Chapter 17: Sorrow and Despair
Although Joshua had no soul, his external thinking organs were heavier than a mountain range, and when he began to think, there were basically no details that could be hidden from him.
"Your Majesty, are you in the Far South Kingdom now?"
Qiao Shuya, who saw the palace style behind the other party, nodded, and he said, "I'll go over to see you right away." β
With that, he hung up the communication device, and his body spread out, turning into countless star light particles.
And the Microf continent, the royal court of the Far South Kingdom.
A dark-haired man appeared in the side courtyard of the palace.
As one of the old forces in the mainland, although the Far South Kingdom is much weaker than in its heyday, it still has a powerful group of mages to arrange various defensive spells for the court, among which the functions of anchoring space teleportation and prohibiting the opening of portals are only the foundation of the foundation, theoretically speaking, without permission, even a cockroach cannot touch the royal court.
But a spell of this level is nothing more than nothing for Joshua - the effect of any spell has its upper limit, the ethereal body claims to be immune to all physical attacks, and the flame avatar can ignore the high temperature flame 100%, but when the attacker's fist can induce nuclear fusion, and the temperature of the high temperature flame reaches hundreds of millions of degrees that incinerate everything, even the soul will be shattered, and the flame will no longer be a flame.
In the same way, when a being who is equivalent to a celestial body wants to teleport itself, it is impossible for a mere mortal spell to have any effect.
And just as Joshua was manifesting his incarnation behind the old Pope, Eagle had already turned his head and asked a little strangely, "Why are you in such a hurry?" Radcliffe, I don't think you're a guy who cares about politics. β
For Eagle, the warrior's actions were indeed somewhat strange.
Although he did complain a few words about the current situation on the mainland, and Joshua did blow down the mouth of the sea a few days ago, saying that the entire continent had actually been reunifiedβbut even if he was slapped in the face by the facts, he shouldn't have rushed over so annoyed and angry?
Even if you run over, what can you do? These are the internal affairs of other countries, and strictly speaking, these are all things that should have happened in the first place, and many contradictions have existed for hundreds of years, but for some reason, they were ignited on the same day.
ββ¦β¦ Do you think I came here just because I couldn't save face? β
Eshua's righteous criticism of Iger's subjective personal discrimination led him to tell the old pope about the strange infighting he had observed in the abyss.
The Frost Demon contaminated its own gestation pool with venom, the Acid Demon destroyed their lair, the Fire Demon extinguished the Fire Mountain, the Fire Lizard Demon buried the lava lake, the Horned Demon sealed their mother nest in the mountains in the rock ruins, and the blood of the Abyssal Demon Dragon and all kinds of sea demons that dwelt in the deep sea completely stained the already turbid abyssal world into a filthy deep blue.
Twelve demonic worlds, twelve civil wars, twelve traces of destruction, where Joshua passed, no demons were spared, this was the first time he did nothing and achieved the achievement of 'everything he passed was in ruins'.
On one side, the old pope, who was listening carefully to Joshua's story, nodded slightly as he listened.
Although it is said that with the life forms of the two, they can completely transmit information in the form of light waves, and most things can be explained clearly with one eye contact, but because of habit and because of the fact that 'the words spoken are more powerful', Joshua still chose the original sound wave communication system.
After listening to Joshua's speculation, Iger, who was originally just a little worried about how to sort out the situation, couldn't help but look serious.
"If everything is as you say...... Then this time it's much more serious. β
Saying this, the old pope raised his head, his eyes seemed to be able to penetrate the wall, and looked at the palace where the royal family lived, he rubbed his forehead, and said in a low voice: "Actually, I was also very strange, why did the contradictions break out in a concentrated manner, your guess is actually very convincing, is it a sign of the evil god......
Because the Far Sea Holy Mountain itself is also in the Far South, the popes of the past dynasties often use the incarnation to communicate with the royal family, so in the palace area, there is such a temple-shaped palace dedicated to the use of the church, and because of the recent period of time, the contradiction between the nobles and the royal family in the Far South has erupted, in order to reconcile the contradiction between the two, Iger's incarnation has been staying here, but no one dares to disturb.
