Chapter 438: The Moyun Vine’s Reluctant Submission

The battleship eased closer to the Moyun Vine, yet Song Chi kept his focus fixed on the surrounding starscape.

If his second guess from before was right, there was no way those two Riftgold Owls would just sit by—the odds they’d reveal themselves to stop this were one hundred percent.

Bzzzz!

Suddenly, faint ripples warped the space on both sides of the ship. The two Riftgold Owls, hidden cleverly within rifts, showed themselves to block Heavenly Ruin from moving any closer to the Moyun Vine. At the same time, they tried to draw Song Chi’s attention elsewhere.

Twin crescent-shaped blades of spatial energy slashed toward Heavenly Ruin from both sides. The Riftgold Owls weren’t looking for a drawn-out fight—after making their strike, they immediately slipped back into the spatial rifts.

The force from the spatial blades crashed onto the Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield, setting off fierce ripples. Before the energy shock could fade away, the owls—already repositioned—burst out of another rift and unleashed the same move: another two crescent blades hurtled forth.

Bzzzz!

The waves of spatial tremors and bursts of energy kept rolling in. It was like Heavenly Ruin had turned into a target dummy, battered relentlessly by the agile attacks of the twin Fifth-Tier Riftgold Owls. Bit by bit, the black-and-white energy shield on the ship’s hull was getting weaker.

After several minutes under the relentless, unpredictable onslaught of the two Fifth-Tier Riftgold Owls, the Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield finally overloaded. Heavenly Ruin’s exterior was left completely exposed.

Bzzzzt!

That sudden change only made the twin Riftgold Owls’ attacks come faster. Once again, two crescent spatial blades shot out from the void—but this time, the attacks began much closer to the ship, and the owls revealed more of themselves instead of hiding deep inside their rifts.

Inside the battleship’s control room, Song Chi’s eyes suddenly shone bright.

“This is exactly what I was waiting for!”

He called out in his heart, and a deep, mysterious wave of energy radiated from Heavenly Ruin, quickly enveloping a huge area around the ship.

With the activation of the Samsara Time Domain, everything within its range slowed to a crawl—ten times slower, in fact. Even though the twin Riftgold Owls, due to their high life rank, resisted the time power somewhat and only slowed by seven times, it was more than enough.

Clank, clank, clank!

Several alloy chains shot out from the battleship, whipping toward the Riftgold Owl with half its body exposed. Sure enough, the chains locked it down, and, with Heavenly Ruin’s full might, even yanked the rest of its body out of the rift little by little.

It was only at this point that Song Chi finally confirmed the true relationship between the Riftgold Owls and the Moyun Vine.

The odds were very high they shared some kind of symbiosis.

That was clear from the defensive gold armor covering the Riftgold Owl being dragged from its rift. No doubt the Moyun Vine itself had given the owl this natural vine armor as protection.

As for the one behind the ship, it too was snared—this time by a blood-red chain, infused with Bind-God power, shot from the void and holding it tight, making it unable to move at all.

At the same moment these two things happened, the battleship’s supercannon began charging.

Once again, the Myriad‑Spirit Annihilation Bow’s special attack mode was powered up. Thanks to the Zen Seal · Internal · Time Acceleration, the cooldown for the Life‑bane Arrow was instantly reset.

This time there were no more reservations. The Black Hole Evolution Layer’s (3000/3000) energy reserve let Song Chi draw out 300 points for Black Hole Collapse and link it to the Myriad‑Spirit Annihilation Bow supercannon. The remaining 2,700 points were fused and compressed into a singularity, which also merged into the bow.

That meant the next shot would unleash not just the collapse effect at full strength, but a rapid detonation from the 2,700 points of black hole energy, together with the supercannon’s own destructive force.

Because the cannon had been charging for a while, the moment before the Riftgold Owl could break free of the Bind-God Chains, an annihilation arrow shot forth ahead of schedule.

Unlike the last two times he’d fired Life‑bane Arrow, this time the energy unleashed was terrifying—a true explosion.

