Chapter 278 Su Zhou Took a Deep Breath (6000)

To enslave a race, one must obliterate their civilization, destroy their faith, rewrite their history, replace their language, and make it impossible for them to recall past glories. Then, with the harshest methods, shatter their pride as intelligent beings, forcing them to kneel and sincerely believe they are servants of others.

But such enslavement is flawed. No matter how much is obliterated, destroyed, rewritten, or replaced, as long as there are some tiny cracks, some opportunities, there will always be those who retrieve their race's dignity and pride from forgotten history books and word-of-mouth legends, and then raise the banner of resistance.

This is the will imprinted in a civilization's bloodline. Completely destroying it is far simpler than completely enslaving it.

But if a race, many races, have never had the kind of history that can awaken the people, if they have always been slaves and food for another class since birth... does that mean they are destined for eternal damnation, forever slaves?

Of course.

Because they have never known the taste of freedom, they believe that obedience is the supreme truth.

Divine Beasts control everything in the Beast God Realm. Battle-type spirit beasts are responsible for fighting and working for the Divine Beasts, ruling over the lower-level commoners. Production-type spirit beasts are responsible for serving the upper two classes, producing processed goods. And slave-type spirit beasts produce basic production materials. And the Devotion-type are nothing more than flesh crops.

In the past Beast God Realm, the ancestors of the Divine Beasts must have been intelligent, patient, farsighted, and truly understood the concept of 'civilization'. As disciples of the Immortals and Gods, they must have fully graduated. They must have truly understood the civilized structure and future vision that the Immortals and Gods originally taught them, knowing what the 'civilization of mankind' should be like.

However, precisely because they understood it so well, after long consideration, they denied such a future and chose to recreate the current Beast God Realm, an extremely unequal world.

Because this did not conform to the interests of the Divine Beast class.

The order bestowed by the Immortals and Gods would weaken the rights of the Divine Beasts, making them merely more powerful individuals. Although the Divine Beasts would still be the privileged leaders of civilization, they would no longer be supreme kings.

The right to eat whatever they wanted, kill whoever they wanted, and roam freely would all be shackled. The bestial desire to hunt other wild beasts at will would no longer be released.

Therefore, the Divine Beasts were absolutely unwilling to do so, even if they were sealed in the Beast God Realm by the Immortals and Gods, unable to go to the outside world for a long time.

However, the Divine Beasts were greedy. They naturally understood the benefits of civilization and wisdom. Being a chieftain among a group of primitive people was not as good as being an ordinary person in modern society—similarly, being an overlord in the primitive and desolate Beast God Realm was not as good as opening up some knowledge to other spirit beasts, allowing them to build an 'order' that provided everything for the Divine Beasts.

The efficiency of exploitation progressed with the times. Swallowing spirit beasts at will would only make them fear, causing them to gather together to resist, making it extremely difficult to eat... It would be better to win over one faction and suppress another, letting subordinates deal with each other, letting slaves enslave themselves with their own hearts.

As long as there was no external force, this order would continue... until the end of the world.

But now.

An alien invasive species, Su Zhou, had arrived on this land.

The enormous dragon gazed at the direction where the many Divine Beasts were gathering in the distance. He walked towards the direction from which he and the others had come, without any concealment.

He wantonly released his aura, causing the world to change color.

Gusts of wind swept up water vapor, gathering into thick layers of rain clouds above the wingless great dragon's head, while high-temperature spiritual power condensed on his body surface, conducting to his feet, branding burning footprints on the ground... The existence of transcendent life required a special environment. Some dragons lived in the ozone layer, feeding on meteorites, and some dragons lived in volcanoes, nesting in lava. These were the environments they needed, and if they didn't have them, they would weaken.

But truly powerful life did not adapt itself to the environment, but rather made the environment adapt to itself.

Summoning clouds and rain—the very act of 'acting' could bring about overcast skies and heavy rain.

Rumble—lightning flashed in the sky. It could be seen that starting from the remains of the Tree of Life, thick rain clouds were being generated and scattered all the way. In the midst of surging water vapor, strong winds, thunder, and lightning, a scorching, fire-like, calamitous dragon might and spiritual pressure were spreading. All the battle-type spirit beasts along the way fled in terror.

"It's, it's a Zun Zhu..."

"It's a Scaled Clan Zun Zhu! I feel like he's even stronger than the King, even stronger than the Heavenly Dragon Zun Zhu!?"

"No, we can't possibly participate in the battles between the Zun Zhu! Run! Run!"

