Chapter 825: Chapter 825 – The Transformation of the World (2)
If one did the math, thousands of years had passed since the time of the world’s transformation. The changes in the outside world were changing day by day during these thousands of years. New changes would occur rapidly almost every few decades.
The earth had changed in just a few thousand years. Productivity erupted in the outside world. Although people were still oppressed, their lives had already changed drastically. The productivity growth brought about changes in other aspects, which also changed the outside world into a different appearance.
At this moment, most of the Primogenitor World had an appearance familiar to Chen Heng. Presumably, in a few more years, if this world continued to develop, it would become a familiar appearance to Chen Heng.
However, everything was still stagnant in the territory of the God of Shadow and the God of Nature. This showed a similar appearance to when the bloodline primogenitor still existed.
In the Cardo Empire, people still lived according to the way of the past. The nobles ruled everything. If one was born a commoner, then there were only two ways out. Either to escape the Cardo Empire or to rely on faith, to become a priest of a god. From then on, there was no other path.
At that time, the arrival of the God of Shadow brought about changes to the country, giving people who could only rely on their bloodlines a second path to walk. So they could rely on the power of faith to become powerful.
However, so many years had passed in the blink of an eye. The bloodline nobles had long disintegrated and disappeared under Chen Heng’s means. The church that was once the way out for the people had now become another mountain pressing down on them, directly replacing the status of the bloodline nobles.
Although the outside world had changed rapidly, everything within the Cardo Empire remained the same, without the slightest change. Why was this like this?
The God of Shadows and the God of Nature remained silent regarding this question. However, after watching the entire process, they understood the reason behind it.
Previously, it had been said that the order of the bloodline nobles was unbreakable because there was also an existence called the primogenitor at the top of the bloodline nobles.
An ordinary commoner initiating a revolution might be able to change the lives of kings and emperors. Still, it would never be able to shake the primogenitor of the upper levels. Even if a fourth rank existence were placed before them, unless they had an equivalent existence, they would only be ants no matter how many ordinary people there were, not to mention the primogenitor.
Correspondingly, the situation within the Cardo Empire was the same. After thousands of years of evolution, the Cardo Empire was filled with priests, and there were churches everywhere. These priests followed the teachings of the God of Shadows and were very pious toward him. However, they still hindered the changes in the lower levels.
Due to their existence, the upper levels of the Cardo Empire were unbreakable. This was not an ordinary world. There would be a conflict between the royal and divine powers if it were an ordinary world. The so-called belief was just a banner that would sharpen the conflict even more. However, this conflict became digestion in a world where the gods existed.
There would be no change when the divine power was so strong that no power could resist it. Yet, of course, the God of Shadows and the God of Nature did give a way out for the believers.
In theory, in the Cardo Empire, only people with enough faith could rise, even if they were born a commoner. Yet, then, they could become the pope. Compared to the past, this was indeed an improvement.
However, it was useless for the overall situation. What was selected through this path was the ability to be pious. The competition was to be pious to the God of Shadows. It did not help the production of the entire society.
The priests selected through this path might have great power, but this power itself would not be used in production. Instead, it would be used to suppress the changes at the bottom, which were completely different from the outside world.
As time passed, everything changed. The God of Shadows looked at his kingdom, and his emotions were somewhat complicated. During these thousands of years of observation, he had personally witnessed the changes within the Cardo Empire. When the announcement of the bloodline nobles was made within the Cardo Empire, everything was flourishing.
The old order was broken, and the people were liberated. As long as the ordinary mortals were devout enough, they could also upgrade their level and become high and mighty rulers.
Due to the existence of gods, these promoted priests must be devout, so they would also be devout to worship the teachings of gods, making them more friendly to the people at the bottom.
Compared to the bloodline nobles in the past, they were much gentler. However, as time passed, everything changed. As the priests were promoted one by one, a new ruling class began to rise. The priests themselves made devout contributions to the gods, but it did not mean they would not seek benefits for themselves.
Even if they did not care about themselves, what about their relatives and children? The gods were high and mighty, but the mortals always had a concern and couldn’t let go. No matter how piously they contributed to the gods, the love for the children was still engraved in their bones.
The relatives of these priests would inevitably occupy a lot of resources and control the rising channels. As a result, the path that provided for the advancement of ordinary people became narrower. Nonetheless, the pious priests could stand out at any time.
Yet, what did this have to do with most civilians? In addition, did a priest only need to be devout? Not necessarily. Being devout was only a prerequisite for becoming a priest. Yet, one could only feel the existence of the god by only being devout and could not receive the divine power.
One still needed sufficient qualifications to receive the divine power and become a priest truly. Only a small number of people were destined to stand out. Most people were still under the mountain, constantly being suppressed.
In the beginning, it was still fine because the bloodline nobles had just been eliminated, and the population didn’t multiply much. Moreover, the space occupied by the priests wasn’t too big, so it was naturally a prosperous scene.
However, as time passed, the population at the bottom continued to multiply, and the conflict between humans and earth gradually sharpened. The priests at the top also occupied more and more channels for promotion, and the people at the bottom couldn’t see any hope.
All sorts of conflicts became sharp, and chaos was created almost every moment in the Cardo Empire. At this time, the priests of the God of Shadows replaced the bloodline nobles in the past, becoming the enforcers of the suppression of the chaos.
