Chapter 143: Simultaneous Assault by Web and Beasts
The morning gray fog, carrying the biting cold of the wasteland, rolled over the bastion's city walls. The spectrum data of the priests weaving the web, brought back by the reconnaissance squad, was delivered to the command center overnight. The intelligence room analyzed it through the night, and the conclusion was cold and glaring: this wide-area illusion web, hand-woven by the lizard priests, was on an entirely different level from the previous single-point, triangular, or staggered-timing phantom arrays. It was no longer a fixed trap; it was a dynamic psychic battlefield.
Just three days later, the red alert of the early warning base stations sounded across the entire Western Front without any warning.
It wasn't just one location; it was three.
Along the edge of the ten-kilometer quarantine line, three separate valleys and mining pit areas simultaneously captured priest-level psychic fluctuations. On the detection screens, massive, intertwined purple spiderweb graphs lit up one after another. The contiguous illusion webs were awakened.
When Lu Heng received the report, his face was solemn. He quickly issued assembly orders in the squad channel.
"This isn't a probe. The intelligence department has determined this is a coordinated action. Three giant illusion webs are activated simultaneously. Their goal isn't to annihilate scattered patrol squads, but to force us to deploy our remaining high-tier Sea of Consciousness forces to support them separately. The matrix and the priests know very well that we have too few third-tier cultivators available for duty. Once we are split up, we will be defeated piecemeal."
The command center's battle plan was filled with passivity.
The three illusion webs were distributed in the north, center, and south of the Western Front, far apart and unable to support each other. Of the four third-tier cultivators capable of going out, they could only be split into two pairs. Lin Yan was paired with Gu Shen to head to the central valley, while the other two third-tier cultivators rushed to the northern and southern locations respectively, each leading a combat squad.
"Remember the bottom line," Instructor Wen repeatedly emphasized during the brief pre-departure mobilization. "Prioritize locking onto the illusion web nodes from a distance; do not rashly go deep. There are priests regulating within the illusion web, and scaled beast clusters lying in ambush. Once your Sea of Consciousness cannot withstand the psychic pulling, retreat immediately. Do not endure it. We cannot afford to lose any Sea of Consciousness combat power to severe injuries right now."
The convoys drove out of the bastion in separate directions. Lin Yan, Gu Shen, Chen Ye, and Zhao Kai's squad headed straight for the Bone-Dry Valley in the center.
The valley was flanked by towering, severely weathered rock walls. The valley floor was piled with bones and rusted weapons left over from the beast tide battles of years past, which was how it got its name. The vehicles stopped on the high ground outside the warning line. Just as they set up the detector and Lin Yan released his perception threads, a dense, resilient psychic power wrapped around them head-on.
The entire illusion web was fully activated. Dozens of phantom seed nodes were scattered across the valley floor, and the priests' origin fluctuations lurked deep within the karst cave at the bottom of the valley, like a spider hiding in the center of its web.
"The entire web has been laid out," Lin Yan said, his voice tense. Static from psychic interference crackled in the earpiece. "The nodes can switch timing sequences at any time, and the priests can freely adjust the position of the corridors. Moreover, I sense a massive number of scaled beasts hidden in the rock crevices at the bottom of the valley. There are at least over twenty, mostly second-tier, with two third-tiers anchoring the formation."
"The illusion web traps the Sea of Consciousness, and the beast horde harvests the flesh. A standard coordinated tactic," Gu Shen simultaneously spread out his perception, sharing the psychic impact with Lin Yan on the left and right. "The northern and southern locations should have the same configuration. It wants to force us to fight the beast horde within the radiation range of the illusion web, enduring the looping illusions while fighting the scaled beasts."
Zhao Kai quickly adjusted the instrument's spectrum, trying to locate the priest's precise position inside the karst cave. "I can't get a stable signal from the priest. It keeps jumping between the illusion web nodes, using the hyphae to divert its own psychic fluctuations. It's hiding very well."
