"In at most a hundred years, you'll have to set out!" In the imperial palace, Mikaela whispered softly in Muria's ear as they embraced, her words tinged with regret. She had always been one step behind Muria in cultivation and had never caught up to him.
"It's fine. I'll wait for you. Then, like my parents, we'll descend upon a world together and break through our limits, becoming Epics," Muria said, holding Mikaela in his arms with a smile.
"You don't need to wait for me. You should go ahead. I'll catch up to you eventually!" Mikaela's eyes lit up at Muria's words, but she quickly shook her head, rejecting his proposal.
"I can suppress my cultivation and wait for you!"
"But I don't want to become a burden!" Mikaela raised her head, looking at Muria with serious platinum-colored eyes. "I'm not a burden, and I will never be one!"
"I understand." Muria smiled, gently stroking Mikaela's silky hair. "In that case, I'll go ahead."
...
The news swept across Erathia like a storm. On his 600th birthday, Muria Iapetos Elonsas, the founding emperor of the Synapsian Empire, announced his abdication.
On the same day, his eldest son, Aeolos Iapetos Mikael Elonsas, was officially crowned as the empire's second emperor. His coronation ceremony was held alongside his wedding.
The moment the news broke, all invited powers took the event very seriously, sending their most important members or envoys to attend this significant ceremony.
This new emperor and his wife, the empire's second empress, were not ordinary figures. The new empress was a pure-blooded Titan, a fact that made many factions reevaluate their stance.
The meaning behind this caused alarm among many influential figures. It signaled the possibility that the Titan race was no longer content with their small archipelagos overseas. They might be eyeing more land, more resources.
To those immersed in politics, accustomed to exchanging offspring or family members for power, this union was filled with deep political implications. In their eyes, this marriage and power transition were not mere formalities but events with far-reaching consequences. Such a view was a result of their ingrained political mindset.
Muria, presiding over his son's wedding, was well aware of these thoughts, but he simply scoffed at them. The Titans harbored no such ambitions. The fact that Aeolos's empress was a pure-blood Titan was simply because she was the one Aeolos loved. After proving his strength, he succeeded in winning her heart.
Standing with Mikaela, overlooking their son's wedding, Muria noticed a figure beside his daughter-in-law. The blue-haired, masked woman, appearing as a maid, brought a smile to his face.
"Father! Mother!" Aeolos and his wife, the young Titaness Melissa, stood before Muria and Mikaela.
"From today, you are the emperor!" Muria rose, looking at his son, who stood calm and composed before him. With a satisfied expression, Muria removed the crown from his own head, the crown that controlled Synapsis's 132 floating cities, and carefully placed it on Aeolos's head.
"The empire I've built is now officially yours!"
"Father, I won't disappoint you. I will make the empire even greater!" Aeolos replied firmly after his father placed the crown on him. Having traveled the world, he had seen both the wonders of his father's empire and its shortcomings.
"I believe you will," Muria nodded. He had gone to great lengths to prepare his son. If Aeolos couldn't improve on the foundation he'd been given, it would indeed be disappointing.
...
"Finally, I've passed the burden on!" Muria sighed as he stood beside his wife, watching their son take his former seat.
"What are you planning next?" Mikaela asked.
"Of course, I'll take you on a tour of the world!" Muria wrapped an arm around Mikaela's waist, and in an instant, the couple vanished from the imperial palace without a trace.
"Have you prepared everything?" Mikaela asked as they traveled through a space rift.
"Relax! My army has been on standby for centuries, waiting!" Muria replied confidently.
As he spoke, his mental energy reached into a demi-plane. This demi-plane had a unique structure, divided into three layers.
The uppermost layer was filled with a holy aura, bathed in golden sunlight. Angels, cloaked in divine light, herded peaceful yet formidable war beasts. From above, the scene appeared serene and healing.
The middle layer resembled the material world, with mountains, plains, basins, hills, rivers, and lakes. Unlike the purity of the upper layer, this one contained all the elements, creating a more complex environment.
The creatures in this layer were equally diverse, ranging from over ten types of giants to twenty types of dragons and a variety of fierce war beasts.
The lowest layer was a sea filled with deathly energy, where ghostly iron ships floated above the water, and enormous, terrifying shadows occasionally passed beneath the surface.
This was Muria's demi-plane, a vast realm exceeding three million square kilometers, larger than the divine realms of some weaker gods.
Muria's demi-plane hadn't always been this expansive. It had grown significantly after he founded his empire, thanks to an agreement he made with the elves. His laws guaranteed that all elves, regardless of their origin, could live freely within the Synapsian Empire.
Anyone who attempted to harm or capture elves would face severe punishment—death was only the starting point.
In return, the elves gifted Muria with a branch of the World Tree, and other elven factions gave him rare treasures, including three seeds of the Eternal Tree and seventeen seeds of the Tree of Life. Muria planted the Tree of Life seeds across the empire, creating elven cities around them.
As for the World Tree branch, he planted it in his demi-plane, where it took root and began to grow. From that moment, Muria's pieced-together demi-plane fused into a unified whole.
Now, his demi-plane had reached its current scale, with the Eternal Life Tree balancing and sustaining the upper, middle, and lower layers.
...
In the following years, Muria and Mikaela traveled across the world, visiting every corner. After they had explored the entire world, Mikaela took Muria to tour the Infinite Celestial Realm.
It was a joyful journey, but Muria's mood soured slightly when, less than ten years into their honeymoon, their three daughters tracked them down and forced their way into the trip. Muria grumbled that his "sweet daughters" weren't as considerate as he had hoped.
...
In the Synapsian Empire, in the backyard of a bookstore in a peaceful small town, a woman with a relaxed aura and a rosy complexion slowly opened her eyes and sat up from the soft bed.
As she habitually turned her head to look for her husband, she saw a familiar figure—a dark-haired young man bathed in the morning sunlight, sipping tea and reading a newspaper.
However, what should have been an ordinary sight caused the woman's expression to change slightly, her face becoming expressionless. "So, the time has come... But you didn't even say goodbye and left me with just a clone. Do you think that's acceptable?"
In her eyes, the young man sitting in the sunlight wasn't her husband. Instead, it was a battle-axe surrounded by faint rules of power.
"Goodbyes only bring sadness. So, rather than dragging it out, it's better to make it quick!" The young man set down the newspaper and turned to look at her. "Don't you think so, Mika?"
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