Chapter 152: The Mad Tide
Beneath the hazy, gray daylight, the illusions on the wasteland rippled and expanded outward in concentric circles, like a stagnant pond struck by a stone.
Trees twisted, dirt mounds shifted, and the once-clear topography of the buffer zone was completely rewritten by the illusion web. As far as the eye could see, there were only floating, shifting phantoms. The bodies of the scaled beasts were hidden within the folds of light and shadow, slowly pressing forward. They did not roar; their silence was eerie. The only sound was the faint, gritty friction of their hooves and claws grinding against gravel, drifting on the wind to the base of the city walls.
"Preliminary count estimates at least two hundred or more," Zhao Kai's voice came through the communication channel from inside the detection tower. On the spectrum light screen, dense clusters of signals had merged into a single mass. "There are second-tier scaled beasts mixed in. I've captured synchronous frequency-adjustment signals from three priest fulcrums; they are coordinating to control the illusions across the entire area."
Lu Heng stood behind the bunker at the main sentry post, his hand resting on the shock communicator, his expression cold and hard. "Do not be deceived by the illusions. Prioritize locking onto real targets. Rifle squads, set up layered interception. Shock squads, keep your eyes on the scaled beasts that break through to close range. Lin Yan, Gu Shen, do not try to forcefully spread your barriers across the entire defense line. Card positions in segments; wherever the illusion concentration is highest, suppress it there first."
"Understood," Lin Yan replied in a deep voice.
He steadily pushed his Sea of Consciousness power outward, sending a layer of soft psychic waves forward to tear at the illusions shrouding the soldiers' eyes. But the moment the power was released, the old wound within the core of his Sea of Consciousness immediately transmitted its familiar, sharp pain. It was as if a blunt knife were repeatedly grinding inside the fissure. His breath hitched slightly. Not daring to push his power to the absolute limit, he could only firmly hold the section of the defense line he was responsible for.
He knew his own limits. This injury would never disappear, and he could not afford the price of overloading his Sea of Consciousness.
On the other side, Gu Shen synchronously erected a barrier, cold sweat quickly beading on his forehead. Both of them were third-tiers, bearing the continuous wash of the curtain's corrosive breath together, their pressure multiplying exponentially.
"Third segment sentry post on the left! The illusion is pressing in! Scaled beasts are using the phantoms to close in!" a sentry roared.
Lin Yan immediately shifted the direction of his Sea of Consciousness, tilting the waves to the left.
The distorted scene trembled violently. The phantom image of the false dirt hill shattered, revealing four scaled beasts hiding behind it. One of them, a second-tier scaled beast with dark brown scales and a slightly trembling dorsal fin, took the lead and accelerated into a fierce charge. Three prepared soldiers immediately surrounded it. Shock weapons slammed into the joints of its scales. A massive explosion erupted, sparks flying everywhere. The scaled beast let out a pained roar, its thick tail sweeping viciously. A soldier, failing to dodge in time, was struck in the chest. Letting out a muffled groan, he was sent flying backward, crashing heavily into a pile of gravel.
"Wounded, fall back! Replacements, fill the gap!"
Artillery fire trailed crimson tails as it tore through the air, accurately striking a phantom seed node marked by Zhao Kai. The explosion kicked up a sky full of dirt, and the purple resonance waves trembled violently. Yet, mere seconds later, the surrounding nodes quickly diverted the load, and the fluctuations stabilized once again. The priests calmly tuned the links deep within the curtain; destroying a single node could not shake the entire network.
"They aren't afraid of losing nodes," Gu Shen said, communicating with Lin Yan while continuously dispelling the illusions. "The priests' goal is to use the illusions to continuously drain the Sea of Consciousness of the two of us. As soon as we collapse, all the soldiers on the entire defense line will be swallowed by the illusions."
Lin Yan gritted his teeth to maintain his Sea of Consciousness output. The pain grew stronger with each wave, and a faint black haze began to creep into the edges of his vision. He forced himself to focus entirely on the flowing resonance waves, distinguishing the true from the false, not daring to relax for even a moment.
He had seen the fate of too many soldiers who fell into illusions: standing in place in a daze, swinging blades at their comrades, or fighting frantically against thin air, only to be quietly torn apart by approaching scaled beasts. He could not let that happen in his assigned sector.
A batch of scaled beasts reached the front of the bunkers. Shock batons, firearms, and bayonets intertwined, and the stench of blood quickly permeated the air. Roars, gunshots, and the shrill screams of the scaled beasts merged into a chaotic cacophony. Chen Ye led the assault squad, weaving through the gaps in the defense line, specifically targeting the scaled beasts that broke through the blockade. His baton slammed heavily into the skulls of the beasts, each strike exhausting his entire body's strength.
But the scaled beasts were endless. As one batch fell, the next batch continued to advance, concealed by new illusions.
Time ticked by.
