Chapter 131: The Undercurrent Schedule
Night soaked through the high walls of the bastion. The searchlights on the city walls turned slowly, their pale beams sweeping across the dead, silent wasteland beyond.
The corridor lights in the squad's quarters were dim and yellow. A newly issued roster adjustment from the command center had just been posted on the bulletin board, the ink on the paper still carrying a hint of dampness. Lu Heng stood before the board, his fingertips tracing the names line by line, his brow tightly furrowed. With Lin Yan, Chen Ye, and Old Guo, whose return to duty was indefinitely delayed, plus Zhao Kai, the temporary replacement, their original roster was already stretched thin. Now, with the newly added phantom seed investigation tasks across the entire line, the manpower gap had been magnified all at once.
"There are only seven third-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators on the entire Western Front," Lu Heng said in a low voice, exhaustion evident in his tone. "The Northern Front has simultaneously reported outbreaks of phantom seed discoveries, and two have been transferred there. The remaining five must cover nearly a hundred miles of perimeter outpost lines, supply routes, and detection tower maintenance points around the West Bastion. Our squad has been assigned three consecutive days of perimeter investigation rotation."
Chen Ye stood beside him, looking at the roster with a grave expression. "Three consecutive days? All close-range patrols, digging around for Corridor Phantom Seeds buried in the dirt?"
"Yes." Lu Heng nodded. "It's not a high-risk mission deep into the rifts, but it's the most grueling. The phantom seeds are hidden beneath rock strata, ruins, and soil crevices. Their signals are buried in the background noise, making instruments unreliable. We need third-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators to continuously spread their perception to discriminate. It will consume a massive amount of Lin Yan's mental power."
Lin Yan stood nearby, his gaze fixed on his own name on the roster. The remarks column clearly stated: Primary responsibility for phantom seed discrimination.
He had no objections. When he broke through in the deadly situation at Beacon Two, the war zone had benched him for twenty days of rest and recovery, not to let him hide. Now that the matrix had changed its tactics and planted phantom seeds everywhere, his perceptive abilities were exactly what the defensive line lacked the most.
"I have no problem," Lin Yan said. "I will control the extent of my Sea of Consciousness mobilization, maintaining only low-intensity perception and not actively touching the phantom seed anchor points."
"That's what you say, but three consecutive days of prolonged outward perception will be a heavy burden on your Sea of Consciousness core, which is still integrating," Lu Heng looked at him. "Instructor Wen specifically sent me a communication, repeatedly stressing that if there is any Sea of Consciousness tremor or stabbing headache, you must stop the investigation immediately and retreat in place. No toughing it out."
"I've noted it down."
Zhao Kai listened quietly from the side. This newly graduated second-tier cultivator had only previously seen the illusion web in the simulation pod. Today, after seeing the Corridor Phantom Seed sealed in the isolation box with his own eyes, he truly understood the bizarre and treacherous methods of the ancient progenitors underground. He gripped his shock baton tightly: "I'll be responsible for carrying the detector and flamethrower. Once I spot any trace of a phantom seed, I'll mark the perimeter immediately and coordinate with you to maintain a safe distance."
"The division of labor is set," Lu Heng put away the roster. "We depart at first light tomorrow. The route will follow the old supply path on the north side of the West Bastion, investigating abandoned supply stations, old-era roadbeds, and collapsed outposts along the way. That area was repeatedly battered by beast tides in the early years; there are many ruins and chaotic soil layers, making it the perfect place to bury phantom seeds."
The group dispersed, each returning to their rooms to rest.
Lin Yan returned to his dormitory and closed the door. The room was small. Two sets of documents were spread out on the desk: one was the preliminary dismantling report of the Corridor Phantom Seed, just synced over by the intelligence department; the other was the Sea of Consciousness harmonization mantra handwritten by Instructor Wen. He sat cross-legged, slowly sinking his mind. The core of his Sea of Consciousness extended smoothly, releasing a wisp of faint perception thread that drifted gently around the room.
He was practicing a new rhythm of perception: long-duration, low-power scanning.
