Chapter 69: Standing Alone Against the Ancient Progenitor
Lu Heng and the rest of the squad took turns covering each other as they rapidly retreated toward the rock crevice passage.
Su Qing clutched the recorder tightly against her chest. The storage chip inside completely preserved the footage and psychic waveforms of the Ancient Progenitor and the secondary priests. This was ironclad evidence that would shake the six major war zones. Old Chen kept looking back at Lin Yan, who had been left behind alone in the center of the rock cave. His heart felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand. He swung his long knife with increasing ferocity, hacking down any pursuing scaled beasts that came close.
"Keep moving! Don't look back!" Lu Heng whispered forcefully, grabbing Old Chen to pull him along. "We must bring the evidence back. That is the meaning of Lin Yan covering our retreat!"
Gritting their teeth, the squad members plunged into the narrow rock crevice, leaving the explosives expert to set up delayed explosives at the entrance of the passage. Once detonated, it would temporarily separate the pursuers, buying Lin Yan the space he needed to escape.
Inside the resonance rock cave, only Lin Yan remained.
Dense ranks of scaled beasts slowly closed in around him from all sides, their low roars echoing through the massive cavern. The Ancient Progenitor's massive body stepped through the stagnant water one step at a time, its heavy footsteps causing the stalactites on the rock walls to tremble slightly. Its eight-meter-long body was covered in thick, dark scales, each piece of armor resembling forged alloy. The bone spines along its spine flowed with a faint dark blue light, and its dark gold vertical pupils were firmly locked onto Lin Yan.
"You have just broken through to the third tier of the Sea of Consciousness; your foundation is still shallow. Relying solely on this will not be enough to stop me." The Ancient Progenitor's thoughts directly poured into Lin Yan's mind. Without relying on the links of the secondary priests, this was a direct transmission of its primordial spirit. "Choosing to stay behind and cover the retreat is no different from seeking your own death."
Lin Yan planted his feet firmly apart. The inner qi of his ancient martial arts slowly circulated through his limbs and bones, and his newly broken-through third-tier Sea of Consciousness fully deployed.
After stepping into the third tier, the dimension of his psychic perception was entirely different. The emotional fluctuations of every scaled beast in the rock cave and every faint psychic signal fell clearly into his perception. He was no longer limited to passively capturing nodes; he could now actively weave psychic threads to interfere with, or even briefly block, psychic commands in localized areas.
"Whether I can stop you or not, I'll only know if I try," Lin Yan said in a low voice.
The Ancient Progenitor did not rush to launch a direct psychic assault. With a mere thought, several secondary priests beside it took the initiative to strike first. Leading a massive swarm of scaled beasts, they flanked Lin Yan from multiple directions, pouncing from both the left and right sides simultaneously.
The power of the secondary priests was far inferior to that of the Ancient Progenitor, but they were highly skilled in using the psychic network. As they charged, they released fragmented psychic interference, attempting to disturb Lin Yan's mind and coordinate with the physical attacks of the scaled beasts to form a pincer assault.
Two scaled beasts pounced from the left and right simultaneously, their sharp claws tearing through the air and aiming directly for Lin Yan's chest and abdomen. Lin Yan stepped into an ancient martial arts footwork, his body swaying like a fallen leaf in the wind. He turned sideways to dodge the left claw and slashed upward with a backhanded grip of his short blade, ripping open the scaled beast's belly. Dark green blood gushed out.
Seizing the gap, a secondary priest on the other side shot a sharp psychic spear straight toward Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness.
Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness stirred slightly. The third-tier Sea of Consciousness condensed psychic threads that collided head-on with the psychic spear. An invisible collision triggered a faint shockwave, and the psychic spear instantly collapsed and dissipated.
"The psychic defense of a third-tier Sea of Consciousness is indeed different," the Ancient Progenitor observed quietly, its thoughts calm. "But your stamina and psychic power have their limits. I can continuously mobilize the scaled beasts and slowly drain you dry."
This was the Ancient Progenitor's plan. It was not in a hurry to use its primordial psychic power to decide the outcome in a single strike. Instead, it would use the sea of scaled beasts to continuously drain Lin Yan's stamina and psychic energy. Once his mind and body were completely exhausted, it would step in to harvest him.
One scaled beast after another threw themselves forward relentlessly. Lin Yan maneuvered through the beast swarm, his ancient martial arts footwork allowing him to nimbly dodge, while his short blade continuously harvested the monsters that lunged close. At the same time, his Sea of Consciousness continuously released fine threads, severing the command links of the nearby scaled beasts. Deprived of psychic command, the scaled beasts instantly lost their coordination and fell into chaos, colliding with each other. The neat flanking formation was completely broken.
