Chapter 573: Humane messenger

The predicament faced by Lingchou Realm is not something that can be resolved by their internal unity.

If it could be solved simply by uniting internally, without needing to compete with each other, then this group of astute individuals would have long since formed an industry association, collectively reducing production and maintaining the world's ecology.

But the problem is that the opponent Lingchou Realm faces is not itself, but the entire external market; it is difficult for their products to achieve differentiation, and in this high-volume business, their opponents are all 'Spiritual Artifact assembly lines'.

Yes, this is not something only you have.

Admittedly, Lingchou Realm still has some differentiation due to its unique Spiritual Artifact architecture, which is also why everyone likes it, but this liking has not reached the point of 'can't do without you', so if you dare to reduce production, others will dare to use something else.

If I can't eat duck legs today, then I'll eat pork trotters; there's a difference, but not too much, both are edible.

If the duck leg shop dares to close for renovation, then in a couple of days everyone will be eating pork trotters, and the duck leg shop won't be able to open again in the future, as the market will have been completely taken over.

Therefore, the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact is useful.

The items manufactured by the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact are indeed stronger than those from Spiritual Artifact assembly lines; their performance can be improved by about ten percent, and goods produced by the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact can achieve seventy-five to even eighty percent of the quality of fine handmade items.

Such a large difference can completely make up for the profit gap caused by reduced production, because it is simply different, simply more powerful; a ten percent performance difference is completely enough for Lingchou Realm to occupy a new market.

Admittedly, the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact technology cannot completely impact the Spiritual Artifact assembly line market, because only the terrifying efficiency brought by the Spiritual Artifact assembly line can meet the Spiritual Artifact demands of so many people in all the heavens and myriad realms; the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact can only target niche markets.

But the key is that Lingchou Realm is only a fifth-rank world, and what it produces are not fifth-rank Magic Treasures; most are seventh or eighth-rank Magic Robes, with Lingchou Realm accounting for a very small fraction of those high-end, exquisite fifth-rank items.

There are too many worlds skilled in refining exquisite Spiritual Artifacts, some even more powerful than the refiners in the world, and the Dao of Reason often goes there to learn from them.

However, as of now, for Lingchou Realm's small market, the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact can completely achieve replacement, at least according to Zhang You.

The actual situation, of course, will only be known after actual implementation.

Within the production line, Zhang You naturally introduced various characteristics of the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact to Mo Xiao, presenting actual demonstrations and samples for him to observe, and even directly allowing him to touch the production line, explaining the advantages of the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact in detail.

"You see, the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact can completely solve these two problems. First, the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact is less picky; it only requires the remains of the aquaculture industry. Lingchou Realm should have already popularized aquaculture, and the residues and waste materials from aquaculture, including discarded souls and other waste products, can be directly put into production. Although not all of these can be used, this greatly reduces resource consumption."

"Secondly, the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact actually does reduce output. After all... the production efficiency of an assembly line is probably more than two hundred times that of a Shamanic Silkworm Artifact. This is still limited by the raw materials in Lingchou Realm; if it were a full-power assembly line, the efficiency would be at least a hundred thousand times that of a Shamanic Silkworm Artifact. But those are not important; we don't need such high output, and we don't have that many raw materials."

"With higher quality products, there is an Opportunity for rotation. At least half of the raw material consumption for the Spiritual Artifact assembly line can be halted and invested into the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact. Mr. Mo Xiao, do you think this brand-new technology from the world can solve your current predicament?" Zhang You patted the entire production line and said.

Mo Xiao looked up at everything before him, at the Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts continuously feeding and gnawing on 'waste materials'.

Their efficiency was not high, but the goods they produced were superior. In fact, Zhang You, as a technical specialist, had even overvalued handmade fine products.

Most low-level refiners may not be able to refine Spiritual Artifacts as well as a Spiritual Artifact assembly line.

A refiner's skill must be nurtured with resources; apprentices are not qualified to enter the commercial market and can only barely survive on low-end custom orders. Only refiners at the mid-level and above can outperform the Spiritual Artifact assembly line and establish themselves.

And now, the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact can even compare to some mid-level refiners.

The development of technology is truly amazing.

"This is... truly remarkable. If everything is as you say, then it can indeed maintain our existing world to a certain extent, at least allowing us to catch our breath. But there are still some questions: what is the difficulty of breeding and maintaining the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact?" Mo Xiao asked.

