Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"That's how the Imperial Prison works. It's just on a floor you haven't been to, and there's no sound. After all, gaining power doesn't guarantee a good heart. Some people can't control their power well, and they become evil spirits, a scourge to the world. Shangluo, as someone chosen by the Dao Ancestor, you have the opportunity to reach the heavens—so if you become like that, just imagine how destructive you'd be."

"Hmm," Shangluo pondered for a moment, "I can't quite think of one. Because if I had chosen that path, the opportunities I would have encountered would have been very different from what I have now."

"That's true. So what do you think is preventing you from using your power recklessly?"

"Because there are still people in this world I care about. At first, it wasn't anyone in particular, but everyone was nice to me, so there was no need. Later, I got to know many people and started working for the court, and the number of people I knew grew. That gave me even less reason to act recklessly. But I can probably imagine it."

Shang Luo lowered his voice: "If a person has no one he cares about, then he is invincible because a person's value often comes from the eyes of others. If others don't see him, then he has no sense of belonging in this world."

"So, you understand now." Zhu Xianxun looked at him. "This is why we must make this world lovely. We must do our best to do good deeds, be kind, and practice righteousness, so that everything becomes warm and tender. This is the only place where I can tell you this: because this is an absolute, practical interest. If our world becomes filled with hostility and we receive some spiritual roots at this time, our world will be doomed."

"I see."

"Well, first of all, I need to let you know where our specific threat lies. I'll leave this to Master Sa Tianshi. He'll call you shortly."

Wait a minute, there is another update, around 1 o'clock

Chapter 525 Lianshan

"But what if, what if. What if there's a ghost in this ship? Am I going to use it to fight myself?"

Shangluo suddenly thought of it.

"Well, that's a good question." Zhu Xianxi nodded.

"So, what then?"

"Find a way yourself. I've given you the boat. Although to be more precise, it was allocated from the imperial court to the Heavenly Court for use, but anyway, you have the final say. It's up to you. Well, I have something else to do. I have to go prepare a prize for you. Your home in Shangluo is not far from here, so I won't see you off. See you later."

After saying this, Zhu Xianxun went out and walked up the stairs by himself.

"Cough" Shangluo coughed and looked at Li Yi next to him, "Brother Li? Hello."

"Hello, Lord Shang Tian." Li Yi nodded at him. "Then, from now on, all the chores on this ship, any matters that you find difficult to handle yourself, can be directly handed over to him. Add me on Feixin?"

The two took out their cards and added each other first.

With this calculation, the Jinyiwei people came together like this:

The boss who looks at the big ship (his profile picture is a line)

The third one in the weaving bureau (with a profile picture of three cakes)

Lao Wu (profile picture is Wubing) who looks at the back door

Lao Liu who is watching the warehouse (his profile picture is Liu Tiao)

And Lao Jiu (his avatar is Jiu Bing), who was in charge of the shipyard and whom I met a long time ago.

The places where these people were located were all visited directly by Shangluo. According to Zhu Xianxun, the "functional facilities" where they were located could also be directly used by Shangluo.

"Oh, by the way, what's your name? You can't just keep calling me Brother Li."

"Supervising General Li Yi, you can just call me General Li. We Jinyiwei who stand guard actually have general titles. Weaving General, Casting General, etc. I am responsible for supervising the construction of Lianshan, so I am the Supervising General."

"Understood. So, General Lee, how do we fly this ship?"

"Good question. First of all, I have to tell you it can't fly."

"Huh?" Shangluo was stunned for a moment, "Didn't they say it could fly?"

"It's designed to fly. But the Lianshan hasn't been commissioned yet, so there's no crew on board. There's only me and a few other Jinyiwei on board, along with a cleaning company, and we work with the shipyard to maintain the ship. If you want to get this ship moving, you'll have to staff it yourself. It'll probably take around 2900 people."

"Twenty-nine hundred people? A garrison only has five thousand six hundred, right? That's half a garrison?"

"Half of the guards are Qigong practitioners."

"what???"

"So that's why this ship hasn't been launched yet. There's no point in launching it now, because when it 'flies', no mortal can withstand it. Only Qigong practitioners can board it. So you need to gather 2900 Qigong practitioners to sail this ship."

"."

"Let me first introduce the armament of this ship to you, Shang Tianjun." As they walked, he brought Shang Luo to the navigation command room in the front, from where one could see directly outside the portholes - two huge triple-mounted 3mm main guns raised high.

"Two in front and two in the back, four turrets with a total of 12 Grand General Cannons. Each can be loaded with specially designed elemental shells, and can choose to use explosive elemental shells for direct fire, or fire shrapnel or incendiary shells. All weapons on board are elemental weapons, and we believe they will be the main weapon of the next generation of warfare."

