Chapter 59: The Node Collapses the Network
The psychic heavy pressure, condensed from thirty percent of their computing power, crashed down like a massive boulder weighing a thousand catties.
The outer barrier of Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness shattered inch by inch. Countless fine cracks spread across his spiritual level, and a piercing, swelling pain instantly filled his entire skull. The light and shadows before his eyes swayed, and his ears seemed to ring with countless cold hisses. It was the intertwined wills of multiple Lizardmen priests, attempting to forcefully crush his mind and tear apart his outward-extending psychic threads.
Yet, his core remained as steady as a rock.
The resilience of his Sea of Consciousness, tempered through the bloody battles of Black Mountain and the ambush at Green Rock, was fully displayed at this moment. Instead of stubbornly resisting the pressure, he sank his mind according to the ancient martial arts' mind-calming technique. He retracted all his psychic power, preserving only that single, hair-thin mental tentacle, and firmly pinned it onto the node of the multi-priest linked psychic network.
"Hold on!" Old Chen fiercely hacked open a lunging scaled beast, its dark green blood splattering against the rock wall. Catching a glimpse of Lin Yan's pale face in his peripheral vision, he exhausted all his strength to block the surging scaled beasts in front of the two of them. "Su Qing, cover him!"
Su Qing swiftly thrust her short knife into the eye socket of a scaled beast, raising the detector high while staring fixedly at the wildly jumping psychic curves on the screen. "They are concentrating their psychic power on Lin Yan! The beast swarm's offensive hasn't weakened; they are still compressing our space!"
Inside the rift corridor, screams, roars, and the clash of metal intertwined. The casualties of the other divided squads continued to expand, and the communication channel constantly transmitted final cries for help. The major led the remaining squad members in a desperate defense of a corner. Two people had already collapsed with severe injuries, unable to rise and fight again. Within the entire rift, the human defensive line was being eroded bit by bit.
Deep within the rock strata, the psychic wills of several Lizardmen priests continued to link. They concentrated their power to suppress Lin Yan, while their remaining computing power continued to stably dispatch the beast swarm, methodically harvesting the humans who had broken into the rift. In their estimation, this human's Sea of Consciousness was only at the second-tier peak. He couldn't withstand the combined psychic impact of multiple priests, and his mind would soon collapse.
Ignoring the tearing pain in his skull, Lin Yan waited patiently.
He knew that every time the multi-priest psychic network made large-scale deployments of the beast swarm or switched encirclement formations, all nodes would complete a global signal synchronization. In that exact instant when synchronization was complete, the entire psychic spiderweb would experience an extremely brief intersection blind spot. That was the only opportunity.
The beast swarm changed its tactics in unison once again.
Some scaled beasts continued to launch frontal assaults to restrain the humans, while another group quietly circled around to the rock terrace above the rift, preparing to dive down from above to form a pincer attack from top and bottom.
Now!
Countless psychic signals converged and flowed between the multiple priest nodes. The moment of global network synchronization arrived.
Seizing this fleeting window, Lin Yan violently thrust his maximally compressed psychic thread into one of the intermediate nodes. He didn't attempt to crush the priest's true body; instead, following the flow of psychic information, he forcefully agitated the signal flow inside the node, disrupting the synchronization of their thoughts.
Weng——
An invisible psychic shockwave spread throughout the entire spiderweb.
The originally smooth and continuous flow of commands instantly fell into disarray.
The charging scaled beasts collectively stalled. Some continued to rush forward fiercely, while others, receiving chaotic commands, abruptly stopped and even turned to pounce on their own kind. The previously seamless encirclement formation instantly developed massive, chaotic gaps.
"The beast swarm is in chaos!" Su Qing cried out.
The Lizardmen priests underground were caught completely off guard.
With the intermediate node disrupted, their psychic synchronization fractured. The network that had been sharing computing power instantly fell into brief discoordination. They hurriedly mobilized their psychic power to repair the node and recalibrate their commands, but this required time.
"Opportunity!" Lin Yan roared, suppressing the intense pain in his Sea of Consciousness. "Notify everyone to concentrate and break out toward the outer cave entrance! Do not engage in prolonged combat!"
