Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

However, just as he entered the door, a "dong" sound of a chime was heard.

"What does that mean?" Shangluo didn't quite understand. Because no matter what the news was, it was always announced by ringing the bell.

"They rang the chime as soon as we entered, asking us to wait a moment. Perhaps the Emperor has something to discuss in there, and he needs to discuss it with Zhang Tianshi and the others first. Sit down first. Did you know there are a lot of fun games in Fetion recently? Come on, let's play Metal Egghead. I've already beaten the first level! I'm very confident."

Chapter 224 Jade Tablet

Daozu didn't keep the two of them waiting for too long. After only ten minutes, a chime sounded from inside, signaling them to enter. Their jade tokens also jumped back to the main interface.

Zhu Xianxun put down the jade token, a few beads of sweat still hanging on his forehead:

"Thank you, old ancestor. Otherwise, fighting with you would ruin my reputation and I would lose points."

"Does this thing have points?"

"Of course, they'll lose points. Last night, the top player on the Heavenly Ranking, 'Pineapple Lollipop,' lost 4800 points in one fell swoop. I wonder if he lent his sign to his kids or something. He was almost caught up by the second place."

[Woo woo woo~~]

“That seems a bit pathetic.”

"But in the second half of the night, he got to 2300 points again. I guess he was working hard in the second half of the night. The speed of his score increase is simply outrageous. I guess he cleared the game in one life."

【Ah. 】

"Oh, by the way, has Daozu agreed for us to play?"

Zhu Xianxun was about to answer when there was a sudden "dong" sound of a chime from inside.

"Ah, the Emperor wanted us to go in and talk about this. This is what happened that day."

Zhu Xianxun took out the keys and explained, "You gave them these games, didn't you? The other day, Xiao Han came to ask if they could play, so I went to ask Huang Zu. I personally think this is 'edutainment and really fun'. Huang Zu didn't say anything and just agreed. Well, actually, I don't know why Huang Zu agreed."

He pulled out his key and opened the door as usual. Lü Fang and Huang Jin stood behind the door as usual, helping them to open the heavy door. Inside, the alchemy furnace was also burning brightly, a furnace of elixirs that Zhu Xianxun had left behind yesterday.

As for the jar, it was still the same jar, without any movement, except that it had been wrapped in a quilt at some point.

"That was sent by Helios earlier. He said his daughter was a little cold. I didn't notice it, but he did. During the foundation-building process in the jar, he only came once, that day. He didn't just come to see you, he also came to give you a blanket. After explaining everything to you, he left."

"Tsk." Shang Luo shook his head. What this meant was that Helios hadn't been able to return to his "merciless sun" state for over a month after returning; he was still a sentient being.

"I don't know what he's thinking."

"He has his work to do." Daozu's voice echoed in Yuxi Palace. This time, he spoke directly, not through his spiritual consciousness, so that Shangluo and Zhu Xianxun could receive the same message.

"Daozu."

"Emperor Ancestor."

The two men bowed towards the inner room.

"Please sit down." Daozu asked the two to sit more casually. Lu Fang and Huang Jin had already placed two round stools behind them.

"Shangluo, I have something to ask you."

"Yes, Daozu, please ask."

"Is the game fun?"

"Ah, this... uh." Shangluo didn't understand what Daozu was asking. "The game itself is fun. But the games here seem to be even more fun. It's just that I still don't know how the games in the spiritual network work."

"Emperor, talk to him."

Zhu Xianxi, sitting on a round stool, turned slightly. "The Spiritual Network originated from the deployment of the Dao Ancestor himself and was distributed to everyone through jade tokens. The programs in the Spiritual Network are operated through 'inspiration modules,' and Fetion is one of these modules. The inspiration module only provides the method for the operation of spiritual power, not the spiritual power itself. In other words, the module itself is like a bicycle; you need to 'pedal' to make it work. Different programs are like different tracks and different types of bicycles."

"Why do you do it this way?"

"Because human thought is ever-changing and boundless, the thoughts of different people cannot be intertwined. Therefore, we enable 'modules' as a common protocol in the spiritual network, allowing different users to connect their thoughts into the common spiritual network. For example, if there were no Feixun, how would everyone transmit information? Some might transmit voice messages over thousands of miles, some might transmit messages through dreams, and some might transmit letters by fish or wild geese. However, there is no commonly agreed-upon transmission method between these channels. Some use text, some images, and some physical objects. So Feixun came into being." He took out the jade token:

"Using the jade token as a medium and Feixun as a channel, all cultivators can now communicate with everyone in the same spiritual network through the same module and the same method."

