Chapter 124: Hideous Creatures

"Right, I can use my spiritual power to investigate." As Lan Tian spoke, he immediately projected his spiritual energy.

Having cultivated for such a short time, he was still not accustomed to the daily habits of a practitioner. If it were an experienced cultivator, their first reaction to such a sudden situation would have been to release their spiritual power to perceive everything in the surrounding area.

In fact, after extending his spiritual sense, Lan Tian realized that all the practitioners on the passenger starship had already released their own spiritual power; the space around them was already filled with countless crisscrossing mental fluctuations.

After sensing for a moment, Lan Tian discovered that among these fluctuations, apart from one that was more powerful than his own, most were weaker than his, including Beibu’s, which was roughly at the early planetary level.

When the owners of most of those spiritual senses detected that Lan Tian was wearing the legendary cosmic battle armor, they couldn't help but cautiously steer their mental waves around him as a sign of respect.

Even the one entity whose spiritual power exceeded Lan Tian’s retreated after scanning the Chi-Xin Divine Armor, projecting goodwill.

One should not find it strange that only one person on this massive starship had stronger spiritual power than Lan Tian; in fact, he was already quite fortunate. Because Lan Tian had been practicing the "Soul-Suppressing Pagoda," although he had not yet mastered the first level, his spiritual power had made significant progress, reaching a level comparable to his cultivation realm. Coupled with the amplification of the Chi-Xin Divine Armor, his current spiritual strength had reached the peak of the high stellar level, even rivaling a weaker low galactic level entity.

It is worth noting that the lord of a star like Lanque Star only possessed low galactic-level cultivation. By convention, a normal practitioner's spiritual strength is usually two or three tiers lower than their actual cultivation realm; the Lanque Star Lord’s spiritual strength might not even reach the high stellar level. Therefore, unless one possessed secret spiritual techniques or had specifically cultivated their mind, the owner of that powerful spiritual sense must have had the strength of a high galactic level, or perhaps even a low star-region level.

People with such cultivation rarely travel on passenger starships; they either own their own spacecraft or perform space jumps directly via space stations. It was truly a stroke of luck to encounter such a person here.

"Mr. Lan Tian, we are in trouble! This is definitely not some space fluctuation; we must have been attacked!" Beibu’s voice came through the mental link, sounding fearful and quite certain.

"Of course this isn't a space fluctuation, but do you know what exactly is attacking us?" Lan Tian replied using spiritual telepathy.

"I don't know yet. This passenger starship is far too large, and my spiritual strength simply cannot reach that far..." Beibu replied with concern. "I hope it's just interstellar pirates; after all, they only want money. But if we are unlucky enough to run into an alien ambush or the legendary star-beast, we are truly in danger... I have encountered interstellar pirates a few times before, and generally, they issue a warning before attacking. I have never seen them strike directly, so I cannot be sure..."

"I hope we can make it through this safely..."

Hearing Beibu’s neurotic rambling in his ears, Lan Tian felt his own heart begin to race, infected by the other’s anxiety.

"It cannot be interstellar pirates!" A firm voice appeared in Lan Tian's mind. It was Bai. "The interstellar pirates within the Yuanlan Empire have boundaries. They only seek wealth and would never intentionally harm people, let alone attack an Imperial starship. In fact, that very rule was established by my master back in the day."

"Long ago, there was a period when pirates were rampant in the Empire, killing and looting without restraint. My master was ordered to suppress them, and he hunted them down until they were scattered and broken. Any pirate organization of any significant size was wiped out, leaving only small, fragmented groups struggling to survive."

"First, these small bands were very scattered, and whenever the army came to suppress them, they would flee in all directions, making them hard to catch. Second, my master knew that these pirates were like weeds that grow back after a spring breeze, so he set that rule, effectively giving them a way to live."

"The pirates were grateful for my master's mercy, and since then, they have taken that rule as their code of conduct..." Bai spoke with complex emotions as he recounted the deeds of the God of War. However, he was interrupted halfway through by Lan Tian.

"Bai... you don't need to say more. I have already confirmed that these are not interstellar pirates..." There was an undisguised trace of terror in Lan Tian's voice.

"Hmm? Why?" Interrupted, Bai looked at him with dissatisfaction, puzzled.

"Because... I have already seen what we are facing..." Lan Tian did not hold back; he simply stated the fact in a dull, broken tone, and then transmitted the image he had perceived with his spiritual sense to Bai.

"My god! We can't be that unlucky..." After viewing the scene Lan Tian transmitted, Bai emitted unstable fluctuations and said in horror.

In the vision, the space around the starship they were riding in was pitch black. Countless hideous, bug-like creatures, two or three meters tall, were swarming the hull of the starship as if they were fearless, launching themselves in overwhelming numbers!

Although the starship had activated its defensive energy shield, and all the creatures that touched it were annihilated, the thickness of the shield was visibly diminishing!

However, Lan Tian had no time to focus on that; most of his attention was drawn to a massive black shadow in front of the starship!

It was a gargantuan object, easily the size of three or four passenger starships combined. Its surface was covered in sharp barbs, and it emitted a dark, metallic luster. It didn't quite look like a starship, yet it didn't feel like a living creature either, as no spiritual fluctuations could be detected from it.

Lan Tian then discovered that in the center of this monstrosity, there was a giant crater that looked like an organ, and the countless hideous creatures outside the starship were being spewed out of this hole continuously!

The situation was dire. In just three minutes, the energy shield had been depleted from its original thickness of over ten meters to less than half a meter!

As the energy supply for the shield dwindled, the intensity of the creatures' attacks suddenly increased by several levels, and they charged recklessly, further draining the starship's power.

"BOOM!"

Following a thunderous explosion, the starship's energy shield flickered and vanished. Then, the sound of countless metallic impacts echoed throughout the entire vessel.