Chapter 164: Ambush in the Ruins
The gray fog parted slowly on both sides like cotton soaked in venom.
Two second-tier scaled beasts lay in wait within the shadows of a half-collapsed building. Their dark gold vertical pupils were firmly locked onto the few people who had just crawled out of the underground channel. They did not pounce immediately. The small spines on their backs trembled slightly as they synchronized the psychic signals transmitted from the distant priests, waiting for the perfect moment to encircle their prey.
Having lost one of their comrades, the squad was down to five. Chen Ye panted heavily, his shock baton held horizontally in front of him. The wound on his arm, left from his earlier entanglement with the third-tier scaled beast, was still seeping blood, and the fabric of his combat suit was stained black with the dark green blood of the beasts. The remaining three assault team members had pale faces; they had consumed most of their ammunition, with only a few charged energy rounds left in their shock pistols.
Lin Yan stood near the front of the formation. The numbness from the strong-dose stabilization agent still enveloped his Sea of Consciousness. The pain had been suppressed, but his ability to distinguish illusions was greatly diminished. Fragmentary phantoms constantly drifted at the edges of his vision—severed arms, floating human faces. Even though he knew they were fake, he could no longer see through them at a glance as he used to.
He did not dare to casually release his perception, fearing that he would be led by the illusion web and fall into a trap with his consciousness. He could only rely on his naked eyes, staring fixedly at the movements of the two scaled beasts.
"We can't stall," Chen Ye whispered, his breath heavy. "The priest's signal has anchored here. If we drag this out, reinforcements will arrive. Two second-tier beasts—we must end this quickly and relocate immediately."
The team member with the knife scar gripped his rifle tightly, his knuckles turning white. "Split left and right to restrain them. Aim for the scale gaps on their necks."
Before his words had even faded, both scaled beasts moved simultaneously.
Their heavy bodies shattered the concrete debris beneath their feet. Two dark shadows burst from the ruins' shadows, foul-smelling saliva dripping from their fangs as they rushed to flank both sides of the squad. They had been uniformly coordinated by the illusion web; their teamwork was far more tacit than that of the scattered scouts on the wasteland. One beast drew their fire while the other circled behind, attempting to cut off their path back to the underground channel.
"Block the one on the right!" Chen Ye strode forward to meet the scaled beast charging from the left. The low-frequency hum of his shock baton rang out as he fiercely slammed it against the beast's sweeping giant claw.
A dull collision exploded. The scaled beast roared in pain, its massive body jolted slightly off balance. The oscillating force of the baton shocked its nerves, but the second-tier scaled beast possessed formidable vitality. In a mere instant, it swung its tail in a horizontal sweep. Chen Ye rolled sideways to dodge, and the tail struck the rubble, sending stones flying everywhere.
On the other side, the three assault team members concentrated their fire on the second scaled beast. The shock rounds slammed into the scales on the side of its neck, cracking the armor and causing dark green blood to gush out. Agonized and enraged, the beast ignored its wound and fiercely lowered its head to charge forward. A team member, failing to dodge in time, had his shoulder deeply slashed by a fang. He let out a miserable cry and fell backward.
The situation instantly turned perilous once again.
Standing in the middle, Lin Yan should have released his Sea of Consciousness barrier to shield the others from the shallow-level psychic intrusion being synchronized by the priest. But the side effects of the agent had wrapped his perception in a thick cloth. If he forcibly catalyzed his power now, he could easily be hooked by the illusions pre-set by the priest and sink directly into his Sea of Consciousness.
He could only resort to the ancient martial arts path taught by his master. Stepping with steady, grounded footwork, he took advantage of the gap while the scaled beast was restrained by their firepower and quickly closed in. Holding a short blade, he aimed at the already cracked gap in the beast's neck and thrust with all his might.
The blade pierced deep into the flesh.
The scaled beast convulsed violently, its massive body crashing heavily onto the rubble. Its limbs twitched a few times before it completely lost all signs of life.
Seeing its companion fall, the beast on the left, which Chen Ye was still entangled with, grew even more ferocious. A psychic shockwave surged along the priest's link, pressing down on them all. An invisible wave of dizziness swept across the entire area. The remaining two assault team members who were still capable of fighting felt their heads go blank, their movements delayed by half a beat.
It was this mere half-breath of a flaw.
The scaled beast pounced fiercely forward, its target aimed directly at Chen Ye, who was closest to it.
"Careful!" Lin Yan shouted in a low voice, stepping forward quickly. He reached out and grabbed the spines on the beast's back, using its forward momentum to fiercely yank it sideways. The beast's center of gravity shifted, its pounce missing its mark. Its massive head slammed heavily into a broken reinforced concrete pillar, causing stones to rain down.
