Originally, Song Chi hadn't planned on stopping, but the enhancement of the Orange Glory Quality Component consumed such a frightening amount of resources that even the nearly 4,000 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin he'd earned not long ago couldn't withstand such lavish spending.
After reaching First Rank, the resources needed for each level of enhancement became even more exaggerated. Considering the actual price of First Rank Floating Land Origin, it would typically take at least 400 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin to start, and currently, Song Chi truly couldn't afford to enhance any further. After all, he still had other components to enhance, and he needed to reserve some startup capital for the second Ruins Market trade happening in a month.
Moreover, he didn't have enough First Rank Floating Land Origin on hand. Unlike the Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, the amount of Floating Land Origin from First Rank upwards was in steep decline. The Floating Land cores from the vast majority of Starry Sea Floatlands could produce Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, including those obtained from killing creatures from Alien Star Domains.
But to stably produce First Rank or higher Floating Land Origin, you would need at least a Rank 2 or above Starry Sea Floating Land, and even then, the annual yield wasn't much.
The higher the level of the Starry Sea Floating Lands, the rarer they became. More than 90% of the Floating Lands in the Shattered Starry Sea were either Unranked or Rank 1. White Tower Floating Land, for example, was a Rank 1 Floating Land, but as a life-type Floating Land, its value was the highest among all Rank 1 Floating Lands.
...
Fortunately, the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator enhanced to First Rank was quite impressive, with attributes far surpassing the previously enhanced lv10 Spectral Shield.
Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator lv10
Quality: Orange
Feature: Shield Value additionally increased by 60%
Feature 2: Shield Defence Value doubled
Consumption: 40/s (Spectral Energy Points)
Defence: 380
Shield Value: 6080/6080
Charge: 20s; Post-overload Buffer: 40 minutes
UpRank Requirement: 20 strands of Floating Land Origin (First Rank), 5,000 Spectral Energy Points, 20 tons of Mercury Crystal
Just the shield value alone was a full six times more than the previous Spectral Shield, highlighting the power of an Orange Quality Component.
Following the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator, it would have been Goldrock Ship Armor's turn, a White Quality component of the warship's defense. However, with the Orange Glory Quality Dark Matter Energy Shield already installed, the priority to enhance the warship armor wasn't so high anymore—at least it wouldn't be needed in the short term.
So Song Chi smoothly shifted his focus to the Spectral Engine. With the introduction of an Orange Quality Energy Shield—such an energy-intensive component—the lv7 Spectral Engine he had was entirely insufficient. After all, just the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator component alone consumed an impressive 40 Spectral Energy Points per second while the lv7 Spectral Engine could only supply 27 points per second.
For Song Chi, who was extremely cautious about surviving and wished to keep the energy shield of the Cang Qiong active at all times, this was utterly unacceptable.
After several dozen seconds, he had upgraded the Spectral Engine to lv14.
Spectral Engine lv14
Quality: Colorless
Consumption: 8/s (Spectral Energy Points)
Energy Supply: 68/s (Spectral Energy Points)
Post-overload Buffer: 20 minutes
Youneng Pool: 5,000 Points (can store up to 5,000 Spectral Energy Points)
UpRank Requirement: 140 strands of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), 2,300 Spectral Energy Points, 70 Life Cores (Zero Rank).
With such an enhancement, the supply and demand balance could barely be maintained even when all of Cang Qiong's components were operating beyond full capacity.
However, the result was that Song Chi's resources shrank by nearly 400 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin once again.
(Note: The market exchange rate between First Rank Floating Land Origin and Zero Rank Floating Land Origin is 1:10.)
Looking at just around 2,600 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin left in hand, Song Chi, who had wanted to continue investing resources into the basic components of the white Torch warship and the Fire Peony Soldier Effigy Tree, eventually extinguished that thought.
After all, the newly replaced two components were basic and didn't need to occupy special component slots. The First Rank Fire Peony Soldier Figurines were perfectly adequate for now, especially since another major resource consumer was waiting for him.
