```
The reason is simple: It is now afternoon, and there are less than 20 hours until the assembly time tomorrow morning. Once the spatial gate launcher is activated, the spatial gate deployed will last for 24 hours.
In other words, if he opens the Ruins Market now, there will be a conflict with the exploration of the Alien Star Domain scheduled for tomorrow morning.
As the Ruins Market Lord, he could absolutely control the Ruins Market, and as long as no First Rank or higher beings appear, he can completely maintain order. But all of this is predicated on his presence within the Ruins Market.
If he were to leave halfway through, there's no telling how chaotic the entire Ruins Market space would become.
Besides, he still has many things to prepare for now; tomorrow marks the first exploration of the Shattered Starry Sea, so he must be fully prepared.
Moreover, he still has quite a few ideas about the Ruins Market beneath his feet that he needs to verify one by one.
No sooner said than done, Song Chi used the Ruins Market token to enter and exit several times, each time carrying different items with him.
Water bottles, backpacks, chairs...
After ten minutes, he had his first answer: Anything he could lift and hold in his hands could be brought into this Ruins Market space. Conversely, items that exceeded his ability to carry could not be brought in.
Having reached this conclusion, he quickly walked to a previously visited stall area, one of the few vacant areas in the Ruins Market. Even though a 10x10 space was not that large, it was more than sufficient for a Spectral Shuttle, which did not exceed 7 meters in length.
That's right, this time Song Chi was attempting to see if he could summon a Spectral Shuttle within the Ruins Market.
Under his full control, spectral energy rapidly converged towards the space between his eyebrows.
"Hmm?"
Feeling the movement at his brow, Song Chi's heart filled with joy; he had successfully opened the Ancestral Torch.
Soon, a ray of light shot out from between his eyebrows, and then the compact Spectral Shuttle appeared out of thin air in the vacant area before him.
"You can summon the Spectral Shuttle within the Ruins Market!!"
With this result, Song Chi's excitement was uncontrollable.
Thus, not only could he enter the Ruins Market in the event of danger, using it as a lifeline, but the many ideas he had also seemed to have quite a bit of room for maneuver.
What is the most troublesome issue for a Torch Warship when exploring the Alien Star Domain?
Many people would probably say "alien civilization," because a strong encounter with an Alien Species almost always results in the destruction of the warship and loss of life.
But in reality, that's not the case; the actual problem that "every" Torch Warship captain agonizes over is the warship's storage space. The physical size of the warship is fixed, and naturally, there's a limit to what it can carry.
Because of this limitation, every captain has to meticulously calculate before they begin exploring the Alien Star Domain and again when they are about to return from their exploration in order to utilize every inch of space in the cargo hold to its maximum.
As a result, large mechanical equipment like the Tiger-type Floating Land Mining Cart, Hornet-class combat drones, and the Land Warfare-type Exploration Robot are generally difficult to bring along.
After all, even if they are taken to the Alien Star Domain and there is a significant harvest, the return journey becomes a problem: should those bulky items be brought back, or should they be discarded in order to make room for the harvested resources?
These pieces of equipment aren't cheap, and if they're simply abandoned, it would be fine if the resources brought back are of high value—earning perhaps only half the profit. But it would be regrettable if the value of the harvested resources ends up being less than the value of the abandoned equipment.
Yet if they're not discarded, the Torch Warship only has so much space, so how many resources can it really bring back?
Therefore, this has always been an unsolvable conflict, and all Torch Warship captains suffer headaches over this issue.
Because of this, the prices for spatial folding/expansion components for warships have been driven up to astronomical levels. Even white quality spatial components for warships often sell for the price of blue or even purple components, and they're still priceless in the market.
Just before this, on his way home, Song Chi was going over the small space of the Spectral Shuttle over and over again, hoping to make the perfect plan before deploying to the Alien Star Domain tomorrow. But now it seems there's no need to fret over these matters anymore.
The Ruins Market space, where a Torch Warship can be freely summoned, is practically a perfect backup storage space, and a very large one at that.
Although there are restrictions on carrying items, large objects cannot be brought in by an individual. But the Torch Warship is different; it can be stored in the Ancestral Torch. With that, there's a lot of room for maneuver.
It's entirely possible to store the necessary large machinery in a Torch Warship, then store the warship in the Ancestral Torch, and once inside the Ruins Market, summon the Torch Warship. This way, the limit on individual item carrying can be perfectly bypassed.
Plus, during future explorations of the Alien Star Domain, the same strategy can be applied. Using the Torch Warship as a vessel, resources that normally couldn't be taken can be stored in the Ruins Market, significantly enhancing the harvest from each exploration.
```
Of course, all these ideas still hinged on one assumption, that after he was dispatched to the Alien Star Domain, he would still be able to freely open and enter the Ruins Market; otherwise, everything would be off the table.
