Chapter 65: The Illusory Dream Crevice
The entrance to the narrow rock crevice was hidden within a depression in the massive rock wall. Its height barely allowed for a person to pass by bending over, and its width was less than a meter. The rock wall was wet, with icy seepage slowly dripping down through the crevice, bringing a bone-chilling coldness as it landed on their combat uniforms.
"Enter one by one, single file, and maintain a two-meter distance between the person in front and behind," Lu Heng said in a low voice, holding his long knife horizontally in front of him. "Lin Yan, take the lead to scout the way. The explosives expert is last; be ready to blast the rocks to block any pursuers at any time."
The team quickly rotated their formation, bending over one after another to squeeze into the crevice.
Inside the rock crevice, it was pitch black. Everyone could only turn down the brightness of their headlamps, the beams squeezed into a thin line by the narrow rock walls. The ground was littered with jagged rocks and puddles of water. Every step had to be taken with extreme caution; a momentary lapse could kick a loose stone and expose their position. Fine rock debris constantly rained down from the rock walls on both sides, and the stench of decay in the air was even stronger than in the main passage.
Bending over at the very front, Lin Yan continuously spread out his psychic threads, meticulously sweeping across every branching rock cave ahead.
This network of rock crevices crisscrossed, resembling the twisted and tangled roots deep within the earth. The Lizardmen had long since set up secondary psychic nodes here. Instead of having a massive frontal blockade of scaled beasts, they hid a small number of scaled beasts in the dark caves on the sides of the crevice, waiting for the perfect opportunity to ambush.
"There are scaled beasts hidden in the dark caves on both sides. The numbers aren't large; they are specifically waiting to ambush us as we pass," Lin Yan whispered the information backward. "The passage is too narrow. Once they get into close combat, the people behind cannot provide support, and only the person in front can handle it independently. Everyone, stay highly vigilant and watch the side caves."
The team moved forward slowly.
Having just walked over a hundred meters, a dark cave on the left, barely waist-high, suddenly erupted with a roar. A scaled beast lunged out from the darkness, its fangs aiming straight for Su Qing, who was walking second in line. Su Qing was well-prepared; she dodged sideways, her short knife顺势 (following the momentum) piercing into the eye socket of the scaled beast. Dark green blood sprayed across the damp rock wall. The beast twitched violently a few times before crashing heavily into the puddle.
The brief skirmish dared not make too much noise.
The team did not pause, continuing to push forward.
Just then, a hazy, cold psychic fluctuation slowly spread from the depths of the rock crevice. It was not a heavy pressure that fiercely impacted the Sea of Consciousness, but rather a mental illusion that dispersed like water mist, silently seeping into everyone's Sea of Consciousness.
The first to fall victim was a veteran with a fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness. His footsteps suddenly halted, his pupils slightly unfocused, and the gaze that had been fixed ahead turned blank.
"Old Zhou?" Lu Heng called out to him in a low voice.
Old Zhou's eyes were dazed as he muttered to himself, "I... I see the camp. My daughter is over there waiting for me to come home..."
Subconsciously, he loosened his grip on the short spear in his hand. Turning his steps, he was about to crash his head into the solid rock on the side wall of the crevice.
"It's a mental illusion! Steady your mind! Shrink your Sea of Consciousness; do not be led astray by stray thoughts!" Lin Yan immediately called out to remind them. His Sea of Consciousness resilience was extremely strong; the illusion released by the Ancient Progenitor could hardly shake his core. The scenery before his eyes merely distorted for a split second before he forcefully suppressed it.
Lu Heng took a long stride forward, grabbed Old Zhou by the shoulder, and heavily slapped the back of his neck.
"Wake up! That's an illusion!"
The fierce stimulus broke the illusion's entanglement with Old Zhou's Sea of Consciousness. Old Zhou trembled all over, suddenly snapping back to reality. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back as he gasped for air, his face filled with lingering fear. "Just now... I couldn't tell what was real or fake. I thought I had truly returned home."
"The ancient will from the depths has made its move," Lin Yan explained in a deep voice as he continued to probe the path ahead. "It's not forcefully destroying the Sea of Consciousness barrier; instead, it's arousing the deepest thoughts in a person's heart to create illusions that confuse the mind. The space in the rock crevice is so narrow that the illusion easily shrouds everyone. Once someone gets lost, they will lose their ability to resist."
The will of the Ancient Progenitor flowed quietly deep within the rock strata.
Frontal assaults consumed too much. In such narrow terrain, mental illusions were the most efficient hunting method. Every human had attachments, regrets, and obsessions at the bottom of their hearts. Grasping this point allowed them to silently dismantle the squad.
Waves of illusions attacked continuously.
