Chapter 686: Siege of the Giant Elephant City

That wave of envy didn’t last long before Song Chi regained his usual calm.

Whether it’s Dragon Shark City or this Giant Elephant City, no matter how prosperous they seem they’re still rootless, drifting like duckweed. The Song Family would never stake their entire legacy on Dragon Shark City. At most, they’d devote some effort to manage it as an important income source for the clan.

After all, Red Star Continent is far from truly safe. The only reason a fragile balance can be maintained is because multiple factions on the continent keep each other in check. If that balance ever tips, so-called neutral cities could be wiped out at any time.

By comparison, the Omniverse Market is a place where Song Chi calls the shots. It not only guarantees absolute safety, he can even temporarily wield ninth-tier authority there. Their value simply isn’t on the same level.

He urged his dark energy, dual pupils flickering with tangible shadows. With the help of that power, Song Chi scrutinized the massive city below, wrapped in a half-dome of shimmering shields.

The whole process lasted around ten minutes. Using both his own Dual Pupils and the Eyes of Heaven, Song Chi managed to get a decent read on the situation in the stone city below.

The Hidden Vein’s intelligence was updated centuries ago—it pays to be careful.

“One eighth-tier life energy, two seventh-tier—no other anomalies found!”

Once his observation was done, Song Chi made his decision without hesitation.

In the Heavenly Ruin’s control room, lights flashed everywhere as several components were activated almost simultaneously.

The very first to go live wasn’t any old subsystem, but the Voidlock Skyseal Sigil.

A faint barrier shimmered into being above Giant Elephant City. Instantly, the sky darkened as the sealing barrier isolated the city from the outside world.

“Who dares bring chaos to my Giant Elephant City!”

The moment the skyseal appeared, a thunderous roar boomed up from the city below.

It was more a beast’s bellow than a shout—far more terrifying than any thunder. The soundwaves alone forced the Heavenly Ruin out of stealth, revealing the warship’s great hull atop the void.

In the next instant, a colossal elephant silhouette gathered in midair, radiating formidable eighth-tier might. This was exactly the reaction Song Chi had been angling for.

Only after the apparition showed itself did the Heavenly Ruin’s other trump cards begin to emerge.

An eighth-tier Angel King’s phantom shielded the warship.

A blood-red spear, thousands of meters long, shot forth.

A Flamewrath Giant with a hulking frame burst out of the ship, swelling in size as it charged forward.

One after another, these measures let the Heavenly Ruin withstand the pressure from the gigantic elephant phantom, and even deal heavy damage to the city’s shield below.

For a moment, violent ripples flickered across the city shield, and the glow of its barrier dimmed visibly.

Panic erupted among the millions of nonhumans within, turning Giant Elephant City into a scene of utter chaos.

“A measly seventh-tier dares challenge Giant Elephant City!”

Sensing the chaos inside his domain, the eighth-tier elephant sovereign’s body gave off a fiery red glow—he was clearly on the brink of rage.

Trade here dwarfed that of Dragon Shark City. The annual profits were the elephant sovereign’s main income source—why else would he stand guard in person?

Cutting off a man’s livelihood is like killing his parents. Song Chi had intentionally let the Flamewrath Giant appear, disguising himself as a seventh-tier dominator armed with several eighth-tier trump cards. It worked—the elephant sovereign lowered his guard and took the bait.

Swish, swish, swish!

A surge of blood energy roared out, unleashing a figure from the city that headed straight for the Heavenly Ruin and the nearby Flamewrath Giant.

The eighth-tier elephant sovereign locked onto his targets, intent on ending the disturbance before anyone could react.

Little did he know, he had played right into Song Chi’s hands.

In the control room, Song Chi’s eyes gleamed with anticipation.

“This is exactly what I was waiting for!”

Muttering under his breath, he instantly activated the golden token gripped in his hand.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

Outside, above the Heavenly Ruin, wisps of special purple mist energy began to swirl. The eighth-tier elephant sovereign immediately sensed something was off. For all his volatile temper, he was no fool—or he’d never have reached the eighth tier.

