Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Starry Sea Alien Race*Level 1 Spectral Shield
With control over the Zhu Tian Ruins Market, all he needed to do was to focus on stable development; adventure was truly not something he considered.
However, upon further thought, the scale of the energy fluctuations, although far beyond Zero Rank, did not reach the Second Rank level. Moreover, since this deployment was a welfare exploration, it was unlikely that threats too significant for the Cang Qiong would appear in the vicinity.
Contemplating this, he turned his head to glance at the seven Fire Peony Soldier Figurines standing erect beside him. Assured that he had a reliable certainty of retreating with his whole body intact, Song Chi made his decision.
He altered the course of his shuttle, heading straight towards the area where the disturbance had just occurred.
…
An hour later, behind a large piece of debris, the Cang Qiong had already extinguished its engines and was quietly docking on the debris.
This piece of debris was over twenty meters in both length and width and perfectly concealed the body of the Cang Qiong.
On the other side of the debris was a vacuum area enveloped within the Fragment Belt, different from the Starry Sea Hollow Zone. The diameter was very small, no more than ten thousand meters, and at the very center of the vacuum zone was a flat piece of debris nearly a thousand meters in diameter.
Song Chi guessed that the anomaly detected by the patrol radar likely originated from this piece of debris. Massive energy had burst forth from the debris, pushing all other pieces thousands of meters away, except for this one.
However, the truth of the situation was no longer important now. What mattered was that Song Chi could determine that something extraordinary must be on that large Floating Land, because in just over ten minutes of observation, he had seen no fewer than three waves of Alien Species with peculiar wings pouring into the debris.
And crucially, these Alien Species started fighting each other after landing on the debris. Consequently, Song Chi speculated that whatever object or resource was on that large piece of debris had to be so rare that it drove these Alien Species into a frenzy. Otherwise, it would not have caused these clearly same-species Alien Species to kill each other.
As for Song Chi himself, it was impossible for him not to be curious, but he did not act rashly.
At this moment, on that large piece of debris with a diameter of over a thousand meters, there were hundreds of these winged Alien Species, including about a dozen of First Rank.
He was waiting, waiting for the analysis result from the semi-automatic shipboard intelligent brain aboard the Cang Qiong. Every Torch Ship Captain who embarked on explorations into the Alien Star Domain would surely download a copy of the basic data on all known Starry Sea Civilizations, publicly released by the Torch Human Civilization.
But the amount of information contained in this data was so enormous that even with the analytical speed of the shipboard intelligence, it took quite some time to verify.
Of course, this was likely related to the fact that all Torch Warships came equipped with only the lowest Rank of semi-automatic intelligent brains. Nonetheless, there was no helping it, as the Torch Civilization had specific regulations stating that all shipboard intelligent brains on Torch Warships could only be semi-automatic.
No one could blame Torchlight Humanity for imposing such a restriction. There were too many examples of Starry Sea Civilizations where subordinate intelligent brains became the masters, transforming civilizations into mechanical ones. Such a risk had to be guarded against.
Several minutes later, the shipboard intelligent brain finally provided a comparison result.
Species Name: White Winged Tribe
Introduction: An extremely common void creature in the Shattered Starry Sea, they do not rely on Floating Land for survival and can move freely in the Starry Sea void.
Species Advantage: Agile, with astonishing speed.
Species Weakness: Very weak offensive capabilities; under the same Rank, it is very difficult for them to penetrate the energy shields of Torch Warships.
“The White Winged Tribe, huh…”
Staring at the virtual screen projected by the shipboard intelligent brain and after a comparison, confirming that they were indeed this species known as the White Winged Tribe, Song Chi thoughtfully mused.
If the data given by the Torch Civilization officials was correct, a bold idea had emerged in his mind.
At this moment, there were still 110 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin and nearly two hundred Zero Rank Life Cores in his Ancestral Torch. To upgrade the Spectral Shield from level 7 to level 8, it required 15 strands of Floating Land Origin plus 12 Life Cores. The upgrade from level 8 to level 9 needed 17 strands of Floating Land Origin plus 13 Life Cores, and the upgradation to level 10 required 50 strands of Floating Land Origin plus 40 Life Cores.
By his calculations, to upgrade the Spectral Shield to First Rank, a total of 82 strands of Floating Land Origin and 65 Life Cores were needed. The emergency resources he had left were entirely sufficient for this. As for Spectral Energy Points, a matter of a few minutes to replenish, they were not important.
And as long as the Spectral Shield was enhanced to First Rank, it would be impossible for the combined attacks of hundreds from the White Winged Tribe to break the Shield Value provided by the Spectral Shield component for a short time. This was because the Shield Value provided by the components of a First Rank Spectral Shield would soar to a thousand points.
Furthermore, with the full protection of the Fire Peony Soldier Figurine also of First Rank, there was a great possibility of success.
After hesitating for a moment, Song Chi no longer wavered. The resources he had saved were intended for emergency use at critical moments, so why wait if not now?
After several consecutive clicks, the level 7 Spectral Shield component was enhanced all the way to level 10, at the cost of significantly depleting the resource reserves on the Cangqiong. There were only 28 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin left and just over a hundred Life Cores. Fortunately, the attributes of the level 10 Spectral Shield weren’t too bad.
Spectral Shield level 10
Quality: Colorless
Consumption: 20/s (Spectral Energy Points)
Defence: 99
Shield Value: 990/990
Charge: 20s; Post-overload Buffer: 40 minutes
UpRank Requirement: 100 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, 1600 Spectral Energy Points, 50 Zero Rank Life Cores
As a standardized component of Colorless Quality, after being enhanced to First Rank, the subsequent enhancement of the Spectral Shield component still only requires Zero Rank Floating Land Origin and Zero Rank Life Cores, which is much more convenient than the subsequent enhancements required for White race or higher Strange Object components. However, with the resources on the Cangqiong nearly exhausted, further enhancement was no longer possible.
After enhancing the Spectral Shield, Song Chi still made no move. He naturally didn’t feel at ease just after the Spectral Shield component was enhanced. He first turned off the Spectral Shield and waited until the Spectral Energy Points in the Youneng Pool were fully replenished. Then, he controlled the Cangqiong to start heading back the way he came.
He wouldn’t foolishly act hastily. Considering the situation, the fight between the White Winged Tribe members was unlikely to end in a short time.
Given that, it was obviously better to first go back and collect the Furious Tiger Mining Cart, and along the way gather some of the valuable resources he had already marked. When the 24-hour exploration limit was about to end, he would look for an opportunity to take action. In that case, even if it was not feasible at that time, he could escape conveniently.
Of course, if he came back later and the battle had already ended and the remains on the fragment had been taken, then it simply meant that the unknown object was not fated to be his, and Song Chi would not insist on acquiring it.
…
More than ten hours later, Song Chi returned precisely to the area of the small hollow. By now, only half an hour remained of the 24-hour limit since his initial deployment into the Alien Star Domain.
Looking ahead at the large fragment, there were still more than two hundred of the remaining White Winged Tribe members. Likely, a few more groups had arrived after he had left.
The only point that frustrated Song Chi was that, over ten hours, not only had the number of First Rank members of the White Winged Tribe not decreased, but there were actually several more. Now, there were nearly twenty First Rank members of the White Winged Tribe on that fragment.
