Chapter 126: Shattered Sea, New Birth
The torrent of psychic power crashed down upon Lin Yan's nearly shattered Sea of Consciousness like a towering wave of freezing cold.
The Sea of Consciousness barrier, painstakingly defended through countless trainings and hard-won moments in the stagnation fields and illusions, shattered inch by inch under the combined onslaught of the priests. The walls of consciousness that maintained his boundaries of perception were like thin porcelain soaked in ice. Following the spiderweb-like fissures that had long spread across them, they exploded and scattered.
In an instant, countless illusions broke free from their restraints and surged in.
The wooden door of the mountain courtyard creaked open. His master sat on the threshold, raising his eyes to wave at him, his voice gentle as he called him back, telling him he would never have to set foot on this wasteland filled with the stench of rot and slaughter again. In the corridor of Rift No. 79, the compound eyes of the two priests glowed faintly in the darkness, their tentacles swaying slowly as they silently closed in on him. In Beacon Two, the two quietly fallen sentry soldiers slowly raised their heads. Their faces were unmarred, yet they stared at him with empty eyes, silently conveying a profound deadness.
Having accumulated for so long, the illusion web matrix had collected every gap in his memory and every regret in his heart. Now, it laid them all bare, holding nothing back.
Agony spread from his consciousness to every fiber of his being. Lin Yan trembled violently, his hands and feet turning ice-cold, his ears filled with a deafening buzz, making it difficult to even stand firm. His ancient martial arts internal energy subconsciously went into overdrive, desperately trying to protect his mind, but the power of the flesh could not withstand the invisible psychic erosion.
"Lin Yan!" Lu Heng blasted a scaled beast pouncing toward Chen Ye away with a gunshot. Catching Lin Yan's swaying, precarious figure in his peripheral vision, his heart tightened. "Su Wan, can you use the instrument to interfere with the priests' psychic link?"
"They're too far away, separated by thick rock layers and fungal carpets!" Su Wan's fingers flew across the detector, her forehead covered in cold sweat. "I can only release a weak reverse ripple to interfere with a tiny fraction of the energy diversion. It can't block this main wave of impact targeting him! Old Guo, guard the flank! They're trying to circle around and strike while he's dazed!"
Old Guo pivoted his shotgun, blasting back two scaled beasts that had crept over under the cover of illusions. The silver-plated pellets tore through their scales, and dark green blood splattered against the damp rock walls, emitting a pungent stench. But the scaled beasts were endless. After the shock rounds had disrupted the fungal carpet barrier, it had already been mostly re-woven, and more beast hordes were drilling in through the crevices in the tunnel.
Chen Ye held his shock baton horizontally, guarding fiercely by Lin Yan's side, not daring to leave for even half a step. He knew clearly that at this moment, Lin Yan had almost no reaction to external dangers. If a scaled beast got close, he would be entirely defenseless.
"Hold on! Lin Yan!" Chen Ye roared through gritted teeth, his baton slamming heavily into the base of the tentacles of a leaping scaled beast. A psychic shock exploded, sending the beast rolling on the ground in agony. "Don't sink into the illusion!"
Lin Yan could hear the shouts, but they sounded as if they were coming through a thick layer of water-soaked cotton.
The illusion was too real. His master's courtyard was quiet and warm. There were no rifts, no scaled beasts, no endless slaughter and death. Just one step forward, and he could return to the peaceful days of the past. A voice in his heart constantly tempted him: Stay. Give up resisting. You don't have to bear these burdens anymore.
That was the most vicious aspect of the illusion web. It didn't force you to submit; it simply offered you the归宿 (sanctuary) you desired most, luring you into voluntarily letting down all your defenses.
Fragments of his Sea of Consciousness kept drifting away, on the verge of completely dissolving into this boundless torrent of psychic power.
Yet, just as his consciousness was about to sink into oblivion, countless images flashed through his mind: the densely carved list of the fallen on the bastion walls, the two quietly fallen sentry soldiers in the beacon, every并肩作战 (fighting side by side) moment with Lu Heng's squad, the countless outposts on the wasteland torn to shreds by scaled beasts, and the endless, silent nibbling by the ancient lizard progenitors in the darkness underground.