At that moment, the channel from the northern direction suddenly erupted with chaotic screams and gunfire.
The northern squad was in danger. While attempting to mark the nodes from a distance, the priest actively mobilized a local corridor. Two members instantly fell into the illusion, throwing the squad's formation into chaos. The lurking scaled beasts seized the opportunity to launch a charge. The third-tier cultivator leading them forcibly propped open a Sea of Consciousness barrier to cover their retreat. The communication was intermittent, and soon the signal grew faint.
"North requests urgent support! They've been dragged to the edge of the illusion web, and the beast horde is surrounding them!" The dispatcher's urgent shout echoed through all squad channels.
Gu Shen looked at Lin Yan, his eyes full of struggle. "We are still seven kilometers from the northern location; it's too late to get there. Moreover, once we leave the central high ground, the priest here will very likely immediately drive the entire illusion web to press toward the bastion."
If they supported, they wouldn't be able to save the people in the north; if they stayed put, they could only listen to their companions gradually falling into the abyss over the channel.
Not long after, the communication from the north fell completely silent.
The channel was filled with a suffocating quiet, with only the sporadic echoes of weapons slowly dissipating. No one spoke. Everyone knew the result in their hearts.
The priest in the central valley seemed to have sensed the loosening of human morale on this side. The psychic pressure of the illusion web suddenly increased. A faint, looping illusion began to expand outward, slowly approaching the ten-kilometer warning line. Countless repeating bones, broken rifles, and identical rock walls were infinitely replicated and extended within the illusion.
"It's pushing the radiation circle outward!" Chen Ye gripped his shock baton tightly, his gaze fixed dead-set on the bottom of the valley. "It wants to push the illusion web past the red line and directly touch the bastion's warning sentry posts."
"It cannot be allowed to continue advancing," Lu Heng ordered over the rear command channel. "Heavy firepower squad, get into position. Remote-guided bunker-buster shells, prioritize striking the core karst cave of the illusion web. Lin Yan, Gu Shen, you must continuously lock onto the priest's fluctuations and provide dynamic coordinates to the artillery."
The shells whistled over their heads, crashing into the karst cave area deep in the valley. The roaring vibrations shook the earth, and rubble, accompanied by billowing dust, shot into the sky.
But the next moment, Lin Yan realized something was wrong.
"It missed! The priest transferred its position using the illusion web nodes! It anticipated the direction of our artillery strike in advance and moved behind another node along the underground hyphae. There are only a few idle phantom seed anchor points left inside the karst cave."
The artillery fire overturned a section of rock strata, destroying over a dozen secondary nodes, but the entire illusion web did not collapse. The priest simply abandoned some of the outer nodes, and the remaining nodes quickly reorganized their links. The illusion web flowed again, and the pressure did not diminish in the slightest.
"It's not afraid of local damage," Gu Shen gritted his teeth, cold sweat beading on his forehead as he continuously fought against the incoming resonance waves. "This massive web has an extreme number of redundant nodes. Destroy a batch, and the rest can quickly fill the gaps. Artillery strikes alone are very hard to disable the core in one blow."
Low roars came from underground.
Receiving the priest's signal, the lurking scaled beast cluster surged out from the rock crevices and bone piles, charging toward the high ground along the valley floor. The gray-brown scales gleamed coldly under the hazy daylight, their sharp claws scraping against the rubble. Two larger third-tier scaled beasts anchored the rear of the beast horde.
"Prepare to engage!" Chen Ye and Zhao Kai quickly set up their weapons, hastily constructing simple cover at the edge of the high ground.
The psychic interference from the illusion web simultaneously pressed against the edge of the high ground.
The core of Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness trembled violently. That old hidden injury was fiercely tugged by the surging resonance impact, and a sharp, stabbing pain exploded through his consciousness. Countless layers of repeating bone illusions flashed past the edges of his vision. Gritting his teeth to guard his mind, he stabilized his own Sea of Consciousness to prevent it from being dragged into the corridor, while continuing to transmit new coordinates to the artillery.
