Chapter 512: The Slumber of the Starry Sky Dragon Shark

Thud!

A heavy smack of flesh echoed, followed by the anguished cry of the Starry Sky Dragon Shark.

Why is the Tiger Carapace King Bug named after both a tiger and a carapace?

It’s because the Tiger Carapace King Bug’s thick head armor is etched with secret tiger-carapace sigils. Not only does this give it terrifying head protection, but its armor packs devastating, penetrating force, letting it tear through outer defenses and strike directly at flesh and even organs beneath.

Right now, the Dragon Shark’s insides were clearly battered, but the Tiger Carapace King Bug gave it no respite. Using the rebound force of the collision, it sprang back only to charge in for another head-on assault.

The Dragon Shark reacted in kind, summoning a second inherited divine ability.

Dragon Shark Sea Splitter!

Wreathed beneath the ancient dragon shark’s phantom, the Starry Sky Dragon Shark surged forward, carrying the boundless power of the laws as it crashed into the Tiger Carapace King Bug.

Moments later, the two titanic beasts smashed into each other, their impact so fierce that even at nearly a million kilometers’ distance, the hull of Heavenly Ruin shuddered beneath a raging Dominion Power storm.

Luckily, the ‘Mirage’ trait didn’t register Heavenly Ruin as under attack—otherwise, they’d have been exposed on the spot.

Carefully steering the battleship farther back, Song Chi never took his eyes off the battlefield ahead.

That last impact proved nothing; the Dragon Shark and Tiger Carapace King Bug were still bashing together with neither gaining the upper hand.

This clash dragged on for about ten minutes. When the protective blood armor on the Dragon Shark’s body finally faded, the two Sawtooth King Bugs lurking nearby pounced at once, their gleaming scythe-like arms slicing at the dragon shark’s exposed hide.

With the Sawtooth King Bugs piling on, the Dragon Shark could no longer match the Tiger Carapace King Bug head-to-head. Now it was forced to take hit after brutal hit.

After a long beating, the Dragon Shark was finally at its limit. Summoning the last of its Dominion Power, it gathered energy at its tail.

Sensing its intent, the three King Bugs responded instantly.

Both Sawtooth King Bugs opened their jaws wide, and piercing screeches erupted from their mouths.

“The Broodmother’s soul-shredding scream… Just as I thought!”

Song Chi realized his earlier guess wasn’t wrong at all. He shifted his attention to the Dragon Shark, wondering if it had any other means to break free or if it would be torn apart step-by-step by the hidden Broodmother.

Watching closely, Song Chi’s eyes glinted with countless calculations as he observed the battle unfold.

Sure enough, as those soul screams struck, the Dragon Shark’s escape was snuffed out before it even started.

While its mind reeled in shock and paralysis, both Sawtooth King Bugs and the Tiger Carapace King Bug coordinated a relentless assault.

Whenever the Dragon Shark tried to regain control and activate its escape again, the hidden Broodmother would strike once more with that soul-shredding power—and the three King Bugs seized the moment to attack.

Again and again, the Dragon Shark’s wounds grew more grievous and horrific.

Inside Heavenly Ruin, Song Chi held a Market-Walking Token. With the Market’s law empowering him, his spectral energy surged to the sixth tier.

Sixth-tier energy, paired with his fully activated Dual Pupils, let him see—across even a million kilometers—the Dragon Shark’s life force flickering dangerously dim.

Song Chi frowned. For a supposed starry sky behemoth, this Dragon Shark’s endurance was disappointing. A true celestial beast would still be pressed by three King Bugs controlled by an insect Broodmother—but they shouldn’t be this close to burning out so quickly.

But seeing this, Song Chi’s mind was made up. Bright lights danced across the warship’s interior as he activated multiple components all at once.

Off in the distance, the three King Bugs broke away from the Dragon Shark. Once it recovered from soul shock, and without the King Bugs clutching at it, the Dragon Shark again drew Dominion Power into its tail.

Even hanging by a thread, its survival instincts pressed it to fight for one last chance to live.

The Broodmother hiding in the dark was hardly going to let the Dragon Shark get away after pouring in so much time and energy.

The Sawtooth King Bugs opened their jaws again, ready to unleash another round of soul-scorching screams.

But something unexpected happened.

A barrage of lightning shot in from afar, crossing endless space in a flash and swirling into a storm of ten thousand violet lightning sigils around the King Bugs.

But that wasn’t all—two streaks of golden light shot forth as well, too swift for the naked eye to catch.

