But the fact of the matter remained, the Earthloch clan might be their “Collective” now, but their primary sources of legitimacy and types of governance could not be any different.

The Collective in their past life was a coalition of social and liberal democracies. They held values of universal social rights and liberalism at a religion-like pedestal. The prevailing zeitgeist rejected all types of the ‘unequal equity’ dogmas of oligarchies and autocracies, and all forms ‘either slash or’ polarizing interpretation of capitalism versus communism.

In other words, it was the absolute worst kind of self-righteous, yet somehow the most citizen-friendly government of the thirty-first century. At least according to Elrhain, a former citizen of the said self-righteous nation. He would never admit that the Evidents, another super country based on Technocratic Demarchy, was 2 points higher than the Collective in the official human rights and happiness index.

The Earthloch clan and the whole of Uorys diosca on the other hand was a tribal mixture of totalitarian dictatorship and monarchic kraterocracy.

The creed was, ‘Might maketh right’.

Earthloch had servants. A little more than puffed up slaves.

Theirs was not a system that one or two technological breakthroughs could change. It would need a whole ideological shift backed by an absolute power that was cultivators. Uprisings, revolutions, whether peaceful or not didn’t matter. Neither did it matter that the revolutions were gradual or sudden. What mattered was if the resultant change was unavoidable as what was brought about by the collapse on that night of the blessings.

If Elrhain and Agwyn wanted the Earthloch clan to really be their new Collective, many root practices and common sense of their family, friends, and subjects would have to be overhauled from the ground up.

At least on Earth there was fairness in death, even after life-extending genetic modifications became common. A bullet to the head would kill the lowest level employee and the Chairman of the Corporates all the same.

Here, there was manna and magic. Cultivation techniques each so different in efficacy from the other that while one could only give people the power of an above-average polar bear, another could turn an anorexic, weak-minded dhionne into Behemoth-class Assault Mechanoids meant to fight navy fleets alone.

What was Elrhain going to do? Walk up to the three leaders and demand they equally hand over superior cultivation techniques and manna-rich resources among all their servants? Ask the nobles to remove servant sigils while believing that the folks they had been ruling with iron fists for generations wouldn’t have funny ideas regarding, well, everything?

Elrhain might be self-righteous, but he wasn’t naïve.

「I bet most of the resources from this collapse too will end up in main house coffers. The lesser nobles will get our dregs, while the servants get theirs. 」said Agwyn.

Elrhain nodded.

Thundham was a progressive mind. The old man showed with his action and words that he understood the positive points of empowering the people and not funnelling every iota of opportunity to the nobles. Before his generation, the Earthlochian clan was where nothing but the strongest fist mattered.

He had shifted at least some of the spotlight away from an unending pursuit of pure magical might at any cost towards a more compassion-centric path throughout his rule as first the Chieftain and then the Grand Elder. It was no longer a given that servants starve and die for their masters.

Most nobles directly under the main house and many more under the eight loch Palaikts slowly but surely were grasping concepts similar to Earth’s Noblesse Oblige. The master family was responsible for their charges and not the other way around.

But even he would never, not with a sane mind, agree to follow a path similar to the Collective. Not without an undeniable proof of concept.

「The current Earthloch Siorrakty’s main house can go toe to toe with all the other lesser noble houses of the north combined and win. We have three sky realmers and a Beyonder, our great grand-uncle who is out travelling. Most adults of the main house are Oceanic realmers at the lowest, Elder Croneira being an outlier. But her mastery over healing magic far outstrips most Oceanic realm mages and shamans of lesser noble houses.

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Ysbail’s mother, Aunt Meredith, one of the weakest Oceanic realmers of the main house, once fought the strongest of the Eight loch Palaikt, Palaikt Blethen, to a standstill while being a full circle weaker in cultivation. Though the bout wasn’t life or death, aunt Meredith being the only person present who could tame the rampaging hooligan, the power dynamic was clear for all to see.

Only with absolute might like this can we be kings and queens. Loyalty and servitude to the main house are engraved upon our servants' very souls and flesh with slave-like sigils. That is the same for lesser nobles and clan freemen too, branded with a different, less restrictive manner of sigils than servants. 」Agwyn chirped, then yawned while rubbing her eyes.

