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

  Sui Xiong had been more than satisfied to recruit such a powerful evil god as Leonard. But then he found that there was more good news.

  As an evil god, Leonard was not a general without an army. Instead, he also had some subordinates.

  These subordinates were mainly rangers. They weren’t good at riding and shooting arrows nor did they wear light armor or use short weapons—they were vagrant heroes. Most of these subordinates could read and write, and the rangers had higher education and more social experience. They were capable of completing official work.

  Although most young rangers were not interested in settling down, they would eventually grow old. Older rangers were happy to have a stable job and to use their wisdom to do something beneficial later on.

  These rangers had been a part of society for many years. They used to deal with trouble by themselves and gathered a lot of experience. Even the older rangers who didn’t have enough energy to deal with government affairs could be teachers at a school. They could pass on their own experience like passing a flame from generation to generation.

  Both those rangers and Leonard were satisfied with that.

  Leonard had been less active these years mainly due to the gradual increase of his older subordinates. He always worried about them. Most of them worshipped the hero, Paul in their youth and then followed in his footsteps to be heroes and maintain social justice. No matter what, he could not ignore these people. So he was very happy to find them a good place to settle down in.

  So was Sui Xiong.

  These rangers were excellent, but Leonard could do much better.

  This relatively young, perhaps even the youngest, evil god of his time had remarkable abilities. He was good at civil affairs but even better at military affairs.

  In the entire Republic, he was the only one that had commanded an army, fought in a battle, and finally won among all the subordinates of Sui Xiong.

  In the past, this “rebuilt brave lion” Leonard was one of the marshals in the Southern War Zone of the Orc Empire. Although he preferred defense to attack, he had been in charge of tens of thousands of soldiers to fight with the Eagle Kingdom on many occasions. Neither of them had been the winner, but Leonard never really suffered any losses.

  His military talent was even higher than that of Leon, who had almost been the King of the Eagle Kingdom.

  To Sui Xiong, it meant that finally, there was a really talented high military official in his camp. So he arranged for Leonard to be a drillmaster.

  Hearing his arrangement, Leonard was quiet for a while and asked, “Are you asking me to give lectures to those soldiers? To teach them military discipline, tactics, and strategies? How many soldiers there?”

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  Sui Xiong estimated and answered, “About…… three to four hundred.”

  “Such a small number.” Leonard was surprised. “I can’t teach those who lead less than one hundred soldiers. I’m not good at small-scale fighting.”

  “Weren’t you a ranger for a period of time?”

  “At that time, I was a lone ranger.” Leonard shook his head. “I have experience in both commanding an army and fighting alone, but I have never led a team of thirty or fifty soldiers.”

  “You have never commanded a team of that size?”

  “Never. When I was young, I joined the army and kept fighting. My military rank was high just because I had been brave enough to fight. It wasn’t until entering the Legendary Realm that I really took the lead and directly took over half of the southern theater,” Leonard laughed and said. “There were at least ten thousand soldiers under me.”

  Sui Xiong was in silence for a moment and then sighed deeply.

  The Republic of Northwest was still too small!

  But his disappointment didn’t last long. He soon cheered up again.

  “Don’t worry. Your experience will be useful one day,” he said. “The Ashes Woods is large enough. As long as we purify all the negative energy, there will be enough space to build a large country.”

  Leonard was surprised at his answer. He asked, “Do you know how to purify the entire Ashes Woods?”

  “The head of my mage group has been studying this.” Sui Xiong laughed. “It works quite well.”

  “That is a talented person worth cultivating!” Leonard responded. “If he could really work out a way to purify the entire Ashes Woods, he would probably get a position among the gods. There isn’t any god in charge of purification. He can work hard for it!”

  “Huh? Are you not an evil god? You never encourage others to become a god.”

  Leonard laughed. “Getting a divine position doesn’t equal becoming a god. On the contrary, possession of a divine position without becoming a god can prevent future generations from embarking down the wrong path.”

  Sui Xiong was dumbfounded for a moment and asked, “Does that work?”

  “Of course. Taking a divine position is a way to gain mastery over something. You can choose to make it public or not. But no matter what, the fact that the masters take the lead is not going to change,” said Leonard. “As long as the forerunners gain adequate mastery, there will be no hope for the late-coming ones to take their position. For example, have you ever seen the gods of machinery, gear, and construction of living beings in this world?”

  Sui Xiong shook his head after thinking.

