Chapter 585: A Golden Mirror Shadow, Strategic Alliances, and the Gathering Storm

This component was truly special. Not only did it possess unique mirror imaging abilities and could reflect external damage, it also perfectly complemented his mastery of the Law of Light.

Mirror Image Split lv0

Quality: Gold

Trait: Mirror Image Split

Trait 2: Can elevate the quality of mirrored components by one tier.

Trait 3: Light resistance +1000.

Trait 4: When installed inside a warship, it creates a dense aura of light, increasing comprehension efficiency for the Law of Light by 140%.

Trait 5: Mirror Refraction.

Consumption: 100 Eon Energy Points per second.

Effect: The equipped warship can autonomously adjust its hull and energy shield’s light and shadow effects to blend in with the surroundings, dramatically lowering its presence.

No need for charging or cooldown.

Upgrade requirements: 100 strands of Floating-land Origin (Tier Zero), 10,000 Eon Energy Points, 1 Mirrorlight Stone.

Note: This component occupies 5 slots.

{Mirror Image Split: Consumes 300,000 Eon Energy Points. Using the loaded warship as a template, creates a tangible mirror image warship. The mirror image contains all black (gold+1) or lower-quality ship components from the base warship. As long as it is within 1,000 light-years of the base, the captain can remotely control it in real time. The mirror image persists until manually dismissed or destroyed, after which a 10-year cooldown is required before reactivation.}

{Mirror Refraction: The equipped warship gains a refractive aura. When struck by outside energy-based attacks, 10% of the attack’s power is reflected back to the attacker.}

After reviewing the component’s detailed attributes, Song Chi quickly made up his mind.

“Brother Lancang, I’ll take the Mirror Image Split!”

He didn’t hesitate, not only because the component suited him so well, but also because he had a different use in mind for its Mirror Image Split trait.

With a full-scale war between the two galaxy clusters about to break out—danger lurking everywhere—Song Chi was almost certain he’d need to stick with the main force for safety and avoid reckless solo ventures.

But playing it safe meant missing out on lots of opportunities for secret scavenging or lucky finds.

Yet with this component, a mirror image warship could do all the risky exploration in his stead. He could stay safe with the group, and still have a chance to make under-the-radar gains. It was perfect.

Besides, the Mirror Image Split could copy almost all the components from the Heavenly Ruin, except for the Timepiece Chessboard. Which meant the mirror image warship would pack enough power for his secret ventures to pay off handsomely.

Both sides were more than pleased with this deal.

Though this Mirror Image Split component was outstanding, for someone like Lancang who specialized in the Law of Water, it wasn’t nearly as compatible as the Sea King’s Ring. It was the same for Song Chi.

Still, even with the Mirror Image Split in hand, Song Chi faced another problem.

He only had four Seventh-Tier Dominion Souls, not enough to upgrade Mirror Image Split to eighth tier. That meant he couldn’t mirror components that had been strengthened to eighth tier.

……

Omniverse Market, Divine Realm Player Trading Space.

After leaving the Yaoguang Star Tower, Song Chi went straight to the gold-rank Oddities trading space, now fully filled with its five million player slots.

At the center, beneath the player mission screen, with thousands of Divine Realm players watching, the mission panel started to shift and change.

Soon, a brand-new mission replaced the old War Supply Acquisition Task.

Of course, this didn’t mean Song Chi had canceled the War Supply Acquisition Task—it was simply bumped down to second place, with the new mission now pinned to the top.

“Look, the Master of the Omniverse Market has posted a new mission!”

“Dominion Soul Acquisition: For every 10 Seventh-Tier Dominion Souls you hand over, you can pick any Silver Legendary Oddity from the exchange shop. For 200 Dominion Souls, you can choose a Golden Sanctum Oddity.”

“Only the Master of the Market could offer up silver and gold grade Oddities right from the start. Absolute legend.”

“What exactly is a Dominion Soul?”

“It’s basically the essence left behind after a Tier 7 Starsea lifeform dies!”

