In the Westle territory,
Maximus was on the flying boat, gazing at the castle in front of him.
As he released his spiritual consciousness, a scholarly young man emerged with an arrogant expression.
"What do you want?" asked the scholar, Isaac Westle.
"I'm Maximus Shadowcrest. On behalf of my teacher, I ask you to leave this land."
Maximus was not polite and told him why he had come, producing the cloned token to prove his teacher's identity.
Isaac allowed his spiritual consciousness to scan the token.
Upon seeing that it was only a tier 5 mage, he sneered. "So what?"
Although it was rare to have a tier 5 mage born on this continent, he didn't take it seriously because his father was also a tier 5 mage.
Furthermore, as a big family, they had multiple tier 5 mages.
Plus the connection they had built over the generation, he didn't take Maximus a student of a tier 5 mage seriously.
If his teacher came personally maybe he would gladly bow his head.
But just a student, it's looking down on him.
Maximus was a little surprised by the other party's arrogance.
Although Feris had warned him that the Westle family was somewhat arrogant, he didn't expect that they wouldn't even follow the rules.
Usually, when a tier 5 mage or a tier 6 knight was born on the cursed continent, if they didn't have a territory of their own, they could choose any land on the cursed continent as long as it didn't infringe on other families' interests.
They could just give some compensation to the rulers or factions of the chosen land and be done with it.
But the person in front of him seemed to be looking for trouble.
"I told you to leave this land," Maximus said, calming himself and repeating with a dark expression.
"Heh, sure, just give me a hundred million magic crystals," Isaac said with a disdainful smile.
This made Maximus angry. A hundred million was already a significant amount of money.
Moreover, given the other party's attitude, if he gave it, he would likely ask for more.
Seeing that Isaac was also a tier 3 nascent mage, Maximus tried to release his soul pressure.
When the soul pressure landed on Isaac, it turned his smiling face upside down.
How dare a lowly student attack him?
Not reconciled, Isaac also released his soul pressure.
However, the result was crushing, as Isaac, who had been flying, fell into a kneeling position due to the vast difference in the quality of their souls.
During his two months of studying knowledge about the mechanic profession, his soul had somewhat become purer.
Although he was still not a tier 1 mechanic, the knowledge he had slightly improved the quality of his soul.
Maximus, observing Isaac in his kneeling position, flew in front of him and raised his foot, and trampled his head.
"Now what?" Maximus sarcastically asked.
Although he knew that Isaac's background was not simple, so what?
He had been lenient in his approach to conquering the sunburnt plateau because he didn't want to deal with the troublesome aftermath.
However, it didn't mean he could tolerate this kind of naked extortion.
"You!" Isaac nearly vomited blood from humiliation.
"And what about me?" Maximus teased, enjoying Isaac's expression.
Seeing Isaac's face turning red with anger, Maximus kicked him in the face, sending him flying several meters away.
Maximus had controlled his strength; otherwise, his kick alone could have shattered Isaac's face.
Although a tier 3 nascent mage's body is slightly stronger than that of a tier 3 earth knight, let's not forget that Maximus was already a tier 4 sky knight in addition to being a tier 3 nascent mage.
"Now what? Still want those 100 million magic crystals?" Maximus smirked.
"Hump," Isaac stood up and cleaned himself, choosing not to reply to Maximus.
He knew he was no match for the other party, so he swallowed his anger.
"Do you still want compensation?" Maximus repeated, slowly walking towards him.
Isaac's legs were already trembling.
He didn't want another humiliation, and although the kick wasn't too strong, it still hurt.
"No! You can do whatever you want," Isaac said as he flew away, without taking his belongings.
Anyway, all of his important items were in his storage ring.
But as he thought of Maximus, just a lowly servant in his eyes, his heart grew cold.
He swore he would tell his father to teach Maximus a lesson.
As for his teacher, a tier 5 mage similar to his father, he didn't consider the matter.
After all, how could a newly promoted tier 5 mage offend his family just for the sake of a so-called student?
Of course, he didn't show any reaction or inform Maximus to wait for his revenge.
Although he was arrogant, he knew how to recognize the situation.
Maximus seeing Isaac flew out, just smiled.
