Chapter 162: The Face of the Rift
The moment they passed through the exit of the pump room, the enclosed underground pipe network abruptly came to an end.
What rushed against them was no longer the turbid, damp air of the narrow pipes, but a vast, subterranean airflow carrying the stench of sulfur and decay. It slammed into their faces with a concentration of corrosive breath that was nearly saturated. The six of them subconsciously halted their steps, standing at the edge of an outward-jutting rock ledge, and gazed downward.
Below them was Rift No. 79.
The earth had been violently torn open here, forming a massive chasm hundreds of meters deep. The rock walls slanted outward on both sides, and countless fine, black fissures spread along the walls like a spider's web. A layer of slowly flowing, pale purple fog hovered at the bottom of the rift. That was the psychic energy overflowing from the core resonance of the illusion web. From a distance, it looked like a swamp of poison that would never be extinguished. Thick, semi-transparent psychic tentacles, as wide as barrels, extended from the rock strata deep within the rift, intertwining and weaving into a massive net in mid-air. Every single tentacle trembled slightly, continuously sending out resonance signals, linking them with all the nodes on the wasteland.
This was one of the foundations of the illusion web that shrouded the entire Western Front.
Lin Yan only dared to release a wisp of extremely faint perception, touching the edge of that purple fog from afar through the air.
In an instant, the fissure deep within his Sea of Consciousness was seared as if by a red-hot branding iron. Intense, burning pain exploded through his consciousness, and his vision instantly went black. He stumbled back half a step, only managing to steady himself by pressing his hand against the freezing rock wall. Cold sweat dripped from his jaw, splashing onto the stone.
The corrosive breath here had reached a terrifying level, far more intense than the erosion in the previous pipe network or the boulder pile. Prolonged release of his Sea of Consciousness here didn't require a high-tier ancient progeny to strike; the corrosive breath itself could slowly tear apart his unhealable origin wound.
"My god..." The team member with the knife scar sucked in a breath of cold air. Beneath his night vision goggles, the sight of this rift was breathtaking. "So the entire curtain outside is rooted right here."
Chen Ye gripped his shock baton tightly, his gaze sweeping across the rock walls. "Do you see those grooves?"
Following his line of sight, everyone looked.
On the rock walls on both sides of the rift, densely packed, neatly carved rock caves had been chiseled out, arranged in layers descending along the steep cliffs. Countless scaled beasts were curled up in these caves, hibernating. Second-tier and first-tier scaled beasts were stacked in layers, lying dormant in silence, waiting for the illusion web to issue the command to attack. On the platforms further away, there were incubation chambers built from semi-molten rock. Thick, dark green liquid churned slowly inside the chambers, with unformed scaled beast hatchlings floating within.
This was a massive breeding and dispatch base.
Endless scaled beasts were born here, taking advantage of the illusion web's cover to surge toward the surface in batches, continuously draining the human defenders of the six bastions. For twenty-five years, the ancient lizard progeny had relied on these deep-buried rift mother nests to endlessly deploy their forces, trapping humanity within the high walls and dragging them into a prolonged war of attrition.
"We've found the target," Lin Yan said, his voice hoarse as he suppressed the agonizing pain. "We need to confirm two things: whether the true body of the high-tier ancient progeny is here, and the exact location of the psychic core. Do not recklessly go down the rock ledge. Inside the purple fog, there are at least more than one third-tier scaled beasts hidden."
He slowly scanned the entire rift.
In the center of the intertwined tentacle network, there was a flat, towering black rock pedestal, wrapped in layers of purple fog. It was about 150 meters away from the rock ledge where they stood. On the pedestal, several slender, vaguely humanoid silhouettes could be faintly seen sitting in stillness, their spines pressed tightly against the thick main tentacles.
They were the priests of the ancient lizard progeny. Secondary priests.
They did not wander around. Sitting with their eyes closed in stillness, their entire bodies' scales rose and fell in sync with the trembling of the tentacles, continuously supplying psychic power to the entire illusion web to maintain the stability of the wasteland curtain. At the same time, they coordinated the patrol and offensive deployments of the scaled beasts in various areas. They were the central nodes of this mother nest.
But there was no sign of any higher-tier ancient progeny.
"The high-tier true body is not here," Lin Yan judged in a low voice. "These secondary priests are merely executors, responsible for operating this rift. The high-tier ancient progeny that truly directs the Western Front's offensive is hidden beneath even deeper rock strata."
