Chapter 459: Upgrades, Alliances, and the Standoff at Tianpan Galaxy
by xennovelAside from that, the number of shops in the Market shot up from 1,200 to 2,200. The extra thousand are still those Market Consignment Shops.
But honestly, those Consignment Shops aren’t all that valuable now. With the Divine Realm Player Trading Space available, it’s flat-out better and more convenient than either the Consignment Shops or the Shop Deeds.
Song Chi didn’t bother with it. He made his way straight to the inner area of the Market, stopping in front of a newly appeared stone platform.
Focusing his attention, the platform’s properties quickly surfaced before his eyes.
【Name: Oddity Essence Refinement Platform】
【Grade: Zero】
【Effect 1: Feed any quality Oddity into the Refinement Platform and consume a set amount of Eyn points to convert it into a corresponding Oddity Essence. (Unupgraded—currently unavailable)】
【Effect 2: Consume one Oddity Essence of any quality to extract a specific trait from a higher-grade Oddity or Ship Component, turning it into a trait entry. (Unupgraded—currently unavailable)】
【Effect 3: Use an Oddity Essence of any quality to merge a trait entry into a higher-grade Oddity or Ship Component, swapping out a target trait as desired. (Unupgraded—currently unavailable)】
【Effect 4: Fuse ten Oddity Essences of the same quality into one Oddity Essence of the next grade up. (Unupgraded—currently unavailable)】
【Notes: A special synthesis platform crafted by an ancient powerhouse from the Immortal Realm Civilization of the Sea of Stars. It allows for refinement and customization of Starsea Oddities at will.】
【Upgrade Requirements: Market Level 10+, 1,000 wisps of Floating-Land Origin (Zero Grade)】
After reading through the property panel, Song Chi paused, taking a deep breath. From the detailed introduction, this brand-new Oddity Essence Refinement Platform was a top-tier feature. But to accurately gauge its true worth, he needed to upgrade it and see what its Oddity refinement cap really was.
If it was limited only to white, blue, or purple Oddities, well, the value would be so-so. But if it worked for red, silver, and gold Oddities as well, then we’re talking limitless potential.
With over ten thousand wisps of zero-grade Floating-Land Origin on hand and the Market at the needed level, the Oddity Essence Refinement Platform was quickly upgraded to stage one.
Upon reaching stage one, its properties changed—it could now refine white Oddities. But the next upgrades came with new requirements. Pushing it to stage two now needed not only Market level and Floating-Land Origin but also white Oddity Essence.
Thankfully, each upgrade only required a single essence. Song Chi pulled ten white Oddities from the Exchange Shop, converted them into ten white Oddity Essences, and used them all at once to bump the Refinement Platform to stage two.
He repeated the process, using ten each of white, blue, purple, and orange Oddities, pushing the feature all the way to stage five.
At this point, the Oddity Essence Refinement Platform had undergone a major transformation.
Now, it could even convert red Oddities into red Oddity Essences. More impressively, these red Essences could now be used to combine or enhance traits of silver-grade ship components.
Song Chi’s eyes immediately lit up when he saw that, by stage five, silver components could be improved.
He could see just how insanely valuable this Oddity Essence Refinement Platform would become later on.
Never mind everything else—there was already a component on the Heavenly Ruin that desperately needed an upgrade.
After confirming the platform’s stats, the first thing Song Chi thought of was the Eye of Spirit-Seeking.
It’s not that the Eye of Spirit-Seeking, that red radar, was bad. Its ‘Spirit-Seeking Eye’ trait had helped Song Chi bag several red and even silver Oddities over the years. Heck, even that time he raided the Doomstar Race’s elite lair, it was thanks to this component.
But besides the ‘Spirit-Seeking Eye’ trait, the other two on this radar were pretty average.
He remembered the Silver III-Gen Ultra-wave Magitech Detector Radar he’d gotten from that goblin Luke. Its ‘Magitech Detection’ was outstanding—as of now, it’s just what the Heavenly Ruin needs.
Sure, he could occasionally borrow that ‘Yin-Yang: Synergy’ trait from the White Snow Lightwing via the Yang·Tongxin Pendant, but the cooldown was way too long. Not exactly practical.
