Chapter 45 The Era of Military Reclamation (1)
On January 1, 12566 of the Great Abyss Calendar in the Dust Continent, the 400th Great Abyss Sea All-People Arena Tournament begins.
After the high priest delivered the opening address, the first thing he announced was not the start of the competition, but that he would pass the throne to his chosen successor, the goddess Bai Xi, after the competition.
Because his chosen successor was only seven years old, the high priest would not immediately transfer all power to the new high priest after the abdication.
He will serve as the First Regent Elder, personally assisting the new High Priestess for a full ten years, until she turns seventeen, at which point he will transfer all power to her.
A grand coronation ceremony will be held, where the High Priest will personally crown the Goddess Bai Xi, thus completing this transfer of power.
The announcement of this momentous event sparked a heated debate among the twelve elders of the Great Abyss Sea.
Ultimately, the high priest's proposal was passed with an overwhelming majority of eight votes to four.
Compared to the heated debates among the higher-ups, the lower-level demons were more accepting of the idea.
For thousands of years, the people have mostly trusted the high priest. Whatever the high priest suggested, everyone naturally assumed it was correct.
Moreover, although the High Priest returned defeated this time, he brought back aliens with powerful purification abilities, as well as many skilled craftsmen from other races.
For the people of the Fine Demon race, whose true form is the seaweed, building houses is not something they place much importance on.
However, after seeing the buildings constructed by these skilled craftsmen, and after transforming into human form during the day, the tribespeople began to yearn for a place to live on land.
Most importantly, the aliens taught them the skills to purify seawater and make their own pure fresh water.
They also brought various drought-resistant and salt-tolerant plant seeds from another world, and planted them into patches of green plants.
The most direct benefit of the environmental changes is that seawater pollution has been reduced, sea levels have stopped declining, and the living environment has become better.
For ordinary people, it doesn't matter who is the high priest or who is the elder.
The important thing is the tangible benefits that higher-ups can bring them.
The young goddess Bai Xi now possesses powerful purification abilities, which alone is enough to earn the trust and support of the people.
Not to mention her mother also possesses planting skills, something the lower-level Yellow Demons might not understand, but the Green and Blue Demons are very clear about the changes she will bring to the entire continent in the future.
In short, Goddess Bai Xi's succession as High Priest was approved by both the high-ranking elders and the common people.
Furthermore, since the successor was personally chosen by the current high priest, the matter became a foregone conclusion and unchangeable.
After announcing the succession of the High Priest, the High Priest declared the start of the arena competition.
In addition to the regular contest of martial prowess, the 400th tournament added new competition categories—individual competitions in water magic, earth magic, and wood magic.
In the past, the Demon Clan always valued strength in battle because they had to go to other worlds to fight and plunder resources in order to survive.
This time, however, the high priest decided to select a group of people with exceptional one-dimensional magical abilities and use their strengths in planting, irrigation, and construction to cultivate plants, prepare medicines, manage soil and water, and build houses.
This move ignited the passion of many low-ranking tribespeople, who had previously believed that without strong fighting power, they would never have a chance to rise above their circumstances.
Unexpectedly, one day they were able to contribute to the prosperity of their race with their weak abilities.
The competition began in full swing, but the traitors who had infiltrated the participants had yet to receive the attack signal from their leader.
At first they were uneasy, but soon they were attracted by the new competition.
Some of these people harbored resentment because they were not given the opportunity to stay in the Great Abyss Sea due to their relatively low combat strength.
However, in the new competition, anyone who excels in a single spell has a chance to stand out, which has caused the lower-level green and yellow demons to waver.
Since they can get the treatment they want through normal channels, who would really want to rebel?
After all, the lower-level rebels weren't fools. They knew very well that even if the rebellion succeeded, the only ones who would truly benefit were the higher-ups, the Purple Demons and Blue Demons.
Even if these Green Goblins and Yellow Goblins are lucky enough to survive a large-scale battle, the benefits they can gain are very limited.
The low-level traitors wavered, the purple demons among the high-level rebels had all been captured, and among the mid-level blue demons, except for a very few who still harbored illusions, the rest chose to completely integrate into the ordinary contestants.
A very small number of die-hard loyalists shattered their last shred of resolve when they saw the chieftain standing beside the high priest.
Now that the Great Chief has been defeated and chosen to submit, there is no hope for them even if they want to rebel.
If that's the case, what's the point of all this trouble?
Thus, this long-planned rebellion collapsed.
On stage, the competition was in full swing, and the fans who came to watch the competition had mixed feelings.
One of the lessons they received from childhood was that those who are not of our kind are bound to have different hearts.
In the past, they never hesitated to hunt down exotic beasts or slay the demon race.
Before being transported to the Dust Continent, they negotiated with the High Priest in order to persuade him to withdraw his troops, promising to help him improve the living conditions of the Demon Clan.
When they arrived at the Dust Continent, they witnessed firsthand the hardships faced by the Demon Clan there. Although they still harbored resentment towards them, they gradually came to understand their rampant plundering.
This is like beggars living in slums who, once given the chance to enter a wealthy area, witness firsthand the daily delicacies enjoyed by the rich and even the carefree waste of food that is extremely precious to them.
How could they not risk their lives to kill the rich and plunder their property?
This is not to say that the poor are justified in robbing, but rather that all intelligent beings, once driven to a dead end, are very likely to take desperate measures.
When survival is difficult, how many people can truly abide by moral principles?
At this moment, seeing the people of the Fine Demon Clan who possessed individual skills so excited that they burst into tears because they had the opportunity to use their skills, Feather Fan and the others truly felt that all the hardships and difficulties of this journey had been worthwhile.
Contrary to Yu Shan and his companions' expectations, the people of the Fine Demon race, being naturally a combination of plants and animals, with most of the lowest-ranking Yellow Demons and Green Demons having an extremely high affinity for plants.
They don't need to learn wood-based magic; most of them can communicate with plants.
In this way, these people can often achieve twice the result with half the effort when planting plants.
For example, they can detect immediately if plants are short of water, lack nutrients, or are infested with insects.
At the suggestion of the Feather Fan, the High Priest selected the top 10,000 people with the strongest wood, earth, and water magic, organized them into an agricultural reclamation legion, and had them devote themselves to land reclamation and planting.
These are things that Yu Shan learned from a piece of history of Earth during her short twenty years as the left fan.
Military reclamation units are easier to manage than ordinary farmers.
Furthermore, once their homeland is invaded by foreign tribes, these ethnic groups who are part of the military reclamation system can quickly join the battle.
This move was praised by the high priest, who couldn't help but exclaim, "If our Great Abyss Sea had implemented such unified management earlier, perhaps there wouldn't have been any traitors."
The high priest decided to extend the military reclamation system to the surrounding areas, and even to more remote sea areas.
This time, the combat power that emerges from the competition will no longer be used only to guard the Great Abyss Sea and to conquer and plunder other worlds.
The High Priest dispatched these top-ranked combatants in batches to various parts of the Dust Continent.
They were then tasked with forming military reclamation corps, thus ushering in the glorious era of military reclamation that led the Dust Continent to its current glory.
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