"But why a jade token?"

"Well, this is actually a bit strange." Zhu Xianxin touched his head:

"Do you know what twins are like? Even if they're thousands of miles apart, they can still connect with each other. This is called the 'law of sympathy' in modern mysticism, meaning that two similar things can establish a connection even when they're far apart. Jade is an excellent conductor of spiritual artifacts, just like silver is an excellent conductor of electricity. So we chose jade as the personal terminal of the spiritual network, and all the jade plaques you see here are actually from the same piece of jade."

"Huh? There's a jade this big?"

"I was actually quite puzzled at first. How could such a large piece of jade exist? Where could such a large piece of jade be made into hundreds or even thousands of jade plaques? Later, when I became an alchemist and visited a jade plaque workshop, I finally understood where these things came from. Well, you've probably heard of it before. I'm sure you've read 'Water Margin,' right?"

"Could it be the stele that General Hong moved?"

"No, I'm talking about Emperor Huizong of Song's Flower and Stone Project. To build the Genyue Monastery in Bianliang, Emperor Huizong collected rare stones from around the world, among them an enormous piece of Dushan jade. Later, this jade was acquired by Kublai Khan, who carved it into the Dushan Jade Sea and placed it in the Guanghan Hall, where he held banquets, as a wine vessel. Later, when Emperor Taizu Gao's army recaptured Beijing, the Dushan Jade Sea was transported out of the palace during the chaos of war and moved to the Zhenwu Temple outside Xihua Gate. When we rediscovered this jade, this massive 3.5-ton jade jar was being used by the temple's Taoist priests to pickle vegetables. It had been pickled for centuries, and a thick layer of patina had formed on it."

"."

【.】

Shangluo and Apollonia were silent. They looked down at the jade plaque. The quality of this jade is indeed average. The green color is a bit mixed, and the color isn't very transparent. But it shouldn't be pickled vegetables.

Well, it shouldn’t be pickles.

【Can't you find a better piece of jade?】

"By the way, is there any better jade?" Shangluo asked.

"Yes, there are. There are a lot of good jades, but nothing this big. Let alone the large quantities we've made now, even a few thousand more would be enough. Dushan jade is very hard, strong and durable, so it won't break easily. And most importantly, the first batch of jade plaques were cut from the Dushan Great Jade Sea, and subsequent ones must be cut from the same piece of jade, so there's no replacement. But it's time to replace them. Have you noticed that many Qigong practitioners have a hard time using these jade plaques?"

Chapter 225 Spiritual Network

"Yes, there are some. Yesterday, someone was talking to me, and it took several minutes before they typed out a few question marks."

"That's right. The jade from the Dushan Great Jade Sea isn't actually high-quality, and it's full of impurities. Many Qigong practitioners have received jade tokens of subpar quality, making them difficult to use. It was fine when I was just using it for Fetion before, but considering the wear and tear from playing games, it's definitely time to update it."

"Is there any way now?"

"Yes, there are. First of all, we can't use jade anymore. The jade from the Dushan Great Jade Sea was only used as a temporary solution. If we want to build an immortal dynasty with billions of celestial beings in the future, we can't use jade, a treasure that can't be replicated. We considered using silver, but recent experiments haven't been very successful, so we've made some other materials instead."

Shangluo pulled out the antenna from his mobile phone.

"You mean light silver? Yes, that's it. We borrowed light silver when we went to Wudang. Light silver is a very good choice because it's one of the best carriers of spiritual energy, but its production volume is not as high as jade. Another issue is the signal strength. We've actually discovered this with radio. We used shortwave communication decades ago. Back then, communication across the entire Purple Gold Mountain could be accomplished with two small handheld walkie-talkies. But now, two walkie-talkies become difficult to use if they're even slightly far apart."

"Why?" Shangluo asked.

