It Seems Poverty Has Limited Your Imagination

Just fifty planets and a population of over a hundred billion—how much could it possibly cost to hold one selection?

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

She had assumed that the so-called ten thousand Universe Coins in funding meant the lord wanted her to expand the management team, adding manpower so they could serve him faster and more efficiently.

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

She had originally thought the lord meant to prepay a century's worth of management fees in one lump sum.

But judging from his current attitude...

Could she have misunderstood?

"Um..." Venina hesitated before finally forcing herself to speak.

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

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

Wang Yu merely looked at her with a smile and did not answer.

Venina immediately understood. She swallowed and cautiously said, "But... my lord, even if we held a selection across fifty planets at the highest possible standards, it still... still wouldn't cost a hundred Universe Coins!"

"The ten thousand Universe Coins you provided... this, this simply can't all be spent!"

She was genuinely panicking.

What did one 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 just mentioned was already drafted according to the Empire's highest standards."

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

Venina's face was full of alarm. Gritting her teeth, she said:

"Forgive my bluntness, but the talents and potential of the territory's citizens are currently quite average. Almost all of them have 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!"

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

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

Wang Yu laughed instead.

"Return on investment?"

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

"Return on investment is something only poor people consider. This lord isn't short on money."

"Uh..." Venina was completely stunned. How wealthy did someone have to be to speak with such arrogance?

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

"Multiply the investment amount you just mentioned by a hundred!"

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

The ten million White Dragon Coins she had mentioned were already an extremely high investment.

But a hundredfold?

One billion White Dragon Coins?

That level of training was comparable to what the Empire spent on its direct imperial descendants!

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

In truth, those people could not even be considered talented. They had merely picked the tallest among the short, selecting a few who were barely worth training from countless people with terrible aptitude...

To place such a heavy bet on those kinds of people...

It was simply madness!

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

The lord had just said that he was not short on money.

And that line—"Return on investment is something only poor people consider"—carried such overwhelming extravagance. He was clearly determined to do this.

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

Wang Yu did not care about 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 of them?!" Venina was shocked once again!

Those hundred million people had only passed the most preliminary screening. She had merely come to report on it, but she had never imagined that every one of them would receive training!

"Listen carefully. For these hundred million people, arrange one million Star-level instructors skilled in teaching. Each Star-level instructor will guide one hundred people, specifically teaching them cultivation techniques and helping them improve their skill realms and amplitude levels. The program will last one year."

"..." Venina stared at him in utter disbelief.

Hire one million Star-level instructors?

What kind of move was that?

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

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

"Whatever the market rate is, I'll pay triple!"

"How much it costs is unimportant. What matters is that, after one year, I want to see all one hundred million of them grow stronger."

"As long as someone comprehends Artistic Conception within a year, or their Force Amplitude or Mind Force Amplitude exceeds tenfold, regardless of which one they achieve, reward them with one million White Dragon Coins."

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

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

"Yes, my lord..." Venina was shaken to the extreme, so dazed that she was momentarily in a trance.

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

Though what he had just said sounded outrageously extravagant, that was only from the perspective of ordinary Star-level cultivators.

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

In cosmic civilization, the status gap between the Planetary-level and Star-level was not particularly large. On many slightly better planets, Star-level cultivators could be found everywhere and were nothing rare.

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

As long as a Universe-level cultivator joined a universe country, they would immediately receive fiefs containing dozens of life planets. Their net worth was generally at least ten million Universe Coins. Stronger ones possessing tens of millions to around a hundred million was not particularly unusual.

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

Ordinary Universe-level lords would not spend that much money on their citizens simply because it was not worth it, not because they could not afford it.

But since he could receive system rewards, not to mention anything else, one Universe Coin for every Planetary-level cultivator was pure profit!

So he did not need to care how terrible their aptitude was or how hopeless they seemed. He only needed to pour money into them and forcibly push them upward!

If not for the limits of his current strength, he definitely would not train only one hundred million people. He would spend money to push all hundred-plus billion people to the Planetary-level!

As for whether there would be any problems with training more than a hundred million people...

The expenses were not high enough to cause any trouble.

Nor would it conflict with the Ganwu Dojo.

Although the Qian Wu Country Lord had explicitly decreed that the Ganwu Universe Country could only have the Ganwu Dojo as its sole "cultivation academy," forbidding anyone from establishing other martial halls or dojo-like organizations on a large scale.

However, he had consulted Instructor Yoda. It was not a problem for planetary lords to train their citizens, 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 ultimately have to send them to the Ganwu Dojo anyway?