Wind Through the Wheat Fields. Please Keep Reading! Please Vote!

Inside the Technology Guild's small workshop, Chen Hong quickly assembled the world's first underage version of the Soul-Powered Motorcycle right in front of Ye Lingling.

The Soul-Powered Motorcycle already had all its parts, so Chen Hong only needed to carry out the final adjustments. Ye Lingling's arrival merely sped up the process.

After a year of development, the Technology Guild had gradually overcome rubber technology and spring steel technology, while Soul-Powered Cars had also begun diversifying. Because the Technology Guild's products carried such high technological value, and because it continuously invested its earnings into road construction, the Balak Kingdom showed it great tolerance. In just one year, the Technology Guild had independently built more than two hundred kilometers of hardened cement roads for the Balak Kingdom, becoming the largest guild in Suotuo City.

Chen Lin, president of the Technology Guild, had also begun to gain a modest reputation within the Balak Kingdom and even the Heaven Dou Empire.

Given the Soul Engine's high added product value, the Heaven Dou Empire, led by First Prince Xue Qinghe, established the Heaven Dou Soul Guidance Guild. They began researching and producing their own Soul Engines based on the original Soul Engine blueprints, then imitated the mechanical structures by dismantling Soul Guidance Trucks to manufacture Heaven Dou Brand Soul-Powered Trucks. After a year of trial and error, they finally began gradually setting up a Production Line and turning a profit.

Meanwhile, the Star Luo Empire refused to be outdone. It purchased the blueprints from Spirit Hall at a high price and spent more than half a year before successfully producing its first Star Luo Brand Soul-Powered Truck.

However, compared to the Technology Guild's more mature Production Line and core technologies, the two nations' Soul-Powered Trucks were at a complete disadvantage in cost, quality, and price. Yet because the Technology Guild's production capacity was limited, and because it poured most of its profits into road construction with no visible returns instead of endlessly expanding Soul-Powered Truck production, the two nations' trucks remained deeply popular among Spirit Master nobles despite their questionable quality and higher manufacturing costs. The two national guilds made a fortune as a result.

It was worth mentioning that neither the Heaven Dou Empire nor the Star Luo Empire currently intended to build roads as recklessly as the Technology Guild. Capital's pursuit of profit led the Two Great Empires to continue using their old hardened official roads.

"Roads are still usable, aren't they? Remote settlements cost so much money and bring no returns whatsoever. Why build roads there?"

"Doesn't that Technology Guild enjoy building roads? Then let them build them. When they reach our territory, can't we just offer them a little convenience?"

"Keeping the main roads clear is the most economical approach. As for those minor side roads, it's enough if they can be used."

"We've calculated the costs. The Technology Guild's cement costs have been falling, while its production capacity has been increasing. Aside from buying some for housing construction, using it for roads is still far too extravagant. It would take a century to recoup the costs. If too much money is tied up in road construction, the national treasury will be threatened, and hostile powers may begin stirring."

These were the views and assessments held by most people within the Heaven Dou Empire and Star Luo Empire. It was not that they failed to see the benefits of hardened cement roads; rather, the benefits they saw did not align with the risks they had to bear. Given the need to weigh both internal troubles and external threats, the Two Great Empires competed with the Technology Guild for the Soul-Powered Truck market while leaving all road construction work to the Technology Guild.

Moreover, the Two Great Empires reached a certain agreement with the Technology Guild. Regions throughout their territories would strongly support the Infrastructure Department's road construction and provide it with conveniences to speed up its work, but the Technology Guild would have to shoulder the bulk of the costs.

As for Suotuo City, the already prosperous city became even more flourishing over the past year, showing faint signs of becoming the greatest city in the southern Heaven Dou Empire. As the starting point of the Technology Guild's road construction, the road-hardening rate around Suotuo City had reached seventy percent. It also had a hardened cement road leading directly to Barak City, reducing the journey between the two places from nearly a week by carriage to a single day, greatly strengthening economic exchanges between Suotuo City and Barak City.

It was said that the Balak Kingdom was preparing to grant Chen Lin, president of the Technology Guild, a noble title. Once the details were finalized internally, they would be sent to the Heaven Dou imperial capital for the Heaven Dou Emperor to personally confer the title.

A new profession had also emerged between Suotuo City and Barak City: passenger transport. It was created by the Technology Guild's Operations Department, which rented out expensive Soul-Powered Trucks to local Spirit Masters and turned them into draft-horse drivers, transporting Spirit Masters and commoners traveling between the two places.

There were many similar professions. According to incomplete statistics from the Suotuo City Lord's Mansion, in a single year, the Technology Guild had created nearly twenty new types of jobs around the city, driven Suotuo City's economic prosperity, and directly or indirectly provided more than fifty thousand jobs for the city.

Outsiders found it difficult to directly perceive Suotuo City's changes. They could only use their limited imaginations, guided by the amazed tones of traveling merchants, to guess at what Suotuo City looked like now. Only local residents could deeply realize how the Technology Guild, which had consistently done practical work, was visibly transforming the daily lives of local Spirit Masters and commoners.

In just one year, the Technology Guild had annexed and absorbed the city's Blacksmith Guild, forcing other guilds with overlapping industries to become subordinate raw-material suppliers and links in the Technology Guild's industrial chain.

At first, no one cared about the emergence of the Technology Guild. Then it took another path for Soul Tools, and its technological nature of limitless replication and expansion was turning it into a living wonder of Douluo Continent.

Suotuo City had originally stood upon the Lima Great Plains, the southern granary of the Heaven Dou Empire. With the support of Soul-Powered Trucks and hardened cement roads, Suotuo City's grain cultivation area continued to expand. There were even rumors in the markets that the Technology Guild intended to establish a Ministry of Agriculture to optimize and improve crop seeds. If that news was true, what an exhilarating development it would be!

Buzz—

Beneath blue skies and white clouds, amid golden waves of wheat, strips of snow-white road encircled the fields and stretched between grasslands and mountains.

A breeze filled with the fragrance of rice fields lifted the young man's tousled hair, carrying a faint scent of sunlight. Amid the hum of the Soul-Powered Motorcycle's engine, it brushed against the delicate tip of the girl's nose behind him.

Blue skies and wheat fields, the young man and the broad road, the breeze and sunlight were reflected in the girl's pale violet eyes.

The Soul-Powered Motorcycle rode through the waves of wheat. The hardworking people instinctively looked up, then smiled and waved to the young master of the Technology Guild.

Was this the world you wanted to change?

The girl gently wrapped her arms around the young man's waist, then rested her head against his back.

She listened to the hum of the Soul Engine, the wind rolling through the wheat, and the young man's heartbeat.

A smile unconsciously appeared on the girl's lips.

Thanks to Kang Kang Ni De for the 100 reward! Heart gesture!