Chapter 115: Breaking the Chorus
The brief instant when the shockwave exploded was the only breathing window in the entire karst cave.
The thick, heavy quagmire wrapped around everyone's consciousness suddenly dissipated. The previously sluggish and stagnant Sea of Consciousness power began to flow again, like a blocked river channel with its gates suddenly blown open. Su Wan had already calibrated and locked her detector's interference waves onto the right-side priest. Now, without the suppression of the stagnation field, the instrument emitted a piercing high-frequency hum, and a precise reverse psychic ripple shot straight toward the back of the rock platform.
The right-side priest was in the middle of urgently completing its resonance frequency. The interference slammed fiercely into its consciousness node, and a piercing shriek abruptly lodged in its throat. The psychic signals it emitted twisted violently, and the chorus chain that had been tightly interlocked with its companion directly snapped a link.
"Now!"
Lu Heng had already charged forward with full force taking advantage of this gap. His Sea of Consciousness barrier was pushed to its absolute limit, with a white curtain of light churning beside him to block the sporadic psychic splinters shooting from the rock platform. His pulse rifle was charged to maximum power. Blue-white beams tore through the darkness, continuously bombarding the fungal carpet cover on the left rock platform.
The left-side priest hiding in the shadow of the rock platform finally revealed its silhouette.
Unlike ordinary scaled beasts covered in thick carapace, its figure was close to that of a human. Its limbs were slender and elongated, and its skin was a damp, cold dark cyan-gray. Its head had no eye sockets; instead, it had rings of psychic tentacles arranged in circles. Every single tentacle was firmly connected to the fungal carpet beneath it, continuously drawing energy from deep underground. Sensing Lu Heng's fierce assault, its tentacles shook frantically, trying to raise illusions again to block the attack.
But without the resonance support of its companion, the output strength of a single priest's illusion web plummeted. The several layers of battlefield phantoms that had just formed were shattered into漫天 (漫天 - countless) points of light with a single sweep of Lu Heng's Sea of Consciousness oscillation.
Old Guo kept his gun barrel lowered and moved tactically, clearing the scaled beasts that were flanking and surrounding them from the side to cover the captain. "The target on the left is exposed. Keep suppressing it! Don't give it a chance to readjust its frequency!"
On the other side, Chen Ye gripped his rifle tightly, his heart pounding wildly. The fear brought by the previous illusion still lingered deep in his Sea of Consciousness, but he forced himself not to look at the phantoms that were slowly dissipating. His gaze was firmly locked onto the right rock platform, ready to pull the trigger and provide covering fire the moment any scaled beast darted out.
Everyone had seized this fleeting opportunity.
Only Lin Yan was at the center of the explosion.
The backlash from the oscillator grenade tearing apart the fungal carpet hub also washed over him at the first instant. Countless broken fungal tentacles writhed and lashed out frantically. Sticky, foul-smelling fluid splattered all over his combat suit, and several highly resilient thick tentacles wrapped around his ankles, desperately trying to drag him into the crevices of the rock strata.
It wasn't just physical restraint.
The massive amount of chaotic consciousness fragments that surged out the instant the illusion web broke rushed into his Sea of Consciousness like a breached dam. Countless broken wails, fears, and resentments drilled into his consciousness. Unfamiliar memory fragments flashed rapidly in his mind—they were the final thoughts of all the prey that had ever been devoured by the illusion web before their deaths.
Lin Yan let out a muffled groan, his knee slamming heavily onto the remnants of the fungal carpet. The ground was slippery, but he forcibly stabilized his center of gravity. He didn't dare release his Sea of Consciousness to endure it head-on. He could only rely on his long-honed mental foundation,配合 (coordinating with) the internal energy of his ancient martial arts to draw his consciousness inward in circles, like tightening the quicksand in his palm to prevent these fragments from overwhelming his defenses.
The corner of his eye did not relax; he was still keeping an eye on that massive, silent consciousness beneath the rock strata.
For that hidden entity, the destruction of the illusion web hub was merely like snapping a tiny branch. It did not fly into a rage because of the damage to the illusion web, nor did it immediately spread the Sea of Consciousness quagmire again. It continued to lie dormant in the depths, but that feeling of being gazed at became clearer, as if it were re-evaluating Lin Yan as a "variable."
It had understood the move just now.
In the karst cave, the battle had already tilted.
