Chapter 192: Harmonious Resonance
Night swallowed the wasteland. The gray fog condensed into a thick, ink-black hue, tightly enveloping Rift No. 79.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, all the instrument indicator lights were dimmed to their lowest setting. Only the jumping spectrum curves on the screens remained, illuminating the faces of the few people inside. Lin Yan sat upright in front of the terminal, his Sea of Consciousness tentacles maintaining an extremely restrained frequency as he briefly probed the depths of the rift again and again, tracking the final ascending trajectories of the four ancient beings.
The first ancient being was the first to arrive at the rendezvous point.
Its stream of consciousness, long and expansive like a spiderweb, unfurled and settled steadily against the side of the supreme ruler's eternal, indifferent main signal. The moment they made contact, a faint ripple of resonance spread through the underlying signal. Not long after, the second ancient being, carrying a sharp, cutting sensation, arrived in succession. Then came the beast herd commander, as heavy as a mountain, and finally, the illusionist, whose presence was elusive, flickering in and out of existence.
All four ancient consciousnesses were in position.
Five streams of origin fluctuation from the ancient beings interlocked, intertwined, and calibrated their rhythms, slowly merging into one.
They did not fuse into a single consciousness; rather, they formed a highly precise synchronization system. The supreme ruler remained at the core, coordinating the overall situation. The other four ancient beings took charge of the resonance chains, psychic assaults, beast herd deployment, and illusion ambushes respectively, each fulfilling their specific role. The previously thin underlying signal instantly expanded and spread, transforming into a massive, composite consciousness field that shrouded the rift, penetrated the rock strata, and covered the entire bastion city below.
Hum—
There were no externally released pulses, no exploding illusion tides, yet this silent, harmonious resonance seeped outward through the crevices in the earth.
The fissure in Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness suddenly throbbed with agonizing pain. He let out a stifled groan and quickly retracted his perception tentacles, cold sweat beading on his forehead. Even a brief glimpse carried a gaze that was a hundred times more oppressive than facing the supreme ruler alone before. Countless obscure perception threads swept across the direction of the rocky hill; they had already noticed the fissure that had been watching them.
"They have completed their assembly. The composite consciousness field has taken shape," Lin Yan stabilized his breathing and immediately reported via the encrypted channel. "The overall synchronization intensity has leaped significantly. The critical threshold for all anchor points within the city has now been lowered."
Scholar Su's reply came almost instantly, his tone taut: "Notify all patrolling healing teams in the city: maximum alert!"
Before the orders could be fully transmitted to every district, the alarms within the city had already begun to flood the screens.
The first incident occurred in that secluded courtyard in the old alley in the south of the city, where Old Man Chen lived.
The all-encompassing synchronization field washed over like an invisible match, falling precisely onto the anchor point that had already been in a pre-ignition state.
Old Man Chen, who had been sitting blankly on a stool muttering, suddenly trembled violently. His eyes rolled back, and his Sea of Consciousness was completely hijacked by the spore resonance link. He abruptly stood up, forcing a sharp, inhuman shriek from his throat. His hands stiffened and clawed outward as dense, spiraling black shadows spun frantically before his eyes, filling his entire field of vision.
The anchor point was officially activated.
The commotion in the courtyard soon alarmed the neighbors, and panicked shouts pierced the tranquility of the old alley. The patrolling healing cultivators were still two streets away, but upon receiving the alarm signal, they immediately rushed over at full speed.
But the resonance chain had already been triggered.
The fluctuation generated by the explosion of Old Man Chen's anchor point transmitted outward along the spore link in the underground pipe network, like pushing over the first domino. A hundred meters away, a spiral node hidden inside the wall of an abandoned drainage well began to tremble. Two other sleepers who had slipped through the screening and were attached to the node experienced simultaneous restlessness in their Seas of Consciousness. What had previously been only mild tinnitus now manifested as visual hallucinations, causing them to clutch their heads and curl up in their rooms, screaming.
"Anchor point in Old Alley No. 3, South City activated! Resonance spreading! Second and third locations experiencing simultaneous restlessness!"
Red warning lights in the city's command hall lit up one after another, densely packed, spreading outward along the routes of the old pipe network. Healing cultivators split into squads and sprinted toward the locations, laying down layers of calming psychic fields in an attempt to suppress the restless Seas of Consciousness. But the composite consciousness field continuously supplied power from the depths, making the difficulty of suppressing the anchor points several times higher than on ordinary days.
