Global Era of Star trekking Chapter 1701 - 830: The Great War of Transcendence (Part 3)

The Mirror Image Warship remained stationed within the dense white fog surrounding the City of Transcendence following the delivery of the [Golden Apple] to the Zhu Tian Ruins Market. Song Chi chose not to recall the vessel immediately, anticipating that the mission to hunt the Alien Race’s Pride would persist.

Since alien combatants would likely continue to be funneled his way, Song Chi reasoned that maintaining a presence near the [City of Transcendence] was more efficient than constant travel. However, just as he prepared to withdraw his spiritual force, a massive tremor rippled through the hull of the Mirror Image Warship.

In an instant, the pervasive white mist was swept away by the overwhelming pressure of Dao Rules descending from above, stripping the City of Transcendence of its cover and exposing it to the raw Chaos Sea. The ship’s alarms wailed in a sharp frenzy. Through the eyes of the Seven-star Ancient Demon, Song Chi witnessed a terrifying spectacle that would be burned into his memory forever.

Three colossal hands, large enough to shroud the heavens, tore through the fabric of the Chaos Sea. Each finger was wrapped in the remnants of shattered Star Rivers. The hand on the left surged with a crimson Blood River, its palm hosting twelve burning vertical pupils. The right hand was a macabre construction of countless civilization tombstones. Most daunting was the central hand, which appeared as translucent as jade, its palm lines intricately woven with the silver threads of causality.

“Twelfth Rank Transcenders!”

“And there are three of them!”

Song Chi’s heart hammered against his ribs, though he quickly realized he was not the intended target of these supreme beings. The City of Transcendence’s automated defenses roared to life; massive bronze gears emerged from the ramparts, interlocking to form a titanic mechanical sundial in the void. As the sundial’s shadow rotated, it forcibly transmuted chaos energy into a shimmering defensive wall.

“You dare to hunt the pride of the heavens in secret and defy my chaos? You shall all perish!”

A roar that fractured dimensions erupted from the Blood River giant hand, as all twelve vertical pupils fired beams of annihilating death simultaneously. Caught in the wake of this sonic shockwave, the Mirror Image Warship tossed like a fragile boat in a hurricane, its exterior plating evaporating instantly.

At the height of the crisis, a pillar of bronze light ascended from the city’s core. The city’s guardian, garbed in a star-patterned robe, stepped into the void. He held a bronze lantern where nine-colored flames flickered. With a gentle shake of the lantern, three arrows of fire shot through space, pinning the Blood River giant hand against the Chaos Barrier.

“A mere projection thinks it can act with such insolence?” the guardian mocked.

Despite the bold words, Song Chi spotted the guardian’s hand trembling slightly, and the lantern’s glow faded by three degrees. Suddenly, the Tombstone giant hand shattered into billions of fragments, each representing a miniature history of a fallen civilization. This torrent of civilizational epics slammed into the city walls, causing bronze gears to snap and crumble under the weight of their collective sorrow.

Most lethal was the Causality giant hand. With a subtle twitch of its palm lines, it triggered hundreds of simultaneous rule rebellions within the city’s own systems. “Execute the emergency evacuation!” the guardian shouted, crushing a jade pendant at his hip.

Ghostly blue flames erupted from the Chaos Engine at the city's base, and the entire metropolis began to twist, warping into the shape of a Mobius ring. To Song Chi’s horror, the Mirror Image Warship—despite being on the periphery—was being dragged into the spatial folding of this Mobius ring.

He desperately tried to trigger the replica [Three Realms Five Elements Certificate], the [Barbarian God Guardian], the [Starlight Flash Spirit Stone Talisman], and the [Black Hole Evolution Layer]. He even reached for the [Medal of Resurrection]. However, before any component could engage, the super-energy storm generated by the clash of Twelfth Rank mythical entities consumed the Mirror Image Warship entirely.

Back in the Cang Qiong Main Control Room within the Zhu Tian Ruins Market, Song Chi’s physical body jerked as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. Golden, web-like fractures split the skin between his eyebrows. As his Mirror Image Warship was obliterated, a profound sense of insignificance washed over him—he felt like an ant watching the collapse of a Star River, where even the emotion of fear felt inadequate.

In the final moments of the Seven-star Ancient Demon’s vision, he saw the three hands rewriting the very laws of Chaos. The Blood River hand flattened the chaos storm into a two-dimensional sheet; the civilization fragments reversed the Big Bang; and the Causality hand gripped the void, causing the Chaos Sea to experience a “flow disruption,” as if a cosmic eraser were scrubbing that segment of time and space from existence.

“So this is... a Twelfth Rank Transcender...”

A piercing agony in his mind severed his thoughts, dragging his consciousness back to his own body. This wasn't a physical strike, but a conceptual backlash from the ship's destruction. Just as a two-dimensional creature cannot process three-dimensional data, his Ninth Rank Life Level could not withstand the conceptual debris of a Twelfth Rank conflict.

[Warning! High-dimensional information pollution detected...]

[Warning: Captain’s mental contamination has surpassed 5%...]

Through the blaring sirens, Song Chi’s mind felt as though it were vibrating in a hive of bees. Waves of madness, homicidal urges, and fury—the spiritual toxins of Twelfth Rank beings—threatened to drown him. He acted with lightning speed, manifesting the [Jade Bright Immortal Talisman Sect - Unmoving Ming King Talisman] in his mind while the Five-Colored Fire Seed in the Ancestral Torch blazed, channeling the mythical power of the Zhu Tian Ruins Market.

“Cut it!”

He knew this corruption was like a spreading gangrene. Without the intervention of another Twelfth Rank power, it could not be healed or suppressed; the only solution was to surgically excise the portion of his divine soul that had been tainted.

Hiss!

The agony of tearing his own soul left Song Chi’s face deathly pale. Fortunately, his swiftness had limited the spread. Though his spiritual force was damaged, it was a wound that would heal with rest. Yet, the memory of that Transcender battle remained etched in his mind. Replaying the events, he reached a singular, humbling conclusion: even in the mere shadows of such a battle, he was nothing more than a speck of dust.