Chapter 396

Hu Min was his only remaining family.

Hu Zhilong had truly been terrified back then!

After assisting Heiyu in abducting batch after batch of civilians, Hu Zhiqiang had also felt guilt.

But it was this guilt, and his worry for his daughter, that gradually dragged him down…

Rather than a confession, this was more like Hu Zhiqiang's inner monologue.

Su Yang grew increasingly agitated as he read.

He couldn't help but put himself in Hu Zhiqiang's place, thinking of his sister and mother.

The two people who were his only family!

The more he thought, the more agitated he became!

Su Yang had almost no memory of his father, grandfather, or grandmother.

His mother, Zhang Xiuru, was an orphan, adopted by his grandparents, with something of the feel of a child bride.

His father and grandmother died in a beast surge.

As for his grandfather, it was said he passed away suddenly, around forty years old.

But this was normal.

The average lifespan of civilians in this world was never high.

In just a few short years, Su Yang had personally witnessed two cities overrun by beasts.

Su Yang had seen Southwest Military Department data: two hundred years ago, it governed six hundred sixty-seven cities.

One hundred years ago, the number had dropped to three hundred sixteen.

Now, the Southwest Military Department held only two hundred seventy-some cities.

From the decline in city count, humanity had at least stabilized the situation!

Su Yang had once considered becoming a free-roaming wilderness wanderer.

But after joining the military for a while, he suddenly felt it wasn't so bad to stay within the military.

As long as he remained in the military, the Southwest Military Department would protect his family well.

The powerful Southwest Military Department was a decent shield.

Since becoming a member of the Emergency Unit, he had always been the one provoking others—no one dared provoke him!

So what if it was the Treasure Pavilion?

Hadn't he blasted it three times?

He could take missions in the military, and when there were no missions, he could still go out to hunt beasts and level up!

When he needed rare pet beasts, he could even raid the Southwest Military Department's storerooms…

He admitted that Su Su Liqun, Zhu Zhu Xiaoshuang, Yao Xing, and Qin Qin Pengcheng had deeply influenced him.

But these were all seniors he respected!

Without these seniors, the entire Southwest region might have descended into chaos!

It was thanks to them that countless cities in the Southwest had withstood wave after wave of beast assaults!

Su Yang also endorsed their beliefs.

The belief of a soldier!

The belief of a human Beast Tamer!

Su Yang believed there were certainly more than just him who held this philosophy.

It was precisely people like them who upheld the entire Southwest region, the entire Huaxia Federation.

Thinking of this, Su Yang suddenly felt lighter.

He put away the confession, straightened his military uniform, and was just about to close his eyes when he heard the system prompt:

"Ding~ Host successfully eradicated the Heiyu organization and its peripheral forces, including affiliated personnel. Mission completed!"

"Ding~ Mission reward: Randomly upgrade one pet's talent by one level, and learn a new skill."

Su Yang carefully considered his five pet beasts, and ultimately chose the Seven-Colored Illusionary Butterfly.

The Void Wandering Spirit had exceptional aptitude for "Spatial Distortion," its talent already at God-Rank Low-Grade.

What now limited the Void Wandering Spirit's potential was still its level.

The Seven-Colored Illusionary Butterfly was highly capable, its mental-type skills extremely powerful and widely applicable!

Unfortunately, its foundation was too weak, its innate potential insufficient, and without the generous treatment of a Great Earth Bear, its growth potential had never reached God-Rank.

The Seven-Colored Illusionary Butterfly had an excellent temperament—quiet, unobtrusive, never demanding, never arguing, always working silently, never disobeying Su Yang's orders.

Sometimes Su Yang felt he had wronged it.

"Seven-Colored Illusionary Butterfly!"

"Ding~ Your pet Seven-Colored Illusionary Butterfly's Common-Level Mental Surge talent has been upgraded to Rare-Level Mental Surge talent!"

"Ding~ Your pet Seven-Colored Illusionary Butterfly's growth potential has been upgraded from Sovereign-Rank Low-Grade to Sovereign-Rank Mid-Grade!"

"Ding~ Your pet Seven-Colored Illusionary Butterfly has learned the skill—Memory Absorption!"

Upon hearing the Seven-Colored Illusionary Butterfly had learned this ability, Su Yang's eyes lit up.

Memory reading—a support skill—was also quite powerful!

He'd heard there were experts in Changwu City who could read memories.

But soon, Su Yang realized this wasn't memory reading—it was memory absorption!

Was there a difference?

Su Yang immediately opened the skill description.

Memory Absorption: After consuming an enemy's brain matter, this pet can briefly extract and search for useful memories, ignoring all memory-locking techniques; if the enemy dies, there is still a chance to extract partial memories—this skill no longer applies once all brain cells are dead.

It really is memory "suction"!

It's truly sucking!

Just by reading the skill description, Su Yang realized this skill was both bizarre and exceptionally powerful!

The bizarre part, of course, was its ability to suck out the enemy's brain matter.

Brutal beyond measure!

Once used, the opponent would be dead beyond any chance of revival!

Su Yang had seen the effects of psychic-type beasts' skills in books.

If most beasts skilled in memory retrieval were like thieves, using their superior lock-picking skills to open others' memory doors,

then the Seven-Colored Illusory Butterfly's "Memory Suction" skill was outright a knife-wielding bandit!

It simply smashed open the enemy's skull and stormed right in…

Yet the advantages of "Memory Suction" were also very clear!

Its first major advantage was that it could ignore psychic barriers imposed by psychic experts!

Last time in Nanyucheng, Su Yang captured two Shoushen Sect followers.

The memories of those two Shoushen Sect followers had been sealed by Shoushen Sect experts.

This caused the Nanyucheng governor to fail in extracting Shoushen Sect secrets, forcing him to send the captives to Wucheng!

Its second major advantage was that even if the enemy was dead, as long as they hadn't been dead long, the Seven-Colored Illusory Butterfly could still retrieve partial memories.

This effect was equally powerful!

For ordinary psychic-type beasts, memory retrieval was impossible once the target was dead!

Its third major advantage was its rapid memory retrieval speed!

Normally, retrieving memories was a time-consuming process.

After all, every creature's brain stored vast amounts of useless memories, yet the Seven-Colored Illusory Butterfly could search through them swiftly…

At critical moments, this intelligence-gathering ability was especially vital!