Chapter 70: Fleeing on Two Fronts
The psychic impact, like an invisible black spear, roared after Lin Yan, grazing his back.
Lin Yan leaped into the entrance of the side cave. Just as his body had squeezed halfway in, the psychic impact slammed fiercely into the rock wall at the cave entrance. An invisible psychic shockwave exploded, causing rock debris to tumble down continuously, and the entire side cave passage trembled violently. Borrowing the propulsive force of this shockwave, he bent his body, lowered his head, and sprinted forward with all his might through the narrow, pitch-black passage.
This side cave was a supply passage used by the scaled beasts. It was only about 1.5 meters high, requiring him to bend over for the entire journey. The rock walls on both sides were wet and sharp, continuously scraping and tearing his damaged combat uniform. The rock walls rubbed against his wounds, sending waves of piercing pain through his body.
Behind him, the Ancient Progenitor's furious thoughts echoed through the passage.
"You cannot escape! The entire underground psychic network is under my control!"
The Ancient Progenitor's massive body could not enter the narrow side cave. It could only stop at the entrance, mobilizing the psychic nodes left in the side cave's branches to continuously release fragmented psychic stingers, persistently harassing Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness. At the same time, it commanded the scaled beasts wandering in nearby passages to move along the side cave and intercept him from the front.
Lin Yan's third-tier Sea of Consciousness continuously deployed, and his psychic threads probed ahead into the passage, capturing the positions of the ambushing scaled beasts in advance. Whenever a scaled beast in the shadows of a distant rock cave prepared to ambush, he would release a small burst of psychic interference in advance to disrupt the commands it received, causing the beast's movements to stall for a moment. Taking advantage of this gap, he quickly brushed past, saving every ounce of his remaining stamina and psychic power.
His psychic power was being consumed at high speed, his wounds continued to bleed, and his stamina was dropping rapidly. Every turn and every dodge against the psychic stingers was overtaxing his remaining strength. The foundation of his Sea of Consciousness, having just broken through from the second to the third tier, was still shallow. After long-term, high-intensity operation, his skull throbbed with a dull ache.
"I can't keep stalling here." While sprinting, Lin Yan quickly judged the direction of the passage. The side cave network was intricate and complex, filled with forked intersections. Relying on the psychic network, the Ancient Progenitor could grasp his approximate position in real-time and continuously mobilize scaled beasts to set up blockades ahead. He could only keep changing paths at the forks, bypassing the enemy's interception, and searching for an exit toward the surface.
At the same time, inside the main rock crevice that had been sealed by collapsed boulders, Lu Heng's squad of eight was desperately clearing the collapsed mass with blasting equipment and alloy chisels. The massive rocks were piled together, and it was extremely difficult to move them by human strength alone. They could only rely on small explosives to blast open the gaps bit by bit.
"Hurry up! The Ancient Progenitor will definitely send people to chase us!" Lu Heng swung his short hammer to smash the loose rocks, his forehead covered in sweat. Everyone was injured, and their Seas of Consciousness were still exhausted after the prolonged psychic erosion from before.
Su Qing held the recorder tightly against her chest, her hand fiercely guarding the storage chip. This record was the first direct evidence of the existence of the underground Lizardmen aliens that humanity had obtained since the catastrophe twenty-five years ago. As long as it was brought back to Panshi City, the high command of the six major war zones would have to re-evaluate the invasion and adjust their entire defense strategy.
"The offensive of the outer beast tide has not weakened yet," a veteran said with a grave expression, listening to the faint beast roars from afar. "Even if we break out of the rift, the wasteland is still swarming with a massive number of scaled beasts. The way back is equally perilous."
Old Chen held his long knife, voluntarily staying at the rear of the squad to keep watch, occasionally looking back toward the depths of the passage. His heart was constantly weighed down by concern for Lin Yan's safety, his fingernails digging deeply into his palms.
"Can Lin Yan... keep up?" Old Chen asked Lu Heng in a low voice.
Lu Heng's hand paused for a moment. After a brief silence, he said, "Lin Yan's perception and adaptability far exceed those of ordinary people; he has his own way to escape. The only thing we can do is bring the evidence back safely and not let down his choice to stay behind and cover our retreat."
