Chapter 742: The Lantern Fruit and the Rising Alliance

“Though my New Zhao Kingdom can’t claim great renown, our royal lineage stretches back over ten thousand years. Patriarch Xuancang, take a look—this is the legendary Lantern Fruit, nurtured by our ancestral Lantern Tree on the Zhao family’s Floating-land.”

“This Lantern Fruit ripens every fifty thousand years, bearing just ten fruits each cycle. Once consumed, it boosts Guiding Technique training speed a thousandfold for an entire year and can be stacked with other spiritual treasures and body-forging elixirs.”

The reception room was silent for nearly ten minutes before the ice was finally broken by the Dreadnought Captain representing New Zhao Kingdom.

His name was Zhao Nanchang. He’d made quite a reputation during the last civilization war and now stood as one of the top Dreadnought Captains. Still, he spoke to Song Xuancang with marked caution.

It wasn’t just due to the overwhelming strength the Song Family of Longji now displayed. The real reason was that they were here to petition, not negotiate.

The Public Zone on Demon Serpent Continent is neither huge nor tiny—these days, it holds maybe a few dozen trade cities altogether.

For an Immortal House, getting their hands on a shop or two isn’t hard. But leasing a prime spot in the heart of the city is a whole different game.

Those golden properties aren’t won with money alone—connections matter even more.

Song Xuancang took the Lantern Fruit, feeling the tremendous energy swirling within. After only a moment’s thought, he nodded his agreement.

“Alright, this Lantern Fruit for a premium shop lease in the city—one hundred years. Of course, you’ll still need to pay all trading taxes during that time!”

“Naturally. But is a hundred years… perhaps—”

Zhao Nanchang tried to push for a better term, but before he could finish, the captains from the Sun and Liu families jumped in, anxious to state their case.

Their goals were the same—both wanted a foothold in Dragon‑Spine Trading City.

In the end Song Xuancang agreed, allowing all three families to lease a premium shop in the city.

Partly, it was because what they’d offered was impressive. But it was also the Song Family’s plan to draw these three houses into their growing coalition.

Their clan was expanding rapidly, but they still weren’t big enough. Whether it was breaking into the top-level deals on Red Star Superdimensional Continent or forging deep partnerships with the Witcher Civilization and Komoyin Serpent Sorcerer Family in Omniverse Market, they needed more clout.

And it wasn’t just about the present. Even if Song Chi succeeded in becoming a Star River-class Captain, it would still be hard to fundamentally change that in the short term.

So, rallying more allies ahead of time was a must.

Why choose these three from the New Zhao Kingdom? It was simple: They all boasted long lineages and solid foundations, but they were only solidly mid-tier among the Immortal Houses. Even if they tasted some benefits, they couldn’t quickly threaten the status of the true top giants.

That way, the Song Family could keep a firm grip on the alliance and control the direction it went.

The last, most vital reason? New Zhao Kingdom sat far from both the Chipan Galaxy and the Dragon-Serpent Galaxy. Even if these three families rose overnight, it’d be a long time before a clash with the Song Family became likely.

In contrast, the major players from the Yaohan Kingdom, like the Luo Clan and the Tuoba family from Silverdisk, simply weren’t suitable.

……

“Patriarch Xuancang, let’s settle it as agreed. We’ll need you to send someone to guide our clansmen in picking shops, but the three of us have to get back to New Zhao Kingdom soon to gather resources!”

“No problem, just one more thing: Our Song Family is aggressively buying up magic stones, high-grade beast cores, and all kinds of floating-land spirit plants—no quantity limits, and we pay fifty percent above market price. Once you’re back, rally your clans to collect these for us. We’ll be buying for the long term.”

“That’s easy, Patriarch Xuancang. But aren’t those materials more common in magic-based civilizations? Are you tapping into a connection with some advanced magic civilization now?”

As soon as he asked, the other two in the room perked up, their gazes crossing the table in curiosity.

The real reason the last civilization war ended so abruptly was an open secret: The Song Family provided key intelligence about the Truth Mechanicus Civilization and the Starsea Giant Ape Civilization.

If it were just that, people could accept it. After all, the Torch Human Civilization has thrived for hundreds of thousands of years—during that time, numerous captains discovered new galactic clusters or elite civilizations all over.

It’s rare, but it happens. Most of the Endless Shattered Sea is just empty Void Belt. Of what little is left, the majority are scattered star systems and galactic clusters—big clusters holding hundreds or thousands of galaxies are even rarer. But every so often, fortune smiles on someone.

But in every other case, those galactic clusters were already ruled by a civilization or rapidly claimed by whichever Torch powers found them first—there’s hardly a chance for second comers.

Which is exactly why, at the end of the war with the Eight‑Armed Serpent Demon Civilization, the Song Family of Longji walked away with such windfall.

Twice would be too much. If they suddenly stumbled on yet another top-tier, science-based civilization, everyone would start wondering what the Song Family was really hiding.

The more it happened, the more scrutiny—eyes would turn to the secrets sitting behind that Song Family banner.

Song Xuancang just smiled and shook his head, saying nothing as his gaze drifted among the three would-be allies.

Seeing this, Zhao Nanchang dropped the subject, nodded, and left. The other two captains quickly followed.

From then on the four clans kept trading, and business was booming for every party.

Don’t be fooled by the Song Family’s supposedly generous buy prices—lifting them by half let those three families reap some big rewards.

But once those resources hit the Omniverse Market, both Sky Mecha City and the Bloodline Sorcerers’ Family snatched them up almost instantly—and what they paid was several times higher than prices in the Torch Human Civilization’s own territory.

So, even after upping their buy price by fifty percent, the Song Family still quietly enjoyed the fattest cut of the profits.

……

And so, as these deals rolled on and each house grew stronger, time slipped by in a flash.

