Chapter 124: The Dilemma of the Murky Fog
Purple fungal hyphae grew wildly along the cracks in the ground. In a matter of moments, they wove the open ground around Beacon Two into a semi-transparent, soft net.
The hyphae were not thick, but they carried an inherent psychic stickiness. The moment one's mental state wavered even slightly, they would hook into the Sea of Consciousness, further amplifying that inescapable sense of lethargy. The murky fog on the wasteland, as if drawn by the illusion web, slowly gathered toward the beacon. Visibility was compressed once again; beyond a dozen meters, there was nothing but a gray, blurred outline.
"Contract the formation! Rely on the beacon's walls to build a defensive line!" Lu Heng ordered in a deep voice.
The five quickly shifted their positions, forming a circular defense with their backs against the outer wall of the prefabricated fortress. Lu Heng took the center to control the field; Old Guo guarded the open front, his shotgun aimed at the faint, shifting silhouettes of scaled beasts in the fog; Su Wan pressed against the wall, her hands never leaving the detector, continuously locking onto the main vein of the illusion web and the signal of the priest in the air defense bunker; Chen Ye guarded the right flank, a psychic shock baton held horizontally in front of him, his eyes holding no panic, only taut vigilance; Lin Yan took the left flank, his short blade hanging low, his Sea of Consciousness firmly gathered into a single thread, drifting along the edge of the entire illusion web.
From all directions came the rustling sounds of scaled beasts scraping against rocks. Low shrieks intertwined in a staggered rhythm, yet they refused to charge rashly.
Under the deployment of the illusion web, they slowly circled the beacon, deliberately keeping their distance, in no rush to pounce and kill.
"They're not in a rush to charge." Su Wan stared at the jumping waveforms, her speaking pace rapid. "The illusion web is continuously releasing silent infection, wanting to slowly grind down our Sea of Consciousness endurance. The priests are deep inside the air defense bunker, continuously supplying energy to the entire fungal network. They are waiting for the moment someone among us can't bear the lethargy and their consciousness slackens, before ordering a general offensive."
Old Guo spat, his finger resting on the shotgun's trigger. "Cunning bastards. They just want to wear us out. Forty minutes for support isn't long, but inside the illusion web, every minute feels like holding your breath underwater."
Chen Ye gripped the baton tightly, his gaze fixed on a swaying dark shadow in the fog. One scaled beast poked out half its body, its compound eyes gleaming with a cold light as it quietly surveyed the defensive line. Seeing him look over, it silently shrank back into the murky fog.
Lin Yan's wisp of perception continuously swept over the layered fungal veins.
He could clearly distinguish two paths: one was the fake vein that had just tried to lure him into a solo advance. It still lingered nearby, faintly hooking his perception, unwilling to give up; the other was the real energy trunk leading to the air defense bunker in the northwest, continuously transporting psychic energy to sustain the silent net trapping them.
He suppressed the urge in his heart to trace back and break the web.
Lu Heng's warning, the lessons from the corridor battle, and the risks Instructor Wen had repeatedly emphasized—he remembered them all clearly. The matrix had specifically set up a trap targeting his tactics. Once he broke formation and advanced alone, the remaining four would lack his perceptual warning and would easily have their defensive line torn open by the scaled beasts.
"I can try to disrupt the main trunk link, but I can't go far," Lin Yan said in a low voice over the channel. "Right at the edge of the defensive line, I'll find a node to strike, briefly weakening the illusion web's intensity to reduce the infection pressure on everyone. I won't leave the visual range."
Lu Heng pondered briefly, quickly weighing the pros and cons. "Doable. But you can leave the formation by ten meters at most. Once the detector shows abnormal fluctuations in the illusion web, return immediately. Su Wan, keep a close watch on whether there are any hidden secondary bait nodes around him."
"Received," Su Wan replied.
Lin Yan bent slightly, sticking to the shadows of the wall, and slowly stepped outward.
The murky fog, carrying a faint stench of decay, hit him. The lethargy intensified, and a vague thought surfaced in his mind: Stop. There's no need to endure so hard. Just rest for a while, and it will be fine. He clenched his jaw, his ancient martial arts internal energy flowing steadily to stabilize his mind. That fine thread of his Sea of Consciousness precisely locked onto the nearest fungal convergence node to the defensive line.
