The announcement of the Star Sea Youth League's date swiftly spread throughout the Alliance, and all of human civilization erupted into excitement!
Even Qingyang, far out on the frontier, received the news immediately.
Before Qingyang could examine it closely, cheers suddenly erupted from the surrounding Starport area.
Four days had passed since they arrived at this Starport, and the Eternal Fleet would set off again in one final day.
He had not expected such a shocking piece of news to suddenly emerge.
Qingyang's thoughts churned. The Star Sea Youth League...
There were only a few events capable of stirring the entire Alliance into such a frenzy, aside from the unshakable Star Sea Festival held once every hundred Star Sea Years.
The Youth League was undoubtedly the most closely watched of them.
It was a massive event that gathered all the prodigies across the Alliance, covering thousands of competitions in fields ranging from military affairs and scientific research to entertainment.
Every Youth League produced quite a few top prodigies with terrifying reputations!
Among them, the fields that produced the most popular figures were Extraordinary Ones and Starship Commanders, followed by research and similar events.
Qingyang opened the Second World, which covered the entire Alliance, and immediately spotted the most prominent section on the homepage.
[Youth League] [Date Confirmed. Details Below]
Qingyang frowned slightly. There was a fifty-year age limit, and participants needed at least a Veteran T7 Fleet. As a first-time competitor, he probably would not achieve particularly good results, right?
Those gifted and powerful prodigy captains were already formidable to begin with, and they had several extra decades to develop.
Even with the Star of Truth, Qingyang still had no confidence that he could catch up to those top prodigies in just over three years.
Bzzzt—
The control room door opened.
Qingyang snapped out of his thoughts and looked toward Guxue and Guxing as they entered.
"Brother Qingyang, did you see the news about the Youth League?" Guxue hurried over to Qingyang, her face full of excitement.
Qingyang nodded. "Yeah, but for my first time, I think I can only test the waters.
"I remember the Potential Rankings have generous rewards."
The Alliance imposed the fifty-year age limit so that people could participate twice. While first-time participants could not compete with the prodigies on the overall rankings, there was also the Newcomer Prodigy Ranking.
Its rewards were equally substantial, and its importance and exposure were not much lower than those of the overall rankings.
It was a ranking established by the Alliance to identify promising new prodigies early and provide them with development resources, ensuring they would not waste their potential.
Guxue nodded repeatedly. "Exactly, exactly. Even Veteran T6 Fleets would be envious of the rewards for the Newcomer Prodigy Ranking."
Although they competed in the same venue, their opponents were different.
With rewards that generous, he naturally had to participate.
The frontier happened to be the most efficient region for obtaining resources. On the way there, he could also make a few more expeditions into Dimensional Worlds.
Not long after arriving at the frontier, he should be able to try advancing to a T7 Fleet.
With that in mind, Qingyang stopped overthinking.
"Rest for one last day. We'll set off again early the day after tomorrow."
"Understood!"
Qingyang returned to the Residential Area. Before he could enter a state of mental meditation, the Star Network panel suddenly popped up.
[Star Commander, you have a communication request.]
A communication request?
He accepted it in confusion, and then a figure appeared on the screen.
It was Qingyundao, whom he had not seen in a long time.
Qingyundao seemed to be in an extremely chaotic place. The background was blurry and unstable, while roars that made one's mental domain tremble occasionally rang out.
Yet Qingyundao showed no sign of anything unusual. His expression remained refined and calm.
"Dad?" Qingyang was somewhat surprised.
Qingyundao smiled and nodded. "Long time no see. It looks like you've been doing pretty well lately."
Qingyang immediately smiled.
"Of course. Who do you think I am?"
"You brat. Do you know about the Youth League?" Qingyundao asked with a smile.
Qingyang turned serious. "Yeah. For my first competition, I plan to fight for a spot on the Newcomer Prodigy Ranking. But Dad, roughly how strong are those prodigies in their forties and fifties?"
"Leaving aside ordinary contestants, anyone who wants to compete for a place on the overall rankings needs at least a Veteran T6 Fleet. Quite a few have Silver Fleets, and there are even many with Gold T6 Fleets," Qingyundao explained.
Although Qingyang had long guessed that those prodigies, who possessed top-tier talent and abilities alongside immense resources and powerful backgrounds, would be terrifying—
He was still stunned when he learned the truth.
As far as he knew, even possessing a Silver T6 Fleet at the age of a hundred qualified one as a top prodigy.
Reaching T6 Perfection in Mental Threshold was one thing, but commanding a Gold or Silver T6 Fleet was not something that could be achieved with Perfection alone.
At the very least, one needed Perfection +10.
Moreover, after reaching Perfection, the only way to strengthen one's Mental Threshold without advancing was to continuously venture through Dimensional Worlds, earn high ratings, and obtain powerful opportunities.
Veteran Fleets could still be built by pouring in resources, but commanders of Silver and Gold Fleets also needed to possess exceptionally powerful abilities themselves.
Qingyundao looked at Qingyang. "What level is your Mental Threshold now?"
"T8 Perfection +3," Qingyang answered directly.
"+3 during the T8 stage is already not bad, but it isn't enough."
Qingyundao said directly, "I'll give you something that can raise your Mental Threshold to +4. Also, when you advance to T7, try to get your Mental Threshold to +5. The higher, the better."
Dad had something like that?
This was no longer simply a matter of being rich, was it?
"I understand." Qingyang nodded.
Qingyundao fell silent, seemingly pondering something.
Seeing that, Qingyang did not speak either, his eyes flickering.
The more he looked at his father, the more extraordinary he seemed. Should he hand the Chichen matter over to his father?
Other prodigies were stuck because their Mental Thresholds could not improve. Being stuck because of resources was really frustrating.
"As it happens, I have a special star martial art suitable for you. I'll send it over along with that later."
At last, Qingyundao spoke.
Qingyang felt a faint surge of joy. Then, after hesitating for several seconds, he finally told Qingyundao about the Chichen Battleship Master Blueprint.
Qingyundao was only mildly surprised after hearing it. "Developing a starship isn't difficult. The difficult part is gaining recognition from the Starfleet Commander System.
"Since a Master Blueprint has already been generated, then there won't be a problem.
"A T8 top-tier battleship consumes far fewer materials than the Shining Moon Type. It really is a huge slice of the market."
"In that case, leave it to me. But it will take at least two years before it begins turning a profit," Qingyundao said calmly.
Upon hearing that, Qingyang directly sent the Chichen Master Blueprint's data to Qingyundao.
As long as one had the Master Blueprint's real-time design data and obtained authorization through the Star Network, one could produce blueprints for commercial sale without needing the Master Blueprint itself.
The Master Blueprint's data changed once per day, so it only needed to be set to update automatically.
As for the resources and equipment needed to manufacture commercial blueprints, Qingyang believed that would not be difficult for Qingyundao.
After chatting for a few more moments, Qingyundao had something to attend to and ended the communication.
Qingyang was left behind, still deep in thought.
He was not thinking about Qingyundao, but about those cries in his background that made him feel mentally uncomfortable even through the communication.
What were those things?
He really wanted to see them.
Just then, the Star Network's data transfer delivered the two items Qingyundao had given him.
Besides a bottle of liquid flickering with purple light, the other item was the special star martial art Qingyundao had mentioned.
Qingyang directly poured the bottle of liquid into his mouth, then picked up the bottle and looked at it.
[Oral consumption is not recommended. Of course, that is another matter if your Mental Threshold is strong enough.]
"..."
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