Chapter 741: Secrets of the Wishborne Vessel

Until the Unmoving Vajra actually charged into the secret realm’s entrance, not a single trace of it was revealed.

But this secret realm hidden deep in the Heavenly Fire Mountain Range was different. Forget the medium-grade illusion arrays—more importantly, the Sun and Liu clans, along with other Immortal Houses, had set up a defensive spatial barrier right at the entrance.

This barrier was completely transparent. Not only was it invisible to the naked eye, even Unmoving Vajra’s advanced patrol radar couldn’t pick up a thing. The warship blundered into it, dragged forcibly from the depths of the void and exposed, catching Song Shiyuan’s notice at last.

The moment Unmoving Vajra appeared, it drew hostile stares from the Immortal House guards stationed at the entrance.

Soon after, two Star-Annihilator-class Ships burst out of the secret realm entrance.

Seeing this, Song Shiyuan’s gaze sharpened inside Unmoving Vajra.

The warship’s hatch opened, and the Starsea Giant Ape that accompanied the vessel leapt out.

The moment the Starsea Giant Ape’s body swelled rapidly, the two Star-Annihilator Captains within the spatial barrier felt an overwhelming pressure and their faces changed dramatically.

“Tier Eight…”

Before they could recover from their shock, the now-massive Starsea Giant Ape sent its fist crashing down.

The spatial barrier, strong enough to withstand an attack from a tier seven being, shattered as if it were glass.

With the barrier gone, the ape’s crushing presence rolled over both Star-Annihilator-class Ships, nothing left to shield them.

Though the warships made no move, their energy shields flickered nonstop, the shield reserves draining away at a slow but steady pace.

These two ships belonged to the New Zhao Kingdom under the Xian Qin Divine Dynasty. Their foundations were shaky to start with, and with Silver Torch Seeds restricting their captains, there was simply no competing with a tier eight tyrant.

“Friend, this secret realm doesn’t belong to any one group. Let’s talk this out!”

Faced with the threat of the tier eight Starsea Giant Ape, the Liu clan’s Star-Annihilator Elder, voice hurried, patched through on the newly connected comms.

On the other side, the Sun clan’s elder quickly nodded in agreement.

“He’s right. This secret realm is unusual—an average medium-grade primordial realm, but it produces a singularly rare Oddity from the stars.”

As he spoke, a screenshot of its attributes appeared on Song Shiyuan’s panel.

Oddity: Wishborne Vessel

Grade: Red

Convert: {Wishborne Vessel}

Note: An Oddity nurtured in a primordial secret realm with a truly exceptional environment.

…

Wishborne Vessel lv0

Grade: Red

Unique Property: Wishborne Adaptability

Consumes: 50 Eon Energy Points per second

Effect: Increases warship hull activity by 30%, grants limited self-repair, and modestly boosts the duration of Mythical Mech Form.

…

{Wishborne Adaptability: Allows the mounted warship to freely adjust hull size. Minimum: 1/10 original size. Maximum: 2x original. Hull mass changes accordingly.}

“That Wishborne Vessel—so it’s actually a part that lets a warship shrink or grow at will. No wonder…”

Scanning the attribute panel, Song Shiyuan’s mind spun into motion.

Just a glance was enough for him to spot the enormous value of such a part.

A Torch Battleship’s size doesn’t only affect its combat abilities; concealment depends on it as well. Besides, the vast Sea of Stars isn’t filled with places suited to fight with giant ships and monsters.

With a part like this, all those issues could be solved in one stroke.

“Let’s check it out together first!”

Reining in all other thoughts, Song Shiyuan took both Star-Annihilator-class Ships into the secret realm.

No matter what, the first priority was to figure out exactly what was inside.

…

Several days later, another Star-Annihilator-class Ship appeared high above the Blazing Silence Continent.

The ship swept down swiftly and soon met up with the waiting Unmoving Vajra.

