Chapter 53: Rift Reconnaissance
The twenty-day recovery period passed in the blink of an eye.
Inside the meditation room of the sanatorium, Lin Yan sat cross-legged. A faint psychic fluctuation slowly spread from his body, enveloping him in a thin Sea of Consciousness barrier. The flesh wound on his shoulder had already scabbed over and healed, though the old injuries to his Sea of Consciousness still required continuous nurturing.
During this time, aside from repairing his Sea of Consciousness, he had been repeatedly refining the psychic threads he had realized during the Black Mountain battlefield.
No longer a reckless attempt born out of battlefield urgency, he was now practicing the retraction and release of his mental tentacles bit by bit in a safe and controllable environment. He learned to compress his psychic threads to the ultimate extreme of fineness, conceal his own psychic signals, and simulate long-distance perception and minute disturbances to external psychic links.
He was still firmly stuck at the second-tier peak.
His core was stable, and the bottleneck was as hard as iron. However, the finesse of his control over his Sea of Consciousness had far surpassed that of warriors at the same tier. The vast majority of second-tier Sea of Consciousness users could only defend against psychic impacts and perform simple external perception. Lin Yan, however, could already control nearly invisible psychic threads for long-distance exploration and minor interference.
"Psychic power lies not in strength, but in finesse," Lin Yan murmured to himself.
This was his realization after cross-referencing the ancient martial arts mind cultivation techniques with the Sea of Consciousness training methods of this world.
Footsteps sounded outside the door as Old Chen and Su Qing pushed their way into the meditation room. The splint on Old Chen's calf had been removed; he still had a slight limp when walking, but he had regained his mobility. The wound on Su Qing's forearm had mostly healed, leaving only a long scar.
"We just received a notice. The war zone has released a batch of reconnaissance missions for the outer perimeter of the rifts," Su Qing said, holding a mission list. "They are all small to medium-sized rifts with no warnings of large-scale beast tides. The main job is to monitor psychic signals from the rifts and set up warning beacons. They are low-risk reconnaissance missions."
Old Chen leaned against the wall. "The three of us applied to form a team together, and the application has been submitted. The war zone reviewed our Black Mountain battle records and agreed to form a temporary reconnaissance squad. The mission location is the Green Rock Rift, one hundred and twenty kilometers from Panshi City."
The Green Rock Rift was much smaller than the main Black Mountain rift. Archive records indicated that only a small number of low-level scaled beasts frequented it year-round, and third-tier scaled beasts rarely appeared. It was classified by the war zone as an outer perimeter alert zone. Precisely because of its low risk level, it was perfectly suited for their squad to readapt to the battlefield and search for clues about the underground alien race.
"When do we depart?" Lin Yan asked, opening his eyes.
"In three days. We need to complete our Sea of Consciousness re-examinations and claim our equipment within these three days," Su Qing said, handing over the mission list. "However, there is one point. Historical records also show that the phenomenon of brief, synchronized pauses in the beast swarm occurred near the Green Rock Rift. When it was reported back then, it was also judged to be the biological herd instinct of the scaled beasts."
Lin Yan took the list and glanced at it, his eyes flickering slightly.
The exact same phenomenon. It seemed that back then, it wasn't just the Black Mountain area; the Lizardmen priests underground would control the scaled beasts in multiple locations. However, all these anomalies were simply categorized by the human war zone as alien beast instincts.
"Perfect," Lin Yan said slowly. "The Green Rock Rift might yield more clues. But we must be careful. That thing underground has its eyes on us, especially me. This mission is very likely an opportunity for the enemy to set a trap."
Old Chen's expression darkened. "You mean they will ambush us at the Green Rock Rift?"
"I can't be certain," Lin Yan shook his head. "They won't rashly deploy a massive beast tide; the cost is too high. It is far more likely they will set up a small-scale ambush, targeting me precisely. On this trip, we must maintain absolute vigilance and never split up."
Over the next three days, the three completed their Sea of Consciousness re-examinations.
When the military doctor tested Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness, he was once again amazed at its state of repair. The light screen still showed a second-tier peak reading, but the finesse of his psychic fluctuations caused a brief fluctuation in the testing instrument's readings. The doctor could only record it as a special individual mental trait and did not delve deeper into the underlying cause.
They then claimed their equipment.
Bulletproof combat suits, cold-weapon short blades, portable Sea of Consciousness monitors, emergency psychic stabilizers, signal beacons, and rift detectors. There were no heavy cannons; reconnaissance squads prioritized mobility and scouting.
On the eve of their departure, Lin Yan stayed alone in the meditation room to make his final preparations.
