"How is it possible to make freedom worse than slavery?" Some might wonder. The Green-Hat Farmers solved this problem with splendid efficiency: by bringing slavery back with 10 times the force, but under a different name.
See, after dealing with the Golden-Haired Lords, the Green-Hat Farmers now had to free their women—daughters, sisters, moms and so on. But the genetic modifications that the Green Leaf villagers had suffered were such that, just like a good chunk of the males welcomed any kind of degradation, a good chunk of the females would rather perish in the yoke of the Golden-Haired Lords than enjoy freedom by their men's sides.
These suicidal women only accounted for one-fifth of the villagers' female population, but they were more than enough to crush what remained of their men's self-esteem. Better, in general, the women of the Green Leaf Village couldn't see an ounce of masculinity in their mates, who all looked overly feminine, frail, and with barely anything in their pants.
On the other end, the males now saw their village's women as breathing vestiges of the humiliation they'd endured for centuries. They established the Kanmen Zhu System, an extreme version of the Yanzhou Province's own Kanmen System that gave wealthy household patriarchs the right to limit their wives, concubines or daughters' mobility to their rooms, or courtyards if supervised by senior maids.
The Kanmen Zhu System of Green Leaf Village went a step further. Under the pretense that the fairer sex was too weak-willed and irrational to make responsible decisions, and needed to be protected at all times, it gave the men the right to keep their women tied in chains.
Yes, literally.
As soon as they turned twelve, the girls of Green Leaf Village received the chain lock and lived bound to a wooden pole where they received spiritual meals and whatnot. They didn't have any cultivation, and therefore could not resist the males, who back then even had Divine Transformation level experts to lead the village overhaul.
Worse, the women of this village all possessed the Tender Spring Physique, a dual cultivation constitution that, among other things, enabled even non-cultivators to live for 600 years, and gave them the same self-cleaning, anti-disease, and hunger-free constitution that cultivators of Pulse Condensation or above possessed. This pretty much enabled the Green-Hat Farmers to keep their girls locked up with peace of mind.
Sessions of brutal torture spread from one household to the next, with borderline impotent men taking out their frustration on their captive women.
Now obviously, the woman that helped the Green-Hat Farmers defeat the Golden-Haired Lords didn't do so to see her sisters get tossed back into bondage. As resourceful as a mouse, she fled before the men implemented the Kanmen Zhu, and sought the help of Green Leaf Village's other factions: the Guardian Beasts of the Spring of Eternal Youth, and the Longevity Cows of the Celestial Farm.
Both said no, on the one hand, reluctant to abandon their posts, and on the other refusing to help the "traitor" that assisted the Green-Hat Farmers in destroying the status quo established by the village's two immortal founders.
That woman then turned to the Longevity Cows' guards: the Monstrous Bull clan. Their king fell for her at first sight, and together, they stole the High Command Seal hidden in the Golden Immortal Hall and took control of the Celestial Farm, enabling them to repel the attack of the Green-Leaf Farmers while seizing the vast majority of the Green Leaf Village's spiritual farmland—20,000,000 acres—for themselves.
The subsequent wars between the Monstrous Bull clan and Green Leaf Farmers saw the demise of hundreds of top experts. The death toll rose so fast that the two camps had no other choice but to seek a peace treaty.
Thus, the farmers' resounding victory over the Golden-Haired Lords became the start of an era full of grudge and self-destruction. Over time, having been denied access to over 90% of the village's resources, plus the lack of cucking that they needed to maintain a steady growth, the Green-Leaf Farmers' cultivation regressed—from one generation to the next.
The bulls, on the other hand, kept getting stronger. But with no God, Devil or Saint to grant them an Ordinance, they plateaued at rank five.
These predecessors all died thousands of years ago, but the grudges they left behind were passed on to their descendants, leading to an endless cycle of hatred, repression and abuse.
In this generation, the gap between the Green-Hat Farmers, Guardian Beasts and Monstrous Bull camps had grown so vast that, the farmers did their best to conceal the news of their weakness, aware that as soon as the bulls got wind of the situation, their troops would rampage through the farmers' lands.
Clearly, they didn't anticipate that, before they got the misfortune to face the Monstrous Bull clan's assault, a new Golden Immortal Lord would appear, with unprecedented levels of Yang Qi, and enough Cucking Qi to prove his rapacious nature.
'So that's what's going on? How annoying.' Activating his Bloodshifter Heart, Xinzi read the Green-Hat Farmers' thoughts, emotions and desires, quickly making sense of the situation.
"Master, should I kill or suppress them?" Xin Zhong asked, unimpressed by the rotations that 5,000 Green-Hat Farmers executed.
'5,000 men, 50 Diabolic Shards. Not a significant number, but one more is always welcome, and with 5,000 White-Winged Soldiers birthed in this village, establishing ourselves here should be easier. A pity that these Green Chastity Belts they mentioned seem to be in control of the arrays underneath each farmland. So, either I expand a significant amount of energy to break over 2,000 high-caliber arrays, one by one, or I just keep the Green-Hat Farmers as they are—using them to farm the land. Yeah, let's just do that.' With his eyebrows arching in a lopsided slope, Xinzi assessed the situation.
The Green-Hat Farmers completed their rotations, each standing with their knees bent, and their green swords swirling by their side like a whirl of spinning tops. Green rays surged from each farmer. Columns of shining light soared upward, conjuring 15,000 vertical flying green swords that permutated consistently.
"Pernicious outsider, immediately depart from our land, or the Thousand Cuts of the Green Slave will slaughter you to the last man!" The apparent leader of these farmers, a shrill-voiced man of uncanny feminine features, said.
'No need to make a move. I will take care of this and break their Dao Hearts so I can easily take control of them.' Following this mental message to Xin Zhong, Xinzi cracked his neck, walking out of the barrier to stand alone before the Green-Hat Farmer.
"Your land? Since when? The Golden Lotus be praised. This is Qiu Meng's land, loaned to his two avatars, your captive ancestors and other experimental creatures, so they'd turn it into a productive spiritual farm. And even then, one could argue that Qiu Meng taking ownership of this place doesn't make it his land. Otherwise, any random hobo of the Dongli state could just wake up one day and say that, since they're walking in the Great Desolation World, the entire world belongs to them.
But that's not how it works, does it?
Your land is what you can afford to possess and protect from invaders. You can't afford to possess this place, much less protect it from My Humble Self. So how dare you call it your land?
I will give you two choices. Surrender, and no one gets hurt. Resist, and I'm still taking what I want..." Here Xinzi paused, joining his hands in a prayer sign.
"But not before giving you an opportunity...to experience true despair."
