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Chapter 757: The Divine Terra Empire

Four nearly full-capacity flagship vessels set out, carrying the fiend beasts still willing to fight alongside them, chasing along the Federation fleet's advance route that Ramdo had revealed.

The fleet carried nearly eight million members of the fiend race, both large and small. This number seemed significant, but compared to the total of over a hundred million fiend race members living on the Land of White, it was merely a fraction.

Of course, calling them the fiend race at this point was somewhat inappropriate; the vast majority of them were no different from the Holy Progenitors who had been transformed from humans.

After over a century of comfortable living, the lower-tiered members of the fiend race on the Land of White had long since lost much of their ambition.

Not to mention the slow erosion of various emotions by Daoization, which had caused the entire society to gradually become increasingly apathetic.

Even though the Four Holy Beasts had once been the leaders of all members of the fiend race, that was a century ago. The new generation of the fiend race no longer held much blind obedience towards them.

Let alone rashly abandoning homes they had lived in for over a hundred years to venture into desolate space. Wouldn't it be far more appealing to just stay home and relax?

After decades of promotion, all the fiend beasts on the Land of White had mastered transformation techniques, and most had integrated into human society.

Those who chose to leave this time were naturally the remaining high-ranking diehards.

...

"Ramdo, you are truly impressive." The Speaker's expression darkened.

"Wake up!" He picked up his weapon, a jewel-encrusted scepter, and pointed it at Hou Lin, who had begun to question his own existence, emitting a soft red glow towards him.

"Cultivating the Divine Path, Earth Path, and Human Path concurrently, and even able to blend the powers of these three paths. To suppress Hou Lin in a single encounter, truly worthy of you."

"This young man is still too naive. He needs more lessons on the truths of life, to understand that even among Immortals, there is still a difference as vast as clouds and mud." Ramdo did not refute the Speaker's words.

...

"Thank you."

Hou Lin, emerging from his self-doubt, became silent. After thanking his teammates from the same faction, he quietly watched Ramdo, not uttering another sound.

He was using his outward composure to hide the stormy turmoil raging within him.

Hou Lin had never imagined that the gap between True Immortals could be this immense.

Although he had only recently returned from his Reincarnation Tribulation, he never expected to be struck down by a mere few words.

"You are too weak." Ramdo mercilessly rubbed salt into his wound.

Ramdo, cultivating all three paths and with his power level reaching the mid-seventh tier—more precisely, level 76 according to Federation classifications—had, with just a few words, already planted a 'heart demon' into the mind of the level 71 Hou Lin, plunging him into meaningless self-doubt.

"Naive boy, do you really think every move in battle needs to be shouted out?

You became a Grand Marshal, commanding the Federation military, not because you were strong enough, but merely because the others weren't willing to shoulder that burden.

Otherwise, with over thirty True Immortals, both openly known and secretly hidden, throughout the entire Federation, do you think it would be your turn?"

"..."

Hou Lin remained silent after hearing this. His vigilance raised to its peak, he was well aware that the other party's words undoubtedly contained traps. Since his cultivation was inferior to the enemy's, and he had no chance in an offensive confrontation, it was better to defend rigorously and maintain silence in this battle of heart demons.

This was also the most unpredictable aspect of a Human Immortal: they could infuse their martial will into every word and phrase, and through a barrage of words, render those with inferior cultivation stunned or even brainwashed.

Those who were brainwashed would even find it difficult to distinguish whether they were truly persuaded by the words, or "physically persuaded" by the martial will embedded within those "fallacies."

...

"Just now, you said the Federation was going to change its name?" After the Speaker rescued Hou Lin from the verbal assault, he turned his gaze towards the Azure Dragon Bahamut.

"As long as we can send you flying, we can naturally change the name."

"Then what do you intend to change it to?" The Speaker was completely unfazed by such a provocative statement; instead, he seriously inquired about the other party's intentions.

Because he could tell that the four great fiends before him were not their true forms descended. A mere projection could destroy a skeletal giant claw, which was also a projection, but wanting to harm him was a fool's errand.

"How about the Divine Terra Empire?" Xuanwu, one of the Four Beasts, stated the name they had thought of beforehand.

As part of the deal, they would assist Ramdo in winning this True-Profound struggle, in exchange for joining the Federation as an equal major power, and the Human Federation's name absolutely had to be changed, forbidden from containing the characters for "human."

Ramdo didn't actually care much about the name. It should be said that few True Immortals cared about the name of a nation.

Yet the Four Holy Beasts had insisted on this point, emphasizing it as an important condition that absolutely had to be changed. He was naturally happy to comply.

Getting four super-powerful enforcers without having to give up much substantial value seemed like a very worthwhile deal from any perspective.

As for why the Four Holy Beasts insisted on changing the name? This was their final stubbornness against being "assimilated" into humans.

If they joined the "Human Federation," wouldn't they also become "humans"?

Deep down, this group of high-ranked, diehard fiend beasts did not consider themselves human and insisted on being distinguished.

"The Divine Terra Empire?" The Speaker's attention was first drawn to the word "Empire." "Who intends to be Emperor in the Federation? And who is worthy to be Emperor in the Federation?"

The Federation's current rotating council had term limits for the Speaker. He was merely the Speaker for this term, and in a few years, he would revert to being a council member.

Moreover, the Speaker was, at the end of the day, merely someone who organized discussions. Many critical matters, such as the routes of the Federation fleet or whether to wage war along the way, were truly decided through internal discussions among the True Immortals.

Once the True Immortals reached an internal consensus, the issue would then be thrown to the Federation Council for a procedural vote and approval.

The Morning Star and Moon Council members, who were Five-Tier and Six-Tier cultivators, also understood this clearly. For major matters, they were content to act as rubber stamps; whatever the True Immortal meeting decided, they would follow.

Their true responsibility was to offer opinions on relatively less important matters and strive for victories in minor directions.

...

However, an "Emperor" was different from a "Speaker." The Speaker's understanding of an "Emperor" was a supreme entity with the absolute power to make final decisions with a single word. The problem was that, given the current situation within the Federation, there was no single person who could override all True Immortals and forcefully impose their will.

Ever since the incident with Bai Mo, the Federation had placed an almost obsessive emphasis on the concept of checks and balances.

At no point would they allow for another opportunity for a single entity to dominate. The moment such a tendency appeared, others would immediately form an encirclement to suppress it, preventing a repeat of past mistakes.

PS: Why does time feel like it's passing so quickly... It's as if I just updated, and now it's time to update again ORZ.