If he sank here, everyone in the squad would die today. When the support forces arrived, they would only find five shells assimilated by the illusion web. Another gap would be torn in the wasteland's defensive line, and the next batch of beacons, the next batch of patrol members, would repeat the same fate.
He could not stop.
That single point of light, hidden in the deepest ruins of his Sea of Consciousness, suddenly emitted a faint but resolute glow amidst the漫天 (sky-full) of shattered consciousness fragments.
He no longer futilely tried to piece back together the original Sea of Consciousness barrier. The old walls were broken; so be it. Lin Yan let those scattered fragments of consciousness drift with the torrent, pouring all his focus into that single point of faint light.
The methods Instructor Wen had taught him for gathering the Sea of Consciousness, the foundation of guarding the heart and stabilizing the breath from his ancient martial arts, and the ways of perception he had realized while tracing and breaking the web—all intertwined and fused in this very moment.
Shattering was not the end; it was the tearing down of the old cage.
Deep within the distant air defense bunker, the two priests sensed the collapse of Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness, and their sinister consciousness rippled slightly. They had prepared to welcome the result of his total mental submersion and were ready to dispatch the scaled beasts to reap the harvest. Behind them, the hyphae penetrating the earth transmitted signals deep into Rift No. 79, where the matrix waited quietly for the feedback of its prey's fall.
But in the next second, that faint point of light surged explosively.
There was no violent, outward-exploding psychic shockwave, entirely different from the aggressive psychic power of the priests. The newly born Sea of Consciousness was no longer a net spread outward for defense and perception; it was a restrained, stable core that could freely expand and contract.
All the scattered fragments of consciousness slowly gathered and reorganized around this core of the Sea of Consciousness as their center.
The limitations of the second-tier Sea of Consciousness were completely torn apart.
He could still release a wisp of fine thread to trace and probe the veins, and he could also completely retract his Sea of Consciousness to isolate himself from all external psychic disturbances. But the most crucial change was that his ability to distinguish the waves of the illusion web and psychic infections had been elevated to an entirely new level. The illusions the priests used to deceive him shed their disguises layer by layer in his eyes; those beautiful scenes and familiar figures all revealed their false outlines woven from the psychic waves of fungal hyphae.
Illusions could be seen through at a single glance.
"Now!"
Lin Yan猛地 (fiercely) opened his eyes.
There was no loss of focus or scattering in his gaze, only a deep, serene clarity. His Sea of Consciousness had completed its rebirth after shattering. The third-tier Sea of Consciousness was formed.
A steady, tranquil psychic wave slowly radiated outward from him. It held no aggression, yet it was like a massive boulder thrown into a muddy current, causing the surrounding illusion web waves to ripple in disorder. The silent infection that had been coiled within the tunnel, used to suppress everyone, diminished by more than half in an instant.
The scaled beasts fiercely attacking the defensive line all paused simultaneously.
Su Wan stared at the detector screen, her pupils constricting sharply. "The waveform has changed! His Sea of Consciousness... the breakthrough was successful! The illusion web has been partially suppressed!"
Lu Heng seized the fleeting opportunity. "Take advantage of the illusion web's disorder! Tear open the fungal carpet barrier and sprint west at full speed!"
Old Guo raised his hand and accurately threw the last shock round into the still-writhing, repairing core of the fungal carpet. A blinding light exploded with a deafening roar, blasting the massive purplish-black fungal carpet into pieces. Withered hyphae fell to the ground in a rustling shower. A wide gap appeared in the barrier blocking the passage.
"Go!"
Chen Ye no longer guarded Lin Yan fiercely; he turned and fell in with the squad.
Lin Yan was in no rush to attack the enemy. The newly born core of his Sea of Consciousness hung steadily deep within his consciousness. A wisp of perception gently touched the psychic imprints of the two priests in the distant air defense bunker, following the underground fungal hyphae.
This time, he was no longer just passively sensing their deployment.
He could clearly see the path of the priests' energy flow, and understand the link nodes they relied on for the matrix's energy supply. The two priests, sensing the metamorphosis of his Sea of Consciousness, were instantly filled with intense terror. They immediately wanted to sever their connection with the fungal hyphae in this tunnel and retreat.
They wanted to run.
Lin Yan would not give them the chance to escape leisurely and set up new traps.
