Chapter 132: Silent Attrition
The perimeter was rapidly established. The four of them fanned out, enclosing the collapsed supply transit station in the center.
Zhao Kai set up the portable detector, maxing out the gain. The screen displayed chaotic waves crashing over one another; the geomagnetic signals of the rock strata and the faint residual signals of dead fungal hyphae were churned into a messy jumble. The wave pattern of the Corridor Phantom Seed remained deeply buried in the background noise. Without Lin Yan's third-tier Sea of Consciousness discrimination ability, it would have been impossible to isolate it.
"The instrument can only confirm the presence of an abnormal psychic signal below, but it can't distinguish whether it's a phantom seed or not." Zhao Kai stared at the screen, his fingertips continuously fine-tuning the frequency bands. "The signal is too stable, with no fluctuations. It doesn't feel like living hyphae."
Lu Heng used the communicator to contact the rear disposal team, clearly reporting the coordinates and terrain. Simultaneously, he requested the surrounding watchtowers to lock onto this area; if any scaled beasts or priests took advantage of the support gap to launch a sneak attack, they were to sound the alarm immediately. There were no absolute blind spots of safety on the wasteland. The matrix had a habit of stacking traps; hiding beast nests beneath phantom seeds or ambushing scaled beast scouts on the sides of ruins were hard-learned lessons from past mistakes.
"The disposal team will take at least forty minutes to get here." Lu Heng hung up the communicator and looked at Lin Yan. "Can you lock onto the exact depth of the phantom seed? Don't get close to the anchor point; just use long-distance perception."
Lin Yan nodded slightly. Keeping the core of his Sea of Consciousness running at low power, a slender thread of perception carefully probed downward into the soil crevices beneath the ruins' foundation. He deliberately avoided directly touching the phantom seed's main body, merely mapping its position by following the contour of its diffusing waves.
"About two meters deep, wedged in the crevice between the concrete rubble and the rock strata. It's buried very cleverly. Heavy debris is pressing down on top, making it hard for artillery fire to hit, and ordinary excavation would struggle to reach it in one go."
Chen Ye walked halfway around the ruins, kicked aside a piece of rusted rebar, and frowned deeply. "The matrix chooses these hard-to-handle blind spots for all its locations. Even if we dig up this one today, this old path is so long. There are countless abandoned stations and collapsed ravines along the way. With our limited manpower, it's impossible to investigate every single one thoroughly."
"This is the essence of a war of attrition." Lin Yan retracted his perception thread to ease the burden on his mind. "It doesn't need to severely damage the defensive line in a short time. What it wants is to drag us across this wasteland, forcing high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators to continuously spread their perception for screening day after day, constantly overexerting their mental power. Once or twice is fine, but over time, hidden injuries will accumulate, and eventually, someone will break. Once our third-tier cultivators fall one after another, the gaps in the defensive line will naturally appear."
Through twenty-five years of invasion, the ancient lizard progenitors had long since figured out humanity's weaknesses. The cultivation cycle for human Sea of Consciousness practitioners was extremely long. Especially for those above the third tier, every single one had barely survived countless illusions and psychic impacts. Losing even one meant the Western Front wouldn't be able to replenish the loss for a long time. The matrix abandoning large-scale frontal beast tide battles in favor of sowing phantom seeds was the most cost-effective method of slow erosion.
The wind swept across the ruins, carrying yellow sand, and the exposed rebar emitted a dry hum.
The few of them stood guard in silence, none relaxing. Every so often, Lin Yan would release a wisp of perception to confirm that the phantom seed remained dormant and hadn't activated restlessly. He strictly controlled the duration of his perception, adhering to Instructor Wen's rules and absolutely refusing to spread large-scale probes continuously for long periods. Even with this intermittent discrimination, after more than half an hour, the core of his Sea of Consciousness had already developed a faint, dull ache.
He knew clearly that his foundation was not yet completely stable, and the three consecutive days of investigation tasks would be a heavy load for him.
