Under the Red Dragon.

Chapter 473 Saint

In the summer of the fiftieth year of the Dragon Calendar, when the first bell rang of the ten-day period, the cities of the Golden Empire were already enveloped in an atmosphere of celebration.

Whether slaves, citizens with full human rights, or legionary soldiers stationed on the borders of the Golden Empire, everyone enjoyed a joyous day.

In addition to the grand celebrations held in the major cities of the Golden Empire, even in the underdeveloped and sparsely populated wilderness within the empire's territory, magnificent bonfires were lit everywhere.

Many wilderness tribes and wild communities, still in their primitive stages and not yet part of the civilized order, held bonfire gatherings because of the awakening of the emperor of the Golden Empire. Their purpose was solely to attract merchants from the Golden Empire and pioneers and travelers from the enlightened cities within the empire.

Although the Golden Empire's True Dragon Emperor, Kalon Gogmora, is known as the Dragon Emperor, there are people of scaled bloodline within the Golden Empire and even in the northern continent of Ekania.
And countless races, even intelligent monsters on the wasteland, all worship the Dragon Emperor, giving the entire Golden Empire a nickname—the Paradise of Lawful Monsters.

No matter how inferior a monster species may be in the eyes of humanoid races, they can all obtain equal 'human rights' within the Golden Empire's diverse civilization system, as long as they abide by the Empire's order and fulfill the will of the Dragon Royal Court.

It is said that there is also a mind-controlling slime that accidentally ended up in the northern land of Ekania. It used to feed on the memories of highly intelligent and extraordinary beings, mastered many mind-related magics, and disguised itself as the victim to find its next prey.

However, while searching for its target, this slime monster set its sights on a mid-level mage from the Golden Empire's Magic Research Department who was out gathering materials. The overjoyed mid-level mage beat it up and dragged it into the laboratory of its private mage tower, which it had built with imperial funding.

The Mind-Controlling Slime underwent three months of 'gentle education' from the intermediate mage, and finally had a profound awakening, repented, and decided to add a new chapter to the diverse races of the Golden Empire.

So the mind-controlling slime voluntarily settled down in the swamp forest in the southern part of the empire and accepted the position of director of the empire's swamp management and development department.

Now, this Mind-Controlling Slime has gathered and summoned a large number of Slime, using its knowledge and magic to cultivate many Slime variants such as Black Slime, Gray Slime, and Slime.

Furthermore, this slime monster combines the unique characteristics of the various slime monster variants it has cultivated, and the special slime produced using these slime monsters has great adhesiveness and sustainable development potential, and has gradually become the number one supplier of building materials for the Golden Empire.

The small shareholder behind the Golden Empire's No. 1 Cement Plant is this Mind-Stealing Slime Monster.

As for who the major shareholder behind this mind-controlling slime is, the dragon lord of the empire, Steel Dragon Midil, said she had no idea. She was simply focused on serving the empire and was so engrossed in her busy political affairs that she could not extricate herself.

Of course, besides the fact that the emperor of the empire had awakened from his slumber, the empire's celebratory atmosphere was also due to the policies promulgated by the Imperial Central Council on this day.

The empire exists because of the dragon, so the policies that the Imperial Central Council had been preparing for a long time on the day the Dragon Emperor awoke can be considered a kind of benevolent act, in order to consolidate the hearts and minds of the people of the empire and strengthen the national pride and sense of identity of the Golden People race.

In the five-year development plan announced by the Imperial Central Council, agricultural taxes paid by the imperial subjects will be comprehensively reduced based on the specific grain production situation in each province of the empire.

Provinces that primarily produce grain for the empire's consumption and transportation are taxed at the lowest possible level, approximately one-sixtieth of the total. Meanwhile, empire provinces that consume large amounts of grain pay subsidies to provinces that export grain crops as agricultural tax.

This move was due to the extreme imbalance in crop production within the Golden Empire's territory.

At the beginning of the Dragonkin territory, the Dragonkin's retinue and many foreign peoples opened up the eastern and central areas near the coast as granaries for food production.