Gu Shen was equally pale. He split a portion of his Sea of Consciousness to erect a thin, joint psychic barrier around the squad, helping everyone resist the pull of the illusion. But the priests' psychic power continuously poured in from all over the illusion web, and the barrier constantly twisted and cracked.
This was a double ordeal.
Their physical bodies had to withstand the charge of the scaled beasts, while their consciousness had to fight the endless looping illusions. As the beast horde rushed to the bottom of the high ground, the crisp sounds of shock batons colliding with scaled claws, gunfire, and the beasts' roars mingled together. Taking advantage of the visual dislocation caused by the illusion, a second-tier scaled beast pounced from the side rock wall, only to be fiercely smashed on the head by Chen Ye's baton. Foul-smelling black blood splattered across the weathered soil littered with bones.
But the beast horde was endless.
More fatally, every few seconds, the priest would switch the local corridor. One second, a squad member was facing the enemy head-on; the next second, their vision was pulled into an identical bone valley, unable to distinguish friend from foe or direction. A heavy firepower gunner momentarily lost focus and briefly fell into the illusion, pounced upon by a scaled beast, and fell to the ground screaming.
Suppressing the surging, agonizing pain in his Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yan continuously tracked the jumping spiritual origin of the priest. He understood clearly that the priest wasn't pursuing a frontal rout. It was merely relying on the illusion web to continuously consume their Sea of Consciousness and erode their mental power. Once the barrier shattered and everyone's consciousness collapsed, the beast horde would harvest the aftermath.
News arrived one after another from the north and south. The southern squad barely held back the pressure, but one member suffered severe Sea of Consciousness trauma and lost their combat capability. The northern squad had lost all contact.
Time ticked by, and the battle in the central valley fell into a prolonged stalemate. Heavy firepower continuously poured down; destroy a batch of nodes, and the illusion web would reorganize. A few beasts fell, and the ones behind them continued to charge up over their companions' corpses. They could hold this high ground and prevent the illusion web from crossing the warning line, but they had no way to grab the priest hiding in the center of the spiderweb and completely end this massive web.
Not until dusk fell did the underground priest slowly withdraw its offensive.
The resonance intensity of the illusion web gradually dropped. The outward-expanding radiation circle stopped just inside the warning line and ceased its advance. The remaining scaled beasts, under the priest's summons, orderly retreated into the rock crevices to lie dormant, leaving behind only scattered scaled beast corpses, human casualties, and broken weapons.
It did not choose to fight to the death at dusk.
The goal of attrition had been achieved. It had watched humanity continuously suffer injuries and casualties, witnessing the limits of high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators under the pincer attack of the illusion web and the beast horde. This coordinated assault today was not to break through the bastion; it was a complete efficacy test.
"They've withdrawn," Gu Shen exhaled a long breath, retracting the Sea of Consciousness barrier that was on the verge of collapse, his face pale. "They took the initiative to stop, leaving this illusion web on standby to continue."
Lin Yan pressed his forehead, the throbbing pain of the hidden injury lingering for a long time. He looked at the dead, silent Bone-Dry Valley in the twilight. That invisible, massive psychic spiderweb was still quietly laid at the bottom of the valley, lying dormant, waiting for the next opportunity to activate.
A summary battle report came over the dispatch channel.
Three simultaneous assaults: the northern squad was completely annihilated, the southern squad had two severely injured, and the central side had one artilleryman killed and multiple people with mild psychic damage. Of the three illusion webs, only a small portion of the outer nodes were destroyed; all the cores were preserved.
The matrix had obtained the data it wanted: the simultaneous assault by the web and the beasts was an effective means of inflicting casualties.
Deep within Rift No. 79, all battlefield information flowed back along the hyphae. The massive fungal carpet recorded the attrition, the casualties, and humanity's counterattack methods from this coordinated offensive.
