Chapter 577: Into the Belly of the Stars

Hearing Song Chi’s words, Song Wujian and the other five exchanged a flurry of glances. In a heartbeat, it seemed they’d figured something out.

“Xiaochi, that’s way too risky. The energy currents inside the Starrealm Gut are off the charts. If you just teleport in like that…”

Before Song Wujian and the others could finish, Song Chi had already returned the Heavenly Ruin to his Torch Ancestral Orifice.

But as his figure became fully exposed in the starry sky, the others finally took in the changes to his body.

Turns out, Song Chi wasn’t just wearing the Yaohan Kingdom’s latest military exoskeleton armor—there was a layer of special Moyun Goldvine Armor under the exoskeleton, and an additional sixth-tier plasma shield wrapped around him entirely.

But he wasn’t done yet. After returning the Heavenly Ruin to his orifice, Song Chi directed his mind to activate the mini version’s Black Hole Evolution Layer, triggering its Black Hole Domain trait.

Wummmm—

A surge of strange black hole energy flowed from the center of his forehead, forming a ring around him—a barrier with an absolute invincibility effect, the Black Hole Domain.

After setting everything up, Song Chi finally offered a reassuring look to those at his side.

As a captain who never gambles recklessly, Song Chi wouldn’t take this kind of risk unless he was absolutely sure of himself.

With the Black Hole Domain up, even if he ran into a threat he couldn’t handle, he’d have at least one second to return to the Market—enough time to get out unscathed.

After giving the family a quick farewell, Song Chi turned and vanished from everyone’s sight.

Omniverse Market.

Arriving in the Market, Song Chi immediately shifted his focus to the Market’s spatial anchor points.

To be precise, he fixed his gaze on the spatial anchor set inside that Starrealm Gut.

As he poured his mind into that anchor, Song Chi suddenly brightened.

“It’s accessible!”

Just now, he realized he could use that anchor as his market exit point. Which proved the Starrealm Gut was still within the Market’s reach.

Once he’d settled his excitement, he selected the anchor as his destination and initiated market exit.

Far from the Sea of Stars, in a pitch-black cosmos.

A scarlet gut, hundreds of thousands of kilometers long, floated silently—the Starrealm Gut, which had just fled all the way here.

Just then, deep inside the Starrealm Gut, a flicker of spatial energy ran through the lower intestine. The next moment, Song Chi appeared inside, fully armed.

Seeing he’d made it back, Song Chi couldn’t hide the joy tugging at his lips.

This made things a whole lot simpler.

Without further hesitation, the Heavenly Ruin was summoned as a dark glow flickered between his brows.

Once inside the battleship, Song Chi vanished once more.

And appeared again in the starry sky where Song Wujian’s group waited.

“Glad you made it back!”

When Song Chi materialized, no one’s first question was about the Starrealm Gut. Instead, everyone released a collective sigh of relief.

Only then did Song Xingru ask,

“Xiaochi, how’d it go?”

Song Chi simply smiled and nodded.

“It worked!”

…

In the void, the five battleships were swiftly withdrawn, and Song Wujian’s team was stored inside the Dimensional Spatial Stone.

Song Chi returned once more to the Market.

A few seconds later, Song Chi reappeared inside the Heavenly Ruin, now hovering in the Starrealm Gut somewhere in unknown space.

…

“Warning: External energy intensity abnormally high. Current energy level: sixth-tier…”

After confirming this reading from the Sky-Domain AI, Song Chi didn’t hesitate—he sent the Flamewrath Giant out with the Dimensional Spatial Stone.

The Flamewrath Giant barreled headfirst through the intense energy currents, and soon managed to summon Song Wujian and the others.

It helped that all five were Dreadnought Captains—thanks to the sixth-tier Guiding Technique, their bodies could withstand the violent torrent.

Once they summoned their own ships, Song Wujian led the Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang racing skyward.

A new wave of powerful repulsive force swept over all the battleships.

On Song Wujian’s side, a broad smile broke across his projected face as he pulled a peculiar item from his storage—the Tomb of Light and Shadow.

Clearly, Song Chi’s solution was working. The Clan Elder had gotten his hands on a second Oddity.

Just like before, after this run, the Starrealm Gut quickly slipped away again—leaving Song Chi to repeat the entire process.

After five such trips, all six of the Song Family team each walked away with their own Oddity.

Besides the Soul-Devouring Altar and Tomb of Light and Shadow, they’d also secured the Extreme Desolation Corruption Cannon, the Spirit Serpent Spatial Ring, the Star Spirit Gem, and the Space Birthing Stone.

Only three could be converted into battleship components, but this haul was nothing short of phenomenal.

Once the Starrealm Gut retreated again, only the Song Family’s six ships remained in the starry void.

