Inside the transport ship, the largest Captain Snail slowly raised his head.
His several slender eye stalks swayed gently, staring fixedly at Jie Ming in the distance, who remained motionless. Jie Ming's prolonged silence seemed to have caused some misjudgment.
"Apocalypse Apostle..." the snail spat out a sticky voice, "What troublesome fellows!"
The snails beside him exchanged glances, their expressions growing uneasy.
After all, their original plan was to use the Reflection Prism as bait to lure out all the targets hiding nearby.
But now there was an Apocalypse Apostle added to the mix, and that fellow just stood there, neither leaving nor acting, which amplified the snails' sense of crisis.
The Captain Snail didn't know what Jie Ming was waiting for, but he dared not wait any longer.
His gaze suddenly turned cold: "No more delay! Strike first!"
As he spoke, he abruptly opened his massive maw, and a tremendous suction force exploded outward!
At the same time, tiny slits appeared along the edges of his shell.
Within those slits, countless fist-sized milky white eggs densely packed together tumbled out from inside the shell. As soon as the eggs rolled out, they were sucked into the snail's mouth by the immense suction and swallowed in one gulp!
Crunch, crunch...
The Captain Snail's fine mouthparts, lined with tens of thousands of teeth, opened and closed constantly, producing a hair-raising chewing sound.
As the eggs were devoured, his life energy surged wildly.
Boom!
A terrifying life pressure swept across the entire area. The Captain Snail, who had displayed a fifth-level aura, rapidly rose, soon reaching the seventh level!
Seeing this, all the snails on the transport ship changed expression drastically!
"Captain, what are you doing?!"
"Are you insane?!"
"Those are your children..."
These eggs were genuine live eggs, meaning that just now, their captain had devoured thousands of his own young.
One elderly snail seemed to recall something, his eyes wide with horror.
He suddenly remembered a secret technique he had seen within their clan. That technique allowed one to disperse their power among their young. By doing so, the dispersed power was genuine, so the user's strength would proportionally decrease—a good way to disguise one's energy fluctuations.
And when necessary, one could gain a boost by devouring the young that held the dispersed power.
But what truly terrified this snail was that he clearly remembered the technique's main purpose: it was to allow the young to grow into adults after the power was dispersed.
During that period, the strength cultivated by the young would be absorbed by the user upon recovery, enabling the technique user to rapidly enhance their own abilities.
"Progenitor..." the old snail realized something, his voice trembling.
Snails were hermaphrodites, so there was no concept of father or mother. The so-called "progenitor" was the one who gave birth to them.
And on this ship, the captain was the "progenitor" of all crew members!
The captain expressionlessly glanced at him, then unhesitatingly opened his maw again.
Whoosh!
This time, the surging suction even turned into a visible devouring vortex.
The surrounding snails didn't even have time to struggle before their bodies were swept up by the gale, screaming as they flew into the captain's mouth.
"No..."
"Captain!!!"
Dozens of snails further away tried to flee in panic, but it was too late.
As the vortex rapidly expanded, countless snails were sucked in one after another, their screams rising and falling.
Even the entire transport ship shuddered violently, its alloy hull emitting a piercing screech before gradually peeling apart, swallowed whole by the ever-growing maw!
Though it takes time to describe, the Captain Snail's devouring was extremely fast.
In the blink of an eye, the several-kilometer-long transport ship vanished completely, leaving only the fully sealed cargo hold at its center untouched.
And after devouring so much energy, his body began to swell wildly.
In a short time, he had already become several times larger than the transport ship.
From afar, he looked like a fleshy mountain with a giant shell stretching across the void.
This giant snail suddenly extended several thick dark red tentacles, firmly entangling the nearby cargo hold. Massive amounts of milky white mucus gushed out, wrapping the entire hold layer by layer.
As if his action had pressed some button, the moment he transformed, the pirate fleet in the distance also moved. Hatches opened atop the three warships, and three bizarre creatures resembling giant cow tripe slowly floated out from within.
Their bodies were covered in dark red folds, constantly writhing like massive, breathing organs of flesh and blood.
As they appeared, their auras were also revealed: two at the seventh level, and the largest of the tripe creatures at the lead had a life level reaching the eighth level!
