https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-36-Conditions-for-Elevating-a-Airship-to-a-Starship/12833245/
Chapter 35: The Gold-Vine · Crystal of Life
Chapter 35: The Gold-Vine · Crystal of Life
The black vines, seemingly thoroughly enraged, began to lash out with increasing frequency. Song Chi also noticed that the sharp thorns on the vines seemed to have changed.
A faint golden glow flickered among them, making the already menacing thorns even more terrifying. The golden light even seemed to cause a subtle distortion in the surrounding starry sky.
Song Chi’s eyes narrowed, sensing an impending danger. Before he could react, the black vines, now interwoven with golden light, lashed out again.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Intense ripples appeared on the dark matter energy shield, far more violent than before. In response, the shield’s durability decreased by over four hundred points, nearly one-fifteenth of its total capacity.
“Is this an armor-piercing effect?”
The dark matter energy shield generator itself had defensive attributes, meaning that external attacks would usually be reduced by these attributes before affecting the energy shield. The previous attacks had followed this pattern. However, after the golden light appeared, the black vines’ attacks had clearly intensified several times. The only explanation Song Chi could think of was an armor-piercing effect.
With over four thousand points of shield durability remaining, Song Chi gritted his teeth and forced himself to remain calm. Even with the armor-piercing effect, the Celestial could still hold out for a while. He wanted to see whether the entity’s main body would reveal itself first or if the Celestial’s energy shield would be breached first.
After a brief recharge, the main plasma cannon fired for the second time.
This shot still failed to penetrate the rock layer of the fragment. However, the black vines’ increasingly frenzied attacks confirmed Song Chi’s suspicions.
The process was repeated, and two minutes later, the fourth shot from the main plasma cannon finally shattered the rock pit. Through the three-meter-wide hole, Song Chi finally saw the true form of the “stellar plant” hidden within the fragment’s core.
The main vine, nearly fifty meters long and almost a meter in diameter, was divided into two distinct colors: a faint golden hue at the bottom and a familiar black at the top.
After a quick reference to the “Comprehensive Guide to Alien Civilizations and Creatures of the Shattered Star Sea,” Song Chi identified the “stellar plant.”
Well... to be more precise, it wasn’t a stellar plant but a special type of floating land plant called the Gold-Vine.
The Gold-Vine is a unique floating land plant that typically roots itself in large metal ore veins, absorbing the metallic essence to grow and strengthen. Once fully grown, it possesses terrifying destructive and offensive capabilities.
Upon recognizing the Gold-Vine, Song Chi felt a sense of relief. He was glad it was a Gold-Vine and not a true stellar plant like the Star-Vine. If it were the latter, it would likely be far more than a peak first-stage entity, and the Celestial’s fate would be all too clear.
As a type of floating land plant, even the Gold-Vine couldn’t escape the fundamental nature of floating land plants.
The reason they are called floating land plants is that they lack the ability to grow infinitely in the starry void. Therefore, it wasn’t a coincidence that this Gold-Vine was at the peak first stage. In the unique environment of space, it could only evolve to the peak first stage.
Otherwise, the fragment it was in would not be able to contain it. Once it left the fragment’s core, the special conditions of the starry void would be fatal.
This was also the reason why the fragment reacted so strongly when the Anger Tiger Mining Vehicle attempted to excavate it, threatening to destroy its environment.
With the situation now clear, the next steps were straightforward. The Sky Vault remained suspended high above, occasionally firing its main cannon. The seven Fire Chrysanthemum Soldier Puppets began to charge into the fragment's core, sacrificing themselves in a way that would severely damage the Gold Devouring Vine, even if it meant taking heavy losses themselves.
After about an hour, when only three of the soldier puppets remained, the Gold Devouring Vine in the fragment's core finally lost all signs of life energy.
The fragment was now riddled with a large hole, and the continuous influx of star material was already eroding the vine. Combined with the suicidal attacks of the Fire Chrysanthemum Soldier Puppets, this resilient Gold Devouring Vine met its end in the starry void.
Seeing this, Song Chi still chose not to act personally. Instead, he had the remaining three Fire Chrysanthemum Soldier Puppets clean up the battlefield.
A few minutes later, Song Chi held a fist-sized green crystal in his hand. He finally found the specific information about this crystal, which had been extracted from the Gold Devouring Vine.
Name: Life Crystal
Rank: Peak First Tier
Effect: Can be used to accelerate the growth of various herbs, tree seeds, and other special plants, significantly shortening their growth cycles.
Note: Commonly found in the bodies of plant life of the same tier.
The value of this Life Crystal was considerable, roughly equivalent to several dozen strands of First Tier Floating Land Essence, or a few hundred strands of Zero Tier Floating Land Essence.
Song Chi was quite satisfied. Although it had taken some time, the effort was well worth it. Even if it didn't match the value of the thousand tons of refined gold ore he had previously found, it still equaled the benefits of several explorations by other Zero Tier Ember Fleet ships.
He retracted the Anger Tiger Mining Vehicle, which had been a primary target of the Gold Devouring Vine during the battle. The vehicle was now 30% damaged, significantly reducing its efficiency. However, Song Chi wasn't about to discard it. He planned to have it repaired once he returned, as it had cost him several million credits, and he had just recouped his investment.
Just as he was about to start the engine and leave, the onboard AI of the Anger Tiger Mining Vehicle issued another alert.
"Detected a radiation response from 'Illusion Crystal' below, estimated at over a hundred tons."
Hearing this, Song Chi quickly shut off the engine that was about to restart and reopened the shuttle's hatch.
Illusion Crystal was an extremely rare resource used to enhance Ember Fleet ships. While not essential, it could significantly improve a ship's stealth capabilities. If enough Illusion Crystal was used during the reinforcement of the hull armor, even the eyes of same-tier beings or the radar systems of same-tier warships would find it difficult to detect the ship.
Due to this unique effect, Illusion Crystal was highly valued not only in the Ember Human Civilization Domain but also throughout the entire Shattered Star Sea.
To Song Chi's knowledge, the market price of Illusion Crystal in the Ember Human Civilization Domain had already reached 5 strands of First Tier Floating Land Essence per ton.
(End of Chapter)
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