Chapter 252: Abolishing The Stratification System, Dismissing The Nobles
Causeway Bay was a beautiful little ocean bay embedded in the ocean like a crescent moon.
The waters were azure blue and the sands white and clean. Lush emerald green plants grew lushly and densely, forming a picturesque view.
Not far from the shore was a hill, and at the foot of it was a fishing village named Causeway Village.
Helen and her family were villagers from Causeway Village. Meng Lei flew over to the foot of the hill and went straight to his place of residence—a cave.
The cave wasn’t very big, but it nevertheless still consisted of three rooms—the bedroom, kitchen, and storeroom—and a living room. During the last half a year, this was where Meng Lei had been living.
A nest of gold or silver will never be as comfortable as one’s own dingy old nest!
Meng Lei entered the cave, grabbed a ladle full of water, and poured it straight into his mouth. Then, with a leap, he flew right onto the hammock.
After spending a good half a year outside, it’s time to go back, thought Meng Lei to himself.
While traveling around the Golden Archipelago during this half a year and slightly over, he had visited several places and also increased his span of experience and knowledge before finally coming to Causeway Bay.
Meng Lei had lived in a small seaside city in his past life and frequently went out to sea to fish with his parents when he was young. His youth was spent by the seaside.
Half a year ago, he had coincidentally seen Old Jack’s deckhand hiring notice and subsequently became his deckhand. He spent everyday fishing, enjoying the sea breeze, eating fish...
Meng Lei felt as if he had returned to his childhood years back when the days were simple, free, and worry-free...
“What a shame that days like these will come to an end soon.” Meng Lei sighed and cast a glance at his stats interface.
It had been slightly over half a year, yet there had surprisingly been no changes in the stats interface. This was also the first time that his stats interface had remained the same for such a long time since Meng Lei had first gotten it.
It wasn’t so much as he couldn’t change anything, but because Meng Lei had deliberately been self-indulgent and had ignored the system all this while.
Meng Lei thought to himself, It’s about time to go back.
Then, he left behind a divinity projection of himself and left.
“Big Brother Galen, we’re back!”
...
“Master, you’re back!”
Bubbles, Klaus, Nadja, and Seisia bowed in greeting to Meng Lei.
The aura around them was majestic, and their divine power strong and vast—this was because they had assimilated the divine cores.
“All of you are more or less done with the assimilation?”
Meng Lei remarked with a calm smile, “So, that means all of you have become lesser deities. Not bad!”
“Thank you for kindly bestowing the divine cores upon us, Master!”
The four of them hastily bowed and expressed their gratitude.
Their strength had gone through a tremendous change after they had assimilated the divine cores.
Even though they could be said to be among the weakest lesser deities out there because they had only just assimilated the divine cores, a lesser deity was ultimately still a lesser deity and an actual true god. This was far beyond what a half-deity could compare to.
Therefore, the gratitude that the four held toward Meng Lei was sincere and true.
“We’ve lingered long enough in the Golden Archipelago. It’s about time we return.”
Meng Lei sighed as he said, “But someone has to be stationed here in the Golden Archipelago. Who among you is willing to stay behind?”
“This...”
The four of them looked at one another, all somewhat troubled. To be honest, all of them wished to follow Meng Lei.
Meng Lei was a generous person, bestowing upon them both divine weapons and divine cores. Where were they supposed to find a Master like that?
But staying behind had its own benefits, too. One would oversee an entire region from then on and would become a true-blue local emperor of a region.
“You wily old foxes!”
Meng Lei was rendered speechless. Without a second thought, he whipped out the Abyss Blade Demon’s companion machete and said, “Whoever is willing to stay behind and be stationed at the Golden Archipelago shall receive this blood-red machete!”
The four of them perked up, their gazes all falling onto the blood-red machete as looks of desire flashed across their eyes.
However, Bubbles, Nadja, and Seisia’s gazes shifted away after only a quick glance. Compared to the machete, they were still more willing to be by Meng Lei’s side.
