Chapter 435: The Neutron-Star Relic

In comparison, the reactions from families like the Morningstar Family, the Lu Family, the Dusk Family, and the Eagle Family were a bit more interesting.

After a brief moment of doubt, each family had their guesses, but beneath it all, they really didn’t take the matter too seriously.

Yaohan Kingdom’s strength was undeniable, but spread across almost a million light-years of the Tianpan Galaxy, could they really monitor everything down to the smallest detail?

As long as they kept things discreet and didn’t mine too much, they believed it wouldn’t be that hard to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.

Monitoring every single floating landmass around the clock? Even Yaohan Kingdom didn’t have that kind of power.

But if they knew this order hadn’t come from Yaohan Kingdom, but rather from the far more powerful Xian Qin Divine Dynasty, their optimism would probably vanish.

As one of the Four Great Super Empires of the Torch Human Civilization, Xian Qin Divine Dynasty might not be the strongest of the four, but their domain stretched close to two hundred million light-years. They were a true titan. The things Yaohan Kingdom couldn’t do were mere child’s play for them.

The Song Family’s higher-ups could pretty much guess what the other families were thinking, but they had no intention of reminding them. After all, these families were all competitors.

In the northern part of Storm Calamity Floating-land, the Song Family’s assigned area—about 12 percent of the Floating-land—buzzed as over a million starships came and went.

They couldn’t mine the ores themselves, but the ordinary Doomstar people who once lived here had collected plenty. There were no restrictions on gathering existing resources.

……

White Fen Plateau, Tenth Branch Transport Team.

As Song Shan’s second son, Song Lin’s talent was poor; he only awakened an ordinary Colorless Torch Seed.

Back when they were still on White Tower Floating-land, it was actually a basic purple upgrade fire source from Song Chi that let him raise his seed to white.

After returning to the Dinghai Sector, life improved a lot. Song Chi supplied several upgrade fire sources, but there are a lot of third-generation members in the Tenth Branch. Song Shan’s family only managed to secure one basic orange upgrade fire source and one top-grade purple one—these went to Song You and Song Qi, not Song Lin.

That’s why Song Lin was still stuck with a white fire seed. His ship had been promoted to a frigate for a while, but he still couldn’t break through to cruiser level.

This left Song Lin feeling pretty sour. He desperately wanted to achieve something great for the branch, so he’d earn the right to exchange for that top-grade purple upgrade fire source from the branch’s treasury.

That’s also why he volunteered to follow Song Shan to White Fen Plateau. Thanks to the rich mineral deposits here, there’d once been a swarm of ordinary Doomstar people, some even at tier three.

Even after the family fleet cleared the place once, there was no way to wipe out every Doomstar hiding out here. That meant the area was still really dangerous.

But Song Lin believed if you want great rewards, you have to take big risks.

White Fen Plateau was messier than other zones, but it also had the highest chance for an unexpected windfall.

Beep beep beep!

A notification chime sounded from his flagship—the Micro-Range Transmission Orb had received a message.

Song Lin’s face tensed as his gaze snapped to the comms device.

The Micro-Range Transmission Orb was just a blue comm component. At level 29, its max range was only 770km. Song Lin had made it clear when he handed out two communication marks to his patrol ships: Don’t activate them unless there’s something critical.

So this probably meant his people down there had made a huge discovery.

He connected right away—the single-use call would only last up to ninety seconds. Soon, a report came through.

“Captain Lin, we’ve found signs of a tier-three Doomstar. It hasn’t realized we’re onto it yet. It’s moving northeast!”

After listening to the report, Song Lin’s eyes dimmed a little. Finding a tier-three Doomstar was a big deal, but it wasn’t quite what he’d been hoping for.

Still, he’d been in charge for years. Hiding his disappointment, he replied calmly,

“Good. Keep tracking it. Try to figure out where it’s hiding. I’ll be there soon!”

