The direction in which he had just fired was not chosen at random; although the Queen Insect seemed to be able to move only around the Crystal Box, hitting the giant gap on the top of its head with precision wasn’t something that could easily be done if there were any slight changes.

After all, with the Cang Qiong’s appearance just now, countless winged-tiger-headed insects swarmed in, nearly covering the Cang Qiong entirely. Song Chi had virtually fired blind.

The reason he could hit the Queen Insect so precisely, even the gap on top of its head, was that he had previously used the giant hornet drones to pinpoint the Queen Insect’s exact position.

If it weren’t for that, why would he have bothered to sacrifice a drone for nothing?

After firing that shot, Song Chi didn’t wait to see the result; the Cang Qiong’s condition wasn’t good.

[Warning, warship armor damaged by 50%, warship damage at 18%, please make repairs as soon as possible!]

Hearing the urgent warning, Song Chi piloted the Cang Qiong to descend quickly, swiftly returning to the second layer of the ruins. The bad news was, even though the Cang Qiong had returned to the second layer of the ruins, many winged tiger-headed insects had followed it down.

Those winged tiger-headed insects that were already attached to the ship’s body were relentlessly continuing to gnaw at the Starshine V alloy armor.

[Warning, warship armor damaged by 52%, warship damage at 19%, please make repairs as soon as possible!]

Hearing the prompt again, Song Chi quickly controlled the Electromagnetic Ray Cannon to clear the winged tiger-headed insects from the Cang Qiong’s body while activating the [Healing Fruit] component loaded on the warship.

With a flash of white light enveloping the entire ship, the warship armor, which had been damaged more than halfway, was largely repaired, and the same was true for the ship’s body.

[Warship repairing, warship armor restored by 25%, current damage at 27%, warship body repaired by 10%, current damage at 9%, please proceed with comprehensive repairs immediately!]

Hearing this, a slight sense of relief washed over Song Chi. At least for the short term, the Cang Qiong was safe.

Boom, boom, boom!

With each blast from the Electromagnetic Ray Cannon and the added feature of the Lightning Arc Splash, all the winged tiger-headed insects on the Cang Qiong’s body were soon cleared away, along with the several hundred others that had followed it down.

Just then, Song Chi’s eyes snapped open, and his heart pounded fiercely several times.

Just now, the Cang Qiong had received a strand of Third Rank Floating Land Origin.

Yes, Third Rank Floating Land Origin, not Second Rank.

This meant not only that the Queen Insect above had died completely, but also that it had, like the previous Queen Insect in the second layer of the ruins, retained a Rank that was not indicative of its peak strength. That Third Rank Queen Insect was obviously a Fourth Rank Level being at some point in the past.

At that thought, Song Chi felt a surge of excitement but quickly stopped and slapped his forehead with a tinge of regret.

Although he had guessed when he first saw the Queen Insect that it had once been a higher Rank being, he wasn’t certain. After all, it hadn’t built a hibernation nest, making it impossible for him to judge.

Had he known that the creature at its peak was truly of Fourth Rank, he would have enhanced the Cang Qiong’s Torch warship body to lv19 and initiated the warship’s promotion task. In that case, a Queen Insect of a creature at its peak of Fourth Rank Level could have provided at least a 10% success rate for the Cang Qiong’s promotion.

"Ah, what a pity!"

After a small sigh, Song Chi quickly regained his composure.

Even though it was a small regret, he didn’t take it too hard. With his current wealth, plus the Zhu Tian Ruins Market, achieving a promotion to Second Rank wouldn’t be hard to accomplish, even if it wasn’t guaranteed to be 100% successful.

Moreover, even if the promotion failed, he could still use Golden Merit Points to get from the Family Merit Hall the resources that shortened the Seed of Torch’s recovery period. Once the Seed of Torch’s recovery period was over, with his available resources, he could quickly raise a newly bound Torch Warship back to First Rank, giving him a second chance to strike at Second Rank.

With these thoughts, ripples began to spread successively across the Spatial Veil above.

Just as Song Chi had anticipated, after the death of the Third Rank Queen Insect, the ordinary Insect Race turned into a headless swarm, only scurrying about instinctively, posing no further threat.

With this in mind, his gaze hardened, and without paying attention to the sporadic Insects rushing down from the Spatial Veil above, he piloted the Cang Qiong to ascend slowly toward the sky.

Seconds later, the Cang Qiong broke through the Spatial Veil again and was exposed to countless Insect Race members, like headless flies. And with the Cang Qiong’s emergence, it was like igniting a keg of powder; the chaotically scurrying Insect Race suddenly directed all their attention toward the Cang Qiong.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

Countless winged tiger-headed insects flew in, their wings covering the projection screen in the Main Control Room like a blanket.

Having accomplished his goal, Song Chi didn’t linger, rapidly descending and landing back on the second layer of the ruins.

This time, without the Queen Insect’s restraint, the dense winged tiger-headed insects flapped their wings and followed closely from the Spatial Veil above.

Seeing this, the Cang Qiong quickly headed for the entrance between the first and second layers.

Before long, employing the same tactic, Song Chi once more lured tens of thousands of winged tiger-headed insects from the giant stones of the ruins, and then headed straight for the depths of the sand sea.

The eye of the storm he chose this time was even larger than the last; there were simply too many winged tiger-headed insects, and he was worried a smaller storm wouldn’t be ample.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read