In the astounding number of resource-based floating continents, they are further classified into barren floating lands, mineral floating lands, and those with special celestial resources, among others.
Even barren floating lands will have scattered resource deposits of various kinds. Truly desolate floating lands that completely lack resources are exceedingly rare, even rarer than life-bearing floating lands.
Based on this, Song Chi had affirmed that the situation was abnormal.
Having attained the information he wanted, Song Chi casually dealt with all the Shouyuan clansmen.
Still skeptical, he specifically spent some time on this third-rank Floating Land, using an [Ultrasonic Geomagnetic Detector] component to conduct a general survey.
Only after failing to detect any resources or mineral veins did he fully confirm that the Starry Sea Floating Land beneath his feet was indeed an almost worthless barren Floating Land.
It wasn’t that Song Chi was superstitious; rather, truly barren Starry Sea Floating Lands were indeed a rarity.
The formation of barren floating lands could be due to intrinsic or extrinsic reasons. Within the same Star Domain, the dense occurrence of such floating lands suggests that it’s less likely they formed naturally and more likely due to external causes.
But achieving this externally is no simple feat.
Aside from creatures like the Insect Race, which devour everything on a floating land without restraint, there is essentially only one other method: extracting the Floating Land Origin Core of a Starry Sea Floating Land.
Excluding the Insect Race, a species that would never peacefully coexist with other civilizations, there is only one conclusion left.
Arriving at this conjecture, the puzzles within Song Chi’s heart remained unsolved.
To extract the Floating Land Origin Core of a Starry Sea Floating Land, at least a fourth-rank Starry Sea life form is required. To extract the origin core of third-rank and fourth-rank floating lands, a fifth-rank being would need to spend a significant amount of time. Considering the peak combat power of the Shouyuan civilization, they theoretically shouldn’t be able to accomplish this.
So the question arises, how exactly did the Shouyuan civilization manage to do this?
Having confirmed that the Floating Land underneath his feet was barren, these queries emerged in Song Chi’s mind.
With this curiosity, he activated another warp device on the Cang Qiong.
Tens of light-years away, just outside a second-rank floating land under the jurisdiction of the Shouyuan civilization, Cang Qiong quietly emerged.
Without any delay, with the [Mirage Transformation Pearl of Mirage Dragon] and [Void Membrane] concealing it, and since this particular floating land was not garrisoned by a Shouyuan mothership, Song Chi directly steered Cang Qiong into the floating land.
Several hours later, when Cang Qiong burst forth from that floating land, he had obtained a complete star chart of the territory governed by the Shouyuan civilization, as well as the exact number of their motherships.
"Only four Shouyuan motherships? In that case, there’s no need to be cautious anymore..."
Having made up his mind, Song Chi quickly set his next destination to one of the mere three, Floating Land 003, under Shouyuan civilization.
One of the Shouyuan motherships was stationed on Floating Land 003, and Song Chi’s goal was to meet with this mothership, proclaimed to possess fourth-rank combat power.
Besides, he sought to clear up the method of extracting the Floating Land Origin Core, or to obtain precise information about it, from this very Shouyuan mothership.
Extracting a Floating Land Origin Core has never been an easy task. Even a fifth-rank battleship captain would need to start with a ten-year commitment to extract an origin core from a first-rank or second-rank floating land, and it would take even more time for third-rank or fourth-rank lands, where a 40-year endeavor would not be surprising.
Yet, despite its time-consuming and strenuous nature, the value of a Floating Land Origin Core is incredibly significant.
A typical first or second-rank Floating Land Origin Core can compete in value with purple shipborne components, and a third-rank could be on par with orange components.
As for the fourth rank, ones of higher purity could even be traded for peak red Fire Sources UpRank.
If it concerns the fifth or sixth ranks, their value is said to rival that of Silver Legend components.
Why is the Floating Land Origin Core so highly valued?
The answer is simple:
It can be integrated into the Origin Core of another Starry Sea Floating Land, rapidly strengthening it. This method can swiftly elevate the rank of a Starry Sea Floating Land.
Take the Chenxing Twin Floating Lands for example: five thousand years ago, when they were discovered, both were typical fifth-rank floating lands. Now after thousands of years, due to the continuous provision of lower-rank Floating Land Origin Cores by the Chenxing Clan, Chenxing Yin Continent has advanced from the entry level of fifth-rank to its current peak.
