New Round of Starship and Market Ruins Upgrades

Song Chi had not originally planned to stop, but upgrading an orange glory-quality component consumed a truly frightening amount of resources. Even though he had just earned nearly 4,000 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence not long ago, he could not afford to squander them like this.

Upgrades after First Rank required even more outrageous resources. Factoring in the actual market price of First-Rank Floating Continent Essence, each level started at 400 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence. Song Chi truly could not afford further upgrades at the moment. After all, he still had other components to upgrade later and needed to reserve some startup capital for the second Market Ruins transaction a month from now.

Moreover, he did not have enough First-Rank Floating Continent Essence on hand. Unlike Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence, the quantity of First-Rank and higher Floating Continent Essence dropped off precipitously. The Floating Continent Cores of most floating continents in the Star Sea could produce Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence, and it could also be obtained by killing alien starfield floating continent creatures.

However, to steadily produce First-Rank or higher Floating Continent Essence, one needed at least a Grade 2 Star Sea Floating Continent, and even then, the annual output was not high.

The higher the grade of a Star Sea Floating Continent, the rarer it was. Over ninety percent of the Star Sea Floating Continents in the Shattered Star Sea were ungraded or Grade 1 floating continents. The White Tower Floating Continent, for instance, was a Grade 1 floating continent, though it was a life-type floating continent and thus held the highest value among all Grade 1 floating continents.

Fortunately, the First-Rank Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator was quite impressive, its attributes far surpassing those of the Psionic Shield that had also previously been upgraded to lv10.

Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator lv10

Quality: Orange

Trait: Shield value additionally increased by 60%

Trait 2: Shield protection doubled

Consumption: 40/s (Dark Energy Points)

Protection: 380

Shield Value: 6080/6080

Charge Time: 20s; cooldown after overload: 40 minutes

Upgrade Requirements: 20 strands of Floating Continent Essence (First Rank), 5000 Dark Energy Points, 20 tons of Mercury Crystal

Its shield value alone was a full six times that of the previous Psionic Shield, showing just how formidable orange-quality components were.

After the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator, it should have been the turn of the white-quality Golden Rock Hull Armor. However, since both were defensive starship components and he already had the orange glory-quality Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator, the Hull Armor was no longer such a high upgrade priority. At least, it would not be needed anytime soon.

Thus, Song Chi turned his attention to the Psionic Engine. With an orange-quality energy shield that consumed such immense amounts of energy, the Psionic Engine, upgraded only to lv7, was completely insufficient. The Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator alone consumed as much as 40 Dark Energy Points per second, while the lv7 Psionic Engine supplied only 27 points per second.

For Song Chi, who cherished his life to the extreme and wished he could keep the Cangqiong's energy shield activated at all times, this was absolutely unacceptable.

Several dozen seconds later, he had raised the Psionic Engine to lv14.

Psionic Engine lv14

Quality: Colorless

Consumption: 8/s (Dark Energy Points)

Supply: 68/s (Dark Energy Points)

Cooldown after overload: 20 minutes

Psionic Pool: 5000 points (can store 5000 points of Void Energy)

Upgrade Requirements: 140 strands of Floating Continent Essence (Zero Rank), 2300 Dark Energy Points, 70 Life Cores (Zero Rank)

Only after upgrading it this far could it barely maintain a balance between energy supply and consumption when every component of the Cangqiong was operating at overload.

The result, however, was that Song Chi's resources shrank by nearly another 400 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence.

(Note: The market exchange rate between First-Rank Floating Continent Essence and Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence was 1:10.)

Looking at the roughly 2,600 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence remaining in his hands, Song Chi, who had originally planned to invest some resources into the White Kindling Hull and Fire Sunflower Soldier Tree, ultimately gave up on the idea.

After all, the two newly replaced components were both basic components and did not occupy special component slots. The First-Rank Fire Sunflower Soldiers were also completely sufficient for now. More importantly, another huge resource drain was still waiting for him.

He stored some of the mineral resources bought at a price difference in the Market Ruins into the shuttle, intending to sell them later on the black market. Then, Song Chi stored the Cangqiong in his Kindle Ancestral Aperture.

