Inside the imperial palace, Quinn Shepherd and Lynn Ling summoned Jaden Jadehall, Dao Lord Lucas Lin, Warren Moran, Serena Yunxiang, and others—many of whom were once members of the Heaven Alliance. All were young, and together they discussed how Everpeace should operate in the aftermath of this upheaval.
When the Heaven Alliance was first founded, there were only four members: Quinn Shepherd, Lucas Lin, Warren Moran, and Victor Bloom.
Later, while Quinn and the others were roasting fish at the Imperial Academy, Lynn Ling, Serena Yunxiang, Lina the Spirit Fox, Brother Brightheart, Cindy Mu, Ronnie Long, and the Demon Ape Battle-Void all joined. Eventually, Quinn even brought the Demon Ape Battle-Void into the Heaven Alliance.
—As for Lina the Spirit Fox, she just liked the excitement and joined the Heaven Alliance for fun. She never took it seriously, and neither did Quinn or the others.
At the time, Star Khan and Emperor Evan were also present, but they looked down on the Heaven Alliance Quinn and the others had formed, and did not join.
At this palace gathering, Victor Bloom, Lina the Spirit Fox, Brother Brightheart, and the Demon Ape Battle-Void were absent, but Jaden Jadehall was now present.
Jaden Jadehall said, “The new Heaven‑Chart Sky Diagram is truly vast and extremely difficult to forge. Even with Heavenly Court Dao Gate working on it, it will take thirty to fifty years to complete. And since Azurecloud Heaven is the designer, I can naturally hide some tricks in its structure. Although the new Heaven‑Chart is dangerous, it’s not without hope. The most difficult problem right now is those eight clauses in the Heavenly Court’s imperial edict.”
Lynn Ling said, “Actually, there are only seven. My father and Grand Preceptor Jiang have been imprisoned in the Great Prison, so for now we don’t need to consider them. Let’s focus on the first seven clauses and come up with countermeasures. Should Everpeace stop reform here, or continue? If we continue, how do we break through these seven?”
Jaden Jadehall looked at Quinn. Quinn Shepherd said, “Of course we have to keep going. If we don’t, just the annual imperial sacrifice alone will be enough to destroy the very foundations of Everpeace.”
The others were confused.
Jaden Jadehall explained, “The powerful demigods in Heavenly Court feed on blood. Each year, the emperor’s sacrifice to Heaven uses boys and girls as offerings. Offering children as blood-food to Heavenly Court is enough to break the people’s spirit—they won’t dare resent Heaven, but will only blame Everpeace.”
“That’s far too vicious.”
Warren Moran frowned. “Just this one clause alone is enough to destroy Everpeace.”
Lynn Ling said, “That’s why we need a countermeasure. Heavenly Court wants to take away Everpeace’s minting rights—Serena Yunxiang, how do we break this?”
Serena Yunxiang thought for a moment and smiled. “So, will Heavenly Court’s currency circulate only within Everpeace, or across the entire Earth‑Mother Origin World?”
Quinn Shepherd said, “Heavenly Court won’t create a special currency just for Everpeace. Now that Heavenly Court rules the Earth‑Mother Origin World, naturally all powers will use a single currency.”
Serena Yunxiang clapped and laughed. “If Heavenly Court designed a currency just for Everpeace and controlled minting rights, the economy would collapse and Everpeace would be doomed. But if the entire Earth‑Mother Origin World uses a single currency, that’s actually not a bad thing!”
Most of the group didn’t know much about this, so they all started asking questions.
“If the whole Earth‑Mother Origin World uses one currency, Heavenly Court can just print money and drain the world’s wealth. But they also have to make sure the currency can actually buy things.”
Serena Yunxiang smiled. “Everpeace’s people are best at business. Through commerce, we can earn more money from other regions and secure our livelihoods. Heavenly Court may drain the world’s resources, but we can use trade to draw resources from other powers. Emperor Evan once said he wanted Everpeace Coins to circulate in every country, and he fought for that for years. Ironically, this unified currency fulfills his dream—just now with Heaven lording it over us.”
Quinn Shepherd said, “You’ll be in charge of trade and commerce.”
Serena Yunxiang said, “I’ll need your Spirit Fox to help me.”
Quinn nodded. “Minting rights are the third clause; Serena Yunxiang will handle this and stabilize people’s livelihoods. The first clause is to burn all reformist texts and ban reforms, but we have backups of every book—ignore that one. The second clause is to restore the old system: sects ruling the state, the people and sects worshipping the gods, and controlling Everpeace through sects and folk religion—a policy to keep the people ignorant and exhausted. How do we counter this?”
Warren Moran asked, “Do any of the seven clauses specifically ban running primary schools, academies, or the Imperial Academy?”
Lynn Ling said, “No, but all the primary schools, academies, and Imperial Academy across the land were destroyed by those gods, and the books were burned.”
Warren Moran laughed, “Then just rebuild them! Don’t call them primary schools, academies, or Imperial Academy—give them new names, like Jade Capital Sect, Heavenly Saint Sect, or Dao Gate Annex, and align the titles with sects. In the end, there’s no real difference between schools and sects anyway.”
Quinn Shepherd said, “Let’s do that. The fourth clause forbids making heavy divine artifacts—so just don’t make any for now, ignore it. The fifth clause forbids arbitrarily altering divine arts or Dao methods—only a few people can do that anyway, so ignore it too. The sixth clause is the imperial sacrifice—that one’s truly poisonous. How do we break it?”
Jaden Jadehall thought for a moment. “I have some connections in Heavenly Court Dao Gate. Maybe I can ask someone influential there to step in and change the offerings—at the very least, the emperor can’t offer humans as livestock.”
Quinn Shepherd said, “Thank you, Senior Brother Jaden. The seventh clause is to destroy all ingenious devices, but after this catastrophe, most of the good things among the people are already gone.”
He looked around the room and smiled. “So, let’s start thinking about how to counterattack.”
Everyone was startled.
Counterattack?
Is he just bragging?
How could they possibly counterattack?
Quinn Shepherd said, “I’ve had an idea these past few days. I’ve wandered around the capital and noticed that many of Heavenly Court’s soldiers and generals have been breaking into the homes of wealthy families, seizing all those so-called ingenious devices. The gods of Heavenly Court seem to love these things. So, let’s manufacture them for free, only accepting Heavenly Court currency, and make the price as low as possible. Everpeace has plenty of skilled artisans—if we have them make the goods people use every day, we can preserve their skills.”
But the others still didn’t understand.
Quinn continued, “Jaden, can you use your Dao Gate connections in Heavenly Court to get them to let Everpeace manufacture some of their divine artifacts?”
Jaden Jadehall frowned. “You want Everpeace to manufacture the new Heaven‑Chart? Impossible! Heavenly Court would never let Everpeace forge the new Heaven‑Chart! Such artifacts can only be made in Heavenly Court’s Constructing Palace—the most important site for forging their greatest treasures! Nearly all of Heavenly Court’s heavy weapons are made there, and it’s heavily guarded! Anyone working there has to verify their identity with the Book of Life and Death every day!”
Quinn Shepherd laughed. “I mean, Everpeace can start by making everyday items for Heavenly Court—like ice mirrors, windmills, and so on. Then we can make divine armor, weapons, warships, and formation diagrams for their armies. Heavenly Court can use their own currency to buy the treasures we make.”
Jaden Jadehall was stunned.