Chapter 42: Shadows Beneath the Undercurrents
The lingering tremors of the artillery bombardment slowly dissipated as the漫天 (billowing) dust and shattered scales drifted back to the ground. Across the wilderness, the dense corpses of the scaled beasts were piled in layers. Dark green blood pooled into thin streams, soaking into the scorched earth. The pungent stench of rotting blood rode the night wind, sweeping across the entire trench and leaving everyone feeling a stifling tightness in their chests.
A round of desperate, bloody fighting had come to an end, yet there was not a hint of the relaxation that accompanies victory.
The third-tier scaled beast, severely wounded by the heavy artillery fire, dragged its shattered scales and bleeding, massive body step by step into the darkness at the edge of the rift. It did not flee in a panic; every step was steady and orderly. Although its heavy psychic pressure had diminished, it continued to steadily envelop the western defense line, never fully dissipating.
The other third-tier scaled beast, completely unharmed, still stood behind the beast swarm. Its pitch-black vertical pupils locked firmly onto the human trenches, continuously releasing fragmented psychic pulses to coordinate the remaining low-level scaled beasts, making them patrol and linger along the front lines of the battlefield.
They were reorganizing their formation.
This was not the chaotic, instinctual gathering of mutant beasts. It was a highly methodical tactical withdrawal and zoned defense. They even deliberately left scattered scaled beasts lingering in the blind spots of the artillery fire to constrain human vision and firepower.
Within the trenches, a dead silence spread.
No one relaxed; no one dared to catch their breath. Having endured several waves of the beast tide, everyone had vaguely sensed that something was wrong, yet no one dared to, nor could they, tear through that eerie veil of mystery.
"Something's wrong. It's too wrong."
Old Chen slowly sat down against the steel plate cover, tearing off his blood-stained gloves. His fingertips were white from being clenched too tightly. Staring at the two towering, colossal silhouettes in the distant darkness, his voice was kept extremely low, carrying an undeniable gravity.
"In the past, third-tier scaled beasts were fierce and reckless. If they couldn't win, they fled; if they were wounded, they went berserk. But these two? Wounded but not routed, at a disadvantage but not chaotic. They understand division of labor, alternating cover, and even trading casualties for positional advantage."
Su Qing squatted nearby, quickly changing her magazine. Her movements were crisp, but it was hard to hide her mental exhaustion. She looked up toward the rift and softly echoed, "It's as if... they always know exactly where we are weakest. The moment a gap appears in our lines, the beast swarm pounces precisely. The moment we concentrate our firepower, they immediately retreat to evade. This is nothing like a beast's intuition."
Instructor Zhou stood at the top of the trench, his heavy gaze sweeping across the entire battlefield. His fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness maintained a minimum level of vigilance. Having seen countless beast tides over the twenty years since the catastrophe, he had witnessed frenzied charges and panicked routs, but he had never seen such a calm, precise orchestration of a beast swarm.
"The war zone reports universally classify this as a species evolution of high-tier scaled beasts," Instructor Zhou murmured, though his tone carried a hesitation that betrayed his own disbelief. "But I've guarded the frontline for five years. This is the first time I've seen a scaled beast swarm that knows how to kite, how to wage a war of attrition, and how to precisely exploit human flaws."
Everyone was filled with doubts, yet no one had the answer.
For in the entire cognitive framework of human bastions, the concept of a "subterranean intelligent race" simply did not exist.
Scaled beasts were supposed to be savage, ignorant subterranean mutants that fought purely on instinct. All the current anomalies could only be forcibly attributed to species mutation or evolutionary leaps. Even if the logic was far-fetched, there was no other explanation.
Only Lin Yan, standing in the shadows on the left flank of the trench, had sunk his mind to its absolute depths.
He was in no rush to regulate his breathing to repair his Sea of Consciousness, nor did he check his ammunition. He merely lowered his gaze slightly, allowing a few hair-thin mental tentacles to quietly press against the ground and extend downward into the earth.
