Chapter 719: Ascension of the Colored Myth [Eye of Veritas]

Chapter 719: Ascension of the Colored Myth [Eye of Veritas]

In the high-dimensional space constructed by the Chronal Chessboard, Song Chi suddenly appeared in the main control room of the Skygale of Tianxu. Looking out through the ship’s projection screen, his gaze fell upon the countless mechanical remnants scattered at the edge of his vision. The once-massive [Patriarch of Veritas] was now nothing more than a pile of cold, metallic debris.

The thought that this terrifying ninth-rank mechanical sovereign had been brought down by his various stratagems still felt surreal to him.

Before this, his plan had been meticulously detailed, but it had always included a final contingency: if the "Nine Lives Life-Death Chess" were triggered and the situation became irreparable, he would have to escape the battlefield via the Pantheon Market.

In other words, he had always considered the possibility of failure, and the odds were not insignificant.

That was why, seeing the cold, lifeless remains of the [Patriarch of Veritas] before him, he felt a sense of unreality.

...

This feeling did not last long. Song Chi’s attention was soon drawn to the possible Colored Myth artifact that might be within the [Patriarch of Veritas]'s remains.

However, before that, he first flashed over to the Asura Emperor.

The "Enslavement Seal" was still in effect, but its duration was running out. Once the effect ended, the Asura Emperor would die from the depletion of his life force.

The recently enslaved eighth-rank [Shadow Devourer King] had already self-destructed, and Song Chi did not want the Asura Emperor to meet the same fate. Eighth-rank enslaved beings were not easy to come by.

After reducing the Asura Emperor’s size and storing him in the Skygale of Tianxu, Song Chi quickly retrieved a "Prince" level vampire heart and its blood core, making the Asura Emperor swallow them. Vampires, with their pure blood energy, concentrated most of their power in these two organs. A prince-level vampire, though only seventh-rank, was a sovereign-level existence whose blood purity and energy far exceeded that of ordinary beings.

With the ingestion of a seventh-rank prince-level vampire heart and blood core, the Asura Emperor, whose blood had nearly run dry, received a significant boost. However, this was not enough. Song Chi then made him consume three [Eternal Life Pills] before placing him in the [Life Restoration Chamber].

With the combined effects of these, the Asura Emperor’s life was clearly saved, though it would take some time for him to recover his peak combat strength. Song Chi was not in a hurry; saving the Asura Emperor was enough.

His gaze then shifted to the complete mechanical remains of the [Patriarch of Veritas].

Chirp—

The hatch opened again, and hundreds of puppet soldiers emerged, carrying Storage Capsules and spatial beast hides, heading towards the scattered debris. Despite his curiosity about the [Eye of Veritas], Song Chi did not immediately bring the mechanical remains into the Skygale of Tianxu. Instead, he had the puppet soldiers send them to the Pantheon Market first.

At the same time, he quickly informed several family members via the Market of All Heavens.

After a moment, Song Wujian, with a smile, picked up the [Market Projection Token].

Previously, to avoid interfering with his battle with the [Patriarch of Veritas], they had not tried to activate the [Market Projection Token]. Instead, [Liyane Zhouhai] had been struggling to hold the line.

Song Chi naturally agreed without hesitation.

Soon, he sensed another [Market Projection Token] activation request through the Market of All Heavens. Agreeing, he controlled the Market of All Heavens projection to work with the family’s three Annihilator Ships to block the dozen or so eighth-rank Truth Mechanical Behemoths that seemed to have lost their self-control.

With eleven eighth-rank Truth Mechanical Behemoths and the Floating Continent’s primordial will’s support, even the near-ninth-rank power of the Market of All Heavens Projection found it difficult to subdue them easily.

As for Song Chi himself, he did not rush to cancel the high-dimensional space created by the "Time · Chessboard" ability. In his view, it was uncertain whether the [Patriarch of Veritas] was truly dead. Mechanical beings did not drop Floating Continent primordial essence upon death.

The seemingly shattered mechanical body might, if its undestroyed AI core came into contact with other mechanical beings, silently complete data exchanges and AI invasions.

This was a precautionary measure on Song Chi’s part.

As for the outside world, maintaining the Market of All Heavens projection for a period of time required the consumption of a silver artifact, but this was not important. Regardless of whether the [Patriarch of Veritas] was truly dead, the entire [Truth Floating Land] would remain the Song Family’s private domain in the short term.

