Chapter 572: Fairness

Chapter 572: Fairness

The Dragon Whale Hall, now a black ultimate-quality artifact, has the potential to become a colored mythical artifact if fully restored, making it an extremely rare treasure.

However, as one of the foundations of the Song Clan of Dragon Spine, the Dragon Whale Hall's biggest drawback is its inability to be converted into shipborne components. To maximize its utility, the Song Clan chose to merge it with the entire Dragon Spine Continent, utilizing the massive size of an entire floating continent to activate this high-level artifact.

Not only the Song Clan, but many civilizations in the Shattered Star Sea, would do the same.

This method, however, is not without its drawbacks. Once an artifact is highly fused with a continent, it becomes difficult to separate it, and the artifact's effects become closely tied to the Star Sea's floating continent.

For instance, the black-quality Dragon Whale Hall, with the support of the previous sixth-rank Dragon Spine Continent, could only summon one hundred Hall of Souls and one hundred Star Thrones. There were also significant limitations on the comprehension of laws and the concealment of chaos mists.

Recently, after the Dragon Spine Continent advanced to the seventh rank, the number of Hall of Souls and Star Thrones skyrocketed to five hundred, and the distance they could project across starry skies also increased significantly.

The reason the Song Clan continues to extract the origin cores from other floating continents to nurture the Dragon Spine Continent is that the clan's upper echelons are still far from satisfied.

At the very least, they are displeased that the Dragon Spine Continent, even after advancing to the seventh rank, cannot project and summon the clan members located on the Crimson Star Continent.

While a seventh-rank floating continent combined with a black-quality artifact can unleash about eighty percent of the Dragon Whale Hall's power, this is only the case for the black-quality Dragon Whale Hall after its second restoration. Once the third restoration is complete, the Dragon Whale Hall is highly likely to advance to a colored mythical quality.

In that case, the size of a seventh-rank floating continent will be far from sufficient.

After discussing the plan for the sixth-rank floating continent below, the Song Clan's gaze fell upon the hundreds of thousands of ordinary insects.

With nearly three decades to go before the civilizational war officially begins, how to handle these hundreds of thousands of insects is a problem.

Bringing them back to the Dragon Spine Continent is out of the question. Feeding hundreds of thousands of mouths would be a massive expense, even for the Song Clan, and they would feel the financial strain.

The only solution is to put them all into hibernation, but that presents another issue.

The upcoming civilizational war will be a large-scale conflict between two stellar cluster communities, and it's easy to imagine that countless Flame Keeper Captains will lose their lives in this colossal war. Many Flame Keeper forces will be destroyed, an inevitable outcome.

In this bloody reshuffling game, the Song Clan, having recently ascended to the ranks of immortal clans, has only just obtained the qualification to participate in the reshuffling. But this is not enough; obtaining the qualification is just the first step. Their own strength is also a critical factor, as it will determine if the clan can endure until the reshuffling ends and witness the new beginning where opportunities abound.

Over the past few decades, the Song Clan has done everything possible to strengthen themselves, from the return of the Lifeblood Vessels to opening up the clan's foundations, stockpiling war materials, and buying low and selling high.

In the past few decades, the clan's efforts have shown initial success, as evidenced by the over five thousand third-rank Cruiser Ship Captains and the number of Vortex Ship Admirals steadily approaching four hundred.

But this is still not enough.

Ultimately, the Song Clan's heritage is too short compared to the immortal clans with their ten thousand years of history. In the past few decades, the Song Clan has been working tirelessly to strengthen itself, but they have only gone from being a skinny individual to a normal physique, still far from the robust and muscular figures of the ancient immortal clans.

Understanding this, the Song Clan's upper echelons had to explore alternative methods to arm themselves as much as possible, and these insects were a crucial part of their plan.

However, six hundred thousand insects are far from enough; the Song Clan needs millions. Bringing them back to the clan is out of the question; they must continue collecting various resources. Once the Ancient Matriarch fully recovers, she can devour these resources and breed more insects.

As they were discussing, several spatial fluctuations were heard from above, and three Vortex Ships emerged from the spatial vortex.

