Chapter 1316: The Kingdom of Wanning and its Sultana
Whether it was Sherlock who was guarding the City of Heaven, or Isabel who was waiting in the City of Rock Cellar, as well as others who were either participating in or waiting for the end of the Heavenly War, they all gathered in the City of Holy Springs three days later.
At this moment, the Holy Spring City already knew who performed this miracle.
Therefore, when Aiwass and his party entered the Holy Spring City through the gate again, they were welcomed by people lining the streets.
Initially, people were quite afraid of Aiwass. This was because most Parthians did not know the character of this earthly god who had changed the world...
Until a few brave children approached Aiwass amid the people's gentle exclamations, but unexpectedly they did not suffer any punishment. Instead, he gently held them in his arms, touched their heads, patted their backs with a smile, and sent them back.
Only then did people finally believe that this earthly god was completely different from the Good Lord—
Of course, these kids were actually hired by Aiwass.
They were all members of the Red Hand Gang.
When the rule of the Good Lords collapsed, they took advantage of the chaos to enter the Holy Spring City with the help of "Brave" Ismail, Morgan and Lily.
As the first city-state of Parthia and the former royal capital, Holy Spring City covers a vast area and is extremely rich in resources.
Now that there is no shortage of water resources, it is the best thing to allow these homeless refugees to move in.
Moved by the undoubted miracle, most of the Red Hands laid down their weapons.
They witnessed with their own eyes the demise of the Good Lord, the fall of the Abyss, the replacement of the Pillar Gods, and saw the desert turn into fertile land and the wasteland turn into forest... Naturally, they knew that the old era when they tried their best and even risked their lives to resist was over.
Although each of them has prepared for death...even when faced with the crisis of death and inhuman torture, they can remain unshakable due to the burning hatred deep in their hearts.
But when faced with this "paradise within reach", they hesitated.
Now, the prophesied savior has arrived, and the rule of the good lord has collapsed. They now have endless water and land as fertile as other countries...
…Then will they continue to resist with the same fiery fury as before?
That would naturally be meaningless.
If everyone can live a good life, who would be willing to suffer until death?
But there are still some Red Hands who have been so shocked that they cannot accept this reality - or rather, they cannot accept the fact that "the new era was not brought about by them."
Because they have paid too much for this ideal.
They killed so many people, burned down so many oases, executed so many good people, and caused the deaths of so many innocent people... If they were not the ones who saved everyone in the end, how would they face the crimes they had committed?
When sacrifice is not sacred and accepted by people, it becomes a foolish and cruel act.
In one day, he fell from the hope of tomorrow to a prisoner deserving death... No one can bear such a drop.
Although this "new god" gave them a chance to atone for their sins - they could give up their old names and identities, become believers of the new god who was about to ascend to heaven, build temples for him, and guide his followers. In return, the new king would grant them a special pardon.
Although many people accepted this amnesty and entered the Holy Spring City, ending their long and ultimately destructive journey of resistance.
But there were also some people who could not accept it and left this place, left where everyone lived, and went to the mountains.
Fortunately, the outside world was no longer covered in yellow sand. Even if they stayed in the mountains, without the secret support of some kind-hearted people, they would not starve to death or die of thirst. At least their survival was guaranteed.
And Aiwass found a new protector for them——
That was Cardinal Belisarius.
This retiring "Ice Heart King" was himself the mastermind behind the Red Hand. The transformation of these slaves and homeless people into powerful transcendents was a result of Belisarius' training.
This iron-blooded cardinal still respects the traditions of the Theocracy—he will never forcibly change the customs and lifestyles of other countries in the name of the elves.
This may seem like a "too nice" lawful prohibition, but in reality, only the Chinese people know the meaning behind it.
Because the power of the Theocracy is 100% composed of high-ranking devotees, they are all "good people" in a certain sense, or rather too good - to the point that they are willing to give everything for others, including their own power, strength, and life.
But the problem is that the path that everyone recognizes, and the "justice", "morality", and "what should be done" in everyone's mind are actually not completely consistent.
This means that if an elf attempts to reform other countries according to their own ideas, the first problem they face is "interference from other elves." This is because what they think is right may not necessarily conform to the ideas of other elves.
The path of the selfless is often more destructive than that of the selfish. This is because selfish people understand compromise, know when to stop, and have a clear understanding of benefits and gains... whereas the selfless will do whatever it takes to achieve their ideals.
