Chapter 713: Stealing Into the Heart of the Mechanica

When Song Chi first learned that the Truth Mechanicus Civilization possessed three tier-nine Truth Mechanica Behemoths, he felt like a mountain had crashed onto his chest.

Even though he’d steeled himself for whatever he might discover, facing not just those three, but also the Father of Truth—all in all, four full-fledged ninth-tiers—was a pressure no one could simply wave away.

Fortunately, he quickly came across the follow-up information that truly mattered. All-out war between two top-level civilizations—even if these weren’t quite on the level of the likes of Torch Human Civilization or the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization—still involved staggering stakes. But that wasn’t the point here.

With close to ten tier-nine entities engaged on the battlefield, even Song Chi’s Omniverse Market Projection would barely be a trump card, much less one he could actually play as a mere tier-seven. Only one thing truly mattered—after tens of thousands of years of war, the Truth Mechanicus Civilization was fighting at an overwhelming disadvantage.

From there, it was easy to guess that with their defense line still holding, the vast majority of their mechanical army—more than ninety percent—was probably deployed at the front.

Looks like the risk for my next move just dropped by quite a lot…

He chuckled softly as he said it.

Without wasting another second, Song Chi had the Heavenly Ruin, still cloaked in Mirage, begin charging for its next jump. Seconds later, the ship disappeared from that level-four floating-land.

If he’d wanted, he could’ve easily stripped that whole floating-land clean.

With Eyes of Heaven’s Spiritual Detection, he’d already scanned the floating-land when he first entered it and discovered that the strongest mechanical entity there was only at tier-five—no threat to the Heavenly Ruin at all.

The only reason he didn’t go for it was because Song Chi didn’t want to stir up suspicion.

Based on what he knew, the Father of Truth should be right on the front lines, facing off against the Starsea Giant Ape Civilization.

Which meant that Song Chi could move through the depths of the Truth Mechanicus Civilization with impunity—so long as he didn’t take action. The Mechanica had all sorts of odd split-brain AIs and sub-core strategies. If even one of the Father of Truth’s sub-Mechanica was present, word could travel millions of light-years in moments.

And if the Father of Truth caught wind, relying on his high-rank, multi-colored “Eye of Truth” Oddity, Song Chi feared that even with both the golden Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl and the Void Shroud, he’d have nowhere to hide.

……

After a single jump, the Heavenly Ruin reappeared in an empty, silent stretch of starfield.

With the last leap by the Scarlet Vault Jump Drive, he was now ten thousand light-years from the previous floating-land. But that was it for the day; both the Space Jumper and the Scarlet Vault Jump Drive were tapped out on jumps. He’d need to wait for them to cool down before moving again.

As for the “Scarlet Vault Jump” ability, Song Chi didn’t plan to risk it. Sure, it let him travel huge distances, but the randomness of it meant a collision with a floating-land or asteroid belt could easily bring massive trouble—and the Father of Truth’s attention.

In the Ship’s Control Room, Song Chi shook his head.

What a shame about all those lower-grade AIs…

That level-four floating-land hadn’t yielded any particularly rare or valuable resources. Still, various grades of AI chips were everywhere. Even among the more basic and intermediate models, there were plenty. The Sky-Domain AI system on the Heavenly Ruin reacted quite strongly to the possibility.

Song Chi understood—it was the Sky-Domain AI’s instinct to devour its own kind. After consuming the backup AI cube left behind by the Lord of Truth, it had started to show signs of evolving. If he could feed it more mid-to-high level AIs, that silver module had a strong chance to undergo true evolution.

No rush. In a top-tier mechanical civilization like this, AIs are just about everywhere. There’ll be plenty more opportunities ahead.

……

Time flowed by. In the blink of an eye, over a year was gone.

Today, in the unending darkness of space, the Heavenly Ruin was streaking ahead at full throttle.

Because he could only travel when Mirage was active, that slowed the ship’s progress significantly. Getting here had taken him more than a year.

