Age Of The Endless Star Ocean Chapter 175: The Soul Land Exploration Plan - A Windfall of Soulstones - Novel Cool

Chapter 175: The Soul Land Exploration Plan - A Windfall of Soulstones

Chapter 175: The Soul Land Exploration Plan - A Windfall of Soulstones

Without paying much attention to the specific attribute changes of the upgraded Silver III Generation Ultrasonic Magic Energy Detection Radar to Level 30, Song Chi immediately shifted his focus back to the radar screen in front of him.

More precisely, he focused on the detection prompts for the current position of the Celestial Vessel.

Soon, his eyes lit up. Compared to Level 27, the energy fluctuation signals displayed by the now Level 30 Ultrasonic Magic Energy Detection Radar were significantly more detailed.

Right where the Celestial Vessel was currently positioned, a new prompt appeared.

Focusing his gaze, he saw the energy fluctuation signal indicating a medium-grade soulstone vein below.

[426 meters directly below, detected significant energy fluctuation. 99% identified as medium-grade soulstones recently added to the mineral resource database, 1% identified as other. Preliminary estimate: medium-sized vein, over 123,000 medium-grade soulstones can be mined.]

After reading the prompt, Song Chi nodded to himself. It wasn't that the Silver III Generation Ultrasonic Magic Energy Detection Radar was malfunctioning; rather, its "magic energy detection" feature had a limit. Before reaching the third tier, it could only detect up to about 100 meters below the surface.

Now, with the upgrade to the third tier, Song Chi estimated that the radar's detection depth had increased to around 500 meters.

Of course, this was within a 100,000-meter radius centered on the Celestial Vessel.

Once this distance was exceeded, the detection depth and accuracy would decrease. Beyond 1,000,000 meters, the reduction would be even more pronounced, let alone the radar's normal detection range of over two light-months.

After a moment of thought, Song Chi's gaze shifted to the new energy fluctuation prompts on the radar screen that hadn't appeared before.

[1,300 meters to the north, 200 meters underground, detected mild energy fluctuation. 98% identified as low-grade soulstone remnants recently added to the database, 2% identified as other. Estimated 500 low-grade soulstones can be mined.]

[2,000 meters to the northwest, 310 meters underground, detected mild... ]

[500 meters to the south... ]

As he read through each prompt, Song Chi quickly became resigned. Most of the new energy fluctuation signals indicated low-grade soulstones or other common minerals, which had little overall value.

If time were plentiful, he might consider gradually mining them, but in the current situation, it wasn't worth the effort.

This region was still under the control of the Soul Spirits. Even with stealth ships and sound suppression, each mining operation carried significant risks.

Moreover, once all the Soul Spirits were cleared out, it would likely be too late for Song Chi to have any say in the matter.

According to his grandfather and his uncle, once all the Soul Spirits on the Soul Land were eliminated—or even just weakened to a certain degree, enough to allow two fourth-tier Song family elders to enter at full strength—the expedition would be considered over. They would receive immediate evacuation orders from the main branch.

This was inevitable, as evidenced by the fact that the family had never dispatched any other fourth-tier elders to this mission. Once the mission ended, the Soul Land would quickly become the exclusive territory of the main branch.

Of course, this didn't mean that other branches of the Song family would be completely barred from the Soul Land in the future, but it would no longer be free, and the amount of soul resources they could obtain would likely be strictly limited each time.

So, Song Chi's plan was simple: make the most of the limited time and use the Silver III Generation Ultrasonic Magic Energy Detection Radar to find and mine as many valuable resource veins as possible.

Thus, the low-value, time-consuming micro and small veins were not worth his consideration.

However, to mine these veins, he first needed to locate them.

With this in mind, Song Chi activated the semi-automatic ship AI to review the new prompts within the 100,000-meter radius around the Celestial Vessel, while he quickly formulated a plan.

The simplest way to find these veins was one of two methods:

First, obtain the mineral distribution maps compiled by the main branch over the years.

