Chapter 547: Blood War Secret Realm: The Silver Stele Hunt

If he wasn’t mistaken, during that last clash, the enemy managed to plant a special tracking mark on the Heavenly Ruin.

This tracking mark was incredibly well-hidden. Not only would it escape the notice of any Torch Captain’s naked eye, but even after it was embedded in the hull, the Abnormal Status Purifier didn’t give any alert.

It was only thanks to his Dual Pupils that he caught that subtle maneuver.

But Song Chi wasn’t the only one playing tricks. In that brief instant, he marked the opponent’s flagship with the Deathstar Starlight Mark. Inside the secret realm, who would be tracking whom was still anybody’s guess.

Following right behind Shang Jie’s battleship, the Heavenly Ruin dove into the secret realm’s entrance.

Yet, just before the ship disappeared into the swirling portal, a faint glimmer shot in from behind.

As the violent sensation of weightlessness took hold, Song Chi vaguely heard the Sky-Domain AI’s alert.

“Warning: The battleship is bound by a special aura. Preliminary assessment: a temporary mixed buff granting increased defense and movement speed. Attempt to activate Abnormal Status Purifier for removal?”

“A buff aura… So even Whitebrow picked up on Shang Jie’s little move,” Song Chi muttered.

He dismissed the AI’s prompt. Since it was just a beneficial aura, there was no need to purify it.

Though he trusted the fighting power of the Heavenly Ruin, it didn’t mean he could afford to underestimate his opponents.

Shang Jie was no ordinary rival—he was from a premier power, rumored to be the only son of a Star-Annihilator-class elder from the Shang Clan. Who knew what terrifying trump cards he had up his sleeve. Caution was the only option.

It wasn’t long before the queasy weightlessness faded. That meant he had safely entered the Blood War Secret Realm.

He swept his gaze around. The Heavenly Ruin now drifted in a quiet, lonely swath of starry sky, with no sign of other Torch Battleships nearby.

Clearly, entry into the Blood War Secret Realm was randomized.

Song Chi already knew this and ignored it. Firing up the engines, he pushed the Heavenly Ruin deeper into the unknown.

The Blood War Secret Realm was enormous—spanning tens of thousands of light-years. For now, all he needed to do was get his bearings and then make his way toward the core region.

There were plenty of Blood War Steles to be found here, but the high-quality ones resided in the realm’s core. His base goal was to secure at least one Silver Blood War Stele, though a Golden one would be the real prize.

Of course, whether silver or gold, these top-tier steles only showed up in the core region.

Pushing forward, his eyes occasionally flicked back to the Deathstar Tracking Mark module.

“They’re not closing in on the Heavenly Ruin… Is it because the distance is too great, or is he exploring on his own first?”

The Deathstar Tracking Mark showed that Shang Jie’s flagship wasn’t in a rush to hunt him down.

“Fine by me. Priority is nabbing a top-tier Blood War Stele!”

……

BZZZZZT!

In the battleship’s main control room, golden light flashed. The Eyes of Heaven radar’s Eye of Spirit-Seeking trait kicked in.

Moments later, the radar displayed a series of light dots in various colors.

Most of them glowed purple, with a handful of orange, and only two flickering red.

Spotting no silver or gold steles within the scan range, Song Chi hesitated for a heartbeat, then steered the Heavenly Ruin at top speed toward the heart of the secret realm.

He could’ve easily grabbed those orange and red steles if he spent a little extra time here. However, now that this secret realm had been explored for a hundred years, plenty of silver—and even some gold—Blood War Steles had already been snatched by the three major factions.

Even though the Blood War Secret Realm qualified as a universe-level pocket realm, it was the lowest tier among them. There wouldn’t be too many silver or gold steles produced; growing them to that level took eons. If he didn’t act fast and secure a couple, he’d be plagued by unease.

If he waited for another crop of high-level steles to appear, he’d miss his chance. With the looming all-out war between top civilizations, the Heavenly Ruin had to advance before the conflict truly erupted. Once it was upgraded to a Dreadnought, he’d lose access to the Blood War Secret Realm forever.

