Chapter 1755: The Hearts of the People of a Qi-Dynasty

The Dao of the Qi-Dynasty Earth Immortal.

It is a path that is both powerful and fragile.

Powerful, in that it is quick to achieve — in mere hundreds of years it can actually produce a Dao-Unifying level powerhouse, a single sweep of dragon qi sealing away ten thousand laws, incomparably sharp, able to suppress most cultivators under heaven; it must surely be a great path opened by some supreme existence, and there are not many in the world qualified to look down on this path.

Fragile, in that the core of a Qi-Dynasty lies in the hearts of the people.

This is the power forged through the manifestation of the people's hearts and a mysterious inheritance; the king and the dynasty's ministers are merely the surface of this power, not its essence.

If someone can break through the core of a Qi-Dynasty, making the common folk no longer respect, fear, obey, or pay taxes to the dynasty, the collapse of the Qi-Dynasty is only a trivial matter.

Of course, as a path created by a supreme existence, this weakness truly does exist, but that does not mean you can poke a hole in a Qi-Dynasty at will.

It is just like the sword cultivators of the human race — they have always been known for having paper-thin defenses at the same cultivation level, yet no one has ever casually crushed sword cultivators just like that.

Major flaws and weaknesses do indeed exist, but alongside a Qi-Dynasty there also exist various defensive mechanisms born together with it.

For example, propaganda to shape the common folk's worldview, shifting sins away, pushing out scapegoats to dispel the people's resentment, blocking the channels through which the people access information, actively inciting the common folk of various strata to be hostile to one another and fight amongst themselves… and using powerful dynasty arts to solidify these methods, the means are many and varied, emerging endlessly.

Generation after generation of prodigies and heroes of Qi-Dynasties across the endless starry skies have spent a lifetime of immortal Dao wisdom on this, giving birth to who knows how many crystallizations of wisdom.

Among them, the most brilliant crystallizations of Qi-Dynasty wisdom can even make immortals slightly surprised — it is not the case that you can break through such an immortal Dao existence just by casually spreading some ideas.

But there is one point.

These various dynasty arts that cover up flaws simply do not exist within the Great Yu Dynasty.

This Qi-Dynasty, which gathers all the darkness and filth of the human way, possesses human sacrifice, cannibalism, barbaric ignorance, being parasitized by the divine Dao… it possesses all manner of defects and burdens.

This Qi-Dynasty is congenitally deficient, its ruling foundation extremely thin, wholly maintained by the group of dynasty ministers and die-hard loyalists who won the realm, using intimidation and slaughter to obtain the hearts of the people and gather qi fortune.

This ignorant Qi-Dynasty, which is not even a slave society, is extremely fragile.

Especially in the eyes of Tu Ying San Yi, a fellow Qi-Dynasty cultivator.

The Great Yu Dynasty is not that powerful.

Under such circumstances, Tu Ying San Yi secretly took the first step, beginning to infiltrate every grassroots level of the Great Yu Dynasty; while numbing the city lords, he rapidly expanded his power, and once his strength grew he in turn infiltrated every city of the Great Yu Dynasty, substantively seizing control of its power.

The Great Yu Dynasty is a primitive, ignorant dynasty, its qi fortune reacts extremely sluggishly, just like a half-paralyzed old man, completely unable to perceive that certain parts of its own body have long

already slipped from its control.

Moving at will like an arm is merely an illusion, an illusion fabricated by the enemy.

Under such circumstances, Tu Ying San Yi's power expanded rapidly, and the undercurrent of qi fortune grew ceaselessly.

……

Jiang Ding quietly watched everything.

In his eyes, the world was like a colony of ants constantly moving about, coming and going, building their nests, and fighting many opponents.

All events fast-forwarded, hundreds and thousands of years of time condensed into an animated short of a few seconds.

Soon, many events reached a result.

The blurred fast-forwarding scene suddenly paused, revealing a clear image.

It was a majestic king wearing a jade-beaded crown.

He wore a black dragon robe, the upper garment embroidered with six patterns — the sun, moon, stars, mountain, dragon, and hua-chong bird — and the lower garment with six more — algae, fire, powdered rice, zong-yi vessel, fu, and fu — twelve patterns in total; around him manifested all kinds of strange omens of the common folk's devotion and the gathering of all armies.

Tu Ying San Yi!

The founding monarch of the Great Tu Dynasty about to establish a nation — Tu Ying San Yi!

