Chapter 718: The Fall of the Patriarch of Veritas

Chapter 718: The Fall of the Patriarch of Veritas

Even when hunting a rabbit, a lion uses its full strength.

This has been Song Chi's unwavering approach throughout his over two thousand years as an Ember Captain. At certain critical moments, he might momentarily set aside his usual caution and prudence, but this principle of giving his all in every battle has never wavered.

Whenever he fights, he goes all out. Especially now, facing a terrifying ninth-rank mechanical sovereign!

He unleashed a series of techniques, and the boundless Purple Mist Energy rapidly enveloped most of the high-dimensional space. This space, created by the Chronal Chessboard, should theoretically be impervious to external forces. However, the Pantheon Market’s exalted status means even a Mythical Artifact of the upper chromatic tier cannot constrain it.

The projection of the Market of All Heavens, combined with the Rage of two eighth-rank enslaved beings, instantly generated three ninth-rank combat capabilities under Song Chi's command.

For a seventh-rank Annihilator Ship captain to have three trump cards that can somehow match ninth-rank power, you weren't just an accidental arrival; you were clearly part of a well-planned scheme!

The sudden emergence of these three abnormal ninth-rank energies shocked the Patriarch of Veritas, whose power was significantly suppressed and had yet to fully adapt.

Without responding, Song Chi's reaction was immediate. At his command, the two enslaved beings and the Market of All Heavens Projection charged towards the Patriarch of Veritas.

The Purple Mist Hand Seal struck first, followed by the Asura Emperor's Asura Time Blade and the Shadow Devourer King's Devouring Roar Wave. The energy explosions and metal shavings from the attacks were spectacular, but the actual damage to the Patriarch of Veritas was far less severe than expected.

No, it's the special alloy layer on the surface of the Patriarch of Veritas' body that resists energy attacks. Among the three attacks, only the black-grade blood-colored artifact sword of the Asura Emperor caused significant damage.

The energy storm was too intense for the naked eye to see much, but Song Chi, with his Double Pupil active, could clearly discern the Patriarch of Veritas' condition. This realization made his expression grim. The plan he had meticulously prepared did not account for this.

It wasn't a lack of preparation; who could have anticipated that the Patriarch of Veritas' body armor would have a special material that drastically reduced energy damage?

Fortunately, Song Chi remained calm, and after a moment's thought, he formulated a new strategy. He recalled the Market of All Heavens Projection to ensure the safety of the Skygale of Tianxu, leaving only the two enslaved beings to engage the Patriarch of Veritas.

Hiss—

At a critical moment, the Skygale of Tianxu's hatch opened slightly, and before the Patriarch of Veritas could react, Song Chi launched the Falling Immortal Spear. As the hatch closed, the spear had already expanded to a length of fifteen thousand kilometers.

The black eyes of the Eighth-Rank Black Devourer Beast, tinged with blood, expanded and collided head-on with the Patriarch of Veritas' chest. The familiar screeching of metal echoed, and despite the immense impact, the Patriarch of Veritas, with its vast size, was still thrown back several million kilometers.

For a ninth-rank mechanical sovereign standing over a hundred million kilometers tall, several million kilometers was merely a few steps, and the damage was negligible.

However, at this moment, a terrifying sonic boom echoed from the other side of the high-dimensional space. The Falling Immortal Spear, at its full length, was hurled by Song Chi's Purple Mist Energy hand seal at an incredible speed.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

After the sharp ringing, the Falling Immortal Spear pierced deep into the Patriarch of Veritas' chest. Despite the perfect timing of Song Chi's attack, the Patriarch of Veritas had a chromatic upper-tier detection artifact inside, recording every frame of the Market of All Heavens Projection's actions. Even in a state of being thrown back, it made a slight adjustment.

This seemingly insignificant adjustment shifted the point where the Falling Immortal Spear pierced, preventing it from damaging the critical dark matter power core within the Patriarch of Veritas. This was the most fatal flaw.

By now, the Patriarch of Veritas, which had been firing its cannons at full power earlier, had mostly recovered. Its alloy plates began to shift again, and soon the familiar infinite black hole cannons reappeared.

Song Chi's reaction was faster. He knew he couldn't withstand the concentrated fire of hundreds of thousands of cannons, so he had to avoid this attack. This time, he couldn't rely on the "Time·Chessboard" characteristic to perfectly dodge it.

But he could prevent it from ever happening.

The Mythic Pulse Energy Shield had been charging since they entered the high-dimensional space. Now, Song Chi activated it.

