Ian held a document in his hand, which recorded all Scholar Race's knowledge about previous Time Game.
He paid so high a price to get this document that he no longer felt guilty about what his ambassador was about to say to Scholar Race.
After reading it, he exhaled. "For him, this is really just a game to gain more knowledge."
His eyes Blink were shining, summarizing a lot of information about the Ancient Gods named Cosmos.
In recent games, for example, the latter has been ruthless in its approach while also adopting a laissez-faire attitude.
'He is so knowledgeable that he doesn't care about the games, treating them as a dispensable pastime. At the same time, he has no patience with criminals. If they fail to arouse his interest, he will execute them immediately.'
Ian established a basic personality model for Cosmos to use when the two meet. With more information in hand, his chances of winning in the confrontation will be improved.
"Morgana, send this information to Think Tank and see if they can deduce more information."
"Okay. Do you need to tell them your situation?" Ian's identity as a time criminal is a core secret, so only a handful of people know about it.
"Tell them. If I try to hide it, these people can also deduce the Silk horse traces." Empire's Think Tank is composed of top strategic brains, so Ian has never underestimated the abilities of these people.
"As you wish."
Ian wasted no time and directly connected to Akashic Records. His purpose was to see if he could find more information about Cosmos from the records.
"As expected," he muttered; the other party was also a member of a local branch, just like Scholar Race and Wizard Race.
"At least we are sure of one thing now, that is, the knowledge about Time Magic in this universe is of no use in Time Game," Morgana said.
"That's right," Ian nodded; the deeper they understand their opponent, the greater their confidence in winning.
"So, what's the plan? Do you want to set off immediately?"
"No, we have enough time," Ian said calmly. "Besides, I want to increase my strength to Tenth Tier (Tier 10) before Time Game starts."
"In this case, you should start solving the problem of Soul Limitation."
"That's really what I'm going to focus on next," Ian nodded, and then got to work. Over the next 20 years, he focused on three things: breaking Soul Limitation, mastering the legacy of Wizard Race (Primordial Rune), and governing Empire.
"Master, the time has come."
"So fast?"
"Yes," Morgana nodded, and Ian closed the enchantment array in front of him.
"How long did I spend in this retreat?"
"Nearly five hundred years," Morgana replied.
"So, I am already 1,500 years old? Time has indeed lost its meaning to immortals," Ian sighed.
"This is how long-lived species sense time."
Ian stretched, "Unfortunately, I couldn't find a solution that satisfies me."
"Other solutions are feasible," Morgana reassured.
"But it's not up to par yet."
He looked at a Cosmic Cube body on the table and closed his eyes. Countless memories poured into his mind, and he digested them in an instant. A few minutes later, he opened his eyes and exhaled:
"It took me 500 years, but I have just mastered the first level of inheritance."
"If you didn't insist on learning everything in it, you wouldn't have this trouble," Morgana complained.
"The first level is the foundation of Primordial Rune, so it's best to learn everything thoroughly. By the second level, I can consider whether to specialize in a certain direction."
"It's up to you; you have the final say anyway."
"Let's go," Ian said, leaving the long-lost laboratory. In the past 500 years (20 years in outside world time), he has not left this room at all. His family has come to visit him, and he will also send clones to handle Empire's government affairs. If it were not for the significance of today and the upcoming voyage, he would not leave at all.
After walking out of the room, he saw Olivia waiting for him.
"Only you?"
"Do you have any objections?"
"No, that's not what I meant; I just haven't seen you in a while."
"Have you forgotten? They have already set off."
"Oh, yes."
In the past 20 years, Empire has been recovering from the war while focusing on governing the territory. Empire's territory has expanded to the entire galaxy, but the population is not enough to support such a vast territory.
Therefore, the government had to focus on encouraging births while relocating certain races to other galaxies; the goal was to bring the entire Milky Way Galaxy population up to a certain size. After two decades of hard work, they barely achieved this goal.
During this period of expansion and development, Empire built several more Floating Citys. Just two years ago, everyone else basically went to another universe, leaving only Olivia alone. Even Bellatrix left alone.
"Are you planning to stay, or are you planning to leave too?"
"I will leave," she replied. "After experiencing the last war, I feel that my ability as a commander is not enough. So, I am going to travel to other worlds and learn more about interstellar warfare."
"If your ability is not even good, then other commanders will die of shame?" Ian said with a smile.
"They should be ashamed," Olivia said with her iconic military demeanor. "One of the purposes of my trip is to create a better training system for the Empire. Our current military academy is not enough to cope with future wars with gods or other planes."
"In this case, do you need me to postpone the opening of the border?"
"No," Olivia replied. "If you don't open the borders, resource shortages will soon become apparent."
"That's true."
In the past two decades, the population of the Empire has grown explosively, reaching an immeasurable number.
With the help of the <KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!> dimension, every citizen of the Empire is Arcanist, and can reach the lowest Third Tier rank. However, in the face of the huge group of casters and the rapid development of the Empire, how can the resources of a single galaxy be used?
Ian does not dare to send people to other galaxies, although he is confident of bypassing the blockade set by the gods around Milky Way Galaxy. What Luck has is that he can enter Dark Multiverse (Dark Multiverse) to relieve the material pressure, but this is still a drop in the bucket.
Therefore, the next step in the development of the Empire is to open it to the Astral Realm. However, considering that other planes are hostile to Cosmic Faith Plane, this approach also has drawbacks.
"Is your speech ready?" Olivia asked.
"Ready."
"Stop dawdling; you'll be on stage in less than two hours."
Ian went to put on a gorgeous, solemn and complicated robe. Today is the centenary celebration of the Empire, and he has many things to deal with.
After changing clothes, a black shadow appeared behind Ian.
"What's the matter?"
"There is something I need to report to you," Itachi said.
"Oh?"
"One of the contenders reached the Ninth Tier position."
"Interesting. How did this happen?" Ian asked. Over the years, although he did not find the perfect solution to break Soul Limitation, he did create many other secondary methods. However, under his control, Empire's power limit did not exceed the Eighth Tier position - the same as him.
"We believe outside forces were involved," Weitahui reported.
"Someone broke through our defenses? This explains why you came to report to me, not Grindelwald. Have you found a breakthrough?"
"Found and processed."
"How much intelligence did we leak?"
"It hasn't been detected yet, but it's probably not many."
Ian did not speak, but looked up to the sky. Since the end of the war, these Outer Realm gods have never stopped trying to infiltrate Milky Way Galaxy.
"Take him into custody and find out why he betrayed us."
"Yes."
Itachi disappeared from the room as if he had never appeared. Meanwhile, Ian waited until the time came for the national public speech.
Clones of his wives followed him to the podium. After all, it would have been out of character for the Empire queens not to show up on such an occasion.