"… Heaven and earth reverse their order, the stars grow dim and bright. The Great Yu Dynasty of the World Cluster of Celestial Lotus, by the Mandate of Heaven held dominion over the world for one thousand three hundred years, should have followed fate with the Purple Tenuity, blessing all living things — who could have foreseen that it stole Heaven's secrets to enrich itself, severed spiritual veins to fatten its private houses, causing the mountains and rivers to weep blood and the myriad people to wither to the bone.

Today I proclaim to the Three Realms and Six Paths: let all join in punishing this wretch!

Its first crime is called cannibalism: the ministers of the Great Yu Dynasty devoured the common folk at dawn, offending Heaven…

Its second crime is called disrespect for the divine: the ministers of the Great Yu Dynasty would at every turn slaughter the gods of the heavens, angering both man and god…"

This King Tu stood upon the high altar for sacrificing to Heaven, reciting aloud; with each word, nearly two or three percent of the world cluster's dynasty qi fortune manifested toward him, countless golden streams of qi fortune gathering atop his head, forming a canopy, and within the canopy a flood dragon was born, roaring toward the heavens.

"Roar!"

"Roar roar!"

Amidst the endless crimson dragon qi, a Dragon of Fire Virtue appeared between heaven and earth!

This was the dragon of a Qi-Dynasty — it actually controlled only a few Minor Thousand Worlds, its territory and population less than a thousandth of the Great Yu Dynasty's, yet it had actually gathered into the dragon of a Qi-Dynasty, emitting a terrifying threat.

"Long live our king!"

"Long live our king, ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years!"

Below the high altar, the voices of civil and military officials and countless crimson-armored armies shook heaven and earth; literary qi and the qi of weapons rose up, adding spiritual essence to the Dragon of Fire Virtue, sharpening the Dragon of Fire Virtue's claws and fangs, raising its might another notch, faintly bearing the portent of dragon qi sealing away all laws under heaven.

All living things of heaven and earth rejoiced, countless common folk shed tears, finally breaking free from the Great Yu Dynasty's terrifying rule.

At this moment, heaven and earth suddenly fell silent.

"Roar…"

A savage, bloodthirsty

roar appeared between heaven and earth.

Endless black-red qi fortune gathered in the sky, condensing into the form of a qiong-qi fierce beast, its body a hundred times larger than the Great Tu's qi fortune — a being of an entirely different level.

"Servant!"

"How dare you offend your superior!"

The qiong-qi roared furiously, pouncing straight at the newly born Dragon of Fire Virtue to slay it.

The two wrestled and fought to the death in the sky; with every pounce and bite the qiong-qi's qi fortune displayed terrifying might, easily battering the Dragon of Fire Virtue until it bled freely, until at last it had no choice but to turtle up near the imperial palace, not daring to venture out.

The qiong-qi qi fortune brandished its claws and bared its fangs for a moment, then vanished in fury.

In the distance, heavy black qi ceaselessly spread.

"The Great Yu has learned of this place…"

The common folk and ministers all across the Great Tu Dynasty trembled in fear.

The Dayu Dynasty's rule had endured for over a thousand years, and that terror had long since sunk deep into people's hearts, leaving them all chilled with dread, hesitating and pacing, unable to summon the will to fight.

"Hahahaha!"

"Do we still have a way out?"

"Brothers, you all know how strict and bloody Dayu's laws are — even if we surrendered, could we survive?"

Tu Ying San Yi roared with laughter: "Brothers, dying today is death, dying for our great cause is death — waiting for death, may we not die for our country?"

"What is there to fear from a lone tyrant and traitor to the people?"

"Are you all willing to throw in your lot with this king? If we succeed, you'll enjoy wealth and honor — every one of you will be a Wang Hou or a general, blessing your descendants for a hundred generations. If we die, it's a clean end — what is there to fear?"

His bearing was bold and heroic, every inch a sovereign, as if he possessed boundless confidence.

"We will lay down our lives for our king!"

Countless hearts found their fear suddenly swept away, and they bellowed.

That's right — Dayu never showed mercy to rebels; they butchered the common folk at the slightest provocation. Surrendering was pointless.

Better to fight with everything they had than end up as meat on a platter.

Besides, after years of unbroken drought, they were already marked for death.

It was King Tu who had saved them — what harm was there in giving this life back to him now?