Thinking about it, the old pope raised his head and looked at Joshua, and he said in a low voice: "In that case, Radcliffe, can you guess what kind of evil god would have such an ability to provoke infighting?" β
"There's no way to guess."
In response, Joshua shook his head: "But it can be speculated. β
The abilities of evil gods are strange, and most of their names are their own abilities.
[Imbalance] The evil god has the ability to break the inherent balance of all things, causing energy imbalance, uneven heat and cold, its conscription, that is, the sun is sometimes big and sometimes small, hot and cold, the power of some low-level transcendents is out of control, and various extreme weather disasters appear.
Needless to say, the [Natural Disaster] and the [Plague] evil god are simple and easy to understand, and the appearance of natural disasters and plagues is simple and easy to understand.
For example, the [weak] evil god is more subtle, and its symptoms are probably to make people lazy, fragile, unmotivated, and even anti-intellectualism.
Now, however, the phenomenon of 'Suspected Evil God Omen' that appears in the surrounding space-time realm is somewhat difficult to describe.
"Evil God [Infighting]? Evil God [Strife]? β
Joshua said to himself, "It's all a bit similar, but I don't feel like I can fully explain the nature of this evil god...... After all, we have never seen the essence of this evil god, and naturally it is impossible to know the true power of this evil god. β
But then again.
Starfall 840 years...... Isn't this the year when in the previous life game, people from all walks of life all over the world went into battle, and after the dragon disaster, the whole world blossomed, and each other beat human brains into dog brains?
At that time, the civil strife was much more terrifying than the petty fights now, in the world line without Joshua, the remnants of the dragon plague were still left, the clans did not like each other, the human forces in the eastern plains and the fish-man tribe had fought several skirmishes, and the royal family of the Far South had long lost its substantive rights - now there are nobles who want to overthrow, which means that the royal family itself still has their rights worth peeking at, and at that time, the royal family did not even have the value of overthrowing.
The imperial side is even more chaotic, and the heart-to-heart Israel has basically arranged himself clearly, just waiting to choose a good day to die, and now it seems that the princes and princesses who are brothers, friends, and brothers, have long since divided into God knows how many forces and alliances at that time, and the secret offensive and defensive agreements between the three of them may be more than four completely different manuscripts, and their complexity is comparable to that of Joshua's college women's dormitory in his previous life.
The Abyss Demon, I remember, also began to infiltrate at that time - I have to say that compared to the original world line, the era in which Joshua is now is really a master.
At least for now, except for the Romance of Xishan, all the protests are just protests, and there is no real fight.
Both the Pope and Joshua tacitly pushed this strange situation on the head of the evil god who didn't know if it still existed.
Regardless of whether it is an evil god or not, whether there really is such an existence, creating such a strange phenomenon of internal strife and strife in the plural space-time realm, the two of them will publicize it like this, and temporarily transfer all contradictions to the evil god.
Today's McCrove world is in a period of rapid recovery and development, and any civil strife and stagnation is a waste of this hard-won opportunity, and it can even be said that this is even related to the world event of whether the Mycrof civilization has the power of a war when the evil god arrives decades later.
Even if it turns out in the end, all this is just a coincidence, and the chaos within the current Mycrof civilization is really just an ordinary outbreak of contradictions, so Joshua and Eagle want to create an 'evil god' and create a reason for this contradiction that everyone can believe.
"In recent days, my avatar has been here in the Far South, trying to reconcile the contradictions between the nobility and the royal family."
After agreeing with Joshua, Eagle sat down in his chair and took a sip of cold tea: "There are very compelling reasons for the reform of the system in the mouths of the nobles and citizens, as well as for the desire for an independent Dominion. β
The Kingdom of the Far South, originally a very loose traditional feudal lord state, was not so much a modern kingdom as a loose alliance of many great nobles.
