"Attention, all successful Awakeners, please follow your homeroom teachers to the Torch Building. Those who have not awakened, please leave the school within one hour."
A deep voice emanated from the side of the teachers' office building, prompting the students to turn their heads. They saw a figure leap from the top of the office building, with clearly visible dark Spectral Energy erupting around it. The next second, a circle of black flames popped beneath their feet, and the figure vanished directly above the office building.
When they reappeared, they were standing in mid-air above all the students.
Zhu Yaokui, the principal of the First Torch Academy in Jiangyuan City, was said to have a High Level Torch Warship under his command and had already advanced to a third-tier life form. He had served as the principal of the First Academy for one hundred and fifty years, commanding immense respect.
Feeling the almost imperceptible pressure from above, Song Chi felt as if he were carrying a heavy burden. Although his mastery of the Guidance Technique had reached level 4 and didn't pose much of a difficulty, he was very aware that this was the result of Principal Zhu Yaokui deliberately restraining his aura.
If he were to fully release the aura of his third-tier life form, all the students present would likely collapse to the ground, and it could even cause their bones to burst.
Song Chi's breathing was a bit heavy, yet there was no discomfort on his face. Instead, his eyes betrayed a burning eagerness.
Standing on air as if riding the wind, the extraordinary beings that all the people of Blue Star had fantasized about were appearing before him. Even though he had seen it many times before, he still couldn't calm the excitement in his heart.
...
With the principal overseeing personally, both students and teachers acted with remarkable efficiency, and a group of nearly two hundred people quickly made their way toward the Torch Building.
Catching a glimpse with the corner of his eye, Song Chi noticed that there were only sixteen students in his class who had successfully awakened the Seed of Torch, among whom only two possessed the white Seed of Torch; aside from Sun Hao, the other was Wang Yuan. The rest of the fourteen had the Colorless Seed of Torch.
On the second floor of the Torch Building, in Spectral Cultivation Room Number 5, under the direction of their homeroom teacher Yang Minghui, the sixteen students of class 5 lay down in separate Spectral Transformation Pods one after another.
Once everyone was ready, Homeroom Teacher Yang Minghui pressed the start button, and the pods slowly closed until they were completely sealed,
while a ripple of dark Spectral Energy quickly filled the pods' interior space.
Seeing this, Song Chi was not nervous; he had already learned all these steps before. This was the necessary Spectral Transformation required after awakening the Seed of Torch.
After awakening the Seed of Torch, it would allow the Awakener, and the Torch Warship they were bound to, the ability to control Spectral Energy.
As one of the many energies in the Shattered Starry Sea, the special property of Spectral Energy lies in its inclusivity, being able to convert the vast majority of known energies into homogenous Spectral Energy.
By doing so, Torchlight Humanity can essentially convert all sorts of resources from the Starry Sea for their own use, thereby quickly enhancing themselves. This has been the underlying reason for the rapid expansion of the Torch Human Civilization and the continuous growth of its territory.
However, when initially awakened, although Awakeners have successfully controlled Spectral Energy, their bodies can't adapt to this new energy in a short period, causing various rejection reactions.
Only after the body is bathed in Spectral Energy for an extended period, transforming the body into a Spectral Energy Body, can this issue be perfectly resolved. And the Spectral Transformation Pods are products designed to accelerate this process.
With his eyes tightly closed and palms spread open, Song Chi cycled the Guidance Technique he knew by heart within his body.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but a swelling sensation began in his brow. Song Chi was delighted by this; it signified that the Spectral Transformation was nearly complete.
For it was only when the body wholly became a Spectral Energy Body that the Ancestral Torch could be nurtured in the brow — the dwelling place of the internal Seed of Torch and the future storage location for the Torch Warship.
Minutes later, all sixteen students from class 5 had completed their Spectral Transformations and successfully established their Ancestral Torches.
"Alright, follow me, there's one last step: merging with the Warship."
