I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

Although it was late autumn, the atmosphere in this large classroom, which could hold three thousand people, was as hot as if it were a sauna.

If a traditional ancient cultivator were to accidentally wander into this place, he would surely think he had gone mad or become possessed by evil spirits.

Because this place doesn't seem like a place to teach the "Great Way of Immortality".

There was no mystical burning of incense, no obscure recitation of scriptures, and no one sitting on a meditation cushion.

The painting of Laozi refining elixirs that originally hung on the wall was taken down by Li Zhensheng and replaced with an enormous hand-drawn chart.

The chart doesn't depict a yin-yang symbol, but rather five colored wavy lines, with a note written in plain language next to it:

[Gold: Sharp and prickly, difficult to manage]

Wood: Gentle and reliable, suitable for use as an adhesive.

Water: Highly tolerant, but easily dilutes the efficacy of medicine.

[Fire: The hot-tempered guy, only responsible for providing energy]

Earth: stable and substantial, used to lock in the medicinal power.

On the platform, Li Zhensheng held half a piece of chalk in his hand, his Taoist robe sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his hands covered in herbal residue and chalk dust.

"All of you, raise your heads!"

Li Zhensheng tossed a piece of chalk precisely at a dozing student. "Didn't yesterday's oven explosion wake you up yet?"

He pointed to the five wavy lines on the blackboard and said loudly:

"This month, we need to correct a misconception."

"You used to think that alchemy was a mystical art, something that relied on luck, or that you had to pray to gods and Buddhas to give you a chance. You were wrong!"

"Alchemy, in essence, is a form of 'micro-level diplomatic negotiation'!"

The students below the stage craned their necks, their eyes shining with a mixture of confusion and excitement.

Li Zhensheng continued to explain in plain language:

"The Dean said that Reiki is alive. You can think of Reiki as a group of 'extremely sensitive and mischievous children'."

"Why don't machines work? Because machines are inanimate. Machines only rigidly execute the 'heat for five minutes' command. But what if the child (reiki) inside the furnace suddenly throws a tantrum? The machine doesn't know how to soothe it; it will only continue heating, and the result is—Bang! The furnace explodes!"

"So, who's going to comfort them?"

Li Zhensheng patted his chest abruptly.

"people!"

"We'll use our divine senses to crawl into the furnace and become these 'kindergarten teachers'!"

"If you see the 'fire-attribute spiritual energy' throwing a tantrum, quickly mobilize the 'water-attribute' energy to soothe it; if you see the 'herbal molecules' unwilling to merge, use your divine sense to forcibly press them together and tell them: 'Give me a kiss! You're not leaving until you kiss me!'"

The whole room burst into laughter.

But after the laughter subsided, everyone was frantically taking notes.

This is the current Kunlun Dan Dao system.

It neither completely abandons the rigor of science (emphasizing proportions and efficiency) nor can it deny the metaphysical characteristics of animism.

Ultimately, this "Frankenstein's monster of science and metaphysics" was born.

……

[2 PM, Dan Dao Square]

The theory sounds interesting, but when it comes to actually doing it, it's a nightmare.

In the square, forty bronze alchemy furnaces were once again lined up.

This time, the students weren't just staring at the stopwatch. They all had their eyes tightly shut, were sweating profusely, and had a variety of expressions on their faces—some were gritting their teeth, some were pale, and some were even twitching slightly.

Because they are undergoing an extremely perverse training program—the [Spirit Centrifuge].

"Watch the RPM! Watch the RPM!"

"We used to try to use an electric motor to drive a centrifuge to separate impurities, but when the spiritual energy interfered, the motor burned out."

"Now, your brains are like motors!"

"Use your divine senses to envelop the medicinal liquid in the furnace! Make it spin!"

"Impurities are heavier, the liquid is lighter! As long as the furnace rotates fast enough, the impurities will be flung against the furnace walls!"

It sounds simple, but it's incredibly difficult to do.

Imagine you can't use your hands, you can only use your "mind" to stir a pot of boiling, even rebellious, thick soup.

