I Don't Agree to the Terms

"There should be a false body left in the Imperial Palace to maintain it, otherwise the Ghost Energy would have long since dispersed out of the palace."

Under this constant influence, the prime minister strongly insisted on seeing Emperor Navia. The two Crown Princes were somewhat helpless and ultimately nodded in agreement.

All three went to have an audience with Emperor Navia, and Gu Shanhai confirmed that what remained here was indeed a false body, but it possessed suitable Spiritual Intelligence. It handled affairs systematically and had formidable strength, showing no signs of being fake.

Only Gu Shanhai could detect that it didn't match the original strength at all.

"So... does this count as exchanging homes?" Gu Shanhai thought, feeling a bit amused yet helpless.

However, his expression soon turned serious. Emperor Navia's strength was formidable, and he wondered if the Eternal Sleep Giant could cope.

In terms of size, it might not match the Eternal Sleep Giant. As for combat power, it would likely lag behind. However, the primitive Ghost Energy formed by the concept of death had excellent lethality; even if the Cancer universe lacked death, if the Eternal Sleep Giant were hit, it might take a long time to resurrect.

The main advantage lies in its specialized effect.

As for how Emperor Navia safeguarded himself, Gu Shanhai was unsure because the palace was shrouded by the concept of death, and the tier of Prophetic Divination in this world was too low, leaving him unable to know accurately.

Moreover, Gu Shanhai himself had a lot of affairs to deal with; he couldn't pay attention to it every day. He came to this world to become stronger, not to suppress others.

"If he runs away, that's fine. I can instead proceed with my plans at full tilt."

Originally, it was estimated to launch the final Ascension Bliss Package three months later. Now, it could be launched tomorrow.

He planned to proceed as quickly as possible, aiming to transform ninety-eight percent of the Navia Empire's population into digital life forms within a month, forcibly converting those who weren't into digital life forms, and ultimately throwing them into the virtual world as harvest.

Did they really think Gu Shanhai was kindly offering them free body transformation?

That's because he left a backdoor program within the entire mechanical ascension plan. Once initiated by Gu Shanhai, it would allow him to take direct control.

Then, souls would plunge into virtual reality to experience the ecstasy of life and death, while being transformed into complete mechanical bodies, becoming weapons. Combined with synthetic humans and beasts, the whole Navia Empire would fall into his grasp.

He went to great lengths all for this harvest.

Therefore, Emperor Navia was indeed unimportant; even relying on the Cancer universe to complete himself posed no threat to Gu Shanhai.

The reason for this great ordeal was cautious exploration of the world's deeper threads, ensuring stability in doing so. He had time; if forceful suppression were used, who knew what might happen? Doing it silently ensured safety and low cost.

"After mastering the Navia Empire, one could try advancing into other universes."

Indeed, Gu Shanhai found another point of interest: the quantum collider, which could open channels to other universes.

If multiple passages to other universes could be opened, Emperor Navia could be lured, then banished to a world of lower value.

Gu Shanhai didn't actually want to directly kill Emperor Navia.

Mainly due to the risk; Emperor Navia is the Child of Destiny of this world, essentially a protagonist, possessing great fortune influenced by the concept of death seemingly making him appear decayed.

This fortune would likely be acknowledged by the Cancer universe, acting like an exchange student similar to Shen Heng.

Killing is possible, but why take risky actions when there's a better way?

Just like during the initial confrontation with Shen Heng, Gu Shanhai's first thought was to send him flying rather than kill him.

The way to deal with Emperor Navia was primarily based on this notion.

Of course, before banishing Emperor Navia, Gu Shanhai would certainly study him; otherwise, how would he expand his interests?

In fact, Gu Shanhai has long possessed the technology of quantum collider and universe passage, with Marina, even founder of Jile Technology, working under him. Gu Shanhai directly extracted her memory, relying on a gambling method.

Gu Shanhai wasn't sure if he could open worlds apart from those of the Cancer universe.

He suspected the Quantum Channel could open the Cancer universe, mainly due to "First Era" assistance rather than purely lucky.

There must be a relevant world around, at least.

However, there's a strong possibility Gu Shanhai suspects there's a cluster of worlds nearby.

If confirmed, it could be termed as a conceptual cluster, able to lower various concepts into unique systems, similar to how the Navia Empire's concept of death lowered into Ghost Energy and the Cancer universe's concept of life into Spiritual Energy.

Indeed, before connecting Navia Empire and Cancer universe, Navia Universe was unable to lower the concept of life into Spiritual Energy, and the Cancer universe could not lower the concept of death into Ghost Energy—it was a unique exchange after interconnection.

Thus, Gu Shanhai suspects Emperor Navia became the protagonist of two worlds.

The cause is likely because he mastered some Spirital Energy foundation, but only in the Cancer universe.

His attempt to lower other concepts had failed without any clue, otherwise, leveraging Spiritual Energy and Ghost Energy he could shift similar concepts like reproduction and disease.

If he discovers another world, he should consider using the quantum collider to open multiple worlds.

This way, his Twin Flowers could bloom into Multi-Life Flowers, speeding up his strength development.

Moreover, these concepts could perfect his celestial wood and his world's embryonic form.

He realized this world's true value and scale; if confirmed, he didn't enter a single world but a world cluster able to traverse countless geometric worlds.

In this world cluster, both Navia Empire and the Cancer universe might belong to relatively peaceful worlds.

As for Navia Empire and Cancer universe, Gu Shanhai didn't overly concern himself, planning to devour them when conditions mature.

The timing depends on two premises and nodes: one, await Twin Flowers' maturity and Emperor Navia's banishment; next, upon finding two or more stable new worlds, he would devour the Navia Empire as supplement, and another naturally when the Eternal Sleep Giant successfully fuses all cancerous life forms into a great pill for devouring Cancer universe.

Finding two or more worlds, one serves as Emperor Navia's banishment.

Killing is off the table; Emperor Navia will be banished beforehand to prevent explosive troubles.

Gu Shanhai isn't worried about losing, but as the protagonist, possessing miraculous abilities aided by two worlds might disrupt his plans.

Directly targeting the opponent risks instigating adverse consequences, such as an intelligent awakening in the Navia Empire, or consciousness awakening in the Cancer universe.

Such events would needlessly inconvenience Gu Shanhai.

"Hopefully, Emperor Navia stays in the Cancer universe longer, ideally a decade or so—it'd make implementation easier."

This was Gu Shanhai's preference, but based on a personality model analysis, Emperor Navia wouldn't remain that long. Likely within a year or even a few days, using Cancer universe cities to remotely control the Navia Empire and realize his power was usurped.