The speed of the "Mythic pulse wave" was fast, but the Eye of Veritas, which could rival the Chronal Chessboard, was faster. The Patriarch of Veritas, prepared for this, suddenly opened a terrifying arc in its mechanical body. In the next second, a seventh-rank mechanical sovereign emerged from within.

Under the Patriarch of Veritas' command, the seventh-rank mechanical sovereign charged towards the oncoming Mythic pulse wave. The intention was clear, but Song Chi was not about to give it a chance.

216 chromatic chess pieces shot out from the Skygale of Tianxu, instantly forming a massive, illusory chessboard at the top of the high-dimensional space. The time acceleration in the chessboard's domain reached an astonishing 330 times. Under Song Chi's control, this 330-fold time dilation was used to slow down time.

The next second, the Mythic pulse wave from the Skygale of Tianxu remained unaffected, while the Patriarch of Veritas and the summoned seventh-rank mechanical sovereign were caught in slow motion. The seventh-rank mechanical sovereign, in particular, was completely slowed down by 330 times, affecting its thoughts, reactions, movements, and energy transmission.

In this state, the body that was supposed to collide precisely with the Mythic pulse wave was quickly pulled away. The Patriarch of Veritas, sensing this, could not react in time due to its own movements being slowed by over 200 times. It could only watch as the Mythic pulse wave shot towards it.

The pulse energy penetrated its body, and the high-frequency energy wave spread rapidly within its colossal frame. This disrupted the highly active dark energy inside, causing the tens of thousands of cannons that were charging to go dark.

It was like a couple about to consummate their love, only to be interrupted by a sudden call to work. The feeling was indescribable.

Song Chi, however, didn't care. The "silence" effect of the Mythic pulse wave took hold, and he immediately ordered the two enraged enslaved beings to attack with all their might.

With its thoughts and movements slowed by over 200 times, the Patriarch of Veritas was like a punching bag, taking blow after blow from the Asura Emperor's blood-colored sword and the Shadow Devourer King's physical impacts. However, its body, made of Truth IV alloy, was incredibly durable. Despite the apparent damage, the actual destruction was minimal.

Truly astonishing. Each ninth-rank sovereign of the Star Sea is more terrifying than the last...

With this thought, Song Chi's eyes suddenly gleamed. He had been planning this battle for centuries, always viewing the Patriarch of Veritas with the utmost caution. He had never said that this was all he had.

His mind raced, and another component of the warship was activated.

Mirror Image—Mirror Image!

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

After a sharp spatial fluctuation, the Skygale of Tianxu's mirror image, unseen for over a century, reappeared. This was not the end. After summoning the mirror image, Song Chi's mind moved again.

This time, he controlled the mirror image, not the Skygale of Tianxu itself.

Replicate the Soul-Swallowing Altar—Activate!

Replicate the Neutron Star Core Armor—Colored Neutron Star Core Armor!

Replicate the Phantom Thruster—Phantom Trace!

Replicate the Antimatter Evolution Engine—Hyperspeed Burst!

Replicate the Flame Roar Engine—Overload!

Replicate the Primordial Copper Ram—Primordial Impact!

Replicate the Sovereign Ivory Ram—Rage of the Elephant King!

In an instant, seven components were activated, and the mirror image warship became a blur, hurtling towards the Patriarch of Veritas with boundless energy.

The temporary elevation to Colored Myth quality of the Neutron Star Core Armor, combined with the Colored Myth quality of the replicated Mythic Pulse Energy Shield, gave Song Chi the confidence to activate all acceleration features. With one golden and one black super ram components as the cutting edge, he directed the mirror image warship to collide with the Patriarch of Veritas without hesitation.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The sharp and heavy collision resounded throughout the high-dimensional space, accompanied by energy shockwaves that approached the ninth-rank level.

Under the onslaught of this Ninth-Rank energy storm, even Song Chi, with his Double Pupils, struggled to immediately grasp the specifics of the battle.

However, one thing he was certain of was that the intense metallic tearing sound when the mirror battleship collided with the Patriarch of Veritas could not be concealed.

The Colored Neutron Star Core Armor, reinforced to the Ninth Rank, was something Song Chi firmly believed would not shatter so easily. Moreover, the Mythic Pulse Energy Shield had the characteristic of the "Wall of Myth." Even if the ship's hull was struck head-on, as long as the outer pulse energy shield was not completely shattered, the hull armor itself would remain unaffected.