"Because of the background noise. Decades ago, there were very few radio devices, but now there are more and more, a huge mess. Civilian, military, official, commercial, all kinds of radio frequency bands are filled. So now military radios have to constantly increase the power, increase it, increase it again - the same is true for the spiritual network. There are only a little over a thousand users nationwide now, and only a dozen new Qigong practitioners are promoted each year. So, only a small piece of jade with impurities is needed for communication. But once the number of people increases...tsk tsk tsk tsk."

He shook his head. "You can imagine that these jade tokens today are similar to the walkie-talkies of the past. In the future, the spiritual network may become increasingly noisy, requiring the use of increasingly better terminals, and the signal strength must gradually increase with increasing usage. This is equivalent to an arms race with oneself. Although there is no upper limit to the quality of jade tokens, the number will simply not be able to keep up with the evolution of equipment. By then, for Qigong practitioners like Wen Yuan who are not very sensitive to spiritual energy, I am afraid that information delay will not be the only problem."

"So you know it's Wen Yuan?"

"You know someone who had the bad luck to get a jade token with a lot of impurities. He's the one, right? He's not a Xuan cultivator to begin with, and the jade token has a lot of impurities, so it's always a beat late when communicating. It's okay when communicating, but it's really annoying when playing games. Do you have any good solutions?"

“I need to think about this.”

Shangluo had some ideas at first, but he always felt something was not right.

From his perspective, using silver instead of jade was the right move, as jade is not replicable, but silver is. While the total amount of silver is limited, there are still silver plaques available for hundreds of millions of people. However, human spiritual power always has its limits.

The court's current plan is to have all members achieve celestial status. But this is too much trouble for Daozu. Now, even playing games requires asking Daozu's permission. He can't just let Daozu handle all the messaging for hundreds of millions of people. He's not the mailroom boss.

If we follow the laws of radio development, there are two next steps: the first is automatic reception and transmission and automatic decoding of radio, followed by early electronic computers.

The second approach is to add relay communications to reduce reliance on individual terminals, such as various communication base stations and communication satellites.

But all of this seemed problematic at the moment—because both computers and relay communications were reducing their reliance on humans. Yet, so far, he hadn't seen anything related to spiritual energy that could operate independently of humans.

"It's hard to say. But I think this problem can definitely be solved. Technological development should be able to solve these problems. Sooner or later, we will be able to connect everyone to the spiritual network."

"Dong~" a chime sound came from the inner room.

"Shangluo, do you think the spiritual network is a good thing?"

"Yes." Shangluo nodded, "I like surfing the Internet."

"So, how are you going to get everyone online?"

"I'd like to take it step by step. First and foremost, the most pressing issue is that many Qigong practitioners have trouble using even the most basic services. We can't easily communicate instantly. I think this might have something to do with Fetion's organization. I'd like to start by setting up a forum, then a server. That should solve a lot of people's problems."

"Then I'll leave this matter to you," Daozu replied. "You'll be in charge of this matter. This isn't a matter of the world under the Emperor's jurisdiction; it's a matter of heaven. From now on, I'll increasingly entrust you with handling matters of heaven. Shangluo."

"Yes." Shangluo responded.

"People call me Heavenly Lord, Bright Lord, and Sun Emperor. But my favorite title is Daozu. So, are you ready to be the apprentice Daozu?"

"Huh???" Shangluo still hadn't reacted. How could taking on one thing mean inheriting the entire legacy?

"Oh~~~" Zhu Xianxun stood up, "Grandfather! Congratulations to Grandfather for finally being able to ascend to heaven!"

"Congratulations, Daozu!" Shangluo was still a little confused. Although he was only an apprentice, and although he was only assigned one task, the amount of information that followed was quite overwhelming.

"Shangluo." Daozu's shout woke him again. "Just now, I discussed this with Zhang Tianshi. You should go to Wudang Mountain within this month. To inherit my mantle, the cultivation level of a celestial being alone is not enough. But, do you know why I chose you?"

"I really don't know." Shangluo shook his head. He truly didn't know. While auspiciousness was a good reason, it didn't seem to be the whole story.

"Then go ahead and guess. I know you like to guess. Things need to be done, meals need to be eaten, one step at a time. And don't forget your other things. What are you thinking about now?"

"I'm a little confused."

"Their government is dull, but their people are honest. Their government is strict, but their people are lacking. People are obsessed and confused. As time goes by, leniency is also wrong, and strictness is also wrong. Are the people confused? I am confused too, and are you not confused too? It's not easy for everyone, and we all have our difficulties. Let's each do our best. When you understand my difficulties, you will guess why I chose you. Now, what do you want to do?"

