Chapter 1329

Lin Cheng's complaints were deeply felt by Li Li Changan, whose face showed a hint of confusion and mockery.

"That's true enough. When I first learned about all this, I was quite surprised too."

"Institutionally speaking, the Tianwu Empire is still a Western Regions kingdom... roughly on par with our world's century-level standards, yet their industrial base is extremely weak—not even reaching the level of the early Middle Ages—and it has been regressing all along."

"And the strangest part is, despite lacking the corresponding basic industry and even failing to fully grasp cannon technology, they are actually researching even more advanced magic crystal cannon technology."

Lin Cheng nodded.

Just as he had seen in Lord Xuan Wuji's armory, this world's industrial level and production capacity were clearly unequal—despite lacking the capability, they had still produced a portion of advanced machinery.

However, these advanced machines also gave certain people confidence. As a result, weapon technology became chaotic, unable to effectively achieve upgrading and replacement, and with the basic industry being extremely weak, there was no way to compensate for the strengths and weaknesses of various weapons, causing them all to appear in the same period.

The most typical examples are catapults, cannons, and magic crystal cannons.

The appearance of catapults was within Lin Cheng's expectations, but cannons were a modern-era product, and though he hadn't encountered magic crystal cannons yet, he could roughly guess.

Xuan Wuji and Brother Dongfang Hong's praise of him made him realize that his skills far surpassed those of the empire's finest craftsmen.

He could also faintly guess the reason for this chaotic situation in the empire—magic! Or perhaps inscriptions!

Even with incomplete inscriptions, with the investment of countless manpower and resources, there would always be some response, leading to advanced products that seriously did not match industrial strength, much like modern hot weapons suddenly appearing in an ancient kingdom.

"Haven't you tried a steam engine? An'an, the principle of that thing is simple—any craftsman should be able to figure it out in no time." Lin Cheng asked.

The principle of a steam engine is extremely simple. Once it appears, it can compensate for the empire's poor industrial foundation. Once popularized nationwide, the nation's power rising day by day would only be a matter of time.

Li Li Changan shot Lin Cheng a look.

"You think I haven't tried? Around when I was thirteen or fourteen, I already figured it out."

She led the craftsmen of the empire's Ministry of Works to attempt making a steam engine, but every single attempt failed—even when the theory was fully understood and the materials were perfectly qualified, they still could not succeed.

"Why? That's impossible—the steam engine is one of the important products of industrial civilization, a pioneer."

Lin Cheng was puzzled.

"The words are right, but you forgot this is an otherworld, a world with magic! You could try making a steam engine too, but the result would definitely be unachievable."

He seemed to suddenly understand.

You mean this world doesn't allow the appearance of steam engines, and industrial civilization cannot develop.

"It's not quite that. Once a steam engine appears, civilization will develop toward industrial civilization, but this is a world of magic. Doing so would undoubtedