"Drink—explode…"
With his legs bent like a drawn bow, one foot forward and one back in a solid horse stance, Blaine fired several more arrows in rapid succession.
Boom boom boom…
Boom boom boom…
Boom boom boom…
The explosions echoed again.
But there were simply too many planets this time, and that level of force only managed to open a small gap. Outside the blast radius, smaller meteorites and dead planets bounced around like billiard balls.
"Oh, come on again."
Seeing the attack fail to achieve the effect he wanted, Blaine refused to accept defeat. He drew another arrow and fired.
This asteroid belt wasn't just a protective ring for Mars— it was also a natural shield for Earth and the surrounding planets. But unfortunately, today it had met Blaine, and its luck had run out.
He didn't dare destroy the entire belt outright, not yet, but thinning it out—peeling off the outer layers—was something he could confidently attempt.
This time Blaine wised up. Instead of firing at the same point, he spread his shots, aiming closer and spacing them evenly. That way the gaps would thin out consistently—"rain and dew evenly," as he put it.
Every time he blasted open a clearing, he had to stop and check for star cores. But fate was against him. Blaine seemed to have used up all his luck; even after bombarding the belt for so long, he found nothing.
Worse, the shockwaves from the explosions were knocking entire chunks of the belt off their orbits. If they scattered completely like billiard balls, the entire solar system could be in danger. Blaine had to use skills to rein in every runaway rock, which slowed him down drastically.
"No, how long am I supposed to keep blowing things up like this?"
"It's one thing to wreak havoc outside someone else's home—but doing it near my own planet is asking for trouble."
Just as Blaine's thoughts were racing, a sudden realization struck him like a skill notification slamming into his mind.
"Oh right—Hawkeye!"
He slapped his thigh, annoyed at himself. Why had he forgotten his own abilities? Ever since gaining power, it was like his brain had gotten lazy.
Launching into the air, Blaine activated Hawkeye and viewed the belt from a godlike vantage point. As his mental focus sharpened, Hawkeye's effects grew clearer. The usual perspective blurred… and then the entire asteroid belt became transparent, glowing like a thermal imager.
This was the new X-ray-like function of Hawkeye at level six. Not only could he see through walls, but with enough focus he could see straight through a small planet—up to tens of meters deep.
"That's more like it."
"Everything clear at a glance. Good, good."
Looking down at the meteorites—now appearing like transparent glass spheres in the dim grayness—Blaine grinned. Using his eyes to locate star cores was much better than blindly destroying everything. Efficient and safe.
But five minutes later—
"No way. The solar system has existed for ages. How is there 'not one' star core?"
Impatience crept into him. He couldn't even find a 0.1 purity core.
"If I don't believe it, I'll check again."
This time he held his breath and scanned carefully, one by one, avoiding the kind of oversight the system had made. He extended his field of view as far as he could, expanding his range.
"Damn—there it is."
Finally, in the vast gray darkness, a faint yellow glow flickered at the edge of his vision. It was so weak that anyone without Blaine's mental strength would've missed it entirely.
The moment he located it, he moved. His advanced arrows were spent, and ordinary arrows weren't strong enough to break it open, so Blaine simply flew in to slice the planet himself.
"Heh—mine."
Raising the Flood Dragon Trident, he slashed down.
Clang—
Unexpectedly, the blow bounced off. Even for a casual strike, that shouldn't have happened.
"Again."
This time he used eighty percent of his strength. Yet the result was the same—resistance.
"Seriously? How long has your planet existed to end up this hard?"
He refused to accept it. With the strength he had now, how could a tiny planet resist him?
The trident spun in his hands as he unleashed the third form of the Spring and Autumn Saber Technique—Flying Horizontal Strike.
"Open!"
With a fierce shout, the tip of the halberd slammed down.
Fff—
It finally broke. But instead of cracking, the entire thing exploded. The planet wasn't small, and combined with Blaine's strength, the blast sent fragments flying in all directions.
The surrounding meteorites were knocked off their paths, and in an instant more than ten celestial bodies were derailed.
"Damn it—I broke the goods."
Seeing the situation turn dangerous, Blaine didn't even stop to check the core. He immediately grabbed the yellow glow and sent it into Hunter Space. Then he raised his trident and sped after the runaway planets. He couldn't let them crash into anything. That would be a disaster. He might not fear such things, but he still lived on Earth—his home and villa were there.
Once a meteorite left its orbit, its speed skyrocketed. And the nine planets of the solar system weren't as far apart as humans thought—at least from Blaine's perspective. Several meteorites were already close to Mars's upper atmosphere. Some were going to reach the moon.
His weakened Space Stone ring was still on cooldown; he had to rely on his own speed.
"One…"
He was a man who could surpass the speed of light at full power. Speed wasn't an issue. In less than a second, the nearest meteorite shattered.
"Two…"
"Three…"
"Four…"
"You're the last one."
The final meteorite loomed ahead. It was the largest, less than twenty thousand meters from the moon's surface. If it hit the moon, the consequences would be catastrophic.
"Break for me…"
With a low growl, he hurled the halberd.
Suddenly, the temperature around him plunged. Snowflakes drifted through space, growing larger and larger.
"Don't tell me… the passive triggered…"
Unbeknownst to Blaine, he had swung the Flood Dragon Trident thousands of times by now; it wasn't surprising that its secondary ability finally activated. But this was the first time Blaine had ever seen it.
As his halberd flew, a piercing blue light surged out from its tip.
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