The second-tier peak Sea of Consciousness barrier was covered in spiderweb-like cracks, and the surface was riddled with contusions. Every minute psychic fluctuation brought a dull ache to his skull. But he forcibly suppressed the discomfort, focusing entirely on capturing that faint anomaly hidden beneath the battlefield, buried within the frenzied consciousness of the scaled beasts.
Frenzy, chaos, and bloodlust were the mental undertones of all low-level scaled beasts.
Heaviness, coldness, and ferocity were the mental signatures of the third-tier scaled beasts.
Yet, buried at the very bottom of these two layers of chaotic psychic fluctuations was a thread of an extremely faint, incredibly stable, and profoundly calm rhythmic signal.
It did not fight, it did not agitate, and it did not release pressure. It merely silently linked the consciousness of all the scaled beasts, wordlessly issuing commands to advance, retreat, encircle, and contain.
This will possessed no animalistic nature; it held only absolute rationality and calculation.
Lin Yan's heart sank slightly.
He had finally pinpointed the source of the dissonance that had permeated the entire battle.
The previous ambushes, tailing, probing, the gradient attacks of the three beast tide waves, the precise formation kiting in this round, the tactical retreat after sustaining injuries... none of this was the individual wisdom of a third-tier scaled beast.
There was something in the unseen darkness, controlling, planning, and calculating the entire war from start to finish.
Hidden deep within the rift, beneath the rock layers, it observed the human defense line's every maneuver, every flaw, and every casualty with cold indifference from a thousand meters underground. The scaled beasts were merely its eyes and ears, its claws and fangs, its chess pieces.
But Lin Yan had no evidence. He could not see the source, perceive its form, or even determine the true nature of this will.
He could only press this earth-shattering doubt deep into the bottom of his heart.
Currently, he was merely a second-tier peak new recruit, insignificant and unheard. Even if he voiced his conjecture, it would be dismissed as an illusion caused by mental overdraft. No one would believe him; no one would take it seriously.
"Don't overthink it." Instructor Zhou noticed the grave expressions of the few and spoke in a deep voice. "No matter how they mutate or evolve, our mission remains the same—hold the defense line. Overthinking is useless and will only disturb our minds."
The others responded, reining in their thoughts and quickly entering a pre-battle rest state.
Medics shuttled through the trenches, prioritizing the treatment of the severely wounded and distributing stabilizing agents to warriors with Sea of Consciousness contusions. As the pale white agents slid down their throats, the cool sensation spread, slightly soothing the restless stinging of the Sea of Consciousness.
Lin Yan took an agent and drank it, closing his eyes to regulate his breathing.
The ancient martial arts breathing techniques slowly circulated, with long, steady breaths flowing through his body, repairing the damaged Sea of Consciousness barrier bit by bit. The cracks slowly closed, and his overdrafted mind gradually stabilized. The bottleneck of the second-tier peak remained as solid as a mountain, without the slightest sign of loosening.
He still had not broken through.
But with every direct confrontation against this invisible manipulation from behind the scenes, every time he withstood the precise psychic suppression, and every time he held onto his true self in the face of绝境 (desperation), his Sea of Consciousness foundation, mental resilience, and battlefield judgment were silently undergoing a metamorphosis.
While other warriors were fighting the beast tide, he was fighting the unseen, cold will beneath the beast tide.
The brief tranquility did not last long.
In the darkness of the distant Black Mountain main rift, the subterranean psychic rhythm quietly shifted.
The low-level scaled beasts, which had previously been wandering and probing in a scattered manner, instantly ceased all试探 (probing) actions. They turned their heads in unison, their gazes locking dead onto the human trenches. The psychic pressure of the two third-tier scaled beasts spread out once again, one on the left and one on the right. One was hard and one soft; one suppressed and one disrupted, forming a perfect encirclement.
That calm will, hidden in the deepest recesses, had finished its rest and reorganization, issuing a new offensive command.
"Full alert!" Instructor Zhou instantly detected the anomaly and roared fiercely. "The second wave of the general offensive is coming!"
The earth trembled once again. Across the dark wilderness, countless black silhouettes of scaled beasts surged forth, regrouping like a tide, launching a new wave of crushing charges toward the blood-soaked human trenches.
