Before him knelt a great host of celestial beings.
They came from many races and Immortal Orders. Beyond them were hundreds of millions of Immortal Order and quasi-immortal cultivators whose restraints had been removed. Some had left, but most remained, waiting in fearful unease. The laws of both the quasi-immortal races and the Immortal Orders were terrifying.
A Dao Child had died in battle while they still lived. In an Immortal Order, that was a grave crime!
Silence settled over the place for a while.
"If you want to stay, then stay."
"But you'll have to work for me. Everything in this upper domain belongs to me. You can consider trading your labor for what you need, and you may leave whenever you wish."
Jiang Ding thought for a moment, then tossed them a copy of the Tu Shan Code.
Wherever the Great Sun Sword Heir's radiance reached, the order of the Tu Shan Code held sway. This immortal law had begun in the Tuo Kingdom of the Northern Plains and had undergone many revisions. It was now highly refined. Its one shortcoming was a lack of experience in governing celestial beings; many provisions might prove impractical.
These celestial beings would have to endure such discrepancies.
They would have to endure them until the Great Sun Sword Heir weighed opinions from all sides, considered the development of productive forces in practice, and revised the law again.
The Great Sun Sword Heir also decided to pardon these cultivators for their past crimes. Too many living beings had died—so many that even an indifferent sword cultivator was beginning to find it unbearable. The Tu Shan Code provided grounds for such a pardon.
When conquering a less developed civilization, its existing social structure could be cruel. Strict enforcement of the law might require