Zhang You explained: "Actually, it requires almost no maintenance. The Shamanic Silkworm Artifact itself possesses living characteristics; it only needs food and a clean environment. And like all Gu insects, as long as there is sufficient food, they will self-reproduce; otherwise, they will stop reproducing."

"Moreover, they have other properties, such as being able to perform self-sampling and encoding..."

The introduction continued.

And similar negotiations were simultaneously taking place with seventy or eighty different Lingchou Realm merchants, and even outside Lingchou Realm, many more introductions were unfolding.

This was completely normal commercial behavior, almost beyond reproach, and the several hundred layers of transmission almost completely obstructed the existence of any merchant association.

Even the merchant association itself considered this completely normal commercial behavior; everything was normal, so normal that it easily passed Lingchou Realm's review.

——————

While the commercial activities were in full swing there, on the other side, the Lingchou Realm Lord was conversing with a young man from the Human Dao.

This was a sixth-rank Human Dao Cultivator, with an ordinary, not particularly handsome face, but a pair of remarkably spirited eyes that left a deep impression. He wore a typical Chang'an-style green robe, which immediately brought two words to mind.

Imperial Academy.

That's right, this was the robe of a Imperial Academy scholar, already somewhat worn, which, considering it was a Spiritual Artifact, indicated it had been worn for a very long time.

He was the Human Dao envoy, and he sat堂而皇之, openly and grandly, before the Lingchou Realm Lord, with a Spiritual Artifact assembly line placed before him.

This powerful machine was actually quite beautiful; though called an assembly line, it had no crude industrial feel at all, being essentially a translucent sphere.

It was like a... star.

So beautiful, so brilliant, with a total height of six feet, one inch, and three fen, and a circumference of eighteen feet, three inches, and nine fen. Engraved upon it were the Eight Directions, Ten Heavenly Stems, Twelve Earthly Branches, Twenty-Four Solar Terms, and Seventy-Two Pentads, defining the four cardinal directions, daily hours, and precisely measuring the hundred divisions of day and night.

Rather than resembling a machine, it looked more like a work of art.

This translucent sphere, by simply feeding it raw materials, could directly decompose them into Qi, then weave and assemble this Qi, quickly producing preset Spiritual Artifacts. Its speed was astonishingly fast; as long as there were enough raw materials, a single Spiritual Artifact assembly line could produce millions of Spiritual Artifacts daily.

The Lingchou Realm Lord looked at the Spiritual Artifact assembly line, lost in thought for a moment.

This... was so much stronger than their assembly lines.

The Spiritual Artifact assembly lines they currently possessed were acquired through various means: some by chance encounters, some by cunning seizure, some by treasure hunting and finding overlooked items.

However, those Spiritual Artifact assembly lines were actually discarded items that the Human Dao had used until they were scrapped, long since obsolete. Yet, even so, they were already treasures sufficient to change the ecology of Lingchou Realm.

And this one before her came from the Human Dao, a brand new model, not only a new style but also equipped with corresponding plugins developed by the Dao of Reason, boosting efficiency by over a thousand times and capable of producing sub-grade seventh-rank Spiritual Artifacts!

This one machine alone was enough to render all of Lingchou Realm's Spiritual Artifact assembly lines obsolete and change the entire world's ecology.

"Realm Lord, this is a Spiritual Artifact assembly line with Dao of Reason involvement. This efficiency should be enough for your next phase of expansion, shouldn't it? It's not just limited to the present; it also has great benefits for the future, and the price isn't expensive, only a few sixth-rank worlds can exchange for it. I imagine this price... is something you couldn't even pick up if you found it." The Human Dao envoy said.

The Lingchou Realm Lord did not reply, but fell into deep thought.

Indeed, this one Spiritual Artifact assembly line was enough for them to embark on their next phase of expansion.

However, as a fifth-rank, she was not foolish; on the contrary, she could clearly foresee the outcome of accepting this machine.

The outcome was that, to satisfy the raw material needs for this machine to operate, she would have to launch an expedition, capturing a large number of worlds to be fed into it and transformed into Spiritual Artifacts.

This not-so-large sphere, at full power, could tear apart a hundred worlds in a single day, transforming all of their resources and all life into homogenized Spiritual Artifacts.

With the support of this item, the expedition would most likely be victorious.

