Beneath the Red Dragon

In the winter of the thirteenth year of the Giant Dragon Calendar, the sky was as blue as ever, and peace reigned across the land.

High above the dome of the firmament, amidst the deep clouds, a floating Mage Tower traveled along the path of the Nine Heavens, monitoring all directions of the Golden Empire.

Above the Endless Sea Region, steel battleships resembling land-based cities patrolled the coastline, controlling the near seas of the Golden Empire on all sides.

Over the vast expanse of land, iron trains named ”World Python” raced day and night around the ever-expanding national territory, facilitating the Imperial logistics and delivering information and news from the Imperial center to every city.

Previously, nobles and casters held the magic and technical knowledge that represented productivity, and across the territory of the Golden Empire, this knowledge began to flourish comprehensively.

Crisscrossing tracks connected every city in the Empire, providing this environment—one that seemed like the ancient medieval world—with unimaginable convenient transportation.

This enabled the political power of the Empire to cover every inch of its territory, allowing Legion Warriors to make swift and mobile responses to the frontiers of the Empire in all directions.

Even the Overlord Empire of the Central Continent was partly restricted by transportation conditions, preventing further expansion.

Because their power could not fully guarantee delivery to the corners of the Empire, and magical means were too expensive, in the eyes of those nobles, using it on ordinary people was a waste.

The existence of the nobility also greatly hindered the administrative efficiency of the entire Empire, making even the vast Overlord Empire unable to compare with the Golden Empire in this regard.

But in the overall ideology of the Golden Empire, advanced productivity that cannot be used to promote and popularize among the masses is forever not considered advanced productivity.

Although production relations are not determined by productivity, the development of productivity nevertheless has a positive effect on promoting production relations.

This feedback means that the entire Golden Empire is, like their Emperor, thriving and ascending like the sun rising into the sky.

After the Empire’s territory was divided into eighteen provinces, there was a more defined territorial demarcation, better regulating the exercise and delineation of Imperial administrative power.

The highest governing official of each province is the Governor of the Province, responsible for the Imperial Government’s work within a province, executing the powers stipulated by Imperial law within the provincial boundaries.

They must represent the provincial government institution to be accountable to the Imperial Central Council and perform duties such as reporting on annual work conditions.

Each province is divided into city-level institutions, with the Municipal Official in charge, responsible for corresponding duties.

Beneath each city are further subdivisions into counties and towns, narrowing down to village-level Empire power institutions. Although the village head is elected by the local village, they still need to be responsible to the Town Chief at a higher level and fulfill the obligation of annual reporting.

In recent years, the Imperial Internal Affairs Department and Central Council have been organizing and summarizing the structure of the Imperial authority, and they have evidently achieved good results.

With a clear bureaucratic system in place, and gradually improving according to the changes within the Empire, the administrative efficiency of the Golden Empire has greatly increased, truly enabling every village to be easily reached by every power-issued command.

Although this also increases the number of bureaucrats, making the number of officials seem particularly large, the current trend is one of positive development, with benefits outweighing disadvantages.

Moreover, under the only ruling will of the Empire, the reform of the bureaucratic system will never stop, which is the advantage of having an authority with absolute power and relatively correct ruling intent.

However, these changes are subtle, and most of the Empire’s citizens are not yet accustomed to the transformation of the provincial system, still declaring their jurisdiction based on the affiliation of the city.

Klanris, the Dragon Descendant with slightly grayish-white scales on his cheeks, one of the first resurrected souls to emerge from the Divine Hall, rode on a tall steed, casually chatting with others heading to the Golden City to gather more intelligence while easing inner troubles.

Klanris initially thought that in the empire realm established by the Dragon Group, finding a remote village to establish a Divine Hall would be a simple task. The only concern would be what to do after the Divine Hall is established.

But his thoughts clearly did not go as planned. After some actions by Dragon Worshipers, the Empire exercised extreme control over these matters.

Without approval from the Imperial Religious Department, all unauthorized religious factions and systems are classified as heretical sects; not only the Empire’s official Law Enforcement Department, but every department has the authority to handle them.

Even ordinary citizens of the Empire could receive public accolades and recognition from local government institutions for reporting or dismantling heretical sects’ rituals and dens.

But if you formally applied to the Empire’s official institutions to register a religious faction and establish a Divine Hall, the submitted applications would often disappear without a trace.

Klanris had previously slipped some gold coins, visiting an official under the Religious Department, but after spending ten gold coins, the response received was just a simple reply.

”It’s already under review. Such matters require layer upon layer of reporting, followed by investigations into your intentions for establishing a Divine Hall. After obtaining relevant evidence, there will be a series of evaluation meetings. You’ll just have to wait a bit longer.”

As a long-lived Dragon Descendant, Klanris ended up waiting for several years.