Old Chen immediately tore his throat to shout, simultaneously opening his communicator and screaming, "All units, break out! The beast swarm's commands are disordered! Rally toward the rift exit!"
Seeing this, the surviving squad members were greatly encouraged. The major immediately organized the remaining personnel to abandon their defensive stance, seizing the window of the beast swarm's chaos to launch an assault toward the outer passage of the rift. Blades flashed as everyone desperately broke through the blockade of the chaotic scaled beasts.
Enraged, the Lizardmen priests frantically injected psychic power to repair the damaged nodes. The entire psychic spiderweb slowly stabilized again. The chaotic commands were corrected, the scaled beasts resumed their coordination, and they reorganized their pursuit.
But that brief chaos had already bought the human squad a precious window to break out.
Because of forcefully disturbing the node just now, the burden on Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness had reached its limit. The barrier of the second-tier peak trembled violently, and his core churned continuously, as if it could break through the bottleneck at any moment. Yet, this power was ultimately lacking that final spark. The desperate pressure was sufficient, but it had not yet reached the point of completely shattering the Sea of Consciousness barrier.
He knew clearly in his heart that this battle was not yet the opportunity for a breakthrough.
"Move! They've stabilized the network again!" Suppressing the discomfort of his churning Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yan swung his blade to slay a pursuing low-level scaled beast and followed the squad in retreating backward.
Fighting as they retreated, the group sprinted wildly toward the rift exit. The scaled beasts pursued relentlessly from behind, their synchronized roars echoing continuously from the dark passage. Unwilling to let their prey escape so easily, the priests continued to dispatch the beast swarm to follow and hunt, hoping to encircle them again before the squad could burst out of the rift.
While running, Su Qing kept a close eye on the detector. "The psychic network has finished repairing, but its overall strength has dropped by a notch. That node disturbance just now consumed a massive amount of their psychic power!"
"Their main forces are still deep in the rift; they won't pursue past the entrance," Lin Yan quickly assessed. "Outside the rift is the wasteland, where the war zone's remote monitoring equipment is dense. Exposing a large-scale beast swarm outside would attract heavy firepower for cleansing. The enemy won't pay such a high price."
After a bloody battle, the surviving, heavily wounded squad members finally burst out of the pitch-black cave entrance of the Green Rock Rift.
On the wasteland, the reconnaissance vehicles left behind on the outer perimeter had already received the distress signal from inside the cave. The vehicle-mounted weapons immediately opened fire, unleashing a dense rain of bullets to intercept the scaled beasts chasing out of the cave. The scaled beasts stopped at the edge of the rift, pacing and roaring at the cave entrance, not daring to continue the pursuit outward.
Watching the human squad successfully evacuate, the Lizardmen priests exchanged cold thoughts within the nest.
This hunt had once again failed to eliminate Lin Yan. They had also lost a massive number of cultivated scaled beasts, and their psychic network had suffered an impact. The potential of this second-tier Sea of Consciousness human had exceeded their estimates. Relying solely on scaled beast ambushes would hardly be enough to deal with him; they had to prepare more terrifying means.
Everyone collapsed onto the gravel of the wasteland, panting heavily. Of the original twenty-seven-man joint exploration squad, only thirteen survived the rift. Over half of the members had been left forever in the dark abyss.
Covered in blood, the major stared at the deep, dark entrance of the rift, his expression heavy. He looked at the complete psychic network records saved by Su Qing and fell into a long silence. The anomalies of this battle had far exceeded the scope of what could be explained by "high-tier scaled beast instincts."
"I will personally submit this battle report, along with all the psychic waveform data, to the highest echelons of the war zone," the major said in a hoarse voice. "I don't know if it will change the high command's judgment, but the situation this time must be seen by those above."
Lin Yan raised his eyes to look at the Green Rock Rift.
In this battle, he had shaken the psychic network linked by multiple priests, taking another step closer to uncovering the truth of the underground alien race. His second-tier peak Sea of Consciousness had trembled continuously in this desperate situation of life and death. He was only one final tribulation, capable of shaking his very core, away from knocking open the door to the third-tier Sea of Consciousness.
