As time passed, countless winged tiger-headed insects rapidly approached the Cang Qiong. Although the electromagnetic ray cannon served as a group-attack secondary weapon, it still struggled to cope in the face of overwhelming numbers.

Seeing this, Song Chi had no choice but to slowly descend the Cang Qiong toward the second layer of the relic space.

Even at this moment, not a trace of the thought of giving up flickered in his mind. The primary reason for this lay with the Third Rank Queen Insect thousands of meters away.

No matter the reason that made it unwilling, or perhaps unable, to stray far from the Crystal Box, that fact gave Song Chi and the Cang Qiong ample tactical space to operate.

If the Queen Insect had been free to move around within the relic space, Song Chi would not have had the slightest chance to strike at it, even without its swarm.

This was different from the last time he dealt with the Third Rank Peak Sand Insect. Not to mention that its Purple Crystal Skin was far more impressive than the steely skin of the Third Rank Sand Insect, just the confined space within the relic limited the Cang Qiong’s greatest advantage.

The reason he could fight back and forth with the Sand Insect over a month ago was because the Cang Qiong could maintain an absolute distance of kilometers, or even several kilometers, above The Vault of Heaven, and rely on the defense of the "Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator" to bombard it in return.

But within the relic space, the Cang Qiong could not maintain that absolute distance from the Queen Insect. If that monstrous form so much as bumped into it, the Cang Qiong might immediately be overwhelmed.

Hu!

Dispelling these thoughts, Song Chi stopped dwelling on them. In any case, it was a fact that the Queen Insect couldn’t move away from the vicinity of the Crystal Box, and it was true that he had a sizable amount of operational space. That was enough.

All the way down, the Cang Qiong soon passed through the spatial veil below and returned to the second layer of the relic. Unsurprisingly, although the Queen Insect could not leave the vicinity of the Crystal Box, the damage and agony inflicted by the Cang Qiong had long since enraged it.

Therefore, under its command, tens of thousands of winged tiger-headed insects followed unhesitatingly into the second layer of space, intent on devouring the Cang Qiong entirely.

Seeing this, Song Chi’s smile grew wider as he continued to steer the Cang Qiong toward the first layer of space, while turning the cannons around, constantly bombarding the pursuing swarm of winged tiger-headed insects.

Thus, the considerable number of winged tiger-headed insects followed the Cang Qiong out of the relics’ stone expanse. And it wasn’t over yet, Song Chi kept controlling the Cang Qiong as it headed deeper into the vast yellow sands.

Behind him, although the Queen Insect could issue commands to its swarm with powerful spiritual power from afar, it was unable to know the specific environment in which its swarm was situated. The order it gave to the group of winged tiger-headed insects was simply to catch up with and shred the Cang Qiong.

It was precisely this aspect that Song Chi exploited, keeping the Cang Qiong in a state of almost escaping but not quite, always allowing the chasing winged tiger-headed insects to catch sight of the Cang Qiong, until… a sandstorm hundreds of meters in diameter appeared ahead.

Upon seeing the sandstorm, with a diameter of over six hundred meters and a storm field around five thousand meters, Song Chi’s lips curled into a smile, a trace of delight spreading across his face.

Under his control, the Cang Qiong neither stopped nor changed its direction, charging straight toward the sandstorm.

Vroom vroom vroom!

As the Cang Qiong plunged into the Second Rank Peak-level sandstorm, the ship began to shake violently, and even with its currently equipped "Shadowcapture Antimatter Overstate Engine," at Third Rank, it still struggled to stabilize amidst the sandstorm, underscoring the might of the external storm field.

However, Song Chi paid no heed to these issues, focusing his attention on the rear. His face soon brightened with an even more radiant smile.

As expected, over twenty thousand winged tiger-headed insects followed the Cang Qiong into the storm field, and how could such Second Rank insects resist the terror of a Second Rank Peak-level storm?

As time passed, one after another, the winged tiger-headed insects were caught in the storm’s eye at the center of the field, and eventually torn apart by the fearsome force into blood and pulp.

Seeing his objective achieved, Song Chi had no desire to linger and quickly broke free from the storm field with the considerable thrust provided by the "Shadowcapture Antimatter Overstate Engine" and the "Phantom Thruster."

Looking around, there were still a few hundred lucky winged tiger-headed insects remaining. However, under the electromagnetic ray cannon, they were swiftly cleared out.

Watching over twenty thousand ferocious insects of the First and Second Rank being annihilated within such a short time, Song Chi inwardly marveled at the mighty power of nature. If not for the sandstorm, the Cang Qiong alone, though eventually capable of dealing with the winged tiger-headed insects, would have needed dozens of times longer to do so.

Letting go of these matters, and thinking of the Crystal Box within the third layer of space and the possible existence of a High-Rank Starry Sea Oddity within the Crystal Core, Song Chi had no interest in paying any more attention to these details and steered the Cang Qiong back into the interior of the relic space.

In the third layer of the relic space, the "Hornet" drones which had been retrieved earlier were launched out again. Once it was confirmed that the second layer of space was essentially clear of winged tiger-headed insects, the Cang Qiong swiftly passed through the spatial veil and returned to the third layer of space.

Hiss!

Upon seeing the Cang Qiong appear, the Queen Insect instinctively hissed in response. Heeding its command, the remaining over twenty thousand Spitter Insects began to spit Corrosive Acid at the Cang Qiong in unison.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read