Chapter 46: The Flaw in the Will
The tilted gap in the alloy panel was continuously widening under the relentless ramming of the scaled beasts.
Foul-smelling, dark green blood flowed along the edges of the breach into the fortification, mingling with the mud and shell casings on the ground, making it slippery and treacherous to walk. One wave of scaled beasts was slaughtered, but before their corpses could be cleared, their kin stepped over them to push further inward, surging like an endless black tide.
The gunfire at the embrasures had grown sparse. Most of the warriors had run out of ammunition and could only rely on short blades and alloy pry bars for brutal close-quarters combat. The Sea of Consciousness stabilizers had long been exhausted. The remaining soldiers could only endure the compounded psychic pressure of the third-tier scaled beasts. A heavy, dull pain persisted in their skulls; many had pale faces, relying entirely on sheer willpower to hold on.
"Left side! Two more are rushing in!" Su Qing discarded her empty rifle and drew the short knife at her waist. She dodged sideways to avoid the scaled beast's bite, and her blade plunged fiercely into the beast's flank.
Lin Yan guarded the right flank of the breach. With every swing of his blade, the wound on his shoulder pulled painfully. Blood soaked through the bandage and dripped down his arm onto the knife handle. His feet remained firmly planted in his ancient martial arts stance, steadfastly holding the defense on his side. With every rise and fall of his short blade, he targeted the weak points of the scaled beasts' armor—the eye sockets, lower jaws, and soft bellies.
A scaled beast used its companion's corpse as a springboard to leap into the air, its massive head lunging straight for Lin Yan's face. Lin Yan neither dodged nor evaded. Instead, he slightly lowered his body and deliberately shifted his shoulder, allowing the beast's claws to graze his old wound. Simultaneously, his short blade thrust precisely upward into the beast's throat.
Intense pain instantly swept through his entire body. He let out a muffled groan, exerting force in his wrist to twist the blade. The massive body of the scaled beast crashed heavily to the ground, struggling a few times before going completely still.
In that fleeting moment of pause, the psychic impact from underground suddenly intensified.
The two cold, sinister consciousnesses belonging to the third-tier scaled beasts, compounded by the calm controlling will at the bottom layer, intertwined and slammed fiercely against the Seas of Consciousness of everyone in the fortification.
Two soldiers who were already at their absolute limits simultaneously dropped to the ground, clutching their heads. Their Sea of Consciousness barriers shattered completely, and they lost all ability to resist. Three scaled beasts following closely behind immediately seized the opportunity, pouncing through the breach toward the two fallen men.
"Stop them!" Old Chen roared, rushing forward with his knife and chopping down the leading scaled beast. But the other two had already closed in on the wounded soldiers.
Lin Yan forcibly suppressed the pain in his shoulder and the dizziness in his mind. His body suddenly swept diagonally, his short blade striking out twice in rapid succession, cleanly dispatching the two scaled beasts. He glanced down at the unconscious soldiers on the ground. Their jaws were clenched tight, and their bodies convulsed uncontrollably. Having suffered severe Sea of Consciousness trauma, even if they survived, they would most likely never be able to cultivate their Sea of Consciousness or step onto a battlefield again.
While continuously resisting this composite psychic tide, Lin Yan habitually released those few extremely faint mental tentacles to continue probing the depths underground.
Countless chaotic and frenzied beastly consciousnesses surged like a deafening tide. Yet, the will of the mastermind behind the scenes always hid at the bottom of the tide, calmly coordinating and commanding.
But just as it had unleashed a concentrated psychic bombardment a moment ago, Lin Yan caught a trace of anomaly.
That calm will did not operate without cost.
In the exact instant it simultaneously commanded hundreds of scaled beasts and drove the two third-tier scaled beasts to release psychic suppression, the脉络 (veins/threads) of its will experienced an extremely brief stagnation. It was like a person trying to manipulate too many objects at once, resulting in a momentary mental stutter.
This flaw was fleeting, vanishing so quickly that it was almost impossible to capture.
Lin Yan's heart stirred.
It was not an illusion.
This consciousness that controlled everything was not infinite. Simultaneously coordinating such a massive beast swarm exacted a tremendous toll on it as well. It was not omniscient or omnipotent; it had an upper limit to its load. Once the power it mobilized simultaneously exceeded that limit, a brief disconnect would occur.
This discovery settled heavily in the bottom of his heart.
But he had no way to tell anyone.
There were no instruments to corroborate it, and no one else could perceive that hidden will deep underground. If he spoke up, he would only be dismissed as having delusions caused by mental damage. For now, the most important thing was still to hold the breach and survive until the reinforcements arrived.
"Their attacks have brief intervals!" Lin Yan loudly reminded Old Chen and Instructor Zhou beside him. "After continuous fierce assaults, the psychic synchronization of the beast swarm will briefly slow down. Seize that gap to concentrate on killing the scaled beasts that have broken through the breach!"
Instructor Zhou was stunned for a moment, but immediately grasped the significance of this information and quickly adjusted the deployment. "Everyone, listen up! Take turns observing the rhythm of the beast swarm's attacks. The moment the assault shows a brief pause, combine your forces to clear the monsters inside the breach! Do not engage them in scattered, individual fights!"