The Lizardmen underground had already begun preparing an even more treacherous death trap for him.
End of Chapter.
The outer barrier of Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness shattered inch by inch. Countless fine cracks spread across his spiritual level, and a piercing, swelling pain instantly filled his entire skull. The light and shadows before his eyes swayed, and his ears seemed to ring with countless cold hisses. It was the intertwined wills of multiple Lizardmen priests, attempting to forcefully crush his mind and tear apart his outward-extending psychic threads.
Yet, his core remained as steady as a rock.
The resilience of his Sea of Consciousness, tempered through the bloody battles of Black Mountain and the ambush at Green Rock, was fully displayed at this moment. Instead of stubbornly resisting the pressure, he sank his mind according to the ancient martial arts' mind-calming technique. He retracted all his psychic power, preserving only that single, hair-thin mental tentacle, and firmly pinned it onto the node of the multi-priest linked psychic network.
"Hold on!" Old Chen fiercely hacked open a lunging scaled beast, its dark green blood splattering against the rock wall. Catching a glimpse of Lin Yan's pale face in his peripheral vision, he exhausted all his strength to block the surging scaled beasts in front of the two of them. "Su Qing, cover him!"
Su Qing swiftly thrust her short knife into the eye socket of a scaled beast, raising the detector high while staring fixedly at the wildly jumping psychic curves on the screen. "They are concentrating their psychic power on Lin Yan! The beast swarm's offensive hasn't weakened; they are still compressing our space!"
Inside the rift corridor, screams, roars, and the clash of metal intertwined. The casualties of the other divided squads continued to expand, and the communication channel constantly transmitted final cries for help. The major led the remaining squad members in a desperate defense of a corner. Two people had already collapsed with severe injuries, unable to rise and fight again. Within the entire rift, the human defensive line was being eroded bit by bit.
Deep within the rock strata, the psychic wills of several Lizardmen priests continued to link. They concentrated their power to suppress Lin Yan, while their remaining computing power continued to stably dispatch the beast swarm, methodically harvesting the humans who had broken into the rift. In their estimation, this human's Sea of Consciousness was only at the second-tier peak. He couldn't withstand the combined psychic impact of multiple priests, and his mind would soon collapse.
Ignoring the tearing pain in his skull, Lin Yan waited patiently.
He knew that every time the multi-priest psychic network made large-scale deployments of the beast swarm or switched encirclement formations, all nodes would complete a global signal synchronization. In that exact instant when synchronization was complete, the entire psychic spiderweb would experience an extremely brief intersection blind spot. That was the only opportunity.
The beast swarm changed its tactics in unison once again.
Some scaled beasts continued to launch frontal assaults to restrain the humans, while another group quietly circled around to the rock terrace above the rift, preparing to dive down from above to form a pincer attack from top and bottom.
Now!
Countless psychic signals converged and flowed between the multiple priest nodes. The moment of global network synchronization arrived.
Seizing this fleeting window, Lin Yan violently thrust his maximally compressed psychic thread into one of the intermediate nodes. He didn't attempt to crush the priest's true body; instead, following the flow of psychic information, he forcefully agitated the signal flow inside the node, disrupting the synchronization of their thoughts.
Weng——
An invisible psychic shockwave spread throughout the entire spiderweb.
The originally smooth and continuous flow of commands instantly fell into disarray.
The charging scaled beasts collectively stalled. Some continued to rush forward fiercely, while others, receiving chaotic commands, abruptly stopped and even turned to pounce on their own kind. The previously seamless encirclement formation instantly developed massive, chaotic gaps.
"The beast swarm is in chaos!" Su Qing cried out.
The Lizardmen priests underground were caught completely off guard.
With the intermediate node disrupted, their psychic synchronization fractured. The network that had been sharing computing power instantly fell into brief discoordination. They hurriedly mobilized their psychic power to repair the node and recalibrate their commands, but this required time.
"Opportunity!" Lin Yan roared, suppressing the intense pain in his Sea of Consciousness. "Notify everyone to concentrate and break out toward the outer cave entrance! Do not engage in prolonged combat!"