Reportedly, Chenxing Yin Continent is on the cusp of rising to sixth rank, and in less than a century, it is set to become the duchy’s first sixth-rank Life Floating Land.
The Dragon Spine Continent has followed a similar trajectory. Three thousand years ago, it was a standard fifth-rank land, but with the ample supply of lower-rank Floating Land Origin Cores from the Song family, it too is nearing the peak of fifth-rank, with only one or two hundred years to go.
Therefore, even though the extraction of Floating Land Origin Cores is incredibly challenging, many fourth-rank Starry Sea life forms still covet them greatly.
This was precisely why Song Chi had such keen interest in the matter; should the Shouyuan civilization truly possess any special methods of extracting the Floating Land Origin Core and be able to ignore the restrictions set by high-rank lifeforms, its value would be unimaginable.
...
Several days later, after traveling over a thousand light-years, the Cang Qiong finally arrived at Shouyuan 003 Floating Land, and Song Chi laid eyes on the somewhat astonishingly large Shouyuan mothership.
Compared to the majority of fourth-rank units in the Shattered Starry Sea with volumes around three thousand years old, the length of the Shouyuan mothership was a staggering ten thousand meters. At first glance, Song Chi even thought it was a fifth-rank combat power unit.
However, after seeing the countless bombardment drones carried by this warship, Song Chi quickly understood.
As an interstellar mothership, this warship did not follow the perfect volume proportion of a single warship system but was more inclined towards cluster bombing. The larger the volume, the more unmanned aerial vehicles it could carry, and naturally, its combat power would also be more terrifying.
Yet to this, Song Chi did not pay much attention.
Although the mothership carried many unmanned bombardment aircraft, the assumption was that the mothership would have the chance to let them take off.
The radar on the Shouyuan mothership was clearly not very good; even as the Cang Qiong approached within ten thousand meters, it still failed to detect the presence of the Cang Qiong.
This gave Song Chi ample time to prepare.
Pure Yang Sword Beam Cannon
Soul-Extinguishing Pupil Light Cannon
Electromagnetic Ray Cannon
Crimson Fire Canopy Cannon
Shadow Breaker Cannon
Cold Light Heavenly Frost Cannon
External Armor-Piercing Cobalt Shell Launcher
All the weapons on the Cang Qiong were ready to fire, and as the two main cannons finished charging, the seven simultaneously roared to life.
Song Chi did not aim for the vulnerabilities of the Shouyuan mothership; all targets were the unmanned aerial vehicles above the mothership.
Boom Boom Boom...
Amid the intense bombardment, brilliant fireworks erupted across the entire deck of the mothership.
This was not the end; the Electromagnetic Ray Cannon and the Crimson Fire Canopy Cannon, two mass-attack secondary cannons, now played their biggest role. The two continuously fired, with each round of cannon fire covering multiple unmanned aerial vehicles.
This chapter is updat𝓮d by freēwebnovel.com.
In a short time, before the Shouyuan race could react, the majority of the drone swarm above the mothership had been annihilated.
By the time the other party belatedly raised a fourth-rank level nuclear energy shield, most of the ship’s drones were already decimated.
Without the threat of these drones, the Cang Qiong could easily suppress the Shouyuan mothership head-on.
Nuclear energy shield?
Under the concentrated fire of the Shadow Breaker Cannon and both main cannons, it collapsed completely before long.
Twenty minutes later, Song Chi successfully sunk the Shouyuan mothership.
This was the result of Song Chi intentionally holding back to avoid damaging the various vital components aboard the mothership.
Next was to tally the gains and collect information related to the "Floating Land Origin Core." Read new chapters at freewebnovel
After an assemblage of Void Assassin Clan Soldier Figurines had searched the entire Shouyuan mothership from top to bottom, Song Chi received both good and bad news.
The good news was that he truly found the special device used by the Shouyuan civilization to extract the Floating Land Origin Core.
The bad news, however, was that this special device was not a Strange Object and couldn’t be disassembled from the Shouyuan mothership. It was already automatically destroyed the moment the mothership sank.
PS: I’ve adjusted my biological clock, the second chapter should be around noon tomorrow; I’ll also code out the two chapters for tomorrow as early as possible.