As comms linked, Song Shiyuan quickly explained:

“I’ve explored that entire secret realm. Sure enough, it’s a medium-grade primordial realm, with Wishborne Vessel Oddities guaranteed as its resource output. There are four grades available: purple, orange, red, and silver, with each batch distributed at a 6:2:1.5:0.5 ratio—around 20 units per cycle!”

“But this place must have remained sealed for millions of years. There’s nearly a thousand Wishborne Vessels discovered this time: 650 purple, 124 orange, 92 red, and 30 silver units.”

As he spoke, both ships descended quickly. High above the Heavenly Fire Mountain Range, three ships belonging to the Sun, Liu, and Zhao clans waited in silence.

Over the past few days, their respective families had already learned Song Shiyuan’s identity and that he was backed by the Song Family of Longji.

Once that was confirmed, the three clans were ever more cautious. The Song Family’s strength had become common knowledge throughout the Torch Human Civilization’s territory.

With four Star-Annihilator Captains, they were truly at the very top among all the Immortal Houses.

If they’d ever harbored any little schemes, learning that Song Shiyuan was from the Song Family of Longji snuffed those out for good.

The presence of those four was reason enough, but even more important: one of the ships on their side was ranked on the Xian Qin Star-Annihilator King Ranking—that alone was a game-changer.

Ships that make that list can absolutely slaughter a tier eight sovereign, not just fight one to a draw.

That’s right—slaughter, not just keep up.

Torch Battleships are unique creations, merging countless Starsea Oddities. Their combat power is leagues beyond anything else of their tier. Even at tier seven or eight, where the gap between beings is truly staggering, a warship just barely at the extreme can still trade blows with a regular eighth-tier being.

But trading blows and outright slaughter are very different. Even among extreme Star-Annihilator Captains, nine out of ten can’t pull that off.

When Song Wujian arrived, five people immediately plunged into heated debate over how to split the spoils of the Wishborne Secret Realm.

It took an exhausting round of back-and-forth before everyone managed to settle on a compromise that all four factions could reluctantly accept.

5.5 : 1.5 : 1.5 : 1.5

Naturally, the Song Family claimed that 5.5 share.

That distribution definitely ruffled feathers in the Zhao, Liu, and Sun clans. After all, they were the ones who found the Blazing Silence Continent and seized the entrance first. Now the Song Family, latecomers, was taking more than half the finds—of course there were complaints.

But in the face of the Starsea Giant Ape’s terrifying pressure, there was nothing for it. They could only swallow their objections and accept.

Afterward, the four families signed confidentiality and agreement pacts. Then, by that ratio, they divided every Wishborne Vessel Oddity they’d collected.

In the end, the Song Family got 854 Wishborne Vessels—17 silver, 50 red, the rest purple and orange—a truly massive haul.

Song Wujian and his partner had given the split plenty of thought before settling on it.

Though the Song Family was strong enough to take the whole secret realm for themselves—especially with the Starsea Giant Ape keeping watch, so the other three ships couldn’t make much of a fuss—they chose not to. After all, the other three had done all the legwork in finding it, and it wouldn’t look good for the Song Family’s reputation to just muscle in and take everything.

There were tens or even hundreds of thousands of Torch Captains gathered on this continent—so many eyes that making a flawless cover-up was virtually impossible.

And if word leaked back into Torch Human Civilization territory, they could already imagine the hit their reputation would take.

…

Once they finished dividing up Wishborne Vessels stockpiled over countless years, the group turned to what to do about the Blazing Silence Continent itself.

Word about the Wishborne Secret Realm had already reached the Crimsonfire Shanxiao tribe—that much was certain. So if they wanted to keep it safe, there were only two options.

Either move the realm’s entrance back within the Torch Human Civilization’s borders,

or the four families join forces to wipe out every last Crimsonfire Shanxiao on the continent.

Each of the four had their own opinions on this.

Song Wujian and Song Shiyuan favored moving the secret realm to Torch territory—even with a sweep, no one could promise absolute safety.

