Chapter 55: Tangled Threads
The moment the commands shifted, the beast swarm immediately divided.
Four low-level scaled beasts changed direction, abandoning Lin Yan and charging fiercely toward Old Chen and Su Qing. The remaining scaled beasts continued to surround them, while the second-tier scaled beast lowered its body, staring dead at Lin Yan. It continuously harassed his Sea of Consciousness with psychic impacts, preventing him from breaking away to support his teammates.
"We're separated!" Su Qing quickly stood back-to-back with Old Chen, her short knife held horizontally in front of her.
A scaled beast leaped into the air, its claws aiming straight for Su Qing's chest. She dodged sideways, her blade plunging fiercely into the beast's scapula. But another scaled beast pounced right behind it. Old Chen stepped forward, his long knife slashing diagonally, forcefully hacking open the scaled beast's scales. Dark green blood sprayed across the rock surface.
The old wound on Old Chen's leg had not yet fully healed. Under continuous exertion, a dull ache throbbed in his calf. He gritted his teeth to stabilize his center of gravity. "Hold the rock terrace! Don't let them push us down! Below the terrace is the deep pit of the rift!"
On Lin Yan's side, the second-tier scaled beast launched another charge.
Its massive body, enveloped in a foul stench, pounced straight at him, while a cold psychic impact struck his Sea of Consciousness. Ripples spread across the outer layer of Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness as he firmly guarded his core. His feet moved in ancient martial arts footwork; instead of matching the giant beast's strength head-on, he continuously maneuvered and circled.
While dodging the second-tier scaled beast's pounces and bites, he split off a few extremely fine mental tentacles. Following the psychic threads connecting the scaled beasts, he probed deep into the rift.
The source of the Lizardmen priest's psychic power was hidden deep within a rock cave on the inner side of the rift. At this moment, all of its computing power was used to control the beast swarm and divide the squad, maintaining the synchronized attacks of multiple scaled beasts. Just like on the Black Mountain battlefield, the more targets it concentrated on coordinating, the greater the load on its psychic link, and the easier it was to exploit its flaws.
"Here it is."
Lin Yan held his breath, calming his mind, and gently placed his psychic thread onto the link.
This time, he did not merely test the waters. Taking advantage of the gap when the opponent's computing power was maxed out, he slightly disturbed the entire flow of psychic commands.
In an instant, the movements of several low-level scaled beasts that were charging became disordered.
Two scaled beasts that were supposed to pounce on Old Chen suddenly stalled, turned their heads, and crashed into their companions beside them, tearing at each other. The other two scaled beasts charging toward Su Qing experienced a half-beat delay in their charging rhythm.
"They're in chaos!" Su Qing seized this rare window of opportunity, thrusting her short knife forward to pierce the throat of a scaled beast.
Deep within the rock cave, the Lizardmen priest sensed the disturbance in its link, and its cold psychic fluctuations suddenly tensed. It immediately mobilized its psychic power to wash over the link, attempting to erase Lin Yan's interference. A wave of cold psychic backlash surged along the thread directly toward Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness.
Lin Yan was fully prepared. The moment the backlash arrived, he decisively severed the connection of his mental tentacles.
His skull only felt a brief, sharp pain; he had not been reverse-locked onto by the opponent.
Sensing the brief interruption in the priest's psychic commands, the second-tier scaled beast's offensive paused for a moment. Lin Yan seized the opportunity, his body darting forward as his short blade aimed viciously at the beast's eye socket.
Chi!
The blade pierced deep. The second-tier scaled beast let out a pained roar, its massive body rolling violently. Its huge claws flailed wildly against the rocks, sending gravel flying everywhere.
The priest quickly stabilized the psychic link again, and the remaining scaled beasts resumed their synchronization, continuing their fierce attacks. However, after that brief disturbance, its psychic consumption had noticeably increased, and the fluidity of its control had dropped.
"This method can't completely sever their control; it can only briefly disrupt them," Lin Yan shouted a warning as he continued to maneuver, keeping the injured second-tier scaled beast occupied. "The controller is hidden in the rock cave deep within the rift. It can't maintain synchronization for this many scaled beasts indefinitely! If we keep draining it, it will experience another lag!"
Old Chen hacked down a scaled beast, panting heavily. "We'll hold off the beast swarm. Is there any way to directly attack that controlling alien?"