If he could extract the ‘Magitech Detection’ trait and swap out one of the Eye of Spirit-Seeking’s mediocre traits, that red radar would become something truly extraordinary.
And best of all, it wouldn’t even cost much. All he’d need is an orange Oddity that can’t be used as a ship component, which is a steal for such a massive boost.
Take the Parent-Child Spirit Control Rings, for instance. They’re both red-grade control parts just like the Enslave Medal, but in practice, they’re nowhere close in value.
Trait 2, ‘Zoom Multiplier Doubled’, and Trait 3, ‘Sub-ring Max +1’, added together probably still don’t match the Enslave Medal’s ‘Enslave Seal: Berserk’ trait. If those traits could be tweaked, the value would rise dramatically.
Song Chi didn’t overthink it. He headed straight back to Dragon-Spine Continent, borrowed the Tri-Eye Spirit-Lock Ring to safely remove the Eye of Spirit-Seeking, then pulled out a high-quality blue radar he’d acquired ages ago.
Psionic-Detecting Aerial Radar Lv0
Grade: Blue
Trait: Psionic Detection
…
{Psionic Detection: Every lifeform or object with a special energy reaction within the radar’s scanning range will be distinctly highlighted on the display.}
This excellent blue radar’s ‘Psionic Detection’ was functionally identical to the ‘Magitech Detection’ of the Silver III-Gen Ultra-wave Magitech Detector, just with a different name.
Song Chi had always wanted to transfer that trait to the Eye of Spirit-Seeking, but that usually took a stage-seven Silver Apple, which was insanely rare. Now, with the Oddity Essence Refinement Platform, he could do it ahead of time—without using a precious Silver Apple.
A short while later, Song Chi used one white Oddity Essence to turn ‘Psionic Detection’ into a trait entry. Then, spending one orange Oddity Essence, he swapped out the ‘Detection Range +200%’ trait on the Eye of Spirit-Seeking.
With that, the Eye of Spirit-Seeking was completely transformed.
Eye of Spirit-Seeking Lv60
Grade: Red
Trait: Psionic Detection
Trait 2: Detection Priority +8,400
Trait 3: Spirit-Seeking Eye
…
After wrapping up, Song Chi reinstalled the Eye of Spirit-Seeking on the battleship.
Once he finished assessing the new Oddity Essence Refinement Platform, Song Chi hurried off to the Market Inn, hoping that reaching stage five would trigger some changes.
But in the end, he was disappointed—the four-story inn hadn’t changed at all. No new Market Guest Rooms, Traveler’s Inns, or Projection Rooms—nothing.
“So that’s all the change I’m getting? Not quite what I hoped for, but at least I won’t have to worry about dealing with the Witcher Civilization during trades in the future.”
Shaking his head, Song Chi left the Market behind.
Meanwhile, out in the wider world, the ever-advancing Royal Armada pressed onward, making this Market upgrade little more than a minor blip. The war for the stars marched on.
Time passed, and before you knew it, five more years had slipped by.
By now, Song Chi was over a hundred sixty years old. Back on Blue Star, that’d make him a legendary immortal—but in the ranks of Torch Human Civilization, he was just getting started, still only a junior in the eyes of real veterans.
Over these five years, the Royal Armada had conquered the entire Tianpan Galaxy. From end to end, the 1.8 million light-year expanse officially joined the Torch Human Civilization’s territory.
…
Tianpan Galaxy, far-north star region.
In the past few months, tens of millions of Torch warships from the Yaohan Kingdom had gathered here, filling the whole region to the brim.
Every last ship pointed north, all humming with anticipation—eager to surge forward at a moment’s notice.
At the northern horizon, a gigantic natural wormhole stretched seemingly forever. This wormhole was the gateway north, leading straight into the Chipan Galaxy—the domain of the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization.
But before the Torch Captains’ excitement had a chance to build, it was suddenly doused by a wave of overwhelming pressure rolling in from the north.
Under that crushing might, even the three foremost Royal Star-Annihilator-class Ships could barely resist it—if anything, they were still completely suppressed.
Even though those three ships soaked up more than ninety percent of the force, the leftover pressure was enough to rapidly drain the energy shields of the fearless ships, battleships, and Zhulu-class Cruisers in the rear.
