In fact, the question Shui iying had just asked Bai Zemin was not particularly a surprise to him. This was because Bai Zemin himself had asked the sa thing repeatedly since he realized that he actually had the qualifications to compete for the highest throne on Earth.
Bai Zemin had even sat down with Lilith for several hours to discuss this matter, and it was thanks to it that he was now aware of sothing very important that if he had found out later could have caused him a big headache or two in the long run.
For starters and the most important information, Lilith pointed out to him so ti ago and with a serious expression on her face that the King subclass and the Emperor subclass were two completely worlds apart. To be King/Queen a soul evolver simply needed to beco the Leader of their entire race within a vast expanse of land... But to be Emperor/Empress one needed to be the total Leader of their race in an entire world.
The key was precisely in the race.
Being human as he was, Bai Zemin could never be Emperor of the seas. Of course, this would change slightly once he broke the shackles that bound him to the Lower Existences and beca a Higher Existence since at that ti every pagoda was supposed to have the power to modify the records of any race... but in the anwhile it was impossible for him to be the Leader of a race whose records simply had nothing to do with the records that made up his existence.
Moreover, as Shui iying had just pointed out, Bai Zemin could not simply use his power as a ruler to subjugate Xian i'er. Not only would she lose control over all the sea beasts imdiately but the Soul Record would definitely take away her Empress subclass on the spot, sothing that would imdiately beco a big problem as with the fall of one ruler many more would rise up to take their place; which would also an that all the efforts they made before would go down the drain.
Bai Zemin looked at Shui iying for several minutes as thousands of thoughts ran through his head. After an unknown amount of ti, he thought he knew what the rmaid in front of him wanted but still asked calmly, "What do you have in mind?"
Shui iying smiled slightly and instead of answering imdiately she asked, "According to what your subordinate told , you have already managed to conquer all the surface territories and what you are waiting for in order to advance to Emperor is for the majority of humans in those territories to accept you, is that accurate?"
Bai Zemin nodded silently as there was no point in hiding it and the girl in front of him could do nothing with that information even if she knew.
Shui iying nodded and continued smiling as she asked again, "In that case, let give you an analogy here. Let's say you want to have the best house and the best woman, even if both are already possessed by soone else; would there be anyone able to stop you as Emperor?"
Bai Zemin narrowed his eyes but said nothing.
Unlike the subclasses before Emperor, including the King subclass, when one beca the Emperor of his race in his world his word was absolute. While everyone would still be free to express their opinions and would not lose their freedom, an Emperor literally was the King of Kings able to have whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.
Therefore, the analogy raised by Shui iying took Bai Zemin by surprise as he did not expect her to know so much about it despite being a Lower Existence. One should know that he only knew that information because Lilith was always there to support him at all tis!
Of course, Bai Zemin had no way of knowing that the records left behind from ancient tis were many more among the royal families of the seas in contrast to the mainland. As one of the most powerful kingdoms under the sea, the Coral Kingdom certainly had its own legacy.
"The answer is no." Shui iying sipped tea calmly and closed her eyes for a mont before continuing, "Then what do you think would be the way to prevent soone from becoming a tyrant? No, let rephrase that... What do you think would be the optimal way to restrain soone with absolute power from drowning in the power they hold and thus avoid infinite, ever-lurking problems?"
"Shilin knows the answer!" Bai Shilin suddenly jumped from her seat and while looking at Shui iying with glittering eyes quickly answered, "It takes soone of equivalent position and power to stop the footsteps of soone with absolute power!"
Shui iying blinked, surprised. She looked at the teenager in front of her and after several seconds slowly nodded: "You're right... That way the absolute power would be nullified imdiately and both sides can be each other's boundary wall, thus preventing one or both sides from overstepping the boundaries."
"Ahem!" Bai Shilin puffed out her chest and looked at her father with shining eyes as if waiting for his complint.
Bai Zemin gently stroked the little girl's head but his eyes remained fixed on Shui iying. Suddenly, he chuckled and shook his head, "I have to say I'm astonished, honestly."
"Oh?" Shui iying furrowed her eyebrows slightly but still smiled, "Would you mind telling why that is?"
"I have to admit that if it cos to power and intelligence you surpass Xian i'er by a wide margin. Not so much in power but your vision is much broader than hers." Bai Zemin nodded calmly. Yet he then shook his head and said, "But if you think your words alone are enough to achieve anything then let tell you that you are very wrong and you overestimate yourself. Xian i'er deserved my help because she helped greatly all the way here, but what about you? You want to help you get a position equivalent to hers and you think I will do it just because you say so? You are overly arrogant, princess."
Shui iying did not look angry or offended at all. Instead, she chuckled and asked, "Do you trust her completely? If your answer is yes then this conversation can stop here and now."
Completely trust Xian i'er? Bai Zemin shook his head secretly.
That was simply impossible for his current and perhaps would be forever.
