292 Mandate 1

At least three people in Country F were planning to cross to the Layers to chase after the Silver Princess who got thrown to Mao's realm. They were none other than Gio, the lover, Leo, the father's lapdog, and Host 9, the obsessed admirer.

Gio was a non-host, but he instinctively knew that he could puncture through dimensions and travel the space in between them. The only problem was that he had no idea where in the layers Sofony was now.

Leo was preparing to break through the next rank under the order of his superior. He only needed to finish one more task to reach Level 7 which would make him the youngest to do so in his batch. Unlike Gio, Fred was backing him so he would not have to risk getting lost in the space above the surface world.

As for the admirer, his case was similar to Gio. If ever, the two of them would race in reaching Sofony.

That was a matter for those three men.

Without knowledge of what was brewing in the surface world, Sofony was still on her way to the capital of the Mao Empire. Their movements were discreet, but not because the woman feared those in the imperial family of the dynasty. It was simply to not alert them and make them wary.

Yet even though that was the plan, Sofony was not simply being a traveler.

"We'll stay here for a month," she said to the girl she named Julia, one of those she rescued from the traffickers.

Julia was the same girl who had quite amazed Sofony with her calmness as she explained the backstory of the empire to her. Now, she was her personal maid and the one mostly relaying orders to the other followers. The others in their ranks respected her as she was, apart from the brainwashed Governor, was the closest to Sofony.

The girl respectfully bowed and replied, "By your will, Goddess."

It had been a full week since the incident outside the minor city governed by Governor Su, Gentle Wind City. In other words, they had been travelling for that same amount of time.

Sadly, the distance they covered, even though it was not at all negligible, was still not even a tenth of their distance from the capital. It had to be noted that this speed was when there were few women in the caravan to drag them down. The rest of the girls rescued stayed behind in Gentle Wind City and helping by converting the residents of that place to the new faith.

Those who came with Sofony were strong warriors. Governor Su was also with them, his stand-in, or more appropriately put, his double, the one managing the city on his behalf.

Since Sofony was aware that taking down an imperial family rooted in this realm for several centuries would not be easy, she stopped pressuring herself to come to the capital as soon as possible.

Anyway, Mao was not a simple opponent. He was also a high-ranker. It would be purely daydreaming to think that by just arriving there early, she would be able to deal with them.

But given the troubles he gave her, especially the abduction of her clone, Sofia, there was also no way Sofony would let him, and his followers, off so easily.

'You want me to annihilate an imperial family?'

Sofony laughed upon remembering the mission given to her by the system.

She then said to it, 'No way!'

\u003cYou have no choice.\u003e

'I don't want to simply annihilate them!' Finally, she clarified her real intention.

Her voice that was only heard by the system was tinged with irrepressible anger and malice. That time, Sofony had no idea that for a moment, the glint flashing in her eyes was very scary and evil. If one may say, given what her words just implied, she quite looked insane.

Thankfully it only lasted briefly and was not noticed by her attendant.

The two were in a small but lavishly decorated residence especially bought by Governor Su for Sofony. The governor had truly become a fanatic and had no qualms burning holes in his finance to provide the most comfortable dwelling for the woman. Sofony of course rewarded him... with amnesty. After all, before the guy got brainwashed and showed his usefulness, it was an undeniable fact that he charged towards her temporary residence at Gentle Wind City to arrest her and collect back the girls she rescued.

Inside the room, Julia finished hanging the beautiful curtains by the window. While setting up the fragrance atop the bedside table, she heard Sofony speak.

"It's been a long journey before we reached here and since the population of this city is big, I want to start the reform here. Julia, from now on, none of you must refer to me as Goddess. Just call me Miss, and I want you to tell others to start moving."

A flash of understanding flickered in the servant's face. She turned to Sofony and lightly bowed, "Yes. Miss. I will do it now."

After saying that, the girl walked out of the room, looking for Governor Su and the other followers. The female system user nodded in praise as Julia really was somebody easy to command, not to mention, clever and loyal.

In no time, more than a hundred people moved out and scattered in several directions, their mission all to proselytize about their newly born 'Goddess'.

