Chapter 677: Blood Mist Domain: Unleashing the Countercurrent Device

The instant he laid eyes on the Domain Countercurrent Device, Song Chi felt as if his entire focus had locked onto it; he couldn’t look away.

Parts like this were extremely rare—much rarer than even the Upgraded Torch Seed Fire Source.

In nearly a thousand years of captaining starships, Song Chi had seen plenty of advanced fire sources, all kinds and grades, even black-grade ones more than once. But domain-countering components? This was only the second he’d ever encountered.

Well… if he was strict about it, this was really the first time.

The last time had just been a glimpse from afar, years ago, when the Bai Family’s cruiser deployed one while attacking the first Tier Four beast—back when that golden-armored giant was already fatally wounded.

That time, he’d only seen it in action at a distance, never caught a look at the actual Domain Countercurrent Device’s attributes. So in that sense, this was a genuine first.

Domain Countercurrent Device Lv0

Rarity: Gold

Unique Trait: Countercurrent Domain

Consumption: 100,000 per use

Upgrade Requirements: 100 strands of Tier Zero Floating-land Origin, 10,000 Eon Energy Points

Note: This part occupies 5 ship slots.

{Countercurrent Domain: Once activated, this device bestows the equipped battleship with a powerful opposing force. A unique domain rapidly takes shape, and once it collides with external domains, zones, or force fields, both sides trigger a violent countercurrent, ultimately collapsing together. Currently, it can only counter domains, zones, or force fields up to Tier One energy. Cooldown: constant 24 hours.}

Song Chi wasn’t sure if every domain-countering part boasted ‘Unique Trait’ like this, or if this specific device was special. Either way, he was more than satisfied with what he saw.

Unique traits meant the properties of this component were truly extraordinary.

At its base Lv0, it could already disrupt Tier One domains. Once it was upgraded to Lv80, the part should be able to counter domains triggered by Tier Nine lifeforms—definitely a top-tier treasure.

Of course, that was assuming the host ship was a Star River-class Battleship. If mounted on a Star-Annihilator or even a Dreadnought, the effects would diminish.

Still, even in that case, it would weaken Tier Nine domains to some extent.

Not overthinking it, Song Chi took the Domain Countercurrent Device immediately. For the last two picks, after much deliberation he chose the Mechanical Dominion Furnace and that titanite crystal core.

The Mechanical Dominion Furnace, a black-grade oddity, was the power core converted from an eighth-tier mechanical construct. While it couldn’t be used as a battleship part, if he encountered a tech civilization or the Machina, this sort of thing was a huge lure. Song Chi was confident he could trade it away.

As for the titanite crystal core, according to main hall staff, it came from a vein with a million titanite reserves. Its recovery rate was impressive—10%, which meant it could safely yield 100,000 titanite crystals per year.

That info was before it was mined, though. Fusing it into another similarly sized ore vein later would naturally reduce the recovery rate somewhat, but not below half. In other words, it could guarantee no less than 50,000 titanite each year, a huge boon for the Song Family’s titanite-hungry development.

Going forward, Song Chi planned to keep half of the annual output for himself. He was short on titanite too, so there was no chance he’d let the family have it all.

After confirming his three picks, Song Chi’s gaze lingered regretfully on the eighth and ninth-tier Dominion Soul choices.

Upon returning, he’d carefully tallied up his resources. With the Heavenly Ruin about to ascend, strengthening all its parts would soon demand a mountain of rare materials—he needed to budget in advance.

Thanks to leftover loot from his earlier scavenging and the Demon Serpent Floating-Land operation, things like eighth and ninth-tier Floating-land Origins, titanite, Law Stones—those were covered. He had enough for several rounds of upgrades.

The only headache was Dominion Souls. Despite stockpiling for centuries, over 90% of his supply was just seventh-tier Dominion Souls.

