The Allure of Industrialization

He silently recorded Taiheng Sect's methods.

He did not know whether he would become enemies with Taiheng Sect in the future. If they did, this information would be excellent ammunition.

"Continue recording every lesson, and upgrade the Black Tortoise Breath Concealment Technique based on the course content."

"Also, wait, there's already this much information?"

Yang Ning stared at the ever-growing directories in the database, momentarily dumbfounded.

1: Haiyun Pill Refining Arts

2: Haiyun Artifact Forging Arts

3: Haiyun Metallurgy Arts

4: Haiyun Woodworking Arts

5: Haiyun Textile Science

6: Haiyun Architecture Science

7: Cultivation Technique Translation

The list was so long that he could not scroll to the end!

He opened Haiyun Pill Refining Arts, only to find hundreds more folders named after pills.

Blood Essence Pill, Cloud Quench Pill, Phoenix Blood Pill, Dragon Marrow Pill, Bear Bone Pill.

"What are these?" Yang Ning asked.

"These are the standard pill-refining methods learned within Seacloud City!" Deep Blue said as she unfolded countless screens before Yang Ning.

On the screens were tens of thousands of people in different clothes and locations, yet all doing the same thing.

They were all refining pills!

"These are Seacloud City's Pill Refining Masters?" Yang Ning asked. "And students at Ascension Academy studying pill refinement as well?"

"That's right!" Deep Blue explained. "The Cultivation World classifies Pill Refining Masters into Mortal, Spirit, Treasure, Dao, and Immortal Grade Alchemists according to the grade of pills they can refine. Seacloud City has fourteen Spirit Grade Alchemists and eighty-six thousand Mortal Grade Alchemists. These eighty thousand alchemists refine pills day and night. Their pill-refining scenes and techniques have all been recorded and compiled into this database!"

"This is exactly how it should be!" Yang Ning exclaimed. "This is the function the Cloud-Mist Information Matrix ought to have—or rather, the function the Spirit Realm ought to have!"

He had long understood the Spirit Realm's immense capabilities over the past dozen years. Not only could it learn knowledge, it could also integrate and synthesize that knowledge according to Yang Ning's demands.

But where had he spent the first dozen years of his life? The Yue Kingdom!

It was a feudal dynasty where technical information barely existed. The Spirit Realm could only be used to organize the knowledge already in Yang Ning's mind, along with various literary classics, to make the imperial examinations easier for him.

Studying that sort of thing year after year was like buying a supercomputer only to use it for a tile-matching game.

The Spirit Realm had never come close to displaying its full capabilities. Even Yang Ning himself, after more than a decade of habit, had forgotten what the Spirit Realm was truly capable of.

It was not until he developed the Cloud-Mist Information Matrix and combined it with Seacloud City, a city with advanced cultivation technology, that the Spirit Realm's abilities to collect, classify, and organize were truly brought into play!

"Can you refine pills with AI now?" Yang Ning thought of AI chess and AI painting from his past life. Compared to those, AI pill refinement should be easier, because it was highly repetitive work. If machines replaced people, the process would be even more precise.

"Mortal Grade third- and fourth-layer pills can be directly refined!" Deep Blue replied. "Pills above the fifth Mortal Grade layer require deep involvement from qi and blood!"

"Then we need to first decipher the principles behind the Qi and Blood Field's involvement in pill refinement!" Yang Ning said. "Or simulate the Qi and Blood Field with machines! That shouldn't be difficult, right?"

After all, the Qi and Blood Field was merely a field generated by liquid rushing at high speed through blood vessels. Wouldn't artificial blood vessels, artificial hearts, and artificial blood be enough?

"There is no need to make things so complicated. The Qi and Blood Field is not even as effective as sound waves!" Deep Blue said. "We can use ultrasound to replace the Qi and Blood Field!"

"That works too?" Yang Ning asked. "Then what about Mortal Grade ninth- and tenth-layer pills?"

"Mortal Grade ninth- and tenth-layer pills also require spiritual will!" Deep Blue displayed an image. It showed a heavily muscled Pill Refining Master who looked like a warrior. Facing a batch of pills, he assumed a fierce pouncing stance and let out a roar.

