https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-173-The-Quality-of-a-Seventh-Tier-Life-Floatland-Above-Red/12833773/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-175-The-Soul-Land-Exploration-Plan-A-Windfall-of-Soulstones/12833779/
Chapter 174: Mining a Mid-Quality Soulstone Vein and Exchanging Merit Points
Chapter 174: Mining a Mid-Quality Soulstone Vein and Exchanging Merit Points
The western slopes of the Soul Fusion Mountain Range, spanning a thousand miles, are still under the control of the Soul Spirit Clan. Otherwise, the Song Clan members, who possess various unique ship components, would have already discovered the hidden mineral veins and begun large-scale mining operations.
Since the area is still controlled by the Soul Spirit Clan, any mining must be conducted without alerting them.
To achieve this, stealth and sound suppression components are essential.
However, not all places are like the cave space, which has a special spatial isolation barrier that prevents any noise from attracting outside attention.
"Hmm... This component looks quite promising!"
Song Chi's eyes lit up as he found a suitable component in the clan's exchange marketplace.
Sound Silence Field Level 0
- Quality: Blue
- Consumption: 500/activation (Void Energy Points)
- Effect: When activated, it creates a silent field around the ship with a 50-meter radius. All sounds within this range are completely suppressed.
- Duration: 1 hour; Cooldown: 48 hours
- Upgrade Requirements: 5 strands of Floating Land Essence (Rank 0), 500 Void Energy Points, 5 Life Nuclei (Rank 0)
- Exchange Price: 5000 Merit Points
After some thought, Song Chi purchased the blue component. Although a 50-meter radius is small, it is only at Level 0. With further enhancements, the range should increase.
As for the insufficient merit points, he could offset them with the soulstones he had on hand once the clan's merit hall delivery personnel arrived.
According to the third-rank Soul Spirit Clan, the mid-quality soulstone vein is at least a small one. If fully mined, it should yield no less than 30,000 mid-quality soulstones.
Hmm, as the saying goes...
The current investment is for greater future gains.
Without pausing, Song Chi spent another ten minutes browsing the marketplace. He then exchanged 5000 merit points for a Void Membrane component, the same one his grandfather's ship had.
It's unclear if the clan can produce these components consistently, but based on what Song Chi has seen, there have already been four or five of them.
...
Song Clan Merit Hall, Soul Spirit Floating Land Branch
"New order information from the South Region's Soul Fusion Mountain Range. It's from a second-rank clan member named Song Chi of the tenth direct lineage. He wants the Void Membrane and Sound Silence Field. Who will deliver it?"
Inside a kilometer-high mountain in the Western Region of the Soul Spirit Floating Land, the branch of the clan's merit hall is situated.
As the clan member responsible for organizing order information spoke, a discussion ensued in the main hall. Finally, a first-rank delivery clan member volunteered.
"I'll go. I've been to the South Region before..."
However, before he could finish, he was interrupted by someone from the back of the hall.
"Clan Brother Song Yan, did you say Song Chi of the tenth direct lineage?"
The interrupted clan member was about to rebuke the person, but when he turned around, his anger vanished, replaced by respect.
"Clan Brother Song Ze, why do you suddenly want to go to the South Region?"
Indeed, the person who interrupted was Song Ze, one of the two main lineages of the clan, from the Earth lineage.
As the great-grandson of a fourth-rank clan elder and possessing the rare Purple Fire talent, everyone knew that his participation in this mission was merely a formality. He was assigned to the merit hall branch, and he only needed to act as a nominal delivery person. After the expedition ended, he would receive a significant amount of soul-related resources.
Thus, his sudden interest surprised the others in the hall.
Song Ze smiled and calmly looked at the order organizer, Clan Brother Song Yan.
"Yes, the South Region's Soul Fusion Mountain Range, Song Chi of the tenth direct lineage."
With that, Song Ze nodded thoughtfully and then said,
"I'll go!"
Ten minutes later, the main hall was abuzz with discussion.
"What's going on? A sudden whim?"
"Who knows? Maybe he just wants to get out and stretch his legs!"
"That's true. As the great-grandson of a fourth-rank clan elder, it's understandable if he wants to prove himself occasionally."
"But why do I feel that Clan Brother Song Ze's reaction was triggered by hearing the name Song Chi?"
...
Soul Fusion Mountain Range, Mountain Base
In his personal cave, Song Chi sat cross-legged on a stone platform. His hands were spread out on his knees, each holding several egg-sized crystals.
