Chapter 735: Echoes of the Silver Throne

They called it the final stretch, but that was only relative. If we really wanted to finish this last round of exploration, it would take years at the very least. Day after day time slipped by as we pressed on.

We assumed this phase would be uneventful, but life, as always, had other plans.

One day, in the bustling Omniverse Market, Song Chi, Song Wujian and a few others suddenly received some unexpected news.

One of the clan’s core members, Song Bei—a Sixth-Tier Dreadnought Captain whose ship had already reached its highest limit—took the initiative to report something important.

This news rattled all four Star-Annihilator-class Captains, including Song Chi. The effects of the Dragon Whale Hall’s Star Projection, which had just faded not long ago, reignited once more.

……

Deep within the Dragon Spine Sacred Mountain, where thick Chaotic Mist shrouded the slopes.

As waves of spatial fluctuations rippled by, all four Starry Thrones in the ancient starlit hall trembled at once. Four figures gradually appeared, settling onto their thrones.

“Song Bei, repeat everything you just reported to us—in detail.”

Song Bei, already waiting beneath the grand hall, quickly bowed and began speaking.

“Yes, Clan Elder. Here’s what happened: by a twist of fate, I caught wind of some information about an ancient civilization’s ruins. Those ruins…”

This time, reporting in front of Song Chi and the other three, Song Bei spoke with much more detail than before.

When he’d finished, the four exchanged glances. With these new specifics, they could finally form a fairly complete picture of the civilization ruin Song Bei mentioned.

“From what you’ve told us, this so-called ‘Silver Throne Ruins’ was already explored once. Based on your guess, it shouldn’t pose much danger?”

“That’s right, Clan Elder!”

“And how certain are you of that assessment?”

The confidence in Song Bei’s eyes wavered at this question.

Truth was, he hadn’t explored the Silver Throne Ruins himself—it was his teacher who did. There was really no way for him to answer with certainty.

Thankfully, just then, that familiar aged voice echoed in his mind.

‘Just say seventy percent.’

……

“Seventy percent, you say…”

All four atop the Starry Thrones fell silent at his response.

Their faces betrayed nothing, but the hush that followed said everything.

Song Wujian reacted the fastest—before Song Bei could gather his thoughts, Wujian spoke up:

“We’ve heard you. Let’s hold off for now. At the moment the family’s Shedding of the Heaven-Devouring Python is reaching its crucial transformation. In ten, fifteen years at most, the oddity will evolve into high-grade mythic quality. With its power, whether the Silver Throne Ruins truly hold danger won’t matter nearly as much—the risks will drop even further.”

Song Bei instantly understood Wujian’s meaning. And as if on cue, that aged voice sounded in his mind again.

‘If I remember right, decades ago the Shedding of the Heaven-Devouring Python was only at seventy percent devouring progress. Still a ways from evolving.’

‘But knowing your old ancestors, they’d never bluff you. If the oddity truly transforms to high mythic grade, the summoned python spirit’s power will leap immensely. In that case, all the better!’

“Understood, Ancestor! I will await your command.”

……

This might’ve seemed like just a minor interlude, barely stirring the Song Family at all. But appearances were deceptive—the four still kept a close eye on the matter.

Their reasoning was simple.

According to Song Bei, the Silver Throne Ruins could be connected to a former hegemon-level civilization.

Anything tied to an ancient overlord was bound to be valuable.

That’s why, despite Song Bei’s conviction, the four refused to risk an immediate plunge into the ruins.

If it were merely a run-of-the-mill advanced civilization, even with a peak combat strength at only Tier Seven or Eight, there’d be no need for all this caution.

With the projections Song Chi could now summon from the Market, he wielded power on par with half a step into the ninth tier. Even the full force of an advanced civilization might only tickle the Heavenly Ruin—not truly threaten it.

……

And so, the years passed by in the blink of an eye.

One day, in a certain Traveler’s Inn of the Omniverse Market, space rippled and a Sixth-Tier Doomstar appeared right in the middle of the room.

Holding a silver clan token, the being respectfully presented Song Chi with three dazzling oddities, each radiating a distinct hue.

