Chapter 714: Silent Intrusion: The Great Resource Sweep of the Truth Floating-Land

Actually, inside the Dimensional Spatial Stone, there were several more enslaved creatures, including a Seventh-Tier Star Devourer Wolf and a Seventh-Tier Nightmare Soul Body.

Either of these was enough to activate the Illusion Array Stone’s concealment and transformation abilities, but Song Chi chose to use the True Spirit Tower Power Core because the life energy fluctuations of a Seventh-Tier Dominion Soul were just too intense—summoning one could easily trigger nearby sensors.

The Truth Mountain Range sprawled endlessly. Even a Ninth-Tier mechanical lifeform couldn’t monitor every corner, but that didn’t mean the Father of Truth left things completely unchecked.

In fact, the Void Demon had spotted tiny mechanical bugs cleverly hidden deep within the forest on its entire way here.

No doubt about it—these little bugs were almost certainly surveillance devices. They weren’t everywhere, but finding a few even at great distance proved the Father of Truth had his arrangements in place here.

Down in the underground cave, the True Spirit Tower Power Core that the Sixth-Tier Void Demon drew out was another story. As an advanced power source created over generations by a dominant civilization’s sorcerers, this device was high-end—even among its own kind, the energy stabilizer within was faultless. Left unactivated, it looked no different from any ordinary object.

Soon, the Void Demon used its own energy to power the golden Illusion Array Stone. As the illusion field spread across the entire cave, the True Spirit Tower Power Core kicked into action as well.

With a steady supply of energy from the core, the golden Illusion Array Stone flooded the cave with a powerful illusion domain. Still, this wasn’t enough—Void Demon also summoned the Star Devourer Wolf and Nightmare Soul Body from the Dimensional Spatial Stone, letting both add their own energy to the Illusion Array Stone. The artifact’s power soared even higher.

At last, Song Chi figured the illusion field’s concealment was strong enough. He had the Sixth-Tier Void Demon activate the Projection Emperor Stone.

Wummmm!

Violent waves of spatial energy gushed through the underground cave. Above, the projection of an 18,000-kilometer-long Star-Annihilator-class Ship began to take shape.

If not for the impressive concealment of the illusion field, this kind of spectacle would have drawn the world’s attention instantly.

Far outside the Truth Floating-Land, millions of light-years away onboard the Heavenly Ruin, Song Chi changed his focus.

He triggered the Reality-Conversion trait of the Void Sea Projection Emperor’s Tomb component.

At the same time, the projected Star-Annihilator-class Ship hovering in the cave began to turn solid.

When the projection finally solidified, Song Chi stepped out at the slowly opening hatch. With a sweep of his hand, he set a spatial anchor in the center of the cave.

Done with that, the solid body of the Heavenly Ruin faded away—but moments later, Song Chi himself appeared out of thin air in the underground cave.

With that, phase two of silently infiltrating the Truth Floating-Land had wrapped up perfectly.

A ghostly light flickered between his brows, and Song Chi summoned the Heavenly Ruin from the Torch Ancestral Orifice.

Once aboard, Song Chi turned his attention to the third phase of his infiltration plan.

The third phase was simple: As long as he stayed hidden, he’d explore the entire Truth Floating-Land at full speed.

This was a ninth-tier floating-land—its foundation wasn’t as deep as Demon Serpent Floating-Land, but it held the essence of the entire Truth Mechanicus Civilization. The value of its resources and oddities was beyond imagination.

The best part? The Father of Truth and all the civilization’s top-ranked fighters were fighting at the front lines—giving Song Chi a golden opportunity to strike.

“Starsea Giant Ape Civilization, you guys better keep up your end…”

Muttering to himself, Song Chi wasted no more time. The now-ready Mirage trait kicked in, and pairing that with the golden-grade Void Shroud, the Heavenly Ruin surged up from the cave and sped away.

He handed the helm to the Sky-Domain AI and opened up all the info he’d collected on the Truth Floating-Land.

According to those records, the Truth Floating-Land was split into north and south. Each side was divided into four major districts—eight in all, covering the entire land.

Of these, the Truth District was the absolute core, crowned by a magnificent super-mechanical city. Each of the other seven districts housed its own top-level main city.

