Chapter 196: Accumulating the Edge in Overlapping Waves
The slaughter at the left flank breach had turned into a meat grinder.
Old Zhou's reserve squad was firmly nailed to the edge of the breach. The blue light of their oscillation stingers flashed repeatedly, each burst consuming a massive amount of their core strength. A third-tier scaled beast's bone spur swept viciously across his ribs. His heavy armor caved in and deformed, and agonizing pain drilled into his bones. Suppressing a groan, he didn't retreat a single step. Instead, he spun around and drove his oscillation stinger ruthlessly into the scaled beast's eye socket. Foul-smelling black blood splattered across his face. He wiped it away with a swipe of his hand, his gaze still locked onto the shadows of the beasts continuously squeezing through the gap.
The infantry in the trenches fired in alternating shifts, piercing rounds pouring out ceaselessly. The fallen corpses of the scaled beasts piled up layer upon layer, blocking most of the exit. Yet, their kin behind them continued to charge and crash against the barrier by stepping over the mound of bodies. Three military police officers tried to work together to drag away a beast carcass blocking their path. Suddenly, a smaller, exceptionally fast scaled beast darted out from the side, its claws lunging straight for one of their necks. A nearby squadmate threw himself in the way, his shoulder torn open in a massive gash, his uniform instantly soaked in blood.
"Compress the breach! Concentrate energy and pour it into the ruptured energy membrane!" the engineer captain roared, dispatching the remaining power to prioritize the left flank pillars.
A few Sea of Consciousness cultivators who could still hold on gritted their teeth, pouring all their psychic strength into the barrier's resonance link. The pale blue energy slowly spread along the cracks, and the damaged light membrane gradually contracted. The breach, originally three meters wide, narrowed bit by bit. The scaled beasts that hadn't managed to burst out in time were isolated once again, left to frantically batter the healing barrier.
The Illusion Ancient Being still guarded the gray fog outside the breach. The illusion domain had not dissipated.
The twisted, spiraling illusion shrouded the entire area, with whispers flowing through the mist. Anyone whose gaze lingered in the gray fog for more than a few breaths would have their consciousness quietly pulled in. When the medical team went to evacuate the wounded, two young recruits carrying a stretcher accidentally glanced toward the foggy zone. Their footsteps abruptly halted, and their eyes went blank. If the senior cultivator leading them hadn't intervened in time to awaken them with a calming vocalization, they would have walked step by step into the deadly crossroads of the rift.
"Stay away from the edge of the fog zone! Evacuate the wounded from the rear!"
Reminders constantly echoed over the command channel. Everyone knew that this illusion domain was a trap hanging over the defense line. As long as the defense line fell into chaos again, the Illusion Ancient Being could split their ranks once more.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness dared not relax for a moment.
He could clearly see the interactive adjustments of the signals between the five ancient beings.
Seeing the breach gradually being sealed, the Beast Commander immediately slowed the pace of mindless charging, no longer blindly piling scaled beasts toward the damaged point. A portion of the beast herd retreated to the buffer rock hall to regroup. They were replaced by individuals with greater stamina and a knack for sustained ramming, taking turns pressing forward to maintain continuous pressure on the barrier, denying it the chance to fully repair its cracks. Another portion of the scaled beasts dispersed along the side channels of the rift, quietly circling toward the far ends of the barrier's northern and southern flanks, preparing to ambush weak points when the opportunity arose.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being continued to tie down the rear.
Its spiderweb consciousness swept over the city's underground pipe network time and time again, occasionally plucking one or two missed anchor points. The alarms within the city rang intermittently, leaving the remaining healing squads exhausted and unable to spare any forces to support the frontline.
The Illusion Ancient Being maintained the illusion domain without moving. It was quite taxing; its fluctuations had faded slightly, but it still firmly locked down the area outside the breach, serving as a continuous means of harassment.
The change occurred with the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being.
That stream of consciousness, which had always carried a cutting texture, was no longer delivering continuous, fragmented slashes. It began to converge and stack. It gathered all the previously scattered psychic impact power, compressing it inward layer upon layer, like countless thin blades stacked together, brewing a concentrated, explosive heavy strike.
Lin Yan's heart tightened, and he immediately reported, "Attention! The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being is charging! It has abandoned continuous cutting and is preparing to release a large-scale, overlapping psychic heavy strike! The target is most likely the entire Sea of Consciousness defense array!"
This news was like a block of ice dropped into the boiling frontline channel.
The Sea of Consciousness cultivators guarding the pillars were already severely depleted. Many had their minds covered in minute wounds, their spirits on the verge of exhaustion. If they were to face this charged heavy strike head-on, the entire psychic defense array would likely collapse en masse. Once the cultivators were collectively incapacitated and the barrier lost the buff of their Sea of Consciousness resonance, relying solely on mechanical energy would never withstand the relentless impacts of the beast herd. The entire defense line would collapse instantly.
