Chapter 87: Underground Anomalies and Wasteland Exploration
In the monitoring hall of the Panshi City Command Center, dozens of screens constantly displayed the fluctuating waveforms of rock stratum vibrations and psychic signals.
After months of continuous silence, everyone had almost grown accustomed to the flat, undisturbed curves. Until late one night, a deep-layer detection screen suddenly jumped violently, and a piercing alarm shattered the silence of the hall.
The duty staff officer immediately retrieved the data and enlarged the waveform.
"Sir, in the deep rock strata, seventy kilometers underground beneath the wasteland outside the bastion, we have captured low-frequency, continuous vibrations! It is not a minor collapse; it is the resonance generated by large-scale earth and rock excavation. The signal is intermittent, and the rock stratum shielding is too strong; we can only lock onto the general area."
The news was reported to the Grand Marshal immediately.
In the early hours of the morning, the entire special reconnaissance squad was urgently summoned to the combat room. On the holographic projection, a desolate mountainous area was circled in red.
"According to the old maps, this area is marked as a continuous cluster of deep rifts. The monitoring has always been blank here, and now there is suddenly continuous vibration," the instructor said, tapping the projection with his fingertip. "We judge that this is highly likely to be the main underground tunnel being excavated by the scaled race, which is their logistical artery for preparing the general offensive."
Jiang Tao frowned. "The Ancient Progenitor has been hibernating for so long, continuously digging tunnels. Now, its vibration signal has been accidentally captured by our detection array. This place is most likely a trap."
"It is inevitably a trap." The Grand Marshal stood beside the projection, his gaze calm. "But we must ascertain the situation. We do not know the width of the tunnel, the number of branches, or the scale of the hoarded scaled beasts. Once the six main tunnels are opened simultaneously and the six major bastions are attacked by beast tides at the same time, we will be stretched too thin to cope."
"The squad's mission is to infiltrate this wasteland mountainous area, find the source of the vibration, confirm the location of the entrance to the main underground tunnel, collect rock stratum samples, and record the terrain. You are strictly prohibited from actively engaging large-scale scaled beast legions. Once exposed, prioritize retreat and transmit the coordinates."
Lin Yan stared at the mountainous area marked by the red circle, his third-tier Sea of Consciousness operating slightly. He knew very well that the Ancient Progenitor deliberately hid all psychic signals and only left physical signals like rock stratum vibrations; it was hard to say whether this was not a bait intentionally released.
"Understood," the seven squad members answered in unison.
Early the next morning, the squad set out. Two armored vehicles drove out of the Panshi City bastion, speeding deep into the wasteland. The further they went, the more desolate the earth became. The vegetation was scorched, and the ground was covered with weathered gravel and ancient rifts. The gray sky pressed down very low, and the strong wind on the wasteland carried sand and soil, hitting the armor plates with a rustling sound.
Two hours later, the vehicles reached the edge of the警戒 area and took cover in place. Everyone disembarked, shut down all electronic equipment, and kept only lightweight Sea of Consciousness detectors and vibration collection devices as they crept forward on foot.
"Maintain spacing, two people per group," the instructor said in a low voice. "Lower the sensitivity of the detectors to passive reception only. Do not actively release your Sea of Consciousness to probe outward, to prevent the secondary priests underground from capturing our psychic fluctuations."
Lin Yan walked at the very front of the squad as the point man. He did not spread out a large-scale Sea of Consciousness perception field; he only maintained his own mental fortitude, with extremely fine psychic threads touching the ground to capture the faint tremors coming from the depths of the earth.
Beneath his feet, the earth had a continuous, low hum that slowly transmitted through the rock strata.
"That's right, the vibration is right beneath our feet." Lin Yan stopped and lowered his head to feel the ground. "The vibration is rhythmic; it is the sound of large-scale, continuous excavation, and the range is very broad."
Everyone scattered to collect rock stratum samples and record the changes in vibration intensity. After advancing a few hundred meters forward, a massive crevice appeared ahead. Nearly twenty meters wide, the pitch-black crack extended downward into unfathomable depths. A cold, damp breath surged out from the crevice, mixed with the peculiar fishy, rotting stench of scaled beasts.
"This is the entrance." Old Chen gripped his long knife tightly, slowly approaching the edge of the crevice and peering down. "I can't see the bottom; it's pitch black inside."
