Chapter 75: Wasteland Reconnaissance and the Pre-Set Death Trap
The notification for the wilderness practical combat assessment of the senior research class was soon issued.
Mission objective: Proceed to a cluster of small rifts numbered 73 on the west side of Panshi City to conduct three consecutive days of reconnaissance, record the activity frequency of rift scaled beasts and psychic node fluctuations, and collect rock stratum samples. Rift 73 was a secondary rift with a small scale; in the past, only sporadic scaled beasts had appeared there, and its risk level was rated as medium.
The high command of the war zone judged this to be merely a routine practical training mission. No one knew that the Ancient Progenitor underground had already captured all the intelligence regarding this assessment through its psychic perception nodes scattered across the wasteland.
The Combat Readiness Academy dispatched a total of six students, all cultivators with Seas of Consciousness ranging from the second-tier peak to the fourth tier. Lin Yan, Jiang Tao, and Old Chen were all on the squad's roster, and the squad was led by an instructor, a veteran with a fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness.
The night before departure, Lin Yan stayed alone in the stillness room, sorting out his Sea of Consciousness. After this period of tempering, his third-tier Sea of Consciousness was becoming increasingly effortless to control, and the consumption of his psychic threads was compressed to an even lower level. He vaguely felt a sense of unease in his heart; that heavy will from the underground Ancient Progenitor would occasionally flash past from afar through the distant rock strata, carrying a faint sense of being watched.
"I just have a feeling that this mission won't be as simple as it looks on paper," Old Chen said in a low voice as he found Lin Yan at night. "The monitoring data for Rift 73 over the past few days has shown some abnormal fluctuations, but the monitoring station determined it was just normal migration of scaled beasts."
"Just be careful," Lin Yan said calmly. "Everyone must maintain Sea of Consciousness vigilance, do not spread out too far, and retreat immediately once a large-scale gathering of scaled beasts is detected."
The next morning, the squad left the bastion of Panshi City in a light armored vehicle and drove into the gray, hazy wasteland.
Outside the car window, the land was scarred, with scorched earth, scattered rocks, and the ruins of abandoned fortifications stretching endlessly. From the depths of the wasteland, the low roars of scaled beasts occasionally drifted on the wind. Two hours later, the armored vehicle stopped at a safe point three kilometers from Rift 73. Everyone disembarked, geared up, and advanced on foot toward the rift area.
"Two people per group, maintain a fifty-meter distance. Lin Yan, your perception is the strongest; you are responsible for scouting ahead," the instructor arranged the formation.
The squad advanced slowly. Lin Yan walked at the very front, his third-tier Sea of Consciousness continuously deployed, meticulously scanning the surrounding rock piles, depressions, and underground hidden caves. At first, everything was normal. The sporadic low-level scaled beasts were quickly eliminated by the group as they collected rock stratum samples and recorded psychic waveforms.
The first day passed safely.
At night, the group set up camp in a surviving concrete bunker, taking turns keeping watch.
In the middle of the night, it was Lin Yan's turn to keep watch. His psychic threads extended into the distance, and he suddenly captured a faint, deliberately hidden psychic signal. The signal flashed and vanished, as if someone had intentionally exposed it before quickly retracting it.
"Something's wrong," Lin Yan immediately woke up the instructor.
The instructor quickly got up and activated his Sea of Consciousness to investigate, but he could no longer capture any signal. "Could it be the natural residual psychic waves diffusing from within the rift?"
"No. It was a conscious psychic concealment; the other party is observing us," Lin Yan said with a furrowed brow. "The Ancient Progenitor likely knows we are here."
The message was immediately passed on to everyone. The squad heightened their vigilance, tightened their formation, and no longer moved separately.
Inside the underground resonance rock cave, the Ancient Progenitor lay quietly in the pool, its dark gold vertical pupils watching the images transmitted back by the psychic network. Five secondary priests stood by, awaiting orders.
"They have sensed a hint of something amiss, but it is too late," the Ancient Progenitor's thoughts flowed slowly. "Beneath Rift 73, I have long since set up three hidden psychic nodes, along with an ambush force consisting of two secondary priests and over a hundred scaled beasts."
A secondary priest transmitted its thoughts, "My Lord, should we activate the ambush now and seal off all escape routes from the rift?"
"No rush," the Ancient Progenitor's thoughts were icy. "Wait until they penetrate deep into the main cave of the rift before sealing the exit. The primary target is Lin Yan. The rest can be allowed to escape, but he alone must die here. I want to detonate overlapping psychic illusions and psychic restraints within the narrow underground space of the rift to shatter his Sea of Consciousness."
Its plan was very clear.
