Mighty Lord

Chapter 1160: Chapter 458 Laying a Solid Foundation

Zhou Tian, following his original plan to conquer the territories of the emperor-level bosses, knew he could not guarantee the retention of his position as the Human Emperor. But given that he had already lost the initiative, Zhou Tian was well aware that even if he managed to maintain his strength, the difficulties in this effort would be significant.

Thus, based on the situation at the time, Zhou Tian suddenly realized that if he changed his approach to resolve this crisis, it would actually be quite simple.

Zhou Tian’s initial plan was to annex the territories of the emperor-level bosses to compensate for the loss of his own. During this process, Zhou Tian had to ensure that he annexed territory faster than he lost it. Otherwise, if he ended up losing more than he gained, his strength, no matter how great at the time, would most likely cause him to drop in realm.

Given the performance of the demigods and emperor-level bosses at the time, meeting that requirement was extremely difficult for Zhou Tian. To put it bluntly, Zhou Tian was merely giving his all in the struggle, and even if he failed to retain his position as the Human Emperor in the end, it wouldn’t have been surprising.

However, once Zhou Tian had a new idea, he suddenly found that his previously decent plan now seemed so flawed that he was too lazy to continue with it.

Annexing the territory of one emperor-level boss indeed brought significant gains, but Zhou Tian would need quite a bit of time to assimilate it. It was precisely because of the time needed to assimilate those territories that Zhou Tian’s original plan had seemed insecure, leaving him vulnerable to being overthrown by monsters and NPCs at any moment.

Before this, since Zhou Tian had no better plan, he persisted with his flawed plan, knowing full well its shortcomings, for he had no better alternative at the time.

But everything changed with the emergence of Zhou Tian’s new idea. Zhou Tian suddenly realized that his method of using force to seize the emperor-level bosses’ territories and then slowly annexing them was far too clumsy.

While forceful annexation might be fine under normal circumstances, as monsters aren’t lacking in time, and thus force is often the mainstream method of expansion, Zhou Tian found himself in a situation where, although the time needed to absorb new territory wasn’t long, even this seemingly short duration had become a potentially fatal weakness.

That weakness was Zhou Tian’s greatest vulnerability, and precisely because of it, the demigods and emperor-level bosses, despite being far weaker than Zhou Tian, still posed a threat to him.

However, once Zhou Tian’s new idea was formed, the efforts of those emperor-level bosses and demigods became suddenly meaningless. Because with Zhou Tian’s new approach of directly annexing the entire monster forces rather than slowly assimilating them, there would no longer be any need for assimilation time. With the elimination of time spent assimilating new territories, Zhou Tian’s odds of winning, even in a head-on hard fight, seemed to have significantly increased.

After such a thought occurred to him, Zhou Tian no longer worried about the danger of dropping in realm. At the same time, his attitude towards the emperor-level boss improved considerably due to his new plan.

Without any nonsense, Zhou Tian was not afraid of noncompliance. Thus, when he had his orc clone escort the emperor-level boss before him, Zhou Tian clearly stated his demands right then and there. freewebnøvel.com

"According to your actions, I should rightfully kill you. However, considering that it has not been easy for you to reach this level, I have decided to give you a chance. What do you say, would you like to join the Beast Race?"

Zhou Tian spoke in a very calm tone, but the faint killing intent emanating from him was a constant reminder to the emperor-level boss of his predicament. While Zhou Tian appeared approachable, the emperor-level boss had no doubt that if he dared to refuse Zhou Tian now, he would probably be cut down immediately.

Under normal circumstances, if Zhou Tian were still an emperor-level boss, even if he were truly defeated, the likelihood of that emperor-level boss defecting to Zhou Tian would be slim, with the most probable outcome being that the boss would fight with all its might, possibly inflicting some damage on Zhou Tian after sacrificing its own life.

However, now that Zhou Tian had become the Human Emperor, and the emperor-level boss had been thoroughly convinced of his defeat, the response to Zhou Tian’s question was completely different.

Monsters are highly reluctant to defect to a being of the same level, as it not only signifies their incompetence but also leads to a great reduction in their strength after defection. That’s why, unless there is no glimmer of hope, monsters would not consider defecting to someone of the same level.

However, in contrast to defecting to a monster of the same level, when it comes to submitting to a more powerful entity, generally any monster would show little resistance.