Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 1318 The Beginning of a New Era

The Church has been cracking down on the slave trade, but the goblins always have a reason to justify it—because the ancient Parthian Kingdom has a tradition of slavery and trade.

Perhaps because it is older than the Theocracy, or perhaps for some reason that even the goblins do not know, the Theocracy has always been exceptionally tolerant and forgiving towards Parthia.

It is precisely because of the existence of Rest that these profit-driven goblins have room to maneuver.

The elves are good people.

Good people always follow rules and reason.

But now, the ancient kingdom of Parthia has been completely overthrown... The Heavenly Chief has fallen, and the Pillar God has been replaced. The ancient traditions that have lasted for thousands of years have died in an instant. Parthia has become Wanning, and this change will not encounter any resistance.

The Holy Kingdom naturally had no objections, and all neighboring countries would undoubtedly praise it. The vast majority of Pillar Gods and Celestials favored this change; Aiwass even demonstrated strength sufficient to kill several Celestials—

It should be understood that this was a trap that had been planned and laid out for a long time, woven together by more than a dozen benevolent beings at the sixth level.

Even such a trap was useless against Aiwass—if all the Celestials were attributed to Aiwass, he would have already killed six Celestials!
The first one is considered to be a case of mutual restraint.

The second person was lucky.

What about the third, fourth, fifth, sixth...?
Extremely lucky? Incredibly lucky? Unbelievably lucky?
Now Aiwass has completely proven that he is the true number one in the world, and is about to ascend to godhood as an earth god!

As a result, the world entered an unprecedented period of peace—those with ulterior motives dared not act recklessly in front of Aiwas.

And the end of the era of rest also signifies something else:

That is, from now on... the only country in the world that still keeps slaves is the goblins.

Of course, strictly speaking, they are not nations—because goblins do not have their own countries. And the trolls of the southern continent cannot really be considered nations either… their fragmented state based on villages, their settlements composed of multiple clans with close blood ties, can at most be considered tribes.

If this god of the present world dislikes slavery, then what the goblins are doing now is courting death.

Goblins are always driven by profit; they are natural-born businessmen. So who is the biggest interest group today?

That would naturally be Aiwass.

Therefore, their best option is to immediately abandon the enslavement of the trolls, disband control of all plantations, and return the land of the southern continent to the trolls.

However, trolls and goblins have a blood feud spanning generations—to the trolls, who eat almost anything, goblins were once their prized food, their status no different from that of livestock. Ordering other goblins to immediately abandon their enslavement of the trolls... that would be very difficult to implement.

While the smartest and most correct choice would be to surrender immediately, and while goblins are all natural-born merchants, not all goblins are intelligent. Or rather, those who are intelligent enough have certainly already joined the goblin guild and risen to mid- to high-level positions.

Goblins are not actually as intelligent as humans on average. It's just that because they reproduce so prolifically, they are more likely to mutate into intelligent individuals.

Take, for example, Grandet's family—by the time Grandet celebrated March, which was only March, he already had fourteen older brothers and twelve older sisters. This is because goblins have a gestation period of only two months, often producing one to three goblins in a single litter, and can reproduce year-round. To curb this outrageous reproductive rate, after fleeing the threat of trolls, goblins even adopted a monogamous system.

In this situation, a goblin family could reproduce freely, producing more than ten goblin offspring each year. In the past, even considering predation by trolls, many goblin offspring could survive for more than three months.

Goblins are able to walk at three months old, at which point they are weaned. Once weaned, their brains begin to develop at an abnormal rate, and their bodies visibly become ugly and twisted, emitting a foul odor, much like uncastrated pigs.

That's why trolls love to eat goblins within three months of birth, because goblin meat is tender, juicy, and odorless during this stage.

That's why goblins celebrate the "March Festival." If you survive for three months, you're basically guaranteed to reach adulthood.

Judging from the goblins' attitude toward the March Festival, it's clear that they haven't given up on their grudges.

In the past, when goblins were preyed upon by trolls, only the most intelligent goblins could survive. If their brains hadn't developed by March, it would be difficult for them to remain quiet and not become a burden to their parents when being hunted. By then, goblins had already learned how to use the noisiest and most useless children as bait in traps to fight back against the trolls or to attract their attention.

Therefore, in the era of blood feuds, the goblins who survived were often the intelligent ones.

But now, without this natural selection process... many goblins are actually quite stupid. After all, their brains are smaller than those of humans and elves, and in terms of pure intelligence, they are even less intelligent than trolls who have brains but don't use them.

