Peace

The cultivation system was incorporated into the world from the beginning; it was inactive, but it was there.

Nobody knew about it, so its existence didn't really affect anything.

After the world was promoted to rank 10, however, the supernatural system was activated; the energy began spreading in the air; its effect would soon change everything.

For the time being, however, Jack was solely focused on becoming president of the Republic and controlling the two nations.

...

After the kampaku's death, Jack's alliance, RLA, called off the invasions of the cities of Silver Flower and Reflection.

Without leadership at the empire's top, no resistance existed, so there was no need to fight; those cities opened their gates without a need for fighting.

It could have gone worse; many of the top military leaders of the empire were radicals who were against ending the wars.

But, with the supreme commander of the empire's army ordering them to open the gates and with many conscripted soldiers running away each day, they were left with no other choice but to surrender.

Very soon, the empire's ministers sent a letter and officially surrendered.

Jack and the Republic's leadership welcomed this development and promised not to harm anyone.

The process of integrating the two countries was not easy.

It had already been decided that after taking over all of the empire, they would dispose of the legal systems of the empire and rule the entire combined country with the legal system of the Republic.

The empire's legal system was very unfair to many people. It officially recognized nobles, royals, slaves, and many different social ranks.

The entire legal system of the empire was based on delegated power from the emperor. All power anyone had originated from the emperor and ultimately belonged to the emperor, so no court could bind the emperor from doing anything because he ultimately owned everything.

Of course, a legal system doesn't necessarily mean practical on-the-ground facts, as the emperor's Kampaku had the de facto power even though, in theory, all power was for the emperor.

The Republic's legal system, on the other hand, was much better.

The president was elected, and he appointed judges who, in some circumstances, could rule and bind even the government.

Even the president could be restrained by the courts.

Of course, the Republic wasn't a perfect system. To begin with, only men 24 years and above could vote in elections, so more than half of the entire population couldn't even vote. Still, that flawed democracy was better than the empire system where nobody could vote on anything, and people's voices didn't matter in any way at all.

The Republic's president had a lot of power, but there were still some limitations. For example, he could not pass laws—Congress passes laws, and the president was only responsible for executing laws passed by Congress.

Practically, at least for the moment, the president's party, the Supreme Party, controlled both Congress and the court, so there wasn't much opposition, but the system allowed for opposition to exist.

The Republic's system of government used to be a unitary state, but after some negotiations, they decided to change the system to a federation.

That was the deal that those from the previous empire got because they wanted to have some autonomy.

After a few months of negotiations, in which Jack played a major role, they agreed on several provisions.

The country would be split into 100 different states—50 of which would be in the previous land of the empire and 50 in the land of the Republic.

Each state would have one senator.

For any legislation to pass, the Senate must have at least 60 votes, which means without at least some support from both countries, no legislation can pass.

There would also be another House of Parliament, which would be the House of the People.

The House of the People would have a thousand representatives and would be allocated based on population.

The president would be elected based on whoever gets the most votes.

Jack pushed for voting rights for women. He did manage to get working rights for married women but failed to get it for all women. After all, the leaders of the Republic also knew that allowing women to vote would advantage Jack, who was generally more popular among women.

The first round of elections was held 4 months after the end of negotiations.

The election was for electing the members of the House of the People, the Senate, state legislatures, governors, and the president.

Jack was popular among many people in the former empire but was also very unpopular among those who used to be under the kampaku.

He won nearly no vote in the Republic's states and few votes in Kampaku's former territory.

He only won the areas he controlled, the rural areas and some medium-sized cities.

In all, his party, which he named the Unity Party, won in 26 states.

In the states he won, however, his party had an absolute majority with near-unanimous support for him.

In total, he won an amazing 35% of the vote.

Voting wasn't mandatory, so his supporters were likelier to come to the polls than others. The turnout in his territory was over 95%, which was extremely advantageous to him in Presidential elections.

It means his floor is 35%.

