Chapter 182: Soldiers Are Rails
In the 3rd year, 2nd month of the Tian You Calendar, the train from Lingnan to Longyou was undergoing test runs.
During operation, not only was the Feng Shui magic array exerting force, but one train was also deploying sails while the front locomotive emitted steam for assistance.
Just as Chong Land emerged from the plague disaster, a revolutionary industrial technology was completed in Lingnan.
Large quantities of Southern Border iron sand were transported to a large factory in Tianchi City, Lingnan. These mineral sands were poured into specially made large pits, and as the jade magic array activated the great alchemy magic array, metal crystals appeared at the bottom of the liquid-filled pools.
These sand and gravel mixed with metal crystals were scooped out, and metal grains were extracted through huge sieves like those used in gold rush, then the mineral sands were ground and refined further.
In the Lingnan blacksmith workshop clusters, over five hundred professional engineering project teams followed the planned workshop assembly lines, selecting materials one by one, then inspecting the jade arrays, cleaning alchemy tanks comparable to swimming pools, and testing the output quality of steel.
Alchemy is mainly gold element magic, which can corrode or melt armor. Jia Mude is a mage of this attribute, and the bronze coffin creation he once controlled is the high-end evolution of such technology.
Now it is applied to production. Xuan Chong watched as large amounts of iron sand precipitated metal liquid in the pools, feeling that his physics and chemistry knowledge was being restructured.
In Xuan Chong’s cognition, steel refining should be an oxidation and reduction process between iron and carbon under over a thousand degrees.
But now, in this pool paved with jade, under the power of alchemy, the metal in the iron sand continuously precipitated, with an average of one hundred kilograms of iron sand settling per hour, then poured into the furnace for smelting.
Such a steel refining pool, with three shifts a day, can produce two tons of fine iron; in a year, accounting for magic array cooling time, it can yield seven hundred tons of iron.
…Steel is refined, next is transportation…
Mechanical trains have now broken through Longyou, and the next phase is entering Chong Land.
Plus the “rubber potatoes” transported from the north providing rubber, the trains now look increasingly like mechanical trains. The rear power is still jade, but the front section is a piston steam engine cylinder.
The iron trains’ transport capacity can sustain forty tons per month. This capacity is not high, only enough to support about five thousand main battle troops, but it can go from Lingnan to Zhenzhou almost without conscripting labor.
In the three months since Xuan Chong returned from the Southern Border, the sects under heaven have fallen into a strange atmosphere. The major sects nominally still refuse to yield, but in reality, they dare not act rashly against Xuan Chong, whose “imperial aura has formed,” in the western borderlands.
The “righteous” in Righteous Path is written on their faces, so they cannot lose their righteous facade. The major immortal sects have sent out disciples more than once to lobby the various forces connected to the Wu Family Army in Zhenzhou.
These local magnates entrenched in the regions have also enshrined sects in the past. Local renowned gentry, over generations, have more or less invited these Righteous Path disciples to exorcise evil and avert disasters for their families.
Xuan Chong said to disciples like Wu Juwang: “The sects’ network of relationships is far more complex than you imagine.”
Now the sects are using all their tricks, aiming for the condition of “cease war and make peace” from last time.
But the immortal sects hope Wu Xiao Que will yield, issue a decree of self-blame.
…Xuan Chong: Hahahaha…
On a newly risen Spiritual Mountain west of Zhenzhou, the inscribed text in front of the mountain reads Shu Mountain. A dojo is being established here, as repayment from Xuan Chong to his fellow daoist who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with him in the south. This repayment has stirred jealousy among the major immortal sects.
Bai Renfeng met his friend He Chengda. This knight looked at Bai Renfeng with a trace of doubt on his face.
He: “Now fellow immortals are all saying that you helped Chong Lord obtain an ancient divine weapon.”
Bai Renfeng: “I assisted Lao Guanghou in obtaining an ancient weapon, but whether it is ‘evil’ cannot be defined.”
He: “If you commit evil, I will not forgive you.”
Bai Renfeng stared at him: “Great Chaos Under Heaven, but Daoist Sects as ‘righteous’ always prosper; now for the peace of one city, it would be unfavorable to the Daoist Sects—is this ‘evil’?”
