Chapter 553: Eight Years
Chapter 553: Eight Years
Extreme Sun Desert, Central Region.
As the central area of a super-giant desert, the location where the Song family was currently situated had a layer of sand that, even with a preliminary estimate, was frighteningly thick, exceeding hundreds of millions of kilometers.
As the eleven battleships slowly descended, they soon passed through a layer of illusionary light that was imperceptible to the naked eye.
Once they fully entered the illusionary space, a brand-new scene appeared before them.
The sky was still filled with yellow sand, but beneath it, on the sandy land, there was a giant abyss entrance that had been specially excavated.
This entrance had a diameter of several hundred kilometers and led to an abyss tens of billions of kilometers deep. It was created by the Shadow Vein Clan using high-grade casting materials they had obtained from an exotic colony point on the Dragon Spine Continent's earth pulse. They also purchased several advanced Gnome Titan Excavators from the Ancient Gnome City, a large neutral city. It took nearly two centuries to complete this massive project.
"Wow, this must have been a tough task for the clan members below!"
The direct lineage members of the Song family, seeing this perfectly constructed extraction point for the first time, spoke with heavy voices.
With a depth of tens of billions of kilometers and the uppermost layer being extremely fluid sand, the pressure increased terrifyingly as they went deeper. Even with high-quality casting materials, accidents were inevitable.
It was easy to imagine the enormous cost the Shadow Vein Clan had paid to create this extraction point.
...
The eleven battleships continued downward and soon flew over the deepest part of the underground passage.
Here, a vast underground circular stone chamber appeared, with a radius of no less than several thousand kilometers and a height exceeding ten thousand kilometers. Even with four dreadnoughts and seven battleships inside, it didn't feel crowded.
In the center of the stone chamber was a weak earth core belt, the designated location for extracting the Crimson Star Continent's core essence.
After confirming these details, voices resumed in the battleship communication group chat.
"Perfect, let's begin the setup!"
At Song Wujiang's command, everyone around started to take action.
First, on Song Shiyuan's side, the hatch of the Immovable Dark King opened, and two transport vehicles drove out. These vehicles were fully loaded, and once they landed, various machines on the transport vehicles began to adjust themselves, eventually combining into a mega nuclear fusion reactor.
After adding sufficient nuclear fuel, the large nuclear fusion reactor, purchased from a major chain of mechanical shops under the Immortal Qin Corporation on the Silver Plate Continent, started operating at full capacity.
Soon, a nuclear energy shield with a power level comparable to a Sixth Rank Peak emerged in the underground stone chamber, enveloping the entire underground area.
This was just the second layer of insurance, following the previously established "Grand Composite Illusion Space." Immediately after, on Song Shixing's battleship, a jade stone emitting golden light was pulled out.
"Song Chi!"
Song Chi understood the meaning behind Song Shiyuan's call.
Zhi---
The Heaven Ruin Skydome's hatch opened, and the miniature Star Sky Shark glided out. After leaving the battleship, the Star Sky Shark's size rapidly expanded, quickly regaining its peak form with a length of over ten thousand kilometers.
At the same time, the golden jade stone held by Song Shixing was swallowed by the Star Sky Shark.
Under the stimulation of the Star Sky Shark's Overlord Power, the entire underground stone chamber was enveloped in golden light, and finally, a powerful illusion array force covered the space.
This golden jade stone was the Golden Sacred Domain Rank Illusion Array Stone obtained by Song Yiming from the Po Suo Inheritance Tower.
Although this Illusion Array Stone couldn't be transformed into a ship component, it contained an astonishing amount of illusionary essence. With the stimulation of the Star Sky Shark's Overlord Power, the entire underground stone chamber was covered by the Illusion Principle.
This meant that when they officially started extracting the Floating Land's core essence, no matter how big the disturbance, it would first have to break through the concealment of this illusionary space.
This was the Song family's third layer of insurance.
But there was more. In the battleship communication channel, the Song family members exchanged glances, and the next second, several battleships simultaneously activated their space-sealing components.
Including the Heaven Ruin Skydome.
Inside the warship, with a turn of Song Chi's thoughts, the level 70 Sky Lock Seal was activated. The next second, a completely closed space-sealing array curtain appeared at the edge of the underground space.
Not only the Heaven Ruin Skydome, but also Song Shiyuan, Song Shixing, Song Tianhao, and others who possessed such components, activated them in the predetermined order.