However, the number of scaled beasts in the rock cave was simply too vast. Just as he disrupted one batch, the next immediately filled in. In a matter of moments, Lin Yan had already sustained two new wounds. His combat uniform was torn open by sharp claws, exposing his flesh. A burning pain constantly radiated from the injuries. His Sea of Consciousness continued to operate, and his psychic power was rapidly depleting, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
In the distance, at the entrance of the rock crevice passage, the delayed explosives had been set. Lu Heng's squad dared not linger and desperately pushed outward through the winding rock crevice.
"Blast countdown: thirty seconds!" the explosives expert reminded in a low voice.
Everyone ran forward with all their might. Behind them, the roars of the scaled beasts from the rock cave grew closer and closer.
Inside the resonance rock cave, the Ancient Progenitor finally stopped merely observing.
Its massive body sank slightly, and the light in its dark gold vertical pupils surged. A heavy, majestic primordial psychic impact swept directly toward Lin Yan. This was not the slow, large-scale erosion from before; it was a single-point explosive psychic heavy strike, specifically targeting Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness core.
Lin Yan immediately shrank his Sea of Consciousness, condensing a psychic barrier to protect his mind. At the same time, the inner qi within his body operated at full speed, preparing to endure this blow.
Boom!
An invisible psychic tidal wave slammed heavily into the barrier. Lin Yan's entire body trembled violently, and he stumbled backward two steps. A wave of dizziness hit his head, and a fishy sweetness surged in his throat. Although the third-tier Sea of Consciousness barrier withstood the blow, the depletion of his psychic power spiked drastically.
Just then, a deafening explosion echoed from the entrance of the rock crevice passage.
The delayed explosives detonated, causing a massive amount of rocks to collapse with a roar, completely sealing off the entrance to the rock crevice. Dust and debris filled the air, temporarily cutting off the passage from the rock cave to the outside world, and also blocking the path for the secondary priests and scaled beasts to pursue Lu Heng's squad.
Sensing that the passage had been destroyed, a hint of anger rippled through the Ancient Progenitor's thoughts. It had originally planned to take down Lin Yan first and then send people to chase the fleeing squad to destroy the evidence. Now that the passage had collapsed, it could not pursue them in the short term.
"Humans are quite decisive," the Ancient Progenitor's thoughts grew colder. "Since your companions have temporarily escaped, we can properly settle things with you."
The Ancient Progenitor's massive body suddenly accelerated, its thick scales scraping against the ground with a piercing sound as it charged straight toward Lin Yan. Its massive head opened a mouth full of sharp fangs, and a foul-smelling gust of wind rushed toward his face. This single strike combined both a physical ram and psychic suppression, a dual lethal attack arriving simultaneously.
Lin Yan's pupils contracted slightly. Without time to think, he concentrated his remaining Sea of Consciousness power into a single point and channeled inner qi into his legs. His body leaped sideways with all its might, narrowly avoiding the Ancient Progenitor's frontal collision. The massive body slammed into the rock wall behind, causing the entire rock formation to split open with a deafening crash, sending rocks flying everywhere.
Taking advantage of the gap while the Ancient Progenitor was turning around, Lin Yan's psychic threads quickly probed and found a narrow side cave on the other side of the rock cave. It was a backup passage used by the Lizardmen to transport scaled beasts. The passage was small, and the Ancient Progenitor's massive body could not enter.
This was the only chance to escape.
But to reach the side cave, he had to break through the blockade of the remaining scaled beasts and the two secondary priests in front of him. At the same time, the Ancient Progenitor would not let him escape easily and would undoubtedly continue to release psychic impacts to intercept him.
Lin Yan quickly weighed his options. If he continued to fight, he would eventually exhaust both his stamina and his Sea of Consciousness. He could not engage in prolonged combat; the goal was to escape, not to kill the Ancient Progenitor.
He raised his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, his gaze locked onto the direction of the side cave.
The Ancient Progenitor had already sensed Lin Yan's intentions, and a cold light flashed in its vertical pupils. "Want to leave? Have you asked for my permission?!"
A massive number of scaled beasts closed in again, firmly blocking the route to the side cave. The Ancient Progenitor gathered its psychic power once more, preparing to launch a new, even stronger psychic bombardment.
Lin Yan took a deep breath, operating his third-tier Sea of Consciousness at full capacity to weave a large-scale psychic interference wave, covering the group of scaled beasts in front of him.
In the next instant, all the psychic commands in the entire area fell into complete disarray.
The scaled beasts before his eyes instantly plunged into chaos, biting and colliding with each other. A massive gap appeared in the encirclement.
"Now!" Lin Yan exerted force with his feet, his body darting forward like a dark shadow. He broke through the chaotic beast swarm and sprinted wildly toward the side cave.