It would not blindly slaughter the entire squad. It would leave some alive to flee back to Panshi City to deliver the message, creating the illusion of an "ambush encountered during wilderness practical training," which would not immediately trigger comprehensive vigilance from the war zone's high command. But Lin Yan, this human who constantly broke its expectations and grew at a terrifying rate, had to be buried in Rift 73 today.
Early the next morning, the squad continued their mission, penetrating deeper into the main cave of Rift 73.
The entrance to the rift was hidden in a massive depression in the rock wall, with a faint fishy stench lingering at the opening. The rock wall was covered with tiny cracks, and faint psychic fluctuations slowly drifted out from within the cave.
"The waveform data collection point is a hundred meters inside the main cave. We will collect it quickly, complete the record, and immediately retreat without lingering," the instructor reminded everyone, gripping his weapon tightly.
Everyone entered the rift one by one. The passage inside was winding, and the space became more and more open the deeper they went.
Everything still looked peaceful; only a few low-level scaled beast corpses lay by the roadside, seemingly left there a long time ago.
Jiang Tao frowned. "Strange, why are there no live scaled beasts? It's too quiet."
Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness fully deployed. In the next second, his face changed drastically.
"Careful! There are psychic signals from all directions! We've fallen into a trap!"
Weng——
On the rock walls of the rift, three hidden triangular psychic nodes activated simultaneously. Dark blue fluorescence instantly lit up in the veins of the rock walls, and the entire cave space was enveloped by the psychic field the Ancient Progenitor had prepared in advance.
From the hidden side caves on both sides, roars erupted one after another. Over a hundred scaled beasts poured out from the concealed side caves, sealing off their retreat. Two Lizardmen secondary priests who had been waiting for a long time stepped out slowly, their vertical pupils staring coldly at the squad.
"The retreat route is sealed!" Old Chen drew his long knife and quickly moved to Lin Yan's side.
From afar underground, the Ancient Progenitor projected its psychic power into Rift 73 through the three nodes. A hazy psychic mist instantly diffused, and countless illusions began to spawn before everyone's eyes.
"Guard your minds! Don't be drawn in by the illusions!" Lin Yan shouted a reminder. His third-tier Sea of Consciousness fully expanded to share some of the psychic pressure for his teammates while searching for the locations of the three nodes. "The nodes are high up on the rock walls! Destroy the nodes to weaken the psychic field!"
The two secondary priests simultaneously activated their psychic power, cooperating with the will projected remotely by the Ancient Progenitor. A dual psychic suppression swept through the entire rift.
This deadly trap targeting Lin Yan had officially closed its net.
End of Chapter.
Mission objective: Proceed to a cluster of small rifts numbered 73 on the west side of Panshi City to conduct three consecutive days of reconnaissance, record the activity frequency of rift scaled beasts and psychic node fluctuations, and collect rock stratum samples. Rift 73 was a secondary rift with a small scale; in the past, only sporadic scaled beasts had appeared there, and its risk level was rated as medium.
The high command of the war zone judged this to be merely a routine practical training mission. No one knew that the Ancient Progenitor underground had already captured all the intelligence regarding this assessment through its psychic perception nodes scattered across the wasteland.
The Combat Readiness Academy dispatched a total of six students, all cultivators with Seas of Consciousness ranging from the second-tier peak to the fourth tier. Lin Yan, Jiang Tao, and Old Chen were all on the squad's roster, and the squad was led by an instructor, a veteran with a fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness.
The night before departure, Lin Yan stayed alone in the stillness room, sorting out his Sea of Consciousness. After this period of tempering, his third-tier Sea of Consciousness was becoming increasingly effortless to control, and the consumption of his psychic threads was compressed to an even lower level. He vaguely felt a sense of unease in his heart; that heavy will from the underground Ancient Progenitor would occasionally flash past from afar through the distant rock strata, carrying a faint sense of being watched.
"I just have a feeling that this mission won't be as simple as it looks on paper," Old Chen said in a low voice as he found Lin Yan at night. "The monitoring data for Rift 73 over the past few days has shown some abnormal fluctuations, but the monitoring station determined it was just normal migration of scaled beasts."
"Just be careful," Lin Yan said calmly. "Everyone must maintain Sea of Consciousness vigilance, do not spread out too far, and retreat immediately once a large-scale gathering of scaled beasts is detected."
The next morning, the squad left the bastion of Panshi City in a light armored vehicle and drove into the gray, hazy wasteland.
Outside the car window, the land was scarred, with scorched earth, scattered rocks, and the ruins of abandoned fortifications stretching endlessly. From the depths of the wasteland, the low roars of scaled beasts occasionally drifted on the wind. Two hours later, the armored vehicle stopped at a safe point three kilometers from Rift 73. Everyone disembarked, geared up, and advanced on foot toward the rift area.
"Two people per group, maintain a fifty-meter distance. Lin Yan, your perception is the strongest; you are responsible for scouting ahead," the instructor arranged the formation.