He: “You really intend to?”
Bai Renfeng: “Yes. If you are a petty person, our friendship ends today; but if you are a gentleman, you can come here in the future to transmit an orthodox lineage.”
He nodded upon hearing this: “Alright, different paths, no need for plotting; you and I shall have a duel today.”
With that, he drew his sword. However, Bai Renfeng severed it with one sword strike.
Bai Renfeng looked at him, sighed, and flew on his sword toward Chong Land.
…Approaching a bustling city from the wild mountains…
After meeting Xuan Chong, Bai Renfeng bid farewell without mincing words and took out a lotus seed.
Xuan Chong paused: “Immortal Elder, what is this?”
Bai Renfeng: “I am originally a qi refining cultivator; this item helps me greatly, but having received much from you, my sword intent is unclear.”
Xuan Chong, seeing this, felt deep respect, took back the lotus seed and nodded: “We owe each other nothing. If one day you see me oppressing the people for personal gain, you can strike me without hesitation. Of course, if you consider meat-eaters as ‘people’ and condemn me, I won’t accept it!”
Bai Renfeng: Take care, sir. May we never meet again!
Xuan Chong watched Bai Renfeng fly away into the distance once more and sighed: “A true sword immortal!”
“If I had embarked on the path of cultivating immortality, perhaps I would take him as my role model,” Xuan Chong murmured to himself.
The System abruptly appeared and mocked: “You lack the aptitude, no Dao Heart. Be an honest soldier.”
Hearing these undermining words, Xuan Chong was not annoyed and nodded nonchalantly.
…Entering the Dao does not require seeking immortality…
In May, with the trains officially opening, three high platforms were built in Lelang City. On the platforms, Xuan Chong led the city’s people in a grand heavenly ritual.
Despite mastering the power of man conquering heaven, his own law system for gathering people’s hearts is still the divine right of kings under the Da Yao system.
Thus, after achieving success, he must repay heaven to further strengthen the legitimacy of his future actions.
In his previous life, Xuan Chong mocked other ethnic groups: “I saved you, but you say it’s God’s merit?”
Now Xuan Chong’s logic is similar: “I helped you all save yourselves, but it’s not me who saved you—it’s Heaven’s Will.” Followed by, “Heaven is vigorous, the gentleman strives ceaselessly.”
Way of Heaven belief differs somewhat from narrow monotheism.
Narrow belief: You save him, he credits God; believers make no comment on the savior.
In Way of Heaven belief, when the savior saves the masses, though Heaven pities them, the one who makes Heaven open its eyes is “destined by Heaven,” with evaluation of the savior’s actions.
The savior thus gains Heaven’s Mandate. This is the logic in Eastern culture of “every man responsible for the rise and fall of the world.”
Saving people is “should save” by Heaven’s allowance for goodness, not redeeming original sin.
Without benefits, who would save the world? Only a belief system that designates world-savers as bearing Heaven’s Mandate can inspire heroic blood.
Xuan Chong: “In this regard, no ethnic group in the previous life was more devout than the Easterners. The West mocks God, thinking God can’t control them; but in the East, once the world stabilizes, basically all Zhuxia people firmly believe the one who stabilized heaven and earth is ‘destined by Heaven’.”
Since ancient times, Zhuxia people have made no guesses about Heaven’s good and evil. Like the Yellow River’s twists, no matter how unreasonable, it must be endured. If one day someone straightens Heaven’s chaos, making the Yellow River’s mother obedient, that is destined by Heaven.
In the heavenly ritual, Chong Land’s households devoutly followed Xuan Chong in kowtowing and praying to Heaven.
Xuan Chong of Fengtian pacification wore more formal attire than before. After reciting the invocation, Xuan Chong was coated with a layer of “divinity”.
Even descending from the altar, Chong Land’s people looked at Xuan Chong with reverence for a sage.
Xuan Chong summarized: In the process of civilization development, a nation or social group needs a revered core.
After the ceremony, per ritual requirements, Xuan Chong shot an arrow scripture toward what he deemed disloyal directions. Per the ritual, this takes state altars as base, people as platform, using divine weapon to suppress four directions’ evil spirits.
