Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"That is?"

"Go pick it up and try?"

Shangluo walked over and picked it up. It was a thin, golden scale with patterns of varying sizes that resembled a ginkgo leaf. However, the texture wasn't vertical like a ginkgo leaf, but rather rippled like water waves.

It is just such a small piece, almost transparent, and it has an almost transparent texture when you pinch it in your hand.

"This is..." I seem to have seen this thing somewhere before. "Is this Shen Chrome?"

"That's right." Li nodded. "Shen Chrome is dragon scales. Ownerless dragon scales. When dragon scales fall, just pick them up."

"So since the scales are here, does that mean the dragon is also in this room? So where is the dragon?"

"I don't know." Li Yi shook his head. "I just know that the dragon is in this room, and I can occasionally pick up dragon scales. But I don't know where the dragon is. I have never seen the shape of a dragon. But this room is sealed by Daozu, and she can't get out."

"Good boy! So that's how it is? You haven't seen the dragon in its true form, but have you seen signs of a dragon?"

"Well, that's not quite true." Li Yi pondered for a moment. "Actually, I'm guarding here because Daozu believes I've seen it. Even though I've never seen what a Dianlong looks like, as someone Daozu believes has 'seen' it, I was assigned to guard here, and no one is allowed to visit. Maybe it's because only Daozu can see it, or maybe because too many people have seen it, that thing has come out."

[Wait. Wait! Shangluo, I saw it!]

"you saw it?"

[Yes! I can see her! She's in this room! She's out of sight!]

"where?"

Shangluo suddenly turned around

[Wait! Ah! Don't look back! You two are back to back now, there's no place in this little room where you can't see each other!]

"It seems...it seems too late."

Shangluo also saw "that" thing. In the corner of the room, a golden sphere appeared. Small, round, and golden.

Chapter 556 Mustard Circulation Generator

"What the hell!" Li Yi was furious when he saw the egg at the corner. "There are only two people in this room! It takes three people to come out!"

"Ah, this." Shangluo lowered his voice, "There were indeed three people."

"Which one? Where is the third person?"

"Yes. Envoy Huiming is here with me."

Li Yi slapped his forehead and said, "(Jinling Yayan), there is actually such a thing."

"If only three people were to look, would they be able to see her?"

"Yes. A three-dimensional object has three sides. Although a person can see three sides, it's not absolute, because the Dianlong can play hide-and-seek with you."

"Yeah, that's exactly what happened." Shangluo thought of some old video games, like Doom. Back then, the device performance wasn't enough to accommodate a bunch of 3D models moving within a 3D scene, so they had to cram in a bunch of 2D textures. But 2D textures only had one side, so if they rotated a little, they would disappear. So, many games back then handled this by making the textures rotate with the line of sight, rotating the entire world's textures in unison, keeping them facing the player at all times.

"So if there are three people watching, they can definitely determine her position and shape, right?"

"Yes. Daozu sealed her in this room, and Dianlong will not be anywhere else. So as long as there are three people, we can see Dianlong - Dianlong has not been born yet, so this method can only be used to observe the signs before Dianlong's birth."

"Ah, so you're saying only three people know about this?"

Li Yi nodded. "Before, there were only two of us. As long as the two of us kept the secret and didn't let anyone else know about this place, the Crazy Dragon wouldn't have truly materialized. Now... it's out. But since Daozu sent you here, this should have been within his expectations."

"By the way, why is it a golden ball?"

"Because maybe you, or Envoy Huiming, felt that Dianlong, as a deity, should be a golden ball, so she looks like this—yes, her appearance is determined by the people who see her. So you think she should be a ball? Maybe the ideas of the court I represent also played a role, because we think Dianlong should have dragon scales."

A ball covered with dragon scales lay in the corner.

Shangluo blinked. "Didn't the way we opened the door just now seem wrong? Will it be restored if we go out and come back in?"

"It's already been born, so there's no point in putting it back in. Having a physical body now isn't a bad thing, because there was no one to look after it before. Now that you, Shang Tianjun, have accepted Daozu's appointment, it's actually a good thing for you to take the initiative to take her over. After all, if she's hanging here, who knows what kind of accident might happen one day."

"Then I'll take it?"

"Yes, please."

Shangluo walked over and picked up the ball. It looked bigger than Apollonia's, about the size of a cantaloupe.

[Ahhh! This place is full! No more people!]

"It's still in the egg, why are you panicking?"

"You'll have to get out sooner or later! It's already crowded here, I don't want one more person here! Are you playing Landlord in your head? If another one comes, you still want to play Mahjong, right?"

