Chapter 486: Journey Through the Yaohan Star Domain

Tianpan Galaxy, Yaohan Star Domain.

As the central star domain of the Yaohan Kingdom, ruled solely by the Liu Royal Family, the Yaohan Star Domain might only span fifty thousand lightyears in diameter, but the wealth and value it generates each year have always led the entire Tianpan Galaxy.

It can’t be helped—being the center of the whole galaxy, Yaohan Star Domain doesn’t just possess one of only two seventh-tier life-type floating-lands in the galaxy. It also draws together the richest resources and even boasts a massive long-range stargate connecting directly to neighboring galaxies.

All these factors are what drive the prosperity and flourishing of the Yaohan Star Domain.

……

On this day, a battleship over fourteen thousand meters long entered the bounds of the Yaohan Star Domain.

After being inspected by the Yaohan defense fleet, the Heavenly Ruin was cleared for entry into the domain.

“People from the Morningstar Kingdom? Their credentials check out—let them through.”

Inside the control room of the Heavenly Ruin, Song Chi piloted the ship at full speed, heading straight for the heart of the Yaohan Star Domain.

It had been several months since they’d left the Dragon-Spine Continent. Thanks to two warp drive components, the Heavenly Ruin had finally managed to reach the Yaohan Star Domain.

On the Destiny Compass’s display, the light point coordinates lay over a million lightyears from Dragon-Spine Continent. According to the star charts Song Family provided that sketched the surrounding galaxies, he noticed that the suspected Timepiece Chess component wasn’t in the Tianpan Galaxy at all, but just across the border in the Silverplate Galaxy.

The quickest way to Silverplate Galaxy was via the massive long-range stargate at the center of Yaohan Star Domain. That’s why he’d rushed over without stopping.

This enormous stargate stood right in the heart of the domain—to be precise, above Yaohan Floating-land, the kingdom’s seventh-tier life-type floating-land.

Song Chi’s timing wasn’t great—he arrived right after the last cross-galaxy transfer. The next available trip to Silverplate Galaxy was scheduled for half a month later.

With no other choice, the Heavenly Ruin could only head for Yaohan Floating-land below.

Rather than waste half a month waiting, why not take the time to check out this leading floating-land, known as the first of the galaxy, spanning over ten thousand lightyears in diameter?

Sure, its location meant it didn’t quite match the abundance of rare treasures on Calamity Star Floating-Land, but as the capital floating-land for a galaxy, it was still home to merchant guilds and corporations from across the stars. There was no shortage of good stuff here.

Only about one percent of Yaohan Floating-land is open to outsiders, but given the sheer size of a floating-land over ten thousand lightyears across, that’s still a colossal area.

Song Chi’s destination was none other than Silverplate City, jointly built by several great Silverplate Galaxy corporations.

He retracted the battleship and headed straight for the gates of this sprawling city.

Compared with the Song Family’s Dragon Spine City on Calamity Star Floating-Land, Silverplate City was much larger, with even denser crowds and far more shops lining its streets.

None of this surprised Song Chi. He’d heard all about the corporations who’d bought up this section of land—household names in Silverplate Galaxy, each with a heritage stretching back over ten millennia, and each backed by a top-tier dreadnought.

In terms of strength, now that the Song Family had the Three-Eyed Clan Imperial Flagship, they might not be weaker than those old corporations anymore. But when it came to deep foundations and reserves, they were still a tier below.

Even if the Song Family had multiplied their strength a few times by seizing assets from the Doomstar Race during the last expansion war.

Song Chi estimated that his family now had the reserves of a five-thousand-year-old gatekeeper faction. Maybe with their hidden branch included, they could stretch that to six or seven thousand, but catching up to ten-thousand-year legacies? No way.

He shook his head, putting those thoughts aside, and wandered into a large shop, scouring for anything worth his interest.

You really could tell these were millennium-old corporations—the shelves barely half-surveyed and Song Chi had already spotted plenty of treasures.

Suddenly, he stopped and pointed to a bright red component, motioning to the attendant at his side.

“How much for that red auxiliary cannon?”

He’d taken a liking to it—a red-area-of-effect auxiliary cannon called the Explosive Particle Cannon.

