Chapter 135: Traps Layered Within Traps
The seventy-two-hour rest period was dry and oppressive.
Lin Yan strictly adhered to the prohibition issued by Instructor Wen. The core of his Sea of Consciousness was completely sealed; he released not a single wisp of perception and did no retraction or extension exercises. During the time he usually spent meditating to regulate his breathing, he merely sat quietly by the window, watching the endless flow of people and vehicles within the bastion. Without the accompaniment of his Sea of Consciousness power, he actually felt a sense of unfamiliarity, as if he had returned to the time when he first arrived in this world, possessing only the keen five senses brought by his foundation in ancient martial arts.
The faint, hidden stabbing pain deep within his temples had not completely disappeared. It was like a fine thorn buried in his flesh, lying dormant in silence. Whenever his heart stirred and the thought of mobilizing his Sea of Consciousness arose, it would gently tug, reminding him that the hidden injury was real.
Lu Heng had visited twice, bringing the latest intelligence briefings from the command center.
Over these three days on the Western Front, the investigation work had not stopped, but the roster had been restructured. The remaining four third-tier cultivators were split into pairs, going out together instead of bearing the discrimination task alone. Even so, someone had still run into trouble. A third-tier cultivator on the Southern Front had undergone high-intensity phantom seed screening for two consecutive days. Upon returning, his Sea of Consciousness trembled violently, and he had been sent to the psychiatry department for treatment, unable to return to duty in the short term.
"The high command's concerns have been proven right." Lu Heng spread the briefing on the desk, his fingertip tapping that line of record. "The matrix's tactic of attrition is taking effect very quickly. Our reserve of high-tier combat power is already thin. If we continue to overexert ourselves like this, it won't be long before the entire phantom seed screening system on the Western Front collapses."
Lin Yan picked up the briefing and slowly flipped through it. His gaze fell on a record marked in red: [Ruins No. 47 on the West Old Path: Paired phantom seed traces discovered. One surface-level anchor point; the other anchor point is hidden beneath the side of the evacuation route. Suspected to be a trap layered within a trap. The squad detected the anomaly in time, did not approach, and retreated entirely.]
This was the new routine the matrix had deduced.
The visible trap attracted attention, while the hidden trap cut off the retreat. When the squad stopped to guard and waited for the disposal team, with most of their mental focus on the visible phantom seed, the matrix would synchronously activate the dual phantom seeds underground. The two layers of consciousness corridors would intertwine and overlap. Even for a third-tier Sea of Consciousness, it would be extremely difficult to break free from two looping structures simultaneously.
"Someone has already bumped into paired phantom seeds?" Lin Yan raised his eyes.
"They were lucky. The team leader was a veteran third-tier cultivator with a cautious perception habit. He didn't stare dead-set at one anchor point but subconsciously swept the surrounding area, catching the second wave." Lu Heng's tone was slow and heavy. "The intelligence team judges this to be the matrix's latest standard seed-burying template. From now on, during external investigations, we can't just safely guard after finding one phantom seed. We must conduct a large-scale scan of the entire area to search for the accompanying second or third phantom seed."
Chen Ye and Zhao Kai had also visited the dormitory.
Chen Ye had reviewed the experience in the sandstorm that day several times and organized a set of patrol and guard precautions to show Lin Yan. He now understood more and more clearly that in the face of phantom seed traps, the auxiliary role a second-tier cultivator could play was limited. They could only rely on instruments and visual vigilance; the true burden of discrimination always rested on the shoulders of high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators.
"Zhao Kai and I have discussed it. Next time we go on duty, the two of us will split up: one watches the instruments, and the other continuously observes the direction of the retreat route. Since the matrix likes to block evacuation routes, we will specifically watch the retreat path," Chen Ye said.
Lin Yan nodded. "Useful, but it can only reduce the risk slightly. The phantom seed waves are hidden in the geomagnetic background noise. The truly decisive discrimination still requires a third-tier Sea of Consciousness."
Three days passed in a flash.
