Chapter 94: The Fifth-Tier Descent and the Weight of Mountains and Rivers
The rising chunks of rock tumbled down continuously, the deafening roars making the entire wasteland tremble.
That fifth-tier scaled beast slowly crawled out from the underground rift. Its body was like a moving black hill, nearly ten-plus meters in height. Its thick, ink-black carapace was layered, its surface covered with ravines left from years of fierce battles. Dark green mucus with a pungent, fishy stench constantly seeped from the crevices.
Its two eerie green vertical pupils slowly opened. Its icy gaze bypassed the low-tier scaled beasts fighting everywhere on the ground, staring directly at the walls of Panshi City.
An invisible psychic pressure expanded outward from its body like a tsunami.
On the city wall, many soldiers who were fighting fiercely suddenly froze, their minds going blank as their weapons clattered to the ground. Some cadets with shallower Sea of Consciousness cultivation directly collapsed to the ground, clutching their heads. Their temples throbbed wildly, their Seas of Consciousness feeling as if they were being fiercely squeezed by an invisible giant hand, with agonizing pain sweeping through their entire bodies.
"Hold steady! Guard your Sea of Consciousness! Do not be swayed by its will!" Zhou Lin shouted loudly. His vast and boundless Sea of Consciousness domain spread out once again, like a massive umbrella canopy, protecting all the soldiers within the western section of the city wall, stubbornly resisting the overflowing psychic pressure of the fifth-tier scaled beast.
Merely the residual waves of its passively emitted will possessed such terrifying power.
Lin Yan's mind was taut. He spread out all the fine threads of his Sea of Consciousness, simultaneously protecting Jiang Tao and Old Chen beside him while focusing his attention on observing the colossal creature in the distance. He could clearly sense that the core of this fifth-tier scaled beast's Sea of Consciousness was extremely stable and firmly connected to the main consciousness of the Ancient Progenitor deep underground. It was like a living weapon of war directly controlled by the Ancient Progenitor.
"It is a personal guard cultivated by the Ancient Progenitor's own hands, with a deeply bound psychic link." Zhou Lin's brow furrowed, his voice as heavy as metal and stone. "Killing it does not equal severely wounding the Ancient Progenitor, but if we want to stop it from breaching the city, we must first deal with this fifth-tier scaled beast."
Old Chen gripped his long knife tightly, his knuckles turning white. "Once this thing reaches the base of the city wall, relying solely on this physical body, it can shatter the concrete bastion."
Before he even finished speaking, the fifth-tier scaled beast let out a low roar on the distant wasteland.
The roar was not like the sharp shrieks of scaled beasts, but a dull, heavy boom. The sound waves swept across the wasteland, making the gravel on the ground jump collectively. Its thick, pillar-like limbs took a step, leaving a shallow crater with every footfall. Its massive body advanced steadily toward the walls of Panshi City. Low-tier scaled beasts in its path that failed to evade in time were directly crushed into minced meat by its heavy soles.
As it advanced, dozens of remaining fourth-tier scaled beasts simultaneously adjusted their direction, forming a fan shape pressing toward the city wall with the fifth-tier scaled beast as the core. The high-tier beast swarms, originally dispersed across the four sections of the city wall, began to converge.
In the communication channels, the voices of commanders from various defense lines were filled with exhaustion and despair.
"Marshal! Ammunition reserves in the East Sector are less than twenty percent! A large number of wounded cannot be evacuated!"
"Over half of the Sea of Consciousness cultivators in the North Sector have been killed! The barriers have shattered multiple times, and scaled beasts have already broken into some of the city wall corridors!"
The battle situations across the other five of the six major bastions were equally brutal, with distress messages arriving one after another. As the main bastion, Panshi City was already the place where humanity was fighting the beast tide most stubbornly.
"Imperial Guard Battalion, divide your forces! Some continue to seal the breaches in the city wall; the rest follow me to intercept the fifth-tier scaled beast!" Zhou Lin issued his orders rapidly. "Lin Yan, Jiang Tao, Old Chen, the three of you follow me to engage it head-on. The remaining Imperial Guard cultivators, disperse and intercept the accompanying fourth-tier scaled beasts; we cannot let them encircle us."
"Understood!" The three answered in unison.
Zhou Lin took the lead and leaped down from the temporary platform on the outside of the city wall, landing steadily on the scorched earth of the wasteland. Dozens of Sea of Consciousness Imperial Guards followed closely behind, landing one after another and quickly forming a combat formation.
Lin Yan, Jiang Tao, and Old Chen jumped down immediately after. The moment they landed, a foul-smelling gale hit their faces. The colossal beast, resembling a black hill in the distance, was now less than eight hundred meters away.