The bloody battle on the surface raged on, while the undercurrents surged violently beneath the earth.
Humanity remained ignorant. Their true opponent had long since woven an inescapable web in the darkness.
A round of desperate, bloody fighting had come to an end, yet there was not a hint of the relaxation that accompanies victory.
The third-tier scaled beast, severely wounded by the heavy artillery fire, dragged its shattered scales and bleeding, massive body step by step into the darkness at the edge of the rift. It did not flee in a panic; every step was steady and orderly. Although its heavy psychic pressure had diminished, it continued to steadily envelop the western defense line, never fully dissipating.
The other third-tier scaled beast, completely unharmed, still stood behind the beast swarm. Its pitch-black vertical pupils locked firmly onto the human trenches, continuously releasing fragmented psychic pulses to coordinate the remaining low-level scaled beasts, making them patrol and linger along the front lines of the battlefield.
They were reorganizing their formation.
This was not the chaotic, instinctual gathering of mutant beasts. It was a highly methodical tactical withdrawal and zoned defense. They even deliberately left scattered scaled beasts lingering in the blind spots of the artillery fire to constrain human vision and firepower.
Within the trenches, a dead silence spread.
No one relaxed; no one dared to catch their breath. Having endured several waves of the beast tide, everyone had vaguely sensed that something was wrong, yet no one dared to, nor could they, tear through that eerie veil of mystery.
"Something's wrong. It's too wrong."
Old Chen slowly sat down against the steel plate cover, tearing off his blood-stained gloves. His fingertips were white from being clenched too tightly. Staring at the two towering, colossal silhouettes in the distant darkness, his voice was kept extremely low, carrying an undeniable gravity.
"In the past, third-tier scaled beasts were fierce and reckless. If they couldn't win, they fled; if they were wounded, they went berserk. But these two? Wounded but not routed, at a disadvantage but not chaotic. They understand division of labor, alternating cover, and even trading casualties for positional advantage."
Su Qing squatted nearby, quickly changing her magazine. Her movements were crisp, but it was hard to hide her mental exhaustion. She looked up toward the rift and softly echoed, "It's as if... they always know exactly where we are weakest. The moment a gap appears in our lines, the beast swarm pounces precisely. The moment we concentrate our firepower, they immediately retreat to evade. This is nothing like a beast's intuition."
Instructor Zhou stood at the top of the trench, his heavy gaze sweeping across the entire battlefield. His fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness maintained a minimum level of vigilance. Having seen countless beast tides over the twenty years since the catastrophe, he had witnessed frenzied charges and panicked routs, but he had never seen such a calm, precise orchestration of a beast swarm.
"The war zone reports universally classify this as a species evolution of high-tier scaled beasts," Instructor Zhou murmured, though his tone carried a hesitation that betrayed his own disbelief. "But I've guarded the frontline for five years. This is the first time I've seen a scaled beast swarm that knows how to kite, how to wage a war of attrition, and how to precisely exploit human flaws."
Everyone was filled with doubts, yet no one had the answer.
For in the entire cognitive framework of human bastions, the concept of a "subterranean intelligent race" simply did not exist.
Scaled beasts were supposed to be savage, ignorant subterranean mutants that fought purely on instinct. All the current anomalies could only be forcibly attributed to species mutation or evolutionary leaps. Even if the logic was far-fetched, there was no other explanation.
Only Lin Yan, standing in the shadows on the left flank of the trench, had sunk his mind to its absolute depths.
He was in no rush to regulate his breathing to repair his Sea of Consciousness, nor did he check his ammunition. He merely lowered his gaze slightly, allowing a few hair-thin mental tentacles to quietly press against the ground and extend downward into the earth.
The second-tier peak Sea of Consciousness barrier was covered in spiderweb-like cracks, and the surface was riddled with contusions. Every minute psychic fluctuation brought a dull ache to his skull. But he forcibly suppressed the discomfort, focusing entirely on capturing that faint anomaly hidden beneath the battlefield, buried within the frenzied consciousness of the scaled beasts.