But Song Chi immediately crossed these eight mega-cities off his initial hit list. No question about it—each one had its own eighth-tier Truth Mechanica Behemoth standing guard, fortified by the floating-land’s source will. Even in Mirage state, Heavenly Ruin risked being exposed if he dared approach.

Compared to that, the hundreds of mid and high-level cities beyond those mega-cities were a much safer (and more tempting) target.

South City 112—an advanced mechanical metropolis—had more than two seventh-tier, ‘Demon Hunter-class’ Truth Mechanica Behemoths on watch. The city even hosted a sixth-level Truth Mechanica Beast production line, crammed with rare minerals.

“You’ll do nicely…”

Scanning through the top-tier cities, Song Chi quickly settled on his target.

With engines roaring, one jump later he arrived at the first sector of the southern district—not far from his cave base.

His chosen South City 112 was right there in this sector.

It seemed the mechanical clans here had serious confidence in their ninth-tier floating-land shield. As Song Chi observed, most machine cities on the Truth Floating-Land hadn’t even powered up their city shields—some didn’t bother to have them at all.

Because of this, Heavenly Ruin slipped smoothly into the urban center of South City 112.

In these cities built for gigantic machines, mechanisms and behemoths, everything was on a grand scale. With all that space and the cities’ rough-but-impressive style, even the massive Heavenly Ruin—almost 20,000 kilometers long—could wander the city with ease.

That just made Song Chi’s job that much easier.

“Doo doo doo! New batch of Sixth-Tier mechanical beasts rolling out! All units—on alert!”

Suddenly, a loud alarm sounded from the massive production base on the outskirts. One of the seventh-tier Truth Mechanica Behemoths standing guard stared over sharply, and scores of fourth and fifth-tier mechanical clansmen and behemoths sprang to secondary alert.

Soon, under tight security, the city-sized superalloy gates of the primary mechanical assembly line swung open. New-model mechanical transporters rumbled out, moving like a herd of steel elephants.

One after another until the last one rolled out—exactly one hundred transporters.

None of the battle-ready mechanical guards realized that, floating silently overhead, an invisible super battleship hovered above the factory, monitoring their every move.

Inside the Heavenly Ruin’s control room, Song Chi’s pupils glimmered as the shadows of his Dual Pupils ghosted behind his eyes.

Suddenly, he murmured softly.

“So, every one of those mechanical transporters has a sixth-level Truth Mechanica Beast loaded inside…”

The new transporters weren’t lacking in performance. But, at the end of the day, they were standardized models—nothing like the absolute shutoff effect that the Torch Battleship boasted. Their stealth capabilities were good, but no match for the Seventh-Tier Dual Pupils’ perception.

Right now, all one hundred of those sixth-level Truth Mechanica Beasts were not quite finished. Song Chi guessed these transports were about to haul them off to the Truth City, where they’d get their AIs installed. Once finished, they’d join armies built in other cities and be shipped to the front, keeping the Mechanicus Civilization’s war effort balanced.

Song Chi felt a pang of desire as he looked over all those sixth-level mechanica beasts. Right now, the Song Family could only mass-produce Fifth-Tier Mara Void Mechas—that was already lagging behind what Heavenly Ruin could handle. If only he could upgrade to sixth-level mechanica beasts… that’d be a real step forward.

The key was how tough these mechanica beasts were. As long as he could boost their numbers—and with the Sky-Domain AI’s Full Auto Sub-AI Machinery trait—they’d make a heck of a trump card.

Still, Song Chi’s real interest was what lay behind those giant alloy gates. If his hunch was right, that entire sealed mechanical factory was built for constructing sixth-level Truth Mechanica Beasts.

A hundred sixth-level mechanica beasts was tempting enough, but a production line that churned them out without end? There was no contest.

And so, right in plain sight of that seventh-tier behemoth, Song Chi took advantage of the open gates, guiding the Heavenly Ruin inside in a flash.

“Just as I thought, an entire sixth-level Truth Mechanica Beast production line…”

Passing through the metal gates, Song Chi found the super-scale mechanical assembly line running at full tilt inside the factory. Every part needed for a sixth-level mechanica beast could be made right here—assembly and AI installation were all that remained before a fully functional war beast rolled off the line.

Song Chi’s eyes burned with desire as he gazed at the line. If he could haul this back to Dragon‑Spine Continent, the Song Family could crank out these machines by the batch.

