Chapter 130: Hidden Seeds at the Doorstep
Pale gray smoke drifted toward the wasteland on the wind. The fungal hyphae scorched by the flames were still twitching faintly, yet that wisp of psychic imprint hidden beneath the soil had never stirred.
It lay dormant in absolute silence, its waves as placid as stagnant water. It released no lethargy, projected no fragments of illusions, and even kept the diffusion of spores to an absolute minimum. If an ordinary second-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivator had been here, with their coarse perception, they would have mistaken it for the faint residual waves left behind by hyphae after a beast tide, burned it away casually, and turned to leave.
It was precisely this ultimate, absolute silence that made one's spine run cold.
Lu Heng pulled the gain on the portable detector to its maximum. The slowly undulating line on the screen remained faint, mingling with the geomagnetic noise of the rock strata itself; the slightest inattention would cause the instrument to automatically filter it out. His fingertips tapped rapidly against the casing of the device as he switched through several scanning frequency bands, his expression growing increasingly grave.
"No energy supply, no characteristics of active infection." Lu Heng spoke in a low voice, his gaze fixed on the soil blackened by the flames. "It's purely a dormant anchor point for a phantom seed, buried in the crevices of the foundation of this ruined supply point. Burning the surface hyphae just now didn't touch its roots at all."
Chen Ye gripped his shock baton tightly and subconsciously took half a step closer to Lin Yan, his vigilant gaze sweeping over the rolling dirt slopes and gravel piles around them. The open wasteland offered a relatively clear line of sight, with no shadow of lurking scaled beasts. Yet, this invisible psychic threat was far more grueling than any alien beast pouncing to kill.
"The matrix buried a phantom seed here? It's only three kilometers from the West Bastion, well within the coverage range of the detection towers." Chen Ye swallowed hard. "Isn't it afraid we'll just plow this entire area with artillery fire?"
"It's betting on us not discovering it." Lin Yan slowly squatted down. He didn't release his Sea of Consciousness to touch the phantom seed's anchor point; he merely stared at the crevices in the dirt with his eyes. "The most terrifying advantage of the Corridor Phantom Seed is its concealment. It doesn't need continuous energy supply. Once planted, it can hibernate for a very long time. As long as it isn't accurately identified by a high-tier Sea of Consciousness, it can lie quietly underground for months, or even longer. Then, one day, when a patrol squad, a gathering team, or maintenance personnel repairing the detection towers pass by, it will quietly activate."
Instructor Wen's words now surfaced clearly in his mind. Ordinary illusion web nodes required priests to remotely supply energy to maintain operation; once the link was severed, they would decay rapidly. But the Corridor Phantom Seed was a seed condensed in advance by the matrix. It possessed an independent anchor point and could hibernate long-term even when separated from the main fungal hyphae network. It was a one-time trap set up and left waiting to be triggered.
The matrix was no longer obsessed with setting up large-scale hunting traps deep in the wasteland. It was beginning to scatter its traps right under humanity's nose.
"If your perception hadn't been sharp enough today, we would have burned the surface hyphae, reported the mission complete, and headed back to the city." Lu Heng sighed. "Later, any random squad passing through here, the moment they trigger the conditions, will fall straight into the corridor of consciousness. Support forces could rush to the scene, but they wouldn't be able to enter the labyrinth of the opponent's Sea of Consciousness."
The replacement squad member, named Zhao Kai, was a rookie who had graduated from the Combat Readiness High School less than half a year ago. With a second-tier Sea of Consciousness, he gripped the flamethrower, his face full of lingering fear. "So... what do we do now? Do we dig open the soil layer and destroy the anchor point directly?"
"We can't touch it rashly." Lin Yan immediately stopped him. "The Corridor Phantom Seed has a trigger mechanism. Forcibly and violently disturbing the anchor point will very likely activate the phantom seed on the spot. If it explodes in this open area, all four of us risk being dragged into the looping corridor. We're too close to the bastion here; if we all get trapped, it will be very hard for anyone to notice the anomaly in the short term."
