Chapter 207 After the destruction of the Spirit Soul, the times had changed dramatically.
With the overthrow of the Spirit Soul Hall, the nobles of Douluo Continent rejoiced. Shrek rejoiced, their victory over the Spirit Soul Hall. Shrek had already begun to establish itself as the continent's preeminent spirit master power.
The two empires could finally afford to support the common spirit masters. They no longer bore the cost of awakening their spirits and improving their strength, and moreover, they could profit from them.
The heavy burden weighing on the hearts of all the spirit masters and nobles had been lifted, and a new spring had arrived for the nobility.
Tiandou and Xingluo, the two great empires, rejoiced and danced!
The Tang Sect rose, and the Haotian Sect became the undisputed foremost sect. Although the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect had lost two Titled Douluos, its power and status remained formidable, given the presence of a deity within its ranks.
However, some people were uncertain about their future.
Ninety-nine percent of the entire Douluo Continent was populated by commoners, peasants.
When the Spirit Hall fell, they felt numb, but when it finally became history, they suddenly realized that what they had once taken for granted was now a luxury.
Commoner spirit masters no longer received their monthly allowances, and the resources and time required to cultivate their spirit power weighed heavily on them, leaving them with only two options.
Either cultivate while working, wasting their talents and ultimately achieving very limited results. Or, directly join an aristocratic family and become a member. The family would provide them with resources for cultivation, but the price was eternal loyalty to the family, even requiring them to die if the patriarch ordered them to.
In reality, they were still fortunate, as they had already obtained their own spirits. On the continent, those who failed to awaken their spirits would no longer have the privilege of awakening their spirits at the age of six.
As Emperor Xue Beng said, "The Heaven Dou Empire has no obligation to cover the costs of awakening its Martial Souls for the common people, as this is a waste of national resources."
Emperor Dai Mubai, after passing the throne to his descendants, also left a message: "Making the common people live in a state of near-death suffering is the key to political success."
Unable to awaken their Martial Souls, the common people lacked hope and expectation for the future, forcing them to diligently cultivate the land and work. However, the feudal lords exploited the land, imposing heavy taxes and annexations. The slave hunt, moving from the shadows to the open, cost countless families their children and wives, satisfying the vast demand for slaves from the nobles of the two empires.
Droughts, floods, locust plagues, and plagues claimed countless lives, yet the two empires were only able to respond to these disasters with limited effectiveness.
Some even simply ignored them, believing they were powerless. Without Martial Souls, or even useless ones, how could they resist the aristocratic system that had become increasingly consolidated during the Sea God Era?
Only then did people realize that the Spirit Hall, once touted as a tyrannical organization, was actually a balancer between the nobility and the common people. It had awakened countless commoner spirit masters. Even though few of them could become spirit masters, possessing a spirit offered them lifelong benefits.
It poured the resources of the two empires into the hands of commoner spirit masters, supporting weak sects in their struggles to rise above the powerful. It was precisely because of the Spirit Hall's actions that these aristocratic forces were filled with hatred.
Now, that balancer has been lost, and the Spirit Hall's era has ended.
While the nobility has ushered in their own era, the common people, the peasants they call the "peasants," have begun a bitter winter, one that will stretch for tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years, perhaps even one with no end in sight.
Times are changing, and people are struggling. Shangguan Mingyue, fortunately a commoner spirit master, awakened her spirit during the Spirit Hall's reign. While the gold ingots of wealth and fortune didn't grant her immense combat power, they did grant her a unique ability: the ability to generate wealth.
She excelled at identifying opportunities in the market, seizing them, and establishing her own business. Leveraging this ability, Shangguan Mingyue established a chamber of commerce in Ailan City, a city in the Tiandou Empire. Under her stewardship, the chamber grew steadily in size.
With money at her disposal, she remained calm and undeterred, not neglecting her cultivation.
This also attracted the attention of the local lords.
The lord Zhang He began to interfere with her voice and set restrictions. Shangguan Mingyue, who believed in money, used part of the profits from the development of the Chamber of Commerce to bribe the lord, allowing her chamber of commerce to develop smoothly in Ailan City and its surrounding areas.
One day, the lord's son Zhang Yao looked at the contract in Zhang He's hand and said disdainfully, "Father, she can get rid of you with just that small amount of money. Don't you know that the Mingyue Chamber of Commerce is now richer than our lord's mansion? If we don't collect the heavy 70% tax from her, we will be doing her a disservice to her wealth."
"You are still too naive," Zhang He said to Zhang Yao. "This fat sheep hasn't even grown up yet, and you want to kill her? How much money can you make!"
"Shangguan Mingyue has money, but no power. Her wealth, like rootless grass, will sooner or later fall into our hands. Her abilities will be very useful to us. When we take over her Chamber of Commerce, I, your father, will make her your concubine, so that we can continue to profit."
Zhang Yao's heart swelled with warmth at the thought of Shangguan Mingyue's graceful figure. "Father, you are truly thoughtful," he said.
Shangguan Mingyue was unaware of the plans the lord and his son were making for her. As the Mingyue Chamber of Commerce grew and its influence spread to surrounding provinces, she sought to expand trade routes and establish connections with more local lords and nobles. However, when the lord, Zhang He, took direct action, fabricating an unspecified crime and confiscating all of the Mingyue Chamber's assets, he fabricated a case and tried it.
Shangguan Mingyue, alerted by her subordinates, fled the Ailan City territory. While her safety was saved, she lost all her hard work to the lord of the territory.
Undeterred, she journeyed to another province in Tiandou, surveyed the local market, and rebuilt the Mingyue Chamber of Commerce from scratch.
As her business grew and her wealth accumulated, she began to think about expanding it. However, the provincial governor took direct action, fabricating a crime and shutting down the Mingyue Chamber of Commerce.
All her efforts once again fell into the hands of the local lords and nobles.
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