Chapter 181: The Beast Tide Returns to the Abyss
The rotation orders were issued early the next morning, and Lin Yan was reassigned to the Third Scout Squad.
When Old Zhou saw him, he noticed the lingering exhaustion in Lin Yan's eyes and his unconscious habit of pressing against his brow. He didn't ask about the dangers of the pipe gallery; he simply patted his shoulder and said, "Scholar Su has already briefed me. For this external mission, we will maintain long-distance observation throughout. We will not cross the 800-meter red line near the rift. We will only rely on high-altitude infrared camera platforms and remote spectrum arrays to collect data. No recorders will be buried, and no close-range exploration will be conducted."
The truck traveled along the safe route inside the blockade array, and the atmosphere in the carriage was quiet.
Every member knew that the aura beneath the rift had become increasingly bizarre recently. That ancient consciousness, which belonged to neither the priests nor the Elders, hung over everyone's heads like a shadow. They no longer discussed the tactics of killing scaled beasts in low voices as they used to. Everyone was on high alert, staring intently at the instrument panels in front of them.
When they arrived at the observation point, the morning sun had just crested the thick layer of gray fog over the wasteland, casting a dim, murky light over the dead, black earth. The observation point was chosen behind a raised rocky hill. The elevated terrain allowed them to overlook the massive gash of Rift No. 79 from several kilometers away across the buffer zone.
The squad quickly set up the infrared camera platform and calibrated the remote spectrum receiving equipment. The camera lens was aimed directly at the rift entrance, continuously recording automatically, while the spectrum antenna extended toward the rift, quietly capturing the fluctuations drifting up from underground.
For the first half hour, all the data was no different from usual.
Scattered scaled beasts wandered near the rift exit, pacing aimlessly, occasionally biting each other and releasing chaotic, frenzied psychic waves.
The maintenance operator, staring at the thermal imaging on the screen, suddenly raised an eyebrow: "Captain, something's wrong. Look at those scaled beasts at the north exit. They're turning back."
Old Zhou immediately leaned over, and Lin Yan also stepped up to the screen.
In the infrared image, several medium-sized scaled beasts were no longer tentatively stepping out of the rift as they usually did. Instead, they turned their bodies and retreated inward along the fissure in an orderly fashion. They weren't fleeing in panic or being driven away by something. Their movements were synchronized; following a fixed path, one after another, they retreated into the deep darkness.
Before long, the scaled beasts at the east and south exits of the rift began doing the same.
The scattered beasts that had previously been wandering at the shallow entrances and the edge of the buffer zone, as if receiving a unified command, all abandoned their outward activities and methodically retreated to the lower levels of the rift.
"It's not just a few scattered individuals," Lin Yan said, focusing his perception and keeping it light. The fissure in his Sea of Consciousness tingled slightly. "It's the entire scaled beast cluster in the shallow area, retreating collectively."
On the spectrum analyzer, the noisy, chaotic, and dense frenzied waveforms belonging to the scaled beasts disappeared one by one.
It was like the tide slowly receding.
Old Zhou picked up the communicator and immediately reported this anomaly to the blockade array command center. At the same time, he increased the camera's zoom, staring fixedly at the rift entrance: "Normally, even if a priest orders the beast herd to gather, the scaled beasts would be restless, roaring with violent fluctuations. But look at them. They are completely silent and highly disciplined."
"It is the will of that deep-level supreme ruler directing them," Lin Yan said slowly, his voice kept extremely low. "The priests don't have this level of coordination, and the Rock-Melting Elders can't synchronously mobilize all the scaled beasts in the entire shallow area. It is clearing the shallow level."
Clearing the hunting ground.
This thought surfaced, sending a chill down everyone's spines.
The shallow breeding grounds, channels, and entrances were being emptied bit by bit. The scaled beasts were the pieces it had placed in the shallow level to harass and tie down humanity. Now, all the pieces were being recalled to the lower levels. So, who was this cleared channel being reserved for?
"Could it be preparing to rise to the surface itself?" an assault specialist asked, gripping his oscillation baton tightly, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"It's hard to say right now," Old Zhou said in a deep voice. "It's also possible that it intends to mobilize higher-tier Ancient Progeny individuals to come up from the lower-level channels."
Lin Yan continued to maintain his long-range perception, carefully capturing the aura drifting up from the depths of the rift.
That familiar, vast, and indifferent, gentle psychic flow had accelerated its upward movement again. It was no longer slowly seeping through the rock strata; it was steadily advancing upward along the main channel, like an invisible tide following behind the retreating scaled beasts. Wherever the scaled beasts retreated, this psychic flow would wash over.
The scaled beasts were making way for it.
