Chapter 689: Sealing the Shura Emperor

Just then, the Ashura Emperor’s blood-red blade finally came down, the force behind the swing fueled by fresh blood spurting from his own mouth. Only with this sacrifice did he manage to obliterate the second purple mist hand.

But as he looked up and saw the miniature Death Calamity Star plummeting toward him, the crimson frenzy faded from his eyes, replaced by overwhelming terror.

The Deathstar Projection that Song Chi had summoned carried the terrifying power of a near Ninth-Tier cultivator. With the additional might of the Shaking Light Star overlay, its destructive force became even more monstrous.

And now, with the secret art Deathstar Rapid Detonation, Song Chi hurled the Deathstar Projection straight at his foe. The moment it detonated, the Ashura Emperor would be staring death in the face.

Suddenly, a pillar of blood-red light shot up from Blood Shura City below, piercing through the city’s energy shield before plunging right into the Ashura Emperor’s body.

At first, Song Chi assumed it was some kind of special reinforcement. But when he saw the Ashura Emperor dragged helplessly toward the city at breakneck speed by the blood-red pillar, realization dawned.

“Trying to escape? Too late!”

Two special chains burst from the void, whipping through the air to entangle the Ashura Emperor’s body in an attempt to halt his descent.

Yet at this point, red and silver Voidlock Chains proved far too fragile. The Ashura Emperor didn’t even need to act. The Law of Blood swirling around him simply corroded both chains in an instant, rendering them useless.

Seeing this, the Heavenly Ruin, under control of the Sky-Domain AI, activated another of its components.

But it wasn’t the Pusa Zen Seal. Neither its External Time Stop nor its Samsara Time Domain abilities could turn the tide right now.

The problem was, the time stopping effect could only target the Ashura Emperor directly and had no effect on the blood-red beam pulling him down. As for the Samsara Time Domain, while it could slow time, who knew how much good that would do against a supercity like Blood Shura City, whose pulling force surpassed the norm for an Eighth-Tier city.

So, the Sky-Domain AI went with the safest play.

Timepiece Chessboard — Time • Game!

High above the illusory Shaking Light Star, a virtual chessboard took shape—thirty-six radiant, multicolored chess pieces forming a shining pattern. The moment it appeared, all of Blood Shura City’s upper airspace was shrouded, and time itself slowed to a crawl—dozens of times slower than before, definitely at least forty times the normal rate, if not quite fifty.

With time so heavily slowed, the Ashura Emperor’s descent all but stalled. Meanwhile, Song Chi’s secret art—powered by his authority as the battleship’s captain—remained completely unaffected.

The miniature Death Calamity Star plummeted at breakneck speed, crossing the distance in a flash to hang right above the Ashura Emperor’s head.

Desperate, the Ashura Emperor tried to use a golden spatial oddity tied to his body, hoping to teleport straight back into Blood Shura City. But he never even finished activating it before the Deathstar Projection smashed down on him with brutal force.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

He was only still alive because he’d activated a black heart-guard mirror earlier. After his outer Law of Blood shield was stripped away, the black-quality mirror took the full brunt of the Deathstar’s first explosive impact.

Even so, after that heart-guard mirror dimmed and broke, the Ashura Emperor couldn’t withstand the rapid detonation energy and was seriously wounded.

This wasn’t a joke. The Market Projection wasn’t anything like that Seventh-Tier Doomstar Lord from before. The Deathstar Projection, summoned with near-Ninth-Tier strength and the Shaking Light Star overlay, was on another level of terrifying.

But Song Chi wasn’t done yet. After unleashing Deathstar Rapid Detonation, another streak of purple energy shot from the swirling mist above.

This was the Void-Return Ray, formed when Song Chi used the Immortal Spear in the Omniverse Market to unleash the Return to the Ruins Slash secret art. Already badly injured, the Ashura Emperor’s wounds deepened under this purple Void-Return Ray.

Only then did Song Chi finally pull back.

And that was when the Heavenly Ruin, obeying orders, sped in from the flank of the battlefield.

But just to be safe, before it got close to the Ashura Emperor, the Sky-Domain AI had the Heavenly Ruin switch to micro neutron star form.

BOOM!

A golden mark streaked out from the micro neutron star just as the Frosted Void Cage screen overhead trembled violently, even before the mark could pierce the Ashura Emperor’s body.

Inside the Omniverse Market, Song Chi instantly sensed the anomaly through the Market Projection. Judging from the ferocity of that trembling cage, he could even estimate the strength of whoever had intervened from outside.

“Ninth-Tier Overlord. So that’s the true trump card of this Ashura Emperor…”

Song Chi’s expression darkened at the thought.

Back on Red Star Continent, the Sky-Domain AI, prodded by the Voidform Avatar, urgently ramped up activation of the Celestial Authority Ring’s enslavement mark.

