You have to understand that although the Qinghe Li Clan was powerful, they only had thirty to forty Flagships and Super-Flagships combined—and that was the accumulation of several hundred years of the family’s history.
Aside from a batch of Flagships accumulated at the clan’s founding, it averaged out to less than one per decade.
His father, Li Xingchun, belonged to the third generation of the Qinghe Li Clan and wasn’t among the most outstanding of them, so the fleet under his command had no Flagship-class Super Dreadnoughts, and his status naturally wasn’t particularly high.
Nobles like his father were numerous both in the Qinghe Li Clan and throughout the United Empire of Humanity.
It wasn’t that they didn’t want Flagships—it was that they simply couldn’t obtain Flagship Construction Blueprints.
If he could acquire one, his strength would naturally increase dramatically, and his standing within the family would rise along with it.
Li Qing didn’t go easy on his old man just because of their relationship.
He directly referenced the Yu Clan’s quote: 35 billion Star Credits, which was 5 billion above the normal market price.
After all, for them, it was never a question of money—it was a question of availability.
Once the email was sent, it would take a while to get a reply, but Li Qing didn’t sit idle.
He first listed the Generation 3 Laser Cannon (Medium) Blueprint with ten uses—the one he’d obtained in the Jinmen Naval Battle Instance—on the market at 500,000 per use, or 5 million for all ten.
Then, after some consideration, he decided to keep the remaining two Excellence Lord-class Battleships, two Knight-class Battleships, and six Excellence Black Hawk-class Frigates rather than selling them.
Anyway, once he sold the Interstellar Carrier, he’d have money, so there was no rush to sell now.
If possible, he’d keep them for his own use.
After all, Battleship Blueprints were hard to come by.
They weren’t as rare as Flagships, but they weren’t something you could just buy whenever you wanted.
The two Excellence Lord-class Battleships in particular—without a Super-Flagship, many top players and teams used them as their command Flagship.
It was predictable that it would be a very, very long time before he’d have the capability to build that Dreadnought, and until then, the Excellence Lord-class Battleships would have to serve as his main command ships.
Two days later, with his Warships repaired, Li Qing found time to check out the other two Instances at Jinmen to see if he could clear another one.
Jinmen had only four Instances in total.
Excluding one reserved exclusively for ground-forces players and the Jinmen Naval Battle Historical Projection Instance, the remaining two were both Subspace Instances, converted from Subspace Fragments.
One was called [Passion and Speed]: only Escort Ships could enter.
Within a time limit, players had to evade all interception and reach the finish line, which included all kinds of dangerous terrain, enemy ship interception, and even spatial rifts.
The final score was determined by time consumed, and the score could be exchanged for Instance rewards.
Since the Instance’s scale and difficulty were far below those of the Jinmen Naval Battle Instance, the rewards were naturally mediocre.
The main rewards were Blueprints for various weapons, Universal Slots, and various Type-A Functional Slot Components, with the highest being L-class Large Slots—no X-class Super-Large Main Guns or X-class Flagship Universal Slot Components would appear.
The other was called [Death’s Ladder]: also restricted to Escort Ships only.
Just as the name suggested, players challenged wave after wave of increasingly powerful Escort Ships.
It was called Death’s Ladder because once you entered this Instance, there was only one path—straight forward until elimination.
There was no conceding or quitting midway.
Either you cleared it completely, or your ship was destroyed and you were eliminated with it.
There was no third option.
But no one had ever cleared this Instance.
Over hundreds of years, everyone who entered met the same end—ship destroyed and crew dead under the attacks of ever-stronger enemy warships, without exception.
This meant that entering this Instance would inevitably cost you a ship, and you would inevitably die once.
Moreover, this Instance only rewarded Frigate Blueprints—from the Storm Petrel-class to the Elite Raptor-class Frigate, up to the Excellence Black Hawk-class Frigate—and nothing else.
Li Qing paid to purchase the information on these two Instances, and after reading it, he immediately ruled out the Death Ladder Instance.
His Frigate had cost 150 million at full configuration—how many Blueprints would he need to earn back that investment?
As for the Fast and Furious Instance, he considered it for a moment and gave up on it as well.
It wasn’t about the rewards.
Though the rewards weren’t as valuable as Warship Blueprints, a good performance could still be exchanged for quite a lot.
The main issue was that this Instance seemingly couldn’t be exploited using the Palm Universe to cheat.
Since he couldn’t cheat, taking the risk of entering the Instance was pointless.
Accumulating ships wasn’t easy—there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
Since he couldn’t enter Instances for the time being, Li Qing simply continued studying at the academy, planning to coast along for a few more months until his father came over to sell the Carrier Blueprint, and then he’d have money to work with.