Red, silver and gold—they glowed with their own brilliance. Song Chi roused his Dominion Power to the ninth tier, stripping away the outer layer of time source from each artifact in turn.

With that done, he finally examined the oddities themselves.

Red and silver, while convertible into warship components, were the standard type—useful, but hardly anything the Heavenly Ruin truly needed.

The golden oddity, though—

Or rather, the golden space beacon component—now that was tempting for Song Chi.

Starway Beacon Launcher lv0

Grade: Gold

Trait: Increases beacon imprint range by 170%

Trait 2: +1 additional beacon imprint

Trait 3: Doubles beacon duration

Trait 4: Void Imprint

Trait 5: Fixed Starway Beacon

Cost: 10,000 Eon Energy Points per use

Available Imprints: 2/2

Effect: Fires a beacon imprint at a chosen coordinate, lasting for 20 months. Subsequent Outer Domain deployments can directly target this beacon, allowing the flagship to jump instantly to the location. (After use, the imprint vanishes.)

Recharge: 30 seconds; Cooldown: 2 years

Upgrade Cost: 100 threads of Floating-land Origin (Zero Tier), 10,000 Eon Energy Points

{Void Imprint: The beacons it creates are infused with a unique void force, making them very hard for other beings to detect.}

{Fixed Starway Beacon: Spend 100,000 Eon-Energy Years to place a fixed beacon somewhere in the starry sky. This beacon is permanent unless the captain deactivates it. If removed, it takes 100 years to reactivate this feature.}

These days, with the Market’s spatial anchor feature maxed at six slots, the Heavenly Ruin barely needed more space beacon components.

That’s why, after all these years, it still used only a blue and an orange-quality beacon on board.

Sure, space beacons were always in high demand, with Torch Human Civilization factions gobbling up as many as possible. But with Song Chi’s rank, if he’d truly wanted more, he’d have no problem getting them—even after two thousand years.

He’d picked up red and silver-quality versions plenty of times when scavenging old civilizations. He just never went out of his way for them.

The family, after all, still needed them badly—especially with the High-Dimensional Wormhole Generator in use.

But not actively seeking them didn’t mean Song Chi avoided them. Now that he actually had a gold-quality beacon, he swapped out the old blue Space Beacon Launcher without hesitation—and upgraded the new one straight to level 70.

He would’ve pushed it to the eighth tier, but his resources just wouldn’t allow it.

Back-to-back upgrades on two mythic-grade components—all the way to level 90—had really depleted his Dominion Soul stash. There were a few left, but since the Starway Beacon Launcher probably wouldn’t get used for a long time, he let it be.

Thinking of those two fresh mythic-grade artifacts on his ship, Song Chi found his eyes wandering.

{Outside the Three Realms, Not Within the Five Elements: Spend 10,000,000 Eon Energy Points for immediate entry into a void state. In this state, the ship can’t be hit or locked on by any attack. Duration: 40 seconds. Cooldown: 1,000 years.}

Strengthened to level 90, the Three Realms Five Elements Medallion now stretched its unique trait—’Outside the Three Realms, Not Within the Five Elements’—from 3 seconds to a solid 40.

It might not sound like much, but for a life-saving ability that left even Black Hole Domain in the dust, 40 seconds was comfortingly long.

Yanked back by his thoughts, Song Chi signaled the six-tier Doomstar before him to return to the mirrored warship outside.

But then, on second thought, he paused, and instead used his soul power to remotely activate the replica Tome of Divine Will on the exterior mirrored warship.

With the replica Tome active, a beam of pitch-black energy shot from the mirrored ship moored amid the River of Time Ruins.

The black light streaked into the void—so fast that normal creatures would never see it coming.

At the same time, a light lanced from beyond the Omniverse Market, deep on the Shadow Side of the Void Sea. Thanks to Song Chi’s dead-on timing, the dark light was unhindered as it pierced straight through the fortress shield and struck the other six-tier Doomstar within the Market.

With the dark beam’s impact, the Divine Soul Mark Song Chi had branded on this Doomstar decades ago flared instantly.

