Chapter 745: Torch Civilization’s Golden Era and the Serpent’s Shedding

It’s not just the Song Family—for every ordinary, unawakened citizen in the Torch Human Civilization, the word “longevity” is an eternal ache in their hearts.

As for suggesting these citizens try other extraordinary systems—cultivation, star martial arts, magic—the Torch leadership has certainly considered it.

In fact, all four great empires have run pilot programs in select regions, but none have ever been approved for full implementation.

The reason’s simple: ordinary citizens make up the vast majority of Torch Humanity. If left to freely train in any extraordinary path, no matter how unrelated to the Torch warship system, the resource drain would be staggering.

After multiple pilot programs, all four great empires reached the same conclusion.

No matter what extraordinary system you choose, once it gets mixed with the Torch warship system, differences might not show right away. But over time, every region’s Torch Ships and Captains lag behind others. Even those using unrelated cultivation routes face this drag.

That’s just after a few hundred years. Given even longer, the effect would only grow.

Because of this, the upper echelons of the four empires silently agreed to abandon the approach of letting a hundred flowers bloom.

History across countless star civilizations makes it clear—battling philosophies do advance a society, but only as long as there’s stability and peace at the foundation.

If you could progress at a leisurely pace with no threats, then sure—the hundred schools approach is a dream. But Torch Civilization has never enjoyed that kind of security.

For over 300,000 years now, Torch Humanity has faced one threat after another—Heavenly Mountain Clan, Ghost-Eyed Clan, Starsea Insect Swarm, Corpse Sovereign Clan, the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Race, and so many more.

In this brief span of 300,000 years, if Torch Civilization hadn’t thrown itself wholeheartedly into the Torch Warship system, how could it have made it this far?

They stand at the top, part of the first tier beneath the apex civilizations and true overlords.

Every civilization that’s reached this height has nearly a million years of inheritance behind them.

And yet, Torch Humanity hit this mark 100,000 years ago; even the most open, pluralistic civilizations can only look up in envy.

Of course, that’s not to say openness is bad—just that the time hasn’t come yet.

Even now, with the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization expelled and Torch Humanity ruling two galactic clusters, it’s still not enough.

The consensus among the high-levels is clear: only when Torch Civilization produces true mythic-level powerhouses—when they stand among the overlords—can broader development be considered.

Mythic battle strength is what grants real say in the Endless Shattered Sea—at the very least, it keeps you from becoming a pawn in the games of interstellar overlords.

Only then will Torch Humanity have the confidence to embrace a fully open policy—fostering even more new mythic powerhouses.

…

The buzz of the family’s researchers did little to distract Song Chi. Right now, his focus was on the Song Family’s tremendous foundation.

With key star domains in two galactic clusters and a windfall of resources seized from the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon Civilization in the last war, these three hundred years have been the Song Family of Longji’s golden age. Growth may continue for a while, but nothing will match this surge in sheer scale and speed.

Dragon-Spine Continent. Dragon Spine Sacred Mountain. Dragon Whale Hall.

“Elder Chi, here are the Song Family’s detailed development reports for the last three centuries. Please have a look!”

In the main hall shrouded by swirling mist, Song Yiming sent the documents to Song Chi.

Three hundred years have seen not just a rapid accumulation of the family’s foundation, but major personnel shifts as well.

Before Song Chi went into seclusion, Song Xuancang was both patriarch of the Longji Song Family and the founding king of the Longji Kingdom. Now, though, Song Yiming has taken his place.

As for Song Xuancang, fifty years ago, he and his contracted Sixth-Tier Vermilion Divine Bird and Mist Shroud Snakefolk attempted a combined breakthrough on a floating-land in the Dragon-Serpent Galaxy. Their warship successfully advanced to the Star-Annihilator class, and now he’s deep in seclusion beneath Dragon-Spine Continent.

“Shixing failed in his breakthrough, huh? What a shame…”

Scanning the top line of the report, Song Chi shook his head and sighed.

When Song Shixing attempted the Dreadnought breakthrough, he’d already used a Fifth-Tier Timeworld Fruit. So, even with the Blood Chalice’s help over two hundred years ago, he still failed to advance.

The good news is that both the Blood Chalice and Shixing survived. He’s got a brand-new warship now, already raised to the Zhulu-class, and isn’t far from a Battleship breakthrough.

Besides, Song Shixing is only just over five thousand years old. With more than four thousand years left on his life span, he still has chances to try for Star-Annihilator Captain again.

Meanwhile, Song Xingru’s warship also advanced just over a century ago—and ten years back, her Guiding Technique broke through as well. She’s become the Song Family’s fifth Star-Annihilator Captain, right behind Song Chi and the others.

This news has already spread across the entire Longji Kingdom and even to surrounding countries, with plenty of attention from the Xian Qin Divine Dynasty too.