He didn’t idle in his spare time either, using his surplus funds to purchase Frigate Blueprints and materials to keep building ships.
It was worth noting that at this stage, he could only build the Storm Petrel-class Escort Ship; he was still unable to build the Elite Raptor-class Frigate or the Excellence Black Hawk-class Frigate.
Those two required him to raise many of his shipbuilding skills to level 10 or above—the same tier as the Gale-class Destroyer.
Additionally, under normal circumstances, a player’s skill level cap was only level 10—just enough to build Destroyers.
Players had to raise their skill level caps through Genetic Adjustment, Cybernetic Implants, or Psionic Awakening—five enhancements in total, for a cap increase of +5 levels.
Alternatively, they could directly raise their skill level caps significantly through the Three Great Ascensions.
First-Stage Ascension raised the cap of all skills by +10 levels, overriding any previous cap bonuses from Genetic Adjustment, Cybernetic Implants, or Psionic Awakening. Read this novel at novelping(.)com for the best experience.
With shipbuilding skills at level 15, one could build Cruisers at most, or the Excellence Storm-class Destroyer.
At level 20, one could build Battleships, or the Excellence Night Watcher-class Cruiser.
The Excellence Lord-class Battleship required level 25 shipbuilding skills, and the Flagship-class Super Dreadnought required level 30.
Of course, this only referred to the base shipbuilding skill.
Building these high-tier warships also required various additional skills—the higher the tier of warship, the more skills were needed.
Without special opportunities, one might not even have enough skill slots to hold all the required skills.
In that case, even if the base shipbuilding skill level was sufficient, one still couldn’t build the corresponding large warship.
This was the most awkward situation, and the most critical factor constraining high-tier shipbuilders.
The first effect of Li Qing’s Child of the Stars was tenfold experience, plus a skill level cap of +20 levels.
Combined with the base cap of 10, that made exactly 30—enough to level up in one go to the point where he could build a Flagship.
Add to that the second effect of Child of the Stars, which adjusts his Neural Slots to 20—more than enough to learn all the skills required to build a Flagship.
And even if it weren’t enough, by then he’d probably be able to undergo Psionic Ascension, which would grant 5 additional Neural Slots.
It would definitely be enough.
His father arrived even faster than Li Qing had expected—less than a month, to be precise, only 22 days.
Li Qing, who was in class at the time, suddenly received a communication request from his father.
Upon connecting, he saw his father, whose features resembled his own to some degree, appear on the Light-screen.
Judging by the background behind him, he wasn’t on a spaceship—he must have already arrived.
Father and son fell silent for a moment.
After a dozen or so seconds, it was Li Xingchun who spoke first:
“Is what you said true?”
Li Qing replied expressionlessly:
“Do you think I’d deliberately trick you into traveling all this way?”
Perhaps it was the lingering resentment in his subconscious.
He had clearly made up his mind to sell the thing to his father, but now that they were actually meeting, he was speaking as if they were strangers.
He guessed it was the residue of his past self’s consciousness, feeling that his father had neglected him far too much in the past.
He had no memories of his mother from childhood, and his father was distant.
It was natural to harbor resentment.
But for those born into wealthy clans—especially a Warlord Clan like the Qinghe Li Clan—every member who remained in the family more or less had numerous descendants.
Affection was naturally thin among noble houses to begin with, and with limited energy, it was impossible for a father to treat all his children equally.
If you had good talent, you might receive focused cultivation, and perhaps a small measure of fatherly love.
But if you had nothing at all, being neglected was inevitable.
Li Qing pulled himself together, casting aside the lingering resentment, and asked:
“Are you at the clan’s office? I’ll come over now.”
“Yes.”
The communication cut off at once, and Li Xingchun paused, slightly stunned.
In that brief exchange, he had already sensed that this son was completely different from the son in his memory.
“Has he grown up?”
He felt a flicker of interest, and a trace of expectation.
Before long, a Flyer landed at the clan’s office in Jinmen Star City.
The moment he stepped off the Flyer, he saw a luxurious Flyer descending.
Second Uncle Li Lun, leaning on a dark-gold cane, stepped out, accompanied by a beautiful young woman holding his arm.
Seeing Li Qing, Li Lun stopped and asked:
“I heard you didn’t join a team to apply for the Clan Exploration Fund.”
Li Qing stopped and greeted him, “Second Uncle,” then nodded:
“That’s right. I feel my strength is insufficient at the moment. Going to the Zuta now would be too dangerous. I plan to stay here for a while longer before heading over.”
“Hm, there’s nothing wrong with that thinking, but as the saying goes, one step behind means every step behind. If you don’t go early, you’ll lose the first-mover advantage.”