  “That’s because the Master Evil God in the Machinery Realm had gained mastery over these things. So it has been impossible for others to grab a share. It is the same as those gods who have taken a divine position alone, just whether they make it public or not.”

  Sui Xiong suddenly realized what Leonard was saying, to which he couldn’t help showing his admiration.

  Leonard might not be the most powerful god, but he had a high standard of thinking that left many senior masters far behind.

  As for other evil gods, some were only concerned about how to stay away from social matters and enjoy a free life. There were some farseeing ones, but what they pursued the most was to become the ruler of a certain area. However, Leonard was considering taking a divine position to reduce the number of new gods. With such profound thinking, it’s no wonder that he could be so powerful in only one thousand years!

  Sui Xiong expressed his admiration and asked Leonard for suggestions on the new Republic of Northwest.

  “In my opinion, the biggest problem of the Republic is a lack of productivity,” Leonard said. “It’s true that Void City makes a good fortune every day, and that has been more than enough to support the whole country. However, a country can’t seek its development only through the support of its central cities. The local governments also have to play their roles in developing highly competitive industries to support themselves. Currently, it seems that only Gold-Panning Town has fallen behind in development. However, if compared with the standard of development of Void City, or lower the standard, with that of Pyroxene Town, all the other three towns would fail.

  “The problem is that we currently can’t find out ways of development for the three towns currently. Dragon-Roar Town’s production relies on the hunting of demon beasts. We can manage to enlarge the number of demon beasts, but we can’t find enough hunters; Rye Town is based on agriculture and commerce, both are not able to be increased greatly in a short period of time. Compared to that, it is the declining Gold-panning Town that is able to surge quickly, for it boasts enough miners and negative energy mines.”

  Sui Xiong thought about this carefully. After a while, he asked, “Then how do I solve these problems?”

  “Through amalgamation,” Leonard answered. “There is no need to keep all four towns. That’s too many. It would be better to cancel some towns and amalgamate its population to other towns. In my opinion, turn Rye Town into a fortress and give up the agriculture there. Then the unoccupied people will be arranged to live in any of the other three towns, especially Gold-Panning Town to promote the economy there. As for Dragon-Roar Town, it’s better to not place the living standard of Void City there. Leave it with its savagery and wilderness where it will be a perfect parading ground.”

  Sui Xiong froze at his answer. He thought about it for a while and asked, “Why should I turn Rye Town into a fortress? We’re in good relations with our neighbor, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins.”

  “A good relationship for now,” Leonard answered carelessly. “With the development of the Republic of Northwest, there will be more and more immigrants coming from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, and that will make your relationship worse and worse. There will be war sooner or later. There is nothing wrong with taking precautions before it’s too late.”

  Sui Xiong was more surprised at that. “Why would I fight with my ally!?”

  “An ally for now,” Leonard said. “The Goddess of Wealth is a god of belief, so she has to follow the demand of merchants. The current Void City and the whole Republic with Void City at its core have developed an independent business system, from which the country has made great profits while the merchants have just gotten a relatively small share. As time goes by, the greed of the merchants will change the attitude of Her Majesty.”

  “She is not that kind of person.”

  “It has nothing to do with what kind of person she is. A god of belief has no choice before their people’s demands.” Leonard sighed. “The God of Justice is like that. Would a weaker god like the Goddess of Wealth be different?”

  Sui Xiong remembered what Leonard had been through before and sighed deeply. This evil god had a strong prejudice.

  “Don’t worry. I will figure it out before the contradictions are intensified,” he smiled and said. “If the contradictions develop to a certain degree, it will be impossible to solve them. But I won’t let things go that far. It won’t be so easy to solve the problem caused by greed and evilness. Even if you have the power to know everything about heaven and earth, it won’t help at all. Human beings, in their nature, are all longing for safety and peace. Living has been their first desire.”

  Sui Xiong had seen this kind of question before on an online game’s bulletin board system. He had made it clear when he was sorting out data last time. So he answered immediately, “Of course there are cases where other’s demands win the desire of living, but they are rare.”

  “The soldiers and normal people lose their lives while the ruler gains his power and wealth. How do you prevent things like that?” Leonard asked.

  “Make the rulers lose their lives first,” Sui Xiong answered with a smile.

  Leonard didn’t say a word. He looked at Sui Xiong as if it was his first time looking at him.

  “You’re right! Why have I never thought about that!?” After a moment, he sighed deeply and said, “Now I’m really curious about where you will lead this unprecedented country and what achievements you will make……”