Since she had decided to side with Spirit Hall, she would naturally keep the best technology for them-tanks and planes, for instance.
Sending a torrent of steel against troops lining up to be shot without any artillery was no different from pitting fully armored cavalry against primitive people armed with fire pokers. If, even with basic blueprints, they still failed to mass-produce a local tank model or discover energy sources such as oil within nearly twenty years, they would have no one to blame if they ultimately lost to the armies of the two empires.
That all seemed a little far off. Her immediate priority was to go out and get something to eat. The basic firearm manufacturing diagrams were now engraved in her mind. Once she had met the Pope tomorrow and settled in, she would draw up proper blueprints and find someone to reproduce them. Their efficiency would also let her estimate the general level of production capacity.
After returning to reality, Leng Xiyue suddenly felt a swelling pain in her head. These design diagrams seemed simple, merely a collection of parts and corresponding assembly techniques, but every component actually had specific forging procedures and requirements, along with different manufacturing methods for different conditions. It all added up to quite a lot, and having everything transmitted into her mind at once naturally caused some discomfort.
After a while, Leng Xiyue let out a long, heavy breath, finally recovering.
The clothes Wang Yan had sent someone to deliver were already waiting at her door. She had to admit they all looked quite nice. After all, she would be meeting the Pope tomorrow; she could hardly go dressed shabbily.
After changing into those clothes, Leng Xiyue went to the restaurant downstairs and ordered some tasty food, taking the opportunity to get a rough idea of local prices.
The continent had three kinds of currency: copper coins, silver coins, and Gold Soul Coins.
One silver coin could be exchanged for a hundred copper coins, while one Gold Soul Coin could be exchanged for a hundred silver coins.
It seemed simple, but it actually reflected the gulf between Soul Masters and ordinary people.
In terms of purchasing power, one copper coin could buy two steamed buns, while ten could buy a fairly substantial boxed meal. From this, she could estimate that one copper coin had the purchasing power of one to two yuan in her previous life.
Ordinary people rarely used Gold Soul Coins in transactions, except when buying houses or valuable livestock such as cattle and horses, where using them made payment more convenient. Otherwise, they had no use for them at all.
Gold Soul Coins were worth so much that if someone took one to buy groceries, hardly anyone would be able to make change. Yet in the world of Soul Masters, their value clearly was not all that high. Take the Hidden Sand Shadow mentioned earlier, for example-would its price not amount to tens of millions if converted into copper coins?
Judging further by the high-grade slaves worth a hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins and the Demihuman girl who could sell for a hundred and eighty thousand, she could infer that Gold Soul Coins were no different to Soul Masters and nobles than copper coins were to ordinary people. Their needs, income levels, and consumer markets were completely different from those of ordinary people.
In daily life, the outstanding Soul Masters also knew better how to enjoy themselves. Their food, clothing, and other necessities were all products of specially bred Soul Beasts, and dedicated industries existed to meet their needs. Over time, they stopped eating ordinary people's food altogether.
One could say that Gold Soul Coins and copper and silver coins already amounted to two entirely different currencies, existing in a completely fractured state. They were like cultivators' spirit stones and ordinary people's money-there was simply no comparison between them.
Yet these two groups, whose consumer environments and income conditions were entirely inconsistent, even utterly different, had been forcibly bound together by an exchange rate. If even one Evil Soul Master had a little sense, saved up tens of thousands of Gold Soul Coins as capital, and legally exploited the exchange rate to throw ordinary people's markets into chaos, would that not be far more devastating than killing a few people?
She truly had no idea how an exchange-rate system riddled with holes like a house letting in wind from every side had survived for so long.
Looking at the bowl of chicken soup before her, apparently made from a Soul Beast and priced at a staggering twenty Gold Soul Coins despite containing only a single scant piece of meat, Leng Xiyue gained a little insight into her future money-making plans.
According to the server, this chicken soup was extremely precious. It was made from a Golden-Feathered Chicken raised for two and a half years. This Soul Beast, developed through repeated selective breeding, was particularly suited to making soup, so its price was naturally very high.
She had to admit that the chicken soup really did look different. One glance told her it would taste good, which was why she had ordered it.
Since she was not spending her own money anyway, Leng Xiyue felt no pain whatsoever. By now, she was starving, too. She ordered four bowls of rice in one go, added two chicken legs, and began wolfing everything down. Those fifty Gold Soul Coins were spent just like that, with not a single one left.
The hotel's restaurant was quite upscale, and its diners were distinguished guests from the empires. A girl wolfing down her food amid a gathering of gentlemen and ladies dining with impeccable grace naturally drew considerable attention. Quite a few people looked toward Leng Xiyue, seemingly curious about where she came from.
Leng Xiyue paid no mind to their gazes and polished everything off in just a few minutes. She had to admit that the high price was justified. These dishes made with Soul Beast ingredients were truly delicious.
By the time she returned to her room after all that activity, it was already late at night. Leng Xiyue was utterly exhausted and fell into a deep sleep the moment her head touched the pillow.
Early the next morning, before the sky had fully brightened, Wang Yan came to fetch her. After a simple breakfast, the two set off for the Papal Hall.
Wang Yan found a carriage and took Leng Xiyue toward Martial Soul Mountain. The closer they came to the mountain, the more old-fashioned the surrounding city buildings became. Civilian Soul Tools had all but vanished here, and everything seemed to remain as it had been when first built.
These buildings had a distinctly ancient Roman character, all constructed from white marble. In a journey of just half an hour, the enormous contrast gave Leng Xiyue the feeling that she had traveled to another world.
The Papal Hall stood on a jutting cliff on Martial Soul Mountain. It was not a single building; behind the main hall lay several other buildings, much like an ordinary imperial palace. Besides the sleeping quarters, there were functional buildings such as a study, a library hall, a conference hall, and cultivation chambers. From below, however, only the towering main hall was visible.
From this position, one could overlook most of Spirit City. A vast plaza lay beneath it, and the stairs leading up from there went directly to the Papal Hall's main entrance.
However, the main hall was normally closed, except for major ceremonies or formal visits by delegations sent by rulers of kingly rank or higher, when the Pope had to receive them there according to protocol. Anyone wishing to meet the Pope had to report the relevant matter a day in advance to the Martial Soul General Hall at the foot of Martial Soul Mountain. Each day, the General Hall scheduled audiences according to the importance and urgency of the matters involved. Most audiences arranged this way concerned personal or family affairs.
Few of Spirit Hall's internal administrative matters required the Pope's personal approval. Several bishops at the General Hall and the Elder Council handled these routine affairs properly. If the Pope felt inclined, they could review them and change decisions they found unsatisfactory. If not, perhaps only one major matter every few months would require their personal decision. But those who became Pope possessed not only extraordinary strength, but also hearts that embraced the world. How could they neglect all these routine affairs out of laziness?
The carriage slowly stopped outside the Martial Soul General Hall. By now, people were already coming and going. Many Soul Masters who did not belong to Spirit Hall also came here to handle various matters, such as certification of their Soul Master rank and permits to trade in certain specialized products. Some even traveled vast distances solely to have their children's Martial Souls awakened.
A bishop in red stood at the entrance. Upon seeing Leng Xiyue step out of the carriage, the bishop hurried over.
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