"Wait, wait, her behavior might not be the same as yours, right? Look, there's no movement at all right now, right?"

[Promise me you won't fight me for a table. This place is full.]

"Okay, okay, it can just be a backup, okay?"

Shangluo reached out and picked up the golden ball. It felt heavier than expected, about the same weight as a shot put.

"Can you lift it?" Li Yi took a look and said, "It's not a big problem."

"What does this mean?"

"This means that no properties have exceeded expectations and become uncontrollable. If it became 'infinite', that would be incomprehensible. Oh, and there might be a small problem. Shang Tianjun, try to take her out."

"Take it out?" Shangluo tried to walk to the door with the golden ball.

With a "bang", he staggered and almost fell to the ground - the golden ball could not get out of the door at all. When it reached the door, it stopped as if it had hit a wall.

"Sure enough, I won't go out." Li nodded.

"She can't get out? Is this a restriction imposed by Daozu?"

"That's not the case. In fact, it dates back to her birth. When we were installing the battleship's engine, it was a stormy night. A bolt of lightning struck the ship from the sky—I was there at the time and didn't feel a thing. But the Nanzhen Jinyiwei arrived at the scene within 5 minutes, cordoned off the entire area, and conveyed the Daozu's order: to seal it up. Since then, the construction plan has been changed, and the entire ship has been stalled here, waiting for you, Shang Tianjun, to deal with it. Speaking of which, she should be older than you."

"So, this was actually born on this ship?"

"Yes, so there's no way out. Not even out of this room, because this is the engine room."

"Engine room? Such a small room, it's an engine room? Where are the engines?"

"Hmm," Li Yi thought for a moment, "I wonder if you, Shang Tianjun, have heard of a technology called the 'Mustard Circulation Generator'. The core of this ship, and the power source of many of our major projects, are all 'Mustard Circulation Generators'."

"What it is?"

"A mustard seed world encapsulated through social engineering. After being encapsulated into this ship, the mustard seed world has become one with the ship. This ship is the entire mustard seed world."

"Huh??? Why didn't I see that?"

"Okay, this way." The two of them put the golden ball on the ground for the time being, went out, took the elevator up two floors, and walked into the restaurant.

In the corner of the restaurant, there was a stainless steel machine with a talisman on it. It was as big as a double-door refrigerator, but only the top half could be opened, and the bottom half was sealed.

"That's it. The ice cream machine I've been talking about to you, Shang Tianjun. Open it and take a look?"

Shangluo glanced at him, stepped forward and opened half of the double doors——

A strong north wind blew from inside. Inside the refrigerator was a bottomless world. In the deep, bottomless night, popsicles, one after another, as big as buildings, stood tall in the snow.

“Is this an ice cream machine??”

"Yes, take it out, that one."

Shangluo reached in and picked up the popsicle. He could faintly hear cheers around him, as if celebrating the completion of a project, but they were speaking words he couldn't understand. He could even see the lights of fireworks in the distance.

"Click", the door closed and everything became quiet.

A square ice cream was in his hand, with a thin layer of eternal snow from another world on top.

"What's in this refrigerator?"

"It's the North Pole of that mustard seed world. We have a supply agreement with them. They'll build giant popsicles like this in the Arctic as tribute, and we'll pay them for each one we take. And the refrigerator, washing machine, beverage vending machine, and oven on this ship are all part of the encapsulated mustard seed world. Think of them as a tributary state, no different in essence from the Joseon Empire that sent us Goryeo paper and tractors as tribute."

Chapter 557 Mustard Seed World

"So this packaging technology can even meet such specific requirements as a refrigerator?"

"What do you think Shang Tianjun is like?"

"I thought being an engine or a battery would be enough."

"Yes, that's the function of the mustard circulation generator, which can power the ship. But it can't be used as a battery, because the ship's fuel is torches, which are our payment to that 'shipborne mustard world.' The mustard circulation generator is the main device for our interaction. That world is covered in ice and snow, and the torches we input are its 'perpetual motion machine,' an eternal beacon, and the foundation of their entire civilization."

"Goodness, this really is a perpetual motion machine, right? Relatively speaking."

"Of course, after all, there's no energy being input from that world; we're the ones pumping it down from above. So from that world's perspective, it's truly a perpetual motion machine for them. But to keep it running, they need to fulfill their agreement with us and exchange their services for fuel."

“Did we add this setting?”

"No, a very important principle in social engineering is not to create rain first and then sell umbrellas. We can't attack them while selling them healing bandages. Doing so will greatly increase the 'failure rate,' and each failure will require manual troubleshooting, which is very troublesome. Therefore, ensuring a win-win situation for both sides is a key part of social engineering."