"My Sea of Consciousness will take charge of engaging its psychic core head-on, forcefully disrupting the Ancient Progenitor's remote control," Zhou Lin explained the tactics quickly as he advanced steadily forward. "Jiang Tao, you lead two cultivators to assist me in sharing the psychic pressure and look for the gaps in its Sea of Consciousness fluctuations. Old Chen, your long knife has the strongest armor-breaking capability; look for opportunities to attack the joints of its limb armor. Lin Yan, your footwork is the most agile; wait for the right moment to find its weak point. The fifth-tier scaled beast's carapace has almost no flaws; its only vulnerability is a patch of soft membrane beneath its neck, protected by armor, making it very difficult to hit."
Lin Yan nodded, focusing as he circulated the inner qi of his ancient martial arts throughout his body, bringing every muscle into its optimal combat state. The fine threads of his Sea of Consciousness dispersed into the air, constantly capturing the changes in the fifth-tier scaled beast's psychic fluctuations.
Just as the group was advancing, the fifth-tier scaled beast suddenly raised its head and roared again. This time, it was no longer a mere spread of oppressive pressure, but a directed psychic impact, blasting straight toward Zhou Lin's squad.
"Combined barrier!" Zhou Lin shouted in a low voice.
The psychic power of dozens of Sea of Consciousness cultivators instantly intertwined, transforming into a massive, semi-transparent light shield.
Weng——
The psychic impact slammed fiercely into the barrier. The light shield trembled violently, with dense cracks spreading across its surface. Two cultivators in the back row of the formation let out muffled groans, blood seeping from the corners of their mouths as they were forced back several steps.
"Hold on!" Jiang Tao fully mobilized his Sea of Consciousness, continuously mending the cracks in the barrier. The veins on his forehead bulged, and his old injuries were aggravated once again.
Taking advantage of the brief gap while the psychic barrier blocked the impact, the squad continued to push forward.
Impatiently, the fifth-tier scaled beast swung its massive front claw, slamming it fiercely into the ground. A massive amount of dirt and rubble was kicked up, raining down toward the crowd like a storm. Several Imperial Guards failed to dodge in time and were struck by the high-speed projectiles, falling heavily to the ground.
"Scatter! Don't bunch up!" Zhou Lin shouted loudly. His Sea of Consciousness power transformed into countless invisible barriers, blocking the flying rubble.
Seizing the opportunity, Old Chen used the rubble to obscure his vision. He swiftly flanked sideways, sprinting with full force to the underside of the behemoth's left front limb. Gripping his knife with both hands, he hacked fiercely at the joint of the armor with all his might.
Clang!
The violent sound of metal clashing made everyone's eardrums ache. The long knife left only a shallow white mark on the thick armor. The massive recoil force directly numbed Old Chen's arms, and the long knife nearly slipped from his grasp.
Sensing the attack beneath it, the fifth-tier scaled beast suddenly brought its massive front limb down to stomp.
"Careful!" Lin Yan's gaze sharpened. His figure instantly exploded forward. He reached out and grabbed Old Chen by the back, using his footwork to lunge fiercely to the side.
Rumble!
The giant sole slammed heavily onto the spot where the two had just been standing, sinking the dirt by over half a meter. Had they been half a step slower, both would have been crushed into minced meat.
"Thanks!" Old Chen panted heavily, his forehead covered in cold sweat. "The hardness of this armor far exceeds that of the fourth-tier scaled beasts. Ordinary hacking can hardly inflict effective damage."
The fifth-tier scaled beast turned its head. Its eerie green eyes locked onto Lin Yan. Through its eyes, the Ancient Progenitor had already noticed this human youth who had repeatedly ruined its plans.
A colder, more hateful will directly pierced into Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness.
"A tiny ant, repeatedly destroying my plans. Today, I will crush you first."
This will did not belong to the scaled beast; it was the true body of the underground Lizardman Ancient Progenitor, directly whispering into Lin Yan's mind across a vast distance.
Lin Yan felt a bone-chilling coldness in his mind, his mental state nearly collapsing. He immediately activated the ancient martial arts mind-calming technique, wrapping his Sea of Consciousness threads around his mind in layers to forcibly withstand this psychic invasion.
"It's targeting you!" Jiang Tao cried out in alarm.
The massive head of the fifth-tier scaled beast dipped slightly. Its colossal body pivoted, abandoning Zhou Lin as it charged directly toward Lin Yan. Its heavy footsteps shattered the earth, and a black shadow descended upon him.
Zhou Lin's eyes darkened. "Bad! It wants to kill Lin Yan first! Everyone, restrain the behemoth immediately!"