All the low-level hunting weapons instinctively avoided the channel, leaving the upward path completely empty.
"It is moving up," Lin Yan said, a hint of imperceptible tension in his voice. "It hasn't reached the shallow rift exit yet, but it is much closer to the surface than before."
The return order from the command center arrived quickly: Maintain observation in place; do not advance. All personnel must be ready to evacuate at any time. All pillars of the blockade array are to increase their resonance power, and the defense line's mobile units are to enter Level 1 standby status.
The dozens of oscillation pillars of the blockade array began to hum. An invisible resonance barrier slowly spread out, enveloping the outer perimeter of the rift exit.
The squad remained behind the rocky hill, quietly watching the infrared image as the scaled beasts continuously retreated into the darkness.
One hour, two hours.
By noon, there was no longer a single thermal signal of a scaled beast near the shallow entrance of the rift. The massive fissure was completely dead and silent, with only the pitch-black void facing the wasteland. The usual此起彼伏 (intermittent) beast roars had completely vanished, making the wasteland terrifyingly quiet.
Only that long, ancient psychic flow continued to surge upward from the depths of the rift, bit by bit filling the channel just cleared by the scaled beasts.
On the spectrum screen, the pale purple curve representing it rose steadily, becoming increasingly clear.
"The shallow level is completely empty," the maintenance operator said, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. "All the scaled beasts have retreated to the deeper lower levels."
Old Zhou looked at Lin Yan: "Can you tell when it will reach the exit?"
"I can't," Lin Yan shook his head. The fissure in his Sea of Consciousness trembled continuously, bringing waves of dull pain. "Its rhythm is completely irregular. It can stop in the channel to observe for days, or it can step out of the rift at the next moment. We can't see its true body; we can only perceive the residual waves of its overflowing consciousness."
Lin Yan knew one thing clearly in his heart.
It didn't necessarily intend to immediately burst out of the rift and launch a frontal assault on the blockade array.
It had too many options.
Perhaps it would merely rise to the middle section of the shallow channel, and through a layer of rock, extend its perception range further into the wasteland, getting a clearer view of the blockade works and the deployment of the mobile forces around the West Bastion. Alternatively, it might dispatch a new Ancient Progeny individual, far surpassing the priests in rank, to use this cleared channel to reach the shallow level. Or perhaps, this was just a show of force, making humanity watch the beast tide retreat with their own eyes, keeping their nerves taut in the face of unknown fear, and continuously draining their morale.
It excelled at patient planning and disliked direct charges.
Scholar Su's voice came through the communicator, steady yet carrying weight: "Frontline observation squad, continue remote surveillance. We have simultaneously notified the bastion city to further tighten the screening of sleepers and accelerate the injection of neutralizing agents into the water supply pipes. Both the external and internal fronts are on high alert. Remember, once it reaches the shallow level, the signals from all spore nodes within the city will strengthen synchronously. The risk posed by those dormant parasites will surge dramatically."
This single sentence brought everyone to their senses.
Outside the city, the beast tide retreated and the channel was cleared as it moved upward; within the city, the spiral nodes in the pipe galleries continuously produced spores, and the sleepers hid among the crowds.
These two events were synchronously linked.
The closer it got to the shallow level, the stronger its control over the city's spore network, and the faster the transmission speed of the command to awaken those dormant vessels. Outside the city was its path forward; within the city were the backup plans it had planted. The two lines echoed each other.
Images of the grain and oil shop couple flashed through Lin Yan's mind, along with the residents in the East District building who had not yet been fully screened. Countless sleeping seeds maintained a secret connection with it in the abyssal depths.
As long as it wished, with a single thought, chaos would erupt within the bastion.
In the afternoon, the gray fog over the wasteland grew thicker, slowly gathering toward the rift.
The infrared camera remained locked on the pitch-black fissure, and the spectrum analyzer continued to record the constantly rising psychic flow.
The squad still guarded behind the rocky hill, no one daring to relax.
The once noisy, battle-scarred shallow level of the rift had now become an empty arena waiting for a guest.
Old Zhou assigned shifts in a low voice with the team members: two watched the instruments, two stood guard, taking turns to rest. No one was allowed to lose focus at the same time.
Lin Yan leaned against the rock alone, gazing at the gaping wound in the distant earth.
The existence in the abyss was slowly moving upward along the path the scaled beasts had yielded.
The war of attrition had reached a point where it was no longer a distant gaze through layers of rock strata. The distance between it and humanity was shrinking bit by bit.
He raised his hand and pressed against the eternal fissure on his brow, feeling that distant yet clear gaze.
