My Weekly Refreshing Mentor Spirit

"Tell me about your former Empire." Xue Dili said, gazing into the distant world, as if the world had been frozen in time.

No vegetation, only a mass of crooked and withered branches standing on the land, reaching for the sky, creating a desolate winter desert.

Only the Undead were wandering on the land, aimless, as if still immersed in the fall of their homeland, yet seemingly holding onto their scarce obsessions.

On the other side was a vibrant area with dense vegetation, but it was filled with crooked buildings and divisions; even now the humans here are still fighting among themselves.

"My former Empire? There’s not much to say, I once told you that due to my incompetence, many of my Empire’s policies were unsuitable for this world, and even unsustainable. For instance, I prohibited marriage within the same race, only allowing marriages between different races..."

The Old Demon Emperor smoked heavily, perhaps only nicotine could calm him down, allowing him to recount past stories with a tone of regret.

"Looking back now, it’s a damned foolish policy. It’s impressive that they tolerated me for 14 years before overthrowing me..." He joked, as he finished another cigarette and asked Xue Dili for a third one.

"I once told you, my world was a hundred races, unlike your world where the biggest difference was just skin color. Here, the smallest were dwarves at one point two meters tall, while the Demon Race was generally over three meters tall."

"Furthermore, the Demon Race appeared terrifying with scales and exoskeletons, while the tree spirits were the closest to your Venerable King human aesthetic... The racial differences in my world were like the differences between humans and dogs in your world."

"Back then I managed to unite these strange creatures with sheer power, even forced interspecies marriages to succeed. What surprised me most is that in this era, racial separations have mostly disappeared..."

The Old Demon Emperor spoke with a half-smile, surrounded by smoke, unsure if he was lamenting or ridiculing his past policies, as if they were the whimsical ideas of a failed art student.

Xue Dili: "..."

"So have they become a unified race now?" Xue Dili asked.

"You could say so, because this generation was born during the boom of my Empire, while most of the previous generations had either died of old age or were exhausted early on, living half-dead. Now, these people, were born after my interspecies marriage policy..."

"There’s no longer barriers between races, most people have mixed bloodlines from at least two races. We used to categorize by race, now they’re all mixed together..."

"Oh and, because I confiscated and burned all unique cultural customs from different races, since the elders’ traditions were detrimental to governance and served no reference, once the cultural soil was removed, only what I taught them remained, naturally mixing them all together." The Old Demon Emperor began musing to himself.

Xue Dili: "..."

He couldn’t judge the recklessness of the Old Demon Emperor’s past actions, but the uprising was understandable; the Old Demon Emperor did disgraceful deeds back then, akin to Yang Guang from the Sui Dynasty.

The Old Demon Emperor was absurdly more extreme than Yang Guang, carrying out policies that required several generations to see effects, yet severely harmed the present population, overly ambitious to his detriment.

What the Old Demon Emperor did was even more outrageous than Yang Guang, managing to last 14 years; it shows his overwhelming power crushed all opposition, leaving others with no choice.

Even a little less oppression, Xue Dili guessed the other races wouldn’t tolerate the situation.

Yet now, seeing his past policies actually have a significant impact in the future, with the world no longer divided by race but by class, he was unsure whether to laugh or cry.

Without the Undead, perhaps the world would remain in perpetual war like the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era, eventually achieving unity, but who knows how many years from now, leaving how many survivors.

After all, survivors of this world are adept at "being human," even those in small settlements have resorted to eating people...

It’s reportedly said that in major cities, "human" has become a dish openly served.

On another note, the current situation of the world, especially between the living and dead, is surprisingly better than imagined.

Now, the Undead occupy only one-third of the continent, because the number of lower-class people is of no use to those controlling the violent major cities.

Due to the efficiency of magic, mages control Techniques that far exceed their level in destructive power, even ordinary people can exploit Life Force to enhance strength.