Old Chen immediately tore his throat to shout, simultaneously opening his communicator and screaming, "All units, break out! The beast swarm's commands are disordered! Rally toward the rift exit!"
Seeing this, the surviving squad members were greatly encouraged. The major immediately organized the remaining personnel to abandon their defensive stance, seizing the window of the beast swarm's chaos to launch an assault toward the outer passage of the rift. Blades flashed as everyone desperately broke through the blockade of the chaotic scaled beasts.
Enraged, the Lizardmen priests frantically injected psychic power to repair the damaged nodes. The entire psychic spiderweb slowly stabilized again. The chaotic commands were corrected, the scaled beasts resumed their coordination, and they reorganized their pursuit.
But that brief chaos had already bought the human squad a precious window to break out.
Because of forcefully disturbing the node just now, the burden on Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness had reached its limit. The barrier of the second-tier peak trembled violently, and his core churned continuously, as if it could break through the bottleneck at any moment. Yet, this power was ultimately lacking that final spark. The desperate pressure was sufficient, but it had not yet reached the point of completely shattering the Sea of Consciousness barrier.
He knew clearly in his heart that this battle was not yet the opportunity for a breakthrough.
"Move! They've stabilized the network again!" Suppressing the discomfort of his churning Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yan swung his blade to slay a pursuing low-level scaled beast and followed the squad in retreating backward.
Fighting as they retreated, the group sprinted wildly toward the rift exit. The scaled beasts pursued relentlessly from behind, their synchronized roars echoing continuously from the dark passage. Unwilling to let their prey escape so easily, the priests continued to dispatch the beast swarm to follow and hunt, hoping to encircle them again before the squad could burst out of the rift.
While running, Su Qing kept a close eye on the detector. "The psychic network has finished repairing, but its overall strength has dropped by a notch. That node disturbance just now consumed a massive amount of their psychic power!"
"Their main forces are still deep in the rift; they won't pursue past the entrance," Lin Yan quickly assessed. "Outside the rift is the wasteland, where the war zone's remote monitoring equipment is dense. Exposing a large-scale beast swarm outside would attract heavy firepower for cleansing. The enemy won't pay such a high price."
After a bloody battle, the surviving, heavily wounded squad members finally burst out of the pitch-black cave entrance of the Green Rock Rift.
On the wasteland, the reconnaissance vehicles left behind on the outer perimeter had already received the distress signal from inside the cave. The vehicle-mounted weapons immediately opened fire, unleashing a dense rain of bullets to intercept the scaled beasts chasing out of the cave. The scaled beasts stopped at the edge of the rift, pacing and roaring at the cave entrance, not daring to continue the pursuit outward.
Watching the human squad successfully evacuate, the Lizardmen priests exchanged cold thoughts within the nest.
This hunt had once again failed to eliminate Lin Yan. They had also lost a massive number of cultivated scaled beasts, and their psychic network had suffered an impact. The potential of this second-tier Sea of Consciousness human had exceeded their estimates. Relying solely on scaled beast ambushes would hardly be enough to deal with him; they had to prepare more terrifying means.
Everyone collapsed onto the gravel of the wasteland, panting heavily. Of the original twenty-seven-man joint exploration squad, only thirteen survived the rift. Over half of the members had been left forever in the dark abyss.
Covered in blood, the major stared at the deep, dark entrance of the rift, his expression heavy. He looked at the complete psychic network records saved by Su Qing and fell into a long silence. The anomalies of this battle had far exceeded the scope of what could be explained by "high-tier scaled beast instincts."
"I will personally submit this battle report, along with all the psychic waveform data, to the highest echelons of the war zone," the major said in a hoarse voice. "I don't know if it will change the high command's judgment, but the situation this time must be seen by those above."
Lin Yan raised his eyes to look at the Green Rock Rift.
In this battle, he had shaken the psychic network linked by multiple priests, taking another step closer to uncovering the truth of the underground alien race. His second-tier peak Sea of Consciousness had trembled continuously in this desperate situation of life and death. He was only one final tribulation, capable of shaking his very core, away from knocking open the door to the third-tier Sea of Consciousness.
The Lizardmen underground had already begun preparing an even more treacherous death trap for him.
End of Chapter.