Chapter 20: The Suffocating Tug-of-War
The third-tier scaled beast remained perched on the rocky high ground, never launching a charge.
But its stillness was far more despair-inducing than if it had simply rushed down. That three-meter-tall black shadow loomed like a mountain pressing down on everyone's heads, its endless psychic pressure cascading down like mercury, enveloping the entire temporary trench. Unlike the short, fragmented needle-like attacks of low-level scaled beasts, the psychic suppression of a third-tier individual was a continuous, domain-level crushing force—relentless, inescapable, and offering no breathing room for recovery.
Every single second, everyone in the trench was passively draining their mental fortitude.
Lin Yan leaned against the inner wall of the trench, his chest heaving violently. His second-tier peak Sea of Consciousness barrier, which was considered stable in the training cabin, was now pitifully fragile under the true pressure of a high-level beast. The barrier on the surface of his Sea of Consciousness trembled and tingled continuously, like a thin sheet of paper being battered by a storm, threatening to tear apart at any moment. The dull ache deep within his skull grew increasingly distinct; the ringing in his ears layered upon itself, and the edges of his vision kept darkening.
For the first time, he truly understood: simulated training and the real battlefield were two entirely different worlds.
The "Sea of Consciousness fortification" and "barrier buffering" taught in textbooks were merely drops in the bucket against the absolute magnitude of psychic crushing.
The noise of the battlefield never ceased.
In the rocky area to the left, the roars of low-level scaled beasts echoed back and forth. Explosions from the main rift entrance were continuous, causing the earth to tremble slightly time and time again. The putrid stench in the air mixed with the strong smell of blood, stubbornly blocking his nose and mouth, making it hard to breathe and fueling his anxiety.
Anxiety was the biggest trigger for a Sea of Consciousness collapse.
"Listen up, everyone! Abandon large-scale perception! Contract your Sea of Consciousness to the absolute extreme!"
Instructor Zhou's hoarse roar pierced through the chaos. The veins on his forehead bulged, and his entire face was pale, devoid of any color. "Only keep perception within three meters in front of you! Abandon early warning, abandon probing! Just survive first!"
This was a desperate combat tactic known only to frontline veterans.
Normal training required spreading out the Sea of Consciousness, maintaining global perception, and predicting in advance. But under the continuous domain suppression of a high-level scaled beast, the more open and sensitive you were, the faster you would die.
Lin Yan immediately complied.
He forcibly suppressed his instinctive fear, drawing back all the mental tentacles he had dispersed outward. It was like sealing all the doors and windows, pulling all his consciousness into the deepest part of his core.
In an instant, the pressure of the external psychic wash decreased by thirty percent.
But the price was extremely obvious—the blind spots in his vision expanded completely.
He couldn't hear movements from afar, couldn't sense the flanking beast swarms on the sides, and the entire battlefield transformed from "clear and controllable" to "pitch-black and unknown."
And the unknown was the most terrifying thing on the battlefield.
Just as everyone was contracting their Sea of Consciousness to endure the high-level suppression, the right flank of the defense line suddenly erupted!
"Beast breach on the right! Three low-level scaled beasts are breaking through!"
The piercing warning had barely begun when three gray-black shadows had already shattered the rock barrier, rushing at high speed close to the ground. Using the cover of the third-tier psychic tidal wave, they had perfectly avoided everyone's perception and early warning, diving straight toward the weakly defended section held by the new recruits.
Only two new recruits and one injured veteran were stationed there.
"Form up! Form up quickly!" the veteran roared as he desperately stepped forward, even though his arm wound was still bleeding and his Sea of Consciousness was already overloaded.
The three low-level scaled beasts attacked simultaneously, their division of labor extremely cunning.
One charged straight ahead, roaring as it released a barrage of psychic needles,死死 (firmly) dragging down the veteran's Sea of Consciousness. One flanked from the side, heading straight for the new recruit positioned furthest out. The last one lowered its body, darting along the ground into the blind spot of the trench, completely sealing off their retreat.
There were no flashy moves, only pure, instinctual slaughter.
That new recruit's Sea of Consciousness was already on the verge of collapse. The moment he was approached, the psychic impact swept over him; his eyes rolled back, and the energy gun in his hand slipped from his grip. He froze in place, his whole body trembling, unable to even dodge.
The scaled beast's sharp claws lifted instantly, a flash of cold light!
Pfft—
The thick combat suit was torn apart in an instant, the claws digging deeply into the new recruit's thigh, flesh exploding outward. The agonizing pain made the recruit scream miserably, and his entire body collapsed directly into the muddy water of the trench.
"Hold steady! Don't panic!"