"They really are... I don't know whether they are lucky or unlucky."

"That world is a paradise, because a constant source of cold isn't easy to find, but it's not exactly pleasant for the people who live there. But with our help, they can live comfortably. Compared to battling the bitter cold, building a popsicle stick in the snow is as easy as playing house. Thanks to our help, they can finally escape the hardships of the wind and snow and focus on their own lives."

"Oh, so they set off fireworks to celebrate?"

"To them, we are benevolent saviors. In fact, to all tributary states, we are benevolent saviors, there is no doubt about that. Without our protection, who knows how many people in this world would be emperors and kings - this may be a bit of a misnomer, but this is basically the current state of the world."

"Um"

"Shang Tianjun, isn't your hometown different from ours?"

"It's different." Shangluo shook his head. "We have an international community over there. But here, it seems that all tributary states have individual contacts with the imperial court. They only need to handle their relations with the court individually. It's really simple. Most tributary states don't have armies, right?"

"Without an army or diplomacy, they only needed to maintain their own operations and didn't need to worry about external affairs. Because in this peaceful era, the emperor, the court, and the royal army covered them all. Those who built tractors built tractors, and those who planted bananas planted bananas. They only needed to deal with the court and had no need to interact with other countries."

"By the way, if they did interact, would it be legal?"

"It's illegal. For a minister, there's no such thing as diplomacy. Korea is a role model in this regard. The only envoys Korea sends abroad are 'communication envoys.' As the name suggests, if there's a traditional relationship between the two sides, Korea will notify them of weddings, funerals, and other happy events. These are called 'communication envoys.' As for establishing diplomatic relations, that's simply impossible. Even with neighboring Japan, Korea doesn't have diplomatic relations, and the two sides don't send envoys to each other permanently. They don't need to, because they only need to deal with their respective courts, and there's no need to connect with each other."

"Oh, that makes sense. That makes sense."

"But I'm afraid it's not appropriate to manage your little box like this, Lord Shang Tian."

"I think I can learn it. Isn't it suitable for me?"

"Because yours is too big, too complete. Although it's fun to create your own mustard seed world, and many cultivators have it, yours is too big. Even a dragon can be born in it? I don't know how you can manage it."

"The one on the boat is actually very small, right?"

"I've calculated that, combined, it's only about the size of Hainan Island, which is considered extra-large among the known mustard seed worlds. Normally, we wouldn't need a world this large, but to power this battleship, we dispatched a world of this size and integrated it with the ship. The mustard seed circulation generator is the anchor point for the two worlds. It's both their world's core defense against wind and snow, and the power source for this ship. So, you see, it says "engine room" there, right? Actually, the engine room department is that mustard seed world, and they're in charge of it."

"So this ship doesn't need someone to manage the engine room?"

"Well, it is, but other parts still need to be operated, like the gun turrets and shells. We just outsource the engine room."

"Over there, do you need to check it frequently?"

"No, it's already sealed. A major overhaul every ten or twenty years is all it needs, and then a minor overhaul every few years. If they have any needs, they'll send a letter stating it."

"But um, what's with that ball?"

"Hmm," Li Yi shook his head. "That's a god that hasn't been born yet. Because it's something that's happening in the future, I don't know what's going on. But since it was born during the construction process, it must be related to that world. Oh, by the way, the engine room looks like an empty room, but it's actually connected to two worlds. You can see a different world after turning on the lights. If it needs to be inspected later, I'll take you to see it. Shang Tianjun, do you have any other requests?"

"Three questions. First, is my ice cream machine still installable?"

"No problem, just move one up. Although the location in the mustard world is fixed, you can move it anywhere you want here."

"The second question is. I see that the ball is easy to catch cold when it is placed on the ground. Go back and find a small bamboo basket like a doghouse, stuff some quilts in it, and put her on the mat. It's best to cover her with a quilt. .”

"Do you want to put a cup over the ball? Okay. What else?"

"Also, could you put me in touch with some social engineering professionals? I think I need to have a group of professionals stationed inside my box. It's really convenient to be able to make ice cream, right? Maybe it can also make soda? I'd like to connect an automatic breakfast machine to deliver boiled eggs to me every morning."

Chapter 558: Events

"Since you're going to install an egg-boiling machine, how about we meet now? A professional in social engineering."

"Is this something you can see directly?"

"It's pretty easy to find an intern. There are a lot of students in the Imperial College waiting to earn internship credits, and they can definitely run errands for us." Halfway through his words, he suddenly remembered, "Oh, right, Shang Tianjun, you are going to the Imperial College too, right?"

"." Shangluo nodded, "I suddenly have a bad feeling."