Tang Fan had already explained to Bibi Dong what Mach meant: Mach one was the speed of sound. She could no longer imagine just how fast ten times the speed of sound was.
As for the Douluo Continent, all the major powers had fallen completely silent.
Xue Ye and the Star Luo Emperor no longer dared hope for modern weapons.
Those things really could take an enemy general's head in the midst of an army of ten thousand. As emperors, they felt completely unsafe.
They had even begun to fear that Blue Star's army might come to the Douluo Continent one day. If that happened, their good days would likely be over.
Tang Fan smiled and praised her. "Haha, not bad. You've learned to read the descriptions.
"Eastern Express, mission guaranteed. Its strike range covers the entire globe. That's no joke."
Bibi Dong rolled her eyes at Tang Fan. "Do you really think I'm stupid? But then again, you really are incredible. You're obviously all ordinary people, so how did you manage it?"
"Want to learn?"
"Mm-hmm!"
"You people on the Douluo Continent can't learn it."
"Why not?"
"First, answer a few questions. Are nobles and Soul Masters willing to give commoners the same status as themselves?
"Can the two empires, or Spirit Hall, let everyone go to school? You don't even have a system of knowledge that ordinary people can learn, do you?"
Bibi Dong was speechless. Leaving the nobles aside, even Soul Masters born as commoners would not let commoners stand on equal footing with them once they became Soul Masters.
As for schooling, that was even more impossible.
"You... everyone here can go to school? Commoners and nobles alike? No, wait, you said you don't have nobles here."
"Want me to take you around the nearby schools?"
"Mm, I'd like to see them."
Meanwhile, the nobles of the Douluo Continent cursed even more harshly, especially the noble students at Heaven Dou Royal Academy.
"Those lowborn wretches want to go to school like us? What a joke. That's an insult to us nobles."
"Exactly, exactly. Soul Masters are one thing. They can spend a few years in those trash academies, so long as they stay out of our sight.
"But those wretches who aren't even Soul Masters-what right do they have to go to school? They should obediently farm the land all their lives and serve us nobles.
"Who told them to be born lowly wretches? Hahahaha..."
The other nobles laughed along. Even those who thought it was going too far could only join in, or they would surely come to a bad end.
It could not be said that there were no good people among the nobles, but for a noble to be good was impossible. Once someone entered that circle, they would be swept along. Refuse to do certain things? Then they could wait to be isolated and suppressed.
At the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Fengzhi was calculating something. After quite a while, he finished, and shock was written all over his face.
"Fengzhi? What's wrong now?"
"I just made a rough calculation. Even counting only the population of the Heaven Dou Empire, the expense of sending everyone to school would be an astronomical sum, beyond imagination.
"Our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect is wealthy, but we could only afford to send the people of one city to school.
"And the country on the other side of the heavenly screen has a population of 1.4 billion, all of them going to school. Imagine how much money that must cost."
They had not known until they calculated it, and the result gave them a fright.
"If all of that were converted into Gold Soul Coins, it could bury all of Heaven Dou City, couldn't it? That country over there is far too rich!"
"The key is that the country is actually willing to spend money on those commoners. Could that be the true reason for its strength?"
Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo exchanged a look, incomprehension written in both their eyes.
Such were the limitations of their era. They could not even imagine an age of education for all.
Meanwhile, Bibi Dong noticed quite a few people gathered off to one side, including some children.
"Tang Fan, what's on display over there? Is it another powerful weapon?"
"That's the future prospects area. We might as well go have a look too. It displays future weapons that haven't been built yet and exist only as concepts."
"Ah? You're planning to make even more powerful weapons?"
"You can't really call them more powerful, only more suitable. Come take a look. There are models and a promotional video here.
"The children are watching the promotional video like a cartoon, which is why there are so many people here."
In the promotional video, Bibi Dong saw an enormous aerospace plane, as long as an aircraft carrier.
"Ah! That's enormous!"
Bibi Dong had spoken a little too loudly, drawing the attention of a group of children. Embarrassed, she wanted nothing more than to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
"Shh, keep it down and watch. When it's over, I'll explain whatever you want to ask."
Bibi Dong nodded.
In the next scene, a large aerospace carrier was launching unmanned fighter jets.
These unmanned jets were aerospace fighters designed to carry out space combat missions in the future, and their performance figures were extraordinary in every respect.
Besides the fighters, there were humanoid mechs. Their firepower was astonishing as well. If deployed in organized units, their terrifying combat strength was easy to imagine.
The heavenly screen over the Douluo Continent played the promotional video at the same time.
The people of the Douluo Continent did not understand the aerospace carrier or the aerospace fighters. They only found them impressive and awe-inspiring.
But the humanoid mechs gave them a shock they could truly grasp.
A single mech could match a Soul Saint's Martial Soul Avatar.
And the firepower a mech carried could tear a Soul Saint apart with ease.
In other words, a single mech was equivalent to a high-level Soul Douluo, or even a Titled Douluo around level ninety.
And mechs could be mass-produced. Before a country that could mass-produce Titled Douluo, Spirit Hall and Sea God Island were utterly weak.
Qian Daoliu gave a bitter chuckle. "Heh, no matter how powerful the weapons that appear, I won't be surprised anymore.
"Even if they said they could create gods in the future, I'd believe them."
If they could already slay gods, could creating gods be far behind?
Qian Xunji had also gone numb, though he was glad that his own disciple was the one who had gone over there.
The promotional video was not very long. As soon as it ended, Bibi Dong asked, "Do you really believe these things can be built in the future?"
"Why wouldn't I? I believe these technologies should be achievable in preliminary form within twenty years.
"This is what our country calls the Southern Heavenly Gate Project. It started out as a flight of fancy among netizens, but unexpectedly, the higher-ups took it seriously."
"The Southern Heavenly Gate Project?"
"That's right. In our country's mythology, the Southern Heavenly Gate is the gateway into the Heavenly Court. You can think of the Heavenly Court as the Divine Realm of the Douluo Continent, although that comparison is a bit of an insult to the Heavenly Court."
"You have mythology here?"
"Yeah. There are countries here that believe in angels too."
"Ah? You have legends of the Angel God here?"
"No, no. To be precise, those people don't believe in angels, but in God. Angels are only God's messengers.
"And besides the winged humanoid form, angels have another appearance. Want to see it?"