Chapter 49: Five Breaths of the Shattered Realm
The night wind across the wilderness suddenly froze.
The cacophony of the entire battlefield seemed to be instantly strangled. The roars of the scaled beasts, the clashing of metal, and the panting of the wounded were all suppressed. In their place was a bone-chilling coldness that emanated from the depths of the soul.
The two third-tier scaled beasts stood on the left and right, their massive bodies slightly arched. Every scale on their bodies opened up, and their bone spines stood erect, radiating a sinister, icy gleam.
They no longer held back any of their psychic power.
Under the mandatory dispatch of the underground will, the two streams of heavy, frenzied, and purely destructive psychic energy completely merged. Like a towering tsunami that had been gathering momentum for a long time, it formed in the sky and locked onto the secondary fortification, crushing vertically downward.
This was the ultimate, fatal strike of the general offensive.
There was no kiting, no attrition, no probing. It was the final five-breath absolute kill strike launched by the Lizardmen priest, calculated precisely to exploit the time gap before the reinforcements arrived.
"Everyone, defend your Seas of Consciousness to the death!!"
Instructor Zhou roared with his last ounce of strength. His dim four-tier Sea of Consciousness barrier instantly expanded again, pushed to its absolute limit. The barrier no longer pursued finesse or stability; instead, it traded his life for range, stubbornly enveloping all the surviving warriors.
In the next instant, the tsunami-like psychic pressure crashed down.
The First Breath!
Weng—!
The invisible psychic shockwave slammed into the barrier. The entire fortification trembled violently, as if it were about to be uprooted.
Instructor Zhou's body suddenly arched, and a faint sound of cracking bones echoed from his spine. Blood seeped from all seven orifices simultaneously. The surface of the four-tier barrier instantly turned gray and white, shattering completely. Dense cracks pierced through the entire mental bulwark in an instant.
His old Sea of Consciousness injuries completely erupted, and the core trembled violently.
"Ugh—!"
Instructor Zhou, who had never cried out in pain, couldn't help but let out a suppressed, muffled groan. He dropped to one knee, but stubbornly held his ground, refusing to let the barrier collapse by even a fraction.
The Second Breath!
The Seas of Consciousness of the two lightly wounded soldiers beside him shattered directly.
Their eyes instantly turned red and lost focus. They clawed desperately at their scalps with both hands, their consciousness descending into complete chaos as they convulsed and collapsed in the pool of blood, completely losing their combat capability.
At this point, only three people remained capable of fighting in the fortification: Lin Yan, Old Chen, and Su Qing.
At the breach, taking advantage of the violent shaking of the psychic barrier, dozens of scaled beasts frantically poured in, their dark shadows instantly filling the corridor.
Old Chen endured the agonizing pain of his torn leg wound, holding his knife to block the front. His blade slashed through the air, sending blood splashing everywhere, every strike using up all his strength. But his mind was bound by the heavy pressure, making his movements noticeably sluggish. In an instant, his shoulder was torn open by a scaled beast's claws, leaving a bone-deep wound.
"I can't hold them! There are too many!" Old Chen's voice was hoarse.
Su Qing retreated to the inner side, her short knife thrusting rapidly, every move aimed at a fatal point. Her face was as pale as paper, sweat and blood dripping continuously from her jaw. Her Sea of Consciousness barrier was on the verge of shattering.
The Third Breath!
Almost all the pressure was now bearing down on Lin Yan and the swaying four-tier barrier.
The destructive psychic tide frantically scoured his Sea of Consciousness.
The barrier, already covered in cracks, instantly shattered on a massive scale. Fine psychic fragments peeled off and scattered like broken glass. A tearing pain erupted deep within his skull, and his vision repeatedly went black, then white, flashing rapidly.
This was the strongest single-target psychic impact he had endured since enlisting.
His second-tier peak Sea of Consciousness was on the verge of a complete collapse.
Any ordinary second-tier warrior would have had their Sea of Consciousness shattered by now, collapsing to the ground and losing their minds, reduced to a cripple.
But Lin Yan did not fall.
His ancient martial arts breathing technique operated at hyper-speed. His breaths were as fine as silk and as steady as an old monk in meditation. While others panicked, endured, and overdrafted, he locked his core.
No matter how the outer barrier was ground into powder, his Sea of Consciousness core remained completely unmoved and as solid as a rock from beginning to end.
Shatter the outer layer, protect the core. Abandon the breadth of defense, guard the fundamental foundation.