Seizing the opportunity, Chen Ye exerted force with both arms, bringing his shock baton down with full power onto the soft spot where the beast's head met its neck.
The humming vibration penetrated deep into the scaled beast's skull.
Its roar abruptly ceased. The second-tier scaled beast collapsed heavily to the ground, dust rising into the air, mingled with a thick, foul stench.
A brief, fierce skirmish had come to an end.
Yet, no one felt even a hint of relief.
The injured team member clutched his shoulder, blood continuously seeping through his fingers, his face rapidly turning pale. The saliva of the scaled beasts carried a mild toxin, and the wound was already going numb. The team member with the knife scar quickly pulled out hemostatic agents and bandages, squatting down to hastily wrap the wound.
Lin Yan leaned against a broken wall, panting heavily. He could clearly feel the drug's effect in his arm slowly fading. The excruciating pain from the Sea of Consciousness fissure, which had been forcibly suppressed, was slowly awakening beneath the numbness. It was like a wildfire gathering strength, waiting to fiercely scorch his origin the moment the drug wore off.
He knew clearly that one strong-dose agent had been used up. Only two remained in his pocket.
"We made too much noise," Lin Yan said, raising his eyes to gaze deep into the gray fog. "The priest has definitely received the signal of the two scaled beasts' deaths. New pursuers will be dispatched soon, possibly even third-tier ones. We cannot stay here."
Chen Ye looked around the subsidence ruins. Broken buildings intersected, exposed rebar jutted out everywhere, and there were blind spots to hide in, but it was equally a deadly trap where they could be easily surrounded. "Which way do we go? Going back to the underground channel means running straight back into the main blockade of Rift No. 79. Going west? West is the outer perimeter of the curtain, the direction of the bastion, but the frequency windows in this area have long been locked down by the priests. Without Zhao Kai's guidance, blindly charging in will likely lead us straight into an illusion array trap."
Lin Yan furrowed his brow, closed his eyes, and circulated his breathing mental technique. With extreme restraint, he released a wisp of perception to gently touch the fluctuations of the illusion web permeating the air.
A sharp, stabbing pain immediately shot through his fissure. He opened his eyes abruptly, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.
"The illusion web node density on the main western road is extremely high; it's an interception line heavily defended by the priests," he said, enduring the pain to distinguish the frequencies. "To the north, this stretch of ruins extends into a vast karst rock area formed by the disaster years ago. The rock strata are thick and will weaken the illusion web's signals. Nodes there are sparse, and there is a probability of naturally occurring, scattered small frequency gaps. We'll detour through the karst area and take a circuitous route toward the bastion."
"A gamble?"
"It's our only way out right now," Lin Yan nodded. "We already have the coordinates and layout intelligence of the mother nest in our hands. We cannot bury the message here. The defenders of the Western Front, Gu Shen and the others, are waiting for this intelligence to adjust their defense line."
No one dared to delay. After briefly treating the injured team member's wounds, they took turns supporting him. Led by Lin Yan, they navigated through the intersecting broken beams, transferring toward the karst terrain to the north of the ruins.
The gray fog followed them like a shadow, and illusions occasionally flashed at the corners of their vision. The drug was wearing off faster and faster. The burning pain in Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness grew stronger with each wave. Every attempt at perception was like touching a red-hot blade with his bare hand. He was only a third-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivator; the distance to the ninth tier was a path so long it bordered on despair. This permanent fissure was the inescapable shackle lying across this path.
After traveling for about half an hour, the concrete debris beneath their feet gradually disappeared, replaced by uneven, jagged black limestone. Strange rocks stood like forests, and dense caves dotted the landscape. The thick rock strata caused the faint purple glow of the illusion web above to dim significantly, and the psychic pressure noticeably lessened.
Just as everyone breathed a slight sigh of relief, planning to find a hidden cave for a brief rest, Lin Yan suddenly stopped. He raised his hand, signaling everyone to hold their breath and remain silent.
His perception had caught a completely different psychic frequency.
It was not a secondary priest, nor an ordinary scaled beast. The frequency was older, colder, carrying a slow, indifferent sense of oppression, slowly drifting out from the depths of a massive karst cave ahead.
It was not a pursuer chasing them.
It was something else, something that had long been lurking beneath this karst underground.
Chen Ye lowered his voice: "What is it?"
Lin Yan's pupils contracted slightly. The intense pain tore at his Sea of Consciousness, but he steadied his mind and whispered a single sentence:
"An Ancient Progeny. Not a secondary priest, but an Elder below the high-tier, responsible for patrolling the outer borders."
The gray fog slowly flowed out from the entrance of the cave. From deep within the cavern came a low, prolonged hiss.
In an instant, all the illusion web fluctuations in the entire karst rock area converged toward the cave.
In their attempt to detour and evade pursuit, they had stumbled headfirst into an even more terrifying trap.