The screen of the Sea of Consciousness detector remained completely blank, without any psychic signals.
"It's very strange," a squad member said in a low voice. "With such a massive underground project, if there were priests stationed here, there would be some psychic fluctuations at the very least. Now it's completely blank."
"There are two possibilities," Lin Yan said in a deep voice. "First, all the priests have retreated to the depths of the tunnel, completely shutting down the psychic network. Second, the Ancient Progenitor deliberately cleared the surface psychic signals, waiting for us to descend into the tunnel before instantly activating the nodes and sealing off our retreat."
The instructor pondered for a moment: "The mission objective is to confirm the tunnel. I will take Lin Yan and Jiang Tao down to investigate. The remaining four will stay on the surface and guard the crevice exit. Once large-scale psychic signals or beast swarm anomalies appear inside the cave, immediately send a distress signal."
The division of labor was quickly finalized. The remaining squad members found cover in place and set up a警戒. Lin Yan, Jiang Tao, and the instructor took out portable cold-light illumination sticks, leaped into the massive crevice, and walked step by step down the slope of the rock wall toward the depths of the earth.
The inner walls of the tunnel were forcibly carved from rock, covered with scratch marks from scaled beast claws. The tunnel was wide enough to accommodate multiple high-tier scaled beasts walking abreast. The deeper they went, the clearer and heavier the underground hum became, and the stronger the fishy stench in the air.
The cold light of the illumination sticks extended forward. A few hundred meters ahead, the tunnel branched into several forks, extending in different directions. This was exactly the branch node of the main tunnel.
"Six branches, leading in different directions." The instructor looked at the fork in the road and took out his equipment to record the terrain. "It is indeed the main network connecting various regions."
Just as Lin Yan was about to release a wisp of fine psychic threads to probe the left fork.
Weng————
The entire underground tunnel suddenly lit up with dark blue fluorescent veins, spreading rapidly along the rock walls. The psychic network, silent for so long, was instantly activated!
The Ancient Progenitor had long pre-embedded a complete set of dormant node arrays within the rock walls of the underground tunnels. The moment they stepped into the entrance, the net officially closed.
Cold, heavy thoughts filled the entire underground tunnel.
"I have been waiting for a long time, Lin Yan. And your squad, specifically designed to destroy my nodes."
End of Chapter.
After months of continuous silence, everyone had almost grown accustomed to the flat, undisturbed curves. Until late one night, a deep-layer detection screen suddenly jumped violently, and a piercing alarm shattered the silence of the hall.
The duty staff officer immediately retrieved the data and enlarged the waveform.
"Sir, in the deep rock strata, seventy kilometers underground beneath the wasteland outside the bastion, we have captured low-frequency, continuous vibrations! It is not a minor collapse; it is the resonance generated by large-scale earth and rock excavation. The signal is intermittent, and the rock stratum shielding is too strong; we can only lock onto the general area."
The news was reported to the Grand Marshal immediately.
In the early hours of the morning, the entire special reconnaissance squad was urgently summoned to the combat room. On the holographic projection, a desolate mountainous area was circled in red.
"According to the old maps, this area is marked as a continuous cluster of deep rifts. The monitoring has always been blank here, and now there is suddenly continuous vibration," the instructor said, tapping the projection with his fingertip. "We judge that this is highly likely to be the main underground tunnel being excavated by the scaled race, which is their logistical artery for preparing the general offensive."
Jiang Tao frowned. "The Ancient Progenitor has been hibernating for so long, continuously digging tunnels. Now, its vibration signal has been accidentally captured by our detection array. This place is most likely a trap."
"It is inevitably a trap." The Grand Marshal stood beside the projection, his gaze calm. "But we must ascertain the situation. We do not know the width of the tunnel, the number of branches, or the scale of the hoarded scaled beasts. Once the six main tunnels are opened simultaneously and the six major bastions are attacked by beast tides at the same time, we will be stretched too thin to cope."
"The squad's mission is to infiltrate this wasteland mountainous area, find the source of the vibration, confirm the location of the entrance to the main underground tunnel, collect rock stratum samples, and record the terrain. You are strictly prohibited from actively engaging large-scale scaled beast legions. Once exposed, prioritize retreat and transmit the coordinates."
