Chapter Sixty-One: Advancement of the Ruins Market

Almost every half minute, the shield value would drop by a thousand points. At this rate, the Psionic Grand Array would be completely destroyed in less than ten minutes. Without the protection of the Psionic Grand Array, facing a horde of extremely bloodthirsty Void Demons, the destruction of the Market would happen in the blink of an eye.

Quickly recalling the Sky Firmament into his Firekind Ancestral Aperture, Song Chi cast a lingering look of reluctance around the surroundings.

Just as he finished scanning the area and was about to make the resolute decision to exit the Market, the vibration under his feet that had never ceased abruptly stopped.

Song Chi's eyes froze.

"Could this be... the Market has successfully advanced?"

In this instant, Song Chi's mood was like a thunderstorm in June; the previous moment heavy with dark clouds, the next moment the clouds scattered entirely, leaving clear skies after the rain.

In his excitement, he did not forget to confirm his guess, immediately opening the Market's attribute panel.

【Name: Heavens Market】
【Market Master: Song Chi】
【Rank: Lv10】
……

Confirming that the Market's rank had indeed become Lv10, Song Chi could no longer suppress the excitement deep within his heart and burst into loud laughter.

One must know that from successfully linking to the Heavens Market using the Star Sea Market Token until today, a total of just over two months had passed, with only three Market transactions opened.

During this period, not only had he obtained an orange Glory-quality component, but also a purple component, plus the white component known as the Golden Rock Hull Armor.

Merely two months, and the gains had reached such a terrifying degree. One can imagine how much inner struggle he had experienced when he previously made the decision to abandon the Heavens Market.

At this moment, the opposite was true. The more painful and agonizing his inner struggle had been earlier, the more thrilled and excited he felt inside right now.

After a hearty laugh, Song Chi, having regained his composure, didn't even bother to check the specific attributes of the newly advanced Tier 1 Heavens Market. Instead, he immediately opened the configuration of the Psionic Defensive Grand Array.

After reading the detailed attributes of the Psionic Defensive Grand Array, a look of realization surfaced in his eyes.

Although the rank of the Psionic Defensive Grand Array remained Lv9, as the Heavens Market itself advanced to Tier 1, its basic configurations—much like a Firekind airship—saw a fixed proportional increase in their attributes, also amounting to 20%.

Originally, the defense and shield values of the Psionic Defensive Grand Array were as follows:
【Defense: 500】
【Shield Value: 3,800 / 40,000】

However, with the successful advancement of the Market, these two items had respectively changed to:
【Defense: 600】
【Shield Value: 11,800 / 48,000】

Crucially, the shield value did not merely increase its upper limit by 20%; even the remaining 3,800 points of the shield instantaneously surged to 11,800, allowing it to hold out for several more minutes.

Discovering this, Song Chi re-summoned the Sky Firmament, while a thought flickered in his mind as he glanced at the 【Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator】 component.

Cooldown time after overloading: 8 / 35 (minutes)

This orange energy shield component, reinforced to Lv15, had a post-overload cooldown time of 35 minutes. Now 8 minutes had already passed, meaning it only needed 27 more minutes to reactivate.

Seeing this, a renewed radiance glowed in Song Chi's eyes. The successful advancement of the Heavens Market gave him hope of completely repelling the Void Demons outside and preserving the Market.

As long as the Psionic Defensive Grand Array could hold out for another twenty-odd minutes until the Sky Firmament's energy shield reactivated, the Sky Firmament could once again go out to fight.

Based on the combat record from the previous sortie, provided no new Void Demons appeared before the second overload of the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator, he should be able to clear out over ninety percent of the remaining five hundred or so Void Demons outside.

By that time, even without the firepower support of the Sky Firmament, Song Chi and the ten Fire Sunflower Marionettes could take over the subsequent cleanup tasks. The possibility of preserving the Heavens Market was truly very high.

Thinking of this, Song Chi quickly seized the opportunity to throw his last energy grenade, blowing up nearly ten Tier 0 Void Demons. He then boarded the Sky Firmament directly, operating the airship's main and secondary cannons to continuously strafe the airspace above the Market, relieving the pressure on the Psionic Defensive Grand Array to the maximum extent.

Four minutes later, when the shield value of the Psionic Grand Array fell below four digits, Song Chi aboard the Sky Firmament shifted his thoughts, and immediately the prompt tone of the Heavens Market sounded in his ear.

【Do you wish to expend 150 wisps of Tier 0 Floating Land Origin to upgrade the Psionic Defensive Grand Array to Lv10?】

"Confirm!"

Swish!

The very instant the Psionic Defensive Grand Array configuration was upgraded to Lv10, the hemispherical light barrier enveloping the sky above the Market flashed brilliantly by several folds. Looking at its defense and shield values now, Song Chi silently praised inwardly.

【Defense: 1,200】
【Shield Value: 120,000 / 120,000】

The defense value jumped directly from the previous 600 to 1,200, while the shield value soared from 48,000 points all the way to 120,000 points.

What excited Song Chi even more was that the shield value, which had previously only had a few hundred points left, actually restored itself directly to its prime state after the rank-up. The massive shield value of up to 120,000 points was guaranteed to see him through the remaining 23 minutes.

"Phew!"

His breathing gradually steadied. Only then did Song Chi completely set his mind at ease. However, he did not halt his attacks. Although the protective light barrier was out of danger for now, killing even one more Void Demon would reduce a fraction of the pressure on the Sky Firmament once its cooldown finished.

Thus, time slowly drifted by. Unknowing how many times he had repeated his attacks, until the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator component on the Sky Firmament finished its cooldown, he immediately controlled the Sky Firmament to rush out of the Market.

As the Sky Firmament moved away from the Market, the attack movements of the ten Fire Sunflower Marionettes noticeably became exceptionally sluggish, even stalling in place and unable to move for a time.

Yet there was no alternative; the duration of the brainwave remote-control system had ended, requiring a lengthy 6 hours to complete its cooldown, so Song Chi had to take the field personally.

Fortunately, with the current shield value of the Tier 1 Psionic Grand Array, it could sustain itself for a sufficiently long time even without the manual, continuous cleanup by the Fire Sunflower Marionettes.

Without needing to be distracted by controlling the Fire Sunflower Marionettes, Song Chi, concentrating solely on piloting the Sky Firmament, was clearly far more at ease. The resulting performance showed that the Sky Firmament's speed in clearing out the Void Demons this time became even faster.

In less than twenty minutes, even before the Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator component suffered a second overload, the remaining hundreds of Void Demons had been entirely wiped out.

Looking at the hundreds and thousands of dark-blue corpses scattered around the periphery of the Heavens Market, Song Chi unexpectedly felt an inexplicable urge to cry.

It had nothing to do with sorrow, but rather that impulse of sheer excitement after surviving a catastrophe that makes one want to shed tears, which quickly transformed into deep joy and relief.

Once the unusual emotions in his heart subsided, Song Chi began manipulating the Sky Firmament to patrol the outer perimeter of the Heavens Market, utilizing the airship's tractor beam to swiftly collect the corpses of those Void Demons.

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