Lord of the Truth

Chapter 1992 Sweet hell of wealth-1

Forty years later – the year 700 After the Coronation – Nihari Planet

Step Step

Emily took swift, determined steps through the northern region of Nihari. Around her moved a large entourage of aides and headquarters leaders, all of them Silver Soul Lords, each possessing no less than fifty thousand units at minimum.

Here once known as the lands of the Twelve Giant Tribes-the former stronghold of the Beast King Crixes and his seemingly endless army.

Today, however, the Northern Region had become the driving labor hand behind all imperial armies. The land itself had been flattened until it was smooth like silk, engineered specifically to ease the transportation of raw materials and military equipment. No plateau, no small stone, no uneven rise was permitted to obstruct the flow of logistics in any way.

A number of war vessels, operated cooperatively by War Lords, had already swept and leveled half of the Northern Region down to sea level. The process was still ongoing, and it would not stop until the entire region shared the exact same uniform shape.

Stop

After walking for nearly an hour, Emily halted before two massive, identical cubes. With visibly exhausted eyes, she gave a small nod and began writing something down.

“The Sixth Crucible of Greed is still active. That means something is inside it,” she said calmly. “However, according to the schedule, it should currently be in a one-hour crucible rest cycle. Can someone enlighten me as to what is happening?”

“In response to the Headquarters Lady,” the assistant responsible for the Sixth Crucible of Greed replied swiftly, “two cargo transport vessels are being replicated simultaneously at this very moment. Within two more hours, both crucibles will open, and you will personally witness four transport vessels fully prepared to serve the Empire.”

“Cargo vessels…” Emily stopped writing and slightly lifted her glasses. “Have the Imperial Guard and the Shadow Swords already been sufficiently supplied with their own dedicated fleets?”

“They will never be satisfied, my lady,” the official of the Sixth Crucible answered without hesitation. “The supply chains are no longer capable of supporting the remaining crucibles, nor are they able to sustain the research centers and the epic armament factories. I had no choice but to act.”

“My lady,” one of those present spoke up, “as the overseer of the Fifth Crucible of Greed, I formally request permission to activate the crucible as well for the benefit of the supply chains. This will benefit us greatly in the long term.”

“…” Emily raised her glasses once more, tension evident in her movement, and remained silent for a short while.

When she had received the response from His Majesty fifty years ago-that he would grant her 1.4 billion pearls annually, amounting to nearly 140 billion per century-she had lost consciousness on the spot.

Even in her most distant dreams, she had never expected His Majesty to approve the full amount. Yet he did-and on top of that, he placed upon her a crushing responsibility:

/I do not want a war to begin, only for me to hear that there is a problem with army supplies./

That massive wave of financial support did not bring comfort to Emily’s days as she had once imagined. Instead, it burdened her with an even heavier obligation to make optimal use of every single pearls in the most efficient way possible. Only then would she have a proper answer ready, should a

genuine shortage of weapons ever arise during wartime.

The great commercial alliance in the Mid Sector 100, whom she had previously pressured for 100 million pearls per year? She contacted them again and demanded a renegotiation-raising the deal to no less than 300 million annually. The sixteen powers were struck with dread and fear, convinced she must be joking.

After all, in their eyes, the original offer of ten million pearls per year had already been an act of coercion-and an enormous demand in itself.

But she was not joking-not in the slightest. Emily finalized the deal and proceeded to purchase at those lowered prices for several consecutive years, relentlessly and without pause, until she had completely drained every last warehouse they owned. Faced with an unprecedented influx of wealth, they used the funds to buy from neighboring sectors in overwhelming quantities, expanding their operations far beyond their original scope. Eventually, this desperation drove them to form an alliance with Lord Shadoy-the man who openly enjoyed calling himself Morgana’s dog-in order to secure the resources they could no longer obtain alone.

Naturally, Lord Shadoy offered his assistance with visible restraint, making it clear that his primary preference was to supply the needs of the Sacred Covenant Academy first and foremost. Even so, he still opened several discreet channels for them, connecting them with multiple other merchants across Mid Sector 99, granting them temporary breathing room.

Unsatisfied with that alone, they pushed even farther, stretching their reach eastward and westward alike, until they had woven something resembling a colossal spider’s web across multiple sectors. Through this network, they snatched up any resources offered at discounted prices, immediately redirecting and reselling them to the True Beginning Empire. In their minds, an opportunity of this magnitude came once in a lifetime… yet despite all their effort, none of it was enough.

After only thirty-five years, they finally reached the end of their endurance. They were utterly exhausted-along with every contact, favor, and connection they possessed. Without question, they had become several times richer in sheer currency, but their warehouses no longer held anything of substance. Nothing remained within them except pearls, piled high and useless on its own. What became of those impoverished powers that now owned nothing but money? One after another, all of them sought asylum under the Double

Centennial Cradle Empire.

After witnessing the Empire’s overwhelming financial might with their own eyes, it became impossible for them to remain within the same sector without acknowledging its new master-especially after seeing firsthand what the Double Centennial Cradle Empire had done to the Thousand-Year Seven Thrones Empire. Resistance, or even neutrality, was no longer an option.

These powers went on to reinforce the commercial culture throughout all of Robin’s subordinate empires. They actively began leveraging their old relationships and influence to gather even more resources-but this time, those efforts were directed toward Marshal Caesar rather than Headquarters itself. They simply no longer possessed the capacity to support Headquarters

directly.

All of this unfolded while Emily herself barely used seven hundred million

annually out of the one point four billion pearls allocated to her. She cleared her outstanding debts with four hundred million and spent an additional three hundred million pearls, yet even then she had triggered a deficit that shook entire sectors and drove multiple powers to their knees-without a single

arrow ever being loosed.

And still, seven hundred million pearls continued to accumulate every year within the treasury, piling up relentlessly, while she had no clear idea of how to make proper use of it…

This was the sheer scale of wealth she now had to manage. This was what stole sleep from her nights and returned the darkness beneath her eyes. Emily no longer knew what she should do to exploit these funds in the manner His Majesty truly desired-without risking a future where he would look back and blame her for negligence or wasted potential.

…After the bankruptcy of those sixteen powers, Emily was forced to search for new partners willing to trade at far higher prices. At times, she even had to turn to the Soul Society itself to obtain resources that had become otherwise unobtainable.

As a result, she began consuming vastly greater quantities of pearls just to secure the very same amount of resources she once acquired with ease.