“Seventh-Tier Dominion? Yikes, even beings that strong can die?”

Debate exploded throughout the Divine Realm player space.

Song Chi ignored the chatter and didn’t linger. Ordinary Starsea outsiders would never get their hands on Dominion Souls anyway.

His main hopes were with the Night Elf tribe, the Witcher Civilization, the Fifth-Tier Half-Rats of Divine Realm, and the recently joined Golden Ogres, Ancient Dwarves, and the like. But it was unlikely they’d complete any trades soon.

Before leaving, Song Chi made sure to collect all the war supplies he’d amassed during this time.

With millions of Divine Realm players, even if just one in ten thousand submitted war supplies daily, over two years the hoard would be staggering.

By Song Chi’s calculations, if he sold all the war supplies at current prices, he’d easily pocket several million strands of Fourth and Fifth-Tier Floating-land Origin. The profits were outrageous.

Omniverse Market. Third floor of an inn, inside one Traveler’s Inn room.

“Don’t worry, Master. I’ll move these war supplies as quickly as possible,”

Wang Zhen’s eyes gleamed with excitement as he accepted several storage capsules from Song Chi.

These days, war supplies were the hottest commodities on the market. Song Chi entrusting him again and again with bulk goods was a sign of both trust and favor.

“Remember, avoid collecting Floating-land Origin when you can. Instead, prioritize special ship components, high-tier oddities that can’t be converted into ship parts, rare minerals, Starsea treasures, that sort of thing.”

“Understood, Master. You can count on me!”

Wang Zhen handed him a storage capsule in return.

Opening it, Song Chi saw more than a thousand different Starsea Oddities, the most valuable of which was a silver oddity that couldn’t be converted into a ship part.

This didn’t surprise him. After all, Wang Zhen worked out of Yaohan Floating-land—the capital of the Tianpan Galaxy—serving a vast number of Torch Captains.

Once Wang Zhen left, Song Chi called Pan Ying up.

Like Wang Zhen, Pan Ying had long been helping him acquire war supplies at full force, except her jurisdiction was the Silverplate Continent.

Song Chi accepted the storage capsule Pan Ying handed over and found more than twenty thousand Titanite Crystals inside.

“Titanite Crystals? Where did those come from?”

Smiling, Pan Ying explained: a declining Fourth-Tier family in the Silverplate Kingdom had used them to offset a war resource debt.

“Not bad. Here, take this Silver Energy Shield…”

Song Chi obviously valued Pan Ying more—not for personal reasons, but because her future potential far outstripped Wang Zhen’s.

She was just over nine hundred years old, but destined for the rank of Dreadnought Captain.

By comparison, Wang Zhen was more than a hundred years younger but still stuck at Fourth Tier, far from the level of an Extreme Zhulu‑class Captain.

……

Time passed quickly. Five years slipped by in a blink.

That day, Song Chi stood in the Heavenly Ruin’s command center. At a single thought, a component at his side began to pulse with golden light.

In short order, the Mirror Image Split was strengthened all the way up to level 80.

Not long ago, he’d managed to acquire ten Dominion Souls from the Divine Realm trading space—the contributor being that Fifth-Tier Night Elf.

The first thing he did was use them to upgrade Mirror Image Split.

With the upgrade to eighth tier, the component’s abilities noticeably improved.

First, his Mirror Image Split’s range of control shot up from just a thousand to a staggering one million light-years. That alone left Song Chi very satisfied.

Now, as long as the mirror image ship was within a million light-years of the Heavenly Ruin, he could operate it as if it were his own body.

Second, the Mirror Refraction trait got a massive boost.

{Mirror Refraction: When equipped, the warship gains a refractive aura, reflecting 50% of the incoming energy attack back at the attacker.}

That meant, from now on, any energy-based attack would inflict half its damage back on the attacker after hitting the Heavenly Ruin. That was one hell of a trait.

……

Once the Mirror Image Split was strengthened, Song Chi threw himself into comprehending the three great Laws.