Deep in his mind, the projection of the Mythical Mechanic, which he hadn't visualized for over twenty days, reappeared.
Indeed, he was using intermediate soulstones to attempt a visualization.
After more than ten minutes, the special soul power within the four intermediate soulstones in his hand had been completely drained. Song Chi opened his eyes again, tossing the four now ordinary stones aside, and carefully felt his mental state.
Soon, a smile appeared on his face.
"Sure enough, my mental power has made some progress..."
He murmured to himself but quickly sighed.
Although his mental power had indeed improved, the progress was not significant. To break through to the first stage of the Mortal Thought Realm using intermediate soulstones, he would need at least one hundred thousand of them.
Thinking of this, his gaze became resolute, and he was more determined than ever to secure the intermediate soulstone vein mentioned by the third-stage Soul Spirit Clan.
Just as he was about to continue his visualization using the soulstones, the Flame Seed in his mind suddenly quivered. After reconnecting to the temporary Flame Network, he discovered that the family's delivery person was approaching.
He had to abandon his training and, after walking outside the base, summoned the Skydome to soar into the sky, reaching several thousand meters above the ground.
A few minutes later, a similarly hundred-meter-long Flame Warship sped towards him. Once it was close to the Skydome, the two warships established communication.
Looking at the projection in front of him, a hint of surprise flashed in Song Chi's eyes, though he didn't show it.
He had a deep impression of Song Ze from the Earth Vein, after all, they had both cleared the 30th floor of the Immortal Puppet Tower together.
"Brother Song Ze, I didn't expect you to come personally for the delivery. Thank you for your trouble!"
He didn't pretend not to recognize the other person; that would be too deliberate.
In the projection, Song Ze smiled.
"I didn't get a chance to greet you during the Immortal Puppet Tower challenge, Brother Chi. I hope you don't mind!"
Hearing this, Song Chi's heart skipped a beat, feeling that there was more to his words.
But before he could say anything, Song Ze opened the warship's hatch, and a beam of light shot out, pulling two components glowing with blue light towards the Skydome.
Seeing this, Song Chi repeated the process, successfully receiving the two components into the Skydome and then sending over more than three thousand intermediate soulstones to offset the 10,000 merit points.
After completing these steps, Song Chi thought Song Ze would say more, perhaps to probe whether he had cleared the 30th floor of the Immortal Puppet Tower, but to his surprise, Song Ze didn't mention it at all.
"Brother Chi, now that we've met, if you have time in the future, I'll visit you!"
With these cryptic words, he turned his warship around and quickly disappeared from the Skydome's view.
Song Chi: ???
Not understanding what Song Ze was up to, Song Chi didn't bother thinking too much about it. After returning to the base, he went back to the underground warship summoning room and began reinforcing the two new blue components.
Thanks to the [Spirit Mechanism Synthesizer], he had more than 1,600 strands of second-stage Floating Land Essence left. Since reinforcing the components didn't require titanium crystals, Song Chi upgraded both to level 30 in one go.
The [Silent Sound Field] component, as expected, saw its silent field radius increase from 50 meters to 10,000 meters after reaching level 30. The duration increased from 1 hour to 24 hours, and the cooldown time was reduced to 15 hours.
As for the [Void Membrane] component:
Void Membrane Level 30
Quality: Blue
Trait: Void Stealth
Cost: 10,000 per use (Ethereal Points)
Recharge: 5 minutes; Cooldown: 6 hours
Duration: 4 hours
Effect: Conceals the warship's presence, priority level 450
Upgrade Requirements: 8 strands of third-stage Floating Land Essence, 9,000 Ethereal Points
{Void Stealth: The warship gains special resistance to the void, ignoring the effects of void rifts and void gales to a certain extent.}
After putting away the remaining more than a thousand strands of second-stage Floating Land Essence, Song Chi left the warship summoning room.
In the base's cavern, Song Chi explained to his grandfather that he would need to leave for a while, possibly for about half a month.
Song Ming Song asked several times, ensuring that Song Chi had sufficient self-defense capabilities, before nodding in agreement.
...
At the western foot of the Fusion Soul Mountains, the mountain range extended westward for hundreds of miles, covered in dense forests. This environment was the perfect hiding place for the Soul Spirit Clan.
Hundreds of meters above the ground, a warship cloaked in a layer of void film was slowly moving forward.
