"Believe in God! Believe in God! Believe in God!"
"Down with the Church! Freedom of thought! Down with the Church! Freedom of thought!"
The intellectual and cultural development of the Southern Continent has indeed reached a new peak. Freedom is celebrated along with the development of wealth and productivity. From culture to thought, from clothing to rules, from laws to punishments, from wealth to enjoyment, everything is progressing rapidly with the development of wealth culture. At present, only the issue of hygiene remains at the development stage of a thousand years ago, without any progress.
No, perhaps the freedom to excrete is also a way of promoting freedom.
The Southern Continent's Renaissance today is characterized by intellectual liberation, the abolition of rules and regulations, religious reform, and the slave trade—all of which have brought about significant changes.
The most telling example is the existence of 'demonstrations' as a collective activity, which is truly a model of free thought.
It is important to know that 1,500 years ago, if any poor person dared to say anything negative about the Church, the Holy Lord Church as a pretext to launch a city-wide purge, and countless poor people would become food.
The Holy Lord City, which was completely annihilated by the Holy Knight, is a typical example.
However, nowadays, people can freely form marches in the streets, and countless people, even women, can gather together, holding up signs of discontent to express their demands.
"Creak... creak..." The sound of horse-drawn carriages echoed along the road filled with pedestrians. A few ship slaves served as horses, their thin bodies laboriously pulling the carriages loaded with goods, transporting goods along the road.
Everywhere around the shops, you could see slaves loading cargo, or you could see bosses brandishing whips to discipline disobedient slaves.
With the rise of the ship slave trade, those who bought ship slaves were not only major lords or farmers, but more people actually gathered in cities, and their miserable figures filled various places that needed labor.
The city, which was once inhabited only by white people, is now a mix of black and white, showing some characteristics of later times.
While the Southern Continent appears to be thriving and the painful years of the past have faded away, in reality, the darkness, violence, and oppression during this period far surpass those of the Papal State era.
Everywhere along the streets, one could see the figures of ship slaves forced to work under the threat of whips; the oppression they suffered from the Southern Continent was overt and written down.
At the rise of the ship slave trade, in order to obtain lasting and legitimate profits, the two major sects of the Southern Continent, the Holy Lord Church and the Common Lord Faith, jointly compiled a " Holy Recruitment Decree " at the request of the royal families of various countries.
According to the " Holy Recruitment Decree," ship slaves are essentially reincarnations of demons banished to Hell by God. They are born with original sin and are meant to atone for it. Serving the people of the Southern Continent is their way of redeeming themselves.
Because they are demons, these ship slaves cannot be called human, and therefore all the people of the Southern Continent have the power of life and death over them.
Originally, due to racial differences, the people of the Southern Continent already looked down on these ship slaves. Now, with the " Holy Recruitment Decree " of the two major sects, the status and lives of the ship slaves have become even more insignificant.
The ship slaves, used as horses, pushed the carriage through the street, their numb eyes fixed on the tree trunk beside them.
The massive tree was no longer a good place to shelter, for seven or eight corpses of ship slaves hung from its branches, swaying in the wind. Nearby, patrolling police officers were even hanging new ropes to hoist up one of the escaped ship slaves they had just arrested...
"Alright! Hang him!"
"You devil, you don't know how to work and yet you dare to run away! God will never forgive you!"
"Stop killing him! Stop killing him! I paid money to buy him back!"
A group of people surrounded the tree in a chaotic scene, while onlookers lined both sides of the street, with many even clapping and cheering.
"These dark-skinned monkeys deserve to be hanged! Damn it, laziness is in their nature, they don't deserve God's salvation!"
The ship slaves who were carrying cargo looked at the bodies of their compatriots hanging from the trees on both sides. Some of them might feel a little sad and painful, but more of them actually felt a sense of schadenfreude.
This is overt oppression.
Besides the various ship slaves and genuine citizens, beggars collapsed on the roadside could be seen everywhere on both sides of the street.
They were barely clothed, filthy, emaciated from hunger, and their eyes were dull and lifeless.
Ship slaves all had the right to work. On the contrary, those who could not afford to become ship slaves but still had human status, and were restricted by the law from being arbitrarily killed or oppressed, have now been reduced to beggars without work.