In the midst of rapidly swirling thoughts, a sudden alert sound brought Song Chi back to reality.
[Please name the Ruins Market as soon as possible!]
Hearing this, he remembered that there was indeed such a matter, and it was not just the Ruins Market beneath his feet that needed a name, but also the Spectral Shuttle before him.
Shaking his head to suppress the multitude of thoughts in his mind, Song Chi shifted his attention to the Ruins Market and the Spectral Shuttle in front of him.
After pondering for about ten seconds, two words suddenly popped into his mind.
"Zhu Tian."
In his past life, he had read not a small number of Xianxia novels, and since the Ruins Market beneath his feet could connect to various Star Domains in the Shattered Starry Sea at random, the name "Zhu Tian Ruins Market" couldn't be more suitable.
[Zhu Tian Ruins Market, naming successful.]
After the Zhu Tian Ruins Market, it was the turn of the Spectral Shuttle, but this time it tormented Song Chi for quite a while.
"Starry Sea!"
[Sorry, that name already exists, please choose another.]
"Crossing!"
[Sorry, that name…]
"Galaxy."
[Sorry…]
...
Due to the large base number of Torch Warships within Torch Human Civilization, many names had already been registered.
"Shenzhou!"
[Sorry…]
"Cang Qiong."
[Cang Qiong is not yet in use. Are you sure you want to name it "Cang Qiong"?]
"Kunlun…"
"Oh? Is it available?"
His tone paused, and then Song Chi immediately clicked confirm.
Seeing the naming was successful, he shifted his gaze to start examining the specific attributes of his Spectral Shuttle.
He hadn't been able to look at all the attributes of the Spectral Shuttle still because of the interruption by his old classmate, Yang Minghui.
[Name: Cang Qiong]
[Model: Torch-Spectral Shuttle]
[Level: lv0]
[Basic Components: Colorless Torch Warship Armor lv0, Spectral Main Cannon lv0, Spectral Secondary Cannon lv0, Warship Armor lv0, Spectral Engine lv0, Spectral Shield lv0, Patrol Radar lv0, Spectral Cultivation Room lv0 (8/8)]
[Special Components: None (0/2)]
...
```
His gaze still lingered on the basic components section; the Spectral Shuttle was completely a blank slate at the moment, and there wasn't much to see in the other categories either.
For instance, in the special components category, the recently integrated Torch Warship only had two initial special component slots, which would only increase as the Spectral Shuttle was upgraded.
Of course, the number of slots that could be added later depended on the Quality of the Seed of Torch; the higher the Quality of the Seed, the more slots that would be added naturally.
This was yet another key reason why Torch Human Civilization placed so much importance on the Quality of the Seed of Torch—it not only determined the enhancement ceiling of the Torch Warships but also the relative combat power among warships of the same level.
Just imagine, two Torch Warships both at level Lv10, the one with the White Fire Seed could potentially carry ten kinds of special components, while the warship with a Colorless Fire Seed might at most have only six special component slots—a difference of nearly double—making their combat power incomparable.
His focus sharpened, and soon the detailed attributes of these modules appeared one by one.
Spectral Main Cannon Lv0
Quality: Colorless
Consumption: 10 per shot (Spectral Energy Points)
Might: 11
Charge: 5s; Buffer: 10s
UpRank Requirement: One strand of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), 100 Spectral Energy Points.
…
Spectral Cannon Lv0
Quality: Colorless
Consumption: 1 per shot (Spectral Energy Points)
Might: 1.1
No need for buffer or charge
UpRank Requirement: 100 Spectral Energy Points
…
Warship Armor Lv0
Quality: Colorless
Consumption: 1/s (Spectral Energy Points)
Defence: 11
UpRank Requirement: One strand of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), 100 Spectral Energy Points, 1 ton of Fine Iron.
…
Spectral Engine Lv0
Quality: Colorless
Consumption: 1/s (Spectral Energy Points)
Energy Supply: 10/s (Spectral Energy Points)
Post-overload Buffer: 30 minutes
Spectral Energy Pool: 1000 Points (can store 1000 Spectral Energy Points)
UpRank Requirement: One strand of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), 100 Spectral Energy Points, 5 Life Cores (Zero Rank).
…
Spectral Shield Lv0
Quality: Colorless
Consumption: 3/s (Spectral Energy Points)
Defence: 11
Shield Value: 110/110
Charge: 30s; Post-overload Buffer: 1 hour
UpRank Requirement: One strand of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), 100 Spectral Energy Points, 5 Life Cores (Zero Rank)
…
Patrol Radar Lv0
```
```
Quality: Colorless
Consumption: 1/s (Spectral Energy Points)
Detection Range: 1 light second
Precision: 10
UpRank Requirement: 1 strand of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), 100 Spectral Energy Points.
