Mo Caihuan did not know whether the printing press would work, but she might as well try. As the rollers turned, the feed grippers delivered sheets of talisman paper beneath the cylinder.
The rollers' rotation matched the speed of the feed grippers, feeding in one sheet per revolution. Talismans went through one after another with a brisk swish, swish, swish. The printed talismans were stacked together.
They soon caught fire, and all ten or so printed sheets burned to ashes.
"One bad sheet takes the others down with it. We need someone sitting behind the press to separate the talismans one by one so they don't all burn together." Bit by bit, she accumulated experience and refined the production process.
A sorter in protective clothing was added.
There was another aspect that needed improvement: how could they use the spiritual energy inside Spirit Stones directly? Mo Caihuan had too much to do to sit here channeling spiritual energy all the time.
"Spirit Stones can activate formations, and formations can absorb their energy. If the printing press had a formation that continuously fed the power of Spirit Stones into it, wouldn't that be wonderful?" Mo Caihuan's vision was lovely, but experiments cost a great deal of time and even more money.
Formations were a profound and unfathomable branch of study. Few people could devote themselves to researching them, because it consumed too much time. A cultivator might spend centuries studying a single formation.
Decades, even centuries, spent researching just one formation-the mere thought was dull and tedious. But there was no way around it. The more complex a formation was, the more subjects it involved, and the more time it required.
Moreover, formations had no system of quantification. Everything depended on individual experience, and others could offer no help.
At this thought, Mo Caihuan felt keenly how necessary quantification was. They needed a system that could translate experience into scientific language. Only then could everyone communicate and collaborate more effectively.
Cultivators, of course, thought little of this, because much of what they encountered in cultivation could not be described with numbers. These were complex existences beyond numerical scales.
The mortal world was severely limited. For instance, a hundred million was already an enormous number in everyday mortal life, and occasions to use a trillion were pitifully rare. Yet cultivators dealt with staggering orders of magnitude-as countless as the sands of the Ganges, as innumerable as the stars across the universe. Mortals could neither imagine nor calculate them.
An immortal could control a hundred million streaks of sword light at once. Humans could not even operate a hundred million drones simultaneously.
Still, if things could be quantified, mortals could use Spirit Stones to improve their lives. They did not need to rival great immortals; a little happiness would be enough.
Unfortunately, Mo Caihuan certainly could not accomplish this alone. She needed cultivators' help, and her thoughts inevitably turned to the Covering Moon Sect. With an entire sect helping her, things would surely go smoothly.
But the question was, why would they help a mortal? Cultivators were very busy.
Mo Caihuan sighed and could only abandon her unrealistic ideas. "Let's take things slowly. First, I should think about breaking through this bottleneck. Cultivators need Foundation Establishment Pills to advance, but how do you advance in body tempering?"
Cultivation was materialistic; willpower alone could not bring about a breakthrough.
After some thought, she realized she needed pills that strengthened the body.
"I'm afraid cultivators won't spend materials refining pills to strengthen the body. Cultivating both magic and physique is difficult. There are plenty of pills that increase magic power, and although they aren't cheap, they're available on the market. But where can I find body-tempering pills?"
She could only hope Daoist Wealth would keep an eye out and buy any body-tempering pills he found.
"Han Li should be about to reach Foundation Establishment by now, right? It's almost time for him to take part in the Blood-Colored Trial. If he helped, he might be able to refine body-tempering pills. But finding him isn't realistic either."
"Ah, cultivation is so hard." She grumbled, helpless, because this was simply the normal state of cultivation.
Often, a cultivator was only one step short, but that "one step" stopped countless cultivators in their tracks, leaving countless people forgotten as failures.
Daoist Wealth was delighted to help, because he earned a markup every time. Unfortunately, body-tempering pills really were rare. He was over a hundred years old and had never heard of any market selling them, though there were plenty of pills that increased magic power.
She continued cultivating. Dao Patterns appeared not only in her blood, but also in cross sections of her hair and fingernails.
Dao Patterns locked the human body firmly in place, preventing humanity from defying the heavens.
Mo Caihuan took a deep breath and steadied her mind. She would start with what she could do: build a power plant, then invent the telegraph, telephone, and electric light. She would enter the electrical age.
Although the Steam Age had not even begun, and there were no steam trains yet, that did not hinder her pursuit of electricity.
She planned to build a completely new headquarters for the Whale-Jiao Society outside the city, where she could also construct a new urban district. The new district would have running water, electricity, and flush toilets.
