Chapter 837: Hot Pot Round Table Conference

The two elders, the ministers of the six departments, and Hong Wu, the General-in-Chief Who Supports the Nation wondered what had happened when they arrived.

After all, the empress rarely convened everyone at this hour.

When they realized that it was about the chamber found under the palace, everyone got even more confused.

They knew that her quarters had collapsed.

They also knew that it had collapsed when she was consummating her marriage…

They knew that something had been discovered under the quarters as well.

After all, the empress didn’t order anyone to keep their lips sealed about this. She wished to let everyone know that the palace had collapsed because there was a structure below and that she had nothing to with it.

What was this thing under the palace? What was it that made her mobilize so many people?

Back when they walked out from the illusion, everyone seemed a little distracted.

Its impact on them was too great.

At this time, they no longer had any doubts about the things that the empress had told them previously.

They were more worried about the hidden enemies of the human race.

Nobody was saying things like, “Since the human race has been thriving here for so many years, as long as we continue to stay this way, we will not attract backlash from those unknown races.”

The aboriginals had always been the type of people who were unshakeable.

If they knew that there were enemies ahead, they would naturally charge forward to kill. This was their way of doing things.

Besides, so many of them were at the Cardinal Heaven level. Was there any one of them who wasn’t talented? It was extremely shocking for them to discover a whole new world, which later gave rise to their grand ambitions!

There was nobody who didn’t yearn for such a magnificent world.

The only thing that they were having doubts about was that their enemies were too strong this time around.

In that illusion, the most ordinary soldiers were Kismet Heaven experts and Cardinal Heaven experts were as elite as the winged cavalry was to the current aboriginals.

On that terrifying battlefield, there was no telling how many of their enemies were stronger than the Cardinal Heaven level.

As for the expert who was able to conjure that huge fireball, they weren’t sure if he was at the pinnacle of the Longevity Heaven level or if he was even stronger than that.

All in all, over the last 10,000 years, the current human race hadn’t gotten stronger due to their prosperity and had in fact gotten much weaker.

“Dear Sirs, Her Majesty invites you to Zichen Palace Hall for dinner,” Xin Zhe said after waiting for everyone to arrive.

“Please lead the way, Commander.”

Zichen Palace Hall didn’t have the usual single or double tables that were used to hold formal banquets. All they saw was a table fitted with a large pot of boiling water. There were some ingredients floating inside the pot.

There were plates of meat, vegetables, and fruit placed around the pot. There was also a delicacy from Earth: pickled vegetables.

“Take a seat. Let’s have dinner first.” The empress held a plate and a pair of chopsticks in her hand.

Everyone looked at each other.

Even though Ren Baqian often ate hot pot with her, she basically wouldn’t let anyone else in the palace try it. Even the occasional banquets were all held formally, so no one had ever eaten such things before.

“Have a seat. It’s easier to talk that way!” the empress added when she noticed everyone staring blankly.

Ren Baqian wasn’t bothered by them. He threw two plates of meat into the pot and kickstarted the meal.

It was mainly due to the pressure of eating with a table of Cardinal Heaven experts. If he didn’t act first, he would probably have no food left to eat.

Everyone sat down and followed what Ren Baqian and the empress did, fishing things out of the pot to eat. They were a little shy at first, but soon after, even the doddering Shi Qing was moving his hands as fast as a magician who had been practicing his craft for 60 years.

He picked up a piece of rib and smiled at everyone, his face looking like a blossoming chrysanthemum.

One could tell from his face that he was trying to say, “I’m old and you have to give in to me. Don’t fight with me over food.”

“Great Elder, please help yourself.” Everyone smiled back at him.

Shi Qing then nodded in satisfaction. Just as he picked up that piece of rib with his chopsticks, another pair of chopsticks swooped in from the side and snatched it away from him.

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“Thank you, Great Elder.” Ren Baqian had a grateful expression on his face. He was thankful that Shi Qing was at the table. Although he was the Great Elder, he wasn’t that strong and was just about as strong as Ren Baqisn.

This meant that Ren Baqian would still be able to snatch some food from him.

Apart from this, he didn’t even have the opportunity to pick up any food from the table.

Once everyone filled themselves up a little, the empress asked, “After seeing that illusion, what thoughts do you have?”

“I have already heard it from you guys downstairs. This is what Her Majesty mentioned before, right? The human race got chased over here and there is a whole other world on the other side of the Sixty Thousand Mountains,” Hong Wu said as he placed his chopsticks down.

