Galactic Exchange: The Merchant Sovereign
Chapter 87 – The Price of Ascension

Chapter 87: Chapter 87 – The Price of Ascension

The vibrant glow of the astral core dimmed slowly as Su Chen emerged from the high-pressure chamber buried beneath the Titan Consortium’s hidden base. His breath came in sharp gasps, sweat drenching his robes. Around him, the air crackled with unstable cosmic energy.

The Core Tempering Ceremony was complete. He had succeeded.

But the cost... was monumental.

His body felt like it had been torn apart and stitched back together by starlight and willpower. Su Chen stared at his hands, faintly trembling with lingering strain. His veins shimmered silver-gold under his skin—a side effect of absorbing fragments of the ancient Astral Sovereign’s essence.

Behind him, High Director Nyx observed quietly. "You survived it. The first in a thousand years," she murmured, awe etched into every syllable. "You are now bonded with the Astral Imprint. Your trade authority will no longer be bound by planetary or even galactic barriers."

Su Chen didn’t speak. His gaze turned upward, piercing through layers of reinforced steel and energy shielding until his mind’s eye reached the stars.

Somewhere out there, his next target waited.

Somewhere beyond the Void Halo, the Phoenix-Crested Chamber of the Eternal Auction had begun to stir.

The New Abilities

After twenty hours of recovery and realignment inside the nano-medical bath, Su Chen was guided to the Vault of Jurisdiction—a sacred space only accessible by cosmic-tier traders. Upon entering, the doors sealed shut with over five trillion strands of security protocol.

The Aether AI, KARA-9, activated. A humanoid avatar in elegant silver robes materialized before him.

"Trader Sovereign Su Chen," it announced, "you are now authorized to activate the following unique privileges:

Void Warp Ledger – Create instantaneous trade channels across solar systems without access gates.

Sentient Contract Weaving – Forge contracts with entities or beasts possessing soul awareness.

Dimensional Exchange Right – Trade through unstable dimensions or collapsed realities."

Su Chen’s eyes burned with ambition. Each of these was a tool. No, more than that—each was a weapon in the brutal economy of the galaxy.

But he knew better than to rush.

Each new right also came with risks—especially the Dimensional Exchange Right. The last known user of that had vanished into a black rift, screaming about a "trade with something older than the stars."

He shelved that one. For now.

Rebuilding the Sovereign Chambers

Now that his trade level had ascended, Su Chen’s original Galactic Exchange Chamber aboard the Twilight Fang was no longer sufficient. Its foundations couldn’t contain his newly awakened powers.

Using rare alloy permits he received from his last interstellar auction, he commissioned a Sovereign-Class Trade Hall—crafted from Forged Etherglass mined in the dying suns of the Corvus system.

It would have:

13-dimensional stabilization rings,

an integrated AI consciousness woven from trader memories,

and cosmic vaults that could freeze time for perishable goods.

As the foundation-laying ceremony began, Su Chen’s allies gathered.

Wang Yao, his ever-watchful second-in-command, whispered, "The moment this Hall goes live, every major trading faction will know you’ve ascended."

Su Chen smirked. "Let them. I’m done hiding."

An Unexpected Guest

Later that evening, a transmission forced its way through their quantum encryption layers. It was a message encoded in dual-phased language—used only by those from the Drifting Courts, a nomadic race of mercantile psychic entities.

Su Chen narrowed his eyes.

Only one person from that realm had ever contacted him before.

"Put it on," he ordered.

The hologram shimmered to life. A hooded figure with eyes like swirling galaxies appeared. Her voice was music and madness blended into one.

"Su Chen, the pact from eleven cycles past is due. You hold a fragment of the Dawnstone Memory, and we need it back... before the Phoenix Auction begins."

Su Chen’s mind raced. That artifact wasn’t just valuable—it was key to unlocking certain dimensional shortcuts between upper echelons of the galactic markets. Losing it would weaken his edge.

But defying the Drifting Courts? That had consequences too.

"I’ll bring it to you," Su Chen said calmly. "But we trade on my terms."

The figure smiled. "You always did like dancing with cosmic fire, Trader Sovereign."

Whispers of War

Just as Su Chen was preparing for the journey to return the Dawnstone Memory, Liara—the Head of Communications—rushed into the control hub.

"Multiple priority alerts. Three of our subsidiary outposts have been attacked simultaneously."

Su Chen’s calm shattered. "Who?"

Liara activated the display. The name flashed across in blood-red letters:

"House Vraxen."

Su Chen’s knuckles tightened.

He had once outbid the Vraxen Overlord for control over a forbidden merchant passage. He thought they’d let it go.

Apparently not.

"They’re moving now," Su Chen muttered. "They want to stop me from reaching the Eternal Auction."

A Trap in the Void

Su Chen chose to leave anyway, taking only a skeleton crew with him aboard a newly reconstructed cruiser: the Ebon Meridian.

As they crossed into the Shatter-Zone Nebula—a lawless stretch of dead planets and magnetic anomalies—they found themselves ambushed.

Dozens of stealth ships uncloaked, surrounding them in a crescent formation.

But Su Chen had prepared.

"Release the Trade Wyrm," he ordered.

From the deepest chamber of the Ebon Meridian, a beast forged of trade contracts and soul fragments emerged. A serpentine creature bound by over 77,000 spiritual clauses—each signed in blood, ink, or cosmic flame.

It roared, and reality screamed.

The battle was brief and devastating.

By the time Su Chen reached the other end of the Shatter-Zone, the enemy fleet was shattered, and his ship glided through the debris field like a sovereign among beggars.

The Road to the Phoenix Auction

Su Chen knew the timeline was tightening. The Eternal Auction, held once every century, would open in six days.

It wasn’t just about trading.

It was about status, power, legacy.

Every true power in the galaxy would be present—selling, buying, plotting. Artifacts lost to myth, scrolls written in dead star languages, the corpse of a god rumored to still whisper forbidden deals.

And Su Chen had a trump card no one else did.

The Stellar Bonded Trade Token—a mythical object that allowed him to challenge any current Auction Sovereign for control over their market dominion.

Wang Yao stared at the token one last time before they docked on the edge of the Phoenix World Gate.

"You’re really going to use this?" he asked.

"I didn’t rise from a scrapyard slum just to stop now," Su Chen replied coldly. "It’s time I claimed my seat."

And with that, Su Chen walked forward into a future filled with stars, schemes, and sovereign trade.