Song Chi felt guilty because he had intercepted far too much, a whole half, which would absolutely be seen as ruthless and greedy if it were someone else.

But he had no choice, as it was a critical time when he was most in need of Second-Rank, Third-Rank Floating Land Origin. He couldn't afford to think about anything else for the time being.

...

Time passed quickly, and in the twentieth hour since the Ruins Market trading commenced, the number of alien species creatures in the Ruins Market Secret Realm had reached its peak. However, it was still less than a thousand, a lot fewer than the previous event.

Obviously, the 42 Spatial Gates that were deployed didn't land in very favorable locations. Most of them hadn't been placed above the Starry Sea Floating Land or areas where alien creatures were active, which resulted in fewer creatures entering the Ruins Market.

As a result, Song Chi's revenue had significantly decreased.

After the Ruins Market trading ended, the total income converted to Zero-Rank Floating Land Origin was just over 100,000 strands, less than two thousand strands of First-Rank Floating Land Origin, and if excluding what Zhou Ping had offered, the Second-Rank Floating Land Origin was less than a hundred strands, not to mention scavenging any Starry Sea Oddity.

Once all the alien species had left, and Zhou Ping had been transported back to the Primordial Continent via the Ruins Market Guest Token, Song Chi immediately summoned the Cang Qiong.

What was the purpose of opening this Ruins Market? Wasn't it to earn Second-Rank and Third-Rank Floating Land Origins to enhance the "Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator" and the "Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon"? Now that he had the Floating Land Origin, it was naturally time to begin the enhancements.

Rather than directly enhancing the two Orange Glory Quality components, he first installed the two special components he had acquired, spending hundreds of strands of Zero-Rank and First-Rank Floating Land Origin to bring both up to lv20.

After enhancing to lv20, the Blue Quality Blood Soul Stigma didn't change much; the number of marks only increased from 3 to 10, and the detection range was heightened from 0.5 light-year to 5 light-years.

The change in the Phantom Thruster was quite significant.

Phantom Thruster lv20

Quality: Purple

Feature: Phantom Trace

Consumption: 50/s (Spectral Energy Points)

Effect: Increase thrust by 100%, Warship cruising speed increased by 100%.

UpRank Requirement: 12 strands of Floating Land Origin (Second-Rank), 8000 Spectral Energy Points, Phantom Stone 500kg, 1 Titanium Crystal

{Phantom Trace: Consumes 2000 Spectral Energy Points, charges for 15s, the thruster enters into overdrive, the warship will make a high-speed dash in the specified direction with 1000% increased speed for 5s. During the dash, 6 illusions that closely follow and mimic the warship will be generated around it to confuse enemy units.}

After enhancing to lv20, Song Chi felt no need to enhance further, as at that moment he only had a little over five hundred strands of Second-Rank Floating Land Origin left, which needed to be used where most crucial.

First, he approached the "Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator," and after a burst of radiance, this Orange Energy Shield was enhanced to lv30.

After reaching lv30, he didn't rush to continue enhancing but went over to the "Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon" and also enhanced it to lv30.

However, these two enhancements cost Song Chi 300 strands of Second-Rank Floating Land Origin + 60 Titanium Crystals, using up most of his Second-Rank Floating Land Origin. Together with the 50 crystals from the last Ruins Market trading, he had just reached 100 Titanium Crystals, and now only 40 remained.

Song Chi sighed, pressing down the pain in his heart. His thoughts began to race again.

At the moment, he was pondering only one question: which component to enhance next.

With only 40 Titanium Crystals left, it meant that whether he chose to enhance the "Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator" or the "Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon," he could only enhance one level further, as both parts required 32 Titanium Crystals to upgrade from lv30 to lv31. This was the cause for his dilemma.

After much deliberation, Song Chi decided not to enhance either of the two, instead opting for the "Shadowcapture Antimatter Overstate Engine," bringing it to lv30 as well.

The reason was simple enough: on reaching lv30, unlike the incremental improvement within the same rank from lv30 to lv31, the "Shadowcapture Antimatter Overstate Engine" experienced a rank jump, with significant boosts to its energy supply and drive capability. It would provide Cang Qiong with higher cruising speed and flexibility, offering the highest value for the cost at that moment.

With these enhancements, the attributes of Cang Qiong saw a significant and comprehensive boost. The three components enhanced to the Third Rank were frighteningly powerful.