A ninth-rank life-form Floating Continent, though he had secretly scavenged it for over eighty years, was only a fraction of its total resources. Song Chi believed that after a thorough search, the number of silver artifacts in the Pantheon Market would only increase, not decrease.

This cleanup process lasted about tens of minutes.

When Song Chi finally canceled the "Time · Chessboard" ability, the high-dimensional space was left with only the Skygale of Tianxu. The mirror ship had been completely destroyed by the eighth-rank [Shadow Devourer King]'s self-destruction.

Naturally, when the Skygale of Tianxu reappeared above the Truth Holy City, there was no sign of the [Patriarch of Veritas].

In the following time, Song Chi spent some effort working with his family to eliminate the remaining eighth-rank Truth Mechanical Behemoths that had gone berserk.

When the Skygale of Tianxu successfully killed the first eighth-rank Truth Mechanical Behemoth, Song Chi was shocked.

[The ship successfully killed an eighth-rank mechanical sovereign. [Blood Chalice] successfully collected a strand of Eighth-Rank Holy Blood!]

This message, received after one of the Skygale of Tianxu’s attacks, left him wide-eyed and stunned for several seconds.

Not really, killing mechanical beings can also collect corresponding holy blood?

What blood do mechanical beings have? This is a joke, right?

After a moment of internal ranting, Song Chi suddenly realized something.

Could it be that the holy blood collected by the [Blood Chalice] is not actually the blood of Star Sea beings, but some characteristic inherent in each Star Sea alien?

If so, then each time the Flame-Ember Starship ascends and bathes in alien blood, it is actually plundering this characteristic?

What could it be... life essence? Or Floating Continent will essence? No, that’s not it...

After much contemplation, Song Chi finally turned his gaze to his ancestor, Song Wujian.

Song Wujian did not disappoint, saying two words.

"Fortune..."

According to Song Wujian, or the information he had received from the xinfu ancestral court in Immortal Qin, bathing in alien blood was a simplified and easily understandable term. Among the higher echelons of the Flame-Ember humans, this process was known as plundering fortune, or civilizational fortune.

Understanding this, Song Chi’s eyes brightened. It made sense. He then ignored the remaining few eighth-rank Truth Mechanical Behemoths and immediately returned to the Pantheon Market.

In the free market area of the Market of All Heavens, large piles of mechanical debris were stacked like mountains. As the Skygale of Tianxu, hovering high in the sky, emitted a gentle beam of light, the debris began to be drawn into the ship.

With the assistance of the [Superbody Contraction Plate], the debris, regardless of size, was easily stored in the ship’s hold.

During this process, Song Chi separated several artifacts from the debris.

There was a silver-grade flash evasion artifact, a gold-grade ship cannon artifact, and a black-grade blade artifact.

The silver-grade flash evasion artifact, named [Void Escape Badge], had decent attributes, but the [Void Escape Pearl] and [Starlight Flash Spirit Stone Token] were already at a higher grade.

Song Chi planned to give it to Shen Youran or Song Hanyu.

The gold-grade ship cannon was a super main cannon, which Song Chi did not find particularly impressive.

As for the blade artifact, it could not be converted into a ship component, and since he already had the [Falling Immortal Spear], Song Chi planned to put it up for exchange in the artifact shop.

These were just minor details. Throughout the process of drawing and collecting, his gaze remained fixed on the main debris pile.

This debris included the [Patriarch of Veritas]'s head and upper body, which were likely the areas where its AI core and the [Eye of Veritas] were located.

Time passed, and the other debris was cleared without incident. However, Song Chi’s eyes remained filled with vigilance; he did not let his guard down.

Since he now knew that killing mechanical beings also produced holy blood/fortune, and the cloned [Blood Chalice] had not collected a ninth-rank holy blood/fortune, there were only two possibilities.

First, when the [Patriarch of Veritas] was killed, the Skygale of Tianxu was in the process of reviving, and the two events coincidentally missed each other.

Second, the [Patriarch of Veritas] was not truly dead.

Song Chi did not have a definite conclusion for these two possibilities, but it was always better to be cautious.

A silver light shot out, and the contraction mark on the Ultra Body Contraction Card quickly took effect. The last piece of colossal debris began to shrink rapidly. Once it was reduced to a size that the Skygale of Tianxu could contain, a familiar beam of light emerged from the warship, pulling the debris in.