Plus, a huge swath of void nearby began crushing inward. The rapidly exploding micro black hole, born from that singularity, pushed the destruction even further, expanding the blast to an enormous radius.

Even though Song Chi quickly activated the Last Aegis module’s protection, restoring the Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield, the sheer force of the blast almost blew it out again.

He only made it out because he was quick-thinking, using the Space‑skipping Pearl’s last teleport to barely dodge clear of the explosion.

Looking down at the shield’s status, the golden energy barrier had barely finished healing before its value already plummeted below 30%—another near-overload.

Still, after what just happened, Song Chi had a much better grasp on what the Black Hole Rapid Detonation trait could actually do.

When the shockwaves finally faded, there was no sign left of the Fifth-Tier Riftgold Owl at ground zero. It hadn’t hidden away in a rift—there hadn’t been time. The micro black hole’s blast had simply vaporized everything.

No time to mourn the waste of a powerful beast corpse, Song Chi turned straight to the other Riftgold Owl, still bound by the Void Bind-God effect.

Too bad, by now all the battleship’s weapons were in cooldown, and the Void Bind-God’s hold was almost gone too. After each cannon and the External Armor-Piercing Cobalt Launcher fired one round, the Riftgold Owl still slipped into a rift and made its escape. It wasn’t completely destroyed after all.

Chances were, after this near-death experience, that wounded star-beast wouldn’t show up again. Still, there was always a chance it might try a sneak attack if he made a move to enslave the Moyun Vine, so he stayed cautious.

He swept his sights over the shattered, collapsed space behind him and steered Heavenly Ruin toward the Moyun Vine’s location.

The delay had let the Moyun Vine recover a fair bit. It still posed no threat to Heavenly Ruin, but for a bit better chance at a successful enslavement, Song Chi poured another round of cannon fire down on it.

As a kind of starplant, enslaving a Moyun Vine wasn’t just about beating it down to its weakest—it needed some willingness on the vine’s part too.

That was the real reason why starplants were so tough to enslave.

While he kept working on the enslavement, Song Chi watched the surroundings closely in case the Riftgold Owls popped up for revenge.

He kept this up for hours, running hundreds—maybe a thousand—enslavement attempts, but to his frustration, the Moyun Vine never showed the slightest sign of giving in. Not even the threat of death worked.

In Heavenly Ruin’s control room, the confidence on Song Chi’s face gradually faded to grim frustration. With his return time approaching, he’d tried asking for help as both a Blueblood and as representatives of the Treant and Night Elf factions in the Divine Realm’s player market, but nothing could crack the stubbornness of the Moyun Vine.

“Moyun Vine—a peak Fourth-Tier starplant…”

He kept replaying what he knew about the Moyun Vine in his head, when suddenly an idea hit him.

“Could this peak Fourth-Tier Moyun Vine use that Fifth-Tier Moyun Vine Heart to break through to fifth rank? If so…”

The starfield, rich with golden energy, saw the black-and-white ship slowly open its bay door. The One‑Eyed Troll stepped out, clutching the Fifth-Tier Moyun Vine Heart.

“It’s reacting…”

From the moment the bay opened, Song Chi locked onto the totally motionless Moyun Vine below. The instant the heart’s aura appeared, his Dual Pupils caught the subtle but undeniable twitch from the Fourth-Tier Moyun Vine.

Even though the reaction was faint, Dual Pupils let nothing escape.

Once Song Chi was sure, he took advantage of that connection and had the One‑Eyed Troll keep talking to the Moyun Vine. Meanwhile, the Flamewrath Giant and Firebreather Dragon emerged from the ship behind him, adding a not-so-subtle warning.

In the end, after he promised the vine could have the Moyun Vine Heart later, the peak Fourth-Tier Moyun Vine finally agreed.

With the vine’s active cooperation, the actual enslavement was simple—just four tries, and he nailed it using the Enslave Medal.

“Eeya!”

A cute little voice echoed in Song Chi’s mind; the Moyun Vine was excited, impatient for him to hand over the Fifth-Tier heart.