Mobilizing the power of his newly born third-tier Sea of Consciousness, he gave a gentle tug along the hyphae link. It wasn't a violent impact, but a precise disruption of the energy transit nodes between them and the matrix.
Deep within the air defense bunker, the two priests, who were remotely supplying energy and coordinating, simultaneously let out a sharp, agonizing shriek.
The energy channel leading to this section of the tunnel was forcibly disrupted. The psychic power they had transmitted was instantly cut off by more than half, and the operational rhythm of the entire wasteland illusion web was thrown into chaos.
"Their remote energy supply is severed!" Su Wan cried out in delight. "The intensity of the illusion web is continuously dropping!"
Deprived of the priests' stable energy supply, the remaining scaled beasts lost their unified command. The originally orderly encirclement instantly descended into chaos. Relying solely on instinct, they pounced and bit wildly, no longer knowing how to coordinate and flank. Lu Heng, Old Guo, and Chen Ye seized the opportunity, unleashing their firepower to quickly clear the blocking scaled beasts. The group passed through the gap blasted open in the fungal carpet and continued sprinting westward along the main drainage tunnel passage.
Lin Yan walked at the tail of the squad. While retreating, he maintained his Sea of Consciousness perception, guarding against the priests making a desperate final psychic assault with their remaining energy.
He could clearly feel that his Sea of Consciousness was being consumed much faster after the breakthrough than he had anticipated. The third-tier Sea of Consciousness was more powerful, but the mental volume required to maintain its operation had multiplied. That single disruption of the energy link had already consumed a significant portion of his mental power. He could not squander his strength recklessly.
"Don't continue pursuing the priests. Our goal is to rendezvous with the support forces," Lu Heng reminded him as they ran. "You just broke through, and your Sea of Consciousness is still unstable. Don't force yourself to continuously release psychic power."
"I understand." Lin Yan retracted his outwardly spreading perception, gathering his Sea of Consciousness back into a stable core, leaving only a single thread to guard the rear. "They won't dare to deploy large-scale illusion web suppression for a while, but they will transmit the news of my breakthrough back to the matrix through the hyphae."
The matrix had been observing the entire process from the shadows.
From his Sea of Consciousness nearing collapse to his shattered-sea rebirth in the desperate situation, the matrix had seen everything through the hyphae network.
They had shattered the meticulously woven hunting trap of the matrix, and allowed him to complete his metamorphosis within this deadly situation.
The illusion web matrix, lurking deep underground, would undoubtedly re-evaluate him as an opponent. From now on, the traps, illusion webs, and priest tactics would only be more perilous than before.
The group moved quickly through the dim tunnel, gravel rolling beneath their feet. The scattered roars of the scaled beasts behind them were gradually left behind.
The suppression of the illusion web slowly faded, and the rotting stench of fungal hyphae in the air lessened considerably. Su Wan constantly corrected their direction of advance by checking the detector's positioning. The signal of the support forces could already be picked up as a faint reply on the communication channel.
They were getting closer and closer to escaping.
Meanwhile, deep within the abandoned air defense bunker in the distant northwest.
The two injured priests huddled among the fungal carpets, their bodies trembling slightly. The trauma brought on by the disruption of their link had not yet subsided. They transmitted everything that had just happened deeper into the earth, to the matrix in Rift No. 79.
The prey had not sunk.
At the center of the net, at the very moment they were preparing to reap the harvest, that human had broken through the shackles of his Sea of Consciousness and completed his metamorphosis.
The boundless purple fungal carpet undulated slowly as the illusion web matrix absorbed this intelligence.
Over the long ages, it had watched countless human cultivators fall within illusions and psychic impacts. Yet, it rarely saw someone capable of shattering their sea and being reborn within a deadly situation it had meticulously laid.
It was not enraged.
A silent, slow consciousness flowed through the darkness.
Since this human had grown new fangs, the original gentle, slow-spreading net was no longer sufficient. It needed to weave a deeper, more bizarre illusion cage for him, one capable of devouring a third-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivator.
Deep underground, countless hyphae continued to spread silently into the broader expanse of the wasteland.
The tug-of-war between the ancient lizard progenitors and humanity was far from over.
But from this moment on, Lin Yan was no longer a warrior stuck at the second tier of the Sea of Consciousness, relying on techniques and footwork to barely hold his ground.
