Anlan Kingdom's Demise

Yulan Calendar, 8289, late December.

The Resistance Army in Landong Province accused people in the province of secretly colluding with the Anlan Royal Family. They made an example of them by executing the city lord right there in his city, which finally prompted some of the Level 9 Warriors who had still been sitting on the fence to abandon their neutrality.

Landong Province had now achieved a preliminary unification.

Carl did not oppose this unification. In fact, he considered it a good thing. After all, his lands lay in Landong Province, and to be honest, he did not have a very favorable impression of the Anlan Kingdom. He had joined the army at sixteen and spent ten years in military service, witnessing far too many of his peers die. What was more, he owed his current standing to his own efforts. Otherwise, he would not have been merely a Viscount despite already being a Level 9 Warrior.

The fact that Carl could speak to Slod as an equal was enough for anyone with a little sense to understand: to hold an equal conversation with a Level 9 powerhouse, one either needed great strength of one's own or someone even stronger than Slod backing them.

Carl approved of unifying the province, but that did not mean he would take action himself.

After all, Saint Realm powerhouses did not personally involve themselves in mortal wars, and the reason was quite simple.

Mortal wars were generally decided by a group of Level 9 Warriors. No matter how long a Level 9 Warrior lived, they would last only five hundred years at most. A kingdom, however, might endure for a thousand years or even several thousand. As for a Saint Realm powerhouse, as long as they were not killed, living for a million years was easy.

The difference in the very nature of their lives meant Saint Realm powerhouses would not make enemies of one another over mortal wars.

Enmity between Saint Realm powerhouses could lead to a battle, and a battle could lead to one side's death.

To sacrifice a life that could last a million years for a power that might endure a thousand or several thousand years was, by any measure, an absurd decision.

Saint Realm powerhouses were scarce on the Yulan Continent. As a result, unless their interests directly clashed, they were often friends.

Carl believed that if the Anlan Kingdom still had a Saint Realm powerhouse protecting it, the current situation would never have come about. It would not only mean that a Saint Realm powerhouse stood guard over the Anlan Kingdom; it would also mean that other Saint Realm powerhouses would not secretly be making moves there.

After the province was unified, Carl did not show himself, but he did send out several Level 8 Warriors. Some had joined him after defecting from other nobles, while others had been promoted by Carl from among the Level 7 Warriors in his territory.

A few of his own descendants were among them, as were the Level 7 Warriors who had served in his territory back when it was Spark Town.

First, he raised their aptitude to the level of Level 8 Warriors, then granted them a ten percent increase in cultivation speed. Over the course of a few years, all eight of those former Level 7 Warriors had reached Level 8. Once they had advanced, Carl bestowed Level 9 aptitude on them as well. They were the future candidates for Level 9 Warriors in his territory.

Yulan Calendar, 8300, spring.

After more than a decade of war, Lanxi Province was the first to buckle under the Resistance Army's relentless campaigns. Its nobles were preoccupied with ensuring their descendants could inherit their titles. When the Golden Grand Duke, Golden Lion, stepped forward and made his promise, Lanxi Province smoothly joined the Resistance Army.

Thus, of the Anlan Kingdom's three great provinces, Landong Province had united with Lanxi Province, while the Anlan Royal Family was left with only Anlan Province, where the capital stood.

With the strength of two provinces behind them, the Resistance Army soon overwhelmed the Anlan Royal Family.

After all, even when the three sides had been evenly matched, the Anlan Royal Family had been unable to break the stalemate quickly. Once the Resistance Army gained the upper hand, the fence-sitters in the capital were naturally the first to surrender. Some even feared they had waited too long and, after surrendering, attacked the Anlan Army with all their might.

As a result, the Anlan Royal Family, which could have held out a little longer, soon suffered a major defeat. They were forced to withdraw their lines again and again until, at last, all that remained of the Anlan Kingdom's territory was its capital.

A city of just over forty million people.

Everyone in Landong Province wore a smile at the prospect of victory, and those smiles were as broad as the chubby faces of the stewards in their own mansions.

"Master, Master, wonderful news! The best news!" In the duke's residence, the steward, who weighed more than three hundred pounds, hurried toward Carl, loudly proclaiming the good news as he ran.

Only after he had panted his way over to Carl and taken several deep breaths to calm his heart, which seemed ready to leap out of his chest, did he speak up. "Your Grace, wonderful news! A letter came from the front. Three days ago, the eldest young master officially broke through on the battlefield. He held off hundreds of thousands of troops by himself and was made the Black Stone Count by the Golden Grand Duke."

Carl's expression did not change much at the news.

More than ten years ago, he had given Lin the Level 9 aptitude talisman. With the ten percent cultivation-speed boost Carl could provide through the family, it had taken Lin eleven years to advance from Level 8 to Level 9. Strictly speaking, that was already a rather slow pace.

After all, Lin Taros was Carl's eldest son. A few years ago, when Lin had successfully advanced to Level 8, the other four Level 7 Warriors in the family had also been granted Level 8 aptitude. Lin, however, had clearly wanted to test himself on the battlefield, leaving the family's responsibilities to his grandson, Rello.

By now, Carl had been the head of the Taros Family for more than a century, but he had not involved himself in its affairs during all that time. As long as its development was unaffected, he would not interfere lightly. Naturally, the family's decisions over the past century had been made by his eldest son.

But once Lin chose to venture onto the battlefield, the authority to make decisions for the Taros Family was formally handed to the third generation.

Rello gained that authority by virtue of being a Level 8 Warrior and Lin's grandson. Colin, whose bloodline was closer to Carl's, instead chose to devote himself to cultivation after discovering that his aptitude had improved. That choice also indirectly influenced Carl's two great-granddaughters, Liya and Linna.

Their different choices had led to their current strengths: Lin Taros had reached Level 9, while Rello Taros was still at the middle stage of Level 8. Colin, by contrast, had reached the peak of Level 8, and Liya and Linna had both reached the late stage.

Carl rarely involved himself in family decisions, but he had always personally overseen the policies governing his territory.

Over the past eleven years, Spark City had reached the peak of its development. Its permanent residents, together with its transient population, numbered as many as six million—the maximum the city could support. Besides Spark City, more than a dozen nearby settlements had grown to the size of townships and were ruled by nobles, but by now they had all joined Carl.