Chapter 90: The Six-Domain Beast Tide and the City's Desperate Stand
The trembling of the wasteland was no longer the faint rumbling of localized rifts; it was the collective shudder of the entire earth.
The members of the special squad, who had just retreated from the underground tunnels, all halted in unison, instinctively raising their heads to gaze at the horizons of the wasteland in all directions.
Beneath the gray, hazy sky, countless wasteland rifts simultaneously lit up with a dark, fishy crimson glow. Pitch-black fissures opened one after another, like countless fierce eyes awakening from the slumbering earth. Low, dense roars of the beast tide erupted from underground, layer upon layer, covering the sky and blocking out the sun, piercing across the entire wasteland.
The Ancient Progenitor had abandoned its meticulously prepared main tunnel sneak attack, and given up its gradual, encroaching strategy.
With its nodes destroyed, its ambushes foiled, and its long-term plans repeatedly ruined, it had completely lost its patience.
Since its precise calculations could not kill humanity's elite, it would use the most brutal, most primitive beast tide general offensive to crush the six major bastions.
"Full alert!" the instructor roared loudly, snatching up his communicator. The piercing emergency channel alarm instantly rang out across the frequency. "A global beast tide has broken out! Scaled beasts are pouring out from all rifts simultaneously! Retreat to Panshi City immediately!"
Within moments, the communication channels were flooded with urgent distress calls and battle situation reports from various war zones.
[Eastern Bastion in critical danger! Thirty-seven large rifts have simultaneously erupted with beast tides! Defense line pressure overloaded!]
[Western Bastion's shallow defense line breached! All outer outposts annihilated!]
[Southern Domain's Sea of Consciousness monitoring is entirely red! High-tier scaled beast swarms are breaking out on a massive scale!]
None of the six major human bastions were spared; all were hit simultaneously by a saturated beast tide assault.
The twenty-five-year war of attrition had, at this moment, completely escalated into an all-out war of extinction.
Across the wasteland, as far as the eye could see, the horizon was entirely covered by a pitch-black tide of scaled beasts. Low-tier scaled beasts charged in the vanguard, while high-tier scaled beasts pressed forward to secure the rear. The densely packed beast swarm trampled the scorched earth, sprinting and crushing toward the human bastions in all directions.
There were no tactics, no probing attacks.
There was only a relentless, do-or-die assault, pouring out all the strength the underground race had accumulated.
"Hurry! There's no time to rest!" Old Chen gritted his teeth, supporting the injured Jiang Tao. No one cared about their exhaustion or wounds anymore; they sprinted at full speed toward the Panshi City bastion.
Behind them, the earth continued to tremble. The roars of the beast tide grew closer and closer, and a foul, rotting wind swept across the wasteland. Countless rocks were caught up in the torrent of the beast tide, flying through the sky.
Clutching his chest, Jiang Tao forcibly suppressed the agonizing pain of his Sea of Consciousness backlash. His face was deathly pale, but his eyes remained sharp. "The Ancient Progenitor has gone mad. It has released all its hoarded combat power! This is a decisive battle wagering its entire race!"
"It knows that if it delays any longer, humanity's Sea of Consciousness cultivation system will fully mature and detection technology will be perfected, leaving it with no more chances." Lin Yan spoke in a deep voice as he ran at extreme speed. "It can only fight to the death before we fully grow."
At that moment, deep within the underground resonance rock cave.
The Ancient Progenitor lay in the center of the pool, its massive body rising and falling slightly. The entire underground psychic network was fully activated. No longer hiding, no longer hibernating, it poured out endless psychic computing power, synchronously controlling all scaled beast swarms across the six major regions.
Several secondary priests stood in various parts of the rock cave, burning their own psychic origins to assist their Lord in maintaining global control.
"My Lord, we are fighting the six bastions simultaneously, and the entire race's combat power has been deployed. If we fail, our underground foundation will be completely hollowed out!" A priest transmitted its thoughts, filled with terror.
The Ancient Progenitor's dark gold vertical pupils were cold and merciless. Its heavy thoughts echoed throughout the underground:
"We do not seek to survive; we seek only annihilation. After twenty-five years of enduring and planning, today, we end human bastion civilization."
"That human youth, Lin Yan, and all of humanity's elites, shall all be buried with us today."
...
In the direction of Panshi City, the massive alloy gates slowly rose and then closed in an emergency. The city's highest-level combat readiness alarm sounded in every corner of the city.
Beep—Beep—Beep—
The piercing red combat readiness alarm pierced through the streets, training grounds, recuperation areas, and the command center.
All off-duty personnel, cadets, and logistical combat personnel in the city were urgently assembled. The streets no longer showed the usual scenes of training and resting. Everyone donned their battle armor, took up their weapons, and rushed to the city wall defense lines.
Civilians orderly retreated into the inner city's air defense fortifications, while soldiers, cadets, and elite cultivators all rushed to the high walls of the outer bastion.
