Chapter 343

Chapter 343: Behemoth

The sudden zooming of his vision overwhelmed Midi momentarily.

After adjusting, Midi finally managed to use his "Insight" skill to detect targets beyond a thousand kilometers.

He clearly recalled the retreat direction of the sect headquarters’ fleet from three days prior and scanned that area first, yet found nothing within five thousand kilometers.

Expanding his search radius and conducting full sweeps, Midi still felt like he was hunting for a needle in the endless Star Ocean.

He eventually devised a new approach – tracking resources.

Though unable to pinpoint their location, he knew they needed supplies. By scouting mineral-rich floating islands and rocks, he might intercept sect headquarters’ forces.

This strategy shifted from military tactics to hunter’s tracking techniques.

Just as prey gathers near forest water sources, resource harvesters would cluster around rich mineral zones in the Star Ocean.

After two days of searching, Midi finally found evidence – a mined-out vein.

The floating island contained abundant red flame crystals, crucial for building Demon Realm warships. Blood Purification primarily replicated sky warships.

The site’s extreme distance from Blood Hell Island ruled out Marcel’s involvement – this had to be sect headquarters’ operation.

Though abandoned for years with collapsed structures, the mining traces provided leads.

Within two hours, Midi’s gaze spanned six thousand kilometers to spot active mining operations.

The workers’ uniforms and Skyship designs confirmed sect headquarters’ presence.

Midi locked the All-Seeing Demon’s vision on this island and waited. Resource shipments would eventually return to their base.

As predicted, processed ore traveled to an alchemical factory that same day. Midi’s gaze followed.

By next day, refined materials reached a larger floating island with surrounding shipyards – clearly a warship production facility with heavy defenses.

Destroying this factory wouldn’t eliminate existing sect fleets. Midi’s weakened forces would suffer heavy losses assaulting such fortifications.

With both sides possessing All-Seeing Demons, the Star Ocean offered no hiding spots. Every troop movement and facility lay exposed.

Aerial combat’s lack of defensive depth meant fleets could strike anywhere rapidly. The only solution became swift, decisive counterattacks.

The key to victory lay in who could first identify the opponent’s most critical weakness and seize it swiftly.

Midi faced overwhelming disadvantages.

His forces only controlled two key locations: Blood Hell Island and Emil’s forward base.

Both had already been exposed.

Not only discovered, but repeatedly attacked – their infrastructure lay in ruins.

No amount of floating island relocation or facility transfers would fool the sect headquarters’ forces.

Even if Midi located critical targets like the alchemical factory or shipyard, reversing the battle situation seemed impossible.

Capturing them at low cost wouldn’t matter.

The sect headquarters’ millennium-accumulated resources in the Star Ocean couldn’t be crippled by minor setbacks.

Midi needed to find the single vulnerability that could magnify their defeat a hundredfold – one decisive strike to shift the balance.

There existed only one such target.

The Behemoth.

This hundred-kilometer-long leviathan served as both sect headquarters and sanctuary for their supreme expert.

Only its destruction could wound the Blue Truth Sect mortally.

Though discovering various facilities like potion factories and shipyards, Midi focused solely on tracking key personnel movements.

The hunter watched, waited, stalked – until after seven days of All-Seeing Demon surveillance, his chance came.

A Heart-Seizing Demon Saint entered his view – not a warrior but an inspector aboard an ornate warship touring critical installations.

After completing inspections, the flagship veered into uncharted territory, climbing towards the Star Ocean’s canopy until stars seemed within reach.

Beneath the stars’ cold glow moved an immense shadow, deceptively slow due to its scale.

As the warship approached, Midi’s gaze ascended with it.

Proximity revealed terrifying truth – the Behemoth’s "sluggishness" masked terrifying speed achievable only by such colossal beings.

Daybreak dispelled the shadows.

Before him loomed the legendary whale, its back bearing entire ecosystems – mountains, rivers, farmlands, and ancient ruins.

Even from 7,000 kilometers, the Behemoth’s primordial aura overwhelmed senses.

Through the All-Seeing Demon’s vision, Midi traced mountain-clinging temple complexes resembling creeping vines until reaching the second spinal region.

There stood the sect’s main temple amidst natural fortifications – once housing adventurer Leslie’s relics, now the supreme expert’s lair.

As Midi activated the All-Seeing Demon’s Insight to penetrate the temple, impenetrable shadows swallowed his vision.

Detection and blockade from 7,000 kilometers away? Though wary since his past life, Midi still staggered at this display.

Such long-range reconnaissance already strained limits – blocking it defied reason. Yet the supreme expert achieved this effortlessly!

Had their power regenerated?

Midi’s face darkened. The Eye Demons’ emergence from the Shaded Realm already complicated matters. Perhaps timeline differences had altered this supreme expert’s capabilities.

A restored supreme expert meant certain defeat – beings surpassing level 85 second-awakeners like King Bacal of the Tyrant Dragon could ravage the Star Ocean with fragmentary power.

Midi’s probe had aimed to test this exact danger. The devastating answer chilled his blood.

As dread gripped him, an ancient voice resonated: "Heir of the Sea Emperor’s Inheritance. How ironic our meeting." The self-mocking tone deepened. "But distance spares me from containing your physical mutation. Convenient."