Chapter 720: Bargains Among the Stars: The Exchange for Golden Apples

Even an Ashura Emperor couldn’t fully grasp the specifics of the ‘Information Digitization’ trait, so Song Chi tried it out on several targets, himself included.

[Name: Song Chi]

[Rank: Seventh-Tier]

[Current Status: Mental Exhaustion 32%]

[HP: 100%/100%]

[Innate Abilities: Black Torch Seed, Dual Pupils, Seventh-Tier Mist Cultivation Bonus, Dragon Whale’s Wrath, Starlight Descent, Dragon Whale Form, Deathstar Descent…]

[Biological Weaknesses: Physically frail, relies on external Torch Battleships as main combat method…]

He also checked others, like the Clan Elder and a few more.

[Name: Song Wujian]

[Rank: Seventh-Tier]

[Current Status: Mental Exhaustion 18%]

[HP: 100%/100%]

[Innate Abilities: Golden Torch Seed, Dual Pupils, Seventh-Tier Mist Cultivation Bonus, Dragon Whale Form, Deathstar Descent…]

[Favor Score: 95]

[Biological Weaknesses: Physically frail, relies on external Torch Battleships as main combat method…]

…

[Name: Song Yan]

…

[Innate Abilities: Flame God Body, Black Torch Seed, Dual Pupils, Seventh-Tier Mist Cultivation Bonus, Dragon Whale’s Wrath…]

[Favor Score: 93]

…

After going through all these checks, Song Chi had a pretty good idea just how terrifying the ‘Eye of Truth’ could be.

Any creature whose rank wasn’t higher than the Eye’s strengthened rank could have most of their stats displayed on the radar. Add in the ability to read favor, and its everyday usefulness was just unbeatable.

Take that ‘Good‑Evil Appraisal’ trait on the ‘Star-Annihilator-class Ship Certificate’ still loaded on the White Snow Qingyou. It’s helpful, but it only works on beings who board the ship. Compared to that, this ‘Favor Detection’ is downright scary.

As long as someone had interacted with Song Chi before, he could instantly see their favor score as a number. That alone could keep him out of a lot of trouble going forward.

Torch Battleships were individually strong, but in the endless Sea of Stars, they paled in comparison to what the dominant civilizations could field, so outside help was inevitable. With the Eye of Truth, Song Chi—or even his whole family—could handpick the best partners.

After this round of tests, he finally understood how this favor system worked.

People like Song Wujian, Shen Youran, Song Shiyuan, and Song Yan all had favor scores over 90—trusted enough that you wouldn’t hesitate to put your life in their hands.

The 80–90 range covered most of the Song Family’s higher-ups and some core third- or second-tier clansmen—these were people you could trust completely.

Those in the 60–80 range were among the ten thousand or so elite clansmen—this was a group with strong positive feelings, safe to trust.

Scores from 30 to 60 meant goodwill was there, but only to the point of being friendly—fine as long as major interests weren’t involved.

A score from 1 to 30 meant someone was basically a stranger; if profit called, they’d betray you without hesitation.

Anyone at -1 to -100 was the complete opposite. If their score dropped below -90, you could bet they’d consider you a mortal enemy and would seize any chance to destroy you.

–

The -80 to -90 range was likewise reserved for those with deep grudges.

…

After finishing his research on ‘Favor Detection,’ Song Chi turned to the ‘Mythic Coordinates’ trait. This was, without doubt, the key function of the Eye of Truth.

Not wanting to wait, he spent five million Eon Energy Points to activate it.

A set of coordinates suddenly appeared on the radar.

(212420, 263598, 457828)

These coordinates looked like they were on the radar, but they didn’t line up with any known spot. It was obvious this point wasn’t even within the Eye of Truth’s scan range, but somewhere completely unknown.

Thinking it over, Song Chi opened an encrypted group chat.

“Clan Elder, see if the High-Dimensional Wormhole Generator can connect to these coordinates.”

He sent the location to Song Wujian, who replied not long after.

Watching Song Wujian shake his head in the communications feed, Song Chi silently sighed—he had expected this.

Still, even with his mental prep, he felt a pang of disappointment.

The level-80 High-Dimensional Wormhole Generator could link over a staggering 1.2 trillion light-years, yet it still couldn’t reach these coordinates. The distance to this place from Truth Floating-Land had to be beyond imagination.

Unwilling to let it go, Song Chi and the elder made another run to the Dragon‑Spine Continent, trying again within the Torch Human Civilization’s territory.

