Yet Xu Mochen simply produced one of the latest inventions and offered a line of reasoning that silenced them all. First, he presented a newly developed drug and shared a shocking piece of news with everyone: the new drug was called the "Soul Power Awakening Agent." It stimulated the potential of the spiritual-body genes within a person, giving ordinary people a one-in-ten chance of gaining the ability to cultivate Soul Power and become Soul Masters!
Even those who became Soul Masters through this method would almost certainly never reach level 40 in their lifetimes. Reaching level 20 or 30 would already mean the drug had worked well. Moreover, all the drug could do was stimulate the potential of the spiritual-body genes, giving a Trash Martial Soul greater ability to purify and absorb Soul Power from the outside world. It could not change the Trash Martial Soul's inherently inferior quality.
So even if people gained the ability to cultivate this way, the improvement to their strength would be limited. Their combat prowess might not even match that of a low-level Battle Soul Master with the same cultivation. After all, the other person's Martial Soul, no matter how poor, could still be cultivated, and its quality would certainly surpass that of someone with a Trash Martial Soul who had become a Soul Master through external means.
Though the drug still had plenty of shortcomings, it had nevertheless left everyone present completely stunned!
This was something that could turn ordinary people into Soul Masters! Even if the odds were low, and its effects were limited, it was still an unbelievable, world-changing invention!
The entire Sun Moon Empire had only a little over seven hundred thousand Soul Masters, less than one in two hundred of its total population. And more than 99 percent of them were Soul Masters below level 60, with unimpressive Martial Souls!
If the drug were widely distributed, it would mean that more than one-tenth of the Sun Moon Empire's population could become Soul Masters! Their numbers would soar to an astonishing fifteen million or more! This would not merely be a qualitative change for the Sun Moon Empire. For the powerful family groups and military forces involved in Soul Tool production, it would also mean a new supply of highly capable talent.
For the great family groups, although Soul Masters had to make the core components of many standard Soul Tools, there were no requirements for the quality of a Soul Engineer's Martial Soul. Most core components also required little Soul Power.
As for the military, it did not matter much if a Martial Soul was of poor quality. The Sun Moon Empire was nothing like Douluo Continent. On Douluo Continent, where Martial Souls determined combat prowess, Soul Masters of this sort might be less useful than ordinary elite soldiers who were well-equipped and rigorously trained. But in the Sun Moon Empire, with its advanced Soul Guidance Technology, things were entirely different!
For the Sun Moon Empire's military, a Martial Soul's innate deficiencies could be made up for by equipping soldiers with Soul Guidance Weapons that consumed little Soul Power! In fact, with good equipment and proper training, they could even prove more useful on the battlefield than most unequipped Soul Masters of the same level whose Martial Souls were similarly mediocre!
And though some of the Sun Moon Empire's current Soul Guidance Weapons could be used without Soul Power, their effects were certainly inferior to those of true Soul Tool weapons and equipment that required only a small amount of Soul Power.
Faced with the exaggerated reactions of everyone present, Xu Mochen simply smiled and said that the drug had already passed all three phases of testing and was fully qualified for mass production. Then he posed another question: if this drug became widespread across the Sun Moon Empire in the future, would the current number of Soul Beasts be enough to serve all its Soul Masters?
Even if there were enough now, what about when the Sun Moon Empire's population kept growing and this kind of genetic biotechnology continued to improve, causing Soul Master numbers to surge as well? Even if they raised Soul Beasts by the millions, could their rate of reproduction truly keep pace with the rate at which they were consumed?
And there was something else, everyone. You have only considered the number of Soul Beasts killed to obtain Soul Rings. Have you considered how many die for other reasons? For instance, how many die fighting one another, how many perish in accidents, how many are killed by Soul Masters acting in self-defense in the forests, and how many are hunted for valuable resources out of greed? All of this adds to the toll.
This barrage of questions plunged the people of the Sun Moon Empire into thought. They began calculating in silence, and soon their expressions turned grim.
The four great Soul Beast forests of the Sun Moon Empire, together with the artificial Soul Beast forests scattered throughout the country, held well over several billion Soul Beasts. That might seem like an enormous number—more than a dozen times the empire's population. But if things continued at this rate, it would take less than five years for the number of Soul Masters to reach tens of millions.
If they kept pursuing this kind of unchecked growth, the Soul Beasts would be extinct in seventy or eighty years!
Of course, people were aware that there were also Soul Beasts in the ocean. But even though the Sun Moon Empire's maritime technology had advanced over the past few thousand years, and it had built more than a dozen ironclad steamships of several thousand tons in recent years, everyone still felt an instinctive fear of the vast, unknown, and dangerous sea. The mystery and terror of marine Soul Beasts far surpassed that of their land-dwelling counterparts, and many people of the Sun Moon Empire saw the ocean's storms and tsunamis as the wrath of the gods!
