https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-124-Further-Upgrades-for-the-Skybound/12833603/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-126-Confronting-a-Third-Stage-Sandworm-The-Divine-Light-of-the-Chaotic-Sun-Sword-Intent-S/12833605/
Chapter 125: Ten-Thousand-Meter Sandstorm · Bug Hunting
Chapter 125: Ten-Thousand-Meter Sandstorm · Bug Hunting
In the unfamiliar star domain, a small asteroid belt with a considerable diameter could be faintly seen at the horizon. However, Song Chi had no intention of maneuvering the Azure Sky to approach it. Instead, he quickly recalled the warship and vanished into the dark expanse of space.
In the Marketplace Secret Realm, he meticulously organized the equipment he was wearing.
Morning Star military exoskeleton power armor, disposable personal combat shield...
After confirming that everything was in order, he activated the only spatial anchor coordinate in the Marketplace.
Above the floating land of yellow sand.
Song Chi suddenly appeared from the void and began to plummet rapidly. As he righted himself, he immediately activated his psychic energy to open the Ember Ancestral Node. The next second, the Azure Sky materialized directly below him, precisely catching Song Chi as he fell.
Once inside the Azure Sky, Song Chi did not descend to the floating land below. Instead, he first flew through the starry sky to the top of the ten-thousand-meter boulder, then began to descend straight down, saving a considerable amount of time.
The Azure Sky passed through the cloud layer above the floating land, and the entire landscape below came into view. At this moment, Song Chi's brows furrowed.
"This is... a sandstorm?"
From an overhead view, near the towering, square boulder, there was a storm eye with an astonishing diameter, raging fiercely.
This sandstorm was incredibly terrifying, with a diameter exceeding ten thousand meters. The energy detection results from the Azure Sky's semi-automatic AI showed that the energy intensity at the center of the storm was as high as fifth stage.
Even the storm's gravity field, which had weaker energy reactions, had an intensity of fourth stage.
Clearly, this was a rare, colossal sandstorm that only appeared once in a century.
"Of all things, I had to run into this... What a headache."
Song Chi inwardly sighed, feeling helpless. However, he did not give up immediately. Although the storm was terrifying, the ten-thousand-meter boulder was a solid mass. He attempted to control the Azure Sky to slowly approach the boulder from its rear, the position directly opposite the storm eye.
After about half an hour of cautious attempts, Song Chi finally gave up.
Although the boulder shielded much of the storm's power, its gravity field was still frightening. Despite being only ten thousand meters in diameter, the gravity field's range exceeded one hundred thousand meters, making it difficult for the Azure Sky to stabilize. Even the slightest mistake could result in complete entrapment.
For safety, he ultimately decided to abandon the risky attempt.
He raised the Azure Sky's flight altitude and began to consider his next move.
This ten-thousand-meter sandstorm was not something that could be calmed or moved in a short time. It might continue raging for ten to fifteen days, which meant he could not enter the Blo civilization ruins this time.
Therefore, he needed to consider his next plan of action.
With over twenty hours left before his return, he could not just sit and wait.
A few minutes later, Song Chi turned back. Two options were now before him.
First, he could control the Azure Sky to leave the yellow sand floating land and explore other regions of this unknown star domain.
Second, he could stay on the yellow sand floating land. He remembered that there was a large, worm-like creature on this floating land, similar to earthworms from his previous life. After some research, he concluded that these creatures were likely a type of insectoid.
Since they were insectoids, the chances of finding energy crystals within their bodies were much higher than with other star sea creatures. Therefore, staying here to hunt these creatures was a viable option.
Although the Azure Sky had only been at First Stage for half a year, with Song Chi's current earning ability, he could easily upgrade the Ember Ship's hull to Level 19 and initiate the Second Stage (Frigate) upgrade mission whenever he wanted.
Thus, collecting the specific resources required for the First to Second Stage upgrade, as well as special materials to increase the success rate, was one of his top priorities.