The fatigue in Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness accumulated continuously. The stabbing pain from the fissure shifted from a sustained ache to bursts of agonizing pain. For a moment, his perception nearly lost control, and the outwardly spreading barrier swayed violently. Two nearby soldiers' vision blurred, and they were nearly deceived by a suddenly manifesting illusion.
His heart tightened. He hastily reined in his power, circulating the ancient martial arts mental technique passed down by his master, taking a deep breath to steady his consciousness.
He could not fall.
Not now, at least.
He had no backup plan to rely on, and there was no miracle of his wound healing. He could only rely on his willpower to endure this trauma that felt as innate as his own existence.
"Lin Yan, your signal fluctuations are unstable! Know your limits!" Instructor Wen's voice came through the channel. She had been monitoring the Sea of Consciousness states of both of them from the rear. "I've allocated stabilization agents here. As soon as this wave of attacks slows down slightly, I'll have them sent to you. They can only relieve the pain; they cannot cure the injury."
"I know," Lin Yan replied briefly.
Of course he knew. Everyone knew. The stabilization agents were merely a temporary buffer. The fissure was rooted in the very origin of his Sea of Consciousness; there was no way to erase it.
The battle remained deadlocked.
The mad tide of over two hundred scaled beasts, under the cover of the priests' illusions, repeatedly assaulted the city wall defense line. Human soldiers relied on their fortifications to desperately hold them back, yet people were continuously wounded and fell. Stretchers were transported backward in an endless stream. The wasteland was covered in the foul-smelling corpses of the scaled beasts, while deep within the curtain, sporadic signals of scaled beasts were still slowly advancing forward.
They were not pressing all their forces at once.
They were committing troops in batches. When one wave was exhausted, another was released. A continuous pulling, continuous consuming.
Zhao Kai suddenly shouted urgently, "Watch out! On the north side, there are new scaled beast cluster signals! The priests are mobilizing reserve forces!"
Lu Heng's face turned iron-gray. "The matrix never intended to overwhelm us in a single wave. It is using this place as a millstone, slowly grinding away our combat power!"
Lin Yan raised his eyes to gaze at that boundless, gray-dark curtain.
His Sea of Consciousness continued to tremble, the old wound faintly roaring, constantly reminding him of the limitations of his strength. He was currently only a third-tier. The distance to the ninth tier, the pinnacle of human cognition, was a road so long it seemed to have no end. Every step on this path required breaking through life-and-death perils, and the scars would accompany him all the way, without granting him a single ounce of favoritism.
The bloody wind rolled across the wasteland, and the illusions rose once more.
A new wave of scaled beasts, borrowing the hazy phantoms, slowly walked out from the darkness.
End of Chapter.
Trees twisted, dirt mounds shifted, and the once-clear topography of the buffer zone was completely rewritten by the illusion web. As far as the eye could see, there were only floating, shifting phantoms. The bodies of the scaled beasts were hidden within the folds of light and shadow, slowly pressing forward. They did not roar; their silence was eerie. The only sound was the faint, gritty friction of their hooves and claws grinding against gravel, drifting on the wind to the base of the city walls.
"Preliminary count estimates at least two hundred or more," Zhao Kai's voice came through the communication channel from inside the detection tower. On the spectrum light screen, dense clusters of signals had merged into a single mass. "There are second-tier scaled beasts mixed in. I've captured synchronous frequency-adjustment signals from three priest fulcrums; they are coordinating to control the illusions across the entire area."
Lu Heng stood behind the bunker at the main sentry post, his hand resting on the shock communicator, his expression cold and hard. "Do not be deceived by the illusions. Prioritize locking onto real targets. Rifle squads, set up layered interception. Shock squads, keep your eyes on the scaled beasts that break through to close range. Lin Yan, Gu Shen, do not try to forcefully spread your barriers across the entire defense line. Card positions in segments; wherever the illusion concentration is highest, suppress it there first."
"Understood," Lin Yan replied in a deep voice.
He steadily pushed his Sea of Consciousness power outward, sending a layer of soft psychic waves forward to tear at the illusions shrouding the soldiers' eyes. But the moment the power was released, the old wound within the core of his Sea of Consciousness immediately transmitted its familiar, sharp pain. It was as if a blunt knife were repeatedly grinding inside the fissure. His breath hitched slightly. Not daring to push his power to the absolute limit, he could only firmly hold the section of the defense line he was responsible for.
He knew his own limits. This injury would never disappear, and he could not afford the price of overloading his Sea of Consciousness.
On the other side, Gu Shen synchronously erected a barrier, cold sweat quickly beading on his forehead. Both of them were third-tiers, bearing the continuous wash of the curtain's corrosive breath together, their pressure multiplying exponentially.
"Third segment sentry post on the left! The illusion is pressing in! Scaled beasts are using the phantoms to close in!" a sentry roared.
Lin Yan immediately shifted the direction of his Sea of Consciousness, tilting the waves to the left.
