Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 167 The Great Sage and the Mechanic Society
What to burn?
That's a really good question. Zeus's understanding of machinery is far beyond our time, but even on Blue Planet, there are only a few things that can be used as industrial fuel.

The first type is solid materials, such as coal, firewood, grass straw, etc., which have been used by humans for thousands of years.

Then there are oil and natural gas, including various alcohols and alkanes. They are the blood of modern society. Everything from running cars to rockets relies on their combustion.

Going further up, we reach nuclear fission and nuclear fusion, from uranium to deuterium, tritium, and helium-3. The brilliant radiation is also the shine of civilization.

So, what exactly is considered strange fire?

If this is in this world, mortals naturally correspond to the extraordinary, thinking of the pollution burning obediently and steadily in the previous evil god's steam engine. Perhaps the Mechanical Temple is also taking advantage of the pollution?

This is interesting.

"Are you sure that the Mechanical Temple doesn't have any extraordinary paths or extraordinary people?"

Chloe pondered for a moment and said, "I think you have some misunderstandings about the Mechanical Temple. It's true that the Mechanical Temple doesn't have any extraordinary paths. It's not an extraordinary organization, but it certainly has extraordinary people."

Chloe rubbed her eyes as she spoke, then held up a brass holy emblem: "I am."

"."

The breathing of the people around them stopped as the steam pipe vibrated, and their eyes fell on Chloe. The brass holy emblem swayed gently in the flames of the steam engine, and Zeus's eyes twitched.

"Are you also from the Mechanical Temple?"

He took the holy emblem from Chloe and examined it carefully.

Dark golden ripples flowed across the surface of the brass holy emblem, and between the steam gear patterns etched on its edges, dark red copper rust, similar to blood vessel circuits, snaked around, appearing to wriggle like biological tissue under the glow of the boiler fire.

It's so beautiful. But why does brass have red patina?

No, it wasn't rust, it looked more like some kind of blood stain.

Zeus turned the brass holy emblem over. When the emblem was tilted to a certain angle, a three-dimensional relief similar to the gyri of the human brain would appear on its surface. These parallel lines that originally symbolized rationality and order now became so strange and distorted, and as he turned it, they seemed to be gradually wriggling.

This. Zeus felt extremely contradictory. If he only looked at the design of the holy emblem, it had an industrial aesthetic, with crisp and simple lines, which perfectly matched his aesthetic taste. However, there were a lot of messy decorations on it, and both the color and shape were extremely distorted, which made him feel uncomfortable all over.

The combination of these two completely different styles creates an indescribable sense of weirdness, as if pouring a bottle of strawberry yogurt into a pot of delicious stew.

They are all delicious things, but when put together, they just make people feel disgusted.

"I did join the Mechanical Templar—this organization might not be what you imagined." Chloe took back the brass holy emblem. "The Mechanical Templar isn't actually its real name. It's just that because they look so much like a church, people gradually started calling them that. Some also call them the Mechanicus, but its original name was actually the Society of Mechanical Engineers."

Chloe's eyes flickered with longing. "It's said that it was originally just a loose, purely academic organization, but after the disappearance of the great sage Bruno, the Mechanics Society slowly began to consolidate its influence and stopped sharing knowledge for free." "Sharing knowledge for free? Why do I remember that only you, the Fire Moths, were willing to share knowledge? Did they share too?"

"Of course, they were the first to share knowledge. When they first drew the blueprint of the steam engine on the blackboard, the Fire Moth was just a branch of the Candlelight Society. In the era of the Great Sage, the Mechanics Society was also a symbol of progress and openness. Who would have thought that they would become extremely conservative now?"

Chloe's tone unconsciously deepened. "The Fire Moths have been collaborating with them since that time. All previous chiefs have been members of the society. This tradition has been preserved from over a thousand years ago to this day."

"Unfortunately, we are no longer fellow travelers now."

She spoke with a dull look, casually stuffed the holy emblem into her eyes, took a few steps back, bit her lower lip, and leaned against the door frame with her arms clasped together. The flickering firelight fell on her nun's uniform, stretching her shadow long. She was clearly standing in the crowd, but she felt a little lonely.

The Mechanical Templar had originally been an open and inclusive academic organization? What had happened to them that led them to this extreme? Hughes fell silent, a tightness in his chest. The people of this world had once strived for technological advancement, only to revert to extreme conservatism.

"Anyway, I know them quite well. The Mechanical Temple is just a group of mortals who are crazy about worshipping all kinds of machines. They don't have this weird steam engine, and their technology basically doesn't involve the extraordinary, at least the older ones don't."

"It doesn't involve the supernatural? The saying that steam cannot be desecrated by ordinary fire doesn't seem to make sense."

"That was later on. They gradually became more and more extreme, with more and more bizarre and complicated rules. They madly worshipped technology, but strictly prohibited anyone from interpreting it. The foundation was wrong, so I wouldn't be surprised by any conclusions they came up with."

The factory became quiet again. In the steam engine combustion chamber not far away, the physical pollution was still hitting the furnace door, and the dripping sound was like raindrops falling on the ground.

A somewhat timid voice broke the silence: "I... I have an idea."

Xius turned his head and looked over. He blinked and asked in surprise: "Gaia?"

"Yes, Lord, and Chief, I have an idea that might be worth testing."

Xius glanced at Chloe next to him. She leaned over and whispered, "Gaia has joined the Fire Moths. Don't worry."

This makes me even more worried. Gaia is already very impatient, and coupled with the fact that Fire Moth has always been unreliable, it feels like it's not just one plus one equals two. Maybe I should consider changing someone to be in charge of the explosives production line. Zeus sighed secretly.

He didn't want to wake up and see Castel flying in the sky.

"You say it."

Gaia nodded gratefully. "My Lord, I think we can try the ritual of the Mechanical Temple with another steam engine. I'd just find an ordinary steam engine without a summoned machine spirit."

Zeus and Chloe looked at each other and saw the surprise in each other's eyes. They both understood the implicit meaning of Gaia's words.

"Do you think it was the Machine Spirit that caused the abnormalities in the rituals of the Mechanical Temple?"

(End of this chapter)