However, with the development of the Golden Empire and the Orc Wars, as well as the gradual growth of industry and commerce into the main body of the empire's economy and finance, the empire's agricultural production areas have shifted heavily from the central and eastern regions to the western and southern regions.

The cities along the eastern coast of the empire and most of the cities in the central region are economically developed provinces and cities with relatively abundant fiscal surpluses, which is sufficient to implement this policy.

Because the empire's administrative operations need to be streamlined, the central council will delegate the power of transferring agricultural tax subsidies and cooperating between the various grain-exporting provinces and the major grain-consuming provinces.

However, although the Golden Empire has now achieved complete self-sufficiency in food and agricultural products, it also has a large volume of export trade.

Agriculture's share in the national economy of the Golden Empire has been declining. Agricultural tax is no longer the main source of revenue for the Golden Empire, but rather a supplementary means of fiscal revenue. The Imperial Central Council still has no intention of completely exempting agricultural taxes.

The goal is simply to implement tax reforms that are compatible with economic development, address the imbalance between producing and consuming provinces, and thus encourage continued agricultural production.

In addition to this major reform, several detailed policies were also issued.

The resolution of the Empire's central think tank stipulated that the Golden Empire must ensure the balanced development of its industrial, commercial, and agricultural foundations in order to maintain its strong and independent competitiveness in the long run on its journey across the entire world of Ekania and even the Astral Plane, rather than being blinded by short-sighted gains.

As each city successively announced its five-year development plan and corresponding reform policies in its central square, every citizen present cheered.

In addition to reforms to agricultural taxes and a series of policies to encourage childbirth and reduce the burden on the people, the Empire has also introduced a series of welfare policies regarding the education of newborns, aiming to raise the level of education for newborns to a higher level.

When these policies spread to every village and town in the empire, every household spread the news with joy and tears.

Even though many able-bodied men from various families have joined the Empire's Astral Expeditionary Forces, and their whereabouts are currently unknown, the people of the Empire have never been overly worried.

Given the current cohesion of the Golden Empire's diverse civilizations, even if the Empire's Astral Expeditionary Legion and all of the Empire's Dragon Kings were to be wiped out in the depths of space, the people of the Golden Empire, in their shock, would only feel the urge to dedicate generations of their lives to revenge!

The authority and rule of the Dragon King's Court are deeply rooted in the Golden Empire and cannot be shaken!
Thanks to the various policies implemented by the Golden Empire to benefit its people, the Golden Empire developed extremely rapidly.

According to the latest census conducted by the Empire's Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Golden Empire currently has as many as 205,345,872 citizens with full autonomy over their human rights.

Furthermore, this population growth rate is still at a rapid pace, with an average annual growth rate of 0.58% in the past two years. Half of the green-skinned goblins and kobolds live in the Green Forest plane first opened by the dragons, while many gnolls, trolls, and humans—races that reproduce rapidly—are distributed as pioneering militias in the planes subsequently opened by the Empire. Therefore, a large portion of the population has not been included in the census data.

This positive trend of development is something that the rulers of the empire are happy to maintain.

Although Emperor Charon Gogmora and the many dragon kings and great dragons of the Gogmora Dragonflight had their own tasks to complete, the Empire continued to function smoothly.

As long as the dragon's lair that pierces the sky exists, the Golden Empire will exist in the northern continent of Ekania, standing as a dominant civilization.

At this very moment, Kalon Gogmora was lurking deep within his lair, unaware of the day of celebration that was taking place outside.

Although he was the emperor of a civilized empire, his position had long since transcended that of a mere power holder in the mortal realm, and was more akin to the supreme will of a multi-racial civilization.

The system that Kalon spent decades building, the talent he cultivated, and the core spirit he infused into the Golden Empire's civilization were enough to make the entire empire a program that could operate automatically.

Kalon remained lying in the center of his lair, but in a different position.

The huge, thick tail wrapped around half of Karon's jaw, and with each breath he took, the fine scales on the dragon's tail opened and closed slightly, drawing in the elemental magic brewing and flowing within the dragon's lair through every pore of his skin.