"Wait. You're not going to tell me there's no Torch Su either? I just know that Torch Su production is low right now, so there's no Torch Su on board, right?"

"Yes, there isn't that much Torch Elements on board right now. You'll have to buy some if you need it. Shang Tianjun, just find a way to get it yourself."

"Ha, you say that so easily, 'get it over here,' right? You say it as if you can just 'get it' easily."

"But it's worth it." He pointed ahead, "These ship-borne Grand Admiral Cannons are capable of dealing with all threats we can imagine—including the Evil Sword Immortal."

"Wait a minute." Shangluo noticed a word. "What do you mean by shipborne? Does it mean there are things that are not shipborne?"

"That's right," Li nodded. "There's also a land-based version. The land-based version includes the 1000-ton [Divine Machine Fortress], equipped with twin 300mm Grand General Cannons. And a specialized 800mm Grand General Cannon carrier, weighing 1500 tons [Divine Machine Cannon]. These massive weapons, equipped with the Grand General Cannons and other new-generation Torch Elements weapons, can be manipulated with ease by Qigong practitioners. They are the 'Giant God Soldiers' the court is building for the future. The Lianshan is also one of the Giant God Soldiers. They were all built to deal with future major enemies."

"No. Who are you going to hit? Who are you going to hit after making these? Are you going to hit the Evil Sword Immortal? Then am I not here?"

"I don't know either," Li Yi covered his forehead, "I don't know who we are going to fight. These are all orders from Daozu. Daozu ordered us to build these giant soldiers and dig huge underground fortresses. I don't know what they are for. I originally thought that the biggest worry of the court was Rome, but Rome is finished now. Later, I thought that the biggest worry of the court was the Evil Sword Immortal, but now Shang Tianjun is standing in front of me. Now, I really don't know what the biggest worry of the court is."

"In Fengtian Hall?"

"Tsk~~" Li Yi laughed. "You know what? It would be nice if they could be a little quieter. But they're not serious enough to be a concern, because after all, we don't have any major problems. Even if we quarrel, they won't be able to cause any trouble since we don't have any major problems ourselves. Daozu had them completely subdued before he attained enlightenment, so now they are even less worthy of his attention."

"Even the Imperial Guards are being protected from this kind of news?"

"Indeed. As far as our job as Jinyiwei is concerned, we usually only catch a few evil cultivators at most, and there's no need for these huge weapons to catch evil cultivators. Weapons are used for warfare. If I had so many giant soldiers, I wouldn't know who to fight. However, this question should be answered by you, Shang Tianjun."

"May I explain? I've been thinking that the imperial court has always wanted to go to the moon to mine spirit stones, so the big changes that will happen in the future will definitely happen on the moon. The imperial court has also been very persistent in using rockets to land on the moon—ha, we can't fight a war with the Moon Rabbit on the Moon Palace, can we?"

"."

"Huh? Why are you looking at me?"

"That's not what I said, you guessed it yourself."

"What do you mean? Moon Rabbit??? What the hell?"

"It's not a real moon rabbit, but something similar. To be honest, it's similar to your little box, Shang Tianjun, but it's a wild box. Didn't His Majesty say to wait for Master Sa to tell you? I can't say this casually, because I shouldn't have known it in the first place. I just happened to know it. It's only proper for Master Sa to say this."

Chapter 526 Machine Soul

"Ahem," Shangluo coughed. "Since this ship is mine, can I use it as I please?"

"Of course, please." Li Yi replied with a smile, "Including me, please ask Lord Shang Tian to dispatch. Would Lord Shang Tian want to inspect it first?"

"Uh-huh."

"So where do you want to inspect?"

"Oh~~ Is this an ice cream machine?"

“Why did you inspect the kitchen first?”

"Because we can't do anything else right now, and we don't have phlogiston. Even if we did, I can't let you fire a cannon directly next to Yingtian City, right? There are urban areas within a radius of hundreds of miles, and it would be fatal wherever we hit."

"really."

"Let me ask you first, can this ice cream machine be turned on?"

"It can be turned on, because it's plugged in. The Lianshan is currently at the dock, so it's powered by an external cable. But you can't use it now, Shang Tianjun. It needs to be pre-cooled for several hours before it can continue to produce ice."

"Hmm~~ Trouble. Can you help me move it upstairs later?"

"Huh? Moving where?"

"It's the same room as before, behind the headquarters."

“But that’s Shang Tianjun, that’s Daozu’s Xuantan!”

"Isn't Xuantan moving out soon? Just leave it there. Then get ready a refrigerator, a projector, a sofa, a table, and so on. Don't use a desk; it takes up too much space. Just put a sofa against the wall. Is that okay?"

"No." Li Yi was a little bewildered. Although he had long been accustomed to doing this job, and Zhu Xianen was almost the same, he also heard that other Jinyiwei sometimes had to chase Zhu Xianen to find him, and sometimes even had to run all over Yingtian. But when he was really asked to do it, he felt a little..."