The injured veteran gritted his teeth and desperately intercepted, fighting off two scaled beasts alone. He blasted his energy gun at point-blank range into the eye of the frontal beast, forcing it back. But the flanking beast had already pinned down the fallen recruit, its fangs opening wide, ready to lock onto his throat.
A life was about to be taken!
Lin Yan's pupils contracted sharply, and his body moved on pure instinct.
He didn't charge up to fight, nor did he recklessly engage in close combat; he maintained the restraint of a new recruit. Relying solely on the extreme speed of his ancient martial arts footwork, he instantly dashed two steps sideways, picked up the dropped energy gun, stabilized it with one hand, and fired three consecutive shots at the soft flesh on the side of the scaled beast's skull at close range!
Three precise point-blank shots!
It wasn't a kill; it was merely forced interference.
Dazzling energy explosions erupted on the side of the beast's head. The intense pain made it instinctively turn its head, and the fangs aiming for the throat barely missed the fallen recruit's neck, saving a life.
But that was all it did—save a life.
Stung by the pain, the scaled beast flew into a rage, instantly redirecting its murderous intent straight at Lin Yan!
Facing the frantic pounce of a low-level scaled beast at close range, Lin Yan felt a naked, chilling fear of life and death rise in his heart for the first time.
No matter how strong his footwork or how fast his reflexes, he couldn't withstand the brute physical strength of the scaled beast, let alone the psychic turbulence it exploded with at close quarters.
He immediately retreated, evaded, and pressed tightly against the cover, focusing entirely on dodging and absolutely refusing to clash head-on.
"Don't fight it alone! I've got it!"
Two veterans swiftly filled the gap, instantly forming a four-man encirclement formation. One engaged from the front, two provided suppressing fire, and one closed in with a short blade to break the armor.
The trench instantly erupted into a brutal, close-quarters melee.
Driven to the brink of desperation, the low-level scaled beast's ferocity surged. It fought back desperately, sweeping its claws, biting with its fangs, and thrashing its tail. Every single attack carried the power to shatter bones and armor. The four veterans took turns trading injuries, distracting, and dealing damage; no one dared to relax for a fraction of a second.
Screams, beast roars, energy explosions, and the crisp cracking of bones intertwined.
A full minute of relentless, bloody fighting.
Paying the price of a second veteran suffering a penetrating arm wound and a new recruit experiencing a complete Sea of Consciousness collapse, they barely managed to exterminate these three escaped low-level scaled beasts.
The ground of the trench was pooled with blood and mud, reeking of a pungent, foul stench.
In just a brief moment, the defense line lost three more combatants.
Standing behind the cover, Lin Yan breathed heavily, his palms ice-cold.
In that fleeting moment, he truly experienced his own insignificance. He could predict, he could dodge, he could accurately provide covering fire, but he still had no qualification to fight alone. One mistake, one sweep of psychic turbulence that shattered his Sea of Consciousness, and he would be no different from the new recruits lying on the ground.
High above, the third-tier scaled beast silently looked down at the slaughter below.
It was no longer in a hurry.
It seemed to enjoy this process of slowly reaping. Watching these humans constantly deplete themselves, constantly get injured, constantly collapse, watching this line of flesh and blood be slowly ground through.
In the next second, it raised its head slightly.
The psychic fluctuations across the entire battlefield suddenly spiked!
"Everyone, defend to the death! Contract your Sea of Consciousness to the maximum! It's about to release a large-scale,全域 (global) impact!" Instructor Zhou roared hoarsely.
The violent psychic tidal wave collapsed like a tsunami, ruthlessly crushing the entire trench!
This time, the intensity far exceeded any previous wave.
Half of the people in the trench instantly collapsed, clutching their heads. Some dry-heaved, some convulsed, and some lost their consciousness entirely. The few remaining soldiers capable of fighting were all drenched in sweat, their bodies swaying. The Sea of Consciousness patches on their foreheads dimmed and failed at a visible speed.
Su Qing bit her lip so hard it bled. She could only stand by leaning against the earthen wall, her vision already overlapping.
Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness trembled violently, his core stinging as the barrier developed a dense web of hairline cracks for the first time.
He bit down hard, stubbornly guarding his true heart, suppressing all stray thoughts and all fear, contracting his Sea of Consciousness to the extreme.
It hurt.
He was exhausted.
Overwhelmingly powerless.
But he was standing; he had not fallen.
He was enduring, he was enduring, and he was frantically absorbing every lesson this bloody battle had to teach.
In the distance, the communicator crackled with static. The voice of the支援 (support) team remained far away: "Roads are still blocked, keep holding on..."
Hold on.
Another endless, blood-soaked tug-of-war.
Deep within the rift, a new, dense chorus of beast roars rose again, and the tremors from underground grew increasingly obvious.
