Chapter Thirty-Five: The Gold-Devouring Vine · Crystal of Life

Seeing this, the black vines that had been in pursuit seemed thoroughly enraged. Their striking frequency became alarmingly rapid, and Song Chi caught sight of a change in the sharp barbs lining the vines.

A faint golden radiance shimmered across them, making the already menacing, cold-edged barbs look even more terrifying. As this golden light flowed, the surrounding starry space even seemed to distort slightly.

Song Chi’s gaze sharpened; he instinctively felt that something was amiss, but before he could react, the black vines, now laced with golden light, lashed out once more.

*Hum! Hum! Hum!*

The dark matter energy shield rippled violently, with an intensity far exceeding any previous strike. Correspondingly, the shield’s integrity dropped by over four hundred points—nearly one-fifteenth of its total capacity.

"Could it be an armor-piercing effect?"

The dark matter energy shield generator component possessed inherent defensive attributes. Typically, external attacks were mitigated by these defensive stats before affecting the energy shield, and previous strikes had functioned the same way. But after the golden light appeared, the power of the vines’ attacks had clearly increased several-fold; the only explanation Song Chi could think of was an armor-piercing effect.

Watching his shield integrity hover above four thousand points, Song Chi gritted his teeth and held his position, forcing himself not to react. Even with the armor-piercing effect, the *Sky Vault* could hold out for a while longer. He was determined to see whether the enemy’s true form would reveal itself first, or if his shield would break.

After a brief recharge, the psionic main cannon fired for the second time.

This shot still failed to penetrate the debris layer, but given the increasingly frantic state of the black vines, Song Chi was even more certain of his hypothesis.

The process repeated. Two minutes later, as the fourth shot from the psionic cannon landed, the rock pit below was finally breached. Through this hole, about three meters in diameter, Song Chi, looking down from high altitude, finally saw the true form of the "star-space plant" hidden within the core of the debris.

The main vine, nearly one meter in diameter and fifty meters long, displayed two distinct colors: the lower half was a faint gold, while the upper half was the familiar deep black.

After quickly consulting the *Encyclopedia of Alien Civilizations and Creatures of the Shattered Star Sea*, Song Chi identified the origin of this "star-space plant."

Well, to be more precise, it was not a star-space plant, but a specialized floating land plant known as a [Gold-Devouring Vine].

[Gold-Devouring Vines] are a unique type of floating land plant. They typically take root in large metallic mineral veins, growing and strengthening themselves by absorbing the metallic energy within. Once fully matured, they possess terrifying destructive and offensive power.

Upon identifying the Gold-Devouring Vine, Song Chi felt a sense of relief. He was fortunate that it was a Gold-Devouring Vine rather than a true star-space plant like a [Star-Devouring Vine]. Otherwise, it would likely be far beyond the peak of the first rank, and the fate of the *Sky Vault* would have been sealed.

As a floating land plant, no matter how unique, it could not escape its inherent limitations. The reason they were called floating land plants was their inability to grow indefinitely in space. Thus, it wasn't that this vine happened to be at the peak of the first rank; rather, trapped in the unique environment of deep space, the first rank was its evolutionary ceiling. Any further growth would exceed what the debris fragment could contain, and once removed from the protection of its core, the harsh environment of space would kill it.

This explained why the vine had reacted so violently when the *Rage Tiger* mining vehicle began excavating the fragment, destroying the environment it relied upon for survival.

With the situation clarified, the response became straightforward. The *Sky Vault* remained at high altitude, occasionally firing its main cannon, while the seven Fire Sunflower soldiers charged into the core of the debris, one after another. Through a "trade a thousand for eight hundred" style of attrition, they relentlessly wore the vine down.

About an hour later, when only three soldiers remained, the Gold-Devouring Vine in the debris core finally lost its vital energy fluctuations.

The large hole blasted into the debris had allowed space matter to pour in, constantly eroding the plant, and combined with the suicide attacks of the Fire Sunflower soldiers, this Gold-Devouring Vine, which should have possessed immense vitality, died a miserable death in the vacuum of space.

Seeing this, Song Chi still chose not to intervene personally, instead ordering the three remaining soldiers to clear the battlefield.

Minutes later, holding a green crystal the size of a fist, Song Chi finally found information on the item in his database.

Name: Crystal of Life
Rank: First Rank Peak

Effect: Can be used to accelerate the growth of various herbs, seeds, and other special plant life, shortening their growth cycles.
Note: Commonly found within plant-based life forms of the same rank.

The value of this Crystal of Life was decent, worth several dozen strands of first-rank floating land origin—roughly hundreds of strands of zero-rank floating land origin.

Song Chi was satisfied. Although it had taken more time than expected, the harvest was worth it. Even if it didn't compare to the thousand tons of refined gold ore from before, it was still worth several times the profit of a standard zero-rank starship exploration mission.

He retracted the *Rage Tiger* mining vehicle. During the battle, the vehicle had been a primary target for the vine, and its hull had sustained thirty percent damage. Its efficiency would be significantly reduced, but Song Chi wasn't wealthy enough to simply discard it. He would send it to a repair shop upon returning; after all, it had cost millions of credits, and he had only just started to break even.

Just as he finished tidying up and prepared to restart the engines, the onboard AI of the *Rage Tiger* issued another prompt.

"Detected radiation of 'Phantom Crystal Ore' below. Initial estimate: over one hundred tons."

Hearing this, Song Chi hurriedly killed the engines he was about to restart and reopened the shuttle hatch.

Phantom Crystals were an extremely rare resource for strengthening Starfire starships. While not essential for specific upgrades, their high market value was undeniable. It was rumored that adding a moderate amount of Phantom Crystals during the enhancement of a "Hull Armor" component could significantly improve a ship’s stealth capabilities. With enough crystals, it would be difficult for either the naked eye of a biological entity or the shipborne radar of a peer-level warship to detect it.

Because of this unique property, the value of Phantom Crystals remained high, not only within the territory of the Starfire Human Civilization but throughout the entire Shattered Star Sea.

As far as Song Chi knew, the market price for Phantom Crystals within the Starfire Human Civilization territory had already reached five strands of first-rank floating land origin per ton.