A life-and-death gamble had officially begun on the wasteland.
End of Chapter.
That fifth-tier scaled beast slowly crawled out from the underground rift. Its body was like a moving black hill, nearly ten-plus meters in height. Its thick, ink-black carapace was layered, its surface covered with ravines left from years of fierce battles. Dark green mucus with a pungent, fishy stench constantly seeped from the crevices.
Its two eerie green vertical pupils slowly opened. Its icy gaze bypassed the low-tier scaled beasts fighting everywhere on the ground, staring directly at the walls of Panshi City.
An invisible psychic pressure expanded outward from its body like a tsunami.
On the city wall, many soldiers who were fighting fiercely suddenly froze, their minds going blank as their weapons clattered to the ground. Some cadets with shallower Sea of Consciousness cultivation directly collapsed to the ground, clutching their heads. Their temples throbbed wildly, their Seas of Consciousness feeling as if they were being fiercely squeezed by an invisible giant hand, with agonizing pain sweeping through their entire bodies.
"Hold steady! Guard your Sea of Consciousness! Do not be swayed by its will!" Zhou Lin shouted loudly. His vast and boundless Sea of Consciousness domain spread out once again, like a massive umbrella canopy, protecting all the soldiers within the western section of the city wall, stubbornly resisting the overflowing psychic pressure of the fifth-tier scaled beast.
Merely the residual waves of its passively emitted will possessed such terrifying power.
Lin Yan's mind was taut. He spread out all the fine threads of his Sea of Consciousness, simultaneously protecting Jiang Tao and Old Chen beside him while focusing his attention on observing the colossal creature in the distance. He could clearly sense that the core of this fifth-tier scaled beast's Sea of Consciousness was extremely stable and firmly connected to the main consciousness of the Ancient Progenitor deep underground. It was like a living weapon of war directly controlled by the Ancient Progenitor.
"It is a personal guard cultivated by the Ancient Progenitor's own hands, with a deeply bound psychic link." Zhou Lin's brow furrowed, his voice as heavy as metal and stone. "Killing it does not equal severely wounding the Ancient Progenitor, but if we want to stop it from breaching the city, we must first deal with this fifth-tier scaled beast."
Old Chen gripped his long knife tightly, his knuckles turning white. "Once this thing reaches the base of the city wall, relying solely on this physical body, it can shatter the concrete bastion."
Before he even finished speaking, the fifth-tier scaled beast let out a low roar on the distant wasteland.
The roar was not like the sharp shrieks of scaled beasts, but a dull, heavy boom. The sound waves swept across the wasteland, making the gravel on the ground jump collectively. Its thick, pillar-like limbs took a step, leaving a shallow crater with every footfall. Its massive body advanced steadily toward the walls of Panshi City. Low-tier scaled beasts in its path that failed to evade in time were directly crushed into minced meat by its heavy soles.
As it advanced, dozens of remaining fourth-tier scaled beasts simultaneously adjusted their direction, forming a fan shape pressing toward the city wall with the fifth-tier scaled beast as the core. The high-tier beast swarms, originally dispersed across the four sections of the city wall, began to converge.
In the communication channels, the voices of commanders from various defense lines were filled with exhaustion and despair.
"Marshal! Ammunition reserves in the East Sector are less than twenty percent! A large number of wounded cannot be evacuated!"
"Over half of the Sea of Consciousness cultivators in the North Sector have been killed! The barriers have shattered multiple times, and scaled beasts have already broken into some of the city wall corridors!"
The battle situations across the other five of the six major bastions were equally brutal, with distress messages arriving one after another. As the main bastion, Panshi City was already the place where humanity was fighting the beast tide most stubbornly.
"Imperial Guard Battalion, divide your forces! Some continue to seal the breaches in the city wall; the rest follow me to intercept the fifth-tier scaled beast!" Zhou Lin issued his orders rapidly. "Lin Yan, Jiang Tao, Old Chen, the three of you follow me to engage it head-on. The remaining Imperial Guard cultivators, disperse and intercept the accompanying fourth-tier scaled beasts; we cannot let them encircle us."
"Understood!" The three answered in unison.
Zhou Lin took the lead and leaped down from the temporary platform on the outside of the city wall, landing steadily on the scorched earth of the wasteland. Dozens of Sea of Consciousness Imperial Guards followed closely behind, landing one after another and quickly forming a combat formation.
Lin Yan, Jiang Tao, and Old Chen jumped down immediately after. The moment they landed, a foul-smelling gale hit their faces. The colossal beast, resembling a black hill in the distance, was now less than eight hundred meters away.
