[One thing to add: Zheer Continent was generated by the system, so it only had ordinary animals and no native Soul Beasts. Rus Wang was a genuine Seer Elf, while the Elf race was a custom-made group of Indigenous People. Naturally, after Zheer Continent merged with Douluo Planet, the world's unique energy system—heaven and earth vitality under the inverse-entropy energy system of the Douluo Universe—also came into being.]
Time slowly passed. On the second day after the Third Temple Assembly ended, Osuen returned home and played with the daughter his wife, Liana, had borne him, now swaddled in her arms. The twelve-year term as village elder set by Rus Wang had finally come to an end.
Exhausted, he had no intention of serving another term. Amid the applause of the village's Elves, he laid down the burden of being an elder. Now he no longer had to oversee this or handle that, much less attend the Temple Assembly and listen to elders from other villages argue. He felt utterly relieved.
Suddenly, a strong wind rose. A guard serving one of the current elders came rushing to his home, making a great fuss as he brought news that left Osuen somewhat astonished.
From the guard's explanation, Osuen immediately understood: Rus Wang had arrived and personally asked for him by name.
After handing his daughter to his wife, Liana, Osuen hurried out to the suburbs without even putting on the red wool robe he had bought in Temple City that year. He went dressed in nothing but his usual linen clothes.
"My king, you've come here in person. I wonder, did I do something wrong during my term as elder?"
Osuen saw Rus Wang sitting by the river, deliberately keeping away from the crops, while the current elder stood respectfully nearby. When Osuen reached Rus Wang, he bowed his head slightly in respect, then straightened up and asked.
"You did nothing wrong, Osuen. You are the sage of the first village I protected and established. I'm just troubled. You witnessed the chaos at the Third Temple Assembly yourself, so you know it well."
"My king, are you worried the bloodshed will break out again?"
"Yes."
Rus Wang watched his reflection on the river's surface.
"I held the Temple Assembly last year, but now it seems I only delayed the large-scale outbreak of bloodshed. The Elf villages in the Levant Region are multiplying, and their population is growing. Conflicts have surged in number, and the situation has long since grown beyond what I could manage in those first three years. And with all these village alliances, although the Elves still speak the same language and use the same script, the barriers in their hearts have begun to take deep root."
"My king, does this mean the days when we weren't under your rule—when we had to slaughter one another just to survive because we were starving—are coming back?"
Osuen had lived through those days, as had the other Elves. But just because he sought a peaceful life didn't mean the other Elves felt the same way. Dry grass had piled up, ready to blaze at the touch of a spark. Rus Wang could put out the fire quickly, of course, but many Elves would inevitably die along the way.
"I'm afraid so. Even though I've been making frequent visits around the Levant Region this year, the bloodshed has only been kept in check because of my presence, Osuen. They may be able to cover it up, but my eyes aren't blind, and I can smell what's going on. There have already been plenty of deaths caused by disputes in all sorts of dark corners."
Rus Wang looked at Osuen as he spoke, and also praised the way he had governed his village.
"You've managed the village well. The specialized officials handling different affairs, the Citizens Assembly where the people elected representatives, the statisticians and record keepers, even the Archons with their elder-like role—all of it seems sound to me."
"I only came up with it so I could slack off, my king."
Osuen didn't dare take pride in it. He had only done it so he could spend more time with his wife. He had never expected Rus Wang to take notice.
"But there's no doubt, Osuen, that you've given me a solution. I intend to use a modified version of this system throughout the Levant Region. It would benefit the enormous population and the isolated villages with little contact between them."
"It's an honor that you've seen fit to adopt it."
"But for the next few months, or perhaps longer, I may be unable to deal with anything except those Ferocious Beasts. If they invade the Levant Region, the result will be even more terrifying than a bloody war between the villages there. Yet I have a premonition that while I'm away on patrol, certain village alliances—those that feel they've been deprived of their share as Temple City's wealth grows faster or slower—have already conspired together and are preparing to start a war."
Osuen stood frozen beside him. His confusion at first gave way to disbelief, then, when Rus Wang looked at him with such certainty, to fear.
Whenever Rus Wang took in Elves and assigned them a village, he warned them: he was the true ruler of the Levant Region, and after taking them in and sheltering them there, he would consider any bloodshed that he judged to constitute an act of war an insult and provocation against him. No matter how the aggressors tried to explain themselves, Rus Wang would skip straight past their defenses and kill every last one of them.
