Chapter 1191: Unifying the Realm
Space warped around Yang Ze. He hadn't been lying—after returning from the 24th layer of space, Yang Ze had gained penetrating insight into the fundamentals.
Even so, after twenty minutes had passed, Yang Ze only had a forehead of sweat to show for his labors. Clearly, even manipulating the thirteenth layer of space was no straightforward task.
The members of Team Zenith all looked toward Yang Ze.
Zhang Lie suggested, "If you can't do it, Yang Ze, don't force yourself. It might be faster for me to break through the layers of space with brute force."
Yang Ze hurriedly promised, "I'll be done soon, Captain! I've almost captured the sensation!"
Another thirty minutes passed before Sun Xiaowu grumbled, "Can you really do it, Yang Ze?"
Yang Ze roared, "Stop bothering me! I'm trying to concentrate, and you'll break my focus."
After another forty minutes, as Yang Ze's face took on a startling pallor and sweat had dampened his clothes, Li Feng advised, "Yang Ze, I think you had better stop. Our captain's brute force—"
"No, I'm done!" Yang Ze howled. Right then and there, he spread his arms wide and forcibly manifested a pair of doors in the air.
The other side of the doors was precisely the base layer of the third realm.
Yang Ze whirled around with a manic gleam on his face. Despite his exertion, he feigned leisure. "Hahaha, see? I said I could do it, and I did! Only I could have managed such a feat among all the entities of the third realm!"
Zhang Lie shouted, "Quick, the doors are about to close!"
Yang Ze's understanding of space was clearly inferior to the king of chaos', and his portals only lasted a short duration of time. As the doors closed, the hunters quickly squeezed inside.
They were relieved when they came out the other end and returned to the base layer of the third realm.
They hadn't expected that the king of chaos' banquet would be filled with such eventful occurrences, nor that the king of chaos had always been planning to ascend to the fourth realm with the halls of chaos and had been planning to do so for tens of thousands of years.
The king of chaos had always thought of the three thousand worlds as a source of genius and talent. Perhaps he had initially treated the worlds as a resource repository from which he could harvest the necessary materials for ascending into the fourth realm, but as he finished those preparations, he began to acquire excess.
At that point, the king of chaos began to extract talent from the worlds to form a series of clones, augmenting his personal strength in preparation for taking control of a significant portion of the fourth realm.
Zhang Lie had to admit that the king of chaos was very different from the crowd, from all the other lifeforms of the three thousand worlds, and even from the hunters of the Milky Way. Zhang Lie didn't know whether to praise him for his ambition or his daring; just like chaos, the king of chaos was a difficult existence to pin down.
Sun Xiaowu smirked. "Now that the king of chaos is gone, the third realm belongs to our captain!"
Zhang Lie shook his head. "Not quite. We'll have to discuss things with the three newly ascended superior kings as well.
Yang Ze continued, "Taking control of the third realm at large isn't an easy task, and can't be accomplished so simply."
Zhang Lie continued, "Trying to unify the third realm requires that we unify the three thousand worlds, first."
Zhang Lie had been thinking of doing so, but only because it would make it much easier for him to hunt down the map fragments he was missing. Thanks to the king of chaos' help, however, he had now acquired all those fragments ahead of schedule.
He also had a new reason to unify the three thousand worlds—to ensure that human hunters would be able to survive in the third realm even after his ascension, and in order to provide security for the members of the Zenith Dojo who would ascend into the third realm in the future.
Now that the king of chaos was gone, it would be trivially easy for him to unify the three thousand worlds, and since it was possible, Zhang Lie would do so.
There were plenty of advantages to doing so, and chiefly among them was the fact that he would be able to expand his farm of genetic lifeforms and finish amassing his monarch gene fragments.
Zhang Lie continued, "To unify the three thousand worlds, we'll have to combine them all into one cohesive whole."
Yang Ze nodded. "Indeed. It's too hard to govern the three thousand worlds as they are."
Sun Mengmeng asked with worry, "Will the three newly ascended superior kings be willing to give up their status and power?"
Zhang Lie nodded. "They will, because none of them are fools."
Yang Ze snorted. "They wouldn't dare oppose our captain."
Fang Yi stated, "If any disagree, we can show them our might. Against our martial prowess, all will submit."
Zhou Ying disagreed. "Fang Yi, I can't agree with those sentiments. The draconian sage, for one, is a friend and ally of the humans. We've weathered thick and thin with them, and they've been our stalwart allies even when we were weaker."
Zhang Hanxiang added, "And Sister Qianlin's from the Zongming world."
Hong Xi pointed out, "We're allied with the scaleman world, and they even fought with us to resist the incursion of the superior worlds of antiquity."
Li Feng clapped Fang Yi on the shoulder. "Lad, are you growing arrogant because of your new weapon?"
Fang Yi grinned at him with teeth. "You want to fight?"
Li Feng replied, "I'll take you up on that offer once we're back in the draconian world."
Zhang Lie finally jumped in. "I've never considered taking over the three superior worlds by force. What I meant is that the three new kings are all smart and intelligent, and they'll understand the merit of this unification and their own gains from it."
Yang Ze nodded. "Quite so, if they've kept up so far. I've never met the scaleman king, but the draconian sage and Li Zongming are both expert statesmen. They'll understand your plan, captain."
Once the three thousand worlds were unified, more regions would fall to their governance.
Zhang Lie continued, "As our allies, they'll be given even more land to govern, and they'll have access to more authority."
Yang Ze nodded. "Anyone intelligent would realize that it's far more worthwhile to rule over a tract of land in this unified world than just a single superior world."
As for the scaleman king, Zhang Lie didn't think there would be any issues there.
For one, the scaleman king was Zhang Lie's disciple, and he had always listened to Zhang Lie. To him, Zhang Lie was more important than even the superior world he governed.
Zhang Lie never intended to call on that aspect of their relationship,
but he knew that the scaleman king was growing weary of ruling over his world. If there were an opportunity to manifest change, the scaleman king would accept it readily.
If someone else were to make this suggestion, the scaleman king might not listen, but he wouldn't refuse it from Zhang Lie himself.
The draconian sage wouldn't be a problem, either. The draconian sage didn't seek power for power's sake, and he understood very well that letting go would sometimes be more rewarding than tightly holding onto something.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