The Witch Hunter System

Over the course of two weeks, the remaining cities of the Celestial Kingdom were gradually subjugated and welcomed a new era—one in which the Celestial Kingdom no longer remained hidden from the world and became open to tourism.

Surprisingly, access to the Celestial Kingdom was not limited to the UN but open to all countries within Pangea. As long as people could afford the price and met the criteria, they were allowed to stay in any of the twelve cities.

Even permanent residency wasn't out of the question as long as their budget could afford it.

Naturally, the transportation fees varied between members and non-members of the UN. Non-members of the UN were required to pay four times the transportation fee to board the commercial-class starships traveling between the UN and the Celestial Kingdom's twelve cities.

Since all of the starships were under Vaan's control and they were the only modes of transport recognized and granted entry permits to the twelve cities, many foreigners, regardless of profession, became unhappy with the UN's monopoly.

However, even if they were unhappy about the monopoly, many foreigners still traveled to the UN to pay the expensive transportation fees for visiting the Celestial Kingdom.

Compared to the undeveloped space territory, people across the continent were far more interested in the highly advanced and developed Celestial Kingdom, not to mention it was the only option open to foreign countries.

As a result, traffic to the UN greatly increased.

After all, everyone who wanted to visit the Celestial Kingdom would need to enter the UN's territory first. It was the only way to reach the location with the sole mode of transport en route to the Celestial Kingdom's twelve cities—Celestial Airport.

Thanks to this decision, the UN greatly profited from the short transit between Celestial Airport and the border due to the large surge of traffic from foreign countries.

After all, the distance between the border and Celestial Airport wasn't exactly short. People would still need daily sustenance and lodgings along the way. As such, all businesses on the main route to Celestial Airport flourished under this new change.

Of course, the enormous profit from this short transit was only considered pocket changes compared to the earnings of the transportation sales and tourism businesses.

Nevertheless, regardless of the source of profit, they all benefited Vaan in the end. The tremendous influx of wealth gave the UN great purchasing power of resources outside of its influence.

Even if the foreign countries all knew they were fattening the UN by sending travelers its way, they couldn't do anything to stop it from happening.

After all, they were all interested in the potential products and technology they could bring back from the Celestial Kingdom. The Freedom Federation even saw it as an opportunity to catch up to the UN.

Unfortunately, everyone quickly realized how unrealistic their dreams were once they discovered Vaan ruled the Celestial Kingdom with absolute authority as its Ocean Master.

He could easily control the quality of products and the level of technology that they could acquire. As such, the Freedom Federation gave up its last futile attempt at resisting unification.

Vaan's subjugation of the Celestial Kingdom had truly set Pangea on the path of unity.

After all, under Vaan's conditions, foreign countries were practically forced to join the UN to avoid heavy taxation and travel expenses. There was simply no other way to reach the Celestial Kingdom.

Only the UN's commercial-class starships were recognized with entry permits.

Any other unidentified or unregistered vessel approaching the twelve cities would be regarded as pirates and raiders—and their fate would be to get sunk to the bottom of the ocean as soon as they illegally cross the border.

However, before they could even reach the depths of the ocean, their private vessels would have to face the threat of sea monster attacks. Only the UN's commercial-class starships provided absolute safety on the route to the Celestial Kingdom's twelve cities.

Of course, this was also part of Vaan's promotion scheme.

Only by giving the remaining non-members disadvantages would they consider joining the UN for its advantages. Moreover, once their people visited the Celestial Kingdom, they would realize the absolute disparity between them and the UN.

To win over the remaining foreign countries, first, Vaan had to win over its people.

Once the people experienced the prosperity of the UN, they would envy it and pressure their respective governments to join.

Everything Vaan had done for world unification had been set in motion. He did not need to exert any further effort to subjugate the remaining countries. It was just a matter of time before they willingly submitted.

As such, Vaan focused his energy on other matters.

During the past two weeks, the noble faction had, more or less, been erased from existence. More than 99% of nobles were found guilty of at least one charge of heinous crime. They were put to death and deprived of their Divine Worlds for that.

As a result, more than 3000 new Divine Inheritors were raised during this period. Of the 3000 new Divine Inheritors, 1500 were Battle Witches, 1000 were Body Refiners, and 500 were Holy Knights.

Eniwse, Astoria, Aeliana, Solana, Dahlia, Hester, Linetta, and Lillias all received Divine Transformation-level Divine Worlds and stepped into the Divine Star Realm directly under the guidance purification of life energy.