Frenzy, chaos, and bloodlust were the mental undertones of all low-level scaled beasts.
Heaviness, coldness, and ferocity were the mental signatures of the third-tier scaled beasts.
Yet, buried at the very bottom of these two layers of chaotic psychic fluctuations was a thread of an extremely faint, incredibly stable, and profoundly calm rhythmic signal.
It did not fight, it did not agitate, and it did not release pressure. It merely silently linked the consciousness of all the scaled beasts, wordlessly issuing commands to advance, retreat, encircle, and contain.
This will possessed no animalistic nature; it held only absolute rationality and calculation.
Lin Yan's heart sank slightly.
He had finally pinpointed the source of the dissonance that had permeated the entire battle.
The previous ambushes, tailing, probing, the gradient attacks of the three beast tide waves, the precise formation kiting in this round, the tactical retreat after sustaining injuries... none of this was the individual wisdom of a third-tier scaled beast.
There was something in the unseen darkness, controlling, planning, and calculating the entire war from start to finish.
Hidden deep within the rift, beneath the rock layers, it observed the human defense line's every maneuver, every flaw, and every casualty with cold indifference from a thousand meters underground. The scaled beasts were merely its eyes and ears, its claws and fangs, its chess pieces.
But Lin Yan had no evidence. He could not see the source, perceive its form, or even determine the true nature of this will.
He could only press this earth-shattering doubt deep into the bottom of his heart.
Currently, he was merely a second-tier peak new recruit, insignificant and unheard. Even if he voiced his conjecture, it would be dismissed as an illusion caused by mental overdraft. No one would believe him; no one would take it seriously.
"Don't overthink it." Instructor Zhou noticed the grave expressions of the few and spoke in a deep voice. "No matter how they mutate or evolve, our mission remains the same—hold the defense line. Overthinking is useless and will only disturb our minds."
The others responded, reining in their thoughts and quickly entering a pre-battle rest state.
Medics shuttled through the trenches, prioritizing the treatment of the severely wounded and distributing stabilizing agents to warriors with Sea of Consciousness contusions. As the pale white agents slid down their throats, the cool sensation spread, slightly soothing the restless stinging of the Sea of Consciousness.
Lin Yan took an agent and drank it, closing his eyes to regulate his breathing.
The ancient martial arts breathing techniques slowly circulated, with long, steady breaths flowing through his body, repairing the damaged Sea of Consciousness barrier bit by bit. The cracks slowly closed, and his overdrafted mind gradually stabilized. The bottleneck of the second-tier peak remained as solid as a mountain, without the slightest sign of loosening.
He still had not broken through.
But with every direct confrontation against this invisible manipulation from behind the scenes, every time he withstood the precise psychic suppression, and every time he held onto his true self in the face of绝境 (desperation), his Sea of Consciousness foundation, mental resilience, and battlefield judgment were silently undergoing a metamorphosis.
While other warriors were fighting the beast tide, he was fighting the unseen, cold will beneath the beast tide.
The brief tranquility did not last long.
In the darkness of the distant Black Mountain main rift, the subterranean psychic rhythm quietly shifted.
The low-level scaled beasts, which had previously been wandering and probing in a scattered manner, instantly ceased all试探 (probing) actions. They turned their heads in unison, their gazes locking dead onto the human trenches. The psychic pressure of the two third-tier scaled beasts spread out once again, one on the left and one on the right. One was hard and one soft; one suppressed and one disrupted, forming a perfect encirclement.
That calm will, hidden in the deepest recesses, had finished its rest and reorganization, issuing a new offensive command.
"Full alert!" Instructor Zhou instantly detected the anomaly and roared fiercely. "The second wave of the general offensive is coming!"
The earth trembled once again. Across the dark wilderness, countless black silhouettes of scaled beasts surged forth, regrouping like a tide, launching a new wave of crushing charges toward the blood-soaked human trenches.
The bloody battle on the surface raged on, while the undercurrents surged violently beneath the earth.
Humanity remained ignorant. Their true opponent had long since woven an inescapable web in the darkness.