CHAPTER 1499: CHAPTER 22: CRIMSON PIERCING THE ATMOSPHERE

Waking from that blue Water Mist Pearl, only a little more than ten minutes had passed, but Tilan felt as if she had mentally endured for a very long time, leading her to find the room’s furnishings and objects somewhat unfamiliar.

"It really gave me too much hope," she gently massaged her brow.

Regarding the future of humanity, she vaguely had a directional outline, but implementing it currently still required constant exploration and adjustment. Who could achieve perfection all at once? This was an unknown path with no historical references.

’Child of Man’ ’Child of the Stars’ ’Child of the Sea’ — these are the inevitable divergences that arose after entering the Interstellar Era due to different living environments and concepts. If left to develop independently, humanity would inevitably split into three branches.

The journey is long, with high and low roads to explore.

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Central Star Region, ’Tear Moon Flower Crown’ residence star.

Fields of blue and emerald flowers covered the mountains and fields. In the center of this beautiful land lay a vast lake, shaped like a full moon missing a corner, akin to a bitten tear, thus named ’Tear Moon Lake.’

The name ’Tear Moon Lake’ has appeared many times in the history of the Elves, such that when facing similar and beautiful lakes later, the Elves would call them ’Tear Moon Lake.’ The earliest Tear Moon Lake originated from the palace of the Elf Queen residing in the Jade Forest, with the vast nearby lake being the earliest Tear Moon Lake. It separated the Elf Queen’s residence from ordinary people with the lake, maintaining a degree of tranquility and mystery while ensuring the Elf Queen and other Elves weren’t too distant and isolated.

Today, the road to Tear Moon Lake was crowded with people of diverse attire, protesting the privileges of the Elves in the Federation, occupying too many high-level positions and accusing the Elves of being parasites of human society, occupying resources and power far exceeding their less than 1% population.

Of course, such rhetoric often comes from media controlled by competitors, having only risen in the past few centuries. In the early Federation, during Isenisha’s leadership, no one would bring such matters up because Isenisha herself was of mixed human and Elf heritage. The Elves also made significant contributions in the early Federation that couldn’t be erased.

But history always moves forward; people cannot always remember past benevolences. Using an old Eastern proverb: ’The wealth left by the wise only lasts up to the third generation.’

Since the founding of the Federation, 1,200 years have passed. For the long-lived Elves, more than a dozen generations have also passed, making environmental changes unavoidable.

In today’s fierce contention between the songstresses ’Bai Mei Vertical Harp’ and ’Volcano Queen,’ everything had reached a boiling point. In order to strike at opponents as much as possible, frequent accusations about the Elves’ wrongdoings appeared. The human group originally supporting ’Bai Mei Vertical Harp’ Evelyn also found themselves in a dilemma.

If they continued to support ’Bai Mei Vertical Harp,’ they would certainly be labeled as traitors of humanity. Furthermore, Evelyn’s core group and family indeed carried some Elf Bloodline, making it difficult for them to access the innermost levels. However, if they abandoned her now, not only would all their previous investments be in vain, but the positions around Pulinko supporting the ’Volcano Queen’ Prin Coco were already filled by early adopters, providing no significant advantage if they switched support.

In the past, Evelyn had unmatched status in the Central Star Domain, naturally not worrying about these issues. Moreover, Evelyn was not a pure Elf, unlike Ores. The mixed heritage within the Federation was a certain honor, possessing political correctness and easily drawing in different groups, just as the ’Golden Flame Flower’ Isenisha was of mixed blood.

However, the past situation was shattered seven years ago. After the successful independence of the Western Star Region, the authority of the Central Council was broken, and they lost control over distant Star Domains. This forced the conglomerates, which had originally spread throughout the Federation, to retract their reach, sell off assets, and curl up within the Central Star Region.

A small room cannot contain two elephants, and the current Central Star Region holds more than two ’elephants.’ To maintain their past scale and strength, each of the major conglomerate families and giant businesses needed to consume enough assets; otherwise, they would fall from their previous positions. This is also why conflicts among forces within the Central Star Region have rapidly escalated.

In past eras, the Central Star Domain was akin to the heart of a giant dragon, with the most and largest blood vessels gathering here, constantly absorbing and transporting blood from the dragon’s limbs. It controlled assets across many Star Domains of the Federation, and major cross-Star Domain groups set their headquarters here.

Since the Central Council lost fiscal authority and control over local Star Domains, each part of this dragon’s body flew on its own. They no longer provided blood to the Central Star Domain’s heart, nor did they undertake market functions to digest products and services produced by Central Star Domain’s conglomerate groups.

Local groups within each Star Domain rose up, consuming the markets vacated by Central Star Domain groups. The conglomerates curling back into the Central Star Domain had to engage in brutal competitive battles to survive in the Central Star Region.

Mediation of conflicts requires sufficient benefits to meet all demands, but the current structure couldn’t satisfy existing benefits; struggle was almost inevitable until one side achieved complete victory.

Roads amid the sea of flowers led from all directions to the central lake, and now every road was crowded with protesting people, denouncing the evil and greed of the Elves. They insisted on settling accounts with these parasites. The raised signs were filled with slogans, appearing in many media cameras, captured and shared across various platforms, further fermenting and evolving online.