On the wasteland rift side, the five ancient beings still hadn't launched a direct assault.
They remained quietly perched in the vast underground cavern in the middle of the rift, maintaining their grand harmonious resonance. The wounded high-tier priest still guarded the outer rock cavity, the faint light in the cracks of its bone crown barely visible. It was no longer the core of signal relay; it merely served as an outer observation post, quietly staring at the blockade array on the wasteland. The six guard scaled beasts lay in the shadows, sensing the power of the five ancient beings' chorus behind them, and anxiously swished their tails.
Old Zhou stood on the other side of the observation shed, staring at the thermal imaging screen, and asked Lin Yan in a low voice, "They aren't charging the barrier? Not sending a beast tide?"
"Not for now," Lin Yan slowly shook his head, raising a hand to press against his twitching brow. "This composite synchronization field is a weapon in itself. Right now, they are simultaneously testing the carrying capacity of all anchor point resonance chains across the city. Using Old Man Chen as the first anchor point to explode, they are observing our suppression speed, our patrol blind spots, and the limits of how far the resonance chain can spread."
They didn't need to fire pulses to knock on the gates.
The continuous seepage of the five-layer synchronization field was the most stable and enduring method of applying pressure. On one hand, they ignited sporadic losses of control within the city to drain the mental power of the healing cultivators; on the other hand, they collected data on humanity's emergency response, slowly mapping out the distribution weaknesses of the garrison forces.
The chaos within the city continued to spread.
Seven or eight new restless anchor points appeared consecutively in the south city district. The military police cordoned off the streets and alleys, guiding the panicked residents and trying to prevent the screams of the out-of-control individuals from causing widespread riots. The healing cultivators were pushed to the point of exhaustion through rotation. Many had depleted their mental power and could only rely on agents to keep going. The stable sleepers in the isolation pods were also affected by the synchronization field, collectively experiencing auditory hallucinations, which drastically increased the pressure on the caretakers.
Scholar Su issued a stern order over the channel: "Prioritize cutting the resonance transmission paths! Deploy concentrated neutralizing agent bombs to the corresponding pipe gallery nodes nearby. Intercept the wave transmission in the middle of the link. Do not passively try to soothe every single person!"
Multiple agent deployment vehicles urgently rushed to the pipe network wells in the old city district. Sealed agent bombs were dropped into the underground through the wellheads. The milky-white liquid dispersed in the dark pipes, slowly corroding the spore colonies and weakening the transmission capabilities of the nodes. This method was slow to take effect, but it was the only way to stop the domino-like spread under the current circumstances.
At the rocky hill observation shed, Lin Yan once again released a wisp of perception with extreme caution.
Deep in the cavern, the consciousness of the five ancient beings remained in stable synchronization.
The supreme ruler stayed motionless at the center, while the other four ancient beings performed their respective duties: the Spiderweb Ancient Being tracked every anchor point fluctuation within the city, adjusting the resonance links in real time; the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being waited for the opportunity to stack psychic assaults; the Beast Commander Ancient Being's consciousness slowly swept over the dormant scaled beast herds in the rift, silently gathering its forces; the Illusion Ancient Being's fluctuation drifted and wandered, quietly setting up illusion array traps in the dark corners of the shallow channels, waiting for any emergency squad to rashly venture in.
They were methodical and perfectly coordinated.
This was no longer the probing of a single chess player; it was a complete command team operating simultaneously. The sporadic losses of control were merely an appetizer, used to consume, test, and map.
Lin Yan looked toward the main city of the bastion. From the south city, faint clamor and whistle sounds drifted over, and points of light swayed in the streets and alleys. Countless anchor points hidden in the dark were now trembling slightly under the shroud of the synchronization field, like dry dead grass. It would only take a little more force to set them ablaze in patches.
"Scholar Su," Lin Yan spoke into the communication channel, "the intensity of the composite synchronization field is still slowly rising. They are still increasing the pressure. Next, the number of out-of-control points will only grow."
There was a brief silence on the other end of the channel, followed by Scholar Su's slightly hoarse voice: "We are prepared. Tell everyone to hold the links, and hold the people."
The night over the wasteland was deep. In the depths of the rift, the five ancient consciousnesses continued their harmonious chorus.
Within the city, the smoldering embers had ignited, and the resonance chains were spreading. This offensive, jointly launched by the multiple ancient beings, had only just begun.
