Chapter 755

Chapter 755: Each Leading for Hundreds of Years

Year 6480 of the Xia Calendar, Huaxia

Bianhai University, located in Haigang City, Bianhai Province, is holding its once-every-ten-years university student competition, with nearly ten thousand students from over three hundred higher education institutions across Huaxia participating in this event.

This university student competition features dozens of events, including traditional subjects like computer science, chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics, as well as competitions related to cultivation such as pills, talismans, tools, formations, and their related fields.

However, there is no fighting event, as fighting can be deadly, and in an era focused on peaceful development, battles have been strictly prohibited.

Lin Liyan and Ning Li met at this university student competition, but they were not competing; they were there to accompany their students.

Ning Li is now the Vice President of Bianhai University, while Lin Liyan is the President of a strong university from another province. Their roles are quite similar.

"Senior Brother Ning, Bianhai University is getting stronger and stronger now. I think it has already surpassed Jingdu University."

"Senior Brother Lin is joking. Jingdu University has a long history, and it was once the Martial Arts Academy. Its foundation is solid. Our Bianhai University has only been around for less than five hundred years; we can’t compare."

"If only time could swap for skills, then that would be great. Just look at the students at your school; each one is filled with energy, and you can tell they have a solid foundation. Unlike our Yun River University, we’ve been trying hard for decades, but we’re still far behind you."

Lin Liyan said, when the students from each school stood together, their abilities seemed clear to them. The average ability of Bianhai University is a whole level higher than theirs, so Jingdu University and Bianhai University are about the same.

"Senior Brother Lin, Yun River is a big industrial province. Ancestor Lin has been focusing on technology development these years, so your foundation is strong. Last year, I heard that five people were specially recruited by the Spiritual Energy Research Institute as talents?"

"Yes, the five specially recruited ones, while less than a hundred got in, that’s a bit disappointing."

When this was mentioned, Lin Liyan immediately laughed, but his words were still very modest. Next to him, Ning Li was speechless; that number was higher than their school, yet he called it disappointing. What does that make them?

Ning Li knew Lin Liyan was showing off, so he didn’t continue that topic. Instead, he talked about the current student group, sighing, "Today’s college students are getting more and more amazing. Back in my university days, my abilities were about the same as theirs, but in terms of knowledge, I couldn’t compare."

"Yes, the world has new talents rise up, each leading for hundreds of years. Ning Li, if you and I were the same age as them now, we couldn’t compete with them."

"Yes, but now it is even harder for poor students to succeed."

Ning Li said that in terms of training, he was not worse than these people at his age, but his overall abilities were much poorer. Some things cannot be compensated for by talent.

Ning Li only sighed that it is getting harder for poor people to get ahead in this era. The education wealthy people give their children is frightening. Those rich people start using magical elixirs to nurture their children’s bodies as soon as they are born. By three or four years old, they already begin learning various subjects. Once they start formal schooling and training, they have private tutors and magical aids. How can poor people compete?

So later, Ning Li suggested strengthening the Spiritual Root standard, which requires that excellent students in all schools must have excellent Spiritual Roots. This gives poor students a chance; otherwise, those with a Single Spiritual Root would never be able to compete with students who have Five Spiritual Roots.

After that, Huaxia introduced regulations banning gene editing. Otherwise, wealthy people could interfere from the fetus stage, which would be even more terrifying. The rich will always be rich, and the poor really may never rise again.

"Children from wealthy families are not doing well either. If poor students have to struggle, don’t the rich children have to struggle too? In this era, if you don’t want any achievements or fame, that’s fine; just getting social assistance won’t let you starve. But to succeed, it is very difficult."

Lin Liyan also thought of the descendants of the Lin family. Over three hundred years, the Lin family has grown to millions, but now large families cannot monopolize the practice of immortality. This causes fierce competition within the Lin family, making it even harder to stand out than for poor people.

However, their competition has a fallback; they have a safety net. Even if they can’t compete, they will still have enough food and clothing, which is a higher limit than ordinary people.

Ning Li did not argue with this statement; it was not that he agreed with it, but he just did not want to create conflict over such matters. He decided to comment on several rising stars from the recent university student competition.

The age limit for this college student competition is under thirty, but there are already many remarkable figures who have become famous online, such as someone who won an award in high school, or another who scored perfectly in dozens of subjects at university, and even someone who was favored by an expert as soon as they enrolled, doing research by their side, and so on.

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"Every generation has its heroes, shining for hundreds of years. This college student competition is unprecedented. Countries like Qingyun and Zhou Liao hope to send teams to the next college student competition to make a name for themselves."

In Haigang City, a large screen in front of Lin Jiang also showed a live broadcast, and Cao Ying said beside him.

"I see them; they want to participate, so let them join. Even if they produce talent, they cannot escape our grasp. It’s like a meat bun thrown to a dog; once they go in, they cannot come back."

Lin Jiang laughed heartily, thinking these countries must be foolish to send their talents to Huaxia for the competition. Can they still return? Huaxia offers them an irresistible high price; how many can withstand that?

"There are too many talents now. Among the more than ten thousand participants, every single one is elite. If this were the era of cultivation, each would be a key talent nurtured by sects. But such geniuses are being produced every year now, wow."

Cao Ying sighed, also feeling it was incredible. How can there be so many geniuses? While there were quite a few geniuses in the cultivation era, they can’t compare to those now.

"With a large population, there are naturally more geniuses. Huaxia’s population is expected to exceed ten billion in five years. At that time, we still need to find ways to address the issue of social mobility; we can’t let the aristocracy control everything. After all, how many people are in the aristocracy?"

"Your Lin family is the first family in Huaxia, do you want to attack them?"

"So what? The Lin family now has millions of people, and I can’t recognize more than a hundred of them. Why bother with so much sentiment?"

Lin Jiang waved his hand and said he was the ancestor of the Lin family, but he didn’t know many people in the Lin family either—really not more than a hundred. Most of them he hadn’t even seen before, so there is no feeling there.

"Fine, if you attack the Lin family, then I will also tidy up the Zhonghang Sect."

"Alright, forget about this topic; we can discuss it later. Cao Wang has returned the first batch of rare metals. Will you go see?"

"Aren’t you going?"

"I’m not going. If I go, Cao Wang will fool me again. This guy has taken away who knows how much money from me already. My little savings are about to go bankrupt. I have decided to invest this batch of rare metals into the market to make the space project profitable; that way, it can continue for a long time. Investing money without any return is unbearable for anyone."

Lin Jiang said that every country knows research is the best way to increase national strength, but why can’t many countries support research strongly? It’s because research is a bottomless pit; you can throw as much money as you want into it, and sometimes it brings no results at all. For example, if a study is wrong, then all the efforts are wasted.

Huaxia is the same. Even though they have achieved a lot, there are also many mistakes among them, and the wasted funds are quite frightening. But Lin Jiang couldn’t say much because research isn’t always accurate. If you hold people accountable for mistakes, who will dare to innovate?

So, marketization is necessary. Now they have discovered several resource planets where they can set up unmanned bases for mining and rough processing. These resources are very precious on Blue Star.

"That’s good. Support them, and then we can find habitable planets."

"Sixteen habitable planets have been pinpointed, but they are too far away. With our current technology, it will take hundreds of years to reach the nearest one. The probes that have already been launched are on their way; maybe in two to three hundred years, we will have some news."

Lin Jiang said that habitable planets are identified based on essential conditions for life, such as distance from a star. Astronomers have observed them, but reaching the nearest one will take hundreds of years, and there is no chance of getting accurate news in the short term.