Boom!!!
The life pressure of an eighth-level being descended, causing a large area of the surrounding void to warp violently.
But that was only the beginning. Faced with such terrifying momentum, the snail sneered and spat out a device that continuously flashed red light.
As the device left the mucus, the previously trembling space suddenly flattened.
Then, spatial ripples spread out—the precursor to spatial teleportation!
Using this unknown device to temporarily stabilize space, someone forcibly performed a spatial jump!
Rip!
As the spatial ripples reached their peak, spatial tears were violently ripped open, and a group of figures of various shapes slowly stepped out from the tears.
These beings took many forms: humanoid, mechanical life, skeletal creatures wreathed in black flames, and crystalline beings with hundreds of eyes. The only commonality was that each emanated energy fluctuations above the sixth level.
Standing at the forefront of these beings was a humanoid creature nearly ten thousand meters tall, clad in silver-white armor.
This fellow's aura... was also at the eighth level!
These diverse beings tacitly moved to stand beside the giant snail, their momentum merging instantly. The entire void seemed to become heavier! Seeing this, the three tripe creatures showed no surprise; instead, they all laughed simultaneously.
The lead eighth-level "tripe" emitted a muffled laugh: "Finally willing to come out? I thought you were going to keep hiding!"
The silver-armored being coldly looked at it: "So it's you fellows. Quite bold, daring to target the Multiracial Alliance transport!" The silver-armored being stepped forward, unleashing a surging pressure toward the opponent: "Today, none of you will escape!"
The tripe leader also unhesitatingly released its own aura, pushing back the opposing pressure.
Hearing this, it let out a shrill laugh: "Multiracial Alliance? You? Hahahahahahaha..."
It laughed so hard its body heaved, and only when it seemed to have laughed enough did its tone turn icy:
"A bunch of failures without even a ninth-level ancestor, and you dare represent the Multiracial Alliance? Don't flatter yourselves!"
Hearing this, the Alliance members present changed expression, but none retorted.
Because they knew the speaker spoke the truth.
The silver-armored being sneered: "Even if you have ninth-level individuals, you don't think the Multiracial Alliance will allow you to refuse an invitation, do you?"
"We indeed can't afford to offend the Multiracial Alliance..."
The tripe leader slowly scanned the opposing side: "But if we kill all of you here today, who will know what happened? Dead men tell no tales!"
With that, the atmosphere between the two sides instantly froze!
Eighth-level pressures collided, causing large areas of space to collapse.
A great war was about to break out.
However, amidst such tension, one completely incongruous figure stood in the center of the battlefield.
Jie Ming, at the center, silently watched the entire process.
From both sides' conversation, he had pieced together the situation.
It was simpler than he imagined. In short, the snails representing the Multiracial Alliance deliberately used the Reflection Prism as bait. Their real goal was to lure out these "tripes" and wipe them out, then monopolize the Reflection Prism.
As for the "tripes," they were clearly not fools. They had probably known from the start that this was an ambush.
So they decided to turn the tables, using this opportunity to draw out all of the snails' reinforcements and eliminate them in one go, achieving their own goals.
"Simple enough..."
Thinking this, Jie Ming's mouth twitched involuntarily.
Good news: this trap was not aimed at him.
Bad news: he had somehow ended up right in the middle of it.
Looking at the two sides, bristling for a fight, Jie Ming suddenly felt awkward standing at the center.
They were about to start fighting, and him standing there seemed redundant no matter what.
So, in this tense atmosphere, Jie Ming slowly raised one hand.
"Um..."
Through exquisite elemental resonance, Jie Ming's voice spread across the entire battlefield.
Instantly, dozens of gazes turned toward him.
The murderous intent that both sides had condensed to the utmost paused for a moment due to this unexpected voice.
Seeing that both sides had noticed him, Jie Ming nodded very politely: "Everyone, it seems there's nothing here involving me. I don't want to interfere in your affairs."
He gestured to both sides: "Since I have no enmity with either of you... is it still okay if I leave now?"
"...Ah?"
As if unable to comprehend what Jie Ming had said, both sides showed expressions of confusion.
For a moment, the entire void fell into dead silence.