“In that case, this machete will be Klaus’ now.”
Meng Lei handed the blood-red machete over to Klaus and said, “Remember to guard the Golden Archipelago property well. Don’t mess it up, get it?”
“Don’t worry, Master! I will definitely do my best!” replied Klaus as he gave his promise.
“One more thing, by the way!”
Something occurred to Meng Lei, and he said, “Not only are you to watch after the Golden Archipelago, but you are also to put in great effort to improve the islanders’ standards of living and their own combat abilities.
“If the conditions allow for it, try your best to build Battle Aura and magic academies and let those children attend school.”
“As Master commands!”
Klaus nodded heavily.
“Do your best!”
Meng Lei gave Klaus a meaningful look. Then, he left with the other three.
“Take care, Master!”
...
“Are you returning to the Dragon God Empire, Master?”
“Yeap!”
“It’s been more than a year since we’ve left. I wonder how the Dragon God Empire is and whether that fellow Puhaman has been slacking off? See if I don’t give him a good beating if he has!”
Meng Lei wasn’t too sure about the Dragon God Empire’s development progress, either. However, from the changes in worshiper numbers during the past year or so, he could nonetheless still sense a thing or two.
During the last two years or so, his worshiper numbers had increased exponentially and reached a terrifying total that numbered dozens of billions!
He gained close to ten million worshipers practically every day. Some came from the Dragon God Empire, some from the Titan Empire, and some from the underground world.
Out of all the worshipers, 70% of them were from the Dragon God Empire!
That equated to a few dozen billions of worshipers!
This showed that Puhaman hadn’t been slacking off. Rather, he was doing a pretty good job at taking care of the Dragon God Empire. Or at least, he was doing great when it came to spreading faith.
The four of them passed through the eastern Endless Oceans waters and arrived at the Dragon God Empire. Then, they saw the changes in the Dragon God Empire.
“Master, from what we’ve seen so far, it seems like all the Dragon God statues in the Dragon God Empire are gone?”
“Take a closer look. They aren’t gone; rather, they’ve been changed to statues of Master!”
“That is certainly so!”
Meng Lei felt very gratified.
Originally, apart from small, remote mountainous regions like the Magical Beast Village, every city and town that was on a slightly larger scale would contain a Dragon God Cathedral and Dragon God statues for people to pray to the Dragon God and to collect power of faith.
However, both the Dragon God Cathedrals and the Dragon God statues were gone during his return this time. In their place were instead his temples and statues.
There was an endless stream of worshipers, and various praying activities were constantly taking place. Many joss sticks burned within the temples and formed a flourishing sight. As they traveled on, they realized that this was the case in almost the whole of the Dragon God Empire.
“Puhaman did great.”
A look of approval came over Meng Lei’s features. As the saying went, “There is sequence in the mastery of fields, and different people specialize in different fields”. As expected, specialized tasks should be left to the specialists.
“I’ll have to reward Puhaman properly when I get back.”
Meng Lei and the other three arrived at the Dragon God Empire’s Imperial City more than two hours later. Compared to before they had departed, the current Imperial City was obviously a lot more peaceful and harmonious.
Shoppers walked about leisurely.
Laborers worked hard and honestly.
Diners were full of smiles as they ate.
The fear and panic from a year ago as if doomsday was impending was gone, and things had been restored to what it was like prior to the Dragon Emperor’s death. In fact, it was even better than before.
Bubbles marveled and commented, “Master, there’s been a great change in the imperial city!”
“Let’s go to the imperial palace.”
Law and order had also been restored in the imperial palace. The palace maidservants and the eunuchs busied themselves with their respective tasks while the guards and sentries’ gazes stayed focused in front of them...
Everyone carried out their respective duties, forming an orderly and well-guarded sight.
Meng Lei found Puhaman in one of the side palaces of the imperial palace. Rather than handling official business matters, the fellow was hiding in an underground basement and carrying out human experiments instead. It seemed like he was trying to craft Undead Knights.
“Puhaman!” Meng Lei called out.
