Chapter 501: A Gamble for Survival Against the Spider Matriarch

A Supreme Black Oddity—how could Song Chi not be tempted?

If he hadn’t known there’s no way something like this could fall into his hands so easily, he wouldn’t have rushed to claim the God of the Hunt’s divine body first.

Truth was, this didn’t surprise him. With a flick, Song Chi sent the Sky Shaman Hand Seal reaching for that Black Gemstone Crown, but the eternal dark light pouring from the crown fought fiercely against the seal’s approach.

“Too slow. Before the Sky Shaman Grand Hand Seal closes in, the Law Power will wear out completely.”

He pulled back the Sky Shaman Hand Seal and turned his gaze to the Black Hole Evolution Layer, the Supreme Black Oddity in his hands. In the next moment, he pushed his will, pouring power into the black oddity.

Up above the Divine Realm’s heavens, the giant mythic mech’s Sky Shaman Hand Seal started to radiate streaks of black light. Almost immediately the Sky Shaman Hand Seal swelled in power.

Song Chi had deliberately activated the Starsea Oddity within the Black Hole Evolution Layer to boost the seal just like the time when all the fearless captains had scrambled for the Doomstar Race’s Dominion Flesh.

But this was a technique reserved for battleships and above. Only components that evolved from golden or higher oddities could empower Law Power, and even then each part could only empower once every hundred years. Torch Captains rarely used this unless it was do-or-die.

It was only after becoming a battleship captain that Song Chi heard about it from the family head and others.

Boosted by the Black Hole Evolution Layer’s core, the Sky Shaman Hand Seal shot forward several times faster. It still wasn’t as quick as before but was leagues faster than a moment ago.

But right then, an ear-splitting crack echoed from the barrier above the blood-red Divine Realm.

Instinctively, Song Chi looked up—and his pupils shrank in alarm.

Far above, the Divine Realm’s barrier had been ripped open from outside. Through the gaping, terrifying rift, Song Chi saw a massive figure looming outside the realm of the God of the Hunt.

It possessed tens of thousands of scarlet eyes and thousands of razor-sharp spider legs, its titanic body stretching for over a million kilometers.

“Spider Matriarch Rose!”

The name barely formed in his mind before Song Chi had to fight the urge to cancel the projection and escape instantly.

But that Supreme Black Oddity, hovering within arm’s reach, made it impossible to walk away.

Swallowing down his terror, Song Chi let his violet mist energy surge wildly, driving the Sky Shaman Hand Seal to move even faster.

Hiss hiss hiss!

A piercing, shrill hiss echoed beyond the Divine Realm barrier, sending a wave of psychic fear crashing through the air. Song Chi glanced at the Crescent Moon Matriarch beside him, who clutched her head in agony.

Yet Song Chi remained eerily calm. If this had happened earlier, all he’d have to his name was the Silver Torch Seed, the Taoyi Soul-Suppressing Stele and the Soulcalling Demon Golem; his reaction wouldn’t have been much better than Crescent Moon Matriarch’s.

Now it was different. In addition to those three, Song Chi’s Torch Ancestral Orifice had the illusionary Dragon Whale Hall standing guard.

Ignoring the Spider Matriarch Rose’s psychic wail, the Sky Shaman Hand Seal blazed on toward the Black Gemstone Crown above.

That very motion seemed to anger the colossus beyond the Divine Realm. One of its thousands of razor-like spider legs thrust viciously through the rupture.

Song Chi looked up to see the spider leg transformed into a towering black pillar, stomping down to blot out the sky.

No matter how hopeless it seemed, Song Chi forced himself to remain calm.

After all, this was an eighth-tier main god. Even one of its legs, casually thrust into the realm, could crush any seventh-tier being.

Consider also—he was only here as a cross-star projection, further weakened by the God of the Hunt’s realm itself; at best, his strength measured up to a normal seventh-tier.

At the very last instant, the Sky Shaman Hand Seal finally reached the Black Gemstone Crown. Driven by the God of the Hunt’s lingering instincts, the crown still fiercely resisted, pushing away any murderer who might come near.

But now the Sky Shaman Hand Seal was empowered with the Black Hole Evolution Layer’s core, unfazed by that suffocating dark light.

Boom!

The Sky Shaman Hand Seal slammed hard onto the Black Gemstone Crown. Song Chi felt it grasp something, but there was literally no time to find out what.