With a soft rumble, the small explosives detonated, blasting a gap in the blocking boulder large enough for a single person to pass through.
"The passage is cleared! Pass through quickly one by one, maintain vigilance!" Lu Heng waved his hand to signal. Everyone put away their tools, formed a single file, passed through the gap, and continued along the rock crevice toward the surface.
Two escape routes underground, one main and one side, two squads struggling to survive in the darkness.
Lin Yan had been fleeing continuously in the side cave for nearly half an hour.
His wounds were constantly bleeding due to the intense running, and the fabric of his combat uniform had been soaked with blood. His stamina was approaching its absolute limit. At a fork ahead, three scaled beasts had already received the Ancient Progenitor's commands and were quietly ambushed in the shadows of the corner, waiting for him to walk right into their trap.
Lin Yan's psychic threads captured their signals in advance. He did not charge blindly. Stopping in his tracks, he steadied his breathing and slowly deployed his third-tier Sea of Consciousness, accurately locking onto the psychic nodes receiving the commands of these three scaled beasts.
A wave of psychic disturbance was released.
The ambushing scaled beasts instantly received chaotic signals. The movements they had prepared to execute abruptly halted. They turned their heads to look at each other, falling into brief confusion. Seizing this window, Lin Yan lowered his body and quickly darted past them, avoiding any unnecessary entanglement to conserve every bit of his stamina and psychic power.
Sensing yet another failed interception, the Ancient Progenitor's anger grew even deeper. It continuously mobilized nodes from further away to replan the interception route, while continuously releasing long-range psychic stingers to endlessly harass Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness.
"Your psychic power is about to be exhausted, and the bleeding is dragging down your body," the Ancient Progenitor's thoughts, like a clinging disease, constantly echoed in Lin Yan's mind. "If you keep running, the final outcome will only be collapsing from exhaustion and dying in this underground cave. Stop, submit to me, and I will spare your life."
Lin Yan ignored it, focusing all his mental energy on navigating and dodging. The Ancient Progenitor's words were mixed with weak psychic enticement; the slightest lapse in concentration would allow the illusions to take advantage of the vulnerability. As he ran, he circulated his ancient martial arts inner qi to stabilize his own blood and qi, maintaining the clarity of his Sea of Consciousness.
After passing through two more sections of the passage, Lin Yan's psychic threads suddenly sensed a faint trace of rainwater seeping from the top of the passage ahead. This meant he was not far from the surface; the rock strata had become thinner, and he was already close to the wasteland's surface.
"Found it," Lin Yan thought with a sense of relief.
But the Ancient Progenitor also caught his movement and immediately mobilized the last batch of nearby scaled beasts to set up a final blockade at the exit. Over a dozen scaled beasts completely sealed off the exit leading to the surface.
Lin Yan slowly stopped, gripped the short blade in his hand, and adjusted his breathing. His psychic power was less than thirty percent, and his stamina was practically bottomed out. To break out of the underground and return to the wasteland, he had to break through this final blockade.
On the other side, Lu Heng's squad had already exited the rock crevice maze and re-entered the main passage of the Green Rock Rift. The few remaining scaled beasts in the passage were quickly eliminated by the squad. From the direction of the distant cave entrance, the faint flashes of artillery fire in the wasteland's night sky were already vaguely visible.
"Almost there. We're not far from the main exit of the rift," Su Qing said in a low voice, looking at the directional coordinates on the recorder's screen.
But just then, a dense chorus of scaled beast roars came from the front of the passage.
The Ancient Progenitor had diverted a portion of the scaled beasts guarding the main passage to intercept Lu Heng's squad, preventing the evidence from being carried out of the underground.
"Prepare for combat!" Lu Heng drew his long knife and commanded in a deep voice. "Alternate covering fire, do not stop moving!"
Both battlefronts simultaneously reached their final checkpoints. On one side, Lin Yan was breaking through the beast swarm blockade at the exit alone; on the other, Lu Heng's squad was encountering interception, fighting desperately to break out toward the surface. Above the wasteland, the artillery fire from the walls of Panshi City continued to roar. The truth of this underground invasion, which had lasted for twenty-five years, was about to be brought to the human world.
