The New Reign of Rus Wang

The winter wheat harvest in the 13th year of the Levant Region (the Southern Hemisphere's summer, corresponding to our Northern Hemisphere's winter) should have been a season of bounty. However, a brutal conflict involving tens of thousands of elves surrounding a single city—ignoring the warnings once issued by Rus Wang—completely shattered this Eden, which had been filled with milk and honey. Following this, long-suppressed tensions rapidly spread across the entire Levant Region, fueled by a large-scale war the likes of which had never been seen in the tribal era.

Countless village alliances were swept up in the flames of war; the lucky ones suffered hundreds of casualties, while the unfortunate were conquered and reduced to slaves of the tribal coalitions.

During this period, many elves ventured into the Nanshan Rainforest to seek the intervention of Rus Wang, but all returned with no news. A year later, with the war still raging with no signs of abating, Rus Wang appeared within the Levant territory accompanied by eight giant dragons. He meted out Divine Punishment upon the elven tribes that had instigated the conflict. With tens of thousands of elves purged by Rus Wang and the eight dragons in a single day, everything fell silent.

The elven priests of the attacked tribes recorded this as Divine Punishment, using it to warn future generations of elves about the cost of starting a war. Over the subsequent sixteen years, Rus Wang made many changes to the Levant Region, focusing primarily on restoring public livelihood, upgrading production techniques, expanding trade, and administrative construction.

In the 30th year of the Levant calendar, Kairon, once the first village in the Levant Region, had transformed into a city-state with a population of over twenty thousand. The foreign elves who visited were mostly officials or merchant caravans from the royal capital, Ravenna (Temple City), or scholars seeking knowledge; rarely were they elves from other city-states. Yet, compared to the closed-off village alliances of the past, the level of interaction had changed drastically.

Over these dozen years, Osuen had purchased an estate in the suburbs for his wife, Liana, and their children. Although he could not escape being elected as a councilor for the city-state council by the enthusiastic elven populace, compared to the days of personally managing a village of over ten thousand people, his current position was a restful way to pass the time.

Following the Divine Punishment recorded by the elven priests, Rus Wang's control over the Levant Region became deeper and more stable. In these sixteen years, no elven elder dared to defy his decrees, whether openly or in secret.

Rus Wang designated the former Temple City as the royal capital of the current Elf Kingdom and carried out a series of administrative plans for all the villages in the Levant. Based on the population data from the 15th year of the Levant, villages with over 20,000 people and favorable geographic locations were designated as provincial capitals; those with over 6,000 people were defined as city-states; and those with over 500 were towns. Excluding the royal capital district, multiple city-states were grouped into a single province, with multiple towns under each city-state, and multiple villages under each town.

Villages still retained elders for management, but the number was increased from the original one to three, accompanied by a priest sent by the royal capital's Church. Villages still maintained a certain level of self-defense force, but they were defined as militia and were forbidden from privately storing armor. If discovered, not only would the offender have their limbs severed, but the village elders would also be held collectively responsible.

The management of each city-state and town was shifted to a City Council. The number of members on the City Council was adjusted annually according to population proportions, with elves electing a certain number of councilors through voting. The elected councilors were responsible for coordinating and zoning, presiding over public activities in the city-state or town, maintaining and updating sanitation and infrastructure, and liaising with officials sent from the royal capital, Ravenna.

These officials were responsible for visiting various city-states, towns, and villages to collect one-tenth of the annual grain output, two-tenths of the commercial tax, and one-tenth of the resident tax collected by the city-states and towns. They were also required to keep records of population, farmland, and the turnover of city councilors. Among the officials, those known as lawyers would often be stationed there for many years, responsible for adjudicating civil disputes according to the law. Medical Officers were responsible for providing basic treatment and care to citizens who had paid their resident income tax.

Of course, what the various city-states, towns, and villages valued most was the arrival of the Examiners.

On the second week of September each year, Examiners from the royal capital would arrive at the administrative blocks of city-states and towns to conduct talent recruitment and assessments. Any elf from a city-state, town, or village who considered themselves knowledgeable could go to a designated testing site for a three-day closed-door examination.

Those who passed the first assessment were called Scholars. They were exempt from resident taxes and were permitted to observe the Examiners in court and assist royal capital officials with calculations.

After passing the Scholar assessment, if they intended to continue, they had to travel to the provincial capital on a specific date the following year. They were required to pass three rounds of nine-day closed-door assessments; failing any single round meant elimination. Those who passed were titled Bachelors.

In addition to being tax-exempt, Bachelors were provided with a standard-built courtyard by the provincial capital, and the royal capital would regularly distribute supplies annually, including half a jin of spices, 2 kilograms of salt, 40 kilograms of wheat flour, 10 kilograms of corn flour or potatoes, and 3 pigs and sheep.