The squad advanced slowly. Lin Yan walked at the very front, his third-tier Sea of Consciousness continuously deployed, meticulously scanning the surrounding rock piles, depressions, and underground hidden caves. At first, everything was normal. The sporadic low-level scaled beasts were quickly eliminated by the group as they collected rock stratum samples and recorded psychic waveforms.
The first day passed safely.
At night, the group set up camp in a surviving concrete bunker, taking turns keeping watch.
In the middle of the night, it was Lin Yan's turn to keep watch. His psychic threads extended into the distance, and he suddenly captured a faint, deliberately hidden psychic signal. The signal flashed and vanished, as if someone had intentionally exposed it before quickly retracting it.
"Something's wrong," Lin Yan immediately woke up the instructor.
The instructor quickly got up and activated his Sea of Consciousness to investigate, but he could no longer capture any signal. "Could it be the natural residual psychic waves diffusing from within the rift?"
"No. It was a conscious psychic concealment; the other party is observing us," Lin Yan said with a furrowed brow. "The Ancient Progenitor likely knows we are here."
The message was immediately passed on to everyone. The squad heightened their vigilance, tightened their formation, and no longer moved separately.
Inside the underground resonance rock cave, the Ancient Progenitor lay quietly in the pool, its dark gold vertical pupils watching the images transmitted back by the psychic network. Five secondary priests stood by, awaiting orders.
"They have sensed a hint of something amiss, but it is too late," the Ancient Progenitor's thoughts flowed slowly. "Beneath Rift 73, I have long since set up three hidden psychic nodes, along with an ambush force consisting of two secondary priests and over a hundred scaled beasts."
A secondary priest transmitted its thoughts, "My Lord, should we activate the ambush now and seal off all escape routes from the rift?"
"No rush," the Ancient Progenitor's thoughts were icy. "Wait until they penetrate deep into the main cave of the rift before sealing the exit. The primary target is Lin Yan. The rest can be allowed to escape, but he alone must die here. I want to detonate overlapping psychic illusions and psychic restraints within the narrow underground space of the rift to shatter his Sea of Consciousness."
Its plan was very clear.
It would not blindly slaughter the entire squad. It would leave some alive to flee back to Panshi City to deliver the message, creating the illusion of an "ambush encountered during wilderness practical training," which would not immediately trigger comprehensive vigilance from the war zone's high command. But Lin Yan, this human who constantly broke its expectations and grew at a terrifying rate, had to be buried in Rift 73 today.
Early the next morning, the squad continued their mission, penetrating deeper into the main cave of Rift 73.
The entrance to the rift was hidden in a massive depression in the rock wall, with a faint fishy stench lingering at the opening. The rock wall was covered with tiny cracks, and faint psychic fluctuations slowly drifted out from within the cave.
"The waveform data collection point is a hundred meters inside the main cave. We will collect it quickly, complete the record, and immediately retreat without lingering," the instructor reminded everyone, gripping his weapon tightly.
Everyone entered the rift one by one. The passage inside was winding, and the space became more and more open the deeper they went.
Everything still looked peaceful; only a few low-level scaled beast corpses lay by the roadside, seemingly left there a long time ago.
Jiang Tao frowned. "Strange, why are there no live scaled beasts? It's too quiet."
Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness fully deployed. In the next second, his face changed drastically.
"Careful! There are psychic signals from all directions! We've fallen into a trap!"
Weng——
On the rock walls of the rift, three hidden triangular psychic nodes activated simultaneously. Dark blue fluorescence instantly lit up in the veins of the rock walls, and the entire cave space was enveloped by the psychic field the Ancient Progenitor had prepared in advance.
From the hidden side caves on both sides, roars erupted one after another. Over a hundred scaled beasts poured out from the concealed side caves, sealing off their retreat. Two Lizardmen secondary priests who had been waiting for a long time stepped out slowly, their vertical pupils staring coldly at the squad.
"The retreat route is sealed!" Old Chen drew his long knife and quickly moved to Lin Yan's side.
From afar underground, the Ancient Progenitor projected its psychic power into Rift 73 through the three nodes. A hazy psychic mist instantly diffused, and countless illusions began to spawn before everyone's eyes.
"Guard your minds! Don't be drawn in by the illusions!" Lin Yan shouted a reminder. His third-tier Sea of Consciousness fully expanded to share some of the psychic pressure for his teammates while searching for the locations of the three nodes. "The nodes are high up on the rock walls! Destroy the nodes to weaken the psychic field!"
The two secondary priests simultaneously activated their psychic power, cooperating with the will projected remotely by the Ancient Progenitor. A dual psychic suppression swept through the entire rift.
This deadly trap targeting Lin Yan had officially closed its net.
End of Chapter.