Chapter 484: Harvest of the Timeworld Tree

The ether surged swiftly, following the circulation within Song Hao’s body. As it passed through his right arm, Song Hao deliberately guided it into the golden token resting in his palm.

“Second Brother, you…”

Song Hao didn’t bother to hide it. After all, Song Chi would inevitably require Song Baiyi to sign a confidentiality agreement later. Watching through the projection feed, Song Baiyi’s eyes were filled with curiosity and confusion.

Before he could finish speaking, the secret realm’s sky above the two warships suddenly erupted with intense waves and spatial tremors.

Buzz… buzz… buzz!

While Song Baiyi’s face tensed with vigilance, Song Hao offered a gentle explanation:

“Relax, it’s just Uncle Song Chi!”

As soon as he finished, a massive shadow of violet mist began to take form overhead. The gathering of that energy wasn’t quick—it took a dozen seconds for the entire shadow to finally condense, vast enough to blot out the sky.

High above the Omniverse Market, Song Chi stood in the air, frowning slightly.

“What powerful repulsion. If the Omniverse Market didn’t have such a high status, the projection would never get through!”

With those words, he raised his hand.

At the same time, inside the secret realm, a silhouette took shape in the sea of violet mist overhead. The mysterious figure lifted a hand, forming a phantom imprint crafted from spatial energy, light, and purple mist. It shot straight toward the thousand-meter White Jade Tree below.

Though the triple-energy palm mark held immense force, both the handprint and the violet projection above rapidly waned, losing solidity with each passing moment.

This happened because the secret realm’s own repulsion was far stronger than expected. Its status wasn’t low either. On top of that, the Market’s pocket realm had just regained fifth rank, and all of this was being done across a boundless expanse.

All these factors combined to create the current situation. That’s exactly why Song Chi had to act fast.

Despite the realm’s repulsion, the Market’s projection still carried Dominion Power. In front of this force, the thousand-meter White Jade Tree was nothing. The imprint swept past and easily uprooted it, roots and all.

“Alright, from here, you two keep pushing on with exploration underground. The Morningstar Family will probably arrive in about twenty hours, so make every second count!”

Even as the Market’s projection faded with the White Jade Tree in tow, Song Chi’s voice echoed inside both the Voyager and the White Day.

When the last shimmer faded, Song Baiyi turned his gaze to Song Hao.

“Second Brother, that really was Uncle Song Chi? Because just now, that—”

“Baiyi, honestly I’m not sure about all the details either. Uncle Song Chi will probably speak to you directly later.”

Just as confused, Song Hao cut off Song Baiyi’s question. Both cruisers then sped back to the entrance of the underground space.

…

Omniverse Market, Free Stall Area.

With a passing waft of violet mist, a towering six-star Timeworld Tree appeared out of thin air, its height stretching a full kilometer.

Seeing the tree’s roots bursting with vitality, Song Chi let out a smile.

He wasn’t just thrilled about acquiring a six-star Timeworld Tree. He was even more excited that the Market’s Projection could bring back actual items from the distant cosmos.

Although he’d suspected as much when the Market Projection Token first appeared, this was the first true attempt.

With this now confirmed, the possibilities for what the Projection Token could do in the future had broadened—and so had the benefits he could reap.

Suppressing his excitement, he returned to the Heavenly Ruin, and using the Compass · Return to Origins, he removed the Isometric Shrink Module. Back at the market, he shrank the six-star Timeworld Tree by twenty times. Only then did he carry both items back out.

Inside the Cultivation Sanctuary, after some careful work, the six-star Timeworld Tree was successfully transplanted near the Azure Spirit Spring.

With the nourishment from both the Azure Spirit Spring and Celestial Spirit Earth, the Timeworld Tree’s fruiting speed would be far greater than it was in that unknown secret realm.

Unfortunately, the Timeworld Fruit that had been on this six-star Timeworld Tree had already been taken by the Goldweb Sky Spider. Growing a second six-star Timeworld Fruit would take an extremely long time.

Still, thanks to the Sanctuary Accelerator, the timeline should be much shorter.

…

Time passed quickly, and soon it was the next day.