The very next moment, the first enslavement mark sank into the Ashura Emperor’s body—but, as expected, it was like tossing a stone into a bottomless sea. There was no reaction.

The first attempt at enslavement ended in a clear failure.

Without missing a beat, he tried a second time, then a third…

As the fourth golden ray of enslavement shot out, the Frosted Void Cage screen overhead trembled once more. Looking up, Song Chi saw that the barrier had dimmed to its limit. One more attack would shatter it completely.

Seeing this, the Sky-Domain AI didn’t need instructions from Song Chi and automatically made the optimal choice.

The Pusa Zen Seal was reactivated. With the time acceleration effect, the previously cooled-down Frosted Void Cage trait rapidly recovered, and the screen was reformed and reinforced.

A fresh golden barrier shimmered into existence above their heads.

But it didn’t last long before the familiar tremors shook it again.

“Something’s not right. Even for a Ninth-Tier Overlord, there’s no way they could attack that fast, back to back…”

One or two bursts might be possible with special tricks, but anything beyond that defied logic.

A chill ran down Song Chi’s spine as a new thought struck him.

“Don’t tell me… there’s more than one Ninth-Tier Overlord outside?”

Once that idea entered his mind, he couldn’t keep calm. If there really were multiple Overlords out there, any further delay could spell disaster for the Heavenly Ruin.

At Ninth Tier, these beings stood at the undisputed peak of the Sea of Stars, ancient existences who’d survived countless millennia. Who knew what tricks they had up their sleeves? A single Tome of Divine Will certainly wasn’t enough insurance. For all he knew, some hidden ace might trap the Heavenly Ruin here forever.

“We can’t wait any longer!”

With his decision made, Song Chi sent the command—and moments later, the Sky-Domain AI activated another component.

Inside the control room, rainbow light surged. Then a slender chain infused with the Law of Time shot from the micro neutron star, silently piercing the Ashura Emperor’s body without a soul noticing.

Next, under the stunned gaze of countless nonhuman beings below, the micro neutron star—and the Eighth-Tier Ashura Emperor with it—vanished from the sky.

The sudden turn of events triggered a chorus of panic among the millions below, but no matter how frantically they searched the skies, neither figure reappeared.

Unknown Void. A sealed space somewhere.

The micro neutron star and Ashura Emperor that vanished above Blood Shura City suddenly materialized in this strange, shadowy domain.

It was frightfully dark here, as if chaos itself had swallowed all light.

The gravely wounded Ashura Emperor looked around, confused. Yet the micro neutron star—the battleship—remained utterly still, unmoved.

This was no ordinary place. It was a high-dimensional space spun from the Time • Game trait of the Timepiece Chessboard.

But before the Ashura Emperor could puzzle it out, a new crisis seized his attention: his life force was draining away at an alarming rate.

That was the core power of Time • Game. Anyone dragged into this chessboard domain would have their strength forcibly reduced by one whole Tier.

When the Ashura Emperor was finally weakened to the Seventh Tier, the micro neutron star launched another golden enslavement mark.

With his very essence dragged low by this domain, the Celestial Authority Ring’s power surged like never before. For the first time, Song Chi saw genuine struggle and panic flicker in the Ashura Emperor’s eyes.

Previously, dozens of enslavement marks had been shrugged off without effect. But now, something fundamental had shifted.

Still, this attempt fell short. The mark failed to take hold.

The second try—failure.

The third—still failed.

…

Then, on the sixth attempt, the golden mark finally wasn’t wiped away. As it dimmed to an ember, it suddenly burned itself deep into the Ashura Emperor’s very soul.

Hiss—

The moment enslavement succeeded and the Heavenly Ruin returned to its battleship form, its hatch silently slid open.

If Song Chi had been in control, he might’ve yelled and cheered. But the Sky-Domain AI felt nothing, simply carrying out his orders with machine-like dedication.

…

Outside, above Blood Shura City.

Just a few seconds after both the ship and Ashura Emperor vanished, ripples spread in the air above the city. The Heavenly Ruin reappeared alone—while the Ashura Emperor was nowhere to be found.

All over the city, roars and shrieks of disbelief echoed again, but Song Chi couldn’t care less.

Inside the control room, the Tome of Divine Will suddenly pulsed with black light. Then a powerful force yanked the entire ship upward, turning it into a streaking arc of darkness that shot toward the rift behind the Shaking Light Star projection.

At that exact moment, the second Frosted Void Cage above shattered completely. Two gigantic hands reached down from the heavens, coming straight for the black arc of the Heavenly Ruin.

But Song Chi had been expecting this. Without hesitation, the lingering Market Projection of purple mist surged up to meet them head-on.