……

With the permanent concealment of the Void Shroud stacked atop Mirage’s invisibility and the Scarlet Vault Jump Drive at his disposal, Song Chi could’ve just leapt straight to the core.

But the Eye of Spirit-Seeking had a limited scan radius. By feeling his way step by step, it took Song Chi over a month before he finally made it in.

Luckily, fortune favored him. Not long after entering the core region, he picked up a silver Blood War Stele on his scanners.

That said, he couldn’t be completely sure it was a true silver stele. While the Blood War Secret Realm wasn’t home to many other Starsea Oddities at first, after years of exploring and many captains’ deaths, there could easily be leftover silver artifacts scattered around.

Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl—Mirage form, activate!

The Heavenly Ruin faded into the void, made another jump, and materialized several light-years away.

He found himself above a small floating-land. Its diameter just barely reached a hundred million kilometers, nowhere near the scale of a rank-four floating-land in the wider universe—but this was the Blood War Secret Realm.

According to the Eyes of Heaven’s Spiritual Detection, there were no fewer than five sixth-order entities stationed here.

Hiss—

The hatch opened. The Flamewrath Giant, Six-Star Ancient Fiend, and a sixth-order Doomstar clansman—the most powerful combatants on the Heavenly Ruin—charged out in turn.

Once clear of the ship, all three swelled to their full sixth-order forms under Song Chi’s command, ballooning in an instant.

The pressure radiated by sixth-order lifeforms was overwhelming.

Sure enough, the Bloodwar Clan nearby snapped to attention.

In under two minutes, eight sixth-order titans, all over a hundred thousand meters tall, faced off beneath the stars.

The Bloodwar Clan looked much like Star-Giants, except their bodies were clad from head to toe in natural crimson scale armor. This armor fit them perfectly, working more like a living exosuit: it offered unmatched protection without hampering their movements—a clear sign these beings were born for battle. Their fighting prowess among their peers was legendary.

With that layer of blood-red scale armor and their monstrous bodies, the Bloodwar Clan were truly made to wage war. In a one-on-one, few of the same order could ever match them.

Rumor had it, a rising star from the Divine Federation once forced his own sixth-order Eight-Armed Serpent Demon—one with royal blood at that—into a duel with a sixth-order Bloodwar Clan warrior. In the end, even with that pedigree, the demon scraped out victory by the narrowest margin.

Just that was enough proof of the Bloodwar Clan’s terrifying individual power.

Eight-Armed Serpent Demon? What sort of monster was that?

An apex ruler of a high civilization in the Sea of Stars, the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon had made its name through raw might over countless millennia. And if you were lucky enough to face a royal bloodline, you’d be in for a horror show.

……

Even so, Song Chi wasn’t in any hurry, not even when the Bloodwar Clan held the numbers.

In the next moment, the Flamewrath Giant, Six-Star Ancient Fiend, and the sixth-order Doomstar clansman all blazed with power. As the five Bloodwar warriors watched, their bodies, already in peak form, started to swell again.

As their bodies grew, their power ramped up along with their size.

When they finally stopped, the Doomstar clansman stood at one hundred and ten thousand meters, the Flamewrath Giant topped one hundred and twenty thousand, and the Six-Star Ancient Fiend stretched an insane one hundred and thirty thousand meters.

Each of them increased their combat power by ten, twenty, and thirty percent respectively.

It might not sound like much, but a boost of up to thirty percent for sixth-order beings was earth-shattering.

And that wasn’t the end. As the Bloodwar warriors charged, Song Chi activated the Samsara Time Domain effect.

Now, with time slowed by several times, plus their size-boosting buffs, and long-range fire support from the Heavenly Ruin, it didn’t take long to subdue all five ferocious Bloodwar Clan warriors.

Song Chi didn’t slaughter them though. Instead, with the Celestial Authority Ring, he enslaved all five Bloodwar warriors.

These Bloodwar warriors couldn’t be taken out openly because of their sensitive origin, but as the Heavenly Ruin was about to begin its battleship ascension, using them to boost his odds was perfect.