The waiting time flowed slowly. The wasteland was empty and dead. At the edge of his vision, there was only the gray boundary between the sky and the earth. No living creatures were visible, yet beneath the earth, the dense network of fungal hyphae had been silently transmitting information. The matrix knew that another phantom seed had been discovered by humans here, but it wasn't in a rush to mobilize its forces to reclaim it. The cost of one phantom seed was insignificant to it.
Finally, the sound of an engine came from afar. Two off-road vehicles from the psychiatric disposal team broke through the dust and rushed over. Instructor Wen was still leading the team. After getting out of the car, she didn't engage in unnecessary pleasantries, heading straight for the ruins' foundation to quickly confirm the location of the phantom seed.
"It's buried in the concrete sandwich layer, deeper than yesterday's." Instructor Wen squatted down to observe the cross-section of the soil. "The matrix is adjusting its seed-burying methods. It's consciously starting to send embryos into the depths of heavy wreckage and rock crevices, increasing the difficulty of our cleanup."
The team members took out the neutralization suppressor. Gentle reverse waves slowly seeped into the soil layer, first locking down the phantom seed's trigger anchor point. After confirming it was safe, the engineers carefully dug through the rubble, slowly moving away the heavy concrete blocks. Half an hour later, another semi-transparent phantom seed embryo covered in purple patterns was extracted and placed into a sealed isolation box.
The moment the box was closed, that stagnant-water-like wave pattern on the detector completely vanished.
"Bring the sample back to the lab." Instructor Wen closed the lid of the box and looked up at Lin Yan. "How is your Sea of Consciousness? Any tremors or headaches?"
"A slight ache, no stabbing pain. I controlled the frequency of my perception and didn't spread it continuously," Lin Yan answered truthfully.
"Maintain this rhythm." Instructor Wen's expression was solemn. "The command center just synced intelligence. At dawn today, eight phantom seeds were dug up at once at an outpost on the Eastern Front. It's sowing seeds across the entire line simultaneously, not just targeting the Western Front. The high command has already begun discussing whether to transfer some fourth-tier cultivators south to support the various bastions. But there are even fewer fourth-tier cultivators; each one is a trump card of the war zone and won't be mobilized easily."
After a brief handover, the disposal team took the sample and returned. Lu Heng's squad boarded the vehicle again and continued north along the supply old path to investigate.
Moving forward, ruins, dirt pits, and rock crevices appeared one after another. Over the next two hours, Lin Yan successively caught three suspected signals. Two of them were merely the residual echoes of old hyphae that had withered for years, while the last one was confirmed to be the third Corridor Phantom Seed. It was still deeply buried and dormant, quietly waiting for prey to pass by.
For every seed found, the process had to be repeated: establish a perimeter, report, wait for the disposal team, hold the position, and take samples for sealing. It was tedious and repetitive. There was no exhilarating slaughter, yet their nerves were constantly taut.
As noon approached, the sky grew darker. Thick gray clouds pressed down over the wasteland, hinting at an impending sandstorm.
The squad stopped behind a wind-sheltered dirt slope for a brief rest. Zhao Kai distributed purified water and compressed rations. Chen Ye leaned against the tire of the off-road vehicle, rubbing his sore eye sockets. He had been staring at the instruments all day, his spirit highly tense, and was already exhausted.
"I used to think that fighting scaled beasts head-on was the most terrifying mission." Chen Ye took a bite of a compressed biscuit and sighed softly. "Only now do I realize that this kind of investigation where you can't even see the enemy is more grueling. You don't know which patch of dirt beneath your feet hides a phantom seed, or when your Sea of Consciousness will be dragged into an endless corridor."
Lu Heng took a sip of water and gazed at the old path extending deep into the wasteland, disappearing into the gray fog. "A frontal beast tide is an open hand; we can see the scaled beasts charging, we can see the priests releasing the illusion web, and we can fight back head-on with artillery, formations, and Sea of Consciousness cultivators. But this current tactic is a hidden hand. The enemy is buried underground, and we don't even know when they will strike."
