Chapter 33: The Hidden Pattern Data
The convoy drove through the south gate of the bastion just as dusk began to fall.
After the sentry post at the city gate verified the squad's identities, supplies, and combat records, the vehicles drove all the way to the underground data building of the war zone command center. The storage chip recovered from this mission was sealed in a metal box shielded against psychic interference and personally delivered to the research institute's laboratory by Instructor Zhou. Lin Yan and the others followed behind, waiting for the procedural registration to conclude the mission.
In the research institute's laboratory, the original records left on the number three beacon were quickly pulled up on the holographic screen. Waves of varying lengths rose and fell on the screen, representing the continuous psychic signals captured in this area over a period of time.
Several researchers gathered around the screen, their fingers constantly dragging the progress bar as their expressions grew increasingly grave.
"Look here, more than ten hours before the beacon was destroyed by the scaled beasts," a female researcher pointed to a faint signal hidden beneath the chaotic waves. "There has been a set of regular psychic pulses at the base layer. It's not the scattered, frenzied stings of low-level scaled beasts, nor is it the heavy, continuous pressure of a third-tier scaled beast. It is extremely stable, with a fixed interval cycle, like a form of signal transmission."
Instructor Zhou frowned slightly. "Could it be interference noise caused by geological disturbances? Or spurious waves generated by a circuit malfunction in the beacon itself?"
"We have already eliminated the equipment's own background noise and compared it with all past geological records of the Black Mountain area," a male researcher beside him shook his head. "The fluctuations of geological disturbances are chaotic, but this set of pulses has a clear rhythm. However, the signal strength is too low, mixed in with the psychic fluctuations of the scaled beasts, and it wasn't noticed in the data from previous patrols. It was only because the number three beacon was collecting data at a fixed point for a long time this time that we managed to catch it."
"Can we determine the source of the signal?"
"Not for now. The signal is buried deep underground; the beacon can only capture the residual fluctuations that overflow, and cannot pinpoint the location." The female researcher saved and archived this waveform separately. "We can only label it as an unknown anomalous psychic pulse and include it in risk monitoring. There is currently not enough evidence to support any conjecture. The external report will still be submitted as a record of scaled beast swarm activity."
No one associated it with the direction of an intelligent subterranean race. Within humanity's existing cognitive framework, there were only scaled beasts beneath this earth. This communication pulse from the Lizardmen's nest could only be marked as a bizarre piece of unexplainable data, lying quietly in the depths of the database. The truth remained buried beneath the thick rock layers.
After the mission was registered, the squad was dismissed.
Lin Yan returned to his barracks alone. The sky had completely darkened, and the lights in the bastion city lit up one by one. The footsteps of patrolling soldiers on the streets and the faint sound of energy rifles test-firing from the distant training hall intertwined to form the never-ending background noise of this city of war.
He closed the door to his dormitory, took off his gear, sat quietly on the edge of the bed, and closed his eyes to turn his awareness inward. Several shallow new cracks had been added to the pale white barrier, but they were only surface-level damage and would slowly heal after a period of rest. The core of his Sea of Consciousness remained stable, firmly stuck at the second-tier peak, without any signs of a breakthrough.
He began to review the battle from the beacon retrieval during the day.
The pincering attacks from the two waves of low-level scaled beasts, and the layer of psychic pressure cast over the entire field by the third-tier scaled beast in the distance. During the day on the battlefield, his attention had to be focused on positioning, shooting, and keeping watch; there was no time to carefully experience it. Now, in the quiet, he slowly sorted out the changes in his Sea of Consciousness at that time: when multiple psychic impacts attacked simultaneously, how to arrange layered defenses, letting the outer barrier absorb the stings while keeping the core completely still, and only extending fine tentacles to continuously detect distant anomalies.
This was a practical combat experience that the training ground simulations could not replicate.
Early the next morning, Lin Yan went to the war zone's Sea of Consciousness training hall as usual. Today, he did not practice resisting high-intensity psychic impacts. Instead, he specifically pulled up the battlefield records from this mission and used the training device to recreate the environment of overlapping psychic signals at that time.
On the instrument's screen, it simultaneously simulated the dense stings of low-level scaled beasts, the long-range pressure of the third-tier scaled beast in the distance, and even mixed in a faint, regular pulse similar to the one discovered yesterday.
Lin Yan tried to extend his fine mental tentacles, attempting to distinguish the characteristics of each type of fluctuation amidst the multiple mixed signals.
At first, the faint, regular pulse was easily masked by the frenzied psychic signals of the scaled beasts. After practicing repeatedly dozens of times, he slowly learned to strip away the noisy interference and capture that steady rhythm beneath.
