Chapter 557: The Song Clan Rises: Dawn of the Star-Annihilator

Inside the Oddities Exchange at the Market, the Fifth-Tier Night Elf stood respectfully.

Clutched in its hands were still the same three items from five years ago.

But now, unease crept into its heart. It had yet to receive a reply from the Master of the Omniverse Market and didn’t know if he was dissatisfied.

In truth, Song Chi wasn’t thinking about it at all at the moment—his full attention was focused on the Voidform Avatar.

Deep within the core, the Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang floated above the Floating-land Origin Core, trembling violently. The eerie energy coating its hull siphoned off the surging tidal energy that overflowed from the Origin Core—on its own, it was taking away nearly thirty percent of this boundless power.

That’s why, during its attempt to break through into a Star-Annihilator-class Ship, Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang could instantly boost its promotion success rate by over ten percent.

While four pairs of eyes watched nervously, Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang suddenly froze mid-quake, and the spectral energy on its hull began to dissipate at speed.

Yet the hull didn’t start to expand as everyone expected. Just as they were about to assume the promotion had failed, the battleship hovering above the Origin Core quietly began to grow.

“It worked! Success in one try!”

“Hahaha—today is a day for the Song Family to celebrate!”

……

Thunderous laughter rolled from the Calm-Sea Rising Dragon, but not a soul found it grating.

On the contrary, everyone present was bursting with excitement.

With Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang’s successful promotion, it wasn’t just the birth of a new Star-Annihilator-class Ship. It also meant the Song Family of Longji would finally and rightfully enter the ranks of the Immortal Houses—gone were the days that people called them ‘provisional’.

Being an Immortal House didn’t just mean prestige in the Torch Human Civilization. Even looking across the entire Shattered Sea of Stars, it was still a top-tier status.

Assuming nothing unexpected happened, the Song Family of Longji could now prosper for tens of thousands of years, maybe even a hundred thousand.

For any major faction, this was a monumental milestone.

Even better, Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang had advanced to Star-Annihilator-class Ship in one go without using that Sixth-tier Timeworld Fruit. There’s still hope to push for a Star River-class Battleship in the future.

……

At the Omniverse Market, once the excitement subsided, Song Chi turned his attention back to the Oddities Exchange.

“Let’s go with this serpent scale. However…the Eternal Night Gemstone is actually a part of a supreme black oddity set. Just one item of the same tier isn’t enough.”

A reply at last. The Fifth-Tier Night Elf breathed a little easier.

The exact message from Song Chi didn’t concern it much. Beforehand, both the Crescent Moon Matriarch and the Moon Goddess had predicted this kind of outcome.

The Night Elf lightly patted its storage necklace again, and two more orbs of light appeared in its hand.

“My lord, these are twenty portions of Dominion Soul and ten wisps of Eighth-Tier Floating-Land Origin. The Moon Goddess says you can pick either one!”

Seeing the Night Elf was fully prepared, Song Chi wasn’t surprised. After all, the Eternal Night Gemstone was part of the black crown oddity—something both sides always tacitly understood. No sane man would barter it away for just one equivalent item.

After a moment’s thought, Song Chi chose the twenty portions of Dominion Soul.

It wasn’t that Eighth-Tier Floating-Land Origin wasn’t precious, but right now he needed Dominion Soul much more.

Upgrading a component to tier eight (level 80) only took a single wisp of Eighth-Tier Floating-Land Origin. He already had ten in hand; if he boosted Torch Seed to gold, he could strengthen ten pieces to tier eight. That was plenty.

In contrast, every gold component needed at least ten portions of Dominion Soul to reach tier eight. He might have twenty-two left now, and even counting what he could extract from the Black Devourer King Beast’s corpse, it still wasn’t enough.

The deal was finalized.

Song Chi secured twenty portions of Dominion Soul and the World Serpent’s Scale, while the Night Elf left the Market the moment it got the Eternal Night Gemstone.

A day later, once all transactions at the Market had wrapped up, Song Chi returned to the outside world.

Back in the core, Song Wujian, Song Shixing, and Song Yan were still there. But Song Xingru, Song Tianhao, and the others were gone—they’d already headed off to support Song Shiyuan, confronting the not-so-friendly envoys from various factions outside the Floating-land.

In the Heavenly Ruin’s command center, since coming back from the Market, Song Chi’s gaze had been glued to the Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang ahead.

After a full twenty-four hours’ buffer, Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang had fully transformed into a Star-Annihilator-class Ship more than ten thousand kilometers long.

With the promotion complete, Song Wujian in the command center finally spoke up:

“Shixing, Xiao Yan, Xiaochi—you three stay here. I’m going to pay our dear Rosetta a visit!”

