Chapter 453: Mechanical Sect

After the first Salvation Conference, the Witches' actions began.

In less than a week, the various gang forces and cult organizations that had been lording over the fringe districts of Sin City were inexplicably uprooted.

According to a very small number of eyewitnesses, it seemed to be the work of a group of young girls who could use magic. Someone who had been drunk one night and was walking home in the middle of the night saw five little girls walking together into the gang's headquarters, and then the next day, that gang was gone.

A few other gang survivors, filled with fear, claimed that they weren't young girls at all, but Witches possessed by devils; they were all monsters...

Most of those poor survivors seemed to have become mentally unstable due to fear, shouting about talking goats, half-human half-goat, half-human half-cat, or half-human half-horse girls—in short, it was all nonsense at first listen.

Regarding the words of these mentally unstable gang survivors, most residents of the fringe districts didn't believe them. They weren't even very concerned about the destruction of these gangs; after all, such things were common occurrences.

To the people in the fringe districts, this was nothing more than another new gang struggle. The old gangs were destroyed, and soon new ones would rise to the top. Rather than dwelling on this, they were better off thinking about how to scrape together a new protection fee to offer to the upcoming new gangs.

Consequently, the business of the Blood Temple in the city had been exceptionally hot these past two days, and even the vampires acting as Blood Priests were getting a bit tired from drawing blood.

However, when people had prepared their protection fees early, waiting for the new gang members to come and collect them, they waited and waited, but no one came.

Their days these past few days had been unexpectedly comfortable. Even those transcendent villains who used to run over to their side whenever they were idle had suddenly vanished. The chaotic fringe districts had suddenly become peaceful.

If one had to say there was anything unusual, it was that the territories originally belonging to the gangs were suddenly surrounded, and sounds of construction came from within every day.

The eerie, booming sounds of construction each time made people feel uneasy, always wondering if something terrifying was being brewed inside.

And another week later, the curtains surrounding the area were removed, revealing two magnificent buildings that left everyone shocked.

One was a tall and majestic church, and the other was a massive factory covering a vast area.

Moreover, neither of these was the common wooden or stone structure, but rather large-scale steel creations. The rich metallic texture made these two buildings look like two pitch-black beasts crouching on the earth at first glance, making anyone who looked at them feel a sense of fear.

After all, in this era, steel was a controlled item, usually used for making armor or weapons for the noble knights; how could it be so extravagant as to be used directly to build houses?

As for the price of steel, one only needs to think about how the most valuable things in an average knight's home are their ancestral armor and longsword to understand.

And now, just how much steel had been used for these two buildings? Converting that into how many suits of armor and weapons it could make—just calculating that was enough to make everyone gasp for air.

Such a grand gesture was truly beyond the limits of their imagination.

But the question arose: who could be so extravagant, and why would such people build these two buildings in such a fringe district?

People didn't dare to think, and even less did they dare to ask. Anyway, every time they walked past these two buildings, they were terrified, fearing they might disturb the masters inside.

However, compared to these luxurious and majestic buildings, the people in charge of both the church and the factory were exceptionally kind.

They would kindly invite passersby to come in and visit, and ask if they had any intention of joining them.

Such an invitation was just like a pie falling from the sky, so wonderful that it felt a bit unreal. But the people in the fringe districts had suffered too much; having been beaten and abused, they didn't believe there could be such good things. Most people didn't even dare to go in, and when faced with the invitation, they just shrank away and left.

In fact, they were even hesitant when refusing; after all, if they didn't give the masters face, what would happen if they got angry?

Fortunately, the masters of the church and factory seemed unexpectedly gentle. Faced with the refusal, they didn't get angry and were very tolerant.

Thus, another week later, a brave soul finally gathered the courage to walk into the church and factory.

The onlookers watched that brave soul enter the door. Someone recognized him as Ge Lei, the man picked up by the widow Yi Fu; they also had a daughter, Ke Lei Ya, who was incredibly ugly.

