Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Stellar Plant
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Buzz, buzz, buzz!
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The mining cart drilled rapidly, and as the alloy drill bit collided with the rock layers, fist-sized stones flew everywhere, producing bursts of crisp clashing sounds.
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Behind the mining cart, five Fire Peony Soldier Figurines clad in Basic Gene Civilian Exoskeletons stood upright. They held Tungsten Gold Combat Shields in their left hands and Tungsten Gold Lances in their right hands, vigilantly scanning their surroundings.
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Song Chi remained on the Cangqiong, which still had its Dark Matter Energy Shield activated. Although the survey was nearing its end, he maintained a high level of caution. If the Prospector wasn’t malfunctioning, then the source of the special energy fluctuations had to be among the last two fragments.
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Suddenly, Song Chi caught a glimpse of a dark shadow in the corner of his eye. Before he could warn anyone, the shadow darted to the back of one of the Fire Peony Soldier Figurines at a terrifying speed.
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The fully armed Fire Peony Soldier Figurine didn’t even have time to react before it was flung several meters away by the shadow, leaving a deep dent in its exoskeleton armor.
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The attack was far from over. After the initial strike, more dark shadows shot out from the fragments below, swiftly attacking all outsiders on the fragments.
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Song Chi saw clearly as the exoskeleton of a Fire Peony Soldier Figurine was effortlessly snapped by the shadow, rendering it completely useless.
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These shadows were actually dark vines, covered with sharp barbs, exceedingly terrifying.
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It was fortunate that the Fire Peony Soldier Figurines were puppets without the pain perception of regular carbon-based organisms.
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Song Chi took a deep breath of cold air. It was a good thing he had been cautious and hadn’t deactivated the “Dark Matter Energy Shield,” otherwise the several lashes that had struck the Cangqiong just now could have easily left gaping holes in the shuttle’s body.
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Outside, the Fire Peony Soldier Figurines that had come to their senses stood back to back, thrusting their Tungsten Gold Lances repeatedly and clashing with the incoming black vines, emitting sharp metallic clinks. The vines were of unknown origin, and they were even more durable than weapons forged from Tungsten Gold.
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The other two Fire Peony Soldier Figurines on the Cangqiong quickly jumped down from the shuttle to support their fellows surrounded by the black vines. At the same time, the Cangqiong, under Song Chi’s control, slowly rose into the air and hovered dozens of meters above the ground, ready to provide support.
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Although the firepower on the shuttle wasn’t very powerful, it was still able to cause some minor disturbances to the black vines.
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The shipborne secondary cannons continuously tilted their firepower, and at the same time, Song Chi was analyzing the battlefield situation rapidly.
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Judging by the hardness and attack power exhibited by these black vines, they clearly possessed First Rank capabilities, and not just the initial stage of First Rank that the Fire Peony Soldier Figurines had entered. There was a high probability that they were at the peak of the First Rank.
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Ten minutes later, Song Chi hypothesized that behind these numerous black vines, there was likely to be a single entity coordinating their actions. Their cooperation was too seamless, easily suppressing the seven fully armed Fire Peony Soldier Figurines while still managing to attack the nearby Floating Land Mining Cart.
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This smooth, coordinated attack would be impossible without a common command entity, and the nature of the vines themselves reminded him of a particular type of creature.
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“Starry Sea plants.”
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A developed root system, hardness comparable to metal, the ability to influence the Starry Sea’s field of Life Energy, etc.— these all matched the characteristics of the Starry Sea plants he had encountered before.
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Once he reached this conclusion, Song Chi quickly thought of a solution. If it indeed was a Starry Sea plant, then they merely needed to completely eliminate the vitality of its main body, and these troublesome roots would naturally be dealt with.
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With this in mind, Song Chi’s gaze fixed firmly on the Floating Land Mining Cart below.
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The unknown starry sea plant was clearly agitated by the operations of the Furious Tiger Mining Cart and only then began to retaliate from the core within the fragments. If that was the case, did it imply that directly beneath the last position mined by the cart was where the actual body of this unknown starry sea plant lay?
Contemplating this, Song Chi’s gaze shifted to a pit over a meter deep in the fragment below, the very spot where the mining cart had last excavated.
With a hypothesis in mind, Song Chi was not one to dawdle, he immediately sprang into action.
The shipborne secondary cannons continued to assist the Fire Peony Soldier Figurines, but the body of the Cang Qiong abruptly turned, its spectral main cannon aimed straight at the half-excavated rocky hollow.
Ghost Light converged, charging initiated.
It seemed to sense the imminent threat, or perhaps it was startled by the energy fluctuations produced during the spectral main cannon’s charging process. Regardless, the black tendrils that had been attacking the seven Fire Peony Soldier Figurines suddenly split in half, with a portion rapidly advancing toward the Cang Qiong above.
The black tendrils were shockingly long, bristling with sharp barbs, and despite the Cang Qiong being nearly a hundred meters in the air, it still had not escaped their attack range. In less than two seconds, nearly ten black vines had swept their way to the height of a hundred meters.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
The black vines struck against the dark matter energy shield of the Cang Qiong, causing the floating shuttle to shake. Undisturbed, Song Chi disregarded these strikes, maintaining the main cannon’s charge.
If it were a second rank starry sea plant, he would have fled immediately, but a first rank pinnacle was not a threat to the dark matter energy shield, at least not for a short period of time.
Why had Song Chi been so insistent on continuously activating the Cang Qiong’s energy shield? It was all to ensure his own safety.
As an orange quality energy shield, also enhanced to first rank, if it were so easily breached by a creature of the same rank from a different civilization, it would sorely lack the prestige expected of an Orange Glory quality component.
Two more seconds passed, and when the ball of ghost light at the main cannon’s muzzle reached its peak convergence, it signaled the spectral main cannon’s charging was complete.
“Beep!”
The fire button was rapidly pressed, and a spectral black energy ball, tens of centimeters in diameter, fiercely shot downward. Its speed was so fast that it struck the rock hollow below almost instantaneously.
Boom!
In the midst of the violent explosion, debris scattered, and when the flashes subsided, the pit that was originally just over a meter deep had astonishingly deepened to nearly four meters.
Not having achieved a complete success with one hit, Song Chi had anticipated as much; the spectral main cannon’s current enhancement level was only lv5, plus it was a standard colorless main cannon, so naturally, its power was limited.
He pulled the control stick towards him, and at the same time, the Cang Qiong swiftly ascended further into the sky, evading the lashing tendrils.
Though the dark matter energy shield was steadfast, there was no need to endure strikes that could be avoided.
After the spectral main cannon’s first strike, a brief buffering period was necessary. The black tendrils that had split off could no longer cause devastating damage to the Fire Peony Soldier Figurines on the fragments, giving Song Chi the confidence to stop the barrage of fire from the secondary cannons and to maneuver the Cang Qiong for evasion.
Once the 8-second buffering period was over, energy fluctuations once again emanated from the Cang Qiong’s main cannon at the bow. The Spectral Main Cannon’s charging restarted.