Natural resources were the lifeblood of industry.
Huaxia in his previous life had been able to soar so quickly because, in the early days after its founding, it had resolved the problem of securing rubber and petroleum, those two forms of industrial lifeblood, through various channels.
Combined with comprehensive basic education and an enormous demographic dividend, this had allowed it to complete in just a few decades the road to industrialization that had taken the West over a century.
To build a vast industrial system from scratch in an agrarian society, without resources, technology, or a complete process of scientific proof and deduction, was no different from a fool talking in his dreams.
Of course, to the people standing in the pavilion, all these obstacles suddenly seemed to be no problem at all.
Mu En, Yan Shaozhe, and Qian Duoduo exchanged discreet glances, each seeing ambition practically bursting from the others' eyes.
Previously, the Douluo Continent had possessed neither systematic science nor rubber and petroleum.
But now, it did!
This "Teacher Su" from Daliang Mountain before them understood the foundations of a scientific system!
As for rubber and petroleum, Shrek Academy simply needed to pour its ten thousand years of accumulated resources into building an oceangoing fleet overseen by a Limit Douluo and usher in an Age of Exploration.
If they searched those unknown seas for new continents, why would they fear failing to find them?
So, as long as they could draw every last bit of knowledge out of Teacher Su's head, Shrek launching an Industrial Revolution would be a nail hammered into a board-a done deal!
The only problems were that "underlying logic" and "system" Su Xian had just mentioned.
Although Yan Shaozhe had withdrawn into himself after that earlier scolding, for the sake of Shrek's countless generations to come, he still could not help stepping forward and asking tentatively, "Teacher Su, if... I'm only saying if! If, in that novel, Shrek Academy really filled the gaps in its scientific system, and built great ships to find that petroleum and rubber overseas, would they then be able to carry out an Industrial Revolution as a matter of course?"
Su Xian lay comfortably in his bamboo chair. Hearing this somewhat naive question, he gave a faint sneer. "In theory, yes! But on one condition... those brain-dead old fossils in the Sea God Pavilion would have to stop wanting to stand above everyone else!"
"Huh?!" Yan Shaozhe cried out in instinctive alarm.
At Yan Shaozhe's startled cry, Mu En's eyelids also began twitching wildly.
His intuition as a Limit Douluo told him that something ominous was drawing near.
Sure enough.
The moment Yan Shaozhe asked "Why?", Su Xian became animated.
As a university student who had always received an education in modern materialism and ideological thought, Su Xian had long been unable to stomach those feudal remnants in fantasy novels, where "bloodline determines everything" and "the strong take all."
Sitting cross-legged, he said sharply, "Because of the Douluo Continent's system! Or rather, the autocratic rule of the Soul Master class established over ten thousand years means they simply don't have the soil to nurture an Industrial Revolution!"
"Do you understand what nurturing soil means? It's fine if you don't. I'll give you the simplest possible example."
"Some people say Shrek Academy has 'deep foundations and no equal under heaven.' In reality, they just happened not to encounter a true strike from a civilization generations ahead of them over the past ten thousand years!"
"From Spirit Hall's destruction ten thousand years ago until the rise of today's Sun Moon Empire, the Douluo Continent's wars were really nothing but village chiefs brawling with cold weapons! Whichever side had higher-level Soul Masters and rarer martial souls won!"
"Against that backdrop, Shrek could naturally maintain its hegemony by sweeping up geniuses from across the continent! It was the 'circumstances of the times' that created the soil for their invincibility."
"But! For an Industrial Revolution to emerge, take root, and sprout, favorable timing, favorable conditions, and human cooperation are all indispensable!"
Su Xian stressed his words, his voice sounding particularly grating in Daliang Mountain's breeze. "Does Shrek have those circumstances on its side?"
"Obviously not!"
"From an ordinary commoner's perspective, awakening a martial soul and possessing innate soul power have become this world's only path to upward social mobility! If you're a mortal without soul power, you face severe political and economic discrimination, and even your personal safety isn't guaranteed!"
"So this forces everyone in the world to obsessively study nothing but how to increase soul power and how to meditate, while nobody cares whether commoners live or die, much less devotes themselves to researching scientific laws!"
"And from the perspective of Shrek's leadership-the ruling class-science is outright heresy detrimental to their rule!"
Su Xian tore away the Sea God Pavilion's hypocritical veil. "There are too many brain-dead idiots among the Sea God Pavilion's old fossils! What's the first thing you need to launch an Industrial Revolution? A huge number of highly qualified science-trained engineers! Does Shrek have the resolve to slash more than half the enormous resources offered to those Super Douluos and use them to establish basic science schools for ordinary commoners across the continent?"
