Chapter 487: Secrets of the Silverplate Galaxy

The Silverplate Galaxy stretches over 1.2 million light-years, its development even predating the Tianpan Galaxy. The reigning power here is the Silverplate Kingdom, ruling over five duchies and dozens of ordinary nations.

Currently, there are five major immortal factions within the Silverplate Kingdom, but the most powerful by far is the Tuoba royal clan.

The Tuoba family has ruled the Silverplate Kingdom for over thirty thousand years. They command two Star-Annihilator-class ships and boast five publicly acknowledged peak Dreadnought Captains. Their dominion extends nearly 200,000 light-years, making them the undisputed overlords of the entire Silverplate Galaxy.

The Tuoba clan privately controls a seventh-tier lifelike Floating-land, yet to encourage growth throughout Silverplate and its star domains, they’ve carved out a sizable Public Zone on the Floating-land for all to access.

……

At the very heart of this open zone sits the Silverplate Bazaar—a vibrant city entirely constructed and managed by the Tuoba Royal Chamber of Commerce. It’s the undisputed hub of prosperity in the Silverplate Floating-land’s Public Zone.

Right now, Song Chi, drawn by reputation, wanders the third floor of the Chamber’s tower in the city center. All the details he knows about the Silverplate Galaxy have come from the ‘Complete Compendium of the Silverplate Galaxy’ in his hand.

Strolling along, Song Chi arrives at the star map sales area.

【High-Precision Silverplate Star Domain Map · Torch Calendar 30th Cycle, Year 619 Revision】{Price: 1 strand of Fourth-Tier Floating-Land Origin}

【High-Precision Map of the Central Five Star Domains · Torch Calendar 30th Cycle, Year 618 Revision】{Price: 5 strands of Fourth-Tier Floating-Land Origin}

【High-Precision Full Silverplate Galaxy Map · Torch Calendar 30th Cycle, Year 620 Revision】{Price: 1 strand of Fifth-Tier Floating-Land Origin}

……

“So if I add this Full Silverplate Galaxy Map, the total is 1 strand of Fifth-Tier plus 1 strand of Third-Tier Floating-Land Origin, right?”

Pointing at the Full Silverplate Galaxy Map (620 Revision), Song Chi turns to confirm with the Chamber’s shop attendant beside him.

The slender saleswoman meets his gaze with a flawless smile and gives a gentle nod.

“Yes, sir!”

“Can you confirm which month this updated map is from this year?”

Records show that the Torch Human Civilization’s most ancient dynasty, the Divine Xia Empire, was founded precisely 324,620 years ago. That date marked the very first year of the Torch Calendar, making this the 30th Cycle, Year 620.

(One Cycle = 10,800 years)

But since it’s already the end of Year 620, the difference between a map updated at the start of the year and one revised now could be significant. He figures he’d better check.

“It was updated in July of Year 620, just two months ago, sir.”

Satisfied, Song Chi doesn’t ask anything else. He takes out the appropriate Floating-Land Origin from his Torch Ancestral Orifice and buys both the map and the compendium.

……

Over the next half hour, Song Chi makes his way through the fourth and fifth floors of the Chamber’s tower, picking up a red secondary gun with genuine armor-piercing capabilities: the Gold-Source Armor-Piercer.

With this, Heavenly Ruin now only has two empty secondary gun slots left.

Besides that, Song Chi doesn’t skip over the street vendors in the city—he stops by every stall before moving on.

Now that he’s learned a completely new and efficient way to search for neutron star wreckage, he doesn’t mind spending another ten days or so hunting for scraps.

His efforts pay off. He manages to trace down coordinates for another batch of neutron star wreckage, spends over a month chasing it across more than one hundred thousand light-years, but finally gets his hands on it.

At this point, if he could get seven more neutron star wreckage, his Neutron-Star Core Armor would finally evolve into golden-class hull armor.

Truth is, neutron star wreckage really isn’t all that valuable. Otherwise, Song Chi would’ve never gotten these two so easily—after all, they weren’t even in especially remote star domains. Plenty of Torch Captains must have passed by, but since the wreckage was so underwhelming, no one bothered to collect it.

