Chapter 675: Claiming Spoils Under the Starry Sky

In the silent expanse of space, tens of thousands of light years from the core Floating-land of the Serpent Demon Secret Realm, several lv70-enhanced Void Shadow Assassin Warriors hid out of sight.

Suddenly, one of the warrior puppets pulsed with divine sense, scanning the area for threats. Satisfied that none were nearby, it detected a spatial ripple off to the side.

Moments later, Song Chi materialized out of the void, protected by a layer of Moyun Goldvine Armor and a glowing ring of Plasma Shield.

The very first thing he did upon returning to the Secret Realm was summon the Heavenly Ruin. Only after the battleship’s hatch sealed shut did he finally let out a breath of relief.

‘Every time I’m out here, it’s nerve-wracking. Without the protection of Heavenly Ruin, stepping outside in my own body is way too dangerous…’

‘If only there were a special component that could teleport Heavenly Ruin directly to this spot, or if I could push Plasma Guardian to the eighth tier…’

With those thoughts in mind, Song Chi decisively pulled out the Eighth-Tier Golden Apple he’d been allocated earlier and used it on the Plasma Guardian component. Once the upgrade completed, he bumped it straight up to lv80 and merged in a special trait he’d long prepared.

Plasma Guardian lv80

Quality: Gold

Trait: +380% Shield Value

Trait 2: Shield Value Doubled

Trait 3: True Defense

Trait 4: Immortal Pulsewave

Trait 5: After receiving damage, restores 8% of max shield value per second for the shield’s duration

Cost: 20,000 Eon Energy Points per use

Maximum Shields Generated: 199/200

Effect: Generate a large unit-specific shield with a value of 240 billion/240 billion. The Single-Entity Plasma Shield can activate automatically when attacked.

Cooldown: 24 hours; no charging required

Duration (once activated): 180 minutes

…

{True Defense: omitted}

{Immortal Pulsewave: When shield is struck by an irresistible attack, an incredibly persistent pulsewave will retain at least 1 point of shield value, preventing instant shattering. This effect lasts exactly 1 second and can only be triggered once every ten years.}

After reaching lv80, the Plasma Guardian’s properties ranked it among the best of the best. The max shield count shot up to 200, meaning he could now outfit his entire army of enslaved creatures with this protection.

With a whopping 240 billion shield value, plus True Defense and auto-recovery, and a duration of three hours, these shields could easily flip the outcome of any battle in favor of his enslaved troops.

Song Chi closed the Plasma Guardian interface, still grinning, his expression untroubled.

If this were before, he would have agonized over using an Eighth-Tier Golden Apple, but things were different now.

The Flamewrath Giant had brought back a Golden Apple Mother Tree. Though its roots had been badly damaged, with Celestial Spirit Earth and Azure Spring Essence boosting its vitality, he’d successfully transplanted it into the Cultivation Sanctuary.

Now, in the Eighth-Tier-enhanced No.004 Cultivation Secret Realm of Chicang, the mother tree was thriving. Of course, it wouldn’t be pumping out Eighth-Tier Golden Apples in bulk anytime soon—not until all its severed roots grew back.

Still, this meant that in the future, Heavenly Ruin would never be short on Eighth-Tier Golden Apples. That confidence let Song Chi use this one without hesitation.

These upgrades finished in record time. Song Chi switched Heavenly Ruin back into Mirage state, and began charging for a warp jump.

He set the jump towards the opposite direction from before, aiming straight for the secret realm’s core Floating-land, visible at the far edge of his view.

Several days had passed since he’d hidden out in the Market. He figured the Divine Dynasty’s main fleet should have entered the Secret Realm by now; if not, he never would have risked returning here.

If the Divine Dynasty’s forces had truly arrived, this marked the official end of the special operation on the Demon Serpent Floating-Land. Now it was time to tally up battle achievements—and Song Chi had been tracking his points closely.

It only took him less than an hour, using two jump components and four regular warp attempts, to reach the core floating landmass again.

Just as he’d expected, now thousands of Torch Battleships had gathered here. The most prominent was the Ying Clan’s Star River-class Battleship, which had summoned the Xingyu Azure Dragon projection multiple times. Now, there was also a new arrival: an extreme Star River-class Battleship, nearly 1.5 million kilometers long.

Song Chi actually recognized this Star River-class Battleship.