...
Spectral Energy Cultivation Platform lv0
Quality: Colorless
Consumption: 2/s (Spectral Energy Points)
Cultivation Bonus: 2 times (200%) {Only effective for Zero Rank life entities}
UpRank Requirement: 5 strands of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), 10 Life Cores (Zero Rank)
After checking the data for each component, Song Chi didn't linger, as these were only basic data, which were generally covered in past studies. The only thing that caught his attention was the Spectral Energy Cultivation Platform at the end.
As one of the core components of a Torch Warship, it's also the fundamental reason why everyone in the Torch Human Civilization is obsessed with owning a personal Torch Warship.
What is the ultimate purpose of risking their lives to explore the vast and boundless Alien Star Domain?
Is it merely for the pleasure of experiencing the exotic charms of alien territories? Of course not... The spirit of exploration that drives Torch citizens has always been about the rare and fascinating resources found within Alien Star Domains.
So, what is the ultimate purpose of plundering and collecting these resources?
Is it just to enhance the Torch Warship? Not exactly, or at least not entirely. Strengthening a Torch Warship is inevitable, but that's just the surface. Fundamentally, what every Torch Ship Captain pursues is the sublimation of their own life level.
To put it bluntly, it's immortality, to live longer.
As is well known, practicing the Guidance Technique to high levels can induce a transformation in life levels, and each transformation extends the cultivator's lifespan to some degree.
However, as the level of the Guidance Technique increases, the difficulty of cultivation becomes increasingly terrifying. Just triggering the first transformation of life levels is as hard as reaching the heavens, let alone subsequent life sublimations.
But this problem can be perfectly solved by the Spectral Energy Cultivation Platform bound to each Torch Warship.
The Spectral Energy Cultivation Platform greatly accelerates the cultivation of the Spectral Energy Guidance Technique, allowing all Torch Ship Captains to enhance their Guidance Technique levels at double, triple, or even higher speeds, thereby repeatedly inducing transformations in their own life levels.
The higher the enhancement level of the Torch Warship, the better the effect of its bound Spectral Energy Cultivation Platform.
Therefore, the thing that Torch Ship Captains really care about is not the enhancement of the Torch Warship itself, but the Spectral Energy Cultivation Platform that comes with the warship.
Looking at the Spectral Energy Cultivation Platform on the Spectral Shuttle, Song Chi suddenly thought of the All-Attributes Cultivation Room in the Ruins Market, which seemed to have a 400% cultivation bonus for Spectral Energy, twice that of the current platform.
Previously, he had been mostly preoccupied by the "Ultra Long-Distance Space Gate Random Deployment Platform," and hadn't paid much attention. But now, thinking back, the excitement he had just managed to suppress surged up like a tide.
Because he was very clear about what this meant.
It meant that his future cultivation speed for the Spectral Energy Guidance Technique would far exceed that of other Torch Ship Captains of his rank.
It meant he would have a higher chance of improving his life level and gaining more lifespan.
It also meant that even if he couldn't enhance the quality of the Fire Seed of his own Torch Warship, it wouldn't affect his personal cultivation in the slightest.
Of course, having said that, Song Chi wouldn't give up on his Torch Warship unless absolutely necessary. After all, future enhancements and introductions of new products in the Ruins Market would require substantial resources, and relying solely on the monthly Ruins Market trade was far from enough.
Moreover, the Ruins Market itself didn't have strong fire support like the Torch Warship, which could suppress an entire Starry Sea Floating Land after reaching a certain level of strengthening.
Thinking of this, Song Chi quickly outlined his subsequent development plan.
Using the Ruins Market as the base and the Torch Warship as an auxiliary, one to better and more quickly facilitate the sublimation of life levels, the other to provide future fire support. Both progressing side by side without interfering with each other.
After clarifying this primary and secondary relationship, Song Chi shifted his attention to strengthening the Spectral Shuttle.
Tomorrow is the first exploration of Alien Star Domains, and even though it's a welfare exploration, the necessary enhancements still have to be made. "A stitch in time saves nine," is a principle that Song Chi understood.
With a flash of Ghost Light at his brow, a sphere of light belonging to the "Fire Peony Soldier Effigy Tree" special component was taken out from the Ancestral Torch.
Song Chi then installed it into one of the two special component slots available on the Spectral Shuttle, and quickly its properties emerged.
Fire Peony Soldier Effigy Tree lv0
Quality: White
Consumption: 50 per figurine (Spectral Energy Points)
Effect: Summons ten lv0 Fire Peony Soldier Figurines. The figurines are undying and can exist indefinitely. If they die, they can only be resummoned after 24 hours.
UpRank Requirement: 5 strands of Floating Land Origin (Zero Rank), 500 Spectral Energy Points.
```
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