Chapter 736: The Deepest Depths of the River of Time

Chapter 736: The Deepest Depths of the River of Time

The successful transformation of the Temporal Chessboard was undoubtedly a significant enhancement for Skygale of Tianxu's main body.

However, even though the transformation was complete, the exploration of the debris in the River of Time did not end there.

The "Time Rewind" feature that the Temporal Chessboard now possessed required not only a large amount of spiritual energy but also Time Essence, a resource that was equally crucial.

This area of the River of Time debris was currently the only known place where Time Essence could be found.

While Time Essence might not be as highly sought after as Primordial Copper, Eternal Stone Bricks, or Chaos Gas, it was even rarer. Now that he had the opportunity, he naturally wanted to stockpile as much as possible.

However, this was not a matter of personal will. After decades of exploration, only a small region of the River of Time debris remained, and even in the core area, there was unlikely to be much Time Essence.

...

Inside the mirror image warship, Song Chi projected his mental force to control the warship as it continued to move in the designated direction. At the same time, he divided part of his attention to the replicated Temporal Chessboard component.

Unlike the Temporal Chessboard on Skygale of Tianxu's main body, which had evolved to the highest-quality level, this replicated Temporal Chessboard was still at the high-quality level.

However, compared to the nearly depleted state of the "Nine Lives Chess" feature at the end of the Civilization War, the 361st "Nine Lives Chess" piece on this replicated Temporal Chessboard had far fewer cracks.

{Nine Lives Chess: The 361st piece of the Temporal Chessboard is a special nine-lives chess piece, containing vast life and death forces. It can absolutely revive or eliminate a specified unit (the target's life rank cannot exceed the component's reinforcement rank). However, each activation will cause the chess piece to crack a little, and after nine activations, it will completely shatter. At that point, this feature will transform into a new, random feature. Current usage count: 8/9.}

Indeed, the Nine Lives Chess feature had returned to its highest count of eight.

The reason, of course, was that he had reset the mirror image warship in advance.

Knowing that the Time Essence found in the River of Time debris could promote the transformation of the Temporal Chessboard component, how could Song Chi not have anticipated this situation?

Considering that once the Temporal Chessboard evolved to the highest-quality level, the Mirror Image component would no longer be able to replicate it, he had reset the mirror image warship over the past few decades to maximize the effects of both the Mirror Image and Temporal Chessboard components.

With the long cooldown period, it only took a few months to summon it again.

Now, this decision had proven to be correct.

Even though the Temporal Chessboard component would not be able to be easily replicated for a long time due to its transformation, at least for now, it would remain at the high-quality level as long as the mirror image warship did not use up its remaining eight revival opportunities.

Compared to the ability to infinitely replicate, this was a minor consolation, but it was still a fortunate outcome.

...

A golden light enveloped the entire control room of the mirror image warship as the Sixth-Rank Raidstar activated the Market Projection Token. Familiar Purple Mist Energy quickly gathered from the outside.

Soon, a near-Ninth-Rank projection of the Pantheon Market appeared above the mirror image warship.

With the enhancement of this near-Ninth-Rank purple mist projection, not only did the exploration speed increase significantly, but the time force seeping into the warship's interior also decreased dramatically.

The mirror image warship had indeed been reset once, but the time erosion force it had endured was still very real.

Previously, this was not a concern, but now, with the Temporal Chessboard's Ascension, each use of the mirror image warship's revival opportunities would permanently reduce the available count. Until the Mirror Image component could solve the problem of replicating the highest-quality components, Song Chi would not easily waste any of these precious revival opportunities.

"Hmm..."

At one moment, he let out a soft exclamation.

His gaze was drawn to the eternal black light ahead.

After a long period of exploration, the final region of the River of Time debris had been almost completely searched. He never expected to find a small surprise at the end.

Black-quality oddities had been discovered before, but they were extremely rare and could not be converted into warship components. Therefore, this final black-quality supreme oddity gave him considerable anticipation.

"This is a key?"

As the Pantheon Market projection brought the oddity, which emitted a brilliant black light, into the warship, Song Chi finally saw its specific form.

This was not the most critical part. More importantly, he quickly discovered that the surface of the black light key was not wrapped in the special resource, Time Essence.

Without the Time Essence to isolate it, this relic from the ruins of the River of Time remained intact. Could it be... another time-related artifact?

A thought instinctively crossed Song Chi's mind, but he didn't dwell on it. The truth would reveal itself soon enough.

