Chapter 623: Battle in the Shadow of the Abyssal Soul

As expected, the Ninefold Violet Heaven World-Ending Calamity Thunder and the Soul-Annihilating Iris Beam struck the seventh-tier Nightmare Soul Body almost at the exact same instant.

Song Chi narrowed his eyes, his focus locked on the raging battle below.

Every fiber of his mind was tensed. At the first sign of trouble, he’d unleash ‘Zen Seal · Internal · Time Acceleration’ without hesitation and fire off a second Soul-Annihilating Iris Beam.

But a cold shiver suddenly ran through his heart.

Just as the thunder and iris beam smashed into the Nightmare Soul Body, a flash of gold streaked across its ashen shell. Ancient runes shimmered into existence, quickly forming a ring of golden glyphs that shielded its body.

“A gold-category defensive Oddity…”

Song Chi recognized the golden runic barrier at a glance. His expression stayed calm, but inside his heart sank.

High-grade Lightning Law Crystals were incredibly rare. Last time, when he killed a seventh-tier Nightmare Soul Body, he’d only managed it with a mid-grade Lightning Law Crystal. Today was no exception—the best weapon he had was still just mid-grade.

But now, with this unknown golden defensive oddity in play, things were completely different. Even if a seventh-tier Dominator couldn’t fully draw out its power, Song Chi knew that the ‘Ninefold Violet Heaven World-Ending Calamity Thunder’ fueled by a mid-grade Law Crystal would no longer be enough for a swift kill.

And that was exactly how things played out.

The Soul-Annihilating Iris Beam was the first to run out of steam. It barely shaved away a few glyphs from the golden barrier before flickering out entirely.

Compared to that, the power of the Violet Thunder was overwhelming.

Boom, boom, boom—

Successive bolts of blazing violet calamity thunder crashed down, each one stronger than the last. Every strike ground away about one and a half segments of the golden glyphs. After seven waves, the golden shield shattered, and the eighth and ninth strikes finally blasted the Nightmare Soul Body with full force.

Yet it was obvious, those last two thunderbolts still weren’t enough to destroy the Nightmare Soul Body. In fact, its wounds weren’t even fatal.

Song Chi’s mind raced.

At that moment, he had a wealth of follow-up attacks at his disposal.

He could trigger Zen Seal · Internal · Time Acceleration again to unleash another Soul-Annihilating Iris Beam.

Or he could command the Mirror Warship to flash forward and unleash Neutron-Star Fission.

Soul and spirit bodies like these typically leaned toward the yin attribute, but the searing heat and flames generated during the creation of even a miniature neutron star could still cause them significant harm.

He could even activate the Divine Thunder Cannon’s secondary ability—Ten-Thousand Sigil Violet Lightning Prison.

So many options flashed through his mind…

But in the end, Song Chi dismissed them all.

Time had simply run out.

Through the corner of his Voidform Avatar’s eyes, Song Chi glanced right. With the Mirror Warship’s holoscopic view, he could clearly see—dozens of lightyears away—a colossal shadow had suddenly appeared, looming high over the heavens.

Even at a rough glance, this apparition towered at least ten lightyears tall and radiated a crushing pressure. Despite the enormous distance, Song Chi could feel himself struggling to breathe.

This giant phantom had emerged moments ago, right when the Mirror Warship joined the fray. If his guess was right, this was the manifestation—or Dharma body—of an eighth-tier Nightmare Soul Body, empowered by the source will of the Nightmare Soul Continent itself.

Before he could think further, the giant shadow ripped open its mouth—wide as a medium-sized black hole. In the next instant, a shrill howl erupted from its maw, so sharp it seemed to tear the fabric of reality.

Song Chi didn’t hesitate. Realizing he had no time left for other tricks and seeing that the giant apparition wasn’t fully formed yet, he quickly had his Voidform activate the Market Projection Token.

He’d already masked his identity and was operating in his Mirror Warship form, so there was nothing holding him back from using the Market Projection Token now.

Instantly, purple mist energy began swirling above the Mirror Warship. The Omniverse Market Projection condensed rapidly.

Before the distant soundwave could crash down, the Omniverse Market Projection finished forming. A moment later, a massive, phantom hand stretched out from the purple mist.

It looked almost slow, that ethereal hand reaching forward, yet in a blink it appeared right above the seventh-tier Nightmare Soul Body.

Even though the Market Projection only had near-eighth-tier strength, that was still more than the Nightmare Soul Body could hope to resist.

As expected, the phantom hand—formed from time, space, light, and purple mist energies—simply swept down with a slap and erased the already-wounded Nightmare Soul Body. Gone without a trace. Wailing echoed faintly—woo, woo, woo!

