Chapter 1875: Chapter 1268: Turbulent Winds and Clouds
After taking down the Old God named C’Thun, Duanmu Huai patted his butt and returned to the Tribunal outpost in Tirisfal Glades.
After all, he originally went out to investigate the situation of humans in this world, and for now, it seems that humans still hold a dominant position, which is sufficient for Duanmu Huai.
As for those Aliens from the Horde... Duanmu Huai has no time to waste on them.
Once he returned to the outpost, Duanmu Huai handed out the gifts he bought from Stormwind to everyone.
Of course, the main focus was Mary and Ann, but Duanmu Huai didn’t play favorites; he also brought gifts for the other girls, just that rare items like Magic Mounts were simply not available.
Ann and Mary were quite fond of the Magic Mounts Duanmu Huai gifted. In fact, initially, Duanmu Huai didn’t specify which mount was for whom, letting them choose for themselves.
The result was that Ann chose the relatively gentle Qiu Yi Fox, while Mary set her sights on the lively and playful Warm Sun Fluffy Cat.
This somewhat surprised Duanmu Huai, as he observed that the Qiu Yi Fox’s temperament was quite similar to Mary’s, both being the quiet type. In contrast, the Warm Sun Fluffy Cat was more like Ann, lively and playful. Duanmu Huai thought it would be a match of pets to their owners—turned out they picked the ones that were opposite to their personalities, and these Magic Pets seemed very fond of their owners.
Maybe it’s what they call complementarity?
Meanwhile, Ann started petting the fox while reporting to Duanmu Huai about the events at the Tribunal outpost during his absence.
Unsurprisingly, it attracted some shadowy probing from various factions. Of course, following the Tribunal’s usual open-door policy, Ann didn’t put extra effort into security. Basically, anyone wanting to investigate was welcomed, like Madayas from the Kingdom of Stormwind, who ended up cluelessly invited in for tea and a chat—there were quite a few like that.
According to Ann’s compilation, aside from the Kingdom of Stormwind, where Duanmu Huai had previously visited, other factions like Dwarves, Gnomes, and a race claiming to be Blood Elves came here for investigations. They even hosted a representative from the Church of the Holy Light.
Overall... well, the situation is not optimistic.
Regarding the Tribunal’s human supremacy, various factions seemed to have quite a few criticisms, even the Archbishop from the Church of the Holy Light, who believed such an approach was unsuitable for the current world. Ultimately, they hoped to peacefully coexist and jointly resist external enemies...
"It’s all bullshit."
Duanmu Huai casually tossed the intel aside.
"Do they think we are idiots? Alliance and Horde members are at each other’s throats, and you come to talk to me about racial unity? Why don’t you go unite with Trolls or Orcs?"
Talking about it, Duanmu Huai snorted. During his time in Stormwind, he had briefly studied this world’s history, discovering that several years ago, a race called Orcs opened the Dark Portal to invade Azeroth, causing significant destruction to the Eastern Kingdoms. Later, the then Human Kingdoms combined forces to defeat the Orcs.
However, afterward, the King of Lordaeron made a decision that seemed utterly foolish to Duanmu Huai—he didn’t execute all the Orc captives but instead established camps to house them!
Perhaps the King’s initial intention was to use Orcs as slaves, but to Duanmu Huai, this was as moronic as it gets.
Before, many players had discussed this paradoxical issue.
Why do some factions like to conquer foreign races and then use them as slaves?
Logically, it seems reasonable; slaves can be used freely and are expendable. Give them all the dirty, exhausting, and dangerous tasks to do, while you just lie back and count money—living carefree. Slave owners or Noblemen could think like this, and that’s not a problem.
But from a national perspective, there’s a predicament.
That is ———— what happens to the nation’s poor when slaves do all the dirty, tiring, and heavy work?
No country can be without poor people. So how should the poor survive? The best way is to have them work, and most of them don’t possess extraordinary wisdom or cultural knowledge. To make them work, naturally, entails jobs that require no special skills or cultural education—dirty, tiring, and heavy work.
But if all this is assigned to slaves, and poor people lose their jobs, won’t they starve?
Here comes the problem; are they willing to starve?
Indeed, slaves might consume less than the poor, and don’t require wages; if they die, they just die—no human rights at stake. But considering national stability, from a rational standpoint, this practice of feeding foreigners rather than local subjects incites internal rebellion, doesn’t it?
Is it worthwhile to risk destabilizing the entire nation just to save a few bucks?
The Orc detention camp in Lordaeron is similar. To Duanmu Huai, these Orc captives are not assets but burdens. The fact is, Lordaeron eventually doomed itself, turning from the primary Human nation to a lively scene for Undead to party, largely due to this.
A similar scenario occurred in historical events; most famously, Bai Qi executed forty thousand surrendered soldiers.
Why do that? It’s simple: Qin State couldn’t afford them!
Release them? Definitely not—letting them go voids the fight!
But they couldn’t afford to keep them, so what to do? Kill them all.