He had stepped onto an entirely new platform, facing the even more terrifying darkness beneath this earth.
End of Chapter.
The Sea of Consciousness barrier, painstakingly defended through countless trainings and hard-won moments in the stagnation fields and illusions, shattered inch by inch under the combined onslaught of the priests. The walls of consciousness that maintained his boundaries of perception were like thin porcelain soaked in ice. Following the spiderweb-like fissures that had long spread across them, they exploded and scattered.
In an instant, countless illusions broke free from their restraints and surged in.
The wooden door of the mountain courtyard creaked open. His master sat on the threshold, raising his eyes to wave at him, his voice gentle as he called him back, telling him he would never have to set foot on this wasteland filled with the stench of rot and slaughter again. In the corridor of Rift No. 79, the compound eyes of the two priests glowed faintly in the darkness, their tentacles swaying slowly as they silently closed in on him. In Beacon Two, the two quietly fallen sentry soldiers slowly raised their heads. Their faces were unmarred, yet they stared at him with empty eyes, silently conveying a profound deadness.
Having accumulated for so long, the illusion web matrix had collected every gap in his memory and every regret in his heart. Now, it laid them all bare, holding nothing back.
Agony spread from his consciousness to every fiber of his being. Lin Yan trembled violently, his hands and feet turning ice-cold, his ears filled with a deafening buzz, making it difficult to even stand firm. His ancient martial arts internal energy subconsciously went into overdrive, desperately trying to protect his mind, but the power of the flesh could not withstand the invisible psychic erosion.
"Lin Yan!" Lu Heng blasted a scaled beast pouncing toward Chen Ye away with a gunshot. Catching Lin Yan's swaying, precarious figure in his peripheral vision, his heart tightened. "Su Wan, can you use the instrument to interfere with the priests' psychic link?"
"They're too far away, separated by thick rock layers and fungal carpets!" Su Wan's fingers flew across the detector, her forehead covered in cold sweat. "I can only release a weak reverse ripple to interfere with a tiny fraction of the energy diversion. It can't block this main wave of impact targeting him! Old Guo, guard the flank! They're trying to circle around and strike while he's dazed!"
Old Guo pivoted his shotgun, blasting back two scaled beasts that had crept over under the cover of illusions. The silver-plated pellets tore through their scales, and dark green blood splattered against the damp rock walls, emitting a pungent stench. But the scaled beasts were endless. After the shock rounds had disrupted the fungal carpet barrier, it had already been mostly re-woven, and more beast hordes were drilling in through the crevices in the tunnel.
Chen Ye held his shock baton horizontally, guarding fiercely by Lin Yan's side, not daring to leave for even half a step. He knew clearly that at this moment, Lin Yan had almost no reaction to external dangers. If a scaled beast got close, he would be entirely defenseless.
"Hold on! Lin Yan!" Chen Ye roared through gritted teeth, his baton slamming heavily into the base of the tentacles of a leaping scaled beast. A psychic shock exploded, sending the beast rolling on the ground in agony. "Don't sink into the illusion!"
Lin Yan could hear the shouts, but they sounded as if they were coming through a thick layer of water-soaked cotton.
The illusion was too real. His master's courtyard was quiet and warm. There were no rifts, no scaled beasts, no endless slaughter and death. Just one step forward, and he could return to the peaceful days of the past. A voice in his heart constantly tempted him: Stay. Give up resisting. You don't have to bear these burdens anymore.
That was the most vicious aspect of the illusion web. It didn't force you to submit; it simply offered you the归宿 (sanctuary) you desired most, luring you into voluntarily letting down all your defenses.
Fragments of his Sea of Consciousness kept drifting away, on the verge of completely dissolving into this boundless torrent of psychic power.
Yet, just as his consciousness was about to sink into oblivion, countless images flashed through his mind: the densely carved list of the fallen on the bastion walls, the two quietly fallen sentry soldiers in the beacon, every并肩作战 (fighting side by side) moment with Lu Heng's squad, the countless outposts on the wasteland torn to shreds by scaled beasts, and the endless, silent nibbling by the ancient lizard progenitors in the darkness underground.
If he sank here, everyone in the squad would die today. When the support forces arrived, they would only find five shells assimilated by the illusion web. Another gap would be torn in the wasteland's defensive line, and the next batch of beacons, the next batch of patrol members, would repeat the same fate.