Unlike the lightning sigils that scattered, the golden lights shot straight at the gaping Sawtooth King Bugs.

These were none other than the “Zen Seal: External Time Stop” techniques Song Chi had unleashed.

The first fired off normally, and the second triggered after ‘Time Speed’ activation.

Both golden flashes sank into the Sawtooth King Bugs, freezing them mid-motion—their screaming jaws halted before sound could even escape.

The abrupt twist left the bugs reeling, the Broodmother included, caught entirely off guard.

But the Broodmother recovered quickly. After a brief shock, it communicated with the King Bugs via their soul link, and both frozen Sawtooth King Bugs broke free of time-stop in less than two seconds.

But when they tried to scream again to stop the Dragon Shark, it was already far too late.

With Dominion Power flooding its tail, the Dragon Shark triggered its kin’s last-ditch escape art before the Sawtooth King Bugs could recover.

Dragon Shark Bloodburn Escape!

Space warped and the battered Dragon Shark vanished straight into the void. By the time the Sawtooth King Bugs’ screams rang out, it was long gone.

HISSSSS!

A wave of insectile shrieks erupted in the starlit void. Millions of swarm insects—sensing their Broodmother’s rage—joined in a chilling chorus.

The noise made Song Chi, already prepping a warp jump, tense up despite himself.

He’d guessed there was a Broodmother in the area, but actually hearing that wall of shrieks from countless bugs was something else entirely.

Fortunately, he’d already activated Heavenly Ruin’s jump drive. As hundreds of thousands of furious swarm insects swept toward them to hunt down the source of the attack, the warship slipped into a swirling space vortex and disappeared.

Some swarm bugs even glimpsed Heavenly Ruin as it slipped out of Mirage mode after the attack, but the next instant, the ship vanished completely.

Before the jump, Song Chi’s glance back at the swarm was tinged with something strange.

What they didn’t notice was that his attack didn’t just use the Ten-Thousand Sigil Violet Lightning Prison and “Zen Seal: External Time Stop”. A secret silver mark had slipped in as well.

Invisible to the naked eye, this mark rode in with one of the time-stopping beams and embedded itself in a Sawtooth King Bug.

It was none other than the ‘Deathstar Kill Order’ trait of the Deathstar Tracking Mark. Now that it had found its mark, Song Chi could lock onto the King Bug’s location for the next 450 years—as long as it lived.

This was all part of his quick strike plan. He and his Song Family couldn’t face off against a Broodmother and three King Bugs right now, but the Deathstar Kill Order would last 450 years—and by then, things might be very different.

But he didn’t dwell on it. Something even more important was waiting for him.

[Killed a tier-four Splatter Bug, gained a third-tier Floating-Land Origin.]

[Killed a tier-three Ironclad Bug, gained a second-tier Floating-Land Origin.]

…

System notifications from the Sky-Domain AI echoed in his ear, reporting the Floating-Land Origin rewards harvested from the bugs slain by the lightning prison.

Song Chi ignored the stream of prompts, fixing his eyes on the radar.

“Escaped over a thousand light-years in one move… No wonder Starry Sky Dragon Sharks are considered dominators. In the family records, an ordinary tier-four shark going all-out with Bloodburn Escape might flee just a few light-years. If I didn’t have an Aurora Jump Drive prepped, I’d probably have lost track of it!”

He sighed, not taking his eyes off the golden Eyes of Heaven patrol radar.

There, bright as day on the radar screen, loomed a huge shape not far ahead of Heavenly Ruin, bathed in silvery blood, its life force nearly spent.

It was, of course, that same dominator-class Starry Sky Dragon Shark.

Song Chi dared not bring the ship too close, trailing at a safe distance.

With the ‘Mirage’ trait still on cooldown and only the permanent Void Shroud keeping the ship hidden, Song Chi couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t be spotted, even by a dying shark. He’d learned never to underestimate a dominator-level creature.

After all, any being that reached these peaks of the Sea of Stars had to be anything but simple.

Just like the Black Devourer King Beast before—despite Song Family going all-in, the end result was barely acceptable.

Song Chi’s plan was actually quite simple: confirm where the Dragon Shark would finally collapse.

Now cornered by three King Bugs, the Dragon Shark had one aim left—find a place to hide and sleep deep, hoping it could mend its terrible wounds. Once it went under, Song Chi would try to enslave it.

And if taming failed, at worst it’d be used as fuel to upgrade the battleship.

Sure enough, the battered Dragon Shark finally burrowed into the core of a third-tier resource Floating-land, one not yet claimed by any civilization.

