Chapter 676: Spoils of War and Choices of Advancement

Staring at the exchange price—so high it could scare off anyone—Song Chi still couldn’t resist clicking open the {Chaos Energy Generator} component’s attribute panel, even though he knew full well he had no chance of ever affording it.

Chaos Energy Generator lv0

Quality: Prismatic / Low-tier

Trait 1: Raises energy shield protection value by 200%

Trait 2: Increases energy shield capacity by 200%

Trait 3: True Defense

Trait 4: When taking hits from external sources, chaos energy constantly reduces incoming damage by 70%

Trait 5: After being attacked, the energy shield recovers 5% of its maximum capacity per second

Trait 6: Abyssal Guardian

Trait 7: Wall of Chaos

…

{Abyssal Guardian: Spend 500,000 Eon Energy Points. For the next 20 seconds, the shield instantly gains a stable value equal to ten times its maximum capacity. Once this ends, the shield drops back to its pre-activation status. Cooldown: 240 hours.}

{Wall of Chaos: Chaos energy is truly unique. It works not only against physical attacks but even mental invasions and more.}

This component hit every bullet point in Song Chi’s wildest dreams for an energy shield—it wasn’t just a mix of boosted protection, max value, true defense, damage reduction, and self-repair, it also had the ‘Abyssal Guardian,’ a premium active trait akin to hull armor’s top-tier safeguards.

But what really set Song Chi’s heart racing was that final ‘Wall of Chaos’ trait.

Normally, an energy shield only blocked energy-based attacks, but with Wall of Chaos, the Chaos Energy Generator turned into an all-purpose barrier—able to fend off nearly any oncoming attack, even soul assaults.

Unfortunately, this component was destined to remain out of his reach.

Song Chi shook himself from his daydream and left the Chaos Energy Generator behind, turning his attention to carefully considering his next exchanges.

Current total: 1,929,200 battle points.

After much deliberation, he snapped up the {Capricorn Flame} for 800,000 battle points, then spent another million to get eight Eighth-Tier Dominion Souls.

There was no other way—he’d need the {Capricorn Flame} to evolve his Torch Seed to black after advancing his battleship to Star-Annihilator class, and he’d have to enhance several Floating-Land Origins aboard the Heavenly Ruin to the ninth tier. For that, ninth-tier Dominion Souls were essential.

With the 129,200 points left, he picked up a {Ninefold Spirit Fruit}, sinking his final 9,200 points into titanite crystals.

With that, every last battle point he had was spent.

“Decided? Once you submit this, there’s no changing your mind!”

The captain of the {Join Our Mountains} Star River-class ship looked over the exchange order Song Chi handed over and asked again with a mild tone.

You could tell he treated Song Chi quite differently now—clearly because of his ranking on the individual battle leaderboard.

Once Song Chi nodded, the other man began recording while explaining,

“Your city-building permit in the public zone of the Demon Serpent Continent has been filed. Once this war ends, you can claim a plot in the designated area and start construction. As for the other items, just wait here for three days—all of it will be delivered to you then!”

“Alright, next…”

With those words, the kindly-faced man wasted no time and immediately called for the next captain in line.

…

Three days later, Song Chi finally received everything.

A single black fireseed.

Eight bundles of Eighth-Tier Dominion Souls.

One Ninefold Spirit Fruit.

A pile of titanite crystals.

The {Capricorn Flame}, {Ninth-Tier Dominion Souls}, and {titanite crystals} were all exchanges Song Chi made for himself, and he tucked them away. As for the {Ninefold Spirit Fruit}, the Heavenly Ruin had already absorbed one and they couldn’t be stacked, so he exchanged it for his family.

Given the way the Song Family was developing, they were sure to have more Dreadnought Captains in the future. The Ninefold Spirit Fruit would be useful to all of them—even for the Prime Ancestor and the likes of Ru Zu. If he could exchange more, he would have done so without a second thought.

If not for running out of battle points, there’s no way he wouldn’t have exchanged for all three slots.

With that all wrapped up, Song Chi waited a bit longer—he needed to depart together with the rest of the {Beidou Sevenstar Hall} members.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to leave early, but vanishing in front of this many people would be hard to explain.

Though to be fair, that was secondary—the main reason was he was still thinking of the reward promised earlier by the {Beidou Sevenstar Main Hall}.

After all, he’d ranked third on the personal leaderboards, making a huge contribution to their overall score. He figured the Main Hall wouldn’t be stingy with the payout.

Above the core floating landmass of the secret realm, Song Chi’s heart sank when he saw the seventy-plus Torch Battleships gathered around him.

They’d set out with around two hundred people, but in just a few months, nearly two-thirds were gone.

The Seven Towers joint chat was deadly silent—pressure and grief hung in the air.

As the ruling power that had stood in the Torch Human Galaxy Cluster for more than two hundred thousand years, the Beidou Seven Halls never lowered their standards. Every member was among the greatest talents of Torch Human Civilization, yet even so, deaths came swiftly and without warning.