It was a distribution hub for the entire outer network. It wasn't the core, but it supported the illusion web's expansion across most of the eastern area of the beacon.
Lin Yan no longer defended against the psychic erosion washing over him from all sides. Concentrating his Sea of Consciousness power into a single point, he猛地 (fiercely) slammed it into that node.
Weng—
An invisible shockwave spread along the fungal hyphae. Large patches of purple patterns in the surroundings dimmed, and the lethargy shrouding everyone's heads instantly lessened. The scaled beasts wandering in the murky fog all paused simultaneously, their movements experiencing a brief stagnation.
"It worked!" Chen Ye called out in a low voice.
But in less than two seconds, a stronger stream of psychic energy surged from the direction of the distant air defense bunker, rapidly flowing through the underground main trunk to fill the gap. The dimmed fungal hyphae lit up again, and the pressure of the illusion web rolled back, even heavier than before.
The priests in the air defense bunker had patched the gap the moment it appeared.
"It's useless; it's only a temporary interruption." Lin Yan quickly retreated back into the defensive line, his breath slightly ragged. "The main trunk has a sufficient energy reserve, and the priests' remote recharging speed is very fast. Single-point destruction can only buy us a few seconds of breathing room."
"Expected." Lu Heng's expression was solemn. "The matrix has paved underground fungal pathways for them, providing an endless energy supply. Our scattered strikes like this only treat the symptoms, not the root cause."
Just then, Su Wan's detector emitted a sharp alarm.
"Attention! The illusion web waveform has switched! The silent infection is weakening; they are changing their offensive!"
Before she even finished speaking, the murky fog surged violently.
It was no longer the grueling lethargy. Wisps of fragmented, twisted illusion shards began to float at the edges of their vision. Someone saw the back of a comrade who had gone missing on the wasteland; someone heard a familiar shout. These were the people and scenes they couldn't let go of deep in their hearts.
Lin Yan's vision blurred. In a daze, he saw the appearance of the thatched cottage in the mountains. His master stood with his back to him, sweeping the dead leaves in the yard.
The familiar scene instantly seized his mind, and his Sea of Consciousness nearly scattered. He squeezed his eyes shut fiercely, biting hard on the inside of his cheek with his tongue. The sharp pain pulled him back to clarity.
"It's a stacked illusion. They can't wait to slowly drain us; they've started combining the real and the fake."
"All personnel, inject stabilizers!" Lu Heng decisively ordered.
The five quickly pulled out the syringes from their waist belts and jabbed them into their upper arms. The cool medicine flowed through their veins, forming a gentle barrier to protect the Sea of Consciousness. The pulling force of the illusions weakened considerably, but it didn't disappear completely.
In the next instant, the first wave of scaled beasts finally launched their charge.
Three burly scaled beasts broke through the murky fog, their scales gleaming with a dark brown luster in the dim light. Opening their jaws filled with sharp teeth, they pounced straight toward the front guarded by Old Guo.
"Fire!"
Boom! A gunshot rang out. A silver-plated barrier-breaking round slammed heavily into the shoulder of the leading scaled beast. The scales shattered, and dark green, foul-smelling blood sprayed out. The beast roared in pain, tumbling forward as it rolled. Taking advantage of their companion's cover, the other two flanked to both sides.
Chen Ye迎上 (stepped up to meet) a pouncing scaled beast, his psychic shock baton slamming fiercely into the base of the tentacles on the beast's head. A violent psychic shock exploded. The scaled beast's movements froze. Seizing the moment, he sidestepped to dodge the sharp claws and delivered another strike with the baton, knocking the beast to the ground.
But the shrieks on the wasteland kept drawing closer. The second and third waves of scaled beasts followed one after another, endless, as if they were infinite.
The illusion web cast illusions to interfere with their judgment while continuously dispatching the beast horde to attack in relays, leaving them no gap to catch their breath and regulate their energy.
Old Guo knocked down two scaled beasts in succession, but his shoulder was swept by a scaled beast's tail whip. His thick combat suit tore open, flesh ripping as blood quickly seeped out. He let out a闷哼 (muffled groan), not retreating half a step. Even in the gap while reloading, he kept his eyes fixed on the fog.
"Holding out like this won't work. Our ammo is limited!" Old Guo shouted as he fired. "Forty minutes—we can't withstand continuous attacks like this!"
