Chapter 531: Golden Evolution and Secrets in the Deep

The latest tracking by the Destiny Compass went off without a hitch.

Thanks to the coordinate from the planetary map, Song Chi easily pinpointed the location of the other half of the Sha Sword Secret Arts Inheritance Stele.

It was also on the North Shore of the Broken Sea, just a few million kilometers from Dragon Shark City.

After a brief discussion at the Dragon Shark City Lord’s Estate, a Hidden Vein clan elder at peak tier four set out with Song Chi’s Voidform Avatar to actively search for the missing stele piece.

It wasn’t that Song Chi was unwilling, but just then, new information arrived from Yaoguang Star Tower—news linked to a secret realm discovered by the Vice Hall Master of Beidou Hall.

On learning this, Song Chi wasted no time at Dragon Abyss City. He quickly had his second tier-five Void Demon set up a shop in Dragon Shark City, then made haste back to Dragon-Spine Continent.

As for spatial anchor points, Song Chi thought about it but decided not to set one up in Dragon Shark City.

Right now, the rank-five Omniverse Market only allows four spatial anchor points. With Dragon-Spine Continent, Silverplate Floating-land, Hidden Vein Dragon Abyss City, and Saintlight City already set, there were none to spare.

……

Yaoguang Star Tower, inside the main hall.

“Yulong!”

Logging in via projection, Song Chi bumped into Cui Yulong, who was in the tower as well.

“Jingzhe!”

Cui Yulong greeted him with a bright smile. Thanks to Song Chi agreeing to her earlier invitation—where he’d faced off against Changsun Wu from another branch of the Changsun Family to protect her nephew—she held Song Chi in high regard.

“So, are you thinking of taking this mission too?”

Song Chi shook his head honestly.

“Haven’t decided yet. Got any advice, Yulong?”

They chatted as Song Chi walked up to the mission boards and scanned through the latest top-posted assignment.

[Mission summary: A Vice Hall Master from the Big Dipper Main Hall discovered a unique secret realm while exploring the Outer Domain. Early observations confirm it’s a cosmic-level secret realm, crawling with plenty of high-rank native beings inside. Danger level: very high.]

“Cosmic secret realm? Indigenous monsters?”

Gazing at the summary, Song Chi frowned.

He had some experience with cosmic secret realms. Even at their weakest, these mysterious sites had a baseline at tier seven. Since native monsters had already been spotted, odds were there’d be a tier-seven Lord inside.

With that realization, his initial spark of excitement quickly faded.

His shifting expression must’ve been obvious, because a soft laugh sounded from beside him.

“What, did you lose interest already?”

Song Chi felt a bit awkward but, remembering Yulong’s status as a longtime tower member, ventured to ask,

“Yulong, do you have any more details?”

“How are Zhuoyang and the others doing? What about the strength of those native monsters?”

Cui Yulong’s smile faded; she made no attempt to hide the truth.

“This should be the lowest rank of cosmic secret realm. Uncle Corpse Dog managed to contact Zhuoyang through a golden communications module after he entered the realm. According to Zhuoyang, the place is massive—it’s bigger than a star domain, spanning more than ten thousand light-years. The locals call it the Blood War World. Inside, Zhuoyang saw a Lord of the Blood War Clan, ranked at peak tier seven.”

After hearing her out, Song Chi narrowed his eyes.

Just this glimpse from Zhuoyang was enough to highlight the dangers. Song Chi became even more cautious.

“Any news on rare resources in the secret realm?”

“Nothing concrete for now…”

At this point, Song Chi had mostly made up his mind.

“Thanks, Yulong!”

Given how secretive all this was—known only to Uncle Corpse Dog and not even shared in the Yaoguang Star Tower group—her telling him directly was a sign of real trust.

Cui Yulong shrugged, as if to say no thanks were needed.

“No need to thank me, but this hasn’t been made public yet, so try not to spread it around.”

Song Chi understood her meaning. From recent Star Order Group Chat messages, he already knew that the Vice Hall Master hadn’t been the only one present at the discovery; bigshots from both the Xian Qin Divine Dynasty and the Divine Federation had been there as well. Now, the three factions were jointly exploring it, and some details just couldn’t be broadcast in the open channels.

