Chapter 535: A Leap into the Void: The Search for Timepiece Chessboard

The momentary shock faded as Song Wujian’s gaze suddenly shifted.

Seeing this, Song Chi’s expression tightened as well. He caught the seriousness and solemnity in the Old Ancestor’s eyes.

“Xiaochi, promise me—never let anyone outside the family know you can alter the characteristics of a golden Sanctuary-grade component!”

Realizing what his ancestor wanted to impress upon him, Song Chi nodded gravely.

“I understand, Grandfather!”

He clearly knew the significance of this. Normally, only the Silver Apple and Golden Apple allowed you to freely modify a component’s traits—after using them to complete the evolution.

But for a golden Sanctuary-level component, you’d need a Ninth-Tier Golden Apple. Just thinking about that, you could imagine how tough it was.

……

A verbal promise alone didn’t set Song Wujian’s mind at ease. To truly guarantee secrecy, he activated a silver contract-type component on the flagship, and drafted a silver-tier confidentiality agreement for the two of them.

“Come on—let’s head for the Burningfall Plains!”

Once the confidentiality pact was signed, and noticing the eager light in Song Chi’s eyes, the two wasted no time and set out for the Burningfall Plains.

Inside a vast composite illusion, the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang hovered high above. On the ground below, Song Chi waited quietly.

He might look calm like an old seasoned dog, but inside, he was a bundle of nerves.

After all, if things fell through again this time, their only options were to wait for the Heavenly Ruin to reach the sixth tier and for himself or the Clan Elder to evolve Torch Seed into the gold rank.

Either way, this was never going to be a quick fix. At best, it would be a hundred years—maybe even several centuries.

Such a delay was the last thing Song Chi wanted.

At that moment, the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang began its slow descent from above.

“Well, Ancestor? How did it go?”

He kept his eyes locked on his ancestor until he finally saw a smile begin to spread across Song Wujian’s face. Only then did the tension in his chest ease.

It was all written clear on his face now. Still, Song Chi asked one last time just to be sure.

“So, is that coordinate within range?”

“Yes.”

……

“Xiaochi, besides the coordinate you provided, I also tried the Red Star Continent. Unfortunately, it still didn’t work.”

Song Chi was a little surprised. That meant the region where the Timepiece Chessboard was located might really lie somewhere between Dragon-Spine Continent and the Red Star Continent.

But he didn’t dwell on that. Something else had caught his attention.

Just then, Song Wujian spoke up again.

“Xiaochi, what I mean is—let’s take a trip to the Red Star Continent. See if we can link up with that coordinate from there. If it works, we’ll be able to create a spatial wormhole on the Red Star Continent, which would be much better!”

Song Chi raised an eyebrow—his ancestor was thinking along the same lines.

Even though the High-Dimensional Wormhole Generator could link to that coordinate, they had no clue what was waiting on the other side. Was it some alien civilization? Was it an advanced one? No way to know. Opening a wormhole from the Dragon-Spine Continent would be way too risky.

On the other hand, if they did it from the Red Star Continent, it wouldn’t matter as much if trouble broke out. There were already more than enough hostile races there—a few extra wouldn’t make a difference.

Their minds in agreement, they acted without delay. Using the Dimensional Spatial Stone, Song Chi took Song Wujian straight to the Red Star Continent.

Half an hour later, they returned, both wearing helpless looks.

The Red Star Continent’s sector was ridiculously far away. There was no way to connect to the Timepiece Chessboard’s location from there.

“If that’s the case, we’ll try the Storm Calamity Floating-Land. Dragon-Spine Continent is the Song Family’s foundation—no chances can be taken there.”

“Agreed.”

At a composite illusion somewhere on Storm Calamity Floating-Land, both the Heavenly Ruin and Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang sat in illusion space.

Along with Song Chi and Song Wujian, Song Shiyuan—who’d been posted on Storm Calamity Floating-Land for over 150 years—was present as well.

Both the Heavenly Ruin and Unmoving Vajra hovered just overhead, focusing intently on the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang, now shining with golden light.

The spatial wormhole was almost complete. If anything dangerous showed up on the other end, they were set to help Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang force the wormhole shut.

And if, by some grim chance, the enemy could forcibly lock the passage on the other side, Song Chi wouldn’t hesitate to use the Market Projection Token, channel Dominion Power to shatter the wormhole completely.

And up above, the Three-Eyed Clan Imperial Flagship hovered in readiness.

Time ticked by, but things didn’t take a disastrous turn. Once the wormhole activated, no disturbances came from the other side.

The three exchanged glances, then moved ahead with their original plan.

The Three-Eyed Clan Imperial Flagship took the lead, charging first through the wormhole.

Heavenly Ruin, Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang, and Unmoving Vajra followed closely behind.

They made their way through, never spotting anything out of the ordinary. Still, none of the Song Family veterans let their guard down for a second.

……

Outer Domain—a starfield shrouded in endless darkness.

A dimensional vortex, tens of thousands of kilometers across, hung in this void belt. Suddenly, a titanic battleship emerged from its swirling center.

Trailing behind the steel monstrosity, each kilometer long, came three smaller warships.

Battleship comm channel:

“Song Shiyuan: Not bad luck at all. This place is a total starsea void belt!”

“Song Wujian: Xiaochi, any response from your component?”

Inside the Heavenly Ruin’s command room, Song Chi locked eyes on the Destiny Compass, studying the territorial star map. His eyes sparkled with anticipation.

