Chapter 650: Negotiations at the Starshifting Guild

As expected, Song Chi didn’t have to wait long before a Dreadnought swiftly sped over from Yixing Floating-land ahead.

Inside the ship’s control room, Song Chi narrowed his eyes, his gaze fixed on the Dreadnought approaching in the distance.

“The hull’s 150,000 meters… and the Law of Light is so dense it’s almost tangible. No doubt, that’s an Extreme Dreadnought.”

His mind worked quickly, running a preliminary analysis of the vessel as it drew closer.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but marvel—no surprise that a major power with over 200,000 years of history would be this formidable. At random, they’d just send out an Extreme Dreadnought.

Of course, maybe it was because the Yixing Trade Guild had detected the Heavenly Ruin ahead of time and chose to match its class with one of their own to greet him.

Beep, beep, beep!

As the comms connected between the ships, a graceful woman’s voice reached him first.

“I am Liao Rou, chief steward of the Yixing Trade Guild. May I ask what brings you here, to our Yixing Floating-land, so suddenly?”

Her voice was gentle, a faint smile brightening her features, making every word sound pleasing.

So Song Chi wasted no time responding.

“Steward Liao, apologies for disturbing you. I am Song Chi, of the Song Family of Longji, Tianpan Galaxy under the Xian Qin Divine Dynasty. As for my reason, I have come for what your Guild does best!”

At his introduction, Liao Rou’s pretty brows knit together, her bright eyes flicking as she clearly tried to recall what she knew about the Xian Qin’s Tianpan Galaxy.

But this was hardly her fault. If it had been Xian Qin itself—a core part of the Four Great Divine Dynasties—even the Guild had ran business there for over a hundred thousand years. Tianpan, though, had only been opened less than ten thousand years and was hardly known. Forces there had never worked with the Guild, so very little info existed internally.

Still, Song Chi had underestimated her.

“Tianpan Galaxy… are you from the Yaohan Kingdom, or that newly-founded Morningstar Kingdom?”

Song Chi raised his brows in admiration and said:

“I’ve heard the Yixing Trade Guild’s business has spanned all Four Great Empires of Shensia for hundreds of thousands of years, rumors even say it covers nearly a thousand galaxies. I always thought that was an exaggeration, but today proves how little I knew.”

With those polite words out of the way, Song Chi’s tone shifted:

“That’s right. I’m from the Morningstar Kingdom. I’m here to request your Guild’s starshifting services.”

“And the Floating-land your family wishes to relocate—what tier is it?”

“Seventh-tier!”

“A Seventh‑Tier Floating-land? This way, please!”

At the words “Seventh-tier,” even Liao Rou’s demeanor shifted instantly—from gentle smiles to a respectful, eager tone.

After all, handling Seventh-Tier Floating-lands was the highest-end business for the Guild. If she clinched this contract, she’d see substantial benefits herself.

The two Dreadnoughts soon descended to the surface of the Yixing Floating-land, settling atop a city built right on the flattened summit of a mountain.

According to Liao Rou, this city was Yixing Trading City. It wasn’t the main headquarters, just a designated spot for Torch Captains visiting to discuss business.

Song Chi wasn’t surprised and completely understood why.

From another angle, would the Song Family’s Dragon Whale Ancestral Hall or the Dragon Spine Sacred Mountain ever allow non-family to walk in at random?

The answer was obvious. The ancestral grounds of any power were their very foundation. Letting outsiders roam about, especially in the Shattered Sea of Stars where rare components abounded, was a guarantee of exposing all your secrets.

If anything, Song Chi felt the Trade Guild was already extremely open in comparison—the Song Family had always kept the entire Dragon‑Spine Continent closed from all outsiders.

Once they’d recalled their ships, the two entered a special meeting room. Liao Steward, tall and trailing a fragrant aura, personally offered him a cup of spirit tea.

“Excellent tea!”

The moment Song Chi took a sip, he felt his whole body relax. With his mind and spirit stretched to the limit by so many Seventh-Tier Gray Crystals, he now sensed the faint stirrings of a breakthrough.