Several of the left priest's tentacles were severed by the pulse beams. Cyan-gray fluid flowed down the rock platform as it emitted anxious, frantic shrieks, constantly mobilizing the remaining low-tier scaled beasts nearby to pounce and block Lu Heng. Without the resonance support, its command ability was greatly reduced. The charge of the scaled beasts became chaotic and disorganized, completely losing the previously well-coordinated flanking formations.
"It's trying to escape!" Su Wan stared at the jumping signal on her detector and immediately called out a warning. "It's cutting its connection with this branch fungal carpet, preparing to retreat into the deeper passage!"
The priest knew very well that staying alone would eventually lead to it being surrounded and killed by the squad. It planned to abandon this outer branch of the illusion web and retreat deeper into the main network to reunite with the other priest.
"We can't let it go." Lu Heng strode up the rock platform, his gun barrel continuously tracking the target. "If we let the two reunite and restore the dual chorus, all our sacrifices and risks just now will be in vain!"
He accelerated, chasing into the narrow cave behind the rock platform, with Old Guo following closely behind to provide cover.
Seeing this, the priest on the right rock platform didn't dare to stay alone for long either. It began to retract its tentacles and turned to retreat toward the deep, dark passage on the other side. Su Wan immediately turned her detector, continuously releasing interference waves to stick to its psychic signal, preventing it from detaching at ease.
"The two priests are fleeing separately, heading into two different lower passages!" Su Wan reported quickly. "They want to scatter and put distance between us, forcing us to choose which one to pursue!"
This was a very cunning trade-off.
There were five people in the squad in total. Currently, Lu Heng and Old Guo were pursuing the left priest. The remaining members were Su Wan, Chen Ye, and Lin Yan, who was still struggling to stabilize his Sea of Consciousness at the hub position. If they split up to pursue, their forces would be divided again, making it very easy to be counter-encircled by the priests relying on new fungal carpet nodes in the unfamiliar lower passages. But if they only chased one, the other would escape safely and return another day.
Lin Yan forcibly broke the last ring of fungal tentacles wrapped around his leg. Supporting himself with his short blade, he slowly stood up. The chaotic consciousness fragments were still crashing inside his Sea of Consciousness, and his temples throbbed with pain. He shook his head vigorously, pushing down the residual images of memories that did not belong to him.
"Don't split up to chase," Lin Yan's voice came through the communication channel to everyone's ears, his breathing still slightly unsteady. "Prioritize sealing the main trunk of the fungal carpet between the two passages. No matter which side they flee to, if they want to resonate and chorus again, their signals must intersect through this main vein in the middle. If we block the main trunk, they will never be able to reform the dual-priest resonance."
Su Wan immediately brought up the fungal carpet vein map on her tablet. "The main trunk is right between the two passages. It's a narrow, downward-sloping corridor with very little space, only allowing one person to pass. But the density of the fungal carpet there is extremely high, and there are likely ambushes by guard scaled beasts."
"I'll go block the main trunk." Lin Yan gripped his short blade tightly. "You three guard the exit of the right passage, stop that priest, and don't pursue too deep. Notify the captain not to chase too deep into the left passage. Drive the left priest out and force it toward the main trunk. Block both ends and pin them outside the main trunk."
"The risk is too high. The corridor is narrow. If there are high-tier scaled beasts hiding inside, you won't even have space to dodge," Su Wan frowned.
"There is no better way now." Lin Yan raised his eyes to look at the dark entrances of the two passages where the priests had fled. "Once they chorus again, we won't have a second chance to blow up the hub. That big guy underground is still waiting for us to exhaust ourselves. We can't afford a battle of attrition."
The communication channel fell silent for a moment, then Lu Heng's steady voice came through: "Agreed. Lin Yan, be extremely careful. I will drive the left priest toward the middle section and won't rashly go deeper into the lower levels. Su Wan, keep an eye on the right side, focus on containment. Chen Ye, stay alert to the rock crevices around you and watch out for stray scaled beasts circling behind."
"Received."
Lin Yan said nothing more. He turned and walked toward the entrance of the downward-sloping corridor hidden in the shadows of the rock wall between the two passages. The entrance was covered with thick fungal carpet, and the purple patterns were still flickering weakly. It was completely silent inside, without a single sound.
The quieter it was, the more it reeked of danger.
He raised his hand and used his short blade to slash open the fungal carpet blocking the entrance. A hot, fishy airflow rushed out from inside the corridor.
His wisp of Sea of Consciousness carefully probed inside.
There was no immediate psychic shock attack. But the instant his wisp extended deeper into the corridor along the fungal carpet veins, he clearly perceived that at the end of the corridor, deeper down the main vein, that massive, dormant consciousness slowly raised its gaze.