Seventh-Tier Dominion Soul: 214 units

Eighth-Tier Dominion Soul: 18 units

Ninth-Tier Dominion Soul: 8 units

To an average or even a 20,000-year veteran Star-Annihilator-class ship, that amount would be more than enough. But for Song Chi, it was still far too little.

Simple reason—once the Heavenly Ruin upgraded, his goal was to instantly power multiple key and high-usage parts up to Lv90, which would swallow an enormous amount of eighth-tier Dominion Souls.

Don’t forget, for eighth-tier upgrades you could substitute seventh-tier Dominion Souls—but each level required ten times the number of them. With 214 on hand, it seemed a lot, but those would be gone in no time.

So he absolutely needed eighth-tier Dominion Souls.

With eight ninth-tiers right now, his plan after ascending was to immediately craft eight ninth-tier parts. That alone demanded 80 eighth-tier Dominion Souls—he was still nearly halfway short.

He’d hoped to exchange for ten more here to cover the gap, but those other three prizes were too valuable. After weighing it out, he gave up on the Dominion Soul exchange.

His only hope now rested on the upcoming trip to the Red Star Continent. The Supradimensional Continent didn’t have Floating-land Origin Will boosting local difficulty, so with the Market Projection Token he could project a half-step ninth-tier Market Avatar, giving him a shot at hunting eighth-tier dominions there.

Because of various restrictions, he’d missed taking the Abyssal Nine-Headed Hydra’s eighth-tier carcass earlier. Nothing he could’ve done about it, but it still gnawed at him.

A single eighth-tier dominion would yield dozens of eighth-tier Dominion Souls, plus a drop of eighth-tier Dominion Origin Blood—the value was immense.

This time on the Red Star Continent, he’d make sure there were no such restrictions. He’d already decided, he wouldn’t leave without hunting at least one eighth-tier alien.

And if he got the chance, he’d try to enslave one as well—the Celestial Authority Ring’s powers were right there, and it’d be a shame not to use it.

‘If I could really enslave an eighth-tier dominion, maybe I could finally pull off that plan…’

That thought made Song Chi’s eyes light up. A whole new scheme started forming in his mind.

After Song Chi finished up, the other Seven Towers members all claimed their rewards too and returned to their corresponding towers, ready to teleport back to their own Star Towers.

As Song Chi began handling the warp process aboard his battleship, the Greedwolf Hall Master suddenly called out to him.

“Jingzhe, wait up!”

Within twenty minutes, the Starlight Main Hall was empty except for the Heavenly Ruin and Shaking Radiance Star warships. Only then did the Greedwolf Hall Master speak again.

“Jingzhe, with your astonishing performance this time, the main hall masters discussed and agreed to give you an additional special reward…”

As he spoke, he waved his hand.

Inside the Heavenly Ruin, Song Chi saw a burst of starry light flash before his eyes. The next second, an irresistible force snatched him out of nowhere.

No—more precisely, it seized his entire ship.

The world spun wildly. After a dizzying whirl, Song Chi found himself in a completely unfamiliar place.

He stood inside a world painted entirely in blood—sky, land, grass, trees, even the air itself was soaked in endless crimson.

As soon as he arrived, a deep sense of revulsion arose from within. The world rejected him on every level—he felt utterly out of place, the odd one out here.

Scanning his surroundings in confusion, Song Chi quickly focused on the Shaking Radiance Star nearby. The Greedwolf Hall Master had been brought here too.

“Hall Master, what is this place?”

The Greedwolf Hall Master hesitated a few moments before replying with just six words:

“Heaven-rank Chaos Nest.”

“Chaos Nest? Heaven-rank?”

Those words, coming out of nowhere, only deepened Song Chi’s bewilderment. But the Greedwolf Hall Master gave no further explanation.

“I can see your flagship’s embarking on its evolution quest. Once you’ve upgraded to a Star-Annihilator-class, everything will become clear. For now, you have only one goal—kill as many hostile entities as possible. The more you destroy, the greater your rewards will be!”