However, this was clearly impossible. The soulstone veins discovered and marked by the main branch were already guarded, and there was no way he could sneak in to mine them.

So, the only practical method was for him to pilot the Azure Sky himself and cruise through the various domains, allowing the Silver III Ultrasonic Energy Detection Radar to conduct on-site surveys.

Though this would take some time, finding a suitable mineral vein would significantly boost his resources. Even if it wouldn't make him instantly rich, it would certainly provide a substantial boost.

With this thought, Song Chi made up his mind and decided to proceed with this plan.

Deep underground, at a depth of over 400 meters, three Raging Tiger Mining Vehicles were working at full speed. At this rate, it would take them about seven to eight days to completely mine the entire soulstone vein.

However, Song Chi was still unsatisfied. He paused the three Raging Tiger Mining Vehicles and took the Azure Sky back to the marketplace, where he brought out two more Raging Tiger Mining Vehicles. With five Raging Tiger Mining Vehicles working simultaneously, the efficiency increased by a significant margin.

It wasn't that he was unwilling to use more mining vehicles. With his resources becoming increasingly abundant, he now had over a million zero-tier Floating Land Essence, and he had more than twenty Raging Tiger Mining Vehicles stored in the marketplace, along with two standard civilian mining ships.

However, the layout of the underground vein only allowed for five mining vehicles to operate simultaneously.

Despite this, Song Chi was quite satisfied with the efficiency of the five mining vehicles working together.

The only downside was that the Azure Sky couldn't leave while the mining was in progress. The Silent Sonic Field component needed to remain active to prevent the noise from attracting nearby creatures, even from several hundred meters underground.

Otherwise, Song Chi could have used this time to explore other areas and search for more mineral veins.

"Should I call Little You to help?"

Although Song You was weak, this task didn't require combat. He only needed to equip the Void Membrane and Silent Sonic Field components on his vessel.

But after some thought, Song Chi quickly shook his head. This was too risky.

After all, even he couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't be discovered by other soul spirits. If anything happened to Song You, Song Chi didn't even want to think about the consequences.

With no other options, Song Chi entered the marketplace to practice guiding techniques and continued to meditate on the Mythical Mecha Projection Blueprint using mid-tier soulstones.

Of course, while he was inside the marketplace, he left two third-tier soul spirits to guard the Azure Sky. If anything happened, they could immediately alert him telepathically.

...

Time passed quickly, and five days later, the mid-tier soulstone vein was successfully mined. Song Chi's final haul was 124,700 mid-tier soulstones.

After completing the mining, he didn't linger. He retrieved the five Raging Tiger Mining Vehicles and immediately set off on his return journey.

He wasn't in a hurry to return to the base. Instead, he planned to inform his grandfather and then head directly to the Western Region to carry out his previous exploration plan.

The Western Region was now under complete control of his family and was the safest place on this soul spirit Floating Land. Naturally, it became Song Chi's preferred exploration area.

While the first main vein indicated several unmined resource points in this region, it spanned over a million kilometers, so it was unlikely to be completely accurate.

Additionally, another reason for his urgency was that his next interstellar exploration was approaching. If the family members participating in the Floating Land expedition wanted to explore other star domains, the Western Region was their preferred launch point.

Traveling cautiously, Song Chi made his way back to the family's frontline without any incidents.

At the mountain base, Song Ming Song was delighted to see Song Chi return safely. However, his expression quickly turned grim when Song Chi mentioned his next plan.

"Going out again?"

Song Ming Song's face darkened, clearly displeased.

The soul spirit Floating Land wasn't entirely safe, and if possible, he would prefer to keep his family close to ensure everyone's safety.

Beside him, his grandmother, Bai Xiuqin, rolled her eyes.

"Song Chi is going to the Western Region, not the Central or Eastern Regions. Why are you overthinking this?"

"Song Chi, don't listen to your grandfather. Go, but be careful on your journey!"

Despite her words, Song Chi could see the deep concern in her eyes.

