Kindling Seed Recovery Period

Although the Kindling Seed within a person's Kindle Ancestral Aperture would not be extinguished along with a sinking Kindling Starship, it would fall into a weakened state and require several decades to fully recover.

Only after recovering could a person fuse with another Scout-Class Shuttle and start over from scratch.

His mother, Chen Lixia, was already a hundred years old. Although her life level had undergone one transformation and reached the first tier, granting her a lifespan of two hundred years, once the several decades needed for the Kindling Seed's recovery were deducted, it was basically impossible for her to cultivate a new Kindling Starship and gain another chance to break through to the second tier.

Without the Psionic Cultivation Platform aboard the Dragonfly, which had likewise been enhanced to lv19, there was no way his mother's Guidance Art could break through to lv20 in less than a hundred years.

Song Chi's Guidance Art was only lv5, yet advancing it to lv6 would take more than half a year even with the 580% cultivation room boost. Without that boost, it would take at least three years. And that was merely lv5 to lv6—what about after lv15?

Not to mention that there was already a solid bottleneck between lv19 and lv20. Without the aid of a Psionic Cultivation Platform, being stuck on this single level for a century was perfectly normal.

At that thought, Song Chi found it difficult to calm down. The good mood brought by the substantial gains from this alien star domain expedition was utterly ruined.

Seeing him like this, Chen Lixia rubbed his cheek and said with a smile,

"Alright, I know my son loves his mom the most. Your dad will figure something out. He's been running around so much lately—he's probably trying to find a solution."

At that, Song Chi's eyes lit up. He knew perfectly well what his father had been investigating. Judging by how busy his father had been for over ten days, the news about the "Titanium Crystal" was probably not groundless.

And given how precious Titanium Crystal was, if they could really get their hands on it, they might be able to trade it for something that could further increase the success rate of advancing an airship into a starship.

His mood improved considerably at the thought.

With his father and Uncle Shen, two second-tier Kindling captains, working together, the odds of obtaining that Titanium Crystal should be quite high.

Still, Song Chi remained worried. Given the value of a strategic resource like Titanium Crystal, things would be fine if the news remained contained within Jiangyuan City. But once it spread, two second-tier Kindling captains might not be enough.

With that in mind, he clenched his fists. His desire to increase his strength as quickly as possible grew ever more urgent.

As for the Dinghai Song Clan he had heard his father mention not long ago, how strong it truly was and whether it could be relied upon remained unknown. No matter what, Song Chi could not place his hopes in those four illusory words.

Compared to relying on outsiders, he preferred trusting himself.

After sending his mother home first, Song Chi circled around downtown several times and made a minor disguise. Once he was certain no one was watching him, he hurried to the Jiangyuan Black Market.

He needed to sell the batch of Adamantine in his hands quickly. As for the scattered remainder, he would sell it later as part of his normal expedition gains. That way, he could earn at least fifteen percent more.

As for the more than one hundred and ten tons of Illusion Crystals—sorry, but for such a rare resource that was also quite useful to him, keeping it for himself was naturally more worthwhile.

After renting a large resource transport truck, he sold all one thousand tons of raw Adamantine ore in a single trip. Song Chi did not linger in the black market; he still needed to use the money from the Adamantine to stock up on goods.

As for buying directly from the black market, prices here were generally higher than through official channels.

The Ultra-Long Range Random Space Gate Deployment Platform in the Market Ruins would finish its cooldown the day after tomorrow. Then it would be time for him to open the Market Ruins for a second round of trading. This time, with nineteen Space Gates, even more alien races would enter the Market Ruins. If he did not take this chance to stock up and resell the goods at high prices for a huge profit, he would feel he had let himself down.

After all, this was an opportunity that came only once every thirty days. The three thousand-plus strands of zero-tier Floating Continent Essence he had earned last time had all been spent on the Cangqiong in no time. This time, he had to earn more.

East River Spark Mall, Eagle Machinery Store.

As a frequent customer lately, Song Chi had long become familiar with the young saleswoman. The moment he entered, she greeted him with a smile.

"Welcome. Did this expedition bring you some nice gains too?"

Song Chi smiled faintly and summoned the Cangqiong, selling all the scattered minerals to Eagle Machinery Store.

Perhaps because they had done business once before, Eagle Machinery Store still offered eighty percent of market price this time. Of course, Song Chi could only spend that money at Eagle Machinery Store, or the transaction would be void.

Rather than selecting merchandise right away, Song Chi reached into his clothes and took out the Life Crystal of the Metal-Eating Vine.

"A Life Crystal produced by a peak first-tier Metal-Eating Vine. Do you buy these?"

The reason he had brought out this Life Crystal here was because Eagle Machinery Store had always sold genetic potions as well.

The primary material needed to make and formulate genetic potions was Stargrass. As a result, Stargrass production also determined the annual output of genetic potions for every force involved in that business.

Thus, Life Crystals capable of shortening the growth cycles of plant-type lifeforms had always ranked among the most sought-after items by those potion manufacturers.

The saleswoman's eyes brightened slightly, and she quickly nodded.

"Of course we do. The market price for a Life Crystal with energy levels at the peak of the first tier is thirty strands of first-tier Floating Continent Essence. Our purchase price is thirty-two strands. What do you think?"

Song Chi was quite satisfied with that price.

But before he could nod, the girl in front of him spoke again.

"Did you also obtain this during the alien star domain expedition?"

Song Chi only smiled and said nothing, offering no response.

Seeing that he was unwilling to elaborate, the clever saleswoman smoothly changed the subject.

"May I ask whether you have the remaining body of that Metal-Eating Vine? If you do, then together with this Life Crystal, Eagle Machinery Store is willing to purchase them for thirty-five strands of first-tier Floating Continent Essence."

Song Chi gave a quiet, surprised sound inwardly, feeling somewhat puzzled. He had never heard that the inactive body of a Metal-Eating Vine still held value. If it were a starry plant, its remains might possess considerable research value, but for a Floating Continent plant like this, once its Life Crystal was gone, should it not be everywhere?

"So, does the vine itself have some other use?"

Song Chi casually asked. As expected, the other party merely smiled and shook her head without answering.

He did not mind. If there really was some secret involved, why would they tell him?

"Sorry, I happened to obtain this Life Crystal by chance. I don't have the remaining vine body of that Metal-Eating Vine."

He truly did not have it. He had not brought back the Metal-Eating Vine's remaining body. Something he had subconsciously deemed completely worthless was naturally not something he would bother storing in the Market Ruins.