In the tenth year of the Imperial Calendar, Her Majesty the Empress issued the "Imperial Decree for All Soul Masters Under Heaven," officially unveiling the prelude to the reform of the soul master world.
The content of the "Imperial Decree for All Soul Masters Under Heaven" is mainly divided into two major parts. First, the right to awaken martial souls across the continent is reclaimed by the empire; second, a census of the total number of soul masters on the continent is conducted and registered in a roster.
Let's start with the first point: reclaiming the right to awaken martial souls across the continent for the empire. Although the right to awaken martial souls in most regions of the continent has already been controlled by the empire, there are still a few regions and some special areas where this right has not been brought under imperial control. The most intolerable for the empire are the soul master sects and soul master families.
In the past, because the continent was divided among various nations, the existence of soul master sects and families often represented a country's important soul master forces. Therefore, the monarchs of each nation were full of tolerance and leniency toward these transcendent sects and families that stood independent of imperial administration.
But times have changed. The continent has achieved unification, and the Daming Empire has become the sole nation. Thus, the existence of these sects and families has become particularly conspicuous, especially since they possess the right to independently awaken martial souls. For a great unified empire, this is intolerable. The right to awaken martial souls is the foundation and must not be controlled by forces outside the empire.
Therefore, the main target of reclaiming the right to awaken martial souls for the empire is these major sects and great families that possess autonomous martial soul awakening rights. Their autonomous awakening rights will be revoked, forcing them to conduct awakenings at institutions designated by the empire, thereby initially bringing these forces from the old era, which could once stand aloof from the outside, under the empire's framework.
To cooperate with this measure, Her Majesty the Empress specially reactivated the department that had been abolished five years prior: the Martial Soul Department.
The Martial Soul Department, which in the past was the most common department in the Sun Moon Empire, responsible for martial soul awakening affairs throughout the Sun Moon Empire, had been abolished due to the entry of Shrek Academy. Now, it has taken on a new mission.
Currently, the empire's martial soul awakening rights have been delegated to primary soul master academies. All town-level administrative districts in the empire have established primary soul master academies. Therefore, low-level Martial Soul Departments can be directly established within primary soul master academies, perfectly completing the martial soul awakening institutions of these academies.
At the same time, mid-level Martial Soul Departments are established in all city-level administrative districts of the empire, high-level Martial Soul Departments in the main cities of each province, and the Martial Soul General Department in the imperial capital. These mid- and high-level Martial Soul Departments are prepared for the major sects and great families whose awakening rights have been revoked. The duty of the Martial Soul General Department is to lead and supervise all levels of Martial Soul Departments. The Martial Soul General Department is affiliated with the Douluo Hall, and the General Director is directly appointed by the Emperor. In this way, the right to awaken martial souls is indirectly controlled by the Emperor.
The reconstruction of the Martial Soul Department also serves another function, which is the second point of the "Imperial Decree for All Soul Masters Under Heaven": conducting a census of the total number of soul masters on the continent and registering them in a roster.
This is essentially a population census of the soul master world, though somewhat more complex. Because the Martial Soul Department simultaneously holds the right to awaken martial souls, it can control all soul master information from the initial stage. Soul masters from the old era are ordered to go to Martial Soul Departments in various locations within one year to register.
Considering the privacy of soul masters, the soul master registration in the Martial Soul Department only requires recording the soul master's name, martial soul, and soul master realm—these three items. After registration, the soul master will receive a certificate recording these three items and a soul master number. This is essentially the soul master version of an identification card, though here it is called a soul master certificate.
The emergence of the soul master certificate ensures that the empire grasps the information of all soul masters under its rule, not only strengthening the empire's control over the soul master world but also effectively curbing the development of major sects and great families, while preventing the re-emergence of evil soul master groups like the Holy Spirit Cult.
In addition, the "Imperial Decree for All Soul Masters Under Heaven" stipulates the empire's soul master welfare system. This welfare system can be viewed in two parts: the low-level soul master group below the Soul King realm and the high-level soul master group at the Soul King realm and above.
First, the welfare system for the low-level soul master group. According to the decree, starting from the first-ring Soul Master up to the fourth-ring Soul Ancestor, they can receive gold soul coin subsidies each year. A first-ring Soul Master can receive one thousand gold soul coins annually, a second-ring Great Soul Master one hundred gold soul coins annually, a third-ring Soul Elder ten gold soul coins annually, and a fourth-ring Soul Ancestor one gold soul coin annually.
Needless to say, this low-level soul master welfare system is clearly modeled after the subsidies for outer courtyard students at Shrek Academy. The empire's welfare system is designed to allow low-level soul masters to cultivate better, preventing their talents from being buried due to a lack of cultivation resources or forcing them to sell themselves to great powers. Of course, to avoid opportunistic behavior, the distribution of soul master welfare is handled by the Martial Soul Department, and all soul masters must use their soul master certificate to collect it at the Martial Soul Department.
This welfare has time restrictions. That is, if a first-ring Soul Master does not break through to the second ring within ten years, the distribution of their soul master welfare will be suspended until they break through to the Great Soul Master realm, at which point they can continue receiving welfare. Similarly, the time limit for a Great Soul Master is twenty years, for a Soul Elder, thirty years, and for a Soul Ancestor, there is no time limit. After all, crossing from Soul Ancestor to Soul King involves not just the welfare system but also a leap in life level.
