Chapter 732: The Time River Ruins and the Spoils of War

A million-fold time acceleration—at this point, calling it terrifying doesn’t do it justice. Back when he first acquired the Timepiece Chessboard, even the highest time flow had only hit around a hundred thousand times normal.

And the kicker? He was still only at the very edge of this time energy source. If he pushed closer to the center, the flow would become even more outrageous.

“What could it be? Another high-tier time-type Oddity like the Timepiece Chessboard? Or just a mass of pure time energy?”

Song Chi shook off his wandering thoughts. No point speculating—he’d only know after investigating it himself.

“The Timepiece Chessboard is still holding out… keep going…”

Even under a million-fold time acceleration, inside the Mirror Warship the flow was suppressed to just a hundred times normal, thanks to the Chessboard. It wasn’t yet overwhelming.

With the engines roaring, the Mirror Warship kept advancing.

As the ship raced ahead, the intensity of the surrounding time energy steadily grew—just as he’d expected.

At first, it was only a million-fold.

Then it climbed to 1.1 million.

1.2 million.

1.5 million.

The Heavenly Ruin’s Mirror Warship hadn’t even covered a single light-year and already the time flow had shot up to a terrifying two million times normal.

According to the Eye of Truth’s readings, the area enveloped by this source of time energy stretched for dozens of light-years in diameter.

Buzzzzzz!

Who knew how long passed before the speeding Mirror Warship suddenly slowed, then came to a full stop.

They weren’t near the core yet. The reason for the abrupt halt was that Song Chi had remotely caught sight of a strange, dazzling light ahead.

“Silver light… could that be a Silver Starsea Oddity?”

The warship changed course, heading for the glow. As he neared, Song Chi confirmed the silver radiance was coming from a legendary Oddity.

He acted quickly. The Mirror Warship fired off a Tractor Beam, aiming to reel that silver Oddity inside.

But disappointment came fast. With the outside time acceleration at millions-fold, even the Tractor Beam was warped by the insane difference.

Inside the ship, the Timepiece Chessboard shielded them, weakening the outside time by over ten thousand times. But the moment anything left the ship, it lost that protection.

The result? The Mirror Warship’s Tractor Beam now ate up a million times more dark energy. Even with antimatter and Flamehowl engines, the energy reserves were draining fast.

Thankfully, Song Chi was sharp. He immediately cut the Tractor Beam. A few seconds’ delay and the entire ship’s dark energy reserve would’ve been sucked dry, freezing all systems.

After thinking a moment, Song Chi had one of his enslaved creatures inside the Mirror Warship activate the Market Projection Token.

Every use of that token was basically like burning a Silver Oddity, so it wasn’t a loss. If that silver Oddity could be converted to a battleship component, that was like gaining half a Silver Component for free.

Luckily, the Market’s authority was high enough that, even with time racing outside, the projected purple mist energy wasn’t greatly impacted. With Song Chi’s remote manipulation, the legendary Silver Oddity was soon pulled aboard the Mirror Warship, then sent straight into Song Chi’s hands in the Omniverse Market.

Oddity: Phantom Void Armor

Grade: Silver

Convertible: None

Note: Back in the Age of the Multiverse, countless universes and the River of Time fractured together, leaving ruins scattered across the shattered Sea of Stars. From a remnant of the River of Time, this Oddity was unintentionally birthed.

After reading through its details, Song Chi’s eyes lit up.

This item’s attributes perfectly explained the origin of this mysterious time energy source.

“Ruins of the River of Time…”

“I always thought that was just make-believe in old stories. Turns out it’s real…”

“If just a small fragment of the River of Time is this overwhelming, the original must have been beyond comprehension!”

Song Chi quickly refocused and looked closely at the legendary Silver Oddity in hand.

To be precise, his gaze locked onto the special substance coating the Oddity’s surface.

Thanks to the Clan Elder trio’s recent experiences, Song Chi knew: under such vast temporal power, even black Supreme Oddities would eventually wither away, unless something special protected them.

