Chapter 489: Awakening the Martial Heaven’s Eye

Omniverse Market, Full-Attribute Cultivation Chamber.

That day, the doors to the chamber swung open and Song Chi stepped out after nearly a month of seclusion.

From the lingering aura around him, it was clear he hadn’t made a breakthrough this time.

And that was the truth. A month ago, he’d harvested a batch of deepwater mussels from the Azure Spirit Spring in the Cultivation Sanctuary, one of which had birthed an eight-thousand-year-old Deepwater Pearl. Eager to make use of it, he’d rushed into closed cultivation, hoping to push his Guiding Technique past level 51.

But reality didn’t live up to his expectations.

Ever since breaking through to the fifth stage of Guiding Technique, this was his first time using a Deepwater Pearl as an aid. Compared to the fourth stage, where an eight-thousand-year pearl still offered a considerable boost, the effect after the fifth stage dropped off steeply—now the help it provided was barely noticeable.

Song Chi guessed that after the fifth stage of Guiding Technique, only pearls aged over ten thousand years would be truly useful.

That thought gave him a headache.

There’s a huge gap between several thousand years and ten thousand. Getting Deepwater Pearls that old was going to be much harder.

“Looks like I’ll just have to extend the breeding period. The Azure Spirit Spring is limited in size, and I’m already at maximum capacity. Only option is to add more years, but that means each harvest will take much longer, with fewer pearls as a result.”

Muttering to himself, Song Chi strode toward the market’s sealed storage room.

By the time he returned to the Free Stall Area, a Storage Capsule had appeared in his hand.

He opened the capsule and took out two brand-new memory shards. Shutting his eyes, he let the Dominion Power from his ‘Dominion Authority’ swirl around him, aiding him as he slowly refined the memory remnants left behind by Chasing Fate Immortal.

With the help of his internal energy and the laws around him, the two shards quickly merged into his body. Soon, fragments of memory—scenes and voices that weren’t his—began surfacing deep in his mind.

He overheard a brief conversation:

“You’re really giving up? That’s an innate spiritual treasure at the Immortal Gold level, and it can even conceal you from heaven’s sight! If you got your hands on it, you could walk anywhere across the Immortal Continent, not just Northern Star State!”

“But that’s Heaven’s Fate Immortal Sect we’re talking about. They’re the rulers of Northern Star State’s immortal world, with more than ten Gold Immortals as their leaders. How could mere Transcending Tribulation True Immortals like us stand a chance?”

“This time, most of their high-level members have left to wage war beyond the heavens. Now’s our best shot. Besides, you’ve got that bronze marten seal. What are you hesitating for?”

“Alright, let’s do it!”

…

These snippets came with no context or ending, so Song Chi barely reacted.

Back when he first began refining memories, he’d found them fascinating—after all, these were the remaining thoughts of a Dominion-class True Immortal. But after hearing so many over the days, most proved useless, and he’d simply grown used to it.

“Wait…this is—Heaven’s Fate Immortal Sect’s legacy immortal art? Looking at this—Martial Heaven’s Eye…”

Suddenly, a memory from the second shard made Song Chi’s eyes light up.

The words ‘immortal art’ instantly caught his interest.

Thanks to Chasing Fate Immortal’s memories, he already knew that what was called ‘immortal art’ or ‘dao technique’ in the Immortal Continent was exactly what the Shattered Sea of Stars called legacy secret arts.

Dao techniques were lower-level arts, mostly created by cultivators at the Nascent Soul and Return-to-Void realms. Any art that qualified as an ‘immortal art’ had to be the work of an immortal above the Dominion level.

As for Heaven’s Fate Immortal Sect, in Chasing Fate Immortal’s memories it stood as a colossal presence, with a dozen or more eighth-tier Gold Immortals leading the state.

With such power, their legacy arts couldn’t possibly be ordinary.

Thinking that this ‘Martial Heaven’s Eye’ was likely the creation of an eighth-tier Gold Immortal or someone even stronger, Song Chi immediately focused his mind, fully intent on absorbing Chasing Fate Immortal’s subsequent insights.

