Chapter 2453

Life became difficult for low- and mid-level cultivators in the Wu Jin Kong Kong.

On the contrary, top-level cultivators suddenly obtained an abundance of heavenly treasures and cultivation resources, nearly all of them benefiting.

For a time, post-war tensions eased unprecedentedly, and the martial atmosphere in the Wu Jin Kong Kong gradually faded.

Objectively speaking, the Tushan maidservant corps and the seven supreme-tier elite Dao soldiers were not entirely satisfied with the current distribution of benefits; the Xianmen alone monopolized fifty percent of the imperial tax revenue, while they together held only forty percent—far too little, leaving many dissatisfied.

But how to put it?

Even with only forty percent of the tax revenue, what they received far surpassed what they had in the past; they had grown rich, so even if dissatisfied, they had not reached the point of risking life and death over it, lacking such resolute fighting spirit.

It is worth mentioning that the Xianmen initially sought to exterminate the Tai Shang Da Ri sword cultivators and abolish their lineage.

This could have been done, as the Tai Shang Da Ri sword cultivators had already been surrounded and shattered in the civil war, but they were forcibly blocked by numerous supreme-tier elite Dao soldiers.

This is the deep apprehension of the numerous supreme-tier elite Dao soldiers toward the Xianmen: they need the Tai Shang Da Ri Dao soldiers—the imperial army's second-ranked elite—to restrain the Xianmen.

Overall, the post-war order was largely stable.

Although not everyone was satisfied—especially low- and mid-level cultivators, who were nearly in open rebellion, with uprisings occurring from time to time, as life and cultivation compared poorly to the ancient emperor's era—top-level cultivators were satisfied, so all rebellions were suppressed.

Thus the order of the post-Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang era was formed.

Days passed slowly.

Time drifted leisurely.

Unnoticed, twenty million years flowed by.

The Great Sun Forbidden Zone.

The Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang had long since entered deep sleep from light slumber, his entire life force having stagnated; space, rules, and matter within the forbidden zone had ceased flowing.

Only a dispassionate avatar remained, silently seated on a hillside.

This was a subtle soul fragment, neither fully alive nor dead, which periodically formatted its own soul and spirit, otherwise unable to endure such an endless passage of time.

As a watchtower-like construct of the Great Sun Forbidden Zone, it constantly recorded everything occurring in the Wu Jin Kong Kong.

This is what nearly all forbidden-zone ancient emperors do: in early slumber, they still harbor attachments in the starry void, but after enduring several eras, this watchtower shuts down, they enter complete slumber and self-seal, utterly severing all causal ties with the mortal realm—only a golden age warrants attention.

Suddenly, this subtle soul fragment's pupils turned, slightly dilated, gazing toward the Zi Wei star region.

This was a sign of major events in the Wu Jin Kong Kong; the soul fragment began recording the process in greater detail, to be preserved for the future, for the recovering forbidden-zone ancient emperor to consult.

Zi Wei star region, Zi Wei Tian Shu.

After merely twenty million years, this place had completely transformed.

After the Tai Shang Da Ri Tian Shu vanished long ago, Xianmen cultivators established the Zi Wei Tian Shu in the distance to govern affairs across the Wu Jin Kong Kong; here, the Xian Dao civilization shone like stars, with various Xian Dao technological constructs arrayed in orderly succession—truly a Xian Dao civilization flourishing to its utmost.

But now, many things have changed.

The central star ring remains as before: white mist swirling, ancient-style high-rises standing tall, star-ring orbits encircling, immortals cultivating and playing as if in a heavenly court, making one momentarily believe this is still the ancient emperor's Xian dynasty era, with not a trace of change.

But if one's gaze turns further outward to the outer star rings, a shocking sight comes into view.

Cultivators in tattered robes practice and labor between shacks, using manual spellcraft, showing no trace of advanced Xian Dao agricultural automation, making one momentarily think they have arrived at a low-level Xian Dao civilization Minor Thousand World, where cultivators suffer and productivity is low.

Only occasionally does the wind from an old-model Bai Cao—87233 automatic seedling and weeding machine flying overhead remind one that this world possesses advanced Xian Dao civilization—its wealth merely hoarded by high-level cultivators, applied only to the most fertile high-grade spiritual fields.

The low-grade spiritual fields tilled by these suffering cultivators are not worthy of such agricultural Xian Dao instruments.

This is still the heart of the Wu Jin Kong Kong, the foremost land of virtue, the Zi Wei star region!

If one turns gaze toward more remote star regions, the decline of the Xian Dao civilization becomes even more shocking: in many worlds, cultivators die in droves, commoners starve to death, and demonic cultivators occasionally wave the Ten Thousand Soul Banner in the sky, harvesting masses of souls and flesh.

Nearly every star region sees war, with cultivators wielding various banners clashing in large armies, chaos everywhere.

If one looks farther, one sees these warring cultivators: one side mostly commands warships in slaughter, the other mostly uses tower ships and immortal mountain treasures in slaughter, each side fighting to the death under their banners, heedless of all, blood flowing and corpses drifting in the Wu Jin Kong Kong, every cultivator believing their own life unimportant.

The cruelty and chaos of war far surpass those of the past.

And in the Zi Wei Tian Shu, a prolonged quarrel and chaos continue.

Compared to the period when the post-Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang era's order began stabilizing—when the Zi Wei Tian Shu hosted cultivators from various Xian sects, representatives of various supreme-tier elite Dao soldiers, and many Tai Shang Da Ri sword cultivators—now its personnel are far more homogeneous.

Nearly all are Xianmen citizens.

Even the few non-Xianmen cultivators are extremely rare—only one or two scattered individuals, sitting with heads down in remote corners, not joining the quarrel unless summoned.

"What's going on with the Zhi Nu star region war? Another defeat!"

"The Ri Di Emperor Venerable should be executed immediately! Repeated defeats, repeated defeats, repeatedly burying the Xianmen's great armies, letting countless Xianmen citizens die on the battlefield with no victory—if such a person is not executed, where is military law?"

A Xianmen representative shouted.

"Execute the Ri Di Emperor Venerable?"

"He is one of only three Emperor-realm cultivators in the Xianmen—execute him? You, this traitor of the Reverse Xian Alliance!"

A Xianmen representative yelled.

Many Xianmen representatives were emotionally agitated, for since the Tian Shu new policy reform and the establishment of the Xianmen cabinet, defeat after defeat has been reported, scarcely any good news, making their nerves extremely fragile, ready to snap at the slightest provocation.

One hundred thousand years ago, the Xian dynasty underwent a reform.

Reform was unavoidable!

The Xian dynasty system established by the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang, after twenty million years of passage, had become broken beyond repair, with Xian Dao industrial chains vanishing everywhere, refugees rising, tax revenue meager and declining year after year.

On the contrary, the Xianmen citizenry, the Tushan maidservant corps and their supporters, the Tai Shang Da Ri Dao soldiers, the seven supreme-tier elite Dao soldiers, and other privileged classes had multiplied countless times over twenty million years of reproduction and expansion, their terrifying appetite for resources worsening the situation once more.

In the year before the Tian Shu new policy reform, the Xian dynasty's tax revenue was nearly insufficient to maintain even the most basic army and official salaries.