Chapter 648: A New Dawn for the Fleet

Song Chi’s gaze suddenly shifted to another component loaded aboard the battleship.

It was none other than the recently evolved silver-grade Skybreaker Drill component.

Skybreaker Drill lv70

Grade: Silver

Trait: Skybreaker

Trait 2: Increases battleship space resistance by 6400.

Trait 3: Doubles the effect of the first trait of this component.

Trait 4: Increases internal spatial energy density of the battleship by 50%.

……

More precisely, Song Chi’s attention settled on trait 3 of the Skybreaker Drill.

Doubles the effect of the component’s first trait.

As it happened, the Azure Dragon Battleship trait is the primary trait of the Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart component. If he replaced one trait with this on the Array Chart, could it also double the restriction in the Azure Dragon Battleship trait?

Still, though he’d thought of this, Song Chi wasn’t in a rush to try it out.

After all, making such a change meant swapping out one of the other four powerful traits. Choosing which one was no easy task.

Trait: Azure Dragon Battleship

Trait 2: Azure Dragon Starlit Array

Trait 3: Azure Dragon Domain

Trait 4: Royal Azure Dragon Guard

Trait 5: Wrath—Azure Dragon’s Doomsday Breath

Every single one was excellent. Replacing any of them would have felt like a loss.

Song Chi hesitated for a moment, but quickly pushed those thoughts aside.

He didn’t even know if it would work yet—it was pointless to get stuck on details now.

With that in mind, he sent a message in the group chat.

“Clan Elder, let me try this.”

Immediately, the core members, who’d been feeling disappointed, perked up and fixed their eyes on Song Chi.

They all knew full well just how many incredible methods this junior of theirs had up his sleeve. Hearing his words sparked fresh interest.

‘Changing the attributes of a gold sanctum domain component is near impossible… But if it’s Xiaochi making the attempt, maybe there’s a real chance…’

That was the unspoken thought running through everyone’s minds.

Clan Elder Song Wujian didn’t hesitate either. A beam of light shot out from the Scorching Sea Blazer, and once it entered the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang, the lv80-enhanced Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart component was seamlessly uninstalled.

With the Array Chart in hand, Song Chi made his way straight to the Market.

In the end, he spent 20 Red Oddities and 10 Orange Oddities and successfully replaced the Royal Azure Dragon Guard trait with ‘the first trait’s effect is doubled’ on the Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart.

This time, when he checked the primary Azure Dragon Battleship trait, its stats had changed dramatically.

{Azure Dragon Battleship: Consumes 1000 Eon Energy Points. Willingly binds a designated battleship of at least four tiers below your own as an Azure Dragon Battleship. You may currently bind up to twenty million vessels.}

Previously, only ships up to two major tiers below could be bound. Now, four could be. This meant a sixth-tier Dreadnought could at minimum bind second-tier Escort Ships—and with the Song Family’s current number of Torch Captains, meeting that requirement would be no problem.

According to recent data from the clan’s Internal Affairs Hall, the Song Family now had a population close to 800 million, with about twenty million successfully awakened as Torch Captains.

Of those twenty million, almost 95% were zero or first tier.

Most were first tier of course—a real shortage of zero-tier Eon Flyers.

After all, the success rate for evolving an Eon Flyer into an Eon Airship was so high that unless lost exploring the Outer Domain, anyone could nearly always advance.

But second-tier Escort-class Eon Ships were a different story. Right now, the Song Family owned just over a million Escorts total, but that already satisfied the Azure Dragon Fleet’s minimum requirement of 100,000 ships.

Once Song Chi posted the new Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart stats in the encrypted group chat, the core family members exploded with excitement.

Song Tianhao: “Told you, as soon as Xiaochi offered, he must’ve been confident!”

Song Tianmang: “Hahaha, heaven is watching over the Song Family! With this, we can have sixth-tier Dreadnoughts equipped with the Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart. As long as we have enough Dreadnoughts and Escorts, our family could see up to eleven more seventh-tier powerhouses!”