Clearly, this tea was greatly beneficial for focus and vitality.

Liao Rou, across from him, absentmindedly tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, smiling as she said:

“I won’t hide it from you—because of ongoing civilizational wars, requests to relocate Floating-lands have surged. Even for Seventh-Tier jobs, we’ve had at least ten, like your family’s, lined up…”

“So, per the current schedule, the Song Family’s turn wouldn’t come for another five hundred years. If that’s not an issue, we could sign a contract right now.”

After finishing, Liao Rou watched him closely. When she saw the sudden furrow in Song Chi’s brow, she seemed to consider, then added:

“If you’re in a hurry, I do have a suggestion. You could negotiate around the relocation fee…”

Hearing this, Song Chi instantly understood what she was implying.

Usually, the fee for shifting a Seventh‑Tier Floating-land would be paid with Fifth, Sixth, plus some Seventh-Tier Floating-land Origins.

But, clearly, the Guild wasn’t lacking in such resources.

If the Song Family could offer something even rarer, the Guild would likely fast-track the Dragon‑Spine Continent’s relocation.

Song Chi figured she was hoping for items like Titanite Crystals, Seventh-Tier or higher Floating-land Origins, or rare special components. But the Song Family’s current reserves were already stretched thin—every bit was needed to strengthen them for the wars ahead, leaving nothing to spare.

After only a moment’s thought, Song Chi lifted his eyes to meet Liao Rou’s gaze head-on.

Seeing this, a glimmer of joy flashed in Liao Rou’s heart. She felt sure the Song Family was ready to trade rare resources for expedited service.

She was just about to speak again when Song Chi suddenly projected a holographic screen from his comms wristband and said:

“Our Family’s reserves are shallow—we hardly have enough for ourselves… But I do have another proposal, Steward Liao. Take a look at this first.”

Liao Rou was about to reply, but when her eyes swept over the attributes panel on the screen, all her attention instantly locked onto it.

“High-Dimensional Wormhole Generator… can open man-made spatial wormholes…”

What Song Chi displayed was a screenshot showing the attributes of a High-Dimensional Wormhole Generator.

This was the key bargaining chip discussed beforehand by the Song Family’s core members, for this relocation negotiation.

“So what you’re saying is, the Song Family will use this device to open spatial wormholes as payment for the relocation?”

When Song Chi nodded, Liao Rou asked again:

“How far does your device work?”

With such a device, the most important detail was its range. Previously, the Song Family had hinted to the Three Houses of Yaohan that it could reach ten billion light-years, but today was different.

Song Chi thought carefully, then gave a nuanced reply.

“That depends on the Guild’s needs. Suffice to say, our device’s range is extremely impressive…”

Liao Rou didn’t press further—it was beyond her authority to decide. Standing, she gave a polite bow, then left the room in a swirl of graceful movements.

A dozen minutes later, when the meeting room doors opened again, Liao Rou returned—this time following behind a middle-aged man.

The moment Song Chi saw him, he tensed, straightened, and respectfully stood to greet him.

“Song Chi of the Song Family of Longji, greets Your Majesty!”

Though the man didn’t reveal any outward signs of power, with Song Chi’s Dual Pupils he could see the man’s perfectly condensed Laws within. Given Liao Rou’s posture, it was easy to judge his status.

The middle-aged man smiled and nodded, not the least bit haughty, and after sitting down said warmly:

“No need for formality, little brother. The Song Family of Longji is famous now, not to mention the Chenxing Family has fallen from grace. The future is looking bright for you all…”

Noticing just how well informed this Trade Guild was, Song Chi’s opinion of their influence grew again.

Talk soon turned to details concerning the Starshifting project and opening wormholes, which triggered multiple rounds of discussion.

In the end, the Yixing Trade Guild agreed to immediately dispatch a Seventh-Tier relocation fleet to Tianpan Galaxy under the Xian Qin Dynasty, making a vow to complete the Dragon‑Spine Continent’s relocation within three hundred years.