Every day, one or two poor people starved to death on the streets. The booming development of the times and the liberation of labor brought about by ship slavery seemed to have nothing to do with them.
Even so, when they saw the scene of ship slaves being prepared to be hanged on the street, they still held their heads high and roared with the noble anger of being human, despite their powerless bodies.
"Hang them! Hang these filthy slaves! Ha ha ha, that's it! Let these damned devils go back to Hell!"
This is an absurd era. Beneath the beautiful guise of cultural revival lies the utter ugliness of emerging capital in its initial accumulation phase and the final revelry before the collapse of the feudal dynasty!
The law is being blatantly denied in the name of freedom, the old order is on the verge of collapse as it enters a new era, and all kinds of crimes that were previously strictly prohibited are no longer controlled. From top to bottom, whether it is the royal family or the farmers, everyone is desperately trying to make money.
Just like the Victorian era, which Europe consider the most romantic time, hidden beneath its romance and prosperity was endless death and despair.
On both sides of the road, people were starving to death and being hanged, but in the middle of the road, people were holding up signs for a protest and shouting slogans.
"Down with the Church! Freedom of thought! Down with God! Freedom of the people!"
The discovery of a true god within the Holy See has been a sensation throughout the Southern Continent for some time now.
Countless believers seized this opportunity to try to eliminate religious reformation and re-establish the Holy Lord Church as the only religion in the Southern Continent.
In previous years, their desires might have been fulfilled, but in recent years, with the rise of the slave trade, the abundance of labor, and the rapid development of technology, people now pursue endless wealth and genuine freedom.
Religion has now become a constraint over them.
So when news broke that the Holy See had unearthed God, and believers began to cry out in protest, this group of progressive thinkers also embarked on a path of resistance... including but not limited to various marches and demonstrations, pressuring the governments of various countries in the Southern Continent, and direct immigration.
The shouts of this group had already enraged the surrounding believers.
Although religious reforms have been carried out, the faith in God has persisted in the Southern Continent for countless years. With Saint Peter relinquishing his ruling power, the Holy Lord Church become the premier inheritor of this ideology.
Now, with the rise of a free spirit, this group actually wants to overthrow the Church. Putting aside whether they agree or not, the fact that a true god was unearthed from the back mountain of the Holy See recently has driven them to complete madness regarding their faith.
Countless believers surrounded the streets, hurling insults at the protesters. Some even held up images of God to join the march.
However, the images of God they held in their hands had changed from the previous images of God shepherding sheep or other depictions of God to a strange, slender, pale, and perfectly proportioned figure.
Even the God in this Pale God doesn't just have one head!
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"Your Majesty, the situation within the country has been extremely chaotic lately. Various demonstrations and protests have occurred in major cities, and in some cities, large-scale armed clashes have even broken out between believers and protesters... The Pale God unearthed from the mountains behind the Holy See has been hailed as the true God by those Church believers. There are even fanatical groups now forming groups that claim to overthrow imperial rule, establish Church- empire, and venerate the newly emerged God as the true ruler of the Garden of Eden!"
Inside the imperial palace of the Aodelan Empire, Emperor Miles XIII of Aodelan sat behind an exquisitely decorated wooden table, listening intently to the servants' reports with a stern face.
The Aodelan Empire claims to be the legitimate descendant of the Ancient Holy Boya Empire, and its territory is mostly within the former Boya Empire. Therefore, it can indeed be considered the legitimate successor of the Boya Empire.
However, it is only one of them.
Although he is called an emperor, he can only be called a king nowadays.
Since His Holiness Duoxia relinquished his power to the Southern Continent 1,500 years ago, the era has transitioned to one similar to the divine right of kings. Although there are not as many restrictions as the divine right of kings, and kings do not need to be crowned by the pope upon taking office, His Holiness Saint Peter is revered as the only pope of the Southern Continent and enjoys the unique status of an emperor. Therefore, from then on, emperors of all countries could no longer be called emperors, but rather kings.
His title was officially changed from "Your Majesty" to "Your Majesty," to signify the change in his Existence Level.
However, that era is too far removed from the present, and in recent years, the ship slave trade and the revival of culture have made the development of various countries in the Southern Continent smooth sailing. The royal families of each country have already harbored the ambition to become emperors, so now the title has been changed back to emperor.
The only reason it hasn't changed is to prevent unrest among believers.