The essence of this ban is that the ancient elves experienced a civil war of such a massive scale that even affected the entire world for this very reason, killing countless elves and destroying many other ancient races... It was not until there were only a few races left in the world that the elves finally woke up.
The Eternal Theocracy was established because the remaining elves realized this problem: they could never build a world that satisfied everyone. So they chose to compromise... meaning the elves no longer actively interfered with other countries, only accepting passive requests and maintaining basic order.
All I can say is that behind every seemingly inexplicable strange rule there is a complicated story.
However, as the cardinal of the trial center, Belisarius was undoubtedly a radical among them.
Compared to the more conservative cardinals, he tried hard to circumvent the ban issued by the first Eternal Pope -
——Because he could not accept the slavery of Rest in any way.
However, the existence of slaves is essentially to provide for Yuan Tiansi; the existence of the desert is to bury the sinners, and the sinners were ordered to be stored there by Sizhu.
This was a decision made by the leader's leader, and it was not something that a mere cardinal like him could change; and Yuan Tiansi was a celestial being without intelligence and unable to accept communication. Even if they understood advanced divine arts, they could not establish contact with Yuan Tiansi.
There are four principles for extinguishing fire: removing combustible materials, isolating oxygen, lowering the temperature below the ignition point, and terminating the chain reaction through chemical inhibition. Since the first two were unsuccessful and the third was only a temporary solution, Belisarius had no choice but to opt for the fourth.
He could not destroy the desert or get rid of the Abyss, so Belisarius decided to remove the power of the good lords.
Therefore, Belisarius led a legion of paladins and stationed them in Parthia for a long time.
If people ask him for help, he will take action; if many people are willing to risk death and cross the wind and sand to come to him, it means that people's patience has reached its limit - then he can use this reason as an excuse to directly send troops to attack Parthia.
Of course, Belisarius alone is definitely not enough.
He was merely a fifth-level warrior, while the paladins under his command were all fourth-level. He could easily slay a few good lords and defeat a few city-states. But no matter what, he couldn't fight all the good lords alone. He would surely die here, hounded by the pervasive curses and rituals... but that didn't matter.
Because if he died here, the Theocracy would have to respond for his death and the death of the Paladin Legion he led.
By then, the pretext for war would no longer be "interference in the internal affairs and traditions of other countries," but simply "revenge." There were many cardinals who disliked Anxi, but they simply had no reason or excuse to act.
Ultimately, the Theocracy's strange rule isn't about how other nations see the Theocracy, but how other elves and even other cardinals see the Theocracy. Therefore, as long as all other cardinals can agree to act, there's no need to worry about division.
It's just a pity...
All those who crossed the yellow sand, saw Belisarius and thirsted for power, either had no intention of destroying the entire Parthia, but just wanted revenge for themselves; or they saw through Belisarius's superficial thoughts and were worried or wary of the elves' excuse to invade Parthia; those who were smart enough to see through Belisarius's deep plan did not want to let Belisarius, a good man, die here.
The result was that although Belisarius cultivated many rebels, he himself never had the opportunity to come out until the end.
This is a failure though...
But from another perspective, this is also a success.
When Yuan Tiansi arrived, he actually felt it.
At that time, Belisarius led his legion of paladins all the way from the depths of the desert...but by the time he arrived, everything had already been settled.
He naturally knew the former Pope Aiwass and knew what had happened here.
He was delighted that the suffering of the Parthians had finally been relieved. Furthermore, unlike his initial compromise, Aiwass had eliminated both the Abyssal God and the Good Lord, even eliminating the Sinthorns and transforming the desert... This approach, which addressed both the symptoms and the root cause, truly convinced Belisarius.
It was also because of Belisarius' help that the Red Hands were able to be so docile to Aiwass.
The reason their actions became so radical was not entirely due to Hassan's influence - after all, Hassan had been away from Anxi for a long time, and he himself had only just returned here not long ago, and he couldn't even recognize all the people.
Those Red Hand members respected Hassan as their leader, but in a sense they just wanted to use "the well-known Hassan" as a banner.
Hassan, who had received genuine mage training, had more stable and rational strategies that simply couldn't influence these people's decisions. This was also the reason for his previous autism...but neither Hui Tiansi nor Morgan told him the reason behind it.
——Because the real leader of the Red Hand Party is Cardinal Belisarius!
The idea of mixing "premature death" and "necessary evil", and the idea of making things bigger even at the cost of one's own life, came from the influence of Cardinal Belisarius.
As the core cardinal who controls the military power in the Theocracy, it is very normal for Belisarius to be more radical and hold more violent ideas, and there is no need to interfere.
