Industrialization

"Reporting to the Celestial Venerable, the Spiritual Energy Etching developed by the Research Institute has been successfully validated and is ready for widespread application."

An elderly man dressed in modern clothing stood beneath the Dao Seeking Stone, reporting his findings to Lu Bai with barely concealed excitement.

"It was actually made by Spiritual Energy Etching first?"

Lu Bai raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised.

Incidentally, in the process of implementing the law, he also set up an additional Research Institute, recruiting some cultivators who specialized in puppetry and mechanisms to research machines that mortals could also use.

The reason is simple: he knew very well that no matter how strict or lenient the laws he enacted were, the order he established would inevitably perish once he was gone.

So we have to do something else.

For example, increasing productivity is a viable direction.

However, he didn't make too many demands. He mainly provided the Research Institute with some ideas, such as directions like Steam Engine and Internal Combustion Engine.

Unfortunately, the popularization of science and technology requires not only technology, but also, more importantly, accumulation and the liberation of thought, so that the public can develop basic scientific literacy.

It's not as simple as it seems.

If he hadn't been so powerful as to suppress Xuanzhou, he would probably have died a violent death long ago.

It should be noted that high-level cultivators can live for thousands or even tens of thousands of years, and the history of the Cultivation World is so ancient that it can be traced back to the prehistoric era.

The fact that so much time has passed without significant changes in society itself implies that the cultivators do not wish to make any changes.

With the skills of a monk, manufacturing machinery is a piece of cake.

Don't they realize that providing machines to ordinary people can increase output?

The answer is, of course, no.

However, the monks saw no need to do so.

Mortals are like chives; once harvested, they grow back. Their value to cultivators is merely to serve as servants and provide Immortal Seedling for immortality.

War, plague, natural disasters, man-made calamities, and even the massacres by Demonic Cultivator are all insignificant to the major immortal sects, as long as they are not all killed.

Enlightening mortals is considered an unstable factor by cultivators, let alone researching machines specifically for mortal use.

In this situation, over endless years, mortals can only survive and continue in the most ancient way.

Ordinary peoples have never even had a state or government; in terms of social development, they still belong to the category of slavery.

If Lu Bai wants to elevate the status of mortals, besides resorting to bloodshed, he naturally needs to find ways to increase their productivity.

"Uh... Your Majesty, it's not like that. In fact, the technical difficulties of the Steam Engine and Internal Combustion Engine have already been overcome, and we have also made some progress in Electric Energy and Nuclear Energy, but..."

The old man, the sect leader of the Immortal Puppet Sect and vice Research Institute, explained with a slight hesitation, "... According to the experimental results, the efficiency of this type of new energy machinery is far inferior to that of Spiritual Energy Etching machinery."

As the Research Institute spoke, he took out a detailed experimental report and presented it to Lu Bai.

Lu Bai glanced at him; he had no doubt about the intelligence of these old fogies.

Even in the face of unprecedented upheaval, they could vaguely deduce from past experience that granting mortals scientific and technological knowledge would definitely affect the stable position of cultivators.

However, faced with Lu Bai's overwhelming power, these immortal sects dared not stand up in opposition, and could only find fault with him in some minor ways.

Take, for example, research on energy.

On the surface, their actions seem reasonable.

In terms of both development prospects and effectiveness, Spiritual Energy Etching undoubtedly surpasses other energy sources.

There is only one problem: Spiritual Energy Etching can only be used by mortals, not created independently.

Based on this, Lu Bai didn't bother to discuss it with them and calmly asked in return, "Can mortals learn the craft?"

The vice dean paused for a moment, then said cautiously, "With the careful guidance of us researchers, perhaps..."

"Let's continue researching Spiritual Energy Etching until we have further results. First, let's spread the knowledge about the other types of energy machinery."

"This..."

"Is there a problem?" Lu Bai asked with an innocent smile.

The vice dean involuntarily trembled slightly and hurriedly said, "No, no, no, there's no problem."

Three months later.

Wearing the Qingwang Sect robe, Lu Bai silently landed at the city gate of a large city and easily blended into the crowd queuing to enter the city.

There were no soldiers or monks guarding the city gates; only four registration staff were responsible for recording the information of people entering and leaving the city.

Carriages and pedestrians came and went freely, and the noise of people created a lively and bustling atmosphere.

He stood in the queue and scanned the crowd. He could tell that these people, dressed in tight-fitting, fine-textured clothing, had no cultivation and were just ordinary people.

In his memory, when Lu Bai first came to this world of cultivation, the mortals he saw were all wearing linen clothes.

Clothing, food, housing, and transportation—just considering clothing alone, one can see that the quality of life for ordinary people is far superior.

It's worth mentioning that almost all the carriages in the queue were mechanical structures. If you scanned the bottom of the carriages with your divine sense, you would find exposed bearings, differentials, and other components. The rear of the carriages was also spewing out thick smoke.

In Lu Bai's view, the overall design had a rather absurd steampunk feel, and he was quite puzzled as to why there was a horse tied to the front in front of it.

Before long, the roar of Internal Combustion Engine Train could be heard from the other side of the city; a special train carrying supplies was passing through the city.

After all, this is a world where cultivators exist. If one is willing to set aside pride, the construction speed can be much faster than that of various large-scale machines.

Thick smoke billowed from the locomotive drifted into the sky above the city and then gradually dissipated.

Under Lu Bai's deliberate intervention, the Cultivation World's pace of industrialization wasn't just running, it was like riding a rocket.

Ordinary people naturally don't have any concept of environmental pollution. With the improvement of living standards, this thick smoke is actually seen as a symbol of industrial progress by ordinary people.

The thought that their own city is developing better than the neighboring city makes city dwellers stand up proudly.

Moreover, the labor law is clearly written in the Lu's Law, and the history of the exploitation and oppression of the lower classes before industrialization in the real world has not been repeated in the Cultivation World.

Advanced and rapidly developing productivity, combined with a strict regulatory system that leaves no room for compromise, fills countless ordinary people with anticipation for the future.

If you randomly ask someone on the street, they'll probably all say with anticipation that better days are yet to come.

Lu Bai stepped into the city, his divine sense sweeping across the city in an instant. In the end, it was still too early, the blood on the execution platform was still hot, and for the time being, no one dared to violate the law.

In those remote and secluded corners, you won't even see a beggar, let alone find anything illegal or disorderly.