In the next moment, this fresh six-tier Doomstar vanished from the Market—remote-summoned away by the mirrored warship outside.

As for the Doomstar inside the Traveler’s Inn, Song Chi considered and decided to send it back to Dragon‑Spine Continent.

Its bloodline quality wasn’t bad, and it could still invoke the Death Calamity Star. Naturally, the Song Family had tried to breed it. Right now, there was just such a breeding ground on Dragon‑Spine.

No other way—the mirrored warship had protection, sure, but the time flow inside the River of Time Ruins was insane.

Hundreds of thousands—sometimes millions—of times normal speed. Even reduced ten-thousandfold, that meant a hundred, even a thousand times faster onboard. Decades later, a still-young six-tier Doomstar had already reached the end of its life.

It was, after all, a slave on his flagship. Song Chi didn’t want to just kill it afterward, so he sent it back to Dragon‑Spine in hopes it could leave some bloodline behind.

……

Once all that was handled, Song Chi returned to the Omniverse Market and summoned the real body of the Heavenly Ruin once more.

The three recently acquired sources of time were merged straight into the Timepiece Chessboard.

“Wait, this…”

Suddenly, five-colored light burst before his eyes. Song Chi, initially paying little mind, snapped his head up, startled.

This fusion was unlike anything before—the Timepiece Chessboard reacted violently, the swirl of five-colored light growing dazzlingly intense. Song Chi realized something was off.

A thought struck him. His breath quickened and his gaze burned. But the board’s light became so blinding he had to clamp his eyes shut.

For nearly half an hour, the process continued. When Song Chi finally dared a peek, the tiny chessboard that had once gleamed in five hues now glowed with a resplendent seven-color light.

That meant it had finally evolved—from high-grade mythic to supreme mythic quality.

Timepiece Chessboard lv90

Grade: Supreme Mythic

Trait: All component cooldowns on the ship reduced by 80%.

Trait 2: Time resistance +34,000.

Trait 3: Time Chess Piece.

Trait 4: Time • Chessboard.

Trait 5: Time • Game.

Trait 6: Flow of Time • Prison.

Trait 7: Internal time law comprehension on the ship boosted by 530%.

Trait 8: Twelve Lives Game of Life and Death.

Trait 9: Time • Reversal.

Cost: 15,000 Eon Energy Points per second.

……

{Time • Chessboard: Spend a set number of Time Chess Pieces (at least 36) and Eon Energy Points (cost scales with chess pieces used) to manifest a time chessboard in the stars. All enemy units within the boundary experience time acceleration or slowdown (rate based on chess pieces used: 36 gives 110x, 72 gives 220x, etc). Lasts 90 minutes. Cooldown: 72 hours.}

{Twelve Lives Game of Life and Death: The 361st chess piece is a special Twelve Lives piece, imbued with vast life and death power. It can forcefully revive or erase a chosen target (so long as their life tier doesn’t exceed the component’s level). After each use, the piece cracks—once used twelve times, it shatters completely. (Uses remaining: 11/12)}

{Time • Reversal: Spend 20,000,000 Eon Energy Points and one source of time to rewind a selected sphere (radius: 10,000km) to its exact state nine seconds prior. If no target is chosen, the ship and everything inside rewinds by nine seconds. Cooldown: 1,000 years.}

With its transformation, the Timepiece Chessboard had changed dramatically.

Besides the new and overpowering ‘Time • Reversal’ ability, the Nine Lives Game was upgraded to Twelve Lives, and Time • Chessboard’s time rate was roughly doubled. With 360 chess pieces in play, it could now induce more than a thousandfold time flow.

Still couldn’t match the River of Time Ruins, but in battle? It was absolutely terrifying.

Some things—Time Chess Piece, Time • Game, Flow of Time • Prison—didn’t really change though. But there was some bad news too.

Now that the Timepiece Chessboard had reached Supreme Mythic grade, the Mirror Image Split would be nearly impossible to copy from it again—a heavy blow to the mirrored warship.

But there was no remedy. Giving up the Timepiece Chessboard’s advancement was out of the question.