On the morning the rest period ended, Instructor Wen came personally to conduct a re-examination of his Sea of Consciousness. Inside the diagnostic pod, low-frequency stabilizing waves slowly enveloped Lin Yan's core. The jumping waveform on the screen was much more stable than three days ago; the peaks of violent tremors had disappeared. Yet, the abnormal baseline left by the stress-induced hidden injury was still clearly visible, impossible to completely smooth out.
"It's temporarily stabilized." Instructor Wen put away the instrument, her expression not relaxing. "The hidden injury has solidified; from now on, it will be your soft spot. If another overexertion like the prolonged locking onto a high-risk anchor point in the sandstorm occurs, the damage will only continue to accumulate. There is no turning back."
"I understand."
"Your roster has been adjusted." Instructor Wen handed over a new task slip. "You will no longer be assigned continuous, full-day, long-line wasteland investigations. From now on, your external duty is capped at four hours per day, and you must be accompanied by a second third-tier cultivator to act as a mutual safety net. If either person experiences any discomfort in their Sea of Consciousness, the mission must be terminated and you must return immediately."
This arrangement meant actively compressing investigation efficiency, a compromise after the command center weighed the pros and cons. Compared to casting a wide net to find phantom seeds, preserving the remaining high-tier combat power took higher priority.
That afternoon, Lin Yan returned to the squad for assembly.
The squad's new mission was still the northern section of the West Supply Old Path, the same area where they had encountered the remote-controlled phantom seed last time. Accompanying them was another third-tier cultivator named Gu Shen. In his forties with graying hair, he had guarded the Southern Front rifts for many years. His Sea of Consciousness style leaned toward endurance and concealment, and he was most skilled at peeling apart faint waves in noisy geomagnetic environments.
"I've heard of you for a long time: the rookie who broke through below Beacon Two." Gu Shen shook hands briefly with Lin Yan, his gaze calm. "The matrix's traps are becoming more and more varied now, and paired phantom seeds are a key target for vigilance. In a moment, we will separate our perception. You will be responsible for the main target area, and I will be responsible for the flanks, the retreat route, and the ditches on both sides, specifically searching for the accompanying hidden seeds."
"The division of labor is excellent," Lu Heng nodded. "Zhao Kai and Chen Ye will continue to be responsible for the instruments, guarding, and marking. The disposal team will follow two kilometers behind us, maintaining clear communication. Once a dual-phantom seed structure is discovered, request support immediately."
The convoy drove out of the West Gate.
The weather on the wasteland was decent today. There was no sandstorm, the sky was clear, and visibility was excellent; the outlines of distant dirt slopes and gravel piles were distinct. Geomagnetic disturbance was very low, which was friendly to both Sea of Consciousness perception and instrument scanning. Yet, the clearer and calmer the wasteland, the more tense everyone felt. Everyone knew that the matrix had long since learned to set up the most dangerous layered traps in weather most suitable for human investigation.
The vehicles stopped a hundred meters away near the ruins of the retaining wall from last time, not daring to approach rashly. Lin Yan and Gu Shen simultaneously and slowly released their perception threads, spreading out to the left and right.
Lin Yan's perception prioritized the base of the retaining wall. The remote-controlled phantom seed that hadn't been recovered last time was still dormant in the crevices of the rock strata, its waves placid and showing no movement. Meanwhile, Gu Shen's perception threads bypassed the main target, extending along the rear retreat route and the dirt ditches on both sides, meticulously combing through the signals beneath the soil layer.
"The main anchor point is in normal dormancy. The link is still active; the matrix can remotely control it at any time," Lin Yan reported in a low voice.
"Thirty meters to the south, at the bottom of the ravine, I caught a wave." Gu Shen's voice soon sounded in the channel. "The rhythm matches the Corridor Phantom Seed, hidden under a pile of dead hyphae. It isn't located next to the main phantom seed; it perfectly blocks the route we must take to retreat. A classic trap layered within a trap."
Everyone's heart tightened.
