Chapter 177: Empire 108

At the same time, as the people of Qingzhou marveled, Huang Zhongtian mounted his steed and rode straight for the Tiandu Feixu.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Diguo Dalu — the largest continent on the western side of the planet. Upon this continent stands an Empire that has already existed for three hundred years.

By now, nearly fifteen years have passed since the evil dragon ran rampant, circling wantonly above the royal palace and humiliating the king.

Such a long span of time, in an era where people marry at thirteen, is more than enough for one generation to grow completely old and another to grow to full maturity.

It is also more than enough to make many people forget the disaster the evil dragon once brought.

Of course, today's evil dragon is no longer an evil dragon, but the guardian deity of the entire royal house and the faith of the whole Empire.

The tale of the Dragon God once circling above the royal palace has even become the resplendent proof of the imperial bloodline's legitimacy.

And all of this is because of the present king — that legendary, powerful man who received the Dragon God's blessing and can commune with all living things.

The full details must be told from that day onward.

That day — half a month after the Dragon God descended.

That man appeared — the blond, blue-eyed man from a foreign land.

And from the moment he appeared, two powerful beasts were always at his side — a mighty cougar and an exceptionally robust brown bear.

Both were terrifying beasts that gave countless people across the Empire headaches; not only were they powerful, their numbers had also run rampant.

Even when the king mustered his armies time and again, he could not utterly exterminate them.

Yet beasts like these — beasts that gave even the Empire a headache and made people turn pale at the mere mention — were utterly docile before that powerful man.

In an instant, the appearance of such a peculiar man on the streets naturally drew the attention of the king at the time, who then summoned him.

And during the subsequent audience, it was discovered that this peculiar man was the very same unlucky fellow who had been carried off by the evil dragon that day.

Yet this fellow the king regarded as unlucky had somehow, by some unknown reason, survived the evil dragon's maw by sheer luck, and even gained two ferociously powerful beasts to follow him.

At this, the king began to inquire out of curiosity, and afterward the man answered truthfully.

He declared his name to be Abel, a man who had received the Dragon God's favor.

That day, when he was taken away by the Dragon God, it was because the Dragon God wished to bestow upon him the ability to commune with all living things.

And now, he had formally received the Dragon God's blessing — to be able to communicate with all manner of creatures in the world, and thereby command them.

Hearing this, the king naturally did not believe such a mysterious ability could exist in the world.

In all his years on the throne, if any person with such an ability truly existed within the Empire, how could he possibly not have known?

When the evil dragon once ran rampant and he called upon extraordinary talents across the whole Empire, not a single true transcendent had ever appeared.

Yet afterward, he could not help but be convinced by Abel's demonstration.

Because the beasts were right before him — whether the wild beasts that had followed that man, or the beasts he suspected of trickery and had the army personally captured — all of them obediently followed the man's commands as if they possessed intelligence, doing whatever he bade them do.

How could the king not be convinced?

And once convinced, what followed was desire: if the man before him could obtain such mysterious power, then surely he, the lofty king, could as well?

So the king began to hold banquets, trying to win Abel over and have him reveal how this power was truly obtained — which happened to suit Abel's own intentions perfectly.

At this point, both parties were willing, and the king and Abel struck a deal at once.

The very next day, the king bestowed upon him a princess's hand in marriage, and from then on they were one family.

The king also obtained the portion he desired — a formidable army of men and beasts, a terrifying legion personally brought forth by Abel through his own power.

As for the remaining portion, Abel declared that a sect belonging to the Dragon God needed to be established throughout the whole Empire; only by bringing the Dragon God countless believers and faith could they receive the Dragon God's blessing once more.

With the terrifying beast legion before his very eyes, the king naturally believed Abel's words without the slightest doubt — a sect? Was that all?

As long as it could grant him power, he would establish it!

At the same time, having gained formidable power and a highly mobile army, the Empire — after Abel and the king had discussed matters together — began a thorough, full-scale sweep of all the surrounding small kingdoms, preparing to achieve grand unification.

Because the more people, the greater the territory, the larger the Dragon God Sect's domain — and perhaps the more it would please the Dragon God.

And from this point on, this Empire was officially renamed the "Dragon Empire"!

All of it was to curry favor with the Dragon God!

For a time, every small kingdom and every noble across the entire continent was terrified, unable to sleep night after night, dreading that after one night's sleep, by the next morning the Dragon Empire would have already conquered their lands and be ready to string them up.

And Abel obtained what he desired as well — the establishment of a vast sect that spread across the Empire: the Dragon God Sect.