"My Sea of Consciousness will take charge of engaging its psychic core head-on, forcefully disrupting the Ancient Progenitor's remote control," Zhou Lin explained the tactics quickly as he advanced steadily forward. "Jiang Tao, you lead two cultivators to assist me in sharing the psychic pressure and look for the gaps in its Sea of Consciousness fluctuations. Old Chen, your long knife has the strongest armor-breaking capability; look for opportunities to attack the joints of its limb armor. Lin Yan, your footwork is the most agile; wait for the right moment to find its weak point. The fifth-tier scaled beast's carapace has almost no flaws; its only vulnerability is a patch of soft membrane beneath its neck, protected by armor, making it very difficult to hit."
Lin Yan nodded, focusing as he circulated the inner qi of his ancient martial arts throughout his body, bringing every muscle into its optimal combat state. The fine threads of his Sea of Consciousness dispersed into the air, constantly capturing the changes in the fifth-tier scaled beast's psychic fluctuations.
Just as the group was advancing, the fifth-tier scaled beast suddenly raised its head and roared again. This time, it was no longer a mere spread of oppressive pressure, but a directed psychic impact, blasting straight toward Zhou Lin's squad.
"Combined barrier!" Zhou Lin shouted in a low voice.
The psychic power of dozens of Sea of Consciousness cultivators instantly intertwined, transforming into a massive, semi-transparent light shield.
Weng——
The psychic impact slammed fiercely into the barrier. The light shield trembled violently, with dense cracks spreading across its surface. Two cultivators in the back row of the formation let out muffled groans, blood seeping from the corners of their mouths as they were forced back several steps.
"Hold on!" Jiang Tao fully mobilized his Sea of Consciousness, continuously mending the cracks in the barrier. The veins on his forehead bulged, and his old injuries were aggravated once again.
Taking advantage of the brief gap while the psychic barrier blocked the impact, the squad continued to push forward.
Impatiently, the fifth-tier scaled beast swung its massive front claw, slamming it fiercely into the ground. A massive amount of dirt and rubble was kicked up, raining down toward the crowd like a storm. Several Imperial Guards failed to dodge in time and were struck by the high-speed projectiles, falling heavily to the ground.
"Scatter! Don't bunch up!" Zhou Lin shouted loudly. His Sea of Consciousness power transformed into countless invisible barriers, blocking the flying rubble.
Seizing the opportunity, Old Chen used the rubble to obscure his vision. He swiftly flanked sideways, sprinting with full force to the underside of the behemoth's left front limb. Gripping his knife with both hands, he hacked fiercely at the joint of the armor with all his might.
Clang!
The violent sound of metal clashing made everyone's eardrums ache. The long knife left only a shallow white mark on the thick armor. The massive recoil force directly numbed Old Chen's arms, and the long knife nearly slipped from his grasp.
Sensing the attack beneath it, the fifth-tier scaled beast suddenly brought its massive front limb down to stomp.
"Careful!" Lin Yan's gaze sharpened. His figure instantly exploded forward. He reached out and grabbed Old Chen by the back, using his footwork to lunge fiercely to the side.
Rumble!
The giant sole slammed heavily onto the spot where the two had just been standing, sinking the dirt by over half a meter. Had they been half a step slower, both would have been crushed into minced meat.
"Thanks!" Old Chen panted heavily, his forehead covered in cold sweat. "The hardness of this armor far exceeds that of the fourth-tier scaled beasts. Ordinary hacking can hardly inflict effective damage."
The fifth-tier scaled beast turned its head. Its eerie green eyes locked onto Lin Yan. Through its eyes, the Ancient Progenitor had already noticed this human youth who had repeatedly ruined its plans.
A colder, more hateful will directly pierced into Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness.
"A tiny ant, repeatedly destroying my plans. Today, I will crush you first."
This will did not belong to the scaled beast; it was the true body of the underground Lizardman Ancient Progenitor, directly whispering into Lin Yan's mind across a vast distance.
Lin Yan felt a bone-chilling coldness in his mind, his mental state nearly collapsing. He immediately activated the ancient martial arts mind-calming technique, wrapping his Sea of Consciousness threads around his mind in layers to forcibly withstand this psychic invasion.
"It's targeting you!" Jiang Tao cried out in alarm.
The massive head of the fifth-tier scaled beast dipped slightly. Its colossal body pivoted, abandoning Zhou Lin as it charged directly toward Lin Yan. Its heavy footsteps shattered the earth, and a black shadow descended upon him.
Zhou Lin's eyes darkened. "Bad! It wants to kill Lin Yan first! Everyone, restrain the behemoth immediately!"
A life-and-death gamble had officially begun on the wasteland.
End of Chapter.