When he was at the second tier, opening his perception resulted in a steady, uniform drain on his mental power. The third-tier core was different; it could adjust its output intensity. Spreading extremely fine threads of perception allowed for wide coverage and slow consumption, with the trade-off being a slight drop in discrimination accuracy. This was perfectly suited for large-scale screening of phantom seed waves hidden underground. Once a suspected signal was caught, he would slightly increase his perception accuracy to confirm it, maintaining minimum power consumption otherwise.
This was the method Instructor Wen had taught him to avoid exhaustion. It was most suitable for dealing with the dark seeds scattered across the wasteland.
He practiced retracting and extending repeatedly. The core of his Sea of Consciousness remained stable, without the piercing tremors from before. Throughout the handling of the phantom seed today, he had remained restrained and hadn't forcibly disturbed the anchor point. His Sea of Consciousness was much more stable than he had anticipated.
He didn't know how long he had been meditating when his communicator vibrated softly. It was a message from Su Wan, who was still working overtime at the intelligence building.
[Western Front summary of today's investigation records: Seven dormant phantom seeds found in total. Eleven found on the Northern Front. The scale of the matrix's deployment is larger than estimated. The lab dismantling of the phantom seed we brought back revealed that it can survive for over four months by clinging to withered hyphae, requiring no external energy supply.]
After reading the message, Lin Yan typed his reply on the screen: [Has the method of phantom seed deployment been discovered? Are the priests personally going out to bury them?]
[No conclusion yet. The intelligence team has two hypotheses: First, the priests take advantage of the night to use fungal hyphae channels to sneak to the perimeter of the bastion and plant seeds at fixed points. Second, the matrix directly transports the phantom seed embryos through underground hyphae, pushing them up through rock crevices without the priests needing to appear. If it's the second scenario, the trouble is much greater. It means it can sow seeds at any position outside the defense line without dispatching units.]
Lin Yan stared at these words in silence for a long time.
If it was the second method, it meant the freedom of its hyphae network beneath the wasteland soil far exceeded human estimates. The priests were merely tentacles for command, dispatch, and combat; as for sowing seeds, the matrix itself could complete it independently. Humans couldn't even catch a trace of when or where the opponent was burying the phantom seeds.
[Tomorrow we will investigate the Northern Front supply old path, paying special attention to the rock strata fracture zones.]
[Be careful. Su Wan]
The message ended. Lin Yan put down his communicator and lay on the hard board bed.
Outside the window, the scattered lights of the bastion city shone through the small window. Occasionally, the command voices of sentries changing shifts on the city walls echoed from afar. They were plain and monotonous, yet they represented the spark of life that countless people were desperately guarding on this wasteland.
He remembered when he first came to this world, waking up from Black Mountain, completely bewildered, knowing nothing about the invasion of the lizard alien race. In a short time, he had gone from an outsider who only knew ancient martial arts and nothing about Sea of Consciousness cultivation, to a third-tier cultivator through blood and illusions. He saw more and more, but the oppressive weight that followed grew heavier and heavier.
The enemy never rushed up to fight in a blind frenzy.
They would lie dormant, observe, learn, and adjust their tactics. Seeing the hunting fail and seeing the prey break through, they would immediately abandon the old routines and switch to a silent, soundless method, burying traps right at humanity's doorstep.
The night passed peacefully.
At dawn the next day, the sky was still covered in a layer of gray-black as the squad gathered at the entrance of the base.
Four light off-road vehicles were loaded with shielding instruments, flamethrowers, isolation storage boxes, and engineer tools. Lu Heng, Lin Yan, Chen Ye, and Zhao Kai formed one group, while two other investigation squads set off simultaneously, spreading out along different routes.
The exit inspection procedures were completed quickly. The heavy West Gate slowly pulled inward, and the vehicles drove out one after another, stepping back onto the wasteland.
The old supply path extended northward along a gentle slope. The road surface had long been pitted and scarred by years of wind, sand, and beast tides. Half-collapsed concrete sentry booths were everywhere along the roadside, with rusted barbed wire tangled in gravel piles. When the wind blew, the iron wires emitted a mournful, whistling shriek.
"Spread out, maintain visual distance, fifty meters apart," Lu Heng's voice came through the squad channel. "Lin Yan is in charge of perception screening. Everyone else, keep a close watch on the instrument readings and any anomalies in the surroundings. Prioritize investigating ruin foundations, rock crevices, and low-lying dirt pits."
Lin Yan leaned against the car and slowly mobilized the core of his Sea of Consciousness.