"Only once the Seed of Torch successfully merges with an ordinary Warship, transforming it into a Torch Warship, can you be considered a truly qualified heir of the Torch legacy."
...
Behind the Torch Building was a huge base for conventional Warships, and all the students from Jiangyuan City who had successfully awakened the Seed of Torch in the Advanced Torch Academies needed to merge with their initial Torch Warships here.
Scout Class Starry Sea Shuttle hangar, nearly two hundred people gathered here, orderly engaging in the Torch fusion. There wasn't much choice in the matter - all bearers of the Seed of Torch could only fuse with one model of the warship, the Scout Class Starry Sea Shuttle.
The Torch - Spectral Shuttle, is also the standard model for all initial Torch Warships.
"Song Chi!"
At the call, Song Chi immediately stepped forward.
In front of a standard Scout Class Shuttle, Song Chi awkwardly directed the flow of Spectral Energy within his body, concentrating it at the center of his forehead. Soon, a beam of Ghost Light emanated from his brow and entered directly into the shuttle's body in front of him.
The next second, a strong pulling force transmitted from the Ancestral Torch within his forehead, and under this force, the shuttle in front of him began to shrink slowly, eventually becoming the size of a fingernail and drilling into Song Chi's Ancestral Torch.
Meanwhile, Song Chi rapidly closed his eyes, starting to sense the situation within the Ancestral Torch.
In the exact center of Chaos Space, a strand of black flame hovered, while above it, the Scout Class Shuttle was undergoing continuous scorching from the black flame.
After a few minutes, a flash of brilliance sped by Song Chi's eyes, and an Attributes panel appeared beside the small shuttle.
[Name: None (Please name as soon as possible)]
[Model: Torch - Spectral Shuttle]
[Level: lv0]
[Basic Components: Colorless Torch Warship Body lv0, Spectral Main Cannon lv0, Spectral Secondary Cannon lv0, Warship Armor lv0, Spectral Engine lv0, Spectral Shield lv0, Void Radar lv0, Spectral Cultivation Room lv0 (8/8)]
[Additional Components: None (0/2)]
[Spectral Energy Pool: 100/1000]
[Supplies: None]
His gaze scanning over this Attributes panel, Song Chi directly skipped the first three lines, focusing on the Basic Components section.
As the name suggests, Basic Components are structures all newly fused Spectral Shuttles have, akin to standard equipment.
Firstly, the Colorless Torch Warship Body doesn't need much explanation; it links to the Seed of Torch within the Ancestral Aperture, and as long as the Seed of Torch advances, it will upgrade accordingly.
For the Seed of Torch to advance from level 0 to level 1, 5 strands of Floating Land Origin and 200 Spectral Energy Points are needed.
Just as Song Chi was preparing to continue looking further down, the urging voice of the old teacher, Yang Minghui, timely sounded, and Song Chi could only reluctantly withdraw his Spiritual awareness from the Ancestral Aperture and give up his spot for the next student to fuse.
Soon, all the Awakener students had completed the fusion without any incidents of potential fusion failure, which relieved all the Academy teachers.
Though the possibility of failing the Torch fusion is very slim, almost negligible,
once a fusion failure occurs, the bearer of the Seed of Torch must wait for a one-month buffer period before attempting to fuse again.
But the issue lies precisely in this aspect because after the awakening of the Seed of Torch, only the initial three days are a special protection period. Any explorations conducted in the Alien Star Domain during this period are significantly less dangerous.
It is like a special benefit given to newcomers. As long as one does not deliberately seek death, there's basically no risk to life. In addition to gaining experience in exploring the Alien Star Domain at no cost, one could also harvest additional resources. For the newly awakened rookie captains, this is an opportunity not to be missed.
But if one fails to fuse with the warship, that entire one-month buffer period is immutable, and they could only watch helplessly as this one-time benefit slips away, lamenting what could have been.