Lu Heng quickly scanned the surrounding terrain. "There's an underground ventilation shaft behind the beacon. The passage is narrow and easy to defend but hard to attack. We'll abandon the outer perimeter and retreat into the shaft to compress our defensive range and reduce the sides we're being attacked from!"
"Move!"
Fighting and retreating, covering each other in turns, they stepped back into the beacon, moving toward the metal-covered shaft in the corner of the wall.
The illusions still swirled around their vision, and the psychic pressure of the illusion web followed like a shadow. From the direction of the air defense bunker, the sinister consciousness of the two priests firmly locked onto this area, patiently watching them retreat step by step. They were in no rush to charge in and reap the harvest; they merely drove the scaled beasts to continuously compress their living space.
Lin Yan brought up the rear, his short blade flashing as he forced back the two scaled beasts trailing closest behind.
The tremors in his Sea of Consciousness intensified continuously. Phantom voices echoed in his ears, and his internal energy was consumed massively. Fighting illusions, resisting psychic waves, and wielding his blade in combat—multiple layers of pressure stacked upon him.
He could clearly feel that his Sea of Consciousness had been pushed to the edge of its limit. It was like a piece of thin ice stretched to its absolute extreme; one more step forward, and it would shatter.
That long-awaited, yet incredibly perilous threshold for breaking through his realm was right within reach.
But he couldn't lose control here. If his Sea of Consciousness collapsed at this moment without completing the transformation, what awaited him would be eternal sinking, and everyone in the squad would be buried with him in this murky wasteland fog.
Lin Yan gritted his teeth, forcibly suppressing the agonizing pain of his Sea of Consciousness trembling. He flashed into the entrance of the ventilation shaft and pulled the mechanism in reverse. The heavy alloy cover plate slowly fell, temporarily blocking the impact of the scaled beasts outside.
The shaft passage was deep and narrow, the air stuffy and oppressive.
Beyond the cover plate, the scaled beasts frantically slammed against the metal panel. Dull, continuous bangs rang out. The purple fungal hyphae of the illusion web slithered through the gaps in the plate like poisonous snakes, slowly drilling inward.
They had temporarily taken refuge in a cage.
Outside were the endless scaled beasts, the two priests, and hidden behind all the darkness, the illusion web matrix, quietly watching everything.
End of Chapter.
The hyphae were not thick, but they carried an inherent psychic stickiness. The moment one's mental state wavered even slightly, they would hook into the Sea of Consciousness, further amplifying that inescapable sense of lethargy. The murky fog on the wasteland, as if drawn by the illusion web, slowly gathered toward the beacon. Visibility was compressed once again; beyond a dozen meters, there was nothing but a gray, blurred outline.
"Contract the formation! Rely on the beacon's walls to build a defensive line!" Lu Heng ordered in a deep voice.
The five quickly shifted their positions, forming a circular defense with their backs against the outer wall of the prefabricated fortress. Lu Heng took the center to control the field; Old Guo guarded the open front, his shotgun aimed at the faint, shifting silhouettes of scaled beasts in the fog; Su Wan pressed against the wall, her hands never leaving the detector, continuously locking onto the main vein of the illusion web and the signal of the priest in the air defense bunker; Chen Ye guarded the right flank, a psychic shock baton held horizontally in front of him, his eyes holding no panic, only taut vigilance; Lin Yan took the left flank, his short blade hanging low, his Sea of Consciousness firmly gathered into a single thread, drifting along the edge of the entire illusion web.
From all directions came the rustling sounds of scaled beasts scraping against rocks. Low shrieks intertwined in a staggered rhythm, yet they refused to charge rashly.
Under the deployment of the illusion web, they slowly circled the beacon, deliberately keeping their distance, in no rush to pounce and kill.
"They're not in a rush to charge." Su Wan stared at the jumping waveforms, her speaking pace rapid. "The illusion web is continuously releasing silent infection, wanting to slowly grind down our Sea of Consciousness endurance. The priests are deep inside the air defense bunker, continuously supplying energy to the entire fungal network. They are waiting for the moment someone among us can't bear the lethargy and their consciousness slackens, before ordering a general offensive."
Old Guo spat, his finger resting on the shotgun's trigger. "Cunning bastards. They just want to wear us out. Forty minutes for support isn't long, but inside the illusion web, every minute feels like holding your breath underwater."
