Chapter 210: Cracks in the Mental Defense
The fine, dense psychic spikes rained down without any obstruction.
Without the resonance barrier built by the Sea of Consciousness cultivators to distribute and buffer the impact, every single spike pierced directly into the individual Seas of Consciousness of the soldiers. It was not the instantaneous, tearing agony from before, but a continuous, dull ache and numbness burrowing deep within the skull. Accompanied by an inescapable whispering, the voices circled in their ears repeatedly, coaxing them to lay down their weapons and abandon their resistance.
Many soldiers stumbled, clutching the sandbags as they gasped for air, their temples throbbing violently. Paired companions slapped each other's backs, repeatedly shouting their agreed-upon wake-up code words to pull those who were on the verge of sinking into the illusions back to reality. But this method only treated the symptoms, not the root cause. The psychic erosion was relentless, and the rate of mental exhaustion was far faster than that of physical wounds.
Simultaneously, the Illusion Ancient Being activated the nodes hidden in front of the isolation belt.
The gray fog churned in layers, the phantoms constantly shifting. Sometimes, it appeared as though countless scaled beasts were encircling them from three sides; other times, it was the silent, outstretched hands of fallen comrades in the trenches, staring at them blankly; and sometimes, the illusion shifted to the main city of the bastion engulfed in raging flames, with thick smoke swallowing everything. The real and the fake intertwined, leaving no one able to distinguish them for long.
A loader had just pushed a shell into the chamber when his vision suddenly blurred. He saw countless writhing black spore threads bursting from the cannon barrel, wrapping around his wrists. Screaming, he stumbled backward, the shell rolling out of the muzzle, causing them to miss the optimal firing window.
"It's fake! Aim straight ahead!" His partner grabbed his arm, shouting the code word at the top of his lungs.
Taking advantage of this brief chaos, the beast herd had closed the distance. The seven third-tier scaled beasts stepped over the settled powder zone, their heavy hooves crushing shattered armor fragments and dried bloodstains. Their massive bodies cast heavy shadows over the sandbag fortifications. Still adhering to their alternating assault tactics, two beasts charged forward to slam into the sandbags, while the remaining five pressed from the flanks. The ordinary scaled beasts scattered, searching for breaches along the gaps in the fortifications.
BOOM!
The sandbag defense line trembled violently, sand trickling down. The steel backing plates dented under the impact of the beasts' bone spurs, and the rivets securing the steel plates snapped off one by one. The four heavy piercing cannons roared in turns, their shells smashing fiercely into the vulnerable areas of the third-tier scaled beasts' heads and necks. Black blood splattered as one third-tier scaled beast took a hit to the eye. Agonized, it thrashed its head wildly, yet it still charged forward on pure instinct.
Old Zhou was stationed in the temporary medical point further back in the second-line fortifications. His wounds had been re-bandaged, but the excessive blood loss left him shivering with cold. Leaning against a steel plate, he stared fixedly at the combat zone ahead, a short blade still clutched in his hand. His oscillation stinger was long destroyed, and he had no heavy weapons left.
"They're not in a rush to overwhelm us in one go," Old Zhou whispered to the soldier guarding him. "They are grinding down our minds. Physical wounds can be bandaged, but there is no medicine that can quickly cure the fear in the Sea of Consciousness."
These words were the truest reflection of the battlefield at this moment.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness remained firmly anchored in the subterranean cavern.
The Beast Commander was orchestrating the alternating assaults of the frontline beast herd while continuously receiving casualty feedback, constantly fine-tuning the charging rhythm. It kept a small squad of scaled beasts hidden in the side intersection, standing by as ordered by the supreme ruler, waiting for the second-line defenders' attention to be completely drawn by the frontal beast tide before launching a flanking ambush to sever the chokepoint leading to the main city.
The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being did not increase its power to deliver a fatal blow, maintaining this continuous, rain-like psychic stabbing. It knew that continuous, low-intensity erosion was far more effective at breaking a group's will than a single heavy strike. A person could endure a moment of excruciating pain, but it was incredibly difficult to maintain clarity amidst endless dizziness and auditory hallucinations.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being continued to stir up trouble in the rear city. Another anchor point in the near suburbs erupted, plunging masses of residents into collective visual hallucinations. Some pushed open their doors and walked toward the rift. The military police urgently sealed off the streets and alleys, deploying their last reserves of calming agents to suppress the panic. With the serum reserves completely depleted, they would have no means of control if another massive spore outbreak occurred.