"It's too far away, blocked by rock layers. My mental tentacles can only interfere with the link; they can't harm its true body," Lin Yan shook his head. "Moreover, if I maintain the psychic threads for too long, I'll easily be locked onto, inviting a fatal psychic piercing."
Enduring the intense pain, the injured second-tier scaled beast launched another pounce. The wound on its missing eye continuously leaked dark green fluid, making it even more ferocious. Waves of psychic impacts crashed toward Lin Yan one after another. The outer layer of his Sea of Consciousness cracked repeatedly, only to be slowly repaired through his calming breath techniques. His second-tier peak core remained stable, but under the repeated impacts, the swelling pain in his skull grew stronger and stronger.
Su Qing accidentally had her thigh grazed by a scaled beast's claws, tearing a gash in her combat suit. Blood quickly seeped out. She let out a muffled groan but did not retreat. Instead, she pressed forward, thrusting her short knife into the scaled beast's lower jaw, finishing off the monster.
Corpses piled higher and higher on the rock terrace, and the number of beasts in the swarm continued to decrease. Watching its scaled beasts fall, the Lizardmen priest knew the ambush had lost its advantage of surprise. Continuing to fight head-on would only result in the senseless loss of its beasts. It quickly weighed the situation and made a decision.
The psychic commands changed once again.
The remaining scaled beasts no longer fought to the death. They took turns launching feint attacks to cover their retreat. The injured second-tier scaled beast acted as the rearguard, continuously releasing psychic impacts to restrain the three humans, while the surviving scaled beasts gradually retreated toward the rock caves inside the rift.
"They're retreating!" Old Chen saw through their intentions instantly.
"Don't rashly chase them deep into the rift!" Lin Yan immediately called out to stop them. "This is very likely another trap. The terrain inside the rock caves is complex. Once we go in, we'll completely lose our mobility."
The three stopped, standing on the blood-stained rock terrace, watching the scaled beasts retreat one by one into the pitch-black rock caves. Soon, the psychic fluctuations inside the caves slowly retracted, hiding once again.
Only the corpses of scaled beasts, scattered gravel, and the new wounds on the three humans remained on the rock terrace.
Su Qing supported her thigh and slowly sat down to check the wound. "The leg injury isn't too deep. Fortunately, it didn't damage the muscles or bones."
Old Chen leaned against a rock, panting heavily. The old wound on his calf throbbed dully once again.
Lin Yan stood at the edge of the rock terrace, his gaze fixed on the pitch-black, deep entrance of the rift. He once again released his mental tentacles to probe. The psychic aura of the Lizardmen priest had sunk deep into the rock layers, almost impossible to sense.
"This ambush failed, but the enemy has figured out more of our hidden cards," Lin Yan said in a low voice. "It saw with its own eyes that I can disturb the psychic command threads. Next time, it will prepare defenses in advance and won't easily expose the flaws in its link again."
Su Qing frowned. "Did we get any evidence? We can only prove that the scaled beasts' movements can be remotely synchronized. We still can't prove the existence of an intelligent alien race underground."
Old Chen looked down at the scaled beast corpse at his feet. "The scaled beasts themselves don't have the ability to synchronize psychically. Whoever can do this must have something else behind them. It's a pity it's hiding underground. We can't drag it out."
Lin Yan fell silent for a moment.
In this battle, they still hadn't obtained any direct physical evidence that could be submitted to the war zone. But he was even more certain in his heart that the Lizardmen were beneath the rock layers of this land, silently laying out their plans. Having failed this assassination, the enemy would not simply let the matter rest.
"Finish the mission first. Set up the second beacon," Lin Yan said. "Then return to Panshi City immediately. We will report this ambush incident truthfully, but for now, we will keep our speculations about the underground alien race to ourselves."
The three rested briefly, enduring the pain of their wounds, and completed the deployment of the second warning beacon. The beacon was activated, and its psychic monitoring signal was connected to the Panshi City war zone system.
On the wasteland, the wind blew through the rift, emitting a low, mournful howl.
Deep within the rock cave, the Lizardmen priest lay dormant in silence. Its psychic link transmitted information deeper into the nest. The intelligence regarding Lin Yan was updated once again. The assassination plan had failed. Stronger forces would need to be mobilized to design a more treacherous, inescapable death trap.
