Chapter 436: The Discovery Beneath the Azure Valley

That unexpected haul of neutron star wreckage seemed to have used up all of Song Chi’s luck for the foreseeable future. For over two years after that, he barely managed to find anything significant.

On the bright side, having no lucky breaks also meant the Family’s large-scale extraction operations these past two years went off without a hitch. The captains wore broad, irrepressible smiles everywhere they went.

And honestly, with a Floating-land spanning over eighty light years across, even when resources were split among all the factions, the spoils each group managed to secure were staggering.

Not to mention, plenty of forces had been secretly mining all sorts of rare minerals. Each vein wasn’t much on its own, but with so many scattered all over, it all added up to an impressive harvest.

……

The Song Family’s territory—Tianyue Valley—wasn’t far from the White Fen Plateau.

On this particular day, a good number of the family’s key decision-makers had gathered there.

Up above, the Heavenly Ruin descended slowly through the sky. Once word got out, Song Chi set out at once. It didn’t take him long to reach the valley.

“Great-Grandpa Tianshu, what happened?”

He’d only received the highest-level Family summons, with no details at all. Right now Song Chi was completely in the dark.

He could only be sure that whatever was going on, it had to be major.

Because the people assembled here were exactly the ones from that special encrypted group chat on the Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang.

Song Dingbang, Song Xingru, Song Tianhao, Song Tianshu, Song Tianmang, and himself—all of them were the core of the Family’s bloodline.

Song Tianshu shook his head. As he did, both their gazes drifted to the skies through their ships’ external holodisplays—the Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang was arriving.

Once all the ships joined the encrypted chat, Song Dingbang spoke up at last, his expression grave.

“Patriarch, will what we’re about to discuss be at risk of leaking?”

Everyone tensed at his words.

This was the Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang’s encrypted chat, after all. If even here Song Dingbang had to ask that, how serious could the secret be?

Song Wujian didn’t reply right away. He mulled it over for a while, then gave a faint shake of his head.

“It’s hard to say. The Yin Family of Tianzhu and the whole Xian Qin Divine Dynasty are involved in this expansion war in the Tianpan Galaxy. Who knows if they have some special surveillance component—or what grade it might be!”

“If they wield a black ninth-tier supreme component, or perhaps even a colored mythic component, it wouldn’t just be the Tianpan Galaxy under watch… most of the Xian Qin’s territory would be, too!”

That sent the chat into a heavy silence for half a minute.

Song Wujian broke it at last.

“Let’s just speak plainly. If the news does leak, once we get to that certain step, the restrictions won’t matter anymore!”

“But… which family should we actually approach for backing…”

Song Tianhao started to say something more but thought better of it.

Song Dingbang didn’t hesitate now that Song Wujian had given his blessing.

“Here’s the situation. This morning, I discovered a medium-sized titanite crystal vein.”

The others in the chat didn’t react right away, knowing Song Dingbang wouldn’t share it unless there was more to the story.

A medium titanite vein might have been a fortune-making boon for an ordinary Torch Captain or a third-tier Family, but for one of the five great powers of the duchy, it was decent news, not world-shaking. Enough to make people happy, but not enough to explain Song Dingbang’s earlier anxiety.

Honestly, a typical medium-sized vein only meant a few hundred thousand titanite crystals. If it was a depleted vein, maybe just two hundred thousand. A richer one could top a million.

But so what?

For the Song Family, how much titanite did they go through every year? At the very least, they burned through hundreds of thousands.

So, a regular medium-sized vein would barely last them a couple of years.

True to expectations, after a brief pause, Song Dingbang went on.

“A medium-sized vein with a mineral core!”

The words ‘mineral core’ set off an immediate wave of excitement. Even Song Wujian’s normally somber eyes gleamed.

A mineral core was beyond priceless—literally a treasure beyond measurement.

Normally, a vein with a mineral core replenished a portion of its resources in set intervals, making it a truly renewable source.

With a titanite core, naturally, it would replenish titanite crystals over time.

“Can you be more specific? What’s the total titanite count? What’s the regeneration rate?”

Song Xingru pressed for details, unable to wait.

No two mineral cores were identical. Besides the vein type, both volume and regeneration ratio mattered greatly.

For example, let’s say you had a core vein with a total reserve of 10 billion tons and a 5% regeneration rate. That meant it could naturally replenish up to 500 million tons a year.

As long as whoever controlled it kept the yearly extraction under that, it’d be a truly endless mine—an infinite resource.

Of course, that only worked if you supplied enough energy: Floating-land origin, dark energy, magic, spirit qi, or whatever else.

Seeing everyone’s eager expressions, Song Dingbang didn’t drag it out any longer.

“With my ship’s special detection systems, I estimate this medium-sized titanite vein holds about 900,000 crystals, and the regeneration rate’s pretty decent—10%.”

Ten percent meant 90,000 crystals a year, steadily produced without loss.

A quick bit of mental math, and everyone found it hard to hide their excitement.

Ninety thousand crystals a year… times ten, that’s 900,000 in a decade. The value of such a vein spoke for itself.

Frankly, it rivaled the worth of a strategic gold sanctum domain component—it was no wonder Song Dingbang had been so cautious.

You had to understand—the Song Family had been around for three millennia, and in all that time, with all their numbers, they’d only ever found one mineral-cored titanite vein centuries ago in the outer reaches of a high-tier Floating-land.

Their luck back then was off the charts. Not only did they find a titanite core, it was in a large-sized vein.

Even if the total amount barely met the cutoff for ‘large,’ at three million crystals, and a modest 5% regeneration rate, it still yielded 150,000 crystals annually—a huge chunk of the Family’s yearly consumption.

If they could claim this titanite mine on Storm Calamity Floating-land as well, their yearly supply would jump again. Over time, the family’s foundation would grow faster than ever.

