Chapter 728: Clash Above the Abyss: The Serpent Demon’s Fall

After the arrival of the five Star-Annihilator-class Ships, the six Captains barely exchanged pleasantries—just a few polite nods in the newly linked comm channel.

They were about to face a Ninth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominator, a being at the peak of Tier Nine. Even as some of the strongest Star-Annihilator-class Captains among all the empires, the pressure was immense. No one felt like chatting.

They quickly nailed down the battle roles for each ship.

Once everyone gave a quick rundown of their own battleships, the Captain from the Divine Xia Empire spoke up:

“Here’s the plan. Heavenly Ruin, Qin Xiaolong, and the Star Emperor Croc with berserk abilities under my command—your three will focus on close combat and pinning the Ninth-Tier Serpent Demon. Goddess of Light, Eternal Red Dragon, and I will handle fire support. Zhoutian Beidou will provide control from the perimeter.”

“Sounds good!”

“Agreed!”

All six Captains answered decisively, quickly agreeing to the practical strategy.

The six Star-Annihilator-class Ships split into three groups.

Heavenly Ruin and Qin Xiaolong took the lead, charging straight at the Serpent Demon with the Star Emperor Croc, who in its berserk state was already showing traces of Tier Nine power.

Goddess of Light, Tianxia Jiuding, and Eternal Red Dragon hovered just below the rift in the Demon God Floating-Land’s shield, forming up with their prows lined up as they gathered energy for their main cannons.

Zhoutian Beidou prowled along the outside, intermittently hindering the Ninth-Tier Serpent Demon with various control tactics.

Zhoutian Beidou carried a legendary component called the Zhoutian Beidou Star Chain, which unleashed countless starlit chains imbued with laws of starlight. These chains sliced through the void, catching enemies off guard.

Sure enough, as Heavenly Ruin and Qin Xiaolong clashed with the Serpent Demon, several starlit chains materialized silently from the void, twisting around two of the Serpent Demon’s eight arms.

Although it was only two arms, it still managed to restrict the demon considerably.

Seizing the moment, Heavenly Ruin, Qin Xiaolong, and the berserk Star Emperor Croc attacked in unison. Gleaming ramming prows and crocodilian fangs pierced deep into the demon’s flesh.

The three rear ships didn’t waste the opportunity. Three blasts of terrifying power ripped through the void, striking the Serpent Demon with deadly precision.

Ssss! Ssss! Ssss!

Blood welled up in the Serpent Demon’s vertical pupils; furious hisses spilled from its mouth. It was clear their attacks hurt far more than it had anticipated.

Song Chi and the others weren’t surprised.

Their positioning wasn’t random; it was meticulously planned according to their ships’ individual capabilities.

For example, the two close-combat ships—Heavenly Ruin and Qin Xiaolong—each carried at least one tricolored hull armor or energy shield, and in Qin Xiaolong’s case, both components were even ranked tricolored lower-tier.

As for the three ships on fire support, each boasted tricolored Star-Annihilator Cannons.

Whoosh!

Sensing just how troublesome these six ships were, the Ninth-Tier Serpent Demon suddenly unleashed a gray ray from its slit-pupiled eyes.

“Watch out, it’s a Petrifying Ray!”

Song Chi’s warning rang out in the comm channel, but it was already too late.

The Petrifying Ray shot out at blinding speed, hitting the Star Emperor Croc before anyone could react.

Knowing both ships were protected by high-grade energy shields, the Serpent Demon aimed the ray not at Heavenly Ruin or Qin Xiaolong, but straight at the Star Emperor Croc.

The grayish-white energy struck the croc’s scales, quickly spreading out from the point of impact.

Though its Tier Nine energy markers slowed the spread considerably, the croc’s movements visibly slowed under the petrification’s effect.

The Eight-Armed Serpent Demon wasn’t about to miss the chance. Its remaining six arms lashed out all at once—some wielding blades, others spears, a few fists. Six arms, six attack styles, but all at the same terrifying Tier Nine limit.

Even for the fierce Star Emperor Croc, taking all six hits head-on would mean grave injury, if not worse.

With that realization, Song Chi and the Qin Xiaolong’s captain made entirely different calls.

Qin Xiaolong’s hull suddenly transformed into a massive meteor, ramming straight at the Serpent Demon’s main body—classic move: attack the home base to relieve the siege.

