Chapter 553: Pressures of the Scorching Sun Sand Sea

Above the Scorching Sun Sand Sea, far up in the sky.

The Dominion Flagship unleashed its full power, a crushing Seventh-Tier might that made more and more alien beings gathering at the edge of the sand sea hesitate and stop in their tracks.

Seventh-tier strength marks the threshold of an advanced star-sea civilization. Even the weakest seventh-tier civilization isn’t something that any random creature can challenge.

There was also an unexpected twist. In the projected images of the sand sea’s core, some aliens recognized the origins of the Three-Eyed Clan Imperial Flagship.

“That’s the Dominion Flagship of the Three-Eyed Clan! These are people from a hegemon-level civilization!”

Those words sent ripples through the crowd—quite a few aliens wore looks of shock and suspicion.

The Three-Eyed Clan, acknowledged by Torch Human Civilization as a sea-of-stars hegemon, had a legacy stretching over a million years. Their fame wasn’t limited to Torch’s domain; countless alien races knew of their existence.

Moments later, nearly every alien present understood the Three-Eyed Clan’s standing, making all the more unwilling to rush into the depths of the Scorching Sun Sand Sea.

Broken-star civilizations were endless, but earning the title of “hegemon-level” meant their ranks harbored at least tenth-tier mythic powerhouses. Faced with a Dominion from such a civilization, no creature would dare pick a fight lightly.

Deep within the Scorching Sun Sand Sea, Song Chi and his group had considered such a possibility. They’d confirmed that there hadn’t been any other Three-Eyed Clan appearances on the Red Star Continent before this. Still, none of them had expected the borrowed reputation to work so well.

For the next three whole months, not a single creature dared step into the sand sea.

Of course, even the Three-Eyed Clan’s reputation has limits. After all, what appeared was just a Seventh-Tier Dominion Flagship.

As the Origin Core of the Red Star Continent grew ever more active, more and more Dominion-class aliens began gathering at the outer edge of the sand sea.

The pulsing energy from the Floating-land Origin Core beckoned, attracting even the most powerful beings.

The allure of an eighth-level Floating-land’s Origin Core was obvious—its temptation beyond words.

One thing was clear: High-rank Floating-land Origin Cores weren’t just useful to lower-tier floating lands. For less powerful star-sea beings, these were rare resources too.

An advanced Origin Core held vast reserves of the sea-of-stars origin power. If one could devour and absorb it, their insight into the laws of the cosmos would deepen dramatically. No living being could ignore such a promise.

Now, the energies spilling from the sand sea’s heart were thick with high-grade star-sea origin, powerful enough to drive even the greatest to hunger.

That’s why so many Seventh-Tier Dominion aliens had gathered in such a short time.

As for why no Eighth-Tier powerhouses had arrived? It was simply that the energies released hadn’t reached their level—yet.

Bang!

In a tense atmosphere rife with both fanaticism and fear, one Star Devourer Wolf—Seventh-Tier Dominion—finally stepped forward.

It refused to linger on the outskirts any longer.

A well-known giant beast among the stars, the Star Devourer Wolf clan couldn’t quite rival the Three-Eyed Clan, but their ranks had produced numerous Ninth-Tier wolves. That made them less intimidated by the Three-Eyed reputation.

With the first trailblazer taking a step, it wasn’t long before more Dominion-class aliens began stirring restlessly.

High overhead in the sand sea, the Song Family observed it all clearly, using the “Eyes of Heaven” function of their Eyes of Heaven artifact.

In the comms channel, Song Wujian turned his gaze to Song Chi.

“Xiaochi, the Clan will offer five silver Oddities that can’t be converted to battleship parts as compensation. Time to make your move!”

“We only need a bit more than a month to finish the preliminary siphon. If we maintain this eighth-tier Dominion intimidation a while longer, we just might pull this off without a fight!”

Inside the Heavenly Ruin, Song Chi nodded. In the next instant, he slipped away unseen.

At that same moment, within the Three-Eyed Clan Imperial Flagship above, a Fourth-Tier Doomstar abruptly activated the Market Projection Token in its hand.

A surge of purple mist swept out, soon enveloping the entire expanse of the Scorching Sun Sand Sea with mighty eighth-tier power.

Hundreds of light-years away, a handful of other distinguished Dominion-class aliens were about to follow the Seventh-Tier Star Devourer Wolf into the sand sea depths—when suddenly, a vast energy wave swept down from overhead.

Whoosh!

The void split apart. From deep in the nothingness, a massive, indescribable purple-mist hand reached down, poised to strike at the sands below.

Dominions lingering on the outskirts instantly felt a chill run through them. They could sense that the purple-mist hand overhead held the power of the eighth rank.

Fortunately, that hand wasn’t aimed at them. It was the one small mercy in their hearts.

But that first Star Devourer Wolf wasn’t so lucky. The endless purple mist locked onto it, and in the end it could only spit out a gold oddity shaped like a fingerbone from its massive jaws.

Crack!

The fingerbone clashed with the purple-mist hand. For a heartbeat, the two were deadlocked—then a brittle snap sounded from the golden oddity. The next moment, the fingerbone was slammed into the yellow sands below. The now-slightly-dimmed purple-mist hand pressed down again, smashing hard into the giant body of the Seventh-Tier Star Devourer Wolf.

