Chapter 194: The Charge Call
The influx of scaled beasts into the buffer rock hall had finally ceased.
On the thermal imaging screen, a massive expanse of scorching heat sources blanketed the entire spacious cavern, densely packed together. A rough count showed nearly two hundred and forty. Ordinary scaled beasts were squeezed into the lower layers, while several third-tier scaled beasts, massive and bearing bone spurs on their backs, took the front row as the spearhead of the charge. They lay dormant in silence, suppressing low growls in their throats. All restlessness was forcibly suppressed by the Beast Commander's mountainous consciousness; not a single beast rashly rushed out of the fissure.
The wind on the wasteland, carrying sand and gravel, swept across the oscillation pillars of the blockade array, producing a continuous, low, and steady hum. Soldiers in the trenches half-squatted behind their cover, piercing weapons mounted on the parapets, fingers tight on the triggers, their eyes locked onto the pitch-black fissure a hundred meters away. The Sea of Consciousness cultivators, just recalled from within the city, were arranged in a horizontal formation, sitting cross-legged in the gaps between the pillars. Their Seas of Consciousness spread out in unison, resonating as one with the mechanical barrier to withstand the impending psychic assaults.
Only a single squad of healing cultivators and military police remained within the city to maintain order. Every few minutes, the command channel would still transmit brief alarms: a resident's anchor point experiencing momentary restlessness here, an old alley resident suffering auditory hallucinations there. The scale of the alarms was not large, but they were like fine needles, constantly pricking everyone's nerves, reminding them that the hidden dangers in the rear had never disappeared, and that their forces could never truly concentrate.
Lin Yan sat in front of the terminal in the observation shed, his breathing kept extremely light.
The fine threads of his Sea of Consciousness were divided into four strands, each locking onto one of the four ancient beings, while the final strand hovered distantly over the supreme ruler's core consciousness. The five-layer synchronization field continued to spread stably, shrouding both the rift and the entire bastion.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being's consciousness was still continuously sweeping over the city's pipe network, ready to ignite new anchor points at any moment to tie down the remaining healing forces. The Illusion Ancient Being's fluctuations drifted back and forth in the shallow intersections; the illusion arrays set up in advance were fully primed, specifically designed to ambush any reinforcement squads attempting to push into the rift. The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being's sharp psychic power had been accumulating, like a bowstring drawn to its absolute limit, waiting to release synchronously the moment the beast tide struck the barrier.
The Beast Commander's heavy consciousness enveloped the entire scaled beast army in the rock hall. It was in no rush, repeatedly combing through the beast formation and adjusting the spearhead positions. It placed the strongest third-tier scaled beasts at the very forefront, while distributing the fast, maneuverable individuals to both flanks, preparing to strike the relatively weaker areas on both sides of the barrier.
"The formation is fully arranged. They are waiting for a synchronization node," Lin Yan reported in a low voice over the channel. "The Beast Commander has not yet issued the charge command."
Old Zhou stood at the door of the observation shed, glanced out at the heavy gray fog, and replied in a low voice, "Everyone is in position. The defense line is set for layered interception. The first layer will absorb the barrier's impact, the second layer will harvest with long-range piercing weapons, and the third layer of infantry will engage in close-quarters combat. Once the barrier is torn open, we will have to take the hit head-on."
Scholar Su was stationed in the command hall, his voice calm yet taut: "Tell the frontline not to open fire proactively to lure them. Wait until they burst out of the fissure before counterattacking."
Time ticked away, minute by minute.
Another alarm sounded within the city. Near an old septic tank node in the northern suburbs, a household's anchor point became restless. The remaining healing cultivator rushed over at top speed, expending a significant amount of mental power to barely suppress it. When this message reached all frontline channels, many soldiers felt a slight sinking in their hearts—the enemy hadn't stopped its two-pronged harassment. Right up until the last moment before the battle, they were still stretching their energy thin.
The fissure at Lin Yan's brow continued to tingle with numbness. The compounded perception of the five ancient beings was like countless gazes fixed upon this high ground of the rocky hill. He didn't dare maintain his perception for too long; every dozen seconds or so, he had to retract the threads to catch his breath before probing out again.
During one of these renewed probes, he caught a shift in the signals.
The Beast Commander's heavy, slow consciousness suddenly surged upward. A silent command wave swept across the entire buffer rock hall.
It was here.
"Attention! The charge command has been issued!" Lin Yan's voice suddenly tightened. "The beast herd is moving!"
