Chapter 62: Void Crystal * Demon Mark

As noted in previous textbooks, when these Void Demons die, a special crystal condenses within their bodies. These crystals concentrate the void energy they absorb throughout their lives in the void space and are known as "Void Crystals."

Because they are extremely rare, the value of these Void Crystals is exceptionally high. It is said that the enhancement of all space-type ship-borne components requires the use of these Void Crystals.

Based on this, within the territory of the Firekind human civilization, the price of these Void Crystals has been driven up tremendously, reaching a point where one rank-zero Void Crystal can be exchanged for one wispy stream of rank-one floating continent origin, and one rank-one Void Crystal can be exchanged for one wispy stream of rank-two floating continent origin.

Right now, the corpses of these Void Demons numbering well over a thousand were clearly a massive fortune, which was why Song Chi had started collecting these corpses without a moment's rest.

Dozens of minutes later, once the collection was largely complete, Song Chi manipulated the Sky Dome back into the Marketplace.

Without rushing to check the specific attributes of the Heavens Marketplace, he exercised his ability as the Master of the Marketplace, mobilizing the power of laws within the marketplace with all his might to propel the Heavens Marketplace to move into the distance.

The commotion caused by the battle just now was quite substantial, and the residual bloody aura left behind by the death of a thousand Void Demons was also very intense. If he did not leave this expanse of the void as quickly as possible, he feared that other Void Demons would track the disturbance and find them again.

As long as the Heavens Marketplace moved far away from this region, the marketplace's inherent disaster-avoidance trait could resume its function, and he would no longer need to worry about being tracked down by other Void Demons.

Not knowing how much time had passed, and feeling that he had drifted far enough away, Song Chi prepared to disperse the power of laws and bring the Heavens Marketplace to a halt.

Swish, swish, swish!

However, the sound of air being torn apart that immediately followed made his heart skip a beat. When he turned his head to look at the source of the attack, he let out a sigh of relief.

Outside the protective barrier of the marketplace, another group of Void Demons had somehow caught up. However, the number of Void Demons in this group was small, totaling only a dozen or so, with only a single rank-one demon among them, posing no real threat to the marketplace.

Quickly dispatching this dozen-odd Void Demons and gathering the Void Crystals from their bodies, Song Chi once again controlled the Heavens Marketplace to keep moving. Since they had been discovered by Void Demons once more, it proved that this location was equally unsafe, and naturally, he would not let the marketplace linger here.

Over the next few hours, Song Chi repeated this operation. Every time the Heavens Marketplace arrived somewhere, it would basically encounter a small contingent of Void Demons, which he would then kill before relocating once more. After this happened four times in a row, Song Chi began to feel that something was amiss.

If it were merely a coincidence, four consecutive times was simply too exaggerated. Over the past tens of thousands of years, the marketplace secret realm had never been discovered by these Void Demons.

According to the "disaster-avoidance" trait of the Heavens Marketplace, aside from the brilliance generated during the marketplace's advancement that had drawn the attention of the Void Demons, these subsequent encounters should not have happened.

"Could the 'disaster-avoidance' trait have failed?"

Harboring this doubt, he did not immediately relocate this time, but instead opened the marketplace attribute panel, wanting to see if he could discover anything.

The next second, when the attribute panel of the marketplace materialized before his eyes, Song Chi experienced an epiphany.

It turned out to be neither a coincidence nor a failure of the "disaster-avoidance" trait; rather, the root of the problem lay within the Heavens Marketplace itself.

[Name: Heavens Marketplace]
[Marketplace Master: Song Chi]
[Level: Lv10]
[Specifications: 1000m x 1000m]
[Basic Configuration: 50 shops, 1 stall area of 200m x 200m, 1 two-story inn (51 guest rooms), 1 Lv10 all-attribute cultivation room (psionic cultivation efficiency doubled), 1 Lv10 psionic defensive array, 1 Lv9 ultra-long-range spatial gate random deployment platform.]
[Additional Configuration: None (0/6)]
[Trait: Disaster-Avoidance (can move freely in the void, instinctively avoiding natural disasters)]
[Trait 2: Spatial Anchor (1/1)]
[Negative Status: Rank-1 Demon Marker]
[Requirements for Upgrade: 50 wisps of floating continent origin (rank-one), marketplace trading volume reaching 100,000 wisps of floating continent origin (rank-zero) {89560/100000}]

Glancing past the rest, his gaze fell directly upon the negative status entry. As his focus converged, the detailed attribute description for this entry quickly popped up.

[Rank-1 Demon Marker: A marker jointly applied by several rank-one Void Demons. When other Void Demons are within a certain surrounding range, they will automatically sense this special marker.]

"Damn it, I knew it! How could it possibly be such a coincidence? It turns out to be because of this!"

Cursing inwardly, Song Chi's head began to ache. With this marker present, the Heavens Marketplace would inevitably know no peace in the future. Because of this marker, the disaster-avoidance trait of the Heavens Marketplace was essentially rendered ineffective.

Just imagine, when someone has already placed a positioning beacon on you, what good is hiding no matter how hard you try?

"This won't do. I must clear this marker as soon as possible, or at least temporarily conceal it if nothing else. Otherwise, the marketplace that I managed to preserve with such difficulty will probably face today's situation again before long. Moreover, I need to figure something out regarding the massive commotion generated when the marketplace advances to a higher major tier..."

Murmuring to himself, Song Chi's brows, which had only just unknotted, knitted tightly together once more.

The demon marker went without saying—it was an urgent priority. Meanwhile, the commotion of the marketplace's major tier advancement also had to be taken seriously. After all, the current marketplace had only just advanced to rank-one, and the road ahead was still very long. Surely, he couldn't possibly go through this nerve-wracking ordeal every single time it upgraded in the future?

A glance from the corner of his eye swept over the pile of stacked crystal mounds beside him, and Song Chi's somewhat heavy mood lifted and became a bit more pleasant.

Through the earlier tally, it was confirmed that the number of these Void Crystals was 1,230, among which there were 1,105 rank-zero Void Crystals and 125 rank-one Void Crystals.

Calculated by the normal exchange prices within the territory of the Firekind human civilization, these were equivalent to 1,105 wisps of rank-one floating continent origin plus 125 wisps of rank-two floating continent origin.

The moment he first obtained this result, Song Chi had indeed entertained the thought of using this "demon marker" as bait to continuously lure small squads of Void Demons over to hunt them, thereby acquiring Void Crystals in a steady stream. However, he quickly dismissed the idea.

This method was indeed fast in making money, but at the same time, its danger was also extremely high. Who could guarantee that the Void Demons lured by this demon marker would always be low-tier, small squads?

What if it was a high-tier demon?

What if what got lured over was a horde numbering in the tens of thousands, accompanied by a large group of rank-one and rank-two Void Demons?

These various uncertainties made Song Chi very decisively veto this notion. Relying on the marketplace, he could easily and stably acquire various resources every month; why on earth would he need to engage in this kind of gambling with his life?