Chapter 201: The Serum Sweeps the Tide
The illusion-woven figure of the old captain reached out, its fingertips mere millimeters from the crack in Qin Kai's visor.
"Don't waste your strength. Everyone is destined to be buried here." The low voice swirled in his ears, identical to that desperate whisper from their final battle years ago.
Qin Kai's fingertips trembled slightly. His Sea of Consciousness felt as though it were being gripped by an icy hand, with exhaustion, despair, and helplessness spreading wildly through the illusion. The trauma of days of relentless slaughter, the searing agony of watching his teammates fall one by one, the seemingly endless beast tide—all negative emotions were infinitely magnified by the Illusion Ancient Being in this moment.
He was just a fraction away from letting go, from allowing everything to fade into silence.
Lin Yan's frantic shouts from the channel repeatedly crashed into his ears: "It's fake! The Illusion Ancient Being's power is nearly depleted! Detonate the ammunition!"
The wound on his tongue continued to bleed, the metallic tang repeatedly reminding him that the pain was real. Qin Kai suddenly threw his head back and let out a hoarse, guttural roar, forcibly tearing apart the illusionary threads entangling his Sea of Consciousness.
"I don't believe it!"
With one hand, he desperately hurled the first neutralizing bomb.
The heavy ordnance traced a short arc through the air, landing precisely on the main spore node two meters inside the channel. The trigger struck the rock wall, and after a brief delay, a blinding white light exploded outward.
There was no deafening roar of an explosion. Instead, a thick, milky-white serum sprayed violently in all directions. The moment the liquid touched the spore particles clinging to the rock walls and floating in the air, it emitted a sharp, hissing sound of corrosion. Invisible spore mycelia rapidly withered and dissolved. The composite synchronization field that shrouded the rift, pierced through the rock strata, and connected to the entire bastion was instantly marred by massive tears and fading, as if a red-hot branding iron had been pressed into a spider's web.
Weng—
A dull, resonant tremor echoed through the entire rock strata.
Deep within the cavern, the five ancient beings maintaining their harmonious resonance were struck simultaneously.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being took the brunt of the impact. The vast majority of its consciousness web, spread across the underground pipe network, was corroded and severed along with the spores. The signals that had previously connected clearly to every anchor point in the city became blurry and sluggish in massive patches. Deprived of their stable original-source supply, the raging anchor points in the city rapidly calmed down, and several red warning lights faded on the command sand table.
The new wave of psychic cuts the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being had been brewing collapsed entirely. The accumulated power was backlashed by the chaotic synchronization field, causing its sharp stream of consciousness to tremble violently as it was forced to retreat and recuperate.
Having already expended immense power to continuously weave the core illusion array, the Illusion Ancient Being's foundational synchronization was now shaken. Its elusive illusion domain collapsed on a massive scale. The twisted scenery within the gray fog peeled away layer by layer, and the seductive whispers rapidly thinned. The deadly trap shrouding the outside of the main breach was forcibly brought down by more than half.
The Beast Commander suffered the most direct impact.
Its conscious commands, used to govern all the scaled beasts, relied on the synchronization field for transmission. As the tide of serum swept through the main channel, the command link fractured. The scaled beasts fiercely attacking the two breaches instantly lost their unified coordination. Their charging rhythm fell into chaos; some continued to mechanically ram the barrier, while others stopped in confusion, pacing anxiously in place and colliding and tearing at one another.
At the main breach on the left flank, Old Zhou, who had been fighting alone, suddenly paused.
The relentless pressure of the beast tide noticeably stalled. Seizing this rare window to catch his breath, he stumbled backward, leaning against a barrier pillar to gasp for air, every wound on his body throbbing in pain.
On the far northern defense line, the scaled beasts that had flanked and broken through also fell into disarray. No longer executing orderly pincers against the remaining soldiers in the trenches, the garrison members seized the opportunity to concentrate their firepower and harvest the enemy, slightly stabilizing the second breach that had been on the verge of collapse.
But all of this was merely a brief respite.
In the center of the cavern, the supreme ruler's steady, water-like original consciousness finally exhibited a distinct fluctuation.
