Chapter 46: White Tower Ring Planetary Belt, Cosmos Mining Corporation

This second advanced body-forging potion lasted for only one day, but the pain it inflicted upon Song Chi far surpassed that of the previous one, which had lasted for three full days.

The underlying reason was simply that the medicinal potency was too strong, while his physical constitution was not yet sufficient; it was a case of suffering from an overdose of rich nourishment.

Though it was rather painful, for the sake of those astonishing cultivation results, Song Chi naturally had no choice but to grit his teeth and endure.

……

Just as Song Chi was cultivating with all his might, out in the desolate starry skies beyond the White Tower Floating Land, a fleet was sailing at full speed.

The number of starships in this fleet was small, numbering fewer than ten. Emerging from the White Tower Floating Land, they headed straight for a nearby asteroid belt.

The asteroid belt was not far from the White Tower Floating Land—less than three hundred million kilometers away. Cruising at the speed of light all the way, the fleet successfully arrived at the periphery of the asteroid belt in just over ten minutes.

Because it lay within the gravitational field of the White Tower Floating Land, this asteroid belt was simply named the Circum-White Tower Asteroid Belt.

The Circum-White Tower Asteroid Belt was a medium-sized asteroid belt with a spreading diameter of less than one hundred thousand kilometers. Following continuous mining over hundreds of years by various mining companies based in the White Tower Floating Land, the resources within this belt had now been essentially depleted, leaving only the traces of civilian interstellar mining vessels in a few sporadic areas.

"And yet, who would have known that even in such a nearly exhausted resource point, an extremely rare titanium-crystal vein was actually hidden?"

At the periphery of the asteroid belt, inside the main control room of the leftmost starship at the front of the fleet, Shen Wenjie sighed with slight emotion.

Hearing this, from another psionic frigate that was maintaining communication with the Copper Halberd—the psionic frigate under his feet—came Song Chao's voice:

"Let's hope so. Those two miners from Sky Universe Mining Company who leaked the news only witnessed ore suspected of being titanium crystal; they didn't actually carry out mining confirmation."

After a brief exchange, the two of them charged into the asteroid belt ahead first, followed closely behind by seven psionic corvettes of varying lengths.

That's right, all nine starships in the entire fleet were distinctly Firekind starships.

Traveling all the way, they encountered quite a few ordinary interstellar mining vessels wandering within the asteroid belt. Although this asteroid belt had been mined for hundreds of years, there were no other resource points around the White Tower Floating Land, so some civilian miners naturally still wanted to come to this asteroid belt to try their luck.

After all, even though the heyday of casually mining resources from hundreds of years ago had passed, in recent years there was still no shortage of examples of people striking gold by unearthing overlooked rare resources and thereby making a fortune.

Upon seeing this passing fleet, the reaction of these interstellar mining vessels was identical: they all chose to give way early on to avoid colliding with these big figures.

In the eyes of these ordinary people, every single Firekind starship was an absolute big shot—someone untouchable by scum like them, let alone the fact that the Firekind starships in this fleet were vastly different from the ones they had seen in the past, especially the two at the very vanguard of the fleet.

Pitch-black armor plating entirely covered the hundred-meter-long hulls, and the gleaming psionic energy shields made it obvious at a glance that they were utterly impregnable. At the bow, the muzzles of the main cannons, several meters in diameter, looked ferocious, and even the secondary ship-mounted cannons scattered across the hulls could easily tear apart any interstellar mining vessel outfitted with top-tier configurations.

The fleet marched all the way without encountering any accidents.

……

The Sky Universe Mining Exclusive Mining Area. As one of the most bustling mining areas in the Circum-White Tower Asteroid Belt today, hundreds to thousands of interstellar mining vessels traveled back and forth through this region every day. Based on this, Sky Universe Mining Company had specially established a mining area patrol fleet responsible for maintaining daily order in the sector.

"Brother Lu, I had pretty good luck today; I mined five tons of refined gold. Later, after we punch out, let's go over to Widow Sun's place for a drink? It's my treat, little brother. I heard Widow Sun's old mother is going back to her hometown these last couple of days, so after we finish drinking, Brother Lu can have some proper fun."

Hearing this, Lu Erhe, who had been feeling utterly bored while sitting in the patrol boat, lit up, but then put on an air of feigned nonchalance and said:

"Got it, we'll talk after clocking out. Remember not to skim too much off the top on the sly; otherwise, if things get exposed, I won't have time to clean up your mess."

Hearing Lu Erhe's reply, Old He in the mining vessel off to the side grinned widely, knowing that he would have a little extra personal gain today.

Pulling back his expression slightly, Old He bowed and smiled as he closed the short-range communication. What Lu Erhe did not know was that the moment the short-range communication was cut off, the ingratiating look on Old He's face abruptly shifted into a sneer:

"Tsk tsk, that Widow Sun has been handled by who knows how many people, and yet an idiot like you, Lu Erhe, still treats her like a prized treasure."

After his sneer, Old He prepared to turn his mining vessel toward the company's testing station, but the next second, his body stiffened, and his gaze shifted toward the starry space on the side.

"It's... it's a fleet of Firekind starships! How could so many Firekind starships come to a place like this? They don't look like the lowest-tier psionic shuttles either... Could they all be Tier-1 Firekind starships?"

Old He was clearly not the only miner who had spotted this fleet of Firekind starships. Because Song Chao and Shen Wenjie had not bothered to conceal their movements, within a short moment, the vast majority of miners in the entire mining area discovered the presence of the Firekind fleet.

And the result was that, in less than two full minutes, hundreds of interstellar mining vessels scattered toward the flanks of the mining area at an unprecedented speed, consciously clearing out the central zone.

However, this strange Firekind fleet showed no intention of passing through and leaving. Just as the crowd of miners was filled with doubt and confusion, a cold mechanical voice rang out from the lead Firekind starship of the fleet.

"Who is the person in charge of this mining area?"

After a moment of hesitation among the miners, Lu Erhe, the captain of the patrol squad, was pushed forward. Just as Lu Erhe was gripped with terror, the message transmitted from the opposing Firekind starship merely requested a detailed star chart of the mining area.

This caused Lu Erhe to let out a massive sigh of relief. He had only secured the position of patrol squad captain through personal connections, purely to rake in a bit more money during his tenure; if he were truly expected to defend the company's mining area to the death or anything of the sort, that would simply be asking too much of him.

Almost the very instant the other party spoke, he transmitted the detailed star chart of the mining area over. If he had hesitated even a bit longer, he wouldn't have been worthy of the name Lu Erhe.

aboard the Copper Halberd psionic frigate, Shen Wenjie compared this star chart with the one he had acquired from the open market a few days prior. Confirming it was correct, he exchanged a glance with Song Chao.

The two of them nodded, and then the fleet set off once more, heading toward the coordinates of the mining area they had obtained.

However, out of the nine Firekind starships, only eight departed; one remained right where it was. At the same time, a ring of light screen emanated from this starship, quickly enveloping the majority of the mining area.

On an asteroid dozens of meters in diameter, Old He's interstellar mining vessel was parked quietly. While others were still clueless, Old He was the first to recognize that subtle layer of light screen.

"Even temporary communication-jamming devices have been deployed. It seems yet another good thing has turned up in this mining area."