Final Preparations Before Exploring the Star Sea

The last thing he strengthened was the Sky-Patrol Radar. The star sea was vast, and the distance between one floating continent and another often started in light-years.

A powerful radar was key to ensuring that Kindle captains would not lose their way during interstellar exploration, and to helping them locate resource points such as foreign floating continents and asteroid belts more quickly and accurately. Its importance went without saying.

The resources required to strengthen the radar were the same as those for the main cannon, but Song Chi upgraded it straight to lv9 in one go.

Despite possessing the Myriad Heavens Market, the reason he still refused to give up on exploring alien starfields was to acquire resources more quickly. The better the Sky-Patrol Radar performed, the more accurately and rapidly it could locate resource points. Naturally, it was one of the primary components to strengthen.

Upgrading the Sky-Patrol Radar to lv9 cost a total of 81 strands of zero-rank Floating Continent Essence and 4,500 Dark Energy Points.

Sky-Patrol Radar lv9

Quality: Colorless

Consumption: 3/s (Dark Energy Points)

Detection Range: 10 light-seconds

Accuracy: 20

Required for Rank Upgrade: 100 strands of Floating Continent Essence (zero-rank), 1,500 Dark Energy Points.

As for why he had not directly upgraded it to lv19, the limit of a Colorless Ember Starship—

(Note: the limit of a Colorless Ember Starship was Rank 1, which was lv10 to lv19.)

The reason was simple. The Sky-Patrol Radar was currently just a standard-issue colorless radar, and he would definitely replace it later. There was no need to upgrade it to Rank 1 now, since the resources spent on upgrades could not be refunded once it was replaced.

Besides, he did not have enough resources left.

According to his previous plan, he had only around 700 strands of Floating Continent Essence available for upgrading the Psionic Shuttle. After this series of upgrades, he had already used over 300 strands. Less than 400 remained for later use, yet he still had the white special component, the Fire Sunflower Soldier Tree, to upgrade.

Compared to colorless ship components, white-quality special components required far more upgrade resources. Going from lv0 to lv1 alone required 5 strands of Floating Continent Essence (zero-rank) and 500 Dark Energy Points. It was a massive consumer of Floating Continent Essence.

But no matter what, Song Chi had to upgrade it. These Fire Sunflower Soldier Puppets would be crucial to protecting himself for a long time to come.

Gritting his teeth, Song Chi directly upgraded the component to lv10.

Correspondingly, the nearly 400 strands of Floating Continent Essence he had a moment ago dwindled to just 104 strands.

With that, his upgrades before exploring the alien starfield had basically come to an end.

He had to keep the remaining 104 strands of Floating Continent Essence for emergencies. If he encountered danger or some special situation while exploring the alien starfield, he would need this Floating Continent Essence to make the most appropriate upgrades in response.

As for upgrading the Myriad Heavens Market and the Kindling Seed in the Kindle Ancestral Aperture, after giving it some thought, he decided there was no need to rush. Ensuring absolute safety during this first starfield exploration came first. Perhaps this welfare exploration would bring him some decent gains?

Looking again at the Fire Sunflower Soldier Tree component, now upgraded to Rank 1, its attributes were quite impressive.

Fire Sunflower Soldier Tree lv10

Quality: White

Consumption: 100 per unit (Dark Energy Points)

Effect: Fire Sunflower Soldier Puppets (Summons ten lv10 Fire Sunflower Soldier Puppets. As long as the soldier puppets do not die, they can remain indefinitely. Once they die, they can only be summoned again after 24 hours.)

Required for Upgrade: 10 strands of Floating Continent Essence (Rank 1), 2,000 Dark Energy Points.

Looking at the attributes before him, a trace of satisfaction flashed through Song Chi's eyes. This meant that whenever he wanted, he could summon ten Rank 1 Fire Sunflower Soldier Puppets to serve as his guards—absolutely loyal and absolutely obedient to his commands.

And as long as they were not killed or voluntarily recalled, they could remain forever. Just thinking about it made him feel unbelievably badass. It was simply too satisfying.

Once his mood settled again, Song Chi immediately began another round of shopping. He still needed to purchase various large-scale mechanical items, and his choice was Eagle Machinery Store on the top floor of the mall.

As a large chain store for machinery in the Morning Star Duchy, it was said that one of its shareholders was the extremely influential Duchy noble, Marquis Eagle. The quality of the various mechanical products sold in its stores was sufficiently guaranteed.

As an old man nearly sixty years old across both lifetimes, Song Chi was still quite eloquent. After his repeated verbal assaults—and because he truly was buying quite a few items—the young saleswoman "happily" gave him a five-percent discount.

"Basic Interstellar Medical Kit, 500,000 Credit Points; Basic Nanobot Repair Kit, 1,000,000 Credit Points; Raging Tiger I Floating Land Mining Vehicle, 3,000,000 Credit Points; Mining Vehicle Prospector, 500,000 Credit Points; Basic Duchy Civilian Exoskeleton, 200,000 Credit Points. The total is 5,200,000 Duchy Credit Points. After the five-percent discount, it comes to 4,940,000. Will you be paying with credit points or Floating Continent Essence?"

After swiping 2,400,000 Credit Points and taking another 254 strands of zero-rank Floating Continent Essence from his Kindle Ancestral Aperture, Song Chi completed the final payment under the young saleswoman's sparkling gaze, his face full of heartache.

By the time he left the mall, only 110 strands of Floating Continent Essence remained on him for emergencies. Song Chi could not help but complain inwardly. In his view, these stores selling large mechanical products were truly black-hearted.

Take the Basic Nanobot Repair Kit, for example. Its effects were mediocre, and if the Ember Starship suffered even slightly serious damage, it could not repair it at all.

Yet this mass-produced assembly-line product cost a full million Credit Points. Worse still, it had a strict usage limit: it could only be used three times at most, after which it would be scrapped outright. What a scam.

The Basic Interstellar Medical Kit was the same. Its healing effect was weak, and it could likewise only be used three times.

Then there was the Raging Tiger I Floating Land Mining Vehicle. The manually driven version cost only one million, but simply adding an autopilot system tripled the price. If he were not someone who had caution etched into his bones, who the hell would buy this thing?

He made it all the way home without any further incidents. He did not waste the time remaining that day either, specifically heading to the Omni Training Room in the Myriad Heavens Market to practice the Psionic Guidance Technique.

However, perhaps because his current Guidance Technique had already reached lv4 while the Omni Training Room was still only lv0, or perhaps because improving an lv4 Guidance Technique was simply too difficult, after several hours, he did not feel any obvious progress in his cultivation.

Time passed, and morning arrived the next day.

After breakfast, Song Chi first went to the academy to gather with his classmates. Then all the awakened students of this year's class from Jiangyuan First Ember Academy headed together toward the outskirts of the city. Still worried, Song Chi's father and mother followed closely behind the main group along with many other parents.

Along the way, Song Chi and the others encountered many awakened students from other Ember academies as well.