Chapter 112: The Bone Cave Hunt
The blue light of the pulse rifles pierced the thick darkness inside the karst cave.
The first three low-tier scaled beasts that charged in were struck directly in their torsos by the beams. Their carapaces exploded, spraying foul-smelling, gray-black fluid. Their bodies twitched violently on the fungal carpet a few times before quickly going still. But this level of damage couldn't stop the endless assault. More of the same beasts kept pouring out from the rock crevices. They climbed over the pile of white bones, making them creak. Fine bone fragments mixed with the slippery mucus of the fungal carpet and splattered everywhere.
"Don't bunch up! Spread out!" Lu Heng took half a step back, continuously firing in bursts. His Sea of Consciousness simultaneously released a layer of oscillating ripples. Several scaled beasts that approached suddenly froze. Their consciousness was already being uniformly pulled by the illusion web, and this psychic shock briefly severed their signal link to the main network, causing their movements to fall into chaos.
This was the most troublesome aspect of the illusion web. A single low-tier scaled beast posed a limited threat, but once connected to the fungal carpet network, they were no longer beasts fighting individually. Like an ant colony, they followed the unified deployment of the priests, knowing how to flank and contain, and knowing to prioritize targeting those with weak Seas of Consciousness.
Chen Ye took a deep breath, suppressing the lingering palpitations left by the illusion, and pulled the trigger. The beam precisely hit a scaled beast pouncing toward his flank. However, his attention still involuntarily drifted toward the pile of white bones. The phantom of his deceased classmate still sat there, repeatedly calling his name in a low voice. The mournful sound was like a fine needle repeatedly piercing his Sea of Consciousness.
"Don't lose focus!" Su Wan noticed his abnormal state. She raised her hand and pressed the secondary switch on the side of her detector. A narrow-band psychic shield enveloped Chen Ye. "I'll temporarily apply an isolation layer to block the sound source of the illusion. Focus on dealing with the physical targets!"
Her detector didn't just have a detection function; it came with a built-in small-scale Sea of Consciousness shielding module. The cost was that it consumed a massive amount of stored energy and couldn't be kept on for long.
Lin Yan was not in a hurry to fire. His wisp of consciousness remained rooted in the veins of the fungal carpet. While tracking the back-and-forth resonating signals of the two dual priests, he observed the attack rhythm of this swarm of scaled beasts. Their charges had obvious intervals. During the pause between each wave of attacks, a psychic signal would come from deep within to recalibrate their direction of assault.
"They are stalling for time," Lin Yan said in a low voice over the communication channel. "They don't intend to consume us with this batch of low-tier scaled beasts. They are using this hunt to continuously drain the energy of our Sea of Consciousness barriers while collecting data on our defensive rhythm. The priests are watching from behind."
"As expected." Lu Heng blasted a scaled beast that leaped close with a shot, then顺势 (followed through) to smash the skull of another with his gun stock. "Finish this quickly, clear a path, and don't stay here long. Old Guo, I'll leave the left side to you. Guard the flank!"
"Received!" Old Guo shifted his steps sideways, lowered the muzzle of his rifle, and activated the Sea of Consciousness oscillator attached to the gun body. A circle of white ripples diffused outward. Every scaled beast swept by the ripples had its movements fall into disorder, and its assault instantly stalled, creating shooting windows for the others.
However, there were simply too many scaled beasts. There were only two exits in the karst cave, and their retreat route had already been sealed off. Taking advantage of the cover of its companions, a scaled beast suddenly darted to Chen Ye's side, its sharp, curved claws lunging straight for his helmet. Chen Ye hastily raised his gun, but the angle was off. The beam grazed the carapace of the scaled beast, failing to inflict a fatal wound.
Seeing the claw tips about to tear open his visor, Lin Yan's figure swayed. Using the ancient martial arts footwork, he landed steadily on the slippery fungal carpet. Drawing his short blade from his waist, he used his momentum to thrust diagonally into the gap of the scaled beast's carapace. Foul-smelling blood sprayed onto his forearm. As the scaled beast struggled violently, he twisted his wrist, snapping its spine, and casually threw the corpse aside.