His gaze focused, and a properties panel quickly appeared before his eyes.

Artifact: Key of the Temple of Time

Quality: Black

Convertible: No

Note: A legacy token from the Temple of Time, which stood at the end of the River of Time for several eras. If you ever find the Temple of Time, you can use this key to receive its highest legacy.

Song Chi's eyes scanned the properties panel several times, and the joy in them was evident.

He knew little about the Temple of Time. Given the current depth of the Song Family, they clearly couldn't access such a profound secret.

But just the words "Temple of Time" conveyed a silent sense of majesty. The fact that it stood at the end of the River of Time for several eras, as mentioned in the description, was a stark reminder to Song Chi that the Temple of Time was far more terrifying than he could imagine.

Several eras—these words likely didn't refer to mere tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. They probably signified cosmic eras like the Multiverse Era or the Shattered Star Sea Era.

Even ignoring the Multiverse Era, the Shattered Star Sea Era alone has lasted for millions of years.

If his suspicions were correct, the origins of the Temple of Time were unimaginable.

'Maybe it's even stronger than the Buddhist Heritage Tower...'

A thought suddenly flashed through Song Chi's mind.

In his memory, the Buddhist Heritage Tower was also of extraordinary origin, which was why he instinctively compared it to the Temple of Time.

Of course, no one could say for sure which was stronger. Only when Song Chi's strength increased in the future could he actively seek out the origins of these two places and perhaps find an answer.

After carefully storing the Key of the Temple of Time, Song Chi refocused his attention on the outside world.

The ruins of the River of Time had been thoroughly explored. In the future, they might continue to spawn more star artifacts and Time Essences, but that would take an extremely long time.

The good news was that after the Temporal Chessboard successfully transformed, he now had nearly ten Time Essences in reserve. At least for the short term, the "Time Rewind" feature wouldn't be unavailable.

As for more Time Essences, he would have to obtain them elsewhere unless he was willing to wait for tens of thousands of years here.

Controlling the Tianxu Skygale mirror battleship, he turned it around and headed toward the Ship Clones of the three elders.

After a brief greeting, Song Chi didn't linger. He quickly maneuvered the mirror battleship out of the influence of the time energy, then used the Hyper Body Contraction Card to shrink it to its smallest size and stored it inside the Tianxu Skygale itself.

Even so, the mirror battleship still occupied a significant portion of the cockpit. Fortunately, the addition of the Void Storage module had expanded the internal space of the battleship several times over, otherwise, it would have been even more problematic.

Previously, he would have simply dismissed the mirror battleship without such trouble, as he could summon it again in a few months. Now, however, he couldn't do that.

If he canceled the summoning, the next time he summoned the mirror battleship, it wouldn't have the Temporal Chessboard.

After recalling the mirror battleship, Song Chi returned to the Pantheon Market.

He entrusted the task of collecting time energy to the three elders, estimating that it would take some time. Taking this opportunity, he entered the Pantheon Market's all-attribute training room.

For over a thousand years, due to the Civilization War, he hadn't been able to properly seclude himself to practice the Guidance Technique. As a result, his Guidance Technique had only just broken through to level 73.

Strictly speaking, this wasn't a slow pace. Advancing one level every five hundred years was considered above average for a seventh-tier Guidance Technique. However, that was relative to ordinary Annihilator Ship captains.

Once an Ascended Annihilator Ship, the vessel itself would directly enter the ranks of Ultimate Annihilator Ships.

Could Song Chi really judge himself by the standards of an ordinary Annihilator Ship captain?

The answer was clearly no.

Moreover, after nearly two thousand years of the Civilization War, the Tianxu Skygale had solidly entered the ranks of the strongest Ultimate Annihilator Ships. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the Tianxu Skygale now had the potential to challenge the status of a Galactic Ship.

As the captain, a level 73 Guidance Technique clearly seemed out of place.

If this continued, it would take him three to four thousand years to reach the limit of the seventh-tier Guidance Technique. Then, considering the enormous gap between the seventh and eighth tiers, it would take at least five thousand years. This was clearly unacceptable to Song Chi.

"I hope this Wizard Magic Assistance Cultivation Pod can bring some surprises!"

Inside the multi-attribute cultivation room, in one of the innermost cultivation chambers, a large high-tech cultivation pod was currently placed. As a super-advanced product of the wizard civilization, this pod was designed for human use, so when Song Chi entered, he found the internal space to be just right.