At this point, Li Lun glanced back at the young woman beside him.
She smiled faintly, released his arm, and stepped aside on her own.
Li Lun nodded and said to Li Qing:
“There are some things you may not know. For an operation like this, what matters is seizing the initiative and claiming rights. Although the conquest of those eight Life Planets is still far from certain, the campaign for them actually began long ago.” Visit novelping dot com for the full chapter.
“Countless young members of the great clans have already gone over, assisting the Imperial Expeditionary Force in finding suitable locations to build Outpost Bases. Once the Outpost Bases are successfully constructed, the Expeditionary Force Reputation System will be activated.”
“Preset rule: anyone who helps establish the Expeditionary Force base will, when the three great Xeno races are defeated and the spoils of victory are divided, not only have priority, but will also require the Expeditionary Force’s explicit approval.”
“To put it plainly, only factions that contributed from start to finish are qualified to compete for those eight Life Planets. Factions that join midway basically have no chance of earning the Expeditionary Force’s approval.”
“Is that so?”
Li Qing was a bit puzzled.
Li Lun smiled:
“You came here to see your father, didn’t you? You can ask him in a moment.”
Li Qing nodded and cupped his hands in salute:
“Thank you for the guidance, Second Uncle.”
Li Lun waved his hand:
“No trouble at all. I’m helping you for the sake of my own brat anyway. He wants to compete too, but honestly, with his abilities, his chances are slim. I’m not very optimistic about him, but a father can’t go against his own son, so I can only help out a bit. I think you’re pretty solid, so I’m building some good karma with you. In the future, when you all head over there, you can support each other—or you could even form a team and work together to get a share of the soup.”
“Taking a planet alone is unlikely, but if you can unite enough people to seize one together, you’re guaranteed to make a fortune.”
“Uh…”
Li Qing didn’t know what to say.
His Second Uncle really dared to dream.
Even with the Palm Universe in his grasp, Li Qing himself had little confidence in seizing a planet.
The competition was simply too fierce.
Keep in mind, the pioneers allowed to participate this time weren’t just his batch—every pioneer from the past ten years could take part.
They all came from powerful families, and after ten years of development, their strength was formidable.
Many had already built massive teams and assembled enormous fleets, and some super elites from top-tier families were only one step away from becoming a Legion.
Li Qing was confident in his own future, but at this stage, he honestly couldn’t compare to those family elites who had been at it for ten years.
Unless the Expeditionary Force’s timeline for defeating the three great Xeno races stretched out fifteen or twenty years, giving him time to develop.
But that was unlikely.
He might want to stretch the timeline, but those super elites with the best chances right now would certainly want things to move faster.
When it came to connections, he definitely couldn’t compete.
So for these eight Life Planets, his batch of new pioneers would most likely just be window dressing—at best they’d scoop up some soup, while the meat and even the scraps would be devoured by the earlier batches of pioneers.
Still, Li Qing felt his Second Uncle had a point: it didn’t matter if he couldn’t eat the meat—getting a sip of the soup was pretty good too.
In a sector this vast, even a sip of the soup meant a huge profit.
If he could really cooperate with other teams to take a Life Planet and share the rewards afterward, that would absolutely be a super-wealthy windfall.
Li Qing felt his earlier thinking might need some adjusting.
“Or maybe like this: first head to the Zutal Sector to register and secure my status, sit out the early war, and just take some reconnaissance missions to wander around.”
After all, that was how he’d been getting by in the Tianjin Sector—Wild Mob mining bases existed everywhere.
“Works for me.”
After bidding farewell to his Second Uncle, Li Qing walked inside, lost in thought, and by the time he reached the second floor, he had collected himself.
“Knock! Knock! Knock!”
“Come in!”
He pushed the door open to see his father sitting behind a solid wood executive desk, his finger tapping on a light-screen.
Seeing him enter, his father finished up with a few taps and closed the light-screen.
Li Xingchun looked Li Qing up and down, a rare smile appearing on his face as he said:
“It’s been two years. You’ve grown a bit taller.”
Seeing his father’s smile, Li Qing felt a complicated mix of emotions, and sighed:
“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you smile at me.”
Li Xingchun’s smile froze.
After a long silence, he said:
“You’ve grown up and received an education, so you should know what a wealthy family is like. I can only remember the sons who perform exceptionally.”
Li Qing said self-mockingly:
“So, do I count as exceptional now?”
Li Xingchun looked at the son before him, who seemed somehow different from his memory of him, and after a moment, nodded:
“If the email you sent me is true, then you are indeed very exceptional.”
Li Qing laughed:
“Just as I thought. Brutally honest, as always.”