Chapter 478: Secrets of the Rift: Hidden Webs in the Star Domain

“Old Hong, after this haul, you should have enough to get your kid a few blue components, right?”

“More or less. But honestly, blue components just aren’t cutting it anymore. What I really want is a piece of purple-grade hull armor.”

“Purple-grade armor? You’ve racked up that much merit?”

……

In the pitch-black starry sky, a fleet made up of hundreds of regular starships and ten escort frigates tore through space at full throttle.

Within the magnetic wave comms channel linking the ten escort frigates, the captains were chatting idly back and forth.

When the topic turned to merit, the captain named Old Hong let a trace of pride slip across his face.

Even so, he kept his tone casual.

“You all transferred in from the clan’s colonial sector, so you never saw the old expansion war. Back then, when our main force cleared out the Doomstar Race’s lairs scattered across each floating-land, there was just so much good loot. Even though the actual rewards we got weren’t huge due to contribution limits, I still netted more than just a single purple component.”

“Hmm… actually, before this, I already swapped out a purple-grade main cannon for my kid’s ship.”

Hearing Old Hong say that so offhandedly, the other captains felt nothing but envy.

He’d already secured two purple-grade parts for his son. You could imagine how loaded Old Hong’s own flagship must be.

They always said that expansion war was like a festival for all the Torch Captains in the Tianpan Galaxy, but none of them realized just how rich the windfall was till now.

It had all the other captains filled with regret. Before the war started, the clan did send out a call to arms, but it wasn’t mandatory, so they all had the option to stay out of it—and that’s exactly what they did.

After a brief moment of regret, though, everyone snapped back into focus, their faces full of renewed determination.

Even if they missed that expansion war, the clan was thriving now. Opportunities were everywhere; as long as they put in the effort, the road ahead still looked bright.

Take this current escort mission for example. In the past, getting the family’s transport fleet safely to the nearest mid-range stargate would have paid peanuts. But now? The rewards had tripled.

“Hongtou…”

Someone tried to say more in the channel, but Old Hong cut them off immediately.

“Hold up! Radar has flagged something—everyone, be alert! Go to level one battle stations!”

The other captains didn’t receive any alarms from their own ships, but none of them hesitated to trust Old Hong’s call.

It was no mystery why. Old Hong’s ship was equipped with a purple-grade sky-scanning radar. Its range and precision blew away their blue and white radar systems.

Hiss—

The main hatch of Captain Old Hong’s ship slid open, and a ten-meter-tall iron war mech shot out into space.

Once it cleared the hull, the alloy armor of the mech started expanding fast—its size swelled to over a hundred meters in seconds.

“That’s a Hellfire Mech! I heard each squad gets a fourth-tier Hellfire Mech issued, but I’d never seen Hongtou deploy it. Turns out it really exists!”

Seeing the massive alloy mech, one of the escort captains grinned in excitement. A fourth-tier Hellfire Mech! Rumor had it that during the expansion war, these things were absolutely crucial for the clan.

But before they had time to process, shadows flickered into shape from all directions.

“Careful! Crystal Gold Sky Spiders! Watch your formation—fire at will!”

“I heard rumors about spider-type starbeasts roaming this sector, but it’s really the Crystal Gold Sky Spider clan, just like those that once fled from the Chaos Sector!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In no time, beams of energy stitched across the black void, bursting like strings of brilliant fireworks.

The battle raged for half an hour or so. Thanks to the Hellfire Mech, the Crystal Gold Sky Spiders were almost completely wiped out. Only a handful managed to slip away together in the same direction.

“Hongtou, we lost twelve regular ships, but none of our squad’s ships took any damage.”

“What now? Do we keep going to Stargate No. 18, or retreat?”

……

On the channel, the escort captains didn’t look happy.

The newly seized territory of the clan was vast, but until now, most clean-up was handled by the Zhulu-class Cruiser Captains and their swarms of Hellfire Mechs. There had still been attacks in recent years, but the incidents were rare—this was their first encounter with a real ambush.

Compared to the quiet urgency in the others’ voices, Song Hong was the calmest. After all, he’d survived the Great Expansion War. Seeing just a third-tier Crystal Gold Sky Spider didn’t faze him.

After a moment of thought, Song Hong said:

“Everyone, calm down! Lao Yu, connect to the Torch Network right now and report back to the nearest comm hub. Then take the transport fleet and return the way we came. Spiders attacking like this don’t just happen out of nowhere—if we press on, we’ll likely get hit again.”

“Hongtou, what about you?”

Song Hong glanced off toward where the last few surviving spiders had fled.

“Something’s off about this. Crystal Gold Sky Spiders have been spotted by travelers before, but never attacked passing ships. That’s why the family never assigned anyone to wipe them out. For them to lash out now, things aren’t normal. I’m going to check it out myself!”

“But that’s too dangerous!”

Someone objected, not keen on letting Song Hong investigate alone.

His ship had purple components, but it was still only a tier-two frigate. The Family External Affairs Department had warned that some Crystal Gold Sky Spider clans fleeing from the Chaos Sector boasted fifth-tier monsters.

But Song Hong’s resolve didn’t waver. He stood firm.

“It’s fine. My ship’s fitted with a Void Shroud, upgraded to level 39. I can cloak and do a long-range scan with little risk!”