Next is the welfare system for the high-level soul master group. The high-level soul master welfare system stipulates that starting from Soul King, Soul Emperor, Soul Sage, Soul Douluo, and Title Douluo will receive imperial nobility titles: Soul King as Viscount, Soul Emperor as Earl, Soul Sage as Marquis, Soul Douluo as Duke, and Title Douluo as hereditary Duke.
For high-level soul masters, the nobility title is secondary. Although the nobility titles of the Daming Empire have far greater value than those of the old era, all nobility titles from the Sun Moon Empire period have been abolished, and since the founding of the new empire, there have only been about a dozen or so titles—the real welfare lies in the opportunity to undergo a divine trial once a year.
Yes, divine trial.
No matter how you look at it, Zhu Ziyang can be considered an ancestor of the future Daming Empire, and he sincerely hopes this empire will continue to exist. Therefore, he joined forces with Ma Xiaotao, Jiang Nannan, Qian Lingyi, and Huo Yuhao, who had already ascended to the God Realm, to construct the divine trial, which is essentially a god position assessment.
With Zhang Lexuan's full cooperation, a palace comparable to the imperial palace was built in the imperial capital, named the Divine Spirit Hall, responsible for all matters related to the divine trial. The hall master is served by the Emperor.
When Zhang Lexuan was designing the empire's soul master welfare system, Zhu Ziyang specially shared this idea with her, and Zhang Lexuan agreed without hesitation. After all, for high-level soul masters, nothing is more tempting than becoming a god.
Thus, after the Divine Spirit Hall was completed, Zhang Lexuan immediately issued the "Imperial Decree for All Soul Masters Under Heaven." In an era where divine spirits manifest, nothing has greater rallying power than the gods.
Zhu Ziyang and the others left trials for the God of Death, the Rakshasa God, the Angel God, the Fire God, and the Taiyin God within the living beings. The rules of these trials are identical to those of the god assessments. If someone in the future can obtain a red-level ninth trial, that person might very well have the possibility of becoming a god.
In the high-level soul master welfare system, soul masters can receive one opportunity to undergo a divine trial each year based on their realm. The reason it is an opportunity is that not everyone is guaranteed to receive a trial bestowed by a god.
For example, if a Soul Sage chooses the God of Death trial this year but does not gain the God of Death's favor, next year they can choose another god's trial. If this Soul Sage fails to gain any god's favor for five consecutive years, in the sixth year, they are guaranteed to receive a yellow-level trial from any god.
Such a mechanism greatly enhances the centripetal force and cohesion of high-level soul masters toward the empire.
To prevent this divine trial welfare system from being undermined, Zhu Ziyang specially issued a divine oracle: anyone who does not abide by the rules will face the wrath of the gods. As long as the God Realm exists, this system can continue to operate.
It is worth mentioning that the divine trials in the Divine Spirit Hall currently feature only five gods, but in the near future, two new gods will inevitably be added. This is because the imperial prince Zhu Yuhuang and princess Zhu Yuyue have respectively received the favor of the Ice Elemental God and the Light Elemental God. Although their god position assessments have not yet begun, as the children of the God of Death Zhu Ziyang, their ascension to godhood is a foregone conclusion.
From the first day of the tenth year of the Imperial Calendar, when the "Imperial Decree for All Soul Masters Under Heaven" was issued, to October of the twelfth year of the Imperial Calendar, the soul master world reform was declared complete. All sects and families on the continent, whether in name or in fact, chose to submit. The Daming Empire truly achieved complete unification, from territory to soul masters.
In the thirtieth year of the Imperial Calendar, Her Majesty the Empress announced her abdication. The thirty-five-year-old crown prince Zhu Yuhuang ascended the throne, becoming the second emperor of the Daming Empire and the first emperor of the Zhu Dynasty, while also marking the end of the Xu Dynasty of the Sun Moon Empire.
After Zhu Yuhuang ascended the throne, with the support of his father Zhu Ziyang, he began integrating the empire's soul master institutions. The Douluo Hall, Worship Hall, and Divine Spirit Hall were merged into a single institution, still named the Douluo Hall, though with a vastly different significance.
The new Douluo Hall oversees three major institutions. The Divine Spirit Hall remains unchanged, only renamed the Divine Pavilion. The original Douluo Hall and Worship Hall are combined to form a new institution called the Title Pavilion, responsible for all matters concerning Title Douluo within the empire. Additionally, the Martial Soul Department, originally under the Douluo Hall, is elevated to the Soul Master Pavilion, responsible for managing martial soul awakenings, soul master welfare distribution, and other related affairs.
The master of the new Douluo Hall is served by the Emperor. The Divine Pavilion has no pavilion master, while the masters of the Title Pavilion and Soul Master Pavilion are appointed by the Emperor. In this way, the Emperor's authority becomes even more centralized.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are the chapters for today (づ￣3￣)づ╭～
"The novel is already finished on Patreon."
[email protected]/facficmax10--------(@→a)