The distorted scene trembled violently. The phantom image of the false dirt hill shattered, revealing four scaled beasts hiding behind it. One of them, a second-tier scaled beast with dark brown scales and a slightly trembling dorsal fin, took the lead and accelerated into a fierce charge. Three prepared soldiers immediately surrounded it. Shock weapons slammed into the joints of its scales. A massive explosion erupted, sparks flying everywhere. The scaled beast let out a pained roar, its thick tail sweeping viciously. A soldier, failing to dodge in time, was struck in the chest. Letting out a muffled groan, he was sent flying backward, crashing heavily into a pile of gravel.
"Wounded, fall back! Replacements, fill the gap!"
Artillery fire trailed crimson tails as it tore through the air, accurately striking a phantom seed node marked by Zhao Kai. The explosion kicked up a sky full of dirt, and the purple resonance waves trembled violently. Yet, mere seconds later, the surrounding nodes quickly diverted the load, and the fluctuations stabilized once again. The priests calmly tuned the links deep within the curtain; destroying a single node could not shake the entire network.
"They aren't afraid of losing nodes," Gu Shen said, communicating with Lin Yan while continuously dispelling the illusions. "The priests' goal is to use the illusions to continuously drain the Sea of Consciousness of the two of us. As soon as we collapse, all the soldiers on the entire defense line will be swallowed by the illusions."
Lin Yan gritted his teeth to maintain his Sea of Consciousness output. The pain grew stronger with each wave, and a faint black haze began to creep into the edges of his vision. He forced himself to focus entirely on the flowing resonance waves, distinguishing the true from the false, not daring to relax for even a moment.
He had seen the fate of too many soldiers who fell into illusions: standing in place in a daze, swinging blades at their comrades, or fighting frantically against thin air, only to be quietly torn apart by approaching scaled beasts. He could not let that happen in his assigned sector.
A batch of scaled beasts reached the front of the bunkers. Shock batons, firearms, and bayonets intertwined, and the stench of blood quickly permeated the air. Roars, gunshots, and the shrill screams of the scaled beasts merged into a chaotic cacophony. Chen Ye led the assault squad, weaving through the gaps in the defense line, specifically targeting the scaled beasts that broke through the blockade. His baton slammed heavily into the skulls of the beasts, each strike exhausting his entire body's strength.
But the scaled beasts were endless. As one batch fell, the next batch continued to advance, concealed by new illusions.
Time ticked by.
The fatigue in Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness accumulated continuously. The stabbing pain from the fissure shifted from a sustained ache to bursts of agonizing pain. For a moment, his perception nearly lost control, and the outwardly spreading barrier swayed violently. Two nearby soldiers' vision blurred, and they were nearly deceived by a suddenly manifesting illusion.
His heart tightened. He hastily reined in his power, circulating the ancient martial arts mental technique passed down by his master, taking a deep breath to steady his consciousness.
He could not fall.
Not now, at least.
He had no backup plan to rely on, and there was no miracle of his wound healing. He could only rely on his willpower to endure this trauma that felt as innate as his own existence.
"Lin Yan, your signal fluctuations are unstable! Know your limits!" Instructor Wen's voice came through the channel. She had been monitoring the Sea of Consciousness states of both of them from the rear. "I've allocated stabilization agents here. As soon as this wave of attacks slows down slightly, I'll have them sent to you. They can only relieve the pain; they cannot cure the injury."
"I know," Lin Yan replied briefly.
Of course he knew. Everyone knew. The stabilization agents were merely a temporary buffer. The fissure was rooted in the very origin of his Sea of Consciousness; there was no way to erase it.
The battle remained deadlocked.
The mad tide of over two hundred scaled beasts, under the cover of the priests' illusions, repeatedly assaulted the city wall defense line. Human soldiers relied on their fortifications to desperately hold them back, yet people were continuously wounded and fell. Stretchers were transported backward in an endless stream. The wasteland was covered in the foul-smelling corpses of the scaled beasts, while deep within the curtain, sporadic signals of scaled beasts were still slowly advancing forward.
They were not pressing all their forces at once.
They were committing troops in batches. When one wave was exhausted, another was released. A continuous pulling, continuous consuming.
Zhao Kai suddenly shouted urgently, "Watch out! On the north side, there are new scaled beast cluster signals! The priests are mobilizing reserve forces!"
Lu Heng's face turned iron-gray. "The matrix never intended to overwhelm us in a single wave. It is using this place as a millstone, slowly grinding away our combat power!"
Lin Yan raised his eyes to gaze at that boundless, gray-dark curtain.
His Sea of Consciousness continued to tremble, the old wound faintly roaring, constantly reminding him of the limitations of his strength. He was currently only a third-tier. The distance to the ninth tier, the pinnacle of human cognition, was a road so long it seemed to have no end. Every step on this path required breaking through life-and-death perils, and the scars would accompany him all the way, without granting him a single ounce of favoritism.
The bloody wind rolled across the wasteland, and the illusions rose once more.
A new wave of scaled beasts, borrowing the hazy phantoms, slowly walked out from the darkness.
End of Chapter.