Extremely faint, numerous threads of perception spread out like fine rain into the surrounding soil layers and rock crevices. He strictly controlled his mental output, maintaining a low-power scan. Beneath the earth, the chaotic waves of countless hyphae remnants mingled together like a noisy background hum. He needed to pick out the unique, slow, and placid dormant waves of the Corridor Phantom Seeds from within this noise.
At first, there was only the residual echo of various withered hyphae. Nothing abnormal.
Half an hour later, the vehicles reached a collapsed supply transit station. Most of the concrete walls had collapsed and were buried under yellow sand, with only a few steel rebars exposed. As Lin Yan's perception thread swept over the soil layer at the bottom of the ruins, it suddenly paused.
Deep within the soil layer, a familiar, stagnant-water-like placid wave lay quietly dormant.
"Target found, beneath the foundation on the north side of the ruins," Lin Yan immediately spoke up, simultaneously retracting most of his perception threads and leaving only one to lock onto the wave from a distance. "Dormant phantom seed, no signs of activation. Position is very deep."
Lu Heng immediately halted everyone, waving his hand to signal pulling back into a perimeter警戒 circle, while simultaneously reporting to the command center to request support from the psychiatric disposal team.
Chen Ye gripped his baton tightly, his vigilant gaze sweeping the surroundings of the ruins. "The view here is open, with no trace of scaled beasts. It's so quiet, who would have thought there was a phantom seed hidden underneath."
"This is exactly the effect the matrix wants," Lin Yan said in a low voice. "It doesn't need to create slaughter; it just needs us to continuously invest manpower and drain the mental power of high-tier cultivators. Day after day, we'll be exhausted running around."
The wind swept across the ruins, kicking up a swirl of yellow sand.
Beneath the vast wasteland, countless phantom seeds, just like this one, were sleeping quietly in the depths of the soil, waiting for those who passed by.
And deeper still beneath the earth, in the dark core of Rift No. 79.
The massive fungal carpet of the matrix undulated slowly, continuously generating new phantom seed embryos. Following the dense, vein-like hyphae channels, they were pushed outward in all directions beyond the Western and Northern Front bastions.
A war of attrition without the smoke of gunpowder had officially begun.
End of Chapter.
The corridor lights in the squad's quarters were dim and yellow. A newly issued roster adjustment from the command center had just been posted on the bulletin board, the ink on the paper still carrying a hint of dampness. Lu Heng stood before the board, his fingertips tracing the names line by line, his brow tightly furrowed. With Lin Yan, Chen Ye, and Old Guo, whose return to duty was indefinitely delayed, plus Zhao Kai, the temporary replacement, their original roster was already stretched thin. Now, with the newly added phantom seed investigation tasks across the entire line, the manpower gap had been magnified all at once.
"There are only seven third-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators on the entire Western Front," Lu Heng said in a low voice, exhaustion evident in his tone. "The Northern Front has simultaneously reported outbreaks of phantom seed discoveries, and two have been transferred there. The remaining five must cover nearly a hundred miles of perimeter outpost lines, supply routes, and detection tower maintenance points around the West Bastion. Our squad has been assigned three consecutive days of perimeter investigation rotation."
Chen Ye stood beside him, looking at the roster with a grave expression. "Three consecutive days? All close-range patrols, digging around for Corridor Phantom Seeds buried in the dirt?"
"Yes." Lu Heng nodded. "It's not a high-risk mission deep into the rifts, but it's the most grueling. The phantom seeds are hidden beneath rock strata, ruins, and soil crevices. Their signals are buried in the background noise, making instruments unreliable. We need third-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators to continuously spread their perception to discriminate. It will consume a massive amount of Lin Yan's mental power."
Lin Yan stood nearby, his gaze fixed on his own name on the roster. The remarks column clearly stated: Primary responsibility for phantom seed discrimination.
He had no objections. When he broke through in the deadly situation at Beacon Two, the war zone had benched him for twenty days of rest and recovery, not to let him hide. Now that the matrix had changed its tactics and planted phantom seeds everywhere, his perceptive abilities were exactly what the defensive line lacked the most.
"I have no problem," Lin Yan said. "I will control the extent of my Sea of Consciousness mobilization, maintaining only low-intensity perception and not actively touching the phantom seed anchor points."