Another team member saw the vision of the bastion city being breached by the beast tide and their relatives dying brutally. Grief and indignation surged in their heart, and they nearly lost control, roaring as they charged into the darkness. Others saw themselves surrounded by countless scaled beasts; despair instantly overwhelmed their minds, and the hand gripping the knife began to tremble violently.
"Guard your true heart! Do not look, do not think!" Lu Heng loudly reminded them. "Silently recite the Sea of Consciousness solidification technique and shut out all stray thoughts!"
All members of the squad gritted their teeth, forcibly fighting against the illusions constantly flooding into their minds. Their Seas of Consciousness were continuously consumed, and everyone's face turned pale. The fourth-tier members were still struggling to resist; if it were someone with a lower Sea of Consciousness level, they would have completely succumbed by now.
Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness remained at the second-tier peak.
The illusions continuously assaulted his mind, with scene after scene constantly surfacing on the surface of his Sea of Consciousness—the Green Temple in the mountains of the previous plane, the seated figure of his master, and the old comrades who had fought side by side. Familiar scenes rushed toward him, stirring the thoughts deep in his heart.
The outer layer of his Sea of Consciousness trembled violently, and cracks continued to spread. But his core remained stable.
He could clearly distinguish between illusion and reality. That was an illusion, not reality.
The barrier of the second-tier peak, under the continuous washing of these waves of mental illusions, trembled incessantly. Power continuously accumulated, getting closer and closer to breaking through the bottleneck, yet it was still lacking that final blow.
"The passage ahead is about to open up; we are nearing the end of the rock crevice maze," Lin Yan's psychic threads detected the change in terrain ahead. "But in the open area, three linked psychic nodes have been set up. A massive number of scaled beasts have already gathered there, waiting for us to emerge from the crevice."
The Ancient Progenitor had calculated the route perfectly.
The rock crevice was a trap used to exhaust the squad's mental state and use illusions to cause casualties. Once they exhausted their mental power and walked out of the crevice, they would face a battlefield of encircling scaled beasts.
"Everyone, prepare for combat," Lu Heng gripped his long knife tightly and said in a deep voice. "Form a circular formation the moment we exit the crevice. Lin Yan, continue to lock onto the positions of the nodes and look for an opportunity to break the deadlock."
Everyone gripped their weapons tightly, suppressing the exhaustion in their Seas of Consciousness, and took step after step toward the exit of the crevice.
From the darkness ahead, the low roars of the scaled beasts could be heard with increasing clarity.
End of Chapter.
"Enter one by one, single file, and maintain a two-meter distance between the person in front and behind," Lu Heng said in a low voice, holding his long knife horizontally in front of him. "Lin Yan, take the lead to scout the way. The explosives expert is last; be ready to blast the rocks to block any pursuers at any time."
The team quickly rotated their formation, bending over one after another to squeeze into the crevice.
Inside the rock crevice, it was pitch black. Everyone could only turn down the brightness of their headlamps, the beams squeezed into a thin line by the narrow rock walls. The ground was littered with jagged rocks and puddles of water. Every step had to be taken with extreme caution; a momentary lapse could kick a loose stone and expose their position. Fine rock debris constantly rained down from the rock walls on both sides, and the stench of decay in the air was even stronger than in the main passage.
Bending over at the very front, Lin Yan continuously spread out his psychic threads, meticulously sweeping across every branching rock cave ahead.
This network of rock crevices crisscrossed, resembling the twisted and tangled roots deep within the earth. The Lizardmen had long since set up secondary psychic nodes here. Instead of having a massive frontal blockade of scaled beasts, they hid a small number of scaled beasts in the dark caves on the sides of the crevice, waiting for the perfect opportunity to ambush.
"There are scaled beasts hidden in the dark caves on both sides. The numbers aren't large; they are specifically waiting to ambush us as we pass," Lin Yan whispered the information backward. "The passage is too narrow. Once they get into close combat, the people behind cannot provide support, and only the person in front can handle it independently. Everyone, stay highly vigilant and watch the side caves."
The team moved forward slowly.
Having just walked over a hundred meters, a dark cave on the left, barely waist-high, suddenly erupted with a roar. A scaled beast lunged out from the darkness, its fangs aiming straight for Su Qing, who was walking second in line. Su Qing was well-prepared; she dodged sideways, her short knife顺势 (following the momentum) piercing into the eye socket of the scaled beast. Dark green blood sprayed across the damp rock wall. The beast twitched violently a few times before crashing heavily into the puddle.
The brief skirmish dared not make too much noise.
The team did not pause, continuing to push forward.
