Chapter 716: Raid on the Sacred City

Samsara Time Domain—a technique Song Chi once considered his trump card—had, thanks to its golden sanctuary quality, now fallen into mediocrity.

Still, as an eighth-tier ability, it could hold its own. Against several incoming eighth-tier attacks from below, it managed to make a difference.

Although it promised tenfold time acceleration at its peak, right now it only achieved less than three times slowdown—but that was enough. The final apocalyptic tribulation lightning struck the weakened City Shield first.

After a deafening roar, the City Shield shattered, revealing the Sacred City below in all its defenseless glory.

But before entering, Song Chi needed to deal with the three eighth-tier Truth Mechanica Behemoths still roaming the city.

Determined to waste no time, he coordinated his Omniverse Market Projections, the Ashura Emperor, the Black Devourer King Beast, and even Heavenly Ruin itself for a simultaneous assault.

Bolstered by the Truth Floating-Land’s origin will, the three behemoths proved tough opponents, delaying Song Chi for nearly two hours. He had to burn through three Silver Oddities and summon four Market Projections before finally taking them down.

The only good news: the Father of Truth didn’t return as fast as expected. With all three mechanica behemoths destroyed, Heavenly Ruin finally breached the Sacred City’s interior.

Unlike the southern City 101, Sacred City held just two seventh-tier Truth Mechanica Behemoth production lines—both positioned right beside the treasury vault, letting Song Chi split his attention quickly.

As Heavenly Ruin landed, its hatch opened. The Dominator-class Abyssal Devil, recently recalled via Market, reappeared, leading a swarm of Doomstar Race slaves to one of the three seventh-tier production lines.

A single seventh-tier assembly line produced far more machinery than a sixth-tier. Since the Father of Truth’s return was uncertain, Song Chi aimed to dismantle an entire line—snag more only if time allowed.

As for himself, his eyes turned to the treasury vault.

It was the premier treasure trove under a top civilization—temptation beyond words.

But gaining entry wasn’t easy. Outside the vault, a formidable energy shield crackled with power. With Starlight Flash Spirit Shift still recharging, brute force was the only entry strategy.

Without hesitation, Song Chi spent another Silver Oddity to fully charge the Market Projection Token in hand, then summoned another Omniverse Market Projection.

Decades of secret hoarding had caused the market’s exchange tally of Silver Oddities to skyrocket—now topping two hundred—and Song Chi didn’t need to hold back.

No matter how sturdy the vault’s outer shield, it couldn’t compare with the City Shield. After less than two minutes of relentless half-step ninth-tier attacks from the Projection, the barrier collapsed.

With the shield gone, Heavenly Ruin surged into the treasury vault at last.

Song Chi’s eyes lit up. After seeing countless high-tier Starsea Oddities and rare resources, even he couldn’t help but be astonished by this vault’s contents.

Unlike vaults in advanced mechanical cities or City 101’s own treasury, everything here was meticulously organized. Starsea Oddities, ores, floating-land treasures—they were all sorted to perfection.

His first glance inside landed on an area brimming with rare spirit treasures.

“Saintspirit Peach”

“Scarletblood Ginseng”

“Chilong Nine Li Wood”

“Hundred-Thousand-Year Earth Essence Crystal”

“Maternal Terra Aura”

“Ultimate Nethercold Spring”

……

Just the dozen-odd treasures Song Chi recognized would stir envy even among Starsea Overlords.

The Saintspirit Peach alone surpassed the Jade-Blood Peach growing in Heavenly Ruin’s Cultivation Sanctuary by a hundredfold, enhancing his seventh-tier Guiding Technique with ease.

Scarletblood Ginseng worked wonders for beings taking the flesh-empowerment or Law of Perception path.

Hundred-Thousand-Year Earth Essence Crystal—prime for evolving the life foundation of bloodline creatures. The Song Family once found one, and the Prime Ancestor used it to break Guiding Technique into the seventh tier.