The next step would no longer be three isolated illusion webs.
It would make the multiple priest illusion webs scattered within the quarantine zone complete cross-regional resonance linkage, weaving a massive psychic blockade curtain that shrouded the entire frontline of the Western Front.
Just three days later, the red alert of the early warning base stations sounded across the entire Western Front without any warning.
It wasn't just one location; it was three.
Along the edge of the ten-kilometer quarantine line, three separate valleys and mining pit areas simultaneously captured priest-level psychic fluctuations. On the detection screens, massive, intertwined purple spiderweb graphs lit up one after another. The contiguous illusion webs were awakened.
When Lu Heng received the report, his face was solemn. He quickly issued assembly orders in the squad channel.
"This isn't a probe. The intelligence department has determined this is a coordinated action. Three giant illusion webs are activated simultaneously. Their goal isn't to annihilate scattered patrol squads, but to force us to deploy our remaining high-tier Sea of Consciousness forces to support them separately. The matrix and the priests know very well that we have too few third-tier cultivators available for duty. Once we are split up, we will be defeated piecemeal."
The command center's battle plan was filled with passivity.
The three illusion webs were distributed in the north, center, and south of the Western Front, far apart and unable to support each other. Of the four third-tier cultivators capable of going out, they could only be split into two pairs. Lin Yan was paired with Gu Shen to head to the central valley, while the other two third-tier cultivators rushed to the northern and southern locations respectively, each leading a combat squad.
"Remember the bottom line," Instructor Wen repeatedly emphasized during the brief pre-departure mobilization. "Prioritize locking onto the illusion web nodes from a distance; do not rashly go deep. There are priests regulating within the illusion web, and scaled beast clusters lying in ambush. Once your Sea of Consciousness cannot withstand the psychic pulling, retreat immediately. Do not endure it. We cannot afford to lose any Sea of Consciousness combat power to severe injuries right now."
The convoys drove out of the bastion in separate directions. Lin Yan, Gu Shen, Chen Ye, and Zhao Kai's squad headed straight for the Bone-Dry Valley in the center.
The valley was flanked by towering, severely weathered rock walls. The valley floor was piled with bones and rusted weapons left over from the beast tide battles of years past, which was how it got its name. The vehicles stopped on the high ground outside the warning line. Just as they set up the detector and Lin Yan released his perception threads, a dense, resilient psychic power wrapped around them head-on.
The entire illusion web was fully activated. Dozens of phantom seed nodes were scattered across the valley floor, and the priests' origin fluctuations lurked deep within the karst cave at the bottom of the valley, like a spider hiding in the center of its web.
"The entire web has been laid out," Lin Yan said, his voice tense. Static from psychic interference crackled in the earpiece. "The nodes can switch timing sequences at any time, and the priests can freely adjust the position of the corridors. Moreover, I sense a massive number of scaled beasts hidden in the rock crevices at the bottom of the valley. There are at least over twenty, mostly second-tier, with two third-tiers anchoring the formation."
"The illusion web traps the Sea of Consciousness, and the beast horde harvests the flesh. A standard coordinated tactic," Gu Shen simultaneously spread out his perception, sharing the psychic impact with Lin Yan on the left and right. "The northern and southern locations should have the same configuration. It wants to force us to fight the beast horde within the radiation range of the illusion web, enduring the looping illusions while fighting the scaled beasts."
Zhao Kai quickly adjusted the instrument's spectrum, trying to locate the priest's precise position inside the karst cave. "I can't get a stable signal from the priest. It keeps jumping between the illusion web nodes, using the hyphae to divert its own psychic fluctuations. It's hiding very well."
At that moment, the channel from the northern direction suddenly erupted with chaotic screams and gunfire.