Meanwhile, the Song Family would reciprocate by opening three spatial wormholes for the Guild within three hundred years, at minimum ranges of 8, 20, and 45 billion light-years.

Five days later, Song Chi piloted the Heavenly Ruin along with the Trade Guild’s Seventh-Tier fleet, setting out for the Tianpan Galaxy.

But while Song Chi’s real body was in motion, the Heavenly Ruin’s mirror clone was also on its own mission.

Originally, Song Chi had considered acting in the Divine Xia Empire, but after weighing his options, decided instead to head for the Chiyu Divine Dynasty—one of the Four Great Empires.

Chiyu was the youngest of the great empires, founded only 250,000 years ago—ten thousand years after even Xian Qin.

For this reason, Chiyu covered the least territory among the Four, though that still meant nearly 200 million light-years in diameter.

Within Chiyu, in the Canglang Galaxy, lay Canglang Floating-land.

As the capital of the Canglang Galaxy, Canglang Floating-land was an eighth-tier at its lowest, though by imperial standards, its foundations were still considered mediocre.

One day, in the public zone of Canglang City on Canglang Floating-land.

Out of the seething crowd stepped the Abyssal Devil, striding into an unremarkable shop on a street corner—nothing high-end, just a modest two-story affair.

But Song Chi wasn’t sending the Abyssal Devil here to hunt for deals or for anything remarkable.

The Abyssal Devil scanned the room and quickly locked onto a piece of neutron star wreckage in the corner.

That was exactly the target. The Mirror Warship had been scouring high-tier Floating-lands along its route, using its Destiny Compass to search for neutron star wreckage.

By now, the harvests had been promising—he’d already collected a tenth of the amount needed to upgrade the Neutron‑Star Core Armor’s component to the colorful level.

More patience, and he’d have enough.

After securing the latest neutron star wreckage, the Abyssal Devil prepared to leave—but just then, it overheard a conversation between two customers inside.

“Heard the news? The Ten-Thousand-Year Tianyue Auction is starting soon. The Shengtian Consortium leaked ahead that not only will there be Black Upgraded Fire Source and multiple Supreme Black Components, but Gold Upgraded Fire Source and Ninth-Tier Floating-land Origins as well!”

“Of course I heard! That news has spread all over Chiyu. Rumor is that over a dozen Star-Annihilator-class Captains will be there, with even more Star River-class Captains participating by remote projection!”

“Man, I wish we could join them, just to see the spectacle…”

“You must be dreaming. Even direct descendants of fifth- or sixth-tier families might not get a ticket, let alone us ordinary cruiser captains!”

…

The Abyssal Devil tuned out after that. Soon, it was back at the warship dock outside the city. First thing aboard, it uploaded the piece of neutron star wreckage to the Market and forwarded the news of the Tianyue Auction to Song Chi.

Meanwhile, back with the Heavenly Ruin’s real body, Song Chi’s mind worked fast. While idly chatting with the Guild’s Seventh-Tier fleet in the comms group, he was also mulling over this news.

“That Tianyue Auction might be perfect. The captains who participate are all top-tier. If luck is on my side, I should be able to fetch a good price for that Seventh-Tier Timeworld Fruit.”

Ever since the Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl’s upgrade, the Mirror Warship had kept its distance from the Tianpan Galaxy and Xian Qin. Song Chi’s final aim had always been to sell this fruit.

Only Star-Annihilator-class ships moving up to Star River-class needed the Seventh-Tier Timeworld Fruit. Given the Song Family’s current situation, it would be no use in the short run.

Besides, the Cultivation Sanctuary now reliably produced a fruit every few centuries. By the time the Heavenly Ruin needed one to breakthrough, they’d have grown plenty more.

With that in mind, selling it now was the clear play. Hence, Song Chi’s latest strategy.

Still, he hesitated. If multiple Star River-class Captains joined the auction by projection, he wondered if the Golden Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl alone would be enough.