Chapter 536: Voyage Across the Shattered Stars

After mapping out a detailed search plan, Song Chi took a deep breath and activated the “Scarlet Vault Jump” trait.

The battleship’s jump drive began charging up.

“Attention: Jump Drive activated. Current charging progress 1%…2%…100%.”

“Charging complete. Scarlet Vault Jump initiated!”

With the Sky-Domain AI’s prompt, waves of intense spatial turbulence rolled in, followed by a sudden wave of dizziness that engulfed his entire body.

Next, the Heavenly Ruin abruptly transformed into a miniature neutron star, while the “Mirage” trait of the Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl activated at the same time.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

Once the spatial ripples faded, the Heavenly Ruin had completely vanished from the Void Belt.

Over six million light-years away, beneath another deep and pitch-black starry sky.

With the aid of the Mirage effect, the Heavenly Ruin slipped out of the void without making a sound, unnoticed by anything that dwelled in this sector.

“Whew, that’s a relief!”

Seeing there hadn’t been a collision with a Floating-land, Song Chi let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

Still, he understood that this was just the typical outcome of a long-range star jump. Cases where you accidentally ram into a celestial body were vanishingly rare.

Whether in the multiverse era or today’s fractured Sea of Stars, celestial bodies only make up a tiny fraction of the universe. Most of it is empty, unseen, formless void—the true backbone of the star sea.

He didn’t dwell on it. Even if such accidents were unlikely, Song Chi would never risk his own life, and from now on he vowed to always activate “Neutron-Star Fission” before every Scarlet Vault Jump.

For now, he kept busy, steering the battleship for another standard jump.

At the moment, both “Neutron-Star Fission” and “Mirage” were still active. Each use of the Scarlet Vault Jump Drive covered up to thirteen thousand light-years—not much compared to the two billion he had to cross, but as the saying goes, every little bit adds up. With over a month of cooldown until the next Scarlet Vault Jump, there was no sense just sitting idle.

Buzz!

Two more regular jumps later, the Heavenly Ruin had covered another twenty thousand light-years. Only then did Song Chi stop, preparing to wait out the Scarlet Vault Jump’s cooldown.

During this downtime, he kept a close eye on the Destiny Compass’s territory display and made sure no changes appeared on the map before turning and stepping into the Market.

There was plenty he could get done in the meantime.

For example, he could activate the “Eye of Spirit-Seeking” trait from the Eyes of Heaven to scavenge for rare Starsea Oddities in the surrounding sector.

Or maybe take out the Timepiece Chess and see if it could link with the Taiyi Quantum Swordlight Battery, hoping to find the missing parts of this main cannon.

He hadn’t forgotten—the Taiyi Quantum Swordlight Battery, when converted back then, was still incomplete even with the Taiyi Infinite Swordstone Oddity.

Or, he could visit some alien civilizations in nearby star domains, stir up a little trouble, and see if he could grab any rare resources.

The reason he hadn’t made a move yet was that a nagging sense of danger kept bubbling up inside him.

After all, this star domain was more than ninety billion light-years away from the Torch Human Galaxy Cluster. Just think about what that meant.

Take the Torch Human Civilization, for instance: it governs an entire cluster, but that’s only a ten billion light-year span. In other words, there were almost a hundred galaxy clusters between his current position and the Torch cluster.

The Torch cluster spawned the formidable Torch Human Civilization, just as the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon cluster had its own advanced Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization. So, what about the cluster beneath his feet? Did it also have a dominant, peak-level civilization in charge?

Song Chi guessed the odds were pretty high.

That was his only real reason for being so cautious.

Sure, he had the Market Projection Token as a pretty solid lifeline, but what did it really mean to face a peak-level civilization?

According to his family’s archives, the sole requirement for being a top civilization in the Sea of Stars was having a Level 9 war unit.

A Level 9 lifeform was simply beyond Song Chi’s comprehension. Even a Level 7 peak power like the Market Projection would be utterly powerless against such a being. If he ever crossed paths with one, he doubted he’d even have time to enter the Market to escape.

“The sea of stars is vast… Better play it safe.”

With that mindset, Song Chi kept up his cautious daily routine.