The Torch Human Galaxy Cluster was already tens of trillions of light-years from the Truth Mechanicus Civilization. Even a 1.2 trillion light-year radius left huge areas of the Star Domain untouched.

But the result didn’t change. The Eye’s coordinates stayed out of reach.

After that, they headed to the Red Star Continent and the Immortal Continent Ruins—again, they found nothing.

The Sea of Stars was just too vast. Even 2.4 trillion light-years was a drop in the ocean.

With nothing else to try, Song Chi accepted defeat and saved the coordinates for later. It just wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

He refocused on a question he’d had in mind for some time now.

Based on earlier guesses, once the Sky-Domain AI fully devoured the Truth AI, the Father of Truth would be considered completely dead.

But if he wanted to extract the Ninth-Tier fate energy from it, the current Blood Chalice didn’t seem up to the task.

The Miracle Clone Pod was black-tier, but the Blood Chalice itself was only gold-tier. Even if cloned, it would only keep the original grade—the clone pod’s tier didn’t affect that at all.

When they first acquired the Blood Chalice, the Song Family had put it through plenty of tests. They eventually confirmed that even at level 80, the gold Blood Chalice could only hold up to eighth-tier sacred blood.

So Song Chi’s choices came down to two paths.

Either give up on collecting that Ninth-Tier fate from the Father of Truth—

Or upgrade the Blood Chalice to a higher quality before the Sky-Domain AI finished the devouring.

Encrypted chat buzzed to life across the four Star-Annihilator-class Ships as everyone weighed in.

Song Yan messaged, “Brother Chi, didn’t you use some ability to seal time completely? Could you use it on the AI?”

Song Chi knew exactly what Song Yan meant—the ‘Flow of Time • Prison’ trait he’d used to lock away that seventh-tier Black Devourer King Beast back at the mini black hole. But not only had the Timepiece Chessboard’s time chess pieces never fully recovered, he’d burned through 216 more just to build the ‘Time • Chessboard.’ Now, his supply was nearly gone.

Even removing system parts might mess up the Sky-Domain AI’s fusion, so that solution was out.

‘Flow of Time • Prison’ couldn’t be used on a loaded AI system; and if detaching it caused AI fusion to fail, the loss would be huge—just unimaginable.

The Truth AI carried the full production schematics of the Mechanica Behemoth and the accumulated tech knowledge of the Truth Mechanicus Civilization over hundreds of thousands of years. It even had the last 20% of blueprints for building the Battle Star—its value was off the charts.

Seeing Song Chi firmly reject the idea, everyone in the group chat started brainstorming other ways.

But every suggestion circled back to those elusive Ninth-Tier Golden Apples.

And that was the crux of the issue—Ninth-Tier Golden Apples were so rare that even the Immortal Qin Divine Dynasty, working together, had only managed to leave a handful in their war vault.

And what did the Black Upgraded Fire Source mean?

It was worth as much as half a tricolored lower-tier relic.

When it became clear that nothing definitive would come from the discussion, Song Chi turned his attention to the Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar loaded on his flagship.

If he used this, any problem would be solved with ease.

But the Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar was a one-use component—he really didn’t want to waste it on just a gold-tier relic.

For that reason, Song Chi had always reserved the Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar for just two pieces.

Mirror Image Split and Miracle Clone Pod.

If Mirror Image Split evolved from black to tricolored lower-tier, every mirror warship summon could duplicate even high-tier tricolored relics. There was no need to say how amazing that would be.

By then, the Timepiece Chessboard and Eye of Truth would both be copyable. The mirror warships would reach game-breaking levels of power.

Once the Miracle Clone Pod upgraded to tricolored lower-tier quality, it could freely clone anything up to that tier, and the number of relics kept per clone template would increase as well—making each part even more valuable.

Thinking all this over, Song Chi truly couldn’t decide.

If he missed out on Ninth-Tier fate, there was little hope of getting another chance before he evolved his ship to Star River‑class. Even burning another use of the Nine Lives Game of Life and Death might not guarantee another ninth-tier kill.

The Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar was even rarer. It was like a tenth-tier mythic Golden Apple—if ninth-tier ones were nearly impossible to find, tenth-tier ones were basically legendary.

‘Maybe I should ask in the Yaoguang Star Order Group Chat or Beidou Main Hall group?’

But even as the idea flickered through his mind, Song Chi shook his head.