It rapidly gathered the scattered synchronization links and directed its four kin to retreat individually, stabilizing their damaged foundations of consciousness. The Spiderweb Ancient Being began emergency repairs on the severed spore web, prioritizing the main links near the deep core area of the cavern and abandoning the vast number of scattered, shallow peripheral nodes. The Beast Commander reorganized the chaotic scaled beasts, halting the fierce assaults on the two breaches and ordering most of the herd to return to the buffer rock hall to regroup, leaving only a small contingent of elites to continue harassing the defense line. The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being suppressed the backlash damage and slowly settled its power, while the Illusion Ancient Being recalled its remaining illusory energy, ceasing to project large-scale illusions outward and shifting to covert vigilance.
They had not routed, nor had they retreated; their offensive was merely forced into a pause.
"The neutralizing bomb is effective; the synchronization field has significantly decayed!" Lin Yan suppressed the surging ecstasy in his heart and immediately reported to the command hall. "But the effect has boundaries. The serum diffuses very slowly into the deep cavern and cannot harm the true bodies of the five ancient beings. It has only severed a portion of their control links extending outward. They are rapidly repairing the damage, and the suppression won't last long."
Standing at the rift archway, Qin Kai did not stop.
The two scaled beasts ambushing in the shadows of the entrance had already roared and pounced at him. He sidestepped the razor-sharp claws, drove his short oscillation blade fiercely into one beast's eye socket, and using the momentum, hurled the second neutralizing bomb from his waist deeper into the channel.
The second bomb detonated, the milky-white serum spreading once again, flushing further inward along the main channel to suppress the spore colonies and expand the area of effect.
Having finished this, Qin Kai was nearly depleted of all strength. He stumbled and turned around, retreating painfully toward the barrier. The illusion domain had mostly collapsed, and the gray fog had returned to its ordinary, hazy state; no more illusions harassed him. However, numerous remnants of the ambush force still lingered along the path, forcing him to fight them off while dragging his battered body backward.
Seeing him emerge from the fog, Old Zhou propped himself up with his oscillation stinger and rushed forward, catching Qin Kai before he could fall.
"It's done... Both bombs are in," Qin Kai gasped for air, his lips pale through the cracked visor. "Don't know how long it'll hold."
"It's enough," Old Zhou said softly.
In the command hall, the breaths that had been held for so long eased slightly. Scholar Su immediately seized this window of opportunity to issue a series of rapid commands:
"Frontline, seize the time to repair the barrier! Prioritize reinforcing the main breach on the left flank, followed by fortifying the far northern outpost! Medical teams, treat the wounded cultivators with all your might! The Sea of Consciousness defense group, hurry and meditate to heal, restoring combat effectiveness as much as possible! Medical vehicles, rush to every anchor point node in the city. Take advantage of the Spiderweb Ancient Being's damaged links to sweep away the remaining spores!"
Above the wasteland, the slaughter temporarily slowed.
The scaled beast herds retreated into the shadows of the rift to regroup, no longer launching mountain-crashing charges. The ancient whispers lingering in the air weakened, and the successive outbreaks of anchor point restlessness within the city gradually subsided.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, the fine threads of Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness remained tightly focused on the underground cavern.
The five ancient beings huddled in the spacious cavern, recalibrating their harmonious resonance as the severed spider web was painstakingly rewoven. The supreme ruler sat at the center, its stream of consciousness calm and icy, seemingly taking note of this trump card humanity had played in its counterattack.
Lin Yan knew clearly that this was only a phased reprieve.
The neutralizing serum could only eradicate the spores and weaken the synchronization transmission; it could not kill the five ancient lizard beings deep within the cavern. Once they finished repairing their links, and once the beast herd completed its regrouping, a new wave of assault would inevitably descend once again.
Qin Kai was escorted back to the rear medical station, his body covered in horrifying wounds of varying sizes. Of the seven-man special deployment squad, only he had returned alive.
The gray fog still shrouded the pitch-black rift. Within the darkness, the five ancient consciousnesses were quietly nursing their wounds, reviewing the battle, and waiting for the timing of their next strike.