“The Way of Heaven is natural… Immortal martial births creation… When martial reaches its limit… All-heaven’s eye opens… Peer into the nine heavens above, and below…”

“Just as I thought!”

Hearing Chasing Fate Immortal practicing Heaven’s Fate Immortal Sect’s legacy art on the spot, Song Chi could barely contain his excitement.

Moving quickly, he pulled out the Dao Comprehension Mat (Replica), set it beneath him, and gathered the full might of his mind to follow Chasing Fate Immortal’s insights into Martial Heaven’s Eye.

Time slipped away unnoticed. Song Chi had no idea how long he’d been at it; when he finally came to, two whole months had passed.

Amazed by the river of time, he couldn’t hide the faint joy on his face.

It wasn’t because he’d mastered Martial Heaven’s Eye within those two months.

Martial Heaven’s Eye was a Sect legacy, probably left behind by an eighth-tier Gold Immortal or higher—how could it possibly be so easy to learn?

He’d spent years just to scratch the surface of the family’s Sky Shaman Grand Hand Seal.

Compared to that, Martial Heaven’s Eye was at least as hard to comprehend, if not even more so.

But what made Song Chi happy was something else.

Even if he hadn’t managed to grasp it yet, he could sense a real possibility that he might succeed in the future.

His eyes gleamed, Dominion Power surging through him. At the peak of the seventh tier, the projection of Dual Pupils in his eyes almost took on physical form.

Just then, it was as if the world of the market spun in reverse—reality turned upside down. When Song Chi’s focus returned, he found himself standing in a starlit domain he knew well.

High overhead, a massive spectral eye formed by his Dual Pupils hovered, gazing impassively down at the shadowy projection of Song Chi’s mind below.

This was indeed the same Dual Pupils Illusory Realm he’d visited several times before—a world forged by his own fifth-stage Dual Pupils.

Not long ago, he’d defeated the lingering soul of Chasing Fate Immortal right here.

Today’s goal was—once again—tied to that.

Pulling his gaze from the sky, he saw, a short distance ahead, a looping illusion replaying itself.

“The Way of Heaven is natural… Immortal martial births creation… Martial reaches its apex… All-heaven’s eye opens… Peer into the nine heavens above, and below…”

The image was hazy, yet it was unmistakably Chasing Fate Immortal’s memory of comprehending Martial Heaven’s Eye. If he strained, he could even make out the outline of the legacy stone tablet containing the secret art.

The quality was a far cry from the original, but even so, having this illusion preserved his hope of fully grasping Martial Heaven’s Eye in the future. That alone explained why he’d been so delighted earlier.

Though his Dual Pupils already offered him incredible power, Song Chi had no intention of replacing them with another mystical eye. But Martial Heaven’s Eye, as he sensed, would open a vertical eye at the center of his brow—one he could control at will, and it wouldn’t interfere with Dual Pupils at all.

Reading further, he discovered Martial Heaven’s Eye even allowed him to accommodate a third law within himself.

That was why he’d harnessed the full strength of his peak-seventh Dominion Power and wore out his Dual Pupils, just to store Chasing Fate Immortal’s memory in the illusion—this was his top priority.

After all, if he succeeded, then aside from the laws of space and light balanced within Dual Pupils, he could awaken yet another law.

And he didn’t have to guess what that choice would be. With the Timeworld Tree continuously producing Timeworld Fruits, he could touch the law of time directly.

As one of the ultimate laws, even stronger than space, there was no reason for Song Chi to consider anything other than time.

The only question was, which grade of Timeworld Fruit should he use?

Higher-ranked Timeworld Fruit granted greater initial mastery over the law of time, saving him vast amounts of effort.

After pondering for a bit, he found there was no immediate answer. Plus, grasping Martial Heaven’s Eye was still going to take a while, so he put the issue aside for now.

…

Thinking it over, Song Chi exited the illusionary realm and returned to his battleship.

He appeared in the main control room of the Heavenly Ruin just as the ship was on the verge of its next spatial jump.

