In the days that followed.
The Demon and Monster coalition wasn’t cowed by the Thunder Grenades at all—instead, their attacks on the formations grew even more frenzied.
The harder they attacked, the greater their casualties.
So, in just a few days, two million Demon and Monster soldiers were killed by Thunder Grenades, and six million more were wounded.
Even with their numbers boosted to twenty million, the Demon and Monster races still couldn’t bear the eight million casualties.
So, after three more days of fierce attacks and several million more casualties, they finally had no choice but to retreat.
Soon after,
news of the Demon and Monster retreat from all Seven Great Battlefronts spread across the world.
With the internal rebellion pacified and the Demon and Monster coalition beaten back, both the prestige of the Grand Martial Empire and the reputation of Ian Song, the Great Martial Emperor, reached their peak.
Inside the Imperial Palace.
Ian Song sat cross-legged in his secluded chamber.
Feeling the torrent of qi-luck surging back into him, Ian couldn’t help but marvel—his strength was rising so quickly that he was sure if he fought the Oblivion Martial God again, he could personally suppress him with ease.
Unfortunately, this qi-luck was granted by this world alone; once he left, he probably couldn’t take it with him.
Knowing this, Ian never let himself get lost in the growth of qi-luck, and instead focused even more on his own cultivation.
This time, the Demon and Monster races really shot themselves in the foot; after such a fiasco, they probably wouldn’t dare start another war for at least a decade. Ian decided to use that ten-year window to strengthen the empire.
Two months later.
The nationwide household registration project was completed, earning Ian another wave of qi-luck.
A year later, every city in the empire had an imperial school built. His qi-luck surged again.
By the end of that year, all the damage from the internal chaos was fully repaired.
So Ian launched his second strategic plan: compiling the Grand Martial Canon.
The chief editor was the Imperial Archmage, Tessa Heavenreach; the deputy editors were the Eastern Martial God and the Duanmu Martial God.
Half a year earlier, Darren Fang Easton and Cole Chong Duan had both refined their Godhead Crystals and advanced to the Martial God realm.
Ian officially named Darren as the Eastern Martial God, and Cole as the Duanmu Martial God. But after ascending, Cole was no longer suited to serve as a Cabinet Elder—his strength was simply too overwhelming, and in this world, people still instinctively respect raw power above all.
If Cole had stayed on as a Cabinet Elder, it could have led to an unhealthy concentration of power.
Of course, Cole himself proactively resigned from the Cabinet.
Back during the purge of the internal rebellion, Ian and his Dragon Guard killed many Martial Saints and Grandmasters, and collected a trove of high-level manuals and martial arts from their sects.
Even so, Ian still issued a new imperial edict, ordering every sect in the realm to submit at least one of their top three manuals and martial arts.
After witnessing Ian’s ruthless methods and the empire’s overwhelming strength, no sect dared defy him. In less than ten days, more than a hundred thousand manuals and techniques were delivered from all across the realm.
Ian had two goals for compiling the Grand Martial Canon: first, to create an entry-level cultivation method that anyone could master and that was still powerful; second, to ensure that all martial artists in the realm owed their roots to the empire.
This would boost the people’s sense of unity and belonging to the empire.