I accidently released the previous chapter in the volume two section. Please check out chapter 146 if you haven't read it.
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High Tide Harbor City__
"This humble servant greets the Emperor." Aditya glanced at the man who was temporarily put in charge of taking care of the High tide Harbor city. The man named William was one of Aditya's dragonians. William had long waist-length black hair. Just like Aditya, he also had light red pupils. William looked to be around 21 years old while in reality, he was 62.
William was wearing simple pants and a white T-shirt. He had a sword belt around his waist and was carrying a doubled edged sword with him. Everyone in the High Tide Harbor city knew who exactly William was.
"You may rise."
Aditya had made a teleportation array in High Tide Harbor city as well. Through the teleportation arrays, he can freely teleport almost anywhere in his big Empire. "Did anything strange happened or was there any movement from the Deep Sea Palace?"
The matter of the Deep Sea palace was very concerning. He had to handle this matter with utmost care. It has been 2 months since Aditya had placed his 7 generals, a big part of his troops, and all of his wyverns, and wild dragons. If the Deep Sea Palace did attack, Aditya wanted his Istarin Empire to be ready to counter at any given moment. But strangely even after knowing that their King was killed by the Istarin Emperor, the Deep Sea palace did not show any movements. Almost as if they did not even care about their king.
Aditya did not feel comfortable seeing his next big potential enemy being so calm and quiet. He felt the enemy was planning something.
"Your Highness, everything is going calm. There has been no problem with trade. We have no zero movements from the Deep Sea palace. Not only that, but they also cut all the connections that their people had with the races that lives on Land. It was almost as if after their King's death, the Deep Sea palace had entered into isolation."
"Our troops are regularly patrolling the coast. So far everything is calm and quiet." Aditya and William walked out of the small castle which was specially built for the Emperor to live in. The teleportation array was built at the center of the castle.
Compared to two and half months ago, the small High tide Harbor city has grown a lot. Right now the city was almost 3 times the size of Azure city which was the capital of the Istarin Empire. The city had people from various regions of the continent. A few days ago, a merchant ship from the Westnia continent arrived at the dock as well. The city currently was home to elves, beast races, vampires, succubi, and Incubi.
"How is everything going around the city? Are you having any problem?"
"Highness, everything is going smoothly. The construction of the watch towers is nearly finished. The hot spring and the garden are also near completion. It will probably take another two weeks for the hot spring and the garden to be ready."
"Good job." Aditya lightly praised William before walking out of the palace. As soon as the guards saw him, they bowed their heads to greet the King.
Meanwhile, William felt his chest swelling up feeling proud. He was extremely happy that the Emperor himself had personally praised him. To Aditya, these two simple words might not mean too much. But to William, these words had a lot of weight in them. Just hearing these two words, he felt all of his hard work has paid off.
Aditya and William walked out of the palace and then got on a carriage. The carriage then took both of them outside the city.
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Scene change
5 km away from the city, the carriage finally stopped. The door was opened by a soldier. As soon as Aditya stepped out of the carriage everyone present bowed their heads and greeted the Emperor.
"Stand up. Zara, give me a report on what you and your fellow mermaids discovered?" Zara was a sea elf. She and the other 499 sea elves were bought by Aditya when he was in Apogale city. Right after Aditya returned, he healed the mana-crippled hearts of the 500 sea elves with the pills that Julia gave him.
When Istarin Empire won the war, Aditya had waited for 2 months before deciding to send Zara and 499 other sea elves to the sea in hope of learning more about the Deep Sea Palace Kingdom. In those two months, Aditya provided Zara and her race members with 3-star cultivation pills. The resources Aditya spent on the sea elves worked. Right now all the sea elves had managed to break through 1st-order and reach 2nd-order while Zara had managed to reach Peak 2nd-order.
Aditya had thought of giving Zara and some of the sea elves with his golden blood and turning them into half-dragons and half-sea elves. Turning them into dragonians would have quickly increased their powers. Aditya did not go with this plan. Since Zara and her fellow sea elven race members were going to infiltrate the Deep Sea palace Kingdom, it would be better if Aditya did not turn them into half-dragons.
After all, he was sure that if the Deep Sea palace saw half-dragons and half-sea elves, they would associate Zara and other sea elves with the Istarin Empire. This might put the lives of Zara and other sea elves in danger.
Zara was a beautiful woman with long light blue hair that had reached down her waist. Her pupils had the same color as the seawater. Zara had elongated ears as elves have. She was fair-skinned and had a voluptuous body. Right now she was wearing a black kimono and wooden sandals.
Just like Zara, all the members of the Sea elven race were very beautiful looking. The sea elf race was powerful water mages. In water, they can even take on beginner 3rd-order cultivators.
"After a few days of hard work and a bunch of lies, we have managed to get a map of the Deep Sea palace." Zara took out a wooden table. She then took out a scroll. Opening the scroll, Aditya for the first time saw the territories that the Deep Sea Palace Kingdom controlled.