Maternal Terra Aura dramatically advanced mastery of Earth Law, its value beyond words.

Ultimate Nethercold Spring, a divine water for mastering Water Laws—it fused into a body, granting every attack extreme cold characteristics and significantly boosting combat power.

But Song Chi prized the Saintspirit Peach most. His Guiding Technique had slowed around level 73, while further breakthroughs only got harder—this was the perfect boost.

There were twelve Saintspirit Peaches, and he took every last one.

He didn’t stop there; all the other rare materials were swept into his battleship.

Next up was the minerals vault. And at the very top sat over ten thousand tons of Truth III Alloy.

Truth III Alloy—essential for crafting eighth-tier Mechanica Behemoths—boasted terrifying strength at its tier and was worth a fortune.

Song Chi then found over a hundred tons of even rarer Truth IV Alloy, likely tied to ninth-tier Mechanica Behemoths, but it was in much shorter supply.

He hauled both types of priceless master alloys to the Market, then let his gaze sweep the vast resource zone for more.

A moment later, a new spark of excitement flashed in his eyes.

This thrill left the Saintspirit Peach in the dust.

“Dragonblood Gold! This is the very component I’ll need when converting a Star-Annihilator-class vessel to a Star River-class!”

He stored the Dragonblood Gold with care. Though there were billions of tons of quality ores here, Song Chi only released three Void Shadow Assassin Warriors imprinted with his brainwaves, handing each a Market Projection Token. They began hauling resources on their own.

As for himself, he piloted the warship to the Starsea Oddity section.

The vault was stuffed with Oddities—Song Chi estimated at least a six-digit count. The entire section shimmered with color, truly a feast for the eyes.

Even more impressive, there wasn’t a single White-ranked Oddity; the lowest quality on display was Blue, Purple, Orange, or Red—together over 30,000 pieces. Beyond that, there were over a hundred Silver Oddities, thirty-two Gold, and even six Black Oddities.

Unfortunately, not even the Father of Truth’s stronghold held a Legendary Myth-Grade Oddity.

Still, Song Chi suspected the Truth Floating-Land’s origin core below might be fused with a legendary mythic relic.

But that core was guarded by close to a dozen eighth-tier Mechanica Behemoths. Although he’d tried to investigate before, the timing was never right.

Last time with the Blackfang Clan, he’d tried to seize their clan-treasured Oddity, but most of their eighth-tier Serpent Demon elders had separated it in advance for the battlefield. If he could reach the core this time, snagging a mythic relic would massively empower his whole family.

But right now wasn’t the moment.

Treasures still filled the Sacred City, and three seventh-tier production lines remained to be stripped—

Song Chi was sweeping up tens of thousands of Oddities at top speed when suddenly the Abyssal Devil called out to him in his mind.

This summons was incredibly urgent—the first time the Abyssal Devil had acted so flustered since reaching the seventh tier. Sensing it must be dire, Song Chi didn’t hesitate. After gathering the rest of the Oddities, he set Heavenly Ruin for the vault exit.

He didn’t recall the Void Shadow Assassin Warriors, letting them direct enslaved creatures to continue collecting minerals.

Outside the treasury, guided by the Abyssal Devil, Heavenly Ruin sped into one of the three massive mechanical assembly bases.

Just as he thought, these housed the three seven-tier production lines.

But what truly concerned the Abyssal Devil wasn’t the production lines themselves. As Song Chi moved into the alloy base depths, he saw his subordinate guarding a giant, pitch-black tunnel.

This tunnel sloped steeply downward, leading beneath the Sacred City. The Abyssal Devil, standing guard, pointed directly inside—clearly, the danger lay within.

Or rather, in the secret hidden deeper within the tunnel.

The devil explained he’d already sent in two sixth-tier Doomstar warriors, but both had quickly gone silent. Sketchy feedback hinted at an eighth-tier Mechanica Behemoth lurking deep inside.