A single house with five Star-Annihilator Captains. That’s basically a quasi-immortal giant.

It’s partly Xingru’s outgoing nature—the Song Family made no effort to hide her breakthrough from the outside. Xuancang, though, is a different story.

As the former patriarch, Xuancang’s calm, far-seeing character led Song Wujian and the others to keep his situation under wraps after discussion.

For the foreseeable future, Xuancang will remain the Song Family’s hidden force, rarely showing his face to outsiders.

Beyond the breakthroughs to the Star-Annihilator class, the number of Sixth-Tier family members has also risen rapidly over these three centuries.

From just twenty when Song Chi went into seclusion, there are now more than fifty. The number above Fourth Tier has reached four thousand.

There are over 200,000 Third-Tier members and more than eight million at the Second Tier.

That leads naturally to the Family’s population. After raising the cap from two to six billion, more than five billion Song clansmen now carry the bloodline—almost at the very limit.

The most direct result? Awakened Torch Seedholders soared. According to Internal Affairs, there are now 160 million awakened Song clansmen.

That’s why the ranks above Second Tier have exploded so quickly.

Eyes sweeping the holographic reports, Song Chi asked quietly:

“How’s the development of the Dragon-Serpent Galaxy coming along?”

“Pretty well. With both the External Affairs Hall and the Shadow Division on it, over 500 billion citizens have migrated there over the past three hundred years. The region’s not at max efficiency yet, but it’s already generating huge profits annually for the Family.”

“Also, a Seventh‑Tier Floating-land in the Dragon-Serpent Galaxy holds a massive titanite crystal vein—with a mineral core, no less.”

“The total reserves reach 4.5 million titanite crystals. Though the core only recovers at 8 percent, we still draw out 360,000 titanite every year without depleting it. With all our old veins, we’re close to 800,000 titanite yearly now. It’s not quite everything we need, but our burden’s much lighter.”

…

As Song Yiming’s orderly reports flowed on, Song Chi nodded to himself.

From every update, it was clear just how terrifying the Song Family’s thunderous rise had been these past three centuries.

With this kind of foundation, they stood toe-to-toe with any so-called eternal Noble House.

But the single most important development? The rebirth of the mythic relic, Shedding of the Heaven-Devouring Python.

Thanks to the relentless efforts of Song Wujian and the others, two centuries ago it evolved from lower to upper tricolor quality. Its attributes shot up dramatically as a result.

Oddity: Shedding of the Heaven-Devouring Python

Quality: Tricolor / Upper

Transmutable: None

Effects: {Shedding of Legend} {Fivefold Spirit Mark} {Ancient Python Spirit} {Devouring Genesis} {Holy Blood Baptism} {Sumeru Python’s Belly} {Sumeru Extraction} {Fivefold Devouring of Heaven}

Note: This is the shed skin of a primordial mythic, the Seven-Colored Heaven-Devouring Python, transformed into a tricolor mythic relic through extraordinary energies.

{Shedding of Legend: Actively upgrades a chosen oddity by one quality tier. The new tier cannot equal or surpass the Shedding of the Heaven-Devouring Python itself. Cooldown varies by the oddity’s grade: minimum 500 years, maximum 30,000 years (2358/3000).}

{Fivefold Spirit Mark: Imprints a special Python Spirit Mark on targets. Marked ones form a unique bond with the relic. Current mark slots: (200000/200000).}

{Ancient Python Spirit: Marked targets can reach out over distance to summon an ancient mythic python spirit to assist them in battle.}

{Devouring Genesis: The Shedding inherits the python’s devouring talent, able to consume all sorts of energy to evolve autonomously. Current progress (2%/100%).}

{Holy Blood Baptism: Every hundred years, the relic produces a batch of python holy blood to boost the genetic potential of flesh and blood creatures.}

{Sumeru Python’s Belly: The relic contains a special Sumeru space. You can actively store resources and oddities inside.}

{Sumeru Extraction: Bearers of the Python Spirit Mark can retrieve up to thirty items per century directly from the relic’s Sumeru Belly, ignoring distance. This limit does not stack—time resets every century.}

{Fivefold Devouring of Heaven: The summoned python spirit can burn its own energy for one catastrophic Heaven-Devouring strike against a given target.}

No question, the relic’s new evolution makes it unprecedentedly powerful.

Just the Shedding of Legend effect is game-changing—after its enhancement to upper tricolor, it can now elevate black oddities to lower tricolor, which is a total leap.

Sadly, its last use is still on cooldown. Otherwise, Song Chi would’ve used it now to upgrade Heavenly Ruin’s Miracle Clone Pod straight to lower tricolor quality.

Another thing that surprised him: Devouring Genesis survived the transformation, meaning this relic could evolve even further.