To put it simply—

Only the clever goblins in the Goblin Guild know what to do, but the vast majority of goblins either don't know or are unwilling to give up.

Goblins ultimately had no country of their own, nor a monarch or laws.

The guild's internal control was clearly weak—the title "Hidden in the Horse's Belly" itself stemmed from Grandet's family's involvement in the guild's factional infighting. His entire family was killed on Grandet's March Festival, and he alone survived being hidden in the belly of a horse… by goblin merchants from other factions.

If the goblin merchants had been willing to obey the guild's orders, the tragedy of the Grandet family would never have happened.

He realized that Aiwass's morality aligned with that of the elves, and that he would inevitably disapprove of slavery. —And since it was certain that those foolish goblins would never respect Grandet's advice, Grandet decided to cut ties with them before they could do anything reckless!
That's why Grandet arrived at Aiwass's side at that moment.

Before Aiwas could even recall, "Oh right, speaking of which, it seems the goblins in the southern continent also keep slaves," he first offered his apologies, proactively pointing out the goblins' many grave sins!

This also serves as a reminder to Aiwass – look, there are still goblins to deal with.

"...For this reason, the great face of the halo, the son of the candle, the lord of miracles."

Grandet knelt respectfully on the ground: "I wish to dedicate the rest of my life to contributing to your many great works and miracles. I vow to eradicate all vices and command my blood relatives and my business association to accompany me. We will strictly abide by your many prohibitions, abandoning everything that needs to be abandoned and forgetting everything that needs to be forgotten... We will honor your glory and spread your gospel."

"...I don't ask you to forgive all goblins, I only ask you to forgive my lineage. I am powerless to change them, so I have no choice but to separate myself from the goblin race. From now on, we will no longer be goblins."

"Please bestow a name upon me!"

This is absolutely an unprecedented innovation.

There are those who break away from their former organizations, and those who break away from their former countries... but I've never heard of anyone breaking away from their former race!

Even Sherlock and Isabelle were shocked by Grandet's determination.

"...What a clever man, Grandet."

After a long silence, Aiwass's voice finally rang out: "Are you so sure I can win?"

"—No matter who the enemy is, you will ultimately be victorious, just as the sun will eventually rise."

Grandet flattered Eywass in a firm, powerful, deep, and magnetic voice.

Faced with absolute power, there may be blind people who cannot see the big picture... but fortunately, intelligent people often occupy high positions.

While there are certainly some confused people, that doesn't necessarily mean we can't replace them.

"I'll just leave it at that... but I do need you guys anyway."

After a long period of contemplation, Aiwass gave his final announcement: "Give your troll employees an identity, and bring them, along with the members of your guild and family, all to join Wanning. I will only give you half a month to transfer personnel and assets—before the end of the month, I will launch a trial against the Southern Continent."

It has to be said that Aiwass really hadn't thought of the goblins before.

After all, the arrival of the Great Abyss and the establishment of the Kingdom of Wanning were keeping them extremely busy...

But now that he remembered, he really had to take care of it—like doing an important side quest that had been put aside for a long time before entering the final battle where save files couldn't be loaded.

Yes, just casually...

He can't possibly defeat his great enemy only to have these petty villains emerge and steal all the benefits, can he?

First, wipe out the restless rats—judging from Grandet's words, some goblins must be hostile towards Aiwass.

But perhaps because the gap between them was too large, Aiwass didn't even have any murderous intent towards them.

For Aiwass now, freeing the goblins from their enslavement of the trolls is no longer a difficult task.

He had no fondness for goblins or trolls. Both goblins and trolls, some of whom had committed atrocities against humans and elves, were responsible for conducting a vengeful trial, justly punishing all those who had committed unforgivable crimes, and abolishing the ancient covenant of slavery based on the Abyss.

After that, let them fight it out.

Change the terrain and lock up the island, let those with grudges take revenge and those with grievances seek justice—whether it's the annihilation of one side, a handshake and reconciliation, mutual destruction, or division and confrontation... since it's a blood feud between each other, then don't affect others, let each fight their own battle.

Those goblins willing to enter the new era were to follow Grandet. They were to come to the Land of Wanning, abide by the new laws, and enter the new age. Although Aiwass did not bestow names upon them, it was only because he feared that this would have some unknown impact on mysticism—that they, in fact, were no longer the same species as their kin.

After all, even Aiwass himself didn't know what he would become after August 8th.

So before that, he wanted to make up for all his regrets and do everything he wanted to do.

For that decisive battle with no way out, a battle witnessed by no one.

Aiwas decided to leave no regrets.

(End of this chapter)