On the right, a tidal wave of sonic force rushed in, unstoppable as a cosmic flood, and submerged the entire Mirror Warship in a heartbeat.

Even sheltered by the Omniverse Market Projection, Song Chi still felt the piercing howls burrow into the hull. They rode along the split consciousness inside his Voidform, channeling straight into his true body.

Thankfully, the Market Projection’s shielding combined with the Mirror Warship’s absolute isolation reduced the impact by nearly eighty percent. Plus, Song Chi was currently based inside the Omniverse Market, supported by eighth-tier power and guarded by the Dragon Whale Hall. Aside from a bit of dizziness, he was otherwise unaffected.

He forced himself to ignore the throbbing in his head and kept maneuvering the Mirror Warship downward.

Soon, the ship managed to reel in the loot left behind by the dead Nightmare Soul Body. This time, things were different: not only did he collect a seventh-tier Gray Crystal, but also a gold-glowing Starsea Oddity and five strands of Primal Chaos Qi.

Song Chi grinned in satisfaction. The risk was worth it, even if the Mirror Warship had been one misstep from destruction.

He turned his attention back to the giant shadow. In the brief time it took to collect the spoils, the apparition had already closed most of the distance. In barely ten seconds, it had traversed dozens of lightyears and was now less than a lightyear from the Mirror Warship.

Still, Song Chi didn’t panic. He had his Voidform Avatar quickly activate one of the warship’s jump components.

He hadn’t bothered with the Space-skipping Pearl, Starlight Flash Spirit Stone Talisman, or the Angel King’s Authority Wings this time—those would only allow for short jumps, not enough to put real distance between them and their pursuer.

Whoosh!

Just as the jump was nearly charged, the unknown eighth-tier Nightmare Soul Body seemed to realize Song Chi’s intentions. It spat out a gray rune seal from its gigantic Dharma body’s mouth.

The gray seal hurtled through space with incredible speed. Song Chi suspected it was enhanced by some spatial energy, because in a heartbeat it crossed nearly a lightyear and slammed into the Mirror Warship’s right flank.

The rune bypassed all the ship’s layered energy shields and landed straight on the hull.

From the outside, it was plain to see the gray glow shaped itself into an ancient ‘Suppression’ sigil. Once it stuck to the hull, Song Chi discovered the jump was instantly interrupted—even with the charge almost complete.

He tried, one after another, to use the Space-skipping Pearl, the Starlight Flash Spirit Stone Talisman, and the Angel King’s Authority Wings to flash away, but each attempt ended in failure.

All three artifacts activated successfully, but the Mirror Warship wouldn’t budge an inch.

In those few short moments, the giant Dharma shadow closed in even further—now barely ten million kilometers away.

At last, Song Chi felt his composure start to crack. Gone was that calm from before.

After all, this was an honest-to-goodness eighth-tier being, empowered by the Floating-land’s source will. Even the Omniverse Market Projection, a near-eighth-tier trump card, couldn’t buy him much time in a direct fight.

Then Song Chi remembered one last component—one he’d used not long ago.

The Starlight Flash Spirit Stone Talisman!

But this time, instead of using its basic flash-step, he triggered its ‘Starlight Flash Spirit Shift’ feature.

Starlight Flash Spirit Shift: Consumes 600,000 Eon Energy Points. Allows for instantaneous movement in a specified direction, ignoring spatial blockade, ship immobilization, Anti-magic Fields, time stop, and other forms of control. Maximum jump distance: 1 lightyear. Cooldown: 50 years.

This effect was supposed to bypass all sorts of restrictive abilities. Song Chi trusted his instincts—the runic suppression from the eighth-tier Nightmare Soul Body counted.

In the distance, the giant Dharma shadow streaked closer—each blink bringing it impossibly far. Then, with a final step, it was right in front of the Mirror Warship.

The hand of the manifestation swept down, stirring up a shockwave strong enough to obliterate even the weakest seventh-tier Dominators.

As the hand descended, it ripped open space, leaving cracks and collapses in its wake.

If that spectral palm actually smacked into the Mirror Warship, even double-layered shields and top-tier hull armor wouldn’t save it. No way anything onboard could survive.

But just as the giant hand was about to hit, the Mirror Warship—still locked down by the Suppression rune—vanished. Only a faint ripple in space remained.

Beyond the Nightmare Soul Continent, the Mirror Warship emerged in the silent stars.

He confirmed the ship was safe. The Omniverse Market Projection, still hovering above, finally faded away.

But Song Chi didn’t let his guard down. For an eighth-tier creature, leaping off the Floating-land was trivial. They were still nowhere close to safe.

So he quickly activated the Scarlet Vault Jump Drive. Only after the ship jumped again, covering tens of thousands of lightyears, did Song Chi finally relax.