Seeing he wouldn’t budge, the others dropped the argument and started directing the transport fleet to swing around and retreat at top speed.

Those Crystal Gold Sky Spiders might double back. There was no time to linger.

……After splitting from the squad, Song Hong steered his ship on the trail of those surviving Crystal Gold Sky Spiders.

With his purple-grade sky-scanning radar, he never lost track of them, following carefully from a distance.

Maintaining control, he kept his warship at the perfect distance—close enough to tail the spiders, far enough not to be spotted.

Song Hong stayed tense as he shadowed them for hours—the instincts that had kept him alive through the Great Expansion War were fully at work.

Luckily, his patience paid off. Those Crystal Gold Sky Spiders started slowing down, and soon his radar pinged with a mass of new contacts.

“That’s a lot of spiders… and judging by size, there’s even a fourth-tier Crystal Gold Sky Spider!”

Song Hong’s pupils shrank. He halted his ship completely. With a deep breath to calm himself, he leveled his gaze on the vortex tunnel in front of the fourth-tier spider.

“Is that… a secret realm entrance?”

“So that’s it—there’s a secret realm here. No wonder the Crystal Gold Sky Spiders attacked us this time. They must have been afraid the fleet would stumble on this place.”

Thinking that, a flash of joy ran through Song Hong.

The value of a Sea of Stars secret realm was immeasurable. Reporting this back would surely bring a big reward.

While carefully turning his ship around, Song Hong concentrated, splitting his mind five ways to log into the Torch Network as fast as possible.

This star domain wasn’t heavily developed, but over the years, the Song Family had at least thrown together a basic Torch Network. Crude as it was, it’d do—he could get word to the nearest family comms node immediately.

Dozens of light-years away, at a temporary Torch Network comms relay set up by the Song Family—

“What? A secret realm?”

The clan member in charge there was also a tier-two captain. The comms hub had already logged a report about the Crystal Gold Sky Spider attack but since only a third-tier spider showed up—and it had been wiped out—the urgency was low.

Normally, it’d take about ten days for such news to reach the senior clan elder stationed in the region, let alone the External Affairs Hall back on Dragon-Spine Continent.

But the moment the words ‘secret realm’ dropped, everything changed.

Within mere minutes, the report was escalated layer by layer, finally landing with the Song Family’s four-star elder for that sector.

……

Dragon-Spine Continent. Dragon Spine Sacred Mountain. The Family Ancestral Hall.

Song Wujian gazed approvingly at Song Chi, whose presence now radiated the aura of a fifth-tier lifeform.

“Not bad at all. Ten years to advance Guiding Technique to the fifth tier. A hundred ninety years old and already a full Captain—in three thousand years of Song Family legacy, you’d rank among the top three.”

Song Chi: ???

Not even two hundred, already a battleship captain—still only top three?

Puzzled, Song Chi didn’t show it, but with Wujian’s piercing gaze, even a fleeting glimmer of surprise didn’t escape him. Song Wujian just smiled without any further explanation.

Over the last decade, Song Chi had also signed a Blood Pact with the peak fifth-tier Vermilion Divine Bird. If you looked closely, you could spot the faint shadow of Dual Pupils in his eyes.

Strictly speaking, it should now be called a sixth-tier Vermilion Divine Bird. Some choice treasures from Song Wujian had pushed it all the way past the bottleneck just recently—a full year faster than Chongyu’s own breakthrough to the fifth tier.

Wujian didn’t linger on that topic, changing course:

“We’ll have to wait a while longer for the Black Devourer King Beast to move. At the very least, we need Miss Ru to break through her Guiding Technique. You want to head out now, that’s fine—but you must be ready to rush back as soon as the family mobilizes. Dealing with the Black Devourer King Beast absolutely requires the aid of your time-domain Oddity. And start working on getting it up to the seventh tier, too—six won’t cut it!”

“Understood!”

Song Chi bobbed his head in agreement. The real reason he wanted to travel was to search for another suspected component of Timepiece Chess. If he needed to get back to Dragon-Spine Continent, a single message would do.

“Hm?”

Just as their conversation ended, and Song Chi was about to leave, one of the bronze seats above the ancestral hall flickered with sudden light.

Both men looked up. In moments, a clan elder’s projection had appeared on the chair.

Before Song Wujian could even ask, the elder’s projection spoke up urgently.

“Progenitor, a secret realm has emerged in the Doomstar Star Domain—currently occupied by the Crystal Gold Sky Spiders. I’ve already exchanged blows with the fourth-tier guardian at the entrance. The realm itself is unusual—it bars anyone fourth-tier and above from entering.”

At this, Song Chi piped up:

“Has anyone been sent in to scout? Can you tell what grade the secret realm is?”

The projection replied:

“If our people are right, it’s very likely a Primordial Secret Realm!”

The word Primordial made both men’s eyes light up in the ancestral hall.

But the elder’s projection was clearly still anxious.

“Progenitor, something unexpected happened—the spiders suddenly produced a sixth-tier Crystal Gold Sky Spider. Casualties below have been immense. Please send reinforcements at once!”

As he listened, Song Wujian’s six-tier life aura surged uncontrollably.

Hearing about the heavy losses, his anger was impossible to miss.

But in the end, he shifted his gaze toward Song Chi.

Song Chi got the message and nodded slightly.