Chapter 209: The Second-Line Interception
The stream of retreating personnel moved backward along a pre-designated, rudimentary channel. Their footsteps were frantic, yet they had not completely collapsed into a rout. The wounded were either supported or carried on stretchers. Old Zhou, his arms draped over the shoulders of two soldiers, felt a piercing pain tear through his wounds with every inch he moved. He looked back toward the fallen left-flank frontline. Beneath the gray fog, the dark shadows of scaled beasts prowled back and forth among the ruined trenches. The sporadic gunfire of the rearguard squad faded one by one into silence, until it was finally swallowed by absolute quiet.
The pre-buried spore-blocking mines were remotely triggered by the engineers. A series of dull, muffled explosions erupted across the original position. Grayish-white neutralizing powder billowed into the air, forming a thin isolation belt between the first barrier and the second-line fortifications. The spores withered rapidly upon touching the powder, and the charging momentum of the scaled beasts stalled momentarily. A pungent, corrosive odor filled the air, slightly delaying the pursuit.
But this was merely a stopgap measure. The powder lacked the potent, lasting efficacy of the serum. A gust of wind would scatter it, and it would not hold for long. Sensing this barrier, the Beast Commander did not force the scaled beasts to blindly charge through the powder zone. Instead, it ordered the herd to halt and rest outside the isolation belt, recalling the beast soldiers that had already pushed forward to take inventory of their casualties, waiting for the powder's effect to dissipate before resuming the advance.
News also arrived from the far northern defense line. The flanking assault by the scaled beasts had slowed. The defenders seized this brief window to frantically repair their fortifications. However, with their ammunition completely depleted, the remaining soldiers could only prepare their short blades and entrenching tools, bracing themselves for close-quarters combat. Both battle lines had been pushed to the very edge of the abyss.
The second-line fortifications were far more rudimentary than the first barrier. There were no high-power light membrane generators, only stacked steel plates, sandbags, and rubble. Only four heavy piercing cannons remained fully operational, with ammunition crates scattered sparsely beside the gun emplacements. The entire Sea of Consciousness defense group had lost their combat capability. The wounded packed the rear temporary medical shed, and the calming agents were nearly exhausted. There was no one left to project a Sea of Consciousness resonance to withstand the psychic assaults of the ancient beings.
Qin Kai struggled to sit up on his stretcher, the movement pulling at his wounds and turning his face deathly pale. Taking a simple perception headset from a worker, he continued to monitor the command channel. "The first barrier is lost, and all Sea of Consciousness cultivators are incapacitated," Qin Kai said in a hoarse voice. "From now on, they can unleash their psychic illusions and impacts without any restraint. We have absolutely no means to counter them."
These words weighed heavily on everyone's heart. Previously, the cultivators had joined their resonance to share the mental burden. Now that this protective layer had vanished entirely, the psychic attacks from the Illusion and Sharp-Sense Ancient Beings would strike directly into the minds of every single soldier.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness continued to probe deep into the subterranean cavern. The five ancient beings were synchronously receiving intelligence from the occupied frontline zone. The Beast Commander was tallying the scaled beasts. This round of fierce assaults had exacted a heavy toll from them as well; over half of the ordinary scaled beasts had been killed, and only seven third-tier scaled beasts remained. It gathered the lightly wounded for rest, while the severely injured, having lost their combat value, were once again devoured by their own kind, converted into nourishment to sustain the main force.
The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being accumulated its power, not rushing to strike. It knew that with humanity lacking a Sea of Consciousness defense as a safety net, there was no need to unleash large-scale tremors. Fine, indiscriminate psychic stabs would be more than enough to continuously sow chaos and breed panic.
The Illusion Ancient Being recalled the illusion nodes it had spread across the first-line position. It moved some of them forward, secretly deploying them just ahead of the isolation belt. When the scaled beasts launched their next charge, these nodes would be activated simultaneously to directly disrupt the vision of the second-line defenders.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being continued to firmly grip the spore anchor points in the near suburbs, occasionally detonating one to keep the unrest in the rear city from subsiding. With security forces stretched thin, panic quietly spread through the residential districts. More and more people attempted to flee the bastion. The military police were forced to maintain order while simultaneously diverting manpower to suppress the restless spores, leaving them completely overwhelmed.
