After dinner, Xue Ling sorted through the communications left in his nano-computer today, found the number left by the headmaster, and made contact with his future ’teacher’.

  The Sculptors who really had the ability to sculpt at the SSS level in the Empire were all legendary, and it was not an exaggeration to call them national treasures. Most of them no longer sold their works. Instead, they served the Empire and even if they created something for others, they would generally be given to the Empire rather than private collectors.

  Of course, the Empire would buy these energy crystals at a high price equivalent to what they could fetch in an open market auction, or provide these Senior Sculptors with better working and research environments. In short, they did not need to concern themselves over anything else as long as they worked hard.

  Of course, the things that the Empire arranged for these Sculptors also included recommending students.

  A Senior Sculptor could not be trained up through the school’s education system. It was more dependent on having a good teacher to lead the way. Every Sculptor that had potential would be recommended to a suitable teacher, and the teacher who the school had recommended to Xue Ling was the nominal vice-president of Longyue College, and was also the most prominent figure of Longyue College. Generally speaking, many prefixes and appellations were added to his name when he was brought up in conversation or introduced.

  He was a Senior Sculptor on the national treasure level. Meng Qian was already eighty years old, but because of his strong spiritual powers, he still looked very young.

  Xue Ling’s communication was picked up right away, and if it hadn’t been a private line, Xue Ling would have suspected that the other party was Meng Qian’s assistant based on the speed alone. But from the image that popped up, that was obviously not the case.

  Meng Qian was a very famous Senior Sculptor. Xue Ling had seen some of his works before, and had gained some inspiration as well as being somewhat influenced by his style. Now that he was talking to the genuine person, Xue Ling was very respectful as he addressed the other party as ’Teacher Meng’.

  Meng Qian nodded and accepted this title; he looked like a man in his forties. As long as one’s power was strong enough, it would be impossible to accurately judge their ages. In addition, as long as they were powerful, over the course of countless years of baptism of their own spiritual power, it would be no problem for them to live for hundreds of years. Amongst the current existing national treasure-level Senior Sculptors, Meng Qian was still considered young.

  “Starting from tomorrow, I will give you a separate course of study to follow." Meng Qian had completely accepted Xue Ling as his new student, and had carefully studied Xue Ling’s information as well as gone through his previous test in detail from beginning to end, spending the entire afternoon planning out a course schedule for Xue Ling. "There are no doubts about your strength, and you can already handle all energy crystals below SS Grade independently. So, starting tomorrow, your course will require you to come into contact with SSS Grade energy crystals. The first thing you need to do is to obtain a SSS Grade ore for me. I will give you a month’s time."

  Xue Ling: “.……” He had been assigned a task so soon? He wasn’t ready!

  Meng Qian ontinued before he could speak. "I know you have a very distinguished family, but there is no point in using that boy Yin Jia to give me pressure. I watched him grow up, and he can’t do anything to me. Having abundant resources does not mean that you can ignore a Sculptor’s basic skills, so you cannot rely on your existing resources for this task. Having Yin Jia help you find this ore will be considered cheating."

  Xue Ling thought for a moment and asked, “Is it cheating to have father bring me ores?"

  There were many types of ore planets and asteroids. Most places only produced B/C Grade ores, and A/S Grade ores were very rare. Nor were they exploited indefinitely; these mines were only open for a fixed amount of time every year before being shut down so that the veins could regenerate.

  Stones that contained energy crystals above SS Grade depended entirely on luck. They could appear in ore mines of any level, but were still most likely to show up in ore planets that produced S Grade ores.

  So if Xue Ling wanted to find a SSS Grade ore, he could absolutely make use of the Marshal’s Palace to select a batch of ores from an S Grade mine.

  Teacher Meng Qian nodded. "That’s also considered cheating."

  Xue Ling understood what he meant and asked, “So what teacher intends for me to do is to go and try my luck?"

  Meng Qian finally showed a satisfied smile when he got to this point. He laughed and said, “Of course, you can also go to the S Grade mining areas, but the premise is that you don’t use the Marshal’s Palace’s name and power."