Once the call ended, Song Lin activated the Micro-Range Transmission Orb again.

This time he wasn’t contacting another patrol team. He reached out to Song Shan, the overall supervisor for the White Fen Plateau.

At level 29, the Micro-Range Transmission Orb could hold three communication marks at once. Two went to his patrol teams—the third was on Song Shan’s Mountain Whale.

With Song Lin reporting in, the Mountain Whale cruiser quickly linked up with his flagship, and the big and small ships sped toward the patrol team that made the report.

As they moved quickly, Song Shan’s expression in the Mountain Whale’s control room grew steadily more somber.

“This is heading toward the far northeast of the White Fen Mountains. That area doesn’t fully belong to us!”

Hearing his father’s words, Song Lin quickly remembered something important.

The northeast end of the White Fen Mountains was right on the border with the Eagle Family’s territory. If that tier-three Doomstar had its lair in an area claimed by the Eagle Family, things would get complicated…

Boom boom boom!

Just as he was thinking that, piercing cannon fire suddenly erupted from ahead.

“The Eagle Family must have spotted it. Step on it!”

Song Shan was the picture of calm, making a snap decision. The two low-flying warships picked up speed again.

Soon, both ships met up with the patrol team, but far in the distance two cruisers appeared on the horizon.

Screee!

The ethereal cry of a Gale God-Eagle echoed out. As they fought the tier-three Doomstar, the two Eagle Family cruisers were clearly announcing their presence.

On this side, Song Shan gave some quick instructions to Song Lin and the team, then summoned a phantom Dragon-Backed Brute Whale. The Mountain Whale dashed ahead and entered the fight as well.

The God-Eagles and Dragon Whale called forth by the three cruisers were formed from psionic energy, not rule power. Captains who could wield rule power at the third tier were always rare, even among the Song Family and Eagle Family. Song Shan and the others were regular cruiser captains.

With all three ships working together, even though the tier-three Doomstar had the Floating-Land Origin backing it, it still met its end.

When the fight ended, both sides introduced themselves, then headed together toward the Doomstar’s lair.

The Eagle Family’s two cruiser captains were shrewd—they’d double-checked the location of the tier-three Doomstar’s nest before acting. That was the way to maximize their cut of the loot.

As for Song Shan’s group, the Eagle Family captains were pretty forceful at first, but once they learned Song Shan was from the Tenth Branch and a direct elder of Song Chi, they agreed to split the spoils.

After all, Song Chi was already famous in the Morningstar Duchy. Last time, with just a projection, he’d easily crushed the Eagle Family’s up-and-coming Kendall Eagle. His reputation soared to an all-time high—especially as far as the Eagle Family was concerned.

……

The tier-three Doomstar’s lair was a hidden cavern deep within a massive mountain. If they hadn’t tracked its movements precisely this time, searching among the endless mountains would’ve been like finding a needle in a haystack.

Puppet soldiers from both sides ferried out everything from the cavern, and soon the full inventory was catalogued.

Glancing at the loot list in the group chat, the two Eagle Family cruiser captains couldn’t hide their disappointment.

The pile was big, but most of it was cheap stuff. The two most valuable things were both purple-grade relics, and one couldn’t even be converted into a ship component.

Naturally, all three cruiser captains started to argue—everyone wanted that purple component.

But within the Mountain Whale’s encrypted channel, things were different.

“Dad, that’s neutron star wreckage. Fourth Brother has been collecting it like crazy—we’ve got to get it!”

“Yeah, but Chi already told the Family’s Dragon‑Spine Trade Fleet to buy this stuff first. If they heard that and bought the neutron star wreckage already, that would be trouble!”

Even though the Mountain Whale had helped in the fight, they’d arrived second. After some back and forth, the first pick for loot went to one of the Eagle Family’s captains, then it was Song Shan’s turn.

As father and son silently hoped for the best, the Eagle Family captain used his pick on the purple component, and they both let out a sigh of relief.

