Money Flowed Like Water

Looking at the Psionic Engine, which had been enhanced to its limit, Song Chi saw that the Psionic Pool had only barely reached 9,000 points. He silently made a note to himself to acquire a high-quality engine component as soon as possible.

Back then, the "Atomic Fusion Nuclear Engine" component had come with an Energy Pool of as much as 5,000 points even at lv0.

If it were enhanced to lv19, it would probably have at least 30,000 points. Then he would not have to deal with both poor power supply efficiency and insufficient Energy Pool reserves like he did now.

With the current 9,000-point Psionic Pool, Song Chi estimated that after the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator was enhanced a few more times, it would probably become insufficient again.

But there was nothing he could do for now. Yesterday, he had logged into the White Tower Local Network to take a look. There were no blue-quality or higher engine components in the local network marketplace. There were a few white-quality ones, but their attributes were average and their prices high. He did not think much of them, so he could only make do for the time being.

After enhancing the Psionic Engine, it was naturally time for the Dark Matter Energy Shield. He had plenty of First-Rank Floating Continent Essence and Mercury Crystal in hand, and Song Chi had no intention of being stingy. An orange glory-quality component would serve him for a long time, so investing sufficient resources into enhancing it early on was highly cost-effective.

A few dozen seconds later, he had enhanced the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator component all the way to lv15, spending a total of 200 strands of First-Rank Floating Continent Essence and 150 tons of Mercury Crystal.

When he looked at its attributes again, they had indeed improved dramatically.

Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator lv15

Quality: Orange

Trait: Shield value increased by an additional 85%

Trait 2: Shield defense doubled

Consumption: 60/s (Dark Energy Points)

Defense: 880

Shield Value: 16280/16280

Charge: 20s; cooldown after overload: 35 minutes

Upgrade Requirements: 70 strands of Floating Continent Essence (First Rank), 10,000 Dark Energy Points, 45 tons of Mercury Crystal

It could be said that after being enhanced to lv15, the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator component had received a terrifying boost to its attributes. Defense and shield value in particular had risen from 380 to 880, and from 6,080 to 16,280 respectively. The improvement was anything but small.

The reason for such a massive increase was naturally inseparable from the quality of the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator component. High-quality starship components all possessed unique attached traits, and the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator's two percentage-based enhancement traits meant that the higher its enhancement level, the more terrifying the boost became.

Song Chi had actually wanted to continue enhancing the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator. He still had 102 strands of First-Rank Floating Continent Essence and 50 tons of Mercury Crystal, enough to enhance it once more.

Unfortunately, he did not have enough Dark Energy Points. Enhancing the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator from lv15 to lv16 required 10,000 Dark Energy Points, but the Psionic Pool currently held only 9,000.

Left with no choice, Song Chi could only shift his attention to the Fire Sunflower Soldier Tree component.

Aside from the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator and the Golden Rock Hull Armor, this was the only component currently aboard the Cangqiong that could use First-Rank Floating Continent Essence. He was not planning to enhance the Golden Rock Hull Armor for the time being, so his target naturally shifted to the Fire Sunflower Soldier Tree.

In the end, he spent a total of 90 strands of First-Rank Floating Continent Essence to enhance the Fire Sunflower Soldier Tree component to lv15 as well.

Fire Sunflower Soldier Tree lv15

Quality: White

Consumption: 200 per unit (Dark Energy Points)

Effect: Fire Sunflower Soldiers (Summons ten lv15 Fire Sunflower Soldiers. As long as the soldiers are not destroyed, they can remain indefinitely. Once destroyed, they can only be summoned again after 24 hours.)

Upgrade Requirements: 30 strands of Floating Continent Essence (First Rank), 4,000 Dark Energy Points.

At this point, only the final 12 strands of First-Rank Floating Continent Essence remained in his possession. He would be unable to enhance any other First-Rank components for some time.

After enhancing the two highest-quality components aboard the Cangqiong, Song Chi turned his attention to the "White Kindling Hull" component.

Although this component could not directly increase the shuttle's attack or defense, it determined the number of "special component slots" aboard a Kindling Starship and also determined the upper limit of the Psionic Cultivation Platform's level.

Of course, the Psionic Cultivation Platform was optional to Song Chi, but he certainly would not complain about having more special component slots. Even though the Cangqiong currently had no other special components besides the Fire Sunflower Soldier Tree, who knew when it might acquire some? Enhancing it in advance and keeping a few extra special component slots in reserve was not a bad idea.

The White Kindling Hull was the same as when it had been colorless. Or rather, the amount of resources required for enhancement had nothing to do with the quality of the Kindling Seed.

From lv0 to lv1, it required only 5 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence and 200 Dark Energy Points.

From lv1 to lv2, 10 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence and 400 Dark Energy Points.

From lv2 to lv3, 15 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence and 600 Dark Energy Points.

And so on.

In the end, Song Chi spent 225 strands of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence to raise the White Kindling Hull from lv0 to lv9. He could actually have directly raised the Kindling Hull—that is, the Kindling Seed's level—to lv10 or higher, but after thinking it over, he ultimately chose not to.

Once the Kindling Hull advanced from lv9 to lv10, the Cangqiong would begin advancing from a Psionic Shuttle toward a Void Energy Airship. Advancing into a Void Energy Airship was not difficult; given the Cangqiong's foundation, failure was basically impossible.

However, that was not the key issue. Once the Cangqiong advanced, the danger level of future otherworldly domain deployments would rise accordingly. For Song Chi, who only wanted to steadily gather ordinary resources, that was clearly not something he wanted to see.

That was why he had stopped the White Kindling Hull's enhancement level at lv9.

Still, even without advancing into a Void Energy Airship in one go, the number of special component slots possessed by the lv9 Cangqiong had increased from the initial two to six.

For Kindling Starships of the Kindling Human Civilization, every five levels gained by the "Kindling Hull," based on the quality of their Kindling Seed, added a different number of special component slots.

A Colorless Kindling Hull gained 2 every 5 levels.

A White Kindling Hull gained 4 every 5 levels.

A Blue Kindling Hull gained 6 every 5 levels.

A Purple Kindling Hull gained 8 every 5 levels.

As a Kindling Starship bound to a White Kindling Seed, the Cangqiong gained 4 special slots for every 5 levels of its Kindling Hull.

Of course, this was not completely fixed. If Song Chi could further improve the quality of his Kindling Seed in the future, the starship itself would gain the corresponding special slots based on the Kindling Hull's level.

After enhancing the White Kindling Hull, Song Chi saw that he still had quite a bit of Zero-Rank Floating Continent Essence left. Only then did he turn his attention to the "Golden Rock Hull Armor," which he had yet to enhance.

As a white-quality Hull Armor component, it was quite cost-effective to enhance. However, because its function overlapped with that of the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator, it had never been among Song Chi's priority components for enhancement.