Xuan Chong said to his attendants: “These corrupt cults always cause trouble, so they can’t blame me.”
Xuan Chong’s plan: Stabilize the people here, then cut off the immortal sects’ mass base; afterward, use the tech weapons just obtained to bombard the immortal sects, with ordinary people watching gleefully.
But Xuan Chong overlooked the power of the Human Realm’s Dao in this world.
…When people unleash killing intent, heaven and earth overturn…
In Wangheng Sect, ordinary cultivators stabilizing the magic array watched as sect members placed spirit stones at nodes one by one, puzzled.
Though various demons often appeared at the mountain base now, they were eliminated by fellow disciples as soon as they neared the gate.
Why repair the magic array now?
These Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators were still unaware of the power of the mortal world killing tribulation.
At the sect’s main peak hall, the Sect Master summoned the second generation disciple who failed to block at Chi You Mountain days ago, asking: “Are you certain the General Who Pacifies the South truly obtained that ancient divine weapon?”
This second generation disciple was the old man who confronted Xuan Chong, was captured, then released. He said bitterly: “This military strategist obtained the ancient evil weapon, that’s absolutely true. As for ‘letting us return to the sect’, perhaps he still has a trace of conscience?”
The Sect Master looked up at the dense killing intent clouds in the sky and smiled bitterly: “Conscience? This one has seized Heaven’s heart; our great mistake is cast, sin unforgivable.”
The Wangheng Sect Sect Master now realized he might have been calculated by some behind-the-scenes black hand.
His group of immortal sects confidently thought they found a way to control one state’s Human Realm Dao in chaotic times; but now they are rejected by the Human Realm Dao.
The eight immortal sect gates are now all shrouded in Human Realm killing intent, and as the rolling killing intent battered the gates, the major sects prepared to seal the mountains for centuries, only to discover in horror that beneath their mountains, blue flames had hollowed them out. If they sealed the gates to isolate the mortal world killing intent, their mountains would be uprooted by the Evil Moon in the Sky.
The Sect Master looked at the nearby Heaven’s Mechanism Peak Master who had gone mad from Yao Calculation. Before going mad, his last words were: “Heaven’s mechanism is shielded; this land’s Human Realm Dao is guided by one with great auspicious qi! Our series of sects have become stepping stones for this king to gather people’s hearts auspicious qi.”
Now mad, with eyes burned blind by blue flames, he repeatedly muttered: “It’s all a conspiracy, black hand, black hand!”
Of course there is a black hand; the black hand in Yao Capital began setting up the major sects step by step with the “pill meeting” as pretext.
And laughably, the major immortal sects, who always avoid the mortal world, feared after the “Inviting Heaven Ridge” incident and dared not seal their mountains, proactively seeking solutions in the mortal world—only to fall into others’ traps!
But is this black hand faring well himself?
…Xi Ren Realm: All have a share…
In Yao Capital, Xian Daoren had just escaped a disaster where he nearly mutated into a chaos egg (similar to biochemical crisis villains’ final big meat blob form), then clutched his chest.
Xian Daoren has a fine figure; if Xuan Chong were to comment, his appearance resembles Sephiroth from a previous life game—truly an incubus. His now pale skin was covered in golden lines, locking down those blue powers.
Xian Daoren did not turn into an idiot in the mutation, but large amounts of knowledge systems in his memory were updated and shielded.
The long-lost feeling of “ignorance” made him extremely unadapted, but compared to nearly turning into chaos amid endless knowledge, Xian Daoren bit his tongue to stop thinking too much for now.
As Xian Daoren began looking for clothes to wear, the notebook in front suddenly flipped pages automatically. He paused, remembering he was still controlling some plans.
He then opened the Yao calculation board, performed Yao calculation on the major sects and Wu Fei’s situations, and rarely showed fear on his face.
Though the Evil Moon firmly gripped the major immortal sect mountains from the horizon, he sensed something even more terrifying pressing on the lands of Zhenzhou, Lingnan, Longyou, and Yongzhou.
The major immortal sects’ faintly detaching scene was more like pimples about to be squeezed out from the edges in this powerful existence’s process of pressing mountains and rivers!
