Above The Sky
Chapter 866 - 866 57 The Public's Trust Can Be Utilized 6900_2

866: Chapter 57: The Public’s Trust Can Be Utilized (6900)_2 866: Chapter 57: The Public’s Trust Can Be Utilized (6900)_2 Even if the olive branch comes with bone-corroding venom.

When famine spread and panic boiled over in South Ridge, the rebellion of the Mountain People followed suit, as they shook off the shackles the Empire had imposed upon them…

but life became even worse.

Food distribution, economic collapse, though it sounds counterintuitive, ever since Agate Stone Plains were developed by the Empire into productive lands, the population of the Mountain People had been steadily increasing.

Over two hundred years, the population of the Mountain People had tripled compared to the old days.

The significance behind this fact isn’t important; it represents a simple truth: the Mountain People were no longer able to be self-sufficient.

Unless they wanted the vast majority to starve to death.

The Empire had bound most of the rational Mountain chieftains with food, while the crazed others believed that Fiery Flame Land could provide another answer.

So, even though most tribes were aware that it was the biological wars from Fiery Flame Land that caused the famine, they were still forced to accept help from Fiery Flame Land…

but what was the point?

To rebel from the Empire and become independent, then to accept lower quality, less stable food aid from Fiery Flame Land?

To be bound by someone with food, and then by another with less food, is that really normal?

—Why cooperate with the enemy?

“Exactly, they are the origin of all these disasters…” the Mountain Folk Priest muttered to himself, but the children did not notice; only another voice could hear him.

He was kicked out of the meeting by his own people, even the food distribution for his own tribe was cut, many left, many also died in the war, Priest Fiotto now had no power whatsoever in the coalition of Independent Villagers, apart from taking care of these war orphans.

He could only care for these children in front of him…

but he couldn’t provide them a full meal.

Remembering the hopes of the past, Priest Fiotto wanted to laugh, whether it was a laugh filled with sarcasm or a bitter wry smile, it would only express a part of the sorrow in his heart.

Dragon God’s Emissary.

A term too distant, too lofty, too many people, too many Mountain People, can’t even change themselves or their small surroundings, yet he, a priest, has to exhaust himself just taking care of these children.

Destiny…

always so playful.

—You don’t necessarily have to follow the actions of the Rebel Highlanders, do you?

You do not harbor an enmity towards the Empire that only mutual destruction can reconcile, nor has Fiery Flame Land offered you a price that goes beyond your morals.

That voice asked so, and the old priest closed his eyes.

Indeed.

He didn’t have to continue with those who play the independence game…

but what would happen to his tribe if he refused?

The chieftain of the Chonglin Tribe is a spineless man, who doesn’t dare to voice opposition against the Chase Star Tribal Alliance and even resents him for opposing Fiery Flame Land.

If the Chonglin Tribe really wants to maintain ties with the Empire, becoming the despised ‘obedient citizens’…

they don’t have the advantageous geographical conditions like the Frodo Autonomous Region, to block the overt and covert assaults and sieges from other Mountain People and Fiery Flame Land.

They would be wiped out, just like many small tribes.

Those people are not the Dragon God’s Emissary…

they do not hesitate to raise their blades against their own kin.

—You can contact the Empire.

Contact Nauman City.

They would be willing to pay a hefty price for a tribal leader like you, just to have you pass on some information at a critical moment.

The Empire?

The Empire wasn’t just a group of people, who should he contact?

Who wouldn’t betray him?

And moreover…

should he contact them?

The old priest might understand the history of their nation even better than most Imperial People because he too had dreamed of independence from the Empire in his youth, leading the Mountain People to regain their greatness.

But it’s precisely because he knows the history of the Empire that he’s skeptical about such matters.

Starting with Setai Central City-State at its inception, the Empire conquered thirty-two cities to the north and the kingdoms within the dark sacred mountains, repelled the Chase Star Tribal Alliance, the precursor to the Azure Sky Royal Court, conquered the three major Sacrificial Spirit Tribes in the east, and even the Titan Beasts of Icewind Valley bowed down before the Imperial Emperor’s scepter.

And in the Western Region, the Empire assimilated the local ancient beliefs, those who worship the twin moons in the sky, and in the holy Silver Law City, sealed a covenant, ennobling the terrestrial spokesperson of the Moon God as their Western Grand Duke.

That was the origin of the Solin Family.

The Empire was always conquering, always expanding, they never rested, even the Card People living around the Golden Plains became a part of them, only the most ancient of Mountain priests remember the names that only scant ancient records retained, through their studies of the Terrestrial Whirlwind Cloud Pillar, the storm techniques the Card People invoked by calling upon the spirits of heaven and earth were so dreadful that even mountains could hardly withstand the breath of the wild king that could wither forests.

But they all fell to the blade of the Empire, fell to the blinding brilliance of the Sun’s authority.

Then, they became Imperial People.

Of course, the Setar Empire was not always victorious—two hundred years ago, when the thirty-third Imperial Emperor died prematurely of an old ailment, the Northern Duke Korolyov Family used the power of the Apocalypse Armament to declare independence.

Perhaps it is also because of this, that the Empire imposed so many restrictions on the Mountain People that they concurrently subdued, yet without the time to fully conquer the Mountain People, leaving many autonomous regions instead.

“Contacting the Empire, perhaps we will become completely Imperial People, never having the chance to change again.”