Miles XIII is now in his forties and shows signs of aging.
He sat upright behind the desk, his gaze fixed on the portrait of God placed on it, his expression and mood unreadable.
On the table in front of him was a painting that the believers who had seen God claimed was the most likeness of God.
It depicts a slender, tall, and pale humanoid creature with an exquisitely perfect face, so much so that its gender is indistinguishable by looking at its face alone. If it weren't for the pale phallus protruding from its lower body, it would truly possess a strange Divinity.
That's right, Norton's telescopic baton has already been painted onto the portrait of God in the Southern Continent.
Furthermore, none of these charlatans are currently considered by fanatical Church believers to be newly unearthed God from the back mountains!
They really do judge people by their character.
As Miles XIII gazed at the pale, perfect portrait of God on the table, so indistinguishable in gender, his expression grew increasingly grim.
"Is this the God described in all the wonders of the world? Humph! Such a bizarre creature can be called God? Is it some ancient, hairless monkey? Look at the filth below. If God is this unclean, then the Holy Lord Church truly a giant den of iniquity!"
These damned Church people never miss an opportunity to consolidate power! And they are so greedy and disgusting!
Miles XIII stared at the portrait in his hand with an extremely grim expression.
In reality, the royal families of various countries did not live a very stable life during these periods.
The Church's influence in the Southern Continent is simply too great. Which high-ranking member of the Church wouldn't want to leverage this influence to climb the ranks and ultimately become a true king wielding power?
Therefore, some people in the Church have always used various underhanded tactics throughout these years; otherwise, it would have been impossible to abolish so many Church rules during the Reformation.
After all, he needs to establish rules before he can abolish them.
"Your Majesty, the tide of thought has risen, and the clarion call for freedom has been sounded. These Church believers who like to return to the old ways and stick to the old rules have now completely run out of options. Of course, they will try to grasp at everything they can, like drowning people," a close attendant casually comforted him.
What he said was indeed true.
The revival of arts and culture, the shift in intellectual trends, and even religious reforms were all measures introduced by successive emperors of these countries to weaken the influence of religion. Now that these measures have yielded some results and the people are enjoying freedom and happiness, how could they possibly still flock to the Church to become slaves to Church brainwashing?
"You don't understand! This method of confronting the Church is a double-edged sword. The people gain wealth and enjoy freedom of thought, so they will not only oppose the rule of the Church, but also the secular imperial power!"
Moreover, with the slave trade and the discovery of the New World, there are more and more wealthy people. Some have even lost their sense of national identity and have begun to amass wealth by any means necessary!
If this continues, these people who dare to sell even the ropes to hang themselves will inevitably overthrow the imperial power, the economy, and the country!
Its harmful nature is no different from that of the Church, and may even be more so.
Although the term "capitalism" has not yet been coined, as the emperor of a country, he may have had a certain premonition about the current situation and the future development of the country, and even keenly saw the huge problems hidden within.
However, they currently have no choice but to use this method to clean up the problems left over from the Church, so they can only let it develop for the time being, which is really a headache!
Miles XIII looked grim, but ultimately there was nothing he could do; he could only shift his attention from the state to this newly emerged God.
"How's the investigation going with this new ' God '?"
"Your Majesty, according to the research and verification conducted by our scholars in recent times, the God unearthed from the back mountain of the Holy See seems to be... Norton, the one who created the wonders of the Southern Continent and our Aodelan Empire!"
Although the history of 1,500 years ago has been deliberately destroyed, based on the folk tales passed down orally in various places and the texts and pictures carved on those wonders, the God excavated from the back mountain of the Holy See may very well be the Vampire Progenitor brought about the Great Flood more than 1,500 years ago.
Furthermore, the findings from our explorations in the caves behind the Holy See, and the horrific descriptions of the crowds dragging a massive palace to ashes in the sun in Laimoen City, along with their abnormal reactions upon seeing the sun, resonate with the ancient legends of Vampire in our Southern Continent!
Miles XIII raised an eyebrow, his expression clearly changing, and a cryptic smile appeared on his face.
"I never imagined that Vampire, who have been rumored for so long and possess eternal lifespans, would actually exist... Perhaps this is my opportunity."
Hurry up and gather information about this God! I want to see whether our current artillery is more powerful, or this hairless, skinny monkey is!