Second Alien-Domain Exploration

Afterward, he eagerly opened the trading market on the local network.

It truly lived up to being a regional group chat covering the entire White Tower Floating Continent. With such a large member base, the trading market was packed with an overwhelming variety of goods.

Minerals, genetic serums, military single-soldier exoskeletons, first- and second-tier Floating Continent Essence—even Star Sea Marvels were far from rare.

After scanning through it all, Song Chi felt dazzled. There were simply too many items listed in the market, and quite a few of them made his eyes burn with desire.

Unfortunately, he did not have much money on hand right now and could only stare helplessly.

There were plenty of Star Sea Marvels listed as well, but every single one was white-quality. There were only a handful of blue-quality marvels, and their attributes were rather useless, such as:

Marvel: Green Yi Tree

Quality: Blue

Evolvable: {Green Yi Internal Circulation System}

Note: A blue-quality marvel that promotes air circulation, keeping your future interstellar life fresh every day.

Everyone knew that Kindling Starships came with onboard circulation systems of their own. The Green Yi Tree might provide better circulation, but what was the point?

It could neither increase combat power nor provide any defensive bonuses. Was he supposed to spend a considerable amount of resources just to make the air inside his Kindling Starship a little fresher?

Half an hour later, the novelty in Song Chi's heart finally faded, and the curiosity in his eyes gradually settled into calmness.

During that time, he also considered the anonymous function on his account, wondering whether he could make use of it to conceal his frequent future sales.

But after thinking it over, he still felt it was inappropriate. The account's special permissions had come from an assistant activator at the Jiangyuan Kindling Sub-Bureau. If even an ordinary activator at a Kindling Sub-Bureau could do this, did that not mean its confidentiality could not be very high?

To be safe, he ultimately abandoned the idea.

After disconnecting from the Kindling Network, Song Chi entered the Myriad Heavens Market again and continued his daily routine of practicing the Psionic Guidance Technique and visualizing the mythical mech projection in his mind. Time passed day by day amid such routines.

Over the next ten-odd days, Song Chao rarely returned home. He spent entire days working outside, prompting Chen Lixia to complain repeatedly. Song Chi, who knew exactly what his father was busy with, did not ask too much. It concerned titanium crystals; having only recently awakened, he could not get involved, and Song Chao would not allow it anyway.

That day, accompanied by Chen Lixia, Song Chi headed to the outskirts once more.

The Cangqiong had completed its month-long cooldown. Today was the day of his second alien-domain exploration. Of course, he could have delayed it, and even choosing never to conduct another alien-domain exploration would have been fine, but Song Chi naturally would not make such a choice.

With the orange component, the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator, installed, he was already impatient to test the effects of this glory-grade component as soon as possible.

With this component, as long as he was not too unlucky and did not encounter things like black holes, Star Sea storms, or spatial rifts, his safety could still be guaranteed.

Just like the White-Wing Clan he had encountered before—even if the Cangqiong remained motionless and let them attack freely for ten minutes, they might not be able to break through its shield.

The energy shield generated by the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator did not merely have more shield value than the one created by the Psionic Shield. Its defensive strength itself was also greater. Attacks from those first-tier White-Wing Clan members would deal far less damage to the current energy shield than they had to the previous Psionic Shield.

Combined, the gap was actually far greater than one might imagine.

Jiangyuan City's outskirts.

It was still that alien-domain deployment platform, but this time, the people arriving for deployment were no longer merely students from various academies. Most were civilian Kindling captains from Jiangyuan City.

As a city with a population exceeding twenty million, even if only several dozen ordinary citizens awakened Kindling Seeds by chance each year, the number of Kindling Starships accumulated over decades and centuries would still be astonishing.

And among these Kindling Starships, more than ninety percent could only remain at the Psionic Shuttle stage for their entire lives.

The lowest-level Psionic Shuttle-class Kindling Starships could only rely on the Ultra-Long-Range Alien-Domain Deployment Platform to conduct alien-domain exploration.

Only after strengthening the Kindling hull to above lv10 and advancing to the first tier, Psionic Airship, could one conduct alien-domain exploration independently without requiring the deployment platform's assistance.

This was why the current scene was such a sea of people, with far more starships waiting for deployment than during the earlier academy deployment.

Not long after Song Chi arrived, Sun Hao came over as well. Song Chi swept his gaze over him and raised his brows slightly.

Sun Hao had clearly not slacked off during the past month either. His Guidance Technique had already broken through from lv3 to lv4. Combined with his already imposing physique, he gave off an intense sense of pressure.

"Brother Chi, you broke through too."

After speaking in surprise, Sun Hao paused. Just as Song Chi wondered what he was about to say, Sun Hao, who had been holding it in for quite a while, suddenly blurted out an unbelievably cringeworthy line.

"Alas, if Heaven gave birth to Yu, why did it also give birth to Liang?"

Song Chi's eye twitched. For a moment, he did not even know what to say. This guy always managed to pull off antics completely at odds with his burly build.

The key was that he had learned that damn line from Romance of the Three Kingdoms of the Great Han Floating Continent, a book Song Chi had published in the past. One could well imagine how indescribably complicated Song Chi felt at that moment.

Pushing away the bear-paw-like hand resting on his shoulder, Song Chi hurriedly put some distance between himself and the guy. It was too embarrassing—his cringe-induced embarrassment was practically acting up.

Sun Hao remained completely unaware and soon leaned over again, his thick arm once more hooking around Song Chi's neck.

Song Chi's face visibly darkened. Fortunately, the hundred people ahead of them had finished their deployment by then, and the Kindling Bureau staff at the side of the platform were already calling for their batch.

One hundred figures stepped onto the deployment platform in succession. After taking their assigned positions, they simultaneously summoned their Psionic Shuttles. Once all one hundred Psionic Shuttles had completed preparations, the Kindling Bureau staff outside activated the Ultra-Long-Range Star-Sea Deployment Platform.

The towering pillar of light appeared again, and the hundred Psionic Shuttles quickly vanished without a trace.

The familiar sensation of weightlessness swept through his body. Compared to a month ago, Song Chi recovered more quickly this time.

Breaking through to lv5 in the Guidance Technique had slightly improved his physical condition. Naturally, his body's resistance to negative conditions had increased accordingly.

Just as before, Song Chi activated the Cangqiong's energy shield the moment he recovered.

Only when the layer of pitch-black dark matter energy shield belonging to the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator appeared did his entire body finally relax.

The sense of security brought by an orange-quality energy shield was simply that overwhelming.

P.S. Please toss in some recommendation votes and monthly votes, everyone. You never say anything, and if you do not even vote, I really feel like I am playing solo. Boohoo, this tough guy is crying!!!