Song Chi instead directed Heavenly Ruin to dash toward the Star Emperor Croc, and along the way, he summoned four battleship projections.

Thanks to the ‘Quadruple Projection’ trait of the black Void Sea Projection Emperor’s Tomb component, these projections had solid fighting strength. Under Song Chi’s control, each projection launched at one of the demon’s four free arms.

For the last two arms, he activated the Dragonblood Demon-Sealing Chains.

The arrival of jet-black chains restrained one arm, while Heavenly Ruin itself intercepted the final attack.

Just as Heavenly Ruin finished blocking the six arms, Qin Xiaolong arrived right beside the demon.

Its meteor-shrouded hull slammed into the Serpent Demon’s side. Even with its immense size, the demon was hurled backward by the force.

Early on, it looked like the six ships had the upper hand. But everything changed when the Serpent Demon unleashed Eight-Armed Serpent Prison.

Summoned by a Ninth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominator, the Serpent Prison’s domain suppression was indescribable. Heavenly Ruin and Qin Xiaolong could hardly move, as if the very void around them was locked tight.

Inside Heavenly Ruin’s control room, Song Chi glanced to his right.

There lay a special gold component aboard Heavenly Ruin.

Level 80: Blood War Stele!

This ever-active anti-control component now looked dim and powerless. The oppressive force from outside had completely suppressed it, nullifying its effect.

It wasn’t just the Blood War Stele. The Domain Countercurrent Device on the other side was struggling too.

Against a Ninth-Tier domain, the Device barely made a dent, much less disrupted the Serpent Prison itself.

Seeing this, Song Chi prepared to activate the Timepiece Chessboard.

The only way out of the Serpent Prison was to try and tear it apart from within, using a greater domain strength.

Song Chi’s best bet for that was the ‘Time • Chessboard’ feature of the Timepiece Chessboard.

But before he could act, Tianxia Jiuding down below the shield rift made the first move.

Instead of firing its tricolored main cannon, the massive ship unleashed a beam of tricolored radiance—this time, from a tricolored shield-breaking component.

That radiant blast tore open a gaping wound in the Prison’s domain barrier.

With the barrier breached, the suppressive force inside dropped, easing the pressure on Heavenly Ruin and the other ships.

Engines, flash-displacement units, and other accelerating components roared into action as all six ships shot upward—racing to break free from the shadow of the Serpent Prison.

But by then, the Serpent Demon had finished charging a truly devastating attack.

A colossal shadowy demon blade, spanning millions of kilometers, took form above the battlefield, radiating mythic might as it cleaved downward with lethal intent.

A massive spatial rift split open along the blade’s path, growing rapidly and shrouding the entire domain in darkness and chilling waves—an abyss threatening to devour all.

Watching the blade plunge closer, Song Chi felt an icy terror in his heart. He knew—this was the closest he’d ever been to death since awakening the Torch Seed.

Multicolored light surged as he hastily assembled an illusory chessboard made of thirty-six Timepieces overhead.

Consuming thirty-six more Timepieces, the number left on his Timepiece Chessboard now dipped below thirty. For now, it would be hard to activate again.

But right now, there was no choice—for survival, Song Chi had to use the Timepiece Chessboard.

The phantasmal chessboard slowed the descent of the giant demon blade dramatically.

Originally, the plan was to use this moment to escape from the Serpent Prison and get out from under the blade’s shadow. But the void itself suddenly froze, sending chills down all their spines.

This was no unique suppression technique like before—it was real spatial imprisonment, likely triggered by a special spatial oddity wielded by the Serpent Demon.

……

Market Token!

For a brief moment, Song Chi considered activating the Market Token sealed in his Ancestral Orifice. Whatever happened next, his own safety came first.

At that moment, a new commotion reached his ears.

Noise erupted through the comm channel.

“Look, the Bloodspawn finally got in!”

Song Chi followed their eyes upward and sure enough, thanks to the Ashura Emperor’s help and their efforts buying time, the Bloodspawn had squeezed its way into the Floating-Land.

Whoosh!

A rainbow arc swept across the sky.

The six of them barely registered what was happening, only sensing as the oppressive pressure on their ships suddenly vanished.

Glancing around, they realized the Serpent Prison had completely collapsed. Even the giant black demon blade looming above them had disappeared without a trace.

That wasn’t even the most dramatic part. Just a second before, the Ninth-Tier Serpent Demon was radiating murderous power. Now, its body had been sliced in two: four cleanly severed arms on one side, and half a torso left.