Song Shixing: “Losing the Royal Azure Dragon Guard trait stings, but honestly this is a huge gain overall.”

Song Xingru: “Doesn’t matter! What’s important is getting more fleets with seventh-tier combat strength.”

Song Yan: “Personally, don’t you think swapping out the Azure Dragon Domain trait might have been better? Xiaodi, if things change in the future, could you restore that trait? Or maybe swap out another one instead?”

Song Chi didn’t hide anything. He nodded, signaling it wouldn’t be a problem.

With the Oddity Essence Refinement Platform, ten Red Oddities are enough to synthesize one strand of silver legendary essence. Silver essence can boost even gold Oddities.

Giving up ten Red Oddities that can’t be transformed into ship parts was well within reason.

With his confident reply, nobody was worried anymore.

Then, the Prime Ancestor added:

“In that case, let’s leave it for now. As for which trait, Azure Dragon Domain or Royal Azure Dragon Guard, should be replaced—I support Xiaochi’s choice.”

“Royal Azure Dragon Guard is certainly a group defense trait, but it’s an active skill with a short duration and a pretty long cooldown. In contrast, Azure Dragon Domain is passive. As long as the Azure Dragon Battleship or its subordinates remain intact, you’ll always enjoy its field effect. It’s clear which one takes priority.”

Here Shiyuan paused, then added:

“But most importantly, Royal Azure Dragon Guard can be replaced. For example, Xiaochi’s flagship has the Angel King’s True Spirit Guard, Xiao Yan has Flame God’s Dominion Soul Guard, and decades ago, we acquired the Stone Spirit Dominion Soul Guard on that part from an Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization floating island. All of them can fill its role.”

After Shiyuan’s thorough analysis, everyone agreed and dropped the issue.

Yet just then, Song Wujian, who had been silent, suddenly spoke:

“Now that the binding restriction’s loosened by four tiers, couldn’t we consider having the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang equip the Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart…?”

A sharp glint flashed in Song Chi’s eyes aboard the Heavenly Ruin.

He didn’t voice his thoughts aloud in the group chat, but the way his eyes flickered said plenty. He’d obviously considered this possibility long ago.

If a Star-Annihilator-class Ship could be bound, that would mean eighth-tier combat power. Of course he’d thought ahead about it.

Only, things weren’t so simple. If a Star-Annihilator was used as the burning ship, then the minimum Azure Dragon Battleship it could bind would be a third-tier cruiser. At the Song Family’s scale, they only had just over 30,000 cruisers—still far from the minimum requirement of 100,000 ships.

As Song Chi mused, messages popped up in the group chat.

Song Shiyuan: “If the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang is equipping it, the Song Family alone can’t pull this off. Unless we rope in the Chigu Luo Clan, Morningstar Family, Stark Family, and likely even the Dongli Xiao Family—and even then, it might not be enough. Plus, do we really want to expose the details of the Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart to outsiders?”

“Sure, we’re strong enough to demand cooperation, but the only binding requirement for Azure Dragon Battleships is voluntary consent. If we try to force it, any pushback during battle would be catastrophic.”

After this, Song Shixing chimed in with a few more points.

“I fully agree with Shiyuan. Plus, don’t forget, the Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart’s description only says it enables cross-tier combat. Whether it can actually stand up to something like an eighth-tier Serpent Demon is unknown.

And as I understand, the Chigu Luo Clan’s decided not to fight on the frontlines for the next thousand years—they’re focused on recuperation. So even if we bring in the Dongli Xiao Family, we likely still don’t have enough cruisers!”

The discussion dragged on for quite some time. By the time a consensus was reached, several hours had passed.

Song Wujian delivered the final decision in the group chat.

“It’s settled. In twenty years, the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang and a few Dreadnoughts will lead half of our current Escort Ships—fifty thousand—in joining the newly formed 11th Imperial Forward Fleet at their battlefield. There, the Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart will be equipped by both Xiaochi and Xiao Yan!”