At the innermost section of the Myriad Heavens Market, Song Chi began further upgrading the Market Ruins.

First, he spent 300 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence to raise the Market Ruins from lv5 to lv9.

Name: Myriad Heavens Market

Market Ruins Owner: Song Chi

Level: lv9

Size: 460m x 460m

Basic Facilities: 28 vacant shops, 1 70m x 70m free-stall area, 1 one-story inn (accommodates 40 people), 1 lv0 All-Attribute Cultivation Room (doubles efficiency during Void Energy cultivation), 1 lv0 Void Energy Protective Array, 1 lv0 Ultra-Long Range Random Space Gate Deployment Platform

Additional Facilities: None (0/4)

Trait: Disaster Evasion (can move freely through the void, instinctively evading natural disasters)

Upgrade Requirements: 200 strands of Floating Continent Essence (Zero Rank), total Market Ruins transaction volume reaching 10,000 strands of Floating Continent Essence (Zero Rank), personally open Market Ruins transactions three times (1/3)

...

The lv9 Myriad Heavens Market had expanded further in area, while the shops, free-stall area, and inn had all improved to varying degrees. Only the Omni Training Room, Void Energy Protective Array, and Ultra-Long Range Random Space Gate Deployment Platform had remained unchanged.

Another point also surprised Song Chi. To upgrade the Myriad Heavens Market to lv10, aside from Floating Continent Essence and transaction volume, there was now an additional requirement for the number of times the Market Ruins had been opened. The condition was not demanding, but it meant he could not raise the Market Ruins' level again anytime soon.

Standing between the All-Attribute Cultivation Room and the Ultra-Long Range Random Space Gate Deployment Platform, Song Chi split his attention and began upgrading both at once.

After raising them all the way to lv9, consuming a total of 900 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence, both saw a tremendous increase in attributes.

Name: All-Attribute Cultivation Room

Level: lv9

Effect: When Zero-Rank creatures cultivate inside the cultivation room, their cultivation speed increases by 290%. When the cultivator is practicing Void Energy cultivation, cultivation speed increases by 580%.

...

Upgrade Requirements: Market Ruins level lv10, 150 strands of Floating Continent Essence (Zero Rank)

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Name: Ultra-Long Range Random Space Gate Deployment Platform

Level: lv9

Effect: After activation, randomly deploys 19 space gates throughout the Shattered Star Sea that allow entry to and exit from the Market Ruins. The space gates last for 24 hours and have a cooldown of 720 hours.

...

Upgrade Requirements: Market Ruins level lv10, 150 strands of Floating Continent Essence (Zero Rank)

Although the resources consumed were terrifying, the results had to be said to be quite good.

When practicing the Psionic Guidance Technique, the lv9 All-Attribute Cultivation Room provided an astonishing 580% boost.

One had to know that even the dedicated Psionic Cultivation Platform aboard a Kindling Starship provided only a 290% boost at the same level. Upon seeing this figure, Song Chi completely abandoned any thought of upgrading the Psionic Cultivation Platform aboard the Cangqiong. The All-Attribute Cultivation Room was simply too good.

As for the lv9 random space gate deployment platform, the number of space gates deployed each time had risen from 10 to 19. This meant that when he opened the Market Ruins for its second transaction in the future, more alien races would visit, further increasing his profits.

Seeing that he had only around 1,400 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence left, Song Chi pondered carefully for a moment before deciding not to continue upgrading the Golden Rock Hull Armor, which he had not upgraded before.

He needed to keep a batch of emergency resources for the second alien starfield exploration twenty-eight days later, and he likewise needed to reserve some startup capital for the second Market Ruins transaction thirty days later.

1,400 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence were already somewhat inadequate. If he spent more and the second alien starfield exploration yielded little, it would seriously affect the profits from his later Market Ruins transactions. With more stable profits right before him, there was no need to gamble.

Without rushing to experience the All-Attribute Cultivation Room's extraordinary boost, Song Chi exited the Myriad Heavens Market.