Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

The commander took a moment to analyze the situation and think if he was being asked something he shouldn’t answer. Of course, talking about the continent’s inner workings would be bad, but… if it were just general stuff that Alex could learn by asking even a 10-year-old kid, then he didn’t see what was wrong with that.

“Rather than what you’ve gathered, let me tell you how it is myself,” the man said.

He started speaking and Alex listened. 

The Eastern Continent was larger in size than the mainland Southern Continent but was smaller if you counted the Wasteland as well.

However, despite its size, it was clustered with a lot of spirit veins, making it one of the most Qi-dense locations in the entire world. That was how they were able to produce Saint realm cultivators that were nearly 10 times the amount of the Southern Continent.

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The Northern Continent was notorious for this especially due to the nature of the continent. Not many wanted to live in the chilling cold environment where plants refused to grow.

The Southern Continent was also similar in that the Wasteland was truly a waste due to the lack of spirit veins being used.

The Western Continent was a different sort of problem entirely.

Thanks to the great population density and enough Qi to provide for them all, the Eastern Continent had managed to far outpace the other continents in this development.

However, due to this exact same reason, the Azure Imperium alone wasn’t capable of governing the entire continent by itself and needed help from others.

Because of this, the very first Dragon Emperor divided the continent into 7 specific regions, each of which was a Vassal Kingdom ruled by its own ruler that was under the Dragon Emperor.

The 7 kingdoms were named the Ivory Kingdom, the Gold Kingdom, the Silver Kingdom, the Emerald Kingdom, the Ebony Kingdom, the Beast Paradise, and finally the Azure Kingdom.

The Azure Kingdom was where the Dragon Capital was, but it wasn’t what ruled that kingdom. The Azure Kingdom had its own king as well, a close relative of the Dragon Emperor who reported back to the Azure Imperium.

Alex had already learned about these names from Hao Ya, but going through the records that were in the Palace, he had learned that these places were previously had names such as the Lin Kingdom, or the Shu Kingdom.

To show that he truly did not know anything about the Eastern Continent, Alex asked when these places did not exist.

“The Lin Empire, huh? That was a thing when I was a kid. However… uhh… they were all executed long ago because the kingdoms decided to conspire to attack the emperor,” the man said. “Thankfully, the emperor’s spies in those kingdoms relayed the information back to the emperor, and the rebellion was purged before it even started.”

“Now, to make sure that no ruler finds in them the will to take over the empire, the kingdoms are given names that do not involve a family name. Gold, Silver, Ivory, they were all chosen by his Majesty so that even as a ruler, the Kings could not make use of their names.”

Alex was surprised. “Is that so?” he couldn’t help but genuinely ask. ‘So at some point between 5 thousand years ago and now, the Kingdoms were purged and replaced with other rulers, huh?’

He wondered why they even thought of rebelling against the Emperor. Was the emperor planning on doing something that they were against? Did they not like the idea of attacking the Western Continent?

Or did the Kings simply want to stop being Vassal kingdoms? Or perhaps the Azure Dragon had died thousands of years ago, and the kings saw an opportunity.

Many possibilities ran through Alex’s head, and he had to consciously make those conspiracies stop before focusing on the topic at hand.

“I assume the Beast Paradise did not take part? Or was it also involved, but the name was left as is because it didn’t need to be changed?” Alex asked.

“No, the Beast Paradise did not take part. Well, the Beast Paradise doesn’t really take part in anything. It’s the only kingdom in the empire that the Emperor doesn’t truly rule.”

“The Beast Paradise was created by the first Azure Dragon that visited the Eastern Continent so that the beasts could live in peace without being hunted every day. They are separate from the overall politics of the empire.”

“The only reason they even count as a Vassal kingdom is that the King of the beast there still pays taxes every decade to the Empire, as set up in the rules thousands of years ago,” the commander said

“I see,” Alex said, nodding his head. “If it’s the Beast Paradise, then does the Azure Dragon stay there?” 

Alex looked into the man’s eyes, waiting for his answers.

“No, his Majesty has his own secret realm where he lives in,” the commander said. “Although it is at the border of the Azure Kingdom and the Beast realm, just a few distances away from the Dragon Capital.”

“Oh, I wonder if I can meet him as a representative of the Phoenix ruler,” Alex said with excitement in his voice.

“Hmm, I’m not sure,” the Commander said. “His Majesty, the ruler, did say that no one was allowed inside his secret realm without permission, so it will be hard. But his Majesty can communicate with him, so you can ask him when the time comes.”

“I see,” Alex said. “I will have to request the Dragon Emperor then.”

Alex stopped himself from frowning after the small interaction. He had tried to see how the commander would react after hearing him talk about the dead dragon. He wanted to see if he would hide it, or reveal it, but to his surprise, he acted as if nothing had happened to the Dragon.

Either he was terrifyingly good at hiding his emotions, or he had absolutely no idea that the Azure Dragon was already dead.

“You’ve been in the military for quite some time then?” Alex asked. “I don’t suppose you were made the commander just because of your connections.”

“If that were true, I wouldn’t have to have worked so hard to get where I am,” the man explained. “We have to do our best to reach where we are.”

Talking a bit about himself, the man delved into the military of the Azure Imperium. 

Aside from the Scale Legion, there were 4 other legions, that were the Head Legion, the Talon Legion, the Body Legion, and the Tail Legion.

Each Legion of the army held a variable number of individuals, going anywhere from 200 to 100 thousand.

The numbers were so different because the tasks of the Legion were so different.

The Scale Legion’s task involved going outside of the empire to do what they needed to do. There were a lot of islands around the Eastern Continent, and while the Scale Legion usually hung around those islands, it also took up tasks where it went out into the ocean under the empire’s order.

The Body Legion had the most amount of soldiers in it, and its main task was keeping general peace over the continent. They were anything from city guards to merchant guards, depending on what they had to do.

The Tail Legion only had a few thousand individuals in it, and its task was to sit in reserve in case any of the other Legions required individuals to replace them for a while.

The Talon Legion was the main fighting force of the army and every one strong was involved in it. Each soldier in that Legion was a bonafide fighter, who had gone through many trials and tribulations to get where they were. These people were almost never involved in anything unless the Emperor needed to fight someone.

Finally, the Head Legion was a small group of elites that were specifically hand-picked to be around the Emperor and the royal family at all times. They were also the head of all Legions and gave orders to each legion when direct orders from Emperor were not required. 

The various kingdoms had no army or guards of their own and had to simply utilize the members of the Body Legion.

Hearing the number of soldiers alone on the Eastern Continent blew Alex’s mind. Not all of those people were Saint realm cultivators, but even then compared to his own puny army of 10 thousand soldiers, the Eastern Continent’s army was a massive threat.

The Commander continued to explain a bit more about the Legions and how they were named after the Azure Dragon, but Alex had already understood that by context alone. 

Moving on with his explanations, he talked about the various places in the Eastern Continent that he considered attractions that one had to visit at least once.

He also mentioned in passing the fact that there were at least 30 different secret realms in the Eastern Continent, of which 5 could only be accessed by Saint realm cultivators, 12 could be accessed by the True realm cultivators, and the rest were for Common realm cultivators to use.

“How are there so many of them?” Alex couldn’t help but ask in surprise.

“They were made by the first Dragon Emperor,” the Commander said. “They say that the first Dragon Emperor was a master at controlling space itself.”