Chapter 726: Turning the Tide: The Deadly Hunt of the Serpent Demons

Even so, after the four Star-Annihilator-class ships managed to take down five Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominators, they’d depleted nearly all of their most powerful weapons.

With no heavy-hitting attacks left, they couldn’t really deliver another devastating blow to the Eighth-Tier Serpent Demons any time soon.

Group Comms:

Song Wujian: “Xiaochi, next up let’s focus on those Seventh-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons. Sure, each one’s only worth 50,000 merit points—you’d have to kill twenty to match an Eighth-Tier’s reward—but at least there are tons of them.”

Song Shiyuan: “With our strength right now, taking down same-tier Serpent Demon Dominators isn’t hard at all.”

Faced with his elders’ proposal in the group chat, Song Chi fell silent.

He knew deep down that targeting those Seventh-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons was the smart move: safer and plenty of merit points to be had.

Still, he couldn’t shake a bad feeling. According to their earlier speculation, the battle seemed to be heading into unknown territory.

If the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon clan really had struck a secret deal with the Four Torch Empires, would they let their vital Seventh-Tier Demon Dominators be slaughtered en masse?

Despite fighting on the Eighth-Tier battlefield, Song Chi knew exactly what was going on over at the Seventh-Tier thanks to the powerful surveillance from the Eye of Truth.

Unlike the Eighth-Tier battlefield, where the Serpent Demons held a massive numbers advantage, over at the Seventh-Tier, there simply weren’t as many Serpent Demons as Torch Battleships. Each battleship was strong enough to offset the will of the Demon God Floating-Land itself, and with thousands of Sovereign-level enslaved beasts fighting alongside, those nearly ten thousand Seventh-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons were suppressed from start to finish.

In just a few dozen minutes, nearly a thousand Seventh-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons had already been wiped out. At this rate, it really wasn’t an exaggeration to say they’d be completely slaughtered.

Thinking about this, Song Chi made up his mind.

He shook his head and said:

“Elder, you three head for the Seventh-Tier battlefield. I’ve still got a few trump cards—I’m going to see if I can take down another two Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominators!”

Hearing his reply, Song Wujian and the others—never ones to hesitate—nodded without fuss:

“Alright. Just be careful. If it gets too risky, head to the Seventh-Tier field!”

With that, the three Star-Annihilator ships quickly changed course, tearing toward the wide-spanning Seventh-Tier battlefield below.

With the benefit of the Mermaid Queen’s Blessing, plus the Tiger Carapace King Bug, the Star Devourer Wolf, the Starry Sky Dragon Shark, and several other Seventh-Tier enslaved creatures at their side—and some Battleship Replications helping out—Song Wujian’s squad swept into the fray, cutting down one Seven-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demon after another.

……

On the Eighth-Tier battlefield, a particular Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominator—empowered by the Demon God Floating-Land’s will and now fighting at an early Ninth-Tier level—was under siege.

Nearly twenty powerful Eighth-Tier beings of various races had surrounded it, and even with its new strength, the Serpent Demon was pinned down.

This army of Eighth-Tier beasts—Angel Kings, Frost Giants, Monohorn Leviathans, and more—was summoned by over thirty nearby Star River-class Captains.

The Song Family’s history went back a mere five thousand years, but even they could enslave Eighth-Tier creatures. For these dozens of Star River-class Captains, their families had histories stretching tens of thousands, even over a hundred thousand years. Of course they had high-tier enslaved beasts too.

And that wasn’t all—on a nearby battlefield, two Ninth-Tier enslaved beasts were fighting as well: a Ninth-Tier Longji Dominator Whale and a Ninth-Tier Blackflame Dragon.

These two were the trump cards of the Shensia Pei family and Beidou Sevenstar Hall, now pitted against four Eighth-Tier Serpent Demons, each fighting with Ninth-Tier strength thanks to the Floating-land’s will.

BZZZZT!

With a ripple of spatial energy, right in the middle of the siege, a Star-Annihilator-class ship suddenly appeared.

“Reckless!”

Far off on another Eighth-Tier battlefield, inside the main control room of a Star River-class ship, the Greedwolf Hall Master frowned.

He instantly recognized the Heavenly Ruin battleship replication. Even knowing it was only a replicated ship—and losing it wouldn’t matter—in a fight where every ounce of Eighth-Tier strength was precious, Greedwolf Hall Master clearly didn’t want Song Chi butting in.