"Not bad. You know how to distinguish different signals within a composite psychic field," the instructor in charge of training said, standing behind him and watching the screen. "Many cultivators only know how to endure impacts, but they don't know how to distinguish signals. On the battlefield, identifying signals can often save your life better than simply enduring impacts head-on."
Lin Yan opened his eyes and nodded slightly. "It was just an accidental catch; it's very difficult to pinpoint the source."
"The entire war zone research institute hasn't figured out what this type of base-layer pulse is yet," the instructor said indifferently. "All we need to remember is that the Black Mountain rift area is far more dangerous than the reports indicate. Continue to solidify your foundation, and don't rush to force a breakthrough of the bottleneck."
After the training ended, Lin Yan did not return to his dormitory immediately. He walked to the reading area of the training hall and flipped through the recent monitoring briefings of the Black Mountain rift. The briefings did not mention that mysterious pulse at all; they only noted that the frequency of scaled beast activity was rising.
Next to the briefings were the combat notes from previous soldiers, mostly心得 (insights) recorded by frontline veterans on fighting against the psychic attacks of scaled beasts. Lin Yan sat in the corner, flipping through them page by page, silently committing the useful points to memory.
When he returned to his dormitory in the evening, he practiced his ancient martial arts breathing techniques as usual. The breath slowly circulated within his body, soothing his physical exhaustion and calming his mind. This ancient martial art could not directly elevate his Sea of Consciousness tier, but it allowed him to hold onto his true heart and prevent a mental collapse when遭受 (suffering) severe psychic impacts. It was a reliance that belonged solely to him.
The days once again entered a period of peaceful rest.
All members of the squad were on standby, waiting for the war zone to issue new orders at any time. Everything in the bastion was as usual; the training hall was still bustling with people, and the field hospital continuously received wounded from the frontline. On the large screen in the command center, the curve of psychic fluctuations in the Black Mountain rift was still slowly climbing upward.
Deep underground, the Lizardmen were aggregating and analyzing the Sea of Consciousness data of human warriors collected through the scaled beasts. They had already witnessed the human Sea of Consciousness cultivation system and were evaluating the upper limit of the surface warriors' defenses. A larger-scale mobilization of scaled beast swarms was being quietly prepared within the dark rift network.
End of Chapter
After the sentry post at the city gate verified the squad's identities, supplies, and combat records, the vehicles drove all the way to the underground data building of the war zone command center. The storage chip recovered from this mission was sealed in a metal box shielded against psychic interference and personally delivered to the research institute's laboratory by Instructor Zhou. Lin Yan and the others followed behind, waiting for the procedural registration to conclude the mission.
In the research institute's laboratory, the original records left on the number three beacon were quickly pulled up on the holographic screen. Waves of varying lengths rose and fell on the screen, representing the continuous psychic signals captured in this area over a period of time.
Several researchers gathered around the screen, their fingers constantly dragging the progress bar as their expressions grew increasingly grave.
"Look here, more than ten hours before the beacon was destroyed by the scaled beasts," a female researcher pointed to a faint signal hidden beneath the chaotic waves. "There has been a set of regular psychic pulses at the base layer. It's not the scattered, frenzied stings of low-level scaled beasts, nor is it the heavy, continuous pressure of a third-tier scaled beast. It is extremely stable, with a fixed interval cycle, like a form of signal transmission."
Instructor Zhou frowned slightly. "Could it be interference noise caused by geological disturbances? Or spurious waves generated by a circuit malfunction in the beacon itself?"
"We have already eliminated the equipment's own background noise and compared it with all past geological records of the Black Mountain area," a male researcher beside him shook his head. "The fluctuations of geological disturbances are chaotic, but this set of pulses has a clear rhythm. However, the signal strength is too low, mixed in with the psychic fluctuations of the scaled beasts, and it wasn't noticed in the data from previous patrols. It was only because the number three beacon was collecting data at a fixed point for a long time this time that we managed to catch it."
"Can we determine the source of the signal?"
"Not for now. The signal is buried deep underground; the beacon can only capture the residual fluctuations that overflow, and cannot pinpoint the location." The female researcher saved and archived this waveform separately. "We can only label it as an unknown anomalous psychic pulse and include it in risk monitoring. There is currently not enough evidence to support any conjecture. The external report will still be submitted as a record of scaled beast swarm activity."
No one associated it with the direction of an intelligent subterranean race. Within humanity's existing cognitive framework, there were only scaled beasts beneath this earth. This communication pulse from the Lizardmen's nest could only be marked as a bizarre piece of unexplainable data, lying quietly in the depths of the database. The truth remained buried beneath the thick rock layers.
