It is the residence and palace of General Jiaoyan, the nominal ruler of all Yug'groths, and is also an ultimate war fortress.

There is not only a powerful war magic siege tower, but also an academy dedicated to teaching strategic and tactical skills.

The Yug'groth officers who have won the most victories in bloody battles and have the most command experience will teach the younger generations here how to deal with demons and devils, and how to defeat their powerful legions and win.

Although in the eyes of many people, the presence of the Yug'groth in the bloody battle has never been very obvious.

But in fact they are the third largest participant in the longest, largest and most bloody war in the universe.

Although the size of its army is far less than the endless number of demons, and it also lacks the unity, discipline and efficiency of the devil's army, it can always create some astonishing records.

Basically, as long as the Yugoloths side with one side, the other side will inevitably suffer terrible casualties and failure.

Fortunately, these strictly guys adhere to the neutral camp and basically help whoever gives them the most benefits.

Once the overall balance is broken, they will immediately turn against the winning side and suppress it.

After all, only by keeping the strength of demons and devils similar can the Yugoloth mercenaries continue to earn generous commissions.

In addition, there are a large number of factories in the Crawling City that are producing the latest military equipment day and night. Some are used to arm themselves, and the rest are sold at high prices to both sides of the bloody battle.

The most important thing is that just by hearing the name "Crawling City", you can tell that it is not fixed in one place, but can move around like a floating city.

The only difference is that it doesn't fly, but crawls.

Beneath the entire huge city, there are thousands of extremely thick crab legs that look like the limbs of evil spirits.

Even if you encounter the steepest cliffs or the widest lava rivers, you can still cross them quickly as if you were walking on flat ground.

As for the direction of movement, according to the Yug'groth, it should all come from the will of General Jiao Yan.

No one knows how powerful General Jiao Yan is. To be exact, no one has ever seen him, not even the Yug'groth himself.

But some speculate that he is as powerful as the lords of the layers of Hell, while others think he is on par with the most powerful demigods.

But what is certain is that this person is undoubtedly a quasi-divine power.

It is said that the moment the Crawling City joins the bloody battle is when the outcome of the war will be decided.

Of course, as a great devil, Zuo Si had strong suspicion and contempt for the self-boasting behavior of the Yug'groth.

Just relying on the quasi-divine power of a demigod to end the bloody war? What a joke! Asmodeus, the Lord of Hell, did not dare to end the bloody war easily, but had to maintain it as much as possible, otherwise the current cosmic order would quickly collapse and cause a series of chaos and turmoil.

In fact, after arriving at the Scorching Hell, Zuo Si's first stop was the Crawling City, and he made a deal with the high-level Yugroth here, exchanging some junk that he had no use for the approximate location of the Kingdom of Baal.

You have to know that the outer plane is infinite, so it is quite difficult to find a kingdom of a god in such a place.

Unless the god opens his kingdom to the outside world and allows visitors from other places to come in and out freely, if he hides himself deliberately, it may take even one or two hundred years to find the god.

But now he visited this city again in order to retrieve the crystal pendant with the evil demon of lust beside him.

I have to say, it's a pretty good idea to save things in the Crawling City.

Because this is one of the very few places in the entire Jiaoyan Hell where powerful dragons dare not act recklessly.

The reason is very simple.

The Crawling City itself is actually equivalent to the territory of General Jiao Yan, who can not only gain power from the massive Yugroth demons, but also get the blessing of home advantage.

Even if the incarnation of God came, it would be difficult to gain any advantage, let alone a legendary dragon that didn't even have any divine power.

In order not to attract too much attention, Zuo Si has now transformed into the appearance of a horned demon instead of the human form or the big devil form, just like when he came not long ago.

In the Crawling City, horned devils, spiked devils, and bone devils are the most common types of devils.

Some of them serve as liaisons and represent a certain lord to hire the Yug'groth army to join the bloody battle, while others earn "extra money" here as free mercenaries.