Lu Heng quickly weighed the pros and cons, raised his hand, and pressed his communicator to connect with the bastion's command center. "This is Lu Heng's squad. At the old supply point three kilometers west outside, we've discovered a suspected high-tier dormant phantom seed anchor point. Preliminary identification suggests it's a Corridor Phantom Seed. Requesting a psychiatry specialist to bring a suppression device to handle it. We also request temporary airspace警戒 (alert) in the surrounding area; no other squads are allowed to approach this zone."
A hurried acknowledgment came from the dispatcher on the other end of the communicator, confirming receipt of the intelligence and stating that a psychiatric disposal team would be dispatched within ten minutes.
The four no longer approached the dirt crevice. They pulled back to a safe distance of twenty meters, forming a circular perimeter guard, their gazes firmly locked onto that section of the ruined foundation. The safety catches on the flamethrowers were all engaged, and they ceased burning the remaining scattered hyphae. The wind blew the sand and soil of the wasteland past them, carrying the familiar stench of rotting earth. It was eerily quiet.
"This move by the matrix is too vicious." Lu Heng stared at the tall, thick city walls in the direction of the bastion. "Bastion defense lines, detection towers, artillery coverage... we thought we had firmly secured the safe zone at our doorstep. But it quietly buried a cage right beneath our feet. Today it's one spot; who knows how many phantom seeds have already quietly fallen into the soil along the perimeter of the West Bastion, the northern outpost line, and the supply routes?"
Lin Yan nodded slightly. He kept his Sea of Consciousness core retracted, releasing only an extremely faint wisp of perception to trail the phantom seed's waves from afar, keeping a constant watch for any movement. He could feel that the phantom seed remained completely silent, showing no fluctuations despite being discovered, as if it were nothing more than a lifeless stone. The logic behind the matrix's layout was slowly becoming clear in his eyes.
During the battle at Beacon Two, the matrix had witnessed with its own eyes the failure of its meticulously arranged ambush, and how it had forced him to break through to the third tier in a deadly situation. It knew that ordinary illusion webs and obsession illusions were no longer effective against him, so it changed its approach: instead of concentrating its forces to set up large-scale hunting traps, it began dispersing and deploying independent, dormant phantom seeds. These seeds didn't require real-time control from priests or the support of massive fungal carpet clusters. They were concealed, low-cost, and impossible to guard against completely. Whether it was an ordinary patrol member or a high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivator, anyone who accidentally triggered one would have to face the infinitely looping corridor of consciousness. Even for a third-tier Sea of Consciousness, finding the phantom seed's anchor point inside the corridor was a matter of life and death.
"From now on, all near-bastion patrol missions can't rely solely on instrument scans," Lin Yan said. "Instruments can only capture high-intensity psychic waves. The signals from these dormant phantom seeds are buried in the background noise and easily filtered out. We must pair them with high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators to accompany and discriminate. The Western Front is already short on third-tier personnel. With a few phantom seeds, the matrix is essentially continuously draining our limited high-tier combat power."
Lu Heng's expression was grave. "That's exactly its goal. It doesn't necessarily have to kill a lot of people immediately. As long as it stalls, consumes, and ties us down, our patrol efficiency will drop significantly, and the loopholes in our defense line will naturally multiply. While we're running around investigating phantom seeds, it can quietly accumulate power in the deeper wasteland rifts."
Ten minutes passed quickly. The roar of an off-road vehicle engine came from afar. Two vehicles marked with psychiatric disposal insignias drove up rapidly, equipped with high-power psychic shielding generators on their bodies. Several psychiatry specialists in white protective suits stepped out of the cars, carrying alloy cases. The person leading them was none other than Instructor Wen. Upon receiving the news, she had come directly with the disposal team.
