After testing his combat capacities, Jack became even more certain that once he reached the peak of perfection, his personal strength would be enough to crush other cultivators of the same realm.
With this done, Jack scrolled through side missions and looked through a few.
"Invent a revolutionary device that can improve the lives of mortals(of this continent) – reward: 200 points, difficulty: F."
"Set up a stable mortal government(for this continent)– reward: 200 points, difficulty: F."
"Create a mortal city from scratch – reward: 200 points, difficulty: F."
There were hundreds of such easy side missions. Even though they didn’t pay well, there were lots of them, so Jack decided to complete these easy missions before turning to more complex ones.
...
The current system of governance for mortals is simple: absolute rule by the Brown Dynasty and their associates, including side branches and distant relatives. This system gave mortals no chance of being involved in their governance. Their standard of living depended solely on their lords.
Most immortal lords didn’t care about how the mortals in their territory lived; they just outsourced mortal governance to mortal lords and didn’t even think about it. As long as mortal lords delivered, they remained in power. If they failed, immortal lords would replace them with another.
Over the years, several corporations have specialized in mortal governance. They have become experts in squeezing mortals most efficiently.
Technically, the immortal lords only require one thing: talented youth. As long as mortal lords hand over enough talented youth, they can keep their power; these corporations plotted against each other, fighting behind the scenes, sabotaging each other's operations, basically everything possible to win mortal lord positions.
However, corporations on this continent, as in all worlds, were greedy. They also used their mortals under their rule for forbidden experiments relating to souls and blood dao. In any case, untalented mortals would die in at most 100 years, so there was no drawback to using them for experiments that could help advance immortal arts; indeed, in their perspective, it was 'cutting waste' and 'increasing efficiency'. Corporations don't consider human suffering, morals, good or bad, as drawbacks; they only care about profits.
Those ruled by corporations as their mortal lords had the worst lives. They were treated far worse than farm animals. Only a few talented people were sent to the Brown Dynasty and the four great sects.
There were quite a few cultivators who were fiercely trying to improve mortals' lives. After all, they were once one of them. Unfortunately, the higher-ups are the only ones who can change these things. According to treaties and long-standing traditions, regional immortal lords are the sole authority regarding mortals living in their territory. No matter how many mid-level cultivators want to change things, they would have no chance.
Not to mention that even among the cultivators who rose from mortal families, only a few even think about their childhood. Most only focus on cultivation and don’t care about their families. It's more accurate to say that if they think about their families, they wouldn’t be able to become mid-level cultivators in the first place. Only those with very focused minds can remain in one place and cultivate for years. Cultivation requires two kinds of talent: first is a talented body, which can absorb energy efficiently, and the other is a robust mind that can tolerate loneliness for hundreds of years, meditating for thousands of years, etc.
As always, immortal cultivation is just too skewed against goodness; good people rarely ever reach mid-level cultivator, let alone high level.
That being said, not all immortal lords are evil. Some are compassionate enough not to allow corporations to take over governance. Mortals living under these immortal lords have it best. They may not be rich, but at least they aren't tortured and squeezed to death. Unfortunately for mortals of this continent, compassionate immortals are in the absolute minority.
Jack didn’t care about any of this, but he sent down a few orders because of the system side mission. For him, changing the mortal governance system was a matter of a few words. There are quite a few tasks about improving mortals' lives, and he may be able to complete a few tasks with just a few words, so why not?
...
"My lord," Master Stormy bowed deeply in front of Jack, who was millions of years younger than her. Of course, that was what she thought; in reality, Jack is countless times older than her.
"Master Stormy, I have a few orders about mortal governance; listen carefully!" Jack cleared his throat. As a cultivator, his throat was smooth, with no impurity. Even in his childhood, as a demon, he never had to cough; still, he has picked up these habits from humans around him.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Master Stormy was surprised; why does someone with a perfection realm puppet under him care about mortal governance? As a cultivator of the soul transformation realm, Master Stormy never once in the last million years even thought about mortals. In her view, they were like the air, grass, the pebbles on the ground, ants, flies, bugs, etc.; who would bother thinking about them?
Jack said, "From today forward, all mortal governance corporations will be abolished. Divide the mortal lands into districts of equal population and allow them to choose their governors and representatives from amongst themselves. The governors shall have power over mortal affairs. Set up a mortal parliament also with jurisdiction over mortal affairs. Set up a mortal court with jurisdiction over crimes committed by mortals or against the mortals, and set up other courts as needed," Jack ordered.
