The slender figure resembled the humanoid form of the human race, but it had pointed ears. It bowed to the young lady sitting on the blue stone ahead and said,

"Miss, if the information is correct, it must be the one called ’Song Chi’ that Uncle Ancestor Fu invited!"

Upon hearing the name "Song Chi," a flash of brilliance streaked across the young lady’s exquisite eyes.

"Is it the Song Chi who is listed as a candidate on the shortlist?"

"Yes, Miss!"

...

With the active guidance of the personnel below, the Cang Qiong successfully landed in a courtyard. After disembarking from the warship, Song Chi quickly got to the main topic with the individual who posted the invitation, Song Fu.

"Could I try that [Proportional Scaling Instrument] first?"

Song Fu naturally wouldn’t refuse and readily took out the purple component.

Having plenty of Zero Rank and First Rank Floating Land Origins in hand, Song Chi promptly enhanced the component to lv20.

The current scalable multiplier is 60 (30x2).

Seeing this number, Song Chi already had his answer in mind.

Just at the Second Rank and it could scale up to 60 times its size—not to mention what’s possible at the Fourth Rank. Just by enhancing it to the Third Rank, and without exaggerating, a comfortable doubling to a 120 times multiplier should not be difficult.

With a 120 times scaling ratio, it would be possible to reduce those ancient corpses that are nearly ten thousand meters tall to a size of several tens of meters, roughly manageable for the current Cang Qiong to accommodate.

Having confirmed this point, Song Chi began to negotiate further with the other party on the price.

However, he soon heard some not-so-good news from the other side.

"You don’t want Golden Merit Points? You need assistance in completing a fixed-point exploration in the Alien Star Domain?"

Song Chi frowned, his instincts telling him this was by no means an ordinary exploration of the Alien Star Domain.

"What are the details?"

As he suspected, what the other person said next nearly made him turn around and leave.

"A Fourth Rank resource-type Floating Land located within a Star Domain, where a Star Devouring Vine has sprouted—a newly promoted Fourth Rank Star Devouring Vine!"

Song Chi fell silent, not rushing to reply as various pieces of information about the Star Devouring Vine flashed through his mind.

The Star Devouring Vine is a type of plant from the starry space that promotes its own growth by devouring the Origin Core of the Starry Sea Floating Lands. It is highly aggressive and considered one of the more dangerous entities within starry space plants.

With this thought, he slowly shook his head and said,

"Sorry!"

Without hesitation, he directly declined.

The combat power of a Fourth Rank unit was something he had firsthand experience with not long ago, even against one that was severely injured. Despite its wounds, the terror of that Golden Armored Giant Beast remained vivid in his memory.

Even with a new round of great rank enhancements for the Cang Qiong, he still instinctively resisted the idea, unwilling and not quite daring to face a lifeform of this magnitude.

Seeing that Song Chi was about to leave, Song Fu became anxious and hurriedly said,

"Wait, let me finish speaking, old man. That Star Devouring Vine has just ascended to the Fourth Rank for less than ten years, and it has not yet fully mastered the Power of Laws of Devouring!"

Song Chi’s form hesitated instinctively.

As the name implies, the Star Devouring Vine can swiftly devour even the Origin Core of a Starry Sea Floating Land. Upon entering the Fourth Rank, what it naturally controls is the Law of Devouring.

That is also the most troublesome point in dealing with it—more than ninety-nine percent of long-range attacks can be devoured by it, making it impossible to harm its true body.

To inflict serious damage or even extinguish its vitality, one must engage in close combat. Yet, close quarters battle would also mean facing its root stems, tougher than alloy and innumerable, posing an extremely high risk.

However, if it has not yet fully mastered the Law of Devouring, it means there is a chance to attempt to resolve it with long-range attacks, eliminating any unnecessary dangers. Find more chapters on NovelBin.Côm

After pondering for a moment, a thread of doubt appeared in Song Chi’s heart.

"If it is as you say, then why seek the help of outsiders? Don’t tell me about any 24-hour return restrictions; with two hundred years for the Vein Opening of the Ninth Direct Pulse, procuring a few transfer warships should not be too difficult!"

Song Fu’s expression changed, and ultimately he said bitterly,

"Within the Pulse, there is another core clan brother who is nearly five hundred fifty years old..."