Sure enough, the visible phantom seed was merely bait; the hidden seed had long since blocked the retreat. If they hadn't decisively retreated during the sandstorm last time and had stayed to wait for the disposal team, once the matrix synchronously activated the two phantom seeds, attacking from the front and rear, everyone would have been dragged into two nested consciousness corridors.
"The two phantom seeds have interconnected links," Gu Shen continued to probe for a moment, adding information. "There are fine hyphae connecting them, and their signals are synchronized. As soon as one is triggered, the other will follow within three seconds, leaving us no gap to deal with them separately."
Lu Heng immediately reported the coordinates and requested the psychiatric disposal team to bring dual-phantom seed suppression equipment.
This time, they didn't dare to guard and wait nearby as they had in the past. The squad retreated eighty meters backward, establishing a double safety perimeter. Lin Yan and Gu Shen took turns maintaining the perception lock: one probed while the other rested and rotated, avoiding a single person continuously consuming mental power.
During the rotation, Lin Yan closed his eyes to regulate his breathing. The core of his Sea of Consciousness was stable, without any stabbing pain. With Gu Shen sharing the pressure, he didn't have to bear the entire burden of discrimination alone, and the load was much lighter. He turned his head to look at Gu Shen, who was silently perceiving beside him, and understood in his heart that this barely maintained screening system on the Western Front relied entirely on these few third-tier cultivators supporting each other.
The wind on the wasteland gently rolled the sand and soil, quiet and still.
There were no charging scaled beasts to be seen, no psychic shrieks from priests to be heard. Yet beneath the soil, two sets of phantom seed anchor points were quietly linked, waiting for the prey to step into the snare.
About half an hour later, the disposal team's vehicles arrived. Instructor Wen got out of the car. Seeing the on-site markers, her expression was grave: "Paired linked phantom seeds; this is now a standardized deployment. The lab has just finished dismantling a set of similar samples and found that after the dual corridors overlap, the rate of mental power consumption is three times that of a single phantom seed. Even a fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness would find it hard to escape quickly if trapped inside."
Two suppressors were activated simultaneously. Two neutralizing waves enveloped the two phantom seed anchor points respectively, locking down the trigger links one after another. The engineers dug separately and extracted two semi-transparent phantom seed embryos covered in purple patterns, placing them into independent isolation boxes.
"Bring the samples back for comparative dismantling." Instructor Wen closed the lid of the box. "Tell all external squads: from now on, whenever a phantom seed is found, assume a second accompanying phantom seed exists nearby. Do not stay in place and wait for disposal before completing a full-area investigation."
The mission continued to advance.
Moving north along the supply old path, Lin Yan and Gu Shen alternated their perception. Over the next half-day, they found three more sets of paired phantom seeds. The layout logic of each set varied slightly, but the unchanging principle was one visible and one hidden, blocking both the path forward and the retreat route. The matrix's tactics had become highly templated: efficient, stable, and specifically targeting the behavioral habits of human patrol squads.
The sun slowly tilted westward, the gray, hazy sunset hugging the horizon of the wasteland.
The squad ended the day's investigation and returned. Everyone in the car was exhausted; Chen Ye leaned against the car window in silence. They had dug up eight phantom seeds in a single day, yet everyone knew in their hearts that this was merely a drop in the ocean of the countless seeds scattered across the wasteland.
Deep beneath the earth, in Rift No. 79.
The matrix received the feedback signals of phantom seeds being cleared, group after group.
It had finished recording the loss rate of the paired phantom seeds.
It did not stop the hyphae breeding embryos. A new round of layout plans was taking shape within the massive consciousness network.
Dual phantom seeds were merely a transition.
Next, it prepared to deploy a three-anchor linked phantom array. Three phantom seeds would form a triangular lock, with triple corridors nested within each other. Once the blockade circle was stepped into, the front, back, left, and right would all be sealed by the consciousness maze; not even the direction of retreat would exist.
A deeper layer of the cage was quietly taking shape between the underground rock strata.
