After completing his breakthrough, Mingye has been in seclusion to consolidate his cultivation.
For cultivators, the more their strength increases, the more they need to learn to control their power.
Uncontrollable power is not only not beneficial to cultivators, but may even harm them.
Therefore, most cultivators will go into seclusion for a period of time after breaking through to the Core Formation Realm, and it is not surprising that some go into seclusion for several years.
In the path of cultivation, the higher the realm, the more difficult it is to break through. In fact, for many cultivators in the Core Formation Realm, the vast majority of their time is spent in seclusion.
After entering the Early Stage of the Core Formation Realm, although lifespan will increase to three hundred years, three hundred years will pass in the blink of an eye for cultivators. If they cannot break through to the Mid Core Formation Realm before the age of three hundred, they will also face the fate of dying of old age.
The more powerful a person is, the more they cherish their life. After entering the Core Formation Realm, most external things in this world can only offer them negligible help. Their cultivation is no longer about simply increasing the total amount of Spiritual Power within their body, but about comprehending the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth and gradually understanding the mysteries of the creation of all things.
This step is extremely profound; if a cultivator cannot comprehend it, even possessing a great many Spirit Stone will be in vain.
Therefore, we rarely see cultivators above the Core Formation Realm walking around in the mortal world. They spend most of their time in seclusion, sometimes for decades or even centuries. It is very difficult for people who have not reached that level to encounter them.
While Mingye focused on seclusion, Chen Mu concentrated on improving Chen Village's defense system.
Chen Village is Chen Mu's stronghold, so how could Chen Mu not value it? In recent years, he has already built it into an iron fortress.
However, in order to avoid attracting attention, Chen Village's architectural style is basically based on the mainstream of the Wilderness. Although some places are slightly different, it looks similar to other advanced tribes.
People outside don't know that those seemingly ordinary stone brick walls are actually made of solid alloy steel.
Those simple crossbow bolts used for defense can be transformed into top-tier offensive weapons once their internal runes are activated.
The mechanical arms buried in the buildings throughout Chen Village can be transformed into gun barrels.
And those heavy cannons lined up in the Rune Research Institute, which many outsiders think are just for display, can turn a hundred miles around into scorched earth once they are activated.
Since Chen Mu returned to Chen Village more than three years ago, Chen Village has never encountered any real danger.
Those small-scale monster invasions were perfect training grounds for Chen Village's army, and they didn't bother consuming the energy of the city's defensive weapons.
If any experts above the Core Formation Realm dared to come, the mere presence of the White Turtle would be enough to scare them away.
Therefore, apart from the group of fanatical researchers at the Rune Research Institute, no outsider knew just how terrifying Chen Village's city defenses were.
Even the vassal tribes living in Chen Village only vaguely sensed that Chen Village's defenses were not simple, but they had no idea how far they could go.
Compared to the fantastical civilization here, the most terrifying power of technological civilization is mass production and automation.
Before Heaven-Questioning Pavilion, Chen Mu's vision was limited, and he only had a superficial understanding of the material composition of this world.
If he had stayed behind closed doors and only used his past life's experience to study runes back then, it might have taken him ten or even a hundred years to reach his current level.
However, his time spent in seclusion at Black Wind Cliff allowed him to understand the true meaning of science, and he began to analyze the world from a scientific perspective from the very beginning.
He redefined the temperature of all substances based on the boiling point of water: 100 degrees Celsius for water, 3500 degrees Celsius for iron (2750 degrees Celsius on Earth), 70 degrees Celsius for alcohol (78 degrees Celsius on Earth), and so on.
He redefined the world's density, hardness, melting point, and so on, in the same way...
In Xiaozhi's database, he redefined all matter in this world in a digital form, and combined it with the world's traditional talisman techniques, cultivation methods, martial arts skills, and so on, to derive a large number of scientific formulas.
With these formulas, he could truly become an inventor, easily creating things that had never existed before in the world.
The alloy steel plates used in the buildings in Chen Village are not spiritual materials from this world. Their raw materials are very ordinary, made from a mixture of several different cheap minerals in different proportions.
However, its hardness, even at a thickness of only 1 millimeter, is enough to withstand a full-force attack from the True Spirit Realm.
Chen Village, however, used this alloy steel plate to forge the entire city.
Automated mass production technology allows Chen Mu to mass-produce many low-tech items with readily available raw materials, including alloy steel plates, guns, cannons, and mechanical arms.
However, some technologies that are complex, require special methods, or use rare materials cannot yet be mass-produced.
Just like the talismans, magic weapons, pills, and so on used by advanced cultivators, making these things requires the cultivator's Divine Soul power, precious raw materials, and very precise control skills. To automate these things, the cultivator also needs to constantly research and improve them.
One person's strength is insignificant, so Chen Mu created the Rune Research Institute. He selflessly opened up his database so that everyone could learn his knowledge and combine the strength of others to improve his system.
Currently, the Rune Research Institute has achieved remarkable results, especially after the Rune Research Institute expanded its enrollment in the past year. More and more geniuses have joined the Rune Research Institute, and more and more amazing inventions have been developed by Chen Village.
At the Rune Research Institute, Chen Mu was always the core figure; his research alone was faster than all the other researchers combined.
As for why, it's simple: only Chen Mu had experienced another civilization, and many things he wanted were things that others couldn't even imagine.
Another point is that Chen Mu is also a genius. He was able to build a new technological civilization in a different world in just over ten years. How could he not be a genius?
His genius lies in his obsession with technology, his extraordinary way of thinking, and his passion for science.
If it weren't for a stroke of luck, Chen Mu's talent might not have shone brightly. But coming to this other world, he just happened to be able to put his talent to good use. Perhaps this was fate.
"Beep! New code loading complete. Smart Defense System Number One, now activating!"
Inside the Rune Research Institute, Chen Mu looked at the progress bar on the screen, which had reached 100%, and smiled with satisfaction.
Tomorrow is the deadline for the Temple. Hopefully, the beast horde attack won't disappoint me.