Explosive Particle Cannon, Level 0.

Grade: Red.

Feature: High-velocity particle radiation.

Feature 2: Auxiliary cannon power boosted by 80%.

Feature 3: Double penetration effect.

Cost: 8 units per shot (energy points).

Output: 18.4.

No buffer or charge-up required.

Upgrade requirements: 20 wisps of Tier-Zero Floating-Land Origin, 2000 energy points.

{High-Energy Particle Radiation: Each shot from the auxiliary cannon releases potent radiation. After detonation, the radiation spreads even further, causing lingering damage to targets in the vicinity.}

Sure, the Heavenly Ruin already had the Electromagnetic Arc Cannon as an area-of-effect auxiliary, but you could never have too many of those.

Even after multiple upgrades to orange grade, the Electromagnetic Arc Cannon still wasn’t quite enough for a fifth-tier Heavenly Ruin.

As for evolving it further with a sixth-tier Silver Apple?

Not only were Silver Apples produced extremely slowly at the sixth tier, the first few were already spoken for by other premium orange-grade ship components. The Electromagnetic Arc Cannon would have to wait its turn after those upgrades.

That means the Explosive Particle Cannon was definitely worth picking up right now.

Most importantly, after upgrading to a battleship, the Heavenly Ruin had gained four extra auxiliary cannon slots. No captain would turn down a chance to boost their ship’s firepower, so he needed to fill those slots fast.

“Sir, this Explosive Particle Cannon goes for either 1000 units of Fourth-Tier Floating-Land Origin, or 80 units of Fifth-Tier Floating-Land Origin!”

Song Chi paid in Fourth-Tier Floating-Land Origin.

Over the next few days, he browsed shops throughout Silverplate City, picking up rare resources like titanite crystal and dense black-hole stone whenever he could, though supplies were limited.

Ten days after arriving in the city, Song Chi was roaming the streets as usual.

But by afternoon, he still hadn’t found anything special.

He was just about to head back to Hearthfire Hotel when something at the corner of his eye caught his attention—a stall tucked away by the street.

“Hmm?”

Song Chi’s curiosity was piqued, and he stepped closer.

The nearer he got, the more certain he became.

“No mistake, that’s a fragment of a neutron star wreckage…”

The reason he called it a fragment and not a full set is simple—it was just a palm-sized shard, way off from a whole wreck, and wouldn’t be remotely enough to activate the Neutron-Star Core Armor component.

Even so, Song Chi found himself drawn to the stall, thinking about the Destiny Compass component.

If that compass could track down other Timepiece Chess components—or even the elusive Timepiece Chessboard—could it, using a neutron star fragment, trace the location of the full wreckage?

No sooner had that thought emerged than it took over his mind, impossible to shake off.

It cost him nothing to try, so naturally Song Chi decided to give it a shot.

He bought the neutron star fragment for a wisp of Second-Tier Floating-Land Origin and hurried back to his hotel, heading straight to the ship summoning chamber below.

In the Heavenly Ruin’s control room, Song Chi unbound the Timepiece Chess component from Compass · Trace to Source, then placed the neutron star fragment there instead.

Once the binding was complete, he quickly checked the component display.

“No luck?”

Nothing appeared on the Destiny Compass’s display.

But Song Chi wasn’t one to give up easily. He didn’t get what he wanted this time, but over the next few days, he combed through every corner of Silverplate City and managed to buy four more neutron star fragments from various street stalls.

His reasoning was simple.

Even if the first fragment hadn’t shown any related location on the display, that didn’t mean it couldn’t be tracked.

On the contrary, if tracking was truly impossible, the initial binding would have failed outright. Since it worked, it meant tracking was possible.

It was just that the full neutron star wreckage from the first fragment wasn’t within the Destiny Compass’s hundred-million-lightyear tracking radius.

Hearthfire Hotel, ship summoning room in the basement.

Inside the Heavenly Ruin, Song Chi bound the second neutron star fragment to Compass · Trace to Source—still nothing.

He tried a third. No reaction.

Until he tried the fourth fragment—at the moment of binding, a golden point of light suddenly appeared on the Destiny Compass’s display.

“There it is—that’s where the full neutron star wreckage of this fragment is located!”

