Chapter 67: The Underground Resonance Cave
Passing through layers of interlaced stalagmite forests, the sounds of slaughter and beast roars echoed continuously within the massive karst cave. Scattered corpses of scaled beasts lay along the path, and dark green blood pooled in the low-lying water pits, emitting a pungent, rotting stench. The squad pushed forward with alternating cover, each member bearing wounds, their Seas of Consciousness continuously enduring psychic erosion, and exhaustion having seeped into every fiber of their bodies.
The deeper they went into the cave, the heavier the psychic pressure became. The will of the Ancient Progenitor no longer hid behind the scenes, merely observing from afar. Instead, it was like a tangible undercurrent, shrouding the entire space and pressing down so hard that everyone felt suffocated. The curve on the recorder in Su Qing's hand had already maxed out the screen's upper limit, and a continuous, faint humming emanated from the device.
"The psychic source is just a hundred meters ahead," Su Qing whispered, her fingertips steadying the recorder as she aimed the lens into the darkness before them. "Signal strength has reached its peak. We are about to reach the core node."
Lin Yan's psychic threads extended forward, piercing through the重重 (layers of) darkness, finally allowing him to catch a glimpse of the underground truth.
Ahead lay an even more magnificent, gigantic rock cave. The rock walls were covered with flowing, dark blue fluorescent veins, and countless semi-transparent psychic threads crisscrossed in the air like a spiderweb. All the links ultimately converged at the center of the cave.
In the center of the cave coiled an ancient Lizardman whose size far exceeded that of ordinary scaled beasts.
Its body was nearly eight meters long, covered in thick, dark scales that resembled rocks weathered by ten thousand years of wind and rain. A row of sharp bone spines grew along its spine, with dark blue fluorescence flowing slowly along the patterns of the spines. Its head bore a pair of vertical pupils, shining with a lifeless dark gold color, as it calmly gazed at the intruding human squad. This was the chief priest, the Ancient Progenitor.
Surrounding the Ancient Progenitor were five slightly smaller Lizardmen secondary priests. They knelt on the ground, their bodies connected to the psychic threads in the air, continuously assisting the chief priest in maintaining the entire psychic network.
This was the race behind the scenes that controlled the beast tide across the entire rift and laid out the chain of traps.
The beams from their headlamps pierced the darkness, falling upon the Ancient Progenitor and the secondary priests. The footsteps of the eight exploration squad members halted simultaneously, a massive shockwave rippling through their hearts. For twenty-five years of catastrophe, humanity had always suspected the existence of an intelligent alien race underground. Today, they had finally seen them with their own eyes.
"Got it! The footage and waveforms are all recorded!" Su Qing suppressed the shock in her heart and spoke in a low voice as the recorder continued to work.
Lu Heng gripped his long knife tightly, lightened his breathing, and quickly arranged in a low voice, "We have the evidence. The core objective of our mission is complete. Do not attack rashly; look for an opportunity to retreat."
The Ancient Progenitor's dark gold vertical pupils slowly swept over the squad, ultimately locking onto Lin Yan, who was standing at the front.
A cold, ancient thought directly penetrated their mental barriers, echoing in everyone's minds. There was no sound; it was purely psychic communication.
"Human, you are quite interesting."
The thought was directed solely at Lin Yan.
"You have disturbed my network several times and escaped my hunts twice. Your Sea of Consciousness has been stuck at the second-tier peak for far too long. The slaughter, illusions, and psychic impacts along this entire journey were all refinements I gifted to you."
Lin Yan's heart sank. As expected, the opponent had been deliberately applying pressure from start to finish, forcing him to accumulate power and push toward the critical point of his Sea of Consciousness breakthrough.
"You want to kill me the instant I break through," Lin Yan replied calmly, communicating directly with the Ancient Progenitor on the mental plane.
