[You let out a dry laugh, then straightened your face.]
["You kid still have to keep adventuring with me. As for who to promote, I already have a list prepared long ago."]
[The Ten Thousand Souls Banner's surface immediately drooped pathetically.]
["Oh, come on, buddy, enough already! You've already become the master of a Second-tier Star. What's there to adventure for? Let's just settle down here!"]
[Currently, your actual power is quite substantial.]
[You hold two Second-tier Stars and three third-class stars in your grasp.]
[Though on the surface they each have their own masters and are managed by different factions, the true helmsman behind them all is you.]
[You could now be said to possess a stellar system level faction!]
[The Forty-Seventh Year, age seventy-three.]
[Heavenly Dragon Nation lost a massive batch of pillar ministers and frontier governors, yet the entire nation showed no chaos whatsoever.]
[The grassroots population was mostly Human Race, and the Human Race couldn't care less whether those Alien Race lords lived or died.]
[The Human Race also knew their place, their strength still weak, having just secured basic food and shelter and fundamental cultivation conditions. It was not the time to stir up trouble.]
[Moreover, the Torch Society was secretly steering things among the common folk, ensuring social stability.]
[The various Alien Race factions stirred restlessly for a while.]
[But you swiftly appointed replacements for every official position, all of them a batch of trusted confidants you had long since predetermined.]
[These people's abilities were mediocre, their cultivation levels passable at best, with only one standout quality, they loved to kiss up to you.]
[To outsiders.]
[It looked like a pack of treacherous ministers who had risen to power through smooth talk and flattering the emperor.]
[Who killed Ya Dada and the others? Did that even need saying?]
[Whoever benefited was whoever did it!]
[This new batch of court ministers were all handpicked by you. Their attitude toward the Human Race was relatively mild, or rather, indifferent.]
[They didn't care about ancestral teachings or whatever. As long as the Human Race didn't rebel, they would faithfully execute every policy you set.]
[This bunch of sycophants would absolutely never oppose you. As long as you didn't help the Human Race too obviously, practically plastering "I'm also Human Race" on your face, they would assist you in governing Blazing Star according to your vision.]
[After a year of observation and listening to their inner thoughts, you confirmed you hadn't chosen the wrong people.]
[As for whether the situation would change in ten years, twenty years, or even a hundred years?]
[If the Human Race could cultivate peacefully for that long, by then it would be difficult for the Alien Race ruling class to pull any tricks.]
[After all, the Torch Society was among the common folk. They would effectively utilize every available force.]
[Blood Iron Sect.]
[A second-rate sect on Blazing Star.]
[Before the unification war began, they still had territory spanning several villages and towns, and the Firewood Sect was one of their subordinate vassal factions.]
[Now that the entire planet was unified, the Heavenly Dragon Nation had established new rules. All land belonged to the Heavenly Dragon Emperor, and no sect faction would enjoy territorial autonomy anymore.]
[Blood Iron Sect had originally lived comfortably by exploiting the residents in their territory and squeezing their vassal factions.]
[Now? No more territory.]
[A large half of their own sect members had been dragged off to fill the battle lines during the war, never to return.]
[The Human Race was also rising at light speed under the court's support. No longer easy to bully.]
[The remaining members of Blood Iron Sect lived in tight straits, suffering miserably.]
["Sect Master! Not even a sip of wine to drink day after day. If you can endure this life, the brothers can't!"]
[Blood Iron Sect Master Niu Sanjiao sipped the tea in the large bowl in his hands and let out a sigh.]
["What do you all want to do?"]
["Go down the mountain and raid the town!"]
["Doesn't that make us bandits?"]
["We used to do the same thing!"]
["That used to be called collecting taxes. Now only the court can collect taxes. If we take even half a bit of the people's wealth, we'll be sentenced to extermination of nine generations of our clan... Damn it, what a bizarre situation. The punishments crashing down on our heads are harsher than those on the Human Race. Which race exactly is it that's sitting on the throne of this country?"]
["Heh heh, definitely not the bull-headed tribe, that's for sure!"]
[A clever one emerged from among this group of bull-headed men. He pointed a hoof toward the sky, and a lightbulb lit up on his forehead.]
["Sect Master, Sect Master! I've got it! We can knock out the officials, wear their clothes, and impersonate them to collect taxes from the town below the mountain! That way we'll have money for wine and meat!"]
[Niu Sanjiao looked at the bland, tasteless tea in his bowl, then hurled it to the ground.]
["Fine! That's what we'll do!"]
[Several dozen bull-headed men grabbed their weapons. They had just reached the mountain gate when a mass of dark clouds descended from the sky, a terrifying pressure freezing them in place.]
["Th-this this this..."]
[Niu Sanjiao raised his head and looked closely.]
[Standing atop the dark clouds, lightning coiling around his entire body, wearing a black dragon robe, who else could it be but the current Heavenly Dragon Emperor?]
["Oh my god!! The Emperor is here!"]
["Long live Your Majesty, long live, ten thousand years!!"]
["Your Majesty has graced our humble abode and we failed to welcome you from afar. Our crime is grave, grave indeed!!]
[Niu Sanjiao and the others moved in perfect unison, all prostrating themselves on the ground.]
[You swept your gaze over them and announced with a deadpan expression.]
["Everyone in Blood Iron Sect, from top to bottom, impersonated officials to collect taxes. This constitutes a capital offense. Sentenced to immediate execution!"]
[Niu Sanjiao froze for a moment.]
["Your Majesty! We didn't actually do it! We, we were just thinking about it, hadn't done it yet. Th-this this this, surely that's not worth death?"]
["Thinking? Thinking isn't allowed either! Capital offense!"]
[You raised your hand, summoning thunderclouds across the sky. Black lightning flattened the mountain where Blood Iron Sect stood, this was Si Duoduo's Divine Art.]
[Blood Iron Sect was gone.]
[Among a pile of charred bull steaks, you found a lightning-shaped horn wrapped in faint arcs of electricity.]
[This horn had previously been on Niu Sanjiao's forehead.]
[But it wasn't Niu Sanjiao's natural horn. He had picked it up from who knows where and mounted it on his forehead. With this horn, he could execute some lightning-discharging moves.]
["I blasted it with that much force and there's not a single mark on this horn. This thing definitely has something to it. I didn't manage to explore it last Simulation. Let me try again this time..."]
[You put the horn away properly.]
[At this point, everything that needed to be done on Blazing Star was done.]
[Next, all that was left was to wait for Ah Dou to be born.]
[The Forty-Eighth Year, age seventy-four.]
[After dealing with the old generation of power brokers, you no longer needed to focus on political intrigue in the court.]
[Your spirit felt much lighter all at once.]
[A bunch of sycophants surrounded you, sweet-talking you every day, their work competence basically acceptable, able to help you share the burden of managing the nation's numerous affairs.]
[You decreed that court would be held once a month to listen to the ministers' work reports.]
[The rest of the time, you did whatever you pleased.]
[If you wanted to do serious business, you'd lie on Blazing Star's entire planetary resources and cultivate.]
[If you wanted to relax, your subordinates would pull out all the stops to bring you all sorts of entertainment programs.]
[Being emperor was just too comfortable.]
[Just one downside.]
[The harem.]
[Every day looking at a bunch of heavily made-up female Dragon-Man, you practically lost your appetite.]
[So you never visited the harem.]
[Rumors spread among the common folk that the Heavenly Dragon Emperor was indifferent to women, focused solely on governance, working thirteen hours a day, truly an Emperor of the Ages!]

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