Starsea Plants

Bzzzz!

The mining vehicle drilled rapidly. As its alloy drill bit collided with the rock layer, fist-sized chunks of stone flew in every direction, producing crisp clattering impacts.

Behind the mining vehicle, five Fire Sunflower Soldiers clad in basic civilian exoskeletons stood ramrod straight, Tungsten Battle Shields in their left hands and Tungsten Spears in their right, vigilantly scanning their surroundings.

Song Chi remained aboard the Cangqiong, whose dark matter energy shield was still active. The survey was nearing its end, yet he remained sufficiently cautious. If the surveying instrument had not malfunctioned, then the object emitting those unusual energy fluctuations had to be on these last two fragments.

Suddenly, Song Chi caught a black shadow flash past from the corner of his eye. Before he could issue a warning, it darted behind one of the Fire Sunflower Soldiers at a terrifying speed.

The fully armed Fire Sunflower Soldier did not even have time to react before the shadow sent it flying several meters away. Deep dents appeared in the exoskeleton armor it wore.

That was far from over. After that strike, more black shadows shot out from the fragment below, swiftly attacking every outsider on the fragment.

Song Chi clearly saw a Fire Sunflower Soldier's exoskeleton become completely scrapped after being lightly lashed by one of the black shadows.

Those black shadows were actually pitch-black vines, each covered in razor-sharp barbs, a horrifying sight.

Fortunately, the Fire Sunflower Soldiers were puppets and did not possess the pain perception of ordinary carbon-based lifeforms.

Song Chi drew in a sharp breath. Thankfully, he had been cautious enough not to deactivate the dark matter energy shield. Otherwise, the few lashes that had just struck the Cangqiong would likely have punched several holes directly through its hull.

Outside, the Fire Sunflower Soldiers, having recovered, stood back-to-back. Their Tungsten Spears stabbed out continuously, colliding with the incoming black vines and producing sharp metallic clangs. No one knew what these black vines were, but they were actually tougher than weapons forged from tungsten.

The other two Fire Sunflower Soldiers aboard the Cangqiong swiftly jumped down from the shuttle to support those surrounded by the black vines. At the same time, under Song Chi's control, the Cangqiong slowly rose into the air and hovered several dozen meters overhead, providing support.

The shuttle's mounted firepower was not particularly strong, but it could still exert a slight effect on the black vines.

The ship-mounted secondary cannons continued pouring out firepower while Song Chi rapidly analyzed the battlefield.

Judging from the toughness and offensive power displayed by these black vines, they were clearly at the first rank. Nor were they newly advanced first-rank entities like the Fire Sunflower Soldiers; there was a high probability that they were first-rank peak.

More than ten minutes later, Song Chi formed a conjecture. Behind these countless black vines was most likely a single entity. Their coordination and cooperation were simply too seamless. While steadily suppressing seven fully armed Fire Sunflower Soldiers, they could still spare several vines to attack the floating-land mining vehicle nearby.

Such fluid coordinated attacks would be impossible without a shared commanding mother body. Moreover, the vines themselves reminded him of a special type of lifeform.

"Starsea plants."

Developed root systems, hardness comparable to metal, a life energy field capable of affecting the starry sky—these all matched the characteristics of the Starsea plants he had encountered before.

Having reached this conclusion, Song Chi quickly thought of a response. If it truly was a Starsea plant, then he only needed to completely eliminate the vitality of its main body. These troublesome roots would naturally be neutralized.

With that thought, Song Chi fixed his gaze on the floating-land mining vehicle below.

This unknown Starsea plant had clearly been disturbed by the Fierce Tiger Mining Vehicle's operations, only beginning its counterattack from the fragment's internal core afterward. If so, did that mean the unknown Starsea plant's main body was directly beneath the mining vehicle's earlier work site?

As he pondered, Song Chi's gaze shifted to a pit over a meter deep on the fragment below. That was where the mining vehicle had last excavated.

Having formed a hypothesis, Song Chi was not one to dawdle. He immediately put it into action.

The secondary cannons continued supporting the Fire Sunflower Soldiers, but the Cangqiong turned, and the Psionic Main Cannon at its bow aimed directly at the half-excavated rocky depression.

Psionic light gathered as charging began.

Perhaps it sensed the invisible threat, or perhaps it had been alarmed by the energy fluctuations generated while the Psionic Main Cannon charged. In any case, half of the black vines attacking the seven Fire Sunflower Soldiers suddenly broke away and shot toward the Cangqiong above.

These black vines, covered in sharp barbs, were astonishingly long. Even though the Cangqiong was already nearly a hundred meters in the air, it had not escaped their attack range. In less than two seconds, nearly ten black vines had swept up to a height of one hundred meters.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

The black vines lashed the Cangqiong in succession, dark radiance flickering across its surface as the hovering shuttle rocked violently. Song Chi remained unmoved. He ignored the attacks entirely and continued charging the main cannon.

If this had been a second-rank Starsea plant, he would have fled immediately. But a first-rank peak? It was not enough to threaten the dark matter energy shield, at least not in the short term.

Why had Song Chi been so insistent on keeping the Cangqiong's energy shield activated at all times? Was it not to ensure his own safety?

As an orange-quality energy shield that had likewise been enhanced to the first rank, if it could be so easily shattered by an alien lifeform of the same rank, it would be a disgrace to an orange Glory-quality component.

Another two seconds passed. When the ball of psionic energy at the ship's bow cannon reached its peak, the Psionic Main Cannon's charge was officially complete.

Beep!

The firing button was pressed swiftly. A dark energy sphere several dozen centimeters across shot downward at tremendous speed, almost instantly striking the center of the rocky pit below with perfect accuracy.

Boom!

Amid the violent explosion, shattered rocks flew everywhere. When the flames dissipated, the rocky pit that had originally been only a little over a meter deep was now nearly four meters deep.

Song Chi had expected the strike not to succeed completely. The Psionic Main Cannon was currently only enhanced to lv5, and it was merely a standard issue colorless main cannon to begin with, so its power naturally could not be that great.

He pulled the control lever back, and the Cangqiong rapidly climbed higher, evading the vines' lashes.

Though the dark matter energy shield was sturdy enough, there was no need to endure attacks that could be avoided.

After firing once, the Psionic Main Cannon needed a brief cooldown. The half of the black vines that had split off could no longer inflict devastating damage upon the Fire Sunflower Soldiers on the fragment. Song Chi could safely halt the secondary cannons' barrage and focus on maneuvering the Cangqiong through evasive movements.

Once the eight-second cooldown ended, waves of energy fluctuations once again emanated from the main cannon at the Cangqiong's bow as the Psionic Main Cannon began charging once more.