In other words, if the mirror battleship's Neutron Star Core Armor had fractured earlier, it would mean that the Mythic Pulse Energy Shield had already overloaded first. How likely was that?

The answer was obvious.

It was precisely because Song Chi had such confidence that he now activated several more advanced features without hesitation.

A Ninth-Rank mechanical sovereign was far from being so easily wounded. Despite being forcibly suppressed to a half-step Ninth Rank, its defensive strength was genuinely at the veteran Ninth Rank level. Simply tearing a small piece of armor from its body was far from enough.

Replicate [Neutron Star Core Armor] · "Neutron Star Fission"!

Replicate [Neutron Star Core Armor] · "High-Energy Particle Storm"!

Replicate [Blood Spear] · "Mark of the God of Hunting's Weakness"!

Replicate [Black Hole Evolution Layer] · "Black Hole"!

Replicate [Limitless Immortal Quantum Star Annihilator] · "Limitless Immortal Quantum Sword Light"!

Replicate [Blood Spear] · "Blood Judgment"!

Replicate [Antimatter Energy Annihilation Cannon] · "Matter-Antimatter Annihilation Strike"!

Replicate [Purple Dawn Divine Thunder Cannon] · "Nine Layers of Purple Heaven World-Ending Thunder"!

In less than two seconds, Song Chi activated almost all the powerful attack features of the mirror battleship, aiming to annihilate the Patriarch of Veritas in one go.

Even if he couldn't kill it outright, he had to at least inflict severe damage.

This was the only thought in Song Chi's mind at the moment.

Even with the Patriarch of Veritas's terrifying defenses, it now detected a fatal threat. Its entire body glowed with a flickering red light, and the super AI embedded deep within its body pushed its computational power to the limit.

However, the final result of the calculations shook the mechanical sovereign, who had ascended to the Ninth Rank hundreds of thousands of years ago.

The bright red text on the display was particularly glaring, and the shockingly high death rate prompted it to activate its trump card without hesitation.

[Eye of Veritas] · Core Extraction!

As it actively extracted the core of this Colored Upper-Rank Artifact, a ring of colorful energy dispersed from its body, quickly condensing into a thin, colorful light layer around it.

This layer of colorful light seemed to completely isolate the boundless temporal power emitted by the illusory chessboard above.

Although it did not form any powerful attack, merely freeing the Patriarch of Veritas from the time-slowing effect of the [Chronal Chessboard] was already what Song Chi least wanted to see.

Breaking free from the time-slowing effect, the first action of the Patriarch of Veritas was to activate a short-range dark energy teleporter on its body, attempting to escape.

But how could Song Chi allow that?

Around the mirror battleship, which was deeply embedded in the Patriarch of Veritas's body, several special chains suddenly shot out from the surrounding void. These chains rapidly entangled, tightly binding the mirror battleship and the Patriarch of Veritas together.

The Heavenly Captive Chain and God-Binding Chain could only last for a limited time and were easily broken by the massive dark energy within the Patriarch of Veritas's body. However, the replicated [Dragon Blood Demon Lock Chain] was different. Reinforced to level 90, it was a unique characteristic component, and its hardness was not to be underestimated.

Seemingly detecting this, the Patriarch of Veritas quickly responded.

From its humanoid body, a weapon similar to the [Devouring Destroyer Ship Blade] suddenly emerged from its arm, slashing fiercely at the Dragon Blood Demon Lock Chain.

The sharpness of this weapon was astonishing, and the level 90 Dragon Lock Chain was nearly severed in one strike. However, this delay was enough for the mirror battleship to unleash all its attack features.

First, the mirror battleship transformed into a miniature neutron star, and a terrifying heat exceeding a hundred million degrees swept out.

Such extreme heat was even too much for the Truth IV alloy to withstand. In a short time, a large amount of armor on the Patriarch of Veritas's body began to melt.

This was just the beginning. Next, the High-Energy Particle Storm, Immortal Quantum Sword Light, and Black Hole burst followed in quick succession.

Another Ninth-Rank energy storm erupted, causing extensive damage and even the melting and evaporation of many mechanical components on the Patriarch of Veritas's body.

On the side of the high-dimensional space, in the main control room of the Skygale of Tianxu, Song Chi's Double Pupils were intensely focused, capturing the specific situation of the Patriarch of Veritas through the gradually subsiding energy storm.

Suddenly, his pupils constricted sharply, and a sense of extreme danger enveloped his entire body.

[Backup Concealed Energy, Activate!]