Almost there…

Gazing ahead, through the main display at the front of the battleship, he could just make out the faint outline of a colossal floating-land at the edge of his vision—more than a million light-years across.

He held his stare on the distant superstructure, mind whirring.

After a year of research and countless probes, Song Chi now understood the whole Truth Mechanicus Civilization inside and out.

He replayed a mental list of all the relevant details as he stared at the distant silhouette.

The Truth Floating-Land—the civilization’s only tier-nine floating-land—about 1.2 million light-years in diameter. Only just elevated to the ninth tier.

With the Heavenly Ruin’s next jump, the gap shrank by tens of thousands of light-years, and the outline ahead grew clearer in Song Chi’s eyes.

But instead of excitement, his brow furrowed deeper.

He could clearly see the outer energy shield wrapped around the Truth Floating-Land.

It was the Floating-Land Shield itself.

Is it because the war’s gotten worse? They’re keeping the shield fully active…

Pulling the already-moving Heavenly Ruin to a halt, Song Chi swiftly changed course and turned back the way he’d come.

If the Floating-Land Shield was already up, there was little chance he’d get through to the Truth Floating-Land by himself.

There were only three ways to break into a tier-nine Floating-Land’s shield.

One, send in an actual mythic being.

Two, concentrate billions of starships to grind it down over a long time.

Three, gather more than ten tier-nine powerhouses to hammer at the same spot, hoping to punch a tiny hole.

None of those were things Song Chi could pull off. No reason to get any closer.

Looks like I’ll need another plan…

……

Millions of light-years from the Truth Floating-Land, in the Ore Star System, on Ore Star Continent.

The Ore Star System was among the top three most important of all the Truth Mechanicus Civilization’s star systems. As the name implied, it was packed with mineral wealth. Every floating-land within it overflowed with rare resources.

Song Chi speculated that perhaps it was formed by the remnants of a multiverse-era world’s mineral-rich core, left behind and crystallized.

Crags and ridges crisscrossed the land, mighty, endless mountains stretched out on all sides, and a never-ending procession of mechanical mining ships rose and fell.

These mining ships weren’t all that big. Each time one rose from the mountains below, it would haul its cargo to the great mechanical transporters parked in the skies. Once their ore was loaded, the mining ships would drop back down to continue their endless labor—back and forth in a tireless rhythm.

Vrrrm vrrrm vrrrm!

As engines roared, Song Chi, hidden beneath a massive rift in the land below, lifted his head. Through the holo-external view, he watched the sky overhead.

A massive mechanical transporter, fully loaded, fired up its engines and soared higher. In moments, it shot off Ore Star Continent, jumping millions of light-years toward the Truth Floating-Land.

Witnessing this entire process in real time, Song Chi’s eyes sparkled—he suddenly had an idea worth trying.

……

Ore Star Continent was the capital floating-land of the Ore Star System—one of the eighth-tier floating-lands of the Sea of Stars. Its value was self-evident. In other civilizations, it might be slightly less impressive.

Because Ore Star Continent wasn’t a bioactive floating-land, but a giant resource-type eighth-tier.

But for the Truth Mechanicus, the opposite was true. Ore Star Continent was far more valuable than their other eighth-tier bioactive floating-lands.

As a silicon-based civilization, the Mechanica didn’t need an environment for life. All they wanted was a steady supply of resources for manufacturing. Resource-type floating-lands were far more precious to them than any life-bearing one.

That’s why Ore Star Continent was the place every Mechanica dreamed of reaching. Whether mining or transporting resources, there were endless opportunities to cash in on all that mineral wealth.

For the Mechanica, minerals served as universal currency. With enough resources in hand, they could endlessly upgrade themselves—the fastest way to get stronger.

Hoz, a Mechanica from common origins, was just one player in this massive system.

But unlike many, Hoz had already lived for tens of thousands of years. He’d become a tier-six Mech-Warrior millennia ago. Through great grit, he’d managed to secure an old-model mechanical transporter and a coveted route hauling goods from Ore Star Continent.

