In the seventh year of the Great Expedition, the territory of the Holy Star Empire had expanded to a scale unimaginable to humans of the old era.
Lilith, the Demon General, now known as the "Empire's Whip," commands a demon army that serves as the vanguard of expeditions, where killing and conquest have long been a highly efficient and precise daily routine.
The once barren and desolate "magic-contaminated zone" is no more; in its place lies a massive "recruit training camp" spanning several continents.
Here, newborn monsters are spawned, selected, and strengthened in endless battles, and then continuously thrown into the meat grinder-like front lines.
Lilith's desire for revenge had already been fully expressed during the conquest of the Holy Land.
Now, what drives her is a purer, yet more twisted, emotion: absolute obedience and morbid worship of her master, Lin Feng. Her master's will is the direction of her destruction. Her master's pleasure is the sole value of her existence.
The empire's war machine was operating in a mode never before seen.
The demonic legions were responsible for the frontal assault, using their endless numbers, fearless madness, and terrifying appearance capable of driving any normal creature to the brink of madness to destroy the enemy civilization's will to resist and its manpower. They were the empire's "consumables," a black tide meant to engulf everything.
Following closely behind was the Empire's regular army—human forces represented by the "Iron Legion".
They are equipped with next-generation weapons developed by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, which combine technology and magic.
They piloted towering, imposing mechs and controlled airships capable of precise orbital strikes. Their mission was not to indiscriminately slaughter like the demons, but to efficiently "harvest resources."
The process of war has been solidified into a cold legal code:
After the demons breached the city, all adult males who took up arms in resistance were to be killed without exception. Their corpses would become provisions for the demon army.
All adult males who lay down their arms will be branded with a slave stamp and taken in by the Imperial logistics forces.
They will be transported to all parts of the Empire, toiling to death in the harshest mines, the most radioactive energy plants, or the most dangerous interstellar projects. Every bit of their value will be squeezed clean by the Empire.
All women, regardless of race or age, will be designated as "imperial strategic resources" and received and screened by a special force.
This system brought two major benefits to the empire: an endless supply of cheap labor and... an explosive population growth.
Spurred by the Empire's "Regulations for Rewarding Meritorious Service in the War of Unification," countless soldiers, officers, scientists, and engineers of the Empire regarded receiving one or more female slaves from other races as the highest honor.
This is not merely a spoil of war to satisfy desires, but a "strategic investment" to improve the genes of one's offspring and ensure the continuation of the family line.
In just seven years, the empire's total population skyrocketed from three billion to a terrifying eight billion.
Among them, newborns with different ethnic backgrounds account for more than 70 percent of the new population.
On the streets of the capital, Chengtian, one can see families everywhere consisting of human men from the Empire, female slaves of elves, dwarves, or other races, and their mixed-race children.
Some of these children inherited the beauty and elegance of the elves, some inherited the strength of the dwarves, and some displayed the unique elemental affinity of certain races.
On the surface, this is a golden age of great genetic integration and great civilizational development.
However, beneath this facade of prosperity, an undercurrent powerful enough to shake the very foundations of the empire is quietly brewing.
The "native inhabitants" of the empire—those pure-blooded human families who had lived on this planet before Lin Feng ascended the throne, especially the wives of the elder families who followed Lin Feng in conquering the world and the newly rich military elites—began to feel an unprecedented sense of panic.
Their husbands, with a legitimate reason, brought back one after another young, beautiful, and exotic female slave.
These female slaves were not only legal private property, but their reproduction was also encouraged and rewarded by imperial law.
They watched as their husbands devoted more and more time and energy to women of other races and the children they bore.
Their proud pure "Yanhuang bloodline" is becoming increasingly "rare" in the face of the huge number of mixed-race newborns.
Their biggest concern was inheritance rights. According to the Empire's existing laws, all citizens' descendants have equal inheritance rights.
This means that the family business they painstakingly built, the merits and fiefdoms their husbands earned with their blood, may in the future be inherited by a "bastard" with pointed ears.
This is something they absolutely cannot tolerate.
A tea party for ladies, hosted by Li Jing, the "official wife" of the Imperial Marshal, is underway.
Those who could attend this tea party were all spouses of the highest-ranking figures in the imperial military and political system.
Their husbands determined the direction of the empire; while they, in another way, influenced the future of the empire.
"Sister Jing, have you heard? The latest report from the Academy of Sciences says that the fusion rate of 'alien genes' in newborns of our empire has reached a critical point. If this continues, within three generations, the empire may not have any pure Yanhuang bloodlines left."
The speaker was Colonel Zhao Tianyu's wife, Wang Lin. Her face was adorned with exquisite makeup, but a hint of worry lingered between her brows.
As a young general of the empire, Zhao Tianyu was rewarded with ten female slaves from different races. Among them, the elven girl with long, moon-white hair had borne him three children in the past few years. Wang Lin, on the other hand, had only given birth to one son.
Her words immediately resonated with all the ladies present.
"Who says otherwise? My husband, Old Zhang, is just a minor deputy minister in the Ministry of Military Affairs, yet he has five female slaves in his household. The day before yesterday, a beastman female slave with fox ears gave birth to twins for him! I feel so choked up just looking at those two little bastards!"
"What's so bad about feeling upset? You haven't seen the talent of those mixed-race kids! My son just entered the Imperial Junior Military Academy this year, and his half-brother, born to that dwarf slave girl, is one of them. Good heavens, he's only eight years old, but he's stronger than my ten-year-old son! How are we going to divide the family property and titles after this?"
Panic, like a plague, spread among the "official wives" of these empires.
They enjoyed the glory and wealth brought by their husbands, but they also deeply feared the foreign female slaves who were used as "breeding tools" and the "bastards" born from them who were gifted with extraordinary talents.
They fear their position will be shaken, and even more so, they fear that their children's future will be replaced by these mixed-race brothers and sisters.
Li Jing picked up her teacup and took a sip of water from the Moon Well. Her well-maintained face, showing no signs of aging, always wore a serene smile.
"Sisters, please calm down." She spoke slowly, her voice not loud, but it instantly silenced the noisy living room. "I understand your worries. Have you considered His Majesty's worries?"
The group looked at each other in bewilderment.
Li Jing put down her teacup and glanced at everyone present: "The Empire needs people, a massive population to fill the vast territories we have conquered, and a massive number of soldiers with various talents to carry out even greater expeditions. That's why His Majesty tacitly approves and even encourages the use of foreign female slaves to rapidly increase the population."
“But…” she changed the subject, a glint of wisdom flashing in her eyes, “The Empire is the empire of the descendants of Yan and Huang. This has never changed from beginning to end. His Majesty’s surname is Lin. Our roots are in China.”
"How could we possibly fathom His Majesty's profound wisdom and foresight? What we need to do now is not to engage in internal strife or jealousy, but to trust His Majesty. Trust that he will, at the most opportune moment, establish unchanging rules for us and for our descendants."
Li Jing's words acted like a shot in the arm, temporarily calming the ladies present.
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