Having a 35% floor vote is extremely advantageous in elections and may even guarantee wins. His 35% is solid; he can do unpopular things in his region, but it won't harm his 35%.

He can promise a lot of money to people to get the remaining 15% from the empire and Kampaku's sides. Promising free money is very common for winning elections, and it usually works.

Of course, he doesn't even need 50%. He can win with far less than 50%; you can even win with just 35% if there are two opposing and clearly popular candidates. However, they will never let him win with only 35%; they would form alliances to prevent vote splitting.

Even though Jack won 26 states, he only won 26 senators overall.

The Supreme Party, Kashu's party, won 50 senators. Basically, they won the entire delegation from the former Republic land.

In the lower chamber, the House of People, Jack won 37 percent. The remaining seats were won by a party formed by the former ministers of the empire; They won 24 senators and 13% of the vote in the lower house.

Kashu won the Presidential elections with 52% of the votes, to Jack's 36%.

The former ministers of the empire also filed a presidential candidate, but he only got 10% of the vote.

KAshu, after winning the presidential election, became the legitimate ruler of the biggest country in the vicinity, comprised of the empire and the Republic. It was no question the strongest country, but its situation wasn't good. It was in a terrible economic situation, so it couldn't continue attacking any other country for the time being.

It was likely that the surrendering countries would form alliances to defend against the Republic. After all, they wouldn't want to be conquered by it individually. 

...

Even though Jack lost the Presidential election, he didn't just lose all of his power.

States, for now, can form their own army; after all, the union was signed very recently, so they didn't trust each other. Jack negotiated for states to be able to keep their armies under their sole control for 5 years, subject to further extensions.

He didn't have any official position but was definitely the most powerful person in the 26 states where his party had a majority.

...

After the preparations, negotiations, and elections had finished, Jack started to pay attention to the newest thing: supernatural powers.

He knows for a fact that the future is going to be dominated by supernatural powers. At the moment, everyone's personal power is very limited. One person can only do so much; the collective power is much more than the personal.

But once supernatural powers flourish, personal power would pale in comparison.

For example, a person at the stage of divine soul can easily destroy armies of hundreds of millions of people. At that time, the country would be ruled by immortals and not by elections.

Jack knows for a fact that the future is for immortals; however, immortals need resources. As time goes on, more and more immortal resources would appear. Controlling the land is still necessary because you can harvest immortal resources from the land you own.

Jack has a head start on immortal cultivation; however, he cannot use his knowledge from outside the world. The techniques he is going to design will be solely based on the knowledge he gains from this world.

...

5 years later.

Elections are held for president every six years. For the Senate, however, elections are held every four years. In the last election, Jack still only got 26 seats.

As for the House of Representatives, he got 40% of the seats.

Still, matters regarding the mortal world were not worth his attention.

By now, he has reached the eighth stage of the energy-gathering realm. He has designed the cultivation system up to the core formation.

He named his cultivation technique 'Heaven's Way'.

To understand it, one must first understand what a cultivation technique is.

Technically, one doesn't even need a cultivation technique; the only requirement for advancing to the core formation stage is reaching a certain density of energy inside the body to be able to condense it into a core.

But if one does that and doesn't use a technique, the mana one would form would be very pure and unsuitable for spells.

To change the mana to a form that's more suitable for spells, one must keep rotating it in the body in a certain way. That is the cultivation technique.

Some cultivation techniques even have specialized spells working alongside them.

Generally, cultivation techniques don't increase the speed of cultivation and may even decrease it, but in the long run, it's definitely worth it.

Cultivators who use cultivation techniques are much stronger than those without them. For example, a peak nascent soul cultivator who is using a cultivation technique may have a small chance of running from a cultivator in the early stages of the divine soul who isn't using a cultivation technique.

Of course, that's only a possibility. The gap between big realms is too big for even a cultivation technique to fill. It's really, really hard to even run away from a person who has a higher cultivation realm.