“Eighth-tier… It has to be an eighth-tier Serpent Demon Lord…”
Every single Torch Captain feeling that terrifying pressure came to the same answer.
Just then, a violent spatial fluctuation rippled out from beside the three Royal Star-Annihilator-class Ships, and in the next instant, that overwhelming pressure on the remaining Torch ships suddenly vanished.
When they looked up, every captain’s eyes went wide.
Somehow, another Star-Annihilator-class Ship—over ten thousand kilometers long—had materialized beside the other three. With this fourth ship in place, the horrifying pressure from the wormhole was completely countered.
The Morningstar Traverse!
“That’s really the Morningstar Traverse? How is that possible? Shouldn’t Grand Duke Rosetta be focused on breaking through to seventh-tier Guiding Technique? What’s he doing here now?”
“With only sixth-tier Guiding Technique and ordinary spiritual sense, it’s impossible to wield even a tenth of a Star-Annihilator-class Ship’s power. Isn’t he afraid of pushing his luck?”
“He must be desperate to carve out some territory for himself.”
“No, I think he’s probably already broken through to seventh-tier and become a true Star-Annihilator-class Captain. This guy’s survived for eight thousand years—there’s no way he wouldn’t grasp that basic point.”
“Agreed. And don’t forget, he recently got his hands on a Doomstar Lord’s right arm—a whole one, at that! It’d be easy to refine a few drops of Dominating Blood Essence from it. With that boost, and eight thousand years of Morningstar Family heritage behind him, advancing to seventh-tier in a decade or two hardly seems unlikely.”
…
On the shared fleet comms, the debate was intense and non-stop.
But the most widely accepted theory was that Rosetta Morningstar had already broken through, becoming a true Star-Annihilator-class Captain.
Everyone here was thousands of years old—no one was naive.
They’d worked so hard to upgrade their flagship to Star-Annihilator-class, and still had close to two thousand years to work on their Guiding Technique. Who would risk it all by coming out early?
Over in the encrypted Song Family chat, though, no one seemed surprised. If anything, they were pleased.
First their own fleet had teamed up with the Morningstar Family, then Song Wujian had even helped Rosetta personally. With that track record, the elders on both sides had already guessed there was a deep alliance forming.
In that case, the more benefits the Morningstar Family—or rather, the Morningstar Duchy—gained here, the better it would be for the Song Family, with no downside at all.
But before the Torch Captains had time to dwell on it, a gigantic and terrifying figure suddenly emerged from the wormhole up ahead.
Blue skin, vertical pupils, a body towering over a million kilometers tall—even in the blackness of the Sea of Stars, the sight was beyond words.
At that moment, even the four Star-Annihilator-class Captains looked tense and wary.
Fortunately, an enormous golden giant phantom appeared in the sky above the Royal Armada soon after.
A representative of the Xian Qin Ying Family was here!
“Ying Chang, this star region is our boundary. Cross it, and the Xian Qin Divine Dynasty gets total war from us!”
With that, the eighth-tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demon turned and strode back into the wormhole, still radiating a titanic presence.
The golden giant in the sky never responded, not even once.
But every single Torch Captain under the Yaohan Kingdom knew—they’d reached the end of this expansion war.
No matter how powerful the Xian Qin Divine Dynasty was, there was no way they could take on the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization alone. Only all of Torch Human Galaxy Cluster combined could pull that off.
“That’s it then—the war ends here. Liu Shu, you and the other three stay put until the Great Wall of Civilization is extended. No one leaves—got it?”
“Also, staff will be arriving soon to claim all high-grade resource zones. Anyone unqualified or caught mining on their own will be dealt with as per pre-war rules!”
Up in the sky, the golden giant spoke slowly.
The tone was pure command, not discussion—utterly domineering.
The words barely finished before the golden phantom rent open the void and vanished once more into the depths of space.
As for the four Star-Annihilator-class Captains, they had to stand guard here until the Great Wall was extended and the entire Tianpan Galaxy was secured.
Meanwhile, the matter of dividing up this enormous star region—spanning over eight hundred thousand light-years—was about to get underway.