Chapter 121: Confused tide!

The divine flames slowly died down. The demonic cultivator was gone, only the ash remains of him remained slightly swirling on the floor.

For a few breathless seconds, nobody moved. The dark cave fell eerily, suffocatingly quiet. Then, a bizarre change rippled from the tunnels of the inner cave.

The surviving monkeys suddenly froze, petrified while walking. The unnatural, blood-red light in their pupils rapidly faded, replaced by dull confusion. Their hands and legs began to tremble vehemently as they looked around at the mangled corpses of their commanders, then toward the scorched hollow where their master had stood.

The psychic control over the monkeys had broken after the demonic cultivator died. They were no longer an organized, guided vanguard. Without the demonic will commanding their minds, they were reduced to what they truly were: Wild animals.

They are so terrified, disoriented, and desperate for survival.

One macaque suddenly shrieked in raw panic. "ROOOOAR!"

It scrambled on all fours and slammed against the tunnel wall. Another monkey beast followed instantly. Then dozens, and it slowly became hundreds.

The whole remnants of the beast tide rumbled out, slamming onto the walls frantically.

Thousands of screeching primates rushed blindly toward every narrow opening, cracks, and exit. Some collided brutally at the small holes at the edges of the cave, some others scratched through brittle stone walls with their claws, and many trampled straight over the corpses of their fallen commanders.

They weren’t fighting anymore. They were fleeing for their lives, and scrambling toward the forests, the valleys, anywhere away from the divine flames and the terrifying humans.

Outside the cave, the mountainside burst off with the sounds of destruction.

Crashhh!

A panicked brute rushed through a massive pine trunk, snapping it in half without slowing down. The ground itself rumbled under the weight of their frenzied stampede.

"They’re breaking out," an outer disciple yelled, his eyes frowning frantically. "Cut them off!"

But most of the cultivators were already at their exhaustion limits. Many were leaning against their weapons with exhausted expression, barely able to keep their knees locked, their robes soaked in blood and sweat.

Sect Master Xue Hongzhao darted his fiery gaze across the wounded disciples and elders.

"Those who are exhausted, hold your ground and tend to the fallen!" Xue Hongzhao muttered, his beast essence flaring up and his voice booming across the area.

His eyes squinted with cold authority and anger.

"Those who still have breath left... slaughter as many of those beasts as you can before they scatter into the nearby villages!"

The surviving elders and senior disciples clenched their grips.

"Yes, Sect master!" Everyone yelled in unison.

They snapped out off the tunnels, hunting down the fleeing horde.

Lin Yuan didn’t take a single step forward, because he couldn’t.

He slumped vehemently against a jagged stone rock, his chest rising and falling in fast, shallow gasps. His beast essence pool was nearly dry, slowly he was concentrating to replenish back.

Every muscle in his body throbbed with a dull, painful ache.

Chen Ming dragged his feet over, sliding down against the wall right beside him with a groan.

"You stay right there," Chen Ming muttered, resting his hands on his knees.

Lin Yuan darted his sideways at him. "What about you?"

"I’m staying here," Chen Ming smeared a streak of sweat from his forehead. "Someone has to sit here and make sure you don’t pass out and get your head chewed off by a stray monkey."

Lin Yuan gave a faint, tired smirk. "I can handle a stray monkey."

"Sure you can, tough guy," Chen Ming leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. "Shut your mouth and meditate."

Lin Yuan let out a breath and closed his eyes. He steadied the rhythm of his breathing.

He gently guided the small remnants of beast essence through his meridians. The veins felt raw and burning, every movement bringing a sharp, stinging burn across his chest.

But slowly, the pain began to fade away. His breathing smoothed out. The chaotic ringing in his ears quieted into a calm hum.

Deep inside his aperture, the beast essence pool sat at the bottom, reduced to a small puddle. As he maintained the circulation, the small droplets began to condense from his core, trickling back into the aperture.

A tiny drop, then another. Lin Yuan observed the beast essence pool with a tight frown.