He was the eyes that saw the approaching storm first, but he also knew clearly that these very eyes had always been a vessel coveted by the abyss.
End of Chapter.
When Old Zhou saw him, he noticed the lingering exhaustion in Lin Yan's eyes and his unconscious habit of pressing against his brow. He didn't ask about the dangers of the pipe gallery; he simply patted his shoulder and said, "Scholar Su has already briefed me. For this external mission, we will maintain long-distance observation throughout. We will not cross the 800-meter red line near the rift. We will only rely on high-altitude infrared camera platforms and remote spectrum arrays to collect data. No recorders will be buried, and no close-range exploration will be conducted."
The truck traveled along the safe route inside the blockade array, and the atmosphere in the carriage was quiet.
Every member knew that the aura beneath the rift had become increasingly bizarre recently. That ancient consciousness, which belonged to neither the priests nor the Elders, hung over everyone's heads like a shadow. They no longer discussed the tactics of killing scaled beasts in low voices as they used to. Everyone was on high alert, staring intently at the instrument panels in front of them.
When they arrived at the observation point, the morning sun had just crested the thick layer of gray fog over the wasteland, casting a dim, murky light over the dead, black earth. The observation point was chosen behind a raised rocky hill. The elevated terrain allowed them to overlook the massive gash of Rift No. 79 from several kilometers away across the buffer zone.
The squad quickly set up the infrared camera platform and calibrated the remote spectrum receiving equipment. The camera lens was aimed directly at the rift entrance, continuously recording automatically, while the spectrum antenna extended toward the rift, quietly capturing the fluctuations drifting up from underground.
For the first half hour, all the data was no different from usual.
Scattered scaled beasts wandered near the rift exit, pacing aimlessly, occasionally biting each other and releasing chaotic, frenzied psychic waves.
The maintenance operator, staring at the thermal imaging on the screen, suddenly raised an eyebrow: "Captain, something's wrong. Look at those scaled beasts at the north exit. They're turning back."
Old Zhou immediately leaned over, and Lin Yan also stepped up to the screen.
In the infrared image, several medium-sized scaled beasts were no longer tentatively stepping out of the rift as they usually did. Instead, they turned their bodies and retreated inward along the fissure in an orderly fashion. They weren't fleeing in panic or being driven away by something. Their movements were synchronized; following a fixed path, one after another, they retreated into the deep darkness.
Before long, the scaled beasts at the east and south exits of the rift began doing the same.
The scattered beasts that had previously been wandering at the shallow entrances and the edge of the buffer zone, as if receiving a unified command, all abandoned their outward activities and methodically retreated to the lower levels of the rift.
"It's not just a few scattered individuals," Lin Yan said, focusing his perception and keeping it light. The fissure in his Sea of Consciousness tingled slightly. "It's the entire scaled beast cluster in the shallow area, retreating collectively."
On the spectrum analyzer, the noisy, chaotic, and dense frenzied waveforms belonging to the scaled beasts disappeared one by one.
It was like the tide slowly receding.
Old Zhou picked up the communicator and immediately reported this anomaly to the blockade array command center. At the same time, he increased the camera's zoom, staring fixedly at the rift entrance: "Normally, even if a priest orders the beast herd to gather, the scaled beasts would be restless, roaring with violent fluctuations. But look at them. They are completely silent and highly disciplined."
"It is the will of that deep-level supreme ruler directing them," Lin Yan said slowly, his voice kept extremely low. "The priests don't have this level of coordination, and the Rock-Melting Elders can't synchronously mobilize all the scaled beasts in the entire shallow area. It is clearing the shallow level."
Clearing the hunting ground.
This thought surfaced, sending a chill down everyone's spines.
The shallow breeding grounds, channels, and entrances were being emptied bit by bit. The scaled beasts were the pieces it had placed in the shallow level to harass and tie down humanity. Now, all the pieces were being recalled to the lower levels. So, who was this cleared channel being reserved for?
"Could it be preparing to rise to the surface itself?" an assault specialist asked, gripping his oscillation baton tightly, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"It's hard to say right now," Old Zhou said in a deep voice. "It's also possible that it intends to mobilize higher-tier Ancient Progeny individuals to come up from the lower-level channels."
Lin Yan continued to maintain his long-range perception, carefully capturing the aura drifting up from the depths of the rift.
That familiar, vast, and indifferent, gentle psychic flow had accelerated its upward movement again. It was no longer slowly seeping through the rock strata; it was steadily advancing upward along the main channel, like an invisible tide following behind the retreating scaled beasts. Wherever the scaled beasts retreated, this psychic flow would wash over.
The scaled beasts were making way for it.
All the low-level hunting weapons instinctively avoided the channel, leaving the upward path completely empty.
