Harvest (Wednesday, Please Keep Reading)

Clap, clap, clap!

Song Chi had barely finished speaking when, before Sun Hao could respond, a round of applause came from behind them.

The two turned to look. The one clapping was none other than Wang Yuan, the other student in Class 5 besides Sun Hao who had awakened a White Kindling Seed.

He rose from his seat in the back row, smiling as he praised them.

"Well said. There are gains and losses alike. Your view happens to align with mine."

After saying that, he squeezed in beside Song Chi and Sun Hao and, as if they were already familiar, launched into a lengthy speech.

"Sun Hao, Song Chi, hello. For various reasons, there hasn't been much interaction between us over the past ten years. But things are different now. Only sixteen students in our class successfully awakened, and after this welfare exploration, there are only fifteen left..."

As he silently listened to the other man's meaningless chatter, Song Chi calmly gave up his spot and moved to another seat. He could tell that Wang Yuan had come for Sun Hao, not him.

As for Wang Yuan's intentions, someone who had lived two lives like Song Chi could have guessed them with his feet. He simply wanted to persuade the awakened students in the class to band together. As someone who had awakened a White Kindling Seed, he would naturally take the lead in that group, thereby improving his own status and social network while gaining access to more resources and benefits.

Song Chi had no interest in that, but neither did he resent it. Without strength or a background, there was nothing wrong with trying to advance by sticking together.

Jiangyuan First Ember Academy, auditorium.

Nearly two hundred students sat below while the dean of instruction gave an impassioned speech onstage.

This was the current students' final academy gathering. After this, everyone would graduate for good and go their separate ways.

Perhaps some would soon die during future Alien Starfield Exploration.

Perhaps some would never explore alien starfields again, instead relying on the Psionic Cultivation Platform aboard their shuttles and accumulating time until they reached First Rank, living happily for two hundred years.

Perhaps some would soar into the heavens, like dragons entering the sea, their future achievements beyond measure.

But no matter what happened, they could never return to this moment again.

Song Chi was somewhat distracted. As soon as the gathering ended, he turned down invitations from Sun Hao, Wang Yuan, and the others, then hurried home without delay.

The moment he reached his bedroom, he entered the Myriad Heavens Market.

In the Market Ruins' stall district, the once-empty area was now piled high with all kinds of ores.

There was not only Mithril and Purple Copper, but also Adamantine, Cold Iron, and more. The quantities were not particularly large, with most being under ten tons. Only the Adamantine was somewhat more plentiful, at around thirty tons.

Altogether, including the Mithril and Purple Copper mined first, they were worth roughly 350 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence.

Three hundred and fifty strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence might not sound like much, but one had to remember that the average yield from a single Alien Starfield Exploration by a shuttle-class Kindling Warship of the Kindling Civilization was only around one hundred strands. That did not even include the purple component, the Atomic Fusion Nuclear Engine.

At the mention of the Atomic Fusion Nuclear Engine, Song Chi immediately summoned the Cangqiong. Several hours had passed since his return, yet he had never had the chance to inspect the purple component's specific attributes. It had been itching at the back of his mind ever since.

Atomic Fusion Nuclear Engine lv0

Quality: Purple

Trait: Energy supply efficiency increased by an additional 20%

Consumption: 5/s

Energy Supply: 36/s

Post-Overload Cooldown: 30 minutes

Energy Pool: 5,000 points (can store 5,000 points of energy)

Convertible: {First-Rank Floating Continent Essence Core Fusion Body}

Upgrade Requirements: 5 strands of Floating Continent Essence (Zero Rank), 500 Energy Points, 5 Life Cores (Zero Rank).

Song Chi's eyes lit up as he examined the engine's attributes.

As expected of a purple-grade component. Even without enhancement, its attributes already surpassed those of the lv7 Psionic Engine. In particular, it possessed the additional trait unique to high-quality components: energy supply efficiency increased by an additional 20%. Clearly, as this component's enhancement level rose, the bonus from that trait would become increasingly astonishing.

After his brief excitement, Song Chi shifted his gaze to the Convertible entry. This attribute represented the Atomic Fusion Nuclear Engine component's original marvel form. It had been mentioned before that every colored shipborne component was necessarily transformed from a Star Sea Marvel.

After the First-Rank Floating Continent Essence Core Fusion Body was absorbed into a Kindling Warship, it would transform into the form of a shipborne component. Likewise, once it left the Kindling Warship, it could revert to its original marvel form.

After reviewing the attributes, Song Chi did not immediately replace the standard Psionic Engine with this purple engine component. It was not because it did not provide Void Energy. Although it appeared to be a nuclear engine with nothing to do with Void Energy, that was only before it was installed. Once fused into a warship slot, the Kindling Seed could immediately convert the energy it produced into Void Energy.

The reason he did not replace it immediately was, first, that the Alien Starfield Exploration had just ended, and the second exploration would not begin for another month, so there was no rush. Second, the Cangqiong currently had no high-energy-consuming components, and the Psionic Engine was still sufficient.

The final and most important reason was that he would soon be opening the Myriad Heavens Market for its first trade session. He wanted to see whether any other intelligent Star Sea species would be willing to pay a higher price for the First-Rank Floating Continent Essence Core Fusion Body or something similar.

The possibility was low, but trying cost him nothing.

After sorting out his current needs and situation, Song Chi began carefully planning the matters to be handled before the Myriad Heavens Market opened.

First, since the Ultra-Long Range Random Space Gate Deployment Platform was entirely random, he had no idea what kinds of civilizations' beings would enter the Market Ruins once deployment began. Therefore, he had to prepare in advance.

For example, he could first purchase a batch of affordable, high-quality goods that were widely praised throughout Kindling Human Civilization.

Like the Tungsten Battle Shield and Tungsten Spear from before—durable weapons with low value.

Or the universally promoted Gene Optimization Potion. Not only was it cheap, it also had very good effects on beings who had never used it before.

There were also resources like Life Cores, which were widely accepted throughout the entire Shattered Star Sea.

Naturally, he was not putting so much thought and planning into this to benefit those "fortunate" alien civilizations. Every item he bought wholesale in advance would be marked up threefold or even fivefold before being sold. When trading with alien races from different regions of the Star Sea, the key was the price difference.

After an hour of careful planning, once he was certain there were no other omissions, Song Chi summoned the Cangqiong again and began transporting the ores stored in the Market Ruins.

At present, he only had a few dozen strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence left. Stocking up required capital, and since he did not have enough funds, he could only sell the ores in his possession. Besides, he had intended to sell those ores from the beginning.