Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1510 - 1503: Moral Enhancement

Chapter 1510: Chapter 1503: Moral Enhancement

Upon reaching the border, the Cavalry sent by Zisu could only stop there, as proceeding further would mean crossing into Fengyu territory. Although there are many from the Demon Clan residing within Fengyu, and Fengyu itself is a vassal state rather than a sovereign nation, sending Cavalry so openly through the border of Fengyu would unavoidably lead to some unnecessary misunderstandings.

After bidding farewell to the Demon Clan Cavalry, the group started to get ready with their attire, changing into the clothes prepared in advance and donning masks. To maintain Luo’er’s mystique, they even prepared a special veil to cover Luo’er’s face and eyes.

Thus, after changing into their disguises, Luo’er and Tangmo sat inside the carriage, and the rest sat outside, as they officially entered Fengyu territory.

There were no soldiers stationed at the border line of Fengyu territory, which is why people from the Demon Clan could come and go freely into Fengyu and then head to West Outer Heaven.

Inherently, Fengyu and Abisien had no significant conflicts or disputes. The Demon Clan had no intentions of moving north, and Fengyu had no plans to expand south. The two were at peace with each other. Even when Dongsheng Empire arrived, Fengyu simply offered some logistical supplies and rear bases.

As Dongsheng Empire and the three great aristocratic families retreated, Fengyu and Abisien returned to a peaceful state, engaging in trade with each other. Merchants heading to Kyushu had to traverse Fengyu territory, and without doing anything, Fengyu could simply make money off their crossing, hence the country had no desire for expansion.

The treatment of the Demon Clan in Fengyu couldn’t exactly be called poor, but it wasn’t much better either. There was no overt discrimination, but invisible discrimination was pervasive.

As previously mentioned, the Demon Clan is somewhat similar to the Elves, with a very strong ability to assimilate. Hence, once a family marries someone from the Demon Clan, the descendants are essentially all from the Demon Clan.

Although there is a notion of mixed-blood among the Demon Clan, from the perspective of the cultivation system, the offspring of Humans and the Demon Clan are undoubtedly Demon Clan, with the most obvious sign being their inability to form a core no matter what.

It is said that during the Chang Empire era, Fengyu was particularly hostile to the Demon Clan, employing methods similar to the Shanyue people, keeping tight border defenses to prevent the Demon Clan from entering and contaminating their bloodline.

But all this seemed to have ended with the establishment of Dongsheng Empire.

During the turbulent period of transition between the Chang Empire and the Dongsheng Empire, there was great disorder within Kyushu, and many mixed-blood of the Demon Clan took the opportunity to head south, trying to pass through Fengyu to return to West Outer Heaven.

Many incidents occurred, but the strangest of all was Fengyu’s reaction, as they began to actively accept these Demon Clan people to stay within their borders. As a result, the Demon Clan flourished in Fengyu territory, and nearly half of the entire Shanyue lineage was "contaminated" with Demon Clan mixed-blood.

Based on the historical records compiled so far, one major reason Fengyu actively intercepted these mixed-blood of the Demon Clan was because they represented advanced productive forces, holding the advanced technology of Kyushu, and Fengyu needed these technologies, so they let them stay.

It should be noted that not all in Fengyu or Kyushu were from the Demon Clan. With the Kyushu Empire invading West Heaven time and again, they would take back many captives from the Demon Clan, who would end up as slaves or prostitutes, their offspring also becoming new slaves.

In this respect, the actions of the Kyushu people are much more ruthless. Those from the Demon Clan who were unable to work were executed, and their newborn mixed-blood took their place as new slaves.

For a long period of time, Kyushu was seen as the beacon of civilization in the East Continent, with its science and technology as well as cultural systems being superior to those of surrounding national powers, making it the best choice for neighboring countries to absorb these advanced cultural technologies.

Understanding this explains why Fengyu would intercept those Demon Clan heading south and even allow them to settle in Fengyu. Because these mixed-blood who had worked in Kyushu for a long time, or even were born there, represented advanced productivity experiences and technology.