Compared to the bloodline nobles in the past, what they did, though it was not exactly the same, was almost the same. The only difference might be that they were god’s shepherds. Considering their faith’s sustainable development, might they be a bit lenient? Probably.
According to what the God of Shadows saw, there were not many changes in the Cardo Empire in the past thousands of years. As all the changes were suppressed by the God of Shadows’ priests, who had absolute power, they disappeared without a spark.
Without these changes, without the explosion of productivity, all kinds of conflicts could not be resolved from the root. They could only be solved by treating the symptoms but not the root of the problem, regularly killing a part of the population. In this way, the conflict between poor productivity and excessive population could be delayed.
After a riot, the number of people that were originally overflowing decreased significantly. As a result, the conflict was temporarily covered up until it erupted again after a few decades. However, this was not the right solution, which led to many problems.
One of the problems was that the social conflict was always sharp. It existed in all aspects of the Cardo Empire. The people of the upper class were in a drunken haze. They only knew how to pray and enjoy life all day long.
The eyes of the people at the bottom had lost their light. They could not see any path they could walk on before them. They could only live in a daze. Another problem was that the god’s priests gradually did not treat the people at the bottom as part of themselves.
Perhaps the first generation of priests could still see themselves as the same people as the people at the bottom. However, the priests continued to suppress the people at the bottom as time passed. Their hands were stained with blood, so their minds would naturally change.
The priests were also extraordinary beings. The powerful priests also had a long lifespan. During their long lifespans, they had to start a massacre almost every once in a while. So it was normal for their mentality to change over time.
The God of Shadows watched this happen, ironically. The power of gods needed to be supplemented by faith. So, being the source of faith, the more lower-class people, the better. At the same time, they also asked their priests to treat the people like shepherds and manage the god’s believers.
However, this was a gradual result. The priests who were shepherds ended up being the accomplices in suppressing the people because of the power given by the god. As for those people, under the rich belief range of the Cardo Empire, they were believers of the God of Shadows himself.
No one else could suppress their believers using their priests. Yet, of course, if the other gods in the World of Gods knew about this, they would probably laugh out loud. So, for the gods, the more believers, the better.
However, the priests of the God of Shadows had to suppress the riots regularly, using a method close to a massacre to suppress their believers so that the number of believers would be maintained at a certain range.
The most important thing was that it was not impossible. It only required a few changes to change the current mode of production and increase productivity to solve the root problem. However, such changes simply couldn’t happen because of the existence of the priests.
The one who created the priests’ class and gave them a ruling position was none other than the God of Shadows himself. The appearance of such a situation made the God of Shadows’ emotions particularly complicated.
Perhaps some people felt that since the Cardo Empire could not produce enough changes within itself to increase productivity, it was fine to actively absorb the results of the changes in the outside world. However, it wasn’t workable.
Sometimes, the change didn’t just refer to technology. It was also a sensational revolution. Yet, just like a normal world, to achieve a large increase in productivity, other than technological change, the more important thing was to eliminate those behind the times and throw them into the garbage heap of history.
That was how the so-called noble class and feudal society ended. Though the situation had changed, there was still no significant change. Within the Cardo Empire, none other than the priest class that the God of Shadows had left behind hindered the era’s development.
However, then, the problem arose. To the ordinary citizens, who had the ability to take their lives? Even if it were an ordinary priest, as long as he had the power of one level, he could match an army of several thousand people. Not to mention those high-level priests.
With the power of such a level, no matter how you looked at it, it was something ordinary people could not defeat. No matter how much the ordinary people attempted, they would never be able to resist them.
This was also the reason why the God of Shadows was silent. During these thousands of years, he had also wanted to change this situation. Yet, even the god was powerless when he wanted to change this situation. He did not know where to start. At this time, he finally understood.
“So that’s how it is…” Standing beside Chen Heng, he sighed deeply.
Before this, he didn’t quite understand Chen Heng’s previous actions, but now he completely understood. A class that couldn’t be defeated or eliminated was simply a nightmare.
It might still be acceptable if there was no comparison. However, after seeing the flourishing outside world and the changes that were moving in a good direction, there was an inexplicable complicated feeling looking at the lifeless Cardo Empire that seemed as if it would not change even after thousands of years.
The God of Nature also remained silent. She ruled over the territory that the Ancient Tree Primogenitor had occupied in the past. At this moment, it was the same as the God of Shadows of the Cardo Empire, which was also in stagnation. However, it was completely different from the outside world.
Most areas of the Primogenitor World had already begun to enter the industrial era. However, their territories were still stuck in the past, as if nothing had changed. This made the God of Nature think of the World of Gods.
Everything in the World of Gods was the same. Nothing in the world had changed much after hundreds of thousands of years. In the past, everyone felt that everything should be like this because they had not seen a bigger world.
Yet now, seeing everything before them made people feel especially awkward. So perhaps the reason why the World of Gods had become like this was also because of the gods.
The same goes for this world. Now that they thought about it, if Chen Heng and the God of Shadows had not divided their territories and restricted their power within the Cardo Empire and other regions, the structure of the current world would probably have become like the World of Gods.
Yet, of course, it was also possible that it was different because Chen Heng had done a lot in this world. Strictly speaking, any class that could not be changed for a long time would play a role similar to that of a bloodline noble, just not so completely.