Scarlet Vault Jump for travel, passing the waiting time by entering the Market, pondering the laws of the cosmos, or practicing the Guiding Technique. When Scarlet Vault Jump cooled down, he’d repeat all of it again.

Time slipped away quietly amid this routine.

By the fourth month, the Heavenly Ruin had jumped nearly twenty million light-years. During this time, he found a new Timepiece Chess coordinate on the territory map and made note of it.

After one year and two months, he’d traveled almost sixty million light-years. No new discoveries showed up on the map.

By the end of year three, the total distance jumped hit 160 million light-years. He found another new Timepiece Chess coordinate and stopped by a resource-rich Grade 4 Floating-land belonging to an intermediate civilization, grabbing a lucky haul of rare battleship upgrade materials.

By year six, that number reached 340 million light-years…

By the end of year ten, he’d covered six hundred million light-years. Along the way, he encountered two advanced civilizations at war in the starry sky—their fleets clashed with no fewer than five Level 7 war units on each side. The Heavenly Ruin wasted no time and escaped the battlefield at the first chance.

……

And just like that, ten years went by in a flash.

In the Market, once again waiting for Scarlet Vault Jump’s cooldown.

“All 5,000 Divine Realm player slots have been filled, and the results for the two Market-Walking Token auctions have been announced. This round of Market trading is officially over!”

A line of Law script shimmered above the Market, marking the end of the trades. An overwhelming power pulsed out, pushing every alien visitor out of the Market.

Once the hundreds of thousands of alien traders had all been sent out, Song Chi quickly tallied up his gains from this session, then opened the Market’s status panel.

“Name: Omniverse Market”

“Market owner: Song Chi”

“Level: lv59”

“Scale: 700km x 700km”

“Base facilities: 2,500 shops; one, 70km x 70km stall zone; one four-story inn; lv59 Full-Attribute Cultivation Chamber (cultivating Enegma here has double efficiency); lv59 Enegma defense array; lv59 long-range random space gate transfer platform; one fifth-tier Synthesis Lab; one fifth-tier Oddity Essence Refinement Platform.”

“Additional facilities: Veil of Light (orange, lv50); Fifth-Tier Bloodline Baptism Platform (red); Divine Realm Task Platform (golden, lv70, 7/22 filled)”

“Trait: Calamity Evasion (able to move freely in the void and instinctively dodge natural disasters)”

“Trait 2: Spatial Anchor (can set four coordinate anchors in any star domain of the Shattered Sea of Stars)”

“Trait 3: Dominion Authority (while in the Market, you possess the power of a dominion)”

“Upgrade requirements: 1,000 wisps of Fifth-Tier Floating-land Origin; Market transactions totaling one million wisps (currently 968,000/1,000,000); Fifth-Tier Floating-Land Origin; one Space God Crystal.”

Counting the decades spent in Saintlight City and the most recent ten years, the Omniverse Market had already reached lv59 and was close to hitting the required transaction volume for the next upgrade.

“Almost there. Just a couple more rounds of Market trading and the Omniverse Market will finally meet all the requirements. Replace the Space God Crystal with a Hunyuan Copper, and it’ll be ready to hit Tier 6.”

Thinking of this, the frustration from not finding any clues about the Timepiece Chessboard over the past decade faded away.

Once the Market advanced to Tier 6, the Dominion Power granted by its Dominion Authority trait would probably reach the entry-level of Tier 8. Then he’d be able to attempt transplanting the Seventh-Tier Timeworld Tree into the Cultivation Sanctuary.

And with the No.004 Cultivation Secret Realm of Chicang now upgraded to Tier 7, the Seventh-Tier Timeworld Tree could fully benefit from the Sanctuary Accelerator.

With his mood eased, Song Chi left the Omniverse Market.

In the real world, inside the Heavenly Ruin, Song Chi’s form appeared out of thin air.

He scanned the radar from the Eyes of Heaven and confirmed no abnormalities in the sector. Then, he activated the “Mirage” trait, which had already finished cooling down, and smoothly began charging up the recently reset Scarlet Vault Jump.

Parking the Heavenly Ruin in open space wasn’t just for his own safety while coming and going from the Market. Song Chi also had unwavering confidence in the ship’s stealth capabilities.