Even under this extreme, life-threatening pressure, he did not lose control. He maintained clear battlefield judgment.
The calm controlling will from underground was currently outputting all its computing power to support the ultimate strike of the two third-tier scaled beasts.
And precisely because it was extremely concentrated and extremely overloaded, the flaw in its psychic link was magnified to the extreme.
In his agonizing mind, Lin Yan instantly captured this fleeting, ultimate vulnerability.
In order to deliver the absolute kill, the enemy had emptied all its computing power. The command synchronization for the entire beast swarm experienced a massive lag.
All the scaled beasts that had charged to the breach stuttered in unison for half a second!
The Fourth Breath!
"Now!"
Enduring the agonizing pain of his shattering Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yan's body suddenly exploded forward.
Abandoning defense and evading all entanglements, he transformed into a dark shadow, stepping over the bloody mud and pouncing straight into the densest cluster of scaled beasts at the breach.
His short blade spun, cold light exploding.
He did not get greedy or hack wildly. Every strike precisely pierced the throats, eye sockets, and soft bellies of the scaled beasts. Utilizing the fatal gap in their command lag, he instantly killed the six fastest-advancing scaled beasts in succession.
Old Chen and Su Qing instantly seized the tactical opportunity, following up with supplementary kills, stubbornly sealing most of the breach that was on the verge of total collapse.
High above, the psychic tsunami was still crushing down. Instructor Zhou's barrier was as thin as a cicada's wing, ready to shatter at any moment.
His consciousness began to blur, his vision overlapping. He relied on his ultimate military will to keep himself from falling.
"Reinforcements... are almost here..." he mumbled.
The Fifth Breath!
The ultimate psychic impact finally came to an end.
The frenzied psychic tide suddenly receded, dissipating like a retreating tide.
After this overdraft-style explosion, the psychic power of the two third-tier scaled beasts was clearly depleted. Their oppressive aura dropped significantly, and their massive bodies trembled slightly, temporarily unable to launch high-intensity psychic suppression again.
The underground will, due to extreme overload, briefly fell silent, no longer able to precisely coordinate the beast swarm.
The entire battlefield suddenly relaxed.
But the price was brutal.
Instructor Zhou's four-tier Sea of Consciousness barrier completely shattered, no longer able to provide any protection. His body went limp, and he dropped heavily to his knees, drenched in blood and sweat, his breath faint to the extreme.
He did not die, but the core of his Sea of Consciousness was severely damaged. From now on, his cultivation would most likely be permanently stalled, and he would never be able to use high-tier Sea of Consciousness power again.
The instructor was crippled.
Aside from the three main forces, all the soldiers had lost their combat capability. The inside and outside of the fortification were littered with wounded, corpses, and beast blood.
In just five breaths, they had stood at the gates of hell.
On the distant horizon, the firelight of the reinforcements was rapidly closing in. The roaring sounds of mech engines and the vibrations of artillery vehicles moving forward were clearly transmitted into the battlefield.
"Reinforcements in position! One minute remaining!"
Su Qing stared at the approaching light. Her legs went soft, and she leaned against the wall, panting heavily, her eyes filled with the crimson of surviving a disaster.
Old Chen braced himself against his long knife, kneeling on one knee. His wounds had completely torn open, and he was utterly exhausted.
Only Lin Yan still stood at the forefront of the breach.
He was covered in blood, his shoulder severely wounded, and the surface of his Sea of Consciousness was almost entirely shattered. The pain in his skull was unending.
But his posture was upright, his knife-holding hand did not tremble, and his eyes remained clear.
Within his Sea of Consciousness, the outer barrier was满目疮痍 (devastated) and dilapidated.
Yet, the core was steady, and the bottleneck remained unbroken, still firmly locked at the second-tier peak.
Only now, his second-tier peak was no longer the standard of a new recruit.
Continuous extreme pressure, shattering and regenerating the barrier, facing a high-tier absolute kill, predicting the mastermind's vulnerability, and locking the core in a desperate situation—these five breaths of life-and-death purgatory had completely tempered his Sea of Consciousness foundation, mental resilience, and battlefield instincts to the absolute peak of the second tier.
He was only a single thread of life away from the third tier.
In the darkness of the wilderness, the two third-tier scaled beasts looked at the approaching firelight of the reinforcements, and at the figure that still stood unyielding. Under the silent commands of the dormant underground will, they slowly retracted their offensive and began to slowly retreat.
