Chapter 694: The Advance on Copper Serpent Floating-Land

By the way, we absolutely can’t let our guard down about that Eight-Armed Demon God. That thing barely managed to reach out a single tentacle from the Bottomless Abyss—there’s no way it’ll give up that easily!

From what we’ve gathered, the Eight-Armed Demon God seems to hail from the Inferno Abyss, deep within the Bottomless Abyss. It’s not far from the Purgatory Abyss either—they both sit among the deepest layers.

If our guess is right, this Eight-Armed Demon God is trying to follow the same path as the Purgatory Devils—using its own bloodline as a foundation, brute-forcing the creation of a dominant civilization, and leveraging that to strengthen itself even further!

So, the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization will never just walk away. We can’t relax until the very end!

……

A total war between two top-tier advanced civilizations—it’s hard to imagine the scale. Even though the Torch Human Civilization has a massive advantage right now, this kind of conflict won’t end in just a decade or even a century.

Take the Demon Serpent Continent, for example. Though it was conquered early, after the Xian Qin Divine Dynasty’s main fleet swept through and cleared out most of the remaining Eight-Armed Serpent Demons, it still took another fifty years before the fleet could move on.

While the Divine Dynasty’s main fleet was tied up cleaning the Demon Serpent Floating-Land, other Xian Qin fleets continued advancing at full throttle.

In fifty years, the fastest subordinate fleets had almost entirely taken over a whole galaxy—while the slower ones had seized control of most of their own.

With the fall of ‘Demon Serpent Continent,’ the central floating-land in the east, the resistance from Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Army across the eastern galaxies weakened dramatically—which is why fleet advances sped up so much lately.

Before this, even conquering a single galaxy would take a hundred years or more.

Torch Era, Year 1391.

Eastern edge of the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon galaxy cluster, outside Copper Serpent Galaxy, on Copper Serpent Floating-Land.

The Xian Qin Dynasty’s Sixth, Ninth and Eleventh advance fleets had all gathered their warship groups here. With these three fleets joined together, the sky filled with an almost unimaginable number of warships.

The whole thing started because of a supercontinent stretching out ahead, floating vast and imposing in the starry sky.

The Copper Serpent Galaxy is massive, its diameter stretching across 1.6 million light-years. It was taken over by the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon ages ago, which turned Copper Serpent Floating-Land—the primary continent here—into one of the top tier level eight floating-lands in terms of foundation.

This is a veteran grade-eight floating-land guarded by dozens of Dominator-level Eight-Armed Serpent Demons. One advance fleet alone couldn’t possibly break through, which is why things got to this point.

Joint Fleet Chat

[Fusang Dynasty ‘Star River-class Captain Sato Kawa’]: Yamaoka, you all handle East Sector 3!

[Fusang Dynasty ‘Star-Annihilator-class Captain Yamaoka Setsuya’]: Got it!

……

[Fusang Dynasty ‘Star River-class Captain Sato Kawa’]: Takuba, West Sector 5 is yours.

[Fusang Dynasty ‘Star River-class Captain Sato Kawa’]: Song, your team’s in charge of West Sector 3!!

……

With Sato Kawa of the Fusang Dynasty giving out orders in the joint channel, the assault assignments were quickly distributed.

Unlike the mostly indifferent expressions from other Star-Annihilator-class captains, the encrypted Song Family chat on the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang was already exploding.

“Shixing: Clan Elder, are you sure it’s West Sector 3? There are two secondary Serpent Demon Holy Cities there, each with at least four Serpent Demon Dominators standing guard!”

“Xuancang: They know we have only one elite fleet—just fifty thousand people—and we’re supposed to take on two secondary Serpent Demon Holy Cities?”

“Xingru: They’re obviously pushing us around since we only just got promoted to Immortal House status. I say we just quit—why put up with this?”

In the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang’s encrypted chat, the Song Family higher-ups kept talking, with fiery Xingru being the most vocal.

But clearly, she wasn’t getting much support for this idea.