As soon as he finished, the Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang turned into a stream of light and vanished into Song Wujian’s brow, then shot straight for the Great Pit’s upper reaches, wrapped in spectral energy.

The core chamber below was big enough for a Star-Annihilator-class Ship ten thousand kilometers long to float, but the passageway up to the surface wasn’t nearly as wide. Song Wujian would have to return to the surface on his own first.

None of the three objected to Song Wujian’s instructions—they could all guess why. Basically, he didn’t want them drawing too much attention just yet.

Right now, the Song Family was already openly fielding a Star-Annihilator-class Ship and two Dreadnoughts. That was stunning enough. If three Dreadnoughts came out all at once, every power in the Morningstar Kingdom would be on edge.

Even that would be manageable, but if outsiders saw all five Song Family Dreadnoughts appear at once, people would start letting their imaginations run wild.

True, in thirty to forty years the Torch Civilization’s Four Great Empires would officially go to all-out war, but that was on the galactic scale. Preparing for it three or four decades early made a massive difference.

“Xiaochi…”

As soon as Song Wujian left, Song Shixing and Song Yan came over at once.

Their eyes met, and Song Chi instantly understood what the Elder meant.

He didn’t hesitate—he activated the Eyes of Heaven component.

In the next second, a massive projected image flickered into view across the spacious core chamber. The image displayed the scene outside Dragon‑Spine Continent.

Bzzzz!

As the Floating-Land Shield over Dragon‑Spine Continent rippled, dozens of battleships from each kingdom’s factions across from the Unmoving Vajra suddenly grew restless.

Inside those ships, high-ranking representatives from each faction stared in disbelief as Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang burst out from Dragon‑Spine Continent.

Even though folks had guessed it the moment Dragon‑Spine Continent ascended to Seventh‑Tier Floating-land, the odds were slim at best.

Just how hard is it for a Dreadnought to advance to Star-Annihilator-class Ship?

Even with the tidal energy surge from the Floating-Land, chances were still minuscule.

Which was exactly why everyone now looked so shocked, faced with a newly minted Star-Annihilator-class Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang.

“Hot off the wire—Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang has made it! From now on, the Song Family is the Morningstar Kingdom’s second Immortal House!”

“Let the Clan Elder know right away—the Song Family’s Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang has broken through! The Morningstar Kingdom is about to change!”

……

In no time, news of the Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang’s breakthrough spread like wildfire to all the powerhouses of every kingdom faction.

Not just in the Morningstar Kingdom, even in the Yaohan Kingdom, many groups got wind of it.

Compared to the undercurrents in Morningstar, there were only sighs of awe from Yaohan’s side.

Two Star-Annihilators built in just a few centuries. The newly founded Morningstar Kingdom had firmly planted its flag.

But the outside world’s storms didn’t matter much to the people outside Dragon‑Spine Continent. Right now, the continent itself was like a powder keg. If Song Wujian, the new Star-Annihilator captain, showed even a hint of rage, this whole barrel would blow sky-high.

Everyone knew—their real reason for coming wasn’t congratulations, but to make trouble for the Song Family.

Maybe that was the reasonable, even instinctive, thing to do for them. But to the Song Family, this was a grudge, plain and simple.

Sure, nothing ended up happening, but that was only because the Song Family had the muscle—not out of the visitors’ kindness.

Just think—if the Song Family had slipped, or Song Shiyuan wasn’t that relentless, things could’ve gone the other way.

Everything they’d built, the once-in-a-lifetime chance for the entire clan, would’ve been lost in an instant. The danger, and the hatred, just couldn’t be put into words.

Bzzzz!

As engines roared, Song Wujian nearly rammed Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang right into Rosetta Morningstar’s Morningstar Traverse. Just a hair more and they would’ve collided.

That alone showed the bottomless fury Song Wujian was holding back.

But in the end, he did keep his cool and stopped short of an actual crash.

“Your Majesty Rosetta, having you come to ‘congratulate’ us in person—what an honor for the Song Family. We’ll remember this favor and return it some day!”

Mid-sentence, Song Wujian’s tone cut off sharply, then turned colder and even more forceful.

“But today, with the continent just upgraded and so much to deal with, we can’t invite you all in. Please head back!”

The moment the words landed, the other kingdom representatives let out long sighs of relief, didn’t hesitate a second, and turned their ships to streak away into the dark starry sky.

But the Morningstar Traverse stayed put, not giving any response even after Song Wujian had dismissed them. The implication in Song Wujian’s words was embarrassingly obvious, and it seemed this had left the king at a loss.

“What’s wrong, Your Majesty Rosetta? Not willing to leave?”