In Duanmu Huai’s eyes, Lordaeron simply lacked a Bai Qi.
If they had killed all the Orcs, these troublesome issues wouldn’t exist now. The result? You make Orc detention camps, eventually fostering a Horde! Years of Alliance-Horde disputes probably claimed more lives than the initial Orc invasion of Azeroth.
Proving once again the proverb "Weeds sprout anew without thorough eradication."
Were it the Tribunal, they’d definitely slaughter all those Orcs and charge through the Dark Portal to eradicate them entirely—remove future troubles!
Sparingly showing compassion only leads to prolonged pain and disaster. See, isn’t this a case in point now?
If Bai Qi hadn’t executed those forty thousand surrendered soldiers, perhaps Qin wouldn’t have achieved the monumental feat of conquering the Six States and unifying the world.
And Lordaeron spared the Orcs but built camps for them, leading to its demise and the Undead partying on their graves daily.
Duanmu Huai also shared his observations about the Kingdom of Stormwind’s King, Varian, with Ann. Honestly, Duanmu Huai didn’t have high regard for Varian, and truthfully, he felt somewhat pessimistic about the current condition of humans on this planet. He initially intended to support human factions in taking power, but the problem was, Varian didn’t seem to be a particularly ambitious person.
This is very... troubling.
People like Palpatine or Count Dooku are easier to handle. The Tribunal isn’t afraid of you being unprincipled; rather, it’s afraid of you being too principled.
"Miss Ann."
As Duanmu Huai was complaining to Ann, Mary walked in with her family’s big orange cat.
"The Kingdom of Stormwind has dispatched a division, wanting to negotiate with us."
"Oh? Why are they sending people here?"
Without waiting for Ann to speak, Duanmu Huai curiously asked.
"Could it be they want to build an embassy here? I’m not interested in that."
"They hope to reach a deal with the Tribunal to purchase a hundred Lumber-Jack Mechs."
"Lumber-Jack Mechs?"
Upon hearing Mary’s report, Ann looked bewildered.
"Does the Tribunal have such things?"
"Of course."
Duanmu Huai chuckled.
"Otherwise, how do you think you got your pet? I don’t have this world’s currency."
"Uh... Mr. Knight, you’re too..."
Hearing Duanmu Huai’s answer, Ann was speechless and finally sighed helplessly, standing up.
"Alright, alright, for the sake of the gift, I’ll go and negotiate with them... We can sell them, right."
"We can sell, but we don’t want money; you handle it yourself."
The currency of the Continent of Azeroth is of no value to the Tribunal. If Duanmu Huai wished, he could use the Tribunal’s technology to create fake Azeroth gold coins in minutes, enough to cause inflation across the whole continent a hundredfold.
Therefore, Duanmu Huai is more interested in certain local specialties. Regarding what specialties... That’s for you to decide; I won’t get involved.
The Tribunal began further cooperation with the Kingdom of Stormwind, and in Silithus, others were dealing with the mess Duanmu Huai left behind.
"What exactly is going on here..."
Standing at the edge of the pit, the Night Elves looked at each other in disbelief. Feathermoon Stronghold is located above Silithus, and upon discovering the anomalies in Silithus, General Shandris Feathermoon, personally led the stationed Night Elf sentinel forces from Feathermoon Stronghold to Silithus for support at the fastest speed.
Shandris Feathermoon participated in the War of the Shifting Sands and knows well about the Qiraji and the Ancient God behind them. Initially, she thought the Qiraji had found a way to break the seal of the Scarab Wall, prematurely releasing the seal which had been weakened over time.
But this... Well, almost nothing is left here.
The Night Elves searched all around Silithus but, apart from a few bedraggled Bronze Dragons, found no useful clues.
"Does no one know exactly what happened here?"
Shandris Feathermoon stared at the guards of Cenarion Hold. Under her piercing gaze, they dared not breathe heavily.
At this moment, suddenly a young Night Elf soldier stepped forward.
"I, I think I might have some guesses."
"Guesses?"
"Yes."
Facing Shandris Feathermoon’s gaze, the young soldier was nervous, swallowing hard.
"Previously, when I was in the Eastern Kingdoms, I learned about the annihilation of the Forsaken..."
"So?"
Hearing this response, Shandris Feathermoon was slightly disappointed. The eradication of the Forsaken was indeed significant news, and even the isolated Night Elves had heard of it.
"I’ve heard that when the Forsaken were annihilated, there were dozens of fire pillars that appeared in the sky..."
"Such a thing happened?"
Hearing this, Shandris Feathermoon’s expression subtly changed.
"Do you mean the force that eradicated the Forsaken is the same one that destroyed the Qiraji?"
"I, I think so..."
"..."
After hearing the young soldier’s answer, Shandris fell into silence. She stared at the pit before her, pondering for a moment, then turned straight around.
"I need to report this matter up; perhaps we need to make a trip to the Eastern Kingdoms."