  Xue Ling: “.……” Without using the Marshal’s Palace, he won’t even know where these mines are, okay?!

  Xue Ling gloomily ended his first class. His teacher had made good use of this opportunity to make him realize that good luck was the first thing that was required when becoming a good Sculptor.

  It was really funny. Was it so easy to do something like relying on luck?

  Xue Ling pursed his lips, and thoughtfully left his own room, running over to knock on the door to Yin Jia’s study.

  Yin Jia had taken a cold shower, finally managing to suppress the messy things in his head. He had just sat down when Xue Ling came to knock at the door. He now had no good way to deal with this little nurturer in his family, and couldn’t not let him in, so he went and opened the door.

  As soon as Xue Ling came in, he asked, "Father, can I borrow Mo Xi for a little while?"

  Yin Jia froze for a moment before recovering and asking, "What are you doing to do?"

  “I just received an assignment. It’s a little difficult, and I want to go to all the big ore markets in the Capital Star, which is why I wanted to borrow Mo Xi." Mo Xi’s main task in the First Fleet was to patrol the entire Capital Star, and his family originated from the ore business. It was an entirely reasonable request to borrow him because he couldn’t possibly not understand these things very well.

  Yin Jia nodded and said, “You can, but you can’t go and bother him during his work hours."

  Xue Ling laughed and said, “Got it. Then I’ll ask him to go out with me during weekends when he’s off duty~"

  Having obtained the reply he wanted, Xue Ling smiled widely and turned to leave, getting in touch with Mo Xi. They had exchanged communication numbers last time they met. It wasn’t until he had left and the door had closed that Yin Jia suddenly realized exactly why that scene seemed to be a little wrong.

  What was so exciting about meeting up with Mo Xi……?

  He muttered in his heart, as his brain recalled those messages that had been left on the Star Net…… He couldn’t help but think about how he would react if Xue Ling really brought a beastman over and told him that he wanted to be with him.

  After thinking back and forth about it, he could only come up with one answer.

  He would kill that beastman……

  Keep that little fellow locked up, and isolate him away from the world!

  Yin Jia silently rubbed his forehead. He also did not know how these ideas had come to be, but they seemed to naturally emerge whenever he thought about Xue Ling coming to tell him that he liked someone else. The fierce momentum in his chest would instantly rise up, and he felt that he had no way to get rid of this feeling unless he went and killed a few beastmen.

  What kind of illness was this……

  Yin Jia felt that he had really been acting strangely recently. First of all, even if they ignored the fact that he was the child’s adoptive father, even just basing it on the simple relationship between two people, he was one generation older than this little fellow, yet he so brazenly wanted to take over the second half of his life…… He would probably end up hated by this child, right……?

  Yin Jia’s thoughts became more and more chaotic, and was completely oblivious to the fact that Xue Ling was currently leaning against the door to his study, his head lowered to stare at his own feet as he thought seriously about how to take their relationship to the next step and take advantage of this situation in order to firmly lock him to his side in both heart and body.

  Xue Ling was only using this as a temporary amusement, wanting Mo Xi to bring him to see several ore markets around the Capital Star. Mo Xi did not have much time off, and it took them two weeks before they were able to visit all the markets. Xue Ling brought several SS Grade ores, but was unable to see any SSS Grade ones.

  Mu Xi was also anxious and wanted to help him obtain a piece of SSS Grade ore when she heard about it, but SSS Grade ores were on the level where even Yin Jia would need to keep records if he wanted to make use of them, and she had no way to help. Xue Ling did not seem anxious at all, and even laughed as he comforted Mu Xi, saying, "If there’s really no other way, I’ll just purify a SS Grade ore into a SSS Grade energy crystal~ Although I’ve never done it before, I can still give it a try~"

  Another week passed, and with only five days left until the one month deadline Meng Qian had given him, Xue Ling welcomed the first round of the Sculptor Competition.

  Coincidentally, the first round of the competition was to select ores.

