Chapter 491: Battlefield Rules and the Descent of Heavenly Ruin

Hearing the trace of mockery in Song Chi’s words, the middle-aged man’s face darkened even more, but that was all he could do. Even if you gave him ten times the courage, he still wouldn’t dare make a move here.

After all, the rules established by the Four Great Super Empires of the Torch Human Civilization carried enough weight to hold anyone in check.

Seeing the man remain silent, Song Chi spoke up and offered a suggestion.

“If you don’t dare make a move here, how about we take a trip to the nearest Starfield Battleground?”

As soon as those words left his lips, the projection of the middle-aged man in the comms channel instinctively looked away from Song Chi’s gaze.

He didn’t reply, but it was clear he’d already, in a roundabout way, backed down.

Starfield Battlegrounds, as the name implies, are high-grade warship combat zones set up by every major galaxy in the Torch Human Civilization’s territory.

The Torch Human Galaxy Cluster stretches a billion light-years, filled with countless ordinary Torch Captains. Battleship Captains may be rare—one in a million—but with a population this vast there are still plenty, so conflict is inevitable.

Because of this, the Four Great Super Empires decreed that every controlled galaxy must establish a Starfield Battleground in a desolate region every hundred thousand light-years. Here, Battleship Captains and above can freely settle their scores.

It’s actually for the people’s benefit—if Battleships or greater ever fought without restraint, their destructive power could easily threaten entire populated floating lands.

At that point, the death toll wouldn’t be tens or hundreds—it would be millions, tens of millions, or even billions.

No matter the civilization, that’s a scenario that can never be allowed.

Population is the foundation on which many civilizations gain their strength.

Take the Torch Human Civilization for example: with Torch warships exploring the Sea of Stars at will, the ever-growing number of Torch Captains is what continually replenishes the civilization’s top combat strength.

Stellar exploration, encountering strange domains, colonizing new star regions—these are all the keys to the Torch Human Civilization’s rapid rise.

If their citizen numbers dropped sharply, it would shake the whole civilization to its core.

……

Starfield Battlegrounds may be common knowledge, but with Song Chi’s easygoing tone and the overwhelming presence of the Heavenly Ruin warship—measuring over fourteen thousand meters—the Battleship Captain from the Annan Consortium chose to retreat.

Song Chi didn’t want to push him too hard either. The endless spatial laws radiating from his battleship faded away like a receding tide. Even the fully formed Void-Return Ray vanished into nothing.

His absolute control of the Return to the Ruins Slash secret technique was actually tied to just how deeply he’d grasped the Law of Space.

Before becoming a Battleship Captain, his comprehension of the Law of Space had just crossed forty-five percent. But after breaking through the fifth tier of the Guiding Technique and elevating his life essence, he enjoyed a period of rapid growth in his grasp of laws.

It didn’t compare to the massive jump between tier three and tier four, but boosted by his Dual Pupils, the Omniverse Market, the imitation Enlightenment Mat, the Dragon Whale Hall’s insights, and a final round of enlightenment from the Chaos Monument—he managed to raise his comprehension to fifty-five percent in just ten years.

A fifty-five percent grasp of the Law of Space isn’t just any number. Among cosmic laws, space stands supreme—a fifty-five percent mastery here is equivalent to seventy percent in just about any other star law.

With this level of command, he could wield the Return to the Ruins Slash spatial technique without even the slightest effort.

Aside from his mastery of space, his understanding of the Law of Light had also advanced. While he hadn’t broken through to mid-level, he was just a step away, sitting at 39.88 percent.

But Song Chi wasn’t satisfied. Though he mainly focused on space, he couldn’t lag behind in light either—he needed to at least keep pace with an ordinary fifth-tier being.

Drawing back from his thoughts, the Heavenly Ruin slowly turned its bow. As for the Annan Consortium’s middle-aged man behind them, he didn’t say another word the entire time.

That burst of the Void-Return Ray had made the threat abundantly clear—he was simply not on the same level as Song Chi.

So, the standoff ended in this strange fashion.

