Chapter 233: Holding the Narrow Pass Alone
The maintenance tunnel was barely wide enough for a third-tier scaled beast to squeeze through sideways. The rock walls were rough, their edges coated with years of accumulated rock dust and scattered traces of dried beast blood. Scholar Su's back was pressed hard against the cold, hard rock wall. The torn wound on his shoulder throbbed with each ragged breath. Warm blood soaked through his combat suit, running down his forearm to the knuckles gripping his blade, dripping onto the steel floor and spreading into a small dark stain.
The third-tier scaled beast in front of him slowly lowered its head, the bone spurs on its spine trembling slightly. Its dark crimson vertical pupils locked firmly onto the human blocking its path. The injuries it had sustained earlier at the outer gate were not fatal, but the wound on its lower jaw continued to seep dark green, foul-smelling fluid that hit the ground with a faint sizzle, corroding tiny pits. The beast did not charge immediately. Instead, it emitted a low rumble from its chest, psychic waves piercing Scholar Su's Sea of Consciousness through the spore-laden air, compounding with the ever-present illusion toxins to amplify dizziness and exhaustion.
Countless fragmented images exploded in Scholar Su's mind.
He saw the bustling marketplace when the barriers were intact, the laughing faces of his comrades during rest periods, his wife and children standing at the door waving and waiting. The illusions were gentle yet vivid, as if all he had to do was lower his short blade, step aside, and he could step right back into that peace. But the sharp pain from his tongue kept him grounded — it was the spot he had been biting hard, the sting of flesh like an anchor, holding his drifting consciousness firmly back in the dark, narrow maintenance tunnel.
"Don't dream," Scholar Su muttered to himself, raising his chipped short blade slightly, the edge aimed at the soft spot near the beast's eye socket — one of the few vulnerable areas. "If you want to pass, you'll have to go over me first."
The third-tier scaled beast seemed to sense his hostility. The rumble in its throat suddenly rose in pitch. Its thick hind legs dug into the ground, and its massive body charged forward with a gust of wind. Bone spurs led the way, aiming straight for Scholar Su's chest.
The tunnel was too narrow for left or right dodging. Scholar Su could only duck suddenly and thrust his short blade upward with all his might.
Clang!
The blade struck the beast's thick upper eyelid scales, sparking fragments but failing to penetrate. The immense force hit him like a wall. He was slammed back against the rock wall, his back crashing hard. A wave of nausea rose in his chest, a coppery taste flooding his throat — he swallowed it down hard.
The beast's strike missed. Its head whipped around quickly, bone spurs sweeping horizontally. Scholar Su curled tight against the rock wall. The spurs grazed his shoulder, reopening the already torn wound. Agonizing pain spread through his nerves. Seizing the moment the beast reined in its momentum, he lunged forward half a body length, aiming his short blade at the gap between scales near the wound on the beast's jaw, and drove it in with all his strength.
Squelch! Dark green blood gushed out, splattering across Scholar Su's arms and face. The foul stench hit his nose. The accompanying psychic toxin seeped into his Sea of Consciousness through skin contact, and the illusions instantly grew more violent. Scholar Su's vision went black. His hand gripping the short blade trembled slightly, but he clenched his teeth hard, twisting the blade in his wrist to widen the wound as much as possible.
The third-tier scaled beast, grievously wounded, let out a furious roar. Its massive body thrashed wildly. Trapped in the narrow tunnel with no leverage, it could only thrash its head and swing its claws wildly. Thick, spiked claws smashed against the rock wall beside Scholar Su repeatedly. Rubble peeled off constantly, striking his helmet and shoulders. Scholar Su gripped the hilt tightly, refusing to let go. His entire body was practically hanging from the beast's jaw, enduring the giant's violent thrashing, yet the blade remained lodged in the wound.
The sounds of battle at the outer corner drifted into the maintenance tunnel in waves.
The remaining three soldiers held the corner position with their lives. Two third-tier scaled beasts attacked in rotation, while endless waves of ordinary scaled beasts crowded behind, waiting for an opening to swarm. The crisp sounds of clashing blades, the roars of scaled beasts, and the muffled groans of soldiers intertwined — one after another, each one meaning someone had fallen. The spore concentration continued to climb. The defenders there were also struggling under the dual pressure of illusions and physical exhaustion.