With the exception of Henrietta, Vaan's women had all become especially powerful Divine Beings.

Aeliana, Solana, and Astoria were especially fortunate. These three received the most benefit from the Divine Inheritance, directly entering the seventh stage of the Divine Star Realm.

Their powerful start set unprecedented levels of shock across the entire Celestial Kingdom. Even the 7000 Divine-level cultivators in the Celestial Military, who didn't know the details, were in awe of them.

Never in the history of the Celestial Kingdom had any Divine Inheritor directly entered the late stage of the Divine Star Realm upon receiving their Divine Inheritance.

It made those who spent thousands of years to reach the same level feel shame and envy.

Still, everyone couldn't help but feel it was to be expected. Only extraordinary women could accompany their extraordinary Ocean Master.

Vaan noticed a pattern among the three ladies—they all possessed light affinity.

However, he couldn't understand how their light affinity helped their bodies reach such a high compatibility with their Divine Worlds.

Did it have something to do with their elements sharing a relationship to the source of life?

Vaan felt like this was the only explanation.

The Divine World's Divine energy was derived from life, while the light element nurtured life. Furthermore, life energy was also able to purify the Divine World's impurity.

Rumble…

Suddenly, the entire continent experienced an abnormal yet weak tremor. However, no one bothered to find out its cause. In the past two weeks, everyone had become accustomed to its random occurrence.

Naturally, this continental tremor came from the Celestial Kingdom's thirteenth city – Celestial City.

Within these past two weeks, the battle between Valefor and the Celestial Dragons raged on—or rather, it was dragged on by Valefor. If he had wanted to, the Celestial Dragon King and Celestial Dragons would have all been defeated on the very first day.

In fact, they had been defeated countless times during this period.

The only reason they were still fighting was because Valefor didn't accept their surrender. They were beaten over and over until their deeply ingrained pride vanished from their bodies.

Every day, Valefor would give them time to recover after beating them to near death.

Due to their strong self-healing factor, they would recover most of their injuries overnight. However, that was when Valefor would beat them to near death again.

On days that Valefor rested, everyone tried all means to kill him. Unfortunately, nothing they did could even harm his indestructible body. That was also the moment they tasted true despair.

The demon did not want to leave Celestial City and made himself at home. If he wasn't resting, then he was beating someone up. Hundreds of Celestial Dragons would be his punching bag each day.

The definition of fatigue did not seem to exist for Valefor.

Thanks to recurring battles of their level without any defensive preparation, Celestial City was transformed into a state of ruin. Every building had experienced some degree of damage.

Celestial City no longer possessed the vigorous energy it once had after Valefor arrived.

Originally, the Celestial Dragon King was able to fight head-to-head with Valefor. He even managed to break Valefor's seemingly unbreakable stick after many exchanges.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the only sturdy stick in Valefor's possession.

The Celestial Dragon King's expression was quite the sight to behold when Valefor took out the entire scorched tree to pound him.

Once a branch snapped off, Valefor would use it in place of the tree until it shattered. Then, he would use the tree again until a new branch was available for him. After all, he didn't exactly prepare a bunch of branches to fight the Celestial Dragon King beforehand.

Moreover, he couldn't stop the [Decamillenium-Year Blazewood Branch] from shattering upon repeated use.

Even if Valefor made it more durable through Intent Reinforcement, he couldn't overcome the True Divinity-level material's critical weakness – its brittleness.

"Kugo, it's time to fight!" Valefor loudly announced in the early morning.

Although the message was directed at the Celestial Dragon King, every conscious Celestial Dragon shuddered upon hearing it. This particular phrase had become their most dreaded line after their day-to-day beating for two weeks.

After all, it implied that once Valefor finished his business with Celestial Dragon King Kugo, it would be their turn next.

Although Valefor was always heavy-handed, and each of his beatings was always accompanied by tons of pain, the repeated beatings had become the least of everyone's worries.

"Boss, please have mercy! I have not slept in two—Arghhh!!"

Celestial Dragon King Kugo's despairing cry resounded throughout the ruined Celestial City, causing every conscious Celestial Dragon to shudder with dread. However, no one thought about escaping; they simply didn't have the energy.

Everyone only focused on keeping their eyes shut, hoping to get an extra wink of sleep.

Yes, the Celestial Dragons' despair did not come from getting beaten brutally every day but because of their sleep deprivation. The bags under their eyes were so dark that they looked like panda eyes.