Chapter 56: The Aftermath of the Battle Report
After deploying the second warning beacon, the three briefly treated their new wounds and quickly evacuated the rock terrace of the Green Rock Rift, returning to the reconnaissance vehicle waiting on the high ground.
Seeing the injuries on the squad members and the scattered corpses of the scaled beasts on the rock terrace, the driver's face changed. He immediately started the vehicle and made a U-turn, speeding toward Panshi City.
The in-vehicle Sea of Consciousness monitor continued to operate. The screen showed only sporadic, faint biological fluctuations. The psychic aura of the Lizardmen priest had completely vanished, showing no signs of pursuit.
The atmosphere inside the cabin was oppressive.
Su Qing leaned against the seat. The wound on her thigh had been temporarily bandaged, but blood had already soaked through the gauze. Old Chen rubbed his calf as his old wound flared up again; every bump in the road pulled at his muscles and bones, bringing waves of dull pain. Lin Yan sat with his eyes closed, circulating his breathing technique to ease the swelling and pain in his Sea of Consciousness, while simultaneously reviewing the entire ambush in the rift.
The Lizardmen priest possessed extremely strong adaptability. Once the ambush failed, it did not stubbornly fight to the death but decisively chose to retreat and preserve its strength. Its goal from beginning to end had only been one—to eliminate him.
"The enemy was very restrained in preparing this ambush," Lin Yan said slowly as he opened his eyes. "They only used a second-tier scaled beast and a dozen or so low-level ones, without deploying any high-tier combat power. Even if they failed, their losses would be minimal, and it wouldn't trigger a large-scale rift cleansing operation by the war zone."
Old Chen nodded. "This further proves the existence of intelligence behind them. They know how to weigh gains and losses and control war costs. Ordinary alien beasts would only fight on instinct; they wouldn't calculate so much."
Su Qing flipped through the psychic waveform records stored in the portable detector. "I've saved the synchronized psychic signals captured during the battle. When we get back to Panshi City, I'll attach them to the battle report. I hope the war zone's technicians can spot the anomaly."
After a bumpy ride, the reconnaissance vehicle re-entered the massive gates of Panshi City at dusk.
The three went directly to the Operations Division of the war zone to submit their mission report, handing over the psychic waveform data and battlefield video recordings. After listening to their verbal account of the ambush at the Green Rock Rift, the officer in the Operations Division carefully read through the report and repeatedly compared the waveform data.
The lights in the conference room were a cold, sterile white.
After reviewing the materials, the lieutenant colonel in charge of the battle report review lightly tapped his fingertips on the desk and delivered the war zone's assessment conclusion.
"We have reviewed the data. There is indeed a high degree of synchronization in the scaled beasts' attacks. Combined with historical rift records, we have determined that this is caused by a second-tier scaled beast releasing a group psychic hormone to unify the actions of the low-level scaled beasts. It belongs to the collective psychic instinct of high-tier scaled beasts." The lieutenant colonel looked up at the three. "The anomalous phenomena you encountered at Black Mountain and Green Rock are temporarily classified under this category."
Su Qing couldn't help but speak up, "Sir, the scaled beasts' actions experience command lag. When they concentrate their forces to attack a single point, the movements of the other individuals are delayed. This doesn't seem like biological instinct."
The lieutenant colonel sighed. "I understand your thoughts. But there is no evidence to prove the existence of another intelligent race underground. Conjecture cannot serve as the basis for strategic adjustments in the war zone. This record will be archived, and we will continue to monitor the psychic signals of the Green Rock Rift. Your squad is injured; you are granted another seven days of convalescence before awaiting new mission assignments."
With that, there was no room for further discussion.
The high command still adhered to their original cognition, attributing all anomalies to the biological characteristics of the scaled beasts themselves. No matter how many indirect clues there were, without seeing the Lizardmen in the flesh or obtaining physical evidence, no speculation would be accepted.
Walking out of the Operations Division building, the sky had completely darkened.
"As expected, it's the same result," Old Chen said with a bitter smile. "We experienced it firsthand and saw it clearly, but without decisive evidence, no one will believe us no matter what we say."
Su Qing gripped the instrument tablet in her hand tightly. "These waveform records in our hands can only prove that the scaled beasts' movements can be remotely synchronized, but they can't prove that the controller isn't the scaled beasts themselves. It's too hard to overturn the ingrained cognition formed over twenty-five years."
Lin Yan looked at the continuous bastion walls in the distance and said in a low voice, "It's not a total loss, though. At least the war zone will raise the monitoring level of the Green Rock Rift. We just can't rely on the high command to actively uncover the truth. If we want to get solid proof, we can only rely on ourselves."
The three parted ways, each returning to their rooms in the sanatorium to recover from their injuries.