“Attention, everyone! Enter the dense forest in order and search for the White Jade Spirit Tree. If you encounter the Goldweb Sky Spider inside, destroy it on sight!”

Following Rosetta Morningstar’s orders, three thousand family members of the Morningstar, ranging from second to third rank, poured into the secret realm one after another.

…

Within the secret realm, every connection between the underground space and the surface shook with the thunder of artillery barrages.

For more than ten hours, Song Hao and Song Baiyi had gathered several clan members once again. Those barrages were actually coordinated attacks by their allies, intended to give Song Hao’s terracotta puppet covering deep ground a chance to explore.

This strategy had been going on for hours. With Song Hao’s neural mark guiding it, the Shadow Clan Terracotta Warrior traversed a huge distance. Now, cracks as thick as an arm split the earth around him.

“By now, the Morningstar should have arrived. Let’s go, hurry!”

Song Baiyi’s low voice sounded in the chat.

Hearing this, Song Hao’s focus sharpened as if making up his mind.

“Breakthrough mode on!”

As the limit-break kicked in, his eyelids snapped shut. Channeling every ounce of mental power, he focused intently on the mark inside his mind.

Simultaneously, the Shadow Clan Terracotta Warrior in the deepest tunnels ceased hiding and charged headlong down the main passage.

With Song Hao’s intense mental focus guiding it, the puppet zipped past almost every spatial crack in the tunnel with near-perfect precision.

Suddenly, a flash of white light appeared at the far end of that gloomy passage.

Something inside told Song Hao that the white glow marked the very center of all this underground space. All the answers had to be there.

That thought spurred him to push the Terracotta Warrior even faster—until, moments later, something felt off.

In this final stretch, it wasn’t just spatial fissures. Threads of solidified Speech Law gleamed in the dark—the purest, raw force of Speech Law itself.

By the time Song Hao realized what was happening and tried to slow the Terracotta Warrior, it was already too late.

The puppet’s body had already brushed against a strand of those nearly tangible Speech Law lights.

“卍!”

Watching the chat feed closely, Song Baiyi caught the fleeting special mark glinting in Song Hao’s eyes.

“That’s a Buddhist Mantra!”

“Second Brother, snap out of it!”

He needn’t have shouted. As the Buddhist mantra echoed in Song Hao’s mind, the Secret Arts Inheritance Stele buried deep in his Torch Ancestral Orifice burst into blazing red light, purging the curse in an instant.

The Shadow Clan Terracotta Warrior kept striding forward, coming closer to the passage’s end with every step.

Finally, the Terracotta Warrior stepped out of the passage, and the view at the tunnel’s end unfolded in Song Hao’s eyes.

“This… this…”

Song Hao froze in place, stunned at the answer that lay at the end of the tunnel.

The sound of Song Baiyi’s voice crackling over the chat was what finally broke his trance.

Shaking his head, he pushed aside the disbelief and quickly directed the puppet in the depths below to activate the Market Projection Token.

Because there, right in the heart of the underground, stood a White Jade Tree soaring to over ten thousand meters.

Song Hao understood perfectly just how valuable that immense White Jade Tree was.

The void churned. Violet mist massed.

Compared to last time, the Market’s projection arrived far faster.

That was mostly because the space underground here was so fragile.

But Song Chi’s eyes weren’t on the tree or even the empty center at all—they were drawn to what the White Jade Tree was rooted in.

Blood and flesh covered the cylindrical space beneath, piled high all across the ground. Right in the center sat a massive Buddha’s head with huge ears.

You had to call it ‘standing’—because beneath the neck, a mass of fleshy roots fused it so tightly to the ground that the ancient Buddha’s head was stitched there, immovable. As for its golden body, Song Chi guessed it had long since been devoured by the secret realm’s core will.

Seeing this, Song Chi could basically piece together what happened all those ages ago.

For some unknown reason, this Dominator-class Shizhu—one who’d achieved a golden Buddha body—fell during a cataclysmic war. The corpse, brimming with power, smashed through the realm’s boundaries and crashed into the secret realm.

With the raw strength unleashed by the fallen golden body, the corpse not only blasted a crater through the secret realm’s earth but also utterly shattered the underground.