Song Chi ignored it:

“Don’t worry. I keep my promises, but there’s one thing I have to deal with first before you get your snack…”

He wasn’t lying—after the next return, he’d hand over the heart immediately. As for the Silver Apple Mother Tree, that one would have to wait until the Cultivation Sanctuary reached sixth rank first. Rushing didn’t help.

The Moyun Vine might not be as valuable as the Silver Apple Mother Tree, but the difference wasn’t that big.

You could see it: Song Chi was now wearing golden armor, shimmering brightly—the Moyun Goldvine Armor, a gift from the vine’s power.

That golden vine armor now boasted the defensive power of a Fourth-Tier artifact and could adapt perfectly to the wearer’s shape, whether Song Chi or any of his beasts.

In other words, the vine armor could later be equipped on the One‑Eyed Troll, Flamewrath Giant, Firebreather Dragon, or any other enslaved beast. Combine that with a plasma shield, and their defenses—and fighting strength—would soar.

It might only be fourth rank for now, and maybe a little lacking, but once the Moyun Vine had that Fifth-Tier heart and broke through—the way it had been stuck at the peak for so long—upgrading to the next level wouldn’t be hard. That’d change everything.

And with the Cultivation Sanctuary not far from sixth rank, the accelerating boosts from all these upgrades meant the vine might break through to sixth rank in no time.

Sixth-Tier vine armor and a matching plasma shield…just thinking about it was thrilling.

At this point, the Moyun Vine’s value to Song Chi was right up there with the Silver Apple Mother Tree. If necessary, he could always buy a bunch of Fifth-Tier plant hearts on the market to make sure the Mother Tree’s upgrade didn’t get delayed again.

With these thoughts, Song Chi turned his attention to the massive body of the Moyun Vine below.

But before realizing all these plans, there was still the tough problem of transplanting the Moyun Vine into the Cultivation Sanctuary.

In the end, Song Chi had to use a treasure he’d found in the Dustless Spirit Garden—the Supreme Celestial Domain Soil. With the boost from this red epic Oddity, the transplant success rate was much higher.

Once the Supreme Celestial Domain Soil filled every inch of the Moyun Vine’s roots, Song Chi told it to help out as best it could. Then, with the One‑Eyed Troll and Flamewrath Giant’s help, they managed—with no small struggle—to get the vine moved into the sanctuary.

Something unexpected happened, though. Maybe it was just starplants being fickle, but the instant the Moyun Vine entered the sanctuary, the normally calm Silver Apple Mother Tree reacted with intense hostility.

Its branches lashed wildly, making the whole sanctuary quake.

In the end, Song Chi had to intervene and work hard to calm things down. Only after moving the Moyun Vine to the farthest corner from the Silver Apple Mother Tree did peace return.

Once everything settled, Song Chi remembered something: the red epic treasure detected earlier with the Eye of Spirit-Seeking still had to be dealt with.

It turned out to be a piece of rock shaped like metal ore, hidden under the Moyun Vine all along. Now that the vine was gone, Song Chi had a few fallen angel warriors fetch it easily.

Epic Treasure: Gold Source Motherstone

Quality: Red

Convertible: {Gold Source Converter}

Notes: Grown in an environment rich in gold energy, this treasure may be especially effective for gold-aligned beings.

……

Gold Source Converter lv0

Quality: Red

Feature: When installed, boosts internal ship gold attribute energy by 80%

Feature 2: Slightly increases insight speed for the Law of Gold.

Feature 3: +600 Gold Resistance

Consumption: 20/second (Energons)

Effect: When installed, ship takes 6% less damage from external gold-attributed energy attacks.

Upgrade needs: 20 strands of Floating-Land Origin (zeroth rank), 2,000 Energons, 1kg Gold Source Ore

Note: This module occupies three equipment slots.

“Damn it, why couldn’t it be a boost to Law of Space insight speed instead?”

As powerful as it was—truly the best among red epic modules—Song Chi didn’t really need this one.

There just weren’t many Torch Captains in the Song Family who specialized in the Law of Gold. That kind of thing was more common in the Chenxing and Stark Clans. For them, this part might be at least as valuable as an average Silver Legendary Component.