“I may as well enslave a few more while I have the chance. The ancient fiends I caught earlier have already been handed to the family, and the Market and Cultivation Sanctuary are both empty. Adding a few dozen more now shouldn’t be an issue.”

Fixing that plan in his mind, Song Chi kept moving. The Heavenly Ruin quickly charged onto the floating-land ahead.

A few hours later, after thoroughly scavenging the place, the Heavenly Ruin sailed out again at full speed, heading deeper into the heart of the secret realm.

Back in the control room, Song Chi held a silver artifact—the very same silver Blood War Stele he’d locked on to earlier.

Blood War Stele lv0

Quality: Silver

Attribute: Equipping it grants the battleship an anti-control aura, immune to control effects below the module’s enhancement level.

Attribute 2: Blood Frenzy

Attribute 3: War Chant

Attribute 4: Bloodwar Spirit Armor

Consumption: 40 per second (Eon Energy Points)

Effect: Fills the battleship with a fighting spirit aura. Every being inside will always keep a sliver of resolve—even in the bleakest circumstances, their morale will never break.

No charging or cooldown needed.

Upgrade requirements: 40 wisps of zero-rank Floating-Land Origin, 4000 Eon Energy Points, and 1 Bloodwar Stone.

Note: This module occupies 4 equipment slots.

{Blood Frenzy: Each time the battleship bathes in the blood of a same-tier unit, its firepower increases by 20% for 10 minutes, stacking up to 10 times.}

{War Chant: Spend 80,000 Eon Energy Points to push one target into a war frenzy state, boosting combat power by 50% for 30 minutes. Cooldown: 360 hours.}

{Bloodwar Spirit Armor: Spend 10,000 Eon Energy Points to cover a target in bloodscale armor equal in defense to the module’s enhancement level, lasts 60 minutes. Up to 10 units at once. After the armor breaks, a unit must wait 24 hours before reapplying.}

No doubt about it, the attributes of this Blood War Stele module were phenomenal. Built-in anti-control, boosts to firepower, buffs to combat strength, and improved defense—all in one package. Each ability was valuable on its own. Gathering them into a single item was just outrageous.

Maybe that was why even a legendary silver artifact wasn’t enough for Song Chi now. He wanted a gold, sanctum-tier Blood War Stele—but that would be nearly impossible.

According to the latest from the Star Tower missions, there were only a handful of gold steles in the whole secret realm, and one was already taken by the Shang Clan.

“No use forcing it. I’ll just do my best.”

Even as that thought crossed his mind, a flicker of surprise flashed in his eyes.

“Strange… why did he suddenly jump way over there? If I’m not mistaken, that’s the far outer edge of the realm.”

Glancing at the Deathstar Tracking Mark, he saw Shang Jie’s flagship had appeared on the far verge of the secret realm. Song Chi’s mind raced.

A heartbeat later, the Heavenly Ruin swung around sharply. His instincts screamed there was more to this.

……

Several thousand light-years away from the Heavenly Ruin, at the Shang Clan’s temporary base in the Blood War Secret Realm—

A 13,000-meter-long battleship quietly slipped away from the large floating-land fragment the camp sat upon.

If any Shang Clan members noticed, they’d recognize it instantly as Shang Jie’s flagship.

Inside the command center, Shang Jie piloted his flagship at breakneck speed, occasionally glancing at a silver tracking device nearby.

“I’ll let you live a few more days. My brother’s orders come first!”

With that, he pushed the flagship to go even faster.

BZZZZT!

After one more warp, Shang Jie kept his flagship hurtling through unknown space.

Suddenly, the battleship seemed to pass through an invisible membrane and vanished from normal space.

Inside, Shang Jie stared straight ahead—massive coffins were floating in the starlit expanse.

At the sight, Shang Jie couldn’t help a sly smile:

“If big brother hadn’t stumbled on it by accident, who would’ve guessed the Bloodwar Clan hid their clan graveyard in a place like this?”

Mumbling to himself, Shang Jie quickly glanced at the radar.

When he spotted a blinding golden light on the display, the excitement in his eyes grew even stronger.

This time, his target was the second Golden Blood War Stele.

His big brother had already snagged the first one. The second, though, was his for the taking.