Just as he prepared to notify Song Chi’s real body, the side battlefield changed dramatically.

Who knew what Song Chi was thinking—right after appearing, the Heavenly Ruin Mirror Warship became a blur, dashing headlong into the Ninth-Tier-powered Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominator.

At the prow of the Mirror Warship, several main cannons had been swapped out for two razor-sharp ramming prows flashing coldly. Maybe expecting evasive maneuvers, the Mirror Warship suddenly vanished mid-charge—its flash-jump ability kicking in—and reappeared point-blank before the Serpent Demon.

The sudden charge left the Serpent Demon no time to react. The two icy prows plunged deep into its chest.

Truthfully, the instant the flash-jump ended, the powerful Rules Field around the enemy—already at Ninth-Tier strength—reacted violently to the sudden arrival. But with Song Chi remotely controlling it, the Mirror Warship triggered the Mythic Pulsar Energy Shield’s ‘Mythic Pulse Wave,’ plunging the demon’s energy into silence and buying just enough time.

That instant was enough—the two prows stabbed straight through the chest of the Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominator.

The blinding pain sent the demon howling, and that was just the beginning.

No matter how deadly, two ramming prows weren’t enough to finish off this Serpent Demon. With grim determination, Song Chi issued his final command.

[Receiving command: Initiate battleship self-destruct sequence!]

That’s right—he’d instructed the Mirror Warship to self-destruct. When the other Star River-class Captains saw this, they all frowned, feeling Song Chi was going too far just for a kill.

Sure, he was decisive—but no matter how bold, pulling this off wasn’t guaranteed.

Even the self-destruction of an ultimate Star-Annihilator-class ship might not kill a Ninth-Tier-powered Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominator—especially since this wasn’t even a real Star-Annihilator, just a replicated ship…

That thought flickered through their minds, but soon their astonishment returned.

“What’s that?!”

When the energy wave of the self-destruct faded, at ground zero where the Mirror Warship should have been dust, it suddenly emerged again from the void, as if the explosion had been a mere illusion.

Yet the next moments proved it had been very real.

Because the newly reappeared Heavenly Ruin Mirror Warship chose to self-destruct again.

Already badly wounded from the first point-blank blast, the Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominator reacted strongly to this new threat.

Ninth-Tier energy gathered around it, trying to intercept the Mirror Warship’s next move.

But right then, a new dark glow shot out from the Mirror Warship.

It wasn’t the Mythic Pulsar Energy Shield this time, but the Chaos Godhood’s ‘Chaos Oracle: Outer’ effect.

The black ray plunged the Serpent Demon Dominator straight into confusion, leaving it unable to respond properly.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Another self-destruction rocked the field. Two consecutive blasts—plus the injuries the Serpent Demon had suffered from the swarm of Eighth-Tier beasts—finally brought it down.

Just like that, Song Chi claimed his sixth Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon kill.

He glanced at the real-time Majin Floating-Land Merit Leaderboard.

Unlike the other Dominators, this one—powered up to the Ninth-Tier—awarded a whopping 1,500,000 merit points, a step above the usual million.

[1st: Longji Dominator Whale · Star River-class Ship (4,280,000)]

[2nd: Immortal Qin Zhao King · Star River-class Ship (3,700,000)]

[3rd: Heavenly Ruin · Star-Annihilator-class Ship (3,508,500)]

……

With that 1.5 million boost, Song Chi rocketed up to third place. Seeing himself on the podium, he let out a quiet sigh of relief.

If you counted the three Dominator kills Song Wujian’s team had, he’d soon have over six million merit points, easily grabbing first place.

But that wouldn’t last. He knew he was only ahead right now because the other Star River-class Captains were double- or triple-teamed and couldn’t hunt freely. With Song Wujian’s group helping him, he’d barely clung to first. But once the situation shifted and more Captains were free, their merit gains would skyrocket.

So he couldn’t get complacent—he had to stockpile as many merit points as possible while he had the chance.

With this in mind, his attention turned to the Mirror Warship.

To be precise, to one particular component onboard the Mirror Warship.