However, energy crystals were ultimately a matter of luck. Even if he hunted many of these insectoids, the chances of finding any were still low, which was the source of his current dilemma.
Before he could continue deliberating, a notification sound helped him make a decision.
It had been a while since he arrived using the spatial anchor. After an hour of data collection, the star map collector successfully generated a star map with a ten-light-year diameter of the nearby star domain.
This star map revealed that there were no other floating lands, asteroid belts, or small fragment zones within at least a five-light-year radius, meaning there were no other resource points. Thus, the first option was automatically ruled out, leaving only the second.
In the Azure Sky, Song Chi's figure suddenly vanished. In the closed storage space of the Marketplace Secret Realm, he used his rule power to search and finally found a glass bottle in a corner.
The label on the glass bottle read "Universal Bio-Attraction Pheromone," a widely used biological attractant in the Ember Human civilization.
Its sole purpose was to lure non-intelligent or low-intelligence alien species for more efficient capture or hunting.
Since it only required ten zero-stage floating land essences per bottle, Song Chi had stocked dozens of them in the storage space for emergencies.
In a region with fewer storm eyes on the yellow sand floating land, the Azure Sky's cabin door slowly opened, and a Flame Hibiscus puppet, clad in military exoskeleton power armor, leaped out from a hundred meters above the ground.
Bang!
The rapidly descending Flame Hibiscus puppet created a massive sand crater upon impact. However, with its Second Stage puppet body and the exoskeleton absorbing some of the impact, such a collision had little effect.
At the same time, the brainwave beacon attached to the puppet quickly issued the command to release the pheromones.
The Flame Hibiscus puppet swiftly opened the glass bottle and threw it onto the sand below. With the help of the exoskeleton, it ran a dozen steps, crouched slightly, and then, with the assistance of its legs and the exoskeleton, leaped back up, accurately landing on the Azure Sky, which was now nearly a hundred meters above.
After retrieving the Flame Hibiscus puppet, Song Chi quickly raised the Azure Sky to a height of a thousand meters.
The last time he encountered a worm-like sand creature, it was over a hundred meters long. He was not about to put himself in danger.
In the main control room of the Azure Sky, the projection screen, magnified dozens of times, showed the glass bottle containing the pheromones being quickly sucked into the sand. However, the pheromones had already begun to spread out.
Song Chi watched calmly, like a hunter waiting for his prey, patiently awaiting the arrival of the sandworms.
A few minutes later, his calm eyes narrowed slightly, and his gaze shifted to a point several kilometers away from where the pheromones had been released. There, the sand below had just shown signs of movement.
Just as Song Chi thought the sandworms would soon converge, another ten minutes passed, and there was still no activity below.
"If one bottle isn't enough, I'll give you a little more!"
With that, he vanished from the control console and reappeared a few seconds later with five more identical glass bottles.
The Fire Chrysanthemum soldier quickly repeated the previous operation, throwing the five bottles of pheromones to the same location below.
This time, the effect was significant.
Perhaps the concentration of pheromones from six bottles in a row had reached a critical point. Soon, movements began to stir from all directions, with varying intensities of tremors coming from beneath the yellow sand, followed by rapid, undulating sand ridges.
His eyes darted around as Song Chi quickly calculated and analyzed the number of sand ridges and the specific ranks of the sandworms hidden beneath them.
So far, eight sand ridges had appeared. Four of them were ten meters in diameter, similar to the last time. Another three were about seven meters in diameter, while the last one was the most astonishing, with a diameter of fifteen meters, moving toward the center of the pheromone diffusion at an incredible speed.
"Is it a peak second-rank sandworm? Or perhaps a third-rank one?"
As he pondered, his hands didn't slow down. The ship tilted slightly downward, and the Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon and Electromagnetic Lightning Cannon were both aimed at the target. The Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon was already gathering light, and a faint, ethereal sword shadow was rapidly taking shape.