Qing Bao Dao Venerable’s belief, under Xuan Chong’s rule, had its remaining traces completely eradicated.
Xian Daoren opened his third eye, glanced west, and the eye was immediately covered in gold, unable to close, then smoked.
The belief of scattered mortals, firmly gathered in one place, is extremely terrifying. This belief will ignite horrific “spiritual energy” flames, bearable only by deities.
Xian Daoren suddenly broke through a memory barrier, perhaps deliberately released by the golden power. The purpose was to mock him and the Qing Bao Dao Venerable behind him.
This strand of information: Xi Ren Realm is special compared to other planets; individually, Xi Ren Realm mortals are like those in other worlds, but at the group level of tens of thousands, the collective belief formed by Xi Ren Realm people is utterly different from other planets’ ethnic groups.
Other planets’ mortal beliefs may require dozens of planets’ joint worship to achieve deity status; Xi Ren Realm can produce ten thousand gods from a single planet alone.
This is why a failed transmigrator like Xian Daoren still received favor and blessing from the blue Evil Moon “Qing Bao Dao Venerable”. Xian Daoren had used “transforming Fuxi Realm” as chip to exchange for the blue blessing.
Interestingly, Xian Daoren himself had “forgotten” this key information, unclear on his past deal with Qing Bao Dao Venerable, but now it was directly “history information restored” by the golden outer god.
Xian Daoren now cast Water Mirror Technique, watching the “unlucky egg” thousands of miles away bearing deity belief power; but his mouth gaped. In the third eye restructured by golden power, the person at the center of Xi Ren Realm’s vast divine belief spiritual energy was completely fine.
Now Xian Daoren realized Xuan Chong was not merely “hard to corrupt” as he thought, but “conceptually incorruptible”.
The belief power now coalescing in Xi Ren Realm could corrupt any mortal hero at the scale of equivalent Evil Moon projection blessings; yet Xuan Chong remained clear-headed, even shaking his leg when no one was around.
“Why, why does he bear the boon without any cost!” Xian Daoren watched Xuan Chong absorb “divine power” like a bottomless sea and roared unwillingly.
…System: In school settings, no feudal superstition allowed…
“We are all sharpshooters, every bullet eliminates an enemy,” Xuan Chong sang while shaking his leg.
Last Monday, he had just given a batch of rare earth steel raw materials to the Chi You warship. The ship’s spirit activated the production line, producing one hundred electromagnetic cannon projectiles. Through space transmission, he clicked download, and the ammunition entered his backpack in personal space folding.
Xuan Chong now deployed his personal mecha, charging and loading the electromagnetic cannon, preparing to fire.
Xuan Chong planned to target the immortal sects over one or two thousand kilometers away! But what can an electromagnetic cannon do to immortal sects?
Xuan Chong did not feel he could blow these sects away, viewing his actions as mere “effective warning”.
Their sect gates are entire mountains, and his electromagnetic cannon wasn’t firing nuclear warheads.—Xuan Chong specifically asked the mecha’s AI (spirit) to ensure only conventional projectiles.
Xuan Chong now fired a few shots casually, like using a slingshot on birds. Imagining immortal sect disciples needing defensive magic tools just to go out the door daily, Xuan Chong smirked mischievously.
Thus, Xuan Chong stood before the high platform, deployed Chi You mecha, and the electronic horn rebuked the sky: “You block the sky and sun, cutting off the path to the Dao for all beings—punishable by death!”
Then publicly picked up the “Heaven-Shaking Bow”—Xuan Chong called the electromagnetic cannon “Heaven-Shaking Bow”; the people passed it by word of mouth: “Oh, so divine weapons look like this!”
However, Xuan Chong did not know his scolding, seemingly rebuking the immortal sects, was actually a “decree”; all Chong Land city gods repeated Xuan Chong’s words, like “big leader speaks, subordinates study and report”.
In the courtyard, Yang Sanniang said to the Wu Lu in her arms: “That ‘cloud’ in the sky does not represent the Way of Heaven. Those ‘clouds’ block your father’s view; now your father will shoot down those ‘clouds’.”