"Correct," the Ancient Progenitor's thought came faintly. "In the exact moment of breaking through the Sea of Consciousness, the mind will experience a brief blank period, and power will fall out of control. It is the most vulnerable moment of your life. I will crush your spiritual core and devour the enlightenment of your Sea of Consciousness at that moment. Your abilities are of great value to my race."
At the same time, the five secondary priests on the side simultaneously activated their psychic power. The psychic network of the entire resonance cave was instantly activated, and the dark blue threads trembled violently. There was no longer layered erosion or illusion interference; instead, all computing power was gathered, condensing into a thick, boundless psychic torrent that rushed straight toward the eight squad members.
Simultaneously, a massive number of scaled beasts ambushed in the passages on both sides of the resonance cave received their commands and roared as they charged out, sealing off all retreat routes for the squad. With the Ancient Progenitor and the secondary priests in front and the beast swarm encircling from behind, the squad was completely trapped in a desperate situation.
"Everyone, erect your Sea of Consciousness barriers!" Lu Heng shouted fiercely, holding his long knife in front of him. "Form a defensive formation!"
The veterans with fourth-tier Seas of Consciousness immediately exerted all their strength to raise their barriers. But the psychic torrent led by the Ancient Progenitor was too terrifying. The moment the barriers took shape, cracks began to appear continuously. One veteran's Sea of Consciousness was the first to give out; he stifled a groan, retreated repeatedly, and blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth.
Old Chen guarded Su Qing's side, slashing at the charging scaled beasts with his long knife, and shouted loudly to Lin Yan, "Lin Yan! We can't hold on much longer! Think of something!"
Lin Yan stood at the very front of the formation, his Sea of Consciousness churning like a storm inside. Under the impact of the Ancient Progenitor's psychic torrent, the barrier at the second-tier peak trembled wildly, covered in cracks. The psychic power accumulated from countless life-and-death bloody battles continuously battered this barrier, having reached its critical point.
If they endured just one more sufficiently strong impact, the barrier would shatter, and the Sea of Consciousness would step into the third tier.
But the Ancient Progenitor was staring right at him. Once the breakthrough triggered a blank period in his mind, his spiritual core would be instantly destroyed by the opponent in the next second.
"We cannot break through here!" Lin Yan quickly judged in his heart as he mobilized his psychic threads to observe the structure of the psychic network in the resonance cave.
All the secondary priests channeled their own psychic power into the Ancient Progenitor's true body through the fluorescent threads. The Ancient Progenitor was the core, and the five secondary priests were power amplifiers. If the psychic links between the secondary priests and the Ancient Progenitor could be severed, the overall psychic power would greatly diminish.
There were five secondary priests in total, and five psychic links.
The difficulty was extremely high, as the Ancient Progenitor would guard these lines in real-time. But this was the only way to break the deadlock at present.
"Lu Heng! You all do your best to withstand the beast swarm and the psychic pressure! Stall for a few seconds!" Lin Yan said in a deep voice. "I will try to sever the psychic links of the secondary priests and weaken the Ancient Progenitor's power!"
"Be careful! It's staring right at you!" Lu Heng reminded loudly, hacking away a lunging scaled beast with his long knife.
Lin Yan focused his mind, splitting his psychic threads into five strands, each locking onto one of the fluorescent threads connecting to the secondary priests.
The Ancient Progenitor sensed Lin Yan's intentions, its dark gold vertical pupils slightly contracting as it diverted a portion of its psychic power to intercept the incoming psychic threads. The two invisible psychic forces collided in mid-air within the rock cave, producing unseen shockwaves. Lin Yan's skull throbbed with excruciating pain, and large portions of his outer Sea of Consciousness shattered, but he still gritted his teeth and persisted, manipulating his psychic threads to pierce toward the five links.
"Continue to struggle," the Ancient Progenitor's cold thought came again. "The bottleneck of your Sea of Consciousness is about to shatter. No matter what you do, the final outcome will not change."
The psychic torrent continued to crush the squad, and scaled beasts rushed to attack in an endless stream. Team members were continuously injured, and the defensive line was compressed bit by bit. Inside Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness, the barrier separating the second and third tiers had spread its cracks to the extreme under the heavy pressure, as if it would collapse at any moment.
