"At the same time, we must not only become stronger but also continue to breed. Forget that you used to be a planet race; from now on, we are nomads of the universe and must amass more than ten thousand Frozen Soldier family assets within twenty years."

"As for why it must be ten thousand? Two reasons: Among the output promised by former administrators to the Empire, aside from human brains, there were three thousand Frozen Soldiers and six thousand Starship embryos. Now we can't produce Starship embryos, we must produce more super-grade Frozen Soldiers. Secondly, three thousand Frozen Soldiers only address ordinary crises, and can't solve our danger. If we want to survive, we must become stronger."

"That's the situation; you may now express your opinions."

After Ren Zhong concluded his speech, no one responded immediately.

Everyone seemed to have quickly adapted to his authoritarian style, thinking this might just be a courtesy or another bait.

Seeing this, Ren Zhong had to add, "No pressure, now I want to hear your opinions."

The current Chief Elder and Acting Governor Donald Alson blinked, lightly coughed, gathered the courage to say, "Viscount, I have something I don't know whether I should say."

"Speak."

Donald gathered his thoughts and said, "The former administrators spent an entire millennium amassing three thousand Frozen Soldier family assets on Source Star. But at the latest ten years later, we will arrive at this dust-filled Tenglong Nebula; time is too short. Cultivating ten thousand super-grade Professionals is not realistic. I propose the fleet adjusts its course to avoid these potentially dangerous areas, and slowly return to the Empire on a safer route, even if it extends from forty to eighty or even a hundred years."

Ren Zhong smiled, "Donald, your idea has some reference value."

Donald: "Thank you, Viscount, for the praise."

"But it's absolutely meaningless. This is cosmic navigation, not Source Star sightseeing. The safe crossing route between us and South Nine Star, there's only this one. If we bypass Tenglong Nebula, should we go down or up? Left or right? Above, here is a huge unstable force field, analyzed by Empire scientists as a pulsing black hole; once we enter its gravitational pull, death is certain. To the left? Away from the black hole, but here is a dark energy explosion area. Once caught, our communications and electronics will suffer destructive strikes, and dark energy clusters will corrode the ship."

"To the right? There's a massive gamma-ray burst that's lasted tens of millions of years. Downward, not Sublimator Patrol Teams await us, but Sublimator lurking there, intermittently harassing Empire's Shadow Fleet, a regular army. Of course, if we choose to continue upwards, we can completely bypass the black hole's gravitational zone, but the distance will increase by at least sixteen light years, and travel time will become at least two hundred years. The fleet's reserve energy is insufficient to support this. Plus, above is a cosmic void with no stellar bodies, not even a chance for energy supply."

"Additionally, I don't think ten thousand is an exaggerated number. In the past thousand years, former administrators only cultivated three thousand people. But is the potential of Source Star people truly limited to this? I don't deny their contribution to creating Source Star civilization, but the fact is, they never truly trained anyone. They created a Professional System of only Level Nine and never earnestly implemented a comprehensive teaching and training system beyond Level Six."

"Meanwhile, they kept taking the super-grade professionals naturally born on Source Star away and hiding them. If in the beginning, they left these people on Source Star, allowing them to try leaving behind their own path of strength, forming a complete legacy, would it be this way? I've had Yu Chengde for only a short while, and Yu Chengde has considerably enhanced the comprehensive strength of Mechanical Warriors under me."

"Noel Sandro from Purple Crystal Mining also helped me, in just two years, acquire dozens of Level Eight Blast Masters, a number equivalent to the total of Level Eight Blast Masters produced on Source Star over the past ten years."

"I won't repeat the same mistakes. Here, I also make the decisions. In the fleet, apart from certain waste born with the Golden Key as innate high Citizens, we have one billion genuine competitors climbing from the bottom. From now on, Source Star Fleet's internal talent selection will not depend on bloodline or family, only talent! I am investing resources, why can't we cultivate ten thousand elite-level super-grade Professional warriors in twenty years?"