Everyone nodded in agreement—there were no objections.

They all understood the significance of the new eleventh fleet: the core advantage was that two Star River-class Battleships would anchor their ranks, making this push much safer. It’s the main reason the Song Family chose to join the campaign.

With this decided, they turned their discussion to the list of items redeemed this time.

Besides Song Chi, Song Wujian picked up the Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart. Song Yan also traded for a Ninefold Spirit Fruit as prep for upgrading the Scorching Sea Blazer to a Star-Annihilator-class Ship. Song Xingru exchanged for four strands of silver fireseed and a portion of Stellar Spirit Liquid.

As for Song Shiyuan and Song Shixing, they both got the same: an eighth-tier Golden Apple and some Stellar Spirit Liquid.

The Stellar Spirit Liquid was for personal use—but the two Golden Apples were offered as a tribute to the clan. Same with Song Xingru. Their ability to rake in so many rewards in such a short time owed mostly to that Dual Separation component Song Chi had provided.

If a junior like Song Chi could give selflessly for the clan, the older generation couldn’t fall behind.

Contributing the two eighth-tier Golden Apples once again put the group in a tough spot over how to make the best use of them.

According to everyone’s suggestions, there were basically two main choices for the Golden Apples.

First: Use them to evolve two strands of silver upgraded fire source into two golden upgraded fire sources.

Second: Use them separately on the Origin Core Siphon and Tri-Eye Spirit-Lock Ring components to upgrade both to gold sanctum domain level.

Each option had merit. The first was personal—a golden upgraded fire source would create new golden torch-seed clan members, boosting flagships and power overall.

The second benefited the clan as a whole. If the Origin Core Siphon reached gold, it’d refine Floating-Land Origin Cores much faster, speeding up the transformation of Dragon-Spine Continent and benefitting all of the Song Family’s future floating continents.

If the Tri-Eye Spirit-Lock Ring reached gold sanctum domain, it could uninstall black-grade and lower parts without loss, and with two rounds, the number of components it could uninstall safely would far exceed twenty-four. That’d give members confidence when attempting to upgrade in the future.

Of the two, the second was the more popular choice.

Soon, both Origin Core Siphon and Tri-Eye Spirit-Lock Ring were successfully advanced to gold grade.

From then on, the Origin Core Siphon could work on eighth-tier Sea of Stars Floating-Lands, instead of spending centuries preparing just to extract a negligible wisp of origin from Red Star Superdimensional Continent like before.

The Tri-Eye Spirit-Lock Ring saw even bigger changes in its stats.

Tri-Eye Spirit-Lock Ring lv70

Grade: Gold

Trait: All effects below are doubled

Trait 2: Extra 2 locks per use (1 x 2).

Trait 3: Always uses only one slot.

Trait 4: Max lockable grade raised by 2 (1 x 2).

Trait 5: Max number of components affected is doubled.

Cost: 200,000 Eon Energy Points per use.

Effect: Applies lock to twenty-eight specified (12 + 2) x 2 components. For the next thirty days, their upgrade levels can’t reset on uninstall, up to black (silver +2) grade battleship components.

Charge: 30s; Cooldown: 480 hours

……

Everyone carefully combed through the new stats, and grins broke out all around.

From what they saw, advancing the Tri-Eye Spirit-Lock Ring to gold meant that while it could still only lock two rounds before promoting the ship, each round secured twenty-eight components instead of twelve.

And that’s just at seventh tier. If it reached eighth, Song Chi figured it could lock up to sixty parts over two rounds, and now it could apply to black-grade components. This was a real breakthrough.

Keep in mind, even on a ship like the Heavenly Ruin, there were only about eighty major components. With two rounds of locks, nearly all top-tier parts could be uninstalled safely—no holding back when it came time to upgrade.

And for regular clan members, two rounds would let them pull off every component from their ships. It was clear: more and more clan members would be upgrading in the future.