The supreme ruler's consciousness rippled slowly, transmitting new directives to its four kin. There was no rush to immediately assault the second-line fortifications. First, they would advance steadily once the spore powder lost its effect, using continuous psychic stabs to drain the defenders' mental fortitude and amplify their fear bit by bit. Only when the defenders were mentally exhausted and riddled with vulnerabilities would it commit the seven remaining third-tier scaled beasts as a vanguard to tear open the second line. It had even reserved a portion of the scaled beasts hidden in a side path, intending to flank behind the main engagement and sever the communication corridor between the second-line fortifications and the main city.
"They plan to advance steadily once the blocking powder dissipates, prioritizing psychic attacks to grind us down. They have reserved a flanking beast herd on the side, aiming to cut off our route to the main city," Lin Yan immediately reported the intelligence to the command hall. "Without a Sea of Consciousness defense, everyone must endure the psychic contamination alone. Auditory hallucinations, dizziness, and illusions will become increasingly frequent."
After listening to the report, Scholar Su fell silent for a moment before swiftly adjusting the deployment. "Divide the four heavy cannons into two groups to rotate fire and conserve ammunition. All soldiers will pair up, watching each other's backs. If anyone falls into an illusion and loses control, wake them immediately; restrict their movements if necessary. Keep the communication channels open at all times; use code words to confirm each other's sanity. The military police will divert half their forces to guard the chokepoint leading from the second line to the main city, watching out for the flanking beast herd."
The orders were swiftly relayed to the second-line position. Soldiers paired up, agreeing on wake-up code words. Gripping their weapons tightly, they stared fixedly at the isolation belt ahead, shrouded in grayish-white powder. The air was terrifyingly silent, filled only with the humming of the wind against the steel plates and the faint, elusive whispers of the ancient beings drifting into their ears.
Before long, the wind picked up, and the漫天飞扬 (billowing) neutralizing powder began to thin and settle. The suppressing effect of the isolation belt started to fade rapidly. From the direction of the rift, low beast roars echoed one after another.
The Beast Commander's orders swept across the entire scaled beast herd. The rested beasts slowly rose, reforming their charging formation behind the gray fog. The seven third-tier scaled beasts took the front rank, their massive bodies lowered, bone spurs aimed directly at the sandbag fortifications of the second line.
The Illusion Ancient Being activated its hidden nodes first. In an instant, the gray fog rippled. Countless overlapping phantoms materialized ahead of the isolation belt, so dense that it seemed as if hundreds or thousands of scaled beasts were flanking them simultaneously.
"Illusions placed forward! They are all phantoms! The true main force is directly ahead!" Lin Yan warned fiercely.
But without the buffer of a Sea of Consciousness barrier, the impact of the illusion crashed directly into everyone's mind. A young soldier's gaze suddenly lost focus. Raising his short blade, he lunged at the comrade beside him. The comrade, having anticipated this, slammed hard into his shoulder and shouted a code word, barely pulling him back from the illusion for a fleeting moment.
The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being followed closely behind. Countless tiny, icy psychic spikes, like a fine, dense rain, poured over the entire second-line position. Agony, dizziness, and a profound sense of weakness burrowed from the Sea of Consciousness deep into their bones. Many suppressed groans, clutching their heads and crouching to the ground, their weapon-holding hands trembling uncontrollably.
"Hold steady! Remind each other in pairs! Do not zone out alone!" a frontline non-commissioned officer roared.
In the next second, the beast herd moved. Leading with the seven third-tier scaled beasts, followed by the remaining ordinary scaled beasts, they stepped over the scattered corpses and fallen powder, charging steadily toward the second-line sandbag fortifications.