Driven by a will to survive, the secret realm’s own will, strong in its own right, began devouring the titanic Buddha body’s energy—using that force to slowly knit the broken chasms below.

Hundreds of thousands of years passed, and by now, most of the underground space was repaired. Back in earliest times, its damage must have been unimaginable.

With this in mind, Song Chi couldn’t help but wonder—just who had battled whom in that ancient war, for even a Dominator-class Shizhu to fall? The carnage must have been beyond belief.

He let his imagination drift for a moment, then quickly pulled himself back. Whatever happened then was ancient history. The most important thing now was that colossal Timeworld Tree.

There was no mention of a Timeworld Tree of such height in the Beiqiong Shen Family’s archives, but Song Chi could hazard a guess—it was most likely Seventh-Tier.

As this thought landed, the violet-tinged projection sent a threefold energy palm toward the Seventh-Tier Timeworld Tree.

Dominion-infused, the mark landed, but to Song Chi’s frustration, this Timeworld Tree was beyond tough. Even with the Market’s power, it refused to budge an inch.

A Seventh-Tier Timeworld Tree right before his eyes, yet he couldn’t move it. Refusing to give up, Song Chi tried twice more—but the giant tree’s roots held unyielding.

Just then, cannon blasts thundered down the passage behind him.

“No good—we’re out of time…”

Song Chi knew—Morningstar’s people had to be right behind, and plenty of them.

For a split second, he even considered killing everyone present. But, in the end, pushed that thought aside.

With a legacy spanning seven millennia, their foundation ran deep. If they’d brought some final trump card, even the Omniverse Market’s projection might not wipe them all out. If things went wrong, it could mean risking the Omniverse Market’s exposure.

His gaze flicked away from the trunk of the Seventh-Tier Timeworld Tree and landed on the single Seventh-Tier Timeworld Fruit hanging from its branches.

Because of all those blood-red roots spreading beneath it, there was no way to uproot the Seventh-Tier tree now. Maybe once the Market reached eighth rank, it would be possible. But not today.

Thinking fast, Song Chi signaled the Shadow Clan Terracotta Warrior still clutching a second Market Projection Token. It received a small, silver-glowing bronze seal sent from the market.

This little bronze seal, a prize from Chasing Fate Immortal, couldn’t be converted into a ship module. But it held a unique power—perfect concealment.

Flooding it with Dominion-class violet mist, Song Chi watched as it blazed silver, finally dropping onto the Seventh-Tier Timeworld Tree.

As the light faded, the enormous Timeworld Tree vanished without a trace, perfectly hidden by the bronze seal.

“Only Third-Tier Torch Captains can get in here. Nobody should be able to find the concealed Seventh-Tier tree. Once the Market reaches eighth rank, I can come back to try transplanting it.”

Before leaving, he made sure to pluck the Seventh-Tier Timeworld Fruit from its branch.

Behind him, cannonfire drew closer. In the final moments, Song Chi directed the threefold imprint to snatch up two five-hundred-meter Fifth-Tier Timeworld Trees from the side.

These Fifth-Tier trees were valuable in their own right. But on the other side of the underground core, two even rarer six-star trees each a thousand meters tall stood—but there just wasn’t time.

He easily uprooted the two five-star trees, then swept a wave of violet mist to erase any signs they’d ever been there. Satisfied, Song Chi left with the Seventh-Tier fruit and the two five-rank trees, vanishing from the underground.

Song Hao didn’t delay either. The moment Song Chi’s projection vanished, he recalled the puppet completely.

Just seconds after both disappeared, hundreds of Torch warships surged through the passage—Morningstar’s clan had just entered the secret realm.

How they’d found the underground core so easily was still a mystery.

But with the Voyager, the White Day, and the Song Family’s other ships arriving right after, there was no way for Morningstar to try anything sneaky.

High above the Omniverse Market,

Song Chi’s eyes narrowed as he gazed at the two Fifth-Tier Timeworld Trees and the gleaming Seventh-Tier Timeworld Fruit resting quietly in the Free Stall Area.

He hoped Morningstar’s team wouldn’t discover the hidden Seventh-Tier tree.