Chen Ye frowned tightly. "So this trip of ours only uncovered the secondary priests and the incubation nest? The intelligence isn't weighty enough."
"It's enough to adjust our defense line tactics," Lin Yan said, slowly shaking his head. "At the very least, we now know that each rift mother nest is an independent supply point, and the illusion web is linked by layers of priests. We can use heavy artillery to specifically strike this rock pedestal and destroy this dispatch hub. The pressure of the Western Front's illusion web will drop significantly. But the prerequisite is that we can bring this intelligence back intact."
The earpiece continuously emitted crackling static. Zhao Kai's voice squeezed out intermittently, the signal having degraded to its absolute limit: "The spectrum... the core is concentrated on the rock pedestal in the center of your field of vision! I've captured a massive amount of synchronous resonance... Attention, there is movement at the bottom of the rift!"
The moment his words fell, the purple fog at the bottom of the rift violently churned.
Several third-tier scaled beasts slowly emerged from the fog. The purple-black bone spurs and tentacles on their backs stretched out as they slowly patrolled along the channels of the rock walls. They were the guards beside the priests, ceaselessly stationed on the outer perimeter of the rock pedestal. Any living creature that broke into the core area of the rift would be surrounded and annihilated by them instantly.
One of the third-tier scaled beasts swept its perception toward the direction of the jutting rock ledge. Invisible psychic waves crawled up the rock wall.
"Conceal all your auras!" Lin Yan immediately reminded the squad, desperately gathering his own Sea of Consciousness fluctuations.
That wave washed over the six of them. Lin Yan's fissure was pulled by the resonance once again. The burning sensation surged relentlessly, already infinitely close to the critical red line he had drawn for himself. His hand quietly reached into his pocket, his fingertips brushing against the cold tube of the strong-dose stabilization agent.
This was the last resort. Once injected, the pain would be forcibly suppressed, but his ability to distinguish illusions would be compromised. In this rift filled with multiple psychic traps, the risk would also skyrocket.
The vertical pupils of the third-tier scaled beast stared at the rock ledge, lingering for a full few breaths.
It seemed to have caught a faint trace of anomaly, but could not precisely lock onto their coordinates. The secondary priests' attention was currently entirely focused on maintaining the illusion web and synchronizing the wasteland nodes; they had no spare psychic power to assist it in searching. A moment later, the third-tier scaled beast slowly retracted its tentacles and sank back into the purple mist.
"We can't stay here any longer," Lin Yan panted. "We've already obtained the coordinates, the layout, and the priests' positions. If we get any closer, we will definitely be locked onto. Now, wait for the frequency window for the return journey and withdraw the way we came."
Everyone nodded, a heavy sense of urgency hidden in their eyes. They had the intelligence, but the return journey was equally fraught with lethal dangers at every step.
They did not dare to stick their heads out to observe more details. Shrinking back into the shadows of the protruding rocks behind the ledge, they lay dormant in silence, waiting for Zhao Kai to capture the next blank frequency band they could use to break out.
The subterranean airflow drifted slowly. The purple tentacles trembled silently in mid-air. Countless hibernating scaled beasts slept in the rock caves on the walls. The entire rift was like a giant beast slowly breathing.
The waiting time was long and agonizing. The corrosive breath was omnipresent, continuously eroding Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness wound. Waves of dizziness surged upward. He relied on the ancient martial arts breathing technique to endure it, refusing to let himself lose consciousness. He knew clearly that he was only a third-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivator. The distance to the ninth-tier peak was still separated by endless life-and-death trials. And this unhealing fissure would become a blade hanging over his consciousness every time he faced the alien race's illusion web.
No one knew how much time had passed before Zhao Kai's voice suddenly spiked in the earpiece, piercing through the thick static:
"Frequency loosening! A large-scale window! Estimated duration seven seconds! Move immediately, return to the pump room the way we came!"
"Go!"
Lin Yan commanded in a low shout, taking the lead as he turned and dashed toward the pipe network tunnel they had come from.
The six of them quickly retreated along the edge of the rock ledge, not daring to pause for even a fraction of a second. Behind them, within the rift, the purple tentacles of the illusion web continued to tremble endlessly. Countless vertical pupils hid deep within the mist, silently watching over this dark territory that intruders had once visited.
But just as they rushed into the entrance of the pipe network, a sharp, piercing psychic shriek exploded without the slightest warning.
It was not an illusion.
A secondary priest had finally captured the residual psychic traces they had left behind.
The illusion web of the entire Rift No. 79 instantly converged and locked down toward the tunnel entrance where they were.
