002: Fire Ship

"Attention, everyone. Those who have successfully awakened, please proceed to the Xinhuo Building with your class teachers. Those who failed to awaken, please leave the school within an hour."

A deep voice resonated from the nearby teacher's office building. All the students turned around to witness a figure ascending into the sky from the office building's roof. Dark energy, visible to the naked eye, erupted around him. In an instant, black flames encircled the soles of his feet. With a swift motion, the figure disappeared and reappeared directly above the office building, now towering over all the students.

Zhu Yaokui, the principal of Jiangyuan's No. 1 Xinhuo Academy, was rumored to command a high-level Xinhuo airship. His life level had ascended to the third tier, and he had served as the academy's principal for 150 years, amassing considerable prestige.

Sensing the faint pressure emanating from above, Song Chi felt as though he bore the weight of a hundred kilograms. Though inconsequential to him as a Level 4 in Guidance Technique, he understood it stemmed from Principal Zhu Yaokui deliberately restraining his aura.

If Zhu Yaokui were to fully unleash the aura of a third-level life form, all present students might be forced to prostrate themselves, their very bones at risk of breaking.

Song Chi's breath grew heavier. Despite showing no outward signs of discomfort, his eyes burned with determination.

Employing illusion to control the wind and hover in the air, the figure before him embodied the extraordinary being that the people of Blue Star had envisioned in their past lives. Despite witnessing it multiple times, Song Chi couldn't quell the excitement in his heart.

...

Under the personal supervision of the principal, the efficiency of the students and teachers was naturally astonishing. A group of nearly two hundred people quickly headed towards the Xinhuo Building.

Glancing around with the corner of his eye, Song Chi discovered that there were only sixteen students in Class 5 who had successfully awakened the Fire Seed. Among them, only two had the White Fire Seed. Apart from Sun Hao, the other one was named Wang Yuan, and the other fourteen students all possessed the seed of colorless firewood.

On the second floor of the Xinhuo Building, in the No. 5 Nether Energy Transformation Room, under the guidance of their old classmate, Yang Minghui, sixteen students from Class 5 lay down in separate Nether Energy Transformation Rooms one after another. When everyone was ready, Yang Minghui pressed the opening button, and the modification cabin slowly closed until it was completely sealed. At the same time, dark energy quickly filled the entire cabin space.

Seeing this, Song Chi remained calm. He had learned about this process before—this was the transformation of nether energy that must be carried out after awakening the Fire Seed. After the Fire Seed is awakened, it grants the awakened person and their bound Fire Airship the ability to control psionic energy.

Psionic energy, one of the many energies in the Broken Star Sea, is unique in its inclusiveness. It can convert most known energies into homologous psionic energy. Through this, Xinhuo humans can utilize various star sea resources for their own advancement, rapidly strengthening themselves. This is the fundamental reason why Xinhuo human civilization has been advancing swiftly, continually expanding its areas of strength.

During the initial awakening, although the awakened person successfully controlled psionic energy, their body couldn't immediately adapt to this new energy, resulting in various rejection reactions. Only by saturating the body with psionic energy over time and fully transforming it into a psionic energy body can this issue be resolved. The psionic energy transformation cabin accelerates this process.

With tightly closed eyes and palms spread, Song Chi circulated the Daoyin technique he had long been familiar with throughout his body. He couldn't tell how much time passed, but Song Chi's brows began to swell, signaling that the nether energy transformation was nearing completion. Only when the body is completely transformed into a psionic energy body can the "Xinhuo Ancestral Aperture" form between the eyebrows. This aperture houses the seeds of the Xinhuo within the body and will store the Xinhuo Airship in the future.

A few minutes later, all sixteen people in Class 5 completed the nether energy transformation and successfully opened their Xinhuo Ancestral Apertures.

"Okay, come with me. There is one last step—merging with the spaceship."

"Only when the Fire Seed is successfully integrated with an ordinary airship and transformed into a Fire Ship can one be considered a truly qualified Fire Successor."

Behind the Xinhuo Building lay a vast conventional airship base. Students from the entire Jiangyuan City Advanced Xinhuo Academy who had successfully awakened the Xinhuo Seed needed to fuse their initial Xinhuo Airships here.

Nearly two hundred people gathered in the Scout-type Star Sea Shuttle hangar and began to fuse the Fire Seeds in an orderly manner. There was no choice in this matter—all Fire Seeds could only be fused with one type of spaceship, the star-shaped sea shuttle.

The Fire-Psionic Shuttle was the common model for all initial Fire Ships.

"Song Chi!"

The call rang out, prompting Song Chi to step forward immediately. Before him stood a standard Scout-class shuttle. Awkwardly, he mobilized the psionic energy flowing within his body, directing it to gather at the center of his eyebrows. Soon, a beam of light shot out from the center of his eyebrows and disappeared into the shuttle before him.

In the next moment, a strong traction force emanated from Song Chi's Xinhuo Ancestral Aperture. Under this force's pull, the shuttle before him began to shrink slowly until it was the size of a fingernail, then penetrated Song Chi's Xinhuo Ancestral Aperture.

Simultaneously, Song Chi closed his eyes and began to sense the situation inside the Xinhuo Ancestral Aperture. In the chaotic space's center, a wisp of black flame floated, continuously roasting the investigator-class shuttle above it.

A few minutes later, a flash of light appeared before Song Chi's eyes, and an attribute panel materialized beside the small shuttle.

[Name: None (please name it as soon as possible)]

[Model: Xinhuo - Nether Energy Shuttle]

[Level: lv0]

[Basic components: colorless fire ship lv0, psionic main gun lv0, psionic secondary gun lv0, hull armor lv0, psionic engine lv0, psionic shield lv0, patrol radar lv0, psionic training room lv0 (8/8)]

[Additional parts: None (0/2)]

[Nether Energy Pool: 100/1000]

[Materials: None]

Scanning the attribute panel, Song Chi skipped the first three rows and focused on the basic components column. As the name implied, these were the standard structures common to all newly fused nether energy shuttles.

First and foremost among these was the colorless fire ship body linked to the fire seeds in the ancestral aperture. Its upgrades would mirror those of the fire seeds.

To upgrade the Fire Seed from level 0 to level 1, one needed 5 strands of floating land source and 200 nether energy points.

Just as Song Chi was about to delve deeper, his senior classmate Yang Minghui's voice interrupted him. Reluctantly, Song Chi withdrew from the Xinhuo Ancestral Aperture, yielding his position to the next fusion student.

Soon, all the awakened students completed their fusions, and the likelihood of fusion failure was negligible. This brought relief to all the school's teachers.

While the possibility of failed Xinhuo fusion was very low and almost negligible, if it did occur, one would need to wait a month for the fire seed to buffer before attempting fusion again.

This issue stemmed from the fact that, after awakening the Fire Seed, the first three days were a special protection period. Exploration of foreign stars during this period significantly reduced risk. It was a special benefit for newcomers, minimizing danger as long as they didn't seek out peril deliberately. They could accumulate experience exploring alien spaces freely and gain additional resources—an opportunity not to be missed for newly awakened rookies.

However, if the fusion of the spacecraft failed, the one-month buffer period could not be circumvented. All they could do was squander this welfare opportunity, a futile outcome that left one sighing in vain.