Chapter 1000: Pursuit

The Soul Shrieker was flying through the space vortex at full speed.

Its steed—– the Abyssal Behemoth was caught in the Bramble Bird Kingdom’s endless barrage of treasures and forced into dormancy.

So the Soul Shrieker had no choice but to traverse the space vortex with its own power.

But this was no issue for it, and as its power was increasingly growing, so was its speed of pursuit.

The Soul Shrieker had estimated.

At this rate, in just a bit over one day, it will have caught up to the other party.

It was extremely confident about this.

And now there was even more good news.

Although that Holy Retribution just now was neutralized by the other party, it wasn’t completely useless either.

——–their ship had been destroyed.

The Soul Shrieker smirked.

In a situation when both sides lost their fastest mode of transport, it was naturally faster than Gu Qing Shan’s side.

「『 Just you wait, I’m going to catch up to you soon 」』

It muttered.

At this point, the Holy Retribution arrived.

The gigantic mass of grey light had traversed through billions of worlds from Gu Qing Shan’s direction.

Sensing that rapidly approaching power, the Soul Shrieker’s expression changed.

『 NO! What’s going on!? 』its female voice screamed.

The grey light was swift.

The Soul Shrieker had its guard down, so it could only raise its six arms in front of itself in defense.

Boom———

The vast power of the Holy Retribution struck it head-on.

The Soul Shrieker left an afterimage on the spot as its real body was flung backward, spiraling through the space vortex.

It crashed into a world, knocked by the power of the Holy Retribution into the deep ocean, and bore a crater 200km in diameter at the seabed.

This world could not handle the impact of such godlike power.

A huge earthquake along with a seaquake of equal magnitude started to spread all over this world.

The waves created in the ocean where the Soul Shrieker fell rose to tsunamis that were several thousand meters high, sweeping across the landmasses around it and washing every living creature away.

This immense impact also caused every active volcano on this world to erupt at once, filling the atmosphere in soot and volcanic ash that blocked out the sun.

Entire continents were split apart from the force, breaking and drifting away like fragments of a ship in a sea storm.

Typhoon-force wind swept across the world.

A shower of flames rained down from above.

The temperature plummeted.

The wild animals that originally ruled the land became extinct.

Deep under the ocean.

The Soul Shrieker slowly climbed out from the crater.

It flew up to the surface of the ocean, breathing heavily all the way.

My wounds——-

When the Soul Shrieker checked its body, it found that one of its arms had already snapped and broken off, leaving an amputated stump.

「『 That’s impossible! 」』it angrily roared, 『「 That was MY Holy Retribution! How did they use it to ambush me!? 』」

Rumble, rumble, rumble.

With every living creature in this world extinct, the only thing that responded was the aftermath of this world-ending calamity.

The Soul Shrieker slowly calmed down.

Although it didn’t know how they did it and what kind of ability they used, it was obvious that it couldn’t use this sort of super-distance attack again.

After contemplating for a while, the Soul Shrieker began to chant an incantation.

「『 Subjects of the Era of [Chaos] 」』

「『 I hereby summon you 」』

『「 [Chaos] requires your aid to punish its enemies! 』」

『「 Any carriers of [Chaos] may heed my summon and arrive at my call 』」

「『 You shall be rewarded power from [Chaos] itself! 」』

Fog began to drift from its body, fully encompassing the surface of the raging ocean.

A few moments later.

Various figures appeared from inside.

“A summon from the Envoy of [Chaos]? How interesting, what kind of thing can one like myself contribute”

“This old man also found it strange, but since this is a request from [Chaos] and there is a reward of power from [Chaos], this old man would naturally be more than happy to contribute”

“Indeed, but to think one who only travels within the void would also receive the honor of being summoned here, how exciting”

The Soul Shrieker stood still without moving and announced: 『「 No deception can pass this envoy’s eyes. Come and show me what each of you are capable of 』」

Hearing that, the figure slowly approached it.

The first one to appear was an old man.

He clasped his hands together and shouted: “Summon——- [The Interstellar]!”

Following his declaration, a large ship with a set of huge black sails appeared from above.

The old man bowed respectfully to the Soul Shrieker and spoke: “Your Excellency, this old man is the chairman of the 900 million World Layers’ Airship Association. This ship is without a doubt the greatest and fastest ship in the entire 900 million World Layers, created from the meticulous craftsmanship of my entire life”

The Soul Shrieker nodded: 『「 Very well, you may remain 』」

The old man joyfully said: “Thank you, your excellency”

A middle-aged man then came forward.

“Sir” he bowed, then spoke: “I am the interstellar bandit with the greatest understanding of piloting ships, owner of 81 worlds and the leader of the Red Dragon bandit troupe”

「『 What can you do? 」』the Soul Shrieker asked.

“I know how to pilot a ship. My ability can increase the flying speed of an airship up to three stages” the man replied.

『「 Very well, you may remain 』」the Soul Shrieker declared.

Another person came forward and spoke: “Your excellency, I can control Elemental Wind and increase a ship’s speed…”

Another person behind him spoke up: “Your excellency, I can allow the ship to perform short-distance warp”

The others quickly spoke up as well, introducing their abilities to the Soul Shrieker.

About a dozen minutes later.

This supposedly fastest ship in the 900 million World Layers carried the Soul Shrieker and a group of ship-travel experts into the void of space as they chased after Gu Qing Shan’s group.

…

At another location.

Gu Qing Shan was explaining the jade gourd pendant to everyone.

Zhang Ying Hao and Ye Fei Li’s expressions suddenly changed.

“What’s the matter?”

Gu Qing Shan asked right away.

Zhang Ying Hao gazed into the void of space, seemingly listening to something.

A few moments later.

Zhang Ying Hao informed everyone: “The Soul Shrieker is calling to every carrier of [Chaos], trying to look for experts that could help it move quickly through the void”

Ye Fei Li added: “It said that as long as you have such ability, you can heed its summon and obtain generous rewards”

Everyone exchanged glances.

Who would’ve thought, them becoming carriers of [Chaos] allowed them to learn about the Soul Shrieker’s movements.

Gu Qing Shan muttered: “Seems like it doesn’t dare to perform super-distance attacks anymore and is instead trying to quickly catch up to us”

Zhang Ying Hao was a bit tempted: “I know a few small tricks to increase the flying speed of a ship, maybe I should heed its summon and find a chance to destroy its flying implement”

Gu Qing Shan hurriedly stopped him: “Definitely don’t. That one is practically unbeatable right now, if you get discovered, you wouldn’t even have the chance to run away”

A line of text also appeared in Boss’ book:

[That guy consumes souls to live, once you’re found out, you won’t have any chance to survive]

Zhang Ying Hao could only give up.

Gu Qing Shan said: “Laura, use the fastest ship you have, we need to avoid being caught up as long as possible”

Laura nodded and started to search through her backpack.

Gu Qing Shan continued: “Everyone, keep your guard up for the next while. If you have any ability that can boost the speed of the ship, use them”

Zhang Ying Hao said: “Leave it to me”

Ye Fei Li pondered: “I think I know a few as well”

Gu Qing Shan also said: “I also know a few tricks, we’ll take turns”

Everyone then turned to Boss.

Boss is capable of receiving a Holy Retribution with his bare hands, which meant that he was a person of considerable power.

——-does he have any methods of speeding up travel as well?

Everyone had the same thought.

Boss appeared a bit embarrassed.

His book flew up by itself and slowly formed a line of text:

[I’m more than assured leaving such a small matter to the rest of you]