Although he somehow offended the other party however it is just one family, he thought he can handle that much.
Moreover, its millions of magic crystals saved.
With that all of the rulers in the sunburnt plateau were gone, as for the berrun city, he didn't touch that anyway they were beneficial for the future of his territory.
...
In the castle courtroom,
It had been a day since Maximus returned to his kingdom, and without wasting any time, he immediately convened a meeting with his ministers.
"How is the situation of the people in the sunburnt plateau in the week that I was gone?" Maximus inquired.
It had taken a week to persuade all the rulers in the land.
Fortunately, before undertaking that task, Maximus had discussed the follow-up plans with his ministers.
"Everything is going according to plan, Your Majesty," Doran began.
"The rulers of the kingdom only took their people and left directly, without causing much chaos."
"Furthermore, the Aetheria Pavilion can provide enough food for the entire city for a month, so the people didn't panic much."
"Good!" Maximus expressed his satisfaction that everything had been smooth so far.
"Your Majesty, how should we settle the people?" Landon asked.
"Just as we planned before, gather them around the surrounding lands of the Moonlight Kingdom," Maximus replied after giving it some thought.
The Sunburnt Plateau was too vast to occupy, and reforming the entire land was not just one or two years.
It would be better to gather the people in one place rather than letting them scatter across this expansive land.
"Your Majesty, such a task is unprecedented and requires a huge amount of manpower," Landon said in shock.
He had thought that His Majesty would just allow the people to manage their own land and collect taxes.
But moving the entire population to one place indicated that His Majesty had bigger ambitions than he had realized.
However, instead of being overwhelmed, Landon became even more motivated by the challenging task.
"Don't worry too much. I have already thought about this. Before coming back, I have already prepared flying boats," Maximus explained.
The Sunburnt Plateau spanned a radius of at least 50,000 kilometers, so one can imagine the weight of the task of transporting the people.
As for how the previous Aetheria Pavilion transported supplies, they used storage rings paired with individuals with exceptional speed.
There were quite a few tier 3 Earth Knights from the previous Faerie Kingdom.
By purchasing specialized knight cultivation manuals focused on speed, these Earth Knights could reach the same speed as a tier 4 Sky Knight.
As for the possibility of rebellion, Maximus simply beat them until they were willing to sign a soul contract.
While a soul contract should be voluntary, it wasn't of much use to him.
It merely required more beatings until they willingly surrendered with all their hearts.
After discussing the following plans and countermeasures for a while, Maximus concluded the meeting.
"That's it. Just execute everything according to plan," Maximus dismissed the meeting.
...
On the top of the castle, Maximus sat drinking tea while brainstorming ideas for the future structure of his territory.
He scanned the system mall in search of the Metamorph Architecture, the device he had used previously.
[Metamorph Architecture: A device that can create an architectural plan based on your needs. It can gather mana, build defensive barriers, and offer various attack capabilities. It is a limitless architectural plan generator. Full Use, Price: 8 billion Low-Grade Magic Crystals]
"Tsk," Maximus clicked his tongue at the still expensive price.
Fortunately, there was a one-time deal option available, where the cost was based on the plan.
He clicked on the item and selected the service.
Suddenly, a cube-like device appeared in the void.
After that, a virtual panel appeared in the air.
[Metamorph Architecture:
Scan
Array Functions
Templates
...]
Maximus clicked on "scan" and entered the range, choosing the entire plateau.
[Detected 7,863,981,663 kilometers of land.]
[Detected 314,159,265 human beings.]
[Detected 798,535,269,934.... other living beings.]
Afterward, he saw a hologram version of the entire Sunburnt Plateau, which was shockingly massive.
To put it in perspective, Earth is only 500 million square kilometers in terms of land area.
The Sunburnt Plateau, on the other hand, is at least 15 times larger than the surface area of Earth.
Unfortunately, much like Earth, which is 70 percent ocean and uninhabitable by people, Sunburnt Plateau has over 90 percent barren or dangerous land unfit for human habitation.
Fortunately, with the reconstruction of the land, it would soon become lush with vitality and pure mana.
However, Maximus estimated that reforming the entire plateau could take hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Therefore, he could only gradually expand the scope of his territory as the population grew.