Lord Shadow

Chapter 129: The great ceremony (1)

The ceremony is beginning.

The fireworks lines the sky as the children’s look in awe and smiles fill their faces, tugging the sleeves of their parents to the site of the ceremony.

Stalls and temporary shops were opened nearby the hills, with all kind of snacks. There is new variety of food after the Fall.

Most of the snack consists of some meats of the monster that can be eaten, like the skewered meat of the Dhob, a lizard like monster.

Dhob meat tastes like chicken only ten times better. It is crunchy if stir fried with flour and sweet if dipped in sauce.

And Cockatrice meat grilled like bacon, with sweet maple syrup on top with hoagie bread full of cheese on the side seems to be popular among people who like grilled bacon.

There was a great fanfare in this ceremony.

When the people furnished the place of ceremony, they tried to go to the route of simple yet grand.

The ceremony is to be held at the Oath Keeping Hill. It was the name of the Hill nearby the Village.

Azief has named the hill Oath Keeping Hill for this particular ceremony.

Eden is not lacking in anything right now.

Combined the fact that the Seven Fairy give all their gold to Li Yuan The treasurer, Li Yuan manages to hires men to work creating this grand and luxurious ceremony.

Li Yuan was managing the Treasury in the beginning because he was the original resident of the village and one of Wang Jian people.

Li Yuan even thought that Azief would replace him with other people now that there is many people coming to the village but Azief has assured him that this position is his.

The reason Li Yuan thought like this is because many of Wang Jian people hold many important post in Azief administration and fear that Azief would grow suspicious that Wang Jian might attempt to usurp him.

What Li Yuan did not understand, is that Azief does not fear Wang Jian even if he wanted to rebel or usurp him.

After all with his level of strength, to kill him will prove to be very difficult.

Even if somehow Wang Jian might manage to usurp his position, Azief is confident that Wang Jian will not be able to kill him.

If that ever happens, he just have to bide his time and when his strength rises he can rise again.

And he has many contingencies plan and allies hiding in the dark.

That is why Azief is not afraid of such outcome. In the venue, many people have already gathered.

Lining up on the left and right side were the citizens of the village with variety of classes and profession.

After they swore the oath Azief will upgrade the village into a large city.

On the top of the hill is the high platform with two thrones.

It was requested specifically by Wang Jian to enhance Azief splendor and majesty, to enhance confidence in the hearts of the people and incite fear in the hearts of enemies.

Wang Jian and Loki were closest to the throne, Loki beside the Dragon Throne, Wang Jian beside the Phoenix throne, standing guard high on the platform while Azief and Sofia is holding hands as they walked to the high platform.

Wang Jian is still not satisfied with the conclusion of what happened with the Seven fairy but he did not voice this out.

Loki on the other hand was looking at the crowds and he saw a few people he knows.

Or to be more accurate the people he knows in the future. Most of them are still young. One man attract Loki gaze.

Loki smirk.

The Wine Beggar Louise. He is still young. He was six feet seven, with Caucasian features, brown eyes and hazel hair.

There is no beard on his chin or wrinkles on his face. Apparently the current Wine Beggar is a youth of 20.

For some reason, Loki felt that the Wine Beggar keep looking at his direction but Loki shrugged the weird feeling aside.

On the platform were the dragon chair and the phoenix chair; dragon on the left, phoenix on the right.

The chair was made of pure gold.

The smelters melt down thousands of gold coins to create the thrones, with enchantment and formation matrixes also embedded in the throne.

The throne itself was imbued with magical properties and serve to enhance and increase the majesty of anyone sitting on it.

When it was time to bring the throne to the high platform, it takes six Orb Condensing High Realm users to lift the throne to the top.

Then watching by tens of thousands of people, Azief and Sofia arrived in front of the throne.

Azief stand in front on the dragon chair and unleashed his Immortal Presence and Golden light covering the ceremony, making him look as majestic as an Immortal Emperor.

Today, he shows his face to the world, without the hood covering his face.

His face was beautiful and rugged at the same time, embodying the aspect of power and strength.

His face gives him a reliable feeling.

His current face has been transformed each time as he raises his levels.

By now, his face is flawless and possesses a certain divine quality that serves to aid him in persuading or scaring someone.

It possess a certain kind of magic, making those who think of him favorably enhance their perception of him, while those who wish ill on him will feel a certain aversive feeling on acting of the will intent.

Some cheer his name while some are cautious.

Most of the people that cheer his name were the original residents of the village while many of the immigrants take a cautious approach.

Meanwhile, Sofia stood in front of the phoenix chair, slightly raising her chin to look at the ten thousands of people under her.

She look towards Azief and gritted her teeth. It has been a week.

And tonight Sofia expects answers.

Azief ignores the deadly piercing glares Sofia is shooting at him right now and focused at the task at home.

