Chapter 1318
The Dawn of a New Era
The Church had always been cracking down on the slave trade. However, the goblins always had excuses – because the Ancient Kingdom of Anxi had a tradition of slavery and trade.
Perhaps because it was older than the Church, or perhaps for some other reason unknown even to the goblins, the Church had always been exceptionally lenient and tolerant towards Anxi.
It was precisely because of Anxi’s existence that these profit-driven goblins had room to maneuver.
Elves are good people.
And good people always follow rules and reason.
But now, the Ancient Kingdom of Anxi has been thoroughly overthrown… Heavenly Envoys have fallen, and Pillar Gods have been replaced. An ancient tradition spanning tens of thousands of years died in an instant. Anxi has already become Wanning, and this change will not face any resistance.
The Church naturally had no objections, and all neighboring countries would surely praise it. The vast majority of Pillar Gods and Heavenly Envoys favored this change. Eivass even displayed power sufficient to slay multiple Heavenly Envoys—
One must understand that this was a trap meticulously planned and set up, woven together by over a dozen Sixth Tier Lords.
And even such a trap was useless against Eivass—if one counts these Heavenly Envoys among Eivass’s kills, he has already slain six Heavenly Envoys!
The first one could be attributed to a favorable matchup.
The second could be attributed to luck.
Then what about the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth…?
Extraordinary luck? Super luck? Ultimate invincible luck?
Now, Eivass has definitively proven that he is the world’s number one in the truest sense of the word, a terrestrial god about to ascend to divinity!
Because of this, the entire world has entered an unprecedented era of peace—those with ulterior motives would not dare to act rashly in front of Eivass.
And after the era of Anxi ended, it also meant another thing:
That is, from now on… the only country in the world that still practices slavery would be the goblins.
Of course, strictly speaking, they are not a country—because the goblins do not have a country of their own. And the trolls on the Southern Continent can hardly be called a country either… Settlements composed of multiple kinship clans, organized at the village level, can at best be considered tribes.
If this god of the mortal world dislikes slavery, then what the goblins are doing now is courting death.
Goblins are always driven by profit; they are merchants by nature. So, who is the biggest interest group now?
Naturally, it is Eivass.
Therefore, their most correct choice would be to immediately abandon the enslavement of trolls, disband their control over all plantations, and return the land of the Southern Continent to the trolls.
But the trolls and the goblins have a blood feud spanning generations—for trolls, who eat anything, goblins were once their prized chattel, no different from livestock. If other goblins are now ordered to immediately cease enslaving trolls… this would also be difficult to implement.
Although the smartest and most correct choice is immediate surrender, and although goblins are born merchants, not all goblins are intelligent. Or rather, those among them who are intelligent have certainly already joined the Goblin Merchant Guild and become middle to high-level members.
The average intelligence of goblins is not as good as humans. It is just that because they reproduce so prolifically, there is a higher probability of mutated intelligent individuals.
Take Grandet’s family as an example—during Grandet’s March Festival, which was when he had just turned three months old, he already had fourteen older brothers and twelve older sisters. Because the gestation period for goblins is only two months, and they can have one to three goblin offspring per litter, and they can reproduce year-round. To curb this outrageous reproductive efficiency, goblins even adopted monogamy after fleeing the threat of trolls.
In such a situation, a goblin family that lets its children reproduce freely can still have over ten goblin offspring annually. And in the past, even with the predation of trolls, many young goblins could survive past three months.
Goblins gain the ability to walk at three months old, and it is from this point onwards that they are weaned. Once weaned, goblins begin to develop their brains at an abnormal rate, and their bodies begin to become ugly and distorted at a visible speed, emitting an unpleasant stench, much like an uncastrated pig.
This is why trolls preferred to eat goblins within three months; during this stage, goblin meat is tender, juicy, and odorless.
Because of this, goblins celebrate the “March Festival.” As long as they survive past three months, they can generally live to adulthood.
And judging by the goblins’ attitude towards the March Festival, the goblins of today have clearly not abandoned their animosity.
In the past, when they were preyed upon by trolls, only the intelligent goblins could survive. If their brains did not develop before the third month, it would be difficult for them to remain quiet when captured and not drag their parents down. At that time, goblins had already learned how to use their most noisy and useless children as bait for traps, to retaliate against trolls or to attract attention.
So, in the era of blood feuds, goblins who survived were often intelligent.
But now, with the removal of this natural selection… a large number of goblins are actually quite stupid. After all, their brains are just slightly smaller than those of humans and elves, and in terms of pure intelligence, they might not even match the trolls who have brains but don’t use them.
To put it more simply—
The intelligent goblins within the Goblin Merchant Guild know what to do, but the vast majority of goblins either don’t know or are unwilling to give up.