Everyone thought that this Ge Lei might not come out once he went in, but from morning until evening, when the onlookers' patience was almost exhausted, Ge Lei came out. He excitedly told everyone about what he had seen inside, saying that the good days for the fellow villagers had arrived.

According to Ge Lei, this church was named the "Mechanical Sect." Although it was indeed a sect, the church didn't worship any gods. The priests were just explorers of technology, cultivators who had stepped onto the Mechanical Path.

The sect's doctrine also advocated for people to change their lives through technology, and everyone could obtain a better life by relying on the power of technology.

Ge Lei also said that the factory was the place where the mechanical cultivators manufactured various mechanical products. Inside, there were countless massive machines roaring, emitting a loud sound like a dragon's roar. The power of those machines was so immense that every operation was more efficient than hundreds of blacksmiths working together, and so on.

In short, Ge Lei's words truly stunned the onlookers. After all, they had never seen a church that didn't worship idols, let alone a mechanical factory. People in this era didn't even know what the concept of "machinery" meant.

But Ge Lei himself was an excellent blacksmith; he said that those machines were more powerful than blacksmiths, so there must be some basis for it, right?

But with this mechanical factory, wouldn't all the blacksmiths be unemployed?

The crowd was in an uproar again. After all, in this day and age, being a blacksmith was a quite decent job, and those who mastered the craft of forging didn't have low social status.

And regarding such worries, the pioneer Ge Lei was very calm. He said the factory was recruiting workers, and he himself had decided to join the factory, changing his profession to become a worker. In the future, he would first follow the mechanical cultivators of the Mechanical Sect to learn technology, and then work in the factory.

This made many onlookers think Ge Lei was crazy. After all, what was so good about being a worker? In this day and age, the lowest status was that of farmers and workers. Although blacksmiths were also considered workers, they were a technical profession, so their status wasn't too low. Changing professions so suddenly—they feared his brain was broken.

Just like that, the crowd dispersed again, until another week passed, and the entrance to the Mechanical Sect and the mechanical factory was once again crowded with people.

Because over the past week, the conditions of Ge Lei's family had become better and better, and his family could even afford to eat meat. What kind of concept was that?

And at this time, everyone finally knew just how high the treatment in the mechanical factory was.

Moreover, in these past few days, several other "brave souls" had gathered the courage to go in and visit. However, when others asked, these guys all said Ge Lei was bragging and that it wasn't actually that good, which made everyone believe it was true.

But the lives of those few bastards had also become much more comfortable recently. When they went to ask Ge Lei again, everyone discovered that these bastards had actually secretly joined the mechanical factory and become new workers.

Good heavens, those bastards were making a fortune in silence, and to reduce competition, they were deliberately lying to people.

This time, the entire district was shaken. More people gathered the courage to step into that steel church and factory, and then they went in with doubt, and walked out with shock and longing.

In less than a month, the entire district was filled with workers.

"Tsk tsk tsk, I'm so stupid, really. I was just thinking about the working class, but I almost forgot that there are no large factories in this era, let alone a formed working class. There are only some small manual workshops. This requires me to build a large factory myself first to catalyze a working class."

On the roof of the Mechanical Church, Dorothy looked at the district below, which had changed drastically in less than two months, and said this with some exhaustion.

Honestly, such behavior was very stupid. If it weren't for the magical power that could be used to cheat, this kind of reckless action would have no feasibility at all.

"Forget it, forcing growth is forcing growth. After all, I don't have that much time to waste slowly. Let's rely on magic to forcibly start the Industrial Revolution and liberate productivity first. Otherwise, without sufficient productivity, any plan is useless. Sufficient productivity is the foundation of everything."

"If you want the concept that 'man can conquer nature' to take root in people's hearts, sufficient material conditions are a rigid demand."