Song Wujian quickly shook his head and said,

“There’s no way we can bail. Shadow Division already confirmed the Mist Half-Snakefolk in the eastern swamps of Copper Serpent Floating-Land are a strategic biological resource. Thanks to their unique bloodline talent, if they willingly choose a master, they can boost that person’s cultivation speed!”

The moment he said that, every Song Family member in the chat had their eyes light up.

A buff that speeds up cultivation is just too tempting.

Imagine if a Torch citizen could get this kind of buff before awakening their Torch Seed—their Guiding Technique training would shoot through the roof, and their chances of awakening the Torch Seed would soar.

After all, when someone tries to awaken their Torch Seed, the higher their Guiding Technique level, the better their odds.

Even official captains who’ve already awakened their Torch Seed can use this buff to blast through bottlenecks in Dark Energy Guiding Technique and climb even higher.

The second they got this news, every Song Family leader mentally bumped Copper Serpent Floating-Land to ‘top priority.’

And it wasn’t just the Song Family. With dozens of Immortal Houses among the three fleets, who wouldn’t be itching for a shot at this?

If the Song Family has the Shadow Division, you think those ancient houses with ten thousand years of lineage aren’t spying too?

Ever since word got out about the Mist Half-Snakefolk, every faction started scheming how to grab more for themselves.

“Song Yan: Well in that case, I think it’s worth a shot!”

“With the Azure Dragon Starlit Array Chart, the fifty-thousand-strong fleet can split into five Azure Dragon Fleets with me, Xingzu, Ru Zu, and the Patriarch at the core, plus the Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang. That basically gives us five groups with Dominator-level power. It’s not impossible!”

“And don’t forget, we’ve still got the two Dominator Worms from Xiaochi, and the Starry Sky Dragon Shark! Those are three more heavy hitters.”

“Even if the Fusang Dynasty captain is trying to dump the hard part on us, taking down those two secondary Serpent Demon Holy Cities would give us major credit and all the leverage we need to claim our share of the Mist Half-Snakefolk!”

Everyone agreed with Song Yan’s plan. After more discussion, they worked out the action plan around this idea.

In the end, Xingru sighed to herself,

“Too bad Xiaochi’s in seclusion, or we’d be even more confident. Out of five Azure Dragon Fleets, we’re still missing a Dreadnought. What if we bring in Shiyuan? Or maybe Yiming?”

Song Wujian: “No way. Someone has to guard Dragon-Spine Continent. And Yiming is right at a breakthrough for the Guiding Technique—it’d be a bad time to disturb him.”

As he spoke, Song Yan suddenly thought of something and said,

“What about asking my wife to help out?”

That one caught everyone in the chat off-guard. It took a couple seconds for them to realize who he meant.

Xingru: “Actually, that could work. Hasn’t Youran stayed on Dragon-Spine Continent since she gave birth to ‘Han Yu’ ten years ago? Let’s just have her join after the upcoming Market exchange—she counts as Dominator-level support too, right?”

Song Wujian: “Sounds good—let’s do it!”

……

Once they’d sorted things internally, Song Wujian spoke up in the joint chat.

[Morningstar Kingdom ‘Star-Annihilator-class Captain Song Wujian’]: We can handle West Sector 3 if that’s what you want, but if we pull this off, our share of the spoils on Copper Serpent Floating-Land needs to go up. Otherwise, any other group can take West Sector 3—my Song Family’s out!

Song Wujian didn’t sugarcoat a thing.

This was the first sign of pushback since Sato Kawa started assigning orders.

For a moment, the entire joint chat went eerily silent. After Song Wujian spoke, no one else said a word.

Here in this relatively small top-command chat, every single person likely harbored countless private schemes—a textbook case of ‘everyone with their own agenda.’

In the end, Sato Kawa was the one to break the silence.

He let out a soft chuckle and said,

“Come on, Song, isn’t that just common sense?”

His comment finally prompted others in the chat to chime in.

“Exactly—that’s just the way it is!”

“Right, totally expected!”

……

Song Wujian: “Let’s hope so.”

Watching the projection of all those smiling faces, Song Wujian narrowed his eyes and added a final word before going silent.

He couldn’t shake a sense of dread, but there wasn’t a thing he could do.