In that moment, Song Chi and the others understood. The mirror Bloodspawn, upon entering the Floating-Land, had immediately answered the call from Shensia Jiuli. But before heading off to the mythic battlefield, Emperor Jiang had it take down the Serpent Demon first.

Even that casual attack had critically wounded the Ninth-Tier Dominator.

This was the difference between Tier Nine lifeforms and true mythic beings.

“Any thoughts, everyone?”

Once more, the Divine Xia Empire Star-Annihilator-class Captain spoke in the comm channel.

He was ranked eighth on the Torch Star-Annihilator Leaderboard, placing him one notch above Qin Xiaolong’s Captain; everyone recognized his authority.

As soon as he spoke, Song Chi and the others instantly understood the implication.

After a brief pause, they all glanced at each other, the answer reflected in every pair of eyes.

“Let’s stick to the plan. If we succeed in the kill, we six split the contribution points equally. As for the Ninth-Tier Dominion Soul and Dominion Origin Blood we’ll refine… we’ll settle that later!”

“Let’s do it!”

With that, the six Star-Annihilator-class Ships, plus the Star Emperor Croc, lunged at the Serpent Demon once more.

This time though, they had a new ally—the Ashura Emperor, still berserk.

Despite a few grotesque tumors on its body, the Ashura Emperor was still exuding the power of an early Tier Nine beast.

The “Enslave Seal: Berserk” effect would last a while longer, so Song Chi let it lead the charge against the Serpent Demon.

Even with half its body and four arms gone, the Serpent Demon Dominator wasn’t done yet. When Song Chi and the others surrounded it, it fought back with ferocious resolve.

This was still a Tier Nine Dominator, its will bolstered by the Floating-Land Origin. Even gravely wounded, every counterattack shook the field.

The Ashura Emperor and Star Emperor Croc, who struck first, were easily forced back. A few of the Captains worried their foe might try to self-destruct.

If they couldn’t subdue it quickly enough and the demon blew itself up, not only would they all be doomed—even the mid and low-tier Torch warships hundreds of billions of kilometers away would be at risk.

In Heavenly Ruin’s control room, Song Chi hesitated, then made his move:

“Everyone, I’m confident I can deal a critical blow to this Serpent Demon—maybe even finish it. But as a condition, the drop of Ninth-Tier Dominion Origin Blood inside it is mine. How does that sound?”

The channel fell quiet. The other five Captains hesitated.

Song Chi didn’t rush them. He knew the true value of a single drop of Ninth-Tier Dominion Origin Blood.

Although he’d slain the Lord of Truth and claimed a Ninth-Tier Fortune Holy Blood before, the Machina Race didn’t even possess Dominion Origin Blood. This was his best chance.

A drop of Dominion Origin Blood could boost a Star-Annihilator-class Ship’s chances of advancing to a Star River-class by 12%. For any Captain, that was priceless.

After a few seconds of silence, the five others slowly nodded.

Reluctant as they were, nobody was willing to stake their life.

If the Serpent Demon Dominator decided to self-destruct, even if each of them had a solid trump card, who could guarantee survival?

And even if there was no explosion, with six contenders present, who could say if they’d be the lucky one to get the blood in the end? Survival came first.

Seeing they all agreed, Song Chi sprang into action.

Inside the control room, dark-energy swirled through his body as, light-years below, Heavenly Ruin’s mirror warship—currently fending off an Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon—responded to a special summoning. With no objections from the projection itself, the battleship became a streak of black rushing off to the flank.

Using the Tome of Divine Will to summon the mirror warship, Song Chi enacted one more move.

He replicated the Nine Lives Game of Life and Death from the Timepiece Chessboard—and activated it!

Despite its reputation as a revival ability, “Nine Lives Game of Life and Death” could also be used for targeted erasure—to directly eliminate a specific living being.

Right now, Song Chi’s chosen target was the Serpent Demon.

He’d never used the eradication effect of ‘Nine Lives Game of Life and Death’ before, but this was as good a chance as any.

A strand of chilling underworld deathly energy shot out, landing precisely on the Serpent Demon, whose wounded body immediately stiffened in midair.

Song Chi thought the demon’s life force had been wiped out; but a few seconds later, it started moving again.

Outwardly, it seemed unchanged, but with the Eye of Truth, Song Chi saw the truth of its condition.

From 28% health remaining, its vitality plummeted to 5%.