Whenever the Star Order Group Chat came to mind, he’d see the image of Whitebrow—of everyone there, only Whitebrow had any real chance of digging up a Ninth-Tier Golden Apple.

But Song Chi was done bothering him.

Once or twice, you can still play on good relations and shamelessly reach out, but if you went to him for every little thing, that crossed a line.

Even if Whitebrow himself didn’t care, Song Chi couldn’t bring himself to overstep that boundary.

“Let’s do this—for now, I’ll slow time inside the Heavenly Ruin as much as possible. Clan Elder, everyone, see if you can gather any info about a Ninth-Tier Golden Apple. If we get something, we’ll try trading for it…”

“That’s the only way!”

Song Wujian and the others could hear the comfort in Song Chi’s tone, but no one had a better plan.

The Song Family’s foundation had just about caught up with the top seventh-tier Immortal Houses, but they were still far from becoming true powerhouses.

Even among the powerful Immortal Houses, Ninth-Tier Golden Apples were rare. Only the very top could possibly have them.

…

Afterward, Song Chi left a new Omniverse Teleportation Platform on Truth Floating-Land, then returned to Dragon‑Spine Continent.

Deep beneath Dragon‑Spine, the Heavenly Ruin floated in silence. Inside, a small illusory five-colored chessboard hung above the warship’s bridge.

This five-colored chessboard was formed of 72 time chess pieces, slowing time inside by a factor of one hundred.

With that, Song Chi aimed to buy as much time as possible for the Sky-Domain AI’s fusion.

Meanwhile, the Song Family’s Star-Annihilator-class Captains began a high-profile campaign to buy up Ninth-Tier Golden Apples.

The rewards on offer weren’t limited to Eighth-Tier Dominion Origin Blood, Sixth-Tier Timeworld Fruit, or even Eighth-Tier Golden Apples—they even included a legendary tricolored myth-grade relic.

[Oddity: Master of Machines]

[Quality: Tricolored/Lower-Tier]

[Transformable: None]

[Effects: {Mechanical Dominion} {Mecha Transmission} {Heart of Mechs} {Mechanical Armor} {Mecha Communications} {City of Living Machines}]

[Note: The last and finest relic of a machine civilization in the Multiverse era—a huge boost for any technology-based civilization.]

This mythic relic was something the Song Family had extracted from the Floating-land Origin Core on Truth Floating-Land.

It was truly a Machina Race artifact, able to give their race special armor to reduce energy damage and boost the odds of creating powerful AIs.

It also came bundled with functions like interstellar teleportation and combat power enhancements.

But for the Song Family—or any Torch Human civilization, who strictly suppressed the development of AI—it was little more than a white elephant.

So Song Wujian decided to use it as a draw, hoping to attract some real heavy hitters.

That way, the odds of finding a Ninth-Tier Golden Apple would go up.

Song Wujian’s call proved smart. As soon as word spread about the tricolored mythic relic, the Chipan Galaxy was bustling.

Within a short time, Torch Battleships piloted by members of elite Immortal Houses started streaming into the Chipan Galaxy.

But the bad news—most of the Captains, as soon as they saw the relic’s attributes, just shook their heads and left. It was clear they saw it as a dud.

Anticipating this, Song Wujian and the others didn’t give up—instead, they proactively listed the Master of Machines on the Omniverse Market’s Oddities Exchange.

The relic’s appearance ramped up the Market’s activity. Delegates from the Witcher Civilization, Sky Mecha City, Komoyin Serpent Sorcerer Family, Divine Realm’s Half-Rat Lords, Crescent Moon Matriarch, Ancient Dwarf leaders—all sorts of rulers turned up. But just the same, none showed real interest.

The only ones mildly curious were a group from Sky Mecha City led by Brook Benjamin—these tech wizards were famous in the Witcher Civilization, but maybe they lacked the resources. After a few trade fairs, they too faded from the scene.

That was when Dragon‑Spine Continent received a new group of visitors.

Spaceport, hanging above Dragon‑Spine’s surface.

At the spaceport’s center, Song Wujian and Song Yan stood respectfully with cupped hands.

“Song Wujian (Song Yan) of Dragon‑Spine welcomes the distinguished guest! On behalf of the Song Family, we’re honored by your arrival!”

Facing them was a middle-aged man with a constant friendly smile.

He might have looked harmless, but the faint dark energy pulsing from within him made Song Wujian and Song Yan feel like they faced a primordial beast.

