Douluo: Emerald Poison Emperor [494] (Patreon)

Chen Ming couldn’t abolish all the systems he disliked, but he could veto unwanted practices in his territory and implement strict laws and penalties.

To prevent people from acting against his wishes, Chen Ming moved his family from Biluochan City, putting trusted relatives in charge of law enforcement, and periodically used his Sinful Gaze to check for signs of corruption.

If none were found, or just harmless traces, he’d reward them. But if anyone abused their position, Chen Ming wouldn’t hesitate to set up a public trial and purification, using the fact that they were his kin to demonstrate his resolve.

After burning seven or eight distant relatives at the stake, nobody in his administration dared abuse their power again.

But Chen Ming wasn’t just demanding—he was also generous. As long as rules were followed, he would reward generously.

Under this carrot-and-stick approach, his makeshift administration outperformed many regions’ bureaucracies, even creating a situation where people left their doors unlocked at night.

Chen Ming had his ideas for developing the peasantry:

Free rental of oxen.

Cheap seeds and tools.

First-year tax exemption for commoners.

Subsidies for childbirth.

Newlywed couples get three years of tax exemption.

Advanced group members get rewards.

Families who pay taxes for three years can send their children to the academy for three years.

Main thing: farm tax is only 30%, reduced in disaster years.

Though there were various taxes, all combined were only half or a third of what the two empires usually imposed.

Even in the capitals, truly normal tax collection without extra charges was extremely rare.

With free oxen and cheap supplies, for peasants who usually lost 80-90% of their income to taxes, their annual income could triple or quadruple.

After the autumn harvest and a prosperous year, grateful farmers prayed to Chen Ming—even in snowfall, people could be seen kowtowing outside his residence.

Ordinary people’s faith was less potent than soul masters’ or soul beasts’, but their sheer numbers and sincere devotion gave Chen Ming a huge influx of faith power.

Among soul masters, however, developing faith was harder.

At this time, soul masters either believed in the Angel God or nothing at all. Even though Chen Ming and Spirit Hall were not overtly opposed, many pure believers were wary of him.

Since Spirit Hall still awakened martial souls for every child, most soul masters, especially those from humble backgrounds, naturally leaned toward the Angel God.

Even those who came to Chen Ming’s territory mostly came for benefits, not faith.

To develop faith among soul masters, Chen Ming used many methods.

He requested some young, mild-tempered, easily molded soul masters from allied sects, and recruited tenacious but untalented commoner soul masters from his land for special transformation.

In Douluo 2, the Holy Spirit Church’s evil soul masters could corrupts martial souls. Chen Ming had similar abilities—he could modify martial souls, but not necessarily in an evil way.

For ordinary soul masters, Chen Ming created seven transformative procedures:

Internal organ activation: Special decoctions and toxins put the soul master in a weakened state, then gradual nourishment and exercise stimulate organ strength.

Innate deficiency compensation: For those born weak, a near-death state followed by rituals to boost innate soul power—up to one level for those under level 5, half a level for higher ones.

Secondary growth enhancement: Using toxins to force the body to grow anew through extreme pain.

Abnormal resistance improvement: Multiple toxins toughen the body, granting greater vitality and resistance.

Devour ability addition: Adds a weak, non-growing devour ability to the martial spirit, allowing better digestion of medicine and resistance to toxins.

Martial soul potential stimulation: Individually tailored rituals—hypnosis, life energy, near-death states—to awaken further growth or repair defects. Rarely, this could trigger a second awakening.

Mental stimulation: Induced meditation during bodily corruption to break mental limits, giving a one-time spiritual boost.

The main feature: these are hard to copy or spread, and except for the potential stimulation (which needs to be tailored), they’re broadly applicable and safe—failures just weaken, not kill.

After selection and training, only 7 out of dozens survived all seven rituals, enduring immense pain but with outstanding results.

All had poor innate soul power (level 2–4.5), normally capped at Soul King or, at best, Soul Emperor. But after the rituals, each gained at least four levels, with the best matching innate full soul power. Their martial souls evolved into genuine high-level types.

Even the weakest would be considered a genius in a major sect and a contender for the next sect master. Each became a future Titled Douluo seed.

Mental strengthening would make their future breakthroughs much easier, and their reinforced bodies gave them greater vitality, resistance, and lifespan—at least 200 years—plus resistance to lasting injuries.

Aside from the pain, there were no flaws. Compared to this permanent upgrade, even the Hao Tian Sect’s great Sumeru Hammer and explosive ring-breaking couldn’t compare.

Because each ritual involved toxins and plagues that invaded every part of the body, causing even the marrow to ache and the flesh to rot, these were called the Sevenfold Plague and Sevenfold Corruption by those who endured them.

But since every ritual brought great improvement and rebirth, they were also called the Sevenfold Blessing. Every blessing brought more power and a clearer future.

Those who completed the transformation were held up as examples. Chen Ming announced that even commoner soul masters could improve their talent through enough contribution.

All participants, whatever their progress, were also granted Chen Ming’s basic internal energy techniques to further increase their training speed.

With these double benefits, even the weakest soul master could train twice as fast, greatly improving their prospects.

Having survived this trial and seen their talents soar, all who completed the rituals became Chen Ming’s fanatical believers, placing him above their sects or families.

After all, these weren’t key family heirs but expendables. The transformation changed their mindset completely.

In the eyes of commoner soul masters, Chen Ming was like the sun walking the earth, and they learned to worship him instinctively.

For soul masters of this era, Chen Ming’s feat was a pure miracle.

Once this was revealed, many high-level soul masters with famous martial spirits but no sect background swarmed into Chen Ming’s territory, desperate to pledge loyalty.

Children and youths who might never have met were gathered for development. Even pampered noble heirs worked harder than anyone—up at dawn, asleep late, laboring like oxen, bringing their food, and even paying for the privilege, each with their technical team.

Beast martial soul masters plowed fields with their bodies. Attackers and defenders cleared wilds, sharp types felled forests, fire types burned weeds, and earth and water types built infrastructure and improved soil.

Soul masters using their powers for production wasn’t new, but doing so on this scale, with such initiative, was unprecedented.

Normally, the land was roughly cleared first, then carefully cultivated over time. But with soul masters so desperate to outwork each other, the land’s population couldn’t keep up, forcing Chen Ming to pause expansion and focus on roads and wells earlier than planned.

PS: Chen Ming now become a politician. Is it because the election is coming? lol