But progress has stalled at 2 percent for two centuries now—all signs point to the next leap needing a mind-boggling amount of energy, not something fixable anytime soon.

“Hm?”

Just as he was thinking this, Song Chi’s expression changed.

The latest trade session at the Omniverse Market had ended. Countless nonhumans—millions, tens of millions—were being teleported out.

Song Chi chatted with Song Yiming a bit longer, then logged back into the Omniverse Market.

Holding several antimatter sources and energy crystals, Song Chi didn’t immediately summon the Heavenly Ruin. Instead, he glanced down at the market itself.

With the countless war-era trades on record, it’s been over two millennia since the Market reached seventh tier. Across those many transactions, its trading volume had accrued to a staggering sum.

His gaze locked, and soon the Omniverse Market’s detailed status panel floated in front of him.

Name: Omniverse Market

Owner: Song Chi

Level: 78

Specs: 36,000 km x 36,000 km

Basic Features: 18,000 storefronts. One 2,600 km x 2,600 km vendor area. Four-story inn. Level 78 Full-Attribute Cultivation Chamber (double efficiency for dark energy cultivation). Level 78 Enegma defense array. Level 78 Long-Range Random Space Gate Transfer Platform. Level 7 Spirit Synthesis Platform. Level 7 Oddity Essence Refinement Platform. Level 78 Omniverse Teleportation Platform.

Extra Features: Veil of Light (silver) Lv70. Sixth-Tier Bloodline Baptism Platform (red). Divine Realm Task Platform (gold) Lv80 (7/30).

Trait: Calamity Evasion (market can freely move in the void, instinctively dodging natural disasters).

Trait 2: Spatial Anchor (can set six anchor points in any Star Domain of the Shattered Sea).

Trait 3: Dominion Authority (owner wields dominion while inside the market).

Trait 4: Mindlink Control (absolute control over the market even when away).

Upgrade Requirements: 260 units Seventh‑Tier Floating-land Origin, market trade volume of 800,000 units (802,489/800,000), one Dominion Soul.

With all requirements met, Song Chi moved his will and the ground beneath him trembled. In moments, the Market jumped from level 78 to 79.

He checked the interface again, and sure enough, the upgrade requirements had changed.

Of course, he only cared about that last section—Upgrade Requirements.

Upgrade Requirements: 500 units Seventh‑Tier Floating-land Origin, trade volume of a million units (802,489/1,000,000), one Dominion Soul, one Worldbreaker Stone, ten Void Crystals.

‘A million units, huh? That seems doable—at this market’s rate, another hundred years or so should be enough. The Worldbreaker Stone and Void Crystals will be tricky…’

‘If I remember right, there are two Void Crystals left in the clan vault. That’s still not enough, but with the chunk of Prime Hunyuan Copper I got on Truth Floating-Land, I can divide it up and use some as substitutes. That leaves only the trade volume to handle.’

Once satisfied, he finally summoned Heavenly Ruin.

One after another, antimatter energy crystals and sources were fed into the Antimatter Evolution Engine. As they merged and fused, the warship’s belly flickered between light and shadow.

This went on for two minutes—when Song Chi opened his eyes again, a dazzling tri-colored radiance greeted him.

The Antimatter Evolution Engine had successfully evolved to tricolor grade.

Antimatter Evolution Engine Lv90

Quality: Tricolor / Lower

Trait: Energy output boosted by 470%

Trait 2: Engine thrust boosted by 470%

Trait 3: High Overload Burst

Trait 4: All ship components at or below this part’s grade now use 70% less energy

Trait 5: Antimatter Dark Energy Reservoir

Trait 6: Dual Engines

Trait 7: Antimatter Phase Shift Tunneling

Consumption: 5,000 eon energy points per second

Output: 520,000 eon energy points per second

Overload cooldown: 30 minutes

Reservoir: 180,000,000 (can store 180 million eon energy points)

…

{Antimatter Dark Energy Reservoir: increases ship energy storage threefold.}

{Antimatter Phase Shift Tunneling: consumes five million energy points to shift the ship into phase, bypassing all physical matter for ten minutes of uninterrupted movement.}

With its grade boosted to tricolor, the engine’s output and reservoir surged to a whole new level. For a long while, Song Chi would have no worries about power or capability.

That last new trait, phase shift tunneling, was a true prize—letting the warship turn fully incorporeal and pass straight through anything, ground included, without pause for ten whole minutes.

If there was a downside, it was the loss of the evolution trait.

Now the Antimatter Evolution Engine couldn’t absorb any more antimatter or energy to grow. This was its final form.

Song Chi would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed, but he didn’t let it get to him.

After all, when he got this engine from the Yaoguang Star Tower, it was just a golden-grade part. Now it was lower tricolor—if it ever fell behind Heavenly Ruin’s pace, he could still fetch an incredible price for it.