In this bloody battle, humanity had won a brief respite, but they were far from winning the war.
End of Chapter.
"Don't waste your strength. Everyone is destined to be buried here." The low voice swirled in his ears, identical to that desperate whisper from their final battle years ago.
Qin Kai's fingertips trembled slightly. His Sea of Consciousness felt as though it were being gripped by an icy hand, with exhaustion, despair, and helplessness spreading wildly through the illusion. The trauma of days of relentless slaughter, the searing agony of watching his teammates fall one by one, the seemingly endless beast tide—all negative emotions were infinitely magnified by the Illusion Ancient Being in this moment.
He was just a fraction away from letting go, from allowing everything to fade into silence.
Lin Yan's frantic shouts from the channel repeatedly crashed into his ears: "It's fake! The Illusion Ancient Being's power is nearly depleted! Detonate the ammunition!"
The wound on his tongue continued to bleed, the metallic tang repeatedly reminding him that the pain was real. Qin Kai suddenly threw his head back and let out a hoarse, guttural roar, forcibly tearing apart the illusionary threads entangling his Sea of Consciousness.
"I don't believe it!"
With one hand, he desperately hurled the first neutralizing bomb.
The heavy ordnance traced a short arc through the air, landing precisely on the main spore node two meters inside the channel. The trigger struck the rock wall, and after a brief delay, a blinding white light exploded outward.
There was no deafening roar of an explosion. Instead, a thick, milky-white serum sprayed violently in all directions. The moment the liquid touched the spore particles clinging to the rock walls and floating in the air, it emitted a sharp, hissing sound of corrosion. Invisible spore mycelia rapidly withered and dissolved. The composite synchronization field that shrouded the rift, pierced through the rock strata, and connected to the entire bastion was instantly marred by massive tears and fading, as if a red-hot branding iron had been pressed into a spider's web.
Weng—
A dull, resonant tremor echoed through the entire rock strata.
Deep within the cavern, the five ancient beings maintaining their harmonious resonance were struck simultaneously.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being took the brunt of the impact. The vast majority of its consciousness web, spread across the underground pipe network, was corroded and severed along with the spores. The signals that had previously connected clearly to every anchor point in the city became blurry and sluggish in massive patches. Deprived of their stable original-source supply, the raging anchor points in the city rapidly calmed down, and several red warning lights faded on the command sand table.
The new wave of psychic cuts the Sharp-Sense Ancient Being had been brewing collapsed entirely. The accumulated power was backlashed by the chaotic synchronization field, causing its sharp stream of consciousness to tremble violently as it was forced to retreat and recuperate.
Having already expended immense power to continuously weave the core illusion array, the Illusion Ancient Being's foundational synchronization was now shaken. Its elusive illusion domain collapsed on a massive scale. The twisted scenery within the gray fog peeled away layer by layer, and the seductive whispers rapidly thinned. The deadly trap shrouding the outside of the main breach was forcibly brought down by more than half.
The Beast Commander suffered the most direct impact.
Its conscious commands, used to govern all the scaled beasts, relied on the synchronization field for transmission. As the tide of serum swept through the main channel, the command link fractured. The scaled beasts fiercely attacking the two breaches instantly lost their unified coordination. Their charging rhythm fell into chaos; some continued to mechanically ram the barrier, while others stopped in confusion, pacing anxiously in place and colliding and tearing at one another.
At the main breach on the left flank, Old Zhou, who had been fighting alone, suddenly paused.
The relentless pressure of the beast tide noticeably stalled. Seizing this rare window to catch his breath, he stumbled backward, leaning against a barrier pillar to gasp for air, every wound on his body throbbing in pain.
On the far northern defense line, the scaled beasts that had flanked and broken through also fell into disarray. No longer executing orderly pincers against the remaining soldiers in the trenches, the garrison members seized the opportunity to concentrate their firepower and harvest the enemy, slightly stabilizing the second breach that had been on the verge of collapse.
But all of this was merely a brief respite.
In the center of the cavern, the supreme ruler's steady, water-like original consciousness finally exhibited a distinct fluctuation.