The Ancient Progenitor flew into a rage, and a primordial psychic impact chased after him through the air.
End of Chapter.
Su Qing clutched the recorder tightly against her chest. The storage chip inside completely preserved the footage and psychic waveforms of the Ancient Progenitor and the secondary priests. This was ironclad evidence that would shake the six major war zones. Old Chen kept looking back at Lin Yan, who had been left behind alone in the center of the rock cave. His heart felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand. He swung his long knife with increasing ferocity, hacking down any pursuing scaled beasts that came close.
"Keep moving! Don't look back!" Lu Heng whispered forcefully, grabbing Old Chen to pull him along. "We must bring the evidence back. That is the meaning of Lin Yan covering our retreat!"
Gritting their teeth, the squad members plunged into the narrow rock crevice, leaving the explosives expert to set up delayed explosives at the entrance of the passage. Once detonated, it would temporarily separate the pursuers, buying Lin Yan the space he needed to escape.
Inside the resonance rock cave, only Lin Yan remained.
Dense ranks of scaled beasts slowly closed in around him from all sides, their low roars echoing through the massive cavern. The Ancient Progenitor's massive body stepped through the stagnant water one step at a time, its heavy footsteps causing the stalactites on the rock walls to tremble slightly. Its eight-meter-long body was covered in thick, dark scales, each piece of armor resembling forged alloy. The bone spines along its spine flowed with a faint dark blue light, and its dark gold vertical pupils were firmly locked onto Lin Yan.
"You have just broken through to the third tier of the Sea of Consciousness; your foundation is still shallow. Relying solely on this will not be enough to stop me." The Ancient Progenitor's thoughts directly poured into Lin Yan's mind. Without relying on the links of the secondary priests, this was a direct transmission of its primordial spirit. "Choosing to stay behind and cover the retreat is no different from seeking your own death."
Lin Yan planted his feet firmly apart. The inner qi of his ancient martial arts slowly circulated through his limbs and bones, and his newly broken-through third-tier Sea of Consciousness fully deployed.
After stepping into the third tier, the dimension of his psychic perception was entirely different. The emotional fluctuations of every scaled beast in the rock cave and every faint psychic signal fell clearly into his perception. He was no longer limited to passively capturing nodes; he could now actively weave psychic threads to interfere with, or even briefly block, psychic commands in localized areas.
"Whether I can stop you or not, I'll only know if I try," Lin Yan said in a low voice.
The Ancient Progenitor did not rush to launch a direct psychic assault. With a mere thought, several secondary priests beside it took the initiative to strike first. Leading a massive swarm of scaled beasts, they flanked Lin Yan from multiple directions, pouncing from both the left and right sides simultaneously.
The power of the secondary priests was far inferior to that of the Ancient Progenitor, but they were highly skilled in using the psychic network. As they charged, they released fragmented psychic interference, attempting to disturb Lin Yan's mind and coordinate with the physical attacks of the scaled beasts to form a pincer assault.
Two scaled beasts pounced from the left and right simultaneously, their sharp claws tearing through the air and aiming directly for Lin Yan's chest and abdomen. Lin Yan stepped into an ancient martial arts footwork, his body swaying like a fallen leaf in the wind. He turned sideways to dodge the left claw and slashed upward with a backhanded grip of his short blade, ripping open the scaled beast's belly. Dark green blood gushed out.
Seizing the gap, a secondary priest on the other side shot a sharp psychic spear straight toward Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness.
Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness stirred slightly. The third-tier Sea of Consciousness condensed psychic threads that collided head-on with the psychic spear. An invisible collision triggered a faint shockwave, and the psychic spear instantly collapsed and dissipated.
"The psychic defense of a third-tier Sea of Consciousness is indeed different," the Ancient Progenitor observed quietly, its thoughts calm. "But your stamina and psychic power have their limits. I can continuously mobilize the scaled beasts and slowly drain you dry."
This was the Ancient Progenitor's plan. It was not in a hurry to use its primordial psychic power to decide the outcome in a single strike. Instead, it would use the sea of scaled beasts to continuously drain Lin Yan's stamina and psychic energy. Once his mind and body were completely exhausted, it would step in to harvest him.
One scaled beast after another threw themselves forward relentlessly. Lin Yan maneuvered through the beast swarm, his ancient martial arts footwork allowing him to nimbly dodge, while his short blade continuously harvested the monsters that lunged close. At the same time, his Sea of Consciousness continuously released fine threads, severing the command links of the nearby scaled beasts. Deprived of psychic command, the scaled beasts instantly lost their coordination and fell into chaos, colliding with each other. The neat flanking formation was completely broken.