But at first, the purple mist was so faint he didn’t pay it much heed, despite his caution.

A moment’s hesitation—that was all it took for bitter regret to set in.

He never expected the purple mist overhead to thicken with such terrifying speed. Within the blink of an eye, it had completely blanketed the sky above Giant Elephant City.

But more alarming was the pressure that descended with it—a force that filled him with primal dread.

“That’s… a ninth-tier sovereign!”

Crying out in horror, the elephant sovereign’s skyward charge froze mid-air. In full view of countless stunned nonhumans below, his massive body wheeled about—he was already retreating.

That terrifying eighth-tier sovereign had actually been driven back.

Panic flared even hotter inside the city. Every nonhuman in the Sea of Stars knew now: this was no ordinary enemy assailing their gates.

Song Chi, by contrast, cracked a smile in the Heavenly Ruin’s control room, clearly in excellent spirits.

He shifted his focus, rapidly triggering several more subsystems.

Pusa Zen Seal: External Time Stop.

Pusa Zen Seal: Internal Time Acceleration.

Pusa Zen Seal: External Time Stop.

In the blink of an eye, two streaks of subtle golden light shot from the warship, striking the elephant sovereign just as he turned. Each beam vanished into his body.

The Pusa Zen Seal, as a golden component now maxed at the eighth tier, was potent—but since the Heavenly Ruin itself was still just a dreadnought, its control over eighth-tier targets was limited. Even after two consecutive Time Stops, Song Chi only managed to freeze the sovereign for a brief moment.

In a head-on clash of equals, this wouldn’t have tipped the scales. But things were different now.

Those fleeting instants of control were enough. From the purple mist overhead, a titanic spectral hand descended.

Time and space seemed meaningless as the purple mist hand loomed closer. The next moment, it hovered right above the sovereign’s head.

Only then did the elephant sovereign shake free of the time stop—but already, it was too late.

Desperately, he activated a dark armor-type Oddity. Eternal darkness rippled as a black light shield flickered up around him.

Such a barrier, forged from a supreme black component and actively deployed by an eighth-tier being, lacked nothing for defense—yet in just a few seconds, cracks webbed its surface where the spectral hand struck.

Terror bloomed in the sovereign’s eyes. Before he could muster another defense, the purple hand shattered his shield and crashed down on his hulking back.

Boom!

The sound was like a sonic boom as his massive body hurtled earthward like a meteor, plummeting toward the city below.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

The elephant sovereign, a colossus a million meters tall, slammed straight into the Giant Elephant City shield. The impact was enough to dwarf even the most intense barrages the Heavenly Ruin had delivered before.

With that one blow, the city shield faded almost completely.

And it wasn’t over yet. Guided by Song Chi’s will, the purple hand pressed down again, aiming to finish the kill and leave the sovereign no chance to recover.

He’d drawn fire, lured the sovereign out, and kept up the pressure—Song Chi had planned everything for absolute certainty.

Every move to this point had been for this moment—making sure nothing went wrong.

Otherwise, with the city shield powered by eighth-tier peak energy, even a full-scale Market Projection assault likely couldn’t shatter it instantly. If the elephant sovereign had been cautious, he could’ve used his control of the superdimensional portal to escape right away.

Deep underground inside Giant Elephant City, in a secret room.

“Otto, what are you doing? Remove the in-and-out restrictions on the city shield and let the Elephant Ancestor in!”

The room was filled with angry voices as multiple figures exchanged anxious glances.

The seventh-tier elephant sovereign named Otto let out a deep roar:

“We can’t, Oni! That’s a ninth-tier sovereign up there. If we drop the city shield, Giant Elephant City will fall in a heartbeat!”

Yet another seventh-tier elephant sovereign inside the chamber refused to be convinced.

“So you know it’s a terrifying ninth-tier, but you think not lifting the shield will save the city? We should take the risk and bring the Elephant Ancestor in—so long as he’s here, our clan can always carve out a place in the universe!”