Back in the meditation room, Lin Yan sat cross-legged. His Sea of Consciousness remained at the second-tier peak. Two consecutive life-and-death bloody battles had continuously pushed the limits of his Sea of Consciousness. His core had accumulated sufficient foundation, yet the bottleneck of the third-tier Sea of Consciousness remained unbreakable. To break through, he needed a desperate ordeal capable of shaking the core of his Sea of Consciousness. Merely repelling an ambush and holding a position was still one step short.
He tried practicing the psychic threads again.
The psychic threads extended outward with extreme fineness, floating slowly within the psychic isolation layer of the meditation room. He repeatedly practiced signal concealment, minute disturbance, and rapid link severing, continuously refining this ability. If he encountered the psychic control of a Lizardmen priest again in the future, he would have more means to respond.
At the same time, deep within the rock layers a thousand meters underground, in the Lizardmen nest.
The priests gathered around the psychic network to review the failed hunt at the Green Rock Rift.
This human, Lin Yan, had exceeded their estimated upper limits.
Not only was his Sea of Consciousness exceptionally resilient, but he could also actively touch and disturb their psychic command threads. Both operations targeting him had failed. Continuing to send small-scale scaled beast ambushes would only result in continuous losses of their beasts, making it difficult to kill him.
A Lizardmen priest emitted a cold thought through the psychic link.
Since small-scale hunts were ineffective, they would switch plans. Instead of setting up ambushes solely targeting Lin Yan, they would create a larger-scale rift disturbance to lure multiple war zone reconnaissance squads into the rift area simultaneously. Amidst the chaos of a large-scale beast tide, they would seize the opportunity to harvest the target.
At the same time, they would quietly activate a secondary rift that had been dormant for many years, gradually expanding its size and slowly encroaching upon the safety zone outside the human bastions.
The seven-day recovery period passed in a flash.
Early that morning, the war zone issued a notice: an emergency meeting had been convened.
Around the Green Rock Rift, three previously stable small rifts had simultaneously shown signs of expansion, with continuous anomalous fluctuations in their psychic signals. The war zone decided to dispatch multiple reconnaissance squads for a joint investigation to determine the cause of the rift anomalies.
Lin Yan, Old Chen, and Su Qing's squad were placed on the investigation list.
"We're going down there again," Old Chen said, his expression solemn as he received the mission notice. "This time, I'm afraid it won't be a simple ambush. The enemy is preparing to play a much bigger game."
Lin Yan gently rubbed the hilt of his short blade, his gaze calm. "The opportunity has arrived as well. With multiple squads investigating together and large-scale anomalies in the rift, perhaps we can finally find direct evidence proving the existence of the underground alien race."
The chess game underground had begun to move once again.
End of Chapter.
Seeing the injuries on the squad members and the scattered corpses of the scaled beasts on the rock terrace, the driver's face changed. He immediately started the vehicle and made a U-turn, speeding toward Panshi City.
The in-vehicle Sea of Consciousness monitor continued to operate. The screen showed only sporadic, faint biological fluctuations. The psychic aura of the Lizardmen priest had completely vanished, showing no signs of pursuit.
The atmosphere inside the cabin was oppressive.
Su Qing leaned against the seat. The wound on her thigh had been temporarily bandaged, but blood had already soaked through the gauze. Old Chen rubbed his calf as his old wound flared up again; every bump in the road pulled at his muscles and bones, bringing waves of dull pain. Lin Yan sat with his eyes closed, circulating his breathing technique to ease the swelling and pain in his Sea of Consciousness, while simultaneously reviewing the entire ambush in the rift.
The Lizardmen priest possessed extremely strong adaptability. Once the ambush failed, it did not stubbornly fight to the death but decisively chose to retreat and preserve its strength. Its goal from beginning to end had only been one—to eliminate him.
"The enemy was very restrained in preparing this ambush," Lin Yan said slowly as he opened his eyes. "They only used a second-tier scaled beast and a dozen or so low-level ones, without deploying any high-tier combat power. Even if they failed, their losses would be minimal, and it wouldn't trigger a large-scale rift cleansing operation by the war zone."
Old Chen nodded. "This further proves the existence of intelligence behind them. They know how to weigh gains and losses and control war costs. Ordinary alien beasts would only fight on instinct; they wouldn't calculate so much."
Su Qing flipped through the psychic waveform records stored in the portable detector. "I've saved the synchronized psychic signals captured during the battle. When we get back to Panshi City, I'll attach them to the battle report. I hope the war zone's technicians can spot the anomaly."
After a bumpy ride, the reconnaissance vehicle re-entered the massive gates of Panshi City at dusk.
The three went directly to the Operations Division of the war zone to submit their mission report, handing over the psychic waveform data and battlefield video recordings. After listening to their verbal account of the ambush at the Green Rock Rift, the officer in the Operations Division carefully read through the report and repeatedly compared the waveform data.
The lights in the conference room were a cold, sterile white.
After reviewing the materials, the lieutenant colonel in charge of the battle report review lightly tapped his fingertips on the desk and delivered the war zone's assessment conclusion.