End of Chapter.
Lin Yan leaped into the entrance of the side cave. Just as his body had squeezed halfway in, the psychic impact slammed fiercely into the rock wall at the cave entrance. An invisible psychic shockwave exploded, causing rock debris to tumble down continuously, and the entire side cave passage trembled violently. Borrowing the propulsive force of this shockwave, he bent his body, lowered his head, and sprinted forward with all his might through the narrow, pitch-black passage.
This side cave was a supply passage used by the scaled beasts. It was only about 1.5 meters high, requiring him to bend over for the entire journey. The rock walls on both sides were wet and sharp, continuously scraping and tearing his damaged combat uniform. The rock walls rubbed against his wounds, sending waves of piercing pain through his body.
Behind him, the Ancient Progenitor's furious thoughts echoed through the passage.
"You cannot escape! The entire underground psychic network is under my control!"
The Ancient Progenitor's massive body could not enter the narrow side cave. It could only stop at the entrance, mobilizing the psychic nodes left in the side cave's branches to continuously release fragmented psychic stingers, persistently harassing Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness. At the same time, it commanded the scaled beasts wandering in nearby passages to move along the side cave and intercept him from the front.
Lin Yan's third-tier Sea of Consciousness continuously deployed, and his psychic threads probed ahead into the passage, capturing the positions of the ambushing scaled beasts in advance. Whenever a scaled beast in the shadows of a distant rock cave prepared to ambush, he would release a small burst of psychic interference in advance to disrupt the commands it received, causing the beast's movements to stall for a moment. Taking advantage of this gap, he quickly brushed past, saving every ounce of his remaining stamina and psychic power.
His psychic power was being consumed at high speed, his wounds continued to bleed, and his stamina was dropping rapidly. Every turn and every dodge against the psychic stingers was overtaxing his remaining strength. The foundation of his Sea of Consciousness, having just broken through from the second to the third tier, was still shallow. After long-term, high-intensity operation, his skull throbbed with a dull ache.
"I can't keep stalling here." While sprinting, Lin Yan quickly judged the direction of the passage. The side cave network was intricate and complex, filled with forked intersections. Relying on the psychic network, the Ancient Progenitor could grasp his approximate position in real-time and continuously mobilize scaled beasts to set up blockades ahead. He could only keep changing paths at the forks, bypassing the enemy's interception, and searching for an exit toward the surface.
At the same time, inside the main rock crevice that had been sealed by collapsed boulders, Lu Heng's squad of eight was desperately clearing the collapsed mass with blasting equipment and alloy chisels. The massive rocks were piled together, and it was extremely difficult to move them by human strength alone. They could only rely on small explosives to blast open the gaps bit by bit.
"Hurry up! The Ancient Progenitor will definitely send people to chase us!" Lu Heng swung his short hammer to smash the loose rocks, his forehead covered in sweat. Everyone was injured, and their Seas of Consciousness were still exhausted after the prolonged psychic erosion from before.
Su Qing held the recorder tightly against her chest, her hand fiercely guarding the storage chip. This record was the first direct evidence of the existence of the underground Lizardmen aliens that humanity had obtained since the catastrophe twenty-five years ago. As long as it was brought back to Panshi City, the high command of the six major war zones would have to re-evaluate the invasion and adjust their entire defense strategy.
"The offensive of the outer beast tide has not weakened yet," a veteran said with a grave expression, listening to the faint beast roars from afar. "Even if we break out of the rift, the wasteland is still swarming with a massive number of scaled beasts. The way back is equally perilous."
Old Chen held his long knife, voluntarily staying at the rear of the squad to keep watch, occasionally looking back toward the depths of the passage. His heart was constantly weighed down by concern for Lin Yan's safety, his fingernails digging deeply into his palms.
"Can Lin Yan... keep up?" Old Chen asked Lu Heng in a low voice.
Lu Heng's hand paused for a moment. After a brief silence, he said, "Lin Yan's perception and adaptability far exceed those of ordinary people; he has his own way to escape. The only thing we can do is bring the evidence back safely and not let down his choice to stay behind and cover our retreat."