After the mission was registered, the squad was dismissed.
Lin Yan returned to his barracks alone. The sky had completely darkened, and the lights in the bastion city lit up one by one. The footsteps of patrolling soldiers on the streets and the faint sound of energy rifles test-firing from the distant training hall intertwined to form the never-ending background noise of this city of war.
He closed the door to his dormitory, took off his gear, sat quietly on the edge of the bed, and closed his eyes to turn his awareness inward. Several shallow new cracks had been added to the pale white barrier, but they were only surface-level damage and would slowly heal after a period of rest. The core of his Sea of Consciousness remained stable, firmly stuck at the second-tier peak, without any signs of a breakthrough.
He began to review the battle from the beacon retrieval during the day.
The pincering attacks from the two waves of low-level scaled beasts, and the layer of psychic pressure cast over the entire field by the third-tier scaled beast in the distance. During the day on the battlefield, his attention had to be focused on positioning, shooting, and keeping watch; there was no time to carefully experience it. Now, in the quiet, he slowly sorted out the changes in his Sea of Consciousness at that time: when multiple psychic impacts attacked simultaneously, how to arrange layered defenses, letting the outer barrier absorb the stings while keeping the core completely still, and only extending fine tentacles to continuously detect distant anomalies.
This was a practical combat experience that the training ground simulations could not replicate.
Early the next morning, Lin Yan went to the war zone's Sea of Consciousness training hall as usual. Today, he did not practice resisting high-intensity psychic impacts. Instead, he specifically pulled up the battlefield records from this mission and used the training device to recreate the environment of overlapping psychic signals at that time.
On the instrument's screen, it simultaneously simulated the dense stings of low-level scaled beasts, the long-range pressure of the third-tier scaled beast in the distance, and even mixed in a faint, regular pulse similar to the one discovered yesterday.
Lin Yan tried to extend his fine mental tentacles, attempting to distinguish the characteristics of each type of fluctuation amidst the multiple mixed signals.
At first, the faint, regular pulse was easily masked by the frenzied psychic signals of the scaled beasts. After practicing repeatedly dozens of times, he slowly learned to strip away the noisy interference and capture that steady rhythm beneath.
"Not bad. You know how to distinguish different signals within a composite psychic field," the instructor in charge of training said, standing behind him and watching the screen. "Many cultivators only know how to endure impacts, but they don't know how to distinguish signals. On the battlefield, identifying signals can often save your life better than simply enduring impacts head-on."
Lin Yan opened his eyes and nodded slightly. "It was just an accidental catch; it's very difficult to pinpoint the source."
"The entire war zone research institute hasn't figured out what this type of base-layer pulse is yet," the instructor said indifferently. "All we need to remember is that the Black Mountain rift area is far more dangerous than the reports indicate. Continue to solidify your foundation, and don't rush to force a breakthrough of the bottleneck."
After the training ended, Lin Yan did not return to his dormitory immediately. He walked to the reading area of the training hall and flipped through the recent monitoring briefings of the Black Mountain rift. The briefings did not mention that mysterious pulse at all; they only noted that the frequency of scaled beast activity was rising.
Next to the briefings were the combat notes from previous soldiers, mostly心得 (insights) recorded by frontline veterans on fighting against the psychic attacks of scaled beasts. Lin Yan sat in the corner, flipping through them page by page, silently committing the useful points to memory.
When he returned to his dormitory in the evening, he practiced his ancient martial arts breathing techniques as usual. The breath slowly circulated within his body, soothing his physical exhaustion and calming his mind. This ancient martial art could not directly elevate his Sea of Consciousness tier, but it allowed him to hold onto his true heart and prevent a mental collapse when遭受 (suffering) severe psychic impacts. It was a reliance that belonged solely to him.
The days once again entered a period of peaceful rest.
All members of the squad were on standby, waiting for the war zone to issue new orders at any time. Everything in the bastion was as usual; the training hall was still bustling with people, and the field hospital continuously received wounded from the frontline. On the large screen in the command center, the curve of psychic fluctuations in the Black Mountain rift was still slowly climbing upward.
Deep underground, the Lizardmen were aggregating and analyzing the Sea of Consciousness data of human warriors collected through the scaled beasts. They had already witnessed the human Sea of Consciousness cultivation system and were evaluating the upper limit of the surface warriors' defenses. A larger-scale mobilization of scaled beast swarms was being quietly prepared within the dark rift network.
End of Chapter