"It is moving up," Lin Yan said, a hint of imperceptible tension in his voice. "It hasn't reached the shallow rift exit yet, but it is much closer to the surface than before."
The return order from the command center arrived quickly: Maintain observation in place; do not advance. All personnel must be ready to evacuate at any time. All pillars of the blockade array are to increase their resonance power, and the defense line's mobile units are to enter Level 1 standby status.
The dozens of oscillation pillars of the blockade array began to hum. An invisible resonance barrier slowly spread out, enveloping the outer perimeter of the rift exit.
The squad remained behind the rocky hill, quietly watching the infrared image as the scaled beasts continuously retreated into the darkness.
One hour, two hours.
By noon, there was no longer a single thermal signal of a scaled beast near the shallow entrance of the rift. The massive fissure was completely dead and silent, with only the pitch-black void facing the wasteland. The usual此起彼伏 (intermittent) beast roars had completely vanished, making the wasteland terrifyingly quiet.
Only that long, ancient psychic flow continued to surge upward from the depths of the rift, bit by bit filling the channel just cleared by the scaled beasts.
On the spectrum screen, the pale purple curve representing it rose steadily, becoming increasingly clear.
"The shallow level is completely empty," the maintenance operator said, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. "All the scaled beasts have retreated to the deeper lower levels."
Old Zhou looked at Lin Yan: "Can you tell when it will reach the exit?"
"I can't," Lin Yan shook his head. The fissure in his Sea of Consciousness trembled continuously, bringing waves of dull pain. "Its rhythm is completely irregular. It can stop in the channel to observe for days, or it can step out of the rift at the next moment. We can't see its true body; we can only perceive the residual waves of its overflowing consciousness."
Lin Yan knew one thing clearly in his heart.
It didn't necessarily intend to immediately burst out of the rift and launch a frontal assault on the blockade array.
It had too many options.
Perhaps it would merely rise to the middle section of the shallow channel, and through a layer of rock, extend its perception range further into the wasteland, getting a clearer view of the blockade works and the deployment of the mobile forces around the West Bastion. Alternatively, it might dispatch a new Ancient Progeny individual, far surpassing the priests in rank, to use this cleared channel to reach the shallow level. Or perhaps, this was just a show of force, making humanity watch the beast tide retreat with their own eyes, keeping their nerves taut in the face of unknown fear, and continuously draining their morale.
It excelled at patient planning and disliked direct charges.
Scholar Su's voice came through the communicator, steady yet carrying weight: "Frontline observation squad, continue remote surveillance. We have simultaneously notified the bastion city to further tighten the screening of sleepers and accelerate the injection of neutralizing agents into the water supply pipes. Both the external and internal fronts are on high alert. Remember, once it reaches the shallow level, the signals from all spore nodes within the city will strengthen synchronously. The risk posed by those dormant parasites will surge dramatically."
This single sentence brought everyone to their senses.
Outside the city, the beast tide retreated and the channel was cleared as it moved upward; within the city, the spiral nodes in the pipe galleries continuously produced spores, and the sleepers hid among the crowds.
These two events were synchronously linked.
The closer it got to the shallow level, the stronger its control over the city's spore network, and the faster the transmission speed of the command to awaken those dormant vessels. Outside the city was its path forward; within the city were the backup plans it had planted. The two lines echoed each other.
Images of the grain and oil shop couple flashed through Lin Yan's mind, along with the residents in the East District building who had not yet been fully screened. Countless sleeping seeds maintained a secret connection with it in the abyssal depths.
As long as it wished, with a single thought, chaos would erupt within the bastion.
In the afternoon, the gray fog over the wasteland grew thicker, slowly gathering toward the rift.
The infrared camera remained locked on the pitch-black fissure, and the spectrum analyzer continued to record the constantly rising psychic flow.
The squad still guarded behind the rocky hill, no one daring to relax.
The once noisy, battle-scarred shallow level of the rift had now become an empty arena waiting for a guest.
Old Zhou assigned shifts in a low voice with the team members: two watched the instruments, two stood guard, taking turns to rest. No one was allowed to lose focus at the same time.
Lin Yan leaned against the rock alone, gazing at the gaping wound in the distant earth.
The existence in the abyss was slowly moving upward along the path the scaled beasts had yielded.
The war of attrition had reached a point where it was no longer a distant gaze through layers of rock strata. The distance between it and humanity was shrinking bit by bit.
He raised his hand and pressed against the eternal fissure on his brow, feeling that distant yet clear gaze.
He was the eyes that saw the approaching storm first, but he also knew clearly that these very eyes had always been a vessel coveted by the abyss.
End of Chapter.