Chapter 98: Breaking Through on the Brink of Death, Sea of Consciousness Tier Four
The wind suddenly ceased, and the murderous intent locked onto his throat.
The one-eyed fourth-tier scaled beast, its ruined eyeball leaking dark green blood, let out a bloodthirsty glare from its remaining vertical pupil. Its massive body plummeted from mid-air, jaws wide open, locked dead onto the vital point of Lin Yan's neck.
The Ancient Progenitor's condensed psychic spike ruthlessly pierced into his Sea of Consciousness. Lin Yan's vision instantly plunged into pitch blackness. His cranial cavity erupted in agonizing pain, and every muscle in his body went rigid and numb. This was the classic state of severe trauma to the Sea of Consciousness. In the split second his mind lost its defenses, his physical body couldn't even manage the simplest dodge.
Life and death hung by a thread; in that instant, a million thoughts fell silent.
Countless scenes of battle, the desperate situations in the rifts, his master's parting words, the sacrifices of the bastion's defenders, and the hopes of the entire city's people flashed rapidly through his mind.
I cannot die.
If he fell, before Zhou Lin's reinforcements arrived, these high-tier scaled beasts would immediately turn and crash into the city wall. The defense line of Panshi City would inevitably collapse.
Under this ultimate, suffocating pressure of life and death, the tightly wound core of his Sea of Consciousness suddenly welcomed the opportunity for a metamorphosis.
His originally stable and condensed third-tier Sea of Consciousness did not shatter under the impact of the psychic spike. Instead, it trembled violently, unfolding layer by layer. The long-term tempering, the accumulation from countless life-and-death battles, and the exquisitely precise control over his psychic threads—all his hidden foundations erupted completely in this very moment.
Weng——!
An invisible psychic tidal wave exploded outward from his body.
The three-layer barrier shattered, and the bottleneck of his Sea of Consciousness was completely broken!
The fourth tier of the Sea of Consciousness was achieved!
The originally thin and fragile psychic threads instantly grew thicker, stronger, and denser, their numbers multiplying several times over. The previously exhausted and depleted Sea of Consciousness was instantly filled with a brand-new spiritual source. The tearing pain vanished entirely, replaced by a vast, steady, and overwhelmingly dominant psychic power.
The vision that had stalled in the outside world instantly returned to clarity, even more transparent than before.
The one-eyed fourth-tier scaled beast plummeting from mid-air, the two intact fourth-tier beasts flanking from the sides, the fifth-tier behemoth coiling to strike ahead—their every muscle twitch, the minute opening and closing of their carapaces, the flowing trajectories of their psychic fluctuations were all clearly reflected in his perception.
Even the distant, cold psychic computing veins of the Ancient Progenitor deep underground were briefly exposed within his Sea of Consciousness perception.
In the instant of his breakthrough, a ring of invisible psychic shockwaves swept outward in all directions from Lin Yan's center.
The one-eyed fourth-tier scaled beast in mid-air suddenly froze in place. Its Sea of Consciousness was overwhelmingly crushed by this sudden, same-tier power. Losing its balance in the air, it crashed heavily onto the scorched earth, kicking up a sky-high cloud of dust.
The Ancient Progenitor's remote psychic control from deep underground experienced a noticeable stutter for the first time!
"Impossible!"
A cold, furious will exploded in the void, carrying disbelief and shock. "Three times on the brink of death without breaking, yet breaking through against the odds in a desperate situation! How can human Sea of Consciousness cultivation have such a growth rate!"
It had planned countless assassinations, exhausting its computing power to set up deadly traps, all to crush Lin Yan before he could fully grow. Yet, it was precisely in this most perilous of desperate situations that it had forced out Lin Yan's ultimate potential.
Lin Yan slowly straightened his body. There was no longer a trace of disheveled embarrassment in his eyes.
Previously, he had relied on techniques, mental fortitude, and footwork to fight for his life. Now that his fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness was formed, he finally possessed the capital to confront high-tier scaled beasts head-on.
"Since you want to kill me," Lin Yan's voice was calm, yet carried the overwhelming confidence of a breakthrough, "then today, I will shatter this personal guard of yours and sever one of your arms."
As the words fell, his Sea of Consciousness shifted.
Countless condensed, heavy psychic threads erupted outward, spreading like a tidal wave. They were no longer the fine, cutting threads of before, but transformed into a sky-high web of imprisonment, instantly enveloping the four high-tier scaled beasts!
