Most regions of the Douluo Continent were plains, yes, but there also existed all kinds of mountain passes, hills, dangerous lands, as well as various great rivers.
In theory, humanity occupied the entire Douluo Continent. But in reality, even ten thousand years later, humanity still had not explored every corner of the Douluo Continent.
On the current Douluo Continent, the two great empires and the various duchies were, in essence, human settlements scattered across the plains. They established cities of all sizes and connected them through various roads and trade routes. Beyond those settled regions lay vast stretches of wilderness, filled with uninhabited lands and unexplored areas.
The matter they were facing this time not only concerned the human side, but also involved all sorts of wild Spirit Beasts and those uninhabited regions.
The northeastern corner of the Heaven Dou Empire was a treasure land rich in spiritual medicines and all kinds of miraculous treasures. Ten thousand years later, the Dou Ling Empire would establish itself in this region, claiming to have inherited the mantle of the Heaven Dou Empire.
Several hundred years ago, humanity had once deeply cultivated this fertile land. Using the power of Spirit Masters, they forcibly changed the courses of great rivers, creating large amounts of fertile farmland that manpower could develop, as well as rich soil suitable for planting medicinal herbs.
But how could such a fertile, abundant land that possessed miraculous power not have Spirit Beasts living there?
Several hundred years ago, humans had used force to compel Spirit Beasts to flee their homeland, and used force to forcibly alter the courses of rivers and open up land.
But as the Heaven Dou Empire's internal politics gradually became corrupt, and as the development of border regions additionally pushed deeper into the already limited living lands of Spirit Beasts, matters began to become uncontrollable.
A large amount of the infrastructure in the northeastern corner had fundamental problems. The number of soldiers stationed there and the actual number of troops did not match at all, and their equipment was completely not that of a regular army.
All kinds of maintenance for facilities such as irrigation channels and dikes had long since become perfunctory, sloppy, and careless. Various important routes that allowed armies to advance and supplies to be transported had long since fallen into disrepair. The various defensive facilities originally used to defend against Spirit Beasts or internal rebellion had also become old and dilapidated.
As humans gradually developed what little land remained, the Spirit Beasts, pushed to their limits, also began gradually attempting to counterattack under the leadership of powerful Spirit Beasts.
Because humanity's defensive strength was weak, the Spirit Beasts that had been suppressed for several hundred years began a desperate assault, and also began retaliatory actions.
In only half a month, the northeastern corner had lost almost one-third of its territory to Spirit Beasts. Large numbers of humans died, and infrastructure suffered destruction.
Moreover, powerful and intelligent Spirit Beasts had also used their own strength to destroy various water conservancy facilities built by humans, such as dikes, releasing floods and using natural disasters to begin destroying the remaining environment.
Now, quite a few powerful individuals within the Heaven Dou Empire had already gone to support the northeastern corner, preparing to drive the Spirit Beasts back once more. But the key issue now was not merely with the Spirit Beasts.
Over the past several hundred years, a large portion of the medicinal herbs and tax revenue within the Heaven Dou Empire had come from the fertile northeastern corner. It could be said that it had already become, in a practical sense, the heart upon which many Spirit Masters within the Heaven Dou Empire relied.
Construction that had been maintained for several hundred years was destroyed in a single stroke, triggering a cascading collapse.
There was rampant local corruption, armies claiming salaries for nonexistent soldiers, falsified tax revenues, and endless problems involving infrastructure and land distribution. At the same time, Spirit Beast counterattacks were erupting across various regions. Internally, nobles and major merchants further worsened the crisis by hoarding supplies and manipulating the market, pouring fuel onto an already raging fire and pushing the unstable situation even closer to total collapse.
Truly pitiful—even the heavens themselves might have thought so.
The Heaven Dou Empire had never been a truly centralized and unified imperial power. In essence, it more closely resembled a Western medieval-style empire, one held together through bloodline marriages and the constant exchange of interests among nobles.