End of Chapter.
Four low-level scaled beasts changed direction, abandoning Lin Yan and charging fiercely toward Old Chen and Su Qing. The remaining scaled beasts continued to surround them, while the second-tier scaled beast lowered its body, staring dead at Lin Yan. It continuously harassed his Sea of Consciousness with psychic impacts, preventing him from breaking away to support his teammates.
"We're separated!" Su Qing quickly stood back-to-back with Old Chen, her short knife held horizontally in front of her.
A scaled beast leaped into the air, its claws aiming straight for Su Qing's chest. She dodged sideways, her blade plunging fiercely into the beast's scapula. But another scaled beast pounced right behind it. Old Chen stepped forward, his long knife slashing diagonally, forcefully hacking open the scaled beast's scales. Dark green blood sprayed across the rock surface.
The old wound on Old Chen's leg had not yet fully healed. Under continuous exertion, a dull ache throbbed in his calf. He gritted his teeth to stabilize his center of gravity. "Hold the rock terrace! Don't let them push us down! Below the terrace is the deep pit of the rift!"
On Lin Yan's side, the second-tier scaled beast launched another charge.
Its massive body, enveloped in a foul stench, pounced straight at him, while a cold psychic impact struck his Sea of Consciousness. Ripples spread across the outer layer of Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness as he firmly guarded his core. His feet moved in ancient martial arts footwork; instead of matching the giant beast's strength head-on, he continuously maneuvered and circled.
While dodging the second-tier scaled beast's pounces and bites, he split off a few extremely fine mental tentacles. Following the psychic threads connecting the scaled beasts, he probed deep into the rift.
The source of the Lizardmen priest's psychic power was hidden deep within a rock cave on the inner side of the rift. At this moment, all of its computing power was used to control the beast swarm and divide the squad, maintaining the synchronized attacks of multiple scaled beasts. Just like on the Black Mountain battlefield, the more targets it concentrated on coordinating, the greater the load on its psychic link, and the easier it was to exploit its flaws.
"Here it is."
Lin Yan held his breath, calming his mind, and gently placed his psychic thread onto the link.
This time, he did not merely test the waters. Taking advantage of the gap when the opponent's computing power was maxed out, he slightly disturbed the entire flow of psychic commands.
In an instant, the movements of several low-level scaled beasts that were charging became disordered.
Two scaled beasts that were supposed to pounce on Old Chen suddenly stalled, turned their heads, and crashed into their companions beside them, tearing at each other. The other two scaled beasts charging toward Su Qing experienced a half-beat delay in their charging rhythm.
"They're in chaos!" Su Qing seized this rare window of opportunity, thrusting her short knife forward to pierce the throat of a scaled beast.
Deep within the rock cave, the Lizardmen priest sensed the disturbance in its link, and its cold psychic fluctuations suddenly tensed. It immediately mobilized its psychic power to wash over the link, attempting to erase Lin Yan's interference. A wave of cold psychic backlash surged along the thread directly toward Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness.
Lin Yan was fully prepared. The moment the backlash arrived, he decisively severed the connection of his mental tentacles.
His skull only felt a brief, sharp pain; he had not been reverse-locked onto by the opponent.
Sensing the brief interruption in the priest's psychic commands, the second-tier scaled beast's offensive paused for a moment. Lin Yan seized the opportunity, his body darting forward as his short blade aimed viciously at the beast's eye socket.
Chi!
The blade pierced deep. The second-tier scaled beast let out a pained roar, its massive body rolling violently. Its huge claws flailed wildly against the rocks, sending gravel flying everywhere.
The priest quickly stabilized the psychic link again, and the remaining scaled beasts resumed their synchronization, continuing their fierce attacks. However, after that brief disturbance, its psychic consumption had noticeably increased, and the fluidity of its control had dropped.
"This method can't completely sever their control; it can only briefly disrupt them," Lin Yan shouted a warning as he continued to maneuver, keeping the injured second-tier scaled beast occupied. "The controller is hidden in the rock cave deep within the rift. It can't maintain synchronization for this many scaled beasts indefinitely! If we keep draining it, it will experience another lag!"
Old Chen hacked down a scaled beast, panting heavily. "We'll hold off the beast swarm. Is there any way to directly attack that controlling alien?"