However, the number of scaled beasts in the rock cave was simply too vast. Just as he disrupted one batch, the next immediately filled in. In a matter of moments, Lin Yan had already sustained two new wounds. His combat uniform was torn open by sharp claws, exposing his flesh. A burning pain constantly radiated from the injuries. His Sea of Consciousness continued to operate, and his psychic power was rapidly depleting, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
In the distance, at the entrance of the rock crevice passage, the delayed explosives had been set. Lu Heng's squad dared not linger and desperately pushed outward through the winding rock crevice.
"Blast countdown: thirty seconds!" the explosives expert reminded in a low voice.
Everyone ran forward with all their might. Behind them, the roars of the scaled beasts from the rock cave grew closer and closer.
Inside the resonance rock cave, the Ancient Progenitor finally stopped merely observing.
Its massive body sank slightly, and the light in its dark gold vertical pupils surged. A heavy, majestic primordial psychic impact swept directly toward Lin Yan. This was not the slow, large-scale erosion from before; it was a single-point explosive psychic heavy strike, specifically targeting Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness core.
Lin Yan immediately shrank his Sea of Consciousness, condensing a psychic barrier to protect his mind. At the same time, the inner qi within his body operated at full speed, preparing to endure this blow.
Boom!
An invisible psychic tidal wave slammed heavily into the barrier. Lin Yan's entire body trembled violently, and he stumbled backward two steps. A wave of dizziness hit his head, and a fishy sweetness surged in his throat. Although the third-tier Sea of Consciousness barrier withstood the blow, the depletion of his psychic power spiked drastically.
Just then, a deafening explosion echoed from the entrance of the rock crevice passage.
The delayed explosives detonated, causing a massive amount of rocks to collapse with a roar, completely sealing off the entrance to the rock crevice. Dust and debris filled the air, temporarily cutting off the passage from the rock cave to the outside world, and also blocking the path for the secondary priests and scaled beasts to pursue Lu Heng's squad.
Sensing that the passage had been destroyed, a hint of anger rippled through the Ancient Progenitor's thoughts. It had originally planned to take down Lin Yan first and then send people to chase the fleeing squad to destroy the evidence. Now that the passage had collapsed, it could not pursue them in the short term.
"Humans are quite decisive," the Ancient Progenitor's thoughts grew colder. "Since your companions have temporarily escaped, we can properly settle things with you."
The Ancient Progenitor's massive body suddenly accelerated, its thick scales scraping against the ground with a piercing sound as it charged straight toward Lin Yan. Its massive head opened a mouth full of sharp fangs, and a foul-smelling gust of wind rushed toward his face. This single strike combined both a physical ram and psychic suppression, a dual lethal attack arriving simultaneously.
Lin Yan's pupils contracted slightly. Without time to think, he concentrated his remaining Sea of Consciousness power into a single point and channeled inner qi into his legs. His body leaped sideways with all its might, narrowly avoiding the Ancient Progenitor's frontal collision. The massive body slammed into the rock wall behind, causing the entire rock formation to split open with a deafening crash, sending rocks flying everywhere.
Taking advantage of the gap while the Ancient Progenitor was turning around, Lin Yan's psychic threads quickly probed and found a narrow side cave on the other side of the rock cave. It was a backup passage used by the Lizardmen to transport scaled beasts. The passage was small, and the Ancient Progenitor's massive body could not enter.
This was the only chance to escape.
But to reach the side cave, he had to break through the blockade of the remaining scaled beasts and the two secondary priests in front of him. At the same time, the Ancient Progenitor would not let him escape easily and would undoubtedly continue to release psychic impacts to intercept him.
Lin Yan quickly weighed his options. If he continued to fight, he would eventually exhaust both his stamina and his Sea of Consciousness. He could not engage in prolonged combat; the goal was to escape, not to kill the Ancient Progenitor.
He raised his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, his gaze locked onto the direction of the side cave.
The Ancient Progenitor had already sensed Lin Yan's intentions, and a cold light flashed in its vertical pupils. "Want to leave? Have you asked for my permission?!"
A massive number of scaled beasts closed in again, firmly blocking the route to the side cave. The Ancient Progenitor gathered its psychic power once more, preparing to launch a new, even stronger psychic bombardment.
Lin Yan took a deep breath, operating his third-tier Sea of Consciousness at full capacity to weave a large-scale psychic interference wave, covering the group of scaled beasts in front of him.
In the next instant, all the psychic commands in the entire area fell into complete disarray.
The scaled beasts before his eyes instantly plunged into chaos, biting and colliding with each other. A massive gap appeared in the encirclement.
"Now!" Lin Yan exerted force with his feet, his body darting forward like a dark shadow. He broke through the chaotic beast swarm and sprinted wildly toward the side cave.
The Ancient Progenitor flew into a rage, and a primordial psychic impact chased after him through the air.
End of Chapter.