Grinding to Become the Master of the Universe

Chapter 726: Chapter 229: Leader’s Charisma; Six Great Star Systems Alliance; The Competition Enters a White-Hot Stage

Compared to the cold, dead, murderous vacuum of the cosmos, this place was practically paradise.

The two stood side by side atop a towering peak, gazing down at the Clouds Rolling and Unrolling below and the magnificent landscape.

After a long silence, Caesar was the first to speak, breaking the tranquility.

"Qin Feng, what are your thoughts on this alliance we’ve just formed?"

He turned his head to the side.

"Fragile."

Qin Feng’s reply was simple, direct, and hit the nail on the head.

His gaze fixed on the distant horizon as he spoke in a steady voice, "This so-called alliance is nothing more than a temporary construct. You and I only managed to cobble it together by leveraging the personal prestige we gained from that last battle and by promising the heavy spoils of conquering other systems and plundering their resources.

Its foundation is not stable."

"If we can’t make a breakthrough in a very short time—successfully plundering resources from other star systems so that everyone sees tangible benefits...

...then this seemingly powerful alliance will quickly fall apart."

"That’s right."

Caesar also gazed into the distance.

He nodded and said reflectively, "A group of Martial Artists with no common faith can’t stick together forever.

Out in the vast, deep Cosmos, the reason the Empire’s Interstellar Warriors can serve for a thousand, ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand years on the brutal Battlefield of Ten Thousand Races, fighting for the survival of the Human Race...

...has never been about temporary gain, but about the faith branded onto their very souls..."

"The ones whose faith wasn’t strong enough all rebelled."

Qin Feng shrugged, cutting off Caesar’s reflection with a dose of harsh reality.

"Mm."

Caesar gave a noncommittal nod. He collected his thoughts and asked, "So, Qin Feng, what’s your plan?

Do you have a concrete plan for our next move?

If you don’t have anything in mind yet, I can propose a preliminary plan."

"I’ve given it some thought."

Qin Feng didn’t feign modesty. He began to methodically lay out his strategic vision.

"First, we need to establish a few core principles.

One: A distribution system. We should immediately introduce a system for exchanging contributions and battle merits for rewards.

All spoils of war will be centrally stored. Members can then use their merits and contributions to transparently exchange for the resources they need on the alliance’s private channels.

The fair distribution of spoils is the absolute foundation for keeping this alliance together."

"Two: We need to quickly identify a target star system to conquer.

This choice cannot be made blindly.

We can analyze the ’Hunting Stage’ coordinates of eliminated Martial Artists and combine that data with the official competition leaderboard. This will allow us to make a preliminary assessment of the strength of all surrounding star systems and choose the weakest one for our first strike."

"Three: Hidden competition items.

I’ll probably have to rely more on you for this. Frankly, I’m not very familiar with the rules surrounding all the various competition items."

"Four: How to handle the star systems we successfully conquer.

My recommendation is that we do our best to completely eliminate all the Martial Artists within them.

These outer star systems only have so many resources; we can’t afford to split our forces to occupy them.

If our strength is overwhelmingly superior, we should aim to ’clear the field’—eliminate every single Martial Artist in the entire system."

"Five: Rapidly securing resources within a conquered star system.

This requires advance preparation. The moment the battle is over, we need to quickly scout the entire star system, create a complete map of its Resource Points, and establish an efficient system for distribution and collection.

With the current strength of our Mental Power, the two of us can easily spare enough focus to build and maintain such a private system."

Listening as Qin Feng laid out these five interconnected and logically sound points of his strategy one by one.

The expression on Caesar’s face shifted from initial calm to surprise, and finally settled into a smile of genuine admiration.

"Mm, you’re right on all five points. Completely right."

Caesar smiled and nodded, not hesitating to show his admiration. "I knew you weren’t just some reckless brute."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and tapped lightly on his personal terminal.

A complex and massive 3D holographic star chart instantly materialized before them.

The chart clearly displayed the macro-structure of the entire battle sector, containing a full ten thousand star systems.

And around their current location, numerous red dots moved and flickered with different colored lights.

"Some time ago, one of the Martial Artists under my command voluntarily entered the ’Hunting Stage’. After his Rebirth, he used the brief period of full-map vision to draw me this map of the forces distributed throughout the surrounding Star Realms."

Caesar pointed to the star chart and explained, "When you combine this with the official leaderboard, it’s clear that the weakest system near us is currently Star System 120.

According to our intel, the strongest expert in their system has only just advanced to the Infinite Sea..."

His finger traced a line across the chart, outlining a clear route for their attack.

"And look, these eleven star systems, from 120 to 130, are all spatially connected, and none of them are particularly strong overall.

They’re perfect targets for our first move.

Once we take them all, we can link the stronghold of our Six Great Star Systems with this newly conquered territory, forming one contiguous region. That will give us immense strategic depth, a stable position from which we can advance or retreat..."

"As for the hidden competition items you mentioned... well, that’s really just up to fate."

There was a hint of resignation in Caesar’s voice. "If your luck is good, you might stumble upon one just by passing an asteroid.

If your luck is bad, you could turn an entire star system upside down and still not find anything.

The rules might state that every star system has a hidden item, but they don’t fall within the standard detection range of the Identity Jade Tokens."

Qin Feng’s gaze fell on the Star Realm that Caesar had marked out—the "easy pickings"—and a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

"Alright, then let’s start with Star System 120!"

"We’ll take down all eleven of these star systems in one fell swoop."

"These resources will be enough to stabilize the alliance. And they’ll be enough for us to advance further in the Stellar-level."