"That's what you say, but three consecutive days of prolonged outward perception will be a heavy burden on your Sea of Consciousness core, which is still integrating," Lu Heng looked at him. "Instructor Wen specifically sent me a communication, repeatedly stressing that if there is any Sea of Consciousness tremor or stabbing headache, you must stop the investigation immediately and retreat in place. No toughing it out."
"I've noted it down."
Zhao Kai listened quietly from the side. This newly graduated second-tier cultivator had only previously seen the illusion web in the simulation pod. Today, after seeing the Corridor Phantom Seed sealed in the isolation box with his own eyes, he truly understood the bizarre and treacherous methods of the ancient progenitors underground. He gripped his shock baton tightly: "I'll be responsible for carrying the detector and flamethrower. Once I spot any trace of a phantom seed, I'll mark the perimeter immediately and coordinate with you to maintain a safe distance."
"The division of labor is set," Lu Heng put away the roster. "We depart at first light tomorrow. The route will follow the old supply path on the north side of the West Bastion, investigating abandoned supply stations, old-era roadbeds, and collapsed outposts along the way. That area was repeatedly battered by beast tides in the early years; there are many ruins and chaotic soil layers, making it the perfect place to bury phantom seeds."
The group dispersed, each returning to their rooms to rest.
Lin Yan returned to his dormitory and closed the door. The room was small. Two sets of documents were spread out on the desk: one was the preliminary dismantling report of the Corridor Phantom Seed, just synced over by the intelligence department; the other was the Sea of Consciousness harmonization mantra handwritten by Instructor Wen. He sat cross-legged, slowly sinking his mind. The core of his Sea of Consciousness extended smoothly, releasing a wisp of faint perception thread that drifted gently around the room.
He was practicing a new rhythm of perception: long-duration, low-power scanning.
When he was at the second tier, opening his perception resulted in a steady, uniform drain on his mental power. The third-tier core was different; it could adjust its output intensity. Spreading extremely fine threads of perception allowed for wide coverage and slow consumption, with the trade-off being a slight drop in discrimination accuracy. This was perfectly suited for large-scale screening of phantom seed waves hidden underground. Once a suspected signal was caught, he would slightly increase his perception accuracy to confirm it, maintaining minimum power consumption otherwise.
This was the method Instructor Wen had taught him to avoid exhaustion. It was most suitable for dealing with the dark seeds scattered across the wasteland.
He practiced retracting and extending repeatedly. The core of his Sea of Consciousness remained stable, without the piercing tremors from before. Throughout the handling of the phantom seed today, he had remained restrained and hadn't forcibly disturbed the anchor point. His Sea of Consciousness was much more stable than he had anticipated.
He didn't know how long he had been meditating when his communicator vibrated softly. It was a message from Su Wan, who was still working overtime at the intelligence building.
[Western Front summary of today's investigation records: Seven dormant phantom seeds found in total. Eleven found on the Northern Front. The scale of the matrix's deployment is larger than estimated. The lab dismantling of the phantom seed we brought back revealed that it can survive for over four months by clinging to withered hyphae, requiring no external energy supply.]
After reading the message, Lin Yan typed his reply on the screen: [Has the method of phantom seed deployment been discovered? Are the priests personally going out to bury them?]
[No conclusion yet. The intelligence team has two hypotheses: First, the priests take advantage of the night to use fungal hyphae channels to sneak to the perimeter of the bastion and plant seeds at fixed points. Second, the matrix directly transports the phantom seed embryos through underground hyphae, pushing them up through rock crevices without the priests needing to appear. If it's the second scenario, the trouble is much greater. It means it can sow seeds at any position outside the defense line without dispatching units.]
Lin Yan stared at these words in silence for a long time.
If it was the second method, it meant the freedom of its hyphae network beneath the wasteland soil far exceeded human estimates. The priests were merely tentacles for command, dispatch, and combat; as for sowing seeds, the matrix itself could complete it independently. Humans couldn't even catch a trace of when or where the opponent was burying the phantom seeds.
[Tomorrow we will investigate the Northern Front supply old path, paying special attention to the rock strata fracture zones.]
[Be careful. Su Wan]
The message ended. Lin Yan put down his communicator and lay on the hard board bed.