Landing that gig had cost him everything he’d saved, but the returns had made it worth it. Now a veteran transporter, with each haul he made riches that outstripped his old income by hundreds of years’ worth.

“Master Hoz, the cargo’s loaded. Ready for departure…”

Inside the huge transporter’s hold, a mining ship only a few dozen meters long finished unloading its minerals. A robotic voice spoke up from the control room.

At the prompt, a humanoid Mechanica with a polished metal body glowed red in its optics from the transporter’s cockpit.

A moment later, it turned toward the cargo bay and swept a scanning beam across the piled-up ore.

Down below, in his starship hidden in the ravine, Song Chi’s heart skipped a beat.

He quickly calmed himself, not daring to let the thread of neural consciousness attached to the outside move at all.

After getting the idea, he’d acted right away.

Thanks to his level-80 golden Void Shadowslayer Soldier-Tree plus the silver-tier Neural Remote Control System, he’d quietly dispatched an eighth-tier Void Shadow Assassin Warrior, marked with his brainwave signature, onto a mining ship to slip in among the resources.

Riding that mining ship, it passed up to a mechanical transporter hovering above the clouds.

Just now, he’d sensed Hoz running a full scan.

Luckily, the level-80 Shadowslayer was up to the task. When the sixth-tier Mechanica tried probing, it slipped into the void and went entirely unnoticed.

“Whew, that worked…”

Seeing his plan succeed, Song Chi allowed himself a small sigh of relief, but quickly refocused and triggered the Mirage Dragon Metamorphosis Pearl.

Activating Mirage again, the Heavenly Ruin’s engines roared as she shot up out of the fissure below.

At the same time, the mechanical transporter carrying the Void Shadow Assassin was already pulling away, speeding toward the stars outside Ore Star Continent.

Song Chi couldn’t relax for a second, making sure to keep the Heavenly Ruin tailing the target.

The Neural Remote Control System might be upgraded to silver, but at level 70 its control range was still only a few hundred light-years. Any farther, and his Shadowslayer would shut down.

He couldn’t swap to other soldiers or minions, either. At present, the level-80 Shadowslayer was still the best at staying hidden—even the sixth-tier Void Demon couldn’t compare. Of all his assets, this soldier had the highest chance of pulling off the infiltration into the Truth Floating-Land.

Hidden in Mirage, the Heavenly Ruin stalked the mechanical transporter through the stars. When the transporter fired up for a jump, Song Chi did the same.

From months of observation, he already knew the specs of Hoz’s old-model transporter—its jump drive was only good for a few thousand light-years at a time. Each trip took years.

On that sort of timeline, his brainwave signature on the Shadowslayer would always be at risk of running out.

He was ready for it.

Right before the Shadowslayer would be lost forever in the void, he had it take out the Dimensional Spatial Stone he’d given it in advance.

In an instant, a veteran sixth-tier Void Demon emerged from the Dimensional Spatial Stone.

Void Demons were masters of space, right alongside the Shadowslayer lineage. While a sixth-tier Void Demon might occasionally be caught by thorough Mechanica scans, there wasn’t much risk during routine piloting.

Just as expected, with Hoz fully occupied at the controls, the Shadowslayer was safely swapped out for the Void Demon.

Now the worst hurdle was cleared. Void Demons were Song Chi’s contracted creatures and could communicate telepathically—no need for the brainwave mark anymore.

As for the lost Shadowslayer, Song Chi had already dismissed the summon.

But his work wasn’t done yet. There was still one crucial step left.

The shield around the Truth Floating-Land.

Only by getting past that barrier could Song Chi hope to sneak the Heavenly Ruin inside too.

Time ticked by. Four rounds later…

With Hoz flying non-stop, the mechanical transporter at last neared the Truth Floating-Land.

Right before its next jump, Song Chi transmitted a mental command to the Void Demon.

The Void Demon pulled a silver Market-Walking Token from its Dimensional Spatial Stone.

