Douluo: Emerald Poison Emperor [502] (Patreon)

The God of Destruction did not dare to predict just how far Chen Ming would go in the future, nor could he say for certain whether Chen Ming would ever again create miracles like before—wielding the true Sword of Judgment of the Three Realms with his strength.

But…

Sensing the lingering special divine power fluctuations in this space, the God of Destruction’s eyes held a trace of inexplicable meaning.

Just like he’d once casually mentioned to Little Green (the God of Life), Chen Ming’s body contained both his power and the power of Life, and the two combined had further evolved into the power of Creation. In a sense, it was almost as if Chen Ming were, in some way, their child.

Thinking of how, in recent days, the God of Asura—who used to hide away in his temple doing who-knows-what—had suddenly grown close with the Sea God, the God of Destruction’s eyes flashed with a trace of violence.

“Asura, you’d best behave. Life, Kindness, Evil, and I—all four of us are watching you. Don’t let us down. And Dragon God, you’d better stay thoroughly dead. If you try to threaten the God Realm again, I won’t mind fighting you one more time.”

“As for the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, I refuse to believe that the reason this former Dragon God’s guard is getting close to Chen Ming is just a coincidence.”

The God of Destruction was not good-natured, nor could he be considered a good person. In essence, he was the embodiment of the cosmic law of destruction and only became part of the order because he gained emotions and love. If all shackles and feelings—what he considered hindrances—were stripped away, his power would grow even further.

After all, in terms of the strength and purity of the destructive force, the God of Destruction, whose true form is a drop of destruction, was even above the former Dragon God. He might not be able to win in the end, but if he wished, he could overturn the table so that no one could achieve victory.

…

As time passed, another year quickly went by in the Douluo World. With the implementation of Chen Ming’s initial promise—allowing children from households to enter the academy—his territory began to flourish anew.

Unlike standard nine-year compulsory education, limited by Douluo World’s development and special circumstances, Chen Ming’s territory only offered four years of compulsory education, and the curriculum was somewhat different from his previous life.

Even so, gathering all the necessary resources for these four years of education still took Chen Ming three years of preparation.

The first year taught basic literacy and mathematics. The second and third years taught general knowledge and history of the continent. The fourth year covered advanced subjects like physics and biology. Outstanding students would receive extra financial aid from the territory, and their families could even get some tax breaks.

Those who performed well in the four years could go on to higher vocational institutions for further study, tuition-free. If they got lucky and underwent a transformation, they could become artificial soul masters and gain extraordinary powers.

Well, Chen Ming didn’t deny that he also wanted to use as much as possible, and part of the reason for these transformations was to make technical talents tougher and more hardworking.

With the formal operation of educational institutions, the two major empires—which had silently copied Chen Ming’s territory’s development for over three years—couldn’t hold back any longer.

Over three years, Chen Ming’s territory had grown to over two million people. That number was like a small duchy, but the terrifying development speed and number of soul masters were enough to make the two empires wary.

Especially the situation where people neither obeyed orders nor paid taxes nor accepted control—this looked, in the eyes of the two empires, like the rise of a Third Empire.

In secret, Heaven Dou’s Emperor Xue Ye had at some point reached an agreement with Star Luo’s Emperor Dai Tianfeng: while secretly making things hard for Chen Ming, they also quietly copied whatever they could from him. The recent years’ use of fallen soul masters—forced to labor like slaves in high-risk industries—was another form of imitation.

But they didn’t dare copy this education system, nor could they afford to.

Chen Ming’s territory, with more than two million people, had an underage population of about 30% thanks to favorable policies—nearly 600,000 minors. Among these, about 250,000 were between six and twelve—the Douluo World’s defined minors. Only half of these 250,000 had met the three-year tax requirement.

Still…

Even if it took Chen Ming three years to assemble the teaching staff and materials, it was far from the standard of his previous life.

The compulsory school day was six 40-minute classes, with 10-minute breaks, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., including a free lunch and a one-hour nap, totaling six hours a day. Students attended every other day, and one teacher managed almost a hundred students per class—by any measure, a makeshift arrangement.

Unless a child was exceptionally talented, most would struggle to jump social classes in Douluo World even after four years—at most, their lives would improve “just a bit.”

But…

We’re talking about nearly 130,000 kids all at once! Every one of them could read, do math, even had some history knowledge, knew there were other cities besides their own, and—most alarmingly—could calculate taxes and knew some imperial laws.

This wasn’t just about exposing secrets—it was a much deeper issue.

The Douluo Continent was vast and sparsely populated, with many plains and a large population. The combined population of the two feudal empires was over 200 million.

The total number of educated people was at most three million, more than half being soul masters, nobles, or merchants.

Each empire produced fewer than 100,000 new educated people per year. If Chen Ming’s territory ran at full potential, it would add tens of thousands, even up to 100,000 literate and numerate people annually. And this number would only grow as the population increased.

Indeed, people in Douluo World weren’t the brightest, but anyone able to do math could see the threat in these numbers. This was no mere hidden danger—it was like having a fist-sized tumor on the chest.

