2258 A period of years 1

Spring came and autumn went, time fleeted by as the years passed on silently like the falling sand of an hourglass.

In the wilderness of the Middle Realm, a group of labourers were carrying heavy stone bricks on their backs and hurried along as whips landed on their bodies in order to speed up building the Palace before them. The oppressive and heavy atmosphere had shrouded the entire Middle Realm.

Under the blazing sun, the waves of hot air seem to evaporate each bead of perspiration off their bodies. Regardless of day and night, after a day's work, the shabbily dressed labourers finally had a moment of rest despite the supervisors' glares of impatience. They dragged their exhausted bodies to the half built Palace and took a seat. The stone bricks beneath them had been heated up by the scorching sun and it made them feel as if they were sitting on a bed of needles.

But now that things had come to this, those labourers who had been toiling hard under the harsh working environment had no complaints, instead, they sat down as let out a sigh of relief. Be it under the scorching hot sun or the heated bricks beneath them, they couldn't care less. To them, this was already considered a 'luxury'.

One plain looking youth sat on a stone brick, with a worn sheepskin water bag in one hand, he drank a mouthful of water and the moment that cool water entered his mouth, it seemed to dispel the heat of the scorching sun.

"Sigh.... when would it be over?" A middle aged man at the side lamented as let out a deep sigh, his clothes were worn out and dirty, his hands were full of calluses. Although he was only middle aged, however his hair had already turned grey and his face revealed deeps vestiges of life. His appearance was far from his actual age.

"Uncle Liu, once the Palace has been completed, does it mean that we can finally go home?" One youth by the side asked as his eyes lit up with hope. He was in his teens, but like all the others, he worked very hard, not to earn that meager income but to preserve his life.

The middle aged man raised his head and looked at his companions. Several months had already passed since the construction of the Palace in front of them had started. At the beginning, there were over a thousand people who participated in the construction, however, just after a few months the number of people dwindled to only a few hundred. Most of the people could not bear the burden and had been overwhelmed. They had either fallen sick or fallen from exhausted and those that had lost the ability to work did not receive any form of treatment. Instead, they were simply discarded by the supervisors at the wilderness by the side. Be it rain or shine, even food and water were not provided as they waited for their end in despair.

Five years ago, no one would ever have thought that the Middle Realm would become like this. After the Twelve Palaces had been annihilated, the Middle Realm welcomed a short period of peace. However, this peace had lasted for only a year.

After a year, the real nightmare began to unfold and smouldered the entire Middle Realm.

The Spirit Jade Palace suddenly disappeared from the Middle Realm, it was if they had evaporated into thin air. The Nine Temples suddenly launched an all out siege and took over the entire Middle Realm. From that moment on, the people of the Middle Realm finally understood what real tyranny was!

The Nine Temples unified all the powers in the Middle Realm and they controlled every piece of land there was. Even the Four Sides had been suppressed while the elusive Spirit World seemed to have vanished from the Middle Realm.

The Nine Temples reigned over the entire Middle Realm as they flourished over this iniquitous period. However, if the people could choose, they would very much rather prefer everything gained over honest means!