End of Chapter.
Lin Yan strictly adhered to the prohibition issued by Instructor Wen. The core of his Sea of Consciousness was completely sealed; he released not a single wisp of perception and did no retraction or extension exercises. During the time he usually spent meditating to regulate his breathing, he merely sat quietly by the window, watching the endless flow of people and vehicles within the bastion. Without the accompaniment of his Sea of Consciousness power, he actually felt a sense of unfamiliarity, as if he had returned to the time when he first arrived in this world, possessing only the keen five senses brought by his foundation in ancient martial arts.
The faint, hidden stabbing pain deep within his temples had not completely disappeared. It was like a fine thorn buried in his flesh, lying dormant in silence. Whenever his heart stirred and the thought of mobilizing his Sea of Consciousness arose, it would gently tug, reminding him that the hidden injury was real.
Lu Heng had visited twice, bringing the latest intelligence briefings from the command center.
Over these three days on the Western Front, the investigation work had not stopped, but the roster had been restructured. The remaining four third-tier cultivators were split into pairs, going out together instead of bearing the discrimination task alone. Even so, someone had still run into trouble. A third-tier cultivator on the Southern Front had undergone high-intensity phantom seed screening for two consecutive days. Upon returning, his Sea of Consciousness trembled violently, and he had been sent to the psychiatry department for treatment, unable to return to duty in the short term.
"The high command's concerns have been proven right." Lu Heng spread the briefing on the desk, his fingertip tapping that line of record. "The matrix's tactic of attrition is taking effect very quickly. Our reserve of high-tier combat power is already thin. If we continue to overexert ourselves like this, it won't be long before the entire phantom seed screening system on the Western Front collapses."
Lin Yan picked up the briefing and slowly flipped through it. His gaze fell on a record marked in red: [Ruins No. 47 on the West Old Path: Paired phantom seed traces discovered. One surface-level anchor point; the other anchor point is hidden beneath the side of the evacuation route. Suspected to be a trap layered within a trap. The squad detected the anomaly in time, did not approach, and retreated entirely.]
This was the new routine the matrix had deduced.
The visible trap attracted attention, while the hidden trap cut off the retreat. When the squad stopped to guard and waited for the disposal team, with most of their mental focus on the visible phantom seed, the matrix would synchronously activate the dual phantom seeds underground. The two layers of consciousness corridors would intertwine and overlap. Even for a third-tier Sea of Consciousness, it would be extremely difficult to break free from two looping structures simultaneously.
"Someone has already bumped into paired phantom seeds?" Lin Yan raised his eyes.
"They were lucky. The team leader was a veteran third-tier cultivator with a cautious perception habit. He didn't stare dead-set at one anchor point but subconsciously swept the surrounding area, catching the second wave." Lu Heng's tone was slow and heavy. "The intelligence team judges this to be the matrix's latest standard seed-burying template. From now on, during external investigations, we can't just safely guard after finding one phantom seed. We must conduct a large-scale scan of the entire area to search for the accompanying second or third phantom seed."
Chen Ye and Zhao Kai had also visited the dormitory.
Chen Ye had reviewed the experience in the sandstorm that day several times and organized a set of patrol and guard precautions to show Lin Yan. He now understood more and more clearly that in the face of phantom seed traps, the auxiliary role a second-tier cultivator could play was limited. They could only rely on instruments and visual vigilance; the true burden of discrimination always rested on the shoulders of high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators.
"Zhao Kai and I have discussed it. Next time we go on duty, the two of us will split up: one watches the instruments, and the other continuously observes the direction of the retreat route. Since the matrix likes to block evacuation routes, we will specifically watch the retreat path," Chen Ye said.
Lin Yan nodded. "Useful, but it can only reduce the risk slightly. The phantom seed waves are hidden in the geomagnetic background noise. The truly decisive discrimination still requires a third-tier Sea of Consciousness."
Three days passed in a flash.