Spotting the light point only ten thousand lightyears from Yaohan Floating-land, Song Chi didn’t waste any time. He raced from the hotel, summoned the battleship, and shot straight for the sky.

Instead of heading directly there, he first set up a spatial anchor in a hidden location outside Yaohan Floating-land. There were still three days to go until the next stargate transfer to Silverplate Galaxy, so if things went smoothly, he might even make it in time.

Preparations done, he steered the Heavenly Ruin toward the coordinates.

With two orange-grade warp devices working together, his speed was phenomenal.

Two days and several jumps later, the Heavenly Ruin had arrived at the location marked by the Destiny Compass.

It was a broad asteroid belt—asteroids everywhere, fragments beyond counting. Fortunately, the Destiny Compass was spot-on. With a hundred puppet terracotta warriors and hundreds of Doomstar Race slaves working nonstop, they managed to dig up the spot indicated by the light.

“Yes, it’s a genuine neutron star wreckage!”

Inside the Heavenly Ruin, the Neutron-Star Core Armor component had already fused with the neutron star wreckage, raising its evolution progress to 2 out of 10. The road ahead was long, but at least they were moving closer step by step.

More importantly, not only was the Neutron-Star Core Armor one step closer to its golden Sanctuary upgrade, but now Song Chi knew the Destiny Compass could be used to track down all kinds of rare resources.

With luck, he could try searching for many resources this way.

Not just neutron star wreckage—dense black-hole stone, Sand of Time, even strategic resources like titanite crystal.

If he could really use a titanite crystal to track down an entire titanite crystal vein… Song Chi couldn’t dare imagine the possibilities.

……

In the battleship’s control room, a few different resources appeared in Song Chi’s hands—titanite crystal, dense black-hole stone, Sand of Time, and so on.

After several dozen seconds, he let out a quiet laugh and shook his head.

Of course, he’d gotten ahead of himself.

None of those resources could even be bound, much less traced for their origins.

Comparing the neutron star fragment with the others, Song Chi quickly realized what was different.

The neutron star fragment was a piece chipped off a larger wreckage—it’s a part of a whole. But resources like titanite crystal are all singular, complete by themselves. How could anything trace their origin through them?

The only way to even try would be to split, say, a dense black-hole stone in two, then use one half to track the other. That way, it might actually work.

With this realization, Song Chi stowed the Heavenly Ruin. The next instant, he himself vanished from the asteroid belt.

Far above Yaohan Floating-land, inside the inner asteroid belt, Song Chi materialized, clad in Fifth-Tier Moyun Goldvine Armor and shielded by a Sixth-Tier Plasma Shield.

Seconds later, the Heavenly Ruin emerged from the asteroid field, still shrouded in its dark energy shield, and shot straight toward the massive stargate.

The distinctive black-and-white Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield was far too eye-catching, and after his attack on Calamity Star Floating-Land ruined a Sixth-Tier Dreadnought’s projection, Song Chi’s reputation was already known galaxy-wide.

So, to avoid unnecessary trouble, Song Chi had used the ‘Thousandfold Metamorphosis’ feature of the Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl to disguise the battleship’s appearance.

No surprises—the Heavenly Ruin made it in time for the Silverplate Galaxy transfer.

Having bought the transfer ticket half a month ago, the Heavenly Ruin faced no obstacles.

About half an hour later, the transfer hour finally arrived. The gigantic stargate suddenly came online with a roar.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Powerful weightlessness swept over more than a hundred thousand starships. Song Chi, already a Fifth-Tier user of the Guiding Technique and a battleship captain, handled it with ease—just a brief discomfort, then he adjusted again.

When the intense spatial turbulence faded, a whole new galaxy unfolded outside the battleship in the blink of an eye.

Scanning his surroundings, Song Chi piloted the Heavenly Ruin through the stargate checkpoint and quickly spotted the massive continent floating below the newly arrived stargate station.

Just like the Yaohan Kingdom, the Silverplate Kingdom here in Silverplate Galaxy had built their stargate station directly above their central floating-land.

One look was all it took for Song Chi to draw a conclusion.

The Silverplate Floating-land below was even larger than Yaohan’s, and by its foundation alone, it was clearly a step above.