However, it is unknown how many of the devils working as mercenaries are real mercenaries and how many are spies from Baator.

According to the rules of hell, every devil must have a master and an object of loyalty from the moment he is born. Zuo Si felt that these guys were all spies and detectives without exception.

Devils were not uncommon on the city's streets anyway, and the same was true of demons.

Even occasionally, celestial beings and visitors from other material planes and the outer planes can be seen.

After all, one of the biggest characteristics of the Yugoloth is profiteering.

As long as they are given enough benefits, it doesn't matter even if it means they go against their evil nature and do good things.

So even though the Yug'groth claims to be neutral, they are actually closer to lawful devils than chaotic demons, and never refuse any profitable deal.

This can be seen from the prosperous markets and shops of all sizes in the Crawling City.

There is no doubt that with Zuo Si's current identity, it is obviously impossible for him to stay in a relatively relaxed state while staying in another home of divine power.

The potential spiritual detection that is everywhere around us makes people feel uneasy and nervous all the time.

Even though he knew that this kind of detection could not see through his disguise and defense.

So he didn't say a word the whole time, just followed the evil demon of lust silently, behaving like a hired bodyguard.

As for the lustful demon Louise, she didn't dare to have any evil thoughts at this moment, as she had already seen Zuo Si's appearance in dragon form and the terrifying power he exuded.

She knew very well that if she dared to violate the signed contract, no one, not even General Jiao Yan himself, would be able to save her, so she cooperated very well from beginning to end.

About twenty minutes after entering the city, the two had already obtained the dark blue crystal pendant.

Looking at the worn, cloudy prismatic crystal in his hand, as well as the images and ancient text projected from the inside of the crystal under the light, Zuo Si asked with interest, "Where did you find this thing?"

The Evil Demon of Love shook his head slightly: “Sorry, I'm not sure either.

All we know is that the Power Dragon bought it from a dimensional merchant at a huge price.

And through a series of deductions and verifications from several ancient books and notes, it was confirmed that this was the location where the Dark Heart Gem was buried.

However, because the map was too vague and abstract, he was ultimately unable to find the marked location.

I took a huge risk to steal it, just to sell it for a good price."

"So everything is just a guess that a dragon has yet to confirm?"

Zuo Si raised his eyebrows and showed an expression of disbelief.

It seems that after all the effort, what I got in the end is most likely a "fake".

"Almost. But in any case, this pendant is quite old, and it is very likely that a huge treasure or artifact is buried there."

The devil of love spread out his hands with an innocent look.

At this point, no matter what secrets were hidden in the crystal pendant, it had nothing to do with her.

"Well, I knew I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.

How could the clue to a powerful artifact like the Heart of Darkness be obtained by a power dragon for no reason?

No, that's not right.

To be precise, if the Heart of Darkness gem can really drive away the power of chaos and order as rumored, it is 100% impossible that it was made by Jiao Yan's general uniform.

Because judging from the power possessed by the Crawling City, his power level is obviously far from this level.

In other words, at least it takes great divine power to create items of this level."

Zuo Si complained a few words with a twitching mouth, then put the crystal pendant away and prepared to take it back to study it carefully some time.

He didn't know much about the history of Gehenna and the birth of the Yug'groth, so he planned to find an opportunity to look up information in the library of Oghma, the god of knowledge, or ask Asmodeus, the lord of Hell.

Anyway, there are not many records of this in the memory of the Abyss Will.

Of course, if this thing really records the burial location of the Dark Heart Gem, it would be a typical pie in the sky.

Instead of feeling fortunate or happy, Zuo Si needed to be more vigilant as to whether there were enemies secretly plotting against him, or whether this matter itself was a huge trap.

Having experienced all kinds of scams, tricks and sales in modern society, he doesn't believe deep down that the so-called "lucky prize" will fall on him.

Normally, if something good happens suddenly, the sensitive nerve in the brain will be immediately triggered into a state of alert.