With the Sixth, Ninth, and Eleventh Fleets gathered—and the Star River-class ships mostly sitting out—the only true flagship was in the hands of the Fusang Dynasty’s Sixth Fleet. That meant Sato Kawa naturally took top command.

In a situation like this, Song Wujian could suspect all he wanted, but he still had no power to change anything.

“Hope Xiaochi can make it in time…”

With that silent prayer, Song Wujian pushed aside his worries and returned to his own fleet to coordinate the next steps.

Because the shield around Copper Serpent Floating-Land hadn’t fully collapsed yet, even with three fleets attacking at full power, it took seven whole days to break through. That gave the Song Family just enough time to use the Omniverse Market as a transfer point to bring Shen Youran over. Once the White Snow Qingyou joined the fleet, the Song Family finally had five Azure Dragon Fleets—all seventh-tier strength.

Amidst the massive sea of warships, the Song Family’s fifty thousand stood out like a drop in the ocean—but somehow, this tiny force was tasked with cracking one of the hardest sectors on Copper Serpent Floating-Land.

Ignoring the stares from other Torch warships, the Song Family’s fifty thousand pressed straight down toward West Sector 3.

The five ten-thousand-strong fleets split into two groups. Two led by White Snow Qingyou and Violet Moon Longsong, along with Calm-Sea Dragon-Xiang, charged straight at one of the secondary Serpent Demon Holy Cities.

Scorching Sea Blazer, Calm-Sea Rising Dragon, and Azure Vast Infinity led the remaining thirty thousand toward the second city.

……

At the same time, on the opposite end of the continent—East Sector 1.

Here lay the royal target of the Fusang Dynasty.

High above, inside a Star River-class battleship stretching a million kilometers, voices echoed through an open comm channel.

“Lord Sato, I’ve noticed the Song Family is pretty strong. They even have multiple Battleship Replication modules—they could throw a bunch of replicated warships at those two cities as cannon fodder. Are we really going to let them reap the rewards in the end?”

But Sato Kawa clearly knew more than that.

“No. All their replicant warships were lost on the Demon Serpent Continent. As I understand it, high-level replications require far more cooldown—it won’t be that easy to replenish them. Without those, taking the two cities won’t come cheap. Even if they succeed, the losses will hurt.”

Hearing that, the sly voice dropped its pretense and laughed,

“When the time comes, we can just pressure them and make them cough up whatever they snagged, even the priceless grade-eight Golden Apple Mother Tree!”

“If not, there are always ways to arrange accidents and let those Song Family elites die off in some corner…”

“Baka! Shut up!”

Before he could finish that sinister suggestion, Sato Kawa snapped.

“The Xian Qin leadership has zero tolerance for internal strife—especially during a civilization war. And don’t forget, Song Chi is aligned with Beidou Sevenstar Hall’s Yaoguang Star Tower. If we get caught, Beidou Sevenstar Hall could flatten the entire Fusang Dynasty!”

……

Meanwhile, Song Chi knew nothing about the frontlines. He was busy training Guiding Technique at full throttle in a Full-Attribute Cultivation Chamber at the Market.

Even at level 70, the chamber gave him a terrifying speed boost with his Dark Energy Guiding Technique, but he was still nowhere close to a breakthrough.

It had nothing to do with talent—the real problem was he hadn’t been closed off nearly long enough.

In the last thirty years, it had taken twenty just to help Shen Youran conceive. After that, Song Chi hadn’t rushed to start training. Instead, he waited until the baby was born, named him Song Hanyu, and spent an entire decade as a devoted father. Only recently did he finally enter seclusion.

He didn’t want to come out of training just to realize his son had become a stranger.

Suddenly, Song Chi took out a Superior Body-Tempering Elixir, mixed with a forty-five-thousand-year-old Deepwater Pearl. Once he swallowed it, his gut felt like a blazing furnace, with waves of burning energy rising inside.

Fighting through the intense discomfort, Song Chi ran the Guiding Technique at full force, hoping to smash through that seventh-tier barrier.

But in the end, it still wasn’t nearly enough.