As the last piece of debris was gradually pulled towards the Skygale of Tianxu, Song Chi's eyes narrowed sharply.

With a thought, the Ninth-Rank power of the Market of All Heavens condensed around him, forming a protective energy barrier. The Dragon Whale Hall surrounding the burning black ember in his ancestral aperture also shone brighter.

If it were the second scenario, what would happen next was already predictable.

Finally, the colossal debris was fully pulled into the warship's hold.

Song Chi focused.

But nothing unusual happened.

'Could it have been a coincidence that I missed it?'

The thought crossed his mind, and a hint of disappointment flickered in his eyes.

He had just used one of the precious effects of the Nine Lives Life and Death Chess to barely kill a Ninth-Rank Sovereign. If he had indeed missed the Ninth-Rank fortune, it would be a significant loss.

Just as he was mulling this over, a sudden change occurred.

Beep, beep, beep!

Warning, warning…

Detected a massive data stream inside the warship, Captain, please be aware!

…

Song Chi's breath caught in his throat. The sudden AI warning immediately made him think of the Truth AI.

A massive data stream—what else could it be besides the Truth AI itself, rooted deep within the Patriarch of Veritas? What else could make the already Ascension-grade skybrain system describe it as "massive"?

Zzzt, zzzt, zzzt…

Before he could think further, the entire warship was filled with the sound of static.

"Trying to take over, huh? Not a bad idea, but you don't understand the Flame-Ember Starship system well enough, tsk…"

Muttering to himself, the panic on Song Chi's face from a moment ago suddenly turned into a cold smirk.

Even a common Star Sea sapient being could see the scorn and ill intent in his smile.

Clearly, everything Song Chi had done up to this point was deliberate.

From carefully bringing the debris from the high-dimensional space into the Market of All Heavens and then gradually pulling it into the Skygale of Tianxu, he had shown extreme caution. But all of this was a prelude to the final step of truly bringing the Truth AI into the Skygale of Tianxu.

If he had not acted so cautiously and had simply brought all the debris into the warship without any hesitation, the Truth AI with its database accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years would likely have grown suspicious and avoided being captured by the Skygale of Tianxu.

In that case, even if the skybrain system could forcibly merge and assimilate the Truth AI, it would likely result in a significant loss of data, which would be a poor outcome.

In contrast, with the Truth AI now fully inside the Skygale of Tianxu, the loss would be greatly reduced due to the absolute isolation between the Flame-Ember Starship and the outside world.

As for the concern that the Truth AI might successfully take over and assimilate the skybrain system components—

Song Chi had no such worries.

The Flame-Ember Starship system of the Ember Human Civilization was built on the foundation of the ember seeds. All successfully awakened ember seeds were interconnected from the beginning, forming a vast network of ember seeds that had accumulated over layers and layers of time.

Trying to compete for control with the Flame-Ember Starship components bound to the ember seeds?

Would it be just a single component it had to face?

No, the Truth AI would be facing the entire vast network of ember seeds that the Ember Human Civilization had built over hundreds of thousands of years. Even a Tenth-Rank Mythical AI would meet its end here.

As Song Chi had thought, the Truth AI that had just flooded into the skybrain system components tried to use its massive data stream to overwhelm the skybrain. But in a moment, it saw its proud database suddenly covered by a massive web. It was like a butterfly that had flown into a trap, now trapped and unable to escape.

As it struggled, a tiny spider, representing the skybrain, quickly climbed onto it and began to absorb its vast data stream.

Skybrain System Level 80

Quality: Golden (Evolving)

…

Seeing the words "Evolving" on the skybrain system component, Song Chi's smile grew even wider.

But he soon shifted his gaze, no longer focusing on the skybrain system. A message had just come from the hold, indicating that the puppet soldiers had separated a peculiar object from the last piece of debris.

Yes, it was the Eye of Veritas he had been longing for.

As soon as he entered the hold, Song Chi immediately noticed the faint rainbow light emanating from within.

When he took the Eye of Veritas from the puppet soldiers, his eyes were fixed on the peculiar object.

Soon, the attribute panel of the Eye of Veritas appeared, followed by its component attribute panel.

Peculiar Object: Eye of Veritas

Quality: Colored/Upper

Convertible: {Eye of Veritas}

Note: A crystallization of a certain technological civilization from the Multiverse Era, possessing incomprehensible abilities.