Leaving aside his family, there were only five people that Bai Zemin could claim to trust completely and with closed eyes; Shangguan Bing Xue; Wu Yijun; Kali; Lilith; and last but not least, Seraphina Di Gales.
Bai Zemin didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he realized that all of them were females...
"I'll take your silence as the answer." Shui iying smiled slightly and continued calmly, "Before you reject why don't you listen to what I have to say first? If you still think that what I will give you, including my future support, is insufficient compared to what Xian i'er gave you so far then I will leave quietly or you can kill here if you like."
"You sound confident." Bai Zemin suddenly smiled as he looked at her with interest. He couldn't help but remark with a hint of mockery mixed with sincerity in his voice, "Even with the power I have now I don't think I'm as confident as you even though I could destroy the entire Earth if I so chose."
Bai Zemin was confident in himself and his strength, but he was not arrogant enough to think that he would always be the strongest. It was precisely for this reason that he was still sitting and talking to the First Princess of the Coral Kingdom as he hoped to find an absolute solution to Xian i'er's matter right here and now.
Bai Zemin trusted Xian i'er 80%, but that 20% made him secretly anxious.
She certainly hated war and wanted peace... But when she beca Empress the number of soldiers under her command would easily be hundreds or even thousands of tis more compared to Bai Zemin's troops. What he was doing was looking into the long run future as they could live for millennia or even eternally; who knew if Xian i'er's ntality would not change in the future? At the end of the day, all beings with intelligence were prone to change eventually.
"You're wrong." Shui iying looked Bai Zemin straight in the eyes. The smile on her face receded and with a serious expression, she slowly said, "It's not that I have that much confidence in myself. The one I have confidence in is you, or rather your intelligence."
Bai Zemin raised an eyebrow seemingly surprised but said nothing and gestured for her to continue.
"I don't know anything about you, to be honest. But I do know that to control the entire surface takes more than sheer strength; it takes a high level of IQ as well as EQ. So I think after you hear my offer you will definitely accept since you are smart." Shui iying said softly as she looked into his eyes.
"This little fox is quite interesting." Lilith's voice sounded in Bai Zemin's mind, "She is not only very smart but she knows exactly what to say in order to keep moving forward even if it's just one more step since she clearly knows that this one extra step could be the difference between stopping in hell or ascending to heaven."
Indeed. Bai Zemin agreed with Lilith's words.
Even though he had just t Shui iying and they had been talking for less than an hour, Bai Zemin realized that she might be one of the most intelligent existences he t so far if not the number 1.
"Go on." He nodded and then ate the remaining cake left on the plate in front of him.
"As you well know, I was not part of the soul evolvers that entered Hero City in search of ancient treasures." Shui iying looked at Bai Zemin and asked, "Don't you feel that is very curious? At the end of the day, regardless of whether or not I could get sothing good, just seeing this city from the inside would have been of great help to my Coral Kingdom's records."
Bai Zemin stared for a mont before his eyes flashed with a mysterious light.
Indeed, he had overlooked this point before. But now that the female in front of him pointed it out Bai Zemin couldn't help but feel that it was very unusual.
"... If I recall correctly, among the soul evolvers that entered Hero City there were also representatives from other sea kingdoms. Although I dare not say that all of them took part, I'm pretty sure that your Coral Kingdom should have sent you unless they have a better option."
Shui iying shook her head at his words, "The Coral Kingdom didn't send anyone, I can vouch for that."
Bai Zemin was about to say sothing but she raised a hand to ask him not to speak for now. Suddenly, Shui iying's eyes which had been gentle until now flashed with an almost undetectable trace of hatred as she calmly said, "My Coral Kingdom stretches for a couple of hundred kiloters from the end of the East Sea towards the interior of the Pacific Ocean. Coincidentally, the Mariana Trench is located inside our territory."
Mariana Trench? Bai Zemin suddenly sat up straight and his eyes lit up, finally understanding a bit of where this was all headed.
"I see you figured it out now." Shui iying nodded and said in a serious voice, "Apart from this Hero City, there is another place that has a treasure that is not necessarily inferior. That place is precisely the Mariana Trench."
"... In fact, at the eting that happened in Europe before we headed to Hero City a Higher Existence did ntion this." Bai Zemin narrowed his eyes and looked at her in silence for a long ti before slowly asking, "Tell if I'm wrong but... Could it be that you have so problem with these Higher Existences?"
"Problem? What problem could I have with them." Shui iying sneered but the hatred in her eyes grew several folds as she slowly said, "I just don't like being anyone's chess piece. I definitely won't accept a few aliens coming to my house uninvited and doing whatever they feel like. This is so even if I have to do things I wouldn't normally do."
Bai Zemin stared into her eyes for almost a full minute before smiling suddenly.
If it were anything else, Bai Zemin could ignore it. However, Shui iying, the Coral Kingdom's First Princess, ntioned two points that he definitely could not disregard.
"Well, it looks like we're talking now. Please continue."
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