Therefore, no one could guarantee that the Sun Moon Empire would be able to conquer the oceans within three hundred years, let alone hunt the marine Soul Beasts needed to supply hundreds of millions of Soul Masters.
Only then did they suddenly realize that improving and advancing Artificial Soul Ring technology had become an urgent necessity! The various factions immediately began supporting its development, and many even asked to join the relevant research projects.
On this matter, Xu Mochen did not keep anything up his sleeve. He readily agreed to the requests of many factions and applied for the legislative council to introduce laws that would support and regulate the research and production of related products, with all parties participating in their implementation to prevent any one group from monopolizing the technology.
The proposal received unanimous approval from the imperial legislative council and earned praise from countless influential figures across the empire. After all, if Xu Mochen had wanted to, he could have kept the technology secret and waited until the Sun Moon Empire faced a shortage of Soul Beasts before having the Sun Moon Royal Group monopolize it. That would have let him seize complete control over the lifeblood of Soul Master cultivation and rake in a fortune.
Though the Sun Moon Empire had antitrust laws and Patent Law, the regulations stated that once a new technology had been registered, its owner could enjoy thirty years of patent protection. That meant the Sun Moon Royal Group could have held a monopoly on this technology for three decades! The profits it could have brought the group over those thirty years were beyond imagination.
Yet in the face of such tempting rewards, Xu Mochen had put the overall interests of the Sun Moon Empire first. Not only was he willing to share the technology, he had even taken the initiative to ask the government to regulate it!
This made the twelve-year-old boy loom much larger in the eyes of the gathered power brokers. If the newspapers reported the story, there was no doubt Xu Mochen's reputation among the people would rise to unimaginable heights!
Combined with his astonishing contributions in other fields, there was no question that even though Xu Mochen had not yet formally ascended the throne, in the hearts of the vast majority of the Sun Moon Empire's people, he was already its undisputed emperor.
As the development report and work review meeting drew to a close, Xu Mochen also reminded everyone present to remain humble and vigilant at all times, to ensure the Sun Moon Empire's development did not go astray.
In truth, Xu Mochen had already keenly noticed that the Sun Moon Empire's leaps forward in every industry over the past few years, and the countless thrilling developments, had led everyone—from the major figures in every field to ordinary people—to become blindly optimistic. The surging tide of industrialization, rapid technological progress, vibrant artistic innovation, and an insatiable appetite for consumption! Many people were even naively demanding that the government loosen commercial regulation and market intervention, letting the market economy develop freely, without restraint.
Everyone was lost in a beautiful dream, convinced that this prosperity and rapid growth would continue forever. Little did they know that Xu Mochen could see many hidden, deep-rooted dangers within it. Those dangers might not erupt for another decade, but if they did, the consequences for the Sun Moon Empire would be catastrophic.
Xu Mochen wanted to explain his concerns to everyone in detail, but when he saw the gathered leaders sitting there with their self-assured, blindly optimistic expressions, he knew that no matter how much he said, they would probably dismiss it as alarmism. So he decided against taking drastic measures to intervene and instead made preparations by other means, waiting until the crisis fully erupted before stepping in to turn the tide.
After all, people needed to learn a few hard lessons before they began truly examining themselves. The occasional crushing setback could also serve as a warning and help guide the Sun Moon Empire's future development.
In addition, Xu Mochen announced another major event. It once again made the atmosphere tense just as everyone had begun to relax: according to a resolution by the Sun Moon Empire's legislative council, preparations would finally begin for advanced seafaring vessels, provisions and personnel for the voyage. In one month, they would set sail to begin a formal expedition eastward, hoping to find the "Douluo Continent" Xu Mochen had spoken of.
What caught the great figures of the Sun Moon Empire even more off guard was that the Crown Prince himself wanted to join the voyage! He intended to visit that so-called Douluo Continent!
A deathly silence fell over the entire hall. Everyone stared at Xu Mochen, who remained utterly calm, with disbelieving eyes. Then, without a doubt, many influential figures from different industries leaped to object. Of course, they were not opposed to the expedition east. They objected to the Crown Prince putting himself in danger!
After all, the Crown Prince was far too important to the development of the Sun Moon Empire! And his status was exalted! If anything happened to him, the entire Sun Moon Empire would likely be plunged into turmoil. Its industries, which had only just begun to develop at a rapid pace, might suffer a devastating blow!
Among the most vehement objectors were Kong Dehan, Xu Yuanding, Ye Xingyun, and others close to Xu Mochen or the imperial family. Ye Xingyun even declared openly that if the Crown Prince truly intended to put himself in danger, he would have to step over his dead body first!
After all, the Sun Moon Empire's maritime industry was still far from advanced, and its ability to withstand the many dangers of the sea remained weak. That meant that if Xu Mochen went along with the fleet, the risks he would face were beyond imagination!
Before you continue