Chapter 597: Assault on the Serpent Kings: Awakenings and Conquest

As a supreme black Oddity, the Time Tower could once only accelerate time by twenty years under normal conditions and could accommodate just a few thousand people at a time.

With the power of the Dragon-Spine Continent, a Seventh‑Tier Floating-land, this increased to fifty years and a capacity of ten thousand. If it were fully fused with the Origin Core of a Seventh‑Tier Floating-land, these numbers could climb even higher.

Unfortunately, the Dragon-Spine Continent had already fused with the Dragon Whale Hall, so the Song Family couldn’t let it merge with the Time Tower as well.

It’s not that a floating-land can only merge with one Starsea Oddity. If a floating-land’s grade exceeds or matches that of the Oddity, its immense size allows it to merge with several Oddities.

But the Dragon-Spine Continent, the Dragon Whale Hall, and the Time Tower are all different cases. Both the Hall and the Tower are of supreme black quality, far surpassing the Continent’s grade. Even powering just one using the floating-land is already stretching its limits—fusing a second Oddity would push things even further.

……

Once Song Chi had fully mastered the Law of Time, he summoned his battleship and left the Time Tower’s inner space.

Each living creature can only enter the Time Tower once in a lifetime. Having spent exactly fifty years inside, it was time for Song Chi to leave.

During those fifty years, he ignored both space and light laws, focusing entirely on understanding time.

After all, the Time Tower itself is a supreme time-attribute Oddity—comprehending the Law of Time inside it provides a huge boost.

Thanks to this, in just fifty short years, his proficiency with the Law of Time soared from an initial 60% to an impressive 71%. Normally, this kind of progress would have taken over a thousand years.

“Greetings, Elder Chi!”

“Grandson pays his respects to the Clan Elder.”

“Greetings, Elder Chi!”

The moment Song Chi appeared outside the black tower, a wave of respectful greetings echoed all around him.

By now, he’d become a legendary figure in the clan—a venerated elder idolized by generations of the Song Family’s youth.

Song Chi smiled and nodded. He cared deeply for these younger clan members; they were the future of the family.

Among them, he spotted quite a few in their early twenties who hadn’t awakened their Torch Seed yet. Besides them, most had already hit bottlenecks and were hoping that these fifty extra years would help them use the Guiding Technique to break through.

As for those rare prodigies who mastered Law Power at the third tier—there weren’t many, only a few dozen. Even with the Song Family’s recent rise and their domain spanning tens of thousands of light-years with abundant soul resources, that number was still small.

That’s just the way things are. Turning your mind into divine thought at the third tier is exceedingly rare. But having even dozens now means that, in total, over a hundred younger clan members have managed to touch the Law at the third tier.

It’s not quite enough to rival the Immortal Houses with ten thousand years of history, but it puts them on par with the Morningstar Family.

And with the Time Tower now in their hands, the Song Family’s prodigies will grasp laws even faster at first—after breaking through to the fourth-tier Guiding Technique and finishing Law Amplification, that gap will only widen further.

Still, when he saw the many clan members who hadn’t awakened the Torch Seed yet, Song Chi couldn’t help but shake his head.

With the Law of Space swirling around him, his figure vanished before the others could react.

He knew perfectly well why these unawakened relatives were here. Their Guiding Technique rank before awakening was too low—most couldn’t reach level 3. With success rates for awakening so limited in these cases, the family sent them to the Time Tower so they could spend fifty years trying to improve their skills.

But that meant they’d never get a second chance in the Tower. Compared to those who awakened normally, they’d always be a step behind—and the family elders weren’t happy about that.

But there was nothing they could do.

With ten thousand people per round, even just ten rounds mean a hundred thousand spots. The Song Family has plenty of members, but far fewer than ten thousand have grasped Law Power, even counting all those who managed breakthroughs in the Time Tower.

So, that leftover capacity went to those who hadn’t awakened yet—doing whatever they could to boost the next generation’s chances.

After all, who can say? Some of those slow starters just might have a miraculous breakthrough one day.

……

Chipan Galaxy, Serpent King Floating-Land.

Serpent King Floating-Land is the only seventh-tier living floating-land in the southwestern Chipan Galaxy, having just ascended to this level a few thousand years ago.

That sounds longer than the Song Family’s history, but compared to the vast timescales of seventh-tier floating-lands, a few thousand years isn’t much—this one’s foundation is still rather shallow.

Right now, the entire floating-land was shrouded in a hail of artillery fire.

Tens of millions of warships, commanded by leaders from various factions, focused their attacks on the floating-land’s shield, a barrier over ten thousand kilometers in diameter.

This siege had gone on for more than a decade. It wasn’t that the Joint Fleet’s firepower was lacking, but that the floating-land’s shield was simply too strong and vast—bigger than even most eighth-tier starsea lifeforms.

Even so, after all those years of relentless shelling, even this powerful shield couldn’t hold forever. With no high-level Eight-Armed Serpent Demon threats around, the united fleets of the Song and Luo Clans poured everything into it, and their two Star-Annihilator-class Ships lent additional support. Now, the shield hovered on the verge of collapse.

Song Family–Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang group chat

“Song Shiyuan: Xiaochi’s return is just in time. The Serpent King Floating-Land’s shield is about to break—get ready.”

Song Chi understood. The message was both a warning—be careful of the dangers a Seventh‑Tier Floating-land might hide—and a reminder to be ready to scavenge its riches. A floating-land like this, especially the center of the southwestern Chipan Galaxy, likely held unimaginable resources. The Song Family wouldn’t let the Luo Clan or their vassals pull any tricks.

With so much at stake, vigilance was key.

