Chapter 1036: Chapter 544: Total War Against the 8-Armed Snake Demon Civilization

This point, of course, is the most important, and Song Chi never believed that his identity could remain hidden forever.

However, it is limited to the Sixth Rank [Time Realm Tree]. As for the Seventh Rank [Time Realm Tree]? Revealing this would absolutely be out of the question, even if it meant death.

Something capable of assisting a Star-Annihilating Starship in reaching the Eighth Rank and granting a second life cannot even be described by the term strategic-level resource. If exposed, Eighth Rank-level immortal titans, and even the Torch’s four great Heavenly Pillar royal families, would be envious.

Besides this point, considering the current state of the Song Family, even a Sixth Rank [Time Realm Fruit] is pointless at present. For the next few centuries, apart from the [Dinghai Dragon Steed], no other warship could utilize it. Moreover, the family elder Song Wujiang already possesses one.

Rather than letting it sit idle in his possession, trading it with Star Tower members for rare resources or high-rank components is clearly the better choice.

Finally, after centuries of accelerated cultivation in the secret realm, the Sixth Rank [Time Realm Tree] has not only produced one batch but is now bearing fruit for a second batch. Soon, he will obtain another Sixth Rank [Time Realm Fruit].

In summary, when the [Heavenly Ruins Cang Qiong] prepares to advance to the Star-Annihilating Starship, there will certainly be no shortage of Sixth Rank [Time Realm Fruit].

Not to mention his own efforts, the [Time Realm Tree Secret Realm], with the constant infusion of Void Crystals from both families, will soon reach harvest season as well.

...

After addressing this, Song Chi said no more, and those around him did not press further. However, how much they believed and what their true thoughts were remained known only to themselves.

Song Chi could guess some of it, but he didn’t care. After all, this was just one step in his plan, wasn’t it?

Only by doing so would Star Tower members bring out their truly valuable items for private transactions with him.

A dozen minutes later, Corpse Dog logged in again.

"Waking of Insects, here are 68 fragments of time. For now, this is all I could gather. Take them first."

He handed a storage box to Song Chi, then continued:

"This definitely isn’t enough to trade for your Sixth Rank [Time Realm Fruit], so how about this? If I successfully advance later, I’ll help you for free three times. Even if I fail, I’ll keep helping you collect resources like time fragments in the future."

Of course, Song Chi did not refuse.

Three free assists from the Star-Annihilating Starship Captain was already beyond his expectations.

Although the relationships among Star Tower members were good, not every favor was free. For example, when Song Chi helped Cui Yulong in the past, his compensation came in the form of Black Hole Dense Stone and Void Stone resources.

After finishing his conversation with Corpse Dog, Song Chi turned his attention to Heavenly Dragon, Yulong, and the others nearby. Without any hesitation, he directly inquired whether anyone had resources like "time fragments" in their possession.

Time fragments, as one type of special time-based resource, are similar to space fragments. They are produced either in star domains where the energy of time is exceptionally dense or as rare resources found in secret realms with time laws.

Outside of these stable production methods, time fragments can also emerge when secret realms with time laws collapse.

But regardless of the method, the difficulty is extreme. Song Chi had already asked the elder before—while the family’s secret vault did contain some time fragment reserves, these had been accidentally discovered by members during their exploration of star domains over the past three thousand years. The family currently lacked any means of stable production.

After speaking, Song Chi took out resources such as [Silver Apple], [Law Fruit], and [Ten Thousand Year Dragon Blood Fruit]. With the assistance of these moderately valuable items, he successfully traded for a fair number of time fragments from the Star Tower members.

Finally, he spent a significant amount of Mall Credits in the Star Tower Mall to exchange for additional time fragments. Adding these to the reserves from the family’s secret vault, he had just enough to enhance the [Time Chessboard] component to the Seventh Rank.

At Zhu Tian Ruins Market, Song Chi began enhancing the [Time Chessboard] component using the time fragments he had collected from various sources.

[Would you like to spend 200 threads of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin + 20,000 Spectral Energy Points + 5 time fragments to enhance Time Chessboard from lv0 to lv1?]

"Confirm!"

Amid the rapid consumption of Floating Land Origin, time fragments, and resources like Titanium Crystal, the [Time Chessboard] was successfully enhanced to lv70 under Song Chi’s efforts.

"Whew, just barely made it!"

Looking at the three remaining time fragments in his possession, Song Chi thought his luck wasn’t too bad.

Though enhancing it further in the future would pose challenges, at least he managed to bring it to the warship’s maximum Great Rank enhancement level for now.

Examining the attributes of the Seventh Rank [Time Chessboard] components, their transformation was nothing short of astonishing.

Universal Cooldown Reduction increased from 35%→70%

Time Resistance increased from 1600→13500

Time Law Comprehension Buff increased from 230%→440%

Additionally, the "Time·Chessboard" feature saw significant improvements in duration and speed multiplier. Even with the minimum setup using 36 time chess pieces to construct the Chessboard Domain, the speed multiplier rose from 10x to 45x, while 72 pieces reached 90x, and so on. The duration increased from an initial 10 minutes to 45 minutes, and the cooldown time dropped to 240 hours.

The "Time·Chess Game" feature saw its cooldown reduced from 100 years to 65 years, while its duration increased to three hours.

However, the features "Time·Prison" and "Nine-Life Life and Death Chess" remained unchanged, suggesting they might be constant features.

...

Star Tower Great Hall.

"Thanks!"

Returning the black Supreme Quality [Time Platform] component to Bai Mei, Song Chi expressed his gratitude.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read