In the past, the Divine Beasts had instilled fear into the spirit beasts generation after generation to curb their resistance. This fear was now playing its role once again—if they were not so fearful and obedient, then the Zheng State Action Team would never have been able to obtain a large amount of relevant information from the beginning, and thus choose the correct course of action.

Walking in this way, Su Zhou quickly arrived at a plantation he had seen before.

Divine Beasts only ate blood and flesh or fruits and vegetables containing spiritual energy. Although the standards for battle-types were lower, they were not short of food. Therefore, ordinary grains and other plants were supplied to the lower classes—but even so, the Divine Beasts would often levy taxes, collecting large amounts of grain and wealth from the bottom. This was to ensure that the lower classes could not store large amounts of wealth, thus becoming rich and learning trading, rest, and any other skills that would allow them to escape labor.

The existence of the lower classes meant constant work until death... As for really starving to death? Hey, wasn't that a good thing? You know, beasts rose up too quickly. If they weren't starved a little, ate a little more, and consumed by war, then even in the most unremarkable race, powerful seeds would be born.

The Beast God Realm did not need a powerful lower class, nor did it need more Divine Beasts.

Therefore, the silent Su Zhou saw that in this plantation, there was not a single grain in the warehouse. It was all filled with old, weak, women, and children who could not escape. Knowing that he would come, all the plantations in front of Su Zhou's path were temporarily evacuated of a group of people and all the grain in order to minimize losses. Whatever they could not take was left behind.

"Zun Zhu..."

"Zun Zhu ah..."

The adult male spirit beasts had already been summoned away in the previous warning. All the remaining women and children were trembling and prostrating on the ground, worshiping him, this 'Zun Zhu-sama'.

Su Zhou even saw a huge pig-type production spirit beast holding up its still-under-one-year-old cub, as if wanting to offer it to Su Zhou—its expression was numb, and its movements were skilled, as if it had done similar things many times.

In his eyes, the huge pig-type spirit beast and the other various spirit beasts around it, none of which had any human form, were all life, and they were intelligent life. To Su Zhou, this was a mother offering her daughter to the 'Zun Zhu' they believed in.

Pigs were not inherently unintelligent, and it was actually quite difficult for them to gain weight. Therefore, the vast majority of pigs were slaves and production types.

This pig-type spirit beast seemed to have just given birth, but there were no other cubs or a mate nearby. Presumably, it had already been evacuated in the previous warning, and the answer was self-evident for its child, looking at this skilled dedication action. Su Zhou was now also very familiar with this system of 'dedication' and 'good fortune'.

To this, Su Zhou closed his eyes slightly and sighed in his heart. Then, he opened his eyes, and his cyan-purple dragon pupils swept across the front—he did not sense obvious 'resistance', 'hatred', or 'anger' on most of the spirit beasts, only 'obedience', 'numbness', 'sadness', and 'confusion'.

The only bit—the only bit that could be called 'unwillingness'—came from the pig-type spirit beast that was holding up its cub. It was a crude unwillingness, demanding that a mother give up her child to dedicate to the appetite of other lives, an unwillingness originating from biological instinct. Prolonged brainwashing and cultural influence allowed this spirit beast to naturally make this action, but an instinct originating from the roots of the bloodline could not be completely severed.

This could not yet be called 'love', only pure 'unwillingness'.

And because of this trace of unwillingness, Su Zhou, who had planned to leave this plantation, stopped.

"You are intelligent lives."

Su Zhou spoke like this. The wingless great dragon lowered its head, overlooking those 'tiny beasts', and said amiably: "Do you still want to continue living like this?"

"Living... continue?"

All the beasts were confused. They simply did not understand what life was, nor could they understand what continuing was. Serving the Divine Beasts was the only purpose of their lives.

If the freedom of choice was casually handed over to a slave who had never experienced unrestrained running, then he would only throw it aside and lock himself up again with shackles, returning to his familiar cage.

Seeing this, Su Zhou smiled and changed his wording.

"I'll give you a choice."

The Devourer of Evil Demon Lord stretched out his two huge dragon claws towards the beasts in front of him.

In one of the dragon claws, deep purple flames were burning fiercely. The demonic fire burned, like destruction burning in the abyss, like the raging flames rising from the ruins. It contained brutality, ferocity, fear, killing intent, and all wills that could be called malice. Dark curses lingered around the burning demonic fire, stinging the eyes of all who observed it.