End of Chapter.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, all the instrument indicator lights were dimmed to their lowest setting. Only the jumping spectrum curves on the screens remained, illuminating the faces of the few people inside. Lin Yan sat upright in front of the terminal, his Sea of Consciousness tentacles maintaining an extremely restrained frequency as he briefly probed the depths of the rift again and again, tracking the final ascending trajectories of the four ancient beings.
The first ancient being was the first to arrive at the rendezvous point.
Its stream of consciousness, long and expansive like a spiderweb, unfurled and settled steadily against the side of the supreme ruler's eternal, indifferent main signal. The moment they made contact, a faint ripple of resonance spread through the underlying signal. Not long after, the second ancient being, carrying a sharp, cutting sensation, arrived in succession. Then came the beast herd commander, as heavy as a mountain, and finally, the illusionist, whose presence was elusive, flickering in and out of existence.
All four ancient consciousnesses were in position.
Five streams of origin fluctuation from the ancient beings interlocked, intertwined, and calibrated their rhythms, slowly merging into one.
They did not fuse into a single consciousness; rather, they formed a highly precise synchronization system. The supreme ruler remained at the core, coordinating the overall situation. The other four ancient beings took charge of the resonance chains, psychic assaults, beast herd deployment, and illusion ambushes respectively, each fulfilling their specific role. The previously thin underlying signal instantly expanded and spread, transforming into a massive, composite consciousness field that shrouded the rift, penetrated the rock strata, and covered the entire bastion city below.
Hum—
There were no externally released pulses, no exploding illusion tides, yet this silent, harmonious resonance seeped outward through the crevices in the earth.
The fissure in Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness suddenly throbbed with agonizing pain. He let out a stifled groan and quickly retracted his perception tentacles, cold sweat beading on his forehead. Even a brief glimpse carried a gaze that was a hundred times more oppressive than facing the supreme ruler alone before. Countless obscure perception threads swept across the direction of the rocky hill; they had already noticed the fissure that had been watching them.
"They have completed their assembly. The composite consciousness field has taken shape," Lin Yan stabilized his breathing and immediately reported via the encrypted channel. "The overall synchronization intensity has leaped significantly. The critical threshold for all anchor points within the city has now been lowered."
Scholar Su's reply came almost instantly, his tone taut: "Notify all patrolling healing teams in the city: maximum alert!"
Before the orders could be fully transmitted to every district, the alarms within the city had already begun to flood the screens.
The first incident occurred in that secluded courtyard in the old alley in the south of the city, where Old Man Chen lived.
The all-encompassing synchronization field washed over like an invisible match, falling precisely onto the anchor point that had already been in a pre-ignition state.
Old Man Chen, who had been sitting blankly on a stool muttering, suddenly trembled violently. His eyes rolled back, and his Sea of Consciousness was completely hijacked by the spore resonance link. He abruptly stood up, forcing a sharp, inhuman shriek from his throat. His hands stiffened and clawed outward as dense, spiraling black shadows spun frantically before his eyes, filling his entire field of vision.
The anchor point was officially activated.
The commotion in the courtyard soon alarmed the neighbors, and panicked shouts pierced the tranquility of the old alley. The patrolling healing cultivators were still two streets away, but upon receiving the alarm signal, they immediately rushed over at full speed.
But the resonance chain had already been triggered.
The fluctuation generated by the explosion of Old Man Chen's anchor point transmitted outward along the spore link in the underground pipe network, like pushing over the first domino. A hundred meters away, a spiral node hidden inside the wall of an abandoned drainage well began to tremble. Two other sleepers who had slipped through the screening and were attached to the node experienced simultaneous restlessness in their Seas of Consciousness. What had previously been only mild tinnitus now manifested as visual hallucinations, causing them to clutch their heads and curl up in their rooms, screaming.
"Anchor point in Old Alley No. 3, South City activated! Resonance spreading! Second and third locations experiencing simultaneous restlessness!"
Red warning lights in the city's command hall lit up one after another, densely packed, spreading outward along the routes of the old pipe network. Healing cultivators split into squads and sprinted toward the locations, laying down layers of calming psychic fields in an attempt to suppress the restless Seas of Consciousness. But the composite consciousness field continuously supplied power from the depths, making the difficulty of suppressing the anchor points several times higher than on ordinary days.