Of course, there has always been a conspiracy theory circulating among the public that the reason why Fengyu has become the way it is today is entirely a deliberate act of the Dongsheng Imperial Court. The objective is to cultivate Demon Clan individuals capable of forming magic cores and ultimately to end the Human Race’s fear of the Demon Clan.

Those who hold this view believe that since Fengyu is a vassal state of the Dongsheng Empire, the Dongsheng Imperial Court ordered Fengyu to take in these half-blood members of the Demon Clan. On one hand, this is to breed Demon Clan individuals capable of forming magic cores, and on the other hand, it is also to reduce the burden of the Demon Clan population within the empire.

It’s known that although the reproduction rate of the Demon Clan is similar to that of Elves, there is a remarkable difference: the reproductive rate of the Demon Clan is unknowably higher than that of the Elves.

The reproductive rate of the Demon Clan is no different from that of the Human Race. Without human intervention, Kyushu would soon experience a serious surge in the Demon Clan population. Especially as the Kyushu Empire has repeatedly invaded West Outer Heaven, bringing back a vast number of Demon Clan slaves, this has further exacerbated the situation.

There are solutions to this problem, and the methods of the Chang Empire at the time were extremely brutal, which was to execute all the weak and excess members of the Demon Clan.

The Human Race has amnesty, while the Demon Clan faces Decapitate. Whenever the ruler of the Chang Empire felt that there were too many Demon Clan individuals, they would issue a Decapitate decree. The so-called Decapitate was exactly what the term implies. They executed all the Demon Clan individuals within Kyushu who met the criteria by decapitation, without reason, solely to mitigate the surge in the Demon Clan population.

By comparison, the subsequent Dongsheng Empire was much gentler. At the beginning of its establishment, the Dongsheng Empire abolished the Decapitate regime and adopted an expulsion policy, expelling the excess Demon Clan individuals within the territory to Fengyu, leaving them to Fengyu to deal with.

In fact, although the Chang Empire represented the most advanced cultural system of the East Continent at that time, its overall moral standards were indeed very difficult to compliment, and the plight of the Demon Clan in Kyushu was even worse.

The Chang Empire invaded West Outer Heaven far less often than the Dongsheng Empire, but the destruction it caused far exceeded that of the Dongsheng Empire.

In contrast, the Dongsheng Empire, which frequently invaded West Outer Heaven, actually made a significant improvement in moral standards. The most typical example was the abolition of the Decapitate system and the establishment of the reproductive rights system.

The so-called reproductive rights refer to the qualification of pregnant Demon Clan women to decide whether to give birth. In other words, the Dongsheng Empire returned the right of childbirth to the Demon Clan.

This was a seemingly insignificant policy, but at the time it sparked intense controversy.

Previously, due to fear of the Demon Clan, the people of Kyushu had very strict restrictions on the reproduction of Demon Clan slaves. If the slave masters deemed it unnecessary, they would force Demon Clan women to abort their children. If they saw it necessary, they would force the Demon Clan women to give birth. The Demon Clan women had no say in the matter.

Reproductive rights, however, returned the right of childbirth to the Demon Clan women, who regardless of their status, were entitled to decide whether to bear offspring or not.

In fact, the introduction of this policy did not change the plight of the Demon Clan much, because the Demon Clan of Kyushu were slaves, and whether to give birth was not up to them but depended on the slave masters. If the slave masters wanted children, they had to want them too; if the slave masters did not want them, they had to give up on childbirth.

Moreover, giving birth to children they could not afford to raise was another issue; they either had to send the children away or wait to be expelled. In this regard, the Dongsheng Imperial Court did not provide corresponding guarantees.

However, this policy made the Kyushu slave masters tremble with fear, because it represented an uncertain direction. If the Dongsheng Imperial Court could implement such a policy without their resistance, it would not be long before the Imperial Court might issue an edict to abolish slavery completely, terminating the Demon Clan slave system and restoring the legal status of the Demon Clan.

As has been said many times before, the reason why the people of Kyushu fear the Demon Clan is their worry about contaminating their bloodline, giving birth to offspring incapable of forming magic cores. To the Kyushu people, who are keen on magic core cultivation, there is no doubt this would be the greatest blow.

In fact, according to the existing research data from Otherworld, magic adaptability is actually a random trait and does not get passed down through lineage.