Chapter 116: Everything is under control
Everything Is Under Control
Feng Youcai: Be careful down there. We'll come down as quickly as we can.
Lin Ye: There's no need to rush.
As the music stopped, the sleepwalking tourists quickly regained consciousness.
"Where is this?"
"How did we get to the lobby?"
"My head hurts so much. We walked down here ourselves. I wanted to stop but couldn't control my body."
"I think I was the same. That young girl was the one who stopped us."
...
The tourists poured out their experiences in a chaotic chorus. Anyone would be terrified to find themselves uncontrollably dragged downstairs in the middle of the night. "Quiet. We're from the Public Security Bureau. The tour group is connected to some cult, and you were chosen as live sacrifices by the cultists. If you want to make it back alive, follow my instructions and don't cause trouble."
Lin Ye's voice wasn't particularly loud, but under the influence of his powerful mental energy, the panicked tourists and staff gradually calmed down.
"Yang Tao! You led this tour group—you must know those cultists!"
The bus driver suddenly grabbed Yang Tao by the collar and yanked him up from the sofa.
The driver actually knew nothing, but to clear himself of suspicion, he felt he had to do something.
"I don't know! I just joined the company a few days ago. I don't know any cultists!"
Yang Tao explained frantically.
"You're the tour leader. How could you not know anything?"
"Throw him out! He's definitely an inside man for the cultists!"
Some tourists vented their fear aggressively, as if killing Yang Tao would solve all their problems.
"I'll say this one last time—be quiet."
"Yang Tao is just an ordinary guide. The photographer is the actual cultist. I have the situation under control. By tomorrow morning, you'll be riding back to the city."
Lin Ye's steady voice suppressed the rising chaos. The mastermind behind the scenes seemed to be preparing some ritual to summon the tentacle monster, but Lin Ye didn't know the ritual's details, so he needed these people to remain calm.
Although Wang Yao could hypnotize them, maintaining that state would drain her mental energy, and she definitely couldn't keep it up until morning.
Thud!
A masked figure slammed against the hotel's glass door, leaving a crack in the glass.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
One masked figure after another appeared outside the glass door. They shattered the glass door, charged into the hotel, and lunged at the tourists.
Dark green tendrils sprouted from their bodies in large numbers. These tentacles were unusually flexible, as if they were the true entities while the human exteriors were merely clothing.
The tourists screamed in terror, scrambling and crawling toward the elevators.
Lin Ye didn't move. He simply looked at the masked figures as spiritual energy blades stabbed into their backs from behind, shredding the core of their tentacles.
He had already encountered these masked figures once before, and this wasn't a cliffside. Some first-tier creatures with tentacles weren't worth his concern.
As the masked figures fell one by one, the tourists, seeing how easily Lin Ye handled them, stopped panicking and returned to the sofa area.
After all, no one knew if there were monsters upstairs. Staying near Lin Ye was clearly the safest option right now.
Just then, the elevator on one side of the lobby suddenly descended, finally stopping at the first floor.
The elevator doors slowly opened, and a man wrapped in dark green tendrils stepped out.
It was the photographer.
"So you've finally arrived."
Lin Ye turned to face the photographer. The man's previous condition had been somewhat similar to the cave's stone walls—before the tentacles emerged, Lin Ye couldn't perceive what was inside those walls.
So previously, in Lin Ye's perception, he had seemed like an ordinary person. Now that the outer shell was broken, Lin Ye could clearly sense that the other was a third-level spiritual energy user.
"When did you replace the dinner?"
Hou Zhibin felt deeply frustrated. If the tourists had eaten the specially prepared barbecue, under the music's influence, they would have already mutated into monsters and rushed to their respective ritual sites.
"Before the gathering, of course. We replaced a batch of ingredients with fresh ones—yes, exactly the kind from the forest."
Lin Ye said meaningfully.
"How did you know that consuming creatures from there could resist mental pollution?"
Hou Zhibin couldn't figure out where things had gone wrong for their perfect plan to end up like this.
"I know everything. You gave me too much time."
Lin Ye was actually bluffing. He just thought that since these beasts were alive and active, they should be fine.
They say that if bitten by a seven-step snake, you can find the antidote within seven steps. Lin Ye never expected the other side could actually come up with something so brain-dead.
"Those two people upstairs are your colleagues, right? Most of the sacrificial vessels have gone to their location. If you stay here, they're dead for sure."
Hou Zhibin tried to shake Lin Ye's resolve by threatening his teammates' safety.
Wang Yao: Are you guys okay? That photographer said sacrificial vessels are attacking you.
Jiang Yu: We're fine. There are just quite a few monsters. We might not be able to come down to support you for now.
Feng Youcai: Don't mind him. These tentacle monsters are a bit troublesome, but that's all.
"Give it up. I told you—everything is under my control. The moment I boarded that bus, you had already lost."
Lin Ye declared.
"Heh. The ignorance of the fearless."
Hou Zhibin completely disbelieved Lin Ye's arrogant claims.
"Ignorance? Are you talking about the giant monster beneath our feet, or the shoddy ritual you're conducting?"
Lin Ye retorted.
"...You know what's beneath our feet, and you still dare speak to me like this?"
Hou Zhibin wavered, but he found it hard to believe that the other could have uncovered all their arrangements in just one afternoon.
"What's beneath our feet isn't important. What matters is the ritual. As long as your ritual fails, it will remain down there, no different from ordinary earth."
Under normal circumstances, Lin Ye would use his mental energy for subtle manipulations, but today he did nothing. Everything was under control, so he couldn't make any unnecessary moves.
"But you're just a first-level spiritual energy user! I'm a third-level spiritual energy user! If I kill you, the ritual won't fail!"
Hou Zhibin shouted loudly.
"If shouting makes you feel more confident, then shout away. Abandon your fear, face me directly, and die here."
Lin Ye stood calmly in place, slowly raising his right hand to rest on his sword hilt.
"Raaaaaaaah!"
Hou Zhibin roared as he charged at Lin Ye, numerous sharp tendrils shooting from his body like spears toward Lin Ye.
Simultaneously, the corpses of the masked figures twisted and merged into a monster composed entirely of tentacles, silently lunging at Lin Ye's back.
Lin Ye took a deep breath, his eyes fixed on the tentacled photographer charging toward him.
Draw sword.
Shaping, power, speed, severing.
Pouring everything into his still-unpolished Heavy Blow technique.
This was a strike that held nothing back.
Heavy Slash!
Lin Ye's single slash cut the photographer cleanly in half.
The photographer's tentacles stabbed against layer upon layer of rotating spiritual energy shields, failing to cause any damage.
In this battle, Lin Ye didn't evade but chose to confront the third-level spiritual energy user head-on, cleanly killing him with a single strike.
Lin Ye sheathed his sword and turned. The Severing rune inside the twisted tentacle monster activated, slicing it into a pile of minced meat.
As the photographer's corpse hit the ground, Lin Ye looked toward Song Qi, who was hiding among the tourists, and spoke:
"Classmate Song Qi, as I said—everything is under control."