He nodded solemnly, and under the watchful gaze of the two, he left the base, summoned the Azure Sky, and headed west.

As for why he didn't inform his grandfather and grandmother about the ore vein and mining operation, there were a few reasons.

First, he couldn't be certain that he would find other suitable resource points in the future. If he failed to find any, it would waste a lot of their time.

Second, not long after arriving on the Soul Spirit Floating Land, his grandmother, Bai Xiuqin, had officially started the promotion task for her "Heavenly Harp" warship. The goal was to kill as many third-stage Soul Spirit creatures as possible with the help of his grandfather, thus increasing the success rate of the Heavenly Harp's promotion.

The third-stage Black Water Mystic Snake from the underground cavern had already been handed over to his grandmother, contributing to the Heavenly Harp's promotion success rate.

Given this, they might not have the time to assist him in mining the soulstone veins.

Additionally, they had already taken on the patrol mission from the Southern Command, and the base needed to be defended.

...

In the Western Region of the Soul Spirit Floating Land, after a frantic rush, the Canopy reached this area in less than twenty minutes. He then activated the Void Membrane component and began a detailed scan of the Western Region.

He used the Void Membrane to avoid drawing attention from the First Direct Line clans as the Canopy slowly cruised over the land.

Two days later.

In the Southern Region, at the Fusion Soul Mountains, the Tenth Direct Line Base Cave.

In the warship summoning room beneath the base, Song You stood on the energy cultivation platform inside his warship, fully focused on practicing the Guiding Technique.

As the weakest participant in the mission, being only a first-stage, he had been following his second uncle, Song Hai, for the past twenty days and was not allowed to act alone. This left him with no opportunities to earn additional resources, making him feel quite bored. So, he spent most of his time practicing the Guiding Technique.

At that moment, he felt an unusual sensation in his brow, and the Ember Seed trembled slightly.

Sensing this, he stopped his practice and quickly connected to the temporary Ember Network. If he was right, someone was trying to contact him through the Ember Network.

The next second, Song You's eyes lit up with joy.

"Interested in a trip to the Western Region? Just so you know, there are benefits!"

Seeing the message was from Song Chi, Song You didn't hesitate and replied immediately.

"Yes, but what about Grandfather?"

"Don't worry, I've already informed Grandfather, Grandmother, and Second Uncle. You can come out, and I'll pick you up!"

Traveling at full speed, it didn't take long to reach the Southern Region. To ensure Song You's safety, Song Chi decided to make the trip himself.

About ten minutes later, the two successfully met up above the base and headed straight for the Western Region.

On the way, Song Chi handed Song You two new Void Membrane and Soundproof Barrier components, adding:

"It costs, a total of 10,000 merit points, to be deducted from your future earnings!"

Hearing this, Song You was not disappointed but rather delighted. From Song Chi's words, it was clear that his personal share from their upcoming actions would likely be more than 10,000 merit points.

For a first-stage Ember Warship Captain like him, this was no small gain.

In the easternmost part of the Western Region, near the Central Region, two warships equipped with Void Membrane components slowly landed in a canyon.

In the warship communication projection, Song You asked uncertainly:

"Fourth Brother, are you sure there's a small vein of medium-grade soulstones in this canyon?"

Song Chi didn't say much, just nodded.

Indeed, over the past two days, he had found this small vein of medium-grade soulstones in the Western Region.

It wasn't that the Western Region was truly barren; the First Direct Line had acted quickly, and their ability to search for ore veins was strong. Most of the valuable veins had already been discovered by them.

Song Chi quickly released three Anger Tiger mining vehicles from the warship and instructed:

"Little You, you stay here and guard."

"Remember, once the Core Barrier component's duration runs out, immediately stop the mining vehicles until it cools down. This vein should yield at least 30,000 medium-grade soulstones. After mining is complete, I'll give you 3,000!"

With that, Song Chi retook control of the Canopy and took off, heading back toward the Southern Region.

The area he planned to explore next was the Southern Region, where the richest mineral resources were located.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end

Report