Chapter 105: The No. 3 Rift and the Eerie Whispers
The armored off-road vehicle crushed over the dry, scorched earth. Its tires kicked up fine gravel, leaving two deep tracks across the silent wasteland. The gray clouds hung oppressively low, and the air still carried the lingering, foul stench of decay from the recent battle, though it was much fainter here than at the Panshi City frontline.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Su Wan had a portable psychic detector spread out before her. The screen displayed densely packed, pale blue ripples. Her fingertips lightly touched the panel as she continuously fine-tuned the detection frequency, her brow slightly furrowed.
"Captain, we are seven kilometers away from the No. 3 Rift. We have already captured scattered, low-tier psychic signals within the detection range. The intensity is not high; they are just ordinary low-level scaled beasts. There are no strong psychic fluctuations like those of lesser priests."
Lin Yan sat in the back row, his gaze fixed on the desolate black mountains outside the bulletproof window. Withered, burnt trees stood crookedly on the earth, and the ground was covered with rock fissures. As the wind blew through the cracks, it carried a faint, ghostly wail. Lin Yan maintained his fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness at a low deployment level, sensing the surrounding environment. It didn't consume too much mental energy, yet it allowed him to instantly detect any sudden anomalies.
Gripping an in-car tactical tablet loaded with the terrain map of the area and previous rift survey records, Shen Ke spoke in a low voice, "The No. 3 Rift is a secondary branch with a depth of about 120 meters. Historical monitoring data shows that it was only used to cultivate a small number of scaled beasts and was not guarded by high-tier combat forces. During the Ancient Progenitor's last general offensive, a massive number of scaled beasts here were reassigned to the main rift, which is why we are now seeing signs of scaled beast egg migration."
Zhao Hu held his heavy alloy short spear horizontally against his chest, leaning against the side of the carriage with his eyes closed to rest. Hearing this, he opened his eyes and said in a muffled voice, "I hope we don't run into any tough guys. The rock strata here are shattered. If we get surrounded, it will be very difficult for the armored vehicles to make a quick retreat."
Xu Yang lowered his head to check the sampling tubes, sensor mines, and small demolition devices in his backpack. After carefully verifying that all equipment was intact, he looked up and added, "I brought a signal jammer. If we face a psychic-type illusion attack, it can briefly block low-frequency fluctuations within a small area. It won't last long, but it can buy us a few seconds to escape."
The vehicle continued to drive forward.
After traveling another three kilometers, Su Wan's detector suddenly experienced a violent jump. The originally smooth blue ripples began to twist and become chaotic.
"Something's wrong!" Su Wan pressed her earpiece. "The signal has changed! It's not the frantic, short-lived fluctuation of scaled beasts. It's a continuous, deep low-frequency resonance. It's very faint, hidden beneath the scaled beasts' signals. Its characteristics are highly similar to the emotional resonance the Ancient Progenitor released during the last great battle!"
Lin Yan's mind focused. Extending his Sea of Consciousness outward, he probed in the direction of that faint fluctuation. Very quickly, a blurry, indistinct whisper, seemingly materializing out of nowhere, seeped into everyone's mind.
It wasn't clear language. It was an ancient, obscure vibration, as if countless creatures were murmuring together deep within the rock strata. It subtly pulled at people's emotions, causing an inexplicable sense of irritability and panic.
"Everyone, tighten your Sea of Consciousness! Do not let your psychic perception remain open to the outside!" Lin Yan warned in a deep voice. "This is psychic contamination. It won't directly harm you, but it will slowly dismantle your judgment."
Shen Ke immediately ordered the driver, "Slow down and stop! Hold your ground here. Do not advance rashly."
The off-road vehicle gradually came to a halt. The engine was turned off, and the wasteland instantly fell into dead silence, leaving only the whispering of the wind passing through the rock fissures.
The team pushed open the doors and quickly fanned out into a combat formation. Zhao Hu stood at the very front with his alloy short spear, acting as the primary shield. Xu Yang rapidly deployed sensor warning mines around the vehicle. Su Wan crouched down, set up a vertical detector, locked it directionally toward the rift, and amplified the signal collection.
That whisper from underground was growing clearer.
"The sound is coming from inside the rift, but its intensity is highly unstable, fluctuating between strong and weak," Su Wan stared at the screen. "There is no independent psychic core. It seems to be a resonance formed by linking many tiny nodes together. It's neither the Ancient Progenitor nor a lesser priest."
Lin Yan walked slowly forward to the top of a massive, withered rock, his gaze fixed on the No. 3 Rift a few hundred meters away.
It was a massive fissure in the earth, over ten meters wide, pitch-black and profound. The rocks at the edge of the fissure were blackened, and patches of dark gray moss grew at the entrance. Viscous fluid dripped slowly down the rock walls, landing on the stones with a faint ticking sound. At the entrance of the fissure, several low-level scaled beasts wandered aimlessly. Their movements were sluggish; they didn't look like normal hunting beasts, but rather as if they were being drawn by some kind of sound.
