Poverty Had Limited Your Imagination

Just fifty planets and a population of over a hundred billion—how much could a single selection process possibly cost?

In fact, a hundred Universe Coins would have been more than enough!

She had thought the so-called ten-thousand-Universe-Coin budget was meant for her to expand the management team, allowing them to serve the lord more quickly and efficiently.

A standard management team only cost 10 Universe Coins per year. Even ten teams serving the lord would cost just 100 Universe Coins a year.

She had originally thought the lord meant to prepay a hundred years' worth of management fees in one go.

But judging from the lord's current attitude...

Had she misunderstood!?

"This..." Venina hesitated before forcing herself to speak.

"My lord, may I boldly ask something..."

"The ten thousand Universe Coins you provided... were they really... really only meant for holding this one selection?"

Wang Yu merely looked at her with a smile and said nothing.

Venina understood instantly. She swallowed and carefully said, "But... my lord, for a selection across fifty planets, even if we raised the standards to the highest level, it still... still wouldn't cost a hundred Universe Coins!"

"The ten-thousand-Universe-Coin budget you gave... this, this simply can't all be spent!"

She was genuinely panicking.

What did a hundred Universe Coins even mean?

It could buy a C5-grade alloy spaceship!

It was only a selection across a few dozen planets. Why would it need so much money!?

"Also, my lord, the training investment I mentioned earlier was already drafted according to the highest imperial standards."

"Of course, if you insist on investing more resources, then any amount can be poured into it. But the problem is..."

Venina's face was filled with alarm. Gritting her teeth, she said:

"Forgive my bluntness, but the people in the territory currently have very average talent and potential. Nearly all of them possess tenth-grade bloodlines, while the slightly better ones only have ninth-grade bloodlines."

"Their foundations are truly poor. Investing too many resources in them would have an extremely low return on investment!"

"I am only considering your interests, my lord, and trying to make reasonable use of resources!"

After saying that, Venina lowered her head, not daring to look at Wang Yu's face.

Wang Yu laughed instead.

"Return on investment?"

"Venina, don't talk to this lord about return on investment."

"Return on investment is something only poor people consider. This lord does not lack money."

"Uh..." Venina was completely stunned. Just how rich did one have to be to speak so boldly!?

"It seems poverty has limited your imagination. Fine, let's keep it simple..." Wang Yu said with a smile.

"Raise the investment amount you just mentioned by a hundredfold!"

"A hundredfold!?" Venina was utterly dumbfounded, her mind buzzing.

The ten million White Dragon Coins she had mentioned had already been an exceptionally high investment.

But a hundredfold?

One billion White Dragon Coins?

That level of training was comparable to that given to direct descendants of the imperial royal family!

Using that much money to train ordinary talents with only tenth-grade or ninth-grade bloodlines?

In truth, those people could hardly be considered geniuses at all. They were merely the best of a bad lot, selected from countless people with terrible aptitude—people who could barely be considered worth training...

To place such heavy bets on people like them...

That was simply far too insane!

Venina opened her mouth, wanting to persuade him again, but swallowed the words before they came out.

The lord had just said that he did not lack money.

And that statement—"return on investment is something only poor people consider"—carried such overwhelming extravagance that he was clearly determined to do this.

If she kept trying to persuade him, she might anger the lord!

Wang Yu paid no attention to her reaction and continued:

"Also, training only ten thousand people is far too few. All one hundred million people selected this time need to be trained."

"All one hundred million people need training!?" Venina was shocked once again!

Those one hundred million people had only passed the most preliminary screening. She had merely come to report the results and had never even considered that all one hundred million would be trained!

"Listen carefully. For these one hundred million people, arrange one million Star-level instructors skilled at teaching. Each Star-level instructor will be responsible for guiding one hundred people, specifically teaching them cultivation secret techniques and improving their mastery of techniques and amplitude levels, for a period of one year."

Hiring one million Star-level instructors?

What kind of operation was this?

"My lord, one million Star-level instructors, and they must be skilled at teaching... It will be very difficult to hire so many people," Venina said with a troubled expression.

"Difficult? Then add more money!" Wang Yu said with a smile.

"Whatever the market rate is, I'll pay three times that!"

"How much it costs is not important. What matters is that, after one year, I want to see every one of these hundred million people improve in strength."

"As long as anyone comprehends Artistic Conception within a year, or their Force Amplitude or Mind Force Amplitude exceeds tenfold, regardless of which condition they meet, they will receive one million White Dragon Coins as a reward."

"After one year, regardless of their cultivation progress, give them all Planetary Evolution Potions and make every one of them break through to the Planetary-level."

"Those are all my requirements. Handle everything else as you see fit."

"Yes, my lord..." Venina was shaken to the core, so much so that she felt dazed for a moment.

After giving a few more instructions, Wang Yu dismissed Venina.

Although what he had just said sounded incredibly extravagant, that was only by ordinary Star-level standards.

In reality, it would not even cost tens of thousands of Universe Coins.

In cosmic civilization, the gap in status between Planetary-level and Star-level individuals was not that great. On many slightly better planets, Star-level beings could still be found everywhere and were nothing rare.

But once someone became Universe-level, their status and wealth skyrocketed.

As long as a Universe-level individual joined a universe country, they could immediately receive dozens of life planets as a fief. Their net worth was generally at least ten million Universe Coins, while stronger ones possessing tens of millions or around a hundred million was not particularly unusual.

With that kind of wealth, spending a hundred thousand or eighty thousand was nothing.

Ordinary Universe-level lords did not spend money so freely on their people simply because it was not worth it, not because they could not afford it.

But since he could receive system rewards, to say nothing of anything else, receiving one Universe Coin for every Planetary-level individual was already an enormous profit!

So he did not need to care how terrible their aptitude was or how hopeless they might be. He only needed to throw money at them and forcibly push them upward!

If his current strength had not been limited, he definitely would not have trained only one hundred million people. He would have spent money to push all of the more than one hundred billion people to the Planetary-level!

As for whether there would be problems with training over a hundred million people...

The money involved was not much, so it would not cause any trouble.

Nor would it conflict with the Ganwu Dojo.

Although the Qian Wu Country Lord had explicitly decreed that only the Ganwu Dojo could exist as a "cultivation academy" within the Ganwu Universe Country, prohibiting anyone from establishing other martial schools or dojo-like organizations on a large scale.

However, he had asked Instructor Yoda about it. It was not a problem for planetary lords to train their people, even on a somewhat large scale. Planetary lords were even encouraged to do so.

After all, the two did not conflict. Once lords trained outstanding citizens, would they not still have to send them to the Ganwu Dojo in the end?