Song Chi didn’t call out the Ashura Emperor or Black Devourer King Beast. Instead, he summoned another Market Projection.

Bathed in Purple Mist’s glow, Heavenly Ruin carefully advanced down into the black tunnel.

Ashura Emperor and the eighth-tier Black Devourer King Beast were strong, but Market Projection was far superior. With no idea what awaited below, Song Chi saw no reason to skimp on another Silver Oddity.

The tunnel pulsed with powerful disruptive waves—even the Eyes of Heaven struggled to scan through, leaving Song Chi mostly blind.

That made his decision for another Market Projection easy: intense interference, confirmed eighth-tier threat, and his own instincts all screamed this place hid a huge secret.

Time ticked by as Heavenly Ruin pressed deeper.

Although nothing dangerous came, Song Chi still kept summoning fresh Market Projections.

Just as each projection expired, he’d activate a new Market Projection Token. After five in a row, Heavenly Ruin reached the tunnel’s very end.

The tunnel’s gloom vanished. Bursting from the darkness, Heavenly Ruin emerged in a sprawling, dazzlingly bright underground factory.

At first, Song Chi thought he’d found the only mass-production line for eighth-tier behemoths. But as his gaze swept to the far end, his heart skipped a beat.

Completely different from what he’d expected, he saw countless Mechanica dismantling a colossal, metallic sphere deep in the factory.

The sheer scale defied belief—the orb’s diameter dwarfed even million-kilometer-long eighth-tier Star Behemoths by dozens of times.

Imagine a sphere tens of millions of kilometers across, constructed entirely from superalloy—the shock was indescribable.

No matter the angle, it reminded Song Chi uncannily of the Torch Human Civilization’s Mobile Battle Star, but bigger, tougher, and more oppressive in every respect.

A wild idea suddenly flashed in his mind.

Ninth-Tier Combat Unit—Mechanical Fortress or Battle Star.

No matter how you looked at it, there was no way this mechanical monstrosity should be mistaken for an eighth-tier unit.

That diameter, nearly a hundred million kilometers. The surface, shining with Truth IV Alloy. A terrifying supercannon mounted right at the front—everything here screamed: a true ninth-tier war-machine, not eighth.

A thousand thoughts raced through Song Chi’s mind.

The more he considered, the more convinced he became.

Based on everything he’d learned, it’d been two hundred thousand years since the Father of Truth made the ninth-tiers Despot, Cataclysm, and Chihu.

The endless war with the Starsea Giant Ape Civilization had drained Truth Mechanicus for over a hundred thousand years… but with two hundred millennia, building a fourth ninth-tier in secret was completely believable.

Everything fit. Song Chi’s theory held up.

His thoughts flickered rapid-fire—yet all of this took only a moment. He quickly regained composure.

“Neutron-Star Core Armor: High-Energy Particle Storm!”

With this ability triggered, torrents of high-energy particles erupted from Heavenly Ruin, spreading through the underground space at blistering speed.

Each stream ripped with wild energy, paired with magnetic fields—a nightmare for silicon-based Mechanica.

In seconds, the Mechanicas frantically trying to dismantle the Battle Star went eerily still, frozen mid-action.

Taking advantage, Song Chi released all unsummoned slaves from the battleship, then called in the Abyssal Devil to bring the rest of the Doomstar Race laborers who’d been stripping production lines.

An eighty-percent complete ninth-tier Battle Star—worth far more than three seventh-tier lines combined. Thanks to his workforce, one full seventh-tier production line had already been packed and delivered to the Omniverse Market.

At his command, his army of slaves surged into the underground factory, eliminating every Mechanica in sight. The High-Energy Particle Storm wouldn’t last forever—so the faster they cleared hostiles, the sooner they could start stripping the Battle Star itself.

Only thanks to sheer numbers—and two eighth-tier enslaved creatures—did they manage to wipe out the tens of thousands of Mechanica, including an eighth-tier behemoth, before the storm ended.