"I heard about the situation on the way," Instructor Wen said, walking up close. Her gaze swept over the ruined foundation. "A Corridor Phantom Seed, a new batch deployed by the matrix. Headquarters received a report from the Northern Front yesterday; two identical dormant phantom seeds were also found near supply points on the Northern Front. This isn't a single-point deployment; it's sowing seeds across the entire line."
Sowing seeds across the entire line.
Those four words weighed heavily on everyone's hearts. Appearing simultaneously on the Western and Northern Fronts meant that the ancient lizard progenitors had already initiated a large-scale phantom seed deployment plan.
Instructor Wen opened the alloy case and took out a ring-shaped suppression device. After adjusting the parameters, she slowly approached the dirt crevice. The device released a layer of uniform neutralizing waves, gently enveloping the phantom seed's anchor point. The faint waves hidden in the dirt were gradually suppressed and smoothed out by the neutralizing waves.
"Suppression successful. The trigger mechanism is temporarily locked. Next, we excavate on-site, extract the phantom seed's main body, and bring it back to the laboratory for dismantling and research. The structural data of this kind of phantom seed is extremely important to us."
Two specialists carefully picked up entrenching tools, slowly brushing away the topsoil, moving cautiously to avoid any violent vibrations. Before long, a fist-sized, semi-transparent, gelatinous seed-like tissue was extracted. Its surface was covered with dense, purple thread-like patterns, lying quietly in the dirt. This was the main body of the Corridor Phantom Seed. To the naked eye, it looked completely ordinary; no one would have guessed that such a small piece of matter could build an endless looping corridor within a person's Sea of Consciousness.
The phantom seed was placed into a sealed isolation box. The moment the box was closed, that faint waveform on the detector completely vanished.
"Bring the sample back to the bastion." Instructor Wen closed the lid of the box and turned to look at Lin Yan. "You did well. If we had missed this one, it would very likely have resulted in the entire squad going missing later. But you must also understand that this is just the beginning. Since the matrix has initiated a full-line deployment, for a long time to come, we will have to deal with these invisible phantom seeds hidden in the soil."
"I understand." Lin Yan nodded.
The disposal team left markers behind, designating the area as a temporary警戒 zone. Follow-up personnel would be arranged to repeatedly inspect and investigate. After handing over the situation to the team, Lu Heng and the others boarded the off-road vehicle to return.
The car drove toward the West Bastion. The thick city walls grew closer and closer under the gray, hazy sky. Lin Yan turned his head to look out the window at the vast, barren wasteland. Beneath this earth, countless fungal hyphae spread like blood vessels, with phantom seed after phantom seed sleeping quietly, waiting for passing prey.
Back at the bastion, the intelligence department immediately expedited the upload of the intelligence from this discovery. The Western Front Command Center urgently issued a notice: all patrol, maintenance, and gathering teams going out must add high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators to their roster and include a specialized phantom seed investigation procedure. This single notice directly made the already tight scheduling of third-tier cultivators even more strained.
Night slowly enveloped the bastion.
Lin Yan returned to his dormitory, took out the Sea of Consciousness stabilization mantra Instructor Wen had given him, sat cross-legged, and slowly polished his Sea of Consciousness core. Sensing the phantom seed from afar today without forcibly disturbing it had kept his Sea of Consciousness stable, without the dull pain from before. As he regulated his breathing, he reviewed the characteristics, trigger methods, and countermeasures of the Corridor Phantom Seed in his mind.
Meanwhile, deep within Rift No. 79.
The two priests prostrated beside the core of the matrix's fungal carpet, receiving the feedback signal transmitted from the Western Front. A phantom seed had been found, extracted, and sealed by humans.
The matrix had no emotional fluctuations. Its massive consciousness continued to count the number of phantom seeds it had already sown. On the Western Front, the Northern Front, and beyond, more phantom seeds were still buried deep in the soil, quietly waiting to be triggered. One phantom seed being cleared was insignificant. What it had sown was a boundless, dark net scattered right before the doors of humanity's bastions.