The spider’s pitch-black leg now filled the sky right above him—any longer, and even what he’d captured wouldn’t make it back to the Omniverse Market.

With breakneck speed, the Sky Shaman Hand Seal streaked back down while the void beast hide, floating above the projection in a haze of violet mist, shivered with tension.

“Faster, come on! Damn—hurry, we’re out of time!”

The truth hit Song Chi a beat too late—he had overestimated himself, or maybe underestimated an eighth-tier main god’s speed, even though its true body still waited outside the Divine Realm.

The Sky Shaman Hand Seal had just retracted into the violet mist projection when the monster spider leg smashed down, tearing through space in its wake.

Pulling out every trick he knew, Song Chi summoned both the Shaking Light Star and the Death Calamity Star shadows overhead, along with the Angel King’s true spirit shadow. But in the face of an eighth-tier main god, none of it mattered—a mere tap, and those powerful illusions shattered like glass.

The reason was clear—his command of the Law of Light was still far too shallow, and his mastery of the secret arts couldn’t make up the gap.

Even the Angel King’s true spirit shadow and the newly-upgraded Angel King’s Authority Wings, now at seventh tier, were only projections. Every part of the battleship was weakened during projection warfare, and besides, the Heavenly Ruin itself was just a fifth-tier battleship; it couldn’t show the Angel King’s full might.

Trick after trick failed him. In frustration, Song Chi tried activating his Samsara Time Domain trait.

But it was useless. It had no effect on Rose, the Spider Matriarch.

Heavenly Ruin was only fifth tier while his enemy was eighth—the gap was simply insurmountable.

“Is it really impossible to get the void beast hide out of here?”

Song Chi’s thoughts spun desperately, trying to find a breakthrough among the Heavenly Ruin’s assembled parts.

Suddenly, inspiration struck. His eyes snapped back to the Black Hole Evolution Layer.

But by then, the sky-darkening spider leg came down like a judgment pillar, the market’s violet mist energy crumpling beneath its might.

Just before utter destruction—suddenly—a surge of dense black light burst from within the violet mist projection.

The dark light, empowered by the violet mist energy, rapidly spread to form a rounded domain barrier.

What astonished Song Chi was that this domain barrier—whatever tricks it used—even managed to hold back that eighth-tier main god’s stomp, halting Spider Matriarch Rose where she stood.

Seizing that single moment, the violet mist mech giant snatched up both the void beast hide and itself, vanishing with breakneck speed into the shadow side of the Void Sea.

As the purple mist projection winked out within the depths of the Void Sea, the black domain barrier shattered just as abruptly, lasting a single second.

But that one second was enough for Song Chi to escape with his most important spoils.

Inside the mythic mech’s shadow, Song Chi’s eyes flickered with lingering fear.

Granted, even if Rose had stomped straight down, at worst it would have wiped out the projection; far away in the depths of the Void Sea, Song Chi’s true self was untouched.

But that would have meant surrendering every single gain he’d seized from the God of the Hunt’s realm—a loss he simply couldn’t accept.

“So, it still takes something like ‘absolute invincibility’…”

The technique he just used to withstand Rose’s attack was none other than the ‘Black Hole Domain’ trait from the Black Hole Evolution Layer.

Since acquiring it, Song Chi had almost forgotten about this rarely-used trait.

He only remembered it on a whim, never expecting it would genuinely withstand the step of an eighth-tier spider.

The time was short—just a single heartbeat—but Song Chi knew that wasn’t the Black Hole Domain’s true limit.

According to its description, it lasted at least a second and at most no more than ten.

Why only one? Same issue as with the other golden parts—they just didn’t function at full capacity because the Heavenly Ruin was currently only fifth-tier, and this was all through a projection.

Song Chi figured that once Heavenly Ruin was upgraded to a dreadnought, the problem would ease up a lot.

His musings had barely begun when, from behind him—right at the entry to the Void Sea—a streak of spider silk shot inward.

It came screaming fast, leaving Song Chi with zero chance to dodge.

Even worse, its force was overwhelming—despite Song Chi only projecting into this battle, the silk stabbed straight into the purple mist mech shadow, using the faint link between his true self and projection to deliver a strike straight into Song Chi’s mind back in the Omniverse Market.

