Global Crossing: Empire of Stars

"No!" Liu Manyun's answer was quite firm. "As long as you aren't foolish enough to pocket all the profits yourself."

"Of course not, I plan to give up 60% of the share, at most 80%!" Lin Zhichen replied.

"60% is enough. The Federation won't just take what's yours without compensation. They'll give you some, though it'll be far less than its actual value. But it'll be enough for you to stuff yourself right now, and it'll also deter a considerable number of greedy eyes."

Liu Manyun breathed a sigh of relief. What she feared most was his recklessness. Laws and order, when necessary, were just a fig leaf that could be torn off at any moment:

"When your strength grows, what you lose may not necessarily be lost forever."

"Even 20% is enough for me to stuff myself," Lin Zhichen chuckled. "If I were to request a graphic designer, would that..."

"Forget it. Once NZT-50 appears, acquiring strategic talents like that will be far more difficult than it is now," Liu Manyun shook her head.

Liu Manyun: "Because by then, everyone will know your goal is to establish a nation. Competitors won't like that. Even if the Federation doesn't organize against you, families within the Federation who aspire to the same thing won't let you succeed so easily. You have to understand that the relatively easier-to-conquer galaxies are already being eyed by multiple major players. They won't welcome another competitor!"

"I see," Lin Zhichen said, suddenly enlightened. It seemed the internal situation of the Federation was far more complex than he had imagined.

"Don't worry about the graphic designer. To put it bluntly, you're still too far from that. Figure out how to survive the covetous gazes of the greedy; that's what you should be considering," Liu Manyun said.

"You don't need to worry too much about the solar system's safety. This is a critical period right after Earth joined the Federation. No one would dare make any major moves now. With your strength, you can even withstand some overt dangers.

.07; ba 045

The problem is when you leave the Federation; that's when it gets dangerous. You'll inevitably face covert attacks.

You really need to think it through. You have enough time to grow slowly; there's no need to walk a tightrope. Just a few decades, and you can eventually lead Meteor on the path of a Legion!"

"Do you know what my Legion's name is?" Lin Zhichen asked.

From the very beginning, he had never considered backing down.

Life is short; seize the day. Even with awakened psionic energy and lives that span hundreds or thousands of years, his mindset hadn't changed.

"I want a batch," Liu Manyun said, calming down. "At a price of one Energy Coin per pill."

This price wasn't low, considering it was only for 24 hours. It was roughly enough to advance one step in something, most noticeable when used for breakthroughs.

"Alright, but it's for personal use only and cannot be exposed within a short period," Lin Zhichen agreed. "I need to use it to boost my Legion."

"Is it useful? Just one pill a month?" Liu Manyun looked at him doubtfully. As she understood it, NZT-50 had the best long-term effects. How much could a skill be advanced in a single day?

Lin Zhichen smiled, not answering. The substance was the same; how it was used was his own business.

He kneaded her a couple of times, causing the beauty to gasp for breath. "Stop talking about such mood-killing things. Let's have a morning practice session first!"

Three hours later, Lin Zhichen and Liu Manyun stood in the laboratory, watching Dr. Li Ping hold a glass bottle filled with transparent pills, each about one centimeter in diameter.

"It's truly marvelous, sir. Just some ordinary herbs, yet through a special process, such wondrous medicine can be produced. It's incredible!" Dr. Li Ping appeared very excited.

"I've already tried it. The medicinal effects are exactly as described in the instructions!"

"Since it's successful, speed up the production line as soon as possible," Lin Zhichen nodded. "Produce a batch first; I have a use for it."

"I understand, sir." The doctor immediately nodded. He went to discuss with Manager Xu Wen of the Industrial Department. The implementation of a product requires the close cooperation of two departments.

Carrying a box of pills out, Liu Manyun suddenly said, "I have to go."

"So soon? Won't you stay a couple of days?" Lin Zhichen seemed surprised.

"What? Reluctant to see me go?" Liu Manyun smiled charmingly, making Lin Zhichen's heart flutter. He reached out to grab her but missed, leaving behind a string of sweet laughter.

"I originally planned to recruit you into my group. Since you already have your own Mercenary Group, I won't say more.

NZT-50 is very valuable; you need to be very careful. If things become impossible, with your strength and talent, it wouldn't hurt to take a step back. What is lost can always be regained.

"Have a safe journey," he said with a calm smile, a faint sense of melancholy in his heart.

The feel and taste were vastly different from the virtual world. No wonder they say one shouldn't get addicted to the internet; it's easy to miss out on some beautiful things.

In the sky, a ruby-red flying car soared upwards, like a Fire Phoenix ascending to heaven.

Heroes of the jianghu, their gatherings and partings are commonplace.

At the Meteor Mercenary Group's headquarters, in a closed training ground, hundreds of selected NPCs were undergoing martial arts training, their movements light, fluid, and powerful.

As the foundation of Refining Essence into Qi, a healthy body is essential. Here, health doesn't just mean being robust or rarely getting sick; it's about controlling one's breathing.

Zhuangzi of the Warring States period deliberately said: "Blowing through the reeds, expelling the old and taking in the new, mimicking the bear's movements and the bird's stretches, is merely for longevity."

Through specific movements, one's vital energy is made to flow through the meridians. In this process, the essence and qi latent in the body are absorbed and strengthened.

The process of strengthening the body's vital energy is Refining Essence into Qi.

It looks easy, but the key lies in the coordination of the body's movements and breathing. A slight misstep can affect the cultivation effect, and in severe cases, it can lead to qi deviation, causing injury—what is commonly known as going berserk.

To master this set of movements combined with breathing techniques, even those with good talent would need one to two years. Yet, these NPCs in front of him, who had only been training for a few hours, could already perform them fluently.