During the first large-scale outbreak of bloodshed in the Levant Region, a small village alliance had slaughtered more than a thousand people from a large village alliance over the price of salt. Even then, Rus Wang hadn't labeled it a war. What kind of bizarre village alliance, encompassing how many villages, would make him say the word war outright this time? Osuen didn't dare think about it.
"In any case, go back, Osuen. Prepare to defend yourselves with your village's elder and Archons. When I return, all those who ignored my warning and defied me will pay with their lives."
As Rus Wang left, Osuen and the current elder, who had overheard their conversation, both looked toward the thin tamped-earth wall around their village. It wasn't even a continuous line.
Since Rus Wang had told them to prepare to defend themselves, their village must have been marked as a target for plunder.
Thinking about it, the village's workshops, with only slightly fewer functions than those in Temple City, had already drawn wealth from several surrounding villages into their coffers. With Rus Wang bringing it up now, their village's ability to attract wealth was just like Temple City's. The surrounding village alliances would be every bit as jealous of them.
They exchanged a look and nodded almost in unison. The village's defenses clearly needed to be reinforced.
Rus Wang hadn't needed to lie to Osuen when he came to see him. Temple City's wealth really would plunge the entire Levant Region into civil war, and he really did need to go deal with those Ferocious Beasts.
As more and more Soul Beasts fleeing the Spirit Pagoda's slaughter arrived on Zheer Continent, the abundant heaven and earth vitality in Nanshan Rainforest naturally drew them across mountains and rivers to gather there.
As they made their way here, they also took the Elves for humans and sought revenge against them. As a result, the number of Elves fleeing from southern Zheer Continent had grown rapidly during the eight years from the end of the fifth year to the present, the thirteenth year. The 439 village elders at last year's assembly had now grown to 513, further aggravating tensions within the Elf race in the Levant Region.
Between his twelfth and thirteenth years on the continent, Rus Wang had been busy maintaining his complete rule over northern Zheer Continent and managing the Elves of the Levant Region. Eventually, even his wife, the Female Water Dragon, Thalassa—who had originally devoted herself to caring for their offspring—joined him on patrols through northern Zheer Continent. (After a hundred thousand years, her intelligence had grown until it was on par with that of an ordinary human or Elf.)
The large-scale influx of Soul Beasts into Nanshan Rainforest brought back the painful memories she had buried for over three thousand years. For the sake of their offspring's safety, she had to join her husband.
Unlike Rus Wang, whose patrols covered an astonishingly vast territory, Thalassa was responsible only for patrolling the Core Circle, where the heaven and earth vitality in Nanshan Rainforest was at its most concentrated.
Rus Wang descended from the sky and returned to the deepest part of Nanshan Rainforest's Core Circle. Unlike the Life Lake deep within Star Dou Forest on Douluo Continent, this place had nothing but towering trees. But the Dragons and intelligent Soul Beasts Rus Wang had taken in over the past thirteen years had already waited here for their king for a long time.
The lord Soul Beasts who had claimed Nanshan Rainforest's precious territory first were now being challenged by Soul Beasts who had only just fled here. As a Beast King like Di Tian, Rus Wang naturally had to step in and take charge.
The Female Water Dragon (water), the Dark Night Dragon (darkness), the Crimson Fire Dragon, the Fear Demon Dragon (spiritual power), the Earth Rock Dragon (earth), the Heavenly Sun Dragon (light), the World-Breaking Thunder Dragon, the Purple Gold Radiant Dragon, the Azure Abyss Holy Dragon (wood), the Golden Earth Tiger, the Grey Plain Wolf, the Wind Spirit Eagle, the Mountain-Shaking Earth Ape, the Golden-Winged Sky-Rending Peng, and the Sharp-Tailed Swift.
Rus Wang recited the names of every lord Soul Beast under his command. It was easy to see that most of the ones who had come to seek refuge on Zheer Continent could fly. The others had tremendous willpower and good fortune, having evaded the Sea Soul Beasts' hunts and crossed the sea to reach the southernmost corner of Zheer Continent.
Among the intelligent Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts Rus Wang had taken in, Dragons made up the largest proportion. That was only natural. Since the Dragon God had once led the Dragon Race in ruling over all Soul Beasts in ancient times, the Dragons were bound to have an advantage in intelligence.
"My king, those Soul Beasts who came to this continent later are getting more and more brazen."
"I know, Golden Earth Tiger. I called you here for this very reason. Those latecomers who haven't grown a brain seem to have forgotten the old, strict rules of the forest while fleeing from humans. If so, we'll teach them those rules again."
With those words from Rus Wang, a slaughter to reestablish the existing territorial order of Nanshan Rainforest officially began.
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