Huh? Plunder overseas?

"Dear, come home for breakfast!"

"Hurry back, the corn porridge in the pot's about to go cold."

This came just after Su Xian had used the theory of "knowing what happens without knowing why" to tear Shrek's ten-thousand-year-old mystical cultivation system to shreds.

Amid his shock, Mu En checked the time and felt that everyone's brains were about to overload. They needed a break to digest these terrifying theories.

So, with his hands behind his back, he gave Zhang Lexuan, who was pretending to sweep in the distance, a meaningful look.

Zhang Lexuan understood and immediately arranged for the "countrywoman extras," who had long been waiting on the outskirts, to start shouting at the tops of their lungs from afar.

"Ah, all right! Coming!"

Qian Duoduo hurriedly answered, then turned to Su Xian with an apologetic smile. "Teacher Su, well... the wife's pressing me to come home. We'll head back and wolf down a few mouthfuls! Why don't you sit and rest a while?"

"Sure, go on, go on."

Su Xian's mouth had grown rather dry from all the talking too. He waved a hand and smiled. "I might as well bask in the morning sun. I'll head back for some more sleep later! The air in the mountains really is wonderful!"

"Of course, of course. Take your time, sir."

After seeing off these "villagers," Su Xian lay comfortably in his bamboo chair, feeling the morning breeze brush his cheeks. The scent of soil from the Back Mountain mingled with the faint fragrance of life from the Golden Tree in the air, refreshing his heart and soul.

Although the conditions for this volunteer teaching assignment were a little impoverished, the natural environment truly left nothing to be desired.

Meanwhile, the moment Mu En and the others left Su Xian's sight, they turned into several streaks of light barely discernible to the naked eye and raced back to the Sea God Pavilion like the wind.

The moment everyone arrived, the atmosphere around the conference table exploded!

"Mu En! Teacher Su was absolutely right!"

Qian Duoduo slapped his thigh anxiously, his forehead covered in sweat. "Knowing what happens without knowing why! For ten thousand years, we at Shrek have focused too much on individual soul power cultivation and completely neglected investigating the underlying scientific laws! If we keep shutting ourselves away like this, within a hundred years, the Sun Moon Empire's assembly-line industry will crush us alive!"

"Exactly!"

Even Yan Shaozhe, who had just been scolded for "idling his days away," had put his temper aside, his expression grave. "If Shrek could master those scientific methods Teacher Su mentioned-studying 'genes' to replicate geniuses in batches, studying 'chemical fertilizer' to mass-produce immortal herbs-why would we need to worry about prospering for all ages and suppressing the Sun Moon Empire?"

"So we must make changes immediately!"

Leaning on his cane, Mu En's eyes blazed with unprecedented resolve. "Pass down my orders! Starting at the beginning of next month, the Shrek Outer Court's teaching system must undergo comprehensive reform!"

"In addition to the existing Martial Soul Department and Soul Tool Department classes, foundational courses in mathematics, physics, and chemistry will be made compulsory!"

"Every Outer Court disciple who wants to enter the Inner Court, regardless of their martial soul talent or innate soul power, must pass the most basic mathematics, physics, and chemistry examinations! Anyone who refuses to study science will be barred from the Inner Court without exception!"

At these words, Yan Shaozhe and Qian Duoduo both sensed it.

Mu En was serious this time!

He intended to forcibly overturn ten thousand years of mystical thinking at Shrek's very foundations!

"But... Mu En."

Qian Duoduo was troubled. "Deciding to introduce science courses is a good thing, but the problem is... we don't have any damned textbooks either! We've never even heard of things like 'calculus' or the 'periodic table of elements.' Who's going to teach the students?"

Mu En raised his cane and pointed toward the wooden cabin on the Back Mountain.

"Don't we have a grand master ready and waiting over there?"

Mu En spoke with a deep look in his eyes. "He's blind now. As long as we keep playing our roles as villagers, go ask him for advice more often each day, and coax those theorems and formulas out of him bit by bit, with Lexuan and the others keeping records, wouldn't we have peerless textbooks ready-made?"

Everyone exchanged looks, then broke into sinister, knowing smiles in unison.

With this blind powerhouse backing them up, did they really need to worry about being unable to flesh out this scientific system?

A little over an hour later, timing it to coincide with "finishing breakfast," Mu En and the others strolled back one after another to the pavilion at the village entrance on the Back Mountain. Each naturally took a seat around Su Xian and continued chatting with him.

First, they rambled about everyday matters for a while. Once the atmosphere had been suitably warmed up, Mu En cautiously steered the conversation toward deeper subjects.

"Teacher Su!"

Mu En asked with feigned casualness, "You said earlier that without a spirit of scientific inquiry, we couldn't carry out an industrial revolution! That got me curious. Aside from this matter of thinking, is there anything else that could stop us from developing that assembly-line industry? Like... the natural environment or something?"

"That's right, Teacher Su. We love hearing you explain these grand principles," Qian Duoduo chimed in. "Why don't you tell us country bumpkins a little more?"

Hearing the "villagers" flatter him with such thirst for knowledge, Su Xian felt utterly pleased.

It was just like those keyboard warriors who pontificated about the world online. As long as someone was willing to listen and cheer him on, he could talk all the way from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the Sea of Stars.

"Of course there is!"