End of Chapter.
Two second-tier scaled beasts lay in wait within the shadows of a half-collapsed building. Their dark gold vertical pupils were firmly locked onto the few people who had just crawled out of the underground channel. They did not pounce immediately. The small spines on their backs trembled slightly as they synchronized the psychic signals transmitted from the distant priests, waiting for the perfect moment to encircle their prey.
Having lost one of their comrades, the squad was down to five. Chen Ye panted heavily, his shock baton held horizontally in front of him. The wound on his arm, left from his earlier entanglement with the third-tier scaled beast, was still seeping blood, and the fabric of his combat suit was stained black with the dark green blood of the beasts. The remaining three assault team members had pale faces; they had consumed most of their ammunition, with only a few charged energy rounds left in their shock pistols.
Lin Yan stood near the front of the formation. The numbness from the strong-dose stabilization agent still enveloped his Sea of Consciousness. The pain had been suppressed, but his ability to distinguish illusions was greatly diminished. Fragmentary phantoms constantly drifted at the edges of his vision—severed arms, floating human faces. Even though he knew they were fake, he could no longer see through them at a glance as he used to.
He did not dare to casually release his perception, fearing that he would be led by the illusion web and fall into a trap with his consciousness. He could only rely on his naked eyes, staring fixedly at the movements of the two scaled beasts.
"We can't stall," Chen Ye whispered, his breath heavy. "The priest's signal has anchored here. If we drag this out, reinforcements will arrive. Two second-tier beasts—we must end this quickly and relocate immediately."
The team member with the knife scar gripped his rifle tightly, his knuckles turning white. "Split left and right to restrain them. Aim for the scale gaps on their necks."
Before his words had even faded, both scaled beasts moved simultaneously.
Their heavy bodies shattered the concrete debris beneath their feet. Two dark shadows burst from the ruins' shadows, foul-smelling saliva dripping from their fangs as they rushed to flank both sides of the squad. They had been uniformly coordinated by the illusion web; their teamwork was far more tacit than that of the scattered scouts on the wasteland. One beast drew their fire while the other circled behind, attempting to cut off their path back to the underground channel.
"Block the one on the right!" Chen Ye strode forward to meet the scaled beast charging from the left. The low-frequency hum of his shock baton rang out as he fiercely slammed it against the beast's sweeping giant claw.
A dull collision exploded. The scaled beast roared in pain, its massive body jolted slightly off balance. The oscillating force of the baton shocked its nerves, but the second-tier scaled beast possessed formidable vitality. In a mere instant, it swung its tail in a horizontal sweep. Chen Ye rolled sideways to dodge, and the tail struck the rubble, sending stones flying everywhere.
On the other side, the three assault team members concentrated their fire on the second scaled beast. The shock rounds slammed into the scales on the side of its neck, cracking the armor and causing dark green blood to gush out. Agonized and enraged, the beast ignored its wound and fiercely lowered its head to charge forward. A team member, failing to dodge in time, had his shoulder deeply slashed by a fang. He let out a miserable cry and fell backward.
The situation instantly turned perilous once again.
Standing in the middle, Lin Yan should have released his Sea of Consciousness barrier to shield the others from the shallow-level psychic intrusion being synchronized by the priest. But the side effects of the agent had wrapped his perception in a thick cloth. If he forcibly catalyzed his power now, he could easily be hooked by the illusions pre-set by the priest and sink directly into his Sea of Consciousness.
He could only resort to the ancient martial arts path taught by his master. Stepping with steady, grounded footwork, he took advantage of the gap while the scaled beast was restrained by their firepower and quickly closed in. Holding a short blade, he aimed at the already cracked gap in the beast's neck and thrust with all his might.
The blade pierced deep into the flesh.
The scaled beast convulsed violently, its massive body crashing heavily onto the rubble. Its limbs twitched a few times before it completely lost all signs of life.
Seeing its companion fall, the beast on the left, which Chen Ye was still entangled with, grew even more ferocious. A psychic shockwave surged along the priest's link, pressing down on them all. An invisible wave of dizziness swept across the entire area. The remaining two assault team members who were still capable of fighting felt their heads go blank, their movements delayed by half a beat.
It was this mere half-breath of a flaw.
The scaled beast pounced fiercely forward, its target aimed directly at Chen Ye, who was closest to it.
"Careful!" Lin Yan shouted in a low voice, stepping forward quickly. He reached out and grabbed the spines on the beast's back, using its forward momentum to fiercely yank it sideways. The beast's center of gravity shifted, its pounce missing its mark. Its massive head slammed heavily into a broken reinforced concrete pillar, causing stones to rain down.
Seizing the opportunity, Chen Ye exerted force with both arms, bringing his shock baton down with full power onto the soft spot where the beast's head met its neck.
