Chapter 155: The Frequency Band
Night wrapped around the West Bastion layer by layer. The searchlights on the city walls swept back and forth, their beams crashing into the twisted fog at the boundary of the curtain. Like stones thrown into a mud pit, the light was easily swallowed, unable to illuminate the deeper wasteland.
The duty roster had been arranged according to their previously discussed plan. Gu Shen took the first watch, and Lin Yan was granted a full period of rest for this shift. Yet, he couldn't truly sleep. The corrosive breath was omnipresent; even hiding inside the dormitory built of thick concrete, the faint psychic disturbance still seeped in through the cracks in the walls. From time to time, fragmented, illusory whispers would ring in his ears, only to vanish the moment he focused on them.
Lin Yan leaned against the wall, his fingertips pressing against his brow as he slowly circulated the ancient martial arts breathing technique, soothing his turbulent Sea of Consciousness bit by bit.
The pain from the fissure hadn't disappeared. Under the regulation of his breathing, it had merely been suppressed to a barely tolerable degree. He had long been accustomed to this accompanying torment, harboring not a single illusion in his heart that this scar would heal on its own. Everyone who had seen the waveform of his Sea of Consciousness—Instructor Wen, the war zone's Sea of Consciousness physicians, Gu Shen—had all reached the exact same conclusion: an origin tear, permanent damage, incurable.
The communication earpiece had been quiet for a long time before Zhao Kai's lowered voice finally came through, carrying a trace of suppressed excitement.
"I caught it again. The same shifted frequency band as at dusk. The duration is extremely short, only about seven seconds."
Lin Yan immediately sat up straight. "Are you sure it's not false noise generated by the illusion web?"
"I've repeatedly compared the spectral characteristics." Zhao Kai's voice was weary but resolute. "When the priests adjust the illusion web, the false signals carry fixed resonance burrs. This one is different. It is a brief vacuum gap that appears when the entire network switches node loads. It's like a tightly stretched net; the threads intertwine, and for a fleeting moment, a tiny void appears between the meshes."
"Seven seconds," Lin Yan repeated in a low voice.
Seven seconds was far too short.
To pierce through the layers of the illusion web and reach the outer perimeter of Rift No. 79, even if the squad sprinted at full speed, it would be nowhere near enough.
"It's not a fixed window," Zhao Kai continued to explain. "I speculate that whenever the priest cluster adjusts its load and rotates its fulcrums, such a frequency blank will randomly burst forth. There is no pattern, and the intervals are random. Sometimes it happens once every ten-odd minutes; sometimes we have to wait three or four hours. Moreover, this gap only appears at specific coordinate points. The position drifts. We can catch it, but it's very hard to predict."
Lu Heng's voice joined in through the earpiece: "Instructor Wen and I just discussed this. If we are truly going to send a reconnaissance squad, we cannot rely on a single blank window to pierce all the way through. We can only catch multiple consecutive frequency gaps and advance in stages. Catch one gap, rush forward a segment, immediately lie dormant, and wait for the next opportunity. The risk will multiply. If there is even a single misjudgment and we get locked by the illusion web, the entire squad will be trapped in the illusion."
"The squad personnel have been preliminarily shortlisted," Lu Heng paused. "Chen Ye will lead four elite assault team members, responsible for close-quarters combat. The Sea of Consciousness cultivator leading the squad will be chosen between you and Gu Shen."
The dormitory fell silent for a moment.
Lin Yan pondered in silence.
Gu Shen's Sea of Consciousness foundation was solid, with no hidden origin injuries. Under the same consumption, his endurance and ability to resist backlash were far superior to Lin Yan's. Conversely, in the countless previous encounters with the illusion web, Lin Yan possessed a sensitivity to the priests' resonance rhythms and illusionary deception tactics that others lacked. During the Battle of Bone-Dry Valley, he had struggled to survive within the illusion, repeatedly distinguishing between the true and the false. This experience was bought with his life.
But the price was the fissure that forever lay within his Sea of Consciousness.
Once deep inside the curtain, the concentration of the corrosive breath would be several times higher than outside the defense line. The continuous resonance wash would frantically tear at his wound. While other cultivators would only suffer continuous Sea of Consciousness fatigue, he would endure origin-level tearing every single second. If the fissure exceeded his tolerance threshold, he would instantly lose consciousness, becoming the squad's greatest burden, and potentially dragging everyone into the illusion with him.