"vomit……"

In the corner, a chubby boy couldn't hold it in any longer and gagged.

"I can't take it anymore... I feel like my brain is spinning with the stove... like I've been thrown into a washing machine..."

"Hold it back! If you spit it out, this batch of 'Qi-restoring pills' will be ruined! Once your divine sense is severed, your spiritual energy will immediately go berserk. Do you want to explode again?"

"But...but they won't listen!"

The chubby boy said in a tearful voice, "I was just about to shake off the impurities when that ball of fire energy came and messed things up, burning my spiritual sense!"

"Then let's 'talk' to it!"

Li Zhensheng walked over at some point, and said with a look of exasperation:

"I've told you so many times, you have to smooth things over! You have a temper too, and so does that fire. You need to learn to anticipate its moves and soothe it before it explodes!"

"This is the essence of 'human-machine integration.' The furnace is the machine, and you are the soul."

"Only when your consciousness and the spiritual energy in the furnace reach a subtle resonance can you feel that 'effortless' pleasure."

Amid Li Zhensheng's roar, the square was filled with a burnt smell, a testament to the failure of most of the students.

However, a small number of people gradually relaxed their brows, as if they had figured out the trick.

……

[4 PM - Acceptance Process]

"Open the furnace!"

At a command, forty furnace lids popped open simultaneously.

Although most of the furnace bottom was covered with blackened coke, this time, no explosion actually occurred.

Li Zhensheng checked them one by one.

"It's too hot, it's burnt."

"The impurities weren't completely removed, and the heavy metal content is too high. Eating it will cause diarrhea."

"This is alright, barely qualifying as a defective product."

Until he reached the end of the line, in front of a burly young man named Zhao Tiezhu.

As his name suggests, he was a big, burly man who was currently grinning foolishly.

At the bottom of his furnace lay twelve pills, lying quietly.

It has a golden color, a strong medicinal aroma, and is extremely pure.

but……

Li Zhensheng pushed up his glasses, wondering if he was seeing things.

He picked up a pill and examined it closely.

This pill is not round.

It is square.

It is square and angular, like a yellow sugar cube or a miniature brick.

"Zhao Tiezhu." Li Zhensheng's lips twitched. "Explain yourself."

"Reporting, team leader!"

Zhao Tiezhu straightened his back and answered loudly and confidently:

"I think round pills are so unscientific!"

"Huh?" Li Zhensheng was stunned.

Zhao Tiezhu picked up a small porcelain bottle and demonstrated:

"You see, if it's a round sphere, there will be a lot of gaps between the spheres when it's put in the bottle. According to my calculations, the space wastage rate is as high as 26%!"

"This is a huge insult to logistics and transportation!"

The brilliance of the Industrial Party shone in Zhao Tiezhu's eyes:

"Therefore, in the final 'condensation of the core' step, I used my divine sense to impose a 'cubic mold' constraint on them!"

"We forcibly compressed them into cubes!"

"This way, I can hold 35% more pills in the same bottle! And they're very stable when stacked, they won't roll around, making them easy to pack and transport!"

The entire venue was deathly silent.

The students around Zhao Tiezhu looked at him as if he were a monster.

Turning elixirs into bricks? That's utterly heretical in the world of cultivation! If those ancient immortals who valued "perfection" saw this, they'd probably be so angry they'd lift the lid off their coffins.

Li Zhensheng stared at the "sugar cube" for a long time.

He tried to criticize it from the perspective of "traditional aesthetics," thinking that this thing was really too ugly and had no ethereal quality at all.

but……

The rational scientist within him was clapping wildly.

efficient!

This is the mindset of industrialization!

If the goal is to mass-produce and store them as strategic materials, why bother with aesthetics?

Edible, effective, and space-saving – that's the key!

"……very good."

Li Zhensheng took a deep breath and squeezed out two words through gritted teeth.

"Although it's ugly like a brick and has absolutely no aesthetic appeal... its logic is impeccable."

He held the square pill high, showing it to everyone.