He wasn’t just an eighth-tier, Star River-class Captain—his background was astonishing. He was a real power-holder at Xian Qin Heavy Industries: Director Zhang Tai.

“Director Zhang, is your visit to Dragon‑Spine for the Master of Machines?”

After some quick pleasantries, Song Wujian cut to the chase.

At the mention of ‘Master of Machines,’ the man’s easy smile sharpened.

He nodded. “Patriarch Wujian, I’m here on behalf of Xian Qin Heavy Industries. May I review the full details of this relic?”

Song Family had only presented a summary so far, but Zhang clearly wanted the whole rundown.

If an ordinary Torch Captain had asked, Song Wujian might have hesitated. But a Star River-class Captain from Xian Qin Heavy Industries was a different story.

Put simply, this guy was their best shot for a deal.

“Of course. Take a look!”

With a wave, Song Wujian revealed the detailed stats of the Master of Machines right there in the secure room.

Zhang Tai’s face didn’t change as he scanned each specialized effect—moving quickly but carefully.

Nobody said a word for several minutes. The room was dead silent.

Then Zhang finally spoke. “How about two Ninth-Tier Golden Apples?”

To be honest, only someone at the highest levels could cut straight to the chase like this. Zhang didn’t lowball them with a starting offer—he went straight for the established price for a tricolored lower-tier relic.

When Song Wujian and Song Yan heard ‘two Ninth-Tier Golden Apples,’ they locked eyes, each seeing satisfaction in the other’s gaze.

For two Ninth-Tier Golden Apples—the going rate for a relic that could be transformed into a warship part—who wouldn’t be happy?

But just as Song Wujian got ready to accept, a thunderous rumble shook the outside.

The sudden disruption cut him off.

Across from them, Zhang Tai’s eyes flashed with something unreadable.

He hid it well, and since neither Song Wujian nor Song Yan had dared to use their Dual Pupils in front of a Star River-class Captain, neither of them noticed.

They left the room—and all three faces changed instantly. Floating above the spaceport was a brand-new Star River-class Battleship.

But what stood out was this new ship didn’t have the mechanical cube insignia of Zhang’s vessel, but rather displayed the image of seven towers encircling a hall.

That symbol carried huge weight in Immortal Qin—arguably even more than Xian Qin Heavy Industries.

Recognizing the second battleship, Song Wujian and Song Yan broke into big, genuine smiles.

This time, their grins weren’t just polite—they were truly delighted.

And for good reason.

Song Chi was a freshly appointed member of the Beidou Sevenstar Hall, and for the Song Family, those ties were far closer.

This time, it was the Hallmaster of the Destruction Hall who’d come. Not quite as strong as the Greedwolf Hall Master, but with Greedwolf posted at the front lines, the duty of overseeing the headquarters fell to Destruction.

“Where’s that kid Song Chi? Director Zhang of Xian Qin Heavy Industries comes personally and he doesn’t even show? He’s getting bolder by the day. Zhang, my friend, forgive him. Our hall will set him straight!”

It sounded like a scolding, but it was really a subtle way of marking territory. After his words, the Destruction Hallmaster nodded at Zhang Tai.

Zhang Tai just smiled and shook his head, evidently used to these undercurrents.

It was no secret Song Chi belonged to Beidou Sevenstar Hall now. Zhang was just trying to get a jump on things. Now that the Hallmaster rushed over, it would come down to who’d pay more.

Feigning ignorance of any rivalry, Song Wujian quickly explained:

“My lord, Xiaochi’s in a special situation and can’t greet you himself. Please forgive us!”

The Destruction Hallmaster waved it off—it wasn’t a big deal.

He only brought it up to jab at Zhang Tai. No need to actually get worked up.

He took his time, studying the Master of Machines just as closely as Zhang Tai had.

When he finished, his eyes flashed rapidly, and he asked in a deep voice,

“Could you tell me exactly where this relic comes from?”

There was command in his tone—this was no mere curiosity.

Song Wujian understood right away. He glanced at Zhang Tai, weighing his response.

The Destruction Hallmaster waved him off.

“Go ahead—just lay it all out!”

At that, Song Wujian explained the full backstory of the Truth Mechanicus Civilization and the relic’s origin.

After hearing it all, the two Star River-class Captains were clearly impressed.

“A ninth-tier life floating-land, two advanced civilizations, a Star Domain not yet unified…”