On the morning the rest period ended, Instructor Wen came personally to conduct a re-examination of his Sea of Consciousness. Inside the diagnostic pod, low-frequency stabilizing waves slowly enveloped Lin Yan's core. The jumping waveform on the screen was much more stable than three days ago; the peaks of violent tremors had disappeared. Yet, the abnormal baseline left by the stress-induced hidden injury was still clearly visible, impossible to completely smooth out.
"It's temporarily stabilized." Instructor Wen put away the instrument, her expression not relaxing. "The hidden injury has solidified; from now on, it will be your soft spot. If another overexertion like the prolonged locking onto a high-risk anchor point in the sandstorm occurs, the damage will only continue to accumulate. There is no turning back."
"I understand."
"Your roster has been adjusted." Instructor Wen handed over a new task slip. "You will no longer be assigned continuous, full-day, long-line wasteland investigations. From now on, your external duty is capped at four hours per day, and you must be accompanied by a second third-tier cultivator to act as a mutual safety net. If either person experiences any discomfort in their Sea of Consciousness, the mission must be terminated and you must return immediately."
This arrangement meant actively compressing investigation efficiency, a compromise after the command center weighed the pros and cons. Compared to casting a wide net to find phantom seeds, preserving the remaining high-tier combat power took higher priority.
That afternoon, Lin Yan returned to the squad for assembly.
The squad's new mission was still the northern section of the West Supply Old Path, the same area where they had encountered the remote-controlled phantom seed last time. Accompanying them was another third-tier cultivator named Gu Shen. In his forties with graying hair, he had guarded the Southern Front rifts for many years. His Sea of Consciousness style leaned toward endurance and concealment, and he was most skilled at peeling apart faint waves in noisy geomagnetic environments.
"I've heard of you for a long time: the rookie who broke through below Beacon Two." Gu Shen shook hands briefly with Lin Yan, his gaze calm. "The matrix's traps are becoming more and more varied now, and paired phantom seeds are a key target for vigilance. In a moment, we will separate our perception. You will be responsible for the main target area, and I will be responsible for the flanks, the retreat route, and the ditches on both sides, specifically searching for the accompanying hidden seeds."
"The division of labor is excellent," Lu Heng nodded. "Zhao Kai and Chen Ye will continue to be responsible for the instruments, guarding, and marking. The disposal team will follow two kilometers behind us, maintaining clear communication. Once a dual-phantom seed structure is discovered, request support immediately."
The convoy drove out of the West Gate.
The weather on the wasteland was decent today. There was no sandstorm, the sky was clear, and visibility was excellent; the outlines of distant dirt slopes and gravel piles were distinct. Geomagnetic disturbance was very low, which was friendly to both Sea of Consciousness perception and instrument scanning. Yet, the clearer and calmer the wasteland, the more tense everyone felt. Everyone knew that the matrix had long since learned to set up the most dangerous layered traps in weather most suitable for human investigation.
The vehicles stopped a hundred meters away near the ruins of the retaining wall from last time, not daring to approach rashly. Lin Yan and Gu Shen simultaneously and slowly released their perception threads, spreading out to the left and right.
Lin Yan's perception prioritized the base of the retaining wall. The remote-controlled phantom seed that hadn't been recovered last time was still dormant in the crevices of the rock strata, its waves placid and showing no movement. Meanwhile, Gu Shen's perception threads bypassed the main target, extending along the rear retreat route and the dirt ditches on both sides, meticulously combing through the signals beneath the soil layer.
"The main anchor point is in normal dormancy. The link is still active; the matrix can remotely control it at any time," Lin Yan reported in a low voice.
"Thirty meters to the south, at the bottom of the ravine, I caught a wave." Gu Shen's voice soon sounded in the channel. "The rhythm matches the Corridor Phantom Seed, hidden under a pile of dead hyphae. It isn't located next to the main phantom seed; it perfectly blocks the route we must take to retreat. A classic trap layered within a trap."
Everyone's heart tightened.