Just then, a hazy, cold psychic fluctuation slowly spread from the depths of the rock crevice. It was not a heavy pressure that fiercely impacted the Sea of Consciousness, but rather a mental illusion that dispersed like water mist, silently seeping into everyone's Sea of Consciousness.
The first to fall victim was a veteran with a fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness. His footsteps suddenly halted, his pupils slightly unfocused, and the gaze that had been fixed ahead turned blank.
"Old Zhou?" Lu Heng called out to him in a low voice.
Old Zhou's eyes were dazed as he muttered to himself, "I... I see the camp. My daughter is over there waiting for me to come home..."
Subconsciously, he loosened his grip on the short spear in his hand. Turning his steps, he was about to crash his head into the solid rock on the side wall of the crevice.
"It's a mental illusion! Steady your mind! Shrink your Sea of Consciousness; do not be led astray by stray thoughts!" Lin Yan immediately called out to remind them. His Sea of Consciousness resilience was extremely strong; the illusion released by the Ancient Progenitor could hardly shake his core. The scenery before his eyes merely distorted for a split second before he forcefully suppressed it.
Lu Heng took a long stride forward, grabbed Old Zhou by the shoulder, and heavily slapped the back of his neck.
"Wake up! That's an illusion!"
The fierce stimulus broke the illusion's entanglement with Old Zhou's Sea of Consciousness. Old Zhou trembled all over, suddenly snapping back to reality. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back as he gasped for air, his face filled with lingering fear. "Just now... I couldn't tell what was real or fake. I thought I had truly returned home."
"The ancient will from the depths has made its move," Lin Yan explained in a deep voice as he continued to probe the path ahead. "It's not forcefully destroying the Sea of Consciousness barrier; instead, it's arousing the deepest thoughts in a person's heart to create illusions that confuse the mind. The space in the rock crevice is so narrow that the illusion easily shrouds everyone. Once someone gets lost, they will lose their ability to resist."
The will of the Ancient Progenitor flowed quietly deep within the rock strata.
Frontal assaults consumed too much. In such narrow terrain, mental illusions were the most efficient hunting method. Every human had attachments, regrets, and obsessions at the bottom of their hearts. Grasping this point allowed them to silently dismantle the squad.
Waves of illusions attacked continuously.
Another team member saw the vision of the bastion city being breached by the beast tide and their relatives dying brutally. Grief and indignation surged in their heart, and they nearly lost control, roaring as they charged into the darkness. Others saw themselves surrounded by countless scaled beasts; despair instantly overwhelmed their minds, and the hand gripping the knife began to tremble violently.
"Guard your true heart! Do not look, do not think!" Lu Heng loudly reminded them. "Silently recite the Sea of Consciousness solidification technique and shut out all stray thoughts!"
All members of the squad gritted their teeth, forcibly fighting against the illusions constantly flooding into their minds. Their Seas of Consciousness were continuously consumed, and everyone's face turned pale. The fourth-tier members were still struggling to resist; if it were someone with a lower Sea of Consciousness level, they would have completely succumbed by now.
Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness remained at the second-tier peak.
The illusions continuously assaulted his mind, with scene after scene constantly surfacing on the surface of his Sea of Consciousness—the Green Temple in the mountains of the previous plane, the seated figure of his master, and the old comrades who had fought side by side. Familiar scenes rushed toward him, stirring the thoughts deep in his heart.
The outer layer of his Sea of Consciousness trembled violently, and cracks continued to spread. But his core remained stable.
He could clearly distinguish between illusion and reality. That was an illusion, not reality.
The barrier of the second-tier peak, under the continuous washing of these waves of mental illusions, trembled incessantly. Power continuously accumulated, getting closer and closer to breaking through the bottleneck, yet it was still lacking that final blow.
"The passage ahead is about to open up; we are nearing the end of the rock crevice maze," Lin Yan's psychic threads detected the change in terrain ahead. "But in the open area, three linked psychic nodes have been set up. A massive number of scaled beasts have already gathered there, waiting for us to emerge from the crevice."
The Ancient Progenitor had calculated the route perfectly.
The rock crevice was a trap used to exhaust the squad's mental state and use illusions to cause casualties. Once they exhausted their mental power and walked out of the crevice, they would face a battlefield of encircling scaled beasts.
"Everyone, prepare for combat," Lu Heng gripped his long knife tightly and said in a deep voice. "Form a circular formation the moment we exit the crevice. Lin Yan, continue to lock onto the positions of the nodes and look for an opportunity to break the deadlock."
Everyone gripped their weapons tightly, suppressing the exhaustion in their Seas of Consciousness, and took step after step toward the exit of the crevice.
From the darkness ahead, the low roars of the scaled beasts could be heard with increasing clarity.
End of Chapter.