The opportunity for a breakthrough was right before his eyes.
Yet, the shadow of death hung over his head simultaneously.
End of Chapter.
The deeper they went into the cave, the heavier the psychic pressure became. The will of the Ancient Progenitor no longer hid behind the scenes, merely observing from afar. Instead, it was like a tangible undercurrent, shrouding the entire space and pressing down so hard that everyone felt suffocated. The curve on the recorder in Su Qing's hand had already maxed out the screen's upper limit, and a continuous, faint humming emanated from the device.
"The psychic source is just a hundred meters ahead," Su Qing whispered, her fingertips steadying the recorder as she aimed the lens into the darkness before them. "Signal strength has reached its peak. We are about to reach the core node."
Lin Yan's psychic threads extended forward, piercing through the重重 (layers of) darkness, finally allowing him to catch a glimpse of the underground truth.
Ahead lay an even more magnificent, gigantic rock cave. The rock walls were covered with flowing, dark blue fluorescent veins, and countless semi-transparent psychic threads crisscrossed in the air like a spiderweb. All the links ultimately converged at the center of the cave.
In the center of the cave coiled an ancient Lizardman whose size far exceeded that of ordinary scaled beasts.
Its body was nearly eight meters long, covered in thick, dark scales that resembled rocks weathered by ten thousand years of wind and rain. A row of sharp bone spines grew along its spine, with dark blue fluorescence flowing slowly along the patterns of the spines. Its head bore a pair of vertical pupils, shining with a lifeless dark gold color, as it calmly gazed at the intruding human squad. This was the chief priest, the Ancient Progenitor.
Surrounding the Ancient Progenitor were five slightly smaller Lizardmen secondary priests. They knelt on the ground, their bodies connected to the psychic threads in the air, continuously assisting the chief priest in maintaining the entire psychic network.
This was the race behind the scenes that controlled the beast tide across the entire rift and laid out the chain of traps.
The beams from their headlamps pierced the darkness, falling upon the Ancient Progenitor and the secondary priests. The footsteps of the eight exploration squad members halted simultaneously, a massive shockwave rippling through their hearts. For twenty-five years of catastrophe, humanity had always suspected the existence of an intelligent alien race underground. Today, they had finally seen them with their own eyes.
"Got it! The footage and waveforms are all recorded!" Su Qing suppressed the shock in her heart and spoke in a low voice as the recorder continued to work.
Lu Heng gripped his long knife tightly, lightened his breathing, and quickly arranged in a low voice, "We have the evidence. The core objective of our mission is complete. Do not attack rashly; look for an opportunity to retreat."
The Ancient Progenitor's dark gold vertical pupils slowly swept over the squad, ultimately locking onto Lin Yan, who was standing at the front.
A cold, ancient thought directly penetrated their mental barriers, echoing in everyone's minds. There was no sound; it was purely psychic communication.
"Human, you are quite interesting."
The thought was directed solely at Lin Yan.
"You have disturbed my network several times and escaped my hunts twice. Your Sea of Consciousness has been stuck at the second-tier peak for far too long. The slaughter, illusions, and psychic impacts along this entire journey were all refinements I gifted to you."
Lin Yan's heart sank. As expected, the opponent had been deliberately applying pressure from start to finish, forcing him to accumulate power and push toward the critical point of his Sea of Consciousness breakthrough.
"You want to kill me the instant I break through," Lin Yan replied calmly, communicating directly with the Ancient Progenitor on the mental plane.
"Correct," the Ancient Progenitor's thought came faintly. "In the exact moment of breaking through the Sea of Consciousness, the mind will experience a brief blank period, and power will fall out of control. It is the most vulnerable moment of your life. I will crush your spiritual core and devour the enlightenment of your Sea of Consciousness at that moment. Your abilities are of great value to my race."