"Look carefully, everyone!"

"This is the path we must take!"

"We are not imitating the ancients; we are surpassing them!"

"The ancients refined elixirs to achieve immortality, so they valued auspicious omens and perfection. But what we're refining is sustenance to sustain all of humanity!"

Li Zhensheng turned to look at Zhao Tiezhu, his eyes filled with admiration:

"This batch of pills will henceforth be named 'Military Rations No. 1'."

"Tonight we'll discuss whether we can make it into a 'hexagonal honeycomb structure' to further increase the structural strength."

"Yes, team leader!" Zhao Tiezhu saluted, smiling broadly.

……

[Late at night - the dormitory area of ​​the Dan Dao Academy]

In the old days, this would have been the time to play games or watch TV shows in college.

But at Kunlun University, the dormitories were brightly lit all night, and the corridors were filled with the sounds of heated arguments.

This argument is not due to conflict, but rather to academic disagreement.

At the entrance of dormitory 302, two boys were arguing heatedly, pointing at a chart on the wall.

"No! I think the principle of 'wood generates fire' is essentially that wood-attribute spiritual energy acts as a combustion accelerant! It's still a chemical reaction!" the bespectacled boy insisted.

"Nonsense!" the long-haired boy opposite retorted. "If it were a accelerant, why would there be spiritual fluctuations? This is clearly a 'complementary relationship' between the two spiritual energies! Wood is gentle, fire is volatile. Wood, like a mother, embraces fire, allowing the fire to burn even brighter! This is psychology!"

"That's idealism!"

"That's rigid dogma!"

A talisman student passing by leaned over and said, "Hey, stop arguing. Whether it's an accelerant or a mother figure, as long as it gets the fire going, isn't that enough? How about we try sticking on a 'Rage Talisman'?"

"Get lost! You talisman-wielding people are just a bunch of 'painters,' what do you know about art!"

……

【Star-Picking Platform】

Gu Qing stood on the edge of the cliff, listening to the somewhat noisy arguments carried on the wind.

In his hand, he was playing with the "square-shaped fasting pill" that Zhao Tiezhu had refined.

Under the moonlight, this angular elixir looked out of place, lacking any ethereal beauty and exuding the cold, industrial feel of a mass-produced product.

A line of text pops up on the system interface:

[New item detected: Mass-produced military-grade fasting pills]

[Quality: Low-grade Yellow Rank (Extremely Stable)]

[Evaluation: It's ugly, it's crude, it lacks any spiritual beauty. But it's the optimal solution humanity has made for survival in a desperate situation. Congratulations, host, your students have finally learned to turn "mythology" into "tools."]

Gu Qing's lips curled up slightly.

He tossed the square pill up into the air and caught it.

"yes."

Gu Qing gazed at the distant, snow-capped mountains and murmured to himself.

"Artworks can only be displayed in museums for people to admire; they can't save many lives."

"Only these ugly but effective industrial products can be manufactured in tons and stuffed into the backpacks of every warrior, allowing them to hold out a little longer when facing the Void Monsters."

What he wanted was never a group of immortals who only knew how to compose poems and pursue a carefree life.

What he wanted was a group of engineering cultivators whose thinking was not bound by tradition, whose minds were open and imaginative, who could even inscribe formations on tanks, turn flying swords into cruise missiles, and turn elixirs into compressed biscuits.

"It seems that the alchemy system is on the right track."

Gu Qing turned around and looked towards the back mountain.

"Those sword-wielding enthusiasts must have almost ruined the 'Sword Control Technique' by now, right?"

Gu Qing's mind drifted to Chu Tian, ​​the eldest disciple of the sword cultivator department, who seemed to be researching something called "multi-stage propulsion flying sword" and "sword formation aerodynamic layout" recently.

"Alright."

"Hopefully, when those Void monsters descend, they'll enjoy these...little surprises" that Earthlings have prepared for them."

The wind and snow intensified.

But the snow falling all over the sky could not extinguish the flame of "civilization" that was growing wildly on the Kunlun Mountains.