After quickly pressing a few buttons inside the pod, the high-tech cultivation pod's door began to slowly close. Once the pod was completely sealed, a special energy quickly enveloped the entire chamber. With the already extremely dense spiritual energy provided by the multi-attribute cultivation room, the energy concentration around the assistance cultivation pod became even more astonishing, making the energy inside the pod incredibly rich.

"Comfortable!"

Inside the assistance cultivation pod, Song Chi felt his entire body relax. Even without assuming a special cultivation posture to activate his Guidance Technique, the continuous flow of spiritual energy surged into his flesh and bones, thanks to the pod's assistance.

At this moment, he finally understood why his elder brother, Song Yan, had been able to make breakthroughs in his Guidance Technique over the past few decades. As the commanders of Annihilator Ships who ascended one after another, Song Yan had ascended several hundred years earlier. With the additional benefits of the multi-attribute cultivation room and the deep-sea pearl with high age, Song Chi's Guidance Technique level should have been far ahead.

Indeed, it was so at first. However, about twenty years ago, Song Yan's Guidance Technique also broke through to level 73 and even surpassed his progress for a while.

It was clear now that the Wizard Magic Assistance Cultivation Pod was indeed effective. Sensing the rapidly increasing spiritual energy within his body, Song Chi drank another ultra-grade body-forge potion that had been mixed with an 80,000-year-old deep-sea pearl.

As he consumed the potion, his body felt like a massive furnace, with large amounts of scorching energy surging from his abdomen, flowing through his entire body, and reinforcing the pure spiritual energy that was continuously entering his body. This process quickly refined and strengthened every inch of his flesh and bone marrow.

Time passed, but Song Chi was completely immersed in the process. It had been a long time since he had clearly perceived the steady progress of his Guidance Technique as he did today.

However, Song Chi was not yet satisfied. As time went on, when the effects of the ultra-grade body-forge potion began to wane, he waved his hand and retrieved another item from a Storage Capsule he had placed inside the pod earlier.

Specifically, it was a spirit peach emitting a faint holy light. Unlike the Crimson Blood Peaches cultivated in the Secret Realm, this spirit peach was larger and emitted a more concentrated energy. It was the Sacred Spirit Peach he had obtained from the secret vault of Truth Holy City.

Although both were from the Peach Spirit Root, the Sacred Spirit Peach was clearly several levels higher than the Crimson Blood Peach. Shortly after consuming this Sacred Spirit Peach, a fierce energy far surpassing that of the ultra-grade body-forge potion surged through his body.

This energy was clearly more intense, but the good news was that it was still within Song Chi's tolerance. With the help of this stronger energy, the progress of his Guidance Technique accelerated several times over.

It wasn't that the ultra-grade body-forge potion combined with the 80,000-year-old deep-sea pearl was ineffective. Over the past two thousand years, Song Chi had consumed too many body-forge potions and deep-sea pearl powders, inevitably building up a significant resistance. Now, switching to another high-grade resource naturally produced a significant effect.

The energy contained in one Sacred Spirit Peach was almost unbelievable. Even with the assistance of the Wizard Magic Assistance Cultivation Pod, it took him several months to fully absorb it. In return, his level 73 Guidance Technique advanced by a considerable margin.

Considering that one level typically took five hundred years to advance, Song Chi estimated that this Sacred Spirit Peach had reduced his cultivation time by at least fifty years.

Seeing such a strong effect, he was naturally unwilling to stop. He still had several more Sacred Spirit Peaches, so he decided to use them all.

Soon, another decade passed.

One day, Song Wujian and his two companions were still remotely controlling the Ship Clone to gather time energy. At that moment, the door of the Multi-Attribute Cultivation Room deep within the Market of All Heavens opened, and Song Chi, who had been in seclusion for nearly twenty years, emerged.

In just sixteen years, his Guidance Technique, which had been at about 20% progress at level 73, had now broken through to level 74.

This speed would undoubtedly shock the veteran Annihilator Ship commanders. Crossing an entire level in just sixteen years was something that typically took two to three thousand years for them.

However, Song Chi knew his own capabilities. All of this was thanks to various auxiliary enhancements.

Over the span of sixteen years, all twelve Holy Spirit Peaches were consumed, along with multiple batches of Transcendent Body-Forging Elixirs, including the High-Year Deepwater Clam Pearls.

This wasn't all. There was also the All-Attribute Training Chamber, the Wizard Magic-Assisted Training Pod, and the cultivation enhancement provided by a Seventh-Rank Mist Serpent Overlord. Under these multiple enhancements, this astonishing feat was finally achieved.