A dozen ideas flickered through his mind in less than two seconds, but reason won out over greed—he didn’t strike. Instead, he just left a spatial anchor inside the factory.

That done, he swiftly turned the Heavenly Ruin and slipped away.

He knew perfectly well—a seventh-tier Truth Mechanica Behemoth standing guard outside meant if he acted now, Heavenly Ruin would be discovered instantly. The news could even reach the front lines.

There were so many places on the floating-land still waiting to be explored. Song Chi wasn’t about to bring the Father of Truth down on him yet.

That could only happen in phase four.

Not that he’d given up on the production line—it was what the spatial anchor was for, after all.

His plan was simple—mark the location, then, once phase four was underway and the Father of Truth was too busy, let Clan Elder and the other two send over a battleship replica to dismantle and haul away the line piece by piece.

After leaving, Song Chi quickly moved to the heart of the city—home to its main vault.

Just like the rest of this rough-and-ready metropolis, the core vault sprawled for miles. The Heavenly Ruin slipped inside without a sound, not so much as bumping a wall.

As the city’s central treasure vault, it was heavily guarded. Swarms of mechanical clansmen stood watch, and a mechanical barrier shone over the entrance.

Normally, an outsider would have zero chance of getting in unnoticed—especially with thousands of guards and a second seventh-tier Truth Mechanica Behemoth on patrol.

And yet, Song Chi had made it look easy.

Heavenly Ruin was now inside the vault itself, moving at top speed as Song Chi swept up whatever he could.

All of this was thanks to a certain component.

A golden Flash-displacement Component.

The Starlight Flash Spirit Stone Talisman.

More precisely, the Starlight Flash Spirit Shift ability granted by the component.

{Starlight Flash Spirit Shift: Consumes 1,000,000 Eon Energy Points. Allows—among many things—ignoring spatial lockdowns, battleship restraints, anti-magic fields, time freeze effects, or anything that controls or blocks movement. Maximum displacement: 9 light-years. Cooldown: 50 years.}

If not for this trait, Song Chi never would have bothered with phase three in the first place.

To loot the top resources of the Truth Floating-Land without being noticed, staying hidden wasn’t enough. You had to get your hands on them first, right?

The Starlight Flash Spirit Shift solved this perfectly.

That lengthy fifty-year cooldown wasn’t so bad, either. With the Timepiece Chessboard at level 90 and Pusa Zen Seal at level 80, both providing cooldown reduction, Song Chi could shrink it all the way down to two years.

Still a long wait, but given that wars between the Truth Mechanicus and Starsea Giant Apes lasted tens of thousands of years, two years was nothing—Heavenly Ruin could use this move countless times.

But there was a catch: Take too much from any one vault, and the theft would be discovered the moment someone checked.

That’s why, even now, Song Chi hesitated inside the vault.

[Truth Alloy Type II · 589 tons]

[Truth Alloy Type I · 6,700 tons]

[Raw Hunyuan Copper Ore · 2.8 tons]

[Raw Obsidian Crystal Ore · 38 tons]

[Ninth-Tier Floating-Land Origin · 150 strands]

[Seventh-Tier Dominion Soul · 60 fragments]

[Golden Sanctum Oddity · Origin-Shedding Demon Stone]

[Red Oddity AI · Red Sun AI Device]

…

Scanning the vault’s messy heaps of resources, Song Chi’s mind raced. Which were safe to take, and which ones should he leave alone?

First off, that golden sanctum oddity, Origin-Shedding Demon Stone, was off-limits—it was set right at the front, easily spotted the second the door opened.

So if he took it, someone would notice right away.

More than twenty minutes later, Song Chi used the spatial anchor to return to his underground cave. The main vault of South City 112 was back to outward calm.

From the outside, it looked untouched. But that wasn’t the reality.

Inside those seemingly untouched piles of resources, plenty of secret pockets and gaps had appeared—on the surface everything looked the same, but a lot was missing underneath.

Besides that, Song Chi picked up a few orange, red, and silver oddities from various corners, along with some high-grade floating-land origin, Dominion Souls, and more.

To any casual eye, the vault looked just as before—but the valuable stuff was lighter than ever.

Back at the cave, Song Chi tallied up his gains.

He couldn’t help smiling—the haul was impressive. Each type may not have been massive, but the total value was tremendous.