He could not stop.
That single point of light, hidden in the deepest ruins of his Sea of Consciousness, suddenly emitted a faint but resolute glow amidst the漫天 (sky-full) of shattered consciousness fragments.
He no longer futilely tried to piece back together the original Sea of Consciousness barrier. The old walls were broken; so be it. Lin Yan let those scattered fragments of consciousness drift with the torrent, pouring all his focus into that single point of faint light.
The methods Instructor Wen had taught him for gathering the Sea of Consciousness, the foundation of guarding the heart and stabilizing the breath from his ancient martial arts, and the ways of perception he had realized while tracing and breaking the web—all intertwined and fused in this very moment.
Shattering was not the end; it was the tearing down of the old cage.
Deep within the distant air defense bunker, the two priests sensed the collapse of Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness, and their sinister consciousness rippled slightly. They had prepared to welcome the result of his total mental submersion and were ready to dispatch the scaled beasts to reap the harvest. Behind them, the hyphae penetrating the earth transmitted signals deep into Rift No. 79, where the matrix waited quietly for the feedback of its prey's fall.
But in the next second, that faint point of light surged explosively.
There was no violent, outward-exploding psychic shockwave, entirely different from the aggressive psychic power of the priests. The newly born Sea of Consciousness was no longer a net spread outward for defense and perception; it was a restrained, stable core that could freely expand and contract.
All the scattered fragments of consciousness slowly gathered and reorganized around this core of the Sea of Consciousness as their center.
The limitations of the second-tier Sea of Consciousness were completely torn apart.
He could still release a wisp of fine thread to trace and probe the veins, and he could also completely retract his Sea of Consciousness to isolate himself from all external psychic disturbances. But the most crucial change was that his ability to distinguish the waves of the illusion web and psychic infections had been elevated to an entirely new level. The illusions the priests used to deceive him shed their disguises layer by layer in his eyes; those beautiful scenes and familiar figures all revealed their false outlines woven from the psychic waves of fungal hyphae.
Illusions could be seen through at a single glance.
"Now!"
Lin Yan猛地 (fiercely) opened his eyes.
There was no loss of focus or scattering in his gaze, only a deep, serene clarity. His Sea of Consciousness had completed its rebirth after shattering. The third-tier Sea of Consciousness was formed.
A steady, tranquil psychic wave slowly radiated outward from him. It held no aggression, yet it was like a massive boulder thrown into a muddy current, causing the surrounding illusion web waves to ripple in disorder. The silent infection that had been coiled within the tunnel, used to suppress everyone, diminished by more than half in an instant.
The scaled beasts fiercely attacking the defensive line all paused simultaneously.
Su Wan stared at the detector screen, her pupils constricting sharply. "The waveform has changed! His Sea of Consciousness... the breakthrough was successful! The illusion web has been partially suppressed!"
Lu Heng seized the fleeting opportunity. "Take advantage of the illusion web's disorder! Tear open the fungal carpet barrier and sprint west at full speed!"
Old Guo raised his hand and accurately threw the last shock round into the still-writhing, repairing core of the fungal carpet. A blinding light exploded with a deafening roar, blasting the massive purplish-black fungal carpet into pieces. Withered hyphae fell to the ground in a rustling shower. A wide gap appeared in the barrier blocking the passage.
"Go!"
Chen Ye no longer guarded Lin Yan fiercely; he turned and fell in with the squad.
Lin Yan was in no rush to attack the enemy. The newly born core of his Sea of Consciousness hung steadily deep within his consciousness. A wisp of perception gently touched the psychic imprints of the two priests in the distant air defense bunker, following the underground fungal hyphae.
This time, he was no longer just passively sensing their deployment.
He could clearly see the path of the priests' energy flow, and understand the link nodes they relied on for the matrix's energy supply. The two priests, sensing the metamorphosis of his Sea of Consciousness, were instantly filled with intense terror. They immediately wanted to sever their connection with the fungal hyphae in this tunnel and retreat.
They wanted to run.
Lin Yan would not give them the chance to escape leisurely and set up new traps.
Mobilizing the power of his newly born third-tier Sea of Consciousness, he gave a gentle tug along the hyphae link. It wasn't a violent impact, but a precise disruption of the energy transit nodes between them and the matrix.