Chen Ye gripped the baton tightly, his gaze fixed on a swaying dark shadow in the fog. One scaled beast poked out half its body, its compound eyes gleaming with a cold light as it quietly surveyed the defensive line. Seeing him look over, it silently shrank back into the murky fog.
Lin Yan's wisp of perception continuously swept over the layered fungal veins.
He could clearly distinguish two paths: one was the fake vein that had just tried to lure him into a solo advance. It still lingered nearby, faintly hooking his perception, unwilling to give up; the other was the real energy trunk leading to the air defense bunker in the northwest, continuously transporting psychic energy to sustain the silent net trapping them.
He suppressed the urge in his heart to trace back and break the web.
Lu Heng's warning, the lessons from the corridor battle, and the risks Instructor Wen had repeatedly emphasized—he remembered them all clearly. The matrix had specifically set up a trap targeting his tactics. Once he broke formation and advanced alone, the remaining four would lack his perceptual warning and would easily have their defensive line torn open by the scaled beasts.
"I can try to disrupt the main trunk link, but I can't go far," Lin Yan said in a low voice over the channel. "Right at the edge of the defensive line, I'll find a node to strike, briefly weakening the illusion web's intensity to reduce the infection pressure on everyone. I won't leave the visual range."
Lu Heng pondered briefly, quickly weighing the pros and cons. "Doable. But you can leave the formation by ten meters at most. Once the detector shows abnormal fluctuations in the illusion web, return immediately. Su Wan, keep a close watch on whether there are any hidden secondary bait nodes around him."
"Received," Su Wan replied.
Lin Yan bent slightly, sticking to the shadows of the wall, and slowly stepped outward.
The murky fog, carrying a faint stench of decay, hit him. The lethargy intensified, and a vague thought surfaced in his mind: Stop. There's no need to endure so hard. Just rest for a while, and it will be fine. He clenched his jaw, his ancient martial arts internal energy flowing steadily to stabilize his mind. That fine thread of his Sea of Consciousness precisely locked onto the nearest fungal convergence node to the defensive line.
It was a distribution hub for the entire outer network. It wasn't the core, but it supported the illusion web's expansion across most of the eastern area of the beacon.
Lin Yan no longer defended against the psychic erosion washing over him from all sides. Concentrating his Sea of Consciousness power into a single point, he猛地 (fiercely) slammed it into that node.
Weng—
An invisible shockwave spread along the fungal hyphae. Large patches of purple patterns in the surroundings dimmed, and the lethargy shrouding everyone's heads instantly lessened. The scaled beasts wandering in the murky fog all paused simultaneously, their movements experiencing a brief stagnation.
"It worked!" Chen Ye called out in a low voice.
But in less than two seconds, a stronger stream of psychic energy surged from the direction of the distant air defense bunker, rapidly flowing through the underground main trunk to fill the gap. The dimmed fungal hyphae lit up again, and the pressure of the illusion web rolled back, even heavier than before.
The priests in the air defense bunker had patched the gap the moment it appeared.
"It's useless; it's only a temporary interruption." Lin Yan quickly retreated back into the defensive line, his breath slightly ragged. "The main trunk has a sufficient energy reserve, and the priests' remote recharging speed is very fast. Single-point destruction can only buy us a few seconds of breathing room."
"Expected." Lu Heng's expression was solemn. "The matrix has paved underground fungal pathways for them, providing an endless energy supply. Our scattered strikes like this only treat the symptoms, not the root cause."
Just then, Su Wan's detector emitted a sharp alarm.
"Attention! The illusion web waveform has switched! The silent infection is weakening; they are changing their offensive!"
Before she even finished speaking, the murky fog surged violently.
It was no longer the grueling lethargy. Wisps of fragmented, twisted illusion shards began to float at the edges of their vision. Someone saw the back of a comrade who had gone missing on the wasteland; someone heard a familiar shout. These were the people and scenes they couldn't let go of deep in their hearts.
Lin Yan's vision blurred. In a daze, he saw the appearance of the thatched cottage in the mountains. His master stood with his back to him, sweeping the dead leaves in the yard.
The familiar scene instantly seized his mind, and his Sea of Consciousness nearly scattered. He squeezed his eyes shut fiercely, biting hard on the inside of his cheek with his tongue. The sharp pain pulled him back to clarity.
