Chapter 566: Golden Torch Seed: The Path of Upgrades and the March to War

For Song Chi, strengthening his warship meant upgrading the eighth-tier components.

So, his gaze fell on three categories of parts aboard the ship: gold, black, and multicolored.

Multicolored: Timepiece Chessboard.

Black: Antimatter Evolution Engine, Black Hole Evolution Layer, Void Sea Projection Emperor’s Tomb, Tome of Divine Will.

Gold: Divine Thunder Cannon, Blood Spear, Neutron-Star Core Armor, Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield, Eyes of Heaven, Pusa Zen Seal, Celestial Authority Ring, Angel King’s Authority Wings, Frost King’s Crown, Blood War Stele, Mythic Serpent’s Eternal Guard Scale, Destiny Compass.

These 17 components were all he cared about.

Among them, Black Hole Evolution Layer and Angel King’s Authority Wings were already off the list—thanks to the Clan Elder, they’d both been upgraded to level 80. Song Chi and Song Yan had even handed over 20 Dominion Souls each to the Clan Elder for that.

Now, Song Chi only had 72 Dominion Souls left—not all that many.

After running the numbers, he realized he only had enough to bring seven components to the eighth tier. With the Celestial Authority Ring already at level 79, he could manage a maximum of eight.

Fifteen pieces to pick from, but only enough resources for eight—so every choice mattered.

First on his list: the Antimatter Evolution Engine.

He couldn’t afford to power up so many high-tier components without a powerful enough energy core.

It took 10 Dominion Souls, dozens of wisps of seventh-tier Floating-land Origin, a wisp of eighth-tier origin, and some Titanite Crystal, but he finally pushed the Antimatter Evolution Engine to level 80.

Every aspect of it saw a solid bump.

Its energy efficiency went up from 320% to 350%.

Engine thrust rose from 320% to 350%.

All components on the ship equal to or below this one in tier now had their energy consumption cut from 60% to 65%.

Energy output jumped from 140,000 to 175,000 a second.

Most impressive of all, its energy reservoir—which was only 10 million at level 70—had soared to 15 million.

One thing to note: after level 80, if he kept using seventh-tier Dominion Souls to strengthen it, each upgrade would keep costing him 10. Only eighth-tier Dominion Souls would bring that cost down to one per upgrade. Song Chi could only shake his head at that balance.

After the engine, the next component he upgraded was the Mythic Serpent’s Eternal Guard Scale. Once it reached eighth tier, he didn’t have to worry about any remote scanning or tracking from the Shang Clan.

After that, he upgraded four pieces in quick succession: Timepiece Chessboard, Blood War Stele, Blood Spear, and Pusa Zen Seal.

Timepiece Chessboard: Level 80.

Quality: Multicolored/High-tier.

Feature: Reduces cooldown on all ship components by 75%.

Feature 2: Time Resistance +25,000.

…

Feature 7: Increases efficiency of understanding the Law of Time inside the warship by 470%.

Feature 8: Nine Lives Game of Life and Death.

……

Besides those, the ‘Time • Chessboard’ feature’s duration and time acceleration both leveled up: even with the minimum 36 Timepiece Chess, the domain’s acceleration hit 50x; with 72 pieces, that reached 100x. Duration was now 50 minutes, and the cooldown dropped to just 120 hours.

‘Time • Game’ now had a reduced cooldown of 60 years, and its duration had climbed to three and a half hours.

Blood War Stele’s immunity buff jumped an entire tier.

As for Blood Spear, after pushing it to eighth tier, this golden supercannon’s raw firepower became downright terrifying.

Finally, with Pusa Zen Seal pushed to eighth tier, the ‘Samsara Time Domain’ feature’s cooldown was now just two years.

Glancing at the last upgrades, Song Chi saw he had 12 Dominion Souls left, only four wisps of eighth-tier Floating-Land Origin, and not much Titanite Crystal.

He could only upgrade one more piece, and it was a tough call—Neutron-Star Core Armor, Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield, and Eyes of Heaven all seemed like contenders.

In the end, he chose the Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield.

Since the Clan Elder had already handled Black Hole Evolution Layer as an emergency reinforcement for hull armor—and since being careful was in his nature—Song Chi decided to reinforce the Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield instead.

Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield, Level 80.

Quality: Gold.

Feature: Two-Modes Damage Reduction.

Feature 2: True Shield.