If he wasn’t mistaken, it belonged to the Xian Qin Divine Dynasty’s royal branch—the Join Our Mountains battleship.

According to records, this storied battleship had made its name 200,000 years ago during the Xian Qin pioneering wars. Back then, it was a newly advanced seventh-tier Star-Annihilator-class Ship. When the Torch Kingdom’s territory finally faced off against the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization, it reappeared—now fully matured and powerful. It had once taken on five peak Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominators at once and destroyed two. That battle cemented its legendary status.

Seeing thousands of ships clustered around it from afar, Song Chi instantly knew this was the person in charge of tallying the Demon Serpent Floating-Land operation’s results.

The hundred-odd ships that had entered the Secret Realm earlier were the ones who’d forcibly cracked open primary Serpent Demon Holy Cities. That didn’t mean they were the only survivors.

In fact, thousands of Torch Captains were still scattered across the Demon Serpent Floating-Land. But even so, in just a few months, tens of thousands of elite captains had been whittled down to just a few thousand. The bitterness of that attrition was easy to imagine.

Song Chi was not surprised that the personal tally and exchange would not be handled by Ying Huang himself.

There was still plenty of work left above ground clearing out Eight-Armed Serpent Demon remnants. As the stabilizing force of the Divine Dynasty, Ying Huang needed to remain at the helm.

…

“Jingzhe!”

Whitebrow’s voice came through the newly opened battleship comm channel.

“Whitebrow, you came too?”

Piloting his ship slowly closer, Song Chi kept his curiosity to himself.

They’d arrived together, but after landing on the Demon Serpent Floating-Land, Whitebrow vanished. Song Chi had no idea whether he’d disappeared before or after entering.

Sensing his confusion, Whitebrow took the initiative to explain:

“Ran into an elder…”

Just six words, but Song Chi caught his meaning right away.

If he’d met a family elder, there’s no way he would have been allowed to take on such a risky mission ahead of schedule.

‘To change a finalized personnel list right under Ying Huang’s nose… Whitebrow’s background is even more remarkable than I thought.’

Putting that aside, Song Chi steered toward the Join Our Mountains battleship to check his own battle achievement points.

The Demon Serpent Continent Hunting Faction Contribution Board was the first to catch his eye.

Demon Serpent Continent Hunting Contribution Rankings (Factions)

1st: Ying Clan Royalty (9,897,600 points)

2nd: Beidou Sevenstar Hall (8,347,690 points)

3rd: Xian Qin Heavy Industries (4,548,000 points)

4th: Langya Wang Clan (3,882,566 points)

5th: Wu’an Bai Clan (3,506,500 points)

6th: Langya Meng Clan (2,855,500 points)

7th: War King Hall (2,704,585 points)

8th: Qingqiu Trading Association (2,622,000 points)

9th: Shang Clan of Shang Party (2,584,000 points)

10th: Guixu Li Clan (2,544,300 points)

…

Song Chi wasn’t too interested in the faction rankings. That had more to do with dividing up the Demon Serpent Continent among the great powers—nothing much to do with a Dreadnought Captain like him.

He cared about the sub-ranking for Torch Battleships right below.

1st: Xian Qin Wangzhu · Star River-class Battleship (4,287,065)

2nd: Yaoguang Tianxing · Star River-class Battleship (3,087,000)

3rd: Heavenly Ruin · Dreadnought (2,929,200)

4th: Huben Zhenyuan · Star River-class Battleship (2,307,595)

5th: Wu’an Wumian · Star River-class Battleship (2,295,805)

6th: Mechanical Fortress · Star River-class Battleship (2,051,100)

7th: Langya Shendun · Star River-class Battleship (1,958,005)

8th: Fifth War King · Star-Annihilator-class Ship (1,804,565)

9th: Qinwang Huibian · Star-Annihilator-class Ship (1,748,900)

10th: Guixu Zhuming · Star-Annihilator-class Ship (1,687,000)

…

He’d had a guess about his own points, but seeing Heavenly Ruin ranked third overall was still startling.

After all, that was third place—surpassing fleets of Star River-class and Star-Annihilator-class flagships. Not just him; every captain who saw the list at a glance was shocked.

Of course, the aura of Dreadnought was a big part of it. If Heavenly Ruin had already been a Star-Annihilator-class Ship, maybe it wouldn’t have felt as impactful.

Still, Song Chi knew his own ranking had come with asterisks.

