005: Heaven's Market - The Sky

The reason was simple: it was already afternoon, and less than 20 hours remained before the morning's gathering. Once activated, the space door delivery platform would release its space gates for 24 hours.

In other words, if he opened the market now, it would conflict with the scheduled exploration of the alien star field tomorrow morning.

As the market's lord, he had absolute control over its operations. As long as creatures of first-order and above did not appear, the market's order could be fully maintained. However, the prerequisite was that he remained within the market's confines.

If he left midway, the chaos that could ensue in the market space was unpredictable.

Moreover, he had many preparations to make. Tomorrow marked his first exploration of the alien sea, requiring thorough readiness.

Regarding the market beneath his feet, there were still numerous ideas he needed to verify one by one.

Song Chi paced back and forth with the market order in hand, each time holding different items: water bottles, schoolbags, chairs...

Ten minutes later, he had his first answer. Anything he could lift and hold could be brought into the market space; anything beyond that capacity couldn't.

With this conclusion, he swiftly returned to the street stall area he had passed through earlier. This vacant spot was one of the few in the market, even if its 10x10 specifications were modest. Yet, for a psionic shuttle with a hull length under 7 meters, it was more than adequate.

Yes, Song Chi's goal now was to summon a psionic shuttle in this market and see if it worked.

Under his control, nether energy from his body swiftly converged towards the center of his eyebrows.

"Hm?"

Sensing the movement from his eyebrows, Song Chi felt elated. He had successfully activated the Xinhuo Ancestral Aperture.

Soon, a beam of light shot out from between his brows, and a small nether energy shuttle materialized in the vacant area before him.

"I can summon a psionic shuttle in the market too!"

Achieving this result filled Song Chi with excitement.

Now, not only could he enter the market swiftly in times of crisis to save his life, but he also had ample room to explore many ideas that had occupied his mind before.

Typically, what posed the most significant challenge for Xinhuo airships during foreign star exploration?

Many might say encountering alien civilizations, where the only possible outcome with powerful alien beings was "ship destruction and crew demise."

However, this wasn't the primary concern. The true challenge for every Xinhuo airship captain lay in the vessel's storage space limitations. The ship's size inherently restricted the quantity of items it could carry.

Consequently, every captain meticulously calculated how to maximize cabin space utilization, whether preparing for an alien star field exploration or planning the return journey with gathered resources.

As a result, large mechanical devices like the Furious Tiger floating land mining vehicle, Hornet-class combat drones, or the Land Combat type exploration robots were usually impractical to carry.

After all, even if brought along, once substantial gains were made in the alien star realm, deciding whether to transport these large entities back or abandon them to make space for harvested resources posed a dilemma.

Given their expense, discarding them was a loss unless the recovered resources were exceptionally valuable. However, the value of resources often fell short compared to that of the equipment, leaving captains vexed.

The scarcity and exorbitant prices of space folding and expansion spacecraft parts reflected this predicament. Even white-grade spaceship parts often fetched prices equivalent to blue or purple parts, with some parts simply unavailable on the market.

Earlier, Song Chi had meticulously rearranged the limited space aboard the nether energy shuttle, striving for the most optimal plan before deploying it in the alien star field the next day. Now, however, such concerns seemed unnecessary.

The market space, where he could freely summon airships, offered an almost perfect auxiliary storage solution—expansive and unrestricted by personal item limits.

The Xinhuo airship differed; large items could enter the Xinhuo Ancestral Aperture, vastly expanding operational capacity.

By stowing needed large-scale machinery within the Xinhuo airship, then placing the airship itself within the Xinhuo Ancestral Aperture, Song Chi could summon the airship upon entering the market, bypassing personal item restrictions entirely.

Moreover, this method could be employed during future alien star field explorations, using the airship as a carrier to transport unfeasible-to-carry resources to the market, thereby significantly enhancing the yield of each expedition.

Of course, all these ideas hinged on a single condition: his ability to freely open and enter the market after being dispatched to the alien star field. Otherwise, discussion was moot.

Lost in thought, a sudden sound snapped Song Chi back to reality.

[Please name the market promptly!]

Upon hearing the prompt, he recalled the task at hand. Not only did the market beneath his feet lack a name, but the psionic shuttle before him also awaited a name.

Shaking his head, he pushed aside myriad thoughts and focused on the market and the shuttle.

After pondering for about ten seconds, two words surfaced in his mind.

"Heaven's."

Having read numerous fairy novels in his previous life, "Market of All Heavens" seemed fitting for a market capable of randomly connecting to various star regions in the Shattered Star Sea.

[Market of All Heavens, naming successful.]

Next, he turned his attention to the psionic shuttle, which proved more vexing.

"Xinghai!"

[Sorry, name already exists. Please choose another.]

"Aspect Number!"

[Sorry, that name...]

"Galaxy."

[Apologies...]

...

Given the vast number of Xinhuo airships within the entire Xinhuo human civilization, many names had already been registered.

"Shenzhou!"

[Sorry...]

"Sky."

[Sky has not been used. Confirming "Sky" as the name?]

"Kunlun..."

"Hm? That acceptable?"

A pause followed by Song Chi's immediate confirmation.

Seeing the name accepted, he then reviewed the specific attributes of the nether energy shuttle.

Interrupted by his senior classmate Yang Minghui, he hadn't yet accessed all attributes of the nether energy shuttle.

[Name: Sky]

[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)]

[Special Parts: None (0/2)]