Kindling Starship

"Attention, everyone. Those who successfully awakened, follow your homeroom teachers to the Kindling Tower. Those who failed to awaken, please leave the academy within one hour."

A deep, resonant voice came from the teachers' office building to the side. The students turned to look, only to see a figure soar up from the roof. Visible black energy erupted around him, and in the next instant, a ring of black flame burst from beneath his feet. His figure flashed, vanishing directly from above the office building.

When he appeared again, he was already standing in the air above all the students.

Zhu Yaokui, principal of Jiangyuan First Ember Academy. It was said that he commanded a high-level Kindling Starship, and his life level had already evolved to the third rank. He had served as the principal of Jiangyuan First Academy for over a hundred and fifty years, his authority deeply entrenched.

Feeling the faint pressure descending from above, Song Chi felt as though he were carrying a hundred-pound burden. Though it was nothing to him, given that his Guidance Art had already reached lv4, he knew perfectly well that this was the result of Principal Zhu Yaokui deliberately restraining his aura.

If he fully released the aura of a third-rank lifeform, every student present would probably collapse to the ground. Their bones might even shatter throughout their bodies.

Song Chi's breathing grew slightly heavy, but there was not the slightest hint of discomfort on his face. Instead, a fiery gleam shone in his eyes.

Riding the wind through the void, walking upon the air—one of the superhumans every Blue Star inhabitant had fantasized about in his previous life now stood before him. Even though he had seen it with his own eyes many times already, his heart still could not calm down.

With the principal personally supervising them, the students and teachers were naturally incredibly efficient. The group of nearly two hundred hurried toward the Kindling Tower.

Sweeping his gaze around from the corner of his eye, Song Chi found that only sixteen students from Class 5 had successfully awakened their Kindling Seeds. Of those, only two had white Kindling Seeds: Sun Hao and another student named Wang Yuan. The remaining fourteen all had Colorless Kindling Seeds.

On the second floor of the Kindling Tower, in Psionic Modification Room No. 5, the sixteen students of Class 5 lay down in separate Psionic Modification Pods one after another under the guidance of their homeroom teacher, Yang Minghui.

Once everyone was ready, Yang Minghui pressed the activation button. The modification pods slowly closed until they were completely sealed.

At the same time, black energy quickly filled the entire interior of each pod.

Song Chi was not nervous. They had learned about this long ago. This was the Psionic modification that had to be undergone after awakening a Kindling Seed.

After awakening, a Kindling Seed could grant its wielder—and the Kindling Starship bound to that wielder—the ability to control Psionic energy.

As one of the many forms of energy within the Shattered Star Sea, Psionic energy's unique quality lay in its inclusiveness. It could convert the vast majority of known energy types into Psionic energy of the same source.

Through this, Kindling Humanity could turn virtually all kinds of Star Sea resources to its own use and rapidly strengthen itself. This was also the fundamental reason why the Kindling Human Civilization had advanced triumphantly all along and continuously expanded its territory.

However, during the initial awakening, although an awakener successfully gained control over Psionic energy, their body could not adapt to this entirely new energy in a short time, resulting in all sorts of rejection reactions.

Only by allowing Psionic energy to cleanse the body over a long period, completely transforming it into a Psionic body, could this problem be perfectly solved. The Psionic Modification Pod was created to accelerate that process.

His eyes closed and his palms spread open as the Guidance Art, already engraved in his mind, circulated through his body.

Who knew how long passed before Song Chi's brow began to swell. Joy rose within him. This meant the Psionic modification was about to be complete.

Only once the body had fully transformed into a Psionic body could the Kindle Ancestral Aperture be formed in the brow. It was where the Kindling Seed within the body resided, and it would also be where the Kindling Starship was stored in the future.

Several minutes later, all sixteen students of Class 5 had completed their Psionic modification and successfully opened their Kindle Ancestral Apertures.

"All right, follow me. There's one final step: fusing with a starship."

"Only when a Kindling Seed successfully fuses with an ordinary starship and transforms it into a Kindling Starship can one be considered a truly qualified Kindling inheritor."

Behind the Kindling Tower stood a massive conventional starship base. Every student in Jiangyuan City who had advanced to a Kindling academy and successfully awakened a Kindling Seed had to fuse with their initial Kindling Starship here.

Inside the Scout-Type Star Sea Shuttle hangar, nearly two hundred people had gathered and were carrying out their Kindling fusions in an orderly manner. There was no selection involved in this process. All Kindling Seeds could only fuse with one type of starship: the Scout-Type Star Sea Shuttle.

The Kindling-Psionic Shuttle, the common model shared by all initial Kindling Starships.

"Song Chi!"

At the call, Song Chi immediately stepped forward.

Standing before a standard Scout-Class Shuttle, Song Chi awkwardly mobilized the Psionic energy circulating within his body and controlled it as it gathered at his brow. Soon, a beam of dark light shot from between his brows and plunged straight into the shuttle before him.

In the next instant, a powerful pulling force came from the Kindle Ancestral Aperture in his brow. Drawn in by that force, the shuttle before him began to slowly shrink. In the end, it became the size of a fingernail and drilled into Song Chi's Kindle Ancestral Aperture.

At the same time, Song Chi swiftly closed his eyes and began to sense the situation within his Kindle Ancestral Aperture.

At the center of the chaotic space floated a wisp of black flame. Above it, the Scout-Class Shuttle was being continuously scorched by the black flame.

Several minutes later, a flash of light crossed Song Chi's vision, and an attribute panel appeared beside the tiny shuttle.

Name: None (Please name it as soon as possible)

Model: Kindling-Psionic Shuttle

Level: lv0

Basic Components: Colorless Kindling Hull lv0, Psionic Main Cannon lv0, Psionic Secondary Cannon lv0, Hull Armor lv0, Psionic Engine lv0, Psionic Shield lv0, Sky-Patrol Radar lv0, Psionic Training Room lv0 (8/8)

Additional Components: None for now (0/2)

Psionic Pool: 100/1000

Supplies: None for now

Song Chi's gaze swept over the attribute panel. He skipped the first three lines and focused on the Basic Components section.

As the name implied, basic components were structures possessed by every newly fused Psionic Shuttle, equivalent to standard-issue equipment.

First, there was no need to say much about the Colorless Kindling Hull. It was connected to the Kindling Seed within the Ancestral Aperture, and as long as the Kindling Seed was upgraded, it would upgrade along with it.

To raise a Kindling Seed from level 0 to level 1 required five wisps of Floating Continent Essence and 200 Dark Energy Points.

Just as Song Chi was about to continue reading, Yang Minghui's urging voice sounded at the right moment. Helplessly, he could only withdraw his consciousness from the Kindle Ancestral Aperture and give his spot to the next student waiting to fuse.

Very quickly, all the awakened students completed their fusions. No one encountered the rare possibility of fusion failure, which made all the academy teachers breathe a long sigh of relief.

Kindling fusion could fail as well, though the odds were extremely low—so low they could almost be ignored.

However, once a fusion failed, one had to wait for the Kindling Seed to recover for a month before attempting another fusion.

The issue was precisely that after awakening a Kindling Seed, only the first three days constituted a special protection period. As long as one explored an alien star domain during this protection period, the danger would be greatly reduced.

It was like a special benefit granted to newcomers. As long as they did not deliberately court death, there was basically no risk to their lives. They could gain experience from an alien star domain exploration for free while also obtaining an extra batch of resources. For rookie captains who had just awakened, this was an opportunity they absolutely could not afford to miss.

But once one failed to fuse with a starship, there was no way around the month-long recovery period. They could only watch helplessly as this benefit slipped away, leaving nothing but regret.