He then smiled and continued, “I originally thought that I would be able to lead a more peaceful life now that we have conquered the Yun Nation and Great Xia can’t even handle themselves properly. Currently, with this new objective, I feel a fervor rising in my blood again.

I propose to be transferred to the Sixty Thousand Mountains to stand guard at the border station and to pave a road there as well. At the same time, I can also try out those foreign races and see if they are truly that strong!”

“Without a doubt, the few that we met in the mountains were equivalent to Cardinal Heaven experts,” Ren Baqian said as he ate. “From the illusion that we saw, the foreign races are definitely stronger than we are.

From what I gathered from that herder, this place was considered the wilderness. There must be a reason why they chased the human race over here.

For so many years, the Spirit Wheel and Cardinal Heaven levels have been the pinnacle. There’s practically nobody who exceeds these levels, and this explains it.”

Tu Wan asked, “What’s the reason? I find it surprising as well. In the illusion, the humans were obviously not weak. There were also plenty of Cardinal Heaven and Spirit Wheel experts.”

“Probably a lack of something. It might be spiritual influence, vital energy of the world, or something else. Something must be lacking here. As such, after so many years, the human population has been multiplying from tens of thousands to millions, yet the level of strength has only been declining and not advancing,” Ren Baqian explained without hesitating.

“Also, don’t think that they have forgotten about us. They have deployed people in the Sixty Thousand Mountains to monitor us. Those herders are in charge of that.”

Most of them put down their chopsticks after hearing what he said.

“After so many years, the human race has gotten weaker while the foreign races have been recuperating. They are getting stronger while we grow weaker. How are we going to match up to them?” These aboriginal elders finally understood how it felt to be overpowered.

In the past, they used to overpower other nations and crush them.

At present, they were rendered powerless and were getting crushed.

Talking about numbers, there was no telling how many foreign races there were in total.

Talking about strength, the aboriginals were in no way comparable to them.

As time passed, the difference in strength gradually widened.

“Did they also attack each other back then?” Qin Chuan asked all of a sudden.

“It might be possible, but still, we can’t expect them to be weaker than us after so many years. It’s just like a war between two nations. We can’t possibly expect a sudden outbreak of civil strife in their country that results in them killing themselves, right?”

“It’s not impossible.” Qin Chuan laughed. “Isn’t Great Xia almost killing itself?”

“As long as we don’t return to that world, we can’t return to how grand we were back then. However, if we go back there, the other races will still be watching us closely. We can’t even maintain our footing there. This situation is really difficult! Zhao Prince Consort, I’m afraid that we will need to rely on your strange tools again.” Shi Qing smiled at Ren Baqian.

“We really need to develop technology. Weapons… In fact, I actually don’t want to develop weapons as it will only increase the inferiority of the aboriginals. However, under such circumstances, we have to do it.” Ren Baqian nodded.

He felt that no matter how strong the enemies were, as long as they were gathered together, launching ten nuclear warheads at them would definitely wipe them out.

If ten wasn’t enough, he would launch ten more.

There was nothing that nuclear warheads couldn’t destroy.

If there was, then the warheads probably weren’t powerful enough or were lacking in quantity.

“However, there are two problems. First, we have to develop science and technology. This requires an upgrade to the next level of all the technologies in society. Plus, the commoners’ understanding of technology must be boosted. These are the fundamentals. It’s impossible for us to build a spaceship while the entire nation remains at a primitive stage.

Every aspect of technology is interrelated and mutually reinforcing.

We must immediately start improving everyone’s educational level.

Education for all is imperative.”

Ren Baqian and the empress looked at each other because she didn’t expect this issue to be raised so quickly. In a world where productivity hadn’t satisfied all the commoners’ needs, it would be extremely difficult and advanced to achieve that.

There was another point that was even more difficult to achieve!

“Next would be having experts! Weapons might not be able to totally destroy our enemies. Especially when they launch a surprise attack on us, we might not even have the opportunity to use our weapons. We must have the same level of strength to be able to control each other.

This is probably more difficult than making the Big Ivan. After all, with the popularization of technology and culture, technology will always improve. Even if it takes decades or 100 years, we will be able to achieve our goal one day.

As for experts… We simply can’t nurture strong enough experts that are able to match up to our enemies over time, especially when we have been exiled to this place. We may never be able to produce an expert who can compete with them!”

As long as the empress wasn’t directly in the epicenter of a nuclear explosion, an expert like her would very likely be able to make it out alive. Needless to say, for experts who were even stronger than her, if the nuclear warhead didn’t drop directly on their heads, they would probably be able to run out of the blast radius. Not to even mention transportation, launching, or even detonation, the enemy would have the ability to stop any operation.