Chapter Nine: Testing the Alien Star Domain Bazaar

As one of the five major cities on the White Tower floating continent, Jiangyuan City governs a population exceeding twenty million, with each cohort of students surpassing one hundred thousand.

Given such a vast number of students, it was natural that the First Academy was not the only Spark Academy; even though the First Spark Academy gathered the elite students of Jiangyuan City, it was impossible for it to encompass all awakened students within the entire city.

According to past patterns, the number of successfully awakened students per cohort typically hovered around a thousand.

Half an hour later, on the outskirts of Jiangyuan City, at the ultra-long-range star-sea deployment platform.

More than five thousand citizens of Jiangyuan City had already gathered here.

As one of the few major annual events in Jiangyuan City, quite a number of people came to witness the alien star realm deployment ceremony. Adding the newly arrived students, teachers, and parents, the crowd around the deployment platform swelled into the tens of thousands.

About twenty minutes later, after the district chief of the White Tower Spark Bureau confirmed that all the newly awakened students from Jiangyuan City had arrived, the alien star realm deployment officially commenced.

The first to take the stage were not students from the First Spark Academy of Jiangyuan; conversely, they had been reserved for the grand finale.

Even from the heart of Jiangyuan, a towering column of light could be seen piercing the sky every twenty minutes or so. Each column represented one hundred newly awakened students from Jiangyuan City being deployed into the unknown star sea beyond endless light years.

Song Chi and Sun Hao were assigned to the same batch. Together, they ascended the stage and swiftly summoned their own spectral energy shuttles. When one hundred such shuttles were arranged neatly, the Spark Bureau operatives outside the deployment platform gave the order.

A kilometer-wide column of light soared into the heavens.

As the one hundred spectral energy shuttles disappeared above the platform, Song Chi’s father and mother, along with many other parents, chose not to leave but instead began slowly setting up outdoor tents from their backpacks.

They intended to wait here overnight because the initial alien star realm explorations lasted a full twenty-four hours, and in emergencies, a voluntary return was possible. Due to concern for their children, most parents preferred to stay here rather than return home.

...

The intense sensation of weightlessness compelled Song Chi to instinctively close his eyes. Violent tremors made the shuttle creak and groan; had he not fastened his seatbelt early on, he dared not imagine the torment he might have suffered.

As the weightlessness and dizziness gradually subsided, before his body could fully recover, he forced himself to open his eyes and quickly activated the spectral energy shield component on his shuttle.

Song Chi deeply agreed with a phrase often repeated by his old homeroom teacher: alien star-sea races would never wait for you to recover your senses; you had to be one step faster, whether to strike or flee.

The spectral energy shield, enhanced to level 7, took 23 seconds to charge. After more than twenty seconds, when the black shield on the shuttle’s surface fully activated, Song Chi finally exhaled in relief.

Only then did he have time to adjust his physical condition and examine the environment outside the shuttle.

As for why the spectral energy shield was not activated before deployment, this involved another fundamental principle of Spark human civilization.

During ultra-long-range deployment, the ship’s hull must endure immense spatial compressive forces. Activating the energy shield prematurely would inevitably cause it to overload under the pressure of spatial forces. No matter how strong, no energy shield could withstand the power of the void.

The meaning of spectral energy shield overload on a Spark ship required no further elaboration.

As far as Song Chi knew, once the energy shield overloaded, restarting it required at least half an hour of cooldown, sometimes even an hour. During this time, although the ship would not be entirely defenseless, its defenses would be reduced by more than seventy percent, greatly increasing the danger.

Therefore, activating the ship’s energy shield before deployment was a cardinal taboo for all Spark ship captains.

Frowning slightly as he gazed at the display screen, Song Chi saw only pitch black, indicating no star-like bodies or floating continents nearby. The radar scan similarly showed no large celestial bodies or floating continents within range; not even a belt of small debris was detected.

Seeing this, a faint sense of unease stirred in Song Chi’s heart. However, he did not dwell on it immediately, as his mind was preoccupied with another matter.

After repeatedly confirming no dangers around the shuttle, he retrieved the Star-Sea Market token still worn on his chest and quickly channeled spectral energy to it.

He had yet to retrieve large items such as the Furious Tiger Type I star-sea floating continent mining vehicle and its dedicated exploration instrument from the market.

“I must be able to enter it!” Song Chi shouted silently to himself. The ability to open the Celestial Market in the alien star realm was extremely important, even largely determining his future potential. How could he not be anxious?

As spectral energy continued to flow, Song Chi’s heart sank bit by bit; the Star-Sea Market token remained unresponsive.

Just as he prepared to give up, a familiar pulling force suddenly acted upon his body.

Feeling this traction, Song Chi’s excitement was unmistakable, joy radiating from him. In the next moment, his figure vanished abruptly inside the spectral energy shuttle.

At the same time, within the Celestial Market, Song Chi’s form quietly appeared.

Satisfied with this result, he did not linger in the market but withdrew immediately, returning to the spectral energy shuttle.

Having resolved the most critical matter at the shuttle’s control console, Song Chi was finally able to focus all his attention on exploring this unknown star realm.

In the initial stages of Spark ships, the duration of stay in the alien star realm was only twenty-four hours. There was little time to waste if one wished to gather resources.

Although the shattered star sea was rich in resources, not every star realm contained abundant rare materials. To scavenge resources, one first had to locate asteroid belts, small debris fields, or star-sea floating continents—spots with high resource yields.

The shattered star sea was vast, extending countless light years. A single Spark ship lost within it was no more than a grain of sand in a boundless ocean. Thus, finding such resource points within a single day was far more difficult than imagined.

This was why the Spark human civilization repeatedly emphasized the saying: “A good patrol radar surpasses all else.”

With the level 7 spectral energy engine running at full power, the Azure Sky began cruising at conventional light speed, rapidly heading in a single direction. At the same time, Song Chi’s gaze swept over the patrol radar repeatedly, his eyes filled with anticipation.