Lin Yan sat to the side, eyes closed as he regulated his breathing, allowing his aching Sea of Consciousness core to slowly recover.
In his mind, he continuously sorted out the matrix's entire tactical chain: First, it concentrated its forces to set up an ambush to kill high-tier cultivators. After failing, it immediately iterated, abandoning targeted hunting in favor of全域 (full-domain) sowing, using low-cost phantom seeds to continuously drain humanity's high-end combat power. This set of tactics was calm, restrained, and calculated at every step. It didn't resemble beastly instinct at all; it was the war strategy of a mature civilization.
The ancient lizard progenitors were absolutely not just an alien race that controlled scaled beasts. They possessed a thought system accumulated over vast amounts of time, knowing how to review, make mistakes, and adjust their strategies.
The brief rest ended as sand grains began to fall sporadically from the sky, pattering against the car shell with a rustling sound.
"Keep pushing forward; most of the route hasn't been investigated yet." Lu Heng stood up. "Speed up. Once the sandstorm gets bigger, the rock strata noise will skyrocket. Both the instruments and Sea of Consciousness perception will be severely disrupted, making it even easier for the phantom seeds to hide their tracks."
The vehicles restarted, moving slowly through the yellow sand.
Lin Yan once again slowly released his threads of perception. The low-power waves sank into the earth beneath his feet, patiently searching through the chaotic rock strata noise for that silent wave pattern unique to the Corridor Phantom Seeds.
Deep beneath the vast wasteland, in the depths of Rift No. 79.
Endless phantom seed embryos were transported outward along the hyphae veins. Some were sent to the Western Front supply old path, while others flowed toward the even further Northern Front outpost line.
Once one phantom seed was cleared, a new embryo would immediately take its place.
In this silent war of attrition, the matrix had all the patience in the world to slowly wear humanity down.
End of Chapter.
Zhao Kai set up the portable detector, maxing out the gain. The screen displayed chaotic waves crashing over one another; the geomagnetic signals of the rock strata and the faint residual signals of dead fungal hyphae were churned into a messy jumble. The wave pattern of the Corridor Phantom Seed remained deeply buried in the background noise. Without Lin Yan's third-tier Sea of Consciousness discrimination ability, it would have been impossible to isolate it.
"The instrument can only confirm the presence of an abnormal psychic signal below, but it can't distinguish whether it's a phantom seed or not." Zhao Kai stared at the screen, his fingertips continuously fine-tuning the frequency bands. "The signal is too stable, with no fluctuations. It doesn't feel like living hyphae."
Lu Heng used the communicator to contact the rear disposal team, clearly reporting the coordinates and terrain. Simultaneously, he requested the surrounding watchtowers to lock onto this area; if any scaled beasts or priests took advantage of the support gap to launch a sneak attack, they were to sound the alarm immediately. There were no absolute blind spots of safety on the wasteland. The matrix had a habit of stacking traps; hiding beast nests beneath phantom seeds or ambushing scaled beast scouts on the sides of ruins were hard-learned lessons from past mistakes.
"The disposal team will take at least forty minutes to get here." Lu Heng hung up the communicator and looked at Lin Yan. "Can you lock onto the exact depth of the phantom seed? Don't get close to the anchor point; just use long-distance perception."
Lin Yan nodded slightly. Keeping the core of his Sea of Consciousness running at low power, a slender thread of perception carefully probed downward into the soil crevices beneath the ruins' foundation. He deliberately avoided directly touching the phantom seed's main body, merely mapping its position by following the contour of its diffusing waves.
"About two meters deep, wedged in the crevice between the concrete rubble and the rock strata. It's buried very cleverly. Heavy debris is pressing down on top, making it hard for artillery fire to hit, and ordinary excavation would struggle to reach it in one go."
