Chapter 792: The truth of the great sacrifice

It took Zhang Haoming a while to get up from the ground.

He quickly followed the others to watch the commotion, to see what was going on, after all, farmers were the most obtuse, but also the most perceptive.

They were completely oblivious to the coming disaster, short-sighted, and even the impending war they couldn't smell the gunpowder, only feeling that things were still far off.

But in contrast, they were extremely sensitive to what was about to happen in the next minute, even to the point of a sixth sense level of sensitivity, such as being short-changed when buying things, someone taking advantage, or trying to trick them; they all had a very strong perceptive ability.

Short-sighted, although they couldn't see far, they understood the 'inch of light' right in front of them very well.

So, after a round of communication among various farmers, everyone quickly pieced together the blueprint of the situation from the information they each knew.

The process of piecing it together was also very interesting: your family saw a light here, my family saw what color that light was, his family saw where it landed.

With each person contributing, they managed to piece together a truth that was remarkably close to reality.

The truth was simple: a Sword Immortal had just arrived, his sword light descended, slaying the entire landlord's family, and leaving behind a large inscription: "All bonds, without exception, are to be burned. All human contracts are to be nullified."

The so-called human contracts were actually indentured servitude contracts; farmers had already become accustomed to selling their children to wealthy families, and this was sometimes not even considered tragic, but rather an honor.

Such was the case in the Baiyue Area; everyone had already grown accustomed to it.

The farmers cheered; they didn't care about anything else, whether the bonds were eliminated or not, that was a matter for later.

The most pressing matter, obviously, was… looting!

The entire landlord's family was dead, so it was definitely time to loot money, loot grain, loot tables and chairs, loot whatever they could!

They watched as many farmers, after testing the waters, found that they were indeed dead, and then fell into a frenzy.

Floors, windows, vases, even the clothes on the dead, fabric, curtains, various furniture, decorations, regardless of what was there or not, useful or not, they desperately moved it all back home.

The clever ones, however, didn't move these large and difficult items; they went straight to the kitchen to move spices, salt, pots, cured meats, and salted fish, pouring basket after basket into their own back baskets.

They ransacked every corner, even breaking into the women's boudoirs, dragging out the landlord's Young Miss, who knew nothing, from her room, and then began to plunder everything within the boudoir.

Even the hidden erotic paintings were taken away.

Instead, that Young Miss, with a bewildered expression, tried to stop them, but was knocked to the ground by two punches from these farmers, weeping incessantly. Then, she was spotted by several rough men who actually wanted to carry her away, but they couldn't reach an agreement among themselves and began to argue, seemingly about to come to blows.

However, they also knew that arguing for a second at this moment was wasting a second of money-making opportunity, so they quickly set aside their dispute, put the girl down, and hurried to move more valuable items.

Although this girl was fair-skinned, she wasn't particularly beautiful; she was better than a village woman, but not by much. After all, even a landlord's family couldn't claim that all their daughters were great beauties; it was already quite good that she had fair skin.

A farce, a… shameless plunder.

Did that cultivator, who harbored 'justice' and descended with his sword to kill the landlord's family, anticipate this moment?

Farmers are very pitiful, bullied and exploited.

However, when farmers gain the ability to resist, they will also oppress others unscrupulously, just like the landlords did in the past.

Because, in essence, landlords and farmers are actually the same kind of people.

People without Dao.

When they have power, they will bully others; when they have no power, they will only let others bully them. There is no other reason, because this is the Law of natural world, the strong prey on the weak.

From a human perspective, they are not 'humans'; they are merely seen as moving tools. These tools will use themselves, or hand themselves over to the landlord to be used, becoming long-term laborers or tenant farmers. Landlords pay them interest in the name of wages.

Humans are no longer humans; humans have been alienated into pigs and sheep, or hammers and hoes. They are livestock, tools, alienated into means of production. They are not human in their social relationships.

Therefore, they will not see themselves as human either.

When they are weak, they will be dominated by the strong and become tools. At this time, they will docilely become tools.

