Chapter 171: Pressure from Within and Without
The wail of the Level 1 Beast Tide Warning continued to reverberate over the bastion, intertwining with the chaos of psychic infection at the academy, pressing down so heavily that it was hard to breathe.
The garrison military police quickly escorted the logistics worker, bound by vibration-pattern restraints, away. The isolation stretcher rushed through the corridors toward the sealing pod at the research institute. That core alien fluctuation had been forcibly locked down, but the scattered psychic threads that had spread earlier had already entangled several of the younger cadets in the front row.
On the playground, a small section of the formation was already in disarray.
Four youths were squatting on the ground, clutching their heads, their bodies trembling uncontrollably and their teeth chattering. The foundation of their Seas of Consciousness was still shallow; having not yet been tempered by many actual battles, they simply couldn't withstand the seeds of illusion quietly planted by the Ancient Progeny's anchor point. The other cadets, though not directly hit, could still faintly hear the cold, elusive whispers in their ears. Panic spread, and the formation began to unconsciously grow restless.
The few Sea of Consciousness instructors on guard duty had already erected barriers, but maintaining such a large-scale defensive shield made it difficult for them to spare the energy to individually sort out the cadets' Seas of Consciousness.
"Lin Yan, I'm counting on you," Scholar Su hastily instructed before leaving. "Don't forcibly clear the illusions. Just help them guard their core selves, stabilize their Seas of Consciousness, and don't let the illusions drag them in. You are sensitive to these low-frequency alien signals; you'll find the hooks of the illusions more easily than ordinary instructors. Remember, do not over-catalyze your Sea of Consciousness. Your injuries cannot withstand high-intensity consumption."
With those words, Scholar Su turned and followed the team to the command center. The entire bastion's focus had been pulled away by the approaching beast tide outside the walls.
Lin Yan walked slowly to the four youths squatting on the ground.
A piercing, dull pain continuously spread from the fissure in his Sea of Consciousness. Every time he focused his perception, it was like repeatedly rubbing sandpaper against a wound. He didn't dare release his Sea of Consciousness power over a wide area; he only compressed his perception to the shallowest layer, gently touching the illusory threads wrapped around the periphery of the youths' consciousness.
These illusion hooks were simple, precisely grasping the deepest fears in the youths' hearts: scenes of being torn apart by scaled beasts, endless pursuit in the black fog of the wasteland, and loved ones falling on the defense lines. The Ancient Progeny didn't need to create exquisite, complex illusions; they only needed to amplify the fear to dismantle the defenses of the Sea of Consciousness bit by bit.
"Follow my voice, breathe slowly," Lin Yan squatted down, his voice steady and low. He didn't use psychic power to forcibly pull them back, only guiding them with words. "Don't look at the things appearing in your minds. Those images aren't real; they are external noise. Hold onto the thoughts you are most familiar with. Think about the rhythm of your strikes in combat training, think about the fortification techniques you repeatedly practiced in your Sea of Consciousness classes."
He walked to each youth's side, offering soft guidance.
A short-haired boy was trembling the most, tears and cold sweat streaming down his face, muttering incessantly: "It's here, it's biting me, so many scaled beasts..."
Lin Yan moved closer to him, lowering his volume: "Do you remember your last practical training, when you successfully erected a Sea of Consciousness barrier? Remember that feeling of your mind gathering and settling down. Push all the distracting thoughts out. Illusions are just floating dust outside your Sea of Consciousness. You don't need to fight them; you just need to close the door and keep them out."
Using extremely faint perception, he found the thin purple thread entangled at the edge of the boy's Sea of Consciousness. Instead of pulling it hard, he used his own calm psychic frequency to slowly wrap around and isolate it.
With just this single action, the stabbing pain in his fissure suddenly intensified. Dizziness rushed to his head, and Lin Yan staggered slightly, quietly clenching his fists to steady himself. He couldn't fall. The dozens of children here were the hope of the bastion's future.
Seeing this, the academy instructor beside him quickly stepped forward to share the burden of guiding the other cadets. Order on the playground slowly began to reform, and the restless whispers gradually subsided.
Yet, the sounds from outside the walls never stopped drilling into everyone's ears.
Muffled roars came through the thick concrete walls, followed by the successive explosions of test-fired oscillation cannons. The ground trembled slightly. The wall defense troops had taken their positions; searchlights pierced the thick gray fog, sweeping out patches of pale white light across the wasteland. In the distance, dense black shadows were continuously gathering on the wasteland, and the low roars of the scaled beasts merged into a tidal wave.
