Chapter 569: Breaking the Life Crystal Wall

Song Chi’s guess was dead on: the target of the Ancient Broodmother’s second berserk rage was the very Dominator Worm Song Wujian had banished into the void earlier.

As this Dominator Worm went berserk, the barely repaired spatial rifts began to reappear, cutting down the time granted by the exile once more.

Low over the Floating-land, after barely withstanding a direct hit from the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang’s supercannon, the Ancient Broodmother’s body was torn open with a sizable wound. It wasn’t fatal, but enough to make it wail in agony.

There was no chance for the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang to land a follow-up strike. Massive surges of pure life energy exploded from the Broodmother’s obese form—energy she’d extracted from all her past devouring, stashed away just for emergencies like this.

As torrents of life energy burst out, a shimmering half-dome shield took shape above her, sheltering her entirely.

This was another signature inherited power of the Starry Sky Insect Clan’s Ancient Broodmother: the Life Crystal Wall.

The Life Crystal Wall was her strongest defense, her ultimate fallback when cornered.

Not long after, another of Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang’s supercannons finished charging. A scorching beam shot out again.

But when it slammed into the lower half of the Life Crystal Wall, it only left innocuous ripples. The barrier held strong.

Up above, the Dominator Worm that had been exiled into the void fought harder than ever. It looked like it would soon break free entirely.

Clearly, things were turning grim for Song Family’s crew.

Inside the Samsara Time Domain, Song Chi’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the Timepiece Chessboard—a shimmering upper-tier artifact.

He’d planned not to use this powerful relic, since its cooldown was unforgivingly long, but right now, there was no other choice.

At his will, rainbow light flared inside the battleship.

Timepiece Chessboard: “Time • Game”—activated!

With a burst of dazzling color, a torrent of pure temporal power shot from the Heavenly Ruin, not even giving the Black Scorpion Dominator a second to react.

The starry sky seemed to collapse, space itself twisting around them.

Both Song Chi and the Black Scorpion Dominator had the same thought flash through their minds—that sensation of the world spinning wildly—before both ship and worm were dragged by time’s power into a higher-dimensional space.

But there was a difference: as the Heavenly Ruin carried the Timepiece Chessboard, its energy remained unchanged, whereas the massive Black Scorpion Dominator—previously over ten thousand kilometers long—was forcibly compressed to about a hundred kilometers. Its power was also brutally suppressed to Tier Six.

As the instigator, Song Chi expected as much. The moment Time • Game took hold, he fired off several other components on the battleship.

Void Sea Projection Emperor’s Tomb: Quadruple Projection!

Blood Spear: God of the Hunt’s Weakpoint Mark!

Black Hole Evolution Layer: Singularity Burst!

Blood Spear: Blood Judgment!

Myriad-Spirit Annihilation Bow: Life-bane Arrow!

Taiyi Quantum Swordlight Battery: True Immortal Quantum Blade!

Celestial Godslayer Cannon: Celestial Godslayer!

A deep thrumming vibrated through space!

On both sides of the Heavenly Ruin, the fabric of space rippled, and two warship phantoms manifested to either side.

Counting the real Heavenly Ruin, five warships locked their sights on the Black Scorpion Dominator—now suppressed to Tier Six—their prows blazing with divine light.

The Black Scorpion Dominator felt a wave of pure dread. Instinct screamed at it to dodge, but a golden beam from Heavenly Ruin nailed its body in place.

Before, the Zen Seal: External Time Stop would hold it for maybe three or four seconds; but now that its life tier was forcibly dropped, the time-stop effect doubled.

Combined with Zen Seal · Internal · Time Acceleration, another wave of golden light struck. The Black Scorpion Dominator was frozen for a full fourteen seconds. To top it off, the Frost Bind from the Frost King’s Crown left it locked down until all five ships completed their cannon charge—not a muscle twitching.

Blood energy, quantum blade, annihilation arrows, singularity burst…each devastating attack converged on one spot. The result could only be catastrophic.