The one-eyed fourth-tier scaled beast, which had just risen to its feet, took the brunt of it. Its Sea of Consciousness was tightly bound by the web. Its body struggled violently, but it simply could not break free from the fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness's imprisonment.
The other two fourth-tier scaled beasts also experienced a simultaneous delay in their movements, their charging momentum forcibly halted.
Only the wounded fifth-tier scaled beast, relying on the remote computing power of the Ancient Progenitor's true body, barely managed to resist the imprisonment. It roared furiously and charged again, its massive body rolling forward with world-destroying momentum.
"Only you remain."
Lin Yan took a step forward, his footwork as swift as the wind. No longer dodging, he faced the fifth-tier behemoth head-on.
Unleashing the full pressure of his fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness, he precisely locked onto the wound on the fifth-tier scaled beast's neck. His psychic threads followed the previously opened wound created by the short blade, drilling directly into its psychic link!
The method that could previously only interfere and restrain from the periphery now penetrated deep into the core.
The fifth-tier scaled beast's entire body trembled violently. Its head shook madly, and its massive body lost control over large areas. The Ancient Progenitor's remote control was forcibly disrupted, torn, and severed.
"Shatter for me!"
Lin Yan's mind focused, and his psychic threads erupted inward, twisting and slaughtering.
Puchi——!
The wound on the fifth-tier scaled beast's neck completely burst open, and dark green blood gushed out like a spring. The short blade embedded in the soft membrane was blasted away by the immense force, landing on the ground with a cold gleam.
Its originally chaotic Sea of Consciousness completely collapsed, and the psychic link bound by the Ancient Progenitor instantly severed.
Having lost its controlling consciousness, the fifth-tier scaled beast convulsed violently, taking two steps before falling heavily to its knees. With a loud crash, it collapsed onto the scorched earth and never rose again.
For a moment, the battlefield fell into dead silence.
The fifth-tier personal guard that had crushed the entire field and forced everyone into a desperate battle to the death... was dead.
Deep underground, in the resonance rock cave, the Ancient Progenitor's massive body trembled violently. Its dark gold vertical pupils churned with sky-high fury and a hint of apprehension.
Its strongest personal guard, a fifth-tier combat force cultivated over many years, had been slain head-on by a human youth who had just broken through to the fourth tier of the Sea of Consciousness!
On the wasteland, Lin Yan turned his gaze to the remaining three fourth-tier scaled beasts that were imprisoned.
Without the leadership of the fifth-tier behemoth and without the smooth remote control of the Ancient Progenitor, the three fourth-tier scaled beasts were like arrows with broken strings. Trapped in the psychic web, they struggled madly, but it was all in vain.
At this moment, Zhou Lin led the Imperial Guard squad to arrive at full speed. Looking at the fallen fifth-tier behemoth, and then at Lin Yan, who stood alone in the center of the battlefield with a completely renewed aura, his eyes were filled with shock.
"You... broke through to the fourth tier?" Zhou Lin asked in a deep voice.
Lin Yan nodded slightly. Raising his hand, he picked up the fallen short blade, his gaze calm. "Just broke through."
A single sentence sent a massive shockwave through the hearts of all the Imperial Guard cultivators present.
Everyone knew that it had just been a sure-death situation. Yet, Lin Yan had stubbornly broken through in the desperate situation, turned the tables against the odds, slain the fifth-tier behemoth, and stabilized the situation of the main battlefield across the entire wasteland.
"As for the remaining three fourth-tiers, show no mercy," Zhou Lin quickly came to his senses and issued a deep command. "Join forces to wipe them out!"
Everyone swarmed forward. The three fourth-tier scaled beasts, having lost their psychic coordination and imprisoned by the fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness, suffered a massive drop in combat power and were completely unable to counterattack.
A few breaths later, the three fourth-tier scaled beasts were all slain.
The high-tier threat at the core of the wasteland was completely eliminated.
However, the beast tide across the distant wasteland had not stopped. The roars still shook the sky, and the brutal battles at various parts of the city wall continued.
Lin Yan gazed deep into the underground, his eyes profound.
He had broken through to the fourth tier and slain the fifth-tier personal guard, winning this localized battle to the death.
But he knew clearly that the true opponent was still hidden in the dark underground, lurking and waiting.
