Chapter 529: The Next Threshold

“Don’t let me down.”

With a thought, Song Chi tossed the Antimatter Source toward the Antimatter Evolution Engine.

As golden light flooded the entire command center, Song Chi could feel the Antimatter Evolution Engine undergoing some fundamental changes.

Time passed. The Antimatter Source was gradually absorbed by the engine, and the golden light within the battleship slowly shifted to black.

Then, in one fateful instant, all the gold vanished, replaced by eternal black radiance.

“The evolution… it’s finally done.”

Song Chi’s gaze snapped to the Antimatter Evolution Engine. A brand-new attribute panel appeared before his eyes.

Antimatter Evolution Engine lv70

Quality: Black

Trait 1: Energy efficiency increased by an additional 320%

Trait 2: Engine thrust increased by an additional 320%

Trait 3: High Overload Burst

Trait 4: All mounted parts on the battleship with quality equal to or below this engine have their energy consumption reduced by 60%

Trait 5: Antimatter Source Evolution

Trait 6: Dual Engine

Consumption: 1542/s (Econ Points)

Output: 140,000/s (Econ Points)

Cooldown after overload: 30 minutes

Econ Reservoir: 10,000,000 (up to ten million Econ Points stored)

……

{High Overload Burst: Consumes 300,000 Econ Points to immediately trigger a high overload state. Energy efficiency +2000%, thrust +2000%. Lasts for 240 minutes, 10 hour cooldown.}

{Antimatter Source Evolution: This engine can absorb high-purity Antimatter Sources for gradual evolution. Once enough are absorbed, the engine’s quality will surpass black. (Note: After reaching the limit, this trait will self-transform into an entirely new trait.)}

{Dual Engine: Allows the battleship to mount a second engine, granting even greater power and agility. Note: The second engine’s quality cannot exceed this one.}

Reading through this attribute panel, Song Chi’s breathing quickened.

After absorbing that Antimatter Source, not only did the Antimatter Evolution Engine evolve to supreme black quality, but more importantly, the fifth trait ‘Antimatter Source Evolution’ hadn’t changed—it hadn’t transformed into a new trait yet.

What did that mean?

It meant supreme black wasn’t the engine’s limit. It could keep devouring Antimatter Sources and push further, all the way to a color-grade engine.

“That marketplace trade was worth every point! A color-grade engine—even Tier 8 Torch Captains would be envious!”

Suppressing his excitement, Song Chi examined the engine’s new specifications in detail.

Now at black quality, its energy efficiency had reached an insane 140,000 per second. That was absolutely staggering. Song Chi knew the Heavenly Ruin wouldn’t have to worry about energy supply for a long, long time.

Then there was the Econ Reservoir. At gold quality, it could store five million—now, that was doubled to ten million. That meant the ship’s modules could unleash their trait abilities with abandon.

And then there was the sixth trait that came with supreme black quality.

The ‘Dual Engine’ trait was nothing short of phenomenal.

In other words, the Heavenly Ruin could be fitted with a second engine module. Sure, there were some restrictions, but considering how rare an engine of this caliber was…

Supreme black was already next to impossible to find. And it could evolve further? Just imagining the Heavenly Ruin powered by two color-grade engines at once—that thought alone left Song Chi nearly shaking.

Wrestling his attention away from the Antimatter Evolution Engine, Song Chi turned to the Sky-Domain AI module.

He’d acquired an Intermediate AI, so now he could upgrade that module to level seven.

Seven upgrades in a row—and the Sky-Domain AI was now level seven.

With that, the module’s attributes soared. What grabbed Song Chi’s attention most was the ‘Full Auto Sub-AI Machinery’ trait. After hitting level seven, the number of sub-brains it could deploy jumped from 3,000 to 10,000. If he stocked the ship with enough mechanized units, this trait alone would be a secret weapon no one would see coming.

Next, he pulled out the Scarlet Vault Jump Drive.

He had just enough Titanite Crystal to enhance a silver module to level seven, but unfortunately, the upgrade required ‘Spacial Sand’—and he had none on hand.

“If I remember right, the family’s Merit Tower should have some…”

Muttering to himself, Song Chi summoned the Heavenly Ruin.

Instead of heading back to the Dragon-Spine Continent, he took a five-star Void Demon around Saintlight City for a casual stroll.

A few hours later, he’d managed to rent a storefront on one of the main streets. Just like that, Song Chi officially opened his own shop in Saintlight City.

His goal was simple: He’d bring out all those oddities and mineral resources that had languished in the market for years, and see if he could finally find buyers here.

On top of that, he posted high-value buy offers for neutron star wreckage and oddities with the ‘range doubling’ trait.