It knew Lin Yan was coming.
End of Chapter.
The thick, heavy quagmire wrapped around everyone's consciousness suddenly dissipated. The previously sluggish and stagnant Sea of Consciousness power began to flow again, like a blocked river channel with its gates suddenly blown open. Su Wan had already calibrated and locked her detector's interference waves onto the right-side priest. Now, without the suppression of the stagnation field, the instrument emitted a piercing high-frequency hum, and a precise reverse psychic ripple shot straight toward the back of the rock platform.
The right-side priest was in the middle of urgently completing its resonance frequency. The interference slammed fiercely into its consciousness node, and a piercing shriek abruptly lodged in its throat. The psychic signals it emitted twisted violently, and the chorus chain that had been tightly interlocked with its companion directly snapped a link.
"Now!"
Lu Heng had already charged forward with full force taking advantage of this gap. His Sea of Consciousness barrier was pushed to its absolute limit, with a white curtain of light churning beside him to block the sporadic psychic splinters shooting from the rock platform. His pulse rifle was charged to maximum power. Blue-white beams tore through the darkness, continuously bombarding the fungal carpet cover on the left rock platform.
The left-side priest hiding in the shadow of the rock platform finally revealed its silhouette.
Unlike ordinary scaled beasts covered in thick carapace, its figure was close to that of a human. Its limbs were slender and elongated, and its skin was a damp, cold dark cyan-gray. Its head had no eye sockets; instead, it had rings of psychic tentacles arranged in circles. Every single tentacle was firmly connected to the fungal carpet beneath it, continuously drawing energy from deep underground. Sensing Lu Heng's fierce assault, its tentacles shook frantically, trying to raise illusions again to block the attack.
But without the resonance support of its companion, the output strength of a single priest's illusion web plummeted. The several layers of battlefield phantoms that had just formed were shattered into漫天 (漫天 - countless) points of light with a single sweep of Lu Heng's Sea of Consciousness oscillation.
Old Guo kept his gun barrel lowered and moved tactically, clearing the scaled beasts that were flanking and surrounding them from the side to cover the captain. "The target on the left is exposed. Keep suppressing it! Don't give it a chance to readjust its frequency!"
On the other side, Chen Ye gripped his rifle tightly, his heart pounding wildly. The fear brought by the previous illusion still lingered deep in his Sea of Consciousness, but he forced himself not to look at the phantoms that were slowly dissipating. His gaze was firmly locked onto the right rock platform, ready to pull the trigger and provide covering fire the moment any scaled beast darted out.
Everyone had seized this fleeting opportunity.
Only Lin Yan was at the center of the explosion.
The backlash from the oscillator grenade tearing apart the fungal carpet hub also washed over him at the first instant. Countless broken fungal tentacles writhed and lashed out frantically. Sticky, foul-smelling fluid splattered all over his combat suit, and several highly resilient thick tentacles wrapped around his ankles, desperately trying to drag him into the crevices of the rock strata.
It wasn't just physical restraint.
The massive amount of chaotic consciousness fragments that surged out the instant the illusion web broke rushed into his Sea of Consciousness like a breached dam. Countless broken wails, fears, and resentments drilled into his consciousness. Unfamiliar memory fragments flashed rapidly in his mind—they were the final thoughts of all the prey that had ever been devoured by the illusion web before their deaths.
Lin Yan let out a muffled groan, his knee slamming heavily onto the remnants of the fungal carpet. The ground was slippery, but he forcibly stabilized his center of gravity. He didn't dare release his Sea of Consciousness to endure it head-on. He could only rely on his long-honed mental foundation,配合 (coordinating with) the internal energy of his ancient martial arts to draw his consciousness inward in circles, like tightening the quicksand in his palm to prevent these fragments from overwhelming his defenses.
The corner of his eye did not relax; he was still keeping an eye on that massive, silent consciousness beneath the rock strata.
For that hidden entity, the destruction of the illusion web hub was merely like snapping a tiny branch. It did not fly into a rage because of the damage to the illusion web, nor did it immediately spread the Sea of Consciousness quagmire again. It continued to lie dormant in the depths, but that feeling of being gazed at became clearer, as if it were re-evaluating Lin Yan as a "variable."
It had understood the move just now.
In the karst cave, the battle had already tilted.
Several of the left priest's tentacles were severed by the pulse beams. Cyan-gray fluid flowed down the rock platform as it emitted anxious, frantic shrieks, constantly mobilizing the remaining low-tier scaled beasts nearby to pounce and block Lu Heng. Without the resonance support, its command ability was greatly reduced. The charge of the scaled beasts became chaotic and disorganized, completely losing the previously well-coordinated flanking formations.
