NEC Chapter 129: The Sun Returns, Vast Sea Boiling

The past few months of Sky Empire Year 1427 were the most stable and peaceful months that Copperbeard had ever lived through.

Copperbeard was a slave's name. At the end of last year, he had huddled in an underground pit in the northern Fang tribe's slave camp, with heavy snow falling outside and bone-chilling cold inside the cave.

He thought he would surely die.

One-third of that batch of slaves eventually died, but Copperbeard was lucky enough to survive.

But what good was surviving? It was still just a matter of dying today or tomorrow.

From his name, one could tell that Copperbeard's father was a dwarf.

But Copperbeard wasn't a dwarf, he didn't even know what race he counted as.

Copperbeard's mother was also a slave, bought and sold throughout the slave camps, drifting from place to place. Later she fell seriously ill, and when it became clear she wouldn't make it, the camp overseer dragged her to the gate and hung her by the chest with ropes on a pole beside the main entrance.

This counted as cheap disposal, anyone could take her for just a few dozen copper coins.

If nothing unexpected happened, Copperbeard's mother should have become a pile of chopped meat at a butcher's stall, ending her brief and desperate life.

Then Copperbeard's father passed by, paid money to buy this pitiful woman, and even treated her illness.

His father later held little Copperbeard many times, muttering to himself, "Back then, when I saw your mother hanging there, completely motionless, I thought she was dead."

"When I got closer, I saw those eyes of hers, staring straight ahead at some distant place, her pupils bright blue, just like two sapphires, so beautiful!"

"Yes, so beautiful!"

Copperbeard's father was a craftsman in the camp who helped orcs, repairing iron pots and shovels and such ironware, putting saddles on dire wolves, shoeing horses.

Sometimes he would also polish gems and make ornaments for orc nobles. His love for sapphires probably came from this.

Dwarves did indeed have some talent for handicrafts, so Copperbeard's father could save up some property and had a few words with the overseers in the orc tribe, able to find healers.

Copperbeard's mother survived, and five months later gave birth to Copperbeard.

His dwarf father wasn't angry, but rather cheerful, raising Copperbeard like his own son, teaching him mining, ore selection, blacksmithing, and repairs...

Later, Copperbeard had a younger brother, and the family of four lived together quite happily.

Later still, the Fang tribe attacked.

Orc tribes not only fought humans and robbed goblins, but various tribes also frequently fought each other with mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

If defeated tribes had no relatives to ransom them, they either became corpses or became slaves.

That's how Copperbeard's family all became slaves.

Soon, the family died or scattered, leaving only Copperbeard struggling alone in the slave camp, enduring year after year.

Across the vast northern plains, there were countless humans, dwarves, and elves whose lives were as cheap as paper... and of course orc commoners too.

They struggled to survive under the rule of various orc tribes, praying that this year's orc tribe chieftain would be kinder, the leaders gentler, the climate more favorable, so they could live a bit longer.

The fortunate survivor Copperbeard was resold several times until this time, when he was sold to Vast Sea Territory.

On his first day in Vast Sea, Copperbeard received a large bowl of rice, some pickled vegetables, and a small piece of hard jerky.

He couldn't remember how many years it had been since he'd eaten such a meal. Copperbeard thought he must be eating his last meal, and after eating he'd gather some strength to be driven onto the battlefield as cannon fodder like orc tribes did, to trade for enemy spears.

He still had to eat his fill first.

Then he heard that shout:

"Listen well to the lord's commands, don't slack off or be lazy, work hard, and Vast Sea Territory guarantees you'll have food to eat, clothes to wear, places to live, and medical care when sick!"

Copperbeard completely disbelieved it. Only fools would believe it!

But it didn't matter. Whether slaves believed or not, they still had to work the same.

Then the days passed one by one.

The great lord of Vast Sea fulfilled all his promises.

Although the food was just brown rice mixed with some hard flatbread, he could basically eat his fill. The clothing fabric was rough, but sufficient to keep out cold. The earth shelters blocked wind and sand, and Copperbeard kept his little nest spotlessly clean. As for medical care, the old man in the health station holding the thick "Barefoot Doctor's Manual," though his treatment methods could only be described as crude, really did provide treatment and could cure minor ailments!

Although Copperbeard still didn't know why that old man, who clearly wore boots every day, was called a barefoot doctor, this wasn't important at all.

Being able to live, and knowing he would probably still be alive tomorrow, felt wonderful!

Copperbeard began working desperately to earn work points, waiting for the day he would become a provisional citizen.

Then, among a new batch of slaves, Copperbeard saw his younger brother.

His brother had dwarf blood and looked quite small. When he arrived, though in his teens, he was shorter than the cafeteria benches and so thin he was just skin and bones.