Then Wang Jian kneels down towards Azief and bowed his head to the ground. Loki was shocked but he was quick as he also knelt.

This was not what Azief has requested and it was not something he expected either.

He just wanted people to remember the ceremony and forget the enmity between the Seven Fairy and the original inhabitants of the village and at the same time doled out rewards.

Then the residents seeing the officers of Lord Shadow knelt they also simultaneously knelt down towards Azief and Sofia.

What Azief didn’t know is that Wang Jian thought this was natural.

He after all served the Yue dynasty which serve to emulate the imperial dynasty and also have their custom and traditions.

The people that migrate to Eden have different cultures and customs but when they saw one of the highest ranking officer of Eden kneel down, how would they be so brave to stand out in the sea of kneeling people?

Wang Jian performed the three bows and nine kowtows. The other awkwardly tries to follow him.

The people are perplexed on how to follow this custom even Loki was perplexed at this.

‘Enough’ Azief said, his words echoes through the Hill as he saw some people in the crowd clearly finding it hard to follow Wang Jian movements.

Azief didn’t like the way Wang Jian kowtowed to him. First, it was because this is not his culture.

The three bows and nine kowtows is the culture of the Chinese. And it was not even the culture of the modern Chinese.

It was ancient China. Azief is not thrilled to send back the people of his dominion to ancient time etiquette.

Yue Xing might like people flattering to his ears, but Azief don’t like it. He hates it.

Second, he doesn’t believe in emperor worship. Third, he is not an emperor. Even after this he really would not take much concern on what happening to his city.

Azief knows the only guarantee that his life is secured is to raise his power.

Fourth, he was uncomfortable seeing so many people kneeling and kowtowing to him like he was some God.

He was uncomfortable then, he was uncomfortable now.

In Earth Two, he experienced this too.

He even has a cult in that Earth that worship him.

And there is even some fanatic amongst them. And needless to say, people do crazy things for their Gods.

You would be surprised what people do in the name of their Gods.

And lastly Azief did not like to be worshipped. If Loki knows what he is thinking he would certainly say ‘It was ironic considering his future’

‘Rise’ Azief said and he gestured Loki to move this ceremony along

Loki then called

‘Perform the music’ then the music sounded out as the people also could relax themselves and then after the people finished and the music has ended Azief spoke.

‘Today, we are at a new dawn!’ And his voice was full of power resonating and echoing around the hill with golden hue around him, it was like he was proclaiming the will of heaven.

‘The world right now is a deathtrap for the weak. I will not be as bold as the World government who proclaimed to unite the world to resist this otherworldly threat nor will I be as cynical as the Revolutionary Army that believes that this is our new world and all we can do is ride its waves. I will not be like the World Government who shelters the weak. I will not be like the Revolutionary Army that protects the strong.’

Hearing this, the people in the crowd does not understand what Azief means but they listen.

If you will not shelter the weak, and not protect the strong, then who will you shelter? Who you will protect?

These questions assaulted the mind of everyone present.

‘My rule will make the weak strong, the people who wish to grow, grow, the people who wished freedom, will have freedom. I will not fill your head with promises of safety and security. I will not give you fairy tale stories. My city is not the city for the weak. It is not the city for the strong to be protected. It is a city for people who wished the world to be better. A better tomorrow.’

The people on the crowd unconsciously nodded their head.

After all, they all escaped their regions and places of other influence because they believed that they will live a better life here.

Some of them want security. Some of them wanted freedom.. Some of them wanted to grow.

Some of them wanted strength.

For people that come from the Forest Region, most of them wanted to grow.

In the Forest Region the position of power will not be changed.

The Lords of the Forest. All of them are Energy Disperse Stage High Realm user.

And if normal people wanted to grow, it will be better to wander the outside world.

Because that’s the highest once could be in the forest region. Stuck always at Energy Disperse Stage.

Most people when they reached Energy Disperse Realm would journey out but the Lords did not making them having almost a complete control in all the newbie in the Forest Region.

Coming to Eden the people of Forest Region wanted to grow.

Some came to gain freedom, not to be constrained by the rules and Quorum decision of the World Government.

Some wanted to live in a society where each people do not want to kill each other. This is especially true from people who migrate from the desert and fire region.

Those regions are harsh and unforgiving.

There are no stable settlements and pillaging and battle against each other were numerous.

Eden seems to be a place that is ruled by order.

And considering Azief firm position in the Plains, there would be no one that would always contest his rule in the Central Plains.

It could even be said after his battle with the Seven Fairy, his position in the Plains is unshakable.

Wang Jian has already sent proposals to Azief to subjugate all the influence in the Central Plains after Azief level up the village rank.

On the high platform, standing proudly, Azief continues his speech.

‘And as long as that drive exists, as long as that will burn, this city will stand forever. In each battle that we will surely face, I will be in the thick of battle with you. I will bleed with you. You are now my people.’