After returning to the area near the Pan Family’s two warships, the Heavenly Ruin joined them in activating an outer domain jump. Once charging finished, all three warships vanished into space.

Far off in the stars, several Zhulu-class Cruiser Captains who’d been watching exchanged glances. In the end, they could only turn to the Number Two Director in the middle.

With his pride thoroughly bruised, the middle-aged man didn’t say much, just left them with a single message.

“We need to take this up with trade guild headquarters. You all stay here and keep watch—someone will let you know how this ends.”

“Understood!”

Though confused, the four Zhulu-class Cruiser Captains could only hurriedly reply in agreement.

……

Outer Domain. Midnight-black starry sky.

Two warships—one massive, one much smaller—hurtled forward at full speed: the Heavenly Ruin and Pan Ying’s flagship.

The first outer domain coordinates provided by the Pan Family were in a sector overseen by a level-five civilization.

This civilization operated on technological lines. Though they had over a dozen level-five units, there were no level-five floating lands in their territory—only two peak-level-four living floating lands.

That actually made things easier. Without the shielding from a level-five Floating-land, the Heavenly Ruin wouldn’t feel any real pressure. Dealing with peak-level-four was much simpler.

But the sweetest surprise was this: maybe because they’d gone too long without any civilizational threats, when the Heavenly Ruin arrived outside the civilization’s capital, the Chenyu Floating-land, five level-five warships were gathered there—but four of them weren’t even under the shield of the peak-level-four Floating-land. Instead, they were just docked out at the starport.

“Get ready to finish the job!”

Not far from the starport, two warships hidden in the void exchanged messages, Song Chi’s voice echoing through their private channel.

Hearing this, a flicker of tension flashed across Pan Ying’s face. Her eyes kept darting over to the Heavenly Ruin.

She’d talked a big game about believing in the Heavenly Ruin’s power, but that had just been speculation. Now, when it came time to actually act, she couldn’t help but feel anxious.

The mission to upgrade her warship was underway. If the Heavenly Ruin wasn’t as strong as she hoped, her chances of successfully advancing would plummet.

But in the very next instant, as soon as Pan Ying saw forty-two massive quantum swordlight avatars, each over fifty thousand meters long, appear at the bow of the Heavenly Ruin, her nerves vanished.

What Song Chi had activated was the Taiyi Quantum Swordlight Battery’s group attack feature, the Taiyi Quantum Sword Array. Even though charging wasn’t yet complete, Pan Ying could already sense terrifying destructive power radiating from each of the forty-two gigantic quantum sword avatars.

If Song Chi knew what she was thinking, he’d probably just smile and say nothing.

Because the Taiyi Quantum Sword Array he just fired was the weakest possible form.

For one thing, the Taiyi Quantum Swordlight Battery was only level 69, still not reaching tier seven.

And the Black Hole Collapse and Black Hole Singular Burst features had yet to be unlocked. If he used everything, those Chenyu warships would be nothing but debris after one salvo.

Vrrrrmmm—

Terrifying quantum swordlight avatars shot out, slicing through space with incredible speed and cutting power, leaving forty-two rifts in their wake.

The instant they erupted at full force, the Heavenly Ruin was revealed in the black sky. But it was already too late—none of the four level-five Chenyu warships at the distant starport could respond in time. The forty-two quantum sword avatars flashed across hundreds of thousands of kilometers, slicing toward their targets in the blink of an eye.

Boom—

The blast was thunderous. The starport built by the Chenyu civilization was reduced to ruins in an instant. The four level-five Chenyu warships survived only because their basic particle shields held, sparing them from outright destruction. Three of them lost all combat ability almost immediately.

Only the ship docked farthest from the array’s center survived with any ability to fight back, but it was quickly finished off by Song Chi’s follow-up, the True Immortal Quantum Blade.

After cleaning up, Song Chi turned his attention to Pan Ying.

Pan Ying nodded and wasted no time. All the cannons on her pale blue warship activated at once, unleashing a barrage on the four disabled Chenyu ships.