"Would those dumb fucks who only know how to defend 'Martial Soul Orthodoxy' do that?"
"Remember what I say: this isn't just true of ancient feudal societies. It applies to every plane! Every privileged class's first priority is the security of its regime!"
"The Sea God Pavilion's elders don't fill their heads with how civilization across the continent can advance, or how mortals can live better lives, but with how to preserve their privileged position as 'number one on the continent'!"
"Therefore, as long as they can maintain their lofty, untouchable position, even if an Industrial Revolution could advance the entire continent's civilization by leaps and bounds, even if soul guidance technology could benefit millions of commoners..."
Su Xian scoffed. "Those old fossils would strangle it all in the cradle without a moment's hesitation!"
Those words were like ten thousand swords piercing the heart!
Yan Shaozhe's face flushed red. Earlier, the scolding had made him retreat into himself, but now, to defend the convictions he had upheld for a hundred years, he could not help arguing indignantly, "That's all your imagination! Suppose... I'm saying suppose! Suppose Shrek's Sea God Pavilion really had a wise and mighty Pavilion Master who wanted civilization to advance and was willing to invest substantial funds in basic education to train commoner engineers. Could they bring about an Industrial Revolution then?!"
"Still impossible!"
Hearing this argumentative "village loafer" continue to quibble, Su Xian shot back without thinking, "If he really dared to do that, Shrek would only die faster! And he himself would be torn to pieces by the conservative forces within!"
"Why?!" Yan Shaozhe's eyes widened.
"Because this isn't just about money. This is about the fucking survival of class rule!"
Su Xian raised his voice and delivered his most lethal finishing blow of the day. "Ah Shuozhe, use that rusty brain of yours and think! What has the logic of rule on the Douluo Continent been for the past ten thousand years?"
"Soul Masters standing high above everyone else! Commoners' lives worth no more than weeds!"
"Why can Soul Masters rule commoners? Because they hold an absolute monopoly on violence! A Titled Douluo can slaughter an entire city of mortals with a wave of the hand. Commoners have no right even to resist, only to kneel and kowtow!"
"But!"
Su Xian slammed his palm onto the bamboo chair's armrest. "If Shrek truly enlightened the people and brought about an Industrial Revolution!"
"When an ordinary commoner without so much as innate soul power needs only a few months of training to sit inside an assembly-line-produced Level Nine Soul Guidance Mecha, or press a remote launch button and use a Fixed Soul Cannon Shell to blast a Titled Douluo who cultivated for decades to death in a single shot..."
"Do you think that commoner would still bow and scrape before the Soul Master class as before?!"
Those words struck them dizzy, and even their breathing stopped at that instant!
"Technology! Is the ultimate weapon for equal rights!"
"Before industrialization and weapons of mass destruction, individual might will shrink without limit!"
"When mortals possess the power to slay gods, the Soul Master class's ten thousand years of privilege will crumble into dust!"
Su Xian delivered his final conclusion, his tone thick with mockery. "So, until the feudal power structure fractures, those assholes at the top of Shrek need commoners to remain ignorant! They need commoners to believe in gods and mysticism, not science!"
"Because once the people are enlightened and mortals grasp the truth, they will inevitably resent being exploited! It will inevitably trigger brutal class struggle! Those commoners oppressed for ten thousand years will drive steel behemoths and raze Shrek to the ground!"
"With Shrek's leaders so perversely obsessed with controlling martial soul hegemony, how could they possibly promote basic science education?"
Su Xian said coldly, "So, to bring about an Industrial Revolution on the Douluo Continent, there must be soil that can nurture one."
"And to have that soil..."
"Shrek must first overthrow its own Soul Master hegemony!"
That impassioned speech drained every face in the pavilion of color!
What did that mean?
Did it mean that the Industrial Revolution must ultimately break the Soul Masters' absolute rule?
Mu En trembled uncontrollably. In his two hundred years of life, he had always believed he was protecting Shrek for the greater good and the continent's peace.
But only today, only after this blind man had used the coldest "class theory" to peel back the bloody truth.
Did he discover, to his horror, that Shrek's ten thousand years of steadfast dedication had essentially been nothing more than a selfish privileged class desperately strangling the entire plane's civilizational evolution to preserve its lofty rule!
Shrek was the true culprit blocking the wheels of the age!
Mu En stared blankly at the young man lying in the bamboo chair, his throat feeling as though it had been stuffed with cotton, and murmured to himself:
"Must... the Industrial Revolution ultimately mean the doom of Soul Masters...?"
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