Chapter 864

In the following days, the newly elevated Holy Domain saints were consolidating their realms.

Across the Divine Lands, overall peace reigned.

Of course, occasional wars between nations could still be seen.

Wars between kingdoms were the most common.

Wars between empires were relatively rare.

Every Second Rank deity sought to break through to the Third Rank as soon as possible.

Thus, throughout the Heavenly Realm, divine realms were occasionally seized; once lost, a deity lacking the strength to reclaim it could only seek out barbarian tribes to cultivate slowly.

In the history of the Divine Lands, there had been cases where a deity's realm was first stolen, then after millennia of cultivating barbarian tribes, the deity launched a decisive revenge.

Of course, such events likely occurred only one or two times in all of history.

"Lucine, congratulations!"

In the temple of the Endless Desert, Meng Ying said to Lucine.

Soon after Lucine ascended to the Holy Domain, Meng Ying learned of it.

During this time, Meng Ying had been refining her Flame Rule.

She was Lin Yan's favorite, receiving the most of his attention.

She was the first to encounter the Fire Rule.

This was precisely what both Lin Yan and she excelled at.

In his spare time, when Lin Yan heard Meng Ying's prayers, he would usually respond, descending revelations and carefully instructing her.

Thus, Meng Ying's progress during this period had been especially great.

Only a few months had passed, yet her mastery of the Fire Rule had already reached profound heights, nearing the Second Stage of the Holy Rank.

At this moment, Lucine had manifested legs, and she humbly said:

"Queen, all credit belongs to my deity; without my deity, I would have needed several more centuries to reach the Holy Domain."

Meng Ying nodded slightly and said: "Lucine, if this were to become known, it would shock the world and harm our deity—please keep it secret."

Lucine said: "Rest assured, Holy Daughter, I have my limits."

After ascending to the Holy Domain, Lucine's Petrifying Gaze had grown even stronger.

Yet she rarely used this ability.

Her eyes normally appeared entirely ordinary.

"Queen, vast quantities of crops have ripened; over a million people are already harvesting, but the population is still far too low—could more laborers be dispatched?"

Lucine asked again.

The Flame Empire currently lacked population.

And not just a little—it lacked it severely.

Sister Qing Ling had issued numerous incentive measures.

For example, each additional newborn in a household granted an extra 5 to 10 mu of land to reclaim, regardless of gender.

Furthermore, newborns could receive free medical care from church priests, and for severe illnesses, one could even pray for the healing White Flame.

Naturally, not every citizen of the Flame Empire possessed the qualification to pray for White Flame.

Within the divine essence mechanism, only warriors who fought for the deity held this qualification.

Then came the church priests.

Ordinary civilians possessed this qualification only if their devotion reached a high enough level.

Moreover, not every illness required White Flame.

Divine gifts were never used frivolously by the church.

For ordinary minor ailments, church priests could easily cure them.

Moreover, under the enhancement of the Flame of Civilization, the general physical condition of the Flame Empire's populace had improved significantly, and illness was rare.

Only newborns, with their weaker immunity, fell ill slightly more often.

Meng Ying heard Lucine's words and said: "We will recruit a batch of workers from other realms soon—send half of them here!"

Yes, to resolve the Flame Empire's population shortage, Sister Qing Ling had dispatched numerous envoy teams north, east, and south to recruit laborers from other realms.

This recruitment was not conducted secretly; instead, they directly paid large sums of gold to the royal houses of those realms to hire laborers.

These workers would serve in the Flame Empire for approximately three months.

This three-month period coincided with the time when the Flame Empire's crops ripened in bulk.

With the Flame Empire's current number of flying ships, transporting several million people at once posed no problem.

This was Sister Qing Ling's labor recruitment plan.

And this plan also tied into the next phase of expansion.

Recently, Sister Qing Ling and Meng Ying had focused heavily on developing the Flame Empire without outward expansion.

Through the labor recruitment plan, they could let the commoners of neighboring realms witness the Flame Empire's strength and prosperity in advance.

After spending three months in the Flame Empire, those commoners would likely all long for its way of life.

When they returned home, they would spread word of the Flame Empire.

This tactic would directly undermine the hearts of the people in other realms!

And when the time came to decide the direction of expansion, Sister Qing Ling and Meng Ying would still need to seek guidance from their deity.

"That's good, Queen!"

Lucine said.

She had once been a legend; now she was a Holy Domain saint.

In other realms, neither legends nor Holy Domain saints would bother themselves with so much work.

However, Lucine had lived in the Endless Desert for over a hundred years and considered it her home, so she naturally hoped to see it grow better and better.

Meng Ying was about to speak when she suddenly felt something.

Lucine felt it too.

The two women raised their heads almost simultaneously, gazing at the enormous red sun in the sky!

To ordinary people, the sun was still too blinding to look at directly—staring too long would blind their eyes.

But as Holy Domains, the two women had no such concerns.

At that moment, in the two women's line of sight, the red sun hanging high in the sky was growing redder.

The change in color was merely superficial.

More importantly, from the perspective of a Holy Domain, they could sense the shift in the sun's energy.

The sun's energy had suddenly become wildly violent.

As if it were about to explode.

When perceived on the Continent of Gods, this energy shift was not yet especially obvious.

Only those above the Legend rank could usually sense it.

At this moment, on the Continent of Gods, countless Legend-level beings who had long secluded themselves emerged from their rooms and flew into the sky.

Meng Ying and Lucine also flew into the sky.

The closer they got to the sun, the clearer this perception became.

"Do you feel it, Lucine?"

Meng Ying asked.

"Yes, the sun's energy seems to carry a hint of violence."

Lucine said.

Meng Ying nodded.