The replication modules on his three Star-Annihilator-class ship clones weren’t true Oddity components. They couldn’t be removed or upgraded and had big limits.

But still, their essence as Oddities couldn’t be changed—they might be a bit peculiar, but that quality was intrinsic.

If time could corrode and decay those parts, the same would go for other Starsea Oddities.

So, for a legendary Silver Oddity to last unscathed under millions-fold time acceleration, it had to have something extremely unique.

Carefully controlling it, Song Chi soon stripped away the special transparent energy membrane enveloping the Phantom Void Armor.

“This is…”

Right as puzzlement rose in his mind, the Eye of Truth offered an analysis.

Name: Source of Time

Category: Special Time-type Resource

Note: A rare, resource-type time entity born from the ancient River of Time’s ruins. It contains the most primitive time power and can shield against the effects of external time energy.

Value: Extremely High

……

“Source of Time…”

Song Chi read the Eye of Truth’s info, but his attention had already wandered elsewhere.

Clearly, this “Source of Time” membrane was the true reason the Phantom Void Armor survived so long within the time ruins. But right now, what grabbed his senses was a violent vibration coming from another part.

Because this rumbling wasn’t from just any module—but from one of Heavenly Ruin’s two highest-grade components: the Timepiece Chessboard.

Watching the Chessboard seethe with energy, Song Chi had a sudden idea.

“Could it be…”

He slowly brought the thin slice of Source of Time closer to the Chessboard.

The Chessboard’s tremors only grew fiercer—as if echoing his hunch.

He let go, no longer restraining the precious bit of Source of Time.

Freed from his hand, the Source of Time quickly merged into the colorful Chessboard, drawn in at once.

Maybe there just wasn’t enough of it—because this integration ended fast, in just two seconds. When he checked, the Timepiece Chessboard’s properties were unchanged.

Song Chi’s face stayed calm.

His instincts told him the Source of Time had a significant impact on the Chessboard. The reason there was no change yet must be the tiny amount. If he kept collecting more, a transformation would eventually come.

“Could the first prismatic extremity component on the Heavenly Ruin really be the Timepiece Chessboard?”

With that hope, Song Chi let the Clan Elders know, then—excited—he threw himself into a long hunt.

The way he saw it, the Chessboard would need a lot of Source of Time to evolve. But this time ruins spanned far and wide. It likely housed plenty of Oddities and Source of Time. If he searched every inch, maybe, just maybe, he could gather enough.

But the time energy here was so intense it drowned out the Oddities’ own energy signatures. Even the Eye of Truth could barely pick up their locations now. That made Song Chi’s job much harder.

Time slipped by. Ten years passed in a flash.

After a decade, their exploration of the River of Time’s ruins was barely underway, but Song Chi had to pause.

One day, he summoned the Clan Elders together.

“I just got news from the Demon God Floating-Land—the postwar allocation is starting!”

At this, Song Wujian and the others, busy for ten years gathering time energy, couldn’t hide their delight.

For them, this was seriously great news.

From the moment the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon galaxy cluster war ended, they’d been waiting for this day.

It wasn’t just about which domains the Song Family would keep. They all knew the family stood to earn a massive reward at this final postwar summary and allocation assembly.

After all, it was the Song Family that provided intel on the Truth Mechanicus and Starsea Giant Ape galactic clusters—a contribution beyond measure.

Fact is, the entire alliance and relocation agreement with the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization rested on that information.

Without the Song Family’s info and help with the relocation wormhole, the war’s outcome—and its sheer length—would have played out much differently, probably dragging on for thousands of years.

Sure, the Torch Civilization always had the upper hand, but that was only because the Eight-Armed Demon God never took the field. If an ancient Demon God from the Bottomless Abyss, bolstered by a peak-level Ninth-grade Floating-land, had gotten involved, toppling the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon heartland would’ve been nearly impossible without that alliance.

Even if they won in the end, the cost to the Torch Civilization would’ve been unimaginable.