"It's too far away, blocked by rock layers. My mental tentacles can only interfere with the link; they can't harm its true body," Lin Yan shook his head. "Moreover, if I maintain the psychic threads for too long, I'll easily be locked onto, inviting a fatal psychic piercing."
Enduring the intense pain, the injured second-tier scaled beast launched another pounce. The wound on its missing eye continuously leaked dark green fluid, making it even more ferocious. Waves of psychic impacts crashed toward Lin Yan one after another. The outer layer of his Sea of Consciousness cracked repeatedly, only to be slowly repaired through his calming breath techniques. His second-tier peak core remained stable, but under the repeated impacts, the swelling pain in his skull grew stronger and stronger.
Su Qing accidentally had her thigh grazed by a scaled beast's claws, tearing a gash in her combat suit. Blood quickly seeped out. She let out a muffled groan but did not retreat. Instead, she pressed forward, thrusting her short knife into the scaled beast's lower jaw, finishing off the monster.
Corpses piled higher and higher on the rock terrace, and the number of beasts in the swarm continued to decrease. Watching its scaled beasts fall, the Lizardmen priest knew the ambush had lost its advantage of surprise. Continuing to fight head-on would only result in the senseless loss of its beasts. It quickly weighed the situation and made a decision.
The psychic commands changed once again.
The remaining scaled beasts no longer fought to the death. They took turns launching feint attacks to cover their retreat. The injured second-tier scaled beast acted as the rearguard, continuously releasing psychic impacts to restrain the three humans, while the surviving scaled beasts gradually retreated toward the rock caves inside the rift.
"They're retreating!" Old Chen saw through their intentions instantly.
"Don't rashly chase them deep into the rift!" Lin Yan immediately called out to stop them. "This is very likely another trap. The terrain inside the rock caves is complex. Once we go in, we'll completely lose our mobility."
The three stopped, standing on the blood-stained rock terrace, watching the scaled beasts retreat one by one into the pitch-black rock caves. Soon, the psychic fluctuations inside the caves slowly retracted, hiding once again.
Only the corpses of scaled beasts, scattered gravel, and the new wounds on the three humans remained on the rock terrace.
Su Qing supported her thigh and slowly sat down to check the wound. "The leg injury isn't too deep. Fortunately, it didn't damage the muscles or bones."
Old Chen leaned against a rock, panting heavily. The old wound on his calf throbbed dully once again.
Lin Yan stood at the edge of the rock terrace, his gaze fixed on the pitch-black, deep entrance of the rift. He once again released his mental tentacles to probe. The psychic aura of the Lizardmen priest had sunk deep into the rock layers, almost impossible to sense.
"This ambush failed, but the enemy has figured out more of our hidden cards," Lin Yan said in a low voice. "It saw with its own eyes that I can disturb the psychic command threads. Next time, it will prepare defenses in advance and won't easily expose the flaws in its link again."
Su Qing frowned. "Did we get any evidence? We can only prove that the scaled beasts' movements can be remotely synchronized. We still can't prove the existence of an intelligent alien race underground."
Old Chen looked down at the scaled beast corpse at his feet. "The scaled beasts themselves don't have the ability to synchronize psychically. Whoever can do this must have something else behind them. It's a pity it's hiding underground. We can't drag it out."
Lin Yan fell silent for a moment.
In this battle, they still hadn't obtained any direct physical evidence that could be submitted to the war zone. But he was even more certain in his heart that the Lizardmen were beneath the rock layers of this land, silently laying out their plans. Having failed this assassination, the enemy would not simply let the matter rest.
"Finish the mission first. Set up the second beacon," Lin Yan said. "Then return to Panshi City immediately. We will report this ambush incident truthfully, but for now, we will keep our speculations about the underground alien race to ourselves."
The three rested briefly, enduring the pain of their wounds, and completed the deployment of the second warning beacon. The beacon was activated, and its psychic monitoring signal was connected to the Panshi City war zone system.
On the wasteland, the wind blew through the rift, emitting a low, mournful howl.
Deep within the rock cave, the Lizardmen priest lay dormant in silence. Its psychic link transmitted information deeper into the nest. The intelligence regarding Lin Yan was updated once again. The assassination plan had failed. Stronger forces would need to be mobilized to design a more treacherous, inescapable death trap.
End of Chapter.