Glancing at the Complete Silverplate Galaxy Star Map on the side, Song Chi saw his ship was now close to its destination. Three months of travel, with several stargate jumps along the way, had pushed the Heavenly Ruin more than 200,000 light-years—an impressive pace.

Two days later, emerging from another jump, the Heavenly Ruin didn’t activate any more spatial components.

To be precise, the battleship had reached the vicinity marked by the Destiny Compass—the flicker on the map burned close.

Song Chi frowned, seeing a newly formed Class Five floating-land up ahead—six light-years across and brimming with life.

The ‘target’ was right on that floating-land’s surface.

“So it’s been loaded onto a battleship. This could be a headache…”

Back when they were farther away, and the starmap spanned over a billion light-years, he couldn’t tell if the signal was moving. But now up close, he noticed the second Silver Legendary Component—suspected to be a Timepiece Chess—sometimes shifted a little.

That’s what made things tricky.

As a battleship captain, he was now bound by the Torch Human Civilization’s ban on internal strife. Whether he could get the second Timepiece Chess would depend entirely on the opposition’s willingness.

In other words, he could only offer payment—no force.

Just as he was thinking, the hidden Heavenly Ruin suddenly detected a faint spatial fluctuation out in the void. But nothing showed up on the airspace radar.

Song Chi’s eyes narrowed. He doubted he’d imagined the disturbance. His ship was able to remain undetected after a jump because he’d preemptively activated the ‘Mirage’ feature, concealing all traces from the Heavenly Ruin’s movements.

The Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl was a Silver Legendary Component, so could that signal have come from a lesser item—a weaker oddity unable to fully suppress its own activity, creating that temporary spatial ripple?

With that, he activated the ‘Spirit-Seeking Sense’ of his Eye of Spirit-Seeking.

He hadn’t expected what came next: the results made his heart skip a beat.

Despite the calm expanse of space around him, there were actually four Zhulu-class Cruisers each three thousand meters long.

They all seemed to have something like a Void Shroud, hiding themselves at various locations beyond the floating-land, eluding his Eye of Spirit-Seeking at first, but ultimately all detected by Spirit-Seeking Sense.

His thoughts whirled. Soon, a trace of intent flickered across Song Chi’s face.

Clearly, the forces on the floating-land were being watched by others, which meant this could be a good opportunity for him.

BZZZ BZZZ BZZZ!

He deliberately shut off the Mirage feature, along with the Void Shroud.

With those layers gone, the fourteen-thousand-meter Heavenly Ruin was now fully revealed in the starlit void.

Instantly, all four Zhulu-class Cruisers lurking nearby were thrown into chaos. Their captains looked utterly baffled by the sudden appearance of a battleship.

“Old Four, did HQ send someone?”

“No way, I haven’t gotten any notifications at all!”

“Nothing?”

“Quick! Contact command, find out what’s going on!”

…

While the four Zhulu-class Cruisers scrambled internally, Song Chi was already piloting the Heavenly Ruin—or rather, the Eastern Kunlun—right up to the floating-land, stopping just outside its shield.

This move caught everyone inside the floating-land off guard as well. Two Zhulu-class Cruisers rose from the ground and flew to intercept at the inner edge of the land’s shield. There, shield between them, they opened communications with Song Chi.

“Battleship Captain, what brings you to our Pan Clan ancestral land?”

Hearing the greeting, Song Chi immediately figured this was indeed the Pan Clan’s ancestral territory.

His reply was calm and unhurried, echoing from the ship.

“Relax. I’m not here for trouble—and I have nothing to do with those outside watching you. I’m here for one thing only: Timepiece Chess!”

At mention of Timepiece Chess, both Zhulu-class Cruiser Captains inside the shield turned pale—clearly they already knew about that Silver Component.

Song Chi remained focused and watched their reactions. Quietly, he confirmed that the signal on the Destiny Compass really was the second Timepiece Chess.

“Since you’re already aware, things become much easier. As long as you’re willing to hand over the component, I can promise the Pan Clan any favor within my ability!”