"I need to talk to Gu Shen," Lin Yan said.
"Understood. Just give us an answer before dawn," Lu Heng replied before cutting the communication.
Lin Yan stood up and walked out of the dormitory. The bastion was not peaceful at night. Patrol soldiers were stationed at regular intervals along the streets. In the resettlement areas, many refugees huddled together, afraid to turn off the lights, their low sobs drifting on the wind. The nightmares brought by the corrosive breath had become the norm; many were terrified of closing their eyes, terrified of plunging into that boundless, dark illusion.
He ascended the city walls and found Gu Shen, who was currently on watch.
Gu Shen was half-closing his eyes, his Sea of Consciousness spread out to maintain the vigilance barrier, his face looking pale under the searchlight. Sensing Lin Yan's approach, he slowly retracted a portion of his perception.
"Heard about the reconnaissance mission Lu Heng mentioned?" Gu Shen spoke first.
"Mhm," Lin Yan nodded. "The choice for the squad leader is between the two of us."
Gu Shen looked toward the heavy curtain in the distance. Deep in the wasteland, the scaled beasts lay dormant, and the priests hid in the shadows.
"In terms of Sea of Consciousness stability, I am more suitable than you. That injury of yours is a fatal flaw that cannot be bypassed. The corrosive breath inside the curtain will continuously gnaw at your fissure. Before you even encounter scaled beasts or priests, the continuous wash along the way could cause you to collapse." Gu Shen spoke bluntly, without beating around the bush. "I don't want us to finally grasp a sliver of hope, only to have the entire squad perish inside because of a Sea of Consciousness collapse."
Lin Yan did not refute. These were the truth, and he knew it in his heart as well.
"But I am more sensitive to the changes in the illusion web," Lin Yan said slowly. "At Bone-Dry Valley, and in every previous round of defense line confrontations, I can detect the anomalies in many of the priests' illusion traps earlier than you can. I seem to be able to capture the flaws in the fluctuations of the ancient lizard progeny's psychic frequencies more easily."
"Sensitivity cannot buy you a margin for error," Gu Shen gently shook his head. "Once the fissure ruptures, no amount of perception will matter."
The two stood side by side at the parapet, silently gazing at the curtain that隔绝 (sealed off) all truth.
They both knew the weight of this reconnaissance mission. The six major bastions had been ground to their absolute limit. Ammunition, casualties, and the reserves of Sea of Consciousness cultivators were dropping every single day. If they continued to passively defend to the death, eventually, one defense line would completely give out. They needed to obtain intelligence on the mother nest, find the layout of the priest cluster, the rules of scaled beast incubation, and find a true fulcrum for a counterattack.
But this path was walking on the edge of a blade.
"Let's go deduce the route with Lu Heng and Instructor Wen," Lin Yan finally said. "Lay out the risks of both plans completely. If it is ultimately decided that I go, I will strictly control my Sea of Consciousness output and not forcefully overload myself. If it is decided that you go, I will stay on the Western Front, hold the defense line, and hold out during the time you are gone."
Gu Shen gave a soft acknowledgment.
The sky slowly turned a grayish-white; the long night was nearing its end.
Just then, Zhao Kai's alarm suddenly exploded through the channel:
"Attention! The frequency band on the north side of the curtain is fluctuating again! It's not a blank window! The priests are concentrating their frequency adjustments; they are adding psychic load to the illusion web nodes at the forefront of the Western Front!"
Lin Yan and Gu Shen's expressions instantly turned solemn. They turned their heads in unison to look toward the wasteland.
The previously silent surface of the curtain began to churn and stack with purple waves, layer upon layer. This was no longer a scattered probe. The priests were pre-adjusting the phantom array in advance; the warm-up for a new wave of attacks had already begun.
"All personnel on alert!" Lu Heng's command swiftly spread across the entire defense line. "All positions, return to combat stations!"
The soldiers on the city walls immediately sprang into motion. The heavy artillery recalibrated their firing angles, the shock weapons were powered on, and the low-frequency hum of their vibrations dispersed through the air.
Standing at the boundary between the morning light and the darkness, Lin Yan felt the distant resonance in his Sea of Consciousness. The fissure had sensed it in advance, and a fine, lingering pain slowly rose, silently reminding him of the eternal shackle upon him.
He was still infinitely far from the ninth tier. The road ahead was long, and life and death were unpredictable. And this scar would follow him, accompanying him to face one endless, bitter battle after another.