Only a squad consisting of ten people was left behind, in-charge of guarding the place and repelling anyone who had malicious intentions. Even Governor Su was outside, purchasing a sizable lot where a sacred building would be built. He was also busy contracting people who would help in the construction. A trusted aide of him was buying shops and buildings which would become places for Sofony to show 'miracles'.

It had to be said that after several hundred years of the dictatorship of the Mao clan, the empire had already begun to rot from within. Mao himself was not a righteous ruler. The only reason he brought batches after batches of people into his land was to experience being an Emperor of a large number of people, as he was no longer contented with ruling a few ragtag immoral hosts.

With such an example and ancestor, how could there be many good people in the Mao clan? How could the Xia Empire truly continue to prosper?

There was a saying from the ancient C Empire, 'Once a ruler degenerated, the people under him would natural suffer. The more unrest there was amongst the common people, the more the heavens would be angered. Then, once the heaven's anger reached a fever pitch, it would remove the Emperor's Mandate of Heavens and pass it to somebody else.'

This had been proven several times, even if there had been no change in the rulers yet, there had indeed been unrest as poverty, corruption, and other issues propagated from within.

Of course, with Mao and several other system users aboard that clan's ship, it was almost impossible for anyone to dethrone them. There were courageous ones who tried, but none of them succeeded. At most, they were only able to sneak away several tens of thousands of people to start their own kingdom in the middle of the wilderness. Their revolts and act of whisking away a part of the population not even enough to shake a stone pillar in the Imperial Palace.

However, one thing that had to be remembered was that those people were normal people. As they but common folks, it was already a very amazing feat for them to be able to stage a rebellion and come out unscathed from it. Without somebody who could deal with a clan that was equipped with stuff from the system or govern by a host, it was almost a suicide to try to go against them.

One should not ask for much from ordinary people. But it was okay to expect something from unordinary ones.

Now, with Sofony's appearance, things would not necessarily stay the same. After all, she was very determined to wipe out Mao's forces. This was her act of washing away the grievances that accumulated because of the defeat in the C Empire, the failed awakening of Wendy, the kidnapping of her sister, and her sudden transfer to a foreign place.

'If you think this little girl here won't bite back after what you did to Sofia and those innocent people, Leader Mao, you're thinking too lowly of somebody qualified to be an immoral host,' she laughingly thought.

A day later, the girl met with several people who then 'willingly' agreed to fund her projects in the city.

A few squads amongst the bodyguards that set out the previous day to preach about their new religion came back. Yet the majority went out again to continue their 'holy' mission while the rest disappeared for some places outside the empire's territory.

On that evening, Sofony said she wanted a list of people and families who had previously rebelled against the Xia Empire, of those who were discontented with the rule of the Mao Imperial Clan.

Two weeks later, after finishing a miracle healing session in her temporary 'Temple', Sofony convened a meeting with the people her followers invited back after a long journey.

Releasing an aura of a 'Goddess', which was essentially just the aura of a Level 6 system user, she flashed a sweet, enchanting smile before taking the elaborately designed throne at the center.

She then said to the awestruck watching her from below.

"This Goddess here is called Sofia, which means knowledge in the language of the gods."

"In my name as the representative of heaven, I declared that the Xia Dynasty's Mao Imperial Clan has been too decadent, tyrannical, and evil for several decades and thus, has lost the Mandate of Heaven."

"However, we have the rule of one year which is all the time I can give them to regain it back and the time I can also give to you to take this land away from their rule."

"Ladies and gentlemen, are you willing to take this challenge and prove to the world and the gods that there are a better clan and group of rulers in existence? That the Mao Imperial Clan should all retire now?"

The Triple S Hypnosis was at work so, in no time, the invited people who were initially in a state of disbelief burst into cheers and frenzy, all of them declaring that they were the righteous new rulers.

Sofony's lips just curled into a grin as she watched this. Joy and mischief were danced in her heart as it sincerely wished for the destruction of the enemy, and for the loss of everything they had, including their rulership... and this very empire.