End of Chapter.
It lay dormant in absolute silence, its waves as placid as stagnant water. It released no lethargy, projected no fragments of illusions, and even kept the diffusion of spores to an absolute minimum. If an ordinary second-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivator had been here, with their coarse perception, they would have mistaken it for the faint residual waves left behind by hyphae after a beast tide, burned it away casually, and turned to leave.
It was precisely this ultimate, absolute silence that made one's spine run cold.
Lu Heng pulled the gain on the portable detector to its maximum. The slowly undulating line on the screen remained faint, mingling with the geomagnetic noise of the rock strata itself; the slightest inattention would cause the instrument to automatically filter it out. His fingertips tapped rapidly against the casing of the device as he switched through several scanning frequency bands, his expression growing increasingly grave.
"No energy supply, no characteristics of active infection." Lu Heng spoke in a low voice, his gaze fixed on the soil blackened by the flames. "It's purely a dormant anchor point for a phantom seed, buried in the crevices of the foundation of this ruined supply point. Burning the surface hyphae just now didn't touch its roots at all."
Chen Ye gripped his shock baton tightly and subconsciously took half a step closer to Lin Yan, his vigilant gaze sweeping over the rolling dirt slopes and gravel piles around them. The open wasteland offered a relatively clear line of sight, with no shadow of lurking scaled beasts. Yet, this invisible psychic threat was far more grueling than any alien beast pouncing to kill.
"The matrix buried a phantom seed here? It's only three kilometers from the West Bastion, well within the coverage range of the detection towers." Chen Ye swallowed hard. "Isn't it afraid we'll just plow this entire area with artillery fire?"
"It's betting on us not discovering it." Lin Yan slowly squatted down. He didn't release his Sea of Consciousness to touch the phantom seed's anchor point; he merely stared at the crevices in the dirt with his eyes. "The most terrifying advantage of the Corridor Phantom Seed is its concealment. It doesn't need continuous energy supply. Once planted, it can hibernate for a very long time. As long as it isn't accurately identified by a high-tier Sea of Consciousness, it can lie quietly underground for months, or even longer. Then, one day, when a patrol squad, a gathering team, or maintenance personnel repairing the detection towers pass by, it will quietly activate."
Instructor Wen's words now surfaced clearly in his mind. Ordinary illusion web nodes required priests to remotely supply energy to maintain operation; once the link was severed, they would decay rapidly. But the Corridor Phantom Seed was a seed condensed in advance by the matrix. It possessed an independent anchor point and could hibernate long-term even when separated from the main fungal hyphae network. It was a one-time trap set up and left waiting to be triggered.
The matrix was no longer obsessed with setting up large-scale hunting traps deep in the wasteland. It was beginning to scatter its traps right under humanity's nose.
"If your perception hadn't been sharp enough today, we would have burned the surface hyphae, reported the mission complete, and headed back to the city." Lu Heng sighed. "Later, any random squad passing through here, the moment they trigger the conditions, will fall straight into the corridor of consciousness. Support forces could rush to the scene, but they wouldn't be able to enter the labyrinth of the opponent's Sea of Consciousness."
The replacement squad member, named Zhao Kai, was a rookie who had graduated from the Combat Readiness High School less than half a year ago. With a second-tier Sea of Consciousness, he gripped the flamethrower, his face full of lingering fear. "So... what do we do now? Do we dig open the soil layer and destroy the anchor point directly?"
"We can't touch it rashly." Lin Yan immediately stopped him. "The Corridor Phantom Seed has a trigger mechanism. Forcibly and violently disturbing the anchor point will very likely activate the phantom seed on the spot. If it explodes in this open area, all four of us risk being dragged into the looping corridor. We're too close to the bastion here; if we all get trapped, it will be very hard for anyone to notice the anomaly in the short term."
