The asteroid belt, a mining area under the jurisdiction of Soul Second Rank, spans a vacuum region with a diameter of a kilometer.
Soul Second Rank, having already received Song Chi's mind sound transmission, was already waiting at the edge of this vacuum region.
It wasn't long before a significant space fluctuation emanated from the center of the vacuum region ahead, followed by the sudden appearance of the starship Cangqiong, its hull painted black.
In the communication projection that connected the interstellar mining ship with the Cangqiong, Soul Second Rank showed the utmost respect.
Song Chi gave a slight nod, then without saying much else, directly moved 20 Furious Tiger Mining Carts and four standard civilian interstellar mining ships out of Cangqiong's hangar. He followed by taking out 5 tons of daily supplies and a large quantity of energy blocks specialized for the mining carts and ships.
The daily supplies were prepared for Soul Second Rank and Zhao Lei. As for the Blackwater Xuan Snake, it was currently hibernating on a large asteroid nearby. It would only be awakened by Soul Second Rank in an emergency situation; otherwise, its appetite was simply too vast.
After instructing Soul Second Rank to continue the full-scale mining of various minerals, Song Chi didn't stay long in that area and jumped directly to the mining team area where Soul Master Kuang was, several light-years away.
A few hours later, once the Purple River Translocation Device was refreshed, under the watchful gaze of Soul Master Kuang atop the heads of a two-headed chimera, the Cangqiong initiated a spatial jump once again.
In a small vacuum area merely a few dozen kilometers from the activity region of the humanoid alien species, Cangqiong materialized.
This jumping point was one Song Chi had determined long ago, close enough to the activities of the humanoid aliens to save him significant time shuttling through the asteroid belt.
With aid from the component known as the Void Membrane, the Cangqiong slowly advanced forward.
Passing through numerous asteroids, it took only half an hour for the Cangqiong to successfully enter the periphery of the humanoid aliens' active region.
With the Void Membrane component enhanced to level 30, Song Chi didn't stop there but continued to skim into the inner areas of this humanoid alien species' active region.
Along the way, they inevitably encountered many Second and Third Rank humanoid aliens, but Song Chi chose not to engage, not even summoning his Void Assassin Clan Soldier Figurines.
Rather than killing these aliens, he was more eager to know where these aliens came from and why they were persistently active around the nearby asteroid belt.
So far, he hadn't seen them mining any minerals. If they weren't collecting resources, then what were their objectives?
With this curiosity in mind, the Cangqiong continued forward.
In the midst of this continuous shuttle, the twenty-four-hour return marker quickly approached.
However, having prearranged plans, Song Chi found an asteroid in advance and promptly withdrew the Cangqiong into the Ancestral Torch.
With his active retraction of the warship, this return naturally concluded in failure.
Once this return window had passed, he once again summoned the Cangqiong and continued towards the designated area.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, two more days had passed.
Today, Song Chi wasn't shuttling through the asteroid belt but had entered the Ruins Market.
Well... today was the opening time for a new round of Ruins Market trading, a sight of Golden Merit Points across his vision, he naturally would not waste this monthly trading opportunity at the Ruins Market.
After all, in his view, to gather the 90 Golden Merit Points he needed in the next three months—or rather, just two months now—the key would likely be these Ruins Market trades.
In front of the Ultra Long-Distance Space Gate Random Deployment Platform, with the activation confirmed, over eighty beams of brilliant light shot skyward from the stone platform, quickly forming corresponding numbers of spatial vortex gates at the entrance of the Ruins Market.
However, the hopeful Song Chi was soon disappointed once again.
Similar to the events of the past year or so, the space gate deployment was still not ideal. As time passed, the number of alien species entering the Ruins Market was meager, just exceeding the four-digit range.
Moreover, there weren't any potent aliens, or those with substantial backing energy. Over twenty hours, Song Chi had not seen a single item of Purple Quality or better.
This meant that he would not gain any Golden Merit Points from this Ruins Market trade.
An hour before the end of the Ruins Market trading and not quite content with the outcome, he took out three Ruins Market Guest Tokens at once, hoping to luck out and find a few high-quality relics.
But the result was still disappointing; the alien creatures from the Alien Star Domain that entered the market were lackluster. The three Ruins Market Guest Tokens only managed to yield one Purple Relic.
Fortunately, this Purple Relic could be converted into an Energy Shield of Purple Quality, with a minimum exchange of 4 Golden Merit Points at the Merit Tower, which was perhaps the only slight consolation for Song Chi.
Besides this, there were no other surprises.
In the end, Song Chi issued only one Ruins Market Guest Token.
As for the Ruins Market Walking Rank?
Sorry, but an Orange Quality relic hadn't appeared in an entire year, let alone a Red Epic Level relic.
After concluding the disappointing Ruins Market trading, Song Chi continued on his way.
The activity region of these humanoid alien species was indeed vast. Despite lacking battleship assistance or any intention to mine resources, Song Chi couldn't fathom why they would travel such great distances.
Could it be just to wander around?