"My lord, this …" Master Stormy wanted to protest but remembering Jack's perfection realm puppet, she changed her words. "Yes, my lord, just let me ask for a few clarifications. Does the mortal court have the power to issue orders against immortal cultivators?" she asked the most critical piece regarding Jack's order.
"The mortal court shall have the power to issue binding orders to cultivators and mortals alike. Are you clear now? Go and implement it just as I said," Jack said.
"Yes, my lord!" Master Stormy bowed and left.
...
The drastic change in the structure of the Brown Dynasty provoked many protests, especially from immortal lords, whose power was drastically limited, and from mortal governance corporations, who were ordered to disband completely.
But in the face of absolute power, no amount of protest could achieve anything.
When it was announced that Lord Jack was the one who gave the order, they could only sigh and wonder what caused Master Jack to order such a thing. After a few weeks, everyone just accepted the fact and started working toward implementing the order.
The continent was split into 10,000 similarly populated districts, and the first elections were scheduled to be held in one year.
Jack's orders were ambiguous. For example, he didn’t specify who could run for office, what are the qualifications, etc. Master Stormy, the person responsible for implementing the order, filled these ambiguities. She didn’t want to risk angering Jack, so she didn’t take any risks and faithfully implemented the most reasonable interpretation of Jack's orders. For example, Jack didn’t limit who could run for office, so she interpreted Jack's words: 'allow them to choose their governors from amongst themselves' to mean that anyone can run for any office without limitations.
There were a lot of ambiguities over the power of mortal governors and mortal parliament. Jack only said they have power over 'mortal affairs.' As for what these 'mortal affairs' were, these were left unclear. Master Stormy didn’t dare request a meeting with Jack over unimportant things, so she filled these ambiguities to the best of her abilities. She interpreted 'mortal affairs' as anything that isn’t directly related to cultivators. For example, the mortal parliament can regulate a mortal iron mine but not an immortal one.
To clear the ambiguities that would appear in the future, she also set up another court, which she named the Court of Interpretations. It was given the authority to clarify laws, orders, regulations, and any other law regarding mortals. After all, Master Stormy didn’t want to be forever bothered with interpreting mortal laws.
The election was held, but the turnout was abysmal; only 10% participated. After all, most of these people were basically slaves a year earlier; the immortals were too distant, and there were many conspiracy theories that scared people away from voting. One was the most outrageous, which theorized that the election was a trap and anyone who voted would be killed as a traitor to mortal lords.
In any case, Jack's orders had no lower limit on the number of people who must vote for the elections to be valid. Master Stormy recognized those who won the election as mortal governors and members of parliament.
She set up the parliament building in the capital and gave all MPs teleportation seals, allowing them to teleport directly from their districts to the parliament and from the parliament to their districts.
The building was massive and designed to house 100,000 people, so with only 10,000 MPs in, it was quite empty. Master Stormy set it up this big because, naturally, MPs would have other subordinates in the future.
The 'mortal court' was also set up in the capital. This court was important because Jack specifically gave it the authority to issue orders against cultivators. Jack didn’t give even the slightest clarification about the court's membership. Master Stormy wanted to interpret Jack's orders in good faith, so she interpreted them in their best reading without regard for consequences. She believed the membership was left to the mortal parliament to decide on because Jack gave no guidance to the contrary.
The Court of Interpretations was also set up in the capital. As this court was created by Master Stormy, she didn’t let its composition be decided by the mortal parliament. Instead, she appointed the members herself. She stipulated that any future vacancy must also be filled with the approval of one of the Supreme Elders of the Brown Dynasty or Jack.
In effect, the mortal court was the highest criminal court, while the Court of Interpretations was the highest civil court.
But it wasn’t that straightforward.
The criminal court had the power to issue binding orders to cultivators and mortals, while the court of interpretations had no power over immortals.
Mortal court's powers came directly from Jack's mouth. His sentence was so open-ended, leaving many questions unanswered.
Jack gave the mortal court the power to issue binding orders to cultivators and mortals alike, with no limits; it was extremely prone to abuse. Still, it was Jack's order, so Master Stormy didn’t fill out those ambiguities; in her view, she had no authority to limit the court's power. She only hoped the mortal court wouldn’t misuse that extremely broad mandate.
Because of Jack's words, the mortal court had much more power than the Court of Interpretations.
The mortals' parliament appointed 13 judges to the mortal court, selected a prime minister, and started passing laws.
Like that, Jack's side mission was completed.