"Although it seems that normally one must have the Renaissance first to have the Industrial Revolution, the reverse is about the same. Once life is affluent, people are fed and clothed, and their physical needs are met, only then will they have the energy to pursue spiritual needs, and only then will they not be satisfied with the spiritual control of the church. Only in this way can the foundation of the Shining Church's faith be shaken."

The Home Witch rubbed her eyes with some fatigue, then stood up. She walked to the window and looked far away at the outside of the city.

The reason why the faith of the angels' Shining Sect was so prevalent had a lot to do with the general poverty of the people in this era. Life was difficult, and the level of education was low, which naturally made it easier to pray to gods and Buddhas, using faith in gods as spiritual comfort.

Therefore, in order to hinder the spread of the church's faith, she had to do something ruthless, directly pulling the rug out from under them.

If people's lives were difficult, then find a way to improve their living standards.

If people's education level was low and their thinking was ignorant, then find a way to raise their education level and let them break away from ignorance.

If people needed spiritual pursuits, then use various arts and cultures to satisfy their spiritual needs.

In short, block the spread of the angel faith from all angles, so that the angel faith would have no soil for survival on this land.

Dorothy's gaze turned to the factory not far away, where mechanical cultivators dressed in priest robes were instructing the newly joined apprentices on how to use those machine tools to manufacture products.

For these adults who were older and whose thinking had solidified to a certain extent, she used a ruthless medicine, directly crushing their worldview with this era-surpassing mechanical factory, and then sent people to reshape it.

She didn't expect this group of medieval civilians to quickly become workers who truly mastered technology. For now, this group of workers was actually doing assembly line work. Everyone's work was very simple, but it was also boring and dull.

However, she wasn't one of those vampire capitalists, and she didn't think about letting these people be consumables on the assembly line for their whole lives, so that was why there was the teaching of those mechanical cultivators.

First work on the assembly line, get a salary to improve the quality of life, and then slowly follow those mechanical cultivators to learn technology. As long as this group of people wasn't so lazy that they didn't even want to learn the technology taught for free, they would slowly master some mechanical skills.

In short, the upward channel has been given to you; whether you can grasp it depends on themselves.

Although Dorothy advertised that the Mechanical Sect was equal for everyone, this only referred to equality in personality. Equality in social status was impossible. After all, the gap in individual ability couldn't be erased even by someone as strong as a Witch.

And if there are differences in ability, naturally there are differences in status. This is a matter of course. One cannot let the mediocre sit in high positions without working just for the sake of a word like "fairness."

Dorothy withdrew her gaze, then picked up a mechanical-style dragon mask on the table and put it on. Thus, combined with the nun's habit on her body, the Home Witch had already transformed into a mechanical cultivator.

Although, in fact, in the entire Mechanical Sect, there were only two mechanical cultivators in the true sense: one was her, and the other was Di Di Nisha.

The other church personnel were true mechanical cultivators; they were all mechanical autonomous dolls created by the Home Witch using puppet techniques.

Although such dolls that could pass for real ones left the junior sister Ao Dai Li amazed, for Dorothy, this was really just a basic skill of puppet technique that anyone could do.

It's just a pity that because they didn't have the power of a Witch, and only had the power of human mages, it was difficult to give these doll cultivators high intelligence. Therefore, these doll cultivators sometimes appeared a bit mentally challenged. Fortunately, because the workers were all in awe of these mechanical cultivators, this anomaly was not a big deal and would be explained as the master cultivator having an eccentric personality.

And when Dorothy left the office on the top floor of this church and came downstairs, the noisy sound of children reading entered her ears, which made a gentle smile appear on the Home Witch's face under the mask.

Maybe it was because she was currently using the Moon God's body; the Moon God incarnation was inexplicably full of maternal instinct, so this made the Home Witch exceptionally kind to these little children now.

Compared to those adults in the factory whose worldviews weren't very malleable even after reshaping, this group of children here was the true future pillar of the Mechanical Sect.

... The Home Witch looked forward to it like this... ===== CHAPTER 454 =====