With a soft rumble, the small explosives detonated, blasting a gap in the blocking boulder large enough for a single person to pass through.
"The passage is cleared! Pass through quickly one by one, maintain vigilance!" Lu Heng waved his hand to signal. Everyone put away their tools, formed a single file, passed through the gap, and continued along the rock crevice toward the surface.
Two escape routes underground, one main and one side, two squads struggling to survive in the darkness.
Lin Yan had been fleeing continuously in the side cave for nearly half an hour.
His wounds were constantly bleeding due to the intense running, and the fabric of his combat uniform had been soaked with blood. His stamina was approaching its absolute limit. At a fork ahead, three scaled beasts had already received the Ancient Progenitor's commands and were quietly ambushed in the shadows of the corner, waiting for him to walk right into their trap.
Lin Yan's psychic threads captured their signals in advance. He did not charge blindly. Stopping in his tracks, he steadied his breathing and slowly deployed his third-tier Sea of Consciousness, accurately locking onto the psychic nodes receiving the commands of these three scaled beasts.
A wave of psychic disturbance was released.
The ambushing scaled beasts instantly received chaotic signals. The movements they had prepared to execute abruptly halted. They turned their heads to look at each other, falling into brief confusion. Seizing this window, Lin Yan lowered his body and quickly darted past them, avoiding any unnecessary entanglement to conserve every bit of his stamina and psychic power.
Sensing yet another failed interception, the Ancient Progenitor's anger grew even deeper. It continuously mobilized nodes from further away to replan the interception route, while continuously releasing long-range psychic stingers to endlessly harass Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness.
"Your psychic power is about to be exhausted, and the bleeding is dragging down your body," the Ancient Progenitor's thoughts, like a clinging disease, constantly echoed in Lin Yan's mind. "If you keep running, the final outcome will only be collapsing from exhaustion and dying in this underground cave. Stop, submit to me, and I will spare your life."
Lin Yan ignored it, focusing all his mental energy on navigating and dodging. The Ancient Progenitor's words were mixed with weak psychic enticement; the slightest lapse in concentration would allow the illusions to take advantage of the vulnerability. As he ran, he circulated his ancient martial arts inner qi to stabilize his own blood and qi, maintaining the clarity of his Sea of Consciousness.
After passing through two more sections of the passage, Lin Yan's psychic threads suddenly sensed a faint trace of rainwater seeping from the top of the passage ahead. This meant he was not far from the surface; the rock strata had become thinner, and he was already close to the wasteland's surface.
"Found it," Lin Yan thought with a sense of relief.
But the Ancient Progenitor also caught his movement and immediately mobilized the last batch of nearby scaled beasts to set up a final blockade at the exit. Over a dozen scaled beasts completely sealed off the exit leading to the surface.
Lin Yan slowly stopped, gripped the short blade in his hand, and adjusted his breathing. His psychic power was less than thirty percent, and his stamina was practically bottomed out. To break out of the underground and return to the wasteland, he had to break through this final blockade.
On the other side, Lu Heng's squad had already exited the rock crevice maze and re-entered the main passage of the Green Rock Rift. The few remaining scaled beasts in the passage were quickly eliminated by the squad. From the direction of the distant cave entrance, the faint flashes of artillery fire in the wasteland's night sky were already vaguely visible.
"Almost there. We're not far from the main exit of the rift," Su Qing said in a low voice, looking at the directional coordinates on the recorder's screen.
But just then, a dense chorus of scaled beast roars came from the front of the passage.
The Ancient Progenitor had diverted a portion of the scaled beasts guarding the main passage to intercept Lu Heng's squad, preventing the evidence from being carried out of the underground.
"Prepare for combat!" Lu Heng drew his long knife and commanded in a deep voice. "Alternate covering fire, do not stop moving!"
Both battlefronts simultaneously reached their final checkpoints. On one side, Lin Yan was breaking through the beast swarm blockade at the exit alone; on the other, Lu Heng's squad was encountering interception, fighting desperately to break out toward the surface. Above the wasteland, the artillery fire from the walls of Panshi City continued to roar. The truth of this underground invasion, which had lasted for twenty-five years, was about to be brought to the human world.
End of Chapter.