Goblins ultimately have no country of their own, nor do they have a monarch or laws.
The restraining power of the Merchant Guild within itself is also clearly not great—the title “One Who Hides in a Horse’s Belly” itself is because Grandet’s family was caught up in the infighting within the Merchant Guild. His entire family was killed on Grandet’s March Festival, and only he survived hidden in a horse’s belly… the perpetrators were goblin merchants from other factions.
If the goblin merchants were willing to obey the Guild’s orders, the tragedy of Grandet’s family would have been impossible.
He realized that Eivass’s morality aligned with that of the elves, and he would inevitably dislike slavery.
—And since it was determined that those foolish goblins would absolutely not respect Grandet’s suggestion, Grandet decided to sever ties with them directly before they did something suicidal!
Thus, Grandet rushed to Eivass’s presence at this time.
Before Eivass could recall, “Oh right, speaking of which, it seems the goblins on the Southern Continent are also practicing slavery,” he preemptively presented himself in penitence, proactively pointing out the many heinous crimes of the goblins!
This was also a reminder to Eivass—Look, there are still goblins who haven’t been dealt with.
“…For this reason, great Face of Radiance, Child of the Candlemaster, Lord of Miracles.”
Grandet knelt respectfully on the ground: “For the rest of my life, I am willing to devote all my efforts to contributing to your many great deeds and miracles. I vow to eradicate all bad habits and command my blood relatives, my Merchant Guild, and my followers to walk with me. We will strictly abide by your many prohibitions, abandon all that needs to be abandoned, and forget all that needs to be forgotten… We will revere your radiance and spread your gospel.
“…I do not ask for your forgiveness for all goblins, but only for my lineage. I am powerless to change them, so I must become independent from the goblin race. From now on, we will no longer be goblins.
“—I beg you, bestow a name upon us!”
This was an unprecedented feat.
There have been those who separated from their former organizations, those who separated from their former countries… but never had anyone heard of someone separating from their own race!
Even Sherlock and Isabel were shocked by Grandet’s resolve.
“…What a smart person, Grandet.”
After a long silence, Eivass’s voice echoed: “Are you so sure I will win?”
“—No matter what the enemy is, you will ultimately achieve victory. Just as the sun will eventually rise.”
Grandet spoke with unwavering, resounding, deep, and magnetic voice—flattering Eivass.
In the face of absolute power, there are indeed the blind who cannot see the overall situation… Fortunately, intelligent people often occupy high positions.
Although there are bound to be foolish people, it may not be impossible to replace those foolish people.
“Forget about renaming yourselves… However, you are indeed still useful.”
Eivass pondered for a long time and gave his final declaration: “Give your troll employees an identity, bring them, along with the members of your Merchant Guild and your family, all to Wanning. I will give you only half a month to transfer personnel and assets—before the end of the month, I will pass judgment upon the Southern Continent.”
Admittedly, Eivass had indeed not thought of the goblins before.
The descent of the Great Abyss coupled with the founding of Wanning had been too busy…
But now that he remembered, it did indeed require management—like completing a long-postponed important side quest before entering a decisive battle from which there is no return.
Yes, just a casual task…
He couldn’t have vanquished his great enemy only to have these petty beings steal the benefits, could he?
First, clear out the restless rats—from what Grandet implied, there were some goblins who harbored ill will towards Eivass.
But perhaps because of the vast disparity, Eivass did not even feel muchkilling intent towards them.
For the current Eivass, liberating the goblins from their enslavement of the trolls was no longer a difficult matter.
He held no affection for either goblins or trolls. Some individuals among both goblins and trolls had committed wrongful acts against humans and elves—he was merely responsible for carrying out a round of retributive judgment, justly punishing all those who had committed unforgivable great sins, and abolishing the ancient contract of slavery based on the Great Abyss.
After that, let them engage in their blood feuds.
Change the terrain to seal off the island, let those with grievances seek vengeance, those with wrongs seek redress—whether one side is annihilated, they make peace, they destroy each other, or they become entrenched rivals… Since it is their own blood feud, let it not affect others, and let them fight their own battles.
And those goblins willing to enter the new era shall follow Grandet. They will defect to the Kingdom of Wanning, obey the new laws, and enter the new era. Although Eivass did not bestow a name, it was because Eivass feared that this might form some unknown influence in occult matters—in essence, they were no longer the same species as their kin.
After all, even Eivass himself did not know what he would become after August 8th.
Therefore, before that, he wanted to make up for all his regrets and do all the things he wanted to do.
For that final battle from which there was no turning back, a battle that no one would witness.
Eivass decided to leave no regrets.
(End of Chapter)