The humming vibration penetrated deep into the scaled beast's skull.
Its roar abruptly ceased. The second-tier scaled beast collapsed heavily to the ground, dust rising into the air, mingled with a thick, foul stench.
A brief, fierce skirmish had come to an end.
Yet, no one felt even a hint of relief.
The injured team member clutched his shoulder, blood continuously seeping through his fingers, his face rapidly turning pale. The saliva of the scaled beasts carried a mild toxin, and the wound was already going numb. The team member with the knife scar quickly pulled out hemostatic agents and bandages, squatting down to hastily wrap the wound.
Lin Yan leaned against a broken wall, panting heavily. He could clearly feel the drug's effect in his arm slowly fading. The excruciating pain from the Sea of Consciousness fissure, which had been forcibly suppressed, was slowly awakening beneath the numbness. It was like a wildfire gathering strength, waiting to fiercely scorch his origin the moment the drug wore off.
He knew clearly that one strong-dose agent had been used up. Only two remained in his pocket.
"We made too much noise," Lin Yan said, raising his eyes to gaze deep into the gray fog. "The priest has definitely received the signal of the two scaled beasts' deaths. New pursuers will be dispatched soon, possibly even third-tier ones. We cannot stay here."
Chen Ye looked around the subsidence ruins. Broken buildings intersected, exposed rebar jutted out everywhere, and there were blind spots to hide in, but it was equally a deadly trap where they could be easily surrounded. "Which way do we go? Going back to the underground channel means running straight back into the main blockade of Rift No. 79. Going west? West is the outer perimeter of the curtain, the direction of the bastion, but the frequency windows in this area have long been locked down by the priests. Without Zhao Kai's guidance, blindly charging in will likely lead us straight into an illusion array trap."
Lin Yan furrowed his brow, closed his eyes, and circulated his breathing mental technique. With extreme restraint, he released a wisp of perception to gently touch the fluctuations of the illusion web permeating the air.
A sharp, stabbing pain immediately shot through his fissure. He opened his eyes abruptly, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.
"The illusion web node density on the main western road is extremely high; it's an interception line heavily defended by the priests," he said, enduring the pain to distinguish the frequencies. "To the north, this stretch of ruins extends into a vast karst rock area formed by the disaster years ago. The rock strata are thick and will weaken the illusion web's signals. Nodes there are sparse, and there is a probability of naturally occurring, scattered small frequency gaps. We'll detour through the karst area and take a circuitous route toward the bastion."
"A gamble?"
"It's our only way out right now," Lin Yan nodded. "We already have the coordinates and layout intelligence of the mother nest in our hands. We cannot bury the message here. The defenders of the Western Front, Gu Shen and the others, are waiting for this intelligence to adjust their defense line."
No one dared to delay. After briefly treating the injured team member's wounds, they took turns supporting him. Led by Lin Yan, they navigated through the intersecting broken beams, transferring toward the karst terrain to the north of the ruins.
The gray fog followed them like a shadow, and illusions occasionally flashed at the corners of their vision. The drug was wearing off faster and faster. The burning pain in Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness grew stronger with each wave. Every attempt at perception was like touching a red-hot blade with his bare hand. He was only a third-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivator; the distance to the ninth tier was a path so long it bordered on despair. This permanent fissure was the inescapable shackle lying across this path.
After traveling for about half an hour, the concrete debris beneath their feet gradually disappeared, replaced by uneven, jagged black limestone. Strange rocks stood like forests, and dense caves dotted the landscape. The thick rock strata caused the faint purple glow of the illusion web above to dim significantly, and the psychic pressure noticeably lessened.
Just as everyone breathed a slight sigh of relief, planning to find a hidden cave for a brief rest, Lin Yan suddenly stopped. He raised his hand, signaling everyone to hold their breath and remain silent.
His perception had caught a completely different psychic frequency.
It was not a secondary priest, nor an ordinary scaled beast. The frequency was older, colder, carrying a slow, indifferent sense of oppression, slowly drifting out from the depths of a massive karst cave ahead.
It was not a pursuer chasing them.
It was something else, something that had long been lurking beneath this karst underground.
Chen Ye lowered his voice: "What is it?"
Lin Yan's pupils contracted slightly. The intense pain tore at his Sea of Consciousness, but he steadied his mind and whispered a single sentence:
"An Ancient Progeny. Not a secondary priest, but an Elder below the high-tier, responsible for patrolling the outer borders."
The gray fog slowly flowed out from the entrance of the cave. From deep within the cavern came a low, prolonged hiss.
In an instant, all the illusion web fluctuations in the entire karst rock area converged toward the cave.
In their attempt to detour and evade pursuit, they had stumbled headfirst into an even more terrifying trap.
End of Chapter.