Omniverse Market, inn third floor.

Inside a Traveler’s Inn room, as the sixth-tier Void Demon appeared, it instantly triggered the Dimensional Spatial Stone again. Song Chi, waiting for this very moment, felt a strong force pulling at his side.

But the suction wasn’t on him—it was aimed at the level-eight Void Shadowslayer beside him.

Following Song Chi’s orders, the Shadowslayer offered no resistance and was swiftly drawn into the Dimensional Spatial Stone.

Outside the barrier of the Truth Floating-Land, the mechanical transporter dropped out of jump and slowed dramatically. Even after many trips, every entry required strict inspection.

Inside the transporter’s hold, the Void Demon, just back from the Market, activated the Dimensional Spatial Stone again, summoning a brand new Void Shadowslayer Warrior and entering the stone itself once more.

This new Shadowslayer also held a brainwave signature from Song Chi. Grasping the Dimensional Spatial Stone, it melted into the void once again.

With preparations complete, Song Chi, far away in his ship, clenched his fists tight. Win or lose, it all came down to this last play.

As the transporter hovered outside the shield, two tier-eight mechanica behemoths flew out. Hoz opened the transporter’s hold as instructed.

Scanning red beams shot from their eyes, sweeping over the piles of ore.

Maybe the inspection was just a routine, or perhaps Song Chi had hidden his Shadowslayer perfectly, or maybe Shadowslayers really were just that good at stealth. Either way, the two behemoths found nothing amiss.

Far behind, within the concealed Heavenly Ruin, Song Chi watched as the mechanical transporter slipped through the Floating-Land Shield and entered the interior. He clapped his hands softly.

That was his first goal, accomplished to perfection.

But there was no time for celebration. He snapped back to alertness immediately.

With the transporter still inside the Neural Remote Control System’s range, the Shadowslayer reappeared from the void and repeated the earlier steps, calling forth the sixth-tier Void Demon again.

The Truth Floating-Land’s surface was hundreds of light-years from its shield. If he didn’t call out the Void Demon in time, any subsequent jump would sever his control over the Shadowslayer—making everything he’d done so far pointless.

Without an external trigger, living beings inside the Dimensional Spatial Stone couldn’t come out of their own accord.

Luckily Song Chi’s timing was sharp. The Void Demon made it out just as the transporter kicked its jump drive again, rocketing toward the land below.

……

Truth Floating-Land. Truth Mountain Range.

The Truth Mountain Range was the largest on the floating-land, running from the eastern edge all the way across, dividing the whole region north and south.

Nearly a million light-years long, it was a true cosmic mountain range.

Peaks that soared a light-year high were scattered everywhere, and dense, ancient forests filled the valleys. Even the Father of Truth, that mighty tier-nine machine, couldn’t monitor every corner.

That made the place perfect for someone like Song Chi to hide.

Well, almost perfect—he still needed to actually make it inside the land himself.

Deep in the western reaches of the mountains, through a dense forest, a dark shape zipped silently along.

It was the level-six Void Demon. After sneaking off the transporter, Song Chi sent it racing straight to the mountains.

“You’ve found a spacious underground cave deep in one of the valleys?”

Through telepathy, Song Chi kept guiding the Void Demon as it searched for the perfect place to launch his next phase.

When the Void Demon reported finding a roomy and thoroughly concealed cave, Song Chi immediately gave new orders.

“Alright, set up shop there. First, poke around in secret and make sure no other creatures or Mechanica are present…”

Half an hour later, after the Void Demon confirmed the cave was empty, it took out three items from the Dimensional Spatial Stone.

Anyone from the Song Family would have recognized them instantly.

The power core of the True Spirit Tower.

The golden Oddity, Illusion Array Stone.

Projection Emperor Stone of the Void Sea.

These three items were the heart of Song Chi’s next plan.

“Alright, just follow my instructions and begin the setup!”

As soon as the order came in, the Void Demon snapped into motion.

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