Weapon seller in the world of magic

Of course, as a gesture of good faith, after sending away his son, Emperor Shi returned the woman Shi Chong eloped with to her husband\'s side with respect.

To protect herself, she claimed that Shi Chong abducted her rather than accepting that she followed him willingly. She also had to lie that she hadn\'t been defiled by the Prince and the latter merely wanted to marry her, out of her fear of the societal perception and the importance placed on family honor.

The foolish king believed her words, but the upcoming days would be tough for her in his absence, as her fellow concubines and the Queen consort who are envious of her close relationship with their husband will surely not let go of this opportunity to bully her.

Who knows, she might be driven to death and they make it like suicide. Hence, she planned on making her escape when the time came.

Shi Chong reached Western Yan and stayed as a guest at the Church of Nuwa, trying to look for an opportunity to convince his nephew, whom he was close with, to return to the palace to meet the Emperor.

Meanwhile, the entire Bloodhill forest was declared a forbidden zone by the Alliance. The Kings and Emperors passed their orders to adventurers from their land not to venture into the forest anymore. Shang Wei took this opportunity to announce mass recruitment for his military.

Bloodhill forest has been the source of livelihood for the majority of adventurers within the Vermilion Bird Continent for the past 1700 years, especially those from the Northern Phoenix Empire and Leon Empire to some extent.

Once it has been sealed, many low-level adventurers will become penniless. Hence, he thought it was the best time to increase his military strength by inducting them.

Protests emerged everywhere and many adventurers weren\'t willing to follow the orders of their rulers; they decided on risking their lives to enter the forest and continue their beast hunting.

Their bet is on the fact that the Bloodhill forest is too big for anyone to keep an eye on.

Little did they know that there was a satellite revolving around the planet while constantly keeping an eye on the forest for several months now.

While the respective armies of the vassal states tried their best to suppress the protests, Mark\'s robotic army was divided into five divisions. One division followed each beast and spread into four different directions to unleash carnage everywhere, the last division headed by Ark Secundus robot of rank-9, the Deputy to Ark Prime, focused more on capturing the adventurers.

As Ark was connected with the satellite, everyone\'s positions were clear to Ark Secundus and it made their job a lot easier.

But then again, the forest is indeed too fast. It is spread over 16 million sq. km in area. It goes without saying that it will take time to capture everyone and clear out the forest.

Of course, this doesn\'t mean Mark planned on eliminating every native species of the forest. It is foolish to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. The best way is to capture them, breed them, and use them for his own benefit.

Every time the guardian beast attacks a settlement, it leaves some survivors and the robots take them as prisoners, throwing them into prison barriers conjured by the demigod beasts.

For every 10-15 kilometers, one such prison barrier was created where different surviving species were caught and thrown into the place.

The Spirit beasts with edible meat will be used to supply meat.

The Spirit beasts that had strong bones will be used to make either weapons or medicine.

The humanoid-type spirit beasts with significant intelligence like goblins, Orcs, kobolds, and even werewolves will be either branded with slave magic and then work in the mines and farms, or keep their freedom to become scouts to keep an eye on intruders in the forest. It depends on their choice, which he plans to give them later on.

As for the Spirit Beasts that are not of any use to him, they will be slaughtered mercilessly. Since this is a world where spirit beasts are the enemies of humans and there is no PETA here anyway, he doesn\'t plan on showing any mercy to them.

Six weeks passed away in the blink of an eye;

The barriers between each sector were no longer there; almost two-fifths of the forest primarily located in the south was occupied by Mark. He didn\'t touch the northern section apart from occupying Sector-1 and Sector-2 completely, leaving the remaining region filled with chaos as high-tier beasts from Sector-3 and Sector-4 went on a rampage because of the freedom. There\'s also the fact that they absolutely don\'t want to stay near Sector 2.

But then again, it is understandable. The demigod beasts are unleashing destruction everywhere in a random manner and Eol\'s army took control of Sector-2 as robots were clearing out the trees to create more land for construction. Hence, some went mad and some were afraid.

As a result, more and more beasts were seen running to the lower sectors of the northern region, which was guarded by the Leon Empire\'s King Qi and his forces.

After three months, exactly ten thousand and seven citizens left their homes and departed from the City of Lunaris, alongside Mark and his family.

A straight long dirt road was made from the edge of the forest from Western Moon\'s border directly to sector-1, which now looks like an urban town with thousands of two-bedroom wooden houses built in a uniform manner and a giant palace comparable to that of Dragon Empire\'s in the center, where sector-zero aka the dragon lair used to be located.

Of course, it is impossible to construct such a huge residence in a matter of six weeks. It was merely the transformation of the Divine throne. He made this treasure his home so that those who live inside (his family) will be safe from any kind of attack, in his absence.

Since he hadn\'t completely taken over the land, Mark felt such precautionary steps were necessary. After all, the Leon Empire had already sent an envoy with a threatening letter threatening not to break the 1784-year-old pact of not touching the forest. He couldn\'t care less about Emperor Shi\'s rants but had to be careful just in case.

Several hours after everyone settled in their new homes, Mark summoned everyone to the palace grounds, where tents were spread all over the place.

It was a little late in the evening and the moon was absent in the sky; yet, the surroundings of the entire sector were as bright as a day, due to the presence of fire lamps neatly arranged everywhere.

Everyone made it to the palace grounds and gathered at one spot, standing together in silence as Mark, alongside Song Yue and their child, was seen on a wooden platform erected not far away from the tents.

As they greeted him with a kneeling bow, Mark gestured for them to arise and then spoke, "Today, we all began a new journey in building this country together. On this joyous occasion, I would like to announce a couple of things. First of all, I would like to give you all a title as the First Citizens of Genesis Federation. What kind of benefits you have over the others who will settle here later will be announced later on."

*Murmur*

"First citizens?" "I wonder what kind of benefits we will receive?" "His Majesty gave us a new house as he promised. That\'s enough for us to keep hope" "Shh… His Majesty is speaking…"

Mark continued, "Anyway, secondly, very soon, all of you will be getting your Queen Consort. In the future, Princess Shen Ling will succeed me and become Empress Regnant one day. So, I ask you to show your utmost loyalty to her."

*Murmur*

"What is His Majesty saying?" "Princess Shen Ling will rule this land? Why?" "So, His Majesty is actually serious when he spoke of promoting women empowerment?" "But, even then, there is Empress Song here. How could Princess Shen become the Empress Regnant?" "Yeah, what about the Crown Prince, then?"

This time, murmurs were a bit heavy, and even Mark could sense there was a clear dissent within this large crowd.

Song Yue couldn\'t help but comment in a hushed tone, "See, I told you. No one would like this idea."

Mark forced out a smile and whispered back, "We\'ll see about that."

He then shifted his focus back to the crowd and spoke loudly, "For those who are wondering why I would appoint Princess Shen Ling as my successor when there is my son right here. Well, not everyone is a leader material. A dragon might be the strongest creature known to mankind but we don\'t fear it. Instead, we fear to wage war against a lion because it knows how to lead the pack. Princess Shen Ling is a capable leader, which this land needs to prosper. But, you don\'t have to believe my words outrightly. When we achieve the third phase where our nation is ready to take it in a million inhabitants, I\'ll go on a short vacation with Empress Song and Prince Lu Shan for a short period, leaving this place under her care. You could then experience her ruling firsthand. When I return, I will ask you questions about her rule and ask for an honest answer. Your decision will decide on whether she continues as the Empress Regnant or will go back to being a Queen Consort."