The cadets' gazes involuntarily drifted toward the high walls. The fear that had just been suppressed began to quietly surge again.
"Instructor, is that a beast tide outside?" a girl asked in a small voice, the fear in her tone unmistakable.
"It's a probing offensive," the lead instructor replied in a deep voice. "It's the aliens' containment strategy. By holding our ground here, we are guarding the rear of the defense line."
Lin Yan leaned against a concrete pillar at the edge of the playground, taking a brief breather and using the pillar to support his body. He looked toward the towering city wall to the north of the bastion, Chen Ye's figure flashing through his mind. Chen Ye had already returned to his unit and manned the wall; he should be standing beside an oscillation turret right now, waiting with the other defenders for the first wave of the beast tide.
He knew the brutality outside the walls all too well.
This was not the skirmish with scattered scouts on the wasteland from before; it was a large-scale beast tide charge. First and second-tier scaled beasts pressed forward in relays, accompanied by large-scale psychic waves released by the priests through the rock strata. It took three to five defenders working together to take down a single beast; every inch of the defense line advanced had to be filled with flesh and blood. The Ancient Progeny had deliberately chosen to launch their attack when the anchor point was exposed and the city was in chaos, intending to leave humanity unable to defend both front and rear.
Just then, a more violent explosion came from the direction of the city wall, accompanied by sharp communication orders. The sound traveled along the bastion's internal broadcast lines to the academy: "West Side Artillery Position No. 3 is damaged! Scaled beast clusters are concentrating their assault on that section of the wall! Requesting flanking fire support! Sea of Consciousness squads, immediately fill the gaps and resist the simultaneous psychic assault!"
The communicator's voice in the broadcast was frantic, interspersed with screams and the roar of artillery fire.
The faces of the youths on the playground instantly turned pale. Their barely stabilized minds began to waver again, and some subconsciously covered their ears.
"Everyone, sit in place immediately, close your eyes, and fortify your Sea of Consciousness!" the instructor ordered loudly. "Do not listen to the sounds of fighting outside! Focus on your breathing!"
Lin Yan closed his eyes. Using the special perception brought by his innate fissure, he vaguely captured the psychic waves spreading outside the walls through the thick concrete.
Unlike the Elder's illusions from before, this was a large-scale suppression wave led by a secondary priest. Its purpose wasn't to create fine illusions, but to massively impact the defenders' Seas of Consciousness, causing dizziness, nausea, and a decline in judgment, making it easier for the scaled beasts to get up close and tear them apart. Wave after wave, unceasing, like ocean waves repeatedly battering a reef.
The defenders of the Western Front were enduring this pressure with sheer force.
A sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart. He had experienced the bloody battles in the rifts, slain an Ancient Progeny Elder with his own hands, and brought back precious intelligence. Yet at this moment, because of his severe Sea of Consciousness injuries, he couldn't even climb the walls to fight. He could only stay in the rear to protect these children. At the third tier, he was still insignificant in the face of such a large-scale battle. The long path to the ninth tier seemed even more distant now.
But he quickly suppressed this emotion.
The battlefield was never just a place for frontal combat. Outside the high walls, soldiers resisted the beast tide; inside the high walls, they guarded the minds of the rear, preventing the aliens' covert lines from igniting chaos from within. Both sides were equally important.
Time ticked by minute by minute.
The sounds of fighting outside the walls rose and fell. Sometimes the artillery fire was as dense as thunder; other times, there was a brief silence, indicating that the defenders were reloading and the scaled beasts were regrouping, brewing the next round of charges.
Inside the academy, the conditions of the four infected youths gradually improved. The uncontrollable trembling caused by the illusions slowly stopped, and they were able to independently operate their Sea of Consciousness fortification techniques. Their faces were still pale, but their eyes had regained their focus.
"I... I can't see those monsters anymore," the short-haired boy raised his head, looking at Lin Yan, his voice still weak.
"The illusions haven't disappeared," Lin Yan said slowly. "You've just learned not to let them lead your consciousness. In the future, no matter what kind of whispers or illusions you encounter, remember how you feel today. The Ancient Progeny are best at drawing power from human fear. If you aren't afraid, they can do nothing to you."
