People on the Douluo Continent were also curious about the road Tang Fan had mentioned. Judging by his serious expression, that road had probably been a difficult one.
At the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Fengzhi asked Bone Douluo, "Uncle Gu, what would it take to change the Douluo Continent's current education system so that everyone could go to school, like over there?"
"Don't even think about it. It's simply impossible. Unless someone first smashed both empires and all the major sects to pieces, then built a new nation in their place, there might be a chance."
"Yes, without destruction, there can be no construction. Uncle Gu, do you think that's the road they took over there?"
Bone Douluo fell silent, and Ning Fengzhi continued, "Their world was able to tear down the old and build anew. Perhaps the Douluo Continent could do the same, but the price would be too high...
"Even if I knew the outcome would be good, I couldn't accept it if the price was the destruction of our sect."
Even if Ning Fengzhi could understand it, he couldn't accept it. The other sects were even less likely to.
So smashing the old order could only be done by force. Political power grew out of the barrel of a gun; those words held true in any world.
Tang Fan and Bibi Dong drove to a self-service dumpling restaurant.
"Let's eat first! These are dumplings. Once the water boils, you put them in. That's how you cook dumplings."
"I see! I've never seen food like this before. Is it good?"
"Try one and you'll find out. Dumplings come with all kinds of fillings, both meat and vegetable. You can try them all."
While the dumplings were cooking, Tang Fan mixed some dipping sauce for Bibi Dong.
"This is dipping sauce. If you don't like it, you can go over there and pick your own."
"Mm, thank you!"
Once the dumplings were cooked, Tang Fan and Bibi Dong began their dinner.
"Tang Fan, tell me, how did your people manage to let every child go to school?"
"That's a long story. More than a hundred years ago, we still had an emperor and nobles here too. The common people were squeezed until they were pale and thin, without enough to eat. This was what they looked like."
Tang Fan found a few old photographs from a century ago and showed them to Bibi Dong.
"That's terrible! Surely the common people on the Douluo Continent aren't that badly off?"
"Yes, it was terrible. It was hard enough just to stay alive, let alone go to school. That was reserved for the lords and the powerful.
"Then foreign enemies invaded. The emperor on the throne was weak and incompetent. After losing the war, he chose to cede territory and pay indemnities, making it even harder for ordinary people to survive.
"Bibi Dong, tell me, what would you do if you couldn't survive anymore?"
"Well... pray to the gods?"
"Hahaha... Pray to the gods, but the gods would tell you that you had to rely on yourselves to change things. So the resistance began."
Tang Fan found a film depicting scenes of a large-scale rebellion.
Though the rebels' weapons were old and battered, they sent the forces of the rotten empire fleeing, casting aside their helmets and armor.
The nobles on the Douluo Continent watched the scenes on the sky screen in fear, afraid that the commoners' butcher knives would fall on their own necks.
But after the fear came extreme anger.
"Lowborn scum! Lowborn scum! How dare they? How dare they..."
"They've turned heaven and earth upside down! Turned heaven and earth upside down! If they can't survive, they should just die! The lives of lowborn scum aren't worth anything. How dare they resist? Who gave them the courage..."
For the common people of the Douluo Continent, however, the sky screen had planted a seed called resistance in their hearts.
When they truly couldn't survive anymore, they shouldn't sit and wait for death. They should resist. Even if they died, it would be worth it to drag a noble down with them.
In other words, what the nobles had always feared most had happened after all.
Bibi Dong, too, saw the brutal battlefield scenes and lost her appetite. Fortunately, they had nearly finished eating.
"Did they... win?"
"No. The empire joined forces with the foreign enemies and wiped out the rebels. But once resistance began, it wouldn't stop...
"After countless uprisings, the empire was finally overthrown."
"The empire was overthrown, so you won?"
"No, that was only the beginning. Afterward, fighting broke out across the country, and the people still had no way to make a living. The first world war also took place around that time."
"A world war!"
Shock appeared on Bibi Dong's face.
"It was called a world war, but in truth, it was a handful of countries founded by bandits fighting over territory. Still, the fighting really was brutal."
Tang Fan pulled up some photographs of the battlefields from that time. The photographs also appeared on the sky screen over the Douluo Continent, frightening commoners and nobles alike.
Though those nobles were brutal, their evil deeds too numerous to record even if every bamboo stalk were used as a writing slip, if they were made to see mountains of corpses and seas of blood, they too would wet themselves in fear.
The battlefield scenes Tang Fan showed could be described as mountains of corpses and seas of blood without the slightest exaggeration.
The Star Luo Emperor and Xue Ye were frightened as well. War on the Douluo Continent was just as cruel, but its scale fell far short of this.
They had never seen fighting like that meat-grinder battlefield, nor had they ever imagined it.
Bibi Dong was so frightened that the color drained from her beautiful face, leaving her pale.
"Are you all right? Sorry, I scared you."
Tang Fan turned off his phone and rubbed Bibi Dong's back to help her catch her breath.
"I-I'm all right... Go on. I still want to know more."
Tang Fan nodded as he looked at Bibi Dong's face, the color having returned to it.
All right, I'll try to find some less brutal videos or pictures.
"After the first world war ended, the fighting here also more or less came to an end.
"But those newly in power still represented the interests of the new nobility, and the common people were still the ones being oppressed.
"So the war on behalf of the common people against the new nobility continued."
"Just as I thought. Once the old nobles are overthrown, new ones appear."
"That's right. But likewise, wherever there is oppression, there is resistance.
"While the new nobles were suppressing the common people's forces on every front, a large-scale foreign invasion broke out.
"The invaders burned, killed, looted, and committed every evil imaginable, carrying out inhuman massacres everywhere."
At this point, Tang Fan, angry, was about to look for videos and pictures, but he glanced at Bibi Dong and stopped.
"It's all right. I can handle it..."
"All right!"
Tang Fan found a video and played it. The brutal scenes in it frightened many people on the Douluo Continent so badly that they collapsed to the ground.
The death tolls, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, were shocking, and the human experiments were even more chilling.
Qian Daoliu was so furious that he unconsciously unleashed his Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul.
"Evil! Heresy! The Angel God's justice will never allow such heresy to exist! They're more fallen than the fallen! They must be judged! Judged!"
"Father, calm down. They're a world away. You can't judge them."
"Go and investigate. If there are heretics like that on the Douluo Continent, I'll judge them personally."
"Yes, I'll send people to investigate right away."
Meanwhile, Bibi Dong nearly threw up, but managed to cover her mouth in time.
After finally catching her breath, she burst into curses. "Beasts! They're a pack of beasts!"
Bibi Dong's voice was a little loud, drawing glances from the other diners.
"Shh, keep your voice down. Don't disturb the others."
"Oh, sorry. I got too worked up."