When Copperbeard hugged him, his brother's terrified, desperately dodging eyes made Copperbeard burst into tears.

Copperbeard unhesitatingly spent the work points he'd saved for many days to treat his brother to a hearty dinner at the cafeteria.

Then, because long-starved people couldn't handle rich food, his brother vomited and had diarrhea. If the lord hadn't sent a professional healer, after struggling all this way, his brother would almost have been killed by one meal...

"Vast Sea is our home, the Lord is our heaven!"

His brother was young and could attend school for free without working according to territorial arrangements. The first thing he said when returning from school brought tears to Copperbeard's eyes again.

After holding back for a long time, Copperbeard nodded heavily.

"Yes!!!"

Vast Sea Territory changed day by day. Farmland in the desert grew grain, and the people cheered for the great lord.

Fresh water supply doubled, and now they could wash their bodies with water daily. The people cheered for the benevolent lord.

Lights reached every household's doorstep, bringing brightness to long nights. The people cheered for the brilliant lord.

For Copperbeard personally, the little craftsmanship he'd learned from his dwarf father got him promoted to territorial craftsman, responsible for repairing tools and sharpening weapons.

His work point income doubled.

His brother also joined the Vast Sea Youth Corps, learning much new knowledge Copperbeard himself didn't know. Every evening, he would pull Copperbeard to study something called Xia script, said to be writing from ancient gods.

Recently, the shelter chief responsible for Area 14's earth shelters had specially come over, saying he wanted to introduce Copperbeard to a wife.

Copperbeard had secretly looked once. She was a nice girl. Though she had a small child, what did that matter? He himself had been raised this way by his dwarf father.

When the child grew a bit older, they'd be good labor. In Vast Sea where more work meant more work points, one more family member meant one more share of harvest.

He had already begun looking forward to a beautiful future life.

Just as Copperbeard emerged from the territorial workshop once again, waiting for his brother's school dismissal, suddenly cheering came from the distance.

The sound grew closer and louder, like a surging tsunami continuously building higher waves, sweeping up everyone far and near, old and young, throughout Vast Sea Territory.

"What's... what's happening to them?"

His brother, now reaching Copperbeard's waist, stood on tiptoes looking into the distance, seeing signal flags raised by Youth Corps members in the distance.

"It's the Lord! The Lord has returned!"

Yes, the lord had been away for over half a month, and Vast Sea's people had been eagerly anticipating the return of Vast Sea's radiant sun.

Cheers shook heaven and earth, echoing through every corner of the entire territory.

When the red flags of the lord's procession appeared at the entrance, Copperbeard, who had been pushing forward, fell heavily to his knees, then was pulled up by his brother.

"Brother, the Lord doesn't allow kneeling!"

"Right, right, no kneeling. We bow, we bow!"

Facing the people's almost fanatical welcome, Chen Mo felt somewhat embarrassed.

Honestly, what he'd done wasn't really anything special. At most, he just treated the people like people.

It's just that this world was like this.

Everyone treated those with money, power, connections, and relationships as people, but didn't much treat those struggling at society's bottom as people.

Even modern Blue Star society couldn't escape this. Giving the least money for the most work, taking the heaviest scolding, even having wages delayed the longest.

With such peers for comparison, Lord Chen Mo seemed like a chosen leader.

This scene was somewhat too shocking for those Night’s Edge mercenary group members who had just decided to follow the lord.

The mercenaries looked at each other.

Even though they were all super-tier fighters, all professionals who normally never regarded these common folk highly, when facing such mountain-calling, sea-roaring, uniform cheering, they couldn't help but tremble all over.

Returning to the lord's mansion surrounded by crowds all the way, Lord Chen Mo immediately had to throw himself back into the complex work of territorial governance.

As leader of a new territory, as long as Chen Mo wanted to work, there would inevitably be endless tasks.

During his absence, the council had accumulated a pile of problems.

When Chen Mo was normally present, when people had small disagreements about matters, they'd report to the lord, and after the lord spoke, issues would be resolved.

But when the lord wasn't present, certain small disagreements would gradually expand into major disagreements.

Behind each councilor's high-sounding reasons "for the territory," there were more or less some interest calculations.

As the saying goes, "no factions outside the party leads to imperial thinking, no cliques within the party leads to strange phenomena."

The newborn Vast Sea Territory was no exception.

In just a few months since establishment, three distinct power groups had emerged under the great Lord Chen Mo in Vast Sea Territory.

First was the currently ascendant military group.

Though Vast Sea's armed forces weren't numerous, they had a large framework with strict division of responsibilities from the beginning.

Currently there were mainly three forces: the Guards, Field Army, and City Defense.