Chen Ye walked halfway around the ruins, kicked aside a piece of rusted rebar, and frowned deeply. "The matrix chooses these hard-to-handle blind spots for all its locations. Even if we dig up this one today, this old path is so long. There are countless abandoned stations and collapsed ravines along the way. With our limited manpower, it's impossible to investigate every single one thoroughly."
"This is the essence of a war of attrition." Lin Yan retracted his perception thread to ease the burden on his mind. "It doesn't need to severely damage the defensive line in a short time. What it wants is to drag us across this wasteland, forcing high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators to continuously spread their perception for screening day after day, constantly overexerting their mental power. Once or twice is fine, but over time, hidden injuries will accumulate, and eventually, someone will break. Once our third-tier cultivators fall one after another, the gaps in the defensive line will naturally appear."
Through twenty-five years of invasion, the ancient lizard progenitors had long since figured out humanity's weaknesses. The cultivation cycle for human Sea of Consciousness practitioners was extremely long. Especially for those above the third tier, every single one had barely survived countless illusions and psychic impacts. Losing even one meant the Western Front wouldn't be able to replenish the loss for a long time. The matrix abandoning large-scale frontal beast tide battles in favor of sowing phantom seeds was the most cost-effective method of slow erosion.
The wind swept across the ruins, carrying yellow sand, and the exposed rebar emitted a dry hum.
The few of them stood guard in silence, none relaxing. Every so often, Lin Yan would release a wisp of perception to confirm that the phantom seed remained dormant and hadn't activated restlessly. He strictly controlled the duration of his perception, adhering to Instructor Wen's rules and absolutely refusing to spread large-scale probes continuously for long periods. Even with this intermittent discrimination, after more than half an hour, the core of his Sea of Consciousness had already developed a faint, dull ache.
He knew clearly that his foundation was not yet completely stable, and the three consecutive days of investigation tasks would be a heavy load for him.
The waiting time flowed slowly. The wasteland was empty and dead. At the edge of his vision, there was only the gray boundary between the sky and the earth. No living creatures were visible, yet beneath the earth, the dense network of fungal hyphae had been silently transmitting information. The matrix knew that another phantom seed had been discovered by humans here, but it wasn't in a rush to mobilize its forces to reclaim it. The cost of one phantom seed was insignificant to it.
Finally, the sound of an engine came from afar. Two off-road vehicles from the psychiatric disposal team broke through the dust and rushed over. Instructor Wen was still leading the team. After getting out of the car, she didn't engage in unnecessary pleasantries, heading straight for the ruins' foundation to quickly confirm the location of the phantom seed.
"It's buried in the concrete sandwich layer, deeper than yesterday's." Instructor Wen squatted down to observe the cross-section of the soil. "The matrix is adjusting its seed-burying methods. It's consciously starting to send embryos into the depths of heavy wreckage and rock crevices, increasing the difficulty of our cleanup."
The team members took out the neutralization suppressor. Gentle reverse waves slowly seeped into the soil layer, first locking down the phantom seed's trigger anchor point. After confirming it was safe, the engineers carefully dug through the rubble, slowly moving away the heavy concrete blocks. Half an hour later, another semi-transparent phantom seed embryo covered in purple patterns was extracted and placed into a sealed isolation box.
The moment the box was closed, that stagnant-water-like wave pattern on the detector completely vanished.
"Bring the sample back to the lab." Instructor Wen closed the lid of the box and looked up at Lin Yan. "How is your Sea of Consciousness? Any tremors or headaches?"
"A slight ache, no stabbing pain. I controlled the frequency of my perception and didn't spread it continuously," Lin Yan answered truthfully.
