After Shang told his story, the Lightning Emperor nodded.
He was quite surprised that Shang had actually met the Starlight Queen when he had been so young.
When Shang was done with his story, the Lightning Emperor fell into thought.
Shang didn't say anything.
Eventually, the Lightning Emperor nodded. "I think we can make the world a better place."
"What do you mean?" Shang asked.
A moment later, several transparent figures appeared in the air between them, and Shang could also see a map of Aterium.
Then, Shang saw a small figure representing him flying to one spot of the Lightning Manor.
A second later, a huge Abomination appeared, which was then surrounded by a big black pylon.
The pylon was put under the Lightning Manor's Empire.
The same thing repeated another nine times.
In the end, ten Abominations were buried beneath the Lightning Manor's Empire.
After that, time seemed to rapidly pass on the transparent map, and many Abominations appeared all over it.
The Abominations exploded in the other Empires' territories, but none of them appeared in the Lightning Manor.
Shang knew why the pylons existed, but they became obsolete when Shang became more powerful.
But now, they could be put to use again.
The biggest issue had been that capturing the Abominations had been extremely difficult.
After all, they exploded as soon as anything went wrong.
Nevertheless, the Empires managed to capture a couple of Ancestral Abominations, but not nearly enough to stop more Ancestral Abominations from appearing.
Even more, the stronger Shang became, the more Ancestral Abominations appeared.
The Empires essentially raced against time.
But with Shang here…
"I already calculated the estimated spawn rate of Abominations based on your breakthroughs," the Lightning Emperor said. "As long as you put ten Abomination Lords into pylons, we should be safe from Abomination Lords. When you reach the Mid Sword Lord Realm, you need to put away another ten Abomination Lords."
"Naturally, we can't just directly do that, or everyone will become suspicious. We need to do this slowly, and we also need a cover. I will simply say that I have been studying Anti-Magic to learn more about Abominations and that I've finally managed to create something usable."
The Lightning Emperor chuckled a bit. "Well, I've been doing something like that anyway, but I don't think I would have created anything even close to that useful."
"I'll let everyone put up an Empire-wide Magic Circle with Magic so complex that not even the other Emperors would be able to discern what it does within the next fifty millennia."
"We'll just act like this Magic Circle stops powerful Abominations from spawning. With time, we can also isolate Ancestral Abominations, stopping them from appearing. I can simply act like I improved the Magic Circle."
"We can save trillions of lives like this," the Lightning Emperor said with a smile.
Shang nodded but didn't answer.
He was busy thinking about what kind of effect this would have on the war.
The Abominations made problems for everyone, and the stronger Shang grew, the stronger the Abominations became.
Abomination Lords were still extremely rare, but they appeared, and they could even threaten Mage Kings if they got the chance to detonate.
This put all the Empires under enormous pressure.
All their Peak Mage Lords and Mage Kings had to be constantly ready since any Abomination needed to die within three seconds of appearing in the world.
If the Lightning Manor didn't need to pay any attention to them, they could effectively double the power of their army.
"That's not a problem," Shang said after a while.
The two of them ironed out the details of the plan until they had nothing to talk about anymore.
When the room became silent, the Lightning Emperor felt a bit uneasy as a question he had already asked several times popped into his head once again.
"What will you do if you become a God?" he asked.
Naturally, he wanted to hear Shang's answer again after knowing that he was the Child of Calamity.
"Kill the God," Shang said. "After that, I want to get rid of the Abominations. Even if there is no way, my Spirit Sense would cover the entire world, and I could turn every Abomination that appears into nothingness."
"And then, I want to go further."
"There has to be more out there than just this world."
"I want to know what's out there, and I want to become even more powerful."
"The Abominations will most likely also disappear with me. I'm pretty sure that I just act as some kind of beacon for the Abominations, and the stronger the beacon is, the more Abominations can come into the world."
"If I'm gone, a new Child of Calamity will probably be born, and everything starts again."
"However, even if there is no way for me to stop the Abominations as a God, I am certain there is a way as long as I become even more powerful."
"Maybe there are High Gods, or Ancestral Gods, or Divine Gods out there. At some point, I should gain the ability to stop the Abominations."
"I promise that I will get rid of the Abominations."
"I was born in this world, and it is my home."
"This is where I have embarked on the path to power, and I don't want to lose it."
The Lightning Emperor smiled a bit when he heard that.
Shang obviously didn't care for the world because there were people in it, but because he viewed it as his home.
If someone sold their house to others and left, they still wouldn't want to see their old home get demolished.
They didn't care about whoever lived there, but they cared a bit about the house.
That was how Shang viewed the world.
This was his.
This belonged to him.
And he didn't want to destroy what belonged to him.
Wasn't that already better than the God or King Sanctified Death?
"I'm happy to hear that," the Lightning Emperor said.