After all, Belisarius' actions were always within the rules - even though he supported the Red Hand, it was still within the scope of "Parthia's affairs should be resolved by the Parthians themselves." He did not teach the Red Hand any extraordinary knowledge beyond his authority, or directly give them any weapons or equipment beyond Parthia's technology.
Now, Aiwass entrusted him with the care of those Red Hand members who were too radical to accept change, which was exactly what Cardinal Belisarius wanted - his Paladin Corps really needed manpower, and those who were radical enough were indeed more suitable to become Paladins.
After everything is settled.
On July 10, Aiwas publicly announced in the Holy Spring City Square that the era of the Good Lord was completely over.
No one was a slave, and there were no slave owners.
All human beings are created equal and all lives are equally precious.
The new country was named "Wanning" by Aiwass.
In the Parthian language, this word is composed of "residence" and "safety," meaning "a safe shelter." This is also Aiwass's first and best wish for the Parthians...just hoping that they can live well.
And Aiwas' wife, Isabelle, the last Queen of Avalon, was the first Sultana of Wanning.
The word "Sultan" means "one who is authorized by divine power" in Parthian, and also means the one who controls authority. Sultana is the feminine form of the word "Sultan", which is the most appropriate name for the current situation.
After all, in the ancient Parthian world, no god could grant them the power to rule. The Parthians had no gods of their own—and the Abyss was not their protector. Therefore, the ancient Parthian world had no sultans, only kings.
Today, there is no desert, no sacrifice, no abyss, and no benevolent master in Wanning.
The reputation of the Winged One Aiwass, at this moment in Anxi - or "Wanning", has undoubtedly reached its highest point.
After all, it was an act of creation, a miracle witnessed by everyone.
No matter how deep the feelings and cultural inertia the Parthians had for slave culture in the past, from now on... at least within three generations, no one would waver or question this.
People were completely immersed in a hallucinatory ecstasy. Statues of good people were toppled, their paintings were torn to pieces, and expensive clothes were turned into flags.
It’s not that no good lords tried to resist this - but their plan to resist the new king didn’t even last a day. They were killed on the spot by their own guards, and their heads were offered as a token of their attitude of following the new king.
After all, the strongest group of benevolent masters had already received invitations to attack Yuan Tiansi. All the remaining benevolent masters in this country were at the fourth energy level or below... When their personal guards defected, these fragile taboo mages and ritualists were completely powerless to resist.
The smarter lords tried to take the treasures they had plundered over the years - at least part of it - and escape from the city with their families and slaves... It must be said that this was a very smart choice.
Nowadays, even the wilderness is more livable than the former Oasis City, and if they just stay out of the spotlight and change their appearance, no one will remember their existence.
And they only need to find some connections to help them exchange these treasures for wealth, and they will at least have extremely comfortable living conditions - at the very least, they can even escape abroad! There, no one knows that they were once good people, right?
Yet even this move failed.
If the Parthians worship Aiwass like a god... then for the Harpies, Aiwass is their god.
Aiwass had now become a true pure-blooded Winged One. The wings behind him were proof of his former winged kingship, and the jeweled shoulder straps were a token of his legacy, crafted by the Winged King himself. The harpies had immense respect for Ligeia, even as a mere Winged One, let alone Aiwass now.
Under the relentless search of the harpy people, all the good masters who attempted to escape at night were captured within three days. The good masters and their direct descendants were all eaten, while the remaining family members were sent back and imprisoned, awaiting the Sultan's pardon or execution in the future.
The only surviving good ruler was Ismail the Brave.
As the only one among all the good lords who sided with Aiwas, he was the only one who was lucky enough to be pardoned and forgiven. In the new dynasty, he would serve as a general and be responsible for maintaining order.
The leader of Isabel's personal guard is Ligeia - this was her previous job in Avalon, and now she has her old job back.
After all, Wanning is so short of manpower right now... The current order is entirely maintained by Aiwass's prestige, but this status quo will definitely not last too long. They need to establish a new order before people cool down.
Even Aiwass and Isabel could only live in "Encyclopedia"'s house for the time being... After all, the Good Lord's palace had been destroyed in the battle with Yuan Tiansi, and there was no spare money to build a new palace at this moment.
And just when everyone was busy.
An extremely humble uninvited guest knelt and knocked on the door of Aiwas's temporary residence.
It was a goblin.
"Hidden in the Horse's Belly", Mr. Grandet.
(End of this chapter)
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