The entire territory of the Deep Sea palace kingdom was bigger than Nyland and Zulux Dynasty combined. The enemy kingdom controlled a vast territory.
"The Deep Sea palace Kingdom is located 50 km away from the land. The Kingdom has a population of 50 million. 96% of the population is mermaids and mermen. The sea elves and other intelligent races were a group of minorities. It is normal for a mermaid or merman to bully other races. All the top position of the Deep Sea palace kingdom was held by either mermaids or mermen."
"Unlike how things work at land, in Deep Sea palace, only the strongest merman or mermaid gets to be the Emperor or the Empress."
"Do you know how many 5th-order the enemy Kingdom....no.....Empire has?" The existence of the 5th order confirmed that the Deep Sea palace was not a Kingdom. It was an Empire.
"Yes, there are some 5th-order mermen and mermaids. Lewis was the youngest 5th-order in the Deep Sea palace Empire's history. He was able to succeed to the throne without even needing to prove his strength. Everyone believed that Lewis would be able to break the shackle of the 5th order and finally reach 6th order. This is why nobody came to challenge Lewis for the throne."
"So the enemy has multiple powerhouses which are even more powerful than Lewis." Aditya took this as a piece of bad news. If Lewis was this strong then what about others?
"Your Highness, actually there are some political debates going on in the Deep Sea palace Empire. Almost 90% of the mermaids and the mermen did not like the fact that King Lewis was taking half a million troops to conquer the territories of the Land."
"Mermaids and mermen were a race that always lived hundreds of meters beneath the seawater or in the deepest parts of the ocean. The factions that live under the sea or the ocean water always keep a clear distance from the land. This always has been the case with the Deep Sea palace Empire. The Empire never has tried to contact any of the Kingdoms on land. Whether everyone on land died or lives, the races that live below the sea never cares."
"So now that Lewis was dead, 90% of those who did not like what he was doing voiced out their opinion while the remaining 10% used to be Lewis's loyal followers." Aditya finally understood the reason why the Deep Sea Palace Empire never attacked back even though their King died.
"Yes. this is the case. Also while almost everyone supported Lewis when he was chosen to become the King, in his reign as the Emperor, he did some things which made him one of the most unpopular emperors of the Deep Sea Palace Empire's history. Especially the fact that because of King Lewis over half a million of their soldiers were lost trying to conquer land territory infuriated everyone.
"While those who are supporting Lewis said that he did the right thing. They said that the Deep Sea Palace needed to expand to land as well. They called Lewis' actions an act of revolutionary. Almost 90% of the population disagreed with what the loyal followers of Lewis said in response. The Deep Sea Palace Empire is a place where the population values their culture and their beliefs. The people do not welcome changes."
"Now this is interesting." Aditya couldn't but help smile. Aditya had seen similar types of cases back on earth as well.
"What about the next Emperor or the Empress? Do you know who is going to sit on the throne?" The next Emperor or the Empress will determine the future between the Istarin Empire and the Deep Sea palace Empire. If the next ruler is someone who supported Lewis, then there is no doubt that there will be a big war between the two Empires.
But if the next ruler is someone who did not like what Lewis did, then there may be some room for negotiations. But the possibility of war in both scenarios still existed. After all, the Deep Sea palace won't forget the fact that the Istarin empire had killed half a million of their soldiers.
"I heard that there is going to be a competition. All the strongest mermen and the mermaids of the Empire can join the competition. The winner will become the next ruler."
"What about other intelligent races besides mermen and mermaids?"
"No race besides mermen and mermaids are allowed to join the participate. Forgot about participating, no race besides the mermen, and mermaids are not even allowed to become officials or hold important positions. All the privileges are given to the mermen and the mermaids while sea elves and other races are the victims of injustice and inequality."
"Sea elves are not even allowed to open shops. The Deep Sea Palace is a Empire where the mermaids and mermen are superior to everyone while Sea elves and other intelligent races are treated like slaves."
"No wonder, I did not find any other races except for Mermen in the army that Lewis bought." The Deep Sea palace Empire's rules were extremely biased and favorable for the mermen and the mermaids. 'Maybe I can take advantage of that.'
"The competition will start 4 more months later."
For the next 5 minutes, Zara did not say anything as she found the Emperor lost in deep thought. After a long time of thinking, Aditya sighed before looking at Zara.
"Zara, thank you very much for your hard work. You all have completed your mission."
"Your Majesty, it's my and my people's honor to serve you." Zara lightly bowed her head.
"William, from now on Zara and her people will live in the palace in High tide Harbor city." Aditya then turned to Zara. "For now everyone can continue cultivating. Let me know if you or anyone needs any resources."
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Really Thank you very much to all those who sends support with valuable golden tickets. I hope we can keep it up!!!
Mass release is coming in a few days!!!!