Before he could finish speaking, a messenger from the research institute hurriedly ran onto the playground and found Lin Yan: "Comrade Lin Yan, Scholar Su sent word! The beast tide outside the walls is a feint! The main cluster isn't concentrating its assault on Artillery Position No. 3; they are maneuvering toward the weak outpost on the south side! The garrison forces there are insufficient, and monitoring shows that a secondary priest is advancing along with the beast herd!"
Lin Yan's pupils contracted.
A feint.
Another tactic commonly used by the Ancient Progeny: use a fierce attack to draw fire first, then mobilize the main force to sneak attack the weak points of the defense. The overt beast tide was never a mindless rush forward; with layered dispatches and a mix of real and fake tactics, it was a complete war strategy.
"The south outpost..." Lin Yan repeated in a low voice, his heart heavy.
The south outpost lacked sufficient troops and high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators. Once the secondary priest arrived and unleashed a high-intensity psychic illusion tide, the defense line could easily collapse directly. If the outpost fell, the beast tide could tear open a gap and pour directly into the residential areas on the outer perimeter of the bastion. By then, the city would turn into a living hell.
The messenger added another sentence: "The command is urgently dispatching support squads, but the journey will take time. Before the reinforcements arrive, the south outpost can only rely on its original garrison to hold out."
The fighting outside the walls was still ongoing, and the artillery fire of the feint remained fierce, covering the maneuvering of the main force.
The academy side had temporarily stabilized; the cadets could now independently fortify their Seas of Consciousness under the continued care of the instructors. Lin Yan raised his hand to press against his brow. The pain in his fissure was still continuous. He only had one last strong-dose stabilization agent left; he absolutely could not use it unless pushed to the brink.
He looked at the messenger: "Can I go to the south outpost? I have a perception of the priest's psychic fluctuations. Perhaps I can provide early warnings of where the illusion tide will land."
The messenger hesitated: "Scholar Su specifically instructed that your Sea of Consciousness injuries strictly forbid you from taking on high-intensity psychic impacts again..."
"The support teams are on their way, but the outpost won't be able to hold out until they arrive," Lin Yan said calmly. "I won't engage in frontal combat; I'll only be responsible for perception and early warning."
In the distance, to the south of the city wall, deep within the earth, a cold, orderly psychic fluctuation was slowly approaching.
The feint was a smokescreen; the true killing blow had already circled around to the south.
Under pressure from both inside and outside the bastion, the crisis of this night was far from over.
End of Chapter.
The garrison military police quickly escorted the logistics worker, bound by vibration-pattern restraints, away. The isolation stretcher rushed through the corridors toward the sealing pod at the research institute. That core alien fluctuation had been forcibly locked down, but the scattered psychic threads that had spread earlier had already entangled several of the younger cadets in the front row.
On the playground, a small section of the formation was already in disarray.
Four youths were squatting on the ground, clutching their heads, their bodies trembling uncontrollably and their teeth chattering. The foundation of their Seas of Consciousness was still shallow; having not yet been tempered by many actual battles, they simply couldn't withstand the seeds of illusion quietly planted by the Ancient Progeny's anchor point. The other cadets, though not directly hit, could still faintly hear the cold, elusive whispers in their ears. Panic spread, and the formation began to unconsciously grow restless.
The few Sea of Consciousness instructors on guard duty had already erected barriers, but maintaining such a large-scale defensive shield made it difficult for them to spare the energy to individually sort out the cadets' Seas of Consciousness.
"Lin Yan, I'm counting on you," Scholar Su hastily instructed before leaving. "Don't forcibly clear the illusions. Just help them guard their core selves, stabilize their Seas of Consciousness, and don't let the illusions drag them in. You are sensitive to these low-frequency alien signals; you'll find the hooks of the illusions more easily than ordinary instructors. Remember, do not over-catalyze your Sea of Consciousness. Your injuries cannot withstand high-intensity consumption."
With those words, Scholar Su turned and followed the team to the command center. The entire bastion's focus had been pulled away by the approaching beast tide outside the walls.
Lin Yan walked slowly to the four youths squatting on the ground.
A piercing, dull pain continuously spread from the fissure in his Sea of Consciousness. Every time he focused his perception, it was like repeatedly rubbing sandpaper against a wound. He didn't dare release his Sea of Consciousness power over a wide area; he only compressed his perception to the shallowest layer, gently touching the illusory threads wrapped around the periphery of the youths' consciousness.
