Master Green was, and still is, the leader of the Confederation; even though he created a government and delegated most of the authority to it, in the end, he had the final word.

As for the reason he bothered creating such a complicated system of government, it is actually simple. Spiritual Masters are famous for taking things too seriously and adding unnecessary details to everything. He set up the government in a highly inefficient and nonsensical way to lead everyone into thinking he was a Spiritual Master.

Queen believers are not unpopular; if he had let anyone know he was a Queen believer, they would most likely have become very excited to have met him. He didn’t want them to know his true identity because of what he was about to do. The reputation of Queen Believers is excellent, and he is not allowed to ruin it.

Even as the leader of the Confederation, Master Green has very little actual influence over the various settlements across the continent. In times of peace, he might be able to use the insurance system to pressure them to adopt his policies, but in times of crisis, like now, they would not think of him or his insurance.

The most potent form of control is having boots on the ground; without an army that has stations all over the world, no matter how much soft influence a government gains, it would only be surface level.

Throughout history, up until modern civilizations—and even in some advanced civilizations—having military power has been key to power. Many people like to comfort themselves with the 'rule of law' or 'justice,' 'constitution,' etc., but in the end, the root of everything is raw power. Raw power is the anchor that holds the ship fixed in its place, while laws are the body of the ship that defines the boundaries. Without the anchor, the ship would be blown away with every wind.

Without power, there is no justice, no law and order, and no society. Master Green has his cultivation base in the Soul Nucleus realm, but he isn’t allowed to rely on his own power. Otherwise, with his cultivation base as the root, it would have been easy to control the Southern Continent completely.

...

"Master Green!" Mike rushed to the Department of Spiritual Affairs and knocked on the door of his office. The city was calm; obviously, they hadn’t yet learned about the beast tide.

Master Green opened the door and said, "Mike, come in!"

"There is a beast tide! They will soon reach here! I request time off to break through to Martial God as quickly as possible," said Mike.

"Mike, don’t worry; I already know! Those beasts won’t be able to do anything! You can rest at ease! I agree with your request; you have 100 years to break through. Once you come out, you will have to do a decade of free tasks for me. If it takes over 100 years, for any extra years you spend in closed-door cultivation, you have to work two years for free," said Master Green calmly.

Mike nodded; being part of the organization has benefited him a lot; after all, he wouldn't have had this many resources if it wasn't for the loan; therefore, he wasn't too dissatisfied with a decade of extra work; he didn’t want to waste a second talking about useless things, so he left and entered closed door cultivation.

...

Eryndor, the chief of North Forest City, was living a peaceful and luxurious life. With the money he got from the fat sheep, Mike, he could live the rest of his life in luxury.

Using the money, he already bought two more houses and took two more wives.

The wood elves of the Southern Continent, in general, are very libertarian. They are very different from wood elves in many other places, where they care a lot about their culture. In some places, not even death could persuade wood elves to wear clothes; for them, wearing clothes is abandoning their culture, even worse than death.

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In the Southern Continent, however, wood elves have no issue wearing clothes. It’s just that wood elves' physical body is made differently; for most ordinary wood elves, wearing clothes is akin to a human wearing metal armor. It would restrict their senses, restrict their flexibility, and make them very itchy.

Of course, there may be many clothes made with high-quality materials where wearing them wouldn’t cause any of the problems mentioned, but those are most likely very expensive. In any event, in wood elf settlements, nobody cares about nudity, so there is no reason to spend money on fancy clothing. Some rich wood elves may have a set for when they travel to the capital, but most don’t even bother thinking about it.

The culture regarding marriage among the wood elves of this continent is just as libertarian; as long as all parties consent, nobody cares. If a rich female wood elf, for some reason, wants to take 100 husbands, it has nothing to do with anyone. Therefore, when Eryndor took two more wives, nobody even talked about it; it was natural.

The village chief had money, while the two women who married him wanted money; it was a standard transaction.

His first wife, though, was different; she was outraged. But Eryndor persuaded her by gifting her a few houses and a lot of money.

He has over a billion RM in his bank account, so he is not at risk of running out of money any time soon. Although, with the worrying rate he is spending, it wouldn’t be surprising if he ran out in a few years.

Some people just don’t know how to spend money. Even if they win the whole world, they would go on a spending spree as if there is no tomorrow and would run out and even go into debt after a short time.

...

"Roar!" A loud roar came from not very far away.

"What’s going on? A beast?" Eryndor woke up and looked out of the window.

What he saw under the tree horrified him. His house was atop a tree twenty meters high, yet the monster was so tall and massive that he actually had to look up to see its head. It was at least 50 meters tall!

"The monster… at least rank 6!" His breath almost stopped. There was an innate realm martial artist in the village, but in front of a rank 6 beast, she could not do anything.

"No, it’s coming this way!" Eryndor's face paled, and he immediately went back to the bedroom. The three female wood elves on the bed were already awake.

"Beast invasion! Let’s run away quickly!" Eryndor said.

The three quickly took a look outside, and after being as terrified as Eryndor, all followed behind him. After less than a minute, they climbed down the tree and started running to the underground secret passage of the village; it was made for emergencies.

But before they reach there…

"Another one!" Eryndor's blood went cold. Two beasts, both looking at least rank 6!

The rank 6 beast in front of him took a glance at him and opened its mouth.

"Run, run!" he shouted.

The beast, however, was far faster than expected. Its head reached Eryndor nearly instantaneously, opened its mouth, and swallowed him. There should be no chance of survival after being swallowed by a rank 6 beast.

The three women saw this and didn’t wait at all. They all ran toward the shelter without care for Eryndor; in any case, they had no way to do anything to save him.

People have different reactions to crises; some may freeze, some may try to save others, while most would just run away. Most of the time, the ones who run the fastest have the highest chance of survival. Fortunately for these women, they reached the basement without any trouble.

...

Elandria is the leader of the largest wood elf settlement in the whole Southern Continent. Her tribe has over one million wood elves and spans a wide area. Despite having so many people to feed, they remain faithful to the spirit of wood elves and live on top of trees, consuming only green food, and, of course, don't wear any clothes.

The tribe has a disaster insurance contract with the capital, and other insurance services are also available to tribe members. As a large tribe, they have many martial artists; there are two Martial Gods, plus 19 Martial Saints.

Wood elves have a very long lifespan, and along with the increase in lifespan that comes from the martial arts realm, the total lifespan of a Martial Saint is tens of thousands of years. They are ancient beings with immense experience who are the real decision-makers of the tribe.

Elandria is one of the two Martial God practitioners; she is around 25,000 years old. Yet, despite being so old, her appearance is still young; wood elves only start aging when they enter the last 20% of their life. She is still far from that point.

"Beast tide! It’s back!" Elandria shuddered as she thought of 20,000 years ago. Back then, she was very young, only 5,000 years old, and only as strong as an early-stage Martial Saint. She and her tribe went through all kinds of disasters. Like today, it started with a beast tide, followed by a zombie disaster, a dark disaster, a demonic disaster, and a parasitic disaster. It was so horrific that even powerful Martial Gods died.

Fortunately, after the parasitic disease, things got better. After thousands of years, they recovered.

But it happened again; the beast tide is back!