“Master!”
Puhaman jumped in shock and hastily left the underground basement. He came up to Meng Lei, bowed in greeting, and said, “Greetings, my noble Master!”
“Rise!”
Meng Lei landed on the ground. He said, “You’ve done a pretty good job at putting the Dragon God Empire into order. Tell me, what have you done?”
“Everything is thanks to Master’s great blessings!”
At once, Puhaman launched into an unceasing report. “Master, I’ve made quite a few reformations in the Dragon God Empire during the past year or so. They are mainly the following four aspects...”
Meng Lei perked up a little and listened up closely. Bubbles and the other two cocked their ears.
“Firstly, I’ve abolished the Four-Classes Stratification System and dismissed the nobles from their positions. I confiscated the Dragon People nobles’ financial assets and land and distributed all the land to the slaves and humans that don’t own any.”
A smug smile appeared on Puhaman’s countenance, and he went on. “There isn’t a single Dragon Person noble left in the current Dragon God Empire. In fact, there are also only a few pitiful human nobles. Almost everyone’s a freed slave or a commoner now.
“Of course, if Master is willing, you can also appoint a new batch of human nobles anytime you wish.”
“It’s not necessary.”
Meng Lei waved off the suggestion. “Nobles are parasites that leech off the blood of the commoners at the bottommost tier of the hierarchy. Whether or not nobles will be appointed can be discussed later, but even if they are, they won’t be given any territory.”
“I understand Master’s intentions now!”
Puhaman nodded lightly.
Meng Lei praised, “You did great by distributing the land. The people at the bottommost tier of the hierarchy are the true foundation of the empire. Only by distributing the land to them and giving the farmers their own fields will the foundation of the empire be firm and secure!”
Then, he said, “But there’s one thing which you didn’t enforce sufficiently!”
“Master, you mean...”
A look of puzzlement came over Puhaman’s countenance.
“You have to pass a law that forbids people from buying and selling land, and also forbids forced acquisition and seizing of land, as well as any other form of land mergers!”
As a tip, Meng Lei reminded him, “Don’t forget, the Dragon People nobles might have certainly fallen from power, but what about the human nobles? What about the wealthy merchants? Would they also covet the plots of land that the people have just gotten?”
“How wise, Master! I have indeed overlooked that!”
Enlightened, an ashamed look appeared on Puhaman’s visage. He understood what Meng Lei meant, of course.
In Heaven’s Vault Continent, land was a symbol of one’s status and identity. Whoever owned larger territories or more land would also enjoy a higher status.
Therefore, everyone would do their best to acquire more land, such that they would own more.
Yet a huge bunch of powerless slaves and weaklings without any background or people backing them up had received large amounts of land at this point?
Who wouldn’t hunger for it? Who wouldn’t be envious?
One could easily see just what would happen next—like what his Master had said, various forms of land mergers would definitely take place.
When that happened, many slaves and commoners who had only just received their plots of land would lose them once more.
Everything that he had done would only act to the human nobles’ and wealthy merchants’ benefit.
“Master’s wisdom is just like the boundless starry skies that take my breath away! I am humbled!”
A look of shame came over Puhaman’s countenance. At the same time, a strong sense of respect for Meng Lei also welled up in him. The issue about land mergers indeed hadn’t occurred to him previously, yet Meng Lei had pointed it out straight away.
From this, one could see a thing or two about the difference between the two of them. He couldn’t not take his hat off him.
“You’ve already done great.”
A smiling Meng Lei patted Puhaman on the shoulder. Then, he changed the subject and said, “With that many Dragon People nobles in the Dragon God Empire, you must have met with great resistance when you stripped them of their titles and confiscated their properties, right?”
“Yes! It’s no ordinary level of difficulty!”
Puhaman licked his lips, a bloodthirsty smile coming over his features. He said, “But with Master backing me up and my own prowess as a half-deity, I’ve destroyed all forms of resistance!”
“Revolutions are usually accompanied by bloodbaths. Tell me, how many people have you killed this time?”
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