In the blink of an eye, three hundred years had passed since Song Chi returned from the Evil Buddha Continent.

For all three centuries, Song Chi never once left the Omniverse Market. He kept to the deepest chamber there, staying in seclusion.

On this day, a sharp crack sounded—the door to the cultivation chamber slid open.

Right then, a Song Family clansman happened to walk in. When he saw Song Chi emerge from the innermost room, his face lit up with excitement.

“Grandson Song Bo greets Elder Chi!”

Song Chi glanced over the young man—his Guiding Technique clearly at stage three and just a step from lv40. With a warm nod, Song Chi strode out of the Full-Attribute Cultivation Chamber, not bothering to linger.

Ever since the clan’s promotion to seventh rank, the Full-Attribute Cultivation Chamber had grown massive. The Family invested in materials to carve out dozens of internal rooms, each soundproofed and shielded. Now, dozens of Song Family members could train in seclusion at once.

As for Song Bo, he’d probably just advanced his ship to Zhulu-class, and hoped the chamber’s high-level dark-energy enhancement would help him break through again.

Song Chi was well used to all this by now.

What really occupied his thoughts right now was his own body.

To a Star-Annihilator-class Captain, three centuries is barely enough to tick up a notch in the Guiding Technique. But for Song Chi, it meant much more.

Besides using both the dark energy chamber and the Wizard’s Mana Training Chamber for a full boost, he was fed a steady stream of Seventh-Tier Blood-Flesh Lingzhi and supreme body-forging potion. At one point, the family even sent him a Lantern Fruit.

With all this help, his Guiding Technique had rocketed from lv73 to lv78.

Just to put it in perspective: With ordinary cultivation, that kind of improvement would take no less than three thousand years.

Even counting the Lantern Fruit’s thousand years’ effect, it still should have cost him two millennia. Yet Song Chi compressed it all into three hundred short years.

The real credit went to the unending supply of Seventh-Tier Blood-Flesh Lingzhi, followed by the Full-Attribute Cultivation Chamber and Wizard’s Mana Training Chamber.

Clearly, the supply line from the Giant Blood-Flesh Mountain was astonishing.

But Song Chi had his reasons for ending his seclusion now.

He’d used up all the Seventh-Tier Blood-Flesh Lingzhi, and after three hundred years, it was time to let someone else have a turn in the Wizard’s Mana Training Chamber.

Even though his eldest brother Song Yan, the Clan Elder, and the Prime Ancestor had never pressed him, Song Chi knew what was fair.

That chamber was originally earned by his big brother’s service credits and meant to be shared among the four Star-Annihilator-class Captains. Now that the Blood-Flesh Lingzhi was spent and his speed of progress had slowed, he couldn’t just hog it any longer.

Among the four Star-Annihilator-class Song Family captains, none of the others had passed lv73 on their Guiding Technique, while Song Chi now sat alone at lv78—a whole tier ahead of the rest.

……

Stepping out of the Full-Attribute Cultivation Chamber, Song Chi intended to head back for a look at Dragon‑Spine Continent.

Three hundred years had passed in seclusion—he truly had no idea what the family was like these days.

But before he could go, he noticed waves of foreign creatures outside, and something made him freeze. It wasn’t the ongoing Omniverse Market trades, but the familiar figure caught in his omniscient view.

“Brook Benjamin…”

With that, Song Chi’s interest was piqued.

He might have been in seclusion for three centuries, but through his market avatar, the trading order was never disrupted.

If memory served, Brook Benjamin had tried to get information on antimatter energy in the market several times.

Thinking back, Song Chi instantly devoted nearly all his attention to Brook.

Brook Benjamin didn’t disappoint. After entering the Oddities Exchange, he produced a storage ring.

A flash of light—and several energy orbs and energy crystals materialized.

Sure enough, it was a batch of antimatter sources and antimatter energy crystals.

There weren’t many—just two antimatter sources and three crystals.

Even so, these were precisely what the Heavenly Ruin needed now more than anything.

As more advanced components were installed on the Heavenly Ruin, its energy demands had shot up.

With only a lv90 black engine, but so many colored, high-grade, and regular components, the ship was starting to suffer occasional power shortages.

That left just two real options—swap in a better engine or upgrade the old one.

Upgrading to a colored engine, even at the lowest level, was next to impossible—those were rare beyond belief.

So in reality, there was only one choice.

Fortunately, the Antimatter Evolution Engine had a unique trait Song Chi could try now.

[These are the resources we agreed on!]

In the Oddities Exchange, Song Chi projected a message onto a floating screen.

Several storage capsules appeared before Brook Benjamin, who quickly checked their contents and produced all the antimatter source and crystals.

As he felt a tremor deep in his mind, Song Chi knew it was a sign from the Heavenly Ruin.

With the trade done, Song Chi immediately summoned the Heavenly Ruin to devour the antimatter resources. But something unexpected happened right after.

Instead of heading for the Free Stall Area, Brook Benjamin began searching for the identity of the ‘Blueblood Clan Member.’

Curious, Song Chi shifted into his Blueblood form. When they met, Brook’s first words sent a surge of excitement through his heart.

“Blueblood brother, that Earthmother Stone you were looking for—I’ve got solid news. It’s definitely the real thing. But the seller wants to meet the buyer face-to-face, so…”

Song Chi didn’t hear another word.

All his attention locked onto the Earthmother Stone.

The Earthmother Stone—one of the key resources needed to upgrade a Star-Annihilator-class to Star River-class. Among the Torch Civilization, it’s about as rare as they come.

With his Guiding Technique at lv78, and the necessary Dragonblood Stone, Chaotic Blood Heart, and Chaos Demon Ape bone already in hand, this was now the resource he craved most.