"That's the tiger form of the Twelve Divine Forms!" Yang Ning recognized it. "What pill is he refining?"

"Mortal Grade ninth-layer pill: Tiger Soul Pill!"

"This can't be artificially produced either?" Yang Ning asked.

"No. The manifestation of spiritual will is similar to Electromagnetic Waves, so Electromagnetic Waves can replace it!!" Deep Blue said.

The Qi and Blood Field of lower realms could be imitated with ultrasound, while the spiritual power of higher realms could be imitated with Electromagnetic Waves.

"In other words, you can mass-produce Mortal Grade pills now!"

"Not only that!" Deep Blue said. "Although pills for the Eighth Level of Body Refinement and below use extraordinary power in their refinement, the finished products contain no extraordinary power. As long as we analyze the finished products and identify the active ingredients in the pills, they can be mass-produced through chemical synthesis!"

Good grief, you came to the cultivation world to test formulas and drugs?

Yet Yang Ning thought this was an excellent approach. Science ought to work this way.

If he followed the locals' methods, purchasing raw materials in bulk would definitely draw suspicion.

But if he produced them through chemical synthesis, he could evade others' notice and keep himself well hidden.

Moreover, chemical synthesis could drastically reduce production costs and increase output.

Yang Ning immediately placed orders through his phone for pills from the Body Tempering Triple Layer through the Eighth Level of Body Refinement.

They were expensive, but Yang Ning was not buying much—just one of each.

With modern pharmacological analysis, even a speck of powder could reveal its composition, much less a whole large pill.

As for ninth- and tenth-level Body Refinement pills, they were valuable yet unavailable. He could not snatch any up for the moment, and Yang Ning could not afford them anyway.

Yang Ning then turned to the knowledge concerning artifact forging.

Seacloud City had even more Artifact Forging Masters—more than three hundred thousand of them.

First, Artifact Forging Masters were easier to train than Pill Refining Masters. Second, the Haiyun Army had two hundred thousand soldiers, and the military equipment and supplies it required every year came in staggering quantities. With such a large market, naturally there were many practitioners.

Weapons also lacked the dazzling variety of pills. They only came in four grades—low, middle, high, and supreme. The forging methods for each grade were largely the same; only the finished products looked different.

Thus, one could see perhaps tens of thousands of Artifact Forging Masters producing the exact same item.

Better yet, the Qi and Blood Field did not need to participate in the artifact-forging process.

Its sole contribution throughout the entire forging process was providing strength.

And before a ten-thousand-ton hydraulic press, that bit of strength was not worth mentioning!

What Deep Blue liked most were creations with vast numbers of samples that required no special abilities.

She recorded the scenes of tens of thousands of people forging artifacts, then integrated and analyzed them to find the most standardized forging process.

Following Deep Blue's requirements, Yang Ning designed a production line. Once the raw materials were loaded and the power connected, the line started up, and an endless stream of Low-grade Mortal Artifacts could be produced!

"One production line can make 540 swords per hour. If it runs without stopping for twenty-four hours, it can make 12,960 swords. That comes to 4.72 million a year!"

"And Seacloud City's daily artifact production is less than sixty thousand. If I set up six production lines, I can replace all three hundred thousand Artifact Forging Masters in Seacloud City!"

"And this is only a crude production line!"

Yang Ning had always known the term industrialization, and he understood the concept that science and technology were the primary productive force. But industrialization had long been completed in the era he lived in, and without ancient society as a comparison, he had never truly felt it.

Only after calculating it himself today did he finally feel that shock!

This was the allure of industrialization!

"But I can't purchase raw materials in bulk, I have nowhere to produce them, and I have no way to ship them out in large quantities!" The Bei Family had merely developed a kind of Crimson Flame Steel, yet it had immediately been jointly suppressed by the Eight Great Mine Merchants.

Yang Ning did not dare imagine what would happen if he unveiled a factory with a daily output of sixty thousand.

"I need people loyal to me, and territory of my own." Yang Ning waved his hand, spreading out a map of Seacloud City, then looked beyond the dam.

There lay a vast expanse of azure sea!