He once again released his mental tentacles, attempting long-distance perception. As his fine psychic threads extended outward, just beyond the walls of the sanatorium, an extremely faint, fleeting touch of cold psychic energy brushed against his threads.
They were watching.
In an instant, Lin Yan retracted all his mental tentacles. His mind immediately returned to complete silence, feigning the state of an ordinary Sea of Consciousness in recovery.
In that mere instant of contact, he confirmed that the psychic exploration threads of the underground Lizardmen had been following him. They knew he was about to leave Panshi City and head to the Green Rock Rift.
"As expected," Lin Yan thought, a slight frown on his brow.
The enemy had most likely already received news of this mission to the Green Rock Rift, and the ambush was likely already in place. They would not choose to strike within the bastion city, where psychic monitoring equipment was dense and the risk was too high. The wilderness outside the rift was the perfect hunting ground for him.
The next morning.
The squad assembled at the city gate and boarded a lightweight reconnaissance vehicle from the war zone. The vehicle drove out through the heavy alloy gates of Panshi City, stepping onto the desolate, scorched earth outside.
The vegetation on the land was withered, and the surface was covered with tiny rock crevices. The air carried a faint earthy stench. In the distance, rifts of varying lengths lay across the wasteland like scars.
As he drove, the driver chatted casually, "The Green Rock Rift area has always been pretty stable. There haven't been any major fluctuations in the monitoring signals recently, so your mission should be easy. Many reconnaissance squads have been there, and basically none of them encountered any danger."
Lin Yan sat in the back seat, his gaze fixed on the depths of the wasteland, remaining silent.
Beneath the calm surface, a dark trap was quietly waiting for them to step in.
Deep within the underground rock layers, the Lizardmen priests received a message transmitted by their psychic scouts.
The target squad had left Panshi City and was en route to the Green Rock Rift. They had mobilized over a dozen low-level scaled beasts, along with one second-tier scaled beast, and ambushed them in the caves on both sides of the rift entrance.
The plan was simple: wait for the squad to enter the rift's range, launch a surprise attack with the scaled beasts, and simultaneously release concealed psychic interference to prioritize killing Lin Yan. As long as this human who could touch the psychic command links was eliminated, a major hidden danger for their future plans would be removed.
The vehicle sped along, getting closer and closer to the Green Rock Rift.
End of Chapter.
Inside the meditation room of the sanatorium, Lin Yan sat cross-legged. A faint psychic fluctuation slowly spread from his body, enveloping him in a thin Sea of Consciousness barrier. The flesh wound on his shoulder had already scabbed over and healed, though the old injuries to his Sea of Consciousness still required continuous nurturing.
During this time, aside from repairing his Sea of Consciousness, he had been repeatedly refining the psychic threads he had realized during the Black Mountain battlefield.
No longer a reckless attempt born out of battlefield urgency, he was now practicing the retraction and release of his mental tentacles bit by bit in a safe and controllable environment. He learned to compress his psychic threads to the ultimate extreme of fineness, conceal his own psychic signals, and simulate long-distance perception and minute disturbances to external psychic links.
He was still firmly stuck at the second-tier peak.
His core was stable, and the bottleneck was as hard as iron. However, the finesse of his control over his Sea of Consciousness had far surpassed that of warriors at the same tier. The vast majority of second-tier Sea of Consciousness users could only defend against psychic impacts and perform simple external perception. Lin Yan, however, could already control nearly invisible psychic threads for long-distance exploration and minor interference.
"Psychic power lies not in strength, but in finesse," Lin Yan murmured to himself.
This was his realization after cross-referencing the ancient martial arts mind cultivation techniques with the Sea of Consciousness training methods of this world.
Footsteps sounded outside the door as Old Chen and Su Qing pushed their way into the meditation room. The splint on Old Chen's calf had been removed; he still had a slight limp when walking, but he had regained his mobility. The wound on Su Qing's forearm had mostly healed, leaving only a long scar.
"We just received a notice. The war zone has released a batch of reconnaissance missions for the outer perimeter of the rifts," Su Qing said, holding a mission list. "They are all small to medium-sized rifts with no warnings of large-scale beast tides. The main job is to monitor psychic signals from the rifts and set up warning beacons. They are low-risk reconnaissance missions."
Old Chen leaned against the wall. "The three of us applied to form a team together, and the application has been submitted. The war zone reviewed our Black Mountain battle records and agreed to form a temporary reconnaissance squad. The mission location is the Green Rock Rift, one hundred and twenty kilometers from Panshi City."