After landing one blow, the purple-mist hand faded, as if it were only meant as a warning, not to kill.

Back at the wounded Star Devourer Wolf, silvery blood ran down its colossal body, which stretched over ten thousand kilometers high. It was hurt—and it showed.

Sensing the well-hidden gazes from behind, it unleashed all of its devouring power, forcing those unfriendly stares to retreat. Then, it mustered its Dominion Power, drawing back the golden fingerbone oddity—now dulled and embedded in the sand.

Once done, the seventh-tier wolf lifted its gaze toward the center of the sand sea one last time, then turned away, fear etched in its every movement.

But rather than returning to the crowd of aliens behind, it strode out of the sand sea entirely.

It understood the struggles in its own body. Although that suspected three-eyed eighth-tier Dominion hadn’t struck to kill, the wounds were still serious. One-on-one, maybe it would be fine—but if other Dominions joined in, it couldn’t withstand them. There was a real risk of death.

With this realization, it had no intent to linger here any longer.

The scent of seventh-tier star-sea origin was certainly alluring, but it was already spoken for by an eighth-tier Dominion of the Three-Eyed Clan—a prize not easily stolen from the flames.

With the Star Devourer Wolf retreating, those other once-eager Dominion aliens quickly settled down again. Over the next month, Song Chi burned through three silver Oddities to recharge the Market Projection Token and used it three times to intimidate different sand sea areas.

The results could only be called… satisfactory.

……

“How much longer before we’re done?”

Hearing the question, Song Shixing replied quickly from deep underground.

“About seven days left!”

When the Song Family members atop the sands heard this, they wore troubled faces.

A day earlier, the energy from the underground Origin Core had already reached a faint Eighth-Tier level. By their estimates, an eighth-tier Dominion would probably arrive soon. Seven more days felt far too long.

In the Heavenly Ruin’s command center, Song Chi’s gaze flickered. After a moment, his voice rang out over the comms.

“I’ve got a plan. Old Ancestor, be careful!”

With that, the battleship swept downward toward the depths.

Far below, the Calm-Sea Rising Dragon continued extracting with all its might.

Before long, the Heavenly Ruin reentered the underground stone chamber.

Within the warship’s command room, Song Chi’s attention landed sharply on the Timepiece Chessboard component.

Timepiece Chessboard—activating “Time • Chessboard”!

At the very top of the stone chamber, an illusory chessboard big enough to fill the whole ceiling began to take shape beneath 108 chess pieces.

Immediately, the space under the phantom chessboard started warping rapidly.

With the chessboard’s power at work, the flow of time within the chamber grew increasingly distorted until, under Song Chi’s control, it finally blazed ahead at a blazing speed.

Eventually, time settled at 135 times the normal flow.

With this acceleration, the Calm-Sea Rising Dragon’s rate of siphoning the Origin Core soared accordingly.

A look of wild delight lit up Song Shixing’s face inside the Rising Dragon.

A quick calculation told him Song Chi had boosted the time flow so much that, while they originally needed seven days, now it would only take an hour and a half.

Their odds of pulling off this heist had skyrocketed.

“Well done, kid…”

After the initial surge of excitement, Song Shixing forced himself to calm down. After all, the Origin Core wasn’t in hand yet. It was too soon to celebrate.

Out in the world above, Song Xingru and the others waited anxiously. Song Chi had said he had a way, but after more than an hour with no news, it was getting hard not to worry.

Just then, a familiar voice echoed through the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang—it rang out from the sub-disk of the Long-Range Communication Disk Song Chi had left behind.

“Old Ancestor, it’s done! Come down!”

On hearing that, layers of ripples flickered in the depths of Song Wujian’s dark eyes—but even after thousands of years, he held onto his composure.

“It’s done. Get ready to move!”

Under his command, the Three-Eyed Clan Dominion Flagship overhead rapidly shrank. Once it rejoined the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang, all nine battleships dove at full speed into the depths of the passage below.

……

Seconds later, where the nine Song Family ships had been hovering in the sky, fierce spatial tremors erupted.

The void tore wide open as a black, scaly claw emerged, radiating overwhelming eighth-tier pressure as it reached toward the sand sea below.

No doubt about it—a mysterious eighth-tier Dominion was making its move, drawn by the pulse of star-sea origin beneath and hoping to seize it from afar.

The crushing pressure was intense—even hiding tens of trillions of kilometers underground, Song Chi could feel the strain.

Yet despite his heavy breathing, a triumphant smile curled his lips.

“Sorry—you’re too late!”

As he spoke, his figure vanished again from the underground stone chamber.

Moments later, the overwhelming eighth-tier power arrived too late. Under its might, the underground passage, painstakingly created over nearly two centuries by the Hidden Vein, collapsed completely.

But that didn’t matter anymore—the Song Family had already achieved their goal.

High above, as time passed, more and more eighth-tier powerhouses revealed themselves—even the Angel King of Saintlight City appeared.

But no matter how formidable these bigshots were, there was no way they could trace Song Chi and his group, who were now over 80,000 light-years away.

Afterward, the Scorching Sun Sand Sea was lively for a while longer. Some aliens even found the weak geomantic spot deep underground, but none of them could draw out the Red Star Continent’s Floating-land Origin Core again.