[Truth Alloy Type II · 45 tons]

[Truth Alloy Type I · 350 tons]

[Raw Hunyuan Copper Ore · 0.4 tons]

[Raw Obsidian Crystal Ore · 6 tons]

[Ninth-Tier Floating-Land Origin · 20 strands]

[Seventh-Tier Dominion Soul · 15 fragments]

[Red Oddity AI · Red Sun AI Device]

[Orange Oddity AI · Metamorpher AI]

…

One thing stood out. Maybe it was this civilization’s sheer number of ordinary AIs, but over the years, huge numbers of oddity AIs had sprung up throughout the Truth Mechanicus’s domain. Most were only red or lower in rank, but even those were worth a lot.

For a Torch Battleship, a single Intermediate AI component could make a world of difference.

Song Chi originally planned to share out these AI oddities among the clan’s top core members, but the Sky-Domain AI’s hunger grew even greater than he expected. In the end, he wound up fusing every oddity AI he got into the Sky-Domain AI.

After absorbing the AIs, the Sky-Domain AI evolved dramatically. Song Chi figured if he gave it a couple more red-tier AI oddities, it could hit golden sanctum quality.

Not a bad haul, but the real body of the Heavenly Ruin was forced into a two-year wait.

Song Chi wasn’t about to wait idly. When the Starlight Flash Spirit Shift finished its cooldown, he immediately brought his Mirror Warship (canceled ahead of time) into play. With the mirrored ship, he could use Starlight Flash Spirit Shift twice in a row.

His next target was still in the first southern sector—just a new advanced city.

Then it was the same as two years ago: same moves, even better results. He looted the next main vault with ease.

Afterwards, he jumped back to the cave base via spatial anchor, then remote-controlled the mirrored ship for its next run—different target, same plan.

This rinse-and-repeat trick worked perfectly. In just under ten years, Song Chi successfully hit every advanced city in the southernmost sector, stockpiling an incredible pile of loot.

He didn’t stop there—soon he turned to the second sector, repeating the pattern.

And so time ticked on, day after day.

In the blink of an eye, eighty-five years had flown by since the Heavenly Ruin first slipped silently into the Truth Floating-Land.

In those eighty-five years, Song Chi had hit every advanced city vault in all four southern districts—even the top city in the first northern district.

Now, his sights were set on the second northern district.

On this day, Song Chi sat in his cave, carefully tallying up more than eighty years’ worth of plunder.

Across five and a half districts, forty-eight vaults in total—packed with special alloys and rare minerals worth a fortune.

Song Chi had snagged nearly a thousand oddities—still a drop in the bucket for a ninth-tier floating-land, but not to be sneezed at.

Don’t forget—he’d been selective. Besides AI oddities, he hadn’t picked up anything below orange grade. Of these, he had 102 red, 16 silver, 4 gold, and even 2 black-ranked oddities.

He’d also collected a staggering amount of floating-land origin and Dominion Souls.

In all, he’d gathered over 1,300 strands of ninth-tier floating-land origin, more than ten thousand strands of eighth-tier, 240 Seventh-Tier Dominion Souls, 35 Eighth-Tier, and even 2 Ninth-Tier.

On top of that—and not entirely by accident—he’d picked up over two hundred sixth-level Truth Mechanica Beasts, and more than a thousand fifth-level ones. These didn’t have their AIs installed yet.

These machines were older models, weaker than the latest versions. Maybe that’s why they were left to gather dust deep in the vaults, never sent to fight.

Didn’t matter to Song Chi—he stashed all 210 sixth-tier beasts aboard the Heavenly Ruin, and sent the fifth-tier ones back to Dragon‑Spine Continent through the Omniverse Market.

His family’s Mara Void Mecha output was still limited, with many clansmen waiting for their allotment. These fifth-tier mechanica beasts would help fill the gap.

As for the missing control systems? No sweat. In over eighty years, Song Chi left behind dozens of AI oddities. The Song Family used all of them to control these machines—no problem at all.

Speaking of, the Sky-Domain AI had evolved from silver to gold decades ago.

But just as Song Chi was about to check its new stats, his eyes narrowed sharply.

His three Void Shadow Assassin Warriors, left outside for recon, just reported that vault thefts were being discovered across several southern districts.

Relaxing faintly, Song Chi still sighed to himself:

“I’d hoped to wait a few more decades, but looks like I’ll have to move up the timeline!”