Battleship communications group chat.

“Song Shixing: Xiaochi, the lower intensity inside the Starrealm Gut starts at sixth-tier, but if we activate the Dominion Soul projection, could we try bringing over some fourth- and fifth-tier family members?”

The Dominion Soul projection was a group defense component. With it in play, even if the fourth-tier Torch Captains might not be safe, the fifth-tiers should be able to summon their own ships.

If that didn’t work, they could always test it with some enslaved creatures.

There were no more gold or black Oddities inside the Gut, but plenty of silver legendary ones left. Collecting them all would majorly boost the family’s power.

Song Chi wholeheartedly agreed, but didn’t rush.

“Xingzu, hold on. This region is already incredibly far from our Torch Human Galaxy Cluster. That last teleport nearly taxed me to the limit—I’m not sure the Starrealm Gut can be reached from wherever it’s running off to next.”

After explaining, he vanished once more.

Back at the Omniverse Market, Song Chi narrowed his eyes with a silent, “Of course.”

He was no longer able to activate the spatial anchor he’d left inside the Starrealm Gut.

Song Chi shook his head.

But he didn’t let it bother him.

The Omniverse Market might be high-level, but at only sixth-tier, limits like these made perfect sense.

The important thing was, they’d already taken all the most valuable Oddities inside the Starrealm Gut.

Still, Song Chi didn’t cancel the anchor he left there. The Market might not be able to reach it now, but that didn’t mean it’d be impossible sometime in the future.

There were still plenty of silver legendary Oddities left inside—it’d be well worth another visit down the road.

…

After confirming there was no way to transmit further, the six Song Family members opted to return.

Song Chi sent the Prime Ancestor and the rest back to Dragon‑Spine Continent, then settled in with the Clan Elder and Song Yan to await the start of the Chigu Auction.

Hotel basement, battleship summoning chamber. The Heavenly Ruin quietly sat berthed.

Inside, Song Chi studied the Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar component in his hands.

He hadn’t upgraded it yet—not just for lack of titanite crystal, Dominion Soul, and eighth-tier Floating-land Origin, but because he didn’t see the point in powering up this part.

According to its stats, aside from the Soul Devourer trait, it offered nothing else.

So what’s the use of pushing it to seventh or even eighth tier?

“Unless…”

A possibility popped into his head.

He quietly made his way back to Dragon‑Spine Continent.

…

Two days later, he arrived at an outlying colony under the Celestial Line.

It was a colony right on the border of several mid-tier civilizations. Song Chi used a Celestial Line transfer ship to get there, then piloted the Heavenly Ruin toward the nearest mid-tier star domain.

Half a day later, the Heavenly Ruin came to a halt, having defeated several fourth-tier monsters and hundreds of third-tier units.

Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar lv0

Quality: Black

…

{Soul-Devourer·Ascension: …Current soul-devouring progress: Phase One, 1%}

Seeing this, Song Chi used the Destiny Compass to decompose it, extracting a large cluster of soul energy light.

Noting the Altar’s progress was reset to 0%, he upgraded it to lv60, then fused the soul energy light into the lv60 Sacrificial Altar. When he checked the stats again—

The soul-devouring progress had jumped from 1% to 2%.

“So increasing the component’s tier reduces the number of souls needed for each phase…”

With this confirmed, he left the Sacrificial Altar at lv60. Once he had enough resources, he’d go for lv80. That way, he could hit all four stages as quickly as possible, and add a second multicolored component to the Heavenly Ruin.

…

Time passed and finally, the Chigu City auction day arrived.

Wummmm—

That day, the rumble of battleships echoed endlessly above Chigu City.

One massive vessel after another—led by imposing captains—descended from the skies over the Floating-land.

“Look, there’s another Dreadnought! Just in the last ten minutes, I’ve already counted more than twenty Dreadnought Captains!”

The central plaza outside the Chigu Auction House was packed with lower-ranking Torch Captains. They watched with envy as a 120,000-meter long Dreadnought landed from above.

But just as everyone thought the ship would set down, this already-fearsome vessel suddenly swerved aside—making room on purpose.

A moment later, under countless blazing and reverent gazes, a colossal ship sheathed in red hull armor began to materialize from the cloud bank overhead.

It was terrifyingly huge. As soon as it appeared, the main avenues in Chigu City’s center fell into shadow. To the Torch Captains standing below, it felt like this ship could blot out the sun.

“A Star-Annihilator-class Ship! One of their captains is here—wonder which Eminence it is!”

Within the Torch Human Civilization, Star-Annihilator-class Captains had the right to be called “King”—like Yaohan Kingdom’s Lord of the North Sky.

Lower-ranked captains preferred the honorific “Eminence”.