Beneath the curtain, the net of the alien race had tightened once again.
End of Chapter.
The duty roster had been arranged according to their previously discussed plan. Gu Shen took the first watch, and Lin Yan was granted a full period of rest for this shift. Yet, he couldn't truly sleep. The corrosive breath was omnipresent; even hiding inside the dormitory built of thick concrete, the faint psychic disturbance still seeped in through the cracks in the walls. From time to time, fragmented, illusory whispers would ring in his ears, only to vanish the moment he focused on them.
Lin Yan leaned against the wall, his fingertips pressing against his brow as he slowly circulated the ancient martial arts breathing technique, soothing his turbulent Sea of Consciousness bit by bit.
The pain from the fissure hadn't disappeared. Under the regulation of his breathing, it had merely been suppressed to a barely tolerable degree. He had long been accustomed to this accompanying torment, harboring not a single illusion in his heart that this scar would heal on its own. Everyone who had seen the waveform of his Sea of Consciousness—Instructor Wen, the war zone's Sea of Consciousness physicians, Gu Shen—had all reached the exact same conclusion: an origin tear, permanent damage, incurable.
The communication earpiece had been quiet for a long time before Zhao Kai's lowered voice finally came through, carrying a trace of suppressed excitement.
"I caught it again. The same shifted frequency band as at dusk. The duration is extremely short, only about seven seconds."
Lin Yan immediately sat up straight. "Are you sure it's not false noise generated by the illusion web?"
"I've repeatedly compared the spectral characteristics." Zhao Kai's voice was weary but resolute. "When the priests adjust the illusion web, the false signals carry fixed resonance burrs. This one is different. It is a brief vacuum gap that appears when the entire network switches node loads. It's like a tightly stretched net; the threads intertwine, and for a fleeting moment, a tiny void appears between the meshes."
"Seven seconds," Lin Yan repeated in a low voice.
Seven seconds was far too short.
To pierce through the layers of the illusion web and reach the outer perimeter of Rift No. 79, even if the squad sprinted at full speed, it would be nowhere near enough.
"It's not a fixed window," Zhao Kai continued to explain. "I speculate that whenever the priest cluster adjusts its load and rotates its fulcrums, such a frequency blank will randomly burst forth. There is no pattern, and the intervals are random. Sometimes it happens once every ten-odd minutes; sometimes we have to wait three or four hours. Moreover, this gap only appears at specific coordinate points. The position drifts. We can catch it, but it's very hard to predict."
Lu Heng's voice joined in through the earpiece: "Instructor Wen and I just discussed this. If we are truly going to send a reconnaissance squad, we cannot rely on a single blank window to pierce all the way through. We can only catch multiple consecutive frequency gaps and advance in stages. Catch one gap, rush forward a segment, immediately lie dormant, and wait for the next opportunity. The risk will multiply. If there is even a single misjudgment and we get locked by the illusion web, the entire squad will be trapped in the illusion."
"The squad personnel have been preliminarily shortlisted," Lu Heng paused. "Chen Ye will lead four elite assault team members, responsible for close-quarters combat. The Sea of Consciousness cultivator leading the squad will be chosen between you and Gu Shen."
The dormitory fell silent for a moment.
Lin Yan pondered in silence.
Gu Shen's Sea of Consciousness foundation was solid, with no hidden origin injuries. Under the same consumption, his endurance and ability to resist backlash were far superior to Lin Yan's. Conversely, in the countless previous encounters with the illusion web, Lin Yan possessed a sensitivity to the priests' resonance rhythms and illusionary deception tactics that others lacked. During the Battle of Bone-Dry Valley, he had struggled to survive within the illusion, repeatedly distinguishing between the true and the false. This experience was bought with his life.
But the price was the fissure that forever lay within his Sea of Consciousness.
Once deep inside the curtain, the concentration of the corrosive breath would be several times higher than outside the defense line. The continuous resonance wash would frantically tear at his wound. While other cultivators would only suffer continuous Sea of Consciousness fatigue, he would endure origin-level tearing every single second. If the fissure exceeded his tolerance threshold, he would instantly lose consciousness, becoming the squad's greatest burden, and potentially dragging everyone into the illusion with him.
"I need to talk to Gu Shen," Lin Yan said.
"Understood. Just give us an answer before dawn," Lu Heng replied before cutting the communication.