If not for the fact that they couldn’t win, and sheer numbers were useless against powerful poison-type soul masters, the two empires and the dozen or so duchies would have long ago united and swarmed Chen Ming’s territory, vowing to wipe him from history.

But… they simply couldn’t win.

These years, the two empires had watched as Chen Ming’s territory grew toward third Empire status. Did they not want to stop him?

Not at all—many of their experts had died unexpectedly, both genuinely during infiltration attempts and officially as a cover, only to have someone with the same martial soul and power level turn up in Chen Ming’s ranks.

Frankly, if one looked closely at Chen Ming’s forces, it wouldn’t be hard to spot martial souls like Star Crown, Netherworld Cat, Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon—ones that theoretically shouldn’t appear there.

A few years back, there were even people who claimed not to be from the Clear Sky Sect, but who had the Clear Sky Hammer martial soul and could use the Clear Sky Nine Skills, trying to join—only to be kicked out by Chen Ming.

If it weren’t for the Swan and White Tiger martial souls being so distinctive and tightly monitored, it would be perfectly normal for a few soul masters to sneak in with martial souls identical to the imperial families, yet no actual relation.

After all, who could guarantee their faction was free of outside influence?

Besides, apart from the imperial families and those bound tightly to them, everyone else was prepared to hedge their bets.

The key point was, that Chen Ming didn’t even demand much talent. Ordinary sect disciples, if they failed, so what? No one cared. If they came back transformed, even better.

…

So, as the two empires began to discuss using soft tactics to persuade Chen Ming to stop giving precious knowledge to peasants, a figure who’d been missing from the continent for years quietly appeared in Xue Ye’s bedroom.

Seeing the tall figure, the weary Xue Ye let out a long sigh—uncertain if he was excited or resigned, but not surprised by the sudden appearance.

Waving his attendants away, Xue Ye led the visitor into a secret room and personally brewed tea.

“I wonder—what brings Clear Sky Douluo here?”

Looking at Tang Chen, Xue Ye’s lips moved for a long time, but he didn’t utter the title “Invincible on Land,” merely addressing him as Clear Sky Douluo.

Tang Chen, though a bit helpless, wasn’t angry. He downed the hot tea in one gulp, wiped his mouth with a sleeve, and stared into Xue Ye’s eyes.

“Emperor Xue Ye, do you realize? Your Heaven Dou Empire is on the verge of disaster!”

“On the verge of disaster?” Xue Ye paused, then asked:

“May I ask, which disaster does Clear Sky Douluo mean? The recent ambitions of Spirit Hall? The restlessness of Star Luo Empire? The sects and nobles drifting away from the empire? Or Chen Ming’s territory development?”

“So many? Sounds like Heaven Dou Empire is doomed,” Tang Chen muttered inwardly at Xue Ye’s litany, before continuing.

“I’m not talking about those. I mean your crown prince. Do you know that your current favored son, the crown prince Xue Qinghe, who holds great power in the empire, is not your real son, but an imposter from Spirit Hall?”

“The crown prince, huh…” Xue Ye, who in Tang Chen’s plan should have exploded in anger, only sighed lightly.

“I’ve more or less known for years, but it doesn’t matter. At first, I thought the crown prince’s targeting of the nobles was due to assassination attempts. Later, I realized he was too close to Spirit Hall and his ideas were nothing like royalty—more like Spirit Hall’s.”

“My Heaven Dou Empire was never unified. Our very existence on Douluo Continent depends on Spirit Hall to survive Star Luo’s attacks, and internally it’s a mess.”

“To be blunt, I’ve been emperor so many years, you think I don’t know Heaven Dou’s true state? Apart from my first few years with some ambition, my greatest wish these decades has been that the empire doesn’t collapse on my watch—that I don’t become the ‘last emperor.’”

“The continent now is full of chaos, internal and external strife. I’ve long since lost the ability to stabilize Heaven Dou. If not for the crown prince’s reliance on Spirit Hall’s people, we might have collapsed already.”

Xue Ye was the picture of resignation and lacked the spirit a monarch should have.

But this was normal. Most Heaven Dou emperors were like this—average in ability and strength, and Xue Ye only stood out for his self-awareness.

Under normal circumstances, he might last until abdication, but in a crisis, he was as good as useless.

Tang Chen suppressed the urge to punch Xue Ye and stared into his eyes.

“Fine words. Are you willing to see Heaven Dou’s legacy fall into outsiders’ hands?”

“Of course not. But I don’t have the ability.” Xue Ye stared back calmly.

“Clear Sky Douluo, you must have come here with your ideas. What does the Clear Sky Sect want from Heaven Dou? If you help me deal with the crown prince, what is it for? After hiding for so many years, I doubt you’d pass up this opportunity.”

“You’re perceptive.” Tang Chen spoke bluntly.

“I’ll help you get rid of the crown prince. You preserve the last spark of the Clear Sky Sect. I want to pick an item from Heaven Dou’s treasury, and finally, I want your daughter Xue Ke to marry my great-grandson Tang San as his wife. Deal?”