While the two sovereigns argued, fifth- and sixth-tier elephantfolk were rushing in and out, hauling giant storage crates. But time was short, and there weren’t many stacked before the special portal at the heart of the chamber yet.

“Oni, you’re too naive. If a ninth-tier sovereign launched an assault, do you really think he’d let his prey escape? If we try, none of us will make it…”

With that, Otto whipped his head around and shouted:

“Stop! No more hauling! We’re out of time—everyone, line up for teleportation!”

As the frantic evacuation played out below, the purple hand above struck down once more, obliterating what was left of the shield.

With the barrier shattered, the battered elephant sovereign crashed helplessly to the ground.

It was plain as day—after two near-ninth-tier strikes from the purple mist hand, the sovereign was still alive, but barely. His body was a ruin.

Seizing the moment, Song Chi triggered several more artillery functions on the warship.

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

Black Hole Evolution Layer: Black Hole Singular Burst!

Divine Thunder Cannon: Ninefold Violet Heaven World-Ending Calamity Thunder!

Antimatter Annihilation Cannon: Positive and Negative Matter Annihilation Strike!

Several devastating beams of destruction roared from the Heavenly Ruin’s prow, all aimed at the helpless eighth-tier elephant sovereign below.

Even then, Song Chi didn’t stop. With a thought, he ordered the warship’s prow to whine as its main and supercannons transformed into two sharp ramming prows, one left and one right.

He also prepped special modes—Black-Gold Charge, Hunyuan Impact, High Overload Burst—all ready to go. If the killing wasn’t confirmed, the Heavenly Ruin was set to ram the target personally.

Market Projections are impressive, but enemies slain by projections don’t power up the Torch Battleship—so Song Chi needed to land the final blow himself.

Luckily, the worst-case scenario never arrived. Before the explosions in the city had even died down, Song Chi had already received the kill message.

A glance at the Warship Evolution Quest panel confirmed that the success rate had jumped accordingly.

Warship Evolution Quest (Heavenly Ruin)

Current Success Rate: 92.001% (Base: 0.001% + Bathed in Eighth-Tier Abyssal Nine-Headed Hydra Blood: 15% + Bathed in Eighth-Tier Elephant Sovereign Blood: 5% + Bathed in Seventh-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Blood: 3% + Ninefold Spirit Fruit: 10% + Top-tier Energy Crystal: 10% + Seventh-Tier Dominion Source Blood: 12% + Eighth-Tier Ordinary Sovereign Blood: 1% + Special Resource Recipe: 10% + Sky Serpent Blood Crystal: 8% + Law of Light Comprehension: 5% + Law of Space Comprehension: 2% + Eighth-Tier Evil God Blood: 11%)

Promotion Special Resource Recipe (3/3): Spatial Fragment x1, Singular Stone x1, Silver Star Bangle-Core x1

Extra Promotion Resources: Seventh-Tier Dominion Source Blood, Ordinary Eighth-Tier Sovereign Blood, Ninefold Spirit Fruit, Sky Serpent Blood Crystal

Bathed in Nonhuman Blood: Eighth-Tier Abyssal Nine-Headed Hydra (15%), Eighth-Tier Elephant Sovereign (5%), Seventh-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demon (3%)

Looking at the evolution panel, Song Chi’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

Even if the second bathing in eighth-tier blood now offered only a 5% boost after passing 90%, a 92% overall chance was still thrilling.

If he set his sights a little lower, he could launch the upgrade immediately—a 92% success rate for upgrading a dreadnought to a Star-Annihilator-class Ship was already incredible.

But Song Chi forced himself to wait. In his eyes, it still wasn’t enough.

He might be young, and it might look like he had time to try again, but reality wasn’t that kind.

Given how the Song Family had already drawn the spotlight from major powers—especially after acquiring the Eighth-Tier Golden Apple Mother Tree—the pressure was on. If this Heavenly Ruin upgrade failed, a lone Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang could never shield them from so many greedy eyes.