Counting the twenty hours of deep sleep earlier, he had already spent nearly two days without leaving his bedroom. Even though he had informed his dad and mom beforehand, to prevent them from worrying—or worse, breaking down the door—he had to make an appearance.
In the living room, his parents were both present. As the Torch Ship Captain, neither had other jobs to attend to, so they typically spent plenty of time at home.
Seeing Song Chi appear refreshed and spirited, his parents finally breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, they felt a small sense of pride for their son deep in their hearts.
*Entering the limit-breaking state wasn't something so easily achieved. Although he had stumbled into it by mere chance, this experience meant that as long as his luck wasn't too bad moving forward, the likelihood of completely mastering this state was fairly high.*
The family of three chatted for a while. Song Chao gave Chen Lixia a knowing glance, after which Chen Lixia walked to the living room couch, crouched down, and began fiddling with something.
Song Chi was puzzled, unsure of what she was up to. Just as confusion took hold, his mom activated some kind of mechanism. Suddenly, a faint blue light screen emerged from the living room floor, quickly spreading throughout all corners of the house. By the time it stopped, the blue light had formed a fully enclosed space.
Song Chi's eyes widened in shock. As someone who carried the soul of two lives and had matured early since childhood, he genuinely had no idea his family possessed such a hidden contraption.
At this moment, Song Chao beckoned him, signaling for him to follow. Father and son stepped into the study one after the other.
The moment he entered the study, Song Chi was once again stunned. Compared to his past impression of his dad's study, everything here was completely different.
No desk, no bookshelf, no wooden chair, not even the window—everything had disappeared. The study now resembled the Chaos Space of the Ancestral Torch, except at its center, there was no burning Torch Seed. Instead, there lay a colossal album, more than ten meters in both width and length.
Raising his eyes, he saw the grand backdrop of the cosmos, with a Dragon Whale Illusion howling toward the heavens. Towering above all was the Mech Giant, standing ten thousand meters tall, surveying all living beings from on high. This awe-inspiring scene was vividly embossed onto the album, as lifelike as could be.
At that casual glance, the imposing silhouette of the Mech Giant on the album seemed to emit boundless magical power, grabbing hold of Song Chi's entire vision. His body froze in place, unable to move an inch.
*His eyes quickly lost their luster, and as the gleam in them completely faded, Song Chi found himself inexplicably standing beneath an eternal, dark sky. Overhead loomed the projection of the towering Mech Giant, surrounded by the faintly visible, majestic Dragon Whale Illusion.*
*He couldn't tell how much time had passed. Song Chi noticed the projection overhead becoming increasingly solid and monumental, while even the formerly elusive Dragon Whale Illusion began to sharpen into view.*
Just as confusion filled his heart, his dad's voice suddenly echoed in his ears.
"Do not fear, do not resist. This is the 'Dragon Spine Tyrant Whale - Mythical Mech Contemplation Diagram,' a secret legacy of our Dinghai Song Family,"
"As the Song Family's guarded secret, you must imprint this Dragon Spine Tyrant Whale Mech Conceptualization Chart deeply into your mind. From now on, keep visualizing it constantly. With the support of the Torch Seed, your Spiritual Force will grow steadily and progressively."
"Don't underestimate this Spiritual Force. While its effects may be hard to notice at first, later—if you manage to fortify the Torch Warship to a certain extent and activate its Mythical Mecha Form—the strength of your spiritual energy will directly determine how long you can sustain the form and how potent its combat power will be. Every descendant of our Dinghai Song Family must never slack in the cultivation of the Contemplation Diagram."
Listening to his dad's explanation, Song Chi suddenly understood. Realizing this Mech Giant projection was a form of advanced inheritance, he no longer resisted. Instead, he focused intensely, raising his gaze to study every minute detail of the projection.
*Even Song Chi hadn't expected that, just this subconscious focus allowed him to re-enter the limit-breaking state. In a state of Threefold Mind Utilization, Song Chi's engraving and imprinting of the Mech Giant projection became increasingly lifelike.*
*Time seemed to stretch endlessly. Once the projection of the Mech Giant completely faded away, Song Chi exited the eternal dark sky and returned to reality.*
It was still the study, resembling Chaos Space, with the Contemplation Album spread at its center. However, when Song Chi glanced at it this time, that unique allure from earlier was entirely gone. All he felt was that the album before him was no more than an exceptionally realistic ordinary painting.
Also, if his perception was correct, after his own engraving, the imagery on the album seemed far dimmer than before. He estimated one more attempt at engraving would render it permanently too blurred for use.
"Each person can only visualize it once in their lifetime. This album isn't the original version—it can still be used once more for your sister. As for the effect of engraving and visualizing, it varies from person to person. The better the engraving, the greater the spiritual enhancement, and vice versa."
"The highest engraving effect ever achieved in our Dinghai Song Family was eighty percent of the album's essence. As for me, with average comprehension, I only managed to engrave forty-five percent of its essence."
His dad's voice echoed again in his ears. After finishing his remarks, his gaze landed firmly on his son. Clearly, he was asking about Song Chi's engraving effect.
Hearing this, Song Chi closed his eyes briefly, focusing his mind inward. When he opened them again, he gave his answer.
"Seventy percent!"
He felt quite satisfied with this result. Based on his dad's words, this level of engraving was considered very good.
*Simultaneously, Song Chi understood that this wasn't due to exceptional comprehension or talent on his part. It was purely because he had coincidentally entered the limit-breaking state during the engraving process. With its aid, he had managed to engrave seventy percent of the album's essence in one go. Otherwise, he'd likely have achieved no more than his dad—around forty-five percent.*
Just as he surmised, upon hearing "seventy percent," Song Chao's face lit up with an uncontrollable smile.
The two left the study, and Song Chi began questioning his dad about the Dinghai Song Family.
"Dad, what's this Dinghai Song Family you mentioned? Does our family have some grand, untold history of glory?"
Song Chao was about to boast to his son, eager to reclaim some sense of pride in front of his prematurely mature child. But glancing at the rapidly fading blue light screen and catching Chen Lixia's sharply disapproving stare, he ultimately held his tongue.
"Why do you need to know so much? When the time comes, you'll find out. Go do what you need to do now. Tomorrow, your sister has a day off. Remember to pick her up on time."
Song Chi's mouth twitched as he rolled his eyes. Without pressing the issue further, he casually agreed and headed out the door.
Inside the Cang Qiong Warship, there was still a batch of resources to offload—he'd have to make another run to the black market.
An hour later, Song Chi returned home. At this point, all he had left on him were 400 threads of Zero Rank Floating Land Origin, 40 threads of First Rank Floating Land Origin, and a batch of emergency supplies consisting of Life Core units, Mercury Crystals, Electrum, and other resources for warship enhancements.