These three Vortex Ships belonged to the Expansion Department of the clan's War Affairs Hall, and all of them were led by deputy ministers skilled in star map drawing for new star domains.

After establishing communications, each Vortex Ship transmitted a star map.

By comparing the three star maps, the Song Clan gained a general understanding of the surrounding star domain of the sixth-rank floating continent below.

Within a two-thousand-light-year radius of the sixth-rank floating continent, there were two fourth-rank floating continents and more than ten third-rank floating continents. Additionally, in the outer region, nearly two thousand light-years away, there was a vast asteroid belt extending beyond the star map.

"Not bad. We can send the remaining insects to these floating continents to gather various resources. With the output of these continents and the asteroid belt, we can breed over a million insects once the Ancient Matriarch recovers."

...

After finalizing the plan, Song Shiyuan stayed on the sixth-rank floating continent, using the Immovable Bodhimanda and the Origin Core Extraction Device to extract the remaining two origin cores from the continent.

Song Chi and the others each took a portion of the insects to different floating continents, tasking them with collecting resources for the next few decades.

...

Morning Star Brightland, Holy Star City.

After a decade, the Song Clan's Dragon Spine Shop held another session of the Dragon Spine Auction.

Amidst the bustling crowd gathered at the auction venue, the hype surrounding the event had been building for years. The reason for such a grand occasion was twofold: the Dragon Spine branch's recent acquisition of an orange-tier ascending fire source, a large amount of war supplies, red shipborne components, and a fifth-rank biomass blood, which had generated significant buzz; and the official promotion of the Song Clan of Dragon Spine to the ranks of the immortal clans, a crucial factor in their rise.

"Is that the captain of the Swift Wind Exploration Team? He became a Vortex Ship Admiral decades ago, and now he's here too!"

"Look, that's the ancient patriarch of the Godwind Li Clan from the Morning Star Kingdom. He's a powerful figure on par with a Vortex Ship Admiral."

One after another, an astonishing number of Flame Keeper battleships descended from the sky, and within just twenty minutes, over twenty Vortex Ship Admirals made their appearance, with even more Cruiser Ship Admirals in attendance.

Amidst the crowd, a wandering ship captain furrowed his brows and said, "What's going on? Didn't the Song Clan of Dragon Spine ascend to the immortal clans more than a decade ago? Their influence should be at its peak. Not to mention Dreadnought Ship Admirals, but I haven't even seen a Battleship Ship Admiral."

"You don't know anything," another captain replied. "The Morning Star Brightland is only a fifth-rank floating continent, and it's no longer a priority for the kingdom. This is just a mid-level auction hosted by the Song Clan. If it were a top-tier auction, do you think they'd hold it here?"

"You don't know," said a female captain. "My second aunt, who married into the Eagle Clan, told me that ten years ago, the Song Clan held a grand auction on the Silver Plate Floating Continent. It's said that even a Star Annihilator Ship Admiral attended that auction."

"The highlight of that auction was a drop of Sovereign Source Blood, and it was sold for the price of a golden holy domain component."

"A golden holy domain component? Wow!"

Amidst the various discussions, the auction officially began.

To kick things off and set the mood, the Song Clan's auction house presented a fifth-rank insectoid source blood as the first item.

A fifth-rank source blood significantly increased the chances of success for a Vortex Ship Admiral's promotion, and when used by a Cruiser Ship Admiral attempting to become a Vortex Ship Admiral, it boosted their chances by more than 15%.

As expected, the Flame Keeper captains in the auction hall were instantly fired up.

In the corner of the regular seating area at the bottom of the auction hall, three men and women sat together.

As item after item was auctioned off, they remained silent, not making a single bid.

Until the next item appeared.

"Captain, this is it! That person wants the Ice Apricot Fruit. If we can get it, we can trade it for that intermediate Thunder Crystal!" exclaimed the man on the left, who emanated the life essence of a third-rank.

The man in the middle, who was noticeably calmer, couldn't hide the excitement in his eyes.

The Ice Apricot Fruit, when used by a Cruiser Ship leaning towards the Ice Law, increased their chances of promotion to a Vortex Ship by 5%.