"The contract I signed ends here, right?" the devil of love cautiously tested.

"Yes, you have fulfilled the terms of the contract. Now we are even."

After saying that, Zuo Si showed a friendly smile, then activated the teleportation magic and disappeared without a trace.

The lustful demon heaved a of relief upon seeing this, and sat down on the ground exhausted sigh. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and cheeks with the back of his hand, his eyes revealing an unconcealable fear.

Just when her tense nerves were about to relax and she wanted to get up and find a tavern or hotel to celebrate her survival, the air behind her suddenly flashed with a strange and inexplicable distortion.

The next second...

A devil who was over three meters tall and extremely thin suddenly appeared out of nowhere. With lightning speed, he grabbed the slender and sexy neck of the evil demon with his sharp claws.

“Wuwuwu…”

The pain and strong feeling of suffocation caused by the huge external force on her tibia immediately made Louise struggle desperately, trying to fight back with her equally sharp claws.

But unfortunately, before her claws could touch the opponent's body, they were immediately blocked by an invisible force field.

What is even more unbelievable is that the Evil Demon of Lust used several innate spell-like abilities one after another, but each one was forcibly countered just before it was released halfway.

The worst thing was that when the opponent counterattacked, he neither chanted any spells nor cast any spells. He just stared at him with those creepy eyes.

"Ah! What a beautiful face! Dear, I want to use your soul to make a new mask. What do you think?"

The devil raised his head to reveal a human face that was extremely inconsistent with his body, and the corners of his mouth were wildly raised, giving people a hysterical and crazy feeling.

But it was obvious that the devil of lust, whose neck was stuck tightly, had no way of speaking. He could only try his best to shake the claw that looked very thin but was actually very powerful and as motionless as an iron clamp.

Then, under the influence of a terrifying brute force, her neck began to bend downward uncontrollably, and a crisp sound similar to that of broken bones was heard.

Snap!

The entire spine broke into two sections on the spot.

The intense pain caused the lustful demon to groan and growl in pain from his nostrils and throat.

Although for mortals, a violently broken neck like this can be classified as a fatal injury.

If you don't get timely treatment, you will definitely die.

But for the evil demon, as long as its head is not pulled off completely, it will not die easily.

The strange devil grabbed the head that had been completely broken off and was at the mercy of others like a rag doll, pulled it down hard and pretended to nod, then raised his voice to imitate the voice of the evil devil of lust and said to himself: "Okay! I am very happy to be made into a mask by you."

moment!

The evil demon of love felt unprecedented fear.

This fear does not come from the struggle against death, but from the morbidity and distortion shown by the other party.

Unfortunately, she could neither make any sound nor speak. She could only watch as the devil used his sharp nails to scratch bloody marks on her beautiful face. Then he suddenly tore off the bloody skin at an extremely fast speed, held it in his hands and stroked it gently, as if it were some precious treasure.

After a long while, the guy reluctantly let go of the bloody face, turned around and stared at the lustful demon who no longer looked beautiful and seductive, and asked with a half-smile: "I think you must want to know why you became the target of hunting before you die, right?"

“…”

The lustful demon lay there motionless, unable to even blink.

Because even the eyelids were completely peeled off, leaving only two protruding eyeballs that could still barely rotate.

"The answer is actually very simple.

My master didn't want anyone to know that he had the crystal pendant.

If one wants to keep secrets in this universe filled with powerful magic and divine power, one must cleanse oneself from body to soul all at once.

I happened to have this ability, so I was sent here.

Please remember, next time when you sign a contract with a devil, especially a big devil like the master, it is best to read every clause carefully and hire an expert who can read the true words.

Otherwise it would be impossible for you to spot the deliberate loopholes.

Oh, I almost forgot, you don't have a next chance."

As the last word came out of his mouth, the devil released a kind of black and red mist, which wrapped the evil demon of love from head to toe.