In an instant, multiple layers of sealing curtains appeared around the outer perimeter of the underground stone chamber.
Interestingly, Song Wujiang didn't make any moves.
Did the Sea Stabilizing Soaring Dragon not have a space-sealing component?
On the contrary, the Sea Stabilizing Soaring Dragon currently had the highest-quality space-sealing component among the eleven battleships present.
The Golden Sacred Domain Rank Skylock Prison.
This component belonged to Tuoba Jun of the Tuoba Royal Clan in the Silver Plate Kingdom. When dealing with the Black Devouring Royal Beast, Song Wujiang had borrowed it once, and this time, to reduce the risk of extracting the Crimson Star Continent's core essence, he borrowed it again.
The reason for not activating it immediately was not because he was reluctant.
This was the Song family's first attempt at extracting an Eighth Rank Floating Land's core essence. They knew the disturbance it would cause couldn't be small, but they didn't know when it would happen or where the main point of concentration would be.
Moreover, all space-sealing components had a limited duration and a long cooldown period. To prevent the Skylock Prison from entering cooldown during a significant disturbance, the Song family unanimously decided to activate this golden sealing component later when there were signs of trouble.
With the Star Sky Shark's enhancement and the Song family's multiple layers of insurance, even if the disturbance came too quickly, it wouldn't break through all the seals at once, so there was no need to worry about the Skylock Prison not being activated in time.
After completing all these preparations, Song Wujiang signaled to Song Shixing.
Upon receiving the signal, Song Shixing didn't hesitate. The Sea Stabilizing Soaring Dragon slowly moved to the center of the stone chamber, above the weak earth core point, while the silver Essence Extraction Device component already installed on the battleship was activated.
A silver light pillar shot out from the Sea Stabilizing Soaring Dragon and penetrated the weak earth core point beneath the warship.
Buzzing!
After the silver light pillar established the connection, everyone could clearly sense the slight tremor coming from the ground of the stone chamber.
【Hyperdimensional Continent】Although it lacks the Floating Land Primordial Will of a typical Floating Continent, it still possesses its own instincts and has an innate resistance to the act of stealing its own Primordial Core.
However, the theft has only just begun, and the Crimson Star Continent does not have a mature Primordial Will yet, so this resistance is still quite weak.
Battleship Magnetic Wave Communication Group Chat
"Sea Tamer Dragon Soaring · Song Wujiang": Shixing, how is it going? Can you estimate how much time it will take?"
With these words, the attention of those nearby shifted to the communication projection of Song Shixing.
This was not only directly related to the safety of the group but also had a significant impact on whether the Dragon Spine Continent could complete its promotion before the start of the Civilization War, whether the Sea Tamer Dragon Soaring could challenge the Planet Destroyer, and whether Song Wujiang's Guiding Technique could break through the Seventh Rank, among other crucial questions.
After all, if just this step of theft requires decades, then there's no doubt that the subsequent timeline will be insufficient.
It's not as if obtaining a strand of an Eighth Rank Floating Continent Primordial Core would immediately enable the Dragon Spine Continent to advance to the Seventh Rank.
Firstly, the Floating Continent core of the Dragon Spine Continent would need time to merge and absorb this strand of the Eighth Rank Primordial Core, right?
Secondly, the formal advancement of the Floating Continent to the Seventh Rank would also require time, wouldn't it?
Furthermore, even if the promotion is successful, the subsequent expansion of the Floating Continent's area would also take time.
If they hadn't considered this, why would they have sent the Sea Calming Dragon Ascension to lead this extraction?
The Sea Calming Dragon Ascension is one of the four Fearless Vessels. If they were to attract large-scale invasions from other races, the combat power provided by a single Fearless Vessel would far surpass that of a Battleship. Of course, this excludes the command ships of Song Chi and Song Yan.
Once the extraction of the Floating Continent's Primordial Core is initiated, regardless of what happens afterward, the Sea Calming Dragon Ascension would be unable to move until the extraction is complete, effectively losing the combat power of a Fearless Vessel.
The Song Clan is well aware of these factors, but why are they still proceeding with this plan?
The reason lies in the advantage that a Fearless Vessel has over a Battleship.
Similarly, a Level 70 【Core Essence Extraction Device】, when equipped on a Fearless Vessel, would naturally exhibit greater effectiveness than on a Battleship, and this is precisely reflected in the time required for the entire extraction process and the success rate of the theft.