Half a month later, under another strike from the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang’s black Flame God Annihilator Cannon, the Serpent King Floating-Land’s shield finally shattered.

Now, it lay bare before tens of millions of Joint Fleet personnel—exposed and defenseless, like an undressed woman laid out in public.

“Attention, everyone! Move to your assigned scavenging areas—proceed as planned!”

“Remember, each team needs someone holding a Star-Annihilator-class projection device. At the first sign of a seventh-tier Serpent Demon Sovereign, activate the device immediately to call for ship projection support!”

Through the Joint Fleet’s general channel, Song Wujian’s orders rang out again.

With that, the fleet split into three branches—Song Family, Luo Clan, and their vassals—each heading to their own sectors to commence the sweep.

The Song and Luo Clans had little to fear, backed by their Star-Annihilator-class Ships.

But the millions in the subordinate fleets felt differently. Over more than a decade, they’d never seen a seventh-tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demon—fleet leaders suspected the few remaining Serpent Demon Sovereigns had clustered on another floating-land, hoping to resist or maybe escape.

But not knowing exactly which land they’d gathered on filled everyone with dread.

Even with those Star-Annihilator-class projection devices, the vassals still didn’t feel entirely safe.

The Song Family’s elders, by contrast, were far more relaxed.

There was a reason for it. In an earlier diversion, two Serpent Demon Sovereigns had escaped, but not unscathed—they left behind some blood. Using these traces, Song Chi activated the Destiny Compass’s Trace to Source feature and confirmed that neither serpent was on the Serpent King Floating-Land.

More precisely, they were both on another Seventh‑Tier Floating-land, tens of thousands of light-years away.

If he remembered right, that floating-land was the territory of the Dongli Xiao Family, one of the three Yaohan Families.

The Song Family didn’t bother warning them.

Not out of coldness, but because the immortal gatehouses of Yaohan had never treated them well.

So naturally, the Song Family saw no reason to curry favor. What happened next was up to fate.

……

Five hundred thousand light-years from the Serpent King Floating-Land, north Chipan Galaxy—Serpent Eye Floating-Land.

Of the four seventh-tier living floating-lands in Chipan, Serpent Eye was much older than Serpent King. It became seventh-tier tens of thousands of years ago and now stretches over twenty thousand light-years—rich, vast, and deeply rooted.

Outside the land’s shield, more than fifty million warships belonging to the Dongli Xiao Family’s Joint Fleet unleashed all their firepower.

Just like at Serpent King Floating-Land, years of heavy bombardment had brought the shield here to the brink of collapse as well.

Serpent Eye’s shield was tougher than Serpent King’s, but with the Xiao side having so many more ships, both shields were breached at almost the same time.

Just outside Serpent Eye, Dongli Xiao’s Star-Annihilator unleashed a beam, while the pair of advanced mobile battlestars at the head of the fleet let loose with their Empire heavy railguns.

The combined attack smashed the floating-land’s shield.

Immediately afterward, the Xiao fleet split into four branches. The main family took one, while three subsidiary fleets—each with some seven million ships—branched off, all drawn from the kingdom’s middle and lesser houses.

Unlike the Morningstar Kingdom, where noble houses are few, the Yaohan Kingdom, after ten thousand years of unification and expansion, is packed with families big and small. Even among the Xiao’s dependents, there were dozens of medium and small noble houses.

The reason for splitting into three was simple: each group was led by a Dreadnought-class flagship.

But that doesn’t mean each faction only fielded a few million ships—in the Yaohan Kingdom, unlike the Morningstar Kingdom, noble families don’t pledge allegiance to a single house. Instead, they hedge their bets, planting a fleet under each of the three great houses: Liu, Shen, and Xiao.

In short, it’s all about playing the odds; no matter who wins, their lineage survives.

With the groups formed, the four fleets plunged toward the surface below.

Dongli Xiao’s fleet targeted Serpent Eye City—the greatest settlement on the floating-land.

Serpent Eye City is home to countless Eight-Armed Serpent Demons. During recent captain conferences, some even guessed the city might house a portal to the northern Serpent Demon galaxy cluster.

As an ancient Immortal House, the Xiao Family was shrewd. Instead of sending all thirty million ships straight in, they first deployed over ten thousand fourth-tier special mechs—another layer of caution, just like the Song Family had done.

But even the Xiao Family had underestimated the threat awaiting them.

A deep, ominous hum filled the air.

Suddenly, four Serpent Demon Sovereigns manifested at the corners above the Xiao fleet, each one stepping from a ripple in space.

Without hesitation, all four activated Serpent Prison—a devastating technique.

The pressure of four seventh-tier Serpent Prisons was horrific. Forget the lower-tier Torch Battleships—even the Xiao Family’s ordinary starships, over ten million strong, began to buckle and twist, hulls crushed into slabs of alloy. Countless Xiao clan affiliates died within seconds.

The attack was so abrupt that the Xiao Family’s leaders reeled in shock.

Thankfully, their Star-Annihilator captain kept his cool. On his command, a Dreadnought captain triggered a massive silver group-defense module, while several Dreadnoughts lit up their projection devices.

In moments, seven Star-Annihilator-class projections gathered overhead—representing the rest of the great houses’ flagships.

Their appearance triggered the activation of field-type modules—silver and gold zones forming a barrier against the fourfold Serpent Prison.

With these overlapping fields, the Xiao fleet finally broke free of the crushing force and began descending toward the planet.

But before anyone could celebrate, terror struck again.

A flood of serpent warships and Eight-Armed Serpent Demons erupted from Serpent Eye City below—even three unfamiliar Serpent Demon Sovereigns were in the mix.

“Damn it, it’s reinforcements from the northern Serpent Demon galaxy cluster!”