End of Chapter.
What rushed against them was no longer the turbid, damp air of the narrow pipes, but a vast, subterranean airflow carrying the stench of sulfur and decay. It slammed into their faces with a concentration of corrosive breath that was nearly saturated. The six of them subconsciously halted their steps, standing at the edge of an outward-jutting rock ledge, and gazed downward.
Below them was Rift No. 79.
The earth had been violently torn open here, forming a massive chasm hundreds of meters deep. The rock walls slanted outward on both sides, and countless fine, black fissures spread along the walls like a spider's web. A layer of slowly flowing, pale purple fog hovered at the bottom of the rift. That was the psychic energy overflowing from the core resonance of the illusion web. From a distance, it looked like a swamp of poison that would never be extinguished. Thick, semi-transparent psychic tentacles, as wide as barrels, extended from the rock strata deep within the rift, intertwining and weaving into a massive net in mid-air. Every single tentacle trembled slightly, continuously sending out resonance signals, linking them with all the nodes on the wasteland.
This was one of the foundations of the illusion web that shrouded the entire Western Front.
Lin Yan only dared to release a wisp of extremely faint perception, touching the edge of that purple fog from afar through the air.
In an instant, the fissure deep within his Sea of Consciousness was seared as if by a red-hot branding iron. Intense, burning pain exploded through his consciousness, and his vision instantly went black. He stumbled back half a step, only managing to steady himself by pressing his hand against the freezing rock wall. Cold sweat dripped from his jaw, splashing onto the stone.
The corrosive breath here had reached a terrifying level, far more intense than the erosion in the previous pipe network or the boulder pile. Prolonged release of his Sea of Consciousness here didn't require a high-tier ancient progeny to strike; the corrosive breath itself could slowly tear apart his unhealable origin wound.
"My god..." The team member with the knife scar sucked in a breath of cold air. Beneath his night vision goggles, the sight of this rift was breathtaking. "So the entire curtain outside is rooted right here."
Chen Ye gripped his shock baton tightly, his gaze sweeping across the rock walls. "Do you see those grooves?"
Following his line of sight, everyone looked.
On the rock walls on both sides of the rift, densely packed, neatly carved rock caves had been chiseled out, arranged in layers descending along the steep cliffs. Countless scaled beasts were curled up in these caves, hibernating. Second-tier and first-tier scaled beasts were stacked in layers, lying dormant in silence, waiting for the illusion web to issue the command to attack. On the platforms further away, there were incubation chambers built from semi-molten rock. Thick, dark green liquid churned slowly inside the chambers, with unformed scaled beast hatchlings floating within.
This was a massive breeding and dispatch base.
Endless scaled beasts were born here, taking advantage of the illusion web's cover to surge toward the surface in batches, continuously draining the human defenders of the six bastions. For twenty-five years, the ancient lizard progeny had relied on these deep-buried rift mother nests to endlessly deploy their forces, trapping humanity within the high walls and dragging them into a prolonged war of attrition.
"We've found the target," Lin Yan said, his voice hoarse as he suppressed the agonizing pain. "We need to confirm two things: whether the true body of the high-tier ancient progeny is here, and the exact location of the psychic core. Do not recklessly go down the rock ledge. Inside the purple fog, there are at least more than one third-tier scaled beasts hidden."
He slowly scanned the entire rift.
In the center of the intertwined tentacle network, there was a flat, towering black rock pedestal, wrapped in layers of purple fog. It was about 150 meters away from the rock ledge where they stood. On the pedestal, several slender, vaguely humanoid silhouettes could be faintly seen sitting in stillness, their spines pressed tightly against the thick main tentacles.
They were the priests of the ancient lizard progeny. Secondary priests.
They did not wander around. Sitting with their eyes closed in stillness, their entire bodies' scales rose and fell in sync with the trembling of the tentacles, continuously supplying psychic power to the entire illusion web to maintain the stability of the wasteland curtain. At the same time, they coordinated the patrol and offensive deployments of the scaled beasts in various areas. They were the central nodes of this mother nest.
But there was no sign of any higher-tier ancient progeny.
"The high-tier true body is not here," Lin Yan judged in a low voice. "These secondary priests are merely executors, responsible for operating this rift. The high-tier ancient progeny that truly directs the Western Front's offensive is hidden beneath even deeper rock strata."
Chen Ye frowned tightly. "So this trip of ours only uncovered the secondary priests and the incubation nest? The intelligence isn't weighty enough."