On the wasteland rift side, the five ancient beings still hadn't launched a direct assault.
They remained quietly perched in the vast underground cavern in the middle of the rift, maintaining their grand harmonious resonance. The wounded high-tier priest still guarded the outer rock cavity, the faint light in the cracks of its bone crown barely visible. It was no longer the core of signal relay; it merely served as an outer observation post, quietly staring at the blockade array on the wasteland. The six guard scaled beasts lay in the shadows, sensing the power of the five ancient beings' chorus behind them, and anxiously swished their tails.
Old Zhou stood on the other side of the observation shed, staring at the thermal imaging screen, and asked Lin Yan in a low voice, "They aren't charging the barrier? Not sending a beast tide?"
"Not for now," Lin Yan slowly shook his head, raising a hand to press against his twitching brow. "This composite synchronization field is a weapon in itself. Right now, they are simultaneously testing the carrying capacity of all anchor point resonance chains across the city. Using Old Man Chen as the first anchor point to explode, they are observing our suppression speed, our patrol blind spots, and the limits of how far the resonance chain can spread."
They didn't need to fire pulses to knock on the gates.
The continuous seepage of the five-layer synchronization field was the most stable and enduring method of applying pressure. On one hand, they ignited sporadic losses of control within the city to drain the mental power of the healing cultivators; on the other hand, they collected data on humanity's emergency response, slowly mapping out the distribution weaknesses of the garrison forces.
The chaos within the city continued to spread.
Seven or eight new restless anchor points appeared consecutively in the south city district. The military police cordoned off the streets and alleys, guiding the panicked residents and trying to prevent the screams of the out-of-control individuals from causing widespread riots. The healing cultivators were pushed to the point of exhaustion through rotation. Many had depleted their mental power and could only rely on agents to keep going. The stable sleepers in the isolation pods were also affected by the synchronization field, collectively experiencing auditory hallucinations, which drastically increased the pressure on the caretakers.
Scholar Su issued a stern order over the channel: "Prioritize cutting the resonance transmission paths! Deploy concentrated neutralizing agent bombs to the corresponding pipe gallery nodes nearby. Intercept the wave transmission in the middle of the link. Do not passively try to soothe every single person!"
Multiple agent deployment vehicles urgently rushed to the pipe network wells in the old city district. Sealed agent bombs were dropped into the underground through the wellheads. The milky-white liquid dispersed in the dark pipes, slowly corroding the spore colonies and weakening the transmission capabilities of the nodes. This method was slow to take effect, but it was the only way to stop the domino-like spread under the current circumstances.
At the rocky hill observation shed, Lin Yan once again released a wisp of perception with extreme caution.
Deep in the cavern, the consciousness of the five ancient beings remained in stable synchronization.
The supreme ruler stayed motionless at the center, while the other four ancient beings performed their respective duties: the Spiderweb Ancient Being tracked every anchor point fluctuation within the city, adjusting the resonance links in real time; the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being waited for the opportunity to stack psychic assaults; the Beast Commander Ancient Being's consciousness slowly swept over the dormant scaled beast herds in the rift, silently gathering its forces; the Illusion Ancient Being's fluctuation drifted and wandered, quietly setting up illusion array traps in the dark corners of the shallow channels, waiting for any emergency squad to rashly venture in.
They were methodical and perfectly coordinated.
This was no longer the probing of a single chess player; it was a complete command team operating simultaneously. The sporadic losses of control were merely an appetizer, used to consume, test, and map.
Lin Yan looked toward the main city of the bastion. From the south city, faint clamor and whistle sounds drifted over, and points of light swayed in the streets and alleys. Countless anchor points hidden in the dark were now trembling slightly under the shroud of the synchronization field, like dry dead grass. It would only take a little more force to set them ablaze in patches.
"Scholar Su," Lin Yan spoke into the communication channel, "the intensity of the composite synchronization field is still slowly rising. They are still increasing the pressure. Next, the number of out-of-control points will only grow."
There was a brief silence on the other end of the channel, followed by Scholar Su's slightly hoarse voice: "We are prepared. Tell everyone to hold the links, and hold the people."
The night over the wasteland was deep. In the depths of the rift, the five ancient consciousnesses continued their harmonious chorus.
Within the city, the smoldering embers had ignited, and the resonance chains were spreading. This offensive, jointly launched by the multiple ancient beings, had only just begun.
End of Chapter.