The northern squad was in danger. While attempting to mark the nodes from a distance, the priest actively mobilized a local corridor. Two members instantly fell into the illusion, throwing the squad's formation into chaos. The lurking scaled beasts seized the opportunity to launch a charge. The third-tier cultivator leading them forcibly propped open a Sea of Consciousness barrier to cover their retreat. The communication was intermittent, and soon the signal grew faint.
"North requests urgent support! They've been dragged to the edge of the illusion web, and the beast horde is surrounding them!" The dispatcher's urgent shout echoed through all squad channels.
Gu Shen looked at Lin Yan, his eyes full of struggle. "We are still seven kilometers from the northern location; it's too late to get there. Moreover, once we leave the central high ground, the priest here will very likely immediately drive the entire illusion web to press toward the bastion."
If they supported, they wouldn't be able to save the people in the north; if they stayed put, they could only listen to their companions gradually falling into the abyss over the channel.
Not long after, the communication from the north fell completely silent.
The channel was filled with a suffocating quiet, with only the sporadic echoes of weapons slowly dissipating. No one spoke. Everyone knew the result in their hearts.
The priest in the central valley seemed to have sensed the loosening of human morale on this side. The psychic pressure of the illusion web suddenly increased. A faint, looping illusion began to expand outward, slowly approaching the ten-kilometer warning line. Countless repeating bones, broken rifles, and identical rock walls were infinitely replicated and extended within the illusion.
"It's pushing the radiation circle outward!" Chen Ye gripped his shock baton tightly, his gaze fixed dead-set on the bottom of the valley. "It wants to push the illusion web past the red line and directly touch the bastion's warning sentry posts."
"It cannot be allowed to continue advancing," Lu Heng ordered over the rear command channel. "Heavy firepower squad, get into position. Remote-guided bunker-buster shells, prioritize striking the core karst cave of the illusion web. Lin Yan, Gu Shen, you must continuously lock onto the priest's fluctuations and provide dynamic coordinates to the artillery."
The shells whistled over their heads, crashing into the karst cave area deep in the valley. The roaring vibrations shook the earth, and rubble, accompanied by billowing dust, shot into the sky.
But the next moment, Lin Yan realized something was wrong.
"It missed! The priest transferred its position using the illusion web nodes! It anticipated the direction of our artillery strike in advance and moved behind another node along the underground hyphae. There are only a few idle phantom seed anchor points left inside the karst cave."
The artillery fire overturned a section of rock strata, destroying over a dozen secondary nodes, but the entire illusion web did not collapse. The priest simply abandoned some of the outer nodes, and the remaining nodes quickly reorganized their links. The illusion web flowed again, and the pressure did not diminish in the slightest.
"It's not afraid of local damage," Gu Shen gritted his teeth, cold sweat beading on his forehead as he continuously fought against the incoming resonance waves. "This massive web has an extreme number of redundant nodes. Destroy a batch, and the rest can quickly fill the gaps. Artillery strikes alone are very hard to disable the core in one blow."
Low roars came from underground.
Receiving the priest's signal, the lurking scaled beast cluster surged out from the rock crevices and bone piles, charging toward the high ground along the valley floor. The gray-brown scales gleamed coldly under the hazy daylight, their sharp claws scraping against the rubble. Two larger third-tier scaled beasts anchored the rear of the beast horde.
"Prepare to engage!" Chen Ye and Zhao Kai quickly set up their weapons, hastily constructing simple cover at the edge of the high ground.
The psychic interference from the illusion web simultaneously pressed against the edge of the high ground.
The core of Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness trembled violently. That old hidden injury was fiercely tugged by the surging resonance impact, and a sharp, stabbing pain exploded through his consciousness. Countless layers of repeating bone illusions flashed past the edges of his vision. Gritting his teeth to guard his mind, he stabilized his own Sea of Consciousness to prevent it from being dragged into the corridor, while continuing to transmit new coordinates to the artillery.
Gu Shen was equally pale. He split a portion of his Sea of Consciousness to erect a thin, joint psychic barrier around the squad, helping everyone resist the pull of the illusion. But the priests' psychic power continuously poured in from all over the illusion web, and the barrier constantly twisted and cracked.