Sure enough, the visible phantom seed was merely bait; the hidden seed had long since blocked the retreat. If they hadn't decisively retreated during the sandstorm last time and had stayed to wait for the disposal team, once the matrix synchronously activated the two phantom seeds, attacking from the front and rear, everyone would have been dragged into two nested consciousness corridors.
"The two phantom seeds have interconnected links," Gu Shen continued to probe for a moment, adding information. "There are fine hyphae connecting them, and their signals are synchronized. As soon as one is triggered, the other will follow within three seconds, leaving us no gap to deal with them separately."
Lu Heng immediately reported the coordinates and requested the psychiatric disposal team to bring dual-phantom seed suppression equipment.
This time, they didn't dare to guard and wait nearby as they had in the past. The squad retreated eighty meters backward, establishing a double safety perimeter. Lin Yan and Gu Shen took turns maintaining the perception lock: one probed while the other rested and rotated, avoiding a single person continuously consuming mental power.
During the rotation, Lin Yan closed his eyes to regulate his breathing. The core of his Sea of Consciousness was stable, without any stabbing pain. With Gu Shen sharing the pressure, he didn't have to bear the entire burden of discrimination alone, and the load was much lighter. He turned his head to look at Gu Shen, who was silently perceiving beside him, and understood in his heart that this barely maintained screening system on the Western Front relied entirely on these few third-tier cultivators supporting each other.
The wind on the wasteland gently rolled the sand and soil, quiet and still.
There were no charging scaled beasts to be seen, no psychic shrieks from priests to be heard. Yet beneath the soil, two sets of phantom seed anchor points were quietly linked, waiting for the prey to step into the snare.
About half an hour later, the disposal team's vehicles arrived. Instructor Wen got out of the car. Seeing the on-site markers, her expression was grave: "Paired linked phantom seeds; this is now a standardized deployment. The lab has just finished dismantling a set of similar samples and found that after the dual corridors overlap, the rate of mental power consumption is three times that of a single phantom seed. Even a fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness would find it hard to escape quickly if trapped inside."
Two suppressors were activated simultaneously. Two neutralizing waves enveloped the two phantom seed anchor points respectively, locking down the trigger links one after another. The engineers dug separately and extracted two semi-transparent phantom seed embryos covered in purple patterns, placing them into independent isolation boxes.
"Bring the samples back for comparative dismantling." Instructor Wen closed the lid of the box. "Tell all external squads: from now on, whenever a phantom seed is found, assume a second accompanying phantom seed exists nearby. Do not stay in place and wait for disposal before completing a full-area investigation."
The mission continued to advance.
Moving north along the supply old path, Lin Yan and Gu Shen alternated their perception. Over the next half-day, they found three more sets of paired phantom seeds. The layout logic of each set varied slightly, but the unchanging principle was one visible and one hidden, blocking both the path forward and the retreat route. The matrix's tactics had become highly templated: efficient, stable, and specifically targeting the behavioral habits of human patrol squads.
The sun slowly tilted westward, the gray, hazy sunset hugging the horizon of the wasteland.
The squad ended the day's investigation and returned. Everyone in the car was exhausted; Chen Ye leaned against the car window in silence. They had dug up eight phantom seeds in a single day, yet everyone knew in their hearts that this was merely a drop in the ocean of the countless seeds scattered across the wasteland.
Deep beneath the earth, in Rift No. 79.
The matrix received the feedback signals of phantom seeds being cleared, group after group.
It had finished recording the loss rate of the paired phantom seeds.
It did not stop the hyphae breeding embryos. A new round of layout plans was taking shape within the massive consciousness network.
Dual phantom seeds were merely a transition.
Next, it prepared to deploy a three-anchor linked phantom array. Three phantom seeds would form a triangular lock, with triple corridors nested within each other. Once the blockade circle was stepped into, the front, back, left, and right would all be sealed by the consciousness maze; not even the direction of retreat would exist.
A deeper layer of the cage was quietly taking shape between the underground rock strata.
End of Chapter.