In the tenth year of the Empire, Her Majesty the Empress issued the "Edict for All Spirit Masters," officially commencing the reform of the Spirit Master's world.
The "Edict for All Spirit Masters" primarily comprised two main parts. First, it centralized the authority for Spirit awakening on the continent under the Empire; second, it mandated a comprehensive census and registration of all Spirit Masters on the continent.
Regarding the first point, centralizing the authority for Spirit awakening under the Empire: Although the Empire already controlled Spirit awakening rights in most parts of the continent, a few regions and some special areas still retained their independent Spirit awakening rights. Among these, the most intolerable for the Empire were the Spirit Sects and Spirit families.
In the past, due to the myriad of nations coexisting on the continent, the presence of Spirit Sects and Spirit families often represented a nation's crucial Spirit Master strength. Therefore, monarchs of various countries were tolerant and accommodating towards these transcendent Sects and families, which operated independently of imperial administration.
However, times have changed. The continent has achieved unification, and the Great Ming Empire has become the sole nation. Consequently, the existence of these Sects and families has become quite conspicuous, especially their right to conduct Spirit awakening independently. For a unified Empire, this is intolerable. The authority of Spirit awakening is a fundamental power and must never be controlled by forces outside the Empire.
Therefore, the primary goal of centralizing the continent's Spirit awakening authority under the Empire was to reclaim the independent Spirit awakening rights from these major Sects and prominent families. This would compel them to undergo Spirit awakening at institutions designated by the Empire, thereby bringing these once-transcendent forces of the old era under the preliminary control of the Empire's framework.
To facilitate this initiative, Her Majesty the Empress specifically reactivated the Martial Soul Bureau, a department that had been abolished five years prior.
The Martial Soul Bureau, which in the past served as the most common department in the Sun Moon Empire, responsible for Spirit awakening affairs across the entire Sun Moon Empire, was abolished due to the involvement of Shrek Academy. Now, it has clearly been given a new mission.
The Empire's current Spirit awakening authority has been decentralized to the elementary Spirit Master academies. All township-level administrative regions in the Empire have now established elementary Spirit Master academies. Therefore, low-level Martial Soul Bureaus can be directly established within these elementary Spirit Master academies, which perfectly complements and improves the Spirit awakening institutions of these academies.
Simultaneously, intermediate Martial Soul Bureaus are to be established in all city-level administrative regions of the Empire, advanced Martial Soul Bureaus in the main cities of each province, and a General Martial Soul Bureau in the imperial capital. These intermediate and advanced Martial Soul Bureaus are intended for the major Sects and prominent families whose Spirit awakening rights have been revoked. The General Martial Soul Bureau's responsibility is to lead and supervise all levels of Martial Soul Bureaus. The General Martial Soul Bureau is subordinate to the Douluo Hall, and its Director is directly appointed by the Emperor, thereby indirectly placing Spirit awakening authority under the Emperor's control.
Another function of the Martial Soul Bureau's reconstruction is the second point of the "Edict for All Spirit Masters": to conduct a census of all Spirit Masters on the continent and register them.
This, in essence, is a population census for the Spirit Master's world, albeit a more complex one. Since the Martial Soul Bureau simultaneously holds the authority for Spirit awakening, it can control information about all Spirit Masters from the earliest stage. As for Spirit Masters from the old era, they are mandated to register at Martial Soul Bureaus across various regions within one year.
Considering the privacy of Spirit Masters, their registration at the Martial Soul Bureau only requires three pieces of information: the Spirit Master's name, Spirit, and Spirit Master's realm. After registration, Spirit Masters will receive a certificate recording these three items and a Spirit Master number. This is essentially the Spirit Master's version of an ID card, though here it is called a Spirit Master Certificate.
The introduction of the Spirit Master Certificate ensures that the Empire possesses information on all Spirit Masters under its governance, not only strengthening the Empire's control over the Spirit Master's world but also effectively curbing the development of major Sects and prominent families, and preventing the re-emergence of Evil Soul Master groups like the Holy Spirit Church.
Additionally, the "Edict for All Spirit Masters" also stipulated the Empire's Spirit Master welfare system. This welfare system can be viewed in two parts: the low-level Spirit Master group below the Spirit King realm, and the high-level Spirit Master group at and above the Spirit King realm.
First, for the welfare system of the low-level Spirit Master group, according to the edict, elementary Spirit Masters, from one-ring Spirit Masters up to four-ring Spirit Ancestors, will receive an annual gold coin subsidy. One-ring Spirit Masters will receive one thousand gold coins annually, two-ring Spirit Grandmasters one hundred gold coins annually, three-ring Spirit Elders ten gold coins annually, and four-ring Spirit Ancestors one gold coin annually.
It goes without saying that this low-level Spirit Master welfare system was clearly inspired by the student subsidies of Shrek Academy's Outer Courtyard. The Empire's welfare system aims to enable low-level Spirit Masters to cultivate better, preventing their talents from being buried or forcing them to sell themselves to major powers due to a lack of cultivation resources. Of course, to prevent speculative behavior, the distribution of Spirit Master welfare will be handled by the Martial Soul Bureau, and all Spirit Masters will need to present their Spirit Master Certificate to claim it.
