Chapter 8: The Last Preparations Before Exploring the Starry Sea

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The last enhancement was of the space-patrolling radar. In the Starry Sea, the distance between one Floating Land and another often starts at light-years apart.

A powerful radar, then, is key to ensuring the Torch Ship Captain does not lose his way during interstellar exploration and can even more quickly and accurately locate resources such as Alien Territories' Floating Lands and Asteroid Belts. Its importance is self-evident.

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

As the owner of the Zhu Tian Ruins Market, his reluctance to give up participating in the exploration of Alien Star Domains was for the sake of acquiring resources more quickly, and the better the effect of the space-patrolling radar, the more accurately and swiftly he could locate resource points. Thus, it naturally became one of the primary components to enhance.

To enhance the space-patrolling radar to lv9, it cost a total of 81 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin and 4500 Spectral Energy Points.

Space-Patrolling Radar lv9

Quality: Colorless

Consumption: 3/s (Spectral Energy Points)

Detection Range: 10 light-seconds

Precision: 20

UpRank Requirement: 100 strands of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), 1500 Spectral Energy Points.

As for why it wasn't enhanced directly to the Colorless Torch Warship's limit of lv19,

(Note: The upper limit of a Colorless Torch Warship is First Rank, that is, lv10~lv19)

The reason is actually quite simple. The current space-patrolling radar is just a standard quality colorless radar that will definitely be replaced later, so there is really no need to enhance it to First Rank now, especially since the resources spent on enhancement cannot be refunded when it's replaced later.

Furthermore, the resources he had left at hand were not enough.

According to his previous plans, he could only use about 700 strands of Floating Land Origin for enhancing the Spectral Shuttle, and after all the enhancements, he had already used more than 300 strands, leaving less than 400 strands for future use. However, he still had to enhance the white-quality special component, the Fire Peony Soldier Effigy Tree.

Compared to colorless ship components, the resources needed to enhance special components of white quality are much more; just to upgrade from lv0 to lv1, it requires 5 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin + 500 Spectral Energy Points, which consumes a significant amount of Floating Land Origin.

However, no matter what, Song Chi had to enhance it, as the Fire Peony Soldier Effigy was key to his protection for a long time to come.

Grinding his teeth, Song Chi directly enhanced the component's level to lv10.

Correspondingly, the nearly 400 strands of Floating Land Origin he had just a second ago were now down to only 104 strands.

With this, the enhancements prior to his exploration of the Alien Star Domain were basically completed.

The remaining 104 strands of Floating Land Origin needed to be reserved for emergencies, in case he encountered danger during his exploration in the Alien Territories or found himself in some special circumstance requiring the use of this Floating Land Origin for the most appropriate enhancement.

As for the enhancement of the Seed of Torch within the Ancestral Torch and in Zhu Tian Ruins Market, after much consideration, he decided there was no rush; ensuring his absolute safety during this first Star Domain exploration was paramount, and who knows, maybe this fortunate exploration might yield some impressive gains?

Looking at the enhanced to First Rank Fire Peony Soldier Effigy Tree component, its attributes were quite impressive.

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Fire Peony Soldier Figurine Tree lv10

Quality: White

Consumption: 100/figure (Spectral Energy Points)

Effect: Fire Peony Soldier Figurines (Summons ten level lv10 Fire Peony Soldier Figurines, figurines can exist indefinitely as long as they do not die, once dead, it takes 24 hours before they can be summoned again.)

UpRank Requirement: 10 strands of First Rank Floating Land Origin, 2000 Spectral Energy Points.

Looking at the attributes in front of him, a hint of satisfaction flashed in Song Chi's eyes. It meant that as long as he wanted, he could summon ten First Rank Fire Peony Soldier Figurines to serve as his guards—absolutely loyal, the kind that follows orders without question.

Moreover, as long as they were not killed or actively recalled, they could exist forever. Just thinking about it felt so imposing, it was simply too exhilarating.

Once his mood stabilized, Song Chi immediately began the next round of shopping. He needed to purchase various large machinery items, and his choice was the Eagle Machinery store at the top level of the mall.

As a large machinery chain store of the Chenxing Principality, it is rumored that the shareholder behind it is the powerful noble "Marquis Eagle" of the principality. The various machinery products sold in the store are guaranteed to be of high quality.

As an old man who was nearly sixty when combining his two lives, Song Chi's eloquence was on point. After his persisting bargaining (hard) (soft) tactics, and considering that he indeed was buying not a few items, the store clerk "happily" gave him a 5% discount.

"Primary interstellar universal medical kit (500,000 Credit Points), basic nano-robot repair kit (1,000,000 Credit Points), Fury Tiger I type Floating Land Mining Cart (3,000,000 Credit Points), Mining Cart Specialized Prospector (500,000 Credit Points), basic Chenxing Principality civil exoskeleton (200,000 Credit Points), total of 5,200,000 Principality Credit Points, after a 5% discount that is 4,940,000. Will you be paying with Credit Points or Floating Land Origin?"

He first swiped 2,400,000 Credit Points, then took out 254 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin from the Ancestral Torch, and with a pained expression, completed the final payment under the store clerk's shining gaze.

Not until he walked out of the mall's grand entrance, having only 110 strands of Floating Land Origin left for emergency use, did Song Chi's mind fill with complaints. In his view, these stores that sold large machinery products were incredibly extortionate.

Take the "basic nano-robot repair kit" for example, the effect was quite ordinary, and if the Torch Warship were to suffer serious damage, it couldn't even complete the repairs.

Yet such a product that could be mass-produced on an assembly line was priced at an astonishing 1,000,000 Credit Points; and the crux of the matter was its strict usage limit, only up to three uses. After three uses, it would be scrapped, truly a rip-off.

The primary interstellar universal medical kit was the same, with weak treatment effects and also limited to three uses.

Then there was the "Fury Tiger I type Floating Land Mining Cart", the manually driven ones sold for a million, yet just by adding a simple automatic driving system, the price skyrocketed by three times. If it weren't for someone like Song Chi who ingrained prudence in his very bones, nobody would buy such a thing.

...

On the way home, without any further mishaps, he didn't waste the remaining time of the day and specifically went to the Zhu Tian Ruins Market to the omnifunctional Cultivation Room to practice the Spectral Energy Guidance Technique.

However, it might be because his current level of the Guidance Technique had reached lv4, while the omnifunctional Cultivation Room was still lv0, or perhaps the difficulty of advancing a lv4 Guidance Technique was just too high. In any case, after several hours, he didn't feel any noticeable progress in his cultivation of the Guidance Technique.

Time passed, and the next morning arrived.

After breakfast, Song Chi first rushed to the academy to gather with his classmates, and then all the awakening students from the First Torch Academy of Jiangyuan, along with their concerned parents, Song Chi's father and mother included, closely followed the large troop to the suburbs.

Along the way, Song Chi and others encountered many awakening students from other Torch academies.

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