The Guards were centered on the lord's summoned skeletons, fully equipped with light hot weapons, plus one large meat shield, the territory's primary combat force Liu Zaiyue. For skirmishes, this force could sweep the field.

The Field Army consisted of the centaur brigade plus reconnaissance squads formed by some sand people.

This force was equipped with most heavy hot weapons, supplemented by some cold weapons. In both numbers and combat power, they were the territory's largest military group.

More notably, since the main force among centaur groups were mostly minors, those selected for the Field Army were basically all Youth Corps members, so other human minors in the Youth Corps naturally became Field Army supporters.

Currently, with Field Army support, the armed guards organized by the Youth Corps themselves, also called the Loyalty Guard, had trained quite impressively.

Just looking at formations and combat doctrine, they were no worse than the territory's regular army.

The final force was the City Defense led by veteran mercenary Lynn, upgraded from the former patrol team.

The former patrol team, nominally the territory's human regular army, was truly unloved by uncles and grandmothers alike, leading to a territory saying: "Patrol, patrol, only patrol, no defense! Guard gates by day, watch beds by night!"

When did it upgrade? After Lynn returned from the Royal Central Spiritual Energy Academy in the Resting Moon Dynasty capital.

That's right, Lynn used this business trip to wholeheartedly bring Lord Chen Mo's warmth to the then somewhat struggling little girl, thus establishing connections with Lady Frost.

Though somewhat fortuitous, Lynn seized this opportunity and did the job beautifully, catching the opportunity when it came.

From then on, Lynn entered the lord's trusted list, receiving great commendation from the lord. His subordinates transformed overnight from patrol team to City Defense.

Besides city perimeter patrols and industrial/agricultural zone security, City Defense also took on urban security management responsibilities and undertook militia training for slaves and commoners.

With over three thousand adult slaves in Vast Sea Territory, that meant over three thousand militia members. Before being assigned to other forces, all were under City Defense jurisdiction.

Though not as prestigious-looking as the Field Army, in terms of actual power, it was incomparable to before, completely transformed.

Vast Sea's second power group could be called traditionalists.

Including Chief Administrator Herlan, the sand people's elder and various leaders, and conveniently also pulling in old mage Downs as backup.

These people's characteristic was being managers from the moment Vast Sea Territory was established. Herlan was undoubtedly a high-ranking figure among human captives and later slaves, while sand people chieftains and leaders were accustomed to giving orders and having subordinates submit.

Feudal system influences existed not only between nations and territories, but also widely between lords and powerful subordinate tribes.

The simplest manifestation was that everyone was accustomed to the lord needing to go through intermediaries like sand people chieftains to command sand people scouts.

But as the lord's forces achieved great military victories and created great civilian miracles, these old traditions instantly crumbled.

The third power group took the stage.

They were progressives among sand people, outstanding captives, intelligent slaves who fanatically worshipped the lord, seeking every opportunity to serve him, even willing to bypass existing fixed political layers.

In this process, they used obviously more positive attitudes and stronger execution capabilities than those old fellows, completing control over partial domains under the banner of "serving the lord."

They were standard emerging interest groups. Though everyone gained benefits as Vast Sea Territory developed greatly, these people gained somewhat more.

After all, they originally had nothing.

So this group's worship of Chen Mo exceeded other factions, leading territory old bureaucrats to privately call this faction the "Loyalty Faction"!

These people were relatively high-intelligence humans who received full East Xia-model education. Some advanced representatives could already read most East Xia books.

In their words, military forces were left-leaning radical, traditional forces were right-leaning conservative, and only they, the Loyalty Faction, were the lord's most reliable assistants!

During Chen Mo's absence, the three major factions continued working while privately competing.

For example, with this phase's main work plans completed, should Vast Sea's next key development direction be south, east, or north?

Continue major agriculture and land reclamation? Or prioritize infrastructure construction? Continue current part-work, part-training military mobilization? Or increase industrial population investment, striving to achieve partial product self-sufficiency soon?

Each path had more or less some interest shadows behind it, leading to mutual stalemate.

Everything needed the lord's decision.

Of course, this situation was also somewhat a pit left by the management framework East Xia designed for Chen Mo.

Even an intentionally left pit.

Except for the lord, no single person or group of forces could complete integration or assimilation of other factions.

Chief Administrator Herlan, the territory's second person, couldn't mobilize even a patrol squad without the lord's authorization.

The mighty centaur Field Army group similarly couldn't take away a penny's worth of supplies without the lord's written order.

During the lord's absence, everyone could only proceed step by step according to tasks the lord left behind.

So not only did the people eagerly await, but all the territory's big shots also constantly anticipated the lord's return.

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