Scholar Su quickly issued orders: "Deploy the psychic group in layers! Senior cultivators take the outer layer to absorb the impact; new recruits fall back to protect the foundation! Everyone, retract your Seas of Consciousness. Do not open your perception outward; prepare to defend collectively! Engineers, raise the barrier's base power output in advance. Overload and output synchronously the moment the impact arrives to share the pressure on the Seas of Consciousness!"
The commands were swiftly transmitted to every cultivator's ears.
The broadly spread Sea of Consciousness perception slowly retracted inward, transforming into a tight, restrained defensive barrier. The layers overlapped, resonating and supporting each other. The experienced Level 4 cultivators were positioned in the outermost ring as the first line of flesh shields to absorb the impact. Their faces pale, they silently clenched their fists, preparing to endure this lethal blow head-on.
Deep within the cavern in the middle of the rift, the supreme ruler's core stream of consciousness gave a gentle ripple.
Like a silent command, the other three ancient beings adjusted their rhythm in synchronized cooperation. The Beast Commander slowed its frontal ramming, leaving space for the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being's impact to unleash its full power; the Spiderweb Ancient Being temporarily stopped plucking the city's anchor points, recalling all its consciousness to synchronize and calibrate frequencies with the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being, maximizing the transmission efficiency of the psychic assault; the Illusion Ancient Being also diverted a thread of its power, merging it into this charging fluctuation, wrapping the impact in a layer of illusionary toxin. The moment the strike landed, it would simultaneously implant the spiral illusions.
This was no longer a single psychic attack; it was a composite strike bolstered by the joint efforts of three ancient beings.
"They are amplifying through synchronization. The power of this strike will be stronger than any previous impact," Lin Yan said in a hushed voice, the fissure at his brow twitching violently. "The charge is nearing its peak. The impact will be released within ten breaths."
Everyone on the frontline held their breath.
The barrier was still slowly healing. The breach was less than half a meter wide. Sporadic scaled beasts were still ramming the light membrane, emitting dull thuds. The gray fog churned, the illusion domain lay dormant quietly to the side, and over two hundred scaled beasts were poised in the shadows of the rift, waiting to launch a full-scale charge once the psychic defense line was torn apart.
The soldiers in the trenches gripped their weapons tightly, staring toward the rift. The Sea of Consciousness cultivators closed their eyes and centered their minds. Their layered, restrained consciousness upheld an invisible defense line over the wasteland.
Lin Yan stared fixedly at that continuously stacking, increasingly sharp fluctuation.
The blade had been forged; it was only waiting to be swung.
End of Chapter.
Old Zhou's reserve squad was firmly nailed to the edge of the breach. The blue light of their oscillation stingers flashed repeatedly, each burst consuming a massive amount of their core strength. A third-tier scaled beast's bone spur swept viciously across his ribs. His heavy armor caved in and deformed, and agonizing pain drilled into his bones. Suppressing a groan, he didn't retreat a single step. Instead, he spun around and drove his oscillation stinger ruthlessly into the scaled beast's eye socket. Foul-smelling black blood splattered across his face. He wiped it away with a swipe of his hand, his gaze still locked onto the shadows of the beasts continuously squeezing through the gap.
The infantry in the trenches fired in alternating shifts, piercing rounds pouring out ceaselessly. The fallen corpses of the scaled beasts piled up layer upon layer, blocking most of the exit. Yet, their kin behind them continued to charge and crash against the barrier by stepping over the mound of bodies. Three military police officers tried to work together to drag away a beast carcass blocking their path. Suddenly, a smaller, exceptionally fast scaled beast darted out from the side, its claws lunging straight for one of their necks. A nearby squadmate threw himself in the way, his shoulder torn open in a massive gash, his uniform instantly soaked in blood.
"Compress the breach! Concentrate energy and pour it into the ruptured energy membrane!" the engineer captain roared, dispatching the remaining power to prioritize the left flank pillars.
A few Sea of Consciousness cultivators who could still hold on gritted their teeth, pouring all their psychic strength into the barrier's resonance link. The pale blue energy slowly spread along the cracks, and the damaged light membrane gradually contracted. The breach, originally three meters wide, narrowed bit by bit. The scaled beasts that hadn't managed to burst out in time were isolated once again, left to frantically batter the healing barrier.
The Illusion Ancient Being still guarded the gray fog outside the breach. The illusion domain had not dissipated.
The twisted, spiraling illusion shrouded the entire area, with whispers flowing through the mist. Anyone whose gaze lingered in the gray fog for more than a few breaths would have their consciousness quietly pulled in. When the medical team went to evacuate the wounded, two young recruits carrying a stretcher accidentally glanced toward the foggy zone. Their footsteps abruptly halted, and their eyes went blank. If the senior cultivator leading them hadn't intervened in time to awaken them with a calming vocalization, they would have walked step by step into the deadly crossroads of the rift.
"Stay away from the edge of the fog zone! Evacuate the wounded from the rear!"