"Maintain this rhythm." Instructor Wen's expression was solemn. "The command center just synced intelligence. At dawn today, eight phantom seeds were dug up at once at an outpost on the Eastern Front. It's sowing seeds across the entire line simultaneously, not just targeting the Western Front. The high command has already begun discussing whether to transfer some fourth-tier cultivators south to support the various bastions. But there are even fewer fourth-tier cultivators; each one is a trump card of the war zone and won't be mobilized easily."
After a brief handover, the disposal team took the sample and returned. Lu Heng's squad boarded the vehicle again and continued north along the supply old path to investigate.
Moving forward, ruins, dirt pits, and rock crevices appeared one after another. Over the next two hours, Lin Yan successively caught three suspected signals. Two of them were merely the residual echoes of old hyphae that had withered for years, while the last one was confirmed to be the third Corridor Phantom Seed. It was still deeply buried and dormant, quietly waiting for prey to pass by.
For every seed found, the process had to be repeated: establish a perimeter, report, wait for the disposal team, hold the position, and take samples for sealing. It was tedious and repetitive. There was no exhilarating slaughter, yet their nerves were constantly taut.
As noon approached, the sky grew darker. Thick gray clouds pressed down over the wasteland, hinting at an impending sandstorm.
The squad stopped behind a wind-sheltered dirt slope for a brief rest. Zhao Kai distributed purified water and compressed rations. Chen Ye leaned against the tire of the off-road vehicle, rubbing his sore eye sockets. He had been staring at the instruments all day, his spirit highly tense, and was already exhausted.
"I used to think that fighting scaled beasts head-on was the most terrifying mission." Chen Ye took a bite of a compressed biscuit and sighed softly. "Only now do I realize that this kind of investigation where you can't even see the enemy is more grueling. You don't know which patch of dirt beneath your feet hides a phantom seed, or when your Sea of Consciousness will be dragged into an endless corridor."
Lu Heng took a sip of water and gazed at the old path extending deep into the wasteland, disappearing into the gray fog. "A frontal beast tide is an open hand; we can see the scaled beasts charging, we can see the priests releasing the illusion web, and we can fight back head-on with artillery, formations, and Sea of Consciousness cultivators. But this current tactic is a hidden hand. The enemy is buried underground, and we don't even know when they will strike."
Lin Yan sat to the side, eyes closed as he regulated his breathing, allowing his aching Sea of Consciousness core to slowly recover.
In his mind, he continuously sorted out the matrix's entire tactical chain: First, it concentrated its forces to set up an ambush to kill high-tier cultivators. After failing, it immediately iterated, abandoning targeted hunting in favor of全域 (full-domain) sowing, using low-cost phantom seeds to continuously drain humanity's high-end combat power. This set of tactics was calm, restrained, and calculated at every step. It didn't resemble beastly instinct at all; it was the war strategy of a mature civilization.
The ancient lizard progenitors were absolutely not just an alien race that controlled scaled beasts. They possessed a thought system accumulated over vast amounts of time, knowing how to review, make mistakes, and adjust their strategies.
The brief rest ended as sand grains began to fall sporadically from the sky, pattering against the car shell with a rustling sound.
"Keep pushing forward; most of the route hasn't been investigated yet." Lu Heng stood up. "Speed up. Once the sandstorm gets bigger, the rock strata noise will skyrocket. Both the instruments and Sea of Consciousness perception will be severely disrupted, making it even easier for the phantom seeds to hide their tracks."
The vehicles restarted, moving slowly through the yellow sand.
Lin Yan once again slowly released his threads of perception. The low-power waves sank into the earth beneath his feet, patiently searching through the chaotic rock strata noise for that silent wave pattern unique to the Corridor Phantom Seeds.
Deep beneath the vast wasteland, in the depths of Rift No. 79.
Endless phantom seed embryos were transported outward along the hyphae veins. Some were sent to the Western Front supply old path, while others flowed toward the even further Northern Front outpost line.
Once one phantom seed was cleared, a new embryo would immediately take its place.
In this silent war of attrition, the matrix had all the patience in the world to slowly wear humanity down.
End of Chapter.