Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1705 The World of the Dead
"How is it?" Phaethon, who had just arrived from Alexandria, had just gotten off the plane. The royal army had some work to do in Cairo, mainly coordinating some matters when taking over Rome's defenses.

After all, not every member of the Roman legion was willing to withdraw from their assigned area. Some of them had been stationed there for hundreds of years and had formed their own interest groups.

However, coordination can only solve problems that need coordination; problems that cannot be solved by coordination can only be solved by force.

"Let me tell you about your side first," Shangluo said. "Things are going very smoothly on my end."

"Really? You've dealt with Egypt's biggest threat, how could things go more smoothly than mine?"

After all, those mummies weren't so easy to deal with—the Romans simply couldn't. Because Rome was in no position to stop using mummies, and they couldn't find such cost-effective magical materials anywhere.

This is like knowing that global warming is inevitable, yet still being unable to stop emitting waste gases. In any case, global warming will torment future generations, who will then place their hopes on future generations, creating an endless cycle.

If it were just a matter of leaving some things to future generations, that would be fine. But Rome exploited the land left by its descendants, leaving them unable to solve any problems even if they were capable.

This is what is known as "deep-seated problems that are difficult to reverse." Shangluo actually understands this phenomenon very well—there might have been things that could be done at the beginning, but by the time they realized what was happening, it was already too late.

The most crucial issue here is that if Rome wanted to solve the problem, it actually needed to correct its past mistakes. And if Rome wanted to correct its past mistakes, it wouldn't even need to amputate below the neck, but rather below the eyebrows, separating the skull from the rest of the body.

If it's the neck, then the actual body is inside the head, which is relatively easy to identify. But if the eyebrow is amputated, it's harder to say whether the actual body is part of the skull or something else entirely.

However, this unsolvable problem has already been solved by Shangluo.

"Because we don't solve problems of the dead, we don't solve problems of the past. We only solve problems of the living, and we only propose solutions for the future."

In other words, we don't care whose interests are harmed in resolving the issue. We only care about the front lines, not the battle reports.

“Hmm,” Phaethon thought for a moment, “You want to completely integrate these mummies into the present and completely clean up their relationship with Rome—that’s a good thing. But if we exacerbate the conflict, it could lead to a civil war.”

He wasn't referring to a civil war within the court. Rather, after the court took over Rome's sphere of influence, the parts that hadn't yet submitted to it could also be considered internal affairs. The resistance of that small group of Romans could also be considered a civil war.

"Hmm," Shangluo thought for a moment, "So, many Romans are unwilling to hand over the dragon-headed staff?"

"They were unwilling in the first place. And when they heard that you were representing Rome in making peace with Egypt, they had even less reason to surrender—and by the way, some of those who had already surrendered will probably turn their guns on them later."

Shangluo nodded: "It's within expectations. That's why we mobilized our troops here—I think my senior brother also knew that a major change was about to happen in Rome, which is why he took action."

Zhu Xianxi hadn't actually anticipated this step. But he didn't need to anticipate it to make his decision. He only needed to know one thing: whatever Rome did, half the population would oppose it.

Although Shangluo could influence the highest levels of Roman society, even if Agassiz personally intervened, he still couldn't avoid having half the population oppose him. Knowing this, it's clear that wining and dining wouldn't solve the problem; only killing could. "Speaking of which," Shangluo began, "there's still something I don't understand. Where exactly did I offend them?"

"Because you divided their land."

"I didn't take any land from anyone."

“I’m not talking about land in the physical sense,” Phaethon shook his head. “Rome practiced a mystical feudalism, which means that all the powerful Romans derived their power from the mystical lands they were granted. The history of secretly exploiting Egypt was the source of the power of a series of Roman legions. And now that you’ve chosen to make peace with Egypt, you’ve chosen to go to war with them.”

"I see." Shangluo understood.

To some extent, this did indeed redistribute their land. From the perspective of mystical feudalism, Shangluo was distributing their feudal power to the original inhabitants of this land, making them their own masters. Shangluo even intended to bring those who had returned from Yalu back into the mortal world, truly resurrecting them and giving them a new life.

“Those mummies, each of them was considered a fine person by the Romans.”

"Talent?"

[That means they're going to eat people! They believe in the principle of "you are what you eat," so eating people is a sure way to replenish their bodies—a perfect tonic. If you stop them from eating people, you're killing them.]

"Tsk." Shang Luo shook his head. "What kind of heretical cultivator is this?"

“I’m so sorry that all my subordinates are evil cultivators.” Victoria, who was sitting next to me, looked up from behind her newspaper.

"Anyway, I will make proper arrangements for them."

"It's good that you know what's going on." Fahrenheit sat down next to Victoria and glanced at her newspaper. "Did you receive the message your father sent you?"

“Received, understood, I will do it. I’ll put his mind at ease.” Victoria accepted the task from her father as if it were homework.

“Hmm.” Fahrenheit looked at Shangluo. “Since you know how to handle this, I won’t offer any suggestions. I just have something I’d like to ask you—how do you plan to educate those mummies? They’ve been dead for many years. Will they trust you?”

“If it were someone else, I wouldn’t be so sure. But if it’s Egyptians, considering they share the same interests as us, it shouldn’t be difficult.”

Shangluo looked at the reliefs on the wall—this was the priest's office. Considering that this place has been developed into a tourist attraction, the walls here are indeed covered with a lot of stereotypical Egyptian hieroglyphic text.

The characters didn't form any meaningful sentences; they were simply arranged in rows as decoration. Among the many Egyptian ideograms, Shangluo found characters symbolizing fields.

(End of this chapter)