Now, the northeastern regions were being ravaged by disaster, certain armies were already showing signs of rebellion, and the worsening tax crisis had even caused portions of the Heaven Dou Empire's internal financial system to collapse.
Some individuals with questionable origins were already moving to erase traces of their past, trying to bury the darker parts of their histories before they were exposed. Others, driven purely by greed, seized the chaos as an opportunity to enrich themselves through private gain.
At the same time, a faction of outsiders—people who did not belong to the Heaven Dou Empire at all—were deliberately stoking the unrest. They fanned the flames of dissent, attempting to push the northeastern region, which the empire had only secured after centuries of annexation, toward outright independence—splintering it into a duchy or even an entirely separate kingdom.
Meanwhile, certain nobles bearing royal blood or possessing a semblance of legal legitimacy were covertly fueling the chaos from the shadows. They waited for the right moment to exploit the turmoil as a stepping stone for their own rise to power.
Damn it. In a normal historical setting, this would already be the late stage of a collapsing dynasty.
It was only because the Douluo Continent had powerful individuals who could forcibly suppress those small-scale rebellions and armies. As long as large-scale powerhouses and large-scale armies were still held in the hands of the central government, the central government could, at least on the surface, suppress the surrounding rebellions. Otherwise, the Heaven Dou Empire would already be running straight toward disintegration.
Emperor Xue Ye was already so busy his feet were practically hitting the back of his head. Crown Prince Xue Qinghe had been directly forced to accept a large number of authorities and tasks that originally belonged to the emperor. Prince Xue Xing had simply been thrown all over the place to suppress rebellions, and also to win over people's hearts in all sorts of ways.
Theoretically speaking, for the Heaven Dou Empire, which had been inherited for several thousand years, this was something that could be suppressed. But to suppress this matter, it would absolutely require paying no small price. Everyone would have to expend tremendous energy, while also guarding against interference from external enemies and internal rebellion.
The current matter was not something where the single word "kill" could solve all problems. Spirit Beasts could be killed, but could you randomly slaughter people?
Randomly killing commoners would lose the people's hearts. The infrastructure built over several hundred years would collapse in one stroke, and if no one were willing to develop it again afterward, it would be completely ruined.
Randomly killing nobles would cause unrest. All sorts of bloodline relationships, along with exchanges of interpersonal interests, meant that although many people were indeed problematic, they simply could not be killed.
"Brother Chen, save me. With your talent, your various analytical abilities, and your knowledge in all kinds of miscellaneous fields, do you have any way at all to help me salvage this rotten mess?"
Qian Renxue shook Chen Ming's shoulders, her voice carrying unconcealable hoarseness and exhaustion.
She truly could no longer hold on. She was already preparing to summon the power of Spirit Hall and look for some elders, using absolute strength to begin suppressing those vermin and resisting forces within the Heaven Dou Empire in the name of the Angel God.
Doing so would indeed cause some discussion regarding her identity, and make the Heaven Dou Empire's interior even more vigilant toward Spirit Hall. But the problem was, right now there was simply no way to solve such a chaotic problem.
After briefly understanding the current situation, the simplest plan produced by Chen Ming's super intelligence was to mobilize super-level power and send powerhouses over to kill all those people once.
But at the second point in time, the result Chen Ming obtained was completely different from mobilizing super-level power.
Now, Emperor Xue Ye could not fill this enormous pit, so he had shifted tremendous pressure onto Xue Qinghe, that is, Qian Renxue.
And Qian Renxue was now also about to be unable to hold on, and intended to shift part of the pressure onto him.
Although this was indeed no small problem, if he could make some arrangements during this period of time, then he could justifiably obtain enormous benefits.
Moreover, Chen Ming had also seen in the reports that people from the Heaven Dou Empire had witnessed more than one powerful Spirit Beast at the ninety-thousand-year level.
Perhaps his fifth spirit ring could be settled all at once by taking advantage of this opportunity.
...
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