Based on this, the group decided to have the Sea Calming Dragon Ascension lead this extraction.
Under the watchful eyes of the group, Song Shixing provided an answer.
"It's not bad. If we're only stealing a small portion of the Floating Continent's Primordial Core, around eight years should be sufficient!"
Eight years!
The group murmured and then nodded in unison.
This timeframe was within their expectations, and they had a fair amount of confidence in it.
While the extraction process requires eight years, it doesn't mean they'll have to engage in continuous combat with other races for that entire duration.
If that were the case, not only would the Song Clan be unable to withstand it, but even the Long family, backed by an Eighth Rank Flame Torch Captain, might not be able to endure it.
There were no few Eighth Rank other races on this 【Crimson Star Continent】.
According to the Song Clan's estimates, the disturbances caused by the Floating Continent's Primordial Core in the first few years should be manageable and could be concealed by the means they had set up. The real challenge would be the final year.
In fact, this was indeed the case.
Time passed.
In the first three years, although the entire underground stone chamber space was constantly trembling, it was all concealed by the Nuclear Energy Shield and the illusionary array stone's derived illusionary space.
By the fourth year, the repulsion force of the Crimson Star Continent's Primordial Core began to intensify, causing the tremors in the underground stone chamber to become more violent.
After that, the nuclear energy shield derived from the large nuclear fusion reactor would overload at regular intervals, unable to withstand the impact of the internal tremors. Fortunately, there was also the spatial sealing array curtain set up in batches by Song Chi and others.
In the sixth year, the tremors underground became increasingly frightening, even occasionally shattering the array curtain generated by the silver-grade spatial sealing components.
In the seventh year, multiple layers of sealing array curtains were broken, and the underground disturbances were transmitted outside, but fortunately, another set of sealing components quickly took over.
This attracted multiple other races, but the numbers were not significant, and they were quickly eliminated by the Song Clan's vessels.
By the eighth year, the disturbances became more terrifying. The large nuclear fusion reactor was completely useless, and Song Chi's spatial sealing components could no longer be divided into two groups because they couldn't withstand the pressure when separated.
In this situation, the Song Clan could only combine all the silver and red-grade spatial sealing components into one group, with the golden 【Skylock Prison】 on the Sea Tamer Dragon Soaring as a separate group, barely maintaining balance.
However, this method couldn't be sustained halfway through the eighth year.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the surrounding area of the scorching sand sea, there were giant sand ridges moving at extreme speeds. These ridges rose from the sandy depths, resembling living creatures as they rapidly spread forward. Their widths varied, but the smallest were still over a hundred meters, and when viewed from above, they resembled sand snakes converging towards a central point.
In the sky above the sand sea, nine vessels were hidden in the void.
"According to the records, these should be the largest hunting species in the Extreme Sun Desert—the Earth Sand Crocodiles. What do you think?"
After uploading detailed information about the Earth Sand Crocodiles to the group chat, Song Wujiang sought everyone's opinions.
According to the information provided by the Shadow Vein Clan, the Earth Sand Crocodiles are native to the 【Crimson Star Continent】 and did not arrive via the hyperdimensional teleportation gateway.
Their genetic lineage grade is not low, reaching 81 points, which is barely enough to enter the fifth tier of the Song Clan's genetic lineage chart, worthy of being called the Starry Sea Child.
The Earth Sand Crocodiles have an extremely high affinity with the Earth Principle and are even more adept in the sand, making their combat power significantly stronger.
After reading through this information, Song Dingbang said, "According to radar detection, there are currently no Earth Sand Crocodiles of the Seventh Rank. In my opinion, we should directly summon the Tri-Eye Clan Sovereign Flagship and swiftly eliminate these Earth Sand Crocodiles. This will serve as a deterrent to the increasing number of other races in the surrounding sand sea, and it should keep them in check for a while!"
"I agree. We're only a few months away from completing the extraction on the Xingzu side. Let's buy as much time as we can!"
...
Seeing that no one had any objections, Song Wujiang summoned the Tri-Eye Clan Sovereign Flagship. With the firepower of this flagship, which originated from a Sovereign-level civilization, the Earth Sand Crocodiles gathering from all directions were swiftly eliminated.
It is worth noting that this flagship not only possesses the golden 【Doom Star Annihilation Cannon】 obtained from the Tribulation Star Clan but also retains multiple powerful super cannons from the Tri-Eye Clan itself.
(End of Chapter)
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