Although the [Void Membrane] component was enhanced to level 30, Song Chi didn't dare to make the Skydome move too quickly. Instead, he used the minimum engine power to proceed.
There was no other way around it. While the Void Membrane could conceal the ship's body, a warship's passage through space revealed more than just its physical form. The air currents and disturbances it created were also tell-tale signs of its presence.
As for the engine's roar, that too was muted by the Soundwave Silence Field component.
"Master, it's right below us!"
In the control room, upon hearing the reminder from the Tier 3 Soul Spirit, Song Chi gradually brought the Azure Sky to a halt. He didn't rush to land but first had the ship's semi-intelligent AI carefully examine the radar map generated by the Silver III Ultrasonic Magic Energy Detection Radar.
Once he confirmed that there were no energy signatures of creatures above Tier 2 within a kilometer below, and the nearest such signature was several thousand meters away, he finally landed the Azure Sky.
Creeeeak—
The Azure Sky's hatch opened rapidly. Taking advantage of the Soundwave Silence Field component's remaining duration, he swiftly dispatched three pre-loaded Raging Tiger Mining Vehicles to begin drilling in the designated area.
In the control room, Song Chi frowned as he examined the radar map. The Silver III Ultrasonic Magic Energy Detection Radar showed no unusual energy fluctuations underground. Logically, if there were indeed medium-grade Soul Stones, his orange Sky Patrol Radar should have detected them.
The Magic Energy Detection feature wasn't just for show; it could detect the unique energy frequencies of over 99% of mineral resources.
This left him puzzled. Either the underground area didn't contain any medium-grade Soul Stones, and his Tier 3 Soul Spirit had made a mistake, or the Silver III Ultrasonic Magic Energy Detection Radar was malfunctioning.
However, without a clear answer, he could only wait.
An hour later, the three Raging Tiger Mining Vehicles, which had already dug several hundred meters deep, provided the final answer.
At 400 meters below the surface, there was indeed a medium-grade Soul Stone vein, classified as medium-sized, with an estimated 120,000 medium-grade Soul Stones.
Hearing this, Song Chi was naturally overjoyed.
120,000 medium-grade Soul Stones equated to 360,000 family merit points. Once they were all mined, and he added a few gold merit points, he could easily enslave a Tier 3 Thorned Flying Dragon when he returned home.
Although he already had a Tier 3 Black Water Mystic Snake coiled on his left shoulder, a mere Tier 3 Black Water Mystic Snake couldn't compare to a Tier 3 Thorned Flying Dragon, which ranked at the peak of the fourth tier in the bloodline spectrum.
He still vividly remembered how the Black Water Mystic Snake had cowered in the presence of a Thorned Flying Dragon of the same tier.
As he quickly ordered the onboard AI of the Raging Tiger Mining Vehicles to begin mining, Song Chi turned his attention back to the Silver III Ultrasonic Magic Energy Detection Radar.
Given the results, it was clear that the orange radar had malfunctioned, failing to detect the medium-grade Soul Stone vein.
After much contemplation, various thoughts and possibilities raced through his mind as he tried to determine why the Silver III Ultrasonic Magic Energy Detection Radar had failed.
He recalled that in the asteroid belt, even resources deep within the asteroids had been clearly detected by the radar. Why had it failed to detect this medium-grade Soul Stone vein today?
After much deliberation, Song Chi finally arrived at the most probable explanation.
"Could it be the depth?"
In the asteroid belt, the resources detected had never been as deep as 400 meters, not even 200 or 300 meters. The deepest they had gone was just over 100 meters.
With this in mind, to confirm his hypothesis, Song Chi retrieved the remaining Tier 2 Floating Land Essence and titanium crystals.
He then spent 68 titanium crystals, 215 strands of Tier 2 Floating Land Essence, and nearly 5,000 Terra Stones to reinforce the orange radar component to Level 30.
Silver III Ultrasonic Magic Energy Detection Radar (Level 30)
Quality: Orange
...
Detection Range: 1530 light-hours
Precision: 800
Upgrade Requirements: 15 strands of Tier 3 Floating Land Essence, 60,000 Mystic Energy Points, 2,500 Terra Stones, 32 titanium crystals
{Magic Energy Detection: ...}
{Star Map Collector: After entering an unfamiliar star domain, the Sky Patrol Radar will automatically generate a detailed star map 250 times its detection range after 30 minutes of collection.}
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(End of Chapter)
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