The squad immediately adjusted their tactics.
Sure enough, after a round of frenzied charges, the overwhelming assault of the scaled beasts briefly slowed, and the intensity of the psychic pressure dipped slightly. This was precisely the gap caused by the underground will temporarily overloading.
"Now!" Old Chen roared.
Several warriors who still had combat strength surged forward together. Their short blades swung in unison, slaughtering all the remaining scaled beasts inside the breach and temporarily sealing the entrance.
But this gap lasted only a few breaths.
Very quickly, that will underground stabilized again. The scaled beasts resumed their synchronized charge, and the heavy psychic pressure once more enveloped the entire fortification.
"We can only exploit it briefly; we can't completely disrupt it," Instructor Zhou said, his tone heavy as he stared at the endless shadows of the surging scaled beasts. "The enemy can quickly regain its composure. We can only rely on these gaps to reduce casualties; we cannot use this to defeat the beast swarm."
Lin Yan nodded slightly. He knew clearly that this was merely a minor weakness, not a fatal flaw. The enemy was deep underground, separated by a thousand meters of rock. They had no means to reach the true body of that will. All they could do was seize those fleeting moments of stagnation to buy themselves a tiny window to catch their breath.
The breach once again descended into brutal slaughter.
Warriors continued to fall, and the wounded piled up. The number of combat-capable personnel inside the fortification kept shrinking. Su Qing's forearm had been slashed open by a scaled beast's claws, and her movements gradually slowed. The wound on Old Chen's calf, which had been bandaged, tore open again; every step he took was accompanied by excruciating pain. Everyone was overdrawing their last reserves of stamina and Sea of Consciousness.
Lin Yan still stood on the flank of the breach, repeatedly enduring psychic impacts and swinging his blade in relentless combat. His Sea of Consciousness barrier cracked with spiderweb-like fissures time and time again, only to be barely sustained and slowly repaired under his ancient martial arts breathing and calming techniques. The bottleneck of the second-tier peak still stood firm, but the resilience of his Sea of Consciousness core was continuously precipitating and thickening through these extreme, life-and-death temperings.
He once again extended his mental tentacles toward the underground.
The mastermind's will was still continuously outputting commands, dispatching the beast swarm in waves to assault the bastion. But Lin Yan now understood clearly that the hand hidden in the darkness, manipulating the chess game, also experienced fatigue and had its limits.
On the distant horizon, there was still no sign of the fires from approaching reinforcements.
Inside the fortification, blood soaked the earth, and the number of survivors dwindled.
The next fierce assault of the beast tide was already brewing.
Foul-smelling, dark green blood flowed along the edges of the breach into the fortification, mingling with the mud and shell casings on the ground, making it slippery and treacherous to walk. One wave of scaled beasts was slaughtered, but before their corpses could be cleared, their kin stepped over them to push further inward, surging like an endless black tide.
The gunfire at the embrasures had grown sparse. Most of the warriors had run out of ammunition and could only rely on short blades and alloy pry bars for brutal close-quarters combat. The Sea of Consciousness stabilizers had long been exhausted. The remaining soldiers could only endure the compounded psychic pressure of the third-tier scaled beasts. A heavy, dull pain persisted in their skulls; many had pale faces, relying entirely on sheer willpower to hold on.
"Left side! Two more are rushing in!" Su Qing discarded her empty rifle and drew the short knife at her waist. She dodged sideways to avoid the scaled beast's bite, and her blade plunged fiercely into the beast's flank.
Lin Yan guarded the right flank of the breach. With every swing of his blade, the wound on his shoulder pulled painfully. Blood soaked through the bandage and dripped down his arm onto the knife handle. His feet remained firmly planted in his ancient martial arts stance, steadfastly holding the defense on his side. With every rise and fall of his short blade, he targeted the weak points of the scaled beasts' armor—the eye sockets, lower jaws, and soft bellies.
A scaled beast used its companion's corpse as a springboard to leap into the air, its massive head lunging straight for Lin Yan's face. Lin Yan neither dodged nor evaded. Instead, he slightly lowered his body and deliberately shifted his shoulder, allowing the beast's claws to graze his old wound. Simultaneously, his short blade thrust precisely upward into the beast's throat.
Intense pain instantly swept through his entire body. He let out a muffled groan, exerting force in his wrist to twist the blade. The massive body of the scaled beast crashed heavily to the ground, struggling a few times before going completely still.
In that fleeting moment of pause, the psychic impact from underground suddenly intensified.
The two cold, sinister consciousnesses belonging to the third-tier scaled beasts, compounded by the calm controlling will at the bottom layer, intertwined and slammed fiercely against the Seas of Consciousness of everyone in the fortification.
Two soldiers who were already at their absolute limits simultaneously dropped to the ground, clutching their heads. Their Sea of Consciousness barriers shattered completely, and they lost all ability to resist. Three scaled beasts following closely behind immediately seized the opportunity, pouncing through the breach toward the two fallen men.
"Stop them!" Old Chen roared, rushing forward with his knife and chopping down the leading scaled beast. But the other two had already closed in on the wounded soldiers.