Reminders constantly echoed over the command channel. Everyone knew that this illusion domain was a trap hanging over the defense line. As long as the defense line fell into chaos again, the Illusion Ancient Being could split their ranks once more.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness dared not relax for a moment.
He could clearly see the interactive adjustments of the signals between the five ancient beings.
Seeing the breach gradually being sealed, the Beast Commander immediately slowed the pace of mindless charging, no longer blindly piling scaled beasts toward the damaged point. A portion of the beast herd retreated to the buffer rock hall to regroup. They were replaced by individuals with greater stamina and a knack for sustained ramming, taking turns pressing forward to maintain continuous pressure on the barrier, denying it the chance to fully repair its cracks. Another portion of the scaled beasts dispersed along the side channels of the rift, quietly circling toward the far ends of the barrier's northern and southern flanks, preparing to ambush weak points when the opportunity arose.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being continued to tie down the rear.
Its spiderweb consciousness swept over the city's underground pipe network time and time again, occasionally plucking one or two missed anchor points. The alarms within the city rang intermittently, leaving the remaining healing squads exhausted and unable to spare any forces to support the frontline.
The Illusion Ancient Being maintained the illusion domain without moving. It was quite taxing; its fluctuations had faded slightly, but it still firmly locked down the area outside the breach, serving as a continuous means of harassment.
The change occurred with the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being.
That stream of consciousness, which had always carried a cutting texture, was no longer delivering continuous, fragmented slashes. It began to converge and stack. It gathered all the previously scattered psychic impact power, compressing it inward layer upon layer, like countless thin blades stacked together, brewing a concentrated, explosive heavy strike.
Lin Yan's heart tightened, and he immediately reported, "Attention! The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being is charging! It has abandoned continuous cutting and is preparing to release a large-scale, overlapping psychic heavy strike! The target is most likely the entire Sea of Consciousness defense array!"
This news was like a block of ice dropped into the boiling frontline channel.
The Sea of Consciousness cultivators guarding the pillars were already severely depleted. Many had their minds covered in minute wounds, their spirits on the verge of exhaustion. If they were to face this charged heavy strike head-on, the entire psychic defense array would likely collapse en masse. Once the cultivators were collectively incapacitated and the barrier lost the buff of their Sea of Consciousness resonance, relying solely on mechanical energy would never withstand the relentless impacts of the beast herd. The entire defense line would collapse instantly.
Scholar Su quickly issued orders: "Deploy the psychic group in layers! Senior cultivators take the outer layer to absorb the impact; new recruits fall back to protect the foundation! Everyone, retract your Seas of Consciousness. Do not open your perception outward; prepare to defend collectively! Engineers, raise the barrier's base power output in advance. Overload and output synchronously the moment the impact arrives to share the pressure on the Seas of Consciousness!"
The commands were swiftly transmitted to every cultivator's ears.
The broadly spread Sea of Consciousness perception slowly retracted inward, transforming into a tight, restrained defensive barrier. The layers overlapped, resonating and supporting each other. The experienced Level 4 cultivators were positioned in the outermost ring as the first line of flesh shields to absorb the impact. Their faces pale, they silently clenched their fists, preparing to endure this lethal blow head-on.
Deep within the cavern in the middle of the rift, the supreme ruler's core stream of consciousness gave a gentle ripple.
Like a silent command, the other three ancient beings adjusted their rhythm in synchronized cooperation. The Beast Commander slowed its frontal ramming, leaving space for the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being's impact to unleash its full power; the Spiderweb Ancient Being temporarily stopped plucking the city's anchor points, recalling all its consciousness to synchronize and calibrate frequencies with the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being, maximizing the transmission efficiency of the psychic assault; the Illusion Ancient Being also diverted a thread of its power, merging it into this charging fluctuation, wrapping the impact in a layer of illusionary toxin. The moment the strike landed, it would simultaneously implant the spiral illusions.
This was no longer a single psychic attack; it was a composite strike bolstered by the joint efforts of three ancient beings.
"They are amplifying through synchronization. The power of this strike will be stronger than any previous impact," Lin Yan said in a hushed voice, the fissure at his brow twitching violently. "The charge is nearing its peak. The impact will be released within ten breaths."
Everyone on the frontline held their breath.
The barrier was still slowly healing. The breach was less than half a meter wide. Sporadic scaled beasts were still ramming the light membrane, emitting dull thuds. The gray fog churned, the illusion domain lay dormant quietly to the side, and over two hundred scaled beasts were poised in the shadows of the rift, waiting to launch a full-scale charge once the psychic defense line was torn apart.
The soldiers in the trenches gripped their weapons tightly, staring toward the rift. The Sea of Consciousness cultivators closed their eyes and centered their minds. Their layered, restrained consciousness upheld an invisible defense line over the wasteland.
Lin Yan stared fixedly at that continuously stacking, increasingly sharp fluctuation.
The blade had been forged; it was only waiting to be swung.
End of Chapter.