From within the shadows of the rift, the suppressed roars erupted explosively.
The third-tier scaled beasts in the front row took the first steps. Their heavy paws trampled the gravel, and the rumbling vibrations traveled through the rock strata to the surface of the wasteland. The pitch-black beast tide followed closely behind, splitting into three paths, surging out from the wide fissure. The left flank, center, and right flank deployed synchronously, heading straight for the resonance barrier. A foul-smelling wind gushed out from the rift, and vertical pupils gleamed with cold light within the gray fog.
At that exact instant, the psychic assault that the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being had been hoarding for so long exploded right on schedule!
A sharp, tearing wave of consciousness pounced on the barrier, closely following the beast tide. The Sea of Consciousness cultivators guarding the pillars simultaneously let out stifled groans. Many saw their vision blur, their Seas of Consciousness throbbing with intense pain, and the resonance that had been synchronized with the barrier experienced a brief disruption.
The surface of the barrier trembled violently, and massive ripples spread outward. The load values on the instrument panels jumped frantically upward, and the indicator lights on several pillars instantly turned a blinding orange-yellow.
"Barrier load is skyrocketing! Cultivators, stabilize your Seas of Consciousness!" an engineer roared, adjusting the energy distribution and feeding the power of the backup modules into the weakened flanks.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being also moved in sync.
Its spiderweb consciousness spread through the underground pipe network, and three anchor points within the city were instantly triggered! Red warning lights flared fiercely on the sand table. The remaining squad was forced to split up and rush to the three locations. The already stretched-thin forces within the city were divided once again.
"Synchronized detonation within the city for harassment! Three losses of control!" a military police officer reported urgently over the channel.
The Illusion Ancient Being still hadn't made a move. Its fluctuations lay dormant quietly at the intersections of the shallow channels, unassuming, holding back its trump card. Clearly, it intended to save this for any subsequent reinforcement assault squads that might be dispatched.
Deep in the cavern in the middle of the rift, the supreme ruler's original consciousness remained perfectly steady, without any fluctuations. It was like the conductor of this grand symphony, quietly watching its four kin fulfill their respective roles, watching the beast tide crash against the defense line, watching chaos ignite within the city. It controlled the rhythm of the entire offensive, retaining the authority to escalate or hold back at any moment.
Boom!
The first third-tier scaled beast slammed fiercely into the invisible resonance barrier.
The energy membrane caved inward, and the pale blue spiritual light flickered violently. The bone spurs of the scaled beast scraped against the barrier, sparking tiny showers of fire. The beast herd behind it crashed against it one after another, the impacts stacking wave upon wave, continuously squeezing the safety margin of the barrier. The heavy piercing weapons in the trenches opened fire. Metal arrows tore through the gray fog, piercing the bodies of the scaled beasts at the forefront. Foul-smelling black blood splattered. The struck beasts roared in pain, but they did not retreat; they continued to charge through the pain.
Their fighting spirit was firmly locked by the Beast Commander's consciousness. They knew no fear, only the charge.
"Left flank is under the most pressure! Add two more backup pillars!"
"There are too many third-tier scaled beasts in the center! Concentrate firepower on the center spearhead!"
Shouts from the frontline rose and fell one after another. Smoke and dust billowed in front of the barrier. The Sea of Consciousness cultivators gritted their teeth, stabilizing their turbulent minds, doing their utmost to resonate with the barrier and resist the continuous, fine psychic cuts relentlessly added by the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being.
Lin Yan stared fixedly at the signals of the five ancient beings: The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being was still continuously outputting impacts, slowly increasing its power; the Beast Commander was constantly fine-tuning the beast herd's offensive, directing more scaled beasts to pounce wherever the barrier was weakest; the Spiderweb Ancient Being kept its eyes on the city's anchor points, ready to ignite more fuses at any time; the Illusion Ancient Being remained hidden in the dark, holding its position.
The supreme ruler continued to watch in silence.
Lin Yan clenched his fists, knowing clearly in his heart that this was not everything.
The joint offensive of the five ancient beings had only just drawn the curtain on the frontal slaughter. Whether the barrier could withstand this round of continuous impacts, and whether the remaining squads within the city could hold down the successive outbreaks of loss of control, all hung by a single thread.
Above the wasteland, the beast tide galloped and crashed against the barrier, the roars unceasing. Beneath the rock strata, the five ancient consciousnesses operated in harmonious resonance, their pieces falling endlessly.
