Chapter 498: Choices, Trades, and Upgrades

Song Chi turned his head, his gaze quickly meeting a pair of clear, cool eyes behind him.

Without thinking much of it, he nodded.

“One of the main ship’s components is needed. It’s a pity—I don’t see it anywhere in the shop.”

Hearing his words, Whitebrow spoke in the same steady tone, but to Song Chi, it sounded like music to his ears.

“If you really need it, I can probably get a few drops. Do you want true blood or origin blood?”

Those first words already surprised Song Chi, but the longer Whitebrow went on, the more shock grew in his heart.

Could she really get both the true blood and origin blood of a Dominion-class Twelve-Winged Angel?

What was this, did the Yaoguang Star Tower have that many rich patrons?

But even as the thought startled him, Song Chi kept a calm face and quickly replied,

“No need. Ordinary Twelve-Winged Archangel blood will do. I don’t need true blood or origin blood.”

“Okay, wait here a moment.”

With that, Whitebrow turned to the login altar and soon vanished into the depths of the star tower.

With heavy anticipation, Song Chi turned his focus back to the Star Tower Mall.

In no time, the mall’s AI had calculated the buyback price for all the components.

[After evaluation, the total value of your offered components amounts to 32,120 points—three silver-tier components at 9,000, and 24 red-tier…]

[Would you like to convert all of them to mall points?]

“Confirm!”

At the same moment, the corresponding mall points appeared in his account. Song Chi glanced at them.

[Yaoguang Star Order No.32 “Awakening Thunder”: {Current balance: Chaos Monument Insight attempts: 0; Star Tower Mall points: 55,600.}]

“Fifty-five thousand, huh…”

He withdrew his gaze and returned his attention to the goods panel in the shop.

With a targeted search, a silver-tier component popped up before Song Chi’s eyes.

Superbody Compression Plate lv0

Quality: Silver

Attribute: Increases min/max size scaling multiplier by three times.

……

It was a silver-tier size-manipulation part—something he’d need when working with the Crescent Moon Matriarch in the future. It cost 5,000 mall points, and Song Chi exchanged for it right away.

With over fifty thousand points left, he shifted his gaze toward a few golden Sanctum Domain Components.

Serpent Demon Petrification Cannon lv0

Quality: Gold

Attribute: Petrification Ray

……

Exchange Price: 25,000 mall points

————

Bedrock Battleship Armor lv0

Quality: Gold

Attribute: Bedrock Protection

Attribute 2: Increases base defense value by 140%

……

Exchange Price: 28,000 mall points

————

Celestial Authority Ring lv0

Quality: Gold

Attribute: Long-range psychic communication

Attribute 2: Shape-changing at will

Attribute 3: Doubles enslavement mark slots

Attribute 4: Always occupies only one slot

Attribute 5: Enslave Authority increased by one tier

Cost: 20,000 per use (Ethereal points)

Enslave Marks: 2 of 2 (1×2)

Effect: Can enslave beings up to one tier higher than this component. Offers complete control to the Torch Battleship captain. (Note: The weaker the enslaved one’s will to resist, the higher the success rate. The stronger, the lower.)

Upgrade requirement: 40 strands Floating-Land Origin (zero tier), 4,000 Ethereal points

{Long-range Psychic Communication: Ignores shielding and distance, allowing free mental conversation between captain and enslaved beings while on battleship.}

{Shape-changing at Will: Beings enslaved through this part can freely change their size. Shrinking reduces power proportionally; increasing size strengthens them accordingly. (No cap on shrinking; maximum expansion depends on their physical power.)}

{Enslave Authority Increased by One Tier: With the Authority of Celestial Power, can enslave one level higher while at zero-tier. Each upgrade increases control tier accordingly.}

Exchange Price: 40,000 mall points

Having surveyed the three gold-tier components, Song Chi—as expected—paused at the Celestial Authority Ring.

This was a slave-type part. Normally, Song Chi wouldn’t care much for something like this.

Right now, he only had a handful of Tier Six enslaved creatures. The Enslave Medal and Parent‑Child Spirit Control Rings were already enough.

But the reason came down to the component’s unique powers.

First, ‘Shape-changing at Will.’ Sure, the Enslave Medal included a similar attribute, but its version was ‘Shape-changing (Minor)’—just shrinking, without the power boost from enlarging.