"I'm going to have dinner this afternoon."

"Well, let's go eat."

Chapter 226 Reluctantly

The meeting was over really quickly, only a few dozen minutes in total. Shangluo was still confused until the meeting was over.

"Ah, I feel refreshed." Standing outside the door, Zhu Xianxun was in a good mood. "So, where do I start?"

“Where does anything begin?”

"Intern Daozu. You don't know what Daozu is going to do yet, right?"

Shangluo shook his head like a rattle.

"What a coincidence! I don't know what he usually does."

"So how do we do our internship then?"

"The situation is this—although I don't know what Daozu does on a daily basis, I do know what they don't do. Daozu don't manage mundane affairs, and don't care about anything other than Qigong practitioners. So, according to this logic, the work of an apprentice Daozu should also revolve around Qigong practitioners. Currently, there are only a little over a thousand Qigong practitioners in the entire country, so you'll only have so many people to work with."

“It seems quite small?”

"Yes, so abilities can be cultivated, and experience can be developed, but neither is really important. What's important is that you know what to do. That's the most important thing. Didn't you repair generators in San Francisco? It's just like that. If you see any problem with the machine, you just tap it and it's done."

"I think I understand a little bit. But there will be more Qigong practitioners in the future, right?"

"Are you worried that you're not capable enough, or that you're not wise enough? No, that's not important at all, and it's not something you should be thinking about. On the other hand, why do you think I became the Holy Emperor? What do you think I do every day?"

"Besides refining the elixir, you also attend government meetings?"

"Yes, listening to politics is all about listening. Modern politics is simply beyond the reach of an outsider like me, so all I have to do is listen, understand, and then not interfere with their decisions. Do you think I'm competent for this?"

"Competent? But also seems a bit incompetent?"

"No, neither competent nor incompetent answers this question. Because competent or incompetent is not important at all. I became emperor not because of my competence, but because of destiny. I am the eldest and only son of the late emperor. It is destiny, that's it." He looked at Shangluo:

"You were also chosen by destiny. Destiny is ruthless and unreasonable, it's that simple. Back then, Nezha at Chentang Pass pulled the Xuanyuan Qiankun bow and released the Heaven-shaking Arrow to kill the disciple of Lady Shiji. Was that right? It wasn't. But destiny is in Ji Zhou, and that ruthless destiny will crush all right and wrong."

Shangluo understood a little—but it didn't bring him any comfort, only deeper fear. Uranus, knowing he would be replaced by the Son of God, devoured all his offspring, but missed Zeus. Odin knew Ragnarok was approaching, but nothing he did could delay it; it only accelerated it.

It is good when fate is cruel to others, but it is not a good thing when fate is cruel to oneself.

As if sensing Shangluo's concern, Zhu Xianxun asked him, "Are you worried that you're not competent for your job?"

Shangluo nodded.

"I thought so too back then. How could a mere alchemist become an emperor? But then I thought, it's a matter of heaven and man. Heaven will tell you, it's that simple. If Heaven doesn't tell you, then everything is normal."

"But what if fate is a riddle? For example, in Journey to the West, Fengxian County didn't see any rain for three years. If the governor of Fengxian County couldn't wait for Sun Wukong to arrive, would he have to wait until the chickens had eaten all the rice, the dogs had licked all the noodles, and the fire had burned through the locks before it would rain? What if fate really wasn't on our side? What should we do? Should we just accept our fate?"

"Hey~" Zhu Xianxun shook his head. "If you're asking if Ji Zhou is destiny, then the answer is definitely yes. If you're asking me if we should accept our fate now that King Zhou has dealt us this fate, then the answer is definitely no. If King Zhou didn't accept it, then of course I won't either. What should Zhu Yu do? Actually, didn't you already tell me the answer? Use Sun Wukong—just fight."

"Can Tianming still fight?"

"How does the lyric go: 'If the Emperor approves my destiny, the ruler will be the ruler and the subject the subject; if the Emperor disapproves my destiny, the Forbidden City will be in chaos.' Now that Heaven is on our side and has sent the Unicorn Son down to earth, I believe in Heaven's will. If Heaven disobeys, I'll beat it into submission."