However, this didn't align with his ship's capabilities. What he wanted was the intermediate Thunder Crystal.

In the Shattered Star Sea, the Ice Law was a relatively niche path, which allowed the trio to successfully acquire the Ice Apricot Fruit.

After securing the Ice Apricot Fruit, the three didn't linger and promptly left the auction.

Soon, three Cruiser Ships soared into the sky outside Holy Star City.

After two jumps through space, the three cruisers arrived at a debris field located over a hundred light-years from the Morning Star Brightland.

Upon confirming that the area was clear, the three cruisers quickly entered the debris field.

In the depths of the debris field, a 1,100-meter-long cruiser was already waiting for them.

"Did you get it?" asked the captain of the 1,100-meter cruiser, his voice emotionless as he spoke through the communication channel.

In response, the leader of the trio produced the Ice Apricot Fruit.

"Yes, it's the Ice Apricot Fruit. Let's make the trade!" he said, tossing a crystal that shimmered with thunderous light into the center of the exchange area.

As the leader of the trio also placed the Ice Apricot Fruit in the exchange area, both sides simultaneously activated their ships' traction beams.

In no time, the two special promotion resources were successfully exchanged.

Before leaving, the masked captain reminded them, "Remember the agreement we signed. You can only use this intermediate Thunder Crystal after leaving the Morning Star Kingdom, and regardless of whether your promotion is successful or not, none of you three are allowed to return to the Morning Star Kingdom."

"Don't worry!" they assured him.

...

Not long after the three cruisers departed, the 1,100-meter cruiser was also preparing to jump through space.

Just then, a sharp howl echoed from behind a large piece of debris nearby.

A scorching beam and a deep-space torpedo simultaneously struck the 1,100-meter cruiser, hitting its energy shield and internal hull before it could react.

The energy shield trembled violently, and fragments of the damaged hull scattered in all directions, even interrupting the jump.

"Who?" the captain of the 1,100-meter cruiser exclaimed angrily from behind his mask.

His gaze shifted, and he quickly spotted a light blue cruiser that had emerged from the side.

His pupils constricted as he seemed to recognize the other party, but for some reason, he didn't reveal their identity. Instead, he said coldly, "Star Pirates? You're getting bold..."

Before he could finish, a mocking male voice came from the other cruiser.

"Song Lu, still playing dumb? Let me tell you, I've marked your ship with a tracking imprint!"

"I recorded the entire transaction. You're in trouble for privately selling the family's rare mineral resources."

Without waiting for a response, the cruiser that had appeared later used its flash evasion module to leave the small debris field.

"Song Xing!!!" the captain of the 1,100-meter cruiser exclaimed, his eyes darkening with anger.

However, his battleship was not equipped with a spatial flash evasion module, and it could only slowly fly towards the outside world. By the time it completely left the small fragment belt, the cruiser that had previously escaped through flashing had already completed its teleportation charging.

Seeing the warship in front completely disappear, the masked captain coldly said, "Since you insist on seeking death, I can't be blamed for that."

...

Morning Star Brightland, Song Clan's territory, Thunderstone Mine.

Ever since the Song Clan obtained their first Unyielding Ship Admiral, nearly a quarter of Morning Star Brightland was under their control.

Decades ago, the Song Clan members in charge of managing and developing this land successfully discovered a large Thunderstone Vein, a significant contribution to the family.

The large Thunderstone Vein produced Thunder Crystals, which could serve as a special promotion resource for Thunder-attributed Flame Keeper battleships, making them quite valuable.

Thunderstone Mine. With a spatial fluctuation, Song Xing's ship appeared above the mine.

Upon his return, Song Xing rushed straight towards the Mine Guard Tower.

...

Two months later, under the watchful eyes of countless enslaved creatures working as mine slaves, the 6th Inspection Squad's fleet, under the family's Inspection Hall, descended from the sky.

The captain of the inspection squad, Song Li, was a Third Rank Cruiser Fleet Admiral, and behind his ship followed another cruiser that did not belong to the inspection squad.

Thunderstone Mine, Battleship Docking Zone.