It wasn’t ideal—the land’s low tier meant it would absorb and convert energy from the void too slowly, likely dragging out the shark’s recovery. But out of options and on the verge of collapse, it had no choice but to sleep or die.

Hidden in the dark, Song Chi watched as the wounded colossus slipped into the Floating-land’s heart, his eyes flashing with anticipation.

Now, everything was playing into his hands.

Going beyond just his own eyesight, Song Chi quickly activated the ‘Spiritual Detection’ trait of the Eyes of Heaven.

Seeing only a lone tier-five energy signature beneath the Floating-land on the radar, he finally confirmed the Dragon Shark had gone into deep hibernation.

In that state, it suppressed over ninety-nine percent of its life force—which was why only a tier-five mark showed up on ‘Spiritual Detection’.

To be doubly sure, Song Chi left both tier-five Void Demons behind to monitor the Floating-land, ready to contact him with telepathy should anything happen.

With that settled, his gaze shifted to the Eyes of Heaven and Deathstar Tracking Mark components.

First, he used the Deathstar Tracking Mark to check on the Sawtooth King Bug’s location. Seeing that it was still on the move, he thought:

“Still searching for Heavenly Ruin? Or chasing the Dragon Shark?”

He shook his head, not caring which—either way, they’d never find what they were after.

Both the star beast and Heavenly Ruin had jumped over a thousand light-years at once.

A thousand light-years might be a grain of sand in the Shattered Sea of Stars, but with no leads, finding a target in such an expanse would be near impossible.

Still cautious, Song Chi left his Voidform Avatar aboard the ship to monitor things in real time while he entered the Omniverse Market to further master the Martial Heaven’s Eye technique.

Half a month passed before his avatar was alerted by the Sky-Domain AI.

[Alert: Target has not moved in over twenty-four hours. Estimated to have returned to its nest!]

When Song Chi heard that, he rushed back to the ship. Seeing that the Deathstar Kill Order mark hadn’t shifted, he walked up to the Eyes of Heaven component.

“Here’s hoping there’s nothing weird interfering…”

With a thought, he triggered the Eyes of Heaven component’s eponymous function.

A moment later, a golden projection appeared above the ship’s console, displaying a vast insect hive on a sixth-tier Floating-land.

The remote feed from the Eyes of Heaven was still working. Song Chi was pleasantly surprised, and quickly scanned the hive nestled on that sixth-tier life Floating-land.

He ignored the ordinary tier-four and five bugs, focusing only on the figure at the hive’s heart—perfect, monstrous, and grotesque all at once.

Its skin shimmered with crystal brilliance, tinged pale violet, giving it a regal, almost noble luster. Its chest was full and striking, its face so flawless that by human standards it would’ve been peerless beauty.

But that was just its upper half. When Song Chi’s gaze dropped lower, he took in the swollen, blood-flecked, ugly mass—its lower body twisted like a giant meat worm, enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.

That’s why Song Chi could only describe the Broodmother as both perfect and terrifying.

Pulling his eyes away, Song Chi swept his gaze around its surroundings.

“One, two, three, four… So those King Bugs from before weren’t all of them?”

He spotted four colossal pupa chambers around the Broodmother. These were where its exclusive King Bug guards should be stationed—right now, only a Sawtooth King Bug and Tiger Carapace King Bug were present, but it was clear from the chambers: four dominator-class King Bugs were assigned to this queen.

“The other two must be out hunting.”

Even as that thought formed, another followed immediately.

“If I’m right, if they manage to kill the Starry Sky Dragon Shark, the Broodmother could probably use its massive blood essence to birth a fifth, maybe even a sixth King Bug soon!”

“Forget it. The real priority is figuring out how to tame the Dragon Shark. If that works, Heavenly Ruin’s power will leap to the level of a Dreadnought or beyond.”

Shaking his head, Song Chi closed the projection from Eyes of Heaven.

He left a spatial anchor in place, then returned to the Dragon-Spine Continent via the Market.

Regardless of whether the Broodmother was still looking for the Dragon Shark, Song Chi needed to move fast.

As the old saying goes: what’s in your hands is true security.

Only by taming the Dragon Shark quickly could it become a true asset for Heavenly Ruin. Besides, with its severe injuries, the sooner it was in the Life-System Medical Repair Pod, the faster its fighting strength would return.

Of course, all this only mattered if the taming actually succeeded.

PS: Combined with yesterday’s chapter, that’s fifteen thousand words—caught up!