Chapter 123: Immortal History

Thump thump thump—

A tremendous noise.

One chunk after another of ore was fed into crushing machines and pulverized repeatedly until it finally became powder. Three Internal Qi realm workers operated the machines, pressing buttons from time to time.

The work looked easy enough—just a bit more dust on the body, a bit more noise, that was all.

"…Law-Breaking Steel is the most important base material for half-magical artifacts and some magical artifacts. Its refining process involves sixty-seven kinds of metal minerals, goes through one thousand one hundred and forty-eight procedures, and with the help of large-scale intelligent machines, the operating precision of many of those procedures reaches the micrometer level (one-millionth of a meter) of array formations that only Nascent Soul realm cultivators can produce by hand."

Engineer Zhou Xiuyun said proudly.

"This is how the Immortal Gate, using only mortal materials, managed to create something with Law-Breaking properties—not, as many cultivators outside the realm guessed, because there are large quantities of low-grade Law-Breaking spiritual mines within the Immortal Gate's territory, so plentiful they can be wasted to the point of allowing mortal martial artists to be equipped on a large scale."

"Do you know the origin of Law-Breaking Steel?"

She asked again.

Hua Bing and Wu Tianli both looked at Jiang Ding.

They knew the answer to this question, but clearly Zhou Xiuyun's internship guidance also included some ideological education, so it was better to let the professional handle it.

"In the year 3247, after more than a thousand years of contact with the Outer Cultivation World, the Immortal Gate finally welcomed its first true enemy—the Blood Cloud Sect, a subordinate sect of the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace."

Jiang Ding said softly.

"At that time, the Dao of the Immortals on Blue Luminous Star had only just begun to develop. Its inheritance came from secretly sneaking into the Outer Cultivation World and killing scattered invading cultivators—it was no system at all. The strongest in the Immortal Gate were Jin Dan cultivators. Under the saturated attacks of thermal weapons like nuclear bombs and missiles from the Spiritless Era, at the cost of countless sacrifices, they could deal with at most a single Nascent Soul cultivator, and even then needed a great deal of luck."

"But the Blood Cloud Sect was a Soul Transformation sect."

"After a brief struggle of just over a hundred years, several billion citizens had died, the entire territory of the Immortal Gate had fallen, Blue Luminous Star became a lower realm of the Blood Cloud Sect, and all its citizens were reduced to blood slaves of the Blood Cloud Sect—raw materials for cultivating the 'Blood Cloud Myriad Transformations Canon' and refining the spiritual treasure Ten Thousand Blood Banner."

"Among the women, the most beautiful citizens of the Immortal Gate became concubines and servants to Blood Cloud Sect disciples; among the men, the most handsome became male favorites and menial laborers."

"The most outstanding among the concubines and male favorites, those best able to win favor, could become low-ranking disciples of the Blood Cloud Sect."

"Even under such circumstances, our forebears did not give up."

"They sold their dignity, sold their bodies, and pooled every scrap of cultivation resources wrung out by exhausting all their wits, using them to cultivate citizens with both talent and political reliability, researching and developing Immortal Dao science through countless hardships."

"During this time, there were geniuses who, having received all the hopes of the people and taken every bit of cultivation resources the citizens had scraped together bit by bit from their humiliating circumstances, still were not satisfied and betrayed—the little organization the Immortal Gate had painstakingly built was destroyed in an instant, and tens of thousands of concubines, male favorites, and furnace cauldrons were executed."

"There were also cases of careless conduct that drew the slaughter of Blood Cloud Sect cultivators upon them."

"Or it was simply that the refining of treasures by Blood Cloud Sect great powers swept over them—the organizations the Immortal Gate had built over hundreds of years were destroyed in an instant, and nearly all the elites perished."

"…"

"The citizens of the Immortal Gate lay silent for over a thousand years, accumulating for over a thousand years,"

"until finally in the year 4785, the first sage, 'Yuan,' a Jin Dan furnace cauldron himself, stepped forward. Taking advantage of the window when the Blood Cloud Sect's old and new Soul Transformation cultivators were in transition, the sect was in chaos, and there was a brief vacancy of Soul Transformation cultivators, he led the Immortal Gate Academy of Sciences and, using his own divine soul as the key main material, along with the self-sacrifice of countless geniuses, successfully refined the first-generation Central Array Spirit Computer, gaining combat power at the weak Nascent Soul level."

"From then on, the Immortal Gate gained powerful hiding capabilities, organizations were no longer destroyed at the slightest disturbance, and computing ability was greatly enhanced. The Immortal Gate's pace of exploration into the Dao of the Immortals accelerated."