The Void Shroud might only be red-grade, but ever since it was upgraded with the Oddity Essence Refinement Platform to grant ‘Stealth Authority +1 tier,’ its concealment had increased dramatically. Its effect was nearly as good as Mirage—just a hair short.

If only it could also hide the spatial disturbances produced during jumps like Mirage did, Song Chi would definitely have visited at least one neighboring alien civilization after every Scarlet Vault Jump.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

After another intense burst of spatial turbulence—felt only by the Heavenly Ruin—the battleship disappeared again into the obsidian starfield.

……

“Hm?”

“Is that a Fifth-Tier life-type Floating-land? And it hasn’t even activated its shield yet…”

Song Chi’s eyes lit up in surprise. He never expected his latest jump’s destination to land so close to an unknown Fifth-Tier life-type Floating-land—and the key was, its defensive shield wasn’t even active.

It was like a peerless beauty standing unguarded before a hot-blooded young man—the temptation was obvious.

Although he’d been wary of this star domain, Song Chi wasn’t the type to let an opportunity like this pass him by. With such a rare Fifth-Tier life Floating-land sitting right in front of him, he couldn’t just ignore it.

Tempted and already set on a plan, Song Chi didn’t rush into action. He needed to verify a few things first.

He shifted his gaze to the radar, where clusters of dots glowed—evidence of unique energy detected by the Eyes of Heaven’s “Spiritual Detection.”

No need for tedious manual checking—the Sky-Domain AI quickly crunched the data.

“According to the radar, this Floating-land contains two Level 6 units, four Level 5 units… No sign of any Level 7s.”

With that confirmation, Song Chi nodded lightly.

That meant the biggest threat had been ruled out.

He didn’t waste energy second-guessing whether the Eyes of Heaven might be fooled.

After all, the Eyes of Heaven was a gold-grade radar—now upgraded to Tier 7. Unless there was a Tier 7 lifeform with a rare, powerful stealth ability, few things could avoid being detected.

If a dominion-level being was hiding down there, it would simply be his bad luck.

He triggered the “Eye of Spirit-Seeking” trait on the radar.

This Fifth-Tier Floating-land stretched nearly a light-year across. Sifting through it randomly would be futile; “Eye of Spirit-Seeking” was the key to zeroing in on real treasures.

“Oh? There’s even a Silver Oddity here? Not bad!”

Silver Legendary Oddities were famously rare, and the “Eye of Spirit-Seeking” showed one right here on this Floating-land—a second surprise for Song Chi.

With Mirage still active, Song Chi didn’t hesitate. The Heavenly Ruin swooped toward the Floating-land below.

Creatures teemed across the Floating-land, but the dominant lifeform was just one kind.

“Is that… the Yuangu Family?”

Song Chi stared in astonishment at the towering figures on the world below.

Even more massive than Starsea Giants, they moved with constellations glittering faintly across their bodies. Each one’s head bore several stars—the most he counted was six.

“A Six-Star Ancient Fiend!”

As a member of the Torch Human Civilization, Song Chi knew a fair bit about the Yuangu Family—a civilization rivaling his own in strength.

In fact, among the top-tier fractured sea civilizations, the Yuangu Family’s reach even surpassed that of the Torch Humans, presiding over nearly two galaxy clusters. They were the strongest contenders for ‘overlord-level’ civilization in the future.

Song Chi’s first impulse, after recognizing them, was to leave—immediately.

After all, the Yuangu Family was among the absolute elite of peak tier civilizations.

But he quickly pushed that thought aside.

The Yuangu Family might be powerful, but their domain spanned several billion light-years. There was no way a single Fifth-Tier Floating-land would attract the notice of an eighth or ninth-tier Yuangu powerhouse.

“The plan’s changed—I’ll hit just one site then bail the second I’ve got what I came for.”

Over a month later, once the Scarlet Vault Jump finished its cooldown, Song Chi revealed the Heavenly Ruin’s most fearsome side.

At the heart of the Floating-land, the Ancient Fiend Royal City.

A blood-red spear ripped the sky apart, shattering the star-filled defensive shield above the city.

“Gu gu gu!”

“Who dares trespass and challenge the might of the Yuangu?”