A month later, in the Moonshadow city:
Maximus was here because the envoy of the Eryndor Empire had come to him.
"It seems that they put more importance on Emma than I thought..."
Soon the envoy came in.
"I bring greetings and respects from the esteemed ruler of the Eryndor Empire to Your Majesty."
"Tell me why you have come here."
"It's about Princess Emma, Your Majesty."
"My Empire needs Princess Emma for a greater cause."
"Your Majesty is welcome to give any conditions," the envoy said respectfully.
"Oh? Anything? How about your empire becoming my subordinate?" Maximus teased.
"You're kidding, Your Majesty," the envoy seemed to not hear the joke and asked again.
"There is no need to negotiate about Emma; I'll never give her back to you," Maximus said seriously.
"Can you think about it again, Your Majesty?" the envoy said with a hint of threat.
"No, my decision is final."
"Instead, let's talk about cooperation..."
"Yes, that's right. I heard the Eryndor Empire is short of money."
Indeed, the Eryndor Empire was short of money, a lot of it.
Otherwise, why would they ally themselves with the notorious Westle family?
Wasn't it just for money?
"I just need population, and the money is yours..."
"For every tier 1 individual you bring, I can pay a hundred magic crystals."
"For tier 2, a thousand; for tier 3, ten thousand; and for tier 4, a million."
"Of course, they will not be slaves."
"My empire doesn't need slaves; they just need to live here for a hundred years, and they are free to go."
"This..." The offer Maximus made was very tempting.
Normally, a tier 1 slave only costs 1 magic crystal, but Maximus multiplied it by a hundred.
Furthermore, they wouldn't be slaves, so they wouldn't bear the notorious reputation.
"I will faithfully pass this to my esteemed ruler," the envoy said.
He couldn't decide on these matters; otherwise, he would be betraying his empire.
"Then you may go," Maximus didn't hold him any longer.
He had gotten to know about the Eryndor Empire through Emma.
The reason why the empire was in decline was because of a lack of money.
As one of the top empires, a shortage of funds should be a non-existent problem.
However, their main business, the money-making cornucopia of the Eryndor family in the Arcane Continent, had been suppressed.
Emma had said that their tier 8 ancestor seemed to have offended someone.
Now their territory in the Curse Continent could barely support itself due to the lack of money.
If it were not for the era of Imperial domination, they would have already left this money-losing empire.
After all, the benefits of an empire in the Curse Continent were not that significant.
Furthermore, they could just establish an empire again after stabilizing their business in the Arcane Continent.
It was just a matter of convenience.
He needed high-quality people at the moment.
After all, high-quality individuals would strengthen the amalgamation of willpower without adding a burden to the empire.
Furthermore, he can't just rely on Cedric, as it would be limiting.
A month later, at the Sunburnt Plateau, in Berrun City:
Tens of thousands of gigantic ships lay across the ocean, a marvel to the people in the port.
"Good job, Cedric! I didn't think you could settle the sea caravan so fast," Maximus praised.
"It's because of your support, Your Majesty," Cedric didn't dare to take the credit.
Originally, Maximus thought it would take at least a year for Cedric to settle the sea caravan.
This was also the reason he sought cooperation with the Eryndor Empire.
Who knew that it only took Cedric half a year?
"Your Majesty, may I request an advance payment?" Cedric asked.
The 300 billion Maximus gave him was already spent.
Expanding the sea caravan to be able to transport a billion people per month was not cheap.
There were also various wages he needed to consider.
Maximus and he only had an employer-employee relationship, meaning all his profits and expenses were his.
In exchange, he needed to listen to Maximus and work for him for a lifetime.
"Sure, I will transfer you some money later."
"That's good, Your Majesty. I will ensure that a billion people come here a month later."
The reason he needed the money urgently was that his previous solicitation would not work.
This time he planned to throw money to attract people so he could achieve his goal quickly.
Otherwise, it would be too slow to reach them one by one.
"Then I look forward to next month."
At the Eryndor Empire:
"How was your trip to the Moonlight Empire?" Emperor Akash asked.