Timepiece Chessboard lv90

Quality: Prismatic / Upper Grade

……

{Nine Lives Game of Life and Death: The 361st piece of the Timepiece Chessboard is a special ‘Nine Lives Piece,’ sealed with vast life-and-death powers. It enables absolute resurrection or obliteration of a designated target (as long as the target’s level doesn’t exceed the component’s enhancement level). Each activation shatters the piece a bit—after seven uses, it breaks entirely and is replaced by a random new effect.}

As others suspected, the Mirror Warship really had been destroyed—revived by the ‘Nine Lives Game of Life and Death’ trait.

Now, that effect had only seven uses left.

Of course, this wasn’t the real Timepiece Chessboard from the main Heavenly Ruin, but a replicated one.

With a quick glance at the real Heavenly Ruin’s control, Song Chi noted its own Nine Lives Piece still had eight uses.

As for how the Timepiece Chessboard had been replicated onto the Mirror Warship—the answer was simple.

Song Chi had used the Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar before summoning the Mirror Warship, using it to upgrade the Mirror Image Split component.

After evolving Mirror Image Split to prismatic lower-grade, its ‘mirror component quality up one tier’ effect let it replicate even upper-grade prismatic components.

Now, the Mirror Warship could copy everything on the real Heavenly Ruin—including the Eye of Truth and the Timepiece Chessboard. That’s why Song Chi could charge at a Ninth-Tier-powered Dominator alone.

And after losing the Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar, how did the Neutron-Star Core Armor become a prismatic shield? He’d planned for that too.

Since learning that the Destiny Compass could extract Destiny Holy Blood from the clone Blood Chalice, Song Chi had thought over the Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar’s usage. A component’s true value only showed when it was used—hoarding forever was a mistake.

So before summoning the Mirror Warship, he took his time: first upgrading Mirror Image Split to prismatic, then using the Destiny Compass to fully extract the Holy Blood from the clone Blood Chalice.

From there, he shifted the Miracle Clone Pod back to a Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar template at lv90, and only then used the mythic-grade Mirror Image Split to call forth the Mirror Warship.

And thus a Mirror Warship at peak power was born.

As for sending the Destiny Holy Blood back to the Blood Chalice, he just had to use the Pusa Zen Seal to shortcut the Compass trait, then restore the clone Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar to its source as a Blood Chalice template.

“Seven uses left. With luck, I can pull off this stunt two or three more times…”

Muttering to himself, the Heavenly Ruin Mirror Warship quickly left the battlefield to hunt for its next target.

With a replicated Eye of Truth radar, he had access to detailed info on every Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon nearby—making each attack a high-yield effort.

[Name: Eight-Armed Serpent Demon · Tuoge]

[Level: Eighth-Tier]

[Current Status: Vitality loss 2%]

[Health: 82% / 100%]

[Innate Abilities: Petrifying Ray, Serpent Prison, Serpent Demon Avatar, Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Fist]

[Favorability: -69]

[Weakness: Although the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon’s body is strong, there’s a special structure in the palm of each arm—this is the species’ greatest weakness.]

……

[Name: Eight-Armed Serpent Demon · Togu]

[Level: Eighth-Tier]

[Current Status: Vitality loss 26%]

[Health: 48% / 100%]

[Innate Abilities: Petrifying Ray, Serpent Demon Avatar, Heavenly Serpent Seal]

[Favorability: -72]

[Weakness: This serpent demon’s body is strong, but it once suffered a fatal wound to the top of its head. Although it’s mostly healed, that’s still its greatest weakness.]

Sweeping through targets, Song Chi’s gaze locked on Togu—this Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon was weak and still bore an old, deadly wound. Perfect.

“You’re the one.”

One thought and the Mirror Warship’s engines roared, sending it straight for its new target.

This Serpent Demon’s opponent was a Star River-class Captain from the Chiyu Divine Dynasty, along with another Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon. At this point, that Star River ship could barely hold out, so when the Heavenly Ruin Mirror Warship moved in to relieve half the pressure, the Captain was just grateful—not the least bit put off.

With advance knowledge of the enemy’s weak spot, Song Chi’s battle plan was set.

Instead of clashing in ship form, he summoned the Flamewrath Giant, sending it berserk to hold off the Serpent Demon’s attacks, while the Mirror Warship shifted to Mythical Mech Form to circle the edge and pick moments to strike.

After just a few minutes, he seized the perfect opening in the melee. The Mech Giant blinked atop the Serpent Demon and drove the Immortal Spear straight down through its skull.