If any influential noble house had locked this stuff away in their family vault, getting it out would’ve been a much bigger headache for Song Chi.

Silverplate Hotel, first-floor lobby.

After checking out at the front desk, Song Chi turns toward the hotel’s entrance.

But the heightened hearing from his five rounds of life refinement picks up a hushed exchange between two third-order Torch Captains chatting in a corner.

“Heard about it? Someone just pinned a job on the Torch Network—if you can cleanse the mutant energy from some rare resource he’s got, you get your pick from a generous reward list.”

“Yeah, I saw it too. Wonder which core member posted that job—the first reward is twenty thousand titanite crystals! Damn!”

“Titanite crystal’s nothing! I saw there’s also a strand of Red Advancement Fire Source. Plus, you could pick a red energy shield or a chunk of red hull armor!”

……

The news makes Song Chi’s steps falter but doesn’t slow him down—still, his curiosity is definitely piqued.

While the red Advancement Fire Source, energy shield and hull armor aren’t things he really needs, those twenty thousand titanite crystals are a completely different story.

In the past few months, he’s refined a slew of Chasing Fate Immortal’s memory fragments and managed to extract several Dominion Souls.

But his titanite crystal stash can’t keep up—he can’t even upgrade a few parts to level 70.

If he can get that huge stash of titanite crystals, his urgent need will be solved.

Cleansing mutant energy, though?

Fortunately, his Destiny Compass’ Return to Origins feature might be a perfect fit for the task.

The Return to Origins ability is all about breaking items down to their purest form—if it returns things to their origins, odds are, it can also strip away any foreign mutant energy.

With this in mind, Song Chi leaves the hotel and immediately summons Heavenly Ruin.

Once his shape-shifted Heavenly Ruin slips into the Silverplate Floating-land’s upper clouds, Song Chi logs into the local Torch Network with his Torch Seed.

The journey across the Sea of Stars is long and full of risk.

Yet the fire of civilization will never go out.

Once the familiar login scene loads, he’s in—and spots the pinned task those two cruiser captains had discussed.

【High-Paying Separation of Mutant Energy!!!】

{Task: I have a batch of top-grade resources, but somehow they got contaminated with mutant energy. If you have a part or skill that can separate or cleanse it, you’re welcome to try.}

{Task Reward: If you separate all the mutant energy, you may choose ONE of the following rewards.}

{1: 20,000 titanite crystals

2: one strand of Red Advancement Fire Source

3: one piece each of red hull armor and red energy shield

……

8: 14kg Sand of Time}

After reading through the entire post, something besides the twenty thousand titanite crystals catches Song Chi’s eye. “Fourteen kilos of Sand of Time… that would be enough to upgrade my Samsara Time Domain component to the seventh tier.”

Despite his surprise, Song Chi doesn’t rush to reply—instead, he logs out of the Torch Network for the moment.

Inside Heavenly Ruin, Song Chi heads for the Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl.

Everyone knows the Torch Network’s security isn’t great—anyone with higher clearance can trace your post back to your ship’s info if you say too much.

He’d already changed Heavenly Ruin’s look with the Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl and even switched the ship’s name temporarily.

Still, this is Silverplate Floating-land, the crown world of a thirty-thousand-year-old kingdom, and soon he’ll be showing off the gold Sanctum Domain part’s skills—so you can never be too careful.

“I’ve only got enough titanite to upgrade a single part—guess I’ll focus on the Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl.”

Muttering to himself, Song Chi makes his decision.

Ten flashes of silver light sweep through the warship. He spends one strand of Seventh‑Tier Floating-land Origin and a Dominion Soul, successfully powering the Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl up to level 70.

After surpassing the seventh tier, the component’s abilities leap dramatically. Both the Mirage and Thousandfold Metamorphosis effects become vastly more potent and stealthy, with higher priority too.

With that finished, Song Chi logs back onto the Torch Network.

“I have a unique part that might work—where should we meet?”

He’s barely posted under the recruitment thread before a reply comes back.

“There are quite a few captains here already. Everyone’s gathered at Luo River Valley, one hundred thousand kilometers east of the Silverplate Bazaar. If you’re able, feel free to come.”