During this process, the latter's body and even soul began to dissolve at an extremely fast speed, and finally turned into invisible energy and was sucked into the bloody mask.

In the blink of an eye, the entire mask became as smooth as new, without any trace of blood or dirt.

Not only that, a faint blue light would flash in the empty eye sockets from time to time.

"Haha, what a beautiful mask. From now on, your memory, life and everything belongs to me."

After saying that, the devil quickly activated the teleportation magic and disappeared on the spot.

Just a second later, he appeared in front of Zuo Si, bowed gracefully, performed a standard elf salute, and presented the mask he had just made with both hands.

"Master, as you requested, I have dealt with the last hidden danger. No one knows that you have the crystal pendant anymore."

"Well done, Erinikas."

Zuo Si nodded with satisfaction.

As a cautious person, how could he leave such a huge hidden danger? Silencing him is simply a common thing.

Only when the evil demon of love and lust disappears completely can he feel truly at ease.

"It's my honor. If there are similar opportunities in the future, please let me handle them. Because I am eager to make and collect more masks to take away other people's memories and lives."

Erinikas, who had already been transformed into a great devil, smiled with excitement and anticipation.

Of course, strictly speaking his current name is no longer this, but a real name of the devil.

But considering that the real names of alien creatures such as demons and devils often have powerful magical effects, no fool would let outsiders know their real names, and they would always come up with a fake name for daily use.

In order to make it easier to pronounce, Zuo Si simply used the other person's name when he was a mortal.

But in fact, the Erinikas in front of him was completely different from the previous Erinikas.

Especially the ability to make and use masks, it's like a monster from a horror story.

Because as long as the mask is successfully made and given to him for use, this guy will be able to completely integrate into the role played by the new mask.

Regardless of race, gender, thinking, values, worldview and fighting style, they will be exactly the same as the unfortunate person who was originally made into a mask. Even the closest people will not be able to detect the slightest difference.

Moreover, the replacement of this mask only takes a moment, and it can be superimposed on his current mask.

"No problem. I will select suitable targets for you to collect and plunder as much as you want."

As Zuo Si spoke, he took the mask and then handed it back.

Because only after he hands it back can the other party use the mask, otherwise even if it is completed it can only be used as a decoration.

"Thank you so much!"

After being "given" the mask, Erinikas didn't wait even a second and immediately put the new toy on his face impatiently.

In the blink of an eye, she transformed from a tall and thin devil into a beautiful and charming lustful demon, and even posed in very seductive movements and postures.

Apparently, this is the power he gained by becoming the Archdemon.

Zuo Si even considered using the sparkling oil to complete Erinikas, and then make him a blue magic judge to control a subsidiary plane and become the lord.

But eventually the idea was abandoned.

The reason is simple. His strength and development potential are far from qualified to become the Demon Judge of blue mana in the ninth level of hell.

As his strength continued to grow, Zuo Si's vision inevitably became more and more discerning.

Just when he was about to continue searching for the location of the Kingdom of Baal, an inter-dimensional portal suddenly opened out of nowhere, and Gramir, the Devil of Pleasure who served as his personal secretary, walked over from the other side.

She first knelt on one knee and kissed the back of the loyal lord's hand affectionately, and then reported with a smile: "My lord, your plan was successful.

The cunning high yugoloth of Sigil has agreed to meet with us.

However, the place she chose was a little troublesome; it was the Chaos Sea, which was overwhelmingly disadvantageous to us.

I even suspect this guy might be connected to some slaad lords.

That's why I want to use the other party's power to ensure my personal safety."

"Choose the Chaos Sea? Let the Slaad Lord guarantee personal safety? Are you sure you're not kidding?"

Even though Zuo Si had seen many big scenes, he was still shocked by Shemisaka's amazing operation.

He simply couldn't believe that the other party was so "brave".

Especially as the ultimate chaotic plane of the universe - the Chaos Sea, it is said that anything can happen there.