  In fact, Xue Ling had also been waiting for this competition. There were a lot of people participating in the preliminary competition and there were many ores to choose from. The organizers had even placed a few pieces of ordinary stone amongst the ores to confuse the players, and some ores that even Senior Sculptors would be unable to evaluate were also included. For this first round, the host had taken over an entire stadium, and packed it with all kinds of ores and stones in all sizes. The participants would enter the stadium with their registration forms, and each participant could bring an ore with them as they left.

  The participant would need to pay for the ore they obtained, and there was a mechanized ore refiner on the premises that would refine the ore after the participant brought the ore out of the stadium. The participants would be divided into several tiers based on the grade of the ore they had chosen, and the level of competition they were suited to join would also be confirmed this way.

  As long as they selected an SS Grade ore, they would be eligible to skip directly to participation in the finals, and so on. The stages they needed to participate in were determined by the ore that they had selected.

  The entire Capital Star was lively because of this competition. Many Sculptors from other planets had also come over to attend this event; after all, this was their best chance at becoming famous. Whatever their final ranking was, as long as they were able to show off the charm of their sculptures during such a competition, it was entirely possible that their lives would have an instant turnaround.

  For example, if they signed with a good company, or joined a good military troop, then all the resources they required would be provided, and they could rest assured for the rest of their lives.

  This kind of grand event was the best way for Sculptors to rise in their careers. Of course, Senior Sculptors were prevented from participating in these kinds of competition for the sake of fairness.

  Xue Ling’s reason for participating in this competition was because the champion could immediately obtain certification as a Senior Sculptor, which could be considered fulfilling the original body’s wish. With this kind of shortcut placed in front of Xue Ling, he would naturally not choose to painstakingly go through each qualification exam one by one. One had to know that these exams were much more complicated than the class transfer test, and all sorts of random things were tested; Xue Ling didn’t want to deal with those things at all.

  The key point was that Xue Ling didn’t want to waste time doing things like going to the Sculptor’s Constellation’s famous Blue Planet or do things like space travel, as it would take up the already limited amount of time he had to interact with Yin Jia.

  Yin Jia had been avoiding him recently, so Xue Ling’s plans could no longer be properly carried out. He was annoyed, but had nowhere to vent!

  He didn’t know what Yin Jia was stewing about. Yin Jia liked him but was unwilling to make a move, only knowing to distance himself further, not even coming home over the past few days because he couldn’t handle his closeness anymore. Xue Ling hadn’t even gone that far, but he’d already started hiding like this. If he really went and found another beastman to bring home, would it make him so angry that he spat out blood?

  Mu Xi didn’t know what was going on with Yin Jia, but the Marshal had a history of not coming home every day, so she didn’t find it too surprising. After waking Xue Ling up early in the morning on the day of the competition, she planned to accompany him to participate.

  In addition to the nurturer and sub-beastmen competitors themselves, they were also allowed to bring beastman with them to protect themselves as well as help them snatch the ores from others while they were within the venue. After all, there was a limited amount of ores but so many competitors; several people picking the same ore at the same time had happened before.

  In the absence of Yin Jia, Xue Ling chose to have Mu Xi accompany him. Xue Ling still believed that very few people would be willing to go against him or the Marshal’s Palace’s subordinate, so bringing Mu Xi would be more than enough. He wasn’t too concerned that anything would happen, but others seemed to feel differently, and after much thought, finally couldn’t win against their own thoughts and chose to join in.

  When Xue Ling got out of the aircraft, he saw Yin Jia waiting for them outside. He looked at Mu Xi in some surprise, and wondered if she had helped to call him over, but Housekeeper Mu simply expressed that she didn’t know anything about this, and it was none of her business.

  Yin Jia himself explained, “Swords have no eyes in this kind of competition, and too many people know of your talent. They would be willing to do anything in order to pass this competition, so I’ll be more reassured if I protect you personally."

  Xue Ling nodded his head as though not really understanding but pretending to get it. Yin Jia stretched out his big hand and rubbed his head.

  Xue Ling looked carefully and finally discovered that Yin Jia was wearing the brooch he had gifted to him today.

  “Repressed.” Xue Ling lowered his head and muttered under his breath before tidying up his mood and obediently allowing his ’father’ to take his hand and prepare to lead him into the competition grounds.