This welfare is time-limited: if a one-ring Spirit Master does not break through to two-rings within ten years, their Spirit Master welfare will be suspended until they break through to the Spirit Grandmaster realm, at which point they can resume receiving it. Similarly, the time limit for Spirit Grandmasters is twenty years, for Spirit Elders thirty years. As for Spirit Ancestors, there is no time limit, as the leap from Spirit Ancestor to Spirit King involves not only a change in the welfare system but also a fundamental shift in the level of life itself.
Next is the welfare system for the high-level Spirit Master group. The high-level Spirit Master welfare system stipulates that from Spirit King onwards, Spirit Emperors, Spirit Saints, Spirit Douluo, and Titled Douluo will be granted imperial noble titles. Spirit Kings will be Viscounts, Spirit Emperors Earls, Spirit Saints Marquises, Spirit Douluo Dukes, and Titled Douluo will be Hereditary Dukes.
For high-level Spirit Masters, titles are secondary. Although the noble titles of the Great Ming Empire have significantly increased in value compared to those of the old era, with all titles from the Sun Moon Empire period abolished and only a dozen or so new imperial titles created since the Empire's founding, the true benefit lies in the opportunity they receive once a year to undergo a divine trial.
Yes, a divine trial.
Regardless, Zhu Ziyang can be considered an ancestor of the future Great Ming Empire, and he sincerely hopes this Empire can endure. Therefore, he, along with Ma Xiaotao, Jiang Nannan, Qian Lingyi, and Huo Yuhao, who has already ascended to the God Realm, constructed the divine trials, which are essentially God Position assessments.
With Zhang Lexuan's full cooperation, a palace comparable to the imperial palace was built in the imperial capital, named the Pantheon, to manage all matters related to the divine trials. The Emperor serves as its Hall Master.
When Zhang Lexuan was designing the Empire's Spirit Master welfare system, Zhu Ziyang specifically shared this idea with her, and Zhang Lexuan immediately agreed. After all, for high-level Spirit Masters, nothing is more enticing than becoming a God.
Therefore, after the Pantheon was completed, Zhang Lexuan immediately issued the "Edict for All Spirit Masters." In an era where divinities manifest, nothing possesses more persuasive power than the Gods.
Zhu Ziyang and others left trials of the God of Death, Rakshasa God, Angel God, God of Fire, and goddess of taiyin within the Pantheon. The rules of these trials are identical to God assessments. If someone in the future can achieve a Red-level Nine Trials, then it is not impossible for them to achieve Godhood.
In the high-level Spirit Master welfare system, Spirit Masters, according to their realm, receive one opportunity each year to undergo a divine trial. The reason it is an "opportunity" is that not everyone is guaranteed to receive a trial bestowed by a God.
For example, if a Spirit Saint chooses the God of Death trial this year but does not receive the God of Death's favor, then next year, he can choose the trials of other Gods. If this Spirit Saint fails to receive a God's favor for five consecutive years, then in the sixth year, he will definitely receive a Yellow-level trial from any God.
Such a mechanism greatly enhances the centripetal force and cohesion of high-level Spirit Masters towards the Empire.
To prevent this welfare of granting divine trials from being corrupted, Zhu Ziyang specifically issued a divine oracle: anyone who disobeys the rules will incur the wrath of the Gods. This way, as long as the God Realm exists, this system can continue to operate indefinitely.
It is worth mentioning that the divine trials in the Pantheon currently feature only five Gods, but in the near future, two new Gods will undoubtedly be added. This is because His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince Zhu Yuhuang, and Her Royal Highness, Princess Zhu Yuyue, have respectively received the favor of the God of Ice Element and the God of Light Element. Although their God Position assessments have not yet begun, as the children of Zhu Ziyang, the God of Death, their ascension to Godhood is an absolute certainty.
From the first day of the tenth year of the Empire's calendar, when the "Edict for All Spirit Masters" was issued, until October of the twelfth year of the Empire's calendar, the reform of the Spirit Master's world was declared complete. All Sects and families on the continent, both nominally and in fact, chose to submit. The Great Ming Empire achieved true unification, encompassing everything from its territory to its Spirit Masters.
In the thirtieth year of the Empire's calendar, Her Majesty the Empress announced her abdication. The thirty-five-year-old Crown Prince Zhu Yuhuang succeeded to the throne, becoming the second Emperor of the Great Ming Empire and the first Emperor of the Zhu Dynasty, simultaneously marking the end of the Xu Dynasty of the Sun Moon Empire.
Upon his ascension, Zhu Yuhuang, with the support of his father Zhu Ziyang, began integrating the Empire's Spirit Master institutions. The three great halls—Douluo Hall, Hall of Enshrinement, and Pantheon—were merged into a single institution, still named Douluo Hall, but with a vastly different significance.
The new Douluo Hall oversees three major institutions: the Pantheon remains unchanged, merely renamed the Divine Spirit Pavilion; the original Douluo Hall and Hall of Enshrinement merged to form a brand-new institution called the Titled Pavilion, responsible for all matters concerning Titled Douluo within the Empire; additionally, the Martial Soul Bureau, originally subordinate to the Douluo Hall, was elevated to the Spirit Master Pavilion, responsible for managing Spirit awakening, the distribution of Spirit Master welfare, and other related affairs.
The Grand Master of the new Douluo Hall is held by the Emperor of the Empire. The Divine Spirit Pavilion has no Grand Master. The Grand Masters of the Titled Pavilion and the Spirit Master Pavilion are both appointed by the Emperor. This further centralized the power of the Emperor of the Empire.