The moment the members of the 6th Inspection Squad stepped out of the docking zone, the mine manager, who had been waiting outside with a smile, greeted them.

"Squad Leader Li, we've been waiting for you. This..."

Before the smiling mine manager could finish his sentence, Song Li interrupted, "So it's Song Lu, huh? Let's cut the pleasantries. We have other tasks at hand, and time is of the essence. Let's get straight to the point!"

"According to the information you reported three days ago, Song Xing privately intercepted the family's rare mineral resources and was executed on the spot. Is that correct?"

"Yes, Squad Leader Li!"

"Song Lu, some things can't be said irresponsibly! You must take responsibility!"

"My grandson practices the Light Law. What use does he have for this Thunderstone? Moreover, according to what Xing has said in the past, you're the one with ulterior motives here!"

Just as Song Lu nodded, a formidable pressure of a Third Rank Apex emanated from the side of Song Li, and an elderly man with a weathered face glared at Song Lu, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins.

Song Xing was his most talented grandson, possessing not only Purple Fire but also understanding the law at the Third Rank. In the future, he had a good chance of becoming a Stag Fleet Admiral, but who would have thought he would die here unexpectedly?

"Uncle Yufeng, you promised me before we came!"

Song Li frowned and turned to look at Song Yufeng beside him.

Hearing Song Li speak, Song Yufeng finally suppressed the aura within his body, but the anger in his eyes remained unabated.

"In that case, is there any relevant evidence?"

"Of course!"

Over the next two hours, Song Lu led the inspection squad into the mine to examine the so-called evidence, provided by a Second Rank clan member who also worked in the mine.

According to this person, Song Xing often sneaked into the depths of the mine alone.

Song Li used the inspection squad's unique lie detection module, and the results showed that the person was not lying.

After this, Song Yufeng clearly struggled to accept it. He could no longer suppress the anger in his heart, and the life pressure of a Third Rank Apex was completely released.

Before this, Song Xing had mentioned multiple times that Song Lu was not clean.

He could almost be certain that this matter was definitely not as simple as it seemed.

"When did the Song Clan become so rotten? Misappropriating clan resources is one thing, but killing fellow clan members recklessly, how dare you? If not for today..."

His voice turned icy, and his bloodshot eyes stared intently at Song Lu.

But before he could finish his angry words, a powerful pressure suddenly emanated from the Mine Guard Tower in the distance, a pressure that far exceeded the Third Rank Apex aura on Song Yufeng's body by tenfold.

The next second, a figure flew out of the guard tower.

"Greetings, Elder Zhihao!"

Looking up at the middle-aged man standing in mid-air, Song Li slowly stepped to the right, blocking Song Yufeng and slightly alleviating some of the pressure on him.

Behind him, Song Yufeng's mouth was bleeding, and the pressure of a Fourth Rank was bearing down on him. Even with the physique granted by his Third Rank Apex Guiding Art, he still struggled to bear it.

It was as if a mountain had fallen on his shoulders, causing his entire body to crackle, and his bones to continuously shatter.

Only then did the elder of the Zhihao Clan, standing high in the sky, speak indifferently, "I personally executed Song Xing. According to your words, am I wrongfully accusing him?"

Above, the man with a calm expression stood tall.

Below, Song Yufeng's mouth continued to overflow with blood, and the pressure he endured showed no signs of diminishing.

Only when Song Li actively took on half of the pressure for him did he finally get a chance to catch his breath.

"Elder Zhihao, Uncle Yufeng has just lost his grandson, so his words may be a bit extreme. But you're being a bit too much!"

As he finished speaking, Song Zhihao's eyes narrowed, and the atmosphere in the entire mine became even more solemn.

However, after a few seconds of silence, Song Zhihao retracted his aura and spoke again.

"Alright, since the evidence is conclusive, you should also return quickly and not delay any further at the mine."

After speaking, his body surged with shadow energy, and he prepared to leave on his own.

But just then, Song Yufeng, standing behind Song Li, spoke up again with difficulty, "A rat in the clan, trying to cover the sky with one hand. The Song Clan members humbly request the Ancestor to uphold justice!"

PS: One chapter today.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end