When Lin Yan arrived at the corner gripping a steel shard, he just happened to see a soldier fail to dodge in time, his thigh pierced by a scaled beast's bone spur, pinned to the steel frame. The soldier roared, his other hand raising the steel shard, desperately stabbing at the beast's eye. The beast, feeling pain, threw back its head and violently whipped its skull, slamming the soldier hard onto the ground. He struggled twice and never got up again.
"Only two left," Lin Yan said quickly, stepping forward and standing back-to-back with the two remaining injured soldiers, the steel shard held horizontally before him. His Sea of Consciousness continued to project outward for detection. Waves of dizziness grew stronger with each passing moment. He could clearly sense the calm consciousness fluctuations of the ancient beings deep in the cavern, and also perceive that the Spiderweb Ancient Being remained dormant, allowing spore toxins to continuously contaminate the entire shelter pod. The Beast Commander's psychic tendrils steadily guided all the scaled beasts, unhurried and methodical, steadily compressing their living space.
"One is held up in the maintenance tunnel by Officer Su. The other two are here," one soldier panted, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. His vision was already blurring, and he occasionally spaced out. "We can't hold this corner much longer... their strength is too great..."
Before he finished speaking, the scaled beast on the right lowered its body and charged again.
The three spread out to dodge simultaneously, steel shards stabbing toward eyes, snouts, and foreleg joints. Lin Yan aimed at the soft flesh under the beast's raised foreleg and threw with all his strength. The sharpened thick steel shard spun through the air and plunged into flesh, penetrating an inch deep. The beast roared in pain, its charge momentarily halted. Another soldier seized the opening, closing in to strike the beast's eye with a short blade. Unfortunately, lacking sufficient force, the blade only sliced the outer layer of skin and failed to inflict a critical wound.
The scaled beast on the left seized this opening, lunging forward violently. Its bone spurs shot straight for the soldier nearest to it. The soldier raised his blade in a hasty parry. Clang! The short blade was directly knocked from his hand by the bone spur. Before he could retreat, the beast's massive claw had already slammed into his chest. A dull cracking sound rang out clearly. The soldier flew backward like a tattered cloth, crashing heavily against the wall, motionless.
In the blink of an eye, only Lin Yan and one other soldier remained at the corner defense.
"I'll go reinforce Officer Su. You hold this position as long as you can!" Lin Yan made a quick decision. The corner was already doomed; continuing to hold here meant the two scaled beasts would break through soon and charge straight for the civilians in the innermost storage compartment. Scholar Su was alone intercepting the flanking beast, and the pressure on him would only grow greater.
The soldier nodded, gripping the last short blade in his hand, standing alone across the center of the corner. He didn't say a word. He simply straightened his back, his eyes locked firmly on the two approaching giants.
Lin Yan turned and sprinted toward the maintenance tunnel. The roars in the tunnel grew increasingly clear. As soon as he rounded the bend, he saw the gruesome scene.
Scholar Su was still hanging onto the wound on the third-tier scaled beast's jaw, his short blade deeply embedded in flesh and blood. Half his body was soaked in the beast's blood, his arms sliced in multiple places by scale edges, his body covered in wounds. The beast's frenzied thrashing had gradually weakened. Losing so much blood from the jaw wound, its movements had slowly grown sluggish, but its remaining ferocity was still present — it continued to thrash its head, trying to shake the human off its back.
Scholar Su's consciousness was nearing its absolute limit. The illusions bombarded him in relentless waves. Several times, he hallucinated his family reaching out to him. Hearing footsteps, he turned his head and saw Lin Yan running toward him. His cracked lips moved slightly: "Don't come... hold the compartment..."
Before he could finish, the third-tier scaled beast, summoning its last strength, whipped its head violently. The immense torque tore Scholar Su completely free from the wound. He was thrown through the air, crashing heavily against the tunnel wall. His short blade flew from his grip and rolled aside. After landing, Scholar Su struggled to prop himself up. He tried twice, but his arms gave way, and he collapsed face-down on the ground, his chest heaving violently. Each breath came with blood foam.
The third-tier scaled beast's jaw streamed thick dark green blood. Its vision was blurred by its own blood, yet it still relied on hunting instinct, turning its direction and slowly shuffling toward the fallen Scholar Su. It raised its spiked giant claw, preparing to deliver the final blow.
"Stop!"
Lin Yan rushed forward, bending to pick up the chipped short blade on the ground. Seizing the moment the beast's attention was fixed on Scholar Su, he sidestepped and lunged forward, driving the short blade with full force into the beast's other, still-intact eye socket.
Thwack!
The blade plunged deep.