Because the resources she plundered could be quickly converted into combat power through the Spiritual Artifact assembly line, allowing everyone to be equipped with Spiritual Artifacts of appropriate rank, effortlessly creating an invincible iron army. As long as they didn't provoke a fifth-rank world of equal standing, such a war of plunder would be a purely positive cycle.

Just like... the Human Dao.

This was the delicious fruit thrown out by the Human Dao envoy.

If her world were not currently in the eye of the Human-Shaman war, she probably would never have tasted such a delicious bait until her death.

Yes, even if it was bait, it was too delicious to refuse.

But... thousands of years ago, they followed Shaman Dao.

Although it is now mixed with many things, if they betray their Dao Orthodoxy, leaving aside revenge or anything, Shaman Dao may not seek revenge, as their external image is usually quite laid-back. Just speaking of matters in cultivation methods, and her past Dao foundation, she would have to reshape it all.

However, this reshaping, due to the groundwork laid over the past few millennia, actually seems... not so unbearable.

But making a decision now would seem too... cheap.

So, the Lingchou Realm Lord said, "Envoy, this... I hope you'll allow me to consider it."

"Hmm, the item will be left here. Realm Lord, take your time considering. However, there aren't many worlds available, as the Shaman Dao envoy has also arrived, and he came with great fanfare. He's not as low-key as I am." The Human Dao envoy said with a smile, then left.

He was indeed very low-key.

So low-key that... he actually arrived several years ago, but used a few minor tricks to push Lingchou Realm towards the edge of the Dao conflict.

He had originally planned to remain low-key until Lingchou Realm's ideology naturally fell and transformed. It was very likely that even after a complete transformation, no one in Lingchou Realm would notice the subtle changes.

Unfortunately, at this moment, the Shaman Dao envoy openly displayed his talisman, indicating his arrival, so there was no choice but to show himself and accelerate things slightly.

But the other party seemed a bit inexplicable, appearing with great fanfare, then hiding again. Could he really be cultivating? That would be... quite amusing.

——————

Regardless of the matters there, after the Lingchou Realm Lord left, she quickly returned to her office.

Being a Realm Lord is no easy task; she also had to handle a large amount of affairs, and she didn't want to bring these matters home, so she simply set up an office specifically for handling them.

Actually, ordinarily, handling them once every six months would suffice, as minor matters could be handled by her subordinates, and she only needed to make some important decisions.

But during this period, the events that occurred were always major, and each one required her personal decision, to determine the future structure of the world, which also put her under considerable pressure.

There was no other way; for them, whether it was Human or Shaman, it actually didn't matter at all.

Lingchou Realm was only nominally following them; in reality... what dominated Lingchou Realm was not some supreme Dao, but the 'Way of the World'.

That's right, even a fifth-rank world ultimately just drifts along with the Way of the World. They still consider survival as their highest goal. A fifth-rank world is said to be so powerful, yet in this vast outer domain, how can it not be influenced by the Way of the World?

To live, and then to live better, that was their entire goal.

For people in the outer domain, only by risking their chance of survival, or even directly leaving their civilization and their world to wander and risk their lives, do they have a chance to pursue the Dao.

Pursuing the Dao is even simpler for some primitive, indigenous worlds. After all, in closed worlds without outsiders, there are always a group of top existences who have no worries about survival and can freely pursue the Dao, eventually breaking through their world's barriers to reach the outer domain, and they generally maintain this momentum for a period of time.

Perhaps some will eventually succumb to the Way of the World, but those who can consistently adhere to their own Dao are not few.

However, for so-called 'civilized' worlds like Lingchou Realm, they never had the Opportunity to pursue their own Dao from the very beginning. They were already within this Way of the World from the start. For them, no matter how they tried to climb upwards, they would easily be besieged by survival pressures, such as the dilemma the Lingchou Realm Lord currently faced.

There was no other way; pursuing the Dao was certainly a good thing, but one had to be alive to do it.

Or simply abandon one's civilization, just like Li Shiwei's captain, breaking away and becoming a lone individual, which would reduce the pressure of survival.

But... the Lingchou Realm Lord couldn't do it. She was the Realm Lord; if she left, what would happen to the civilization?

"Alas..." She sighed and picked up a new report.

Hmm? New technology has arrived? Is there hope of solving the world's resource depletion problem?