"Thanks," Chen Ye panted, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
"Stabilize your mind. The illusion is still watching you," Lin Yan reminded him, his gaze sweeping over the veins of the fungal carpet again. "The signal from the left passage has strengthened. One of the priests is channeling psychic power in this direction, intending to intensify the illusion."
No sooner had he spoken than the phantom in the pile of white bones abruptly changed.
The teenager who had been quietly begging for help began to swell in size. His flesh melted and twisted, bones flipping outward. His face transformed into countless tiny compound eyes, and fangs like those of scaled beasts grew out. It stopped crying and wailing, replaced by a piercing shriek that drilled straight into everyone's Sea of Consciousness.
This was no longer a simple memory illusion. The illusion web had fused the memory of fear with the psychic shock of the scaled beasts.
Chen Ye let out a muffled groan, a severe headache striking him. His Sea of Consciousness barrier nearly cracked. He staggered back two steps and dropped to one knee on the fungal carpet, his rifle nearly slipping from his grasp.
"Hold on!" Su Wan immediately increased the power of the shielding module. The instrument hummed and grew hot. "This illusion has been reshaped a second time. It cost the illusion web a lot of energy; it can't last!"
Lu Heng's brow furrowed deeply. He knew clearly that continuing to fight here would only make them more passive. The illusion web's energy was inexhaustible, while their ammunition, Sea of Consciousness endurance, and instrument power reserves were all finite.
"I will break the path. Lin Yan, keep a close watch on the priests' signals. The moment they show signs of transferring or encircling, mark their position immediately. Old Guo, bring up the rear. Su Wan, continue to maintain detection while covering Chen Ye. We will charge into the main passage ahead and leave the radiation range of this bone cave node!"
With the tactics finalized, Lu Heng unleashed his full firepower. Continuous shots from the pulse rifle forcefully blasted a gap in the dense encirclement of scaled beasts. The others followed closely behind, pushing forward. Bullets continuously exploded behind them, the roars and shrieks of the scaled beasts mingling together and echoing endlessly in the enclosed cave.
Just as the squad was about to break out of the bone cave, the fungal carpet on the ground suddenly surged violently.
Thick, tentacle-like main stems of the fungal carpet unrolled from the crevices in the rock strata, blocking the entrance to the passage. Mucus dripped continuously. The surface of the fungal carpet lit up with alternating light and dark purple patterns—the resonance patterns of the illusion web.
The secondary node had been activated.
This fungal carpet barrier was not just a physical obstruction; it instantly released a large-scale psychic shock, striking everyone's Sea of Consciousness like a heavy hammer.
Several of them simultaneously felt a wave of dizziness, and their footsteps faltered.
Lin Yan was shaken by this impact, his psychic wisp nearly snapping. Clenching his teeth, he forcibly steadied himself and peered deep toward the source of the shock. His heart sank slightly.
The two resonating signals belonging to the dual priests were no longer watching from afar on the left and right.
They had moved. They were flanking from two side passages, gradually tightening the encirclement.
And beneath the signals of the two priests, that vast consciousness, which had been dormant and hidden deep underground, finally showed a faint fluctuation. Like a sleeping behemoth disturbed by the noise, it slowly rolled over.
In the communication channel, Su Wan's voice carried suppressed urgency: "Captain! The detector picked up a new signal... It's massive, far stronger than the two priests, located deep in the rock strata directly beneath us!"
Lu Heng's face darkened to the extreme.
The intelligence was severely inaccurate.
Inside Rift No. 79, there were definitely not just two dual priests.
"Retreat! Fall back to the bone cave first and find a new breakthrough!" Lu Heng ordered in a deep voice.
But when everyone turned around, they realized that the entrance to the karst cave behind them had been completely sealed off by the endless stream of scaled beasts pouring in.
Their retreat route was gone.
The purple patterns on the fungal carpet grew increasingly dazzling. Countless phantoms slowly rose from the rock walls and the white bones. This time, they were no longer illusions of individual obsessions. Fragments of the brutal battlefields in everyone's memories intertwined together. The silhouettes of countless fallen soldiers stood up silently in the darkness, gazing at them in silence.