These illusion hooks were simple, precisely grasping the deepest fears in the youths' hearts: scenes of being torn apart by scaled beasts, endless pursuit in the black fog of the wasteland, and loved ones falling on the defense lines. The Ancient Progeny didn't need to create exquisite, complex illusions; they only needed to amplify the fear to dismantle the defenses of the Sea of Consciousness bit by bit.
"Follow my voice, breathe slowly," Lin Yan squatted down, his voice steady and low. He didn't use psychic power to forcibly pull them back, only guiding them with words. "Don't look at the things appearing in your minds. Those images aren't real; they are external noise. Hold onto the thoughts you are most familiar with. Think about the rhythm of your strikes in combat training, think about the fortification techniques you repeatedly practiced in your Sea of Consciousness classes."
He walked to each youth's side, offering soft guidance.
A short-haired boy was trembling the most, tears and cold sweat streaming down his face, muttering incessantly: "It's here, it's biting me, so many scaled beasts..."
Lin Yan moved closer to him, lowering his volume: "Do you remember your last practical training, when you successfully erected a Sea of Consciousness barrier? Remember that feeling of your mind gathering and settling down. Push all the distracting thoughts out. Illusions are just floating dust outside your Sea of Consciousness. You don't need to fight them; you just need to close the door and keep them out."
Using extremely faint perception, he found the thin purple thread entangled at the edge of the boy's Sea of Consciousness. Instead of pulling it hard, he used his own calm psychic frequency to slowly wrap around and isolate it.
With just this single action, the stabbing pain in his fissure suddenly intensified. Dizziness rushed to his head, and Lin Yan staggered slightly, quietly clenching his fists to steady himself. He couldn't fall. The dozens of children here were the hope of the bastion's future.
Seeing this, the academy instructor beside him quickly stepped forward to share the burden of guiding the other cadets. Order on the playground slowly began to reform, and the restless whispers gradually subsided.
Yet, the sounds from outside the walls never stopped drilling into everyone's ears.
Muffled roars came through the thick concrete walls, followed by the successive explosions of test-fired oscillation cannons. The ground trembled slightly. The wall defense troops had taken their positions; searchlights pierced the thick gray fog, sweeping out patches of pale white light across the wasteland. In the distance, dense black shadows were continuously gathering on the wasteland, and the low roars of the scaled beasts merged into a tidal wave.
The cadets' gazes involuntarily drifted toward the high walls. The fear that had just been suppressed began to quietly surge again.
"Instructor, is that a beast tide outside?" a girl asked in a small voice, the fear in her tone unmistakable.
"It's a probing offensive," the lead instructor replied in a deep voice. "It's the aliens' containment strategy. By holding our ground here, we are guarding the rear of the defense line."
Lin Yan leaned against a concrete pillar at the edge of the playground, taking a brief breather and using the pillar to support his body. He looked toward the towering city wall to the north of the bastion, Chen Ye's figure flashing through his mind. Chen Ye had already returned to his unit and manned the wall; he should be standing beside an oscillation turret right now, waiting with the other defenders for the first wave of the beast tide.
He knew the brutality outside the walls all too well.
This was not the skirmish with scattered scouts on the wasteland from before; it was a large-scale beast tide charge. First and second-tier scaled beasts pressed forward in relays, accompanied by large-scale psychic waves released by the priests through the rock strata. It took three to five defenders working together to take down a single beast; every inch of the defense line advanced had to be filled with flesh and blood. The Ancient Progeny had deliberately chosen to launch their attack when the anchor point was exposed and the city was in chaos, intending to leave humanity unable to defend both front and rear.
Just then, a more violent explosion came from the direction of the city wall, accompanied by sharp communication orders. The sound traveled along the bastion's internal broadcast lines to the academy: "West Side Artillery Position No. 3 is damaged! Scaled beast clusters are concentrating their assault on that section of the wall! Requesting flanking fire support! Sea of Consciousness squads, immediately fill the gaps and resist the simultaneous psychic assault!"
The communicator's voice in the broadcast was frantic, interspersed with screams and the roar of artillery fire.
The faces of the youths on the playground instantly turned pale. Their barely stabilized minds began to waver again, and some subconsciously covered their ears.
"Everyone, sit in place immediately, close your eyes, and fortify your Sea of Consciousness!" the instructor ordered loudly. "Do not listen to the sounds of fighting outside! Focus on your breathing!"
Lin Yan closed his eyes. Using the special perception brought by his innate fissure, he vaguely captured the psychic waves spreading outside the walls through the thick concrete.
