After receiving the revolver, her eldest sister mastered its use in half a day. She could not help telling her third sister, "Firearms are so much easier to use than swords. You have to train until you can project sword qi before you can hurt someone from a distance. That takes at least fifty years of internal energy. Even then, sword qi doesn't reach very far-only three feet. But a gun can easily hurt someone thirty feet away."
The range of firearms far exceeded that of sword qi.
"It's the rifling. Grooves inside the barrel make the bullet spin, keeping it steadier and letting it travel farther. Eldest Sister, if you can develop Gun-Fu, I'll make you an instructor so you can teach more people in the Whale-Jiao Society to use firearms."
"I won't let you down."
"Eldest Sister, work hard, but don't wear yourself out."
"You're the one who shouldn't wear yourself out, Third Sister. The Whale-Jiao Society has so much going on."
"All four mothers are helping share the burden. Second Mother handles paperwork, Third Mother handles the women's federation, my mother handles the accounts, and Fifth Mother oversees misconduct through the Secret Helm. With everyone helping, things are already much easier for me."
"I'll help you too in the future," her eldest sister said.
As the sisters talked, Yan Ge approached and cupped his hands. "Society Leader, a letter has arrived." He presented it to her.
"Who delivered it?" Mo Caihuan asked, accepting the letter.
"A messenger from the Sword-Casting Manor."
Mo Caihuan read the letter while Yan Ge gazed tenderly at Mo Yuzhu, but Mo Yuzhu showed little reaction.
Yan Ge was Mo Juren's eldest disciple. Though he had not inherited the true essence of his martial arts, he was unwaveringly loyal, running himself ragged in service to the Mo Family. He had feelings for Mo Yuzhu, but dared not express them, afraid that if she rejected him, they could no longer even remain martial siblings.
"Third Sister, what happened?" Her eldest sister had been watching her expression and noticed how serious she looked.
"The Sword-Casting Manor has invited me to attend the Sword-Appreciation Assembly," Mo Caihuan said with a curious expression.
"We hardly have any dealings with the Sword-Casting Manor. Why would they send us a letter?" Her eldest sister found it strange too.
"Could it be because the Whale-Jiao Society's swords are so good that we've stolen their business?" Yan Ge ventured.
"We haven't produced that many swords. We don't even have enough steel for public infrastructure," Mo Caihuan said. "I don't think this is about swords. It should be about raw materials. The iron ore we dig out deep underground is better quality. Maybe that's what they're after." She did not believe their markets conflicted. Although the Whale-Jiao Society had sold blades and swords, ever since infrastructure construction began, all steel production had been prioritized for those projects. They had not been competing with the Sword-Casting Manor for customers.
Iron ore was another matter. The Whale-Jiao Society consumed enormous quantities, which might have brought them into conflict with the Sword-Casting Manor.
"Society Leader, should we go?" Yan Ge asked.
"Eldest Martial Brother, you can represent us at this assembly."
Yan Ge nodded. "Then I'll go make preparations."
"Thank you for your hard work, Eldest Martial Brother."
"It's only my duty." Before leaving, he gave Mo Yuzhu another lingering look. Unfortunately, Mo Yuzhu was not looking at him, only at the letter in her hands.
"Eldest Martial Brother is a good man." Mo Yuzhu knew how Yan Ge felt, but she was bent on proving herself and had no time for romance.
"He really is a good man, and very capable too. Once he finishes the academy's courses, I'll promote him to deputy society leader," Mo Caihuan said.
"He would be a good fit," Mo Yuzhu said. "I'm going to keep training. Go attend to your work, Third Sister."
"If you run out of bullets, you can get more from the Whale-Jiao Society's logistics department."
"I can buy them." Her eldest sister knew that bullets were goods produced by the Whale-Jiao Society. Every bang she fired cost money.
"All right." Knowing her eldest sister had principles and would not take advantage of the Whale-Jiao Society, Mo Caihuan naturally supported her.
This Sword-Casting Assembly was indeed about ore, but mining technology was even more important. The Sword-Casting Manor had its own iron mine, which had been worked for a hundred years. The surface deposits were nearly exhausted. They had heard that the Whale-Jiao Society's mines had reached depths of several hundred feet and wanted to discover whether it was true.
If possible, they wanted to mine deeper iron deposits too. They also wanted to find out how the Whale-Jiao Society excavated so quickly.
Explosives. They used explosives.
Without solving the problem of surviving in deep shafts, mining deep deposits was nothing but a fantasy.