In this moment, the brutal reality of the Shattered Sea of Stars and its wars between civilizations was on stark display.

If the Beidou Sevenstar Hall group was silent, the encrypted chat of the {Join Our Mountains} warship was the opposite, bursting with arguments.

“We’ve got no problem with Ying Clan taking another twenty percent, but is it really fair for the {Beidou Sevenstar Hall} to monopolize fifteen percent of the last thirty?”

“Shang Longgang, why don’t you tell us what’s so unfair about it? When I was using Beidou Sevenstar’s banner to buff the Xian Qin King Post, I certainly didn’t see any Shang Clan ships out there. When our members gave their lives to hold back the {Abyssal Nine-Headed Hydra}, your people were nowhere in sight!”

“No one’s denying the Beidou Sevenstar Hall’s achievement, but you weren’t the only ones who held back the Hydra! You want half of the remaining thirty percent? No way!”

“Immortal Qin Industries isn’t greedy—give us seven percent.”

“Langya Wang Clan just wants five percent!”

(The whole Demon Serpent Continent is divided into ten parts: Ying Clan had already claimed five by agreement before the battle, and now gets two more for winning the leaderboard—seven in total. The last three parts are split into thirty points, to be allocated among the top nine leaderboard factions.)

…

After much bickering, the captain of the {Shaking Radiance Star}—who was also {Greedwolf Hall Master} of Beidou Sevenstar Hall—took the initiative:

“How about this? We take ten percent. If you’re not satisfied, we can keep talking and see who runs out of patience first.”

“Ten percent works for me!”

“Agreed!”

…

After about half an hour of wrangling, the spoils division of the Demon Serpent Continent was finally settled.

In the end, Ying Clan took seventy percent,

Beidou Sevenstar Hall took ten percent,

Immortal Qin Industries got five,

Langya Wang Clan and Wu’an Bai Clan each got three,

Langya Meng Clan and War King Hall each got two,

Qingqiu Trading Association, Shang Clan of Shangdang, and Guixu Li Clan each got one.

The final two percent were designated as a Public Zone.

Don’t be fooled by that small number—actually, the public zone was massive.

We’re still talking about a ninth-tier floating continent over two and a half million light-years across, so even two percent was a staggering amount of land.

No one kept the allocation a secret—Song Chi and the others learned all about it right away.

Of course, that stirred up some whispers and minor trouble, but the major factions couldn’t care less; at their level, conspiracies were as empty as smoke.

Like the saying goes—when absolute power’s at play, all schemes are pointless.

After that, the remaining members of Beidou Sevenstar Hall didn’t linger. Led by the Greedwolf Hall Master, they returned to Beidou Seven Halls’ headquarters under the light of mythic starlight.

Inside the grand Star Pavilion, after seven dazzling colors swept by, dozens of Torch Battleships appeared together atop the transportation platform.

“Don’t get impatient. The Main Hall has rewards for everyone this time. As a team, our results were outstanding, and after careful discussion, the Main Hall has released a boatload of rare treasures.”

Even the normally calm Greedwolf Hall Master sounded quietly pleased as he spoke.

His expression said it all—this haul for Beidou Sevenstar Hall was massive.

And it really was. Ten percent of a ninth-tier floating continent was worth far more than anyone expected.

The benefits the Main Hall gained didn’t interest most members; right now, everyone cared more about their own rewards.

Like before, Song Chi had priority in choosing his prize.

As the standout performer, he could freely select three items, while everyone after him only got one.

Gold energy shield: {Ultrastate Dark Energy Shield}

Silver Upgraded Fire Source: {Earth Spirit Flame}

Eighth-Tier Floating-Land Origin ×30

Ninth-Tier Floating-Land Origin ×2

Gold Star-Annihilator Cannon: {Overclocked Electromagnetic Ray Cannon}

Eighth-Tier Dominion Soul ×10

Ninth-Tier Dominion Soul ×1

Gold collision-domain component: {Domain Countercurrent Device}

Black Starsea Oddity: {Mechanical Dominion Furnace}

Titanite Crystal Vein Core ×1

Starfall Copper Vein Core ×1

Compared to the mighty Xian Qin Divine Dynasty, the Beidou Sevenstar Hall’s foundation was clearly thinner—most items here were of lower value than those on the Divine Dynasty’s list.

But even so, Song Chi spotted several things he wanted.

Eighth-Tier Dominion Soul, Ninth-Tier Dominion Soul, Titanite Crystal Vein Core—even the {Mechanical Dominion Furnace}, which couldn’t be installed as a battleship component, sparked his interest.

With the Omniverse Market at his back, he had a real chance of trading the Mechanical Dominion Furnace away in the future. If he managed to do so, it would be far and away the most valuable item here—a Supreme Black Oddity was no joke.

But these were all secondary. The thing Song Chi wanted most was something else—a unique battleship component.

PS: Yesterday’s make-up chapter. Also, Happy New Year, everyone!!!