Unlike the Elder's illusions from before, this was a large-scale suppression wave led by a secondary priest. Its purpose wasn't to create fine illusions, but to massively impact the defenders' Seas of Consciousness, causing dizziness, nausea, and a decline in judgment, making it easier for the scaled beasts to get up close and tear them apart. Wave after wave, unceasing, like ocean waves repeatedly battering a reef.
The defenders of the Western Front were enduring this pressure with sheer force.
A sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart. He had experienced the bloody battles in the rifts, slain an Ancient Progeny Elder with his own hands, and brought back precious intelligence. Yet at this moment, because of his severe Sea of Consciousness injuries, he couldn't even climb the walls to fight. He could only stay in the rear to protect these children. At the third tier, he was still insignificant in the face of such a large-scale battle. The long path to the ninth tier seemed even more distant now.
But he quickly suppressed this emotion.
The battlefield was never just a place for frontal combat. Outside the high walls, soldiers resisted the beast tide; inside the high walls, they guarded the minds of the rear, preventing the aliens' covert lines from igniting chaos from within. Both sides were equally important.
Time ticked by minute by minute.
The sounds of fighting outside the walls rose and fell. Sometimes the artillery fire was as dense as thunder; other times, there was a brief silence, indicating that the defenders were reloading and the scaled beasts were regrouping, brewing the next round of charges.
Inside the academy, the conditions of the four infected youths gradually improved. The uncontrollable trembling caused by the illusions slowly stopped, and they were able to independently operate their Sea of Consciousness fortification techniques. Their faces were still pale, but their eyes had regained their focus.
"I... I can't see those monsters anymore," the short-haired boy raised his head, looking at Lin Yan, his voice still weak.
"The illusions haven't disappeared," Lin Yan said slowly. "You've just learned not to let them lead your consciousness. In the future, no matter what kind of whispers or illusions you encounter, remember how you feel today. The Ancient Progeny are best at drawing power from human fear. If you aren't afraid, they can do nothing to you."
Before he could finish speaking, a messenger from the research institute hurriedly ran onto the playground and found Lin Yan: "Comrade Lin Yan, Scholar Su sent word! The beast tide outside the walls is a feint! The main cluster isn't concentrating its assault on Artillery Position No. 3; they are maneuvering toward the weak outpost on the south side! The garrison forces there are insufficient, and monitoring shows that a secondary priest is advancing along with the beast herd!"
Lin Yan's pupils contracted.
A feint.
Another tactic commonly used by the Ancient Progeny: use a fierce attack to draw fire first, then mobilize the main force to sneak attack the weak points of the defense. The overt beast tide was never a mindless rush forward; with layered dispatches and a mix of real and fake tactics, it was a complete war strategy.
"The south outpost..." Lin Yan repeated in a low voice, his heart heavy.
The south outpost lacked sufficient troops and high-tier Sea of Consciousness cultivators. Once the secondary priest arrived and unleashed a high-intensity psychic illusion tide, the defense line could easily collapse directly. If the outpost fell, the beast tide could tear open a gap and pour directly into the residential areas on the outer perimeter of the bastion. By then, the city would turn into a living hell.
The messenger added another sentence: "The command is urgently dispatching support squads, but the journey will take time. Before the reinforcements arrive, the south outpost can only rely on its original garrison to hold out."
The fighting outside the walls was still ongoing, and the artillery fire of the feint remained fierce, covering the maneuvering of the main force.
The academy side had temporarily stabilized; the cadets could now independently fortify their Seas of Consciousness under the continued care of the instructors. Lin Yan raised his hand to press against his brow. The pain in his fissure was still continuous. He only had one last strong-dose stabilization agent left; he absolutely could not use it unless pushed to the brink.
He looked at the messenger: "Can I go to the south outpost? I have a perception of the priest's psychic fluctuations. Perhaps I can provide early warnings of where the illusion tide will land."
The messenger hesitated: "Scholar Su specifically instructed that your Sea of Consciousness injuries strictly forbid you from taking on high-intensity psychic impacts again..."
"The support teams are on their way, but the outpost won't be able to hold out until they arrive," Lin Yan said calmly. "I won't engage in frontal combat; I'll only be responsible for perception and early warning."
In the distance, to the south of the city wall, deep within the earth, a cold, orderly psychic fluctuation was slowly approaching.
The feint was a smokescreen; the true killing blow had already circled around to the south.
Under pressure from both inside and outside the bastion, the crisis of this night was far from over.
End of Chapter.