The excruciating agony forced the third-tier scaled beast to let out a mournful scream that shook the rock walls. Its massive body convulsed violently, thrashing its head wildly. Lin Yan had no time to withdraw the blade and could only quickly roll backward to dodge the sweeping bone spurs. The giant beast staggered unsteadily for a few steps, its massive body crashing to the ground within the tunnel. Its limbs twitched a few times, then lay still.
The pungent stench of blood filled the narrow tunnel.
Lin Yan didn't bother to catch his breath. He immediately crawled to Scholar Su's side and knelt to check on him. Blood continued to gush from Scholar Su's chest. His breathing was faint. He barely managed to open his eyelids to look at Lin Yan, his voice barely a whisper: "The civilians... protect the civilians..."
"I know," Lin Yan replied softly, pressing his hand against the bleeding wound on Scholar Su's chest. But without hemostatic agents, he could only slow the flow slightly.
Just then, a shrill roar echoed from the corner direction, followed by an abrupt silence.
The last soldier holding the corner had fallen.
Heavy footsteps rang out in succession. Two third-tier scaled beasts, accompanied by dense masses of ordinary scaled beasts, rounded the corner and slowly approached the entrance of the maintenance tunnel. Crimson eyes formed a sea of red in the dim tunnel. A foul wind carrying spore toxins rushed toward them.
Lin Yan glanced back down the tunnel. At the far end, hidden in the storage compartment, were all the remaining civilians and wounded.
He gently moved Scholar Su to a corner of the rock wall, picked up the short blade still lodged in the scaled beast's eye socket, and then scooped up a new sharp steel shard from the ground. Weapon in each hand, he stood up and alone blocked the middle section of the tunnel.
On one side lay Scholar Su, defeated and unable to fight. Behind him were the defenseless civilians. Ahead, the scaled beast tide surged forward.
Deep within the cavern, the consciousness of the five ancient beings quietly perceived this scene.
The supreme ruler's consciousness stirred slightly. It watched this human youth, who had just slain a third-tier scaled beast, his stamina and Sea of Consciousness both on the verge of exhaustion, yet who still chose to stand up and block the passage. It had witnessed countless struggles in desperate situations, but a race that refused to yield again and again in the face of seemingly inevitable death was still rare. It did not signal the Beast Commander to accelerate the attack. It allowed the scaled beasts to advance steadily, granting this final standoff a brief moment of dead silence.
Inside the tunnel, the scaled beasts stopped. They fanned out in layers, their low roars merging into a wave, surrounding Lin Yan.
The final battle had fallen to him.
End of Chapter.
The third-tier scaled beast in front of him slowly lowered its head, the bone spurs on its spine trembling slightly. Its dark crimson vertical pupils locked firmly onto the human blocking its path. The injuries it had sustained earlier at the outer gate were not fatal, but the wound on its lower jaw continued to seep dark green, foul-smelling fluid that hit the ground with a faint sizzle, corroding tiny pits. The beast did not charge immediately. Instead, it emitted a low rumble from its chest, psychic waves piercing Scholar Su's Sea of Consciousness through the spore-laden air, compounding with the ever-present illusion toxins to amplify dizziness and exhaustion.
Countless fragmented images exploded in Scholar Su's mind.
He saw the bustling marketplace when the barriers were intact, the laughing faces of his comrades during rest periods, his wife and children standing at the door waving and waiting. The illusions were gentle yet vivid, as if all he had to do was lower his short blade, step aside, and he could step right back into that peace. But the sharp pain from his tongue kept him grounded — it was the spot he had been biting hard, the sting of flesh like an anchor, holding his drifting consciousness firmly back in the dark, narrow maintenance tunnel.
"Don't dream," Scholar Su muttered to himself, raising his chipped short blade slightly, the edge aimed at the soft spot near the beast's eye socket — one of the few vulnerable areas. "If you want to pass, you'll have to go over me first."
The third-tier scaled beast seemed to sense his hostility. The rumble in its throat suddenly rose in pitch. Its thick hind legs dug into the ground, and its massive body charged forward with a gust of wind. Bone spurs led the way, aiming straight for Scholar Su's chest.
The tunnel was too narrow for left or right dodging. Scholar Su could only duck suddenly and thrust his short blade upward with all his might.
Clang!
The blade struck the beast's thick upper eyelid scales, sparking fragments but failing to penetrate. The immense force hit him like a wall. He was slammed back against the rock wall, his back crashing hard. A wave of nausea rose in his chest, a coppery taste flooding his throat — he swallowed it down hard.