Of course, this is also because of a small Far South, there are the ancient two great forces of the Seven Sacred Mountains and the Elven Royal Court, although it is said that the Far South Kingdom has an advantage in terms of numbers and territory, but in essence, its strength is far weaker than the first two, under this influence, coupled with the fact that nationalism and nationalism have not yet risen, it is easy to understand that the cohesion of the Far South Kingdom is not strong.
During the Dragon Calamity, although the Far South Kingdom was prepared in advance because of Joshua's prompting, due to the lack of hard power, half of the entire national territory was lost, a large number of nobles and clans were wiped out, and countless civilians were displaced, and although the royal family led the army to reluctantly organize a defensive line and keep the remaining half of the country, the contradictions also lurked.
The original half of the country, because the nobles who originally ruled that land were all wiped out, was used by the royal family as a bait to attract external talents, and in order to throw this burden out, it was awarded to the thirteen heroic and strong men who performed well in the fight against the dragon calamity, which is the origin of the thirteen dominions, but this move undoubtedly angered the remaining nobles, who believed that the royal family deliberately used this half of the country and the noble territory as a buffer zone. Sold to the 'Five-Colored Dragon Clan', coupled with the warning of the warriors, the Far South royal family suffered the smallest losses among the nobles, which also set off a wave of conspiracy theories, turning into calls for the royal family to abdicate.
The thirteen dominions, which were originally the occupied areas, basically all the residents hated the Far South royal family who gave them up easily, and those who became the new nobles of the dominions, firstly, in order to meet the wishes of the lords, and secondly, they really felt that independence was better for them, so they also joined the camp of denouncing the royal family.
If you analyze it carefully, you can find that the so-called "sudden contradictions and infighting" this kind of cognition is inherently untenable, as early as a few years ago, countless injuries began to precipitate, and now those nobles and lords are urging those nobles and lords to shout, in fact, most of them are not the will of these high-level themselves, but from the pain and tears of the common people who have suffered from the dragon disaster, lost their relatives, lost their hometown, and lost everything.
Until now, there are still Far South inhabitants living in rudimentary makeshift villages and towns, cultivating with crude farming tools, living numb in a mud, unable to see even the light of the future, even the nobility is overwhelmed, and the territory is on the verge of collapse.
But even so, the royal family still doesn't care about them, and even acts as ostriches, living in the 'illusion of peace' created by themselves, enjoying flowers and wine.
This is not a civil strife between the nobles with a twitch of their heads, nor is it a dispute provoked by conspirators for their own interests, but simply because life is too painful, people can no longer bear it, and the rebellion and roar that erupted at the last moment.
And the protests in the eastern plains, under the careful analysis of the two powerful men of Joshua and Iger, also exposed the real contradictions between the two sides.
As the most powerful mage organization in the entire Microf, the White Tower is naturally the overlord of the Eastern Plains, occupying nearly half or even more of the fertile area, and its existence itself oppresses the living space of many small mage organizations, and ordinary people naturally can't understand what this group of mage masters is going to do, just passively following the crowd, and suffering excessive taxes and compulsory labor due to the competition between mages.
This is where the contradiction comes in β on the surface.
In fact, the trend of unifying most of the Eastern Plains with the Guantian White Pagoda has already appeared two hundred years ago, and many small organizations are not so much unwilling to join the Guantian White Pagoda, but rather to kneel and beg to join without a door, although the taxes of the civilians are heavy, but that is also relative to the local Eastern Plains, in fact, compared to the kingdoms of the Western Mountains, the taxes of the Eastern Plains can even be said to be very conscientious, far from reaching the point of death.
But the problem comes from civilians who seem to have nothing to do with it.
In recent years, under the auspices of the White Pagoda of Guantian, the entire Eastern Plain has begun to carry out large-scale magic energy technology reform, a large number of factories, production workshops have appeared in various places, under the effect of the efficient action ability of the mages, in just half a year, the major cities in the Eastern Plain have successfully carried out the initial magic energy modification, every household has used cheap magic energy heating, and the city no longer needs to buy firewood, but can use magic energy stoves.