"We have reviewed the data. There is indeed a high degree of synchronization in the scaled beasts' attacks. Combined with historical rift records, we have determined that this is caused by a second-tier scaled beast releasing a group psychic hormone to unify the actions of the low-level scaled beasts. It belongs to the collective psychic instinct of high-tier scaled beasts." The lieutenant colonel looked up at the three. "The anomalous phenomena you encountered at Black Mountain and Green Rock are temporarily classified under this category."
Su Qing couldn't help but speak up, "Sir, the scaled beasts' actions experience command lag. When they concentrate their forces to attack a single point, the movements of the other individuals are delayed. This doesn't seem like biological instinct."
The lieutenant colonel sighed. "I understand your thoughts. But there is no evidence to prove the existence of another intelligent race underground. Conjecture cannot serve as the basis for strategic adjustments in the war zone. This record will be archived, and we will continue to monitor the psychic signals of the Green Rock Rift. Your squad is injured; you are granted another seven days of convalescence before awaiting new mission assignments."
With that, there was no room for further discussion.
The high command still adhered to their original cognition, attributing all anomalies to the biological characteristics of the scaled beasts themselves. No matter how many indirect clues there were, without seeing the Lizardmen in the flesh or obtaining physical evidence, no speculation would be accepted.
Walking out of the Operations Division building, the sky had completely darkened.
"As expected, it's the same result," Old Chen said with a bitter smile. "We experienced it firsthand and saw it clearly, but without decisive evidence, no one will believe us no matter what we say."
Su Qing gripped the instrument tablet in her hand tightly. "These waveform records in our hands can only prove that the scaled beasts' movements can be remotely synchronized, but they can't prove that the controller isn't the scaled beasts themselves. It's too hard to overturn the ingrained cognition formed over twenty-five years."
Lin Yan looked at the continuous bastion walls in the distance and said in a low voice, "It's not a total loss, though. At least the war zone will raise the monitoring level of the Green Rock Rift. We just can't rely on the high command to actively uncover the truth. If we want to get solid proof, we can only rely on ourselves."
The three parted ways, each returning to their rooms in the sanatorium to recover from their injuries.
Back in the meditation room, Lin Yan sat cross-legged. His Sea of Consciousness remained at the second-tier peak. Two consecutive life-and-death bloody battles had continuously pushed the limits of his Sea of Consciousness. His core had accumulated sufficient foundation, yet the bottleneck of the third-tier Sea of Consciousness remained unbreakable. To break through, he needed a desperate ordeal capable of shaking the core of his Sea of Consciousness. Merely repelling an ambush and holding a position was still one step short.
He tried practicing the psychic threads again.
The psychic threads extended outward with extreme fineness, floating slowly within the psychic isolation layer of the meditation room. He repeatedly practiced signal concealment, minute disturbance, and rapid link severing, continuously refining this ability. If he encountered the psychic control of a Lizardmen priest again in the future, he would have more means to respond.
At the same time, deep within the rock layers a thousand meters underground, in the Lizardmen nest.
The priests gathered around the psychic network to review the failed hunt at the Green Rock Rift.
This human, Lin Yan, had exceeded their estimated upper limits.
Not only was his Sea of Consciousness exceptionally resilient, but he could also actively touch and disturb their psychic command threads. Both operations targeting him had failed. Continuing to send small-scale scaled beast ambushes would only result in continuous losses of their beasts, making it difficult to kill him.
A Lizardmen priest emitted a cold thought through the psychic link.
Since small-scale hunts were ineffective, they would switch plans. Instead of setting up ambushes solely targeting Lin Yan, they would create a larger-scale rift disturbance to lure multiple war zone reconnaissance squads into the rift area simultaneously. Amidst the chaos of a large-scale beast tide, they would seize the opportunity to harvest the target.
At the same time, they would quietly activate a secondary rift that had been dormant for many years, gradually expanding its size and slowly encroaching upon the safety zone outside the human bastions.
The seven-day recovery period passed in a flash.
Early that morning, the war zone issued a notice: an emergency meeting had been convened.
Around the Green Rock Rift, three previously stable small rifts had simultaneously shown signs of expansion, with continuous anomalous fluctuations in their psychic signals. The war zone decided to dispatch multiple reconnaissance squads for a joint investigation to determine the cause of the rift anomalies.
Lin Yan, Old Chen, and Su Qing's squad were placed on the investigation list.
"We're going down there again," Old Chen said, his expression solemn as he received the mission notice. "This time, I'm afraid it won't be a simple ambush. The enemy is preparing to play a much bigger game."
Lin Yan gently rubbed the hilt of his short blade, his gaze calm. "The opportunity has arrived as well. With multiple squads investigating together and large-scale anomalies in the rift, perhaps we can finally find direct evidence proving the existence of the underground alien race."
The chess game underground had begun to move once again.
End of Chapter.