The beast's strike missed. Its head whipped around quickly, bone spurs sweeping horizontally. Scholar Su curled tight against the rock wall. The spurs grazed his shoulder, reopening the already torn wound. Agonizing pain spread through his nerves. Seizing the moment the beast reined in its momentum, he lunged forward half a body length, aiming his short blade at the gap between scales near the wound on the beast's jaw, and drove it in with all his strength.
Squelch! Dark green blood gushed out, splattering across Scholar Su's arms and face. The foul stench hit his nose. The accompanying psychic toxin seeped into his Sea of Consciousness through skin contact, and the illusions instantly grew more violent. Scholar Su's vision went black. His hand gripping the short blade trembled slightly, but he clenched his teeth hard, twisting the blade in his wrist to widen the wound as much as possible.
The third-tier scaled beast, grievously wounded, let out a furious roar. Its massive body thrashed wildly. Trapped in the narrow tunnel with no leverage, it could only thrash its head and swing its claws wildly. Thick, spiked claws smashed against the rock wall beside Scholar Su repeatedly. Rubble peeled off constantly, striking his helmet and shoulders. Scholar Su gripped the hilt tightly, refusing to let go. His entire body was practically hanging from the beast's jaw, enduring the giant's violent thrashing, yet the blade remained lodged in the wound.
The sounds of battle at the outer corner drifted into the maintenance tunnel in waves.
The remaining three soldiers held the corner position with their lives. Two third-tier scaled beasts attacked in rotation, while endless waves of ordinary scaled beasts crowded behind, waiting for an opening to swarm. The crisp sounds of clashing blades, the roars of scaled beasts, and the muffled groans of soldiers intertwined — one after another, each one meaning someone had fallen. The spore concentration continued to climb. The defenders there were also struggling under the dual pressure of illusions and physical exhaustion.
When Lin Yan arrived at the corner gripping a steel shard, he just happened to see a soldier fail to dodge in time, his thigh pierced by a scaled beast's bone spur, pinned to the steel frame. The soldier roared, his other hand raising the steel shard, desperately stabbing at the beast's eye. The beast, feeling pain, threw back its head and violently whipped its skull, slamming the soldier hard onto the ground. He struggled twice and never got up again.
"Only two left," Lin Yan said quickly, stepping forward and standing back-to-back with the two remaining injured soldiers, the steel shard held horizontally before him. His Sea of Consciousness continued to project outward for detection. Waves of dizziness grew stronger with each passing moment. He could clearly sense the calm consciousness fluctuations of the ancient beings deep in the cavern, and also perceive that the Spiderweb Ancient Being remained dormant, allowing spore toxins to continuously contaminate the entire shelter pod. The Beast Commander's psychic tendrils steadily guided all the scaled beasts, unhurried and methodical, steadily compressing their living space.
"One is held up in the maintenance tunnel by Officer Su. The other two are here," one soldier panted, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. His vision was already blurring, and he occasionally spaced out. "We can't hold this corner much longer... their strength is too great..."
Before he finished speaking, the scaled beast on the right lowered its body and charged again.
The three spread out to dodge simultaneously, steel shards stabbing toward eyes, snouts, and foreleg joints. Lin Yan aimed at the soft flesh under the beast's raised foreleg and threw with all his strength. The sharpened thick steel shard spun through the air and plunged into flesh, penetrating an inch deep. The beast roared in pain, its charge momentarily halted. Another soldier seized the opening, closing in to strike the beast's eye with a short blade. Unfortunately, lacking sufficient force, the blade only sliced the outer layer of skin and failed to inflict a critical wound.
The scaled beast on the left seized this opening, lunging forward violently. Its bone spurs shot straight for the soldier nearest to it. The soldier raised his blade in a hasty parry. Clang! The short blade was directly knocked from his hand by the bone spur. Before he could retreat, the beast's massive claw had already slammed into his chest. A dull cracking sound rang out clearly. The soldier flew backward like a tattered cloth, crashing heavily against the wall, motionless.
In the blink of an eye, only Lin Yan and one other soldier remained at the corner defense.
"I'll go reinforce Officer Su. You hold this position as long as you can!" Lin Yan made a quick decision. The corner was already doomed; continuing to hold here meant the two scaled beasts would break through soon and charge straight for the civilians in the innermost storage compartment. Scholar Su was alone intercepting the flanking beast, and the pressure on him would only grow greater.
The soldier nodded, gripping the last short blade in his hand, standing alone across the center of the corner. He didn't say a word. He simply straightened his back, his eyes locked firmly on the two approaching giants.