The bloodiest five minutes of the Black Mountain battle had finally been endured.
The cacophony of the entire battlefield seemed to be instantly strangled. The roars of the scaled beasts, the clashing of metal, and the panting of the wounded were all suppressed. In their place was a bone-chilling coldness that emanated from the depths of the soul.
The two third-tier scaled beasts stood on the left and right, their massive bodies slightly arched. Every scale on their bodies opened up, and their bone spines stood erect, radiating a sinister, icy gleam.
They no longer held back any of their psychic power.
Under the mandatory dispatch of the underground will, the two streams of heavy, frenzied, and purely destructive psychic energy completely merged. Like a towering tsunami that had been gathering momentum for a long time, it formed in the sky and locked onto the secondary fortification, crushing vertically downward.
This was the ultimate, fatal strike of the general offensive.
There was no kiting, no attrition, no probing. It was the final five-breath absolute kill strike launched by the Lizardmen priest, calculated precisely to exploit the time gap before the reinforcements arrived.
"Everyone, defend your Seas of Consciousness to the death!!"
Instructor Zhou roared with his last ounce of strength. His dim four-tier Sea of Consciousness barrier instantly expanded again, pushed to its absolute limit. The barrier no longer pursued finesse or stability; instead, it traded his life for range, stubbornly enveloping all the surviving warriors.
In the next instant, the tsunami-like psychic pressure crashed down.
The First Breath!
Weng—!
The invisible psychic shockwave slammed into the barrier. The entire fortification trembled violently, as if it were about to be uprooted.
Instructor Zhou's body suddenly arched, and a faint sound of cracking bones echoed from his spine. Blood seeped from all seven orifices simultaneously. The surface of the four-tier barrier instantly turned gray and white, shattering completely. Dense cracks pierced through the entire mental bulwark in an instant.
His old Sea of Consciousness injuries completely erupted, and the core trembled violently.
"Ugh—!"
Instructor Zhou, who had never cried out in pain, couldn't help but let out a suppressed, muffled groan. He dropped to one knee, but stubbornly held his ground, refusing to let the barrier collapse by even a fraction.
The Second Breath!
The Seas of Consciousness of the two lightly wounded soldiers beside him shattered directly.
Their eyes instantly turned red and lost focus. They clawed desperately at their scalps with both hands, their consciousness descending into complete chaos as they convulsed and collapsed in the pool of blood, completely losing their combat capability.
At this point, only three people remained capable of fighting in the fortification: Lin Yan, Old Chen, and Su Qing.
At the breach, taking advantage of the violent shaking of the psychic barrier, dozens of scaled beasts frantically poured in, their dark shadows instantly filling the corridor.
Old Chen endured the agonizing pain of his torn leg wound, holding his knife to block the front. His blade slashed through the air, sending blood splashing everywhere, every strike using up all his strength. But his mind was bound by the heavy pressure, making his movements noticeably sluggish. In an instant, his shoulder was torn open by a scaled beast's claws, leaving a bone-deep wound.
"I can't hold them! There are too many!" Old Chen's voice was hoarse.
Su Qing retreated to the inner side, her short knife thrusting rapidly, every move aimed at a fatal point. Her face was as pale as paper, sweat and blood dripping continuously from her jaw. Her Sea of Consciousness barrier was on the verge of shattering.
The Third Breath!
Almost all the pressure was now bearing down on Lin Yan and the swaying four-tier barrier.
The destructive psychic tide frantically scoured his Sea of Consciousness.
The barrier, already covered in cracks, instantly shattered on a massive scale. Fine psychic fragments peeled off and scattered like broken glass. A tearing pain erupted deep within his skull, and his vision repeatedly went black, then white, flashing rapidly.
This was the strongest single-target psychic impact he had endured since enlisting.
His second-tier peak Sea of Consciousness was on the verge of a complete collapse.
Any ordinary second-tier warrior would have had their Sea of Consciousness shattered by now, collapsing to the ground and losing their minds, reduced to a cripple.
But Lin Yan did not fall.
His ancient martial arts breathing technique operated at hyper-speed. His breaths were as fine as silk and as steady as an old monk in meditation. While others panicked, endured, and overdrafted, he locked his core.
No matter how the outer barrier was ground into powder, his Sea of Consciousness core remained completely unmoved and as solid as a rock from beginning to end.
Shatter the outer layer, protect the core. Abandon the breadth of defense, guard the fundamental foundation.