After setting everything up, Song Chi left a Voidform Avatar in the shop and put the five-star Void Demon on guard duty. Then, he used the market system to return to the Dragon-Spine Continent.

On the way to the Merit Tower at the base of Dragon Spine Sacred Mountain, he logged into the Yaoguang Star Tower to check on the secret exploration mission—curious if there’d been any new developments.

But the mission had only been up for a few days, not enough time for any real progress. So far, no new updates.

Feeling reassured, Song Chi logged out and made his way to the Merit Tower, collecting all the Spacial Sand his family had stockpiled. With that, he headed straight back to Saintlight City.

He’d made up his mind—to stay in Saintlight City for several years, maybe even decades, searching for the perfect item with a ‘range doubling’ trait.

Just like that, the years slipped by.

In the blink of an eye, five years had passed.

During those five years, Song Chi wandered every corner of the city whenever he had time, hunting for rare oddities. He never stopped studying Law Power or pushing his Guiding Technique; both were making slow but steady progress.

But frustratingly, he’d found nothing with the target trait. His Guiding Technique had hit a wall, and all three Law Powers seemed to be bottlenecked.

Song Chi realized he was stuck in some kind of bottleneck.

Not one to just wait it out, Song Chi left the five-star Void Demon in Saintlight City, set a spatial anchor, and returned straight to Dragon Abyss City.

Five years had brought plenty of change there, too. The biggest? The sudden drop in core Hidden Vein members within the city.

Song Chi wasn’t surprised—two years ago, the Hidden Vein had started expanding out to build new cities near the Broken Sea.

He used Dragon Abyss’s southern teleportation array to travel two hundred light-years south. After emerging from the underground portal, he summoned the Heavenly Ruin and shot five thousand light-years out to the Broken Sea.

……

Red Star Continent, north shore of the Broken Sea.

“Cross Slash!”

With a faint hum, a sword light in the shape of a cross shot through the air, racing after several fleeing Snakefolk.

“Hurry! Dragon Shark City’s territory is just ahead! If we make it, we’re safe!”

A third-stage Snakefolk shouted the warning, then spun around without hesitation. Magic danced on the tip of his spear as he charged headlong at the Cross Slash sword light.

Clang!

Spear and sword light crashed together with a low, grinding screech. Razor-sharp sword intent poured from the Cross Slash, carving deep, bone-baring wounds onto the Snakefolk’s sapphire scales.

He gritted his teeth against the pain and unleashed a surge of magic energy.

Splat!

Frost-laced blood sprayed through the air as the Snakefolk was hurled back dozens of meters.

The good news? He was seriously hurt, but at least he stopped that sword light.

The next second, though, his slit pupils went wide with shock.

“No!”

There were four Swordslave Clan pursuers, all of them third stage elites. He’d blocked one Cross Slash, but no one could stop the other three. Now three sword beams streaked toward the scattering, mostly young Snakefolk up ahead.

Among them was just one second-stage Snakefolk; the rest were still children. If those sword beams struck home, it would be a bloodbath.

For a moment, the third-stage Snakefolk’s eyes were rimmed red with desperation.

And right then—from the far-off sky, a barrage of light beams shot down.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Those beams hit all three sword lights head-on and shattered them in an instant.

Thanks to that, every single Snakefolk survived the attack.

“It’s the Dragon Shark City patrol!”

New hope sparkled in the wounded Snakefolk’s eyes as he looked up and saw a fleet of ten battleships closing in overhead.

“Outsiders! This is Dragon Shark City territory. You’ve crossed the line!”

A powerful male voice echoed out from one of the three-kilometer-long battleships above.

With just that single sentence, all four Swordslave Clan pursuers froze where they stood.

Fury and resentment flashed in their eyes, but none dared reply. Over the past two years, everyone in the region had learned to fear ‘Dragon Shark City.’

Two years ago, a group of strange creatures arrived on the north shore of the Broken Sea. They claimed land by force, determined to build a city in this lawless chaos.

That stirred an instant backlash—a tidal wave of hostile outsiders rising up to oppose them.

A year and a half back, three sixth-stage outsiders led a horde of over a hundred thousand to invade what they called Dragon Shark’s neutral city territory.

That same day, for the first time, the mighty Starry Sky Dragon Shark itself appeared over the north shore—a true monarch, blotting out the sun.

Its terrifying presence sent a single, very clear message to the tens of thousands of outsiders: a true power had arrived.

From then on, the north shore of the Broken Sea finally had a corner of real order.

“Sorry. We’ll leave at once!”

Even though they burned with frustration, the Swordslave Clan quickly bowed their heads and retreated without argument.