“Wait, what kind of en–”

He was about to ask more, but a sudden surge of blood mist boiled up across the sky and ground, cutting him off.

“They’re coming!”

He barely heard the Greedwolf Hall Master’s final shout, but when he glanced over, the Shaking Radiance Star had vanished.

Song Chi didn’t have time to worry about that, anyway—the massive aura surging from the blood mist ahead set his heart pounding.

From the corner of his eye he checked the Eyes of Heaven radar. What he saw left him short of breath.

‘Over a hundred thousand life signatures, all Tier Four or higher. Over ten thousand Tier Five, over a thousand Tier Six, dozens of Tier Seven…and life energy in the blood mist is still increasing. What the hell is this place…’

Before Song Chi could react, tens of thousands of unknown creatures shot from the depths of the blood mist in a blur of bloody shadows.

‘Crimson skin, bat wings on their backs—just what kind of monsters are these?’

Thanks to his Dual Pupils’ powerful tracking, he got a clear look at the bloody shadows. But neither his memory nor the ship’s entire database held any mention of such creatures—not even anything like them.

Countless questions flashed through his mind, only to be pushed aside. No matter where this was, or what those things were, there was only one thing to do—fight.

The beings bursting from the blood mist weren’t just powerful—their hostility blazed openly, every single one diving straight for the Heavenly Ruin.

Sky-Domain AI System: ‘Heavensfall Sky-Domain Autonomous System,’ activate!

Song Chi reacted instantly. Before the streaking bloody shadows could get too close, he quickly triggered his battleship’s special abilities.

What surprised him was that the first system he activated was a feature he hadn’t used in centuries—the Heavensfall Sky-Domain Autonomous System. Handing off all control of the Heavenly Ruin to the Sky-Domain AI meant he was taking no chances.

Clearly, this unknown world and its alien monsters left him feeling anything but safe.

Song Chi never risked his real body where things spiraled out of his grasp.

A wise man’s children don’t sit in unsteady halls.

He understood that principle by heart.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

With the Sky-Domain AI in charge, the Heavenly Ruin’s thousands of cannons opened fire as one. Energy blasts roared—the blood-red world was instantly consumed by a sea of flames.

But while the ship’s barrage looked fierce, most of the fire came from secondary cannons—their power was limited.

As seconds passed, it became clear—the wave after wave of bloody shadows kept closing the gap, drifting inexorably nearer.

He knew once those things drew close, the Heavenly Ruin would face real danger.

Song Chi paid little attention to the outside chaos. His focus turned inward: channeling dark energy, he funneled it toward his brow.

With dark energy surging into the Torch Ancestral Orifice, the Market Token inside was triggered.

Wommm…

Ripples of space pulsed around him. Song Chi thought he was about to transfer into the Omniverse Market, but what happened next completely blindsided him.

“No way… How can the Market transfer fail…”

After a faint ripple, he was still there—hadn’t left at all.

Thinking maybe the token hadn’t activated fully, Song Chi poured in another surge of dark energy.

But when nothing changed, his face darkened—still no effect.

A one-time failure might have been random, but two in a row couldn’t be coincidence.

He was now sure—the Market Token had been disabled.

This was a first for him. Of course he got nervous, but after a brief moment of confusion, Song Chi calmed himself down. Panic wouldn’t help; it’d only get him killed faster.

‘The only thing that could block the Omniverse Market is some manner of authority. The Ninth-Tier Demon Serpent Floating-Land and even the Immortal Continent Ruins on the Star Continent never blocked it—so is this place an even higher-level Sea of Stars Floating-Land?’

‘Then again, maybe it’s inside a super oddity. A prismatic-tier oddity? Or could it be a spatial artifact belonging to the Beidou Sevenstar Hall itself?’

‘Whatever. Thinking about it now won’t help. If I can’t enter the Omniverse Market, then all I can do is fight these unknown monsters. The Greedwolf Hall Master did say as much…’