In the other dragon claw, cyan light flickered. The light flickered gently, like the dawn that appeared every morning, like the bright moonlight on a cloudless night. All desires, prayers, hopes, and wishes for curiosity about the future revolved in the light. The power of wishes that could not be clearly observed shone like stars.

"Choose to ask me for help, pay the price, and let me bring you a different future."

"Or, let everything remain the same. I will leave like this and do what I want to do."

Su Zhou's will penetrated deep into the souls of all the spirit beasts present. They could clearly understand the meaning of every word he said.

"Many people hate asking for help, believing that it is a cowardly act that proves their incompetence. However, asking for help is not a shameful thing. A drowning person needs to ask for help, and a person trapped in a fire also needs to ask for help. Although there will be guys who work to rescue those people, but it seems that your world does not have that kind of person."

"But fortunately, I'm here."

In the eyes of all the spirit beasts, Su Zhou's dragon body became even taller. He was like a judge who held the power to pronounce the results of reincarnation, or like an existence that transcended all this reincarnation—the huge, immortal dragon, an individual who hated reincarnation, Su Zhou. He patiently 'enticed' the many spirit beasts who had begun to tremble, had begun to 'think', and had begun to want to make a choice, "So ask for help. As long as you are willing to ask for help, it proves that you want to change. No matter if other people can hear it or not, it is always meaningful for yourselves."

Just like the snake in Eden, enticing the ignorant and foolish original people to pick the divine fruit that had the right to 'distinguish between good and evil' and 'have choices'.

Then, there was a long silence.

Even if it was said so clearly, the lives that had been enslaved for too long were simply unable to unlock the shackles in their hearts.

After this long silence, Su Zhou, somewhat disappointed, issued a final notice.

"If even you yourselves don't think that everything you have experienced is evil, if you don't think that you are being oppressed, if you think that you and your cubs, you and your relatives, deserve to be eaten by the Divine Beasts, deserve to be exploited by the Divine Beasts."

"Then I have nothing to say, I can only go over there myself and kill them all."

After saying that, he turned around again and prepared to leave in large strides towards the direction where the Divine Beasts were gathering.

"But... great Zun Zhu..."

The pig-type spirit beast, a 'mother' who numbly offered her cubs, one after another, to other battle types and Divine Beasts, asked Su Zhou's back with a confused and helpless tone: "Is there any difference in what you said?"

Hearing the answer, the wingless great dragon stopped, turned its head, and opened its mouth full of sharp teeth, smiling: "Of course there is."

"You have a wish, pray to me."

"Me responding to your wish is rescuing someone asking for help, it is the stronger reaching out to the weaker, the forerunner helping the follower—I hope that when I am weak and in despair, I can be helped, so I will help you, this is called empathy."

"And me acting for no reason in your muddled life is the strong doing whatever they want to the weak, it's called inexplicable fun for one's self. This behavior itself is a kind of wantonness."

"Of course, both of these are me, I don't care. Just like the front and back of a piece of paper, the boundary between good and evil, the difference between the retribution of curses and the prayers of wish power, they are all part of me. And what kind of me you can see depends on you."

To this, the 'mother beast' did not understand everything. Its intelligence was sufficient, but its education was far from enough.

But even so, it could rely on the unwillingness in its heart to make a choice.

No... now that it could make a choice, it proved that it was no longer a ignorant beast, but a intelligent life that had begun to pursue 'better' and 'change'.

So it answered: "I want to."

The life of this 'mother' flashed in her mind, the past when she endured wind and rain, cold rain and snow in a crude nest, the body that often had a stuffy nose and a low cough, she could always recall all the crops that would always be taken away, the food ration that was never enough, and the newly born cubs that always had to be offered to the superiors and Zun Zhu after a long pregnancy.

The superiors and Zun Zhu were not actually short of food, and there were also some pig tribes among the Devotion type. Those pure beasts were even stronger than these spirit beasts—but they always said that ordinary, soulless and unintelligent piglets did not taste good. Sure enough, eating live spirit beast cubs was the only way to taste a different and unique taste.

What exactly was... different?

"I want to change... Zun Zhu-sama, I want to change..."

So, it prostrated on the ground and prayed to Su Zhou: "It's just that I have nothing, I can't give any price..."

"Anything is fine."

Su Zhou said casually: "As long as you think it has a little meaning, it's fine."

This mother searched her whole body, but could not find anything that could be called meaningful. However, Su Zhou looked at a small spirit beast next to her with great curiosity. It was picking up a grain of wheat from the ground. That was one of the crops grown in the entire plantation, and this grain of wheat on the ground might have been dropped by those battle types during tax collection.