The storm had truly arrived.
End of Chapter.
On the thermal imaging screen, a massive expanse of scorching heat sources blanketed the entire spacious cavern, densely packed together. A rough count showed nearly two hundred and forty. Ordinary scaled beasts were squeezed into the lower layers, while several third-tier scaled beasts, massive and bearing bone spurs on their backs, took the front row as the spearhead of the charge. They lay dormant in silence, suppressing low growls in their throats. All restlessness was forcibly suppressed by the Beast Commander's mountainous consciousness; not a single beast rashly rushed out of the fissure.
The wind on the wasteland, carrying sand and gravel, swept across the oscillation pillars of the blockade array, producing a continuous, low, and steady hum. Soldiers in the trenches half-squatted behind their cover, piercing weapons mounted on the parapets, fingers tight on the triggers, their eyes locked onto the pitch-black fissure a hundred meters away. The Sea of Consciousness cultivators, just recalled from within the city, were arranged in a horizontal formation, sitting cross-legged in the gaps between the pillars. Their Seas of Consciousness spread out in unison, resonating as one with the mechanical barrier to withstand the impending psychic assaults.
Only a single squad of healing cultivators and military police remained within the city to maintain order. Every few minutes, the command channel would still transmit brief alarms: a resident's anchor point experiencing momentary restlessness here, an old alley resident suffering auditory hallucinations there. The scale of the alarms was not large, but they were like fine needles, constantly pricking everyone's nerves, reminding them that the hidden dangers in the rear had never disappeared, and that their forces could never truly concentrate.
Lin Yan sat in front of the terminal in the observation shed, his breathing kept extremely light.
The fine threads of his Sea of Consciousness were divided into four strands, each locking onto one of the four ancient beings, while the final strand hovered distantly over the supreme ruler's core consciousness. The five-layer synchronization field continued to spread stably, shrouding both the rift and the entire bastion.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being's consciousness was still continuously sweeping over the city's pipe network, ready to ignite new anchor points at any moment to tie down the remaining healing forces. The Illusion Ancient Being's fluctuations drifted back and forth in the shallow intersections; the illusion arrays set up in advance were fully primed, specifically designed to ambush any reinforcement squads attempting to push into the rift. The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being's sharp psychic power had been accumulating, like a bowstring drawn to its absolute limit, waiting to release synchronously the moment the beast tide struck the barrier.
The Beast Commander's heavy consciousness enveloped the entire scaled beast army in the rock hall. It was in no rush, repeatedly combing through the beast formation and adjusting the spearhead positions. It placed the strongest third-tier scaled beasts at the very forefront, while distributing the fast, maneuverable individuals to both flanks, preparing to strike the relatively weaker areas on both sides of the barrier.
"The formation is fully arranged. They are waiting for a synchronization node," Lin Yan reported in a low voice over the channel. "The Beast Commander has not yet issued the charge command."
Old Zhou stood at the door of the observation shed, glanced out at the heavy gray fog, and replied in a low voice, "Everyone is in position. The defense line is set for layered interception. The first layer will absorb the barrier's impact, the second layer will harvest with long-range piercing weapons, and the third layer of infantry will engage in close-quarters combat. Once the barrier is torn open, we will have to take the hit head-on."
Scholar Su was stationed in the command hall, his voice calm yet taut: "Tell the frontline not to open fire proactively to lure them. Wait until they burst out of the fissure before counterattacking."
Time ticked away, minute by minute.
Another alarm sounded within the city. Near an old septic tank node in the northern suburbs, a household's anchor point became restless. The remaining healing cultivator rushed over at top speed, expending a significant amount of mental power to barely suppress it. When this message reached all frontline channels, many soldiers felt a slight sinking in their hearts—the enemy hadn't stopped its two-pronged harassment. Right up until the last moment before the battle, they were still stretching their energy thin.
The fissure at Lin Yan's brow continued to tingle with numbness. The compounded perception of the five ancient beings was like countless gazes fixed upon this high ground of the rocky hill. He didn't dare maintain his perception for too long; every dozen seconds or so, he had to retract the threads to catch his breath before probing out again.
During one of these renewed probes, he caught a shift in the signals.
The Beast Commander's heavy, slow consciousness suddenly surged upward. A silent command wave swept across the entire buffer rock hall.
It was here.
"Attention! The charge command has been issued!" Lin Yan's voice suddenly tightened. "The beast herd is moving!"