"It's enough to adjust our defense line tactics," Lin Yan said, slowly shaking his head. "At the very least, we now know that each rift mother nest is an independent supply point, and the illusion web is linked by layers of priests. We can use heavy artillery to specifically strike this rock pedestal and destroy this dispatch hub. The pressure of the Western Front's illusion web will drop significantly. But the prerequisite is that we can bring this intelligence back intact."
The earpiece continuously emitted crackling static. Zhao Kai's voice squeezed out intermittently, the signal having degraded to its absolute limit: "The spectrum... the core is concentrated on the rock pedestal in the center of your field of vision! I've captured a massive amount of synchronous resonance... Attention, there is movement at the bottom of the rift!"
The moment his words fell, the purple fog at the bottom of the rift violently churned.
Several third-tier scaled beasts slowly emerged from the fog. The purple-black bone spurs and tentacles on their backs stretched out as they slowly patrolled along the channels of the rock walls. They were the guards beside the priests, ceaselessly stationed on the outer perimeter of the rock pedestal. Any living creature that broke into the core area of the rift would be surrounded and annihilated by them instantly.
One of the third-tier scaled beasts swept its perception toward the direction of the jutting rock ledge. Invisible psychic waves crawled up the rock wall.
"Conceal all your auras!" Lin Yan immediately reminded the squad, desperately gathering his own Sea of Consciousness fluctuations.
That wave washed over the six of them. Lin Yan's fissure was pulled by the resonance once again. The burning sensation surged relentlessly, already infinitely close to the critical red line he had drawn for himself. His hand quietly reached into his pocket, his fingertips brushing against the cold tube of the strong-dose stabilization agent.
This was the last resort. Once injected, the pain would be forcibly suppressed, but his ability to distinguish illusions would be compromised. In this rift filled with multiple psychic traps, the risk would also skyrocket.
The vertical pupils of the third-tier scaled beast stared at the rock ledge, lingering for a full few breaths.
It seemed to have caught a faint trace of anomaly, but could not precisely lock onto their coordinates. The secondary priests' attention was currently entirely focused on maintaining the illusion web and synchronizing the wasteland nodes; they had no spare psychic power to assist it in searching. A moment later, the third-tier scaled beast slowly retracted its tentacles and sank back into the purple mist.
"We can't stay here any longer," Lin Yan panted. "We've already obtained the coordinates, the layout, and the priests' positions. If we get any closer, we will definitely be locked onto. Now, wait for the frequency window for the return journey and withdraw the way we came."
Everyone nodded, a heavy sense of urgency hidden in their eyes. They had the intelligence, but the return journey was equally fraught with lethal dangers at every step.
They did not dare to stick their heads out to observe more details. Shrinking back into the shadows of the protruding rocks behind the ledge, they lay dormant in silence, waiting for Zhao Kai to capture the next blank frequency band they could use to break out.
The subterranean airflow drifted slowly. The purple tentacles trembled silently in mid-air. Countless hibernating scaled beasts slept in the rock caves on the walls. The entire rift was like a giant beast slowly breathing.
The waiting time was long and agonizing. The corrosive breath was omnipresent, continuously eroding Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness wound. Waves of dizziness surged upward. He relied on the ancient martial arts breathing technique to endure it, refusing to let himself lose consciousness. He knew clearly that he was only a third-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivator. The distance to the ninth-tier peak was still separated by endless life-and-death trials. And this unhealing fissure would become a blade hanging over his consciousness every time he faced the alien race's illusion web.
No one knew how much time had passed before Zhao Kai's voice suddenly spiked in the earpiece, piercing through the thick static:
"Frequency loosening! A large-scale window! Estimated duration seven seconds! Move immediately, return to the pump room the way we came!"
"Go!"
Lin Yan commanded in a low shout, taking the lead as he turned and dashed toward the pipe network tunnel they had come from.
The six of them quickly retreated along the edge of the rock ledge, not daring to pause for even a fraction of a second. Behind them, within the rift, the purple tentacles of the illusion web continued to tremble endlessly. Countless vertical pupils hid deep within the mist, silently watching over this dark territory that intruders had once visited.
But just as they rushed into the entrance of the pipe network, a sharp, piercing psychic shriek exploded without the slightest warning.
It was not an illusion.
A secondary priest had finally captured the residual psychic traces they had left behind.
The illusion web of the entire Rift No. 79 instantly converged and locked down toward the tunnel entrance where they were.
End of Chapter.