Half an hour passed quickly, and the brightness in Song Chi's eyes gradually dimmed, his complexion turning pale.
"Could it really be such bad luck, to be thrown into a Starry Sea Hollow Zone on my first exploration of the Star Domain?"
The vast shattering of the multiverse that occurred a billion years ago indeed left countless cosmic fragments, but the Shattered Starry Sea was so vast—immeasurably so in light-years—that the cosmic fragments scattered throughout the Starry Sea couldn't completely cover it, hence the so-called Starry Sea Hollow Zones were created.
Generally speaking, the various Starry Sea Civilizations describe those Star Domains which span over ten thousand light-years in diameter and lack internal structures like Floating Lands, asteroid belts, small fragment belts, or possess only a minimal number of such structures, as Starry Sea Hollow Zones.
Such regions are usually places all Starry Sea Civilizations are reluctant to step foot into, for a lack of celestial structures also means the extreme scarcity of various resources.
If Song Chi were indeed placed in such a Star Domain, then he could only consider himself unlucky.
However, the reality wasn't so grim. After cruising at lightspeed for over an hour, Cang Qiong finally detected a sizable fragment belt on the spatial radar.
Seeing this, Song Chi quickly redirected the shuttle's course, heading straight for the fragment belt.
Even though among the various resource points, the value of a small fragment belt was the least-significant—not only compared to Floating Lands but also far less than asteroid belts—Song Chi was quite excited.
According to the official authoritative data from Torch Human Civilization, even though the mortality rate for Torch Warships during their first exploration of an Alien Star Domain is only 5%, beyond this tiny mortality rate, more than 70% of the Torch Warships that return from their missions do so without any gains.
Thus, Song Chi was very clear about how precious this fragment belt he discovered was.
Even though he knew full well that where fragment belts appeared, a Starry Sea Floating Land would definitely exist somewhere not too far away, Song Chi had no intention of searching for this unknown Floating Land. His goal was very clear, aimed directly at this fragment belt.
As a Torch Warship that had just recently merged, even with the support of his parents and a round of enhancement upgrades beforehand, within the vast Starry Sea that started at light-years, this was but a drop in the bucket.
One must understand that when textbooks say "near a small fragment, there must be a Starry Sea Floating Land," the term "not too far away" is actually relative. In reality, the distance is generally beyond what a Spectral Shuttle could reach within twenty-four hours.
Attempting to investigate that unknown Floating Land would likely result in running out of the 24-hour exploration time before even obtaining the precise coordinates.
Even if he were lucky enough to reach the unknown Floating Land, the delay would not leave him much time to scavenge for resources, so it is better to stay and explore the current fragment belt.
Even though the resources in the fragment belt indeed couldn't compare in rarity to those found on planet belts and Floating Lands, right now this was something Song Chi could truly lay his hands on.
Moreover, one mustn't forget that in the Ruins Market there was also the Furious Tiger Mining Cart; if the unit price wasn't comparable, then he would make up for it in quantity.
Soon, Cang Qiong successfully reached the periphery of the fragment belt and confirmed it was indeed the small fragment belt as introduced in the textbooks. Song Chi suppressed his eagerness.
First, he took out the "Basic Duchy Civilian Exoskeleton" stored in the shuttle's warehouse and put it on. Then, he activated the sole special component on Cang Qiong, the "Fire Peony Soldier Effigy Tree."
After consuming a full thousand Spectral Energy Points from the Spectral Energy Pool, ten Fire Peony Soldier Figurines, each over two meters tall and exuding a fiery red hue, were summoned.
Looking at the ten soldier figurines standing neatly before him, their presence burning intensely like fire, a hint of satisfaction appeared in Song Chi's eyes.
These ten first-rank Fire Peony Soldier Figurines would provide the support he needed for the upcoming exploration of the small fragment belt. Although they were only at the beginning of the first rank, even when encountering up to five first-rank Alien Species, they were more than enough to ensure Cang Qiong's safety.
[Name: Fire Peony Soldier Figurine]
[Quality: White]
[Rank: First Rank (Upper limit Second Rank)]
[Level: lv10]
[Active Ability: None]
[Passive Ability: Fiery Intensity (As a Fire Attribute Soldier Figurine, attacks carry extra burn damage)]
[Explanation: A product of some lost civilization, of quite ordinary quality.]
Ordering the ten Fire Peony Soldier Figurines to guard evenly around himself, Song Chi's glabella flashed with Ghost Light, and in the next second, the Cangqiong below his feet suddenly disappeared, taken into the Ancestral Torch aperture at his brow.
The next second, Song Chi and the ten Fire Peony Soldier Figurines were all exposed in the external starry space, and a wave of discomfort instantly swept over his body, instinctively holding his breath.
As a member of the Starry Sea Human Race with only lv4 in Guidance Technique and still at Zero Rank life level, Song Chi couldn't adapt to the special environment of star space; only life forms above First Rank could stay in interstellar space for extended periods.
Luckily, there was no gravity in starry space, and preliminary detection had shown that there were no special spores or floating viruses present, so the eleven figures were quietly suspended there.
Ordering the Fire Peony Soldier Figurines to wait in place, Song Chi's figure quickly vanished, and two minutes later, when he reappeared, he once again summoned the Cang Qiong.
However, by this time, several large objects had appeared in the cabin of the Cang Qiong.
In the cabin, after fitting the "Mining Cart Specialized Prospecting Instrument" onto the "Furious Tiger Type 1 Floating Land Mining Cart" alongside two Fire Peony Soldier Figurines, Song Chi controlled the Cang Qiong, slowly entering the small Fragment Belt ahead.
This Fragment Belt stretched for tens of thousands of kilometers, filled with large and small stellar fragments, where a slight mishap could cause collisions, making lightspeed cruise like before impossible.
Fortunately, it wasn't necessary to scout fragment by fragment. The onboard artificial intelligence of the previously loaded Furious Tiger Mining Cart would automatically conduct detection. If there were special mineral resources within ten kilometers of the Cang Qiong, the vehicle's AI would promptly issue a reminder.
Advancing slowly, the vehicle's AI occasionally sent alerts, but Song Chi had yet to instruct the Cang Qiong to stop.
"Radiation response for 'black copper' detected on the fragment at the left-hand coordinates xxxx, preliminarily estimated at around one hundred kilograms."
"Radiation response for 'fine iron' detected on the medium fragment ahead at coordinates xxxx, preliminarily estimated at around fifty kilograms."
"Radiation response for 'gold' detected on the left-hand coordinates..., preliminarily estimated at around two hundred kilograms."
...
Though the vehicle's AI issued numerous prompts, they were mostly for common resources, which were pitifully scarce. Not to mention ton-level reserves, there wasn't even 300 kilograms or more, so they were simply not worth mining.
One should note that each stop for the Spectral Shuttle, deploying the Furious Tiger Mining Cart to start mining, would take at least half an hour, even more than an hour would not be surprising. Thus, spending such a long time to mine a couple of hundred kilograms of ordinary mineral resources, worth less than a wisp of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, was incredibly uneconomical.
As for towing the fragments containing the ore directly back to the shuttle, sorry, that was a function reserved for Spectral Warships and above, the exclusive purview of Torch Warships.
(Spectral Shuttle, Spectral Airship, Spectral Warship...)