Published at 24th of January 2026 7:04 am

Chapter 3794: Consolidation of Power

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Rui’s ethereal eyes remained fixed on the Shepherd with an intense yearning. Even as she pondered his question, he grew impatient, forcing himself to calm down and wait for her to give him an answer.

Her auburn eyes grew hazy as she fell into deep thought, folding her legs on her chair, shifting her thick glasses with a finger. The air had grown darker and chillier as dusk drew closer, and a faint sense of anticipation hung in the air while Rui simply waited for her, never once taking his eyes off the eccentric woman.

"The solution to your desire is simple, but its implementation will be complicated and difficult."

Her thoughtful words made him light up with a hint of enthusiasm. "You have a solution already?"

His eagerness was visible in his body language. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table as he waited for her to divulge her thoughts.

"Yes, but... understanding it requires some understanding of the fundamental dynamics and power in human civilization," She heaved a sigh. "To begin with..."

She directed a pointed gaze at him.

"What is a state?"

Rui frowned at the question.

He didn’t understand what it had to do with what he asked of her, but he humored her nonetheless.

"A state is the organization representing and ruling a nation and its people, I suppose," Rui remarked thoughtfully. "It’s most important quality... I don’t know, a robust administration?"

She shook her head.

"The most important quality of a state is its power. The consolidation of militaristic and Martial power." Her tone was one of certainty. "A state is indeed an organization that represents and rules over a nation and its people, but it cannot do either of those if it has not consolidated the power of violence. A state is thus an organization that has a monopoly on the use of legitimate violence. The greater the monopoly, the greater the power of a state."

Rui’s eyebrows knitted as he began understanding where this was heading. "You mean to say..."

"Power is a prerequisite to prosperity; that is the heart of the answer to your question," she told him with a serious voice. "No nation that has ever failed to consolidate power in the state has ever remained stable; it is prone to anarchy and civil strife. The more power a nation has, the more it can do for its people. Of course, the more power it has, the greater the risks of tyranny and totalitarianism, but we can address that later. If you can turn your power into the power of the state, and simultaneously create a state that remains subservient to the will of the people, you may thus turn your power into prosperity as you seek."

"Turn my power into the power of the state..." He directed a deep gaze at her. "How exactly do you expect me to do that? Do you expect me to patrol the streets of the Kandrian Empire at night like some dark knight? Do you expect me to oversee law enforcement? Do you want me to monitor the Kandrian Empire at all times with my senses and become an all-seeing crime detector or something?"

"Hahaha!" She laughed at his questions with genuine mirth, keeling over at the table, laughing a good bit until Rui directed a pointed gaze at her. "Ah, sorry sorry, it was just that the images those questions evoked are hilarious, but to answer your question..."

She shook her head. "You don’t need to involve yourself with the regular functions of the state. A good state is already equipped with the power to patrol the streets at night. It is already equipped with the power to enforce the law to a decent degree. States may not be all-seeing crime detectors, but a good state is able to maintain low crime rates, as the Kandrian Empire is able to. You don’t need to do what the state already can. Instead, you should help it do what it cannot."

Her tone grew more serious. "You can empower a state by allowing it to enforce order and authority on those it has never been able to in the history of our civilization."

She directed a pointed gaze at him as mixed emotions emerged in her auburn eyes.

"I’m sure you know who those people are, Your Highness."

Rui’s ethereal eyes grew hazy as his expression grew a little complicated. "The highest echelons of the Martial World. Martial Sages and Martial Masters. They are... beyond law. Beyond the shackles of order and beyond the scope of any regime."

The air between them grew a little complicated as they touched upon a controversial topic. The lawlessness of Martial Sages and Martial Masters was one that could not be denied. The same lawlessness existed to a lesser extent with Martial Artists of the Lower Realms. There were provisions in law that made Martial Squires and Martial Apprentices, which made the punishment for crimes less severe.

"After the first Martial Revolution, Martial Squires broke free from the warlords of humanity before the Age of Martial Art that sought to turn Martial Artists into weapons that they could control," she remarked with a knowing tone as she revisited known history. "The second Martial Revolution occurred shortly after the advent of the Master Realm, where Martial Artists fully exceeded the more paltry limitations of esoteric military technology of the time and asserted themselves to carve out even greater power in human civilization. This was the era that led to so many nations being ruled by Martial Artists at the top. This was also the era that allowed them to be fully above the law, and that continued as a trend upon the advent of the Sage Realm."

She heaved a deep breath. "Martial Artists leveraged their power to extract concessions from states, allowing them to be above the law. This was the Age of Martial Art, an age that favored Martial Artists. But an age that favors Martial Artists is not necessarily an age that favors anybody else. It is not necessarily an age that favors prosperity."

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