"It seems they are attracted by this whisper, guarding the entrance," Lin Yan said in a low voice. "These scaled beasts haven't received any explicit hunting orders; they are simply staying here out of instinct."
Shen Ke walked to his side and whispered, "Could this be a contingency plan left by the Ancient Progenitor? Setting up small resonance nodes in secondary rifts to continuously radiate low-frequency psychic waves, slowly eroding this land?"
"It's possible," Lin Yan nodded. "The Ancient Progenitor's main trunk tentacle was severed, but the psychic resonance technology it mastered can be pre-embedded in various secondary rifts. Even if it is not here, the nodes can continue to operate."
Having finished setting up the warning devices, Xu Yang rushed over. "Captain, if a massive number of these resonance nodes are deployed inside the rift, the long-term radiation will slowly affect the minds of both humans and beasts in the surrounding area. Given enough time, they might even be indirectly controlled by the alien race."
Lin Yan pondered for a moment. "The mission objective is to enter the rift, collect moss samples, record the coordinates of the resonance signals, and confirm the location of the nodes. Remember, we are a reconnaissance squad, not an assault force. The moment we detect high-tier scaled beasts or lesser priests, we retreat immediately."
"Understood!"
Gripping his short spear tightly, Zhao Hu took the lead, advancing steadily toward the rift entrance. Su Wan followed closely behind with her detection equipment, continuously capturing psychic signals. Shen Ke brought up the rear, constantly watching the squad's back to prevent scaled beasts from ambushing them from behind. Xu Yang held the demolition equipment in his hands, ready to deal with any emergencies at a moment's notice. Walking in the middle of the formation, Lin Yan deployed his fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness to cover the entire squad, remaining vigilant against any hidden psychic ambushes.
As they approached the rift entrance, a cold, damp aura washed over them, mixed with the heavy stench of earth and the rotting odor of beasts. The dark gray moss on the rock walls writhed slightly. The whisper from underground became increasingly distinct within the rift, constantly circling within everyone's Sea of Consciousness.
The low-level scaled beasts lingering at the entrance sensed the presence of living humans. They suddenly raised their heads, emitting low hisses as they charged straight at the squad.
Zhao Hu took a large stride forward, his alloy short spear wrapped in a gale of force as it viciously thrust out. Puchi! One scaled beast was pierced straight through its torso by the spearhead, collapsing heavily to the ground. The remaining scaled beasts still fearlessly pounced one after another.
"Finish this quickly! Don't drag it out!" Shen Ke reminded them.
In a matter of moments, the low-level scaled beasts were all felled.
The squad stood before the pitch-black entrance of the rift. The profound darkness was like a lurking behemoth, with the murmurs from underground continuously drifting out from the depths, tempting everyone to step beneath the rock strata.
End of Chapter.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Su Wan had a portable psychic detector spread out before her. The screen displayed densely packed, pale blue ripples. Her fingertips lightly touched the panel as she continuously fine-tuned the detection frequency, her brow slightly furrowed.
"Captain, we are seven kilometers away from the No. 3 Rift. We have already captured scattered, low-tier psychic signals within the detection range. The intensity is not high; they are just ordinary low-level scaled beasts. There are no strong psychic fluctuations like those of lesser priests."
Lin Yan sat in the back row, his gaze fixed on the desolate black mountains outside the bulletproof window. Withered, burnt trees stood crookedly on the earth, and the ground was covered with rock fissures. As the wind blew through the cracks, it carried a faint, ghostly wail. Lin Yan maintained his fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness at a low deployment level, sensing the surrounding environment. It didn't consume too much mental energy, yet it allowed him to instantly detect any sudden anomalies.
Gripping an in-car tactical tablet loaded with the terrain map of the area and previous rift survey records, Shen Ke spoke in a low voice, "The No. 3 Rift is a secondary branch with a depth of about 120 meters. Historical monitoring data shows that it was only used to cultivate a small number of scaled beasts and was not guarded by high-tier combat forces. During the Ancient Progenitor's last general offensive, a massive number of scaled beasts here were reassigned to the main rift, which is why we are now seeing signs of scaled beast egg migration."
Zhao Hu held his heavy alloy short spear horizontally against his chest, leaning against the side of the carriage with his eyes closed to rest. Hearing this, he opened his eyes and said in a muffled voice, "I hope we don't run into any tough guys. The rock strata here are shattered. If we get surrounded, it will be very difficult for the armored vehicles to make a quick retreat."
Xu Yang lowered his head to check the sampling tubes, sensor mines, and small demolition devices in his backpack. After carefully verifying that all equipment was intact, he looked up and added, "I brought a signal jammer. If we face a psychic-type illusion attack, it can briefly block low-frequency fluctuations within a small area. It won't last long, but it can buy us a few seconds to escape."
The vehicle continued to drive forward.
After traveling another three kilometers, Su Wan's detector suddenly experienced a violent jump. The originally smooth blue ripples began to twist and become chaotic.
"Something's wrong!" Su Wan pressed her earpiece. "The signal has changed! It's not the frantic, short-lived fluctuation of scaled beasts. It's a continuous, deep low-frequency resonance. It's very faint, hidden beneath the scaled beasts' signals. Its characteristics are highly similar to the emotional resonance the Ancient Progenitor released during the last great battle!"
