Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  A new country appeared in the northwest of the mainland on the main plane.

  It was named the Republic of Northwest. The name was very strange, as well as the location.

  It was located in the famous Ashes Woods, formerly known as the Void Mask Land, and the lesser-known the Four Towns in the Northwest, with a group of villages of pioneers.

  The Ashes Woods was a well-known forbidden area of life. It was filled with thin negative energy everywhere, which would erode everything silently. No matter tools, livestock or people were all “broken” really fast there. The strong iron would become fragile in a week or two, and the furniture made with hard work would be damaged in four or five days. As for people, even an ordinary person over 30 years old couldn’t be found there. If they had no special means to resist the negative energy, the ordinary people would die of weakness in the wild in only two or three days.

  Of course, there were inhabitants living in the Ashes Woods. They were the desperados who had nothing to lose except for their lives. They opened up a small and poor living space relying on the power of the Gods, planting vines that were difficult to swallow. They barely survived like the weeds on the roadside. Even so, the Ashes Woods often showed ferocious face to them. When night fell, monsters and the Undead creatures, all sorts of horrible things would come and attack people.

  What was the most terrifying was that, on the extreme new moon night every year, the tide of skeletons would rise in the Ashes Woods. Countless skeleton armies would attack all living beings crazily. Even if they had strong walls, most of the time they would not be able to withstand the onslaught all night of countless skeletons. Usually, after a extreme new moon night, the lucky survivors would get the sad news before catching their breath. The nearby villages had been broken through. No one was spared, regardless of ages and genders.

  “What kind of country can be built in this place? The country of the Undead?” Many people thought so.

  However, some knowledgeable people knew more things.

  The negative energy intensity of the Ashes Woods was decreasing from the center to the periphery. Pioneers lived at the edge of the Ashes Woods, close to the Mountains of Barrenness. In such a place, negative energy was blocked by the power of the mountains’ earth vein, which was relatively suitable for survival. As long as they were careful on the extreme new moon night, they didn’t need to worry too much at ordinary times.

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  Certainly, cold and barrenness were always the enemy of all life beings. However, in general, that place was not a forbidden area of life. It was just not conducive to large-scale exploitation and development.

  Even so, with enough capacity, it was still possible to open up a living space in this barrenness. For example, if you were a powerful God and could squander your power without care, you could completely create a prosperous paradise in the north-central part of the Ashes Woods, where a cup of boiling water would turn into ice cubes when pouring into the air in winter.

  That was the Void Mask Land, the most peaceful and prosperous city in the world.

  The city, which had been renamed “Void City”, was the capital of the Republic of Northwest. It had a permanent population of more than 50,000. Every day, many people from all over the world came here to have a visit. It provided the tourists with the best enjoyment, the most interesting entertainment and the most fresh adventure experience in the world. Moreover, it was also a well-known place of peace. As long as you followed the laws of the Republic of Northwest and behaved yourself, no one could get you into trouble here.

  More than ten legendary strongmen lived in this huge city all year long, and two real Gods kept paying attention to it. Didn’t mention about humans. Even Gods couldn’t make trouble here!

  From the Void City to the east and the south, there were four towns in turn, namely Dragon-roar Town, Gold-panning Town, Pyroxene Town and Rye Town. These four towns, together with some villages of pioneers near the towns, and the Void City, constituted the main body of the Republic of Northwest.

  The Four Towns in the Northwest had their own characteristics, and most of them couldn’t be underestimated.

  Dragon-roar Town was the world famous original place of material of demon beasts. The people here were very sturdy. Even the children on the street knew how to use swords and guns. A lot of adventurers lived here, who made a living by hunting for demon beasts. They entered the mountains with space cracks and killed the demon beasts that rushed into the main plane from the other side of the crack. Then they split them into various materials and sold them to the merchants who purchased these materials. They lived a life with licking the blood on the tips of their swords, so fierce.

  In Dragon-roar Town, the social status of a person was decided by how powerful demon beasts he could hunt. The famous men in the town, only in groups of several, could bring down the terrifying demon beasts that were close to the legend level in a special way, dragging them back to slaughter and split them in public.

  “Go to Dragon-roar Town to See the Slaughter of Demon Beasts” was also one of the famous tourism projects in the northwest.

  Gold-panning Town was one of the relatively backward ones in the Four Towns in the Northwest. It had gold mines, but the quality was very poor. Some other minerals, such as copper mines and iron mines, were not good enough either. The production was barely able to feed the people.

  However, to the further south, the situations of Pyroxene Town were completely different!

  Pyroxene Town was a pearl of the north. It was quiet, peaceful and prosperous. The town was surrounded by a huge Purification Array, so the negative energy couldn’t invade it at all. Cold – resistant pines and cypresses could be seen everywhere in the town, green and luxuriant, offering people a feeling of vitality. The large acres of fields outside the town were beyond people’s imagination that they were in the Ashes Woods which was called “the forbidden area of life”. If the plants grown in the fields were not mainly the cold-resistant crops and herbs, they would even remind people of the famous grain – producing areas.

  In fact, it really produced grain here, and it was of very high-quality. Due to the cold weather, the growing period of grain here was long, and it matured only once a year. The long growing period made it much fuller than the grain in other places, and the taste was completely different from ordinary ones, which made it the best.

  This kind of grain used to produce only a small amount in the Orc Empire. It had always been the speciality for the nobles and high – end hotels. Since its successful cultivation in Pyroxene Town, it had become a bright spot industry here.

  However, for Pyroxene Town, the most important industries were herbs and negative energy crystals instead of the grain.

  Needless to say, herbs, as precious consumables, had always been in short supply no matter how much they were produced. Negative energy crystals were very good low – end magic materials. The negative energy crystals produced in Pyroxene Town were small in size, but they were very pure and well received by the middle – level and low – level mages, which were in short supply as well.

  With these three terms of incomes, the people in Pyroxene Town were quite wealthy.

  The highlight of the town was not just about the industries. It had a magic school named Isuka School of Magic, which was dedicated to training battle mages. The headmaster of the magic school was the mayor who led Pyroxene Town into prosperity. She, Felix, was also the celebrity who united the Four Towns in the Northwest and laid the foundation for the establishment of the Republic, .

  At present, Felix was already the second-seat commander of the Republic of Northwest. She was in charge of the work of the four towns and the various villages of pioneers. It was calculated that if the area she managed was counted as territories, then she would be the most powerful countess of the whole main plane.

  If people went farther to the south from Pyroxene Town, the border of the Republic of Northwest could be seen.

  Rye Town, an important town of commerce and agriculture, was located here.

  Rye Town was an old town in the northwest region with strong strength and developed commerce and agriculture.

  What was most well-known here was the strong guard group owned by the town, comparable to an imperial army of an ordinary country’s palace, with outstanding strength and equipment.

  Rye Town was also the most populous town in the Republic of Northwest, with a total population of nearly 10,000.

  A legendary strongman stationed here all the year round. Before making trouble here, it was recommended to have a look at the corpses of the thieves hanging in a row on the gallows outside the city.

  In general, the foundation of the Republic of Northeast was not weak at all, though the geographical location was somewhat weird. Many countries in the world were not as good when they first got built.