Now that the Heavenly Ruin had entered a sector nearly 95 billion light-years from the Dragon-Spine Continent, three points suddenly flared into view on the territory star map.

So many signals in one spot.

Clearly, that Seventh-Tier Astrologer’s divination hadn’t been nonsense. Even if this wasn’t exactly where the Timepiece Chessboard was, it had to be close.

Of course, “close” was only relative to the endless Shattered Sea of Stars; it still meant distances measured in billions of light-years.

Amid his excitement, Song Chi’s brow furrowed again.

“Wait, all three points are silver. If I’m right, they’re all Timepiece Chess—not the board itself.”

Song Chi frowned. What he wanted was always the Timepiece Chessboard—not the Timepiece Chess pieces.

There were over a hundred of the pieces. If he chased down each one, who knew how long it would take.

Besides, even if he managed to gather them all, it might not bring him any closer to the Chessboard itself.

By contrast, if he could get the main board, he’d almost certainly be able to recall every scattered piece.

The gap between the master and the fragments was as wide as ever.

After thinking a moment, Song Chi laid the truth out for Clan Elder and Prime Ancestor.

“Song Shiyuan: So they’re all secondary pieces, huh? That’ll be a hassle. Looks like we’ll need to search the area slowly.”

After Song Shiyuan finished, Song Wujian asked:

“Xiaochi, do you have a high-grade jump module on your flagship?”

“Your Prime Ancestor and I need to return to guard the clan. We can’t join you in the hunt, but maybe there’s a way to help from the sidelines.”

Hearing his ancestor’s question, Song Chi shook his head.

He’d already expected this. The silver-ranked Scarlet Vault Jump Drive on board had been powered up to level 70, massively increasing its stats—plus, the ‘Scarlet Vault Jump’ trait now let them cover absolutely insane distances in a single jump.

Scarlet Vault Jump Drive lv70

Grade: Silver

Trait: Doubled maximum jump range

Trait 2: +6400 space resistance for equipped battleship

Trait 3: Jump charges—up to two at a time

Trait 4: Scarlet Vault Jump

Energy Cost: 100,000 per use (Eon Energy Points)

Available Jumps: 2/2

Effect: Once charged, the battleship can leap to a chosen point in space. Final max jump distance: 13,000 (6500 × 2) light-years

……

{Scarlet Vault Jump: Costs 300,000 Eon Energy Points. Teleports in a chosen direction at a range up to 500 times normal jump limit (6.5 million light-years). Cooldown fixed at one year. (Massive uncertainty! Without detailed star maps, using it is extremely risky.)}

With its standard jump, they could cross over ten thousand light-years. Activate Scarlet Vault Jump, and that number jumped to 6.5 million in a single leap—truly staggering.

Of course, Song Chi fully understood the drawbacks, but it didn’t bother him.

The main downside was a year-long cooldown. But by combining the Pusa Zen Seal and Timepiece Chess components, he could cut that down to under a month and a half—definitely within an acceptable range.

The real danger was what happened at the destination—if the jump ended inside a floating landmass or asteroid, the entire battleship would be crushed to dust.

He had a plan for that too.

Right before jumping, he’d transform the Heavenly Ruin into a miniature neutron star. Thanks to its incredible density, even if he landed inside a floating-land, asteroid or black hole, he could survive for a while.

That would give him enough time to use Flash-displacement Component, the Angel King’s Authority Wings, Market Projection Token, and Black Hole Evolution Layer—all lifesaving measures.

“Alright, since you’re prepared, we’ll leave you to it. Be careful out here.”

With that, Song Wujian and Prime Ancestor vanished into the wormhole with the Three-Eyed Clan Imperial Flagship.

Just before they left, Song Chi reminded them to destroy the wormhole after returning.

Even though the wormhole was set deep inside the void belt, random incidents could always happen. Since he’d soon be leaving, it was safer for everyone on Storm Calamity Floating-Land if the wormhole was removed.

As for himself, he’d left a spatial anchor behind anyway. He could come and go whenever he wanted.

Even though he was now more than ninety billion light-years away from Dragon-Spine Continent, repeated tests proved he could travel freely via the Omniverse Market.

It wasn’t long before Song Chi watched the wormhole collapse in the distance, crumbling away till it fully disappeared.

With that confirmed, he turned his attention back to the territorial star map.

Gazing at the three points on the map, he shook his head.

“Forget the Timepiece Chess—they’re spread millions of light-years apart. Even if I used ‘Scarlet Vault Jump’ each time, it’d take over a year to gather them all. Focusing on the Chessboard makes more sense.”

Muttering this, he still recorded each of their coordinates. If he never found the Chessboard, he’d just have to chase down the pieces one by one in the end.

Decision made, he didn’t rush to activate Scarlet Vault Jump. Instead, he carefully charted his search route on the star map. Without knowing where the Timepiece Chessboard was, planning his search was critical to avoid wasted effort.

His search zone wasn’t just some tiny region. Centered on this very void belt, it spanned a titanic area with a twenty-billion light-year radius.

That was the limit of his current planning—and his power. As for the three-hundred billion light-years mentioned by the Seventh-Tier Astrologer, that was impossible for now. It would simply take too long.

His plan was simple—if nothing turned up within that twenty-billion light-year radius, he’d wait until Heavenly Ruin was promoted to a dreadnought and Torch Seed evolved to gold rank before trying again.

At that point, with a golden jump module and the Trace to Source trait from Destiny Compass boosted to a 20-billion light-year detection radius, the hunt would become much easier.