But the first generation of the dragon, whose scales once shimmered and whose body shone with a halo that could illuminate the entire dragon's lair, now not only has its aura subdued, but even when the elemental energy of the entire lair is stirred, its presence is not noticeable.

Even this enormous first-generation dragon, which resembled a small castle, had completely disappeared from the sight of ordinary creatures.

If a being below the level of a supernatural being were to enter this cave, it would only see a dazzling array of mineral essence gems and a huge, empty energy vortex, with countless torrents of almost tangible elemental magic pouring down from mid-air and then disappearing into the air.

Only extraordinary beings could discern the faint traces of this first species' existence from the enormous shadow at the very center of the nest, as well as the massive crack in the dragon's nest dome that flowed with dense black mist-like energy—a passage from the Shadow Realm.

The energy flowing from the Shadow Realm added a glossy black sheen to the beautiful scales on Kalon Goggmora's body, blending the massive body of this first-generation creature with the light, subtly merging it into the darkness within the lair.

Within Kalon's body, in the rune pillar representing the law of shadow, a shadow rune containing the truth and mystery of the reflection of all things is emitting a vast and dense shadow, gradually solidifying from the ethereal, becoming lifelike.

Although Charon had already mastered the magic of the Shadow Realm and had his own understanding and cognitive system regarding the Shadow Realm, the Shadow Charon was born with this wisdom and power.

However, Kalon rarely uses spells from the Shadow Realm, and has never attempted to open the Shadow Realm, which is similar to the material plane of Ekania, during his past transformations to extract its power for his own use.

It's not just because Karon's style of fighting dragons has always been grand and domineering, and his mastery of spells and methods surpasses that of countless mages.

Because the power of the Shadow Realm is ultimately different from other forces in the real world, the creatures living in the Shadow Realm are also deeply influenced by the power of the Shadow, becoming more cunning and ruthless.

Moreover, this influence is more insidious and insidious than the blood of dragons. Even though Charon has a strong will, he does not want to experience the feeling of being constantly eroded and transformed.

Just as Charon once defeated the legendary demon Sacres, who was preparing to embark on the path of legendary destiny, he never attempted to devour the power of the legendary demon with his own gluttonous authority.

The power of the abyss and the power of the shadow realm are similar in that they both possess the ability to erode and reverse.

Many powerful beings, even those as strong as demigods or godlike beings, who fall into the abyss or remain in the Shadow Realm, are gradually eroded and transformed by this fundamental power.

However, Kalon has now entered the realm of legend. The laws of creation he has condensed encompass all things, are the source of all paths, the end of infinite laws, and the path to the unity of all things.

Therefore, the power of shadow is naturally a part of the laws he created and is integrated into his law system. With light and darkness as the twin elements, light and shadow are the balance of all things. Naturally, there is no need to be afraid of it as before.

As long as Charon keeps the power of shadow within a balanced threshold of mutual transformation, he will not be affected.

Therefore, this short rest and recuperation allowed Kalon to not only recover to his peak condition but also make a slight improvement.

Besides the visible torrents of elemental energy and dazzling spiritual light, above Kalon's colossal body, there was also a torrent of power, invisible to the naked eye of mortal beings and even extraordinary creatures, pouring down from the dome of the True Dragon's Nest.

This power of faith, visible only to those of legendary status and exceptional spiritual abilities, converged from the Dragon Court and the Dragon Temple under the guidance of Kalon's will, cascading down like a mighty river.

The power of faith accumulated over decades by billions of beings is terrifying. Even at Karon's current level, he cannot quickly transform it and inject it into his avatar to give the avatar a substantial body.

An endless stream of faith rained down, raising the entire dragon's lair by one level.

Time passed until the first ray of sunlight shone down from the top of the sky over the Dragon's Nest Mountains. Suddenly, Kalon exhaled a long breath, stirring up wisps of spiritual light.

A tall, imposing young man with a dashing appearance suddenly leaped out of the body of the first generation of dragons.

(End of this chapter)