In the center of the cavern, the supreme ruler's consciousness rippled slowly, organizing all the information streams.
The firepower intensity of the second-line fortifications, the soldiers' mental endurance limits, the effectiveness of the companion wake-up mechanism, and the garrison strength at the main city chokepoint—all were meticulously aggregated. It waited patiently for a critical threshold: it did not need the beast tide to shatter the sandbag fortifications. As long as the defenders' mental defenses collapsed en masse first, the defense line would fall without being attacked.
"Report to command: The frontal beast tide continues its alternating assaults, and the flanking ambush squad is still dormant," Lin Yan's voice carried exhaustion. His Sea of Consciousness had endured the sweeping residual consciousness waves of the ancient beings for too long, sending waves of searing pain. "The effects of psychic contamination are accumulating. There have been successive cases of soldiers refusing to fire and actively freezing up. The speed of will collapse is faster than physical defeat."
In the command hall, the atmosphere was oppressive to the extreme.
Scholar Su stared at the sand table. Behind the second-line fortifications lay the outer residential district of the main city. If this area fell, the scaled beasts could pour directly into the civilian聚居区 (residential areas), and the slaughter would commence immediately.
"Notify the chokepoint garrison to double their vigilance and watch the side paths," Scholar Su ordered in a deep voice. "All frontline non-commissioned officers, prioritize monitoring soldiers with unstable mental states; do not let those who lose control drag down the battle line. Prioritize ammunition for the third-tier scaled beasts; use short blades to deal with ordinary scaled beasts once they get close."
As the orders were relayed, the pressure on the frontline intensified. The non-commissioned officers had to command the battle while monitoring the mental state of their subordinates, ready to pull back soldiers who fell into illusions and wanted to abandon their weapons, flee, or harm themselves.
On the frontal line, another third-tier scaled beast was struck in the neck by heavy artillery, its massive body crashing to the ground. But the remaining six quickly filled the gap; the assaults did not cease. There were more and more breaches in the sandbags. In many places, soldiers could only form human walls, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the pouncing ordinary scaled beasts using short blades.
A young soldier had been gritting his teeth to hold on, but suddenly, the ancient being's whispers in his ear amplified, telling him that resistance was meaningless and that his family had long since died in the spore illusions. His hand slowly loosened its grip on the short blade. His eyes empty, he stood up and walked voluntarily toward the scaled beasts.
"Come back!" His partner roared, lunging forward to hug him. Ignoring the other's frantic struggles, he pinned him firmly behind the sandbags.
Scenes like this played out continuously across the fortifications. The physical defense line was barely holding, but the invisible mental defense had already cracked with dense, fine fissures.
Deep within the cavern, the supreme ruler captured these signal fluctuations and sent an order to the Beast Commander.
The time is approaching. Arrange for the flanking ambush squad to move out.
In the concealed side intersection, the dormant scaled beast squad slowly rose. Keeping their low growls suppressed to a minimum, they used the terrain for cover and quietly flanked toward the main city chokepoint. Their objective was clear: they would not participate in the frontal assault, but were solely responsible for cutting off the retreat and sealing the reinforcement corridor.
"The flanking ambush beast herd is moving! Targeting the chokepoint!" Lin Yan intercepted the movement of the thermal signatures at the first instance and reported fiercely. "The chokepoint garrison is insufficient. If they break through, the second-line defenders will be completely surrounded!"
The military police squad guarding the chokepoint immediately swiveled their guns, staring tensely at the exit of the side path.
Simultaneously, the frontal beast tide's assault intensified. The six third-tier scaled beasts exerted force together, concentrating their ramming on a single damaged point of the sandbag fortifications. The steel plates emitted a distorted groan, and a massive section of sandbags collapsed with a thunderous crash. A gap large enough for the behemoths to pass through赫然 appeared in the fortifications.
Beast roars shook the heavens, and psychic whispers surged like a tidal wave.
The second-line fortifications were in critical condition on both the inside and the outside. The defenders had to block the third-tier scaled beasts that had smashed open the frontal gap, divert forces to intercept the ambush squad attacking the chokepoint, and simultaneously resist the auditory and visual hallucinations that continuously eroded their Seas of Consciousness.
Lin Yan closed his eyes tightly, struggling to stabilize his own turbulent Sea of Consciousness.
He knew clearly that in this round, there was absolutely no room for buffering. Once the chokepoint fell, everyone in the second-line position would become an isolated army trapped in an encirclement.