He added the differential profit from the minerals bought in the Ruins Market to the shuttle. These were to be sold on the black market later, and then Song Chi retracted the Cang Qiong back into the Ancestral Torch.
At the deepest part of Zhu Tian Ruins Market, Song Chi began the further upgrading of the market.
He first spent 300 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin to increase the market's level from lv5 to lv9.
[Name: Zhu Tian Ruins Market]
[Ruins Market Master: Song Chi]
[Level: lv9]
[Specifications: 460mX460m]
[Basic Configuration: 28 vacant shops, a 70mx70m street stall area, one inn with accommodation for 40 people, one lv0 All-Attributes Cultivation Room (efficiency doubled during Spectral Energy cultivation), one lv0 Spectral Energy Protection Formation, and one lv0 Ultra Long-Distance Space Gate Random Deployment Platform.]
[Additional Configuration: None (0/4)]
[Feature: Averting Misfortune (can move freely in the void, avoiding natural disasters instinctively)]
[UpRank Requirement: 200 strands of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), Ruins Market trade volume to reach 10,000 strands of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), personally initiate market trade three times (1/3)]
...
The lv9 Zhu Tian Ruins Market had further expanded in size, with upgrades in the shops, free street stall area, and inn. However, the All-Attributes Cultivation Room, Spectral Energy Protection Formation, and Ultra Long-Distance Space Gate Random Deployment Platform remained unchanged.
Something else took Song Chi by surprise: to upgrade the market to lv10, in addition to the Floating Land Origin and Ruins Market trade volume, they unexpectedly added another condition—the number of times the Ruins Market needed to be opened. This was not overly stringent, but it meant that he was unable again to raise the level of the market in the short term.
Centered between the All-Attributes Cultivation Room and the Ultra Long-Distance Space Gate Random Deployment Platform, Song Chi multitasked and began strengthening both at the same time.
He spent a total of 900 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin to upgrade both to lv9, which greatly enhanced their attributes.
[Name: All-Attributes Cultivation Room]
[Level: lv9]
[Effect: Zero Rank beings practicing in the Cultivation Room will experience a 290% increase in cultivation speed, which will increase to 580% when the cultivator practices Spectral Energy Guidance Technique.]
...
[UpRank Requirement: Ruins Market level lv10, 150 strands of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank)]
————
[Name: Ultra Long-Distance Space Gate Random Deployment Platform]
[Level: lv9]
[Effect: Once activated, it will randomly place 19 Spatial Gates in the Shattered Starry Sea that provide access to and from the Ruins Market. The gates will last for 24 hours and have a buffer time of 720 hours.]
...
[UpRank Requirement: Ruins Market level lv10, 150 strands of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank)]
The resources spent were terrifying, but the effects were undoubtedly excellent.
The lv9 All-Attributes Cultivation Room provided an astounding 580% increase in efficiency when cultivating Spectral Energy Guidance Technique.
And one must know, even on the exclusive Spectral Energy Cultivation Platform of the Torch Warship, the enhancement effect at the same level was only 290%. Seeing this data, Song Chi completely dismissed the idea of strengthening the Spectral Energy Cultivation Platform on the Cang Qiong, as the All-Attributes Cultivation Room was simply too attractive.
The lv9 Spatial Gate Random Deployment Platform increased the number of Spatial Gates that could be placed at a time from 10 to 19, which meant that during the subsequent openings of Ruins Market trade, he would receive more visitors from Alien Races and further increase his profits.
Seeing that he only had about 1400 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin left, Song Chi carefully considered for a moment and chose not to continue strengthening the previously unenhanced Goldrock Ship Armor.
He needed to reserve emergency resources for the second exploration of the Alien Star Domain in twenty-eight days, as well as start-up funds for the second Ruins Market trade in thirty days.
With only 1400 strands of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, which was already pretty tight, using any more would mean that if the second exploration of the Alien Star Domain didn't yield much, it would severely affect his subsequent Ruins Market trade profits. With a more stable income in sight, there was no need to gamble.
Without rushing to experience the high amplification of the All-Attributes Cultivation Room, Song Chi exited Zhu Tian Ruins Market.