The true bloodbath had only just reached its climax.
End of Chapter
But its stillness was far more despair-inducing than if it had simply rushed down. That three-meter-tall black shadow loomed like a mountain pressing down on everyone's heads, its endless psychic pressure cascading down like mercury, enveloping the entire temporary trench. Unlike the short, fragmented needle-like attacks of low-level scaled beasts, the psychic suppression of a third-tier individual was a continuous, domain-level crushing force—relentless, inescapable, and offering no breathing room for recovery.
Every single second, everyone in the trench was passively draining their mental fortitude.
Lin Yan leaned against the inner wall of the trench, his chest heaving violently. His second-tier peak Sea of Consciousness barrier, which was considered stable in the training cabin, was now pitifully fragile under the true pressure of a high-level beast. The barrier on the surface of his Sea of Consciousness trembled and tingled continuously, like a thin sheet of paper being battered by a storm, threatening to tear apart at any moment. The dull ache deep within his skull grew increasingly distinct; the ringing in his ears layered upon itself, and the edges of his vision kept darkening.
For the first time, he truly understood: simulated training and the real battlefield were two entirely different worlds.
The "Sea of Consciousness fortification" and "barrier buffering" taught in textbooks were merely drops in the bucket against the absolute magnitude of psychic crushing.
The noise of the battlefield never ceased.
In the rocky area to the left, the roars of low-level scaled beasts echoed back and forth. Explosions from the main rift entrance were continuous, causing the earth to tremble slightly time and time again. The putrid stench in the air mixed with the strong smell of blood, stubbornly blocking his nose and mouth, making it hard to breathe and fueling his anxiety.
Anxiety was the biggest trigger for a Sea of Consciousness collapse.
"Listen up, everyone! Abandon large-scale perception! Contract your Sea of Consciousness to the absolute extreme!"
Instructor Zhou's hoarse roar pierced through the chaos. The veins on his forehead bulged, and his entire face was pale, devoid of any color. "Only keep perception within three meters in front of you! Abandon early warning, abandon probing! Just survive first!"
This was a desperate combat tactic known only to frontline veterans.
Normal training required spreading out the Sea of Consciousness, maintaining global perception, and predicting in advance. But under the continuous domain suppression of a high-level scaled beast, the more open and sensitive you were, the faster you would die.
Lin Yan immediately complied.
He forcibly suppressed his instinctive fear, drawing back all the mental tentacles he had dispersed outward. It was like sealing all the doors and windows, pulling all his consciousness into the deepest part of his core.
In an instant, the pressure of the external psychic wash decreased by thirty percent.
But the price was extremely obvious—the blind spots in his vision expanded completely.
He couldn't hear movements from afar, couldn't sense the flanking beast swarms on the sides, and the entire battlefield transformed from "clear and controllable" to "pitch-black and unknown."
And the unknown was the most terrifying thing on the battlefield.
Just as everyone was contracting their Sea of Consciousness to endure the high-level suppression, the right flank of the defense line suddenly erupted!
"Beast breach on the right! Three low-level scaled beasts are breaking through!"
The piercing warning had barely begun when three gray-black shadows had already shattered the rock barrier, rushing at high speed close to the ground. Using the cover of the third-tier psychic tidal wave, they had perfectly avoided everyone's perception and early warning, diving straight toward the weakly defended section held by the new recruits.
Only two new recruits and one injured veteran were stationed there.
"Form up! Form up quickly!" the veteran roared as he desperately stepped forward, even though his arm wound was still bleeding and his Sea of Consciousness was already overloaded.
The three low-level scaled beasts attacked simultaneously, their division of labor extremely cunning.
One charged straight ahead, roaring as it released a barrage of psychic needles,死死 (firmly) dragging down the veteran's Sea of Consciousness. One flanked from the side, heading straight for the new recruit positioned furthest out. The last one lowered its body, darting along the ground into the blind spot of the trench, completely sealing off their retreat.
There were no flashy moves, only pure, instinctual slaughter.
That new recruit's Sea of Consciousness was already on the verge of collapse. The moment he was approached, the psychic impact swept over him; his eyes rolled back, and the energy gun in his hand slipped from his grip. He froze in place, his whole body trembling, unable to even dodge.
The scaled beast's sharp claws lifted instantly, a flash of cold light!
Pfft—
The thick combat suit was torn apart in an instant, the claws digging deeply into the new recruit's thigh, flesh exploding outward. The agonizing pain made the recruit scream miserably, and his entire body collapsed directly into the muddy water of the trench.
"Hold steady! Don't panic!"
The injured veteran gritted his teeth and desperately intercepted, fighting off two scaled beasts alone. He blasted his energy gun at point-blank range into the eye of the frontal beast, forcing it back. But the flanking beast had already pinned down the fallen recruit, its fangs opening wide, ready to lock onto his throat.