Lin Yan's mind focused. Extending his Sea of Consciousness outward, he probed in the direction of that faint fluctuation. Very quickly, a blurry, indistinct whisper, seemingly materializing out of nowhere, seeped into everyone's mind.
It wasn't clear language. It was an ancient, obscure vibration, as if countless creatures were murmuring together deep within the rock strata. It subtly pulled at people's emotions, causing an inexplicable sense of irritability and panic.
"Everyone, tighten your Sea of Consciousness! Do not let your psychic perception remain open to the outside!" Lin Yan warned in a deep voice. "This is psychic contamination. It won't directly harm you, but it will slowly dismantle your judgment."
Shen Ke immediately ordered the driver, "Slow down and stop! Hold your ground here. Do not advance rashly."
The off-road vehicle gradually came to a halt. The engine was turned off, and the wasteland instantly fell into dead silence, leaving only the whispering of the wind passing through the rock fissures.
The team pushed open the doors and quickly fanned out into a combat formation. Zhao Hu stood at the very front with his alloy short spear, acting as the primary shield. Xu Yang rapidly deployed sensor warning mines around the vehicle. Su Wan crouched down, set up a vertical detector, locked it directionally toward the rift, and amplified the signal collection.
That whisper from underground was growing clearer.
"The sound is coming from inside the rift, but its intensity is highly unstable, fluctuating between strong and weak," Su Wan stared at the screen. "There is no independent psychic core. It seems to be a resonance formed by linking many tiny nodes together. It's neither the Ancient Progenitor nor a lesser priest."
Lin Yan walked slowly forward to the top of a massive, withered rock, his gaze fixed on the No. 3 Rift a few hundred meters away.
It was a massive fissure in the earth, over ten meters wide, pitch-black and profound. The rocks at the edge of the fissure were blackened, and patches of dark gray moss grew at the entrance. Viscous fluid dripped slowly down the rock walls, landing on the stones with a faint ticking sound. At the entrance of the fissure, several low-level scaled beasts wandered aimlessly. Their movements were sluggish; they didn't look like normal hunting beasts, but rather as if they were being drawn by some kind of sound.
"It seems they are attracted by this whisper, guarding the entrance," Lin Yan said in a low voice. "These scaled beasts haven't received any explicit hunting orders; they are simply staying here out of instinct."
Shen Ke walked to his side and whispered, "Could this be a contingency plan left by the Ancient Progenitor? Setting up small resonance nodes in secondary rifts to continuously radiate low-frequency psychic waves, slowly eroding this land?"
"It's possible," Lin Yan nodded. "The Ancient Progenitor's main trunk tentacle was severed, but the psychic resonance technology it mastered can be pre-embedded in various secondary rifts. Even if it is not here, the nodes can continue to operate."
Having finished setting up the warning devices, Xu Yang rushed over. "Captain, if a massive number of these resonance nodes are deployed inside the rift, the long-term radiation will slowly affect the minds of both humans and beasts in the surrounding area. Given enough time, they might even be indirectly controlled by the alien race."
Lin Yan pondered for a moment. "The mission objective is to enter the rift, collect moss samples, record the coordinates of the resonance signals, and confirm the location of the nodes. Remember, we are a reconnaissance squad, not an assault force. The moment we detect high-tier scaled beasts or lesser priests, we retreat immediately."
"Understood!"
Gripping his short spear tightly, Zhao Hu took the lead, advancing steadily toward the rift entrance. Su Wan followed closely behind with her detection equipment, continuously capturing psychic signals. Shen Ke brought up the rear, constantly watching the squad's back to prevent scaled beasts from ambushing them from behind. Xu Yang held the demolition equipment in his hands, ready to deal with any emergencies at a moment's notice. Walking in the middle of the formation, Lin Yan deployed his fourth-tier Sea of Consciousness to cover the entire squad, remaining vigilant against any hidden psychic ambushes.
As they approached the rift entrance, a cold, damp aura washed over them, mixed with the heavy stench of earth and the rotting odor of beasts. The dark gray moss on the rock walls writhed slightly. The whisper from underground became increasingly distinct within the rift, constantly circling within everyone's Sea of Consciousness.
The low-level scaled beasts lingering at the entrance sensed the presence of living humans. They suddenly raised their heads, emitting low hisses as they charged straight at the squad.
Zhao Hu took a large stride forward, his alloy short spear wrapped in a gale of force as it viciously thrust out. Puchi! One scaled beast was pierced straight through its torso by the spearhead, collapsing heavily to the ground. The remaining scaled beasts still fearlessly pounced one after another.
"Finish this quickly! Don't drag it out!" Shen Ke reminded them.
In a matter of moments, the low-level scaled beasts were all felled.
The squad stood before the pitch-black entrance of the rift. The profound darkness was like a lurking behemoth, with the murmurs from underground continuously drifting out from the depths, tempting everyone to step beneath the rock strata.
End of Chapter.