For all these reasons, their contribution ranked among the very highest in the whole war. The Four Torch Empires had always been generous in such cases.

“This is a big deal—let’s hold off here and focus on securing our gains first!”

“Of course. My only worry is the Serpent Demons—they’ve been advancing even faster than I thought these ten years. With no Eighth or Ninth-level Giant Apes left to lead them, the Starsea Giant Ape Civilization can’t mount real resistance. Wherever the Serpent Demon army goes, every Floating-land surrenders at once. Nearly half of their domains have fallen already.”

“Just recently, I heard a Serpent Demon force entered our galaxy. Soon enough, they’ll cross this starfield. If their curiosity leads them to this time ruins, things could get tricky.”

Song Chi nodded at Prime Ancestor’s concern.

He had to admit, the Mirror Warship inside the River of Time ruins was safe. He doubted the Serpent Demon side could muscle through millions-fold acceleration and reach them any time soon.

But the Clan Elders’ Star-Annihilator ship clones were still outside. If the Serpent Demons decided to snoop around, it was very possible they’d get discovered.

“Let’s recall the ship clones for now. Once allocation ends, the Serpent Demons will lose interest in this place. Then Xiaochi can take us back in.”

“Works for me. In ten years, all the time energy we gathered pushed the Shedding of the Heaven-Devouring Python’s evolution to 81 percent. If we hang in there, that mythic relic might soon transform at its core. Can’t be too careful!”

……

Eight-Armed Serpent Demon cluster, Central Star Domain, Demon God Floating-Land.

Serpent Motherships rose in spirals off the vast land, shooting toward the sky and the colossal spatial tunnel above.

After ten years of full-speed evacuation, the number of Serpent Demons left on the Demon God Floating-Land had mostly emptied out, though their total resettlement would still take quite a while.

The entire cluster has many more Floating-lands, and new Serpent Demons were still pouring in from the outside.

Not that this concerned the Torch Captains. Both sides controlled the southern and northern halves of the Floating-land, never clashing, each holding their own.

South of the Demon God Floating-Land, above the original Demon God Temple’s ruins.

With a command from the three Human Sovereigns, countless Torch Battleships swarmed in, so many in such a short time that they nearly blotted out the heavens.

And this was with strict orders—only Zhulu-class Captains and above, whether individuals or factions, could join this last war meeting.

Just like before, twelve golden giant projections gathered in the sky. Once golden light enveloped everything, millions of Torch Battleships vanished, passing into a silent, starless void.

Inside the Heavenly Ruin’s Control Room, Song Chi’s brow twitched.

He stared fixedly at the center of the void. Alongside the Shensia Jiuli, Xian Qin Ancestral Dragon, and Heaven’s Holy Radiance supermotherships, there were now two new and unfamiliar ones.

But these two weren’t physical—they were ghostly projections.

‘The Xuanhuang Chiyu and Shenyi Qiongyu, huh…’

Song Chi wasn’t alone—many other captains recognized the ship projections immediately.

The Xuanhuang Chiyu was famous—flagship of the Chiyu Divine Dynasty, home of Ji Emperor, one of the Four Human Sovereigns, Ji Heng. He usually held down the Human Sovereign City in the Chaotic Divine Land, making sure no outside civilizations took over their ground during the war.

The Shenyi Qiongyu was a new superdimensional flagship for the Divine Xia Empire. Its captain had kept the Corpse Sovereign Clan in check to the south, held the Bottomless Abyss, even manned the Starsea Insect Front, racking up major contributions though he never joined the war directly.

Beyond the five superdimensional flagship captains, there were over a hundred Star River-class Captains here. Only a few attended in person; most appeared by projection.

Plenty of Star-Annihilator-class Captains were in the same situation.

Like Ji Emperor, these were the war’s major line holders, every one of whom paid a price.

“All right, I’ll announce the start of the final postwar meeting. First, let’s get a detailed battle-loss report.”

As before, Jiang Emperor aboard the Shensia Jiuli led things off.

Right after, the minister from the Four Empires’ Joint Statistics Department began the report.