Lin Yan stared at the mountainous area marked by the red circle, his third-tier Sea of Consciousness operating slightly. He knew very well that the Ancient Progenitor deliberately hid all psychic signals and only left physical signals like rock stratum vibrations; it was hard to say whether this was not a bait intentionally released.
"Understood," the seven squad members answered in unison.
Early the next morning, the squad set out. Two armored vehicles drove out of the Panshi City bastion, speeding deep into the wasteland. The further they went, the more desolate the earth became. The vegetation was scorched, and the ground was covered with weathered gravel and ancient rifts. The gray sky pressed down very low, and the strong wind on the wasteland carried sand and soil, hitting the armor plates with a rustling sound.
Two hours later, the vehicles reached the edge of the警戒 area and took cover in place. Everyone disembarked, shut down all electronic equipment, and kept only lightweight Sea of Consciousness detectors and vibration collection devices as they crept forward on foot.
"Maintain spacing, two people per group," the instructor said in a low voice. "Lower the sensitivity of the detectors to passive reception only. Do not actively release your Sea of Consciousness to probe outward, to prevent the secondary priests underground from capturing our psychic fluctuations."
Lin Yan walked at the very front of the squad as the point man. He did not spread out a large-scale Sea of Consciousness perception field; he only maintained his own mental fortitude, with extremely fine psychic threads touching the ground to capture the faint tremors coming from the depths of the earth.
Beneath his feet, the earth had a continuous, low hum that slowly transmitted through the rock strata.
"That's right, the vibration is right beneath our feet." Lin Yan stopped and lowered his head to feel the ground. "The vibration is rhythmic; it is the sound of large-scale, continuous excavation, and the range is very broad."
Everyone scattered to collect rock stratum samples and record the changes in vibration intensity. After advancing a few hundred meters forward, a massive crevice appeared ahead. Nearly twenty meters wide, the pitch-black crack extended downward into unfathomable depths. A cold, damp breath surged out from the crevice, mixed with the peculiar fishy, rotting stench of scaled beasts.
"This is the entrance." Old Chen gripped his long knife tightly, slowly approaching the edge of the crevice and peering down. "I can't see the bottom; it's pitch black inside."
The screen of the Sea of Consciousness detector remained completely blank, without any psychic signals.
"It's very strange," a squad member said in a low voice. "With such a massive underground project, if there were priests stationed here, there would be some psychic fluctuations at the very least. Now it's completely blank."
"There are two possibilities," Lin Yan said in a deep voice. "First, all the priests have retreated to the depths of the tunnel, completely shutting down the psychic network. Second, the Ancient Progenitor deliberately cleared the surface psychic signals, waiting for us to descend into the tunnel before instantly activating the nodes and sealing off our retreat."
The instructor pondered for a moment: "The mission objective is to confirm the tunnel. I will take Lin Yan and Jiang Tao down to investigate. The remaining four will stay on the surface and guard the crevice exit. Once large-scale psychic signals or beast swarm anomalies appear inside the cave, immediately send a distress signal."
The division of labor was quickly finalized. The remaining squad members found cover in place and set up a警戒. Lin Yan, Jiang Tao, and the instructor took out portable cold-light illumination sticks, leaped into the massive crevice, and walked step by step down the slope of the rock wall toward the depths of the earth.
The inner walls of the tunnel were forcibly carved from rock, covered with scratch marks from scaled beast claws. The tunnel was wide enough to accommodate multiple high-tier scaled beasts walking abreast. The deeper they went, the clearer and heavier the underground hum became, and the stronger the fishy stench in the air.
The cold light of the illumination sticks extended forward. A few hundred meters ahead, the tunnel branched into several forks, extending in different directions. This was exactly the branch node of the main tunnel.
"Six branches, leading in different directions." The instructor looked at the fork in the road and took out his equipment to record the terrain. "It is indeed the main network connecting various regions."
Just as Lin Yan was about to release a wisp of fine psychic threads to probe the left fork.
Weng————
The entire underground tunnel suddenly lit up with dark blue fluorescent veins, spreading rapidly along the rock walls. The psychic network, silent for so long, was instantly activated!
The Ancient Progenitor had long pre-embedded a complete set of dormant node arrays within the rock walls of the underground tunnels. The moment they stepped into the entrance, the net officially closed.
Cold, heavy thoughts filled the entire underground tunnel.
"I have been waiting for a long time, Lin Yan. And your squad, specifically designed to destroy my nodes."
End of Chapter.