Both the Sword-Casting Manor's mines and the Whale-Jiao Society's mines were privately operated, and all were illegal. The Yue Kingdom also enforced a state monopoly on salt and iron, but the people could barely scrape by now, and powerful local magnates were opening their own mines and selling salt.
The emperor was obsessed with cultivating immortality and cared nothing for affairs of state. With imperial law toothless, religious groups, clans, and societies naturally grew bigger and stronger.
Mining was a good thing. Mo Caihuan was certainly willing to spread steam engine technology. Only by developing together could they have a future.
After that, more mining districts began using steam engines, more blast furnaces were built, and more steel was produced. With steel, they could build infrastructure, pave roads, lay railways, improve waterworks, and put all sorts of new technologies to use.
This year could rightly be called the first year of the steam era.
"Society Leader, bad news! Bad news!" A member with a dust-covered face came sprinting into the assembly hall.
"What happened?" Mo Caihuan's heart lurched, but her expression remained unchanged as she spoke.
"Something has happened to the immortal!"
"What happened to her?" She knew the immortal had to be the Covering Moon Sect elder guarding the Ancient Battlefield.
"We don't know. The immortal suddenly fell unconscious, and her skin is bright red. It looks like she's been poisoned."
Mo Caihuan rose at once, speaking as she walked. "Go to the Benevolent Heart Clinic and ask my second sister to come to the mine."
"Yes."
She mounted a fine horse and set off ahead of him, not daring to delay. This was a Golden Core elder of the Covering Moon Sect. If something happened to her, the sect might take its anger out on the Whale-Jiao Society.
According to the Covering Moon Sect, the Ancient Battlefield had been the site of a decisive battle between the righteous and demonic paths thousands of years ago. Afterward, neither side ever recovered. The seven great sects had seized the opportunity to rise and claim the Yue Kingdom as their territory.
Thus, the seven great sects possessed not only righteous cultivation methods but plenty of demonic ones as well. They had been fence-sitters, simply scooping up the spoils.
Most of the items on the battlefield had already been collected, but spiritual energy gathering over thousands of years might nurture new treasures. The Covering Moon Sect attached great importance to it.
The mine lay in the mountains thirty li east of Jia Yuan City. The area was rich in resources, with coal as well as iron ore.
The cultivator's residence was a small, crude stone chamber containing nothing but a stone bed. Cultivators generally did not pursue material comforts. Devoted entirely to cultivation, they could spend hundreds of years in seclusion with only a stone chamber.
"When did you discover this?" Mo Caihuan asked the supervisor as soon as she arrived.
"We normally don't dare disturb the immortal, but three days ago, the area around the stone chamber started getting hotter and hotter. We felt something was wrong, so we knocked this morning. There was no answer, so we took it upon ourselves to push the door open. We found the immortal's face as red as a branding iron, and the temperature inside was scorching."
Mo Caihuan walked over and saw everyone pouring water on the walls, trying to cool the stone chamber. She could already see the mist from the evaporating water, and a wave of heat struck her face.
Taking a deep breath, she circulated her internal energy, forming a faint membrane around her body. Internal energy was life energy, but extremely weak. The supervisor, who knew no martial arts, stopped, unable to withstand the heat and continue forward.
Inside the stone chamber, the elder's face was indeed crimson, like a piece of red-hot iron.
"Martial Aunt? Martial Aunt?" Mo Caihuan had originally addressed her as an immortal, but the elder had said that since Mo Caihuan was Cang Yue's disciple, she could simply call her Martial Aunt.
The Golden Core cultivator gave no response.
This was going to be difficult. Mo Caihuan surveyed the stone chamber and spotted a fist-sized black cauldron in a corner. It should have had a lid, but the lid now lay apart from it, and the cauldron was empty.
Could she have released something that should never have been let out?
The cultivation world fully embodied the saying that all things possessed spirits. Anything could awaken spiritual intelligence. Flowers and grasses growing in places rich in spiritual energy for tens of thousands of years could develop intelligence too.
Even bodies of energy-a flame or a bolt of lightning-could develop intelligence. Of course, objects such as combs, mirrors, and pipas could likewise awaken spiritual intelligence.
In short, anything could awaken intelligence, provided the conditions were right.
At that thought, she moved to pick up the lid and put it back. There should be restrictions on it. She hoped they would help.
Without further hesitation, she bent down and picked up the little cauldron. Holding the black cauldron in her left hand and its lid in her right, she fitted the lid back into place.