Forced to become a top influencer, I rely on my tu cao to ruin the cultivation world.

Qingyun Sect, Luoxia Peak.

The moment the cross-boundary spiritual vein was severed, the entire factory seemed to have had its spine removed.

The once-roaring assembly line suddenly went silent, the massive gears jammed halfway, and the air was filled with the rusty smell of cooled engine oil. In the control room, the pointer of the huge psionic pressure gauge seemed to have Parkinson's disease, trembling wildly a few times before lying lifelessly flat on the "zero" mark.

"It's over...it's all over..."

Elder Wang Teng slumped to the ground, clutching a handful of discarded spirit stone fragments, tears streaming down his face. "Chairman Jia, there's no more spiritual energy! All our spirit energy furnaces have gone out! The outer disciples are all saying that the sect has been abandoned by Heaven, and they're going to dismantle our 'steel monster' and sell it for scrap metal to buy a few bags of rice to get through the winter!"

Jia Zhuang sat in the driver's seat of the tractor, holding half a piece of spirit rice bread in his hand, his expression surprisingly calm. He glanced at the darkening sky outside the window, then looked at the glaring red warning box on the system panel.

[System Warning: Interdimensional spiritual vein connection interrupted. Current energy reserves: 0.01%. Warning: Energy depletion will cause the factory to shut down, and the host will face the risk of being executed as a "fraud" by the native cultivators.]

"Execution? That's alarmist." Jia Zang scoffed, stuffed the last bite of bread into his mouth, and casually clicked on the semi-transparent light screen floating in front of him.

On the screen, hundreds of colorful bullet comments were scrolling by at a rate of hundreds per second, almost blocking his view:

[Comment - The Light of Righteousness]: Hahahaha! Retribution came too fast, like a tornado! I knew this kid was killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Now he's drained the spiritual energy on Earth. Let's see what he can burn now!

[Comments - Keyboard Cultivator]: Scatter flowers! Scatter flowers! The countdown to the collapse of the Qingyun Sect has begun! Streamer, run! If you don't run, you'll be turned into a corpse puppet!

[Comment - Industrialists' Ecstasy]: Hey upstairs, don't be so quick to pop the champagne. Have you forgotten this is an industrial cultivation novel? According to the usual tropes, shouldn't the protagonist pull out a "hand-crafted nuclear fusion" device at this point?

[Comment - Bystander]: Nuclear fusion? What are you talking about? This is the world of cultivation, not Earth! Don't be ridiculous, let's wait for Jia Zang to be proven wrong.

"Ha, a bunch of people who love to watch the drama unfold." Jia Zhuang wiped the crumbs from the corner of his mouth, rolled his eyes at the air, and said, "Who said I have nothing to burn? As long as you don't give up, there's always a way."

He casually scrolled through the system's store, his fingers flying across the "cutting-edge technology" category.

"Elder Wang, stop crying, wipe your snot." Jia Zhuang kicked Wang Teng in the backside, not hard, but enough to make the old man jolted awake. "Get up and get to work! We industrialists value energy self-sufficiency. Elder Wang, tell me, what's the most abundant thing in our cultivation world?"

Elder Wang Teng, clutching his backside, stood up, utterly bewildered: "Huh? What's the most abundant thing? Spirit stones? Herbs? Or demonic beasts?"

"Wrong, it's garbage."

Jia Zhuang leaped out of the driver's seat, kicking aside a pile of dusty debris. "Look at this! Waste spirit stones, scraps left over from killing demonic beasts, even the exhaust fumes from low-level disciples who went astray during cultivation... In the past, these were all waste, but in the eyes of industrial cultivators, they're all fuel!"

[System notification: A qualitative change in the host's thinking has been detected, consistent with the characteristics of an "industrial maniac."]

[Unlock the cutting-edge technology blueprint: [Miniature Nuclear Fusion Reactor (Modified Version)]]

[Fuel: Everything can be burned (including low-grade spirit stone waste, monster dung, and even the resentment of readers).]

[Conversion rate: 100%. Features: Clean, efficient, and can even charge your phone simultaneously.]

"Pour all those scrap spirit stones that's been sitting in the warehouse like garbage into the modification furnace!" Jia Zhuang clapped the breadcrumbs off his hands, his eyes gleaming with a fanatical light that sent chills down Wang Teng's spine. "Also, go clean up the pigsties in that pig farm behind the mountain. I need the scraps of monster meat!"

"A pig...a pigsty?" Elder Wang Teng's lips twitched. "Chairman Jia, are you going to refine pills or cook?"