A life was about to be taken!
Lin Yan's pupils contracted sharply, and his body moved on pure instinct.
He didn't charge up to fight, nor did he recklessly engage in close combat; he maintained the restraint of a new recruit. Relying solely on the extreme speed of his ancient martial arts footwork, he instantly dashed two steps sideways, picked up the dropped energy gun, stabilized it with one hand, and fired three consecutive shots at the soft flesh on the side of the scaled beast's skull at close range!
Three precise point-blank shots!
It wasn't a kill; it was merely forced interference.
Dazzling energy explosions erupted on the side of the beast's head. The intense pain made it instinctively turn its head, and the fangs aiming for the throat barely missed the fallen recruit's neck, saving a life.
But that was all it did—save a life.
Stung by the pain, the scaled beast flew into a rage, instantly redirecting its murderous intent straight at Lin Yan!
Facing the frantic pounce of a low-level scaled beast at close range, Lin Yan felt a naked, chilling fear of life and death rise in his heart for the first time.
No matter how strong his footwork or how fast his reflexes, he couldn't withstand the brute physical strength of the scaled beast, let alone the psychic turbulence it exploded with at close quarters.
He immediately retreated, evaded, and pressed tightly against the cover, focusing entirely on dodging and absolutely refusing to clash head-on.
"Don't fight it alone! I've got it!"
Two veterans swiftly filled the gap, instantly forming a four-man encirclement formation. One engaged from the front, two provided suppressing fire, and one closed in with a short blade to break the armor.
The trench instantly erupted into a brutal, close-quarters melee.
Driven to the brink of desperation, the low-level scaled beast's ferocity surged. It fought back desperately, sweeping its claws, biting with its fangs, and thrashing its tail. Every single attack carried the power to shatter bones and armor. The four veterans took turns trading injuries, distracting, and dealing damage; no one dared to relax for a fraction of a second.
Screams, beast roars, energy explosions, and the crisp cracking of bones intertwined.
A full minute of relentless, bloody fighting.
Paying the price of a second veteran suffering a penetrating arm wound and a new recruit experiencing a complete Sea of Consciousness collapse, they barely managed to exterminate these three escaped low-level scaled beasts.
The ground of the trench was pooled with blood and mud, reeking of a pungent, foul stench.
In just a brief moment, the defense line lost three more combatants.
Standing behind the cover, Lin Yan breathed heavily, his palms ice-cold.
In that fleeting moment, he truly experienced his own insignificance. He could predict, he could dodge, he could accurately provide covering fire, but he still had no qualification to fight alone. One mistake, one sweep of psychic turbulence that shattered his Sea of Consciousness, and he would be no different from the new recruits lying on the ground.
High above, the third-tier scaled beast silently looked down at the slaughter below.
It was no longer in a hurry.
It seemed to enjoy this process of slowly reaping. Watching these humans constantly deplete themselves, constantly get injured, constantly collapse, watching this line of flesh and blood be slowly ground through.
In the next second, it raised its head slightly.
The psychic fluctuations across the entire battlefield suddenly spiked!
"Everyone, defend to the death! Contract your Sea of Consciousness to the maximum! It's about to release a large-scale,全域 (global) impact!" Instructor Zhou roared hoarsely.
The violent psychic tidal wave collapsed like a tsunami, ruthlessly crushing the entire trench!
This time, the intensity far exceeded any previous wave.
Half of the people in the trench instantly collapsed, clutching their heads. Some dry-heaved, some convulsed, and some lost their consciousness entirely. The few remaining soldiers capable of fighting were all drenched in sweat, their bodies swaying. The Sea of Consciousness patches on their foreheads dimmed and failed at a visible speed.
Su Qing bit her lip so hard it bled. She could only stand by leaning against the earthen wall, her vision already overlapping.
Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness trembled violently, his core stinging as the barrier developed a dense web of hairline cracks for the first time.
He bit down hard, stubbornly guarding his true heart, suppressing all stray thoughts and all fear, contracting his Sea of Consciousness to the extreme.
It hurt.
He was exhausted.
Overwhelmingly powerless.
But he was standing; he had not fallen.
He was enduring, he was enduring, and he was frantically absorbing every lesson this bloody battle had to teach.
In the distance, the communicator crackled with static. The voice of the支援 (support) team remained far away: "Roads are still blocked, keep holding on..."
Hold on.
Another endless, blood-soaked tug-of-war.
Deep within the rift, a new, dense chorus of beast roars rose again, and the tremors from underground grew increasingly obvious.
The true bloodbath had only just reached its climax.
End of Chapter