Even under this extreme, life-threatening pressure, he did not lose control. He maintained clear battlefield judgment.
The calm controlling will from underground was currently outputting all its computing power to support the ultimate strike of the two third-tier scaled beasts.
And precisely because it was extremely concentrated and extremely overloaded, the flaw in its psychic link was magnified to the extreme.
In his agonizing mind, Lin Yan instantly captured this fleeting, ultimate vulnerability.
In order to deliver the absolute kill, the enemy had emptied all its computing power. The command synchronization for the entire beast swarm experienced a massive lag.
All the scaled beasts that had charged to the breach stuttered in unison for half a second!
The Fourth Breath!
"Now!"
Enduring the agonizing pain of his shattering Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yan's body suddenly exploded forward.
Abandoning defense and evading all entanglements, he transformed into a dark shadow, stepping over the bloody mud and pouncing straight into the densest cluster of scaled beasts at the breach.
His short blade spun, cold light exploding.
He did not get greedy or hack wildly. Every strike precisely pierced the throats, eye sockets, and soft bellies of the scaled beasts. Utilizing the fatal gap in their command lag, he instantly killed the six fastest-advancing scaled beasts in succession.
Old Chen and Su Qing instantly seized the tactical opportunity, following up with supplementary kills, stubbornly sealing most of the breach that was on the verge of total collapse.
High above, the psychic tsunami was still crushing down. Instructor Zhou's barrier was as thin as a cicada's wing, ready to shatter at any moment.
His consciousness began to blur, his vision overlapping. He relied on his ultimate military will to keep himself from falling.
"Reinforcements... are almost here..." he mumbled.
The Fifth Breath!
The ultimate psychic impact finally came to an end.
The frenzied psychic tide suddenly receded, dissipating like a retreating tide.
After this overdraft-style explosion, the psychic power of the two third-tier scaled beasts was clearly depleted. Their oppressive aura dropped significantly, and their massive bodies trembled slightly, temporarily unable to launch high-intensity psychic suppression again.
The underground will, due to extreme overload, briefly fell silent, no longer able to precisely coordinate the beast swarm.
The entire battlefield suddenly relaxed.
But the price was brutal.
Instructor Zhou's four-tier Sea of Consciousness barrier completely shattered, no longer able to provide any protection. His body went limp, and he dropped heavily to his knees, drenched in blood and sweat, his breath faint to the extreme.
He did not die, but the core of his Sea of Consciousness was severely damaged. From now on, his cultivation would most likely be permanently stalled, and he would never be able to use high-tier Sea of Consciousness power again.
The instructor was crippled.
Aside from the three main forces, all the soldiers had lost their combat capability. The inside and outside of the fortification were littered with wounded, corpses, and beast blood.
In just five breaths, they had stood at the gates of hell.
On the distant horizon, the firelight of the reinforcements was rapidly closing in. The roaring sounds of mech engines and the vibrations of artillery vehicles moving forward were clearly transmitted into the battlefield.
"Reinforcements in position! One minute remaining!"
Su Qing stared at the approaching light. Her legs went soft, and she leaned against the wall, panting heavily, her eyes filled with the crimson of surviving a disaster.
Old Chen braced himself against his long knife, kneeling on one knee. His wounds had completely torn open, and he was utterly exhausted.
Only Lin Yan still stood at the forefront of the breach.
He was covered in blood, his shoulder severely wounded, and the surface of his Sea of Consciousness was almost entirely shattered. The pain in his skull was unending.
But his posture was upright, his knife-holding hand did not tremble, and his eyes remained clear.
Within his Sea of Consciousness, the outer barrier was满目疮痍 (devastated) and dilapidated.
Yet, the core was steady, and the bottleneck remained unbroken, still firmly locked at the second-tier peak.
Only now, his second-tier peak was no longer the standard of a new recruit.
Continuous extreme pressure, shattering and regenerating the barrier, facing a high-tier absolute kill, predicting the mastermind's vulnerability, and locking the core in a desperate situation—these five breaths of life-and-death purgatory had completely tempered his Sea of Consciousness foundation, mental resilience, and battlefield instincts to the absolute peak of the second tier.
He was only a single thread of life away from the third tier.
In the darkness of the wilderness, the two third-tier scaled beasts looked at the approaching firelight of the reinforcements, and at the figure that still stood unyielding. Under the silent commands of the dormant underground will, they slowly retracted their offensive and began to slowly retreat.
The bloodiest five minutes of the Black Mountain battle had finally been endured.