"It's trying to escape!" Su Wan stared at the jumping signal on her detector and immediately called out a warning. "It's cutting its connection with this branch fungal carpet, preparing to retreat into the deeper passage!"
The priest knew very well that staying alone would eventually lead to it being surrounded and killed by the squad. It planned to abandon this outer branch of the illusion web and retreat deeper into the main network to reunite with the other priest.
"We can't let it go." Lu Heng strode up the rock platform, his gun barrel continuously tracking the target. "If we let the two reunite and restore the dual chorus, all our sacrifices and risks just now will be in vain!"
He accelerated, chasing into the narrow cave behind the rock platform, with Old Guo following closely behind to provide cover.
Seeing this, the priest on the right rock platform didn't dare to stay alone for long either. It began to retract its tentacles and turned to retreat toward the deep, dark passage on the other side. Su Wan immediately turned her detector, continuously releasing interference waves to stick to its psychic signal, preventing it from detaching at ease.
"The two priests are fleeing separately, heading into two different lower passages!" Su Wan reported quickly. "They want to scatter and put distance between us, forcing us to choose which one to pursue!"
This was a very cunning trade-off.
There were five people in the squad in total. Currently, Lu Heng and Old Guo were pursuing the left priest. The remaining members were Su Wan, Chen Ye, and Lin Yan, who was still struggling to stabilize his Sea of Consciousness at the hub position. If they split up to pursue, their forces would be divided again, making it very easy to be counter-encircled by the priests relying on new fungal carpet nodes in the unfamiliar lower passages. But if they only chased one, the other would escape safely and return another day.
Lin Yan forcibly broke the last ring of fungal tentacles wrapped around his leg. Supporting himself with his short blade, he slowly stood up. The chaotic consciousness fragments were still crashing inside his Sea of Consciousness, and his temples throbbed with pain. He shook his head vigorously, pushing down the residual images of memories that did not belong to him.
"Don't split up to chase," Lin Yan's voice came through the communication channel to everyone's ears, his breathing still slightly unsteady. "Prioritize sealing the main trunk of the fungal carpet between the two passages. No matter which side they flee to, if they want to resonate and chorus again, their signals must intersect through this main vein in the middle. If we block the main trunk, they will never be able to reform the dual-priest resonance."
Su Wan immediately brought up the fungal carpet vein map on her tablet. "The main trunk is right between the two passages. It's a narrow, downward-sloping corridor with very little space, only allowing one person to pass. But the density of the fungal carpet there is extremely high, and there are likely ambushes by guard scaled beasts."
"I'll go block the main trunk." Lin Yan gripped his short blade tightly. "You three guard the exit of the right passage, stop that priest, and don't pursue too deep. Notify the captain not to chase too deep into the left passage. Drive the left priest out and force it toward the main trunk. Block both ends and pin them outside the main trunk."
"The risk is too high. The corridor is narrow. If there are high-tier scaled beasts hiding inside, you won't even have space to dodge," Su Wan frowned.
"There is no better way now." Lin Yan raised his eyes to look at the dark entrances of the two passages where the priests had fled. "Once they chorus again, we won't have a second chance to blow up the hub. That big guy underground is still waiting for us to exhaust ourselves. We can't afford a battle of attrition."
The communication channel fell silent for a moment, then Lu Heng's steady voice came through: "Agreed. Lin Yan, be extremely careful. I will drive the left priest toward the middle section and won't rashly go deeper into the lower levels. Su Wan, keep an eye on the right side, focus on containment. Chen Ye, stay alert to the rock crevices around you and watch out for stray scaled beasts circling behind."
"Received."
Lin Yan said nothing more. He turned and walked toward the entrance of the downward-sloping corridor hidden in the shadows of the rock wall between the two passages. The entrance was covered with thick fungal carpet, and the purple patterns were still flickering weakly. It was completely silent inside, without a single sound.
The quieter it was, the more it reeked of danger.
He raised his hand and used his short blade to slash open the fungal carpet blocking the entrance. A hot, fishy airflow rushed out from inside the corridor.
His wisp of Sea of Consciousness carefully probed inside.
There was no immediate psychic shock attack. But the instant his wisp extended deeper into the corridor along the fungal carpet veins, he clearly perceived that at the end of the corridor, deeper down the main vein, that massive, dormant consciousness slowly raised its gaze.
It knew Lin Yan was coming.
End of Chapter.