From within the shadows of the rift, the suppressed roars erupted explosively.
The third-tier scaled beasts in the front row took the first steps. Their heavy paws trampled the gravel, and the rumbling vibrations traveled through the rock strata to the surface of the wasteland. The pitch-black beast tide followed closely behind, splitting into three paths, surging out from the wide fissure. The left flank, center, and right flank deployed synchronously, heading straight for the resonance barrier. A foul-smelling wind gushed out from the rift, and vertical pupils gleamed with cold light within the gray fog.
At that exact instant, the psychic assault that the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being had been hoarding for so long exploded right on schedule!
A sharp, tearing wave of consciousness pounced on the barrier, closely following the beast tide. The Sea of Consciousness cultivators guarding the pillars simultaneously let out stifled groans. Many saw their vision blur, their Seas of Consciousness throbbing with intense pain, and the resonance that had been synchronized with the barrier experienced a brief disruption.
The surface of the barrier trembled violently, and massive ripples spread outward. The load values on the instrument panels jumped frantically upward, and the indicator lights on several pillars instantly turned a blinding orange-yellow.
"Barrier load is skyrocketing! Cultivators, stabilize your Seas of Consciousness!" an engineer roared, adjusting the energy distribution and feeding the power of the backup modules into the weakened flanks.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being also moved in sync.
Its spiderweb consciousness spread through the underground pipe network, and three anchor points within the city were instantly triggered! Red warning lights flared fiercely on the sand table. The remaining squad was forced to split up and rush to the three locations. The already stretched-thin forces within the city were divided once again.
"Synchronized detonation within the city for harassment! Three losses of control!" a military police officer reported urgently over the channel.
The Illusion Ancient Being still hadn't made a move. Its fluctuations lay dormant quietly at the intersections of the shallow channels, unassuming, holding back its trump card. Clearly, it intended to save this for any subsequent reinforcement assault squads that might be dispatched.
Deep in the cavern in the middle of the rift, the supreme ruler's original consciousness remained perfectly steady, without any fluctuations. It was like the conductor of this grand symphony, quietly watching its four kin fulfill their respective roles, watching the beast tide crash against the defense line, watching chaos ignite within the city. It controlled the rhythm of the entire offensive, retaining the authority to escalate or hold back at any moment.
Boom!
The first third-tier scaled beast slammed fiercely into the invisible resonance barrier.
The energy membrane caved inward, and the pale blue spiritual light flickered violently. The bone spurs of the scaled beast scraped against the barrier, sparking tiny showers of fire. The beast herd behind it crashed against it one after another, the impacts stacking wave upon wave, continuously squeezing the safety margin of the barrier. The heavy piercing weapons in the trenches opened fire. Metal arrows tore through the gray fog, piercing the bodies of the scaled beasts at the forefront. Foul-smelling black blood splattered. The struck beasts roared in pain, but they did not retreat; they continued to charge through the pain.
Their fighting spirit was firmly locked by the Beast Commander's consciousness. They knew no fear, only the charge.
"Left flank is under the most pressure! Add two more backup pillars!"
"There are too many third-tier scaled beasts in the center! Concentrate firepower on the center spearhead!"
Shouts from the frontline rose and fell one after another. Smoke and dust billowed in front of the barrier. The Sea of Consciousness cultivators gritted their teeth, stabilizing their turbulent minds, doing their utmost to resonate with the barrier and resist the continuous, fine psychic cuts relentlessly added by the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being.
Lin Yan stared fixedly at the signals of the five ancient beings: The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being was still continuously outputting impacts, slowly increasing its power; the Beast Commander was constantly fine-tuning the beast herd's offensive, directing more scaled beasts to pounce wherever the barrier was weakest; the Spiderweb Ancient Being kept its eyes on the city's anchor points, ready to ignite more fuses at any time; the Illusion Ancient Being remained hidden in the dark, holding its position.
The supreme ruler continued to watch in silence.
Lin Yan clenched his fists, knowing clearly in his heart that this was not everything.
The joint offensive of the five ancient beings had only just drawn the curtain on the frontal slaughter. Whether the barrier could withstand this round of continuous impacts, and whether the remaining squads within the city could hold down the successive outbreaks of loss of control, all hung by a single thread.
Above the wasteland, the beast tide galloped and crashed against the barrier, the roars unceasing. Beneath the rock strata, the five ancient consciousnesses operated in harmonious resonance, their pieces falling endlessly.
The storm had truly arrived.
End of Chapter.