He only spoke this sentence, but Song Chi instantly understood the hidden meaning within his words.

Obviously, in this Ninth Direct Pulse, that clan brother’s status was far higher than his. Hence, Song Fu had not disclosed the news about the Star Devouring Vine, as likely even if the vine was killed, the Life Crystals and the heart of the Star Devouring Vine would not be his to claim.

After this explanation, Song Chi tentatively believed the other party’s words and followed up with another question:

"When specifically should we act?"

"The sooner, the better!"

After considering for a while, Song Chi ultimately chose to refuse.

It wasn’t because of the Star Devouring Vine; it was a decision made after much consideration.

First, the other party had neither informed those within the pulse nor their family; if anything went wrong there, he would be truly helpless.

Secondly, now that the Spatial Anchor Point remained on the Blood Barbarian Continent, it wasn’t advisable to set it up directly at his home. Otherwise, there would be no chance of continuing the exploration of the Blood Barbarian Continent.

Well... in the end, it was because the compensation offered was not enough. Merely a Purple Quality "Proportional Scaling Instrument" was not worth the risk he would be taking, nor was it enough to make him give up the chance to explore the Blood Barbarian Continent further.

Seeing that he truly intended to leave, Song Fu’s heart sank, and he gritted his teeth to make another offer:

"How about this, you’re buying high-quality space beacon components, right? I’ll add this ’Holy Cross Beacon’ component. How’s that?"

Song Chi turned to look.

Holy Cross Beacon lv30

Quality: Purple

Feature: An additional pathfinder mark

Consumption: 10,000 per use (Spectral Energy Points)

Available Marks: 1/2

Effect: Fires a pathfinder mark toward the specified coordinates that can last for 24 months, allowing the flagship to be directly placed at these coordinates upon activating the mark in the Alien Star Domain (after one use, the mark will directly become invalid).

Charge: 10s; Buffer Time: 1 year

UpRank Requirement: 10 strands of Third-Rank Floating Land Origin, 30,000 Spectral Energy Points, 10 Third-Rank Life Cores, 21 Titanium Crystals

"A Purple space beacon component!"

Song Chi silently exclaimed in his mind, his heart, which had been set on not getting involved, was once again filled with keen interest.

If it was the "Proportional Scaling Instrument" and "Holy Cross Beacon," two extremely rare Purple Components, then he indeed had quite an interest. After all, these two components combined were worth more than 60 Golden Merit Points, which is equivalent to a half Orange Component.

After pondering for a good while, Song Chi didn’t reply immediately, but instead asked:

"Great-Uncle Song Fu, do you have a Law Stone? Just one will do, I’ll trade Golden Merit Points for it!"

"Of course, I do!"

Song Fu replied swiftly, and his expression changed not a bit, knowing he had lived for over five hundred years, he possessed such composure.

But in his heart, he sighed repeatedly.

"A youngster who made it onto the family’s candidate list sure is no simple character. A Law Stone? Is he planning to enhance a Fourth Rank Component?"

"He’s only Second Rank, and he’s already started enhancing Fourth Rank Components? Sigh, I’m getting old."

Thinking this, he took out a small Law Stone from his person and handed it directly to Song Chi.

"Forget the Golden Merit Points, you youngsters are the future of the family. Go for it!"

Accepting the Law Stone, Song Chi didn’t dither and turned around to summon the Cang Qiong, shooting straight towards the Vault of Heaven.

"Then it’s settled, youngster. Come back in a week and we’ll set out together!"

...

Dragon Spine Continent, Green Moon Lake.

After returning home, Song Chi immediately took out the Law Stone and began the enhancement of the "Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon" component.

To ensure formidable firepower within 24 hours to kill the Star Devouring Vine, it was essential to have the strongest support on the Cang Qiong, which was the "Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon."

[Do you wish to consume 100 strands of Third-Rank Floating Land Origin + 2 strands of Fourth-Rank Floating Land Origin + 1 Law Stone + 60 Titanium Crystals + 1000 tons of Sunflame Ore + 70,000 Spectral Energy Points to upgrade Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon from lv39 to lv40?]

"Confirm!"

With his confirmation, a dazzling orange radiance twinkled within the ship, and the sixth Fourth Rank Component began to emerge on Cang Qiong.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read