The first three low-tier scaled beasts that charged in were struck directly in their torsos by the beams. Their carapaces exploded, spraying foul-smelling, gray-black fluid. Their bodies twitched violently on the fungal carpet a few times before quickly going still. But this level of damage couldn't stop the endless assault. More of the same beasts kept pouring out from the rock crevices. They climbed over the pile of white bones, making them creak. Fine bone fragments mixed with the slippery mucus of the fungal carpet and splattered everywhere.
"Don't bunch up! Spread out!" Lu Heng took half a step back, continuously firing in bursts. His Sea of Consciousness simultaneously released a layer of oscillating ripples. Several scaled beasts that approached suddenly froze. Their consciousness was already being uniformly pulled by the illusion web, and this psychic shock briefly severed their signal link to the main network, causing their movements to fall into chaos.
This was the most troublesome aspect of the illusion web. A single low-tier scaled beast posed a limited threat, but once connected to the fungal carpet network, they were no longer beasts fighting individually. Like an ant colony, they followed the unified deployment of the priests, knowing how to flank and contain, and knowing to prioritize targeting those with weak Seas of Consciousness.
Chen Ye took a deep breath, suppressing the lingering palpitations left by the illusion, and pulled the trigger. The beam precisely hit a scaled beast pouncing toward his flank. However, his attention still involuntarily drifted toward the pile of white bones. The phantom of his deceased classmate still sat there, repeatedly calling his name in a low voice. The mournful sound was like a fine needle repeatedly piercing his Sea of Consciousness.
"Don't lose focus!" Su Wan noticed his abnormal state. She raised her hand and pressed the secondary switch on the side of her detector. A narrow-band psychic shield enveloped Chen Ye. "I'll temporarily apply an isolation layer to block the sound source of the illusion. Focus on dealing with the physical targets!"
Her detector didn't just have a detection function; it came with a built-in small-scale Sea of Consciousness shielding module. The cost was that it consumed a massive amount of stored energy and couldn't be kept on for long.
Lin Yan was not in a hurry to fire. His wisp of consciousness remained rooted in the veins of the fungal carpet. While tracking the back-and-forth resonating signals of the two dual priests, he observed the attack rhythm of this swarm of scaled beasts. Their charges had obvious intervals. During the pause between each wave of attacks, a psychic signal would come from deep within to recalibrate their direction of assault.
"They are stalling for time," Lin Yan said in a low voice over the communication channel. "They don't intend to consume us with this batch of low-tier scaled beasts. They are using this hunt to continuously drain the energy of our Sea of Consciousness barriers while collecting data on our defensive rhythm. The priests are watching from behind."
"As expected." Lu Heng blasted a scaled beast that leaped close with a shot, then顺势 (followed through) to smash the skull of another with his gun stock. "Finish this quickly, clear a path, and don't stay here long. Old Guo, I'll leave the left side to you. Guard the flank!"
"Received!" Old Guo shifted his steps sideways, lowered the muzzle of his rifle, and activated the Sea of Consciousness oscillator attached to the gun body. A circle of white ripples diffused outward. Every scaled beast swept by the ripples had its movements fall into disorder, and its assault instantly stalled, creating shooting windows for the others.
However, there were simply too many scaled beasts. There were only two exits in the karst cave, and their retreat route had already been sealed off. Taking advantage of the cover of its companions, a scaled beast suddenly darted to Chen Ye's side, its sharp, curved claws lunging straight for his helmet. Chen Ye hastily raised his gun, but the angle was off. The beam grazed the carapace of the scaled beast, failing to inflict a fatal wound.
Seeing the claw tips about to tear open his visor, Lin Yan's figure swayed. Using the ancient martial arts footwork, he landed steadily on the slippery fungal carpet. Drawing his short blade from his waist, he used his momentum to thrust diagonally into the gap of the scaled beast's carapace. Foul-smelling blood sprayed onto his forearm. As the scaled beast struggled violently, he twisted his wrist, snapping its spine, and casually threw the corpse aside.