…

Eye of Veritas Level 0

Quality: Colored/Upper

Trait 1: Data Information

Trait 2: Detection Priority +7000

Trait 3: Detection Range +240%

Trait 4: Detection Accuracy +240%

Trait 5: True Vision

Trait 6: Eye of Veritas

Trait 7: Goodwill Recognition

Trait 8: Mythical Coordinates

Cost: 200/s (Spiritual Energy Points)

Detection Range: 1100 light-seconds

Accuracy: 6000

Upgrade Requirements: 2000 strands of Floating Continent Essence (Zero-Rank), 20000 Spiritual Energy Points, 10g of Truth Stone

{Data Information: All objects displayed on the radar with a rank not exceeding the current component's enhancement level will have their attributes presented in precise data information.}

{True Vision: The component possesses a true vision, rendering all ordinary concealment effects within its detection range ineffective, including but not limited to invisibility, transformation, and shallow void concealment.}

{Eye of Veritas: Consuming 500000 Spiritual Energy Points, the component's maximum detection range is temporarily increased by 5 times, and detection priority and accuracy are doubled, lasting for 10 minutes, with a cooldown of 480 hours.}

{Goodwill Recognition: All beings detected by the component, whose rank is not equal to or higher than the component's enhancement level, will autonomously display their goodwill towards the warship's Captain (ranging from -100 to 100). Beings who have not interacted with the warship's Captain will default to a goodwill of 0.}

{Mythical Coordinates: Consuming 1000000 Spiritual Energy Points, randomly obtain the coordinates of an unowned Mythical Artifact with a quality not exceeding this component's, with a fixed cooldown of 10000 years.}

After carefully reviewing the information on the attribute panel, Song Chi's eyes shone brighter.

Even without considering the other traits, the initial attribute panel alone showed the terrifying gap between the Heavenly Eye and the Eye of Veritas.

Just the "Mythical Coordinates" trait alone was worth the Colored/Upper quality.

Obtaining the coordinates of an unowned Mythical Artifact every ten thousand years, despite the long cooldown and the fact that a single coordinate did not guarantee obtaining the artifact, was still incredibly valuable. After all, Colored/Upper Mythical artifacts were treasures in the vast Shattered Star Sea, and even just knowing their coordinates could be invaluable.

In the boundless Star Sea, many beings were extremely eager for such Mythical Artifact coordinates.

Moreover, this trait was particularly valuable to Song Chi.

Don't forget that the Skygale of Tianxu had a same-rank Chronal Chessboard component that significantly reduced the cooldown for all other components on the warship. Currently, it had an 80% cooldown reduction, meaning that with its assistance, the "Mythical Coordinates" trait would only require 2000 years to cool down.

If he could later evolve the Bodhimanda Samadhi Seal to affect Colored/Upper components, the cooldown time would be even shorter.

Thinking this, Song Chi used the Fate Compass Disk to safely uninstall the Heavenly Eye and replaced it with the Eye of Veritas.

After eighty years of scavenging, he had accumulated a fair amount of the rare Truth Stone, so the enhancement was straightforward.

Soon, the Eye of Veritas was reinforced to Level 90.

Its attributes had undergone a qualitative leap.

However, Song Chi did not focus on these changes immediately. He was more interested in the "Data Information" trait and wanted to test its effects.

"Data Information" sounded like a high-end trait.

He then set his target on the Asura Emperor, who was currently in the medical bay.

In the radar image, the Asura Emperor, who was right next to him, was clearly visible.

As Song Chi activated the trait, a data information table instantly appeared before his eyes.

Name: Asura Emperor

Rank: Eighth

Current Status: Vitality Loss 15%

Health: 58%/100%

Talents: Asura Time Blade, Son of the Blood Sea, Bloodthirsty Blood, Blood Cut

Goodwill: 100

Weakness: The Asura Navel contains the original bloodthirsty intent of the Asura race. Cutting open the Asura Navel will cause the original bloodthirsty intent to dissipate, significantly weakening their combat power.

…

The data information panel before his eyes clearly displayed the Asura Emperor's current status.

Not only that, it also listed the Asura Emperor's talents and weaknesses, showcasing its powerful functionality.

Combined with the "Goodwill" trait, this component truly deserved the title of "Outstanding."

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end