However, although the low-level civilians were greatly facilitated in terms of quality of life, it was clear that those mages did not take into account the problem called 'Magical Energy Pollution'.
In fact, this is not true, because in the early days of the opening of the magic energy factory, many high-level mages discovered that the energy furnace of the magic energy factory would emit a large amount of colorful magic dust, which carried special magic crystals that were extremely difficult to absorb by humans, which would cause damage to the bodies of ordinary people, so they closed some factories and tried to find a solution.
This solution is not difficult to find, by learning from the experience of the Northern Empire, after adding an anti-pollution magic circle to the magic energy factory, the Guantian White Tower began to open a large-scale magic energy factory in its own sphere of influence, and as much as possible to modernize all the towns in its sphere of influence to modify the magic energy, however, many plans are good to think of, but it is a different way to do it.
Because the anti-pollution circle needs to be set up by silver-level or even gold-level mages, and the funds required for both installation and maintenance are very high, many magic energy factory owners who have obtained the right to operate have privately removed this step and directly discharged pollution into the atmosphere or even rivers - anyway, they themselves do not live near the factory, and the pollution has nothing to do with them, but the villages and towns around the factory cannot avoid great harm, and there are even a large number of magic poisoning deaths.
The mage has a strong resistance to the pollution of this special magic crystal, and can even digest a part of the magic crystal, the so-called magic energy pollution, not only is the threat to them not great, it can even be said to be a small benefit, plus in order to ensure the success rate of the modern magic energy reform, the high-level mages of the Guantian White Tower also turn a blind eye to this kind of cutting corners...... Just like those magic factory owners thought.
Anyway, it's not that they live in a polluted area, so who cares what ordinary people think?
And the ordinary people of the Eastern Plains who lived in those polluted areas, as well as those small mage forces who lived around the sphere of influence of the White Tower, were forced to bear the poison of this pollution.
What can they say and what can they do?
They can't do anything.
In the Eastern Plains, mages and non-mages are two classes, even if they are transcendents of other professions, unless they reach the gold level, they are naturally inferior when facing mages, and ordinary people are needless to say, the meaning of their existence is just to produce new mage seeds, as long as there are civilians with spellcaster talent, then he will be immediately pulled into this circle and assimilated by this circle.
Ordinary humans, in the eyes of mages, are not even fourth-class people.
They are only tools in the eyes of mages, humanoid devices used to produce basic resources, and they are not respected at all, and they are not allowed to have any doubts or opinions - not even because they are not spellcasters, even their lives are not put in the eyes of those mages.
- Could it be that the Master Master can't think of the problem? Where did you civilians have the wisdom and courage to question the mage's orders, just do it.
- Ridiculous, will the order from above be changed because of your complaints? You're the ones who should be adapting!
- Pollution or something, it will be solved later, as for the present to endure it, the sacrifice now is a necessary sacrifice for the sake of progress, for the sake of truth.
- But we won't remember your names, hahahahaha!
The grief spreads, countless families weep, men lose their wives and daughters, women lose their husbands and sons, half of the population of a polluted village disappears, and the rest of the people are mutated and deformed, and no one can endure this life unless he does not see himself as a human being, loses his resistance genes, and forgets his last roar.
The demonstrations in the Eastern Plains, like the revolutions in the Far South, were not in essence civil strife and strife.
It's a despair of sorrow, a roar before the dying moment.
As for the Northern Empire...... To be honest, if it weren't for Joshua's lack of sweat now, he would really have to gladly wipe off a cold sweat.
Because he knew very well that compared to the Far South and the Eastern Plains, if it weren't for Israel's Skynet plan some time ago, the 'sorrows' piled up at the bottom of the Northern Empire would definitely be ten times and a hundred times that of these two places.
Years of war with the orcs, the heavy tax pressure, the open and secret battles between the old and new nobles, and the shadow strife in private, as a traditional aristocratic empire, the nobles have the right to demand from the commoners, and even from the primitive imperial law, ordinary people who are not citizens are the property of the lord.