A few seconds later, the eight sand ridges successfully converged below. On the magnified projection screen, sand began to spray upward from the ground, and the screen quickly became obscured by the thickening sand and dust, making it impossible to see the details below.
Without hesitation, Song Chi pressed the firing button of the Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon, and the Electromagnetic Lightning Cannon began to sweep the area below with intense fire.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Amidst the deafening explosions, countless cannon shells rained down into the sand, causing the surrounding yellow sand to fly even more violently.
Although he couldn't see the exact situation below, Song Chi didn't stop the Electromagnetic Lightning Cannon's barrage. He could hear the sandworms' cries of agony and the sounds of their frantic thrashing, indicating severe injuries and their final moments of madness.
Soon, the thick sand and dust began to mix with the pungent, bloody stench of the sandworms' blood.
The strong attraction of the pheromones, combined with the scent of blood, drove the sandworms beneath the yellow sand into a frenzy. More and more sand ridges converged from all directions, dozens of them rushing in from distant locations every minute.
Song Chi's eyelids twitched continuously, overwhelmed by the sheer number of sandworms converging. The massive number of sandworms was so great that even the dense sand and dust couldn't completely obscure the view. Occasionally, he could see the dark, hundred-meter-long silhouettes of the sandworms through the thinning dust, their fangs bared as they savagely bit into their own kind.
The originally grayish-yellow sand surface was now stained dark green by the blood of the sandworms, with flesh scattered everywhere, creating a terrifying scene.
Despite his twitching eyelids, Song Chi's hands didn't stop. As soon as the Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon completed its cooldown, he immediately recharged it, while the Electromagnetic Lightning Cannon continued its relentless barrage.
Under this intense firepower, the Azure Sky's Essence of Floating Land reserves steadily increased. Although there were occasional wisps of zero-rank Essence, the majority, around 90%, was first-rank Essence. In a short time, the Azure Sky had accumulated hundreds of wisps of first-rank Essence.
This meant that the majority of the sandworms below were second-rank, and after several hours of continuous bombardment, more than a hundred second-rank sandworms had been killed by the Azure Sky's cannons.
Hundreds of second-rank sandworms was an astonishing number, and it was no wonder Song Chi was so surprised.
However, in his surprise, he also felt a surge of excitement. Although he didn't lack first-rank Essence, the tangible gains and the confirmation of the Azure Sky's formidable firepower were naturally exhilarating.
Of course, the current success was largely due to the Electromagnetic Lightning Cannon.
While the Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon was incredibly powerful, it was limited to single-target attacks and required a significant cooldown and recharge time, severely limiting its attack frequency.
On the other hand, the blue-quality Electromagnetic Lightning Cannon shone brightly. Its "Lightning Arc Splash" characteristic made it a perfect tool for area attacks. Each shot could splash and hit several sandworms around it, and although the damage wasn't very high, the cumulative effect of continuous shots resulted in a large number of second-rank sandworms being killed.
Just as he was in the midst of this intense battle, a sudden unease gripped Song Chi's heart, and a chill ran down his spine.
His eyes darted around the projection screen, and his gaze suddenly froze. Instinctively, he controlled the Azure Sky to ascend, but before it could rise much, a large, black energy sphere shot through the thick sand and dust, heading straight for the Azure Sky.
Hum! Hum! Hum!
The black energy sphere, over ten meters in diameter, created violent ripples on the Azure Sky's energy shield and sent the airship flying upward nearly ten meters. However, since the Azure Sky was already ascending, the effect was less noticeable.
Song Chi instinctively checked the energy shield's value and his pupils constricted sharply.
[Shield Value: 3,215,800/4,120,000]
The full shield value had dropped by a fifth.
This was a reinforced orange energy shield with a base defense of 200,000. Considering this, the attack strength of the black energy sphere was clearly over a million.
Looking down, the thick yellow sand couldn't hide the terrifying black shadow, over a hundred meters in diameter and more than a kilometer long.
(End of Chapter)
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