It looked casual, but for an Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominator, that was fatal. Under the puzzled gaze of the other Star River-class Captain, the demon crashed to the ground.

……

As time passed, battles all across Floating-Land Sky Vault were tilting ever more in favor of the Torch Human Civilization.

At this pace, things were getting dire—up above, on the Ninth-Tier battlefield.

On the main Shensia Jiuli and against two Ninth-Tier Serpent Demons, a thickly-muscled arm wielded a tricolored battleaxe, clashing again with the Jiuli’s seven-colored shield.

BZZZZT!

Vivid ripples raced across the seven-colored energy shield, its brilliance dimming further.

At this rate, if the Shensia Jiuli just held out a bit longer, the shield would shatter. But suddenly, the axe-wielding Ninth-Tier Demon pulled back.

It left only an afterimage behind, and before the other Demon’s reaction, it had already vanished.

“Tuo Jie, what are you doing?!”

The strongest, Tuo Jie, left. Instantly, all the pressure on the Jiuli fell to the remaining Serpent Demon, sending it into a panic.

But Tuo Jie didn’t answer. Using a high-tier spatial blink, it crossed billions of kilometers, then hurled a strange black horn.

Its near-Tenth-Tier Dominion Power raged, pouring into the black horn and causing it to tremble violently.

At this, all fighting on the Ninth-Tier battlefield froze, every eye locked on Tuo Jie’s position.

In an instant, both sides reacted.

A few Superdimensional Motherships, which had been locked in battle with the Ninth-Tier Demons, roared their engines and rushed at Tuo Jie. On the other hand, the Ninth-Tier Serpent Demons did everything to stop them.

Below, on the Eighth-Tier battlefield, two Superdimensional Mothership replications struggled to break free of the Serpent Demons’ grip. But the Demons, already briefed, refused to give them the chance.

“Today, the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon clan faces disaster. We, your loyal children, summon you—please, Our Lord, descend and judge these wicked invaders!”

Ancient syllables poured from Tuo Jie’s mouth, and the black horn floating high above shook even harder.

Suddenly, deep in the Majin Floating-Land Sky Vault, winds howled and clouds gathered. A terrifying vortex storm took shape.

Seeing this, the three Torch Kings seemed to realize something, pouring all their strength into activating their flagship’s special components.

At the prow of the Heaven’s Holy Radiance mothership, the mothership’s signature hyper-orbit cannon charged in seconds, then unleashed its fury.

A beam over 100,000 kilometers wide blasted forth, aimed directly at the barely-formed vortex.

As one of the ship’s ultimate weapons, that beam carried power beyond Ninth-Tier—almost touching Tenth-Tier.

If it hit home, the destruction would be unimaginable.

Yet, just then, from the heart of the vortex—a jet-black finger, larger than three battleships, jabbed outward.

Wild energy wreathed that finger, countless strands of law swirling about. Chaotic storms erupted everywhere it passed.

At the sight, the three Torch Kings went pale. Without a word, they immediately activated another ship component.

Three-Corps Reliquary · Ju lv110

Quality: Prismatic / Extremity

Unique Trait: God · Three-Corps Ultrastate Mech

Effect: Fitted ship gains a ‘Divine Head Aura,’ immune to all external spiritual and soul-type energies.

……

Note: This component requires 30 slot spaces to install.

{God · Three-Corps Ultrastate Mech: Consumes 10 million Eon Energy Points, manually activates with the ‘Ju’ and ‘Jiao’ sister components fitted to a ship, uniting them into an Ultrastate Mech. Grants boundless power for 60 minutes. Cooldown depends on Ultrastate Mech uptime.}

……

Three-Corps Reliquary · Ju lv110

Quality: Prismatic / Extremity

Unique Trait: God · Three-Corps Ultrastate Mech

Effect: Fitted ship gains a ‘Divine Body Aura,’ ship hull vastly strengthened.

———

Three-Corps Reliquary · Jiao lv110

Quality: Prismatic / Extremity

Unique Trait: God · Three-Corps Ultrastate Mech

Effect: Fitted ship gains a ‘Divine Speed Aura,’ masters the speed of the Sea of Stars.

———

All three related prismatic extremity components activated at once. The three motherships rapidly shifted forms—first into mythic mechs, then instantly connecting together.