Credit! They could take credit!
Once they became an Absolute, obtaining an ultimate treasure would be far easier.
Although the Overlord Organization and the top sects had claimed most of the ultimate treasures in the Aeon Plane, a few still remained.
These treasures were scattered across various forbidden places, special dimensions, void gaps, and more.
Moreover, Tier 12 Ultimate Treasures—were not finite; they could be produced stably by the Etherium Realm.
It was said that in every epoch, an ultimate treasure could randomly manifest within the Aeon Plane.
Although the ultimate treasures born in modern times had grown weaker due to the corrosion of dark energy, they were still ultimate treasures.
As long as one was diligent and willing to fight, paying Maximus would not be an insurmountable problem.
Well… at least it was better than uprooting their entire foundation.
"Is there a time limit to this credit?" Sylvara asked.
"It's an epoch. After advancing to the Absolute Realm, you have an epoch to find an ultimate treasure. If you fail... you will have to become my slave."
An epoch was far too short to find a tier 12 ultimate treasure.
The thought of becoming slaves caused hesitation to flicker across their faces.
The other sects and families, who had been considering asking Maximus if they could also take credit, quickly braked.
If finding an ultimate treasure within just an epoch were truly feasible, they would have collected millions or even billions of them by now.
Yet even the Dimensional Alliance only possessed thousands of them.
Even for an Overlord, locating an ultimate treasure was no easy feat.
Often, even when the location of an ultimate treasure was discovered, it was hidden deep within perilous and inaccessible regions.
Rejected by the rules, the Overlords couldn't pick the treasure themselves.
In the trillions of epochs since the Aeon Plane's existence, less than ten thousand ultimate treasures had been found and acquired by any individual.
As for the treasures left undiscovered, most were recycled by the Aeon Plane itself.
Like fruits that rot and fall, feeding nutrients back to the tree for another cycle, unclaimed ultimate treasures would vanish within a few epochs at most.
Thinking of this, they couldn't help but glance at Maximus, their expressions pleading for more time.
"This is already the greatest compromise I can offer," Maximus said, shaking his head.
An epoch was already too long in his view.
A billion years—by that time, Maximus wasn't even certain if he still needed ultimate treasures.
If not for pitying them, he wouldn't have considered this option at all.
After deep deliberation, they could only grit their teeth and accept the condition.
If worse came to worst, they could always dig into their family's roots or wage war against others who possessed ultimate treasures.
Either option was far better than becoming slaves.
Once they settled the terms of payment, they began to question Maximus about the limits of his power.
Could his ability allow hundreds of Ocean-Level powerhouses to absorb origin energy simultaneously? Could it fully supply an Absolute-level powerhouse?
"Supplying hundreds of Ocean-Level powerhouses is not a problem,"
"The Tower of Knowledge consists of 161,803 floors. The last 803 floors were reserved exclusively for an Ocean-Level powerhouse to train."
"As for an Absolute… I don't have such power,"
An Absolute consumed thousands of times more energy than an Ocean-Level powerhouse.
When converted into units, an Ocean-Level powerhouse advancing to Absolute could consume about a quintillion units of origin energy every day.
Meanwhile, an Absolute required sextillions of units just to start constructing their semi plane of advancement.
In fact, Maximus didn't even have enough Ether Forges to fully supply all 803 floors of the Tower of Knowledge.
After thirty thousand years of continuous production, the Order of Maxim had managed to create an additional 3 billion Ether Forges, adding to the previous 2 billion.
This brought their total to 5 billion Ether Forges, capable of producing around 430 quintillion units of origin energy per day.
During these thirty thousand years, Maximus had prioritized the Order of Maxim's efforts on constructing Ether Refiners, increasing their numbers from 36 million to 216 million devices.
With 216 million Ether Refiners, he could have 2.16 billion strands of causality daily, more than enough to meet his various energy consumption needs.
Hearing the limits of his physique, the gathered powerhouses couldn't help but feel disappointed.
They had hoped Maximus's energy could sustain an Absolute.
Clearly, they had been too greedy.
After all, Maximus was only in the Tier 10 Realm.
The fact that he could supply them with enough energy for their cultivation was already nothing short of miraculous.
"Do you have any other questions?"
Seeing them shake their heads, Maximus began outlining the rules.
The first rule was that the origin energy was for their personal use only.
They were not allowed to convert it into any other form, use it for unrelated purposes, or trade it with others.
Maximus was well aware that without this restriction, these powerhouses might create backdoors to siphon his energy and transport it back to their homes.
Whether condensing the origin energy into origin coins, converting it into strands of causality, or transforming it into any other form, they were strictly limited to absorbing the origin energy he provided.
The second rule required them to pay for the ultimate treasure first before gaining access to unlimited origin energy.
The third rule prohibited them from spreading the fact that Maximus possessed the Dimensional Source Physique.
While almost every powerhouse in the Dimensional Alliance was already aware of this, Maximus wanted to ensure the news didn't reach the Devourer faction—at least not yet.
Upon hearing this, they nodded hurriedly.
Why would they let their enemies learn about this treasure trove of energy? That would be akin to inviting robbers to ransack their homes.
The fourth and final rule stated that once they advanced to the Absolute Realm, they were not allowed to harm Maximus or his family.
This rule immediately sparked objections.
Such a binding agreement was too restrictive.
While they didn't intend to retaliate against Maximus once they became stronger, no one could predict the future.
Accepting this rule was tantamount to tying themselves to the Shadowcrest family's chariot.