Next, if it happened to coincide with the once-every-five-years royal capital Bachelor assessment, the Bachelors could, under the arrangement of provincial officials and protected by the military, take an inland river boat to the royal capital, Ravenna, to participate in a six-day closed-door examination. Those who succeeded would then undergo a one-day assessment witnessed by Rus Wang.

After being assigned rankings by the officials, these Bachelors bid farewell to their status as Scholars and officially became Doctors, enjoying even more generous treatment.

At this stage, those who had achieved such academic success were still not considered full-fledged officials under Rus Wang's planning. Although the examination questions for Bachelors inevitably included topics requiring them to elaborate on worldly wisdom and human affairs, writing on paper and acting in reality were two different things. Furthermore, elves had long lifespans, and Rus Wang's Elf Kingdom was in its infancy, lacking literate talent everywhere. These Doctors wanted to be officials? First, they would be used as Pals.

These Doctors had to undergo a three-year adaptive observation period, during which they were responsible for various practical tasks, such as managing public activities, bookkeeping, and construction near the royal capital. Finally, the officials would arrange the rankings based on the Doctors' evaluations and submit them to Rus Wang. Only at this point could a portion of the top-ranked Doctors truly become officials.

As for the failed Doctors, as long as they were not assessed as being deeply treacherous or evil, they could choose to join the Church as priests or choose to retake the exam after five years. Those who chose to become priests would, after receiving training similar to that of Medical Officers, be sent to villages to spread faith while helping elves become enlightened and literate. Later, they would gradually move from villages to towns, then to city-states, provinces, and even the royal capital.

As for the remaining treacherous and evil ones, if the "eyes" of Rus Wang also reported that the officials' assessments were true, then since they had reached such a high level only to remain deeply treacherous, they could not be kept. It just so happened that if they had caused loss of life during their three-year adaptive observation, they would be executed to balance the scales.

Regarding the military, it was temporarily recruited from the royal capital, Ravenna, which had the highest literacy and civilization levels, and arranged in various provinces to handle certain century-old soul beasts that escaped from the Nanshan Rainforest. As long as these royal capital citizens joined the army, their parents, siblings, and second-generation blood relatives were exempt from resident taxes. At the same time, in terms of military rations, the monthly spice-roasted lamb day was a benefit that even some official elves found hard to enjoy.

Rus Wang did not intend to make the Soul Power Level system public so quickly. Moreover, Rus Wang wanted to see the elves treat those compatriots with higher cultivation levels simply as having more strength.

For one, most elves were still stuck in the barbaric mindset of the tribal era; for another, it was a consideration of ruling costs—these elves, who had jumped from the tribal era to a feudal kingdom, needed an adjustment period.

Even a sage like Osuen, when first introduced to the iron forging process and paper made from wood pulp and brushes, was full of fear and incomprehension, viewing them as divine creations.

In the Nanshan Rainforest, Rus Wang looked at his five cubs, who had grown to twenty-six years old. They were becoming increasingly annoying to their old father, yet lively and active. Even with his good temper, he couldn't help but feel irritable, occasionally roaring to scatter them. His wife, Thalassa, had long since run off to stay with her good friend, the Dark Night Dragon, to enjoy some peace and quiet.

"Oh, right, speaking of my wife."

At the thought of his wife, Rus Wang suddenly remembered something.

Twenty-five years ago, during that sudden acceleration of his wife Thalassa's hundred-thousand-year tribulation, Rus Wang had already investigated the cause through the growth rate of the years after he took the other eight dragons to tour the Levant Region.

It must have been that when he took her to inspect the Levant Region, they were worshipped as the God and Goddess by the elven priests. Thinking of the power of faith in the Douluo World, it was reasonable that Thalassa's year growth had suddenly accelerated.

However, Rus Wang did not intend to let his wife or the dragon race under his command follow the old path of their Dragon God ancestor. After all, the path of faith was currently occupied by Three Candies; even if Thalassa and the others wanted to walk it in the future, the road was gone.

Furthermore, in the Nanshan Rainforest, the concentration of natural energy in just the outer circle was equivalent to that of the core circle of the Star Dou Forest. For several dragons with tens of thousands of years of cultivation to stay in the core circle of the Nanshan Rainforest, their growth rate, while not as fast as the blessing of faith, was not slow either. (The Nanshan Rainforest territory is divided into: Edge Zone → Outer Circle → Mixed Circle → Core Circle)

Sometimes, taking the long way is not necessarily more troublesome than taking a shortcut.