That small difference made all the value in the world.

At a Tier Six level, every increment of power could shift the battlefield, not to mention that a gold Sanctum Domain Component’s bonus is rarely small.

But most crucial was the ‘Enslave Authority Increased by One Tier.’ Song Chi suspected this was why the ring cost a hefty 40,000 points.

Maybe that’s also why, despite the high value, it had never been traded.

He remembered the Ancestor saying that, at Dominion level, even the weakest Tier Seven Dominion with soul-class will would still need a slave component upgraded at least one full tier above to have any chance at control.

Put simply, to enslave a Tier Seven Dominion being, you’d need a gold-tier component powered up to the eighth tier.

Ever since he became a battleship captain, Song Chi understood just how rare Dominion Souls actually were.

Even with both the Omniverse Market and Divine Realm Player Trading Space raking in profit, plus two centuries of lucky breaks, he’d still only scraped together enough Dominion Soul to upgrade a single part to Tier Eight.

But even if he had more, would he use them just to upgrade a slave component?

That’s where ‘Enslave Authority Increased by One Tier’ was really worth its weight.

With this trait, once it was enhanced to lv70, he could try enslaving a Sea of Stars Tier Seven being. All he’d need was a single Dominion Soul—a value hard to beat.

And if the Heavenly Ruin ever advanced to a Star-Annihilator-class ship and this ring was boosted to Tier Eight, he could enslave Tier Eight beings, too. Talk about a rush.

Another key point—why was the Enslave Medal, a red-tier part, still one of the most useful components on the Heavenly Ruin?

It was all thanks to its unique ‘Enslave Seal: Berserk’ attribute. Unfortunately, the Enslave Medal itself was too limited, capping the enslaved beasts’ berserk power at Tier Seven.

But what if that trait were transferred to the Celestial Authority Ring?

Don’t forget, the Oddity Essence Refinement Platform lets you extract part attributes for upgrades.

With these thoughts, Song Chi didn’t hesitate. He spent 40,000 points and claimed the Celestial Authority Ring.

That left him with just 10,600 mall points.

That was still enough for a few silver-tier components, so Song Chi kept browsing the shop.

But after a long search, there were no ideal silver-tier components left, so he turned to Titanite Crystals.

The Yaoguang Star Tower also limited Titanite Crystals—5,000 every 10 years. Counting fifty years’ accumulation, Song Chi spent 2,500 points for 25,000 Titanite Crystals.

Just then, movement came from behind at the login platform. Turning, Song Chi saw Whitebrow return.

This time wasn’t just a projection—it was her true self entering, with a white jade vial in hand.

Odds were, this contained Tier Seven Angel’s Blood.

Song Chi closed out the shop window and, after signaling Whitebrow, quickly ascended the login altar and vanished.

When he logged in again, it was as his true self rather than a projection.

Logging in by projection allowed for Astral Ancestral Orifice storage, but that only worked for Starsea Oddities or Floating-Land Origin, not trading Angel’s Blood.

Only now did Song Chi take a proper look at Whitebrow, though casually rather than checking her out.

After all, that wouldn’t be polite.

Truth be told, this was his first time ever seeing her in person, so he was curious.

“Even colder than Pan Ying…”

That was Song Chi’s first thought, but he quickly dismissed it.

After accepting the jade vial from her, he looked a little surprised.

“Ten drops?”

“Yeah, if you need more later, just mention me in the group chat.”

Song Chi didn’t refuse. The Angel King’s Authority Wings were a gold-tier part—a lot of Tier Seven Angel’s Blood would be needed to boost it to Tier Eight, which meant more favors from Whitebrow.

Still, at his insistence, she accepted a payment of 1,000 mall points. Dominion-class Angel’s Blood might not matter to Whitebrow, but Song Chi felt he owed her anyway.

The first time might be out of member camaraderie, but he’d undoubtedly need more in the future—maybe even Tier Eight Angel King blood. Handling it as a proper deal just made sense.

With business out of the way, the two parted from the star tower.

……

Omniverse Market, Free Stall Area.

Back in the market, the first thing Song Chi did was summon the Heavenly Ruin.

Inside the bridge, the upgrade for the Angel King’s Authority Wings component had already started.