"Over a hundred years later, as 'Yuan' was about to die, another Jin Dan furnace cauldron, 'Cong,' self-destructed, merging his divine soul into the Central Array Spirit Computer to continue maintaining the existence of the Immortal Gate's sole foundation…until the seventh generation, when the Immortal Gate's first true Nascent Soul cultivator, 'Wu,' was finally born."

"Under Wu's leadership, the Law-Breaking Steel and the optical array engraving machine, which had been researched and developed without interruption for thousands of years, were finally completed. The Immortal Gate gained tremendous war potential in mid- and low-level cultivator warfare, and its foundation grew stronger by another measure."

"During 'Wu's' rule, the Immortal Gate severed the planar passage connecting Blue Luminous Star to the Blood Cloud Sect, the Immortal Gate achieved restoration, and entered a period of rapid development."

"Five hundred years later, 'Wu' advanced to the peak of Nascent Soul. Under his leadership, the first-generation Forbidden Nuclear Weapon—Hope—was born. It successfully lured and killed the Blood Cloud Sect's new Soul Transformation ancestor, and was disguised as internal strife within the Blood Cloud Sect, so as not to invite the hostility of the Outer Cultivation World."

"Ten years after this battle, on May 7th of the year 5978, 'Wu' passed away from severe injuries, his divine soul merging into the Central Array Spirit Computer, just like the sages of all previous generations."

Jiang Ding spoke slowly, his voice unconsciously growing mournful, his eyes reddening slightly, tears welling up.

The others did not react as strongly as he did, but they too were infected by the solemn atmosphere.

"Yes, this is the origin of the Immortal Gate's Law-Breaking Steel and optical array engraving machine."

"As you can see, from 'Yuan' to 'Cong' to 'Wu,' across many rulers, why did they sacrifice themselves one after another?"

Zhou Xiuyun said solemnly: "Because, when they were still of low realm, other predecessors did not treat them as ants to be trampled upon at will, but treated them as fellow citizens, as equals in personhood, and gave them respect."

"All human hearts are equal."

"Otherwise, even if one generation's ruler were a saint of great fearlessness and great sacrifice, could every generation be the same?"

"If you treat low-level cultivators, those beneath you, as ants—killing them at will, driving them at will, trampling their personhood and dignity, occasionally bestowing a few spirit stones, and they weep with gratitude—then when foreign enemies come, when they grow strong, do you really think a simple phrase like 'we are all people of the Immortal Gate' would make them sacrifice themselves and identify with you?"

"Don't even think about it!"

"Today you trample those weaker than you; tomorrow you will be trampled by those stronger than you!"

"Immortals and mortals are one body. This is the foundation upon which the Immortal Gate maintains unity and stability. Students, remember this well."

Zhou Xiuyun said earnestly.

"Yes, we understand."

The three of them—Hua Bing included—answered with solemn expressions in unison.

This was a political bottom line of the Immortal Gate that could not be touched in the slightest; no cultivator dared to deny it in public.

As a matter of fact, although there were also plenty of disputes over resources and paths within the Immortal Gate, the internal friction was far less than that within the Jiudaxian Sect outside the realm—this was beyond doubt.

After touring the crushing workshop, the smelting and extraction workshop, the synthesis workshop, and other places, Zhou Xiuyun arranged for each of them to follow workers in the various workshops to learn and participate in the primary processing of Law-Breaking Steel.

It was very simple—just foolproof operation with the help of machines.

After a little familiarization, with their Young Eagle Internal Qi and Qi Refining cultivator realm, the precision of their control over internal force and magic power made it easy for them to do the best job possible, surpassing even veteran workers by more than a notch.

More than three hours later, today's internship ended.

Saying goodbye at the steel factory gate, Jiang Ding hurried to the school's cultivation room to cultivate, and after finishing there, went home to continue cultivating at the Sword Casting Manor and monitor Golden Saber Mountain.

Seven days passed just like this, and the three of them became thoroughly familiar with the refining process of Law-Breaking Steel base material—fully capable of working as veteran workers.

"The next part of the internship is learning to engrave half-magical artifact array patterns. Follow me."

Zhou Xiuyun led the three of them into white lab coats and walked into a spotless ultra-clean workshop, arriving at an operating station. On it was the barrel of a Type 89 half-magical artifact heavy machine gun that they were all very familiar with—no fine array pattern traces could be seen on the barrel; it could only be considered an ordinary thermal weapon.

(End of chapter)