Lu Heng quickly weighed the pros and cons, raised his hand, and pressed his communicator to connect with the bastion's command center. "This is Lu Heng's squad. At the old supply point three kilometers west outside, we've discovered a suspected high-tier dormant phantom seed anchor point. Preliminary identification suggests it's a Corridor Phantom Seed. Requesting a psychiatry specialist to bring a suppression device to handle it. We also request temporary airspace警戒 (alert) in the surrounding area; no other squads are allowed to approach this zone."
A hurried acknowledgment came from the dispatcher on the other end of the communicator, confirming receipt of the intelligence and stating that a psychiatric disposal team would be dispatched within ten minutes.
The four no longer approached the dirt crevice. They pulled back to a safe distance of twenty meters, forming a circular perimeter guard, their gazes firmly locked onto that section of the ruined foundation. The safety catches on the flamethrowers were all engaged, and they ceased burning the remaining scattered hyphae. The wind blew the sand and soil of the wasteland past them, carrying the familiar stench of rotting earth. It was eerily quiet.
"This move by the matrix is too vicious." Lu Heng stared at the tall, thick city walls in the direction of the bastion. "Bastion defense lines, detection towers, artillery coverage... we thought we had firmly secured the safe zone at our doorstep. But it quietly buried a cage right beneath our feet. Today it's one spot; who knows how many phantom seeds have already quietly fallen into the soil along the perimeter of the West Bastion, the northern outpost line, and the supply routes?"
Lin Yan nodded slightly. He kept his Sea of Consciousness core retracted, releasing only an extremely faint wisp of perception to trail the phantom seed's waves from afar, keeping a constant watch for any movement. He could feel that the phantom seed remained completely silent, showing no fluctuations despite being discovered, as if it were nothing more than a lifeless stone. The logic behind the matrix's layout was slowly becoming clear in his eyes.
During the battle at Beacon Two, the matrix had witnessed with its own eyes the failure of its meticulously arranged ambush, and how it had forced him to break through to the third tier in a deadly situation. It knew that ordinary illusion webs and obsession illusions were no longer effective against him, so it changed its approach: instead of concentrating its forces to set up large-scale hunting traps, it began dispersing and deploying independent, dormant phantom seeds. These seeds didn't require real-time control from priests or the support of massive fungal carpet clusters. They were concealed, low-cost, and impossible to guard against completely. Whether it was an ordinary patrol member or a high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivator, anyone who accidentally triggered one would have to face the infinitely looping corridor of consciousness. Even for a third-tier Sea of Consciousness, finding the phantom seed's anchor point inside the corridor was a matter of life and death.
"From now on, all near-bastion patrol missions can't rely solely on instrument scans," Lin Yan said. "Instruments can only capture high-intensity psychic waves. The signals from these dormant phantom seeds are buried in the background noise and easily filtered out. We must pair them with high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators to accompany and discriminate. The Western Front is already short on third-tier personnel. With a few phantom seeds, the matrix is essentially continuously draining our limited high-tier combat power."
Lu Heng's expression was grave. "That's exactly its goal. It doesn't necessarily have to kill a lot of people immediately. As long as it stalls, consumes, and ties us down, our patrol efficiency will drop significantly, and the loopholes in our defense line will naturally multiply. While we're running around investigating phantom seeds, it can quietly accumulate power in the deeper wasteland rifts."
Ten minutes passed quickly. The roar of an off-road vehicle engine came from afar. Two vehicles marked with psychiatric disposal insignias drove up rapidly, equipped with high-power psychic shielding generators on their bodies. Several psychiatry specialists in white protective suits stepped out of the cars, carrying alloy cases. The person leading them was none other than Instructor Wen. Upon receiving the news, she had come directly with the disposal team.
