Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Battlefield of Different Civilizations
The engine activated, and Cang Qiong began to shuttle quickly through the silent Starry Sea. The position this time was still not ideal; within the detection range of the patrol radar, no celestial bodies were discovered.
After wandering around aimlessly like a headless fly for several hours with no other discoveries, Song Chi’s heart had almost sunk to the bottom.
It should be noted that for this exploration, he had specially purchased another Furious Tiger Mining Cart, plus two cart-mounted Prospectors, spending a total of four hundred strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, all to significantly improve the efficiency of mining.
Now, aside from the batch of temporary emergency resources, he had only three hundred strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin left.
If this exploration did not yield enough findings, the profits from the upcoming Ruins Market would also be greatly reduced.
Just as he was feeling anxious, a sudden, urgent alarm sounded from the patrol radar.
Numerous red dots clustered in the upper left corner of the radar screen, where two large fleets of warships were engaged in fierce battle.
Unknowingly, Cang Qiong had blundered into the Stellar Battlefield of two warring alien civilizations.
The speed of the Cang Qiong was reduced to the minimum, and while striving to conceal its tracks, Song Chi also silently observed the sizable war at the edge of the battlefield.
The number of warships on both sides of the battlefield exceeded ten thousand. Judging by the energy fluctuations emitted from the ship cannons, most of these warships were of Zero Rank, among them mixed with around a hundred of First Rank. Overall, it was considered to be of the lowest intensity among Interstellar Battlefields, the kind that involved wars between civilizations.
However, that being said, such battles were still measured by the scale of civilizations. To Song Chi, such a battlefield was extremely dangerous, and he had no intention of getting involved.
The Dark Matter Energy Shield was impressive, but it would hardly be noticeable in a battlefield with the potential for being targeted by the firepower of over ten thousand warships.
Besides, the firepower of Cang Qiong was also on the weaker side; at best, it was just a bit more resilient. The chances of taking advantage of the chaos to snag a great opportunity were nearly nil.
…
So there he was, lingering around the edge of the battlefield for about ten minutes or so, until he locked onto a warship that had mostly drifted away from the melee. Seizing the opportunity, Song Chi quickly made his move, and the already damaged alien warship was effortlessly destroyed by him.
Since he had already decided not to participate in the war, yet still hovered around the battlefield, it certainly wasn’t because he wanted to join in the excitement. His purpose was for the Star Charts aboard these warships.
He was unfamiliar with this completely new Star Domain, but that didn’t mean these native civilizations were the same. Instead of blundering around like a headless fly, wasn’t it better to spend about fifteen minutes to obtain a Star Chart?
With the Star Chart in hand, Song Chi swiftly maneuvered the Cang Qiong to flee far away without any hesitation.
A few minutes later, having already left the battlefield far behind, the Cang Qiong turned and headed toward the nearest small Fragment Belt marked on the Star Chart.
In fact, the Star Domain recorded on this chart was vast; not to mention small Fragment Belts, there were also three Starry Sea Floating Lands, including a Second Rank resource-rich Floating Land with an abundance of various resources and more than one or two large metal veins.
But the distance was too great, 12 light-years away, which for the current Cang Qiong, not equipped with a “warp drive,” was utterly unreachable. Only that Fragment Belt was within a short travel distance for Cang Qiong, an involuntary choice.
Another hour or so passed, and Cang Qiong finally arrived at the intended small Fragment Belt.
Compared to the one encountered during the last exploration, the diameter of this Fragment Belt was obviously far smaller, which Song Chi didn’t mind. The number of celestial bodies in this Fragment Belt was conservatively estimated to be over several hundred thousand, while the remaining time for the stay was less than twenty hours. He would probably only be able to explore about one tenth of a percent of this Fragment Belt, not even considering the time spent on mining.
Knowing there was no time to waste, Song Chi made a trip to the Ruins Market and brought out a Furious Tiger Mining Cart. Then, Cang Qiong plunged headfirst into the Fragment Belt.
Time slipped by, and the onboard AI of the Furious Tiger Mining Cart kept providing updates.
“Ten kilograms of electrum, skip it.”
“Gas mine, a shame it’s only a few hundred kilograms, skip it.”
“Starry Space Cold Iron, fifty tons, will take half an hour to mine.”
…
Time spent mining always flew by; in the blink of an eye, another five hours passed. Although there were some gains, the quantities weren’t large, so there was no opportunity yet for the second mining cart to enter the scene.
After all, if the amount of mineral deposit was insufficient, it could be mined within about half an hour, and going back and forth was also troublesome.
The Cang Qiong continued to shuttle aimlessly. Since the Fragment Belt was large enough, there was no need for any prospecting plans.
The surprise came quite abruptly. Just minutes later, Song Chi discovered a fragment with over a thousand tons of electrum.
“Radiation response from ‘Refined Gold Ore’ detected on the fragment at the coordinates xxxx. Preliminary estimate is ‘over a thousand tons.’”
Carefully, Song Chi stopped the Cang Qiong over the target fragment. Then, he dropped down the Furious Tiger Mining Cart from the shuttle, assigned three First Rank Fire Peony Soldier Figurines to guard, and after that, he brought out the second mining cart from the Ruins Market and continued to operate the Cang Qiong to explore.
A thousand tons of electrum would take at least several hours to mine, allowing the Cang Qiong to scout a good area.
…
“Damn, this place is haunted; the density of fragments here is way too high.”
After a violent tremor, the Cang Qiong just barely squeezed through the gap between several tightly clustered fragments. The shuttle, which had just been repaired a few days ago, sustained some minor scrapes again. Though not a big issue, it still provoked a string of curses from Song Chi.
If it weren’t for the prospector detecting special radiation fluctuations within this cluster of fragments, he wouldn’t willingly venture into such an area.
But then again, even the prospector couldn’t determine specific results and only noticed a layer of special energy fluctuations. Song Chi’s curiosity still was piqued, otherwise, he wouldn’t have rushed in so hastily after releasing just two standard unmanned drones and preliminarily ascertaining there was no danger.
Scanning the area, Song Chi furrowed his brows. At a glance, the area behind the dense fragments seemed normal. According to the onboard AI’s prompt, it was still “unknown energy fluctuations, please explore further.”
Looking at the dozen or so fragments ahead, with the smallest ones being over ten meters in length and width, Song Chi felt a bit overwhelmed.
Manual inspection of each one would obviously take several hours to complete.
Seeing this, Song Chi could only bring the Cang Qiong closer while instructing the prospector to determine the specific source of the energy fluctuations among the fragments.
After about ten minutes, having excluded most of the possibilities, Song Chi began to deploy mining carts to the remaining five fragments for carpet-style excavation.
Soon an hour passed, and the first, second, and third fragments were excluded in turn. The Furious Tiger Mining Cart began work on the fourth fragment.