Deep within the air defense bunker, the two priests, who were remotely supplying energy and coordinating, simultaneously let out a sharp, agonizing shriek.
The energy channel leading to this section of the tunnel was forcibly disrupted. The psychic power they had transmitted was instantly cut off by more than half, and the operational rhythm of the entire wasteland illusion web was thrown into chaos.
"Their remote energy supply is severed!" Su Wan cried out in delight. "The intensity of the illusion web is continuously dropping!"
Deprived of the priests' stable energy supply, the remaining scaled beasts lost their unified command. The originally orderly encirclement instantly descended into chaos. Relying solely on instinct, they pounced and bit wildly, no longer knowing how to coordinate and flank. Lu Heng, Old Guo, and Chen Ye seized the opportunity, unleashing their firepower to quickly clear the blocking scaled beasts. The group passed through the gap blasted open in the fungal carpet and continued sprinting westward along the main drainage tunnel passage.
Lin Yan walked at the tail of the squad. While retreating, he maintained his Sea of Consciousness perception, guarding against the priests making a desperate final psychic assault with their remaining energy.
He could clearly feel that his Sea of Consciousness was being consumed much faster after the breakthrough than he had anticipated. The third-tier Sea of Consciousness was more powerful, but the mental volume required to maintain its operation had multiplied. That single disruption of the energy link had already consumed a significant portion of his mental power. He could not squander his strength recklessly.
"Don't continue pursuing the priests. Our goal is to rendezvous with the support forces," Lu Heng reminded him as they ran. "You just broke through, and your Sea of Consciousness is still unstable. Don't force yourself to continuously release psychic power."
"I understand." Lin Yan retracted his outwardly spreading perception, gathering his Sea of Consciousness back into a stable core, leaving only a single thread to guard the rear. "They won't dare to deploy large-scale illusion web suppression for a while, but they will transmit the news of my breakthrough back to the matrix through the hyphae."
The matrix had been observing the entire process from the shadows.
From his Sea of Consciousness nearing collapse to his shattered-sea rebirth in the desperate situation, the matrix had seen everything through the hyphae network.
They had shattered the meticulously woven hunting trap of the matrix, and allowed him to complete his metamorphosis within this deadly situation.
The illusion web matrix, lurking deep underground, would undoubtedly re-evaluate him as an opponent. From now on, the traps, illusion webs, and priest tactics would only be more perilous than before.
The group moved quickly through the dim tunnel, gravel rolling beneath their feet. The scattered roars of the scaled beasts behind them were gradually left behind.
The suppression of the illusion web slowly faded, and the rotting stench of fungal hyphae in the air lessened considerably. Su Wan constantly corrected their direction of advance by checking the detector's positioning. The signal of the support forces could already be picked up as a faint reply on the communication channel.
They were getting closer and closer to escaping.
Meanwhile, deep within the abandoned air defense bunker in the distant northwest.
The two injured priests huddled among the fungal carpets, their bodies trembling slightly. The trauma brought on by the disruption of their link had not yet subsided. They transmitted everything that had just happened deeper into the earth, to the matrix in Rift No. 79.
The prey had not sunk.
At the center of the net, at the very moment they were preparing to reap the harvest, that human had broken through the shackles of his Sea of Consciousness and completed his metamorphosis.
The boundless purple fungal carpet undulated slowly as the illusion web matrix absorbed this intelligence.
Over the long ages, it had watched countless human cultivators fall within illusions and psychic impacts. Yet, it rarely saw someone capable of shattering their sea and being reborn within a deadly situation it had meticulously laid.
It was not enraged.
A silent, slow consciousness flowed through the darkness.
Since this human had grown new fangs, the original gentle, slow-spreading net was no longer sufficient. It needed to weave a deeper, more bizarre illusion cage for him, one capable of devouring a third-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivator.
Deep underground, countless hyphae continued to spread silently into the broader expanse of the wasteland.
The tug-of-war between the ancient lizard progenitors and humanity was far from over.
But from this moment on, Lin Yan was no longer a warrior stuck at the second tier of the Sea of Consciousness, relying on techniques and footwork to barely hold his ground.
He had stepped onto an entirely new platform, facing the even more terrifying darkness beneath this earth.
End of Chapter.