The main reason was the Eighth-Tier Abyssal Nine-Headed Hydra. If it hadn’t already been gravely wounded by the Dragon Sparrow Blade’s phantom, there’s no way he could have taken the kill without using Timepiece Chessboard or the Market Projection Token.

Also, the kills of Song Wujian and the other three elders had all been credited to him. While the numbers weren’t high, they did bag a handful of Seventh-Tier Serpent Demon Dominators, which translated into solid points.

“Congratulations! Third on the solo leaderboard—plenty of people are stunned by that.”

Whitebrow’s voice chimed in. Song Chi just shook his head.

“Just got lucky—picked up the kill on an eighth-tier dominator, that’s all…”

“Oh, don’t be modest! If you didn’t have the strength, you wouldn’t even have a chance at that kind of luck!”

Song Chi had to agree. In that sort of chaos, any Torch Battleship that didn’t rank among the absolute peak Dreadnoughts had been blown off the board early.

“Jingzhe from Beidou Sevenstar Hall, are you present?”

At that moment, the group comm called his name—it was his turn for exchange.

Being third in solo points gave Song Chi extremely high exchange priority; he was among the very first eligible.

Because of that, plenty of other captains lingered nearby. As Song Chi responded, countless projection views swiveled to focus on him.

He ignored all those stares, calm and collected, and offered a respectful bow toward the Join Our Mountains battleship’s captain before fixing his gaze on the rewards list popping up in the comm channel.

The moment he started reading, he couldn’t break away. Compared to the previous war vault exchange, these prizes were clearly more valuable and rare.

Name: Golden Apple

Tier: Eighth-Tier

…

Exchange Price: 100,000 achievement points per apple

———

Name: Golden Apple

Tier: Ninth-Tier

…

Exchange Price: 1,000,000 achievement points per apple

———

Name: Dominion Soul

Tier: Eighth-Tier

…

Exchange Price: 100,000 achievement points per eight strands

———

Name: Dominion Soul

Tier: Ninth-Tier

…

Exchange Price: 1,000,000 achievement points per eight strands

———

Name: Star God Manifestation Talisman

Quality: Black

Category: Projection Component

…

Exchange Price: 700,000 achievement points per piece

———

Name: Phoenix Nirvana Stone

Quality: Gold

Category: Resurrection Battleship Component

Limit: Effective only for Star-Annihilator-class or higher Torch Battleships

…

Exchange Price: 700,000 achievement points per stone

———

Name: Ninefold Spirit Fruit

Category: Torch Battleship Advancement Resource

Tier: Fifth-to-Sixth (20% increase), Sixth-to-Seventh (10% increase)

…

Exchange Price: 120,000 achievement points per fruit

Exchange Limit: max 3 per person

———

Song Chi spotted an especially unique exchange item on the list.

Name: Demon Serpent Floating-Land Future Public Zone City Slot

Quantity: one slot

…

Exchange Price: 1,000,000 achievement points

Exchange Slots Remaining: 4/5

Without hesitation, Song Chi claimed one of the remaining four city slots.

A million points was nothing to sneeze at—it was equivalent to slaying an Eighth-Tier Serpent Demon Dominator.

But Song Chi thought the future value was worth far more. One public zone on a ninth-tier floating landmass would inevitably become the heart of the entire eastern region of the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon galaxy cluster. He could already imagine the Divine Dynasty turning the place into the biggest trading hub for hundreds of galactic sectors.

So, even if it was expensive, the lifetime benefits over thousands of years would far outweigh the cost.

After that transaction, he had 1,929,200 achievement points left—plenty to keep shopping.

Name: Capricorn Flame

Quality: Black

Category: Upgraded Torch Seed Fire Source

…

Exchange Price: 800,000 achievement points per strand

———

Name: Guixu Oblivion Whale Fin

Quality: Black

Category: Dominion-class Group Defense Component

…

Exchange Price: 700,000 achievement points per piece

———

When he got to the very bottom of the list, Song Chi’s eyes widened.

It was none other than a Mythic Quality multi-colored Ship Component.

Name: Chaos Energy Generator

Quality: Multicolored / Inferior

Category: Energy Shield

…

Exchange Price: 11,000,000 achievement points per generator

Song Chi’s breathing grew noticeably heavier as he stared, eyes burning with desire.

Who could blame him? Up till now, Heavenly Ruin was only equipped with a Gold-level Energy Shield.