Lin Yan turned and sprinted toward the maintenance tunnel. The roars in the tunnel grew increasingly clear. As soon as he rounded the bend, he saw the gruesome scene.
Scholar Su was still hanging onto the wound on the third-tier scaled beast's jaw, his short blade deeply embedded in flesh and blood. Half his body was soaked in the beast's blood, his arms sliced in multiple places by scale edges, his body covered in wounds. The beast's frenzied thrashing had gradually weakened. Losing so much blood from the jaw wound, its movements had slowly grown sluggish, but its remaining ferocity was still present — it continued to thrash its head, trying to shake the human off its back.
Scholar Su's consciousness was nearing its absolute limit. The illusions bombarded him in relentless waves. Several times, he hallucinated his family reaching out to him. Hearing footsteps, he turned his head and saw Lin Yan running toward him. His cracked lips moved slightly: "Don't come... hold the compartment..."
Before he could finish, the third-tier scaled beast, summoning its last strength, whipped its head violently. The immense torque tore Scholar Su completely free from the wound. He was thrown through the air, crashing heavily against the tunnel wall. His short blade flew from his grip and rolled aside. After landing, Scholar Su struggled to prop himself up. He tried twice, but his arms gave way, and he collapsed face-down on the ground, his chest heaving violently. Each breath came with blood foam.
The third-tier scaled beast's jaw streamed thick dark green blood. Its vision was blurred by its own blood, yet it still relied on hunting instinct, turning its direction and slowly shuffling toward the fallen Scholar Su. It raised its spiked giant claw, preparing to deliver the final blow.
"Stop!"
Lin Yan rushed forward, bending to pick up the chipped short blade on the ground. Seizing the moment the beast's attention was fixed on Scholar Su, he sidestepped and lunged forward, driving the short blade with full force into the beast's other, still-intact eye socket.
Thwack!
The blade plunged deep.
The excruciating agony forced the third-tier scaled beast to let out a mournful scream that shook the rock walls. Its massive body convulsed violently, thrashing its head wildly. Lin Yan had no time to withdraw the blade and could only quickly roll backward to dodge the sweeping bone spurs. The giant beast staggered unsteadily for a few steps, its massive body crashing to the ground within the tunnel. Its limbs twitched a few times, then lay still.
The pungent stench of blood filled the narrow tunnel.
Lin Yan didn't bother to catch his breath. He immediately crawled to Scholar Su's side and knelt to check on him. Blood continued to gush from Scholar Su's chest. His breathing was faint. He barely managed to open his eyelids to look at Lin Yan, his voice barely a whisper: "The civilians... protect the civilians..."
"I know," Lin Yan replied softly, pressing his hand against the bleeding wound on Scholar Su's chest. But without hemostatic agents, he could only slow the flow slightly.
Just then, a shrill roar echoed from the corner direction, followed by an abrupt silence.
The last soldier holding the corner had fallen.
Heavy footsteps rang out in succession. Two third-tier scaled beasts, accompanied by dense masses of ordinary scaled beasts, rounded the corner and slowly approached the entrance of the maintenance tunnel. Crimson eyes formed a sea of red in the dim tunnel. A foul wind carrying spore toxins rushed toward them.
Lin Yan glanced back down the tunnel. At the far end, hidden in the storage compartment, were all the remaining civilians and wounded.
He gently moved Scholar Su to a corner of the rock wall, picked up the short blade still lodged in the scaled beast's eye socket, and then scooped up a new sharp steel shard from the ground. Weapon in each hand, he stood up and alone blocked the middle section of the tunnel.
On one side lay Scholar Su, defeated and unable to fight. Behind him were the defenseless civilians. Ahead, the scaled beast tide surged forward.
Deep within the cavern, the consciousness of the five ancient beings quietly perceived this scene.
The supreme ruler's consciousness stirred slightly. It watched this human youth, who had just slain a third-tier scaled beast, his stamina and Sea of Consciousness both on the verge of exhaustion, yet who still chose to stand up and block the passage. It had witnessed countless struggles in desperate situations, but a race that refused to yield again and again in the face of seemingly inevitable death was still rare. It did not signal the Beast Commander to accelerate the attack. It allowed the scaled beasts to advance steadily, granting this final standoff a brief moment of dead silence.
Inside the tunnel, the scaled beasts stopped. They fanned out in layers, their low roars merging into a wave, surrounding Lin Yan.
The final battle had fallen to him.
End of Chapter.