Above the wasteland, gunsmoke rose once again. The first barrier had fallen. The second-line fortifications were the last line of defense on the outskirts of the main city. Stripped of their Sea of Consciousness support, the defenders faced psychic erosion and the beast tide head-on. Their path of retreat had grown perilously short. Deep within the cavern, the consciousness of the five ancient beings resonated steadily, quietly watching this new wave of advancement, waiting for this outer perimeter defense to step by step march toward its collapse.
End of Chapter.
The pre-buried spore-blocking mines were remotely triggered by the engineers. A series of dull, muffled explosions erupted across the original position. Grayish-white neutralizing powder billowed into the air, forming a thin isolation belt between the first barrier and the second-line fortifications. The spores withered rapidly upon touching the powder, and the charging momentum of the scaled beasts stalled momentarily. A pungent, corrosive odor filled the air, slightly delaying the pursuit.
But this was merely a stopgap measure. The powder lacked the potent, lasting efficacy of the serum. A gust of wind would scatter it, and it would not hold for long. Sensing this barrier, the Beast Commander did not force the scaled beasts to blindly charge through the powder zone. Instead, it ordered the herd to halt and rest outside the isolation belt, recalling the beast soldiers that had already pushed forward to take inventory of their casualties, waiting for the powder's effect to dissipate before resuming the advance.
News also arrived from the far northern defense line. The flanking assault by the scaled beasts had slowed. The defenders seized this brief window to frantically repair their fortifications. However, with their ammunition completely depleted, the remaining soldiers could only prepare their short blades and entrenching tools, bracing themselves for close-quarters combat. Both battle lines had been pushed to the very edge of the abyss.
The second-line fortifications were far more rudimentary than the first barrier. There were no high-power light membrane generators, only stacked steel plates, sandbags, and rubble. Only four heavy piercing cannons remained fully operational, with ammunition crates scattered sparsely beside the gun emplacements. The entire Sea of Consciousness defense group had lost their combat capability. The wounded packed the rear temporary medical shed, and the calming agents were nearly exhausted. There was no one left to project a Sea of Consciousness resonance to withstand the psychic assaults of the ancient beings.
Qin Kai struggled to sit up on his stretcher, the movement pulling at his wounds and turning his face deathly pale. Taking a simple perception headset from a worker, he continued to monitor the command channel. "The first barrier is lost, and all Sea of Consciousness cultivators are incapacitated," Qin Kai said in a hoarse voice. "From now on, they can unleash their psychic illusions and impacts without any restraint. We have absolutely no means to counter them."
These words weighed heavily on everyone's heart. Previously, the cultivators had joined their resonance to share the mental burden. Now that this protective layer had vanished entirely, the psychic attacks from the Illusion and Sharp-Sense Ancient Beings would strike directly into the minds of every single soldier.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness continued to probe deep into the subterranean cavern. The five ancient beings were synchronously receiving intelligence from the occupied frontline zone. The Beast Commander was tallying the scaled beasts. This round of fierce assaults had exacted a heavy toll from them as well; over half of the ordinary scaled beasts had been killed, and only seven third-tier scaled beasts remained. It gathered the lightly wounded for rest, while the severely injured, having lost their combat value, were once again devoured by their own kind, converted into nourishment to sustain the main force.
The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being accumulated its power, not rushing to strike. It knew that with humanity lacking a Sea of Consciousness defense as a safety net, there was no need to unleash large-scale tremors. Fine, indiscriminate psychic stabs would be more than enough to continuously sow chaos and breed panic.
The Illusion Ancient Being recalled the illusion nodes it had spread across the first-line position. It moved some of them forward, secretly deploying them just ahead of the isolation belt. When the scaled beasts launched their next charge, these nodes would be activated simultaneously to directly disrupt the vision of the second-line defenders.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being continued to firmly grip the spore anchor points in the near suburbs, occasionally detonating one to keep the unrest in the rear city from subsiding. With security forces stretched thin, panic quietly spread through the residential districts. More and more people attempted to flee the bastion. The military police were forced to maintain order while simultaneously diverting manpower to suppress the restless spores, leaving them completely overwhelmed.