Even without mentioning the powerful Slaad lords who possess quasi-divine powers, whose behaviors have no rules or logic at all, and who might immediately regret what they agreed to the next second, as well as the super giant toads that are so big that they can swallow a dragon in one gulp, the extremely harsh environment alone is enough to deter the gods.

The evil and chaotic gods basically either stay in the Abyss to establish their kingdom, or choose the wasteland of destruction and despair, or the noisy tunnel filled with hysteria and madness.

Chaotic good gods often choose Elysium and Argo.

As for chaotic neutral...

Basically, they either establish their own country or live in the Noisy Tunnel plane.

Anyway, there are not many people who really dare to go to the Chaos Sea.

Because this broken place has a characteristic that other planes do not have, which is that it cannot be permanently shaped by divine power at all.

Even if it is temporarily controlled and shaped, it still requires a lot of time, energy and divine power to maintain it.

Otherwise, the established country will collapse and disintegrate in a very short time.

In addition, all magical powers in the Chaos Sea will produce fluctuations similar to those of the Mad Mage, and trigger completely uncontrollable and unknown effects.

This is also the reason why Zuo Si has never been to the Chaos Sea.

Moreover, as a quasi-divine power in the lawful camp, he will also be suppressed by the power of the entire plane. Not only will his basic attributes be greatly weakened, but the archdevil's quasi-divine power will also be lost by more than 70%.

If you are unlucky enough to meet the Slaad Lord again, a fierce battle is inevitable.

In short, Zuo Si had no idea why Shemisaka chose the Chaos Sea.

Gramir sighed helplessly and replied, "I also hope this is a joke. But unfortunately, it is the truth. I suggest you make more preparations and keep at least four elite legions on standby at all times."

But Zuo Si shook his head gently: "No, don't bother. I alone am equivalent to ten of the most elite devil legions. No matter what tricks Shemisaka is playing, she can't escape this time."

"You want to do it yourself?"

Glamir probed with his eyes wide open.

“That’s right.

Only if I take action myself can I control this cunning high-level yugoloth.

I already have a comprehensive plan for Sigil.

What's more, those guys from the Gods and Non-Gods Society still owe me a debt."

As he said this, a cold light flashed in Zuo Si's eyes.

He would never forget the crazy plan of that group of members of the Gods and Non-Gods to blow up the entire Temple of Askatla.

That incredibly powerful magical device has not yet been recovered from the sewer.

Once it is found, Zuo Si will immediately arrange for people to return it to the organization and directly blow up the headquarters as a revenge.

"Okay, I'll arrange it right away."

Although Gramir felt that his lord's behavior was a bit risky, he still chose to obey.

After all, obeying orders from superiors is deeply engraved in the bones of every devil.

No matter how angry, dissatisfied, and hateful they are about the orders, they must do their best to complete them.

Otherwise, they may face humiliating relegation.

As soon as the Devil of Pleasure left, Zuo Si contacted his ace spy, Farrow, who had fifteen completely different personalities, and learned about Shemisaka's movements in recent times.

However, Faro was unable to learn all the cards held by this Yugoloth.

But the good news is that he will follow the team to the Chaos Sea in another identity.

In this way, the trap set for Shemishaka finally came to the final stage.

At most in two days, Zuo Si will be able to communicate face to face with the underworld queen of Sigil City.

Until then, his goal remains to find the kingdom of Baal and destroy it utterly.

…

At the same time, far to the east of the continent of Faerun, the two islands of the province of Alaur, across the sea from Sel, finally regained their former vitality after a period of spending money, operating and liberating a large number of slaves.

The population also gradually increased from only a few thousand people to about 60,000.

In particular, large quantities of the West Coast Empire's most sought-after goods were continuously shipped here, and then wholesaled to local merchants at low prices, allowing them to take them back to their own countries or city-states to dump them, bringing astonishing tax revenues to the port cities.