Even the Heavenly Ruin, nearly two hundred thousand kilometers away, had to transform into a micro neutron star just to endure the onslaught of temporal power in this higher dimension. It barely survived the shockwave.

Outside, whether it was the other Dominator Worms or the rest of the Song Family, all they saw was the Heavenly Ruin and the Black Scorpion Dominator vanish. Just a few dozen seconds later, the battleship popped back into view—while the Dominator Worm was nothing but a silent corpse.

Song Chi didn’t have time to explain, and couldn’t even if he tried.

The Timepiece Chessboard’s secrets ran deep. If word got out about this rainbow-tier temporal Oddity, even ancient houses like the Shang Clan—who’d survived two hundred thousand years—would lose their minds over it.

He steered the Heavenly Ruin straight out of the still-active Samsara Time Domain, heading for the Dominator Worm that had almost fought its way free from exile.

As they soared forward, massive violet thunderbolts began arcing over the prow. Something big was coming: the prow’s heavy cannon was none other than an enormous Star-Annihilator Cannon.

Song Chi had activated the Divine Thunder Cannon’s Ninefold Violet Heaven World-Ending Calamity Thunder, using a silver Law of Lightning crystal.

Boom!

Thunderclouds gathered. Above the heavens, a swirling storm of lightning blotted out the sky.

In an instant, godlike thunder slammed down. Ninefold Violet Heaven World-Ending Calamity Thunder struck.

Each of the nine thunderbolts crashed down on the half-dome Life Crystal Wall below. With every strike the barrier dimmed, and when the last bolt fell, it was almost gone.

Even so, the Ancient Broodmother’s Life Crystal Wall proved terrifyingly sturdy. Not even the world-ending thunder, powered by an advanced silver Law of Lightning, could break it completely.

Inside the wall, the Broodmother’s beautiful face flashed red with strain as she frantically channeled what was left of her stored life energy, trying to heal the barrier.

Suddenly, two burning beams of light shot down from above, out of nowhere.

Boom! Boom!

Crack!

The Life Crystal Wall, already pushed to the brink, shattered before the Broodmother could begin repairs.

Her sluggish, grotesque body was once again exposed to the world.

Low over the Floating-land, Song Wujian seized this perfect moment and activated the warship’s most powerful attack.

Back inside the Heavenly Ruin’s main command center, seeing the Ancient Broodmother exposed, Song Chi instinctively glanced up at the dome of the sky.

He didn’t have to wait long for the answer.

Those two timely attacks had come from the Three-Eyed Clan’s imperial flagship—which had just arrived—and Song Yan’s Scorching Sea Blazer. The flagship fired its golden Star-Annihilator Cannon, the Death Calamity Star Cannon; Song Yan’s ship used its own golden-tier supercannon. Their combined might finally smashed through the Life Crystal Wall.

Because of this, the Scorching Sea Blazer took some nasty bites—literally. The Dominator Worm it was pinning down took the opportunity to chew and gash its hull several times, but thanks to the Black Hole Fission ability, the Blazer avoided disaster.

The air was filled with vicious hissing.

In the crack in the void, the Dominator Worm thrashed, nearly free from eternal exile. Its body radiated bloodlust—a combination of utter frenzy from the Ancient Broodmother’s commands and its own berserk state.

Just as it was about to break free, two special chains shot out of the void, one wrapping each side of its giant form tight.

Crack!

Crack!

The Bind-God Chains broke first—they were only red-grade, after all. The silver Heaven-Binding Shackles lasted longer, but even they only held for about three seconds.

But that window was enough.

Those precious seconds gave the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang the time it needed to finish charging up for its attack.

Flame God Annihilator Cannon: Annihilation Star-Shatter Strike!

With a roar, the black Star-Annihilator blaster unleashed its full fury. The annihilation beam punched down, hitting the Ancient Broodmother square on.

Her amethyst hide, once seemingly unbreakable, fell apart instantly under the annihilation beam. In less than two seconds, her entire bloated form was blown open. And that was just the start.

Blasting straight through her, the beam carved a massive hole and kept going, drilling deep into the Floating-land’s core.