The Ancient Progenitor's fury had only just been ignited.
End of Chapter.
The one-eyed fourth-tier scaled beast, its ruined eyeball leaking dark green blood, let out a bloodthirsty glare from its remaining vertical pupil. Its massive body plummeted from mid-air, jaws wide open, locked dead onto the vital point of Lin Yan's neck.
The Ancient Progenitor's condensed psychic spike ruthlessly pierced into his Sea of Consciousness. Lin Yan's vision instantly plunged into pitch blackness. His cranial cavity erupted in agonizing pain, and every muscle in his body went rigid and numb. This was the classic state of severe trauma to the Sea of Consciousness. In the split second his mind lost its defenses, his physical body couldn't even manage the simplest dodge.
Life and death hung by a thread; in that instant, a million thoughts fell silent.
Countless scenes of battle, the desperate situations in the rifts, his master's parting words, the sacrifices of the bastion's defenders, and the hopes of the entire city's people flashed rapidly through his mind.
I cannot die.
If he fell, before Zhou Lin's reinforcements arrived, these high-tier scaled beasts would immediately turn and crash into the city wall. The defense line of Panshi City would inevitably collapse.
Under this ultimate, suffocating pressure of life and death, the tightly wound core of his Sea of Consciousness suddenly welcomed the opportunity for a metamorphosis.
His originally stable and condensed third-tier Sea of Consciousness did not shatter under the impact of the psychic spike. Instead, it trembled violently, unfolding layer by layer. The long-term tempering, the accumulation from countless life-and-death battles, and the exquisitely precise control over his psychic threads—all his hidden foundations erupted completely in this very moment.
Weng——!
An invisible psychic tidal wave exploded outward from his body.
The three-layer barrier shattered, and the bottleneck of his Sea of Consciousness was completely broken!
The fourth tier of the Sea of Consciousness was achieved!
The originally thin and fragile psychic threads instantly grew thicker, stronger, and denser, their numbers multiplying several times over. The previously exhausted and depleted Sea of Consciousness was instantly filled with a brand-new spiritual source. The tearing pain vanished entirely, replaced by a vast, steady, and overwhelmingly dominant psychic power.
The vision that had stalled in the outside world instantly returned to clarity, even more transparent than before.
The one-eyed fourth-tier scaled beast plummeting from mid-air, the two intact fourth-tier beasts flanking from the sides, the fifth-tier behemoth coiling to strike ahead—their every muscle twitch, the minute opening and closing of their carapaces, the flowing trajectories of their psychic fluctuations were all clearly reflected in his perception.
Even the distant, cold psychic computing veins of the Ancient Progenitor deep underground were briefly exposed within his Sea of Consciousness perception.
In the instant of his breakthrough, a ring of invisible psychic shockwaves swept outward in all directions from Lin Yan's center.
The one-eyed fourth-tier scaled beast in mid-air suddenly froze in place. Its Sea of Consciousness was overwhelmingly crushed by this sudden, same-tier power. Losing its balance in the air, it crashed heavily onto the scorched earth, kicking up a sky-high cloud of dust.
The Ancient Progenitor's remote psychic control from deep underground experienced a noticeable stutter for the first time!
"Impossible!"
A cold, furious will exploded in the void, carrying disbelief and shock. "Three times on the brink of death without breaking, yet breaking through against the odds in a desperate situation! How can human Sea of Consciousness cultivation have such a growth rate!"
It had planned countless assassinations, exhausting its computing power to set up deadly traps, all to crush Lin Yan before he could fully grow. Yet, it was precisely in this most perilous of desperate situations that it had forced out Lin Yan's ultimate potential.
Lin Yan slowly straightened his body. There was no longer a trace of disheveled embarrassment in his eyes.
Previously, he had relied on techniques, mental fortitude, and footwork to fight for his life. Now that his fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness was formed, he finally possessed the capital to confront high-tier scaled beasts head-on.
"Since you want to kill me," Lin Yan's voice was calm, yet carried the overwhelming confidence of a breakthrough, "then today, I will shatter this personal guard of yours and sever one of your arms."
As the words fell, his Sea of Consciousness shifted.
Countless condensed, heavy psychic threads erupted outward, spreading like a tidal wave. They were no longer the fine, cutting threads of before, but transformed into a sky-high web of imprisonment, instantly enveloping the four high-tier scaled beasts!
