead instructor’s face vanished, replaced by a complex expression that was almost one of awe.
He stepped aside of his own accord.
"Before Mr. Nie left, he gave an order: if a student named Lin Ye returns without a bracelet, confirm his identity and let him pass immediately."
Lin Ye once again passed through the familiar ripple in space.
The next moment, the familiar scene inside the Nirvana Stone Tower came into view once more.
Although less than a day had passed, Lin Ye felt as if a lifetime had gone by.
Twelve hours ago, he was still on the verge of breaking through, in his weakest state.
Now, twelve hours later, his regular strength in the P1 stage alone was probably enough to crush the instructors responsible for guard duty and record-keeping.
Lin Ye’s sudden appearance caused the five or six students resting cross-legged inside the tower to glance over in unison.
As the brutal elimination process continued, only 21 of the original 36 recruits remained.
Every single one who had made it this far was the elite of the elite.
This was also why, in the later stages of the training camp, almost all the students chose to spend most of their time in the Nirvana Tower.
The credits earned from live-combat hunts had become the most important criterion for the current assessment period.
Lin Ye ignored the scrutinizing gazes and walked straight toward the massive leaderboard at the side of the plaza.
An instructor in charge of record-keeping at the foot of the board called out to him.
"Excuse me, student. Please present your bracelet. I need to sync your kill data and convert it into credits."
"It’s gone."
The instructor froze for a moment, then his brow furrowed.
But when he got a clear look at Lin Ye’s face, his expression changed abruptly. "You’re Lin Ye?" he asked, startled.
Lin Ye grew even more confused.
He could feel that the moment the instructor called out his name, the gazes of every student in the tower, and even the other instructors, snapped toward him.
Their expressions varied—some curious, others scrutinizing.
The instructor’s tone became much more courteous.
"Mr. Yin left instructions. If you returned, you are to report your own combat results from this period. We will be responsible for recording them and converting them to credits."
Lin Ye thought for a moment, then slowly began to speak.
"I wiped out a tribe of the Eight-armed Race."
"Four-armed slave soldiers, around three hundred of them. Six-armed elites... seventy or eighty of them, let’s just say seventy. And one Eight-armed Race leader."
His voice wasn’t loud, but in the quiet stone tower, it reached every single person’s ears.
The entire Nirvana Tower fell into a deathly silence.
All the students, whether meditating with their eyes closed or conversing in low voices, froze completely.
They stared at Lin Ye as if he were a madman, trying to process if they had heard him correctly.
Huh?
’One person... slaughtered an entire tribe of the Eight-armed Race?’
Every student who had ever entered the Celestial Abyss Rift knew just how tough the Eight-armed Race was.
Their racial ability to suppress both Gang Sha and Martial Arts Spirituality was a nightmare for all Martial Artists.
Fighting them was like wearing shackles; you were lucky if you could use even seventy percent of your full strength.
’And now this guy was saying he took out an entire tribe by himself?’
’And he even... killed a leader-class member of the Eight-armed Race?’
The instructor in charge of recording was gripping his pen so tightly it was about to snap.
He swallowed hard, his voice raspy as he sought confirmation. "A leader? Are you sure the one you killed was a Chieftain of the Eight-armed Race?"