He was thus able to spread the faith within his heart, bringing the Dragon God countless believers.

At the same time, owing to the existence of the beast legion, his status as the leader of a great sect, and his unfathomable ability to communicate with animals,

Abel — by a combination of chance and the old king's design — became the heir to the throne, and after the king had reigned for five years and grown frail with age, he formally ascended to the throne.

Thereafter he cast off all restraint, taking countless princesses and beauties to himself, and under the stunned, envious gazes of countless men and the blushing, shy gazes of countless women across the whole Empire, he threw the reins wide and sired over ninety offspring — and together with those already born before, a total of one hundred and eight.

In merely a few years' time, he had sired so many offspring — one had to say that aspect of him had been evolved by Baichuan to a rather absurd degree.

Unfortunately, among so many offspring, the vast majority could only inherit the portion of his ability to communicate with animals, or the portion of comprehending the meaning behind animal cries.

Only seven of them fully inherited his ability to communicate with animals — able both to understand the speech of animals and to speak with them, and to a certain extent enhance the animals' abilities.

Thus, those seven children who fully inherited his ability were granted the title of Seven Pillars of the Kingdom by the Dragon Empire, meaning the seven pillars that hold up the Empire.

From this point on, this vast Dragon Empire truly began a life of dwelling together with all living things.

Because not all the Pillars and those hundred-plus children inclined toward military careers — some loved peace, some loved trade, and others delighted in traveling across the lands of the Empire.

At this, those who loved trade began to use their peculiar ability to tame countless docile, adorable animals, employing them as special wares. For a time, countless high officials and nobles across the whole Empire counted it an honor to obtain the clever creatures they sold.

And those who delighted in traveling the lands of the Empire naturally left behind countless miracles in the eyes of outsiders during their wanderings.

In an instant, Abel's one hundred and eight offspring were directly called the Demon Gods, and among them those seven Pillars were the Kings of the Demon Gods.

Perhaps because the Empire developed too rapidly, and after siring the one hundred and eight children Abel's bodily functions greatly declined, no longer possessing the energy to manage both the Empire and the sect at once.

And so, with new generations rising one after another in vigorous growth, and with the Dragon God never again appearing over all these years nor showing a single miracle,

many children growing up in the new era had gradually forgotten the evil dragon's fearsome name, treating it as nothing more than legend — a part of life.

Among them, Abel's children in particular, being closest to the sect and the royal house in every respect, were especially disbelieving — even though they possessed that peculiar power themselves.

But in the end, this power manifested more like an instinctive talent — passively existing within them. There was no mysterious energy in their bodies, nor were they any stronger than other people.

They could simply understand the sounds of some animals better than ordinary commoners could, and make animals understand their meaning.

On top of that, the Dragon God had never descended, nor had he ever bestowed a single miracle.

Facing the believers, all he and the sect's bishops did was fob them off and fake miracles!

In their eyes, all of this was nothing more than deceiving those pitiful commoners so they could be ruled more easily.

On this day, Princess Ai Qi — already seven or eight years old, the youngest of all Abel's children, and the one who had inherited his complete ability.

Was lying quietly in the arms of her grandfather, the previous generation's king, listening to him tell a story.

"Grandpa, you're lying! The Dragon God has never descended!"

Listening to her grandfather once again recount the past, growing so excited that he could not stop marveling at the Dragon God's mighty power, the naturally brilliant Princess Ai Qi immediately retorted.

Though she was only seven and a half, under the constant influence of the royal household and the occasional care of her older brothers and sisters, she had long since learned many secrets unknown to others.

For instance, that their royal family had never had any Dragon God's protection — what they relied on was nothing more than her father's ability, that power to speak with small animals which she herself now possessed as well.

Besides that, everything about the Dragon God Sect was a deception played on the believers outside — all of this had been told to her by her brothers, who held important posts within the sect.

And all of this was done simply to make those foolish believers easier to rule.

But now, her grandfather was saying there was a Dragon God — wasn't this just deceiving her?

Did he really think she was still a three-year-old child?

She was already seven and a half!

Of course, she could also understand — because her grandfather was so old, once people grew old they easily became confused, mistaking many illusory things for real ones.

She had already seen many old people become like this when she went out to play with her second elder sister; she hadn't expected that now even her most doting grandfather had become muddled.

Sigh—

The young Princess Ai Qi looked at her elderly, kindly-faced grandfather and helplessly let out a sigh, her eyes filled with both pity and sympathy.

My dear grandfather, even you cannot escape the curse of growing old and muddled?

What can your clever and adorable little granddaughter possibly do to save you?

(End of this chapter)