The one-eyed fourth-tier scaled beast, which had just risen to its feet, took the brunt of it. Its Sea of Consciousness was tightly bound by the web. Its body struggled violently, but it simply could not break free from the fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness's imprisonment.
The other two fourth-tier scaled beasts also experienced a simultaneous delay in their movements, their charging momentum forcibly halted.
Only the wounded fifth-tier scaled beast, relying on the remote computing power of the Ancient Progenitor's true body, barely managed to resist the imprisonment. It roared furiously and charged again, its massive body rolling forward with world-destroying momentum.
"Only you remain."
Lin Yan took a step forward, his footwork as swift as the wind. No longer dodging, he faced the fifth-tier behemoth head-on.
Unleashing the full pressure of his fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness, he precisely locked onto the wound on the fifth-tier scaled beast's neck. His psychic threads followed the previously opened wound created by the short blade, drilling directly into its psychic link!
The method that could previously only interfere and restrain from the periphery now penetrated deep into the core.
The fifth-tier scaled beast's entire body trembled violently. Its head shook madly, and its massive body lost control over large areas. The Ancient Progenitor's remote control was forcibly disrupted, torn, and severed.
"Shatter for me!"
Lin Yan's mind focused, and his psychic threads erupted inward, twisting and slaughtering.
Puchi——!
The wound on the fifth-tier scaled beast's neck completely burst open, and dark green blood gushed out like a spring. The short blade embedded in the soft membrane was blasted away by the immense force, landing on the ground with a cold gleam.
Its originally chaotic Sea of Consciousness completely collapsed, and the psychic link bound by the Ancient Progenitor instantly severed.
Having lost its controlling consciousness, the fifth-tier scaled beast convulsed violently, taking two steps before falling heavily to its knees. With a loud crash, it collapsed onto the scorched earth and never rose again.
For a moment, the battlefield fell into dead silence.
The fifth-tier personal guard that had crushed the entire field and forced everyone into a desperate battle to the death... was dead.
Deep underground, in the resonance rock cave, the Ancient Progenitor's massive body trembled violently. Its dark gold vertical pupils churned with sky-high fury and a hint of apprehension.
Its strongest personal guard, a fifth-tier combat force cultivated over many years, had been slain head-on by a human youth who had just broken through to the fourth tier of the Sea of Consciousness!
On the wasteland, Lin Yan turned his gaze to the remaining three fourth-tier scaled beasts that were imprisoned.
Without the leadership of the fifth-tier behemoth and without the smooth remote control of the Ancient Progenitor, the three fourth-tier scaled beasts were like arrows with broken strings. Trapped in the psychic web, they struggled madly, but it was all in vain.
At this moment, Zhou Lin led the Imperial Guard squad to arrive at full speed. Looking at the fallen fifth-tier behemoth, and then at Lin Yan, who stood alone in the center of the battlefield with a completely renewed aura, his eyes were filled with shock.
"You... broke through to the fourth tier?" Zhou Lin asked in a deep voice.
Lin Yan nodded slightly. Raising his hand, he picked up the fallen short blade, his gaze calm. "Just broke through."
A single sentence sent a massive shockwave through the hearts of all the Imperial Guard cultivators present.
Everyone knew that it had just been a sure-death situation. Yet, Lin Yan had stubbornly broken through in the desperate situation, turned the tables against the odds, slain the fifth-tier behemoth, and stabilized the situation of the main battlefield across the entire wasteland.
"As for the remaining three fourth-tiers, show no mercy," Zhou Lin quickly came to his senses and issued a deep command. "Join forces to wipe them out!"
Everyone swarmed forward. The three fourth-tier scaled beasts, having lost their psychic coordination and imprisoned by the fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness, suffered a massive drop in combat power and were completely unable to counterattack.
A few breaths later, the three fourth-tier scaled beasts were all slain.
The high-tier threat at the core of the wasteland was completely eliminated.
However, the beast tide across the distant wasteland had not stopped. The roars still shook the sky, and the brutal battles at various parts of the city wall continued.
Lin Yan gazed deep into the underground, his eyes profound.
He had broken through to the fourth tier and slain the fifth-tier personal guard, winning this localized battle to the death.
But he knew clearly that the true opponent was still hidden in the dark underground, lurking and waiting.
The Ancient Progenitor's fury had only just been ignited.
End of Chapter.
