Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Just a second ago, Song Chi was feeling relieved that no First Rank members of the White Winged Tribe had caught up, when suddenly, the rear section of the Cangqiong quivered violently—an attacker from the White Winged Tribe had caught up from behind, launching a precise strike that hit the warship's tail.
[Warning, warship armor damaged by 34%, warship integrity compromised by 13%, please conduct repairs immediately.]
Song Chi's face paled with shock.
Although the attack power of the White Winged Tribe was generally weak, the fact that the warship armor was damaged by less than 6% from the strikes of a dozen Zero Rank members had proven this. But no matter how low the damage was, an attack that spanned a rank was utterly alarming.
A single blow from a First Rank member of the White Winged Tribe had destroyed a quarter of the warship's armor, implying that if the Cangqiong sustained two or three more hits, the warship itself would suffer irreversible damage.
"Activate the basic nanobot repair pack."
In haste, Song Chi issued a command to the semi-autonomous onboard intelligent brain and dared not be distracted, still fully controlling the Cangqiong as it sped upward.
His plan was simple: if he could just escape this rift, he would then be able to activate the lightspeed cruise capabilities of the warship without any reservations. Even if a First Rank member of the White Winged Tribe was faster, they certainly could not match the speed of light.
[Warning, warship armor damaged by 36%, warship integrity compromised by 14%, please conduct repairs immediately.]
[Basic nanobot repair pack activated. Warship armor repairing by 3%, warship integrity repairing by 4%, current damage level...]
[Warning, warship armor damaged by 35%, warship integrity compromised by 12%, please conduct repairs immediately.]
...
Amid the continual sounds of damage and repair, no one knew how much time had passed when the Cangqiong experienced another severe tremble, followed by even more frantic intelligent warnings.
[Severe warship damage, current warship armor damage level at 80%, warship integrity compromised by 62%, when warship integrity exceeds 80%, the shuttle will lose its ability to maneuver, please conduct repairs immediately.]
The second strike from the pursuing First Rank member of the White Winged Tribe behind had instantly increased the extent of damage to the warship's integrity by more than half.
Yet at that moment, a strong sense of joy suddenly burst in Song Chi's eyes. After continued effort, the Cangqiong finally broke free from the rift and re-entered the space above the fragments.
Without any hesitation, the engines began to overwork.
Down below, the hundreds of White Winged Tribe members in pursuit simultaneously let out a strange shriek, firing their attacks one after another, including the sole First Rank member of the tribe.
One could imagine that if this barrage of attacks hit the body of the Cangqiong, the warship's integrity would inevitably be over 80% compromised, but in the end, it was the Cangqiong that was a step faster. Before the hundred plus attacks could reach it, it had already turned into a lingering shadow that vanished above the fragments, reappearing at the edge of a distant void.
Not until he plunged back into the Fragment Belt did the highly focused Song Chi finally let out a sigh of relief, feeling a strong sense of exhaustion wash over his brain.
Below the rift, due to intense concentration, he had broken through the limit of doing two things at once. Because he hadn't dared to relax at all before, he hadn't noticed, but now that he relaxed, the aftereffects immediately became evident.
About this, Song Chi was not surprised and even felt a secret excitement deep inside.
Generally speaking, Torch Ship Captains at Zero Rank, even when their Guidance Technique reaches lv9, can only achieve two things at once. Mastery of three simultaneous tasks is something that requires pushing beyond lv10 and undergoing a sublimation of life's order.
The reason he, currently at lv4 in Guidance Technique, was able to briefly enter a state of Threefold Mind Utilization was entirely built on the high-speed overdraw on his spiritual consciousness, which naturally led to a period of lethargy afterwards.
Of course, it's not to say that all Torch citizens with Guidance Technique below lv10 could enter this temporary limit-breaking state under intense concentration. On the contrary, one in ten thousand might be able to do so. To enter or even control this limit-breaking state often requires specific timing and certain innate gifts.
Therefore, the number of people who could control this technique was few, and each could be considered gifted.
This was the reason for Song Chi's elation. Although a single instance of accidental limit-breaking didn't mean he had completely mastered this special technique, with this experience under his belt, he had the confidence that through long-term practice and attempts, he could eventually master this skill.
He then maneuvered the Cangqiong through the Fragment Belt for several minutes until he was sure that the White Winged Tribe couldn't catch up in the short term, and Song Chi landed Cangqiong on a small fragment.
If he remembered correctly, the scheduled auto-return time for Cangqiong was in a few minutes.
Using this time, he turned to look at the only special component currently loaded on the shuttle: the Fire Peony Soldier Figurine Tree.
As expected, seven of the ten light points on this white component had dimmed, indicating that seven of the ten Fire Peony Soldier Figurines that had fallen to the rift's bottom had been lost so far, leaving only three struggling to hold on.
However, there was an unexpected piece of good news. At some point, two strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin had appeared on the Cangqiong, which meant that before their demise, the seven Fire Peony Soldier Figurines had also taken down two members of the First Rank White Winged Tribe.
Indeed, aside from the constant emanation of Floating Land Origin from the Origin Core, Torch Warships can also obtain Floating Land Origin by killing members of alien civilizations in the Alien Star Domain. The Fire Peony Soldier Figurines were the product of the "Fire Peony Soldier Effigy Tree" component of the Cangqiong, so they could also trigger this feature.
As for the question of why a single First Rank member of the White Winged Tribe only provided one strand of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, this was quite normal; after all, to obtain a single strand of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, one would need to kill ten thousand Zero Rank members of the alien race.
While pondering, the last three light points also dimmed—it meant that all ten Fire Peony Soldier Figurines had fallen.
Despite this, Song Chi didn't feel sorrowful. The ten Fire Peony Soldier Figurines weren't gone forever after being lost; they would be available for summoning again after a 24-hour buffer.
After checking the status of the Fire Peony Soldier Figurine Tree component, Song Chi's gaze swept the cabin; he was very curious about the Warship component that had come from the First Rank Floating Land Origin Core that he had obtained with great difficulty.
No sooner had he entered the cabin than Song Chi's eyes gleamed. The focal point wasn't the component itself, which was the size of a palm near the cabin door, but the dazzling purple light it emitted.
It was clear that the Torch Warship component, which resulted from the Nuclear Fusion Engine lv0
Quality: Purple
...
Before he could finish examining, a slight sensation of weightlessness suddenly hit him, and as time progressed, this sensation of weightlessness was intensifying.
Realizing something, Song Chi immediately withdrew his gaze and returned to the pilot seat with the utmost speed.