Then Azief gestures Loki to say the next words.

‘Kneel and swears you allegiance to Lord Azief!’ Loki announced and the sea of people all kneeled.

Then they spoke their oaths and then a sound sounded with status windows appearing in front of Azief eyes.

The population is forty thousand nine hundred and fifty hundred people.

You are now ranked as a large city

You can create guilds and give authority to commission the Guild Creation Token.

EXPLANATION:

Guild Token Guilds have many advantages in that each EXP gained when raiding will be not deducted like normal party compositions.

For each Token, the city could sell it to interested parties and the profit will go to the Treasury. Very useful to level up many people in a rush. Guilds are not obligated to help the city when in danger. Instead, they have to pay taxes like other users and have to pay a certain amount of gold for each successful hunt as dictated by the City Governor.

City Governor has the right to request a certain amount of gold for each successful raid. The City governor can impose a ten percent profit for each successful hunt or more.

Be reminded that if the rate is too high, there will not be many people that would not buy Guild Creation Token and will weaken your people in the long run.

The moment Azief read this information about Guild Creation Token was inputted inside his mind.

For the Guild Creation Token for example if you killed a mutated beast the EXP is 10.

In a party, the EXP will be divided with each one will get 5 EXP.

But in a guild when they hunt the same beast, both of them will get 10 EXP regardless of their contribution in the attack.

‘Many will want to form guild after this’ Azief mused.

BESTOWING TITLES

EXPLANATION:

As the City Governor, you have the ability to create titles be it nobility titles, administration titles, or titles without power. Titles can be sold to interested parties. Each title has hidden stats that could improve a person constitution and abilities. Each title also comes with a stipend and income except titles without power.

Position in administration or military is not counted as titles and is merely a post or position in the city with salary doled out by the Treasury. For now, since Eden has turned into a large city, the amount of salary is fixed by the Treasury.

Eden Treasurer can increase or decrease a person salary. Other than the Treasurer, the other person that can increase or decrease the salary of a person is the people approved by the City Governor.

New Construction Option Can Be Accessed

CLANS COULD BE CREATED

EXPLANATION:

Clans could only be created by the express permission of the city governor. Each clan will not receive any stipend or income from the city. Clans are exempted from any form of taxes except land tax. They are obligated to help the city when in danger different from guilds that have no other responsibility to help the city other than paying tax and giving a considerable amount of profits to the city when their raid ended.

Other than tax exemption, clan will possess the same privilege like guilds and will have their abilities strengthen in their clan territory.

ABILITY TO SET THE TAX

EXPLANATION:

The city governor can tax anything that moves.

Theoretically. Be reminded that if you tax the people too much, these people would move to other places and weaken your city.

Be wise in setting the tax rate and the things that is to be taxed. Don’t be too greedy.

ABILITY TO SET LAWS

EXPLANATION:

A large city is full of people. As City Governor, you have the ability to set laws that will take effect and will be enforce. For anyone committing the crime, their stats in the first day of doing the crime, will be halved unless they run out of the city. Be reminded, that nobody like a stern punishment. But gentle punishment will not stop crime. Benevolent laws or stern punishments the choice is in your hands.

CHANGING CLASS

EXPLANATION:

As City Governor, you have the ability to change the class of your residents if they wished it. The class the city governor could change is only normal classes. Unique classes cannot be changed unless you become a King.

EXILING

EXPLANATION:

As the city governor, you can exile a person out of your city. The longer he stays without your permission, his body will grow weaker.

For your officials and people with titles, they can only be exiled after they break your laws. Exiling officials without reason can only be unlocked when you become a King.

PARDONING CRIMINALS

EXPLANATION:

As the city governor you can pardon criminals and restore back their status as normal citizens and restore back their stats

GRANTING BOONS AND REWARDS

EXPLANATION:

As the city governor you can grant boons and rewards

ISSUING A QUEST

EXPLANATION:

As the city governor you can issue a quest. The rewards will either be doled out from the treasury or the city governor own properties.

GRANTING BONUS IN THE EVENTS OF A CITY QUEST

EXPLANATION:

As the city governor you can grant bonus in the events of a city quest

FIRING SOMEONE FROM THEIR POSITIONS

EXPLANATION:

As the city governor you have the right to fire someone from their position.

REMOVE BONUSES FROM ANY CITIZENS

EXPLANATION:

As the city governor, you can remove bonus from any citizens.

PUNISHING SOMEONE

EXPLANATION:

As the city governor you can punish someone by lowering their overall stats as long as it is within the boundary of the city (note: Only works on citizens who take the oath of allegiance)

REVOKING TITLES

EXPLANATION:

As the city governor, you can revoke any titles you give.

Looking at all these status windows, Azief smiles. He did not check the status windows of his city yet.

There are other things he needs to do.