The Iron Princess Yalusel even summoned craftsmen to make use of the abandoned dry dock again and began to accept orders for building and repairing ships so that those merchants could expand their fleets and purchase and transport more goods at one time.

Smaller boats are used for fishing with nets, mainly to meet the needs of port city residents for meat and protein.

The few areas on the island suitable for farming have been rented to civilians for agriculture, animal husbandry and breeding.

If I have to describe it in one sentence, it would be a scene of prosperity with all industries waiting to be developed.

If no one had seen with their own eyes the devastating state of this place after it was looted by pirates, no one would have believed that it could recover in such a short time after being destroyed.

Thousands of slaves who have regained their freedom have shown their highest loyalty and sense of belonging to this island that the West Coast Empire seized from the Red Robe Wizard.

Even pirates regard this place as their lair and home port.

After each successful robbery, they would go to the market to sell the loot, and then find a tavern to eat and drink to celebrate.

Nowadays, the entire Alanbo Sea and its surrounding coasts have basically been destroyed.

The Mulhorand Empire even had to issue an emergency order to relocate all coastal villages and towns inland.

The slave owners of Enser were also frightened to the point of wetting their pants. They began to flee with their families, and dared not live within 50 kilometers of the seaside or river.

Because once they were caught, for the slaves it meant that they would be liberated serfs and sing, but for the slave owners who were used to being high and mighty it meant that they would become slaves.

Yes, you read that right.

That is to reduce all slave owners and their families and relatives to slaves, and then sell them to Searle as high-quality slaves.

Then he would use the money he earned to buy cheap ordinary slaves and bring them back.

This in and out not only makes a lot of money, but also at least increases the amount of labor obtained several times.

After all, the price of slaves is often determined by many factors.

Appearance, health status, education received, etc. will all become added points during the transaction.

As for the wealthy slave owners and their families, it goes without saying that they are all high-class stuff.

The price of selling them could often buy back ten or more ordinary slaves.

These ordinary slaves would be purchased by the Governor's Office and then regained the status of free people.

In this way, all freed slaves would be grateful to the West Coast Empire.

In comparison, the slave owners and their families who were sold to Sale were miserable.

What awaits them will be long-lasting torture and suffering.

After all, these people must harbor resentment towards the West Coast Empire, which is a huge hidden danger and time bomb.

Rather than staying and waiting for them to cause trouble, or coming out to settle accounts after regaining their freedom, it would be better to pack up and throw them to Searle to save them the trouble.

The most important thing is that in this series of illegal slave trades, it was all done by pirates.

The Governor's Office was not involved from beginning to end, and only came forward at the end to win people's hearts.

At this moment, Yalusail was standing on the balcony of the magnificent mansion that had just been built, looking down at the bustling city below. Without turning his head, he asked, "So far, how much of our first phase of the reconstruction plan has been completed?"

"About 90 percent. The only thing left is to restore food reserves and achieve a balance between revenue and expenditure."

Vera, the finance minister, gave an accurate answer while sitting at the table leisurely sipping hot tea.

Needless to say, the current prosperity of these two islands is closely related to her.

To be precise, she was teaching the Iron Princess, who originally only knew how to fight, how to govern a territory or even an entire country.

After all, if you want to make a country rich, prosperous and stable, all you need to do is to master the three pillars of military, politics and economy.

Through tireless study and practice, Vera has understood the organizational structure and operating principles of modern countries.

Even on Earth, he would be more than qualified to be the leader of a small country.

"Our food consumption has been increasing. If it continues like this, we don't know how long it will take to reach the reserve target.

I don't understand why South always insists on spending huge amounts of money to build public schools in all the towns?

Wouldn't it be better to save this money and use it elsewhere?

Besides, what is the point of teaching the common people and slaves to read and write? They have neither sufficient talent nor broad vision. It is a complete waste of time and money. "

From his tone, it was clear that Yalusel had strong objections to opening public schools to teach civilians to read and write.