"I heard about the situation on the way," Instructor Wen said, walking up close. Her gaze swept over the ruined foundation. "A Corridor Phantom Seed, a new batch deployed by the matrix. Headquarters received a report from the Northern Front yesterday; two identical dormant phantom seeds were also found near supply points on the Northern Front. This isn't a single-point deployment; it's sowing seeds across the entire line."
Sowing seeds across the entire line.
Those four words weighed heavily on everyone's hearts. Appearing simultaneously on the Western and Northern Fronts meant that the ancient lizard progenitors had already initiated a large-scale phantom seed deployment plan.
Instructor Wen opened the alloy case and took out a ring-shaped suppression device. After adjusting the parameters, she slowly approached the dirt crevice. The device released a layer of uniform neutralizing waves, gently enveloping the phantom seed's anchor point. The faint waves hidden in the dirt were gradually suppressed and smoothed out by the neutralizing waves.
"Suppression successful. The trigger mechanism is temporarily locked. Next, we excavate on-site, extract the phantom seed's main body, and bring it back to the laboratory for dismantling and research. The structural data of this kind of phantom seed is extremely important to us."
Two specialists carefully picked up entrenching tools, slowly brushing away the topsoil, moving cautiously to avoid any violent vibrations. Before long, a fist-sized, semi-transparent, gelatinous seed-like tissue was extracted. Its surface was covered with dense, purple thread-like patterns, lying quietly in the dirt. This was the main body of the Corridor Phantom Seed. To the naked eye, it looked completely ordinary; no one would have guessed that such a small piece of matter could build an endless looping corridor within a person's Sea of Consciousness.
The phantom seed was placed into a sealed isolation box. The moment the box was closed, that faint waveform on the detector completely vanished.
"Bring the sample back to the bastion." Instructor Wen closed the lid of the box and turned to look at Lin Yan. "You did well. If we had missed this one, it would very likely have resulted in the entire squad going missing later. But you must also understand that this is just the beginning. Since the matrix has initiated a full-line deployment, for a long time to come, we will have to deal with these invisible phantom seeds hidden in the soil."
"I understand." Lin Yan nodded.
The disposal team left markers behind, designating the area as a temporary警戒 zone. Follow-up personnel would be arranged to repeatedly inspect and investigate. After handing over the situation to the team, Lu Heng and the others boarded the off-road vehicle to return.
The car drove toward the West Bastion. The thick city walls grew closer and closer under the gray, hazy sky. Lin Yan turned his head to look out the window at the vast, barren wasteland. Beneath this earth, countless fungal hyphae spread like blood vessels, with phantom seed after phantom seed sleeping quietly, waiting for passing prey.
Back at the bastion, the intelligence department immediately expedited the upload of the intelligence from this discovery. The Western Front Command Center urgently issued a notice: all patrol, maintenance, and gathering teams going out must add high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators to their roster and include a specialized phantom seed investigation procedure. This single notice directly made the already tight scheduling of third-tier cultivators even more strained.
Night slowly enveloped the bastion.
Lin Yan returned to his dormitory, took out the Sea of Consciousness stabilization mantra Instructor Wen had given him, sat cross-legged, and slowly polished his Sea of Consciousness core. Sensing the phantom seed from afar today without forcibly disturbing it had kept his Sea of Consciousness stable, without the dull pain from before. As he regulated his breathing, he reviewed the characteristics, trigger methods, and countermeasures of the Corridor Phantom Seed in his mind.
Meanwhile, deep within Rift No. 79.
The two priests prostrated beside the core of the matrix's fungal carpet, receiving the feedback signal transmitted from the Western Front. A phantom seed had been found, extracted, and sealed by humans.
The matrix had no emotional fluctuations. Its massive consciousness continued to count the number of phantom seeds it had already sown. On the Western Front, the Northern Front, and beyond, more phantom seeds were still buried deep in the soil, quietly waiting to be triggered. One phantom seed being cleared was insignificant. What it had sown was a boundless, dark net scattered right before the doors of humanity's bastions.
End of Chapter.