Chapter 2468 - 2435: Everyone Fears Death, Everyone Dreads War

The Immortal Dynasty could barely sustain the basic salaries of its military and officials, yet the Immortal Sect citizens did not care too much.

What truly enraged the Immortal Sect citizens, making it utterly unacceptable, was that their share of tax revenues had continuously declined—from the generous welfare two million years ago to barely maintaining cultivation in contemporary times, leading to difficult lives where many citizens had to work for survival.

Moreover, they couldn’t always find suitable employment, and unemployment was common among citizens.

In this era of financial exhaustion and war, the welfare for Immortal Sect citizens has been reduced to nothing but the bare essentials of food and clothing; cultivation resources could only be obtained through competition.

Would such a thing have been possible two million or even one million years ago?

Citizens were born noble, standing above countless lives, never worrying about cultivation resources, able to pursue dreams their whole life without compromise to reality, allowing citizens to spread across dozens of star domains, their population reaching countless worlds.

And because of this, finances were drained.

Even without war, even with normal fiscal operations, the Immortal Dynasty could not support so many citizens, leaving a significant number of Immortal Sect citizens in unavoidable hardship and poverty, unable to receive support.

Discontent and resentment accumulated in the hearts of every cultivator, from the lower civilians to high-level cultivators in the Immortal Sect.

This was the source and force behind the Immortal Dynasty reform of a hundred thousand years ago, an unstoppable tide of public sentiment, despite being clearly detrimental to a select few Immortal Sect citizens.

In poverty and hardship, Immortal Sect citizens could no longer tolerate distributing vast amounts of heavenly materials and earthly treasures and tax revenues to groups like the Tu Shan Maiden Corps and the Supreme Great Sun Sword Dao Soldiers!

All these things should belong to the citizens!

They should belong to the most noble, most advanced representatives of productive forces in the starry sky—the Immortal Sect citizens!

What if they are dissatisfied?

Then let them be dissatisfied!

Now, the Immortal Sect citizens, numbering across dozens of star domains with numerous elites and powerful military might, have the Ten Great Deep Space Annihilation Fleets and 360 Deep Space Fleets in their fleet, each able to independently suppress a region, with soldiers all being citizens of utmost political reliability.

Many citizens even thought, let them rebel!

If these forces do not rebel, and are not thoroughly cleansed, where will the survival space come from for Immortal Sect citizens to maintain vast welfare expenditures and abundant cultivation resources for high-level cultivators?

This was intentionally pushing them to fight back!

The citizens’ schemes succeeded.

The Supreme Great Sun Sword Dao Soldiers, Tu Shan Maiden Corps, Seven Super-tier Elite Dao Soldiers, and various Immortal Sect Holy Land families indeed rebelled, with flames of war erupting everywhere.

Then, the unexpected happened.

The Immortal Sect Fleet could not simply crush the enemy before them; after achieving a few victories, the war situation became a stalemate, with news of defeat arriving repeatedly.

This plunged many once-confident citizens into fear, flipping from extreme confidence to extreme fear so swiftly.

"Should we negotiate for peace?"

"At worst, we could accept back the Tu Shan Maiden Corps; after all, these maidens are citizens’ maidens. How dare they oppose us?"

A citizen representative gritted his teeth.

This citizen representative was an extreme hawk before the war, famous for his impassioned speeches, gaining much support from Immortal Sect citizens and being elevated into the Ziwei Tianzhu.

Now, surprisingly, he said such words.

Instantly, silence fell upon the Ziwei Tianzhu.

Yet many citizen representatives showed signs of being tempted in their eyes.

"Scoundrel!"

"Supreme Zhengyi, you seek death!"

Simultaneously, many citizens revealed furious looks: "How can someone like you be here as a representative? You must know that if you were in the founding period of the Immortal Sect, someone like you would be dealt with under military law!"

"You shouldn’t even have such qualification!"

"If we are to fight, we must fight to the end!"

"If negotiations were the aim, we shouldn’t have fought in the first place! People like you, hesitating and indecisive, will bring the Immortal Sect a crisis of extermination!"

Many citizens at that moment were deeply disappointed.

People like Supreme Zhengyi were not anomalies nor random fools.

Throughout the Immortal Sect, in the vast fleet of the Immortal Sect, such individuals were abundant. Two million years of living comfortably had produced an astonishing number of incompetents.

Before the war, many citizens were fully confident because they believed the citizens’ fleet to be like that under the Ancient Emperor, with data from all aspects confirming this.

But when it actually came to battle, it was all just for show!

The citizens’ fleet, which in the past was synonymous with the top-tier Taoist soldiers and comprised entirely of citizens, was never weak. Its only flaw was its small numbers.

Now, with their numbers made up, many became arrogant, thinking they could sweep across the world alone.

Reality delivered them a heavy blow.

...

The Frontline, Vega Star Domain.

The capital of the star domain, Vega Grand Thousand World, was surrounded by layers of Immortal Dynasty formations, with rail cannons continuously firing and fleets consecutively attacking, striking at the armies in the starry sky.

These armies were composed of True Dragon Immortal Clan, True Phoenix Immortal Clan, and various other races, with a massive human race army pressuring from behind.

At the center of this grand army with mixed races, a single army of only 300 billion but exuding terrifyingly sharp auras silently suppressed the battlefield like a blade ready to be thrown into war, constantly exerting immense pressure on the Central Army of the Immortal Sect, with five Deep Space Annihilation Fleets seated here not daring to rashly make a move.

This is now the most eye-catching battlefield in the Endless Starry Sky!

The three hundred billion Supreme Great Sun Sword Dao Soldiers, reawakened, commanding the vast grand army of various races, held down over half the main forces of the Immortal Sect in the Vega Star Domain.

Meanwhile, in other battlefields, the Tu Shan Maiden Corps and Seven Super-tier Elite forces were attacking cities and territories ceaselessly, engaging in brutal offensive and defensive battles at all times.

At the center of Vega Grand Thousand World, surrounded by layers of formation mechanisms, a valiant middle-aged cultivator coldly observed the war situation.

"Emperor Yuanri!"

"The 2231st Army Fleet has been defeated, with more than half of the corps lost, they have withdrawn from the front-line combat sequence."

A staff officer hurriedly reported upon arriving here.

"The reason?"

Emperor Yuanri asked indifferently.

This offensive order was issued by himself; theoretically, it should have achieved a small tactical advantage, a rare opportunity for victory.

Yet, it failed.

"The corps commander... made command errors, many generals’ military skills were lacking, and soldier coordination... was poor."

"Especially a concealed sword cultivator unit broke into the fleet’s front, causing many officers and soldiers to panic and fall into disarray, which was the primary reason for the losses."

The staff officer responded with apprehension.

"Heh."

"The same old story, the same old story."

Emperor Yuanri’s expression remained unchanged, saying indifferently: "In recent years, the quality of the army has declined to this extent, with even ’peerless geniuses’ inventing brilliant means to block the monitoring of the Central Array Spirit Computer. Everyone is lax, everyone fears hardship, everyone fears death... Such people, where do they find the courage to initiate wars!"

"Where do they find the courage?!!"

His voice was full of murderous intent and anger.

The group of staff officers around him lowered their heads, not daring to speak.