This was a double ordeal.
Their physical bodies had to withstand the charge of the scaled beasts, while their consciousness had to fight the endless looping illusions. As the beast horde rushed to the bottom of the high ground, the crisp sounds of shock batons colliding with scaled claws, gunfire, and the beasts' roars mingled together. Taking advantage of the visual dislocation caused by the illusion, a second-tier scaled beast pounced from the side rock wall, only to be fiercely smashed on the head by Chen Ye's baton. Foul-smelling black blood splattered across the weathered soil littered with bones.
But the beast horde was endless.
More fatally, every few seconds, the priest would switch the local corridor. One second, a squad member was facing the enemy head-on; the next second, their vision was pulled into an identical bone valley, unable to distinguish friend from foe or direction. A heavy firepower gunner momentarily lost focus and briefly fell into the illusion, pounced upon by a scaled beast, and fell to the ground screaming.
Suppressing the surging, agonizing pain in his Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yan continuously tracked the jumping spiritual origin of the priest. He understood clearly that the priest wasn't pursuing a frontal rout. It was merely relying on the illusion web to continuously consume their Sea of Consciousness and erode their mental power. Once the barrier shattered and everyone's consciousness collapsed, the beast horde would harvest the aftermath.
News arrived one after another from the north and south. The southern squad barely held back the pressure, but one member suffered severe Sea of Consciousness trauma and lost their combat capability. The northern squad had lost all contact.
Time ticked by, and the battle in the central valley fell into a prolonged stalemate. Heavy firepower continuously poured down; destroy a batch of nodes, and the illusion web would reorganize. A few beasts fell, and the ones behind them continued to charge up over their companions' corpses. They could hold this high ground and prevent the illusion web from crossing the warning line, but they had no way to grab the priest hiding in the center of the spiderweb and completely end this massive web.
Not until dusk fell did the underground priest slowly withdraw its offensive.
The resonance intensity of the illusion web gradually dropped. The outward-expanding radiation circle stopped just inside the warning line and ceased its advance. The remaining scaled beasts, under the priest's summons, orderly retreated into the rock crevices to lie dormant, leaving behind only scattered scaled beast corpses, human casualties, and broken weapons.
It did not choose to fight to the death at dusk.
The goal of attrition had been achieved. It had watched humanity continuously suffer injuries and casualties, witnessing the limits of high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators under the pincer attack of the illusion web and the beast horde. This coordinated assault today was not to break through the bastion; it was a complete efficacy test.
"They've withdrawn," Gu Shen exhaled a long breath, retracting the Sea of Consciousness barrier that was on the verge of collapse, his face pale. "They took the initiative to stop, leaving this illusion web on standby to continue."
Lin Yan pressed his forehead, the throbbing pain of the hidden injury lingering for a long time. He looked at the dead, silent Bone-Dry Valley in the twilight. That invisible, massive psychic spiderweb was still quietly laid at the bottom of the valley, lying dormant, waiting for the next opportunity to activate.
A summary battle report came over the dispatch channel.
Three simultaneous assaults: the northern squad was completely annihilated, the southern squad had two severely injured, and the central side had one artilleryman killed and multiple people with mild psychic damage. Of the three illusion webs, only a small portion of the outer nodes were destroyed; all the cores were preserved.
The matrix had obtained the data it wanted: the simultaneous assault by the web and the beasts was an effective means of inflicting casualties.
Deep within Rift No. 79, all battlefield information flowed back along the hyphae. The massive fungal carpet recorded the attrition, the casualties, and humanity's counterattack methods from this coordinated offensive.
The next step would no longer be three isolated illusion webs.
It would make the multiple priest illusion webs scattered within the quarantine zone complete cross-regional resonance linkage, weaving a massive psychic blockade curtain that shrouded the entire frontline of the Western Front.