However, that was as far as it went. After sixteen years of continuous consumption, not only were the Holy Spirit Peaches depleted, but the stock of High-Year Deepwater Clam Pearls, which had been so painstakingly accumulated, was also used up.

Without the assistance of these two resources, the cultivation speed had significantly decreased.

Of course, this was only in comparison to the previous sixteen years. Even with the help of the Wizard Magic-Assisted Training Pod, the cultivation speed was still much faster than during the Civilization War.

At least Song Chi estimated that to break from Level 74 to Level 75 in his Guidance Technique, it would take about three hundred years of full-effort cultivation.

This speed wasn't slow, but he still found it hard to accept.

If the Wizard Magic-Assisted Training Pod were exclusively for his use, he might have been able to cultivate in peace. However, that wasn't the case.

This Wizard Magic-Assisted Training Pod was obtained by Song Yan and had to be shared among the family's four Annihilator Ship Commanders. Once the enhancement from the pod was gone, the cultivation speed would slow down even more.

"I need to find some other high-rank cultivation aids; this is still too slow..."

With this thought, Song Chi quickly exited the Pantheon Market.

Dragon Spine Continent, Dragon Whale Hall.

Amidst the rumbling sound growing louder, a figure soon rushed in from outside.

Passing through the chaotic mist enveloping the grand hall, Song Xuancang saw Song Chi seated on a starry throne in the air.

"Xiao Chi, you called me in a hurry. Is there something important?"

Without much pleasantries, Song Xuancang got straight to the point.

After more than a thousand years of the Civilization War, his warship had also solidified a strong foundation, just like Song Chi and the other three. Currently, what he lacked was the Guidance Technique.

Before Song Chi called him, Song Xuancang was in seclusion.

Song Chi understood Song Xuancang's intention and directly said:

"I want to gather specific information about the Evil Buddha Continent!"

"Evil Buddha Continent, Xiao Chi, what are you planning?"

Instinctively, Song Xuancang wanted to probe further into Song Chi's intentions. However, he quickly paused, thinking of something.

The Evil Buddha Continent, a Seventh-Tier Life Floating Continent, was quite unique. Its extraordinary cultivation system was that of the fallen Ancient Shu Clan, and the entire Floating Continent was shrouded in a thick aura of mutation and blood. Despite being discovered nearly four thousand years ago by several immortal forces in the Yao Han Kingdom and the Saint Laurent Kingdom, it had never been fully controlled.

"This is all the information related to the Evil Buddha Continent that our clan has..."

Song Xuancang tapped his quantum communication bracelet a few times, and soon the information was sent to Song Chi's communication bracelet.

As Song Chi carefully reviewed the information, Song Xuancang hesitated for a moment before speaking:

"Xiao Chi, although your current combat strength is formidable, I must remind you about the Evil Buddha Continent. This Floating Continent is different from an ordinary Seventh-Tier Floating Continent and may hide greater secrets. Be cautious during your exploration and never be complacent!"

Song Chi, who knew Song Xuancang's character well, nodded solemnly, becoming more vigilant.

A person who had held the position of head of the Song Family for over two thousand years was naturally not to be underestimated.

Given his warning, Song Chi certainly wouldn't dismiss it lightly.

After reviewing the information, Song Chi had a better understanding of the Evil Buddha Continent.

According to the family records, the Evil Buddha Continent appeared to be a newly promoted Seventh-Tier Floating Continent, but it was home to nearly ten Native Overlords, including three Seventh-Rank Evil Buddhas and five Seventh-Rank Mushroom Mountains.

With the extraordinary enhancement provided by the Floating Continent's own origin will, these eight Native Overlords possessed far greater strength than imagined.

After scanning through the information several times, Song Chi's gaze almost entirely focused on the data about the five Seventh-Rank Mushroom Mountains.

The reason he suddenly set his sights on the Evil Buddha Continent was solely due to these Mushroom Mountains, specifically the Seventh-Rank Mushroom Mountains.

These Mushroom Mountains were unique to the Evil Buddha Continent, growing from deep within the earth. No one could explain what they truly were.

Although they looked rather repulsive, they were actually the most valuable resource on the Evil Buddha Continent.

Inside these Mushroom Mountains, varying numbers of Seventh-Rank Flesh Lingzhi would grow on their own. The primary function of these Flesh Lingzhi was to greatly accelerate the cultivation of the same-rank Guidance Technique.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end