Feature 3: Energy shield value further increased by 320%.

Feature 4: Shield protection value further increased by 320%.

Feature 5: Yin-Yang Regeneration.

Consumption: 5,200 Eon Energy Points per second.

Defense: 525 billion.

Shield Value: 1,100 trillion / 1,100 trillion.

Charge: 10 seconds; overload delay: 30 minutes.

……

{Two-Modes Damage Reduction: The energy shield balances yin and yang. All external energy attacks are weakened by 70%.}

{True Shield: Energy shield features true defense, ignoring normal shield-breaking and armor-piercing effects, and partially mitigating true shield-break and armor-pierce damage.}

{Yin-Yang Regeneration: Shield receives a balance effect. When the shield takes damage, it automatically restores 2% of its value per second.}

Looking at his newly upgraded level 80 Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield, Song Chi was more than satisfied. Not to mention its 70% damage reduction, the regeneration feature alone was top notch.

Two percent per second might not seem like much, but at level 80, that meant the shield could restore 22 trillion points every second.

To make it even clearer, compare it to the level 70 Myriad-Spirit Annihilation Bow, a silver supercannon.

Its current attack power was 120.5 billion. Even if it activated the Life‑bane Arrow feature, a single hit would deal just above 10 trillion points of damage. Factoring in the 70% reduction from Two-Modes Damage Reduction and the backup of True Shield, the Yin-Yang Counter-Phase Annihilation Shield could bounce back within seconds.

And that’s not even counting the Neutron-Star Core Armor’s ‘Neutron-Star Pulse’ recovery feature.

From this angle, the eighth-tier shield’s defensive prowess really stands out.

With six components upgraded in succession, only 2 Dominion Souls remained in his hand. He still had three wisps of eighth-tier Floating-Land Origin left.

Song Chi considered, then used another Dominion Soul and a wisp of eighth-tier Floating-Land Origin to upgrade the Celestial Authority Ring to level 80.

By now, his carefully hoarded resources were all but gone.

He didn’t regret it though. Strengthening the Heavenly Ruin had boosted its overall might—enough to make Song Chi consider taking on Dominion-class lifeforms himself.

Of course, that was probably just an urge born of this recent power boost, or maybe even an illusion.

He’d have to test it in real battle to see for sure.

……

Dragon Spine Sacred Mountain.

Inside the Dragon Whale Hall, shrouded in chaotic mist, several figures had gathered.

There stood Song Wujian, Song Yan, Song Chi, as well as the projected presences of Song Shiyuan, Song Shixing, and Song Xingru in the hall’s center.

“Old Ancestor, did something major happen in the clan again?”

It hadn’t been long since they last used Dragon Whale Hall to project and summon the clan’s core members. Song Xingru couldn’t shake the feeling something had gone wrong on Dragon‑Spine Continent.

But Song Wujian just shook his head lightly.

“You could call it a big deal, but it’s not a crisis—it’s about getting everyone’s opinion.”

“What?”

“Everyone remembers the Broodmother’s nest that Xiaochi mentioned before, right?” At that, everyone nodded.

No wonder—they all had a deep impression of it. After all, the Starry Sky Dragon Shark had been enslaved there.

“Is Old Ancestor suggesting we deal with the Dominion-rank Broodmother?”

A year ago, after equipping the golden Solarflame Shield, Song Shiyuan had headed to Yaohan Floating-land. He guessed Song Wujian’s intentions instantly.

“Exactly. Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang has advanced to a Star-Annihilator-class Ship and gained the golden Torch Seed. With Song Yan, Song Chi, and even you all with silver seeds, the family is starved for Dominion Souls. If we clear out that nest, it’ll solve so much.”

The hall went silent as everyone weighed the risks.

It was true the family needed Dominion Souls, but the Broodmother’s nest was nothing short of a deathtrap—it demanded careful consideration.

A few minutes later, Song Shixing broke the silence.

“Xiaochi, Xiao Yan, how do you both rate your warships’ strength?”

Song Chi and Song Yan met eyes below the altar, then Song Yan spoke up first.

“Reporting to Ancestor Shixing, I have confidence I can hold off a Dominion-class King Bug.”

Without missing a beat, Song Chi echoed the sentiment.

“Reporting to Ancestor Shixing, same here!”

Their firm answers made Song Shiyuan and the others’ eyes light up.