Such a grand plan stunned even the local authorities. Still, they had to heed the Whale-Jiao Society's wishes: two-thirds of Jia Yuan City's residents were members.
At the same time, Mo Caihuan harbored a small fantasy about electricity, hoping it could help her break through her bottleneck.
When electricity had first been harnessed, people on Earth had written many works of science fiction about it. The most famous was Frankenstein, in which electricity revived a corpse stitched together from body parts-a work brimming with fanciful visions of electricity.
The world of mysticism also considered electricity wondrous. Daoists, for example, believed lightning arts could annihilate all evil, wielding energy of the utmost yang and unyielding strength.
Lightning arts were formidable in this other world too, not to mention Heavenly Tribulation, which also took the form of lightning.
Thus, she could not help placing her hopes in this other world's electricity. There was little hope of buying body-tempering pills. Cultivators naturally would not refine things they had no use for.
Of course, she could commission a cultivator to refine pills specifically for her, but the cost would be enormous. It would consume vast amounts of materials, all paid for by Mo Caihuan.
Pill refining required a formula and the gathering of materials. Refining a new kind of pill also involved mistakes, all of which cost time and money.
That was why cultivators did not commission alchemists to refine pills specifically for them. They waited until the alchemists had refined pills, then bought some along the way. Custom refining was simply too expensive.
That day, Mo Caihuan returned home and passed the martial practice grounds. She saw her eldest sister practicing swordsmanship, her graceful figure as light as a startled swan goose and as supple as a roaming dragon.
No one could accuse Mo Yuzhu of neglecting her training. Unfortunately, her internal energy was mediocre, and she lacked talent. Still, she persisted every day. Her figure had grown increasingly straight and well-proportioned, and she even had six-pack abs.
"Third sister, how do you have time to watch me practice today?" Drenched in sweat, Mo Yuzhu stopped her sword routine and looked at her gifted younger sister. Compared with her sister, she was far too ordinary.
"I've had quite a few worries lately. It's rare to have some free time, so when I saw you practicing, I stopped to watch. Your swordsmanship is growing more refined, eldest sister." Her beautiful older sister was quite a sight after a workout, and Mo Caihuan could not resist stealing a few more looks.
"Compared with you, it's nothing special. Just fancy flourishes." Dejected, Mo Yuzhu said, "Am I a parasite on the Mo Family?"
"How can you say that? You're my sister." Mo Yuzhu stepped forward and used her sleeve to wipe her eldest sister's sweat.
Mo Yuzhu was deeply moved. These little gestures proved that everyone considered her family. Although both her birth parents had passed away and only her stepmothers remained at home, no one treated her differently.
"You manage the society, and second sister has a clinic. I'm the only one who's accomplished nothing." Because everyone treated her well, Mo Yuzhu wanted all the more to help them. Unfortunately, she could not, and she said dispiritedly, "I train every day, yet barely improve. At my current level, if I went out and got beaten to death, no one would spare me a second glance."
Mo Caihuan looked at this sister, who was three years older than her. To be honest, her sister's swordsmanship was beautiful to watch, but it offered no real advantage in a fight to the death.
Indeed, with crossbows and firearms becoming widespread, traditional internal martial arts were increasingly at a disadvantage.
"Why not stop practicing the sword and try gun techniques instead? What do you think, sister?"
Mo Yuzhu frowned at that. "The spear is indeed the courage of all weapons. It's better suited than the sword to fighting on the battlefield."
"I don't mean a spear. I mean a firearm," Mo Caihuan corrected her. "We're developing a new firearm that fires faster and can wound people before they see it coming. If we can combine internal energy with firearms, developing an entirely new Gun-Fu isn't impossible. Then you'll be a grandmaster who establishes her own school."
"A firearm?" Mo Yuzhu knew firearms packed considerable power, but they were loud and unsuitable as concealed weapons. "Firearms take too long to reload. Once you've fired a shot, that's it."
"We've already developed the Revolver Firearm. It can hold six bullets at once, so two give you twelve shots. The bullets are more powerful and have a longer range," Mo Caihuan said. "In a couple of days, I'll send over two revolver prototypes for you to try."
"All right." Her eldest sister needed a breakthrough and was willing to try something new.
The Whale-Jiao Society had invested heavily in research and development for the chemical industry. Combined with the large quantities of rubbish purchased from cultivators, this had already led to the discovery of strong acids and alkalis and the development of more powerful nitric-acid-based gunpowder.
Firearms were developing rapidly as well, and revolvers had already been developed.