"Cooking? I'm feeding this thing!" Jia Zhuang pointed to the strange object on the blueprint that looked like a pressure cooker or a boiler at the same time. "This is called a 'Nuclear Spirit Reactor.' As long as there's enough fuel, I can burn Sunset Peak into the sun!"

……

Half an hour later.

Behind Luoxia Peak, a massive structure made of lead plates, runic steel, and abandoned boilers stands tall in the night.

Countless outer disciples were conscripted to do hard labor. With long faces, they dumped cartloads of foul-smelling monster waste and grayish-white spirit stone slag into the huge funnel.

"Can it really work?" Elder Wang Teng stood on the high platform, looking down with deep concern. "This is half a year's worth of our sect's garbage reserves... What if it explodes..."

"Exploded? That's because you didn't operate it properly."

Wearing goggles and holding a large switch lever, Jia Zang stood on the high platform like a conductor about to lead a symphony orchestra.

At this moment, the comments section in front of him had exploded:

[Comment - Physicist]: Wait! Nuclear fusion? With spirit stone slag? Doesn't that violate the law of conservation of energy?

[Comment - Native of the Cultivation World]: Hey you in the white coat upstairs, shut up! This is cultivation! Do you even understand cultivation?! As long as the protagonist shouts loud enough, even Newton would have to kneel down and sing "Conquer"!

[Comment - Capitalist]: Am I the only one who noticed? This kid is using garbage as fuel? The cost is practically zero! This is outrageous profit!

"Ladies and gentlemen, the moment to witness a miracle has arrived."

Jia Zhuang took a deep breath and pulled the lever down sharply.

"ignition!"

Boom—Buzz—

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a low hum that seemed to come from the abyss.

Immediately afterwards, a beam of eerie blue light shot out from the top of the enormous "pressure cooker." The light was so pure it was almost unbelievable, instantly piercing the night sky above Sunset Peak and soaring into the heavens!

The once pitch-black factory area was instantly illuminated as bright as day. The brightness was ten times more dazzling than the midday sun!

The hands on the dial spun wildly, breaking the stop pin and pinning it firmly to the far right!

[System notification: The nuclear reactor has started successfully!]

Current output power: 50000 psionic units/second.

[WARNING: Energy excess! Energy excess! The host is advised to activate full-power production as soon as possible, otherwise all electronic devices (if any) within a radius of 100 miles may be destroyed!]

"It's lit! It really is lit!" Elder Wang Teng's eyes widened, his reading glasses almost falling off. "This...this light is purer than even the finest spirit stones! Chairman Jia, what...what kind of magic is this?"

"This isn't magic, it's the power of science." Jia Zhuang pushed up his goggles, looked at the terrifying energy readings, and a satisfied smile appeared on his lips. "From today onwards, our Qingyun Sect has achieved energy freedom."

He turned around, looked at the stunned crowd, and announced loudly:

"Pass down the order! All production lines back to operation! Work through the night! Anyone who dares to sleep, I'll throw them into the reactor as fuel!"

"Awooo—!!!"

A wail erupted from the factory, but then the roar of the machines resumed and drowned out everything.

……

A few hours later.

Sunset Peak returned to calm, but the dark blue pillar of light still burned silently in the night sky, like an inextinguishable lighthouse.

Jia Zhuang stretched, pulled a folding chair from the system space, and lay down comfortably at the entrance of the control room.

**[Bullet Comments - The Law of True Fragrance]: Holy crap? He actually made it?**

[Comment - Industrialists' ecstasy]: I knew it! Nuclear energy! This is true masculine romance!

[Comment - Environmentalist]: Turning waste into energy, this is practically an environmental pioneer! Mom, I'll never call it a black factory again!

[Comment - Prophet]: You wait, tomorrow when those righteous sects see this pillar of light, they'll definitely write long essays calling him a demon.

"Go ahead and curse, I don't need to pay for the electricity anyway."

Jia Zhuang chuckled as he watched the scrolling comments on the screen. He casually pulled a freshly baked spirit rice bread from his pocket and then took out the "High Spirit Imaging Panel".

At this moment, the eastern sky was beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn.

The first rays of morning sunlight shone on Luoxia Peak, reflecting off the dark blue nuclear energy beams. A faint industrial acrid smell filled the air, mingling with the unique aroma of medicinal pills from the cultivation world, creating a strange harmony.

Jia Zhuang took a bite of bread, tapped the display panel lightly with his finger, and opened the Spirit Network Forum.

"Let me see which unlucky bastard is criticizing me this time?"