For a moment, the entire Floating-land shook as if the world itself was about to crack open—a true doomsday tremor.

Shrill roars echoed through the clouds. With the Dragon Whale Hall guarding their minds, the Song Family was fine, but the other Dominator Worms fighting them seemed jolted—maybe they took a command from the Ancient Broodmother’s cry.

Instantly, every Dominator Worm blazed with a bloody steam. They began to burn their life energy recklessly.

And that rampage hit the Song Family hard—the pressure was suddenly several times stronger than before.

Inside the Heavenly Ruin, Song Chi steeled himself, ready to face the Dominator Worm breaking free, but suddenly he got a summon from the Old Ancestor.

“Xiaochi! Get down here, now!”

The moment he heard, Song Chi didn’t ask why. He already knew.

Chances were, they wanted him to try enslaving the Ancient Broodmother. After all, why had he pushed the Celestial Authority Ring to level 80, when it could already enslave Tier Seven beings at level 79?

This was the moment he’d been preparing for all along.

Honestly, the day he maxed out the Celestial Authority Ring, he’d already set his sights on the Ancient Broodmother.

Song Chi’s face darkened—he knew he had precious little time.

That last barrage from the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang had gouged a hole right through the Floating-land’s core, nearly a thousand light-years in diameter. Even with all her life energy, even the Ancient Broodmother couldn’t hold out for long.

Yet the newly freed Dominator Worm up ahead had locked on to the Heavenly Ruin. Any move to redirect the battleship would trigger an all-out assault.

Having already used the Neutron-Star Fission, he knew better than to push his luck.

“Should I use Flow of Time • Prison?”

The thought flickered through his mind as he hesitated.

After all, with at least 36 chess pieces, that ability could imprison an enemy for a thousand years, but its cooldown was always one-tenth of the lockup time—even if you canceled early.

A century—way too long.

Fortunately, his indecision didn’t last. The Three-Eyed Clan’s imperial flagship was swooping back down already.

Song Chi instantly fired up Angel • Wing Blink.

The Heavenly Ruin vanished in a flash, while the Three-Eyed Clan’s flagship took its place.

The Dominator Worm, utterly consumed by bloodlust and with the Ancient Broodmother too weak to command, didn’t even care the Heavenly Ruin had disappeared. It instantly switched its fury to the imperial flagship.

Down on the Floating-land, the Heavenly Ruin reappeared beside the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang.

Song Chi began powering up the Celestial Authority Ring and established comms with the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang.

A golden beam fired downward at the same moment Song Wujian’s voice echoed in the command center.

“Xiaochi, the whole Floating-land’s brood is berserk! We have little time!”

Song Chi didn’t need the Old Ancestor’s warning; he knew time was tight. When the first enslavement mark failed, he quickly fired the Celestial Authority Ring again.

Failed!

Failed!

Still failed!

Dozens more attempts. Every outcome the same.

Song Chi was anxious but not surprised. He kept at it.

Even empowered to Tier Eight, the Celestial Authority Ring could theoretically enslave an eighth-tier Dominator. But theory’s one thing—reality is another.

The Ancient Broodmother was no ordinary Dominator. Her mental power alone put her at the very top of the Sea of Stars.

“We can’t hold much longer, Xiaochi! I’ll give you one more minute. If you don’t succeed, we’re pulling out!”

With that, the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang shot skyward, straight for the fray above.

Right now, the most dangerous threat wasn’t even the handful of Dominator Worms—they might look scary but pound for pound, they were weaker than other creatures of the same tier. Song Shiyuan had even wrecked a Tier Seven peak with just one Star Annihilator’s Wrath.

What really made everyone’s skin crawl was the swarm—millions of medium and low-tier bugs swarming over the Floating-land.

Sure, seventy percent were just cannon fodder. But there were so many, and even the medium-tiers weren’t exactly rare. Wait too long and maybe the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang could hold out, but the other Song Family dreadnoughts would almost certainly be swallowed up.

Especially with the Unmoving Vajra already in such bad shape!