Glancing at the radar, Song Chi locates Luo River Valley and sees dozens of Zhulu-class Cruisers and battleships already assembled there. He gives the go-ahead.

Within ten minutes, Heavenly Ruin descends on Luo River Valley.

As the shadowy hull of Heavenly Ruin lands, two waiting Zhulu-class Cruisers approach.

“Excuse me, is this the Eastern Kunlun battleship?”

Song Chi nods his response, then follows the pair as they escort him to the center of the valley, into a gleaming white castle.

“Using two Zhulu-class Cruisers for escorts—that’s quite a show of force. But I still can’t pin down which faction owns this huge swath of land… it’s impossible to tell from the outside.”

Heavenly Ruin comes to rest in the castle’s enormous central plaza. The open area is vast, and before Song Chi arrived, dozens of warships were already docked there.

Zhulu-class Cruisers are the most common, almost thirty in all. There are also four battleships and over a dozen cruisers.

“Sir, please wait here for a bit. We’ll notify you when it’s your turn.”

……

Nearly half an hour passes, and one by one the ships in the plaza dwindle as the tests continue.

It’s clear now—getting rid of that mutant energy isn’t easy. Every previous ship has failed the challenge.

At the top floor of the castle’s main tower, a figure stands still before the observation window, quietly watching the experiments unfold on the plaza below.

Beside her stands a stately old man whose presence is as deep and boundless as an abyss. Bowing slightly, he says:

“Madam, that’s the chaotic energy of the Flame Demon Monarch, left over from the 168th layer of the Abyss. There’s almost no way these candidates can scrub it out!”

The woman at the window doesn’t move, only responds softly:

“We have to try. One of my ship’s most vital components is on the line—if there’s even a slim chance to restore it, I can’t let this opportunity slip. Getting another batch of Abyssal Source Crystals is nearly impossible…”

……

Out on the edge of the plaza, Song Chi gets notice—it’s his turn.

Firing up the engines, he eases Heavenly Ruin into the center of the plaza.

Waiting in the plaza’s heart is a vast, hundred-kilometer Dreadnought. Song Chi’s earlier observations confirm this ship belongs to the faction behind the white castle—and the resources tainted with mutant energy are inside.

As Heavenly Ruin approaches, a six-winged, tenth-tier angel steps out from the Dreadnought.

When the ten-winged angel gets close, Song Chi, using his Dual Pupils, notices the crystal clutched in the angel’s hand.

What makes Song Chi uneasy is the chaotic, surging fire energy inside that crystal. Even with his Dual Pupils’ precision, the power inside looks wild and terrifying.

“Is this the power of chaos?”

Because he already commands both a One-Eyed Troll and an Abyssal Devil, Song Chi doesn’t fully recognize this special crystal, but the firepower inside is definitely familiar.

From what he remembers, only the chaos of the Abyss has fire energy this frenzied and violent. He double-checks by comparing it to the energy within his One-Eyed Troll and Abyssal Devil, and confirms—it’s definitely fire-aligned chaos energy.

He says nothing more. Opening the hatch, Song Chi gestures for the Flamewrath Giant to take the crystal from the ten-winged angel.

Once that’s done, he seals up the ship completely, cutting off all contact inside and out.

He’s about to employ the Destiny Compass—the gold Sanctum Domain component—and no one else can see this.

Taking every precaution, Song Chi sets the crystal by the Destiny Compass and activates the Return to Origins trait.

The instant the ability kicks in, golden light bursts through the ship. With the visualization of his Dual Pupils, Song Chi watches as the Compass works on the crystal.

A wisp of subtle golden light streams from the Destiny Compass, piercing into the crystal and shoving out the chaotic fire energy swirling inside.

It’s a slow process. The mutant fire energy is too strong—honestly, if the Destiny Compass weren’t already powered up to level 70, this might have failed entirely.

Time passes, but the Destiny Compass doesn’t let Song Chi down. Eventually, it forces all the brutal fire energy from the crystal.

In the end, the crystal splits in two: one pure crystal, and a separate mass of violent fire energy.

Soon after, the elegant woman in the white castle receives word that the separation has succeeded.

Her beautiful eyes tremble.

“Did it really work?”