"Thanks," Chen Ye panted, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
"Stabilize your mind. The illusion is still watching you," Lin Yan reminded him, his gaze sweeping over the veins of the fungal carpet again. "The signal from the left passage has strengthened. One of the priests is channeling psychic power in this direction, intending to intensify the illusion."
No sooner had he spoken than the phantom in the pile of white bones abruptly changed.
The teenager who had been quietly begging for help began to swell in size. His flesh melted and twisted, bones flipping outward. His face transformed into countless tiny compound eyes, and fangs like those of scaled beasts grew out. It stopped crying and wailing, replaced by a piercing shriek that drilled straight into everyone's Sea of Consciousness.
This was no longer a simple memory illusion. The illusion web had fused the memory of fear with the psychic shock of the scaled beasts.
Chen Ye let out a muffled groan, a severe headache striking him. His Sea of Consciousness barrier nearly cracked. He staggered back two steps and dropped to one knee on the fungal carpet, his rifle nearly slipping from his grasp.
"Hold on!" Su Wan immediately increased the power of the shielding module. The instrument hummed and grew hot. "This illusion has been reshaped a second time. It cost the illusion web a lot of energy; it can't last!"
Lu Heng's brow furrowed deeply. He knew clearly that continuing to fight here would only make them more passive. The illusion web's energy was inexhaustible, while their ammunition, Sea of Consciousness endurance, and instrument power reserves were all finite.
"I will break the path. Lin Yan, keep a close watch on the priests' signals. The moment they show signs of transferring or encircling, mark their position immediately. Old Guo, bring up the rear. Su Wan, continue to maintain detection while covering Chen Ye. We will charge into the main passage ahead and leave the radiation range of this bone cave node!"
With the tactics finalized, Lu Heng unleashed his full firepower. Continuous shots from the pulse rifle forcefully blasted a gap in the dense encirclement of scaled beasts. The others followed closely behind, pushing forward. Bullets continuously exploded behind them, the roars and shrieks of the scaled beasts mingling together and echoing endlessly in the enclosed cave.
Just as the squad was about to break out of the bone cave, the fungal carpet on the ground suddenly surged violently.
Thick, tentacle-like main stems of the fungal carpet unrolled from the crevices in the rock strata, blocking the entrance to the passage. Mucus dripped continuously. The surface of the fungal carpet lit up with alternating light and dark purple patterns—the resonance patterns of the illusion web.
The secondary node had been activated.
This fungal carpet barrier was not just a physical obstruction; it instantly released a large-scale psychic shock, striking everyone's Sea of Consciousness like a heavy hammer.
Several of them simultaneously felt a wave of dizziness, and their footsteps faltered.
Lin Yan was shaken by this impact, his psychic wisp nearly snapping. Clenching his teeth, he forcibly steadied himself and peered deep toward the source of the shock. His heart sank slightly.
The two resonating signals belonging to the dual priests were no longer watching from afar on the left and right.
They had moved. They were flanking from two side passages, gradually tightening the encirclement.
And beneath the signals of the two priests, that vast consciousness, which had been dormant and hidden deep underground, finally showed a faint fluctuation. Like a sleeping behemoth disturbed by the noise, it slowly rolled over.
In the communication channel, Su Wan's voice carried suppressed urgency: "Captain! The detector picked up a new signal... It's massive, far stronger than the two priests, located deep in the rock strata directly beneath us!"
Lu Heng's face darkened to the extreme.
The intelligence was severely inaccurate.
Inside Rift No. 79, there were definitely not just two dual priests.
"Retreat! Fall back to the bone cave first and find a new breakthrough!" Lu Heng ordered in a deep voice.
But when everyone turned around, they realized that the entrance to the karst cave behind them had been completely sealed off by the endless stream of scaled beasts pouring in.
Their retreat route was gone.
The purple patterns on the fungal carpet grew increasingly dazzling. Countless phantoms slowly rose from the rock walls and the white bones. This time, they were no longer illusions of individual obsessions. Fragments of the brutal battlefields in everyone's memories intertwined together. The silhouettes of countless fallen soldiers stood up silently in the darkness, gazing at them in silence.