The supreme ruler's consciousness rippled slowly, transmitting new directives to its four kin. There was no rush to immediately assault the second-line fortifications. First, they would advance steadily once the spore powder lost its effect, using continuous psychic stabs to drain the defenders' mental fortitude and amplify their fear bit by bit. Only when the defenders were mentally exhausted and riddled with vulnerabilities would it commit the seven remaining third-tier scaled beasts as a vanguard to tear open the second line. It had even reserved a portion of the scaled beasts hidden in a side path, intending to flank behind the main engagement and sever the communication corridor between the second-line fortifications and the main city.
"They plan to advance steadily once the blocking powder dissipates, prioritizing psychic attacks to grind us down. They have reserved a flanking beast herd on the side, aiming to cut off our route to the main city," Lin Yan immediately reported the intelligence to the command hall. "Without a Sea of Consciousness defense, everyone must endure the psychic contamination alone. Auditory hallucinations, dizziness, and illusions will become increasingly frequent."
After listening to the report, Scholar Su fell silent for a moment before swiftly adjusting the deployment. "Divide the four heavy cannons into two groups to rotate fire and conserve ammunition. All soldiers will pair up, watching each other's backs. If anyone falls into an illusion and loses control, wake them immediately; restrict their movements if necessary. Keep the communication channels open at all times; use code words to confirm each other's sanity. The military police will divert half their forces to guard the chokepoint leading from the second line to the main city, watching out for the flanking beast herd."
The orders were swiftly relayed to the second-line position. Soldiers paired up, agreeing on wake-up code words. Gripping their weapons tightly, they stared fixedly at the isolation belt ahead, shrouded in grayish-white powder. The air was terrifyingly silent, filled only with the humming of the wind against the steel plates and the faint, elusive whispers of the ancient beings drifting into their ears.
Before long, the wind picked up, and the漫天飞扬 (billowing) neutralizing powder began to thin and settle. The suppressing effect of the isolation belt started to fade rapidly. From the direction of the rift, low beast roars echoed one after another.
The Beast Commander's orders swept across the entire scaled beast herd. The rested beasts slowly rose, reforming their charging formation behind the gray fog. The seven third-tier scaled beasts took the front rank, their massive bodies lowered, bone spurs aimed directly at the sandbag fortifications of the second line.
The Illusion Ancient Being activated its hidden nodes first. In an instant, the gray fog rippled. Countless overlapping phantoms materialized ahead of the isolation belt, so dense that it seemed as if hundreds or thousands of scaled beasts were flanking them simultaneously.
"Illusions placed forward! They are all phantoms! The true main force is directly ahead!" Lin Yan warned fiercely.
But without the buffer of a Sea of Consciousness barrier, the impact of the illusion crashed directly into everyone's mind. A young soldier's gaze suddenly lost focus. Raising his short blade, he lunged at the comrade beside him. The comrade, having anticipated this, slammed hard into his shoulder and shouted a code word, barely pulling him back from the illusion for a fleeting moment.
The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being followed closely behind. Countless tiny, icy psychic spikes, like a fine, dense rain, poured over the entire second-line position. Agony, dizziness, and a profound sense of weakness burrowed from the Sea of Consciousness deep into their bones. Many suppressed groans, clutching their heads and crouching to the ground, their weapon-holding hands trembling uncontrollably.
"Hold steady! Remind each other in pairs! Do not zone out alone!" a frontline non-commissioned officer roared.
In the next second, the beast herd moved. Leading with the seven third-tier scaled beasts, followed by the remaining ordinary scaled beasts, they stepped over the scattered corpses and fallen powder, charging steadily toward the second-line sandbag fortifications.
Above the wasteland, gunsmoke rose once again. The first barrier had fallen. The second-line fortifications were the last line of defense on the outskirts of the main city. Stripped of their Sea of Consciousness support, the defenders faced psychic erosion and the beast tide head-on. Their path of retreat had grown perilously short. Deep within the cavern, the consciousness of the five ancient beings resonated steadily, quietly watching this new wave of advancement, waiting for this outer perimeter defense to step by step march toward its collapse.
End of Chapter.