My Ability Pool is Superior - Chapter 371: Industrialization

“Reporting to the Heavenly Venerate, the Research Institute’s Spiritual Energy Etching has completed verification and can be fully popularized.”

An old man wearing new-style clothing stood under the Dao Seeking Stone, reporting results to Lu Bai, his tone filled with barely concealed excitement.

“Spiritual Energy Etching was completed first?”

Lu Bai raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised.

Incidentally, during the process of implementing the law, he had additionally established a Research Institute, recruiting cultivators who specialized in puppets and mechanisms into it, responsible for researching machinery that mortals could also use.

The reason was simple; he was very clear that no matter how strict or lenient the law he formulated was, once he was gone, the order he established would inevitably perish.

So he had to do something else.

For example, improving productivity was a feasible direction.

However, he hadn’t made too many demands, mainly providing the Research Institute with some ideas, such as directions like the steam engine and internal combustion engine.

There was no way around it; the popularization of science and technology required not only technology, but crucially accumulation and ideological liberation, allowing civilians to develop basic scientific literacy.

This was actually not as simple as imagined.

Carrying out reforms in this top-down manner, if not for his strength being overwhelming enough to suppress Xuanzhou, he would probably have died long ago.

It must be known that high-level cultivators could live for thousands or even tens of thousands of years, and the history of the Cultivation World was so long that it could be traced back to ancient times.

Over such a distant span of time, there hadn’t been any major changes at the societal level, which itself meant that cultivators did not hope to make changes.

With the means of cultivators, manufacturing machinery could be said to be effortless.

Didn’t they know that providing machinery to mortals could increase output?

The answer was of course no.

It was just that in the eyes of cultivators, there was no need to do so.

Mortals were like leeks; after one crop was cut, another would grow, and their value to cultivators was merely to serve as servants and provide immortal seedlings.

War and chaos, plagues, natural disasters and man-made calamities, or even demonic cultivators slaughtering a region, were actually insignificant to the major immortal sects, as long as they weren’t completely wiped out.

Enlightening mortals was seen as an unstable factor in the eyes of cultivators, let alone specially researching machinery for mortals to use.

In such a situation, over endless ages, mortals could only survive and continue in the most ancient ways.

The mortal world had never even had national regimes, and in terms of societal progress, it still fell within the scope of slavery.

Lu Bai wanted to elevate the status of mortals, so besides relying on bloody enforcement, he naturally had to find ways to improve mortal productivity.

“Uh… Reporting to the Heavenly Venerate, it’s not like that. In fact, the technical difficulties of the steam engine and internal combustion engine have long been overcome. We have also made some progress on electrical energy and nuclear energy, but…”

The sect master of the Immortal Puppet Sect, who was also the vice dean of the Research Institute, an old man, explained with slight hesitation: “…according to the experimental results, the efficiency of this type of new energy machinery is far inferior to Spiritual Energy Etching machinery.”

The vice dean of the Research Institute spoke while taking out a detailed experimental report and presenting it to Lu Bai.

Lu Bai glanced at him; he wouldn’t suspect the intelligence of these old immortals.

Even in this unprecedented great upheaval, they could vaguely infer from past experience that giving science and technology to mortals would absolutely affect the stable status of cultivators.

But in the face of Lu Bai’s overwhelming power, these immortal sects didn’t dare to stand up and oppose, and could only make some small tricks in certain places.

Just like this research on energy.

On the surface, their actions were still reasonable.

Whether in terms of development prospects or effects, Spiritual Energy Etching undoubtedly led other energies.

There was only one problem: with Spiritual Energy Etching, mortals could only use it and could not independently manufacture it.

Based on this, Lu Bai was too lazy to discuss with them and calmly countered: “Can mortals learn the manufacturing process?”

The vice dean’s expression froze, and he said thoughtfully: “With us researchers carefully teaching, perhaps…”

“Then continue researching Spiritual Energy Etching. Wait until there are further results before saying more; first spread the other types of energy machinery.”

“This…”

“Is there a problem?” A harmless smile appeared on Lu Bai’s face.

The vice dean shuddered involuntarily and hurriedly said: “No, no, no problem.”

……

Three months later.

Lu Bai wore the standard Daoist Robe of Qingwang Sect and silently landed at the city gate entrance of a large city, easily blending into the crowd queuing to enter the city.

The city gate had no soldiers or cultivators guarding it; only four registration personnel were responsible for recording the information of people entering and exiting the city.

Carriages and pedestrians entered and exited freely, with noisy voices, appearing very lively and bustling.

Standing in the queuing crowd and scanning around, he could see that these civilians wearing tight, dense fabric clothing all had no cultivation; they were all genuine ordinary people.

In his impression, when Lu Bai first arrived in this Cultivation World, the mortals he saw wore coarse hemp clothing.

In terms of clothing, food, housing, and transportation, just clothing alone showed that the quality of life for mortals had improved by more than one level.

It was worth mentioning that the queued horse carriages were almost all mechanical structures. Scanning the bottom of the carriages with divine sense, one would find bearings, differentials, and other components exposed in the air, and the rear of the carriages spewed thick smoke.

The overall styling seemed somewhat absurdly steampunk to Lu Bai, and he was quite puzzled why they still tied a horse in front when it was like this.

Not long after queuing, the roar of an internal combustion engine train came from the other side of the city; that was a special train transporting supplies passing through the city.

After all, it was a world with cultivators; if one was willing to set aside face, the construction speed was faster than various large machinery.

The thick smoke spewed from the train locomotive floated into the sky above the city and gradually dissipated.

Under Lu Bai’s deliberate intervention, the speed at which the Cultivation World entered industrialization was not running, but directly like a rocket.

Ordinary people naturally had no concept of environmental pollution; as living standards improved, this thick smoke seemed to ordinary people like a symbol of industrial progress.

Thinking that their own city was developing even better than the neighboring city, the people in the city would involuntarily puff out their chests.

Moreover, the Labor Law was clearly written in the Lu laws; the history of the bottom civilians being exploited and oppressed before industrialization in the real world had not repeated in the Cultivation World.

Advanced and still rapidly developing productivity, combined with a strict supervision system that left no leeway, filled vast numbers of mortals with expectations for the future.

If you randomly pulled someone on the road and asked, they would probably yearnfully say that good days were still to come.

Lu Bai stepped into the city, his divine sense instantly sweeping over various places in the city. After all, time was still too short, and the blood on the execution platform hadn’t cooled yet; temporarily, no one dared to break the law.

In the secluded corners, not even beggars could be seen, let alone any breaking the law.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com