Artillery was loaded, energy weapons were preheated, the Sea of Consciousness monitoring array was fully activated, and medical teams took their positions.
Panshi City had completely entered a state of desperate, city-wide defense.
By the time the seven members of the special squad, covered in blood and dragging their wounded bodies, ran back to the base of the bastion, the massive gates had just slammed shut heavily behind them.
Rumble!
The heavy alloy gates locked, kicking up clouds of dust. It shut out the endless beast tide of the wasteland, but it could not shut out the approaching roars and tremors filling the sky.
"Special squad, all members report back! Immediately ascend the walls to join the battle!" the defending officer shouted loudly.
There was no time to treat their wounds, no time to regulate their breathing and recover. Taking emergency supplies of ammunition, they immediately ascended the dozens-of-meters-high bastion walls.
On the walls, densely packed defending troops stood in formation, with guns and cannons林立 (lined up) and battle armor gleaming. Countless eyes gazed at the pitch-black beast tide pressing in from the distance. No one retreated; there was only a solemn, murderous resolve.
Lin Yan stood at the very forefront of the city wall, his gaze sweeping over the wasteland.
Endless scaled beasts, like a black tide, covered the earth, with no end in sight. The foremost beast tide was already less than two kilometers from the bastion. The gale carried a foul stench, bringing with it the oppressive weight of death.
"All fire units, prepare!"
"All Sea of Consciousness cultivators, deploy your barriers to resist long-range psychic harassment!"
"Hold the defense line! Do not retreat half a step!"
The commander's roar echoed across the city wall.
Lin Yan slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his gaze was completely serene. His third-tier Sea of Consciousness was fully deployed, a fine psychic web enveloping the area in front of him. It not only protected his own mind but also helped his nearby comrades share the psychic impacts.
Having repeatedly destroyed the Ancient Progenitor's plans, he had long been the number one target for assassination by the alien race. Today, with the global war breaking out, he was destined to stand at the very forefront of the flames of war.
Jiang Tao stood beside him, enduring the pain in his Sea of Consciousness, his fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness steadily expanding a heavy barrier. "If we survive this wave, we live. If we don't, Panshi City falls today."
Old Chen gripped his blood-stained long knife, his gaze fixed死死 (unblinkingly) on the approaching beast tide. "We've fought this war of attrition for so long; we've finally waited for the decisive battle. Fine, let's settle it all at once."
In the distance, the beast tide pressed down, and the earth roared incessantly.
Beyond the six major bastions, the ultimate decisive battle between humanity and the scaled race had officially begun.
End of Chapter.
The members of the special squad, who had just retreated from the underground tunnels, all halted in unison, instinctively raising their heads to gaze at the horizons of the wasteland in all directions.
Beneath the gray, hazy sky, countless wasteland rifts simultaneously lit up with a dark, fishy crimson glow. Pitch-black fissures opened one after another, like countless fierce eyes awakening from the slumbering earth. Low, dense roars of the beast tide erupted from underground, layer upon layer, covering the sky and blocking out the sun, piercing across the entire wasteland.
The Ancient Progenitor had abandoned its meticulously prepared main tunnel sneak attack, and given up its gradual, encroaching strategy.
With its nodes destroyed, its ambushes foiled, and its long-term plans repeatedly ruined, it had completely lost its patience.
Since its precise calculations could not kill humanity's elite, it would use the most brutal, most primitive beast tide general offensive to crush the six major bastions.
"Full alert!" the instructor roared loudly, snatching up his communicator. The piercing emergency channel alarm instantly rang out across the frequency. "A global beast tide has broken out! Scaled beasts are pouring out from all rifts simultaneously! Retreat to Panshi City immediately!"
Within moments, the communication channels were flooded with urgent distress calls and battle situation reports from various war zones.
[Eastern Bastion in critical danger! Thirty-seven large rifts have simultaneously erupted with beast tides! Defense line pressure overloaded!]
[Western Bastion's shallow defense line breached! All outer outposts annihilated!]
[Southern Domain's Sea of Consciousness monitoring is entirely red! High-tier scaled beast swarms are breaking out on a massive scale!]
None of the six major human bastions were spared; all were hit simultaneously by a saturated beast tide assault.
The twenty-five-year war of attrition had, at this moment, completely escalated into an all-out war of extinction.
Across the wasteland, as far as the eye could see, the horizon was entirely covered by a pitch-black tide of scaled beasts. Low-tier scaled beasts charged in the vanguard, while high-tier scaled beasts pressed forward to secure the rear. The densely packed beast swarm trampled the scorched earth, sprinting and crushing toward the human bastions in all directions.
There were no tactics, no probing attacks.
There was only a relentless, do-or-die assault, pouring out all the strength the underground race had accumulated.
"Hurry! There's no time to rest!" Old Chen gritted his teeth, supporting the injured Jiang Tao. No one cared about their exhaustion or wounds anymore; they sprinted at full speed toward the Panshi City bastion.