The Broodmother had four King Bugs under her command. If Song Chi and Song Yan could each pin down one, and with the Starry Sky Dragon Shark plus their team, Song Wujian could focus on taking down the Broodmother herself.

Seeing everyone turn to him, Song Wujian hesitated a moment before giving a decisive nod.

“Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang has gained the golden Torch Hull, several parts are at eighth tier, and it’s even sporting a black Star-Annihilator Cannon. Taking on a Dominion-class Broodmother should be doable!”

That answer sealed the deal.

“Then, with Xiaochi able to summon Dominion Projections at any time, we can really attempt this!”

With that, the plan was set.

To put it simply: a month from now, they’d strike the Broodmother’s nest star system.

Over the next month, the Song Family’s Dreadnought Captains all returned home, their wormhole links making travel ten—no, a hundred times—easier.

As for Song Chi, he left Market Projection Tokens in both Dragon Shark City and Dragon‑Spine Continent to guard against the unexpected.

Time flew, and a month passed in a blink.

That day, the Heavenly Ruin hovered quietly above the sky of Dragon‑Spine Continent.

BZZZZZ!

With a series of spatial ripples, the 160,000-meter-long Heavenly Ruin vanished into thin air.

Far away in the Outer Domain, near the floating-land where the Starry Sky Dragon Shark was once held, a massive warship emerged from a vortex of swirling space.

Inside the ship’s control room, after confirming the starfield was safe, Song Chi tossed a Dimensional Spatial Stone to the Abyssal Devil behind him.

On his command, the sixth-tier Abyssal Devil soared from the warship, its body pulsing with chaotic energy. Soon, Song Wujian and the rest, stored in the stone, were released.

Before long, six titanic warships—each at least 120,000 meters long—were lined up in the blackness.

Calm‑Sea Dragon‑Xiang group comms:

“Song Wujian: Xiaochi, can you lock onto the Broodmother’s current location?”

“Song Chi: I can, but it seems she moved her nest!”

Inside the Heavenly Ruin’s control room, Song Chi’s eyes never left the Deathstar Tracking Mark. Right now, it was displaying a very specific set of coordinates.

That tracking coordinate was over 10,000 light-years from where the Heavenly Ruin currently hovered.

It came from the Deathstar Kill Order that’d been placed on the Sawtooth King Bug a while ago. Once a Deathstar Kill Order hit a target, it could track them clear across the Sea of Stars—for centuries, no less.

So, even with the Broodmother shifting her nest over ten thousand light-years away, Heavenly Ruin could follow her trail with ease.

Now that they had a precise position, the only problem was how to get there without anyone noticing—but that was proving tricky.

Heavenly Ruin wasn’t an issue, but not every Elder’s warship came equipped with something like the Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl for cloaking—unless Song Chi used the same trick again and carried everyone over himself.

But then, how would he sneak them out from the Dimensional Spatial Stone at the destination? That was another headache entirely.

After all, the Dominion-rank Broodmother was known for her overwhelming psychic might. No wonder she could simultaneously command swarms of Bug Warriors at a distance.

At this point, Song Shiyuan dropped a screenshot into the comms:

“Group Phantom River.JPG”

Group Phantom River, Level 70.

Quality: Silver.

Feature: Group Invisibility.

Feature 2: Increases all cloaking effects on allied ships by 250%.

……

The second he saw that stat sheet, Song Chi remembered the component.

It was a group cloaking module, and its “Group Invisibility” feature could bind up to a thousand warships to hide them all at once. They’d used it before, during the Doomstar Race war, to great effect.

From inside the hull of the Unmoving Vajra, five streaks of silver light shot out and pierced the other five Song Family ships. At the same time, Song Chi and the others all heard messages from their ship’s intelligence system.

[Notice: Warship received a special binding request. Accept?]

[Once bound, your ship will temporarily become invisible. There are no side effects.]

Two seconds later, all six ships melted into the void, then triggered their hyperdrives one after another.

Days passed before the six warships finally dropped out of warp, coming to a halt a few light-years from a peak sixth-tier Floating-land.

In the comms channel, everyone was watching a projection feed in silence.

Onscreen, thousands upon thousands of Bug warriors swarmed the floating-land ahead, consuming everything in sight.

“Despicable creatures. They’re going to devour every trace of energy from that land, and in the end, the whole place will be stripped bare.”

PS: Only one chapter today.