Five years passed since the death of the Apostles and the Sin Demons.
Peace prevailed in Fantasia within those five years. Since the invaders were severely weakened, no more breakouts were happening. This meant that nothing was stopping Humanity from progressing at a very rapid pace.
Humanity's territory expanded greatly, and the Last Bastion itself became bigger through Ashton's lead. Additionally, there were artificial islands in the sky powered by ARC Cores that expanded the territory even further.
A lot of Ashton's plans to improve society were now in effect. Public knowledge of cultivation has been established and almost everybody in the younger generation is cultivating now, greatly strengthening Humanity's longevity.
Breakthroughs after breakthroughs occurred, spanning all manner of things. With this many people working together for the betterment of society, the speed of progress will of course be swift.
The overall strength of Humanity has risen immensely, but of course, it's still not enough for them to go toe to toe with their sworn enemies.
Still, it wasn't that bad. Void Rank experts are pretty common nowadays, and that's saying a lot.
Five years ago, there was only a handful of them but now, there's a whole bunch of them, working to improve Humanity's chances as a whole.
Of course, those who are leading the charge aren't allowed to fall behind.
Blake, Alice, and Mary are World Sages now. The same rank as Oracle Felicia, the only difference is that the Big 3 are combat-oriented, which makes them more lethal.
They're the strongest Humanity had. They don't come out often nowadays but whenever they do, they will always be explosive.
The other Beneficiaries of Ashton aren't so bad themselves. All of them are at least Void Rank experts by now. Even those who had joined pretty recently were also catching up.
Ashton himself was a Lv. 5 Star King Ranked expert. His cultivation rank was just a realm lower compared to the Big 3 but in terms of strength, nobody could hold a candle to him.
His cultivation was slower, yes. But that's because he's preoccupied with administrative tasks most of the time. At most, he could only schedule his training to keep up, but he's still bound to be slower since he has a lot of things to do that requires his focus and all of his attention.
Still, though, Ashton was pervertedly strong. He could take on the Big 3 along with his other beneficiaries and still win. He is proof that cultivation rank isn't everything when it comes to a person's strength. Cleverness and the depths of the foundation are also key factors to a person's strength.
It wouldn't be wrong to say that Ashton runs the world by now.
Not only does he have control over Humanity, but he's also in control of the operations for both the Celestials and Hypogeans who remained in this world.
The enemies don't know this of course. They still believe that their leaders were still alive, just in seclusion to prepare for the ultimate clash.
Some of them wondered if there was truly a need for this kind of preparation, which makes sense since in their eyes, Humanity isn't all that. They're not worthy of this kind of treatment, but in the end, they couldn't say this out loud since it could possibly anger their leaders.
Ashton of course ignored it. So what if that's what they think? He didn't need to explain himself to them so why bother?
Let them wonder. Let them guess and let them doubt. If they get impatient enough to do something about it...well, they won't. After all, it will only take a snap of a finger to change their minds.
The poor fools... absolutely had no idea they'd become puppets of Humanity's leader. He's already sending them to their deaths in order to raise Humanity's strength, yet they're still following his orders ever so faithfully.
As for the Grand Fleet stationed just outside of this planet? Well, they're still there, but they were stuck.
The Miraculous Son and the Demon Emperor didn't do anything other than waste time on debauchery and intoxication. They're treating this mission as if they were in the middle of a vacation.
Ashton has spies in there who informed him about the situation regularly. Plus, at his current level of strength, he could probe his senses into the fleet without the need to get close to them, so he knows that this was truly the case.
Every meticulous level of planning that Ashton made and successfully laid out, lead to the prosperity of Humanity, allowing them to catch up to their sworn enemies at blinding speeds.
Nobody aside from him could pull off something like this. He's the only one throughout Humanity's entire history that took them this far.
At this point, his story will be a legend. Songs of his acts will resound for eras and he will forever be Humanity's legendary figure.
But if he were to be completely honest, Ashton didn't do all of this for glory. He simply did it because he could do so. And if not him, then who?
This was his second chance at life. He was given a tool that he can use to make a difference so why not use it?
Moreover, he's doing all of this for the sake of his peaceful retirement. Yes, he's still hanging on to that.
Doing all of this is extremely exhausting. Even though he had a lot of people who are helping him, the pressure was still heavy.
He just wanted this life to be a peaceful one. But that can't happen unless they get rid of the problem at its roots. This is why he had taken upon this mantle since it was he who had the ability to end it all, once and for all.
All for the sake of his peaceful retirement. This is one of the many things that keeps him going.
Along with Humanity's expansion, there were also tons of improvements in terms of their livelihood.
Ever since Ashton became the Federation's President and the Mystic Guild's founder, Humanity had never suffered from poverty.
They never lacked food, water, clothing, and other necessities since that was the very first among his priorities.
He secured resources, established a detailed healthcare plan, improved the efficiency of all working bodies, etc.
Additionally, he also opened up the path for Humanity to gain even more strength through cultivation. That was a slow process but eventually, they achieved it.
Cultivation 101 is now a mandatory course for all schools in Fantasia. Of course, whether the students did well or not in that course isn't something that he could control, nor their interest in the subject in that manner. But, since it's an option, humanity's longevity was improving day by day and providence was rising.
Many guilds have been established at this point. This is due to the Mystic Guild's influence. That being said, the Mystic Guild is still the greatest guild to ever exist simply because it had the most resources and materials that will help cultivators become stronger.
With the list of his Beneficiaries getting longer as time goes on, it'd be a surprise if Ashton was still lacking something to help them grow even stronger.
Actually, because of the increasing strength of Humanity, the standards of the Mystic Guild when it comes to its new members are also steadily rising.
At this point, they're now lacking talent anymore. But there can never be too many protectors for their race, that's why the guild's still recruiting every now and then.
As the protectors of Humanity, the Mystic Guild was of course doing its best to cure the world. The missions that are being issued to the guild are all for the sake of this world's betterment.
Gaia had been healed greatly thanks to their efforts. Since most of the corruption in this world had been cleansed thanks to the effort of the guild, the pain she felt before was slowly disappearing.
She's far healthier compared to before. She's more active and could sleep more peacefully than ever. Again, all of this was thanks to Ashton's efforts.
The El-Tree was also growing nicely thanks to Ashton's constant care which includes the Fairy Queen as well.
Really, everything was going well. The developments had been rather aggressive but nothing that his men couldn't handle. And since they're just as enthusiastic to work with him as he was with them, then they hardly had any complications when it comes to projects.
Ashton has given Humanity all he could to help them stand up on their own. The resources, tools, etc. And with his sharing his knowledge, the overall situation was improved greatly.
They're playing the long game now, because, despite all of this, Humanity still falls greatly behind compared to their sworn enemies.
Ashton still needs to buy more time for them to progress even further. And for that to happen, he needs to be more meticulous. He needs more schemes and plans.
And that shouldn't be too hard for him. After all, isn't that what he's basically doing all this time?