When they are strong, they will become predatory beasts, preying on weaker tools, pigs, and sheep to make themselves stronger and eat their fill.

They have no other pursuits beyond this.

The extreme inequality brought about by this 'world order', where most people are not treated as human, is not just a moral issue; it is even more so an economic issue.

Because a large amount of labor force is bound to the countryside by this production relationship, which is the 'Dao', bound to the land of landlords and officials, bound to this world, allowing them to only endlessly Reincarnate.

They were originally the most important foundation of all actions; they could support low-grade cultivators, and low-grade cultivators could lead to high-grade cultivators. Although high-grade cultivators already possessed self-sustaining abilities and could survive without them, it must be admitted that the earliest high-grade cultivators were born this way.

However, without them, they cannot receive education, and no one gives them freedom, only allowing them to be immersed in this Reincarnation, forever and ever.

And from an economic perspective, the lower classes are treated as vassals of nobles and merchants, as tradable goods, rather than free laborers, which greatly restricts their productivity.

For the economy to truly take off, these "instruments" need to become "people," enabling them to possess complete subjective initiative.

This is also what Li Qi and Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord promised: he would establish schools throughout Baiyue, enlighten the people, and spread the Dao, thereby developing Baiyue's war potential.

However, the Baiyue Kingdom Lords certainly wouldn't be happy to see this. If Li Qi pushed it directly, it would be equivalent to severing their Dao foundation, and they would cause trouble.

Although forceful suppression is not impossible, doing so would likely incite resistance, which would in turn weaken themselves.

To make the Baiyue Kingdom Lords shut up, a pretext is needed to scare them.

To achieve this…

Li Qi abandoned a Grand Ritual node.

That's right, the Grand Ritual node was actively abandoned by Li Qi.

With Li Qi's ability, how could the Grand Ritual node possibly be lost? He only needed to take medicine and then forcefully connect the node to directly activate the Grand Ritual, completely without needing those Baiyue Kingdom Lords to fight desperately.

However, he did it on purpose, and even Shen Shuibi didn't know about this plan.

Sacrificing Song Kingdom gave the Baiyue Kingdom Lords a goal, a goal they had to unite for. They were all in danger at the moment; if the Grand Ritual node couldn't be captured, it would be a dead end for all of them.

Facing the threat of death, temporarily moving the Dao foundation seems to be no problem, after all, it's all for winning. If they don't win, they'll die.

Moreover… killing Lingxiao Kingdom Lord served as a warning to them.

Coupled with the pressure from the Human Dao army and the inability to activate the Grand Ritual, all these factors forced these Country Lords to compromise.

Therefore, Li Qi could free up his hands to do this.

He wants to re-establish the social mechanisms of Baiyue, reallocate productivity, and completely transform Baiyue to overwhelm the Human Dao.

Li Qi drew upon the power of the merchant guild for this. Now, a team of seventh and eighth-rank cultivators is traveling throughout Baiyue, completely tearing apart the original grassroots order.

Because Li Qi knew that the current Human Dao… was actually quite hollow internally.

Previously, on the extraterritorial battlefield, during the vanguard battle between Human Dao and Shaman Dao, Li Qi had once dealt with Liu Junyi.

At that time, Human Dao directly folded cities and teleported them to the battlefield through the fast Universe.

Li Qi still remembered that the city he faced was called 'Gansong'. (See Chapter 585 for details)

A city assembled entirely from Spiritual Artifacts inherently possessed such a function. When needed, the Golden Dais could quickly teleport these cities to their designated strategic locations, and the cities would immediately transform into fortresses, while the citizens could arm themselves and become an iron army.

Dismantling cities from their own territory and distributing them to various locations as war hubs—this was the approach of Human Dao.

This allowed for the easy creation of a large number of war hubs, as Human Dao cities were all very strong.

But in response, the land itself would naturally become a blank slate.

With the cities all relocated and teleported away, the central hinterland of the world, the remaining areas, would naturally be deserted.