[Dark Matter Energy Sky Cannon - Truth Judgment, Activate!]

Song Chi did not know what had happened. Through the solidified Double Pupils in his eyes, he only saw a massive, pitch-black beam piercing through the chaotic energy storm, wider than the Skygale of Tianxu itself.

The speed of this pitch-black beam was indescribable. Even the Seventh-Rank Double Pupils captured it in the first moment, but he could only activate one component in time.

[Angel Sovereign Wings] · "Angel Wing Escape"!

With a faint spatial fluctuation, the Skygale of Tianxu vanished from its original position, reappearing in a corner billions of kilometers away.

However, to his horror, the moment the escape ended, he saw the massive pitch-black beam turn ninety degrees, defying all logic, and head straight for the Skygale of Tianxu.

Without giving him any time to think, the pitch-black beam pierced through the Skygale of Tianxu once again.

It was Song Chi's quick reaction and calmness that saved him. In this instant, he activated another component on the battleship.

[Black Hole Evolution Layer] · "Black Hole Domain"!

This was his instinctive choice, as his intuition from over two thousand years as the Ember Captain told him that the "Neutron Star Fission" of the Neutron Star Core Armor would not be enough.

The formation of the Black Hole Domain temporarily placed the Skygale of Tianxu in an invincible state, but it did not give Song Chi any sense of security. Instead, his fear grew even more intense.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

Song Chi felt as if he had entered a state of deafness, hearing nothing but a constant buzzing. However, he did not completely panic.

The absolute invincibility of the Black Hole Evolution Layer lasted only two seconds, and this was only possible with the continuous projection of the Market of All Heavens. Otherwise, it would have been even shorter, and it was still not enough for the Skygale of Tianxu to withstand the lethal strike.

However, there was good news. Two seconds, though short, was enough for Song Chi to teleport back to the Pantheon Market.

Before returning to the Pantheon Market, Song Chi handed over the control of the battleship to Skybrain.

Skybrain's response was swift. It activated features like the "Neutron Star Fission" of the Neutron Star Core Armor and the "True Spirit Protection" of the Angel Sovereign Wings, but these had little effect. After all, even the Market of All Heavens projection, which was at a half-step Ninth Rank, was pierced through in just one second.

The pitch-black beam quickly made contact with the Skygale of Tianxu. The Mythic Pulse Energy Shield lasted less than a second, and the miniature neutron star similarly. Within a few seconds, the Skygale of Tianxu was completely annihilated by the pitch-black beam.

Even Song Chi, inside the Market of All Heavens, did not have time to activate the divine imprint within his body.

However, the annihilation of the Skygale of Tianxu did not affect the subsequent battle. The high-dimensional space did not collapse as expected. Instead, the remaining mirror battleship silently teleported to the rear of the Patriarch of Veritas.

Boom!

A long-accumulated, powerful attack, "Gamma Ray Burst", was unleashed, striking the Patriarch of Veritas, which seemed to be barely holding on.

Along with it was the recently enslaved Eighth-Rank [Shadow Devourer King], which did not use its energy absorption attack but instead chose to self-destruct near the Patriarch of Veritas.

Two more terrifying energy explosions echoed, and this time, the Patriarch of Veritas suffered no further surprises. Its entire body shattered completely, and the dim red light in its eyes faded away.

However, the focus was not on it but on the location where the Skygale of Tianxu had been annihilated.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

Spatial fluctuations appeared, initially faint but gradually intensifying. Finally, a spatial rift formed in the high-dimensional space, and a familiar Annihilator Ship slowly emerged.

Who else could it be but the Skygale of Tianxu?

In the Pantheon Market, Song Chi, standing under the sky, sighed.

"Indeed, I was too presumptuous. A Ninth-Rank Sovereign is not to be underestimated... After centuries of planning, I still had to use one of the 'Nine Lives Chess' activations!"

Initially, he thought his meticulous planning would allow him to avoid using the "Nine Lives Chess" feature, but reality gave him a harsh lesson.

The annihilation of the Skygale of Tianxu was real, and he was only resurrected intact through the "Nine Lives Chess."

Shaking his head, he dismissed the thought and returned to the external [Skygale of Tianxu].

Though he said it was a pity, Song Chi did not truly regret it. One activation of the "Nine Lives Chess" in exchange for a same-rank Colored Upper-Rank radar component and all the resources on the [Truth Floating Land]—was it really not worth it?

He had merely wanted to minimize his losses.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end