"It's a stacked illusion. They can't wait to slowly drain us; they've started combining the real and the fake."
"All personnel, inject stabilizers!" Lu Heng decisively ordered.
The five quickly pulled out the syringes from their waist belts and jabbed them into their upper arms. The cool medicine flowed through their veins, forming a gentle barrier to protect the Sea of Consciousness. The pulling force of the illusions weakened considerably, but it didn't disappear completely.
In the next instant, the first wave of scaled beasts finally launched their charge.
Three burly scaled beasts broke through the murky fog, their scales gleaming with a dark brown luster in the dim light. Opening their jaws filled with sharp teeth, they pounced straight toward the front guarded by Old Guo.
"Fire!"
Boom! A gunshot rang out. A silver-plated barrier-breaking round slammed heavily into the shoulder of the leading scaled beast. The scales shattered, and dark green, foul-smelling blood sprayed out. The beast roared in pain, tumbling forward as it rolled. Taking advantage of their companion's cover, the other two flanked to both sides.
Chen Ye迎上 (stepped up to meet) a pouncing scaled beast, his psychic shock baton slamming fiercely into the base of the tentacles on the beast's head. A violent psychic shock exploded. The scaled beast's movements froze. Seizing the moment, he sidestepped to dodge the sharp claws and delivered another strike with the baton, knocking the beast to the ground.
But the shrieks on the wasteland kept drawing closer. The second and third waves of scaled beasts followed one after another, endless, as if they were infinite.
The illusion web cast illusions to interfere with their judgment while continuously dispatching the beast horde to attack in relays, leaving them no gap to catch their breath and regulate their energy.
Old Guo knocked down two scaled beasts in succession, but his shoulder was swept by a scaled beast's tail whip. His thick combat suit tore open, flesh ripping as blood quickly seeped out. He let out a闷哼 (muffled groan), not retreating half a step. Even in the gap while reloading, he kept his eyes fixed on the fog.
"Holding out like this won't work. Our ammo is limited!" Old Guo shouted as he fired. "Forty minutes—we can't withstand continuous attacks like this!"
Lu Heng quickly scanned the surrounding terrain. "There's an underground ventilation shaft behind the beacon. The passage is narrow and easy to defend but hard to attack. We'll abandon the outer perimeter and retreat into the shaft to compress our defensive range and reduce the sides we're being attacked from!"
"Move!"
Fighting and retreating, covering each other in turns, they stepped back into the beacon, moving toward the metal-covered shaft in the corner of the wall.
The illusions still swirled around their vision, and the psychic pressure of the illusion web followed like a shadow. From the direction of the air defense bunker, the sinister consciousness of the two priests firmly locked onto this area, patiently watching them retreat step by step. They were in no rush to charge in and reap the harvest; they merely drove the scaled beasts to continuously compress their living space.
Lin Yan brought up the rear, his short blade flashing as he forced back the two scaled beasts trailing closest behind.
The tremors in his Sea of Consciousness intensified continuously. Phantom voices echoed in his ears, and his internal energy was consumed massively. Fighting illusions, resisting psychic waves, and wielding his blade in combat—multiple layers of pressure stacked upon him.
He could clearly feel that his Sea of Consciousness had been pushed to the edge of its limit. It was like a piece of thin ice stretched to its absolute extreme; one more step forward, and it would shatter.
That long-awaited, yet incredibly perilous threshold for breaking through his realm was right within reach.
But he couldn't lose control here. If his Sea of Consciousness collapsed at this moment without completing the transformation, what awaited him would be eternal sinking, and everyone in the squad would be buried with him in this murky wasteland fog.
Lin Yan gritted his teeth, forcibly suppressing the agonizing pain of his Sea of Consciousness trembling. He flashed into the entrance of the ventilation shaft and pulled the mechanism in reverse. The heavy alloy cover plate slowly fell, temporarily blocking the impact of the scaled beasts outside.
The shaft passage was deep and narrow, the air stuffy and oppressive.
Beyond the cover plate, the scaled beasts frantically slammed against the metal panel. Dull, continuous bangs rang out. The purple fungal hyphae of the illusion web slithered through the gaps in the plate like poisonous snakes, slowly drilling inward.
They had temporarily taken refuge in a cage.
Outside were the endless scaled beasts, the two priests, and hidden behind all the darkness, the illusion web matrix, quietly watching everything.
End of Chapter.