Chapter 839: Preparations for the Merger

The draconian sage chastised Zhang Lie, "Don't just distort space like that—restoring that torn space will cost valuable energy! The draconian world doesn't have much energy left after its merger and subsequent evolution, so if you keep doing this, it'll be very difficult for me."

Much of the draconian world's hoarded energy had gone into restoring the half-dead world of black sand, as well as the two worlds whose proofs of kingship had cracked, during the merger. It didn't have a significant supply of energy left.

"Call me whenever you need to be transported, but don't just tear apart space like that!"

Only Zhang Lie had the privilege of making a large world's king of the realm his dedicated chauffeur—and it was the king who had made such an offer, too.

The draconian sage continued, "You never mentioned that you would release so much energy after absorbing all these disaster-grade cores! Couldn't you have warned me before destroying the black desert?"

"I didn't know I would have caused such a large commotion, either..."

The draconian sage sighed. "Fortunately, I sent you to the black desert. If you had made such a mess anywhere else in the world, I would have choked you to death on the spot!"

Zhang Lie shrugged. "Would you be able to manage such a feat?"

The draconian sage fell silent. Even after becoming the king of the realm of a large world, the draconian sage wasn't confident that he would be able to defeat Zhang Lie at all.

"Scram!" The draconian sage scowled, waving his hands madly at Zhang Lie.

After Zhang Lie left, he rested for a night before setting off the next morning with Li Qianlin and Dong Mingxing.

With Zhang Lie's strength and speed, it would only take a blink of an eye for him to transport them all to the world of the east, but this was a rare opportunity for him to spend some time alone with Li Qianlin, and to cultivate their feelings for each other. He wasn't about to give up on such an opportunity.

He summoned Red Comet and the disaster-grade rainbow-scaled dragon which carried a palace on its back. Zhang Lie commanded the dragon to slow down rather than to fly at its fastest speed.

Li Qianlin was no idiot. She noticed what was going on, but she didn't expose Zhang Lie. After heading to the draconian world, she hadn't been able to spend time privately with Zhang Lie at all, nor even have a private conversation with him.

There was still some time until the merger ceremony, and speed wasn't of the essence, so there was no rush, either.

The king of the west's dragon and palace was luxurious indeed. Zhang Lie enjoyed his accommodations in the palace surrounded by two beauties. The group, taking their time to return to the world of the east, enjoyed five days' worth of scenery before they finally arrived.

The moment Zhang Lie and Li Qianlin arrived in the world of the east, the king of the realm noticed them instantly. They brought such a large disaster-grade lifeform with them that even a fool would notice the disturbance, let alone the king himself. He appeared in front of the disaster-grade lifeform as Zhang Lie, Li Qianlin, and Dong Mingxing left the palace.

Zhang Lie waved at the king. "Long time no see, father-in-law!"

Li Zongming nodded politely. "Good lad. I welcome you to witness the merger of east and west."

He turned to his daughter, a gentle smile appearing on his face. "Welcome back, Qianlin."

Li Qianlin smiled at her father. "I'm back."

He urged, "Go on, go prepare. You're my daughter, the princess of the east, and you have to stand by my side during the ceremony now that the two worlds are finally merging once more."

Li Qianlin nodded, waved to Zhang Lie, and left with Dong Mingxing.

The king continued, "Zhang Lie, I think you had better leave the disaster-grade lifeform by the foot of the mountain. Don't scare the other guests."

Only then did Zhang Lie notice that the appearance of the rainbow-scaled dragon was shocking the other aliens entering the world through the wormhole. Zhang Lie nodded, then set off with the dragon.

Li Zongming asked him, "How is your relationship with my daughter progressing?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how far have the two of you gone?"

"It's... going well, I suppose?"

Li Zongming frowned. "What do you mean, 'you suppose'? Either it's going well or not!"

"I think, well, haha, how are preparations for the merger?" Zhang Lie hurriedly changed the topic upon sensing Li Zongming's glare.

Li Zongming sighed. "As well as I might hope. Parts of the western world mounted a resistance against me, but I managed to suppress it."

The reason that Li Zongming had waited so long even after obtaining the proof of kingship was because there were still elements in the west with power of their own.

However, compared to the power a king of the realm of a large world could bring to bear, their resistance was fruitless. They were annoying simply because they could appear at any moment and didn't have a consolidated base of power. Thus, Li Zongming had to expend great effort to deal with them.

After all, he couldn't simply slaughter his way through the entire world, so he had to come up with methods to suppress and handle the protesters.

Whenever it seemed as though the western world's resistance was dying down, rumors of an impending merger caused more resistance to flare up, dragging out the process for a prolonged period of time.

"Has everything finally settled, then?"

"For the moment, at least. No problems will arise during the course of the ceremony; I can guarantee that much."

Kings of the realm weren't infallible, and they couldn't spend all day surveilling their land.

Of the millions of existences on a world, as numerous as the stars in the sky, the king of the realm would only pay attention to the brightest, the strongest among them, such as Zhang Lie and disaster-grade lifeforms. Any commotion on their part would be transmitted to the king of the realm instantly.

Ordinary, powerless lifeforms, on the other hand—the king of the realm didn't have so much time as to be able to scour through them all for the rabble-rousers among them, who were able to slip through his sight by means of their mediocrity.

Zhang Lie warned, "Be careful. The worlds of east and west are large even among large worlds, and they could very well form a superior world when merged. The moment that happens, trouble will be afoot."

Li Zongming glanced at him curiously. "You know something?"

"It'll take a while for the two large worlds to merge, and there's plenty of time for problems to occur."

Unlike the merger of a few medium-sized worlds, which had taken only a few hours, the merger of a few large worlds might take multiple days.

Li Zongming replied seriously, "I have contingency plans for everything I can think of."

"What do you know of superior worlds?"

"They're the strongest of the three thousand worlds."

Zhang Lie continued, "Have you heard of other superior worlds beyond the ten?"

Li Zongming blinked. "Do you mean that there's a reason there are only ever ten superior worlds among the three thousand?"

"Did you know that the ten superior worlds call the three thousand worlds a breeding ground?" Zhang Lie countered.

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"You mean to say that the superior worlds will strike the moment the merger happens?"