Golden Dragon: Six Thousand Years of Empire
Chapter 448 - 272: Special Economic Zones, Migration Tide

Chapter 448: Chapter 272: Special Economic Zones, Migration Tide

"Noah, a bishop from the Radiant Sect has lodged a protest with us, claiming that the Harbor Governor you’ve appointed is mistreating their believers."

"Oh!"

Noah responded nonchalantly.

Word Spirit·Emperor allowed him to descend at any faith node at will, so the Golden Dragon Statues in populous towns and villages could accommodate Noah’s consciousness.

But the function of Word Spirit·Emperor was not limited to this. Noah recently discovered that those Dragon Fairies who had been repeatedly influenced by his life essence and whose life forms had completely changed were, to him, like walking faith nodes.

Each Dragon Fairy could carry his consciousness, especially those Dragon Fairies that worshipped him fanatically, appearing like little suns in the faith perspective when he activated the Word Spirit.

The Dragon Fairy he sent to the Eastern Coast as Governor had an outstanding fervor for his faith among the hundred or so Dragon Elves.

So, Noah could ignore spatial distance and descend upon her. However, every descent was approached with great caution by Noah, as he was still exploring how to utilize this Word Spirit.

Nonetheless, even just for gathering information, this Word Spirit could be regarded as a Divine Skill. Even the Harbor City, thousands of miles away, was understood by Noah well, especially regarding the Governor’s measures against the Radiant believers.

At first glance, the number of devout believers sharing the same faith was indeed terrifying, and their numbers were continually increasing. The most sensible solution seemed to be "divide and rule," that is, to absorb all these believers and then migrate them differently.

As long as the number of believers gathered in one place was small enough, then as mortals, no matter how devout their faith was, their sole function would be to provide power to the Divine of their faith, and beyond that, nothing more, they couldn’t stir up trouble.

However, apart from intervening through administrative means, geographic dispersal of these Radiant believers could also be achieved through economic and material separation.

Differential treatment is always the most effective means of division, for people are not so worried about scarcity but inequality.

When devout believers found that the returns for their daily prayers to the Divine made their lives worse off than those laboring mudlegs, would their hearts not be shaken in the slightest?

Mouths could firmly declare belief in the Divine, and minds could fantasize about the glory enjoyed after ascending to the Divine Country after death, but an empty stomach not filled, or one uncomfortably stuffed with oversized cakes, wouldn’t be at all polite.

Of course, normally this isn’t the case. Believers with devout faith could obtain a regular supply of resources from the local Church, basically guaranteeing that one person’s faith relieved the entire family’s needs for meals and drinks — the believers are at least devout followers, not ordinary superficial believers.

But the problem was, these believers were escaped refugees, and having anything to eat was already fortunate, how could they have the right to be picky? They arrived at the Harbor City, which was essentially a newly established outpost that didn’t possess the basic functions of a city.

Under such circumstances, being able to eat flatbread could indeed be considered the Divine’s blessing, after all, a piece of bread had to cover thousands of kilometers with its transportation costs laid bare.

First ensuring the survival of the believers and then gradually improving their living conditions seemed reasonable in normal circumstances, but there happened to be a Fairy Governor who did not play by the rules and a group of profit-seeking merchants.

As a result, a scene unfolded in the Harbor City where Radiant believers went to sell their labor daily, even reducing their prayer time to earn money, living better than devout believers who prayed devoutly every day.

Such a situation could not appear in areas of stable Church influence; only in a special region like the Harbor City, where even the most basic food supply could not be guaranteed, could such a spectacle occur.

However, the most amusing belonged to the devout believers driven by hunger to commit theft, being flogged thrice on the street by a law-enforcing Fairy, barely clinging to life, with the remaining twelve lashes to be carried out after recovery.

Although local believers protested collectively because of this, all protestors were arrested by the Governor for disturbing local order.

In the end, it was a Paladin who couldn’t bear to watch any longer and bailed them out, yet they were unwilling to intervene for the believer who stole fish cakes.

After all, the flogged believer was guilty of theft, conflicting with the Paladins’ belief in combating evil and upholding Order.

Although he merely stole a few fish cakes, the act constituted a crime. The last instance was even deemed a more severe robbery.

However, the Paladins weren’t without opinions, as although the local Governor operated within the law, her law was only effectively punishing thieves. Meanwhile, the condition of labor workers, clearly illegal, was left unchecked by this Governor.

"All this is for the development and future of Harbor City. If the income of these workers were forcibly raised to the same standard as the inland territories, then what merchant would come here to build factories and create jobs? How would the economy develop here? Who would be painstakingly transporting food here?"

Faced with the Paladins’ skepticism, the local Governor responded forcefully.