At the same time, the five secondary priests on the side simultaneously activated their psychic power. The psychic network of the entire resonance cave was instantly activated, and the dark blue threads trembled violently. There was no longer layered erosion or illusion interference; instead, all computing power was gathered, condensing into a thick, boundless psychic torrent that rushed straight toward the eight squad members.
Simultaneously, a massive number of scaled beasts ambushed in the passages on both sides of the resonance cave received their commands and roared as they charged out, sealing off all retreat routes for the squad. With the Ancient Progenitor and the secondary priests in front and the beast swarm encircling from behind, the squad was completely trapped in a desperate situation.
"Everyone, erect your Sea of Consciousness barriers!" Lu Heng shouted fiercely, holding his long knife in front of him. "Form a defensive formation!"
The veterans with fourth-tier Seas of Consciousness immediately exerted all their strength to raise their barriers. But the psychic torrent led by the Ancient Progenitor was too terrifying. The moment the barriers took shape, cracks began to appear continuously. One veteran's Sea of Consciousness was the first to give out; he stifled a groan, retreated repeatedly, and blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth.
Old Chen guarded Su Qing's side, slashing at the charging scaled beasts with his long knife, and shouted loudly to Lin Yan, "Lin Yan! We can't hold on much longer! Think of something!"
Lin Yan stood at the very front of the formation, his Sea of Consciousness churning like a storm inside. Under the impact of the Ancient Progenitor's psychic torrent, the barrier at the second-tier peak trembled wildly, covered in cracks. The psychic power accumulated from countless life-and-death bloody battles continuously battered this barrier, having reached its critical point.
If they endured just one more sufficiently strong impact, the barrier would shatter, and the Sea of Consciousness would step into the third tier.
But the Ancient Progenitor was staring right at him. Once the breakthrough triggered a blank period in his mind, his spiritual core would be instantly destroyed by the opponent in the next second.
"We cannot break through here!" Lin Yan quickly judged in his heart as he mobilized his psychic threads to observe the structure of the psychic network in the resonance cave.
All the secondary priests channeled their own psychic power into the Ancient Progenitor's true body through the fluorescent threads. The Ancient Progenitor was the core, and the five secondary priests were power amplifiers. If the psychic links between the secondary priests and the Ancient Progenitor could be severed, the overall psychic power would greatly diminish.
There were five secondary priests in total, and five psychic links.
The difficulty was extremely high, as the Ancient Progenitor would guard these lines in real-time. But this was the only way to break the deadlock at present.
"Lu Heng! You all do your best to withstand the beast swarm and the psychic pressure! Stall for a few seconds!" Lin Yan said in a deep voice. "I will try to sever the psychic links of the secondary priests and weaken the Ancient Progenitor's power!"
"Be careful! It's staring right at you!" Lu Heng reminded loudly, hacking away a lunging scaled beast with his long knife.
Lin Yan focused his mind, splitting his psychic threads into five strands, each locking onto one of the fluorescent threads connecting to the secondary priests.
The Ancient Progenitor sensed Lin Yan's intentions, its dark gold vertical pupils slightly contracting as it diverted a portion of its psychic power to intercept the incoming psychic threads. The two invisible psychic forces collided in mid-air within the rock cave, producing unseen shockwaves. Lin Yan's skull throbbed with excruciating pain, and large portions of his outer Sea of Consciousness shattered, but he still gritted his teeth and persisted, manipulating his psychic threads to pierce toward the five links.
"Continue to struggle," the Ancient Progenitor's cold thought came again. "The bottleneck of your Sea of Consciousness is about to shatter. No matter what you do, the final outcome will not change."
The psychic torrent continued to crush the squad, and scaled beasts rushed to attack in an endless stream. Team members were continuously injured, and the defensive line was compressed bit by bit. Inside Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness, the barrier separating the second and third tiers had spread its cracks to the extreme under the heavy pressure, as if it would collapse at any moment.
The opportunity for a breakthrough was right before his eyes.
Yet, the shadow of death hung over his head simultaneously.
End of Chapter.