When it was Song Shan’s turn, he ignored the others’ confusion and immediately took the neutron star wreckage.

The two Eagle Family captains hadn’t even considered the stuff worth the trouble. They almost thought they’d misread him, but the second captain happily scooped up the remaining purple relic.

Even if it couldn’t be used as a ship component, it was still one of the most valuable things in the pile.

……

Floating-Land Sky Vault, Heavenly Ruin’s control center.

“Neutron star wreckage?”

Seeing the message from his uncle, Song Chi’s initial shock quickly shifted to excitement and curiosity.

Ever since his Neutron‑Star Core Armor advanced to silver legendary quality, he hadn’t found any more neutron star wreckage. He still didn’t know if this powerful armor could be upgraded even further.

Now, with this fresh neutron star wreckage, he’d finally be able to answer a question that had bugged him for years.

……

White Fen Plateau. Within ten minutes of hearing about the neutron star wreckage, Heavenly Ruin and the Mountain Whale linked up. Anxious to learn the answer, Song Chi instantly activated the warp module.

“Chi, your fortune is your own. The branch can’t help much anymore. Honestly, you’ve supported us elders way more than we’ve given you. You want a reward…”

As he spoke, Song Shan opened the Mountain Whale’s hold and quickly moved out the neutron star wreckage.

Inside Heavenly Ruin’s control center, Song Chi clenched his fists tightly.

The moment the Mountain Whale’s hold opened and the wreckage was exposed to the outside world, the Neutron‑Star Core Armor on Heavenly Ruin instantly reacted.

It felt almost exactly the same as last time—only this time, the reaction was even stronger.

Almost immediately, Song Chi was sure that silver legendary wasn’t the armor’s limit. With enough neutron star wreckage, the component could at least evolve to gold sanctum quality.

A gold armor and gold energy shield—Song Chi could already picture Heavenly Ruin’s next leap as the premier shield-ship on the battlefield.

There was still one thing he didn’t know: Just how much neutron star wreckage would it take to upgrade the Neutron‑Star Core Armor to gold?

He reeled in the neutron star wreckage, but still transferred a huge sum of branch contribution points to his uncle.

Song Chi had banked a ton of contribution points over time. He rarely used them, but for his uncle’s family, it meant a lot—now Song Lin would have enough to exchange for that top-grade purple fire source.

Before leaving, Song Shan called in a favor: he asked Song Chi to swing by the Dragon‑Spine Continent and exchange the branch’s top-grade purple fire source.

It made sense. With the frontier war raging, upgrading Song Lin’s ship parts was vital for safety. Song Shan also knew Song Chi could get to Dragon‑Spine quickly, so he had him handle the swap.

Once all that was done, Song Chi piloted Heavenly Ruin away.

Deep inside the Floating-land skies, he double-checked everything, then pulled out the neutron star wreckage and let the Neutron‑Star Core Armor’s devouring power fully absorb it.

When the silver light faded, Song Chi quickly checked the armor’s stats.

Neutron‑Star Core Armor lv60.

Quality: Silver (1/10)

Trait: Neutron‑Star Fission

……

Looking at the end of the quality bar, he was relieved it didn’t require dozens or even hundreds of pieces. But he quickly frowned again.

“Nine pieces is still a lot…”

That number still felt daunting.

It might not seem high, but this was neutron star wreckage. Aside from the reward from the Merit Tower, every other piece had been brutally hard to get.

Who knew how long it would take to gather all nine?

Still, thinking about how the Neutron‑Star Core Armor would become gold sanctum grade one day, Song Chi’s frustration turned into burning motivation.

A gold sanctum-grade ship part—with godly stats—so what if it took a bit more work?

Most importantly, Song Chi believed in himself.

With the Song Family and Yaoguang Star Tower behind him, plus the Omniverse Market and the newly launched Divine Realm Task Platform, he was confident he’d get those nine pieces, and fast enough, too.