Noticing Su Zhou's gaze, this small spirit beast, which had been about to be offered to Su Zhou as blood food, trembled—it subconsciously, instinctively raised its hands and offered this 'grain of wheat' to Su Zhou.

——Was it already engraved in its bones?

Noticing this instinct, the smile on Su Zhou's face disappeared again. He nodded slightly, gave a sound, and then stretched out a huge dragon claw, even larger than the small spirit beast itself, and gently took the grain of wheat from the other party's hand.

"The contract is established."

At this moment, in the distant sky.

Powerful spiritual energy fluctuations were surging from the clouds.

The Feather Clan, the Scale Clan, the Shell Clan, the Insect Clan, the four kings, and their guards formed a mighty and incomparably dignified formation, advancing from the distant other side towards the direction of the Tree of Life like dark clouds.

Four kings who could unleash the power of 'Immortal Beasts', seventeen Transcendent High and Peak, the kings' guards, and one hundred and thirty-six powerful spirit beasts of the Transcendent rank.

At the same time, there were tens of thousands of spirit beast armies marching on the ground, and ten times that number of slave-type auxiliary troops.

It was still too hasty. Any Divine Beast in the Beast God Realm could pull out such an army. Except for not having so many high-end combat forces, every Divine Beast was the supreme Zun Zhu in its territory. The Beast God Realm just happened to be fully militarized. Their wars to consume the number of beasts caused daily casualties in the hundreds of thousands. Even if a million died, it was not a big deal.

At this moment, more troops were actually gathering towards the two-world teleportation gate within the Feather Clan's territory. They not only had to capture the Immortals' rash exploration team, but also had to launch a counterattack against the other end of the world.

Flying at the forefront to scout the way was a spirit beast of the Feather Clan. It had spiritual eyes that could see through souls and energy, so it was appointed as the vanguard commander. This honor immediately made it complacent, and it could not help but want to return to its hometown to celebrate after this battle and hold a grand banquet.

At this moment, it could already see the thunder and rain clouds in the distance, and the incomparably tyrannical aura of that enemy 'Zun Zhu'... but so what? The spirit bird scoffed at this. This time, four kings who were more noble than ordinary Zun Zhu had come. After seeing this military force, the other party would definitely submit!

However, a strange chill that suddenly came over it swept along its spine, causing the spirit bird's body to instinctively tremble.

Then, the dim clouds in the distance were suddenly illuminated by a burst of abruptly lit cyan-purple spiritual light. The gloomy clouds were dyed with a magnificent and brilliant cyan-purple color, like the sunset.

Then, there was a sense of danger that made the soul fly away!

"High energy reaction ahead!"

The leading spirit bird only had time to scream, and the next moment, a dragon's breath roar carrying strong winds, thunderstorms, raging fire, and endless water vapor tore through the dim and gloomy sky—it was like a meteor rising against the sky, starting from the earth and rising diagonally towards the distant high sky!

It was swallowed up in an instant—and then, there was no then to speak of. It turned into dust in the turbulent spiritual energy torrent.

"Disperse! Disperse!"

The orders of the Divine Beast kings in the rear were quickly issued, but it was already too late. At the moment when the dragon's breath beam rose, the entire sky seemed to be divided into two halves from the middle by a beam of light. The thick clouds rapidly split apart like paper cut by scissors.

Boom—

It hit its target—the center of the Beast God Realm army.

Then, dazzling spiritual light with a violent explosion that caused shockwaves in the air ignited the high sky, clouds, air, and flying spirit beasts. Everything was swept away by the raging wind and then ignited.

The formation of the spirit beast army was directly torn in half by this breath, and the high heat, enough to burn rocks into ash, quickly spread in the formation, causing one massive explosion after another.

The air vibrated, even causing large areas of distortion. The gale tore out a vacuum, making the wails and screams fragmented. Spirit beasts that were scorched, whose internal organs were shattered by the shock wave, fell from the sky like dumplings, but this was considered lucky, because more spirit beasts did not even have a complete corpse and were completely reduced to ashes.

And a huge, perfect circular spiritual light shockwave mark was still slowly enlarging and spreading in the high sky...

On the ground, the giant dragon that was watching the distance watched the results of its raid, and slowly exhaled a scorching breath.

Then, it took a deep breath again.

Today's update... was a little late, but it was still today's!