The Blazing Silence Continent was still located in the Outer Domain. Dangers on the land might be dealt with, but what if an unbeatable threat suddenly descended from the sky?

Everyone recognized the value of the Wishborne Secret Realm. The odds of something going wrong were slim but not zero—relocating it was the surest way to guarantee security.

The Zhao, Liu, and Sun elders understood that, but in their eyes, if the realm was relocated, the powerful Song Family would almost certainly take control of the entrance. If they ever obtained advanced breaker parts, they could easily lock the whole realm for themselves.

Song Wujian and Song Shiyuan quickly caught onto that concern. After discussing, they suggested a compromise.

“Once we’ve moved the entrance, let’s place it somewhere public on a Floating-land. All four families will take turns posting guards. Sound fair?”

With this sincere proposal, the Wishborne Secret Realm was finally moved within Torch territory.

…

East side of the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon galaxy cluster—Demon Serpent Floating-Land.

Demon Serpent Floating-Land was the only ninth-tier Floating-land among over a hundred galaxies in the east, but it had faced some setbacks in recent years.

The land was losing its energy, resources were declining, even its area has shrunk a little.

Even so, none of this slowed down its vibrancy.

Recently, an enormous public zone had been carved out for outsiders. Plus, with the galaxy cluster falling under Torch influence, resource development, cultivation, and trade were booming. With hundreds of galaxies in recovery, businesses—resource, mechanical, slave markets and more—flourished.

As the central hub and the only ninth-tier land, Demon Serpent Floating-Land naturally became the meeting place for every power. Countless trades left it more bustling by the day.

Demon Serpent Floating-Land. Public Zone. Dragon Spine City.

During the campaign, the Divine Dynasty rewarded Song Chi for his immense contributions with the chance to found a city.

Dragon Spine City was born from this. After some time—thanks to the Song Family’s fire carp, ancient beast slaves, limited-edition mist shroud snakefolk and other unique resources—the city became incredibly popular throughout the public zone.

Every hour, Torch Battleships came and went in droves above the city; it was a constant flurry of activity.

This day, deep underground Dragon Spine City, in a rather modest secret chamber.

A handful of figures stood together in the chamber.

“This is it. Well? What do you all think?”

Hearing this, the New Zhao Kingdom captains averted their gazes, unable to hide their envy.

A trading city on a ninth-tier Floating-land—especially one the Divine Dynasty was actively building into a new trade mecca—was worth its weight in gold.

A single shop location in a city like this could fetch a king’s ransom, let alone an entire city.

It was easy to see how the Song Family could rake in mountains of profit just collecting rent. From what they’d seen, their own shops in the city were absolutely thriving too.

The other captains could hardly help but envy them.

“I think it’s perfect. This is a Dynasty-controlled ninth-tier Floating-land, and the public zone is under full monitoring. There’s no safer location for a secret realm entrance.”

“My Zhao Clan agrees as well!”

With everyone in agreement, they rigged up advanced concealment in the chamber and together shifted the Wishborne Secret Realm entrance here.

Once done, each of the four families assigned their core members to patrol and watch over it.

Outside, in Dragon Spine City’s trading district—

“Patriarch Xuancang, your Dragon Spine City is something else. In just this short time, more than ten thousand Torch Battleships must have landed here!”

“You flatter us, Elder Zhao Cang. We’re just riding the Divine Dynasty’s effort to turn this place into a trade paradise, that’s all.”

“Patriarch Xuancang, do you have any good shops left in Dragon Spine City? All three of us would love to rent one if possible.”

…

Hearing this, Song Xuancang just kept smiling pleasantly, making no move to answer.

But everyone present was someone with real authority—they all clearly understood what Song Xuancang meant without words.

Sure, there were vacant shop lots in such a sprawling city. But on Demon Serpent Floating-Land where every inch is precious, it took more than a simple request to secure rental—you had to show real intent and sincerity.