With the foes gone, Song Chi’s army began dismantling the unfinished Battle Star at full speed.

Yet Song Chi deliberately withheld the Ashura Emperor and Black Devourer King Beast, calling them back to Heavenly Ruin the moment the Particle Storm ended.

‘If I’m right, and this really is the Father of Truth’s fourth ninth-tier, then he’ll stop at nothing to get here…’

‘As a last-resort trump card against the Starsea Giant Ape Civilization, this Battle Star matters more than the entire Floating-Land.’

With those thoughts, he closed his eyes to rest. If a final showdown was coming soon, both Heavenly Ruin and his mind needed to recover to their peak.

……

Meanwhile, deep within a great pit somewhere on the Floating-Land…

A space close to the core, filled by a Floating-land Origin Core the size of a Star-Annihilator-class ship, glistened with streaks of tricolored light.

More than a dozen eighth-tier Mechanica Behemoths guarded the core, leaving no gap in their defense.

Suddenly, the Origin Core’s glow intensified and the core chamber rippled with spatial disturbances.

In response, the defending behemoths fanned out. Seconds later, a mechanical figure over a hundred million kilometers tall materialized at the center.

“True Father!”

As the titans uttered this mechanical title, the towering newcomer gave a slight nod.

But soon, a crimson beam shot from its head and a chilling voice echoed throughout the core.

“All evil shall stand trial before Truth. Return with me to the Sacred City—let us destroy the invader once and for all!”

“As you command, True Father!”

……

Boom!

Song Chi’s eyes snapped open aboard the silently hovering Heavenly Ruin. He’d heard it—a distant roar from above, reinforced by reports from his Terracotta Warriors outside. The Father of Truth had returned.

No use hiding now. Heavenly Ruin’s engines thundered as Song Chi tore straight up the tunnel to the surface.

Bursting from the production plant, Song Chi saw looming shapes overhead—dozens darkening the sky.

He ignored the thirteen eighth-tiers—his focus locked squarely on the gigantic machine at their center.

Beep-beep-beep!

Before he could speak, the Sky-Domain AI buzzed with an incoming communication request.

Song Chi did not answer.

He remembered the mission that had brought him here.

A top-tier detection-type Oddity. Although he hadn’t fully grasped the Rainbow-ranked Eye of Truth, he knew his own Timepiece Chessboard’s strength inside and out.

If he answered now, even with Heavenly Ruin’s absolute internal and external isolation, the Eye of Truth might expose every secret aboard.

He wasn’t about to underestimate a rainbow-tiered detection Oddity’s threat.

Let’s not forget: the Truth Mechanicus Civilization had survived on the brink for millennia—so what let them hang on this long?

How had the Starsea Giant Ape Civilization failed to crush them with their momentum?

Simple: because the Father of Truth constantly held the front—but more importantly, the Eye of Truth let him monitor every movement the apes made. Only this advantage kept them alive.

Even if that’s not the whole story, the Eye of Truth was obviously key. Song Chi refused to let the enemy get even the tiniest opening.

But ignoring the comms didn’t stop the Father of Truth.

The towering titan stopped calling. Instead, he spoke aloud. His mechanical voice boomed across the city.

“Star-Annihilator-class Captain of the Torch Human Civilization…”

The first words alone made Song Chi’s heart skip a beat.

It wasn’t hard to tell—the Father of Truth understood far more about the Torch Human Civilization than Song Chi expected. Not only did he immediately recognize Heavenly Ruin’s origin, but he also knew its place in the Torch Kingdom’s fleet hierarchy.

But that shock faded quickly. Song Chi reminded himself: the Torch Human Civilization was no nobody. Among the pinnacle societies of the Shattered Sea of Stars, they were widely regarded as a civilization just half a step away from true overlord status—unlike Truth Mechanicus, which didn’t even come close.