Su Xian cleared his throat and launched into geography popularization mode. "Even if Shrek Academy in that novel suddenly saw the light, acquired a complete scientific system, and wanted to industrialize, the Douluo Continent's natural environment and distribution of resources would still force them down a long, winding road!"

"Oh? Why?" Mu En's brow furrowed slightly.

"Because of a fundamental flaw in the geographical distribution of resources!"

Su Xian spoke with confidence. "Think about it. What lies at the heart of an industrial revolution? Iron and steel! Coal! The efficient transportation of vast quantities of resources! To create truly large-scale assembly lines, you need to bring together mineral deposits from across the entire continent!"

"But as you know from reading the novel, large rare metal deposits on the Douluo Continent are often buried deep in the bitterly cold Far North, nowhere near waterways or major routes across the plains!"

"This harsh geography creates high transportation costs, which in itself hinders rapid mineral extraction and industrial concentration!"

Yan Shaozhe and Qian Duoduo nodded in deep agreement.

Every time Shrek purchased metal, the labor cost of escorting it along the roads alone accounted for more than forty percent of the total price.

"But that isn't even the deadliest problem."

Su Xian paused, then dropped the real bombshell. "An industrial revolution requires four indispensable basic raw materials: iron and steel, coal, rubber, and petroleum! And the Douluo Continent lacks the last two!"

"Rubber? Petroleum? What are those?" Everyone was utterly bewildered.

"They're the lifeblood of industry!"

Su Xian's tone grew serious. "Those soul tools or whatever in that novel might look pretty badass right now! But do you know what 'rubber' is?"

"It's an elastic substance extracted from special tropical plants! It's an absolutely essential material for sealing, shock absorption, and high-pressure applications in modern industry! Without rubber for sealing rings, hoses, belts, and tires, you couldn't even build a steam engine that could truly withstand high-pressure steam, let alone large internal combustion engines or fully automated Soul Guidance Trains!"

"And trees that produce this natural rubber simply don't exist on the Douluo Continent's known landmasses! Even if there are similar plants that could serve as substitutes, there definitely wouldn't be enough to support an industrial revolution sweeping across the entire continent!"

Cold sweat broke out all over Qian Duoduo as he listened.

As dean of the Soul Tool Department, he understood all too well the importance of "sealing and shock-absorbing materials" to high-grade soul tools!

At present, soul engineers could only substitute expensive soul beast hides, making costs outrageously high and mass production impossible.

"And then there's petroleum!"

"That's a high-energy liquid fuel known as the 'blood of industry'! Surely you can't expect every assembly-line machine and Soul Guidance Train in the future to rely on soul masters manually feeding in soul power? That would work every soul master on the continent to death!"

"You have to find that liquid energy source buried deep underground or near the surface, which can burn to power enormous machines! And as far as I know, although the Douluo Continent has coal, no large near-surface oil fields have been discovered so far!"

After hearing Su Xian's analysis.

The faces of everyone in the pavilion turned ugly.

It was like just learning of a divine martial arts manual that could make you invincible, only to turn to the last page and find the words, "To practice this art, you must first find two supreme immortal herbs that exist nowhere in the world."

Wasn't that just fucking messing with them?!

"Then... then, Teacher Su."

Qian Duoduo was so anxious that his voice changed pitch. "Since our continent has no rubber or that petroleum stuff, does that mean there really isn't any hope of industrialization?"

"How could there be no hope?"

Su Xian chuckled as though he had seen through the mists of history, and in a casual tone, stated the means by which the Western Industrial Revolution had broken through its impasse:

"That's why the early stages of industrialization inevitably come with bloody plunder, deliberately driven by governments or capital!"

"Huh?!" Everyone froze.

"We don't have rubber or petroleum, so what do we do?"

Su Xian suddenly slapped the stone table. "Then go overseas and find them! Colonize! Plunder!"

"Just because the Douluo Continent doesn't have them doesn't mean the other side of the sea doesn't! The Sea of Stars is so vast. Could this really be its only landmass?!"

"Build great ships! Build enormous steel warships! Usher in the Age of Exploration!"

"Send Shrek's fleets across that Endless Ocean filled with the unknown and storms! Search for new subcontinents, for new continents still at a primitive stage of civilization!"

"Use sturdy warships, powerful cannons, and the formidable martial might of soul masters to batter open their national gates! Plant rubber there, mine their high-energy mineral deposits, and suck their lands dry!"

"Plunder every resource the Douluo Continent lacks and ship it back to nourish the homeland, completing the most primitive-and bloodiest-capital accumulation of industrialization!"

"That is the only way to break through the limits of natural resources!"

Su Xian's final words fell.

Mu En, Yan Shaozhe, and Qian Duoduo felt their hearts pounding wildly, as though they were about to leap out of their throats!

Go overseas?!

Search for new continents?!

Cross the sea to colonize and plunder?!

Throughout the Douluo Continent's ten-thousand-year history, soul masters had always maintained the deepest reverence for that boundless ocean filled with terrifying sea soul beasts.

They only dared fish near the coast. Even Limit Douluos did not dare venture lightly into the Deep Sea to explore what lay on the ocean's other side.

But now.

This blind man sitting on a shabby bamboo chair had actually, in such a matter-of-fact tone.

Issued them strategic instructions to "conquer the ocean"!