"Your Majesty, I wasn't able to negotiate about Princess Emma..." The envoy then began to recount all that had happened.
They were really short on money, not for the empire itself but to stabilize their business in the Arcane continent.
Without money, forget about winning in the era of imperial domination.
They couldn't even stabilize the empire.
"It should be feasible..." Akash fell into thought.
There may not be much money in his empire, but there were a lot of people, especially those from tier 1 to tier 2.
There were hundreds of billions of them scattered across the empire.
As for weakening the influence of the Amalgamation of Will, Akash didn't worry.
The influence of the Amalgamation of Will was already at its maximum.
There were four methods of strengthening the Algamation of Will: land, population, overall strength, and war.
For land, population, and overall strength, there was a limit, and all of the top empires had already reached it.
"Then you should start listing people, and remember, it must be voluntary,"
Too much dissatisfaction would affect the Algamation of Will or even pollute it.
"As ordered, Your Majesty."
"Is this the Moonlight Empire?" Stefan muttered.
"Dad, will we live here in the future?" His daughter, Zoe, asked excitedly.
"Yes, we will live here in the future," Stefan said solemnly.
He and his daughter had come here not only to escape the war and chaos caused by the era of Imperial Domination.
But more importantly for his daughter's future.
As a tier 3 mage, he had a private talent detection crystal.
After his daughter was born, he quickly tested her talent.
To his surprise, his daughter had an overwhelming Rank 8 potential.
He didn't dare to publicize this matter and quickly hid it.
Initially, he had planned to send her quickly to the Arcane Continent.
But his wife seemed to have made an enemy in the Arcane Continent and forbade him from going.
Now, upon hearing about the Moonlight Empire, he hurriedly registered to come here.
He had heard that there was once a student with rank 8 talent who had studied here.
Furthermore, the said student was directly sent to the highest establishment in the Arcane Continent.
(It's Amara; the detection crystal Maximus used had a hidden program that downgraded detected talent if it reached rank 9.)
He figured that by sending his daughter to study here, he could send her directly to the Arcane Continent.
"Dad, hurry, we would be drowned in the crowd!" Zoe said hurriedly.
"Right, right," Stefan snapped out of his stupor and looked at the sea of people.
A billion people in one place was no joke.
If it weren't for the various people below who kept things orderly, many people would die just from being trampled.
Coming down, he was led toward one of the registration booths.
"Stay in line, follow this mark!"
"Don't be idle, walk orderly!"
"Hey, you! Don't think about stealing; otherwise, you will be downgraded to a paymentless worker."
"No molesting either; we are civilized people."
"Don't crowd; keep one meter apart!"
Various shouts filled the air, making the place lively.
Soon, Stefan and his daughter quickly registered and escaped the sea of people.
"Where do we live, Zoe?" Stefan asked, looking at the list of cities.
"Can I choose?" Zoe asked excitedly.
"Of course," Stefan handed her the list.
"Hmm, what is this? A city made of food?" Zoe quickly spotted an eye-catching city.
"Food Heaven City?" Stefan took a look.
Food Heaven City was a tourist city in the Moonlight Empire.
The city was filled with various arrays to keep everything hygienic and safe.
As for the food, it was created nonstop.
Just maintaining such a city required thousands of Tier 3 gastronomists working daily.
They were hired by Maximus from the Arcane Continent.
Anyway, it was cheap, and his wives and children liked to visit such places.
"Dad, look, it's so yummy just looking at those buildings!"
"Uh..." Stefan was a little stumped.
Looking at the price for just a day of accommodation made him hesitate.
This place wasn't suitable for living at all.
Even the entrance fee alone could consume some people's entire budget for a lifetime.
"Baby, we can't live here; it's too expensive. Furthermore, you'll grow fat if you eat too much."
"But..." Zoe's eyes reddened.
"How about we go there for a day and then choose a place to live?"
"That's right, and we can visit from time to time in the future."
"Pinky promise~," Zoe stretched out her little hand.