Taking advantage of the moment Song Chi received the drone and examined it, the woman began to introduce:

"This is the mini 'Phantom Butterfly' drone, the latest release from the ducal research academy, equipped with the newest Dawn Type-III energy cells, it has strong endurance, minimal noise, and the surface of the body is also coated with a stealth layer. Paired with its compact body, the stealth capabilities are absolutely top-notch."

After looking it over, Song Chi requested a trial, and the woman did not refuse. The two walked out to the street outside the shop and began to test fly the so-called latest 'Phantom Butterfly' drone.

Ten minutes later, Song Chi satisfactorily brought down the drone, and the woman had not overstated its capabilities. The performance of this Phantom Butterfly drone was indeed remarkable and nearly perfectly met his needs.

"What's the price exactly? If it's right, I'll take it!"

Without making a definitive statement, considering the woman's financial standing—having previously mentioned that it was expensive—the sale price of this Phantom Butterfly drone was likely quite staggering.

If it turned out to be excessively expensive, Song Chi would not make the purchase, regardless of how satisfied he was with the Phantom Butterfly drone.

"500 strands of First Rank Floating Land Origin!"

Upon hearing this price, Song Chi was instantly taken aback.

500 strands of First Rank Floating Land Origin, which is more than 5000 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, for such a price, one could buy two white-quality oddities. For a consumable item like a drone, it was indeed too expensive.

To put it in perspective, a Hornet-class drone cost only a few dozen strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, and even a First Rank combat robot wouldn't cost more than a hundred strands. This was a hundred times more expensive, which Song Chi found utterly unacceptable.

Seeing that Song Chi handed back the drone without a moment's hesitation, as if scared of chipping it by holding it longer, a light smile flickered in the woman's eyes. She then said:

"If it's too pricey, I do have a compromise to offer. If you agree, giving you a 90% discount is not out of the question."

Upon hearing this, far away, the first reaction in Song Chi's heart was not joy, but vigilance.

He didn't believe in such extraordinary luck as getting a 90% discount out of the blue. There certainly must be an ulterior motive.

Could it be she wants to take my kidneys?

He didn't rush to leave. With the Zhu Tian Ruins Market around, he could hide inside the market at any time if necessary. Even though the woman was most likely a Third Rank Torch Captain with a Guidance Technique of level 30 or above, he was still over a kilometer away, which should give him just enough reaction time.

"What is this method?"

The woman did not answer him, instead her gaze swept over the robot's cloak once more, and then she suddenly said, "Military second-hand combat robot, you're using some special remote control technique, aren't you?"

As she spoke, without waiting for Song Chi to respond, she continued:

"Could you disclose the approximate range of control?"

Clearly, the woman had already seen through the identity of the combat robot beneath the cloak.

In response, apart from an initial flicker of surprise, Song Chi actually wasn't too shocked at heart. After all, it was very likely that she was a Third Rank Torch Captain, and it was not strange that she could discern the identity of the combat robot from a close distance.

Song Chi was puzzled about her intentions. Since she had already seen through his disguise, why bring it up now? Could it be related to the previous mention of a 90% discount?

In the midst of his suspicion, the woman quickly gave an answer.

"I have a task coming up where I'll need to use remote control, and if you're willing, before the operation starts, I'll find an opportunity to sell you this Phantom Butterfly Drone at a tenth of the price!"

The woman's glittering eyes rapidly shifted, and the expectancy in her gaze, coupled with her delicate face, instinctively made one feel reluctant to refuse.

However, Song Chi didn't fall for that. With the experience from two lifetimes, he immediately retracted the brainwave beacon attached to the combat robot, deliberately ignoring the changes in expression of the woman in the black velvet dress beside him, and then, under the woman's lingering gaze, he quickly turned and returned to the Oddity Exchange Shop.

Minutes later, the combat robot clad in a cloak emerged again from the Chenxing Multi-functional Shop, and in its backpack, 10 odd items were now stashed away.

Among them were three Blue Oddities and seven White Oddities, costing a total of thirty thousand strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin.

These 10 odd items were what Song Chi planned to use to experiment with the idea of the "Oddity Exchange Shop" he had thought of earlier. As for the woman's invitation to join her operation, he naturally refused without hesitation.

Joking, a Third Rank Level Guidance Technique meant that she definitely had command over a Cruiser-class Torch Warship. Acting alongside such an existence was tantamount to seeking one's doom.

Don't be fooled by her stunning appearance, with every smile and gesture filled with ultimate allure. But as the old ancestors in Huaxia once said, you can know someone's face but not their heart.

Faces are the most deceitful; one should never act based on sensory perception alone. Don't be swayed by her sweet invitation now because come the day of action, once under the watch of her Cruiser, one would be at her mercy, and his life or death would be at her whim.

At the Warship docking area of the Interstellar Fortress, the swiftly arriving combat robot boarded Cang Qiong, and inside Cang Qiong, Song Chi was on pins and needles.

The thought that a Third Rank Torch Captain might be covertly observing him made him itch to leave the intergalactic space fortress immediately.

Fortunately, he was cautious enough to have had the combat robot depart from Cang Qiong earlier, and he waited for the Purple River Translocation Device's components to finish a new round of buffering in advance. Now that the combat robot had returned to the airship, Cang Qiong could directly start its engines and leave.

However, when the combat robot first boarded Cang Qiong, Song Chi did not immediately start it up; instead, he turned his attention to the Abnormal Status Purifier component.

If the woman from the Chenxing Multi-functional Shop truly had malintent, then for the sake of caution, she would likely sneak a tracking signal onto the combat robot unnoticed. The Abnormal Status Purifier was precisely the component most sensitive to such signals and markers, which was why Song Chi paid extra attention to it.

The Abnormal Status Purifier had only recently been enhanced to Second Rank and was merely of Blue Quality - it might not be able to purify a tracking marker left by a Third Rank Torch Captain. However, it should undoubtedly issue a warning, which was all Song Chi needed.

If it turned out she really did leave a tracking marker on the combat robot, he would not hesitate to jettison it from Cang Qiong, and then flee at the earliest opportunity.

Dozens of seconds later, Song Chi breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed he had worried too much; the woman had not left any mark on the combat robot, and the Purification Aura from the Abnormal Status Purifier did not react at all.

Still, erring on the side of caution, he controlled Cang Qiong to rise into the skies, and in an instant, it disappeared into the starry expanse near the expansive Floating Land Origin.

Shortly after Cang Qiong's departure, a tall figure emerged from a corner of the Warship docking area. If Song Chi had been there, he would have recognized the person as the owner of the Chenxing Shop from earlier.

The woman looked towards the direction in which Cang Qiong had departed, her moist red lips slightly parting.

"To be able to ignore the Purple Quality Super-wave Jammer on my warship, the remote control component on his airship must be of no small quality, and that dark black energy shield does not seem like a typical energy shield, at least Purple Quality. It appears someone interesting has arrived in the Star Domain on the frontier."

...

At White Tower Floating Land, within the vast expanse of space surrounding the Floating Land.

A Spectral Airship encased in light golden armor quietly hovered in the cosmos; this Spectral Airship was none other than Cang Qiong. More than twenty days had passed since it returned from the expansive Floating Land Origin; today marked the day when Cang Qiong's Alien Star Domain deployment function completed its latest buffering.

As the deployment function activated, the familiar sensation of weightlessness hit. Soon after, following intense spatial fluctuations, Cang Qiong entirely vanished from the open star field.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read