Chapter 468: The Compass of Destiny and the Treasure Hunt

Judging by the description on its artifact panel, it was clear that the Destiny Compass was incomplete. That instantly reminded Song Chi of the Timepiece Chess components.

He didn’t linger long on the artifact’s attributes, quickly shifting his focus to its battleship module properties.

Destiny Compass · Disk lv0

Quality: Gold

Trait: Compass · Return to Origins

Trait 2: Compass · Trace to Source

Trait 3: Doubles Airborne Radar Performance for Battleship

Trait 4: Destiny · Vanishing Without a Trace (Sealed)

Trait 5: Destiny · Shrouding Fate (Sealed)

Consumption: 40 per second (Eon Energy Points)

Effect: Once installed, the battleship becomes immune to external magnetic fields, illusions, mist, and other energy interferences, drastically reducing the chance of losing its way.

No charging or buffering required

Upgrade requirements: 40 wisps of Floating-land Origin (Tier Zero), 4000 Eon Energy Points, 1kg of Geomagnetic Stone

Note: This module occupies 5 slots.

{Compass · Return to Origins: Depending on the item’s quality, consumes various amounts of Eon Energy Points to decompose it, returning it to its most primitive form. Cooldown: 720 hours.}

{Compass · Trace to Source: Insert a chosen clue item and consume Eon Energy Points to track everything tied to its origins. Max tracking range is currently 10 light-years. Cooldown: 1 year.}

Song Chi’s gaze sharpened, fixed firmly on the ‘Return to Origins’ and ‘Trace to Source’ traits, seemingly ignoring the last two sealed abilities.

From those two trait descriptions, he could tell at a glance these features were far from ordinary.

The first thing he thought of when he saw ‘Return to Origins’ was the warship’s onboard modules.

Decomposing an item back to its base state—if used on a module already enhanced through multiple tiers, wouldn’t that mean the module could revert all the way back to lv0 and return every single resource previously consumed during upgrades?

To test this theory, Song Chi turned his attention to several blue-grade modules in the battleship.

Point Drop Platform (Blue) lv30, Blood Soul Seal (Blue) lv30, Spatial Beacon Launcher (Blue) lv30, Sonic Silencer Field (Blue) lv30, Inhabitant Permit (Blue) lv30

Right now, the Heavenly Ruin only had blue modules left—the white ones had all been replaced.

He wasn’t in a hurry to experiment. First, he returned to the Free Stall Area, summoned the Heavenly Ruin, installed the Destiny Compass · Disk module, then upgraded it directly to lv60.

Geomagnetic stones were hardly rare; they were abundant in the mineral shops at the Market.

Once the module was enhanced, Song Chi selected the Blood Soul Seal and activated the ‘Return to Origins’ trait.

With a flash of brilliance, a golden ray surged from the Destiny Compass · Disk and quickly seeped into the Blood Soul Seal.

Then Song Chi watched something truly astonishing unfold—the Blood Soul Seal, which was lv30, began to drop in level, step by step.

Lv29

Lv28

……

When it finally dropped all the way back to lv0, a cache of resources materialized beside the Blood Soul Seal.

It held everything from Tier 0 to Tier 2 Floating-land Origin, Tier 0 to Tier 2 Life Primal Core, and even a lump of Eon Energy—precisely all the resources that had gone into enhancing the Blood Soul Seal to lv30.

“Just as I guessed, this ‘Return to Origins’ trait can revert a module to its initial state and return every bit of resource invested, free of charge.”

Song Chi wanted to try out a few more times, maybe test it on red, silver, or even gold modules, but the trait was now in cooldown. He’d have to wait 120 hours before using it again.

He could use Zen Seal · Internal · Time Acceleration to cut the cooldown, but with only one test it’d barely matter. Since he couldn’t test the full effect in one go, he figured there was no rush. After all, he’d have about a month to fully test its capabilities, so a few days’ wait was no big deal.

He scrolled down to focus on the ‘Trace to Source’ trait, which was just as exceptional.

Looking at it, Song Chi immediately thought of the Timepiece Chess module.

The Timepiece Chess was already flawed, filled with near-identical chess pieces—and that Timepiece Chessboard, too.

Originally, Song Chi had some interest in those extra components, but not enough to actually look for them; the prospect always seemed too unrealistic.

But now, hope sparked in his heart. It was suddenly possible—he could finally seek out the missing Timepiece Chess pieces, maybe even the Timepiece Chessboard.

{Compass · Trace to Source: Insert a designated clue item, consume Eon Energy Points, and track all connected origins. Range now extends up to ten million light-years. Cooldown: 1 year.}

This was the detailed property after upgrading ‘Trace to Source’ to the sixth tier. Its range now reached ten million light-years. Compared to the vast Shattered Sea of Stars, that was still just a fraction, but it beat relying on pure luck by a mile.

And that’s only at the sixth tier. If the Heavenly Ruin advanced to a full battleship and he upgraded the Destiny Compass · Disk to lv70, the tracking radius could shoot up to a hundred million light-years. That would be a remarkable range.

There was another key part—as Song Chi linked the Timepiece Chess module with this trait, a special star map appeared on the Destiny Compass · Disk’s bronze platform. Its radius reached an astonishing ten million light-years.

There were two unique light points on the star map: one bright and silvery-white within the radius (likely another chess piece, Song Chi guessed), and a second, much dimmer and displayed as an inky black shimmer—outside the map’s boundaries.

“Is that another Timepiece Chess component?”

“Or could that be where the Timepiece Chessboard is hidden?”

“Maybe it marks another missing piece of the Destiny Compass · Disk itself?”

However he tried to guess, there was one thing about this star map that never changed.