"Good, good!"

The effect of NZT-50 was even better than imagined. Lin Zhichen merely demonstrated once and corrected a few errors, and these NPCs could already perform the movements accurately, initiating the process of Refining Essence into Qi.

Of course, he knew this was the power of brain overclocking. Tomorrow, when this ability was lost, their cultivation effects might be greatly reduced, and even the movements they were practicing now might become crooked.

But this was the start he wanted. Currently, in his personal panel, this batch of NPCs used for experimentation had all reached the initial stage of Refining Essence into Qi, and their progress was rapidly increasing as they continued to practice.

Under normal circumstances, squeezing one's vital energy like this would be a path to death, as the amount of vital energy generated by the human body daily is limited. Desperately squeezing it would result in a shortened lifespan or even sudden death. Throughout history, countless cultivators have met their end due to greed for immediate results, leading to short lives and premature deaths. These are all cautionary tales.

But this was normal. In the corner of the training room at this moment, boxes were piled up.

Some had already been opened, revealing rows of azure potions inside.

Psionic potions, specifically designed to accelerate the cultivation of psionicists, extracted and refined from Psionic Plants.

Every so often, after a period of cultivation, the NPCs would stop, come to the boxes, drink a potion, and then sit down to meditate and recover.

Lin Zhichen had already discovered that the Psionic Plants of this world, if in his previous life, would be on par with immortal herbs and spirit grasses. Even a Yang God-level cultivator would experience great effects from them, making them veritable immortal elixirs.

This was because the energy level of Psionic energy was high. According to his research, the theoretical hierarchy of Psionic energy in this world could be compared to the power of immortals in his previous life. In the Psionic energy world of his past life, it would be considered the legendary immortal realm.

What was especially valuable was that while the Psionic potions were highly effective, they did not cause adverse reactions from overconsumption. If the human body could not absorb them, they would naturally dissipate. This characteristic was extremely important for potions. As far as Lin Zhichen could see now, even the lowest quality apprentice-level potions on the market, only one out of eleven could be absorbed by the NPCs. Most of the remaining efficacy was wasted, dissipating into the air, causing the Psionic energy concentration in the area to slowly rise.

The effect of Psionic potions on cultivator's cultivation was significant. At the very least, the Refining Essence into Qi technique, which originally could only be cultivated for three rounds based on the body's natural recovery, could now be cultivated for up to twenty-seven rounds, an effect increase of nine times!

Even better, after several rounds of cultivation, Refining Essence into Qi had become a skill, imprinted on the NPCs' personal panels.

Even if the NZT-50's effects disappeared tomorrow, with the support of his talent and the replenishment from Psionic potions, the process of Refining Essence into Qi would still progress rapidly.

According to projections, at most three months would pass before this batch of NPCs could enter the Qi Refining to Godhood realm and condense their Yin God.

In at most one year, and at most three years, the Meteor Mercenary Group would have over a hundred Psionicists!

"If I had such conditions in my previous life, what would the dynasties be? With hundreds or thousands of Yang Gods emerging, even a unified empire could be turned upside down, and the universe remade!"

Lin Zhichen sighed with emotion and was filled with hope for the future.

With the success of this experiment, as long as the Meteor Mercenary Group continued to develop, it would have an infinite future!

Twenty days later, the twenty-three pirate ships escorted by Wei Peng and others finally arrived at the port. Earth, which had calmed down, was once again in an uproar. Countless people used high-definition electronic telescopes to capture the scene in space and send it to the internet.

For the first and only time in the three years since crossing over to the New Universe, they had captured pirate NPCs, making all netizens ecstatic.

"I saw it online before and thought it was a promotional video, but now it's confirmed."

"666, boss is awesome."

"Sublight Assault, a big shot is about to appear on Earth."

"No matter how big, it has nothing to do with you."

"Where's the live stream? What happened to the live stream of that pirate base? Why is there no follow-up?"

"Search online, the Rockefeller conglomerate made a big move, attacked a half-crippled base, and ended up taking a huge fall."

"They died miserably. An entire regiment of NPC army troops was wiped out, and even the commanding officer died. Wiped out!"

"More than that, even several frigates of the family fleet that were supposed to be containing the base were sunk. Now they have to retreat outside of radar range to repair."

"Trash conglomerate, give us back the peace of our solar system!"

""

Inside the flying car, Wei Peng sneered as he looked at the messages on the Star Net. "What a waste of resources~ We've already cleared out the outer pirate ships. They couldn't even take an empty city!"

"To be objective, using a fleet to suppress the base's firepower was too difficult. Even if Ak and I went, we wouldn't perform much better than these captains. Not every captain can attack accurately in sublight conditions," Wu Tianyi shook his head, his tone quite serious.

He had watched the videos of the Rockefeller Family's attack. The asteroid where the pirate base was located had almost no gravity. The attacking army soldiers, with just a little force, would directly break through the asteroid's first cosmic velocity and "ascend" directly.

Operating in such a special environment, the attacking troops were restricted, unable to exert even half of their combat power. Then they were attacked by the base's automated drone units, and naturally, they were annihilated in an instant.

"If they can't take it, what about our spoils of war?" Link asked.

Wu Tianyi shook his head. "It depends on how the Rockefellers organize their second operation."

The flying car was currently crossing the atmosphere. If viewed from below, the sky would look like a meteor shower. More than a dozen flying cars streaked across rapidly, burning trails of fire.

This was the convoy sent by the Meteor Mercenary Group to welcome the returning crew members.

"We're back." In the parking lot, Wu Tianyi and the others, who had just gotten out of the car, saw Lin Zhichen, who had come to greet them.

"Big Brother!" After greeting him, the group headed towards the training room and soon saw the NPCs training in groups.