The Southern Border he faced was not a Southern Border with complete logistics, backed by the Human Dao hinterland, and with endless support, but rather a Southern Border fighting alone, with other regions unable to provide support. It was even estimated that most of Zhennan Prefecture's own forces were not present.

Just like Li Qi's current situation, although Li Qi is in the world, he cannot receive support from Shaman Dao.

Everyone's main forces are concentrated on the extraterritorial battlefield, and their rear is actually quite empty.

So, in this situation, it is naturally necessary to tap into one's own war potential.

Everything proceeded smoothly.

And these massacres were also authorized by Li Qi.

Currently, many direct combat forces from Li Qi's merchant guild are clearing out the grassroots tumors, these landlords.

Next, someone will settle accounts with these farmers.

Although farmers can become very brutal in certain situations, they are actually very easy to control. As long as they commit a crime, and know they have committed a crime, and then are punished, they will listen to everything.

They dare not defy the 'world order'. As long as they are dealt with in the manner of the world order, no matter what is done, they dare not resist, even if it means their homes are raided and their families exterminated, they will only resent themselves.

Sure enough, after a while, Zhang Haoming and the others were arrested by the arriving constables.

What awaited them would be complete dispersion.

That's right, Li Qi wants to dismantle all grassroots organizations in an extremely crude manner, silencing all Country Lords, then breaking up all existing grassroots organizations, and finally reorganizing them.

The reorganized grassroots will rapidly advance to the level they should be at, directly leaping forward in one step.

Normal reforms could never be so brutal and far-reaching. While this is effective quickly, it also has major side effects, such as treating the symptoms but not the root cause, and causing huge unrest.

Such reforms, in essence, did not fundamentally change the conservative and unchanging overall system; they merely stirred up the turbulent and changing objective situation, completely igniting the superficial remnants that could have temporarily survived. Once ignited, it would make the internal changes more violent than normal.

However, in reality, even if no one ignited the changes, they had always been brewing and developing in the dark and would eventually erupt. Li Qi merely gave it a push.

The unchanging Country Lords deepened the difficulties and crises faced by feudal despotism, while simultaneously weakening its subjective power, further disunifying the will and strength within the ruling class, and expanding internal contradictions and disputes.

In the past, these resistances were forcibly suppressed by the individual power of the Country Lords, but now, during wartime, with the Country Lords away, what if they couldn't suppress them?

Various changes and resistances struggled against the efforts of the conservative forces. All of this not only failed to achieve the desired reform effect but instead increased the disorder within the ruling group.

No matter how intense the changes, fundamentally, they still did not bring an end to the feudal era that had lasted for tens of thousands of years. After the changes, what was rebuilt was still the social order of the feudal era.

No matter how things changed, the 'world order' created by the Country Lords remained unchanged.

Therefore, the Country Lords did not care at all. Those nobles and landlords were actually replaced in waves. In the eyes of the Baiyue Kingdom Lords, all of this was a natural part of Reincarnation.

Old landlords fell, and new landlords rose on the same economic foundation.

But… it's different now.

Li Qi has suppressed the Country Lords, and even the conservative forces.

At this point, they truly encountered an unprecedented change in the situation.

They were facing a change greater than any in hundreds of thousands of years. Although they did not understand the nature and significance of this change, they only needed to know… this time, there was truly a Fourth-Rank great power determined to reorganize Baiyue.

This was indeed an unprecedented change from ancient times. From now on, any attempt to restore the feudal social order and political system would be unable to rise again. Under Li Qi's absolute violence, the train of history rumbled forward, leaving the old era behind and giving birth to new things.

Zhang Xu, Bai Di, Zhang Haoming, and many other Country Lords, various reinforcements, all sorts of people, including even the experts drawn from Li Qi's merchant guild in the outer domains, will all join in.

Shen Shuibi and the Baiyue Kingdom Lords are resisting the Human Dao outside, while Li Qi, already half-crippled, is internally reforming the entire Baiyue.

Because… this Grand Ritual is not just aimed at Human Dao.

Li Qi had already planned all of this from the very beginning.

This Grand Ritual will be even grander. (End of this chapter)