’Arghh’ He groaned, nodding his head slowly. The realization was settled heavily on his mind. ’My essence consumption is becoming a fatal flaw.’

The legendary white tigers possessed terrifying destructive power, but appearing even one of them in normal life-or-death combat drained his aperture in minutes.

And today, summoning both had pushed him to the absolute brink of total spiritual collapse and fatigue.

Lin Yuan kept his eyes closed, his knuckles clenching against his knees.

’I need a permanent solution to this consumption rate. Whether through some refinement, an essence-expanding techniques, or specialized pills... I have to fix this.’

Otherwise, on a future battlefield, running out of fuel would become his death sentence. Outside the dark cave, the hunting screams gradually decreased.

A fleeing Rank 2 beast was crushed into the ground by an elder’s powerful strike. Another attempted to climb a cedar tree, only for a disciple’s wind blade to sever the branch under its feet.

Without the demonic cultivator’s will to bind them, the monkey beasts were slaughtered in bundles as they bottlenecked through the area.

One by one, dozens and hundreds are slaughtered. By the time midday arrived, the mountain had grown quiet once more.

The terrifying horde that had cleared two small villages had been brutally shattered in mere seconds.

A few hours later, the exhausted strike unit slowly rushed out from the dark exit of the cave.

Nobody cheered, and nobody raised their weapons in happiness. There was zero victory to celebrate.

When the group finally trekked back to the campsite on the ridge, the cultivators came to a dead halt.

The corpses of the disciples butchered during the dawn ambush still lay frenziedly across the blood-soaked ground.

In grim silence, the remaining survivors began the work of recovering their dead. The friends lifted the mangled bodies of their peers onto white, steel stretchers. The elders wrapped the remains in clean burial shrouds, while those who could still walk supported comrades whose legs were broken.

Even Chen Ming walked with his head bowed, his usual banter replaced by a hollow, lingering silence.

Lin Yuan walked quietly near the rear of the column, his eyes darting over the blood carnage.

The dozens of lives wiped out in a matter of minutes.

They were all driven by a strategic assault. And now, the sickening reality was plain to see.

This had never been an accidental movement of wild beasts. It had been an intentional slaughter, weaponized against the outer settlements and directed straight at the throat of Red Talon Hall.

By twilight, the elegant silhouette of Red Talon Hall appeared through the mountain mist.

The large gates swung open. The moment the bruised disciples crossed the limit, hundreds of inner disciples, medical attendants, and instructors rushed forward to receive them.

The cauldrons of boiling medicinal herbs filled the courtyard with bitter steam, while stretchers were carried in frantic haste toward the medical halls.

The sect grounds, usually filled with lively chatter and training shouts, fell into a calm, suffocating silence.

A single storm of questions hung over every elder’s mind:

’Who was that demonic cultivator?’

’What faction did he belong to?’

’Why does he coordinate a beast tide against Red Talon Hall?’

And resting within Lin Yuan’s chest was a question far more chilling.

Lin Yuan sat alone on the edge of a quiet cobblestone veranda, his back resting against a stone pillar.

His eyes darted downward, staring at his bruised palms. His mind was in a storm of frantical thoughts.

’Noir!’

The word refused to stop echoing in his skull. The demonic cultivator hadn’t called him Lin Yuan. He hadn’t addressed him as a disciple of the Qing Clan, nor as a student of Green Hollow Academy.

The demonic cultivator knows the real name of the soul in Lin Yuan. A name buried in the ashes of a different world. A past identity that should have died alongside his old body in the magic kingdom.

Lin Yuan slowly clenched his fist until his knuckles turned pale. ’How the hell did that bastard know my name?’

His dark eyes narrowed in anger and sheer confusion.

’Was he also transmigrated? Did he belong to the Magic Kingdom? Or is there something tying that world to this one?’

And beneath that mystery there was an even more dangerous realization. ’If he knew who I was... who else out there is looking for the true me?’

Lin Yuan looked out toward the dark, endless mountain ranges stretching beyond the sect walls.

Somewhere in the continent, a dark-robed scout nodded his head with an unknown expression on his face.