It rapidly gathered the scattered synchronization links and directed its four kin to retreat individually, stabilizing their damaged foundations of consciousness. The Spiderweb Ancient Being began emergency repairs on the severed spore web, prioritizing the main links near the deep core area of the cavern and abandoning the vast number of scattered, shallow peripheral nodes. The Beast Commander reorganized the chaotic scaled beasts, halting the fierce assaults on the two breaches and ordering most of the herd to return to the buffer rock hall to regroup, leaving only a small contingent of elites to continue harassing the defense line. The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being suppressed the backlash damage and slowly settled its power, while the Illusion Ancient Being recalled its remaining illusory energy, ceasing to project large-scale illusions outward and shifting to covert vigilance.
They had not routed, nor had they retreated; their offensive was merely forced into a pause.
"The neutralizing bomb is effective; the synchronization field has significantly decayed!" Lin Yan suppressed the surging ecstasy in his heart and immediately reported to the command hall. "But the effect has boundaries. The serum diffuses very slowly into the deep cavern and cannot harm the true bodies of the five ancient beings. It has only severed a portion of their control links extending outward. They are rapidly repairing the damage, and the suppression won't last long."
Standing at the rift archway, Qin Kai did not stop.
The two scaled beasts ambushing in the shadows of the entrance had already roared and pounced at him. He sidestepped the razor-sharp claws, drove his short oscillation blade fiercely into one beast's eye socket, and using the momentum, hurled the second neutralizing bomb from his waist deeper into the channel.
The second bomb detonated, the milky-white serum spreading once again, flushing further inward along the main channel to suppress the spore colonies and expand the area of effect.
Having finished this, Qin Kai was nearly depleted of all strength. He stumbled and turned around, retreating painfully toward the barrier. The illusion domain had mostly collapsed, and the gray fog had returned to its ordinary, hazy state; no more illusions harassed him. However, numerous remnants of the ambush force still lingered along the path, forcing him to fight them off while dragging his battered body backward.
Seeing him emerge from the fog, Old Zhou propped himself up with his oscillation stinger and rushed forward, catching Qin Kai before he could fall.
"It's done... Both bombs are in," Qin Kai gasped for air, his lips pale through the cracked visor. "Don't know how long it'll hold."
"It's enough," Old Zhou said softly.
In the command hall, the breaths that had been held for so long eased slightly. Scholar Su immediately seized this window of opportunity to issue a series of rapid commands:
"Frontline, seize the time to repair the barrier! Prioritize reinforcing the main breach on the left flank, followed by fortifying the far northern outpost! Medical teams, treat the wounded cultivators with all your might! The Sea of Consciousness defense group, hurry and meditate to heal, restoring combat effectiveness as much as possible! Medical vehicles, rush to every anchor point node in the city. Take advantage of the Spiderweb Ancient Being's damaged links to sweep away the remaining spores!"
Above the wasteland, the slaughter temporarily slowed.
The scaled beast herds retreated into the shadows of the rift to regroup, no longer launching mountain-crashing charges. The ancient whispers lingering in the air weakened, and the successive outbreaks of anchor point restlessness within the city gradually subsided.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, the fine threads of Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness remained tightly focused on the underground cavern.
The five ancient beings huddled in the spacious cavern, recalibrating their harmonious resonance as the severed spider web was painstakingly rewoven. The supreme ruler sat at the center, its stream of consciousness calm and icy, seemingly taking note of this trump card humanity had played in its counterattack.
Lin Yan knew clearly that this was only a phased reprieve.
The neutralizing serum could only eradicate the spores and weaken the synchronization transmission; it could not kill the five ancient lizard beings deep within the cavern. Once they finished repairing their links, and once the beast herd completed its regrouping, a new wave of assault would inevitably descend once again.
Qin Kai was escorted back to the rear medical station, his body covered in horrifying wounds of varying sizes. Of the seven-man special deployment squad, only he had returned alive.
The gray fog still shrouded the pitch-black rift. Within the darkness, the five ancient consciousnesses were quietly nursing their wounds, reviewing the battle, and waiting for the timing of their next strike.
In this bloody battle, humanity had won a brief respite, but they were far from winning the war.
End of Chapter.