A Dominion Soul, a strand of Tier Seven Floating-land Origin, and a drop of Tier Seven Twelve-Winged Angel’s Blood—all these successfully leveled up the golden Sanctum Domain Component to lv70.

With that, the resulting Shield of Holy Light was now also at Tier Seven, its defense and hit points matching the Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield—except it lacked regeneration.

On top of that, both the ‘Angel • Wing Blink’ and ‘True Spirit Guard of the Angel King’ features gained a major boost, pushing the Heavenly Ruin’s combat strength even higher.

With that component upgraded, Song Chi looked at the two uninstalled parts in his hand.

Celestial Authority Ring and Superbody Compression Plate.

He only had one Dominion Soul left.

The soul used for the Angel King’s Authority Wings had been reserved earlier as a backup; this one had been refined from Chasing Fate Immortal’s memory shard during the past fifty years.

Now, he had to decide which part to upgrade next, and he was struggling.

After some thought, Song Chi ruled out the Celestial Authority Ring.

Its biggest use was enslaving Dominion-class beings—nothing he needed immediately.

By comparison, the Superbody Compression Plate’s fourth feature, ‘Superbody Compression,’ was going to be useful in the upcoming operation with the Crescent Moon Matriarch.

It might even help when the Family took on the Black Devourer King Beast—could be important.

Having settled, Song Chi mounted the Superbody Compression Plate and upgraded it straight to lv70.

Superbody Compression Plate lv70

Quality: Silver

Attribute: Increases scaling multiplier by three times.

Attribute 2: Biological units benefit equally.

Attribute 3: Can simultaneously shrink 100 units.

Attribute 4: Superbody Compression.

Cost: 40,000 per use (Ethereal points)

Charge time: 5 seconds; Cooldown: 5 minutes

Effect: Applies super compression to a target within ten million kilometers, shrinking their volume by a factor of 9,000 (3,000 times three), reducing power by 40%.

……

Note: Takes up four system slots.

{Biological units benefit equally: Applies to willing living units just the same.}

{Superbody Compression: Consumes 200,000 Ethereal points to forcibly compress a target within ten million kilometers, shrinking their size tenfold and dropping their power by 40% for 180 seconds. Cooldown: 720 hours. (Target’s tier must not surpass component’s upgrade tier.)}

Shrinking by ten times and dropping power by forty percent—that’s a significant edge.

Even if it only lasted three minutes, the right timing could make a huge difference in battle.

With this upgrade done, Song Chi’s eyes finally landed on the Celestial Authority Ring.

Of all the parts, its potential was hands-down the strongest.

And if ‘Enslave Seal: Berserk’ could be added, it’d shoot through the roof.

Just imagine—a Tier Six enslaved beast, with Berserk activated, burning its life for a burst of Dominion-level power.

That’d be a true game-changer.

No point hesitating. Song Chi first moved all enslaved beasts from the Enslave Medal to the Parent‑Child Spirit Control Rings, then used the ‘Compass · Return to Origins’ feature to safely break the medal back down to lv0.

With that step done, he took the Enslave Medal off.

With both the Enslave Medal and the untouched Celestial Authority Ring in hand, Song Chi left the battleship and headed for the Oddity Essence Refinement Platform on the deeper side of the market.

He drew one orange oddity and twenty red oddities from the oddity shop.

Working methodically, he refined the twenty-one oddities into one orange essence and twenty red essences.

Then, using the orange essence and the Oddity Essence Refinement Platform’s second function, he extracted the ‘Enslave Seal: Berserk’ trait from the higher-quality Enslave Medal, turning it into a property token.

And he wasn’t done. Next, he poured all twenty red essences into the platform, using its fourth function to merge them into two silver oddity essences.

With the prep work nearly finished,

he put the Celestial Authority Ring onto the Oddity Essence Refinement Platform, then added a silver oddity essence.

With that oddity essence, he extracted the ring’s Attribute 4, ‘Always occupies only one slot,’ turning it into another property token.

Once the trait was removed, the component’s stats shifted noticeably.

The biggest change was a new note:

Note: This part now occupies five system slots.

Song Chi wasn’t too bothered. Right now, the Heavenly Ruin had plenty of open slots. Plus, he planned to keep that ‘Always occupies only one slot’ property token on hand, just in case he ever needed it later.

Now for the very last step in this whole upgrade process!