After learning that reaching over 90% comprehension would boost his odds of advancing to Star-Annihilator level, he became more focused than ever.

With the upgrade from Mirror Image Split, in just over a decade his understanding of the Law of Light had soared to 81%, and even the Law of Time had broken through to over 60%.

As for the Law of Space, he’d finally pushed it to 75%.

One day, still in the Omniverse Market, Song Chi suddenly received a mental summons—the family was calling.

When he arrived at the Family Ancestral Hall, more than 400 people had already gathered.

This was all thanks to the recent household crackdown. With a positive new atmosphere sweeping the family, dozens of new Fourth-Tier members had emerged over the last decade. The family now boasted over 400 Zhulu-class Captains.

Once Song Chi arrived, he waited about half an hour longer until all Fourth-Tier and above members had assembled.

Yes, every single one was there.

No avatars or projections—everyone showed up in person.

War was on the verge of erupting. With the Torch Empire’s mass mobilization order, over seventy percent of the Torch Captains across the cluster would have to take part, drastically reducing high-tier officers on the Floating-lands.

Because of this, many great houses were making the same move—either shutting down shops entirely or pulling back all skilled members, leaving only low level relatives to manage day-to-day business.

The Song Family took the second route.

Once everyone gathered, Family Head Song Xuancang spoke.

“According to Internal Affairs’ stats, we now have 432 Fourth-Tier or higher members, more than 7,000 Third-Tier Cruiser Captains, and over 100,000 Second-Tier Frigate Captains.”

“The main reason for this gathering is to discuss how many to send in the first wave of troops set to depart in a month.”

Arguments broke out fast.

Though the Xian Qin Divine Dynasty required every family, clan, conglomerate, or mega-corporation under its rule to send at least seventy percent of its forces (Torch Captains) to war, that didn’t mean they had to throw everyone onto the front lines at once.

By splitting the reinforcements into several rounds and rotating the battle-weary home, it was clearly a smarter play.

After a long debate, the four hundred-plus crowd fell into three main camps.

First: split into two batches. Send 80% of the combatants in the first wave, reserve the last 20% for replacements and those who advance or retire.

Second: divide the force in thirds. Dispatch half up front, then split the rest between later waves, rotating and replenishing every hundred years.

Third: also two batches, but launch with only 65% in the first wave to ensure enough backup for later replacements and reinforcements.

After much back-and-forth, Song Shiyuan made the final call.

“We’ll go with the third option!”

Then he explained in detail:

“I’m sure you all see the benefits of the first plan—if we send 80% at once, our fleet will top ten million warships, giving us massive sway in the joint alliance and maximizing family benefits.”

“But I’ve already heard from the Old Ancestor: the Chigu Luo Clan from the Goldenplate Galaxy has rejoined the Immortal Houses. Our two families will form a lasting alliance and together field more than twenty million vessels. That is a force no one can ignore—we don’t need to worry about our clout.”

……

A month later, outside the Dragon-Spine Continent, more than eight million warships assembled in squads in the starry sky.

These were the Song Family’s first wave of expeditionary forces. Of those, just over a million were Torch Battleships; the other seven million were standard starships.

Alongside the Song fleet, another massive force gathered: about six million vessels from the kingdom’s other powers allied with the Song Family.

One of the biggest contingents came from the Philip Family of the Golden Lion Star Domain, longtime friends of the Songs. Thanks to long-standing marital alliances, they’d reaped the rewards of the Song Family’s rapid rise.

Back when the Yaohan Frontier War ended, the Song Family helped the Philips take nearly ten thousand light-years of territory. Centuries later, the Philip Family now had two Battleship Captains and nearly thirty Fourth-Tier Zhulu-class Captains.

Yet despite their strength, the Philips remained totally loyal, standing ever more firmly with the Song Family.

Of the six million allied ships, fully two million belonged to the Philip Family alone.

The Morningstar Family, too, had gathered even more attached fleets—rumor had it their forces now topped ten million.