In other words, the entire old aristocracy was full of resistance to this move.

Because before that, the knowledge in the west coast of Faerun was monopolized by nobles and wealthy businessmen, that is, the wealthy class.

Commoners want to learn to read, write and do basic arithmetic? Sorry, please pay fifty gold coins to go to the academy or find a private tutor to teach for a few months.

Fifty gold coins is an astronomical figure that ordinary people cannot afford.

Some lucky families who have never suffered from natural disasters or man-made tragedies in their lifetime, don't know if they can come up with that much money.

But what about now?

As long as you are willing to learn, whether you are a child or an adult, you can study in a public college for free.

Although the level of teachers and the quality of lectures vary greatly, at least there is a way to learn.

After all, only by learning to read and write the common language can a person understand the knowledge in books and acquire the ability of self-learning.

This directly broke the upper class's monopoly on knowledge.

The reason why it did not cause a strong backlash was, on the one hand, the vested interest groups were afraid of Zuo Si, a powerful tyrant, and on the other hand, the nobles of Tethyr, Calimshan and Baldur's Gate had already been purged, and the nobles of Amn had long been tortured to death by the Extension of Favor, and did not dare to jump out and cause trouble for fear of being blacklisted.

"What do you think public education is? Some kind of whimsical charity? Or do you think you're smarter than the Emperor?"

Vera put down the teacup in her hand and showed a playful expression.

Yalusel turned around and stared into the other person's eyes, and asked in an uncertain tone: "What do you mean..."

Vera explained meaningfully: “His Majesty Soth once said that public education is a tool of rule.

Its function is to domesticate free people into the labor force and population resources needed by society.

At the same time, establish a strong sense of group identity and values.

Only when consensus is established and all subjects recognize that they are part of the empire will the West Coast Empire become a true country.

Before that, it was just a symbol and a flag that was forcibly put together.

Look at the people in the port cities who are so grateful to the Empire that they voluntarily work more than five hours of overtime every day.

Do you think they are really free? The answer is obviously no.

They have merely passed from a more crude form of slavery to a more subtle form of slavery.

Moreover, this implicit state of slavery has greatly increased labor enthusiasm.

No one noticed that after these former slaves gained their freedom, the wealth they created not only did not decrease, but instead increased by at least two times.

All we pay is a tiny reward, less than one-tenth of the wealth they create.

However, instead of complaining, getting angry, resenting or slacking off about this high-intensity labor as they did before, they smiled with happiness and satisfaction.

"Do you know why?"

"Why? Because we paid for it?"

The Iron Princess was instantly confused.

Vera held out a finger in front of her and shook it gently: "No, no, no, many places also pay wages, but why do the workers there still slack off? This has nothing to do with payment.

Because they have been tamed by the officials we assigned to manage them and some subtle brainwashing.

No one realizes how much value they create through their labor.

It is already a great happiness to mistakenly believe that I was a slave and did not even get paid before, but now I can earn money to support my family through labor and live a normal life.

By comparing their current life with the miserable days in the past, they feel that their current life is good enough, which gives them a sense of happiness and satisfaction.

The feeling of being able to earn rewards through labor makes all those who have been slaves addicted.

By the same token, His Majesty Soth actually had the same purpose in mind when he established public education.

But he did not focus on these petty gains, but instead set his sights on higher places.

He wants to build a true thousand-year empire, a ten-thousand-year empire that can rise from the ashes like a phoenix again and again even if it collapses or is destroyed."

"I see! I think I understand a little bit..."

There was a strange light in Yalusel's eyes, and he was extremely shocked and unbelievable about Zuo Si's grand vision and ambition.

At this moment, she realized how fundamentally different the West Coast Empire was from other traditional countries on the continent of Faerun.

In addition, the turmoil in her heart, which had finally calmed down, began to make the Iron Princess miss the tense and exciting feeling of being with someone, and she subconsciously clamped her legs together.