Behind them, the earth continued to tremble. The roars of the beast tide grew closer and closer, and a foul, rotting wind swept across the wasteland. Countless rocks were caught up in the torrent of the beast tide, flying through the sky.
Clutching his chest, Jiang Tao forcibly suppressed the agonizing pain of his Sea of Consciousness backlash. His face was deathly pale, but his eyes remained sharp. "The Ancient Progenitor has gone mad. It has released all its hoarded combat power! This is a decisive battle wagering its entire race!"
"It knows that if it delays any longer, humanity's Sea of Consciousness cultivation system will fully mature and detection technology will be perfected, leaving it with no more chances." Lin Yan spoke in a deep voice as he ran at extreme speed. "It can only fight to the death before we fully grow."
At that moment, deep within the underground resonance rock cave.
The Ancient Progenitor lay in the center of the pool, its massive body rising and falling slightly. The entire underground psychic network was fully activated. No longer hiding, no longer hibernating, it poured out endless psychic computing power, synchronously controlling all scaled beast swarms across the six major regions.
Several secondary priests stood in various parts of the rock cave, burning their own psychic origins to assist their Lord in maintaining global control.
"My Lord, we are fighting the six bastions simultaneously, and the entire race's combat power has been deployed. If we fail, our underground foundation will be completely hollowed out!" A priest transmitted its thoughts, filled with terror.
The Ancient Progenitor's dark gold vertical pupils were cold and merciless. Its heavy thoughts echoed throughout the underground:
"We do not seek to survive; we seek only annihilation. After twenty-five years of enduring and planning, today, we end human bastion civilization."
"That human youth, Lin Yan, and all of humanity's elites, shall all be buried with us today."
...
In the direction of Panshi City, the massive alloy gates slowly rose and then closed in an emergency. The city's highest-level combat readiness alarm sounded in every corner of the city.
Beep—Beep—Beep—
The piercing red combat readiness alarm pierced through the streets, training grounds, recuperation areas, and the command center.
All off-duty personnel, cadets, and logistical combat personnel in the city were urgently assembled. The streets no longer showed the usual scenes of training and resting. Everyone donned their battle armor, took up their weapons, and rushed to the city wall defense lines.
Civilians orderly retreated into the inner city's air defense fortifications, while soldiers, cadets, and elite cultivators all rushed to the high walls of the outer bastion.
Artillery was loaded, energy weapons were preheated, the Sea of Consciousness monitoring array was fully activated, and medical teams took their positions.
Panshi City had completely entered a state of desperate, city-wide defense.
By the time the seven members of the special squad, covered in blood and dragging their wounded bodies, ran back to the base of the bastion, the massive gates had just slammed shut heavily behind them.
Rumble!
The heavy alloy gates locked, kicking up clouds of dust. It shut out the endless beast tide of the wasteland, but it could not shut out the approaching roars and tremors filling the sky.
"Special squad, all members report back! Immediately ascend the walls to join the battle!" the defending officer shouted loudly.
There was no time to treat their wounds, no time to regulate their breathing and recover. Taking emergency supplies of ammunition, they immediately ascended the dozens-of-meters-high bastion walls.
On the walls, densely packed defending troops stood in formation, with guns and cannons林立 (lined up) and battle armor gleaming. Countless eyes gazed at the pitch-black beast tide pressing in from the distance. No one retreated; there was only a solemn, murderous resolve.
Lin Yan stood at the very forefront of the city wall, his gaze sweeping over the wasteland.
Endless scaled beasts, like a black tide, covered the earth, with no end in sight. The foremost beast tide was already less than two kilometers from the bastion. The gale carried a foul stench, bringing with it the oppressive weight of death.
"All fire units, prepare!"
"All Sea of Consciousness cultivators, deploy your barriers to resist long-range psychic harassment!"
"Hold the defense line! Do not retreat half a step!"
The commander's roar echoed across the city wall.
Lin Yan slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his gaze was completely serene. His third-tier Sea of Consciousness was fully deployed, a fine psychic web enveloping the area in front of him. It not only protected his own mind but also helped his nearby comrades share the psychic impacts.
Having repeatedly destroyed the Ancient Progenitor's plans, he had long been the number one target for assassination by the alien race. Today, with the global war breaking out, he was destined to stand at the very forefront of the flames of war.
Jiang Tao stood beside him, enduring the pain in his Sea of Consciousness, his fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness steadily expanding a heavy barrier. "If we survive this wave, we live. If we don't, Panshi City falls today."
Old Chen gripped his blood-stained long knife, his gaze fixed死死 (unblinkingly) on the approaching beast tide. "We've fought this war of attrition for so long; we've finally waited for the decisive battle. Fine, let's settle it all at once."
In the distance, the beast tide pressed down, and the earth roared incessantly.
Beyond the six major bastions, the ultimate decisive battle between humanity and the scaled race had officially begun.
End of Chapter.