Yaoguang Star Tower members might get along, but there were over thirty of them, all from different parts of the Torch Human Civilization—and it was inevitable some would be deeply connected to the other factions.

“Got it.” Song Chi soon logged out of the Star Tower.

Sorting through what Cui Yulong had shared, he decided to wait it out for a while longer.

“I don’t know the danger level, and there’s still no info on what resources can be harvested. Plus, the Starry Sky Dragon Shark now needs to guard Dragon Shark City. Even if I rely on the Market Projection Token for safety, it costs a silver oddity each time—is it worth it or not? Guess I’ll have to see what rare resources show up later…”

Shaking off those thoughts, Song Chi didn’t plan to hang around Dragon-Spine Continent much longer. He headed back to Saintlight City and resumed his collecting spree.

……

Time passed swiftly. In the blink of an eye, another fifteen years went by.

During those years, Song Chi officially celebrated his three-hundredth birthday.

In his previous life, that was longer than most dynasties lasted.

Dragon Abyss City, Battleship Summoning Chamber.

The 14,000-meter-long Heavenly Ruin battleship stood there silently. Inside, Song Chi’s figure suddenly vanished.

Cultivation Sanctuary, at the center—Azure Spirit Spring.

Staring at the not-so-large spirit spring, Song Chi’s gaze brimmed with anticipation as it nurtured a batch of water mollusks.

There were quite a few mature mollusks in this group. The only question was how many truly aged Deepwater Pearls they’d produce.

Vast streams of nether energy poured from him. With the Cultivation Sanctuary’s power amplifying it, the intensity soared instantly to tier six.

At that moment, under the force of this tier-six nether energy, all the mollusks at the bottom of the Azure Spirit Spring floated straight up to hover in midair above the secret realm.

Then, Song Chi split his mind into fifty threads, wielding fifty hammers of nether energy to rapidly strike the mollusks.

It took less than two minutes to finish counting up the harvest.

One Deepwater Pearl at 15,000 years.

Three Deepwater Pearls at 10,000 years.

Fifteen Deepwater Pearls at 8,000 years.

Sixty Deepwater Pearls at 5,000 years.

“Not bad at all!”

Gazing at the four largest pearls, Song Chi felt delighted.

His Guiding Technique had already reached lv57. With these pearls over 10,000 years old, he was confident he could break through to lv58.

Half a month later, Song Chi used three 10,000-year Deepwater Pearls and a Superior Body-Tempering Elixir to finally push Guiding Technique up to lv58.

He also used the single 15,000-year-old pearl, getting a head start on lv58 and shaving precious time off the climb to lv59.

On top of that, fifteen more years of deep law comprehension—with various boosts—bumped up even his lowest understanding, the Law of Time, to 41.2%.

That speed was honestly a bit scary, but it made sense. He had boosts from the Dao Comprehension Mat (Imitation), Starry Sky Throne, Omniverse Market, Dual Pupils, and more. Plus, since his Law of Time comprehension was still low, it was easier to advance quickly.

Ten years ago, using guidance from his Voidform Avatar, the Hidden Vein successfully recovered the missing half of the Sha Sword Secret Arts Inheritance Stele—completing it at last.

The stele didn’t disappoint the Song Family. While it couldn’t quite match the Dragon Whale or Nameless Secret Arts Steles, this complete Sha Sword Secret Arts Inheritance Stele still offered eight techniques—more than the Song Family’s other artifacts.

Given Song Chi’s near-master grasp of the Law of Space, he could comprehend five of those eight techniques right now.

Besides Flying Sword Form and Sha Sword Chant, the other three were:

Shadow Sword Escape—requires 10% comprehension of spatial law; Sword Light Split—30% comprehension; and Sixfold Sword Guard—50% comprehension.

Shadow Sword Escape is an escape technique. Sword Light Split is a group attack, while Sixfold Sword Guard manifests six heavy sword phantoms as defensive cover.

Truthfully, Song Chi found all five pretty tempting. With the Law of Space’s slashing and shielding properties, any of these could serve as devastating offense or rock-solid defense.

In the end, though, he didn’t pick any to study. Simply put, he already knew enough secret arts; better to master what he had than spread himself too thin.