“Based on all available data, this war lasted 1,780 years. Our Torch Civilization lost over 13.5 million Torch Captains: five Star River-class, 468 Star-Annihilator-class, and more than a million combinations of Zhulu to Dreadnought-class Captains. Over fifty billion Torch citizens also fell—all of them heroes who gave their lives for our rise. Now, everyone, a moment of silence for the fallen!”

A half hour of silence followed before the statistics minister spoke again:

“But these sacrifices were not for nothing. With victory, we’ve brought the entire Eight-Armed Serpent Demon cluster into the Torch domain. It covers 821 galaxies, with five ninth-level Life Floating-lands, twelve ninth-level Resource Floating-lands…”

Every heavy sentence of the report had captains across the void breathing harder.

Now that the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon cluster was Torch territory, the civilization had two full galactic clusters. Combined, Torch now controlled nearly 1,900 galaxies. While not at overlord level yet, among top-tier civilizations, they now stood second to none.

At that instant, everyone’s thoughts drifted to the Corpse Sovereign side.

That adjacent galactic cluster, ruled by the Corpse Sovereign Clan, was now far behind. Even the largest faction there couldn’t match the heritage of the Starsea Giant Ape Civilization.

Despite mobilizing their race and exploiting recent chaos, and even birthing two new ninth-level Corpse Sovereigns, the Corpse Sovereign Civilization was no match for Torch.

Mirroring his peers’ thoughts, Song Chi understood the idea: if they swallowed up the Corpse Sovereign’s territory too, Torch would have three galactic clusters, almost rivaling the great powers near the top.

If that happened, their reach would rival even the Three-Eyed Clan, giants of the universe.

Sensing everyone’s ambitions, Ji Emperor’s projected form spoke calmly:

“Don’t get ahead of yourselves. That time hasn’t come. For now, focus on absorbing the resources of the Serpent Demon cluster. Grow stronger—yourselves, your factions, all of Torch.”

“Your Majesty, wouldn’t it be best to use this momentum and take the Corpse Sovereign lands now?”

Ji Emperor’s answer came from the Xuanhuang Chiyu projection.

“If your virtue doesn’t match your position, trouble is sure to follow. Under the unspoken rules, two clusters are the limit unless you possess true mythic power. Go for more, and the Starsea overlords won’t just watch from the sidelines.”

This time, Ying Huang asked:

“But hasn’t Human Sovereign City shown signs already?”

“Yes. In the past five hundred years, there’s been frequent traces of unfamiliar mythic beings around the city’s borders…”

“And they’re not the same each time?”

“No, they’re all different every time!”

……

Even though Song Chi knew little about the Chaotic Divine Land, he felt the mounting pressure from this exchange.

He recalled Whitebrow telling him: every Human Sovereign could use their flagship and Human Sovereign City to wield mythic power. But such borrowed strength remained an illusion compared to true mythics—especially with so many mythic beings appearing now.

“Enough about the Corpse Sovereign Clan. Let’s move on to the final war allocation!”

The meeting had grown heavy. The statistics minister smoothly shifted gears.

“Here’s what’s been discussed so far: east of the Serpent Demon cluster to the Xian Qin Divine Dynasty, south to Chiyu, west to the Sankt Empire, central regions to the Divine Xia Empire. The north will go to whichever forces guarded other frontlines and had no Star-Annihilator-level presence here—they’ll divide it among themselves…”

As the minister finished, the tense mood shattered. Leaders from all sides began arguing, scrambling for more turf.

The whole arena burst into noise.

But not everyone was shouting. The Song Family of Longji, represented at this meeting by four Star-Annihilator ships, sat in silence, waiting patiently.

Their patience paid off. After a long stretch, as the discussion settled and territorial claims were mostly agreed, a voice came again from the five supermotherships at the heart.

This time, the target was clear: the Song Family of Longji.

“Silence. There’s one last matter—rewards for the Song Family of Longji!”

“Most of you already know: the swift end to this war is directly thanks to the Song Family of Longji!”