Sitting cross-legged somewhere far into the dark forest, Jack sighed and stood up. It had been six months since he reached core formation. During this time, he consolidated his cultivation and reached the peak of the first stage of core formation.
During the previous breakthrough, the extra energy was enough to push him far into the first stage; with a little effort, he reached its peak.
With no one around, he started slowly letting out his aura, not concealing it anymore. The pressure around him increased bit by bit, but with no one around, it went mostly unnoticed.
When the pressure broke through the core formation, a blue-gold light shone from his body. Core formation cultivators usually restrain this light, as it can be used to deduce the quality of their core, but now, Jack was sure that no one was watching him. In any case, he was most likely the first and only core formation cultivator, so no one could compare him to others and deduce the quality of his core.
The light shone and began to burn the nearby plants; after 30 seconds, fires began to appear. At this rate, the fire would probably spread and burn at least the land around him.
He waved his hand and used his mana to put out the fire. He didn't want to accidentally destroy a big chunk of the forest. After all, the forest itself is a valuable resource. Where do all immortal plants come from? It's all a result of the energy that randomly turns ordinary plants into immortal ones; the more trees and plants, the higher the chance of immortal plants.
Along with immortal plants, Jack predicts that there will be many types of immortal animals, insects, etc., too; when they appear, it can cause big problems for those who haven't been prepared.
For now, though, there shouldn't be any immortal animals; in general, plant-based life forms are affected by energy much faster than animals.
He withdrew his mana aura of core formation and looked around; all that was left was ashes. This is the power of the full aura of a first-stage core formation cultivator; left unrestrained, it can burn everything in a radius of 5 meters around him; even stones were close to melting.
Of course, Jack is very strong, much stronger than an ordinary first stage, as his mana is very pure. If it were an ordinary core formation first stage, the effects wouldn't have been so devastating.
Also, not all immortal techniques burn; if it were an immortal technique based on ice, it would have frozen his surroundings instead of burning them.
Heaven's way technique is mostly based on heavenly fire.
If someone who hadn't cultivated using a cultivation technique released their aura, it would have little effect on the surroundings; the aura of those who just broke through without a cultivation technique is blunt; it can barely be used to harm things.
Jack waved his hand; an extremely strong wind blew, completely scattering all ashes and destroying his traces. With that done, he closed his eyes and concentrated. Core formation cultivators can fly; he's not good at it yet, so he has to concentrate before flying.
Technically, Jack is a master of flying, but he learned to fly outside this dream world. Using his skill, which originates from the outside, would damage this world's Dao collection, so he has to restrain himself and only use the knowledge he learned in this world, which is why he has to concentrate before flying.
His legs took off the ground, his altitude increased gradually, then he started moving west toward the capital.
...
The republic's capital was a big city home to over 2 million people; it wasn't the most populous city, but it was definitely the city with the most rich people.
The deal with the northern kingdom's leader was finally finalized a while ago; now, the republic is a union of three countries.
The northern kings were allowed to remain autonomous at nearly all levels, except that they had to recognize judicial decisions regarding conflicts between them and the republic; the only other big change was that they had to allow the republic's military to pass through their territory.
The village chief was satisfied with allowing them to remain autonomous; that 'small' carve-out regarding the judicial decision was basically a guarantee that the kingdom would slowly integrate into the larger republic.
What is important now is to pass through the kingdom and attack the eastern federation.
The eastern federation comprised seven smaller kingdoms that allied to defend themselves against the pirates; over time, however, their alliance expanded; now, they are as united, or more united than the republic. They still retain their royal family and seven kings, but they are only a tradition, figureheads with no power.
The true power lies in the hands of the chief commissioner of the federation, who leads the central commission and is elected by votes of the regional commission of the seven kingdoms.
On the other hand, regional commissions are selected by local governance boards.
Local governance boards are elected by representatives from the central commission, royal family, and nobles.
All that means is that the people have no say in who governs them. In fact, not even the royals have much influence; sure, they have votes in electing local governance boards, but more often, they are outvoted by the other factions, who would not allow royals to gain power.
Even if royals somehow send their desired candidate to the local governance board, there is no guarantee that board members vote the way the royals want; the laws in the federation are very obscure and full of loopholes. Board members usually accept bribes for their votes; they can only serve one eight-year term, so they try to cash in as much as possible while they can.
Where does the big money lie? It isn't with royals or billionaires; the big money lies in the central commission.
In a roundabout way, the central commission members have the biggest voice in their election; their job is safe unless they do something extremely outrageous that turns everyone unanimously against them.
The federation is an example of what happens if laws are written by stupid people. When these laws were written, they were done so with good intentions; it wasn't due to corruption that they were written like this; the drafters' rationale was that to prevent any one faction from gaining too much power, it's necessary to separate those who elect the central commission by several layers.
It ended up isolating the commission too much, giving them unlimited power with no scrutiny.
When it comes to creating governance systems, there is no perfect answer. It's a balancing act: one must not be too vulnerable to political attacks but cannot be too isolated from them either. The drafters of the federation got it wrong, which resulted in a completely unrepresentative government.
As a result, even though the country was massive, with around 250 million people living in it, it was actually not strong; it was consumed by corruption and a perfect target for the republic. The people would probably not be keen to defend such a country, making conquering them much easier.
But, before invading, the Village chief first sent a representative to see if they would surrender.
...
The Village chief read the letter with disbelief!
"They actually agreed?" He almost didn't believe it. A country of 250 million people just accepted to surrender without any fight? It was surely a surprise.
"Well, then we can save our armies," the Village chief smiled.
...
The deal was negotiated; as the kingdom, the federation agreed to allow the republic's troops to pass through and agreed to the jurisdiction of the republic's supreme court.
The remaining nearby countries saw this, and all sent representatives; soon, everyone agreed to join the republic, forming a super force.
The key factor was two things; first, the republic became too big, so resisting was futile.
The second was the invasion from the Far East, which had already wiped out some small city-states; everyone began to take them seriously, so they decided to join.
But as a result of so many countries joining, all of whom wanted to keep their autonomy, the original plan of creating a centralized country became more difficult. The final deal was more like a confederation than a country; everyone kept their autonomy and only agreed on some broad measures.
It wasn't what the village chief wanted, so he didn't agree and proposed an alternative deal.
With Jack's approval, he proposed granting voting rights to every citizen of all member countries as long as they agreed to accept complete jurisdiction from the republic.
Nobody accepted; accepting such a deal would be forfeiting one's sovereignty entirely; it cannot be accomplished without a war.
In the end, they agreed on freedom of movement and association between countries and a united police force between all the countries; they also agreed to recognize the republic's supreme court's judgments without question.
Jack wanted this deal; freedom of movement and association could ease his subordinates' efforts in finding immortal materials.
The system of the new alliance was extremely complicated.
The alliance was actually not an alliance but an integration of countries; all the countries joined the republic. But they weren't full members. The republic and empire's former lands were the only ones who could vote in the republic's presidential elections and congress elections.
The republic's president had no power in countries where people couldn't vote.
The treaty created offices, such as alliance observers; these roles had the duty of inspecting countries for compliance with treaties, but they were ineffective, as they were too easily bribed.
In any event, Jack didn't care; the freedom of movement and association was what he wanted the most; with it, he could recruit disciples from all the countries and look for immortal resources without the hassle of passing national borders.