End of Chapter.
Without the resonance barrier built by the Sea of Consciousness cultivators to distribute and buffer the impact, every single spike pierced directly into the individual Seas of Consciousness of the soldiers. It was not the instantaneous, tearing agony from before, but a continuous, dull ache and numbness burrowing deep within the skull. Accompanied by an inescapable whispering, the voices circled in their ears repeatedly, coaxing them to lay down their weapons and abandon their resistance.
Many soldiers stumbled, clutching the sandbags as they gasped for air, their temples throbbing violently. Paired companions slapped each other's backs, repeatedly shouting their agreed-upon wake-up code words to pull those who were on the verge of sinking into the illusions back to reality. But this method only treated the symptoms, not the root cause. The psychic erosion was relentless, and the rate of mental exhaustion was far faster than that of physical wounds.
Simultaneously, the Illusion Ancient Being activated the nodes hidden in front of the isolation belt.
The gray fog churned in layers, the phantoms constantly shifting. Sometimes, it appeared as though countless scaled beasts were encircling them from three sides; other times, it was the silent, outstretched hands of fallen comrades in the trenches, staring at them blankly; and sometimes, the illusion shifted to the main city of the bastion engulfed in raging flames, with thick smoke swallowing everything. The real and the fake intertwined, leaving no one able to distinguish them for long.
A loader had just pushed a shell into the chamber when his vision suddenly blurred. He saw countless writhing black spore threads bursting from the cannon barrel, wrapping around his wrists. Screaming, he stumbled backward, the shell rolling out of the muzzle, causing them to miss the optimal firing window.
"It's fake! Aim straight ahead!" His partner grabbed his arm, shouting the code word at the top of his lungs.
Taking advantage of this brief chaos, the beast herd had closed the distance. The seven third-tier scaled beasts stepped over the settled powder zone, their heavy hooves crushing shattered armor fragments and dried bloodstains. Their massive bodies cast heavy shadows over the sandbag fortifications. Still adhering to their alternating assault tactics, two beasts charged forward to slam into the sandbags, while the remaining five pressed from the flanks. The ordinary scaled beasts scattered, searching for breaches along the gaps in the fortifications.
BOOM!
The sandbag defense line trembled violently, sand trickling down. The steel backing plates dented under the impact of the beasts' bone spurs, and the rivets securing the steel plates snapped off one by one. The four heavy piercing cannons roared in turns, their shells smashing fiercely into the vulnerable areas of the third-tier scaled beasts' heads and necks. Black blood splattered as one third-tier scaled beast took a hit to the eye. Agonized, it thrashed its head wildly, yet it still charged forward on pure instinct.
Old Zhou was stationed in the temporary medical point further back in the second-line fortifications. His wounds had been re-bandaged, but the excessive blood loss left him shivering with cold. Leaning against a steel plate, he stared fixedly at the combat zone ahead, a short blade still clutched in his hand. His oscillation stinger was long destroyed, and he had no heavy weapons left.
"They're not in a rush to overwhelm us in one go," Old Zhou whispered to the soldier guarding him. "They are grinding down our minds. Physical wounds can be bandaged, but there is no medicine that can quickly cure the fear in the Sea of Consciousness."
These words were the truest reflection of the battlefield at this moment.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness remained firmly anchored in the subterranean cavern.
The Beast Commander was orchestrating the alternating assaults of the frontline beast herd while continuously receiving casualty feedback, constantly fine-tuning the charging rhythm. It kept a small squad of scaled beasts hidden in the side intersection, standing by as ordered by the supreme ruler, waiting for the second-line defenders' attention to be completely drawn by the frontal beast tide before launching a flanking ambush to sever the chokepoint leading to the main city.
The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being did not increase its power to deliver a fatal blow, maintaining this continuous, rain-like psychic stabbing. It knew that continuous, low-intensity erosion was far more effective at breaking a group's will than a single heavy strike. A person could endure a moment of excruciating pain, but it was incredibly difficult to maintain clarity amidst endless dizziness and auditory hallucinations.
The Spiderweb Ancient Being continued to stir up trouble in the rear city. Another anchor point in the near suburbs erupted, plunging masses of residents into collective visual hallucinations. Some pushed open their doors and walked toward the rift. The military police urgently sealed off the streets and alleys, deploying their last reserves of calming agents to suppress the panic. With the serum reserves completely depleted, they would have no means of control if another massive spore outbreak occurred.