As Song Chi dove deep into his Torch Ancestral Orifice, he caught a glimpse, through the projection, of another colossal shadow rising outside the Void Sea’s threshold.

Summoned by the Crescent Moon Matriarch, this one wore a silver moon atop its head—its aura no weaker than Spider Matriarch Rose’s.

Not that Song Chi could pay attention; every bit of his awareness was now plunged into the Torch Ancestral Orifice.

……

Within the chaotic space, the violent, domineering spider silk mark hurtled straight toward the hovering Silver Torch Seed.

Sensing mortal danger, the Soul-Suppressing Stele hovering above the torch seed began shuddering.

As crimson radiance burst forth, the illusionary Soul-Suppressing Stele swelled, lunging to suppress the spider silk mark.

But this attack was unleashed by an eighth-tier main god—how could a red-grade Soul-Suppressing Stele possibly hold it back?

The spider silk mark suddenly accelerated, crashing headlong into the stele.

A second later, the illusory Soul-Suppressing Stele shattered, the phantom dispersing instantly.

The spider silk mark, though, was only slightly dimmed.

Without losing momentum, it then smashed apart the shadow puppet guarding the Torch Seed the same way.

Finally the spider silk mark had darkened by a tenth, and now slammed into the illusionary Dragon Whale Hall guarding the Silver Torch Seed.

The Dragon Whale Hall wasn’t like the fragile stele or puppet. As a mind-guarding avatar spawned from a Supreme Black Oddity, it could fight the silk mark head-on.

Repeated impacts left both sides growing dimmer and dimmer.

Hummm!

After another powerful collision, the silk mark now carried less than a tenth of its original strength—while the Dragon Whale Hall shadow was only half as dim.

At this point, Song Chi finally felt reassured. This silk mark was fierce, but simply couldn’t overpower the Dragon Whale Hall.

Still, he didn’t let his guard down. During the recoil after another collision, Song Chi quickly activated his Dual Pupils.

Buzz… buzz… buzz!

In a shifting swirl of space, the silk mark—already weakened to its limit—blinked out of the Torch Ancestral Orifice. When it reappeared, it was stranded in the illusion of the Dual Pupils.

If Song Chi guessed right, this silk mark was a scrap of Spider Matriarch Rose’s will.

A fragment from an eighth-tier main god—even if over ninety percent of its strength was lost—still held tremendous soul force, an irresistible prize for a fifth-tier Torch Captain like Song Chi.

That’s why he dragged it into the vision of the Dual Pupils.

Within the illusion, Dominion Power churned while the Dual Pupils coldly scrutinized the spider silk mark below.

Pushed by the power of the Dual Pupils, the soul force within the silk mark steadily dispersed.

Here, ‘dispersed’ meant sent out through the entire space of illusion—where the power would eventually be collected, then absorbed by Song Chi.

This process played out across several days. By the fifth day, all energies from the mark were used up, fading away inside the illusion.

Satisfied, Song Chi didn’t waste time checking on the void beast hide and other loot now stowed safely back at the market. Instead, after steadying his body, he immediately began absorbing the immense soul force he’d claimed from the silk mark.

This high-quality soul force, straight from an eighth-tier main god, was a treasure for his own will—better to absorb it sooner than later.

In the blink of another week, time slipped by.

When Song Chi came out of seclusion, he was visibly elated. Absorbing that pure soul force had boosted his strength considerably.

Feeling the depth of newfound mental power, he whispered,

“Now I can focus on fifty things at once. When my Guiding Technique broke through to fifth-tier, I could only handle forty-five. To gain all this from just a fragment of a soul, and from a true spirit-grade deity no less… Impressive.”

“If only my fifth-tier Dual Pupils were strong enough to restrain more of the spider silk mark’s power, I could’ve extracted even more essence.”

“It’s enough. The gains are massive already!”

Song Chi didn’t dwell on the issue, nor did he summon the Heavenly Ruin back. Instead he let his vision sweep the Free Stall Area below.

There a piece of void beast hide and a dazzling golden crystal lay on display.

These two items were all he’d reaped from the God of the Hunt’s divine realm.

Though the divine body of the God of the Hunt embedded in the beast hide might hold more, and with the Crescent Moon Tribe trading for Market Projection Tokens, there was hope for yet more silver oddities to trade in the future. All of that could count as bonus gains.