The more they thought about it, the more everyone tried to calm their racing hearts, all turning to the patriarch.

Time ticked by with nothing but silence in the encrypted chat.

At last, Song Wujian’s calm voice rang out.

“No one is to breathe a word of this. Also, I’ll prioritize seeking protection—we’ll see if that old man can actually pull it off…”

With that, everyone in the chat signed a high-level confidentiality pact and then went their separate ways.

In the end, aside from Song Dingbang, no one knew where the vein actually was. Song Xingru even asked, but Song Wujian just waved her off.

The message was clear. If they secured the protection of an immortal aristocratic house, the vein wasn’t going anywhere. If not, knowing the location wouldn’t do much good.

……

Deep inside the Floating-Land Sky Vault, in the command center of the Heavenly Ruin.

Pulling his mind away from thoughts of the ‘mineral core’, Song Chi activated the interstellar exploration function.

He’d learned about mineral cores before from the Family’s classified archives, but these things were exceptionally rare—mineral-cored titanite veins even more so. To have one show up right in front of him today felt almost unreal.

Still, no matter how stunned he was, he couldn’t let it delay his scheduled exploration runs.

Lately, he’d either been busy exploring those fragments from the Immortal Domain continent or studying the laws of the universe, not to mention the huge expansion campaign. It struck him that he hadn’t actually run an interstellar exploration in years.

Given that large-scale resource scavenging on Storm Calamity Floating-land would be ongoing for a while, Song Chi figured he had the perfect opportunity to sneak in a few more expeditions.

Buzz—buzz—buzz!

Familiar spatial ripples and a sudden weightlessness swept over him. By the time he recovered, the Heavenly Ruin had emerged in pitch-black space.

He glanced at the radar feed.

As expected, there were no floating lands, fragment fields, or asteroid belts nearby.

With his sixth-tier Eye of Spirit-Seeking enhancement, even his radar’s baseline scan covered several light-years. But in the vastness of the Sea of Stars, that was still next to nothing.

“Guess I’ll wait for the jump map…”

The star-jump map would take several dozen minutes to generate. Slow, sure—but its radius far exceeded his regular radar, mapping out over a thousand light-years. That would definitely help him get his bearings in this region.

With time to kill, Song Chi dropped by the Omniverse Market and dove into the Divine Realm Task Platform.

Two years had gone by. Thanks to scores of trade deals, the Divine Realm Task Platform was now transformed beyond recognition.

[Name: Divine Realm Task Platform]

[Level: lv65]

[Number of Divine Realm players: 321,580]

[Current tasks posted: Divine Realm Ruler x18; Players x1458]

[Highest player level: 25]

[Average player level: 3]

[Number of player teams: 0]

……

“Luke, Deguen, Zhou Ping—just a little more effort. The team voucher reward is right around the corner…”

There were well over three hundred thousand players now, but not a single team. Song Chi couldn’t help being a little exasperated.

Since the divine teleportation he’d set up required hefty amounts of points, no player had managed it yet. Most likely, once their levels rose and players could team up for extra discounts, someone would finally take the plunge.

But Song Chi thought the strict teleport requirements were perfectly fair.

Divine realm teleportation ate up massive energy reserves. Even with the Omniverse Market’s high conversion efficiency, too much traffic would burn it out. He needed to keep the baseline barrier high.

Would that change when player teams started to form?

By then, the Market itself would probably be fifth or even sixth-tier, with much better energy output.

But compared to player level or team stats, the trading hall was far busier, with thousands of exotic beings advertising their goods at that very moment.

He’d also posted tons of buy orders for rare minerals, which meant even low-level alien races who had nothing else to offer could still earn Divine Realm points by trading. That made the trading hall a lot more lively.

With that, the platform’s profits these past two years were considerable. Alongside the Market’s own trades, Song Chi’s assets had only grown faster.

The only disappointment was, top-tier Floating-land origins or legendary cosmic treasures were still rare. Even when he put up five-tier origins to trade for sixth-tier ones at a 30:1 rate, yields were disappointing.

Just then, something caught his eye—a stall run by a demi-human.

A quick thought, and Song Chi stepped into the trading hall disguised as a Blueblood.

“Hey boss, how much for this?”

He pointed at a square blue-green stone on the stall, addressing the demi-human shopkeeper.

Demi-humans, as the name implied, looked just like humans on the outside, yet were fundamentally different on the inside. Their biology, organs, and even bloodline talents were a world apart, and they couldn’t interbreed.

This dealer was no pushover—classified as a level-three Sea of Stars lifeform. At Song Chi’s question, it glanced up, then held up three fingers.

“Three threads of Floating-land origin? What tier?”

Song Chi raised a brow.

“Fourth-tier!”

After a moment’s thought, he agreed to the price.

After paying up, Song Chi acquired the angular blue stone.

“It really is an Eternal Stone Brick!”

That’s right—the stone he’d picked out was a strategic resource known as an Eternal Stone Brick.

They might be everywhere in the Yaoguang Star Tower and Civilization Wall, but Eternal Stone Bricks were as critical as titanite for the Torch Human Civilization.

Unlike titanite, which was a high-end upgrade material, Eternal Stone Bricks could be fused directly into a warship’s hull.

When integrated, a Torch battleship not only became tougher, but could also slowly repair itself over time. The more bricks, the greater the effect.

And it wasn’t just for battleships—any starship, mecha, or mobile battlestar could benefit from fusion with these bricks.

Worth noting—those legendary colored mythic-grade Civilization Walls weren’t just loaded up with the bricks. They were born from entire Eternal Stone Brick veins, or so the Star Tower Elders said.

Song Chi planned to fuse this new brick into the Heavenly Ruin. It might only be one, but these things added up over time.