Not hesitating, Song Chi activated Nine Lives Game of Life and Death again.

This time, the Serpent Demon’s life force vanished for good. At the same moment, Heavenly Ruin’s cloned Blood Chalice successfully collected a second wisp of Ninth-Tier Holy Blood.

Glancing at the mirror warship’s Timepiece Chessboard, Song Chi saw only three uses left for the ‘Nine Lives Game of Life and Death’ trait. He didn’t care.

Once he summoned another mirror warship, charges would reset. As long as the original on Heavenly Ruin had the trait, he could use it endlessly.

That’s why, for major battles like this, he worried little about expending this feature.

After discussing with the others, Song Chi used the Superbody Compression Plate to put the Serpent Demon’s corpse into Heavenly Ruin’s hold. Then, his gaze swept toward the myth-level battlefield.

The Serpent Demon was certainly the apex threat for the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization, but clearly, the real tide-turner was that mythic battlefield.

After such a drawn-out struggle, the Tri-Corpse Hyperstate Mecha had become battered and pitted; all three external energy shields were overloaded. Even with the mirror Bloodspawn joining the fray, the battle was still dominated by the Eight-Armed Demon God.

Trying to use borrowed, artificially-forced mythic power to challenge an abyssal demon god who’s survived endless eons was… simply too much to hope for.

Fortunately, the Demon God’s main body remained deep in the Bottomless Abyss. The one reaching across the Endless Starry Sky was only a finger—or, now with the Bloodspawn’s arrival, had become an entire Demon God arm.

If not for that, the Tri-Corpse Hyperstate Mecha and mirror Bloodspawn would have been crushed already.

Even so, the hard-won balance was crumbling. Both the Mecha and mirror Bloodspawn were running out of time. If nothing changed, the Torch Human Civilization was doomed to lose.

Just then, a cold, scornful voice sounded from inside the Mecha, startling every Torch Captain and Eight-Armed Serpent Demon on the Floating-Land Sky Vault.

“Still not making your move?”

What shocked everyone wasn’t so much the words, but who responded.

Wasn’t it Cangli, the strongest force of the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization? Existing at Ninth-Tier peak, bolstered by the Floating-Land Origin’s will and already half a step into mythic power?

This Serpent Demon, locked in deadly combat with a Superdimensional Mothership projection just moments ago, suddenly retreated. Strangely, the projection did not pursue; instead, it turned directly toward the mythic battlefield.

It didn’t stop there. In the moments that followed, five more Ninth-Tier Serpent Demons streaked away from the field.

The Eight-Armed Demon God itself noticed the treachery, but its pride as a demon god refused to let it withdraw. In fact, from the black storm above, a second shadowy arm tore free.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for!”

“Even you, an abyssal demon god—lose just two arms, and you’ll sleep a million years in the Melting Abyss!”

Once again, that frosty voice echoed from the Tri-Corpse Hyperstate Mecha, along with a surge of rainbow-colored light.

Space-Time Compass: “Space Suppression!”

Vast spatial power gathered above the Floating-Land Sky Vault, forming a sealed circular barrier.

The black storm above froze, and both of the Demon God’s shadowy arms stiffened mid-descent.

But that wasn’t all. On the Serpent Demon side, a new move followed close behind.

Deep in the Floating-Land’s core, ten globes of Origin light continued flickering. This time, the second-largest orb—just behind the central one—trembled violently.

Divine chains of order began extending outward from the Origin Core, fueled by the Floating-Land itself. These materialized order chains unleashed their full force.

Far above, four order chains stretched from the void, entwining the two shadowy demon arms before they could break spatial imprisonment.

Order Chains plus Space Suppression—two tricolored ultimate oddities combined to finally pin the dark arms down.

“You Eight-Armed Serpent Demon clan cannot afford the cost of betraying the Bloodline’s Master!”

“Blood Extraction!”

Bottomless Abyss, Melting Abyss.

Across the endless Melting Abyss, mountains, land, and sky alike were covered in blood and flame—an entire realm painted crimson.

On this day, the heavens were torn by storms. Countless volcanoes erupted, spewing endless lava over the land, while bloodred clouds gathered overhead.

This apocalyptic scene cast its shadow over vast chaotic regions of the Melting Abyss.

The low-level chaotic demons stirring within the Abyss were terrified as dread swept the realm.

Every demon knew what this meant—the mighty demon gods themselves were venting their fury.