It always persisted—there wasn’t any time limit.

As if, unless he manually unbinds the Timepiece Chess module, it’ll keep tracking all targets related to it in real time.

For Song Chi, that was fantastic news. No matter which Star Domain he traveled to next, there was no risk of missing anything.

Finally, his gaze fell on the last two traits, ‘Destiny · Vanishing Without a Trace’ and ‘Destiny · Shrouding Fate.’ Both were sealed; most likely, just like with Timepiece Chess, he’d need to collect the missing parts of the Destiny Compass · Disk to unlock them.

Thinking this through, Song Chi’s attention naturally returned to the star map on the bronze platform, his eyes drifting to that solitary black light point outside the map’s range, wondering if it was actually the other missing component of the Destiny Compass · Disk.

After pulling his thoughts back together, he returned to the Traveler’s Inn in the Market. There were still two more gold-grade Oddities waiting, as well as plenty of silver and red ones.

Eyes flashing, he quickly revealed the attributes of the second Gold Sanctum Oddity.

But this particular artifact couldn’t be used as a ship module.

That made Song Chi hesitate to check the last gold Oddity right away—he was afraid of being disappointed.

Wanting to savor the anticipation, he turned his attention to the dozen or so Silver Legendary Oddities instead.

Oddity: Five-Wheel Ember Robe

Quality: Silver

Convertible: {Five-Wheel Ember Energy Shield}

Note: Once worn by the Chasing Fate Immortal. After years of nurturing with immortal power, it became a silver oddity.

……

Oddity: Thunder Fan

Oddity: Fire in the Air

……

He checked several Silver Oddities in a row. Most couldn’t be converted into ship modules, and among those that could, it was always some kind of energy shield or armor—nothing the Heavenly Ruin needed.

But when he reached the last two, things finally changed.

Oddity: Eye of the Spirit Spring

Quality: Silver

Convertible: {Azure Spirit Spring}

Note: Born from a unique environment on the Immortal Continent—a spirit spring’s eye, which by chance became an Oddity.

……

Azure Spirit Spring lv0

Quality: Silver

Trait: Cleansing Waters

Trait 2: Azure Spring Essence

Trait 3: Boosts Surrounding Plant Growth Speed by 110%

Trait 4: Boosts Water-Type Creature Growth Speed by 110%, Enhances Survival Rate

Consumption: 30 per second (Eon Energy Points)

Effect: Once installed, energy concentration inside the battleship doubles. Over many years, this slightly extends the captain’s lifespan.

No charging or buffering required

Upgrade requirements: 30 wisps of Floating-land Origin (Tier Zero), 3000 Eon Energy Points, 3 low-tier spirit stones

Note: This module takes up 4 slots.

{Cleansing Waters: The spring water relieves fatigue and heals old internal injuries.}

{Azure Spring Essence: Spirit spring produces spring essence, which lengthens lifespan, increases transplant success rates for plants, and speeds up plant growth.}

The Azure Spirit Spring had fantastic properties, but Song Chi didn’t plan to convert it into a battleship module. He would rather send it into the Cultivation Sanctuary, where its effects would be further amplified by the ‘Sanctuary Accelerator’ trait.

Once placed in the Cultivation Sanctuary, he could even try raising a batch of deepwater spirit mussels. It was common knowledge that cultivating outside species in secret realms was tough, but with the spring’s extra survival boost, Song Chi figured it was worth an attempt.

If it worked, especially with the Sanctuary Accelerator bonus, he’d be able to mass-produce high-quality deepwater pearls.

Just thinking about it made Song Chi eager to begin.

Training the Guiding Technique was getting harder every day. With deepwater pearls aged seven or even ten thousand years, combined with regular Sovereign blood, he was confident his Guiding Technique would improve by leaps and bounds.

With that in mind, he carefully sent the Azure Spirit Spring into the Heavenly Ruin’s Cultivation Sanctuary. Of course, he placed the spring right between the Silver Apple Mother Tree, the two Law Trees, and those Quenching Spirit Fruit and Dragon Blood Fruit trees—putting its effects to maximum use.

He didn’t check the attributes of the last gold Oddity just yet—time was running fast in the sanctuary, making it the perfect moment to test if those mussels could thrive.

He swung by the Dragon Spine Commercial Tower to pick up a batch of deepwater mussels, then set them all into the Azure Spirit Spring.

Job finished, he left, ready to wait and see if mass mussel farming would work in the coming days.

Only after wrapping up all this did Song Chi’s thoughts return to another matter.

He set his sights on the silver oddity, Fire in the Air.

It couldn’t be converted into a battleship module, but it was—without question—a genuine Silver Fireseed Artifact.

If he remembered right, in his previous life this thing, along with Stonefire and Woodfire, was one part of the legendary Samadhi True Flame.

Because of that, he debated whether to dump it into the Oddity Exchange Shop, but its potential was too high to let go.

The name Samadhi True Flame was well-known in his previous life—everyone had heard of it.

Shaking his head, Song Chi gave up on putting it into the exchange shop. Thanks to his recent haul, he now had dozens of Silver Legendary Oddities—one more Fire in the Air wouldn’t matter.

He would hang onto it—who knew if he’d come across the other two types in the future?

After all, the Primeval Continent was also a cultivation floating-land, with a good chance of producing the same three fireseed artifacts. He’d just have to ask around using his Blueblood Clan identity.

With that sorted, he stored Fire in the Air in the market’s storage room and turned to the last Gold Sanctum Oddity.

He wasn’t disappointed—this gold oddity could be used as a battleship module after all.

Oddity: Divine Thunder Talisman

Quality: Gold

…………