Lin Yan forcibly suppressed the pain in his shoulder and the dizziness in his mind. His body suddenly swept diagonally, his short blade striking out twice in rapid succession, cleanly dispatching the two scaled beasts. He glanced down at the unconscious soldiers on the ground. Their jaws were clenched tight, and their bodies convulsed uncontrollably. Having suffered severe Sea of Consciousness trauma, even if they survived, they would most likely never be able to cultivate their Sea of Consciousness or step onto a battlefield again.
While continuously resisting this composite psychic tide, Lin Yan habitually released those few extremely faint mental tentacles to continue probing the depths underground.
Countless chaotic and frenzied beastly consciousnesses surged like a deafening tide. Yet, the will of the mastermind behind the scenes always hid at the bottom of the tide, calmly coordinating and commanding.
But just as it had unleashed a concentrated psychic bombardment a moment ago, Lin Yan caught a trace of anomaly.
That calm will did not operate without cost.
In the exact instant it simultaneously commanded hundreds of scaled beasts and drove the two third-tier scaled beasts to release psychic suppression, the脉络 (veins/threads) of its will experienced an extremely brief stagnation. It was like a person trying to manipulate too many objects at once, resulting in a momentary mental stutter.
This flaw was fleeting, vanishing so quickly that it was almost impossible to capture.
Lin Yan's heart stirred.
It was not an illusion.
This consciousness that controlled everything was not infinite. Simultaneously coordinating such a massive beast swarm exacted a tremendous toll on it as well. It was not omniscient or omnipotent; it had an upper limit to its load. Once the power it mobilized simultaneously exceeded that limit, a brief disconnect would occur.
This discovery settled heavily in the bottom of his heart.
But he had no way to tell anyone.
There were no instruments to corroborate it, and no one else could perceive that hidden will deep underground. If he spoke up, he would only be dismissed as having delusions caused by mental damage. For now, the most important thing was still to hold the breach and survive until the reinforcements arrived.
"Their attacks have brief intervals!" Lin Yan loudly reminded Old Chen and Instructor Zhou beside him. "After continuous fierce assaults, the psychic synchronization of the beast swarm will briefly slow down. Seize that gap to concentrate on killing the scaled beasts that have broken through the breach!"
Instructor Zhou was stunned for a moment, but immediately grasped the significance of this information and quickly adjusted the deployment. "Everyone, listen up! Take turns observing the rhythm of the beast swarm's attacks. The moment the assault shows a brief pause, combine your forces to clear the monsters inside the breach! Do not engage them in scattered, individual fights!"
The squad immediately adjusted their tactics.
Sure enough, after a round of frenzied charges, the overwhelming assault of the scaled beasts briefly slowed, and the intensity of the psychic pressure dipped slightly. This was precisely the gap caused by the underground will temporarily overloading.
"Now!" Old Chen roared.
Several warriors who still had combat strength surged forward together. Their short blades swung in unison, slaughtering all the remaining scaled beasts inside the breach and temporarily sealing the entrance.
But this gap lasted only a few breaths.
Very quickly, that will underground stabilized again. The scaled beasts resumed their synchronized charge, and the heavy psychic pressure once more enveloped the entire fortification.
"We can only exploit it briefly; we can't completely disrupt it," Instructor Zhou said, his tone heavy as he stared at the endless shadows of the surging scaled beasts. "The enemy can quickly regain its composure. We can only rely on these gaps to reduce casualties; we cannot use this to defeat the beast swarm."
Lin Yan nodded slightly. He knew clearly that this was merely a minor weakness, not a fatal flaw. The enemy was deep underground, separated by a thousand meters of rock. They had no means to reach the true body of that will. All they could do was seize those fleeting moments of stagnation to buy themselves a tiny window to catch their breath.
The breach once again descended into brutal slaughter.
Warriors continued to fall, and the wounded piled up. The number of combat-capable personnel inside the fortification kept shrinking. Su Qing's forearm had been slashed open by a scaled beast's claws, and her movements gradually slowed. The wound on Old Chen's calf, which had been bandaged, tore open again; every step he took was accompanied by excruciating pain. Everyone was overdrawing their last reserves of stamina and Sea of Consciousness.
Lin Yan still stood on the flank of the breach, repeatedly enduring psychic impacts and swinging his blade in relentless combat. His Sea of Consciousness barrier cracked with spiderweb-like fissures time and time again, only to be barely sustained and slowly repaired under his ancient martial arts breathing and calming techniques. The bottleneck of the second-tier peak still stood firm, but the resilience of his Sea of Consciousness core was continuously precipitating and thickening through these extreme, life-and-death temperings.
He once again extended his mental tentacles toward the underground.
The mastermind's will was still continuously outputting commands, dispatching the beast swarm in waves to assault the bastion. But Lin Yan now understood clearly that the hand hidden in the darkness, manipulating the chess game, also experienced fatigue and had its limits.
On the distant horizon, there was still no sign of the fires from approaching reinforcements.
Inside the fortification, blood soaked the earth, and the number of survivors dwindled.
The next fierce assault of the beast tide was already brewing.