"Ah, General Li?" Shangluo asked, "Do you want to do something more meaningful?"

Li Yi nodded: "Anyone can do this kind of thing. But since His Majesty the Emperor has left me here, Lord Shang Tian, can't you let me do something meaningful?"

"I do have a question for you." He pulled out his key. "Where does this key fit? Is there a keyhole?"

"Is there really a keyhole?"

On the slipway, Shangluo saw a small groove.

"Yes, this is the keyhole. Insert this small sword into it, and you can activate the torch system of the entire Lianshan."

"What about the rest?"

"The Lianshan has three control rooms. The top one controls the electronic equipment, and downstairs there's a navigation room that controls the mechanical equipment. And then there's ours. This is where the entire Lianshan is centrally controlled, and all the systems converge here."

Shangluo looked around.

The windows were closed, and all sorts of equipment were either placed against them or arranged around them. He was currently sitting in the captain's seat, which was higher than all the other seats, like a royal throne.

It seemed different from any warship he had seen before, and different from all ships.

Logically speaking, the commander of the entire warship did not need to stay here all the time. Because all the work on the ship had a professional division of labor, the direction of the ship and the control of the berth were not always done by the captain himself, who usually had more important things to do.

But this ship is obviously different. This seat is reserved for the captain, and it is a very special seat.

Shangluo tried sitting down for a moment. From here, he could clearly see the entire war room. The surrounding battle positions surrounded him like stars surrounding the moon. It made him feel like he was attending court.

"Does the Captain have a special role?"

"Yes. In fact, all the torch equipment on this ship needs to be controlled by Qigong practitioners, and the entire ship needs to be controlled by the captain himself."

He pointed to the seat where Shangluo was currently sitting and said, "No one else can take this position. The Emperor gave you the sword, so of course only you can sit in this seat."

"Okay. So driving also requires some skill?"

"This entire ship requires some skill. Even the engines that power it are built using Torch technology. You've probably seen that, right?"

Shangluo nodded. He had indeed witnessed many unique technological wonders over the past few days.

There were engines like the Xuantan Tiger, and then there was the complete technology of the White Star. The White Star embodied the culmination of the most advanced technology of the era, its engines capable of operating in nearly every operating condition. From the dense atmosphere of the surface, to the thinner atmosphere at the edge, and finally to space, it could reach any of them.

Even the White Star had no problem launching into the water. As an aircraft, it was certainly sealed. As a zeta engine, it obviously only required a little setup to operate in water.

The potential of Jusu's technology is terrifying. Shangluo has already witnessed it. Its power and output are secondary. This adaptability to all operating conditions is a capability only possessed by sixth-generation fighters, and even more.

Because he heard that Zhu Xianxin seemed to have made progress in other areas, namely, the meson circulation generators that he himself had not seen yet.

With the support of Ju Su technology, the imperial court's engineering capabilities in certain areas have reached an incredible level.

But the premise is that all these things need to be driven by a Qigong practitioner. This is the biggest problem.

Without Qigong practitioners, these completely illogical equipment would just lie in hangars, docks and warehouses gathering dust.

Shangluo saw that the White Star required two Qigong practitioners to pilot it, with the assistance of Lan Zhenren. Meanwhile, the Xuantan Tiger required two special pilots, Gao Shiyu and his brother. This was the fundamental reason the court allowed them to participate, as they were indispensable to the development of this technology. They didn't just bring the technology straight from the lab; they had real skills.

But the situation here is completely different from theirs.

A plane, two people. A race car, two people.

"How many do we have here?"

"Two thousand nine hundred people," Li Yi replied. "To be exact, 2932 people, all of whom must be Qigong practitioners. It's not that all the work needs to be done by Qigong practitioners, but just maintaining the normal operation of the ship requires so many people. And without the physical fitness of Qigong practitioners, they probably wouldn't be able to carry on."

"Hmm," Shangluo thought for a moment, "Then as long as I can get this ship moving, there's no need for me to gather so many people."

"Shang Tianjun, do you have a plan?"

"You said you wanted Doudou, the noble Tianyi, to try it. What do you think?"

"Tian Yi noble? Let them drive the boat? No, no, no, no! Absolutely not!"

"why?"

"Do you remember the Jinyiwei's switchboard? Actually, when the Tianyi nobles gather, a Tianjiang will emerge from among them. It's not difficult for a Tianjiang to control the switchboard, but leaving such a large ship to the Tianjiang to handle is too risky!"

"Ah, I have the final say on whether it's okay or not." Shang Luo waved his hand, "If you say it's okay, then it's fine. Daozu and I have different ways of doing things. I like dealing with machine spirits."

Chapter 527 Plan