Protection money from gangsters, human traffickers who trafficked in human beings, land oppression and annexation by large families to small households, and arrogant exploitation and abuse by aristocrats...... Under the surface of the Northern Empire's victory over the orcs, it has long been full of holes and devastation.
As soon as a fire is lit, the foundations of the empire will collapse, which is why in the previous life, after the death of Israel, the emperor who suppressed the situation, the seemingly powerful northern empire split on the spot and fell into a full-scale civil war without any delay.
Because ordinary people would rather die in the flames of war than to live in the dark.
"In this way, Israel's total absolute dictatorship is really a good thing......
Thinking of this, Joshua couldn't help but sigh: "Justice will not proclaim itself, only power will ...... Haha, [Justice without light needs to be preached by force. I didn't expect that the situation in the empire is still relaxed, and it is really because of the justice of power. β
The current Northern Empire is much better than before, at least Israel has publicly executed a large number of despicable nobles with an extremely bad reputation, and has also completely wiped out God knows how many gangster forces, and purified the bottom atmosphere of the entire empire.
In addition, many recent policies have made the lives of ordinary people better, so the sadness that was originally hidden in the darkness did not erupt, and turned into a tide of rebellion like in the Far South and the Eastern Plains.
The people who have lost the goal of hatred and live a good life are forgetful, and their demands are only to be able to live with dignity, as long as they are fed and have the right to speak, then no matter how critical the situation, they will become a force for civilization, not the other way around.
After analyzing the truth of the contradictions in the three regions, Joshua and Eagle shifted their attention to the final Xishan region.
Then, the two of them didn't analyze anything.
No matter how you look at it, the Romans of Xishan is just an ordinary person who began to expand and annex because of the surge in power, relatively speaking, this is actually the most normal party.
After all, for the Mycrof continent, especially for Xishan, fighting is the norm, and it is strange not to fight, many kingdoms have been fighting bits and pieces for hundreds of years, and now there is a strong force to unify the periphery, which is actually a good thing - ordinary people are also happy to see this, after all, if you have military achievements, you can be promoted, and after a war, the war dividend alone can make your own residents eat for a long time, not to mention the opportunity to become a nobleman?
As for the inhabitants of other countries...... Alas, in a place like Xishan, it is a great honor to be a resident of a powerful country, according to Iger's intelligence, now there are even many residents of other countries who have taken the initiative to defect to the side of the Roman, and now there is even a momentum of a hundred countries coming to the dynasty - if this newborn powerhouse can be recognized by the local psionic royal families in Xishan, and the Holy Sword Envoy clan, he may really be able to unify the entire Xishan region.
"So...... Is it possible that it is not an evil god? β
Thinking about the results of his analysis, after Igor whispered a word to himself, he couldn't help but think of the fate of the many demons in Joshua's mouth, and he was a little puzzled: "But this can't explain the anomaly on the side of the abyss. β
"I think it's an evil god."
Joshua insisted on his opinion, he frowned and said: "At least, our world is relatively stable, and most people can survive, but on the other side of the abyss, those races whose civilization has perished and the world is on the verge of destruction, their accumulation of 'sorrow and despair' must be a thousand times that of ours." β
"In our world, there may only be some civil strife and strife, and it is foreseeable that it can be resolved, but the civil strife and strife that appear among the demons can completely destroy them, and completely shatter their hope of struggling to survive."
"It is better to die than to despair because of sorrow, to destroy because of despair, and to die on a day without hope...... If it is true that behind this is the result of the evil god's signs affecting people's hearts, then the name of this evil god. β
At this point, Joshua's words paused, he exhaled a breath, and said in a deep voice, "It should be [sorrow] or [despair]." β
"Your Majesty, there is no need to care about anything weak and powerless like 'the internal affairs of other countries', this is a matter of the survival of civilization, I suggest that the legendary powerhouse immediately intervene in the source of these 'sorrows and despairs'."