Outside the window, the scattered lights of the bastion city shone through the small window. Occasionally, the command voices of sentries changing shifts on the city walls echoed from afar. They were plain and monotonous, yet they represented the spark of life that countless people were desperately guarding on this wasteland.
He remembered when he first came to this world, waking up from Black Mountain, completely bewildered, knowing nothing about the invasion of the lizard alien race. In a short time, he had gone from an outsider who only knew ancient martial arts and nothing about Sea of Consciousness cultivation, to a third-tier cultivator through blood and illusions. He saw more and more, but the oppressive weight that followed grew heavier and heavier.
The enemy never rushed up to fight in a blind frenzy.
They would lie dormant, observe, learn, and adjust their tactics. Seeing the hunting fail and seeing the prey break through, they would immediately abandon the old routines and switch to a silent, soundless method, burying traps right at humanity's doorstep.
The night passed peacefully.
At dawn the next day, the sky was still covered in a layer of gray-black as the squad gathered at the entrance of the base.
Four light off-road vehicles were loaded with shielding instruments, flamethrowers, isolation storage boxes, and engineer tools. Lu Heng, Lin Yan, Chen Ye, and Zhao Kai formed one group, while two other investigation squads set off simultaneously, spreading out along different routes.
The exit inspection procedures were completed quickly. The heavy West Gate slowly pulled inward, and the vehicles drove out one after another, stepping back onto the wasteland.
The old supply path extended northward along a gentle slope. The road surface had long been pitted and scarred by years of wind, sand, and beast tides. Half-collapsed concrete sentry booths were everywhere along the roadside, with rusted barbed wire tangled in gravel piles. When the wind blew, the iron wires emitted a mournful, whistling shriek.
"Spread out, maintain visual distance, fifty meters apart," Lu Heng's voice came through the squad channel. "Lin Yan is in charge of perception screening. Everyone else, keep a close watch on the instrument readings and any anomalies in the surroundings. Prioritize investigating ruin foundations, rock crevices, and low-lying dirt pits."
Lin Yan leaned against the car and slowly mobilized the core of his Sea of Consciousness.
Extremely faint, numerous threads of perception spread out like fine rain into the surrounding soil layers and rock crevices. He strictly controlled his mental output, maintaining a low-power scan. Beneath the earth, the chaotic waves of countless hyphae remnants mingled together like a noisy background hum. He needed to pick out the unique, slow, and placid dormant waves of the Corridor Phantom Seeds from within this noise.
At first, there was only the residual echo of various withered hyphae. Nothing abnormal.
Half an hour later, the vehicles reached a collapsed supply transit station. Most of the concrete walls had collapsed and were buried under yellow sand, with only a few steel rebars exposed. As Lin Yan's perception thread swept over the soil layer at the bottom of the ruins, it suddenly paused.
Deep within the soil layer, a familiar, stagnant-water-like placid wave lay quietly dormant.
"Target found, beneath the foundation on the north side of the ruins," Lin Yan immediately spoke up, simultaneously retracting most of his perception threads and leaving only one to lock onto the wave from a distance. "Dormant phantom seed, no signs of activation. Position is very deep."
Lu Heng immediately halted everyone, waving his hand to signal pulling back into a perimeter警戒 circle, while simultaneously reporting to the command center to request support from the psychiatric disposal team.
Chen Ye gripped his baton tightly, his vigilant gaze sweeping the surroundings of the ruins. "The view here is open, with no trace of scaled beasts. It's so quiet, who would have thought there was a phantom seed hidden underneath."
"This is exactly the effect the matrix wants," Lin Yan said in a low voice. "It doesn't need to create slaughter; it just needs us to continuously invest manpower and drain the mental power of high-tier cultivators. Day after day, we'll be exhausted running around."
The wind swept across the ruins, kicking up a swirl of yellow sand.
Beneath the vast wasteland, countless phantom seeds, just like this one, were sleeping quietly in the depths of the soil, waiting for those who passed by.
And deeper still beneath the earth, in the dark core of Rift No. 79.
The massive fungal carpet of the matrix undulated slowly, continuously generating new phantom seed embryos. Following the dense, vein-like hyphae channels, they were pushed outward in all directions beyond the Western and Northern Front bastions.
A war of attrition without the smoke of gunpowder had officially begun.
End of Chapter.