She continued, 「People will only listen to us because of our status. The strength of our family ensures that status. That’s why Reanakt Saphur and everyone else asked for permission before using something so simple as a fishing pole. Distributing that source of that strength and status with impunity is the same as slowly strangling the main house to death. Well… I hate to admit it, but the only way we can bring the societal change we envision is to become stronger ourselves.」

Agwyn stopped, then rubbed Elrhain’s cheeks with her’s.

「Don’t pout and don’t apologize. Being bad at cultivation isn’t your fault, and we have to wait until we are ten cycles old to break through to the Earthen realm either way. 」

Elrhain knew Agwyn was right, but it didn’t make him feel any better. The outside world wanted them both gone because of the incremental technological improvement they might bring to the ‘brutish barbarians’ of Earthloch. While the brutish barbarians of Earthloch themselves were the farthest away from the more pressing societal improvement Elrhain first and foremost wanted to bring.

At the end of the day, it all came back to cultivation. It was a catch-22. He wanted to change Earthloch into a fairer society, where the collective strength of the people would overtake the current strength of the few by orders of magnitude. But to do that, he needed to become one of the strongest few himself.

The oral rehydration solution and the fishing pole they ‘invented’ were, in fact, Elrhain testing the waters. Though in the first case, they really didn’t have much choice.

How would these easily applicable innovations change Earthloch? How fast would these changes come, and how many objections would they face?

The test was a success, in a sense. Because they solved pressing issues the clan faced right now, there weren’t any objections to speak of. Elrhain could invent simple solutions to simpler problems and distribute them to the people. Wheels, cement, sharper swords and pointier spears. The nobles would distribute them among the servant populace.

But therein lie the problem. The nobles let the servants use such mundane tools with ease of mind while greedily hoarding the better-quality cultivation resources.

Take the fishing pole. After its usage spread among the mortals like wildfire, one unexpected change occurred that Elrhain didn’t foresee. The noble families tightened their grasp on Earthen and up manna-rich resources even more.

Since now the servants could catch their own manna poor gheists which were more than enough to fill their bellies and fuel their cultivation, they wouldn’t need their usual quota of Earthen gheist meat anymore, no?

That’s what they thought. Before, most of the catch from the hunt and delve teams went to nobles, and the dregs went to servants.

Now, all of such catch went to nobles.

Yes, mortals could benefit more from the mortal realm catch from the lakes. It stopped starvation and aided their cultivation. Also yes, not all nobles were like this. For example, the Haragols.

Yet most were.

This was a new boon granted by new technology. Why did the mortals have to be deprived of a boon they already enjoyed before?

It was as if many nobles consciously or subconsciously realized a threat of the Sword of Damocles. Not to mention, just as how Reanakt Saphur had to ask the main house for permission to use the fishing pole, the servants had to do the same with their respective master houses.

This repressive mentality of the nobles, the main house included, pissed Elrhain off to no end. Agwyn had to soothe him with kisses and hugs.

Elrhain realized that practical frameworks like the fishing pole would not fundamentally change the power dynamic and common sense of Earthlochian society. Indeed, it’ll make the poor slightly richer. Which was enough so that a fishing pole was a life-saving grace to them. But the same thing made nobles exponentially wealthier, ironically taking away existing wealth from the poor.

But as for ideological change, starting with the free dissemination of knowledge was a different matter altogether. Let alone freedom of expression.

A library full of cultivation techniques that any dhionne could access regardless of status, a source of manna-rich resources and ichors that were not owned by the noble houses, and places of trade and governance not controlled by the current rulers?

Well, for now, all Elrhain could do was dream.

「You already said ‘slowly, steadily, we can make it better.’ You aren’t getting cold feet just because the slow and steady is even slower than what you imagined, are you?」 Agwyn giggled at Elrhain’s glare.

This catch-22 wasn’t really unsolvable. It would just take a ridiculous amount of time. Time they had, being born dhionne who lived ten times longer than humans. More so because they were cultivators.

The problem wasn’t that. It was Elrhain’s mental sanity.