The Green Rock Rift was much smaller than the main Black Mountain rift. Archive records indicated that only a small number of low-level scaled beasts frequented it year-round, and third-tier scaled beasts rarely appeared. It was classified by the war zone as an outer perimeter alert zone. Precisely because of its low risk level, it was perfectly suited for their squad to readapt to the battlefield and search for clues about the underground alien race.
"When do we depart?" Lin Yan asked, opening his eyes.
"In three days. We need to complete our Sea of Consciousness re-examinations and claim our equipment within these three days," Su Qing said, handing over the mission list. "However, there is one point. Historical records also show that the phenomenon of brief, synchronized pauses in the beast swarm occurred near the Green Rock Rift. When it was reported back then, it was also judged to be the biological herd instinct of the scaled beasts."
Lin Yan took the list and glanced at it, his eyes flickering slightly.
The exact same phenomenon. It seemed that back then, it wasn't just the Black Mountain area; the Lizardmen priests underground would control the scaled beasts in multiple locations. However, all these anomalies were simply categorized by the human war zone as alien beast instincts.
"Perfect," Lin Yan said slowly. "The Green Rock Rift might yield more clues. But we must be careful. That thing underground has its eyes on us, especially me. This mission is very likely an opportunity for the enemy to set a trap."
Old Chen's expression darkened. "You mean they will ambush us at the Green Rock Rift?"
"I can't be certain," Lin Yan shook his head. "They won't rashly deploy a massive beast tide; the cost is too high. It is far more likely they will set up a small-scale ambush, targeting me precisely. On this trip, we must maintain absolute vigilance and never split up."
Over the next three days, the three completed their Sea of Consciousness re-examinations.
When the military doctor tested Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness, he was once again amazed at its state of repair. The light screen still showed a second-tier peak reading, but the finesse of his psychic fluctuations caused a brief fluctuation in the testing instrument's readings. The doctor could only record it as a special individual mental trait and did not delve deeper into the underlying cause.
They then claimed their equipment.
Bulletproof combat suits, cold-weapon short blades, portable Sea of Consciousness monitors, emergency psychic stabilizers, signal beacons, and rift detectors. There were no heavy cannons; reconnaissance squads prioritized mobility and scouting.
On the eve of their departure, Lin Yan stayed alone in the meditation room to make his final preparations.
He once again released his mental tentacles, attempting long-distance perception. As his fine psychic threads extended outward, just beyond the walls of the sanatorium, an extremely faint, fleeting touch of cold psychic energy brushed against his threads.
They were watching.
In an instant, Lin Yan retracted all his mental tentacles. His mind immediately returned to complete silence, feigning the state of an ordinary Sea of Consciousness in recovery.
In that mere instant of contact, he confirmed that the psychic exploration threads of the underground Lizardmen had been following him. They knew he was about to leave Panshi City and head to the Green Rock Rift.
"As expected," Lin Yan thought, a slight frown on his brow.
The enemy had most likely already received news of this mission to the Green Rock Rift, and the ambush was likely already in place. They would not choose to strike within the bastion city, where psychic monitoring equipment was dense and the risk was too high. The wilderness outside the rift was the perfect hunting ground for him.
The next morning.
The squad assembled at the city gate and boarded a lightweight reconnaissance vehicle from the war zone. The vehicle drove out through the heavy alloy gates of Panshi City, stepping onto the desolate, scorched earth outside.
The vegetation on the land was withered, and the surface was covered with tiny rock crevices. The air carried a faint earthy stench. In the distance, rifts of varying lengths lay across the wasteland like scars.
As he drove, the driver chatted casually, "The Green Rock Rift area has always been pretty stable. There haven't been any major fluctuations in the monitoring signals recently, so your mission should be easy. Many reconnaissance squads have been there, and basically none of them encountered any danger."
Lin Yan sat in the back seat, his gaze fixed on the depths of the wasteland, remaining silent.
Beneath the calm surface, a dark trap was quietly waiting for them to step in.
Deep within the underground rock layers, the Lizardmen priests received a message transmitted by their psychic scouts.
The target squad had left Panshi City and was en route to the Green Rock Rift. They had mobilized over a dozen low-level scaled beasts, along with one second-tier scaled beast, and ambushed them in the caves on both sides of the rift entrance.
The plan was simple: wait for the squad to enter the rift's range, launch a surprise attack with the scaled beasts, and simultaneously release concealed psychic interference to prioritize killing Lin Yan. As long as this human who could touch the psychic command links was eliminated, a major hidden danger for their future plans would be removed.
The vehicle sped along, getting closer and closer to the Green Rock Rift.
End of Chapter.