Shadowcapture Antimatter Overstate Engine lv30

Quality: Purple

Feature: An additional 80% increase in energy supply efficiency

Consumption: 180/s

Energy Supply: 1512/s

Post-overload Buffer: 20 minutes

Energy Pool: 60000 points (able to store 60000 points of energy)

Convertible: {Shadowcapture Reactor}

UpRank Requirement: 15 strands of Floating Land Origin (Third-Rank), 30000 Spectral Energy Points, 10 Life Cores (Third-Rank), 16 Titanium Crystals.

...

Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator lv30

Quality: Orange

Feature: Shield value additionally increased by 115%

Feature 2: Shield defense value doubled

Consumption: 350/s (Spectral Energy Points)

Defence: 159,600

Shield Value: 4,120,000/4,120,000

Charge: 20s; Post-overload Buffer: 30 minutes

UpRank Requirement: 20 strands of Third-Rank Floating Land Origin, 40,000 Spectral Energy Points, 350 tons of Mercury Crystal, 32 Titanium Crystals

...

Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon lv30

Quality: Orange

Feature: Mixed Hollow Extreme Yang Sword Intent Divine Light

Feature 2: Main Cannon might increased by 115%

Consumption: 3000 per use (Spectral Energy Points)

Attack: 490,200

Charge: 4s;

UpRank Requirement: 20 strands of Third-Rank Floating Land Origin, 35,000 Spectral Energy Points, 350 tons of Sunflame Ore, 32 Titanium Crystals

Satisfied, Song Chi closed down the attributes of the three components and once again tallied up the remaining funds he had on hand.

Only 110 strands of Second-Rank Floating Land Origin remained, 150 strands of Third-Rank Floating Land Origin, 20 strands of Fourth-Rank Floating Land Origin, and, in addition, 25 Titanium Crystals.

Considering this, Song Chi turned his gaze to the Heavenly Eye Skyscan Radar. With only 110 strands of the Second-Rank Floating Land Origin left, there was barely enough for one more enhancement, and the importance of the radar to a warship needs no further explanation.

[Do you want to spend 50 strands of Second-Rank Floating Land Origin + 20,000 Spectral Energy Points to upgrade the Heavenly Eye Skyscan Radar from lv29 to lv30?]

"Confirm!"

Following his confirmation, the Heavenly Eye Skyscan Radar was successfully enhanced to lv30.

Looking at its attributes after reaching lv30, its detection range increased from 240 light-hours to 480 light-hours, and its precision went from 260 to 300.

Last was its feature "Star Chart Collector," which had a collection range 100 times that of the detection range, meaning the diameter it could generate star charts for reached 12 light-years, a significant improvement from the previous 3 light-years.

With this, the latest round of enhancements for the Cangqiong was essentially complete. After enhancing the Cangqiong, he went ahead and pulled the Zhu Tian Ruins Market from lv15 to lv16 and also enhanced the Spectral Energy Protective Array, the All-Attributes Cultivation Room, and the Ultra Long-Distance Space Gate Random Deployment Platform to lv16, further advancing their features.

(PS: There are too many data points, so they are not all listed here to avoid suspicion of padding the word count.)

After all that was done, Song Chi exited the Ruins Market. He then made a trip to Jiangyuan City to hand over the 400 strands of Second-Rank and 50 strands of Third-Rank Floating Land Origin to his uncle.

Dongjiang Community, home.

Having just completed over ten hours of deep sleep, Song Chi was now refreshed and back in prime condition.

After having lunch and bidding goodbye to his parents, he left home. Once outside the community, he quickly summoned the Cangqiong and headed straight for The Vault of Heaven.

With the Ruins Market transactions complete and the Cangqiong strengthened to its short-term limit, and having waited for over two months already, Song Chi could no longer hold back and shot straight for the Starry Sea space region beyond the White Tower Floating Land.

Upon reaching a suitable Star Domain, he immediately commenced a new exploration of the Alien Star Domain.

Hum hum hum

Amid the faint vibrational noise, the Cangqiong officially completed the charging process for the Alien Star Domain deployment. The very next second Song Chi was enveloped in a strong sense of weightlessness.

At the same time, he was inwardly exclaiming:

"Buluo Civilization Ruins, I hope you won't disappoint me!"

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read