Lin Ye’s gaze shifted downward, landing on the newly acquired P1-stage skill.
【Charged Smash (LV1): Mobilize the strength of your entire body to deliver one devastating heavy blow. The longer the charge time, the greater the power. Maximum charge time: three seconds. Deals 150% damage.】
【Cost: 100 Stamina】
【Cooldown: None】
This was different from a normal attack.
At last, this counted as a true active skill.
Lin Ye let out a long breath.
He glanced at the time. It was ten o’clock at night.
It was about time. He should head to the ruined city to level up.
Lin Ye had always held the most pragmatic attitude toward power.
No matter how impressive the data on the panel looked, it still needed to be tested in actual combat.
The night was black as ink.
Lin Ye changed into a set of black clothes that made movement easier. His figure merged into the darkness like a ghost as he headed once again for the ruined city.
This time, his mindset had not changed at all compared to before.
Although he had become stronger.
And not just by a little.
Lin Ye remained cautious.
This ruined city was still not a place where he called the shots.
Before long, near the ruins of a collapsed factory, he discovered a group of mutated creatures gnawing on something.
It was a pack of mutated hyenas.
Four in total, each one at LV7.
If this had been a day ago, and Lin Ye had encountered this situation, his only choice would have been to retreat immediately, then find a way to lure them out one by one and kill them separately.
But now.
A thought arose in Lin Ye’s heart.
He wanted to test whether, under the influence of the 【Crushing】 mechanism,
he could improve his leveling efficiency a little.
Kill all four at once!
Lin Ye took out the medicine bottle he carried with him.
The two Bloodburst Pills inside the bottle were his confidence.
If things went wrong, they would be his final trump card.
“Wu…”
Almost the instant he appeared, the four mutated hyenas that had been frantically tearing at the rotting flesh suddenly froze.
They raised their heads at the same time. Four pairs of beastly eyes, flickering with a sinister green light in the darkness, locked onto Lin Ye in unison.
A tense atmosphere spread through the air.
However, the expected roars and pounces did not occur.
The four LV7 mutated hyenas let out uneasy growls from their throats. Their bodies subconsciously crouched low, their muscles tensing, as they actually assumed a defensive posture.
Lin Ye did not stop walking.
What he did not know was that as he approached step by step, a pressure originating from the level of life itself spread outward like a tide.
The 【Crushing】 mechanism had taken effect!
The ferocity and greed in the four mutated hyenas’ eyes were rapidly fading, replaced by an ever-thickening fear and agitation.
Finally, when Lin Ye was less than ten meters away from them,
one of the slightly smaller mutated hyenas was the first to have its mental defenses collapse.
It let out a warning-like whimper, tucked its tail between its legs, and prepared to flee!
Once one hyena lost its nerve, it was like knocking over the first domino.
The other three instantly lost all will to fight as well. They scattered like startled birds and beasts, intending to flee in different directions.
Lin Ye’s heart filled with joy.
These mutated creatures were almost all frenzied and bloodthirsty by nature.
In the past, even if they saw a human like him whose aura was stronger than theirs, let alone four of them,
even a single one would have lunged forward, wanting to kill him.
Running away was absolutely impossible for them.
But now, they actually had no will to fight at all and only wanted to escape.
That made things much easier.
Lin Ye exerted strength through both legs, and his entire body instantly turned into a straight black line as he chased after the closest one!
The speed brought by his soaring Agility attribute allowed him to catch up to that hyena in just two short seconds.
The long staff in his hand came smashing down in a simple, direct vertical chop!
Lin Ye discovered that as he drew closer, the effect of Crushing grew stronger as well.
That hyena’s speed actually slowed, as if it had been scared out of its wits.
Pfft!
The long staff slammed solidly into its back.
It directly smashed it into a pulp of flesh!
Instant kill!
Lin Ye did not stop. His figure turned, chasing after the second target.
The entire process was smooth and flowing, without the slightest hesitation or delay.
In less than half a minute,
all four LV7 mutated hyenas had been converted into numbers on his experience bar.
Lin Ye stood where he was, feeling his experience value rise, and a trace of excitement surged in his heart.
It seemed that in the future, when facing mutated creatures lower in level than himself, he could try pulling groups of monsters and killing them together to improve efficiency.
But when it came to monsters at the same level as him, or higher,
Lin Ye still decided to maintain his original caution.
He continued deeper in.
This time, he no longer deliberately looked for lone prey, but headed directly toward areas where the auras of mutated creatures were dense.
Very soon, he found a new test subject.
A LV8 mutated giant bear, the same level as him, was snoring away in a pit below him.
This giant bear had thick skin and tough flesh. At a glance, it was clearly a strength-and-defense-type monster.
The 【Crushing】 mechanism was ineffective against it.
Lin Ye did not rush to attack. He bent his legs slightly, lowered his center of gravity, and gripped the alloy long staff tightly with both hands, raising it high above his head.
【Heavy Staff Form】!
At the same time, he also activated 【Charged Smash】!
Encountering this kind of mutated beast, almost completely unguarded and asleep, was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to test the power of this skill.
Buzz!
A stream of air visible to the naked eye began to gather wildly around his long staff!
The ground beneath his feet started to give way under this force, cracking inch by inch!
The mutated giant bear below was extremely alert.
Even this faint disturbance caused it to wake abruptly from its dream.
It raised its head and saw the human above.
“Roar—!”
The giant bear reared up like a man, letting out a heaven-shaking roar. Then it took heavy strides and charged fiercely toward Lin Ye!
Fortunately, Lin Ye’s Charged Smash only required three seconds for a full charge.
In a life-and-death battle between martial artists, those three seconds might never be given to him.
But this mutated giant bear was clearly a simple-minded creature.
It had no thought of dodging at all. Instead, it pushed off with all four limbs, opened its bloody maw wide, and bit toward Lin Ye.
Charge complete!
Now!
Every muscle in Lin Ye’s body instantly tensed to the limit. His arms erupted with strength, and the long staff that had gathered all of his power came chopping down with ferocious force!
Dong—!!!
An incomparably muffled impact rang out.
Terrifying power smashed down upon the mutated giant bear’s hard skull like a force sweeping through rotten wood!
Amid the dull sound of bone cracking, that huge bear head burst apart on the spot like a watermelon smashed by an iron hammer!
Red and white splattered all over the ground.
The giant bear’s enormous body seemed to have been struck by an invisible giant hammer and suddenly plunged downward.
Boom—!!
It was directly smashed into the ground, turning into a blurred mass of blood and flesh!
Although it had been a sneak attack, instantly killing a mutated beast of the same level, one known for high defense and thick health, still gave Lin Ye an extremely powerful sense of impact.
Heavy Staff Form already came with its own damage bonus.
Stacked on top of that was the additional damage from Charged Smash.
This one strike was currently Lin Ye’s strongest attack.
With 【Crushing】 added on top, now that he had these two divine skills, his leveling efficiency would rise to an unprecedented height.
Over the next few hours,
any mutated beast below LV8 was almost unable to last even a single exchange before him.
As for those at the same level, even without using sneak attacks, Lin Ye could create distance, then use the brief opening when he drew in their attacks to finish charging.
Then, with his extremely high damage, he would either instantly kill the target or cripple it until only a sliver of health remained.
Even though, because of his cultivation method, Lin Ye currently gained only half the experience from killing monsters,
his experience value was still rising rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Compared to before, the efficiency was on a completely different level.
Asking for monthly tickets~!
Thank you to the brothers who have followed along this far. I post one chapter every morning and one chapter every evening, rain or shine. During the new book period, I need all you dear readers to take care of it, so I humbly ask you to keep following~!