……

Outside, in Saintlight City.

“Master, we’ve managed to acquire a complete piece of neutron star wreckage.”

On receiving the message from his tier-five Void Demon, Song Chi left the market. He picked up the wreckage in Saintlight City, then hurried right back to the market.

Free Stall Area, battleship control center.

Clutching the neutron star wreckage, Song Chi’s eyes glowed with excitement.

“The last piece. Finally, it’s mine!”

Three years ago, he’d already gotten the ninth fragment from the Divine Realm Player Trading Space. Now this final piece was all he needed for the Neutron-Star Core Armor’s evolution to golden rank.

Heart pounding with anticipation, he pressed the last wreckage into the throbbing Neutron-Star Core Armor.

Instantly, silver light burst forth.

Soon, the radiant glow deepened, shifting to dazzling gold.

As the light faded, a brand new attribute panel appeared before his eyes.

Neutron-Star Core Armor lv70

Rank: Gold

Ability: Neutron-Star Fission

Ability 2: Neutron-Star Core Pulse

Ability 3: Armor protection value increased by 350%

Ability 4: Neutron Link

Ability 5: High-Energy Particle Storm

Consumption: 3400/s (Nether Energy Points)

Protection: 101.2 billion

No charging or buffering required

……

{Neutron-Star Fission: Uses 500,000 nether energy points. Temporarily transforms the battleship into a micro neutron star to withstand outside attacks. Duration: 10 minutes. Cooldown: 6 hours.}

{Neutron-Star Core Pulse: The armor, powered by a neutron star core, contains endless pulsing energy that continuously repairs hull armor and energy shields when taking damage. Repairs 10% armor every 5s and restores 10% shield strength every 10s.}

{Neutron Link: Costs 400,000 nether energy points. Connects 50 battleships within 100 million kilometers. Connected ships have hull armor and energy shields boosted by 100% for 12 hours. Cooldown: 240 hours.}

{High-Energy Particle Storm: Uses 1,000,000 nether energy points. Armor unleashes a raging torrent of energy, forming a storm in a ten-million-kilometer area that erases all solid matter for 30 minutes. Cooldown: fixed at ten years.}

Seeing the Neutron-Star Core Armor evolve to sanctified gold, only two words appeared in Song Chi’s mind—

“Incredible!”

With the golden evolution, its defense and abilities shot up to absurd levels.

Not only did it make the armor and energy shields self-repair much faster—even a gold supercannon probably couldn’t scratch the Heavenly Ruin’s shield now, unless it got upgraded to the absolute peak of tier seven.

The wildest ability was that new “High-Energy Particle Storm”—a god-tier area-of-effect skill. Unleashing it in the middle of enemy formations would cause unimaginable devastation.

Song Chi thought of another use: if he triggered a battleship-level advancement mission, this ability alone would skyrocket his odds of success.

Of course, it wasn’t without downsides. First, the storm didn’t distinguish friend from foe—one wrong move could wipe out allies in its path.

And then there was that hefty ten-year cooldown.

Still, Song Chi wasn’t too bothered. Once the Pusa Zen Seal and Timepiece Chess modules kicked in, he’d shave that cooldown to just a little over a year—totally manageable.

Pulling his eyes from the Neutron-Star Core Armor’s new stats, Song Chi fell into silent thought.

He wasn’t sighing over the years spent evolving this part. Nearly two centuries had passed, but with his four-thousand-year lifespan, that time was no big deal.

His real question was—could the Neutron-Star Core Armor evolve even further?

Gold sanctified rank was impressive, but for his ambitions—aiming for tier seven, tier eight and beyond—even this level couldn’t carry the Heavenly Ruin forever.

Only black Supreme or even mythic-colored Legendary armor would ever feel truly sufficient.

“Forget it, I’ll wait and see. If I get lucky, great. If not, it’s fate. Evolving from red epic all the way to gold sanctified is already a miracle!”

Not dwelling on it any further, Song Chi summoned the Heavenly Ruin and headed for the Full-Attribute Cultivation Chamber.

Now at level 59, the cultivation chamber boosted his Guiding Technique like crazy. Until he stumbled on the “double range” perk, he’d stick to grinding up his own abilities.