Her flagship packed impressive firepower, and according to the Sky-Domain AI, its main cannon was probably a silver component. Both main guns were red quality, and their upgrade levels weren’t low either.

Within just ten minutes, every Chenyu warship at the starport was wrecked.

As Pan Ying finished mopping up and turned back to Song Chi’s projection, only a short time had passed, but the look deep in her eyes had fundamentally changed.

Where there’d been equal parts worry and anticipation before, now there was nothing but pure awe.

To knock out four level-five Chenyu warships in one go—it sounded unbelievable, but in Song Chi’s hands it came off as just a casual, offhand move.

Whether Song Chi noticed or just didn’t care, he turned away and looked straight at the nearby peak-level-four Floating-land.

With all the chaos at the starport, Chenyu Floating-land was already on high alert. Tens of thousands of warships had launched, waiting behind the Floating-land’s shield in formation.

Seeing this, Pan Ying looked at Song Chi, as if waiting for his next move.

Song Chi’s response was simple—the Heavenly Ruin’s Antimatter Evolution Engine roared to life, propelling the battleship straight at the Floating-land.

As the Heavenly Ruin moved in, the Chenyu civilization answered with cannon fire.

The last Chenyu level-five warship fired up its space-based particle cannon, charging at full power.

When its high-energy beam blasted out, the energy shield enveloping the Heavenly Ruin rippled violently, its glow dimming by half.

But was that really all there was to it?

In the Heavenly Ruin’s command deck, a cold smile appeared in Song Chi’s eyes.

The beam’s power wasn’t weak, but truth was, the Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield on the Heavenly Ruin didn’t even take a scratch. All that was lost was the layer of holy shield projected by the Angel King’s Authority Wings.

And even that shield was only halfway gone. They’d need another direct hit before actually getting through to the ship’s main energy shield.

But was Song Chi going to give them that chance?

Skybreaker Drill. Divine Thunder Cannon. Myriad-Spirit Annihilation Bow. Soul-Annihilating Iris Beam.

Multiple systems activated at once.

The Skybreaker Drill sent a lance of energy drilling into the Floating-land’s shield, creating a narrow crack. Right after, several ship cannons unloaded their special attacks through the breach.

Just like that, a sizable gateway was punched right through the once-imposing shield of the peak-level-four Floating-land. Boosted by the arrival of the Flamewrath Giant and the One-Eyed Troll—two tier-six biological weapons released from the Heavenly Ruin—the core Floating-land of Chenyu was left wide open to Song Chi and Pan Ying.

In the rear, Pan Ying was still reeling from shock. She never imagined that a shield from a peak-level-four Floating-land could be torn apart so easily.

Only when Song Chi’s voice called out did she snap to and follow the Heavenly Ruin straight into Chenyu Floating-land.

Once both warships entered, there was little suspense—in less than a month, every level-four or higher warship on the Floating-land had been sunk personally by Pan Ying.

After dealing with Chenyu Floating-land, the pair wasted no time before heading to the civilization’s second peak-level-four living Floating-land.

Two months later, every level-four or higher warship in Chenyu civilization fell under Pan Ying’s hand.

Over the next six months, Song Chi accompanied Pan Ying on expeditions through several star regions, hunting down plenty of tier-five biological and mechanical enemies.

South sector of the Silverplate Galaxy. Qingluan Floating-land.

It was still the Pan Family’s level-five Floating-land, but after nine months, the Heavenly Ruin had become a welcome guest on Qingluan Floating-land.

Of course, plenty of non-aggression agreements had to be signed—Song Chi also entered a confidentiality pact with Pan Ying, and over these nine months, he’d used every trick he could to keep his identity secret.

Today, up in the cloud layers of the floating sky, the Heavenly Ruin and the pale blue flagship both hid among the clouds.

On the warship’s channel, Pan Ying softly explained,

“Sir, today’s target is a tier-six starbeast—the Longfin Void Whale. It’s only just broken into tier six, but it’s still a starbeast. What do you think…?”