Lin Yan stood up and walked out of the dormitory. The bastion was not peaceful at night. Patrol soldiers were stationed at regular intervals along the streets. In the resettlement areas, many refugees huddled together, afraid to turn off the lights, their low sobs drifting on the wind. The nightmares brought by the corrosive breath had become the norm; many were terrified of closing their eyes, terrified of plunging into that boundless, dark illusion.
He ascended the city walls and found Gu Shen, who was currently on watch.
Gu Shen was half-closing his eyes, his Sea of Consciousness spread out to maintain the vigilance barrier, his face looking pale under the searchlight. Sensing Lin Yan's approach, he slowly retracted a portion of his perception.
"Heard about the reconnaissance mission Lu Heng mentioned?" Gu Shen spoke first.
"Mhm," Lin Yan nodded. "The choice for the squad leader is between the two of us."
Gu Shen looked toward the heavy curtain in the distance. Deep in the wasteland, the scaled beasts lay dormant, and the priests hid in the shadows.
"In terms of Sea of Consciousness stability, I am more suitable than you. That injury of yours is a fatal flaw that cannot be bypassed. The corrosive breath inside the curtain will continuously gnaw at your fissure. Before you even encounter scaled beasts or priests, the continuous wash along the way could cause you to collapse." Gu Shen spoke bluntly, without beating around the bush. "I don't want us to finally grasp a sliver of hope, only to have the entire squad perish inside because of a Sea of Consciousness collapse."
Lin Yan did not refute. These were the truth, and he knew it in his heart as well.
"But I am more sensitive to the changes in the illusion web," Lin Yan said slowly. "At Bone-Dry Valley, and in every previous round of defense line confrontations, I can detect the anomalies in many of the priests' illusion traps earlier than you can. I seem to be able to capture the flaws in the fluctuations of the ancient lizard progeny's psychic frequencies more easily."
"Sensitivity cannot buy you a margin for error," Gu Shen gently shook his head. "Once the fissure ruptures, no amount of perception will matter."
The two stood side by side at the parapet, silently gazing at the curtain that隔绝 (sealed off) all truth.
They both knew the weight of this reconnaissance mission. The six major bastions had been ground to their absolute limit. Ammunition, casualties, and the reserves of Sea of Consciousness cultivators were dropping every single day. If they continued to passively defend to the death, eventually, one defense line would completely give out. They needed to obtain intelligence on the mother nest, find the layout of the priest cluster, the rules of scaled beast incubation, and find a true fulcrum for a counterattack.
But this path was walking on the edge of a blade.
"Let's go deduce the route with Lu Heng and Instructor Wen," Lin Yan finally said. "Lay out the risks of both plans completely. If it is ultimately decided that I go, I will strictly control my Sea of Consciousness output and not forcefully overload myself. If it is decided that you go, I will stay on the Western Front, hold the defense line, and hold out during the time you are gone."
Gu Shen gave a soft acknowledgment.
The sky slowly turned a grayish-white; the long night was nearing its end.
Just then, Zhao Kai's alarm suddenly exploded through the channel:
"Attention! The frequency band on the north side of the curtain is fluctuating again! It's not a blank window! The priests are concentrating their frequency adjustments; they are adding psychic load to the illusion web nodes at the forefront of the Western Front!"
Lin Yan and Gu Shen's expressions instantly turned solemn. They turned their heads in unison to look toward the wasteland.
The previously silent surface of the curtain began to churn and stack with purple waves, layer upon layer. This was no longer a scattered probe. The priests were pre-adjusting the phantom array in advance; the warm-up for a new wave of attacks had already begun.
"All personnel on alert!" Lu Heng's command swiftly spread across the entire defense line. "All positions, return to combat stations!"
The soldiers on the city walls immediately sprang into motion. The heavy artillery recalibrated their firing angles, the shock weapons were powered on, and the low-frequency hum of their vibrations dispersed through the air.
Standing at the boundary between the morning light and the darkness, Lin Yan felt the distant resonance in his Sea of Consciousness. The fissure had sensed it in advance, and a fine, lingering pain slowly rose, silently reminding him of the eternal shackle upon him.
He was still infinitely far from the ninth tier. The road ahead was long, and life and death were unpredictable. And this scar would follow him, accompanying him to face one endless, bitter battle after another.
Beneath the curtain, the net of the alien race had tightened once again.
End of Chapter.