In the center of the cavern, the supreme ruler's consciousness rippled slowly, organizing all the information streams.
The firepower intensity of the second-line fortifications, the soldiers' mental endurance limits, the effectiveness of the companion wake-up mechanism, and the garrison strength at the main city chokepoint—all were meticulously aggregated. It waited patiently for a critical threshold: it did not need the beast tide to shatter the sandbag fortifications. As long as the defenders' mental defenses collapsed en masse first, the defense line would fall without being attacked.
"Report to command: The frontal beast tide continues its alternating assaults, and the flanking ambush squad is still dormant," Lin Yan's voice carried exhaustion. His Sea of Consciousness had endured the sweeping residual consciousness waves of the ancient beings for too long, sending waves of searing pain. "The effects of psychic contamination are accumulating. There have been successive cases of soldiers refusing to fire and actively freezing up. The speed of will collapse is faster than physical defeat."
In the command hall, the atmosphere was oppressive to the extreme.
Scholar Su stared at the sand table. Behind the second-line fortifications lay the outer residential district of the main city. If this area fell, the scaled beasts could pour directly into the civilian聚居区 (residential areas), and the slaughter would commence immediately.
"Notify the chokepoint garrison to double their vigilance and watch the side paths," Scholar Su ordered in a deep voice. "All frontline non-commissioned officers, prioritize monitoring soldiers with unstable mental states; do not let those who lose control drag down the battle line. Prioritize ammunition for the third-tier scaled beasts; use short blades to deal with ordinary scaled beasts once they get close."
As the orders were relayed, the pressure on the frontline intensified. The non-commissioned officers had to command the battle while monitoring the mental state of their subordinates, ready to pull back soldiers who fell into illusions and wanted to abandon their weapons, flee, or harm themselves.
On the frontal line, another third-tier scaled beast was struck in the neck by heavy artillery, its massive body crashing to the ground. But the remaining six quickly filled the gap; the assaults did not cease. There were more and more breaches in the sandbags. In many places, soldiers could only form human walls, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the pouncing ordinary scaled beasts using short blades.
A young soldier had been gritting his teeth to hold on, but suddenly, the ancient being's whispers in his ear amplified, telling him that resistance was meaningless and that his family had long since died in the spore illusions. His hand slowly loosened its grip on the short blade. His eyes empty, he stood up and walked voluntarily toward the scaled beasts.
"Come back!" His partner roared, lunging forward to hug him. Ignoring the other's frantic struggles, he pinned him firmly behind the sandbags.
Scenes like this played out continuously across the fortifications. The physical defense line was barely holding, but the invisible mental defense had already cracked with dense, fine fissures.
Deep within the cavern, the supreme ruler captured these signal fluctuations and sent an order to the Beast Commander.
The time is approaching. Arrange for the flanking ambush squad to move out.
In the concealed side intersection, the dormant scaled beast squad slowly rose. Keeping their low growls suppressed to a minimum, they used the terrain for cover and quietly flanked toward the main city chokepoint. Their objective was clear: they would not participate in the frontal assault, but were solely responsible for cutting off the retreat and sealing the reinforcement corridor.
"The flanking ambush beast herd is moving! Targeting the chokepoint!" Lin Yan intercepted the movement of the thermal signatures at the first instance and reported fiercely. "The chokepoint garrison is insufficient. If they break through, the second-line defenders will be completely surrounded!"
The military police squad guarding the chokepoint immediately swiveled their guns, staring tensely at the exit of the side path.
Simultaneously, the frontal beast tide's assault intensified. The six third-tier scaled beasts exerted force together, concentrating their ramming on a single damaged point of the sandbag fortifications. The steel plates emitted a distorted groan, and a massive section of sandbags collapsed with a thunderous crash. A gap large enough for the behemoths to pass through赫然 appeared in the fortifications.
Beast roars shook the heavens, and psychic whispers surged like a tidal wave.
The second-line fortifications were in critical condition on both the inside and the outside. The defenders had to block the third-tier scaled beasts that had smashed open the frontal gap, divert forces to intercept the ambush squad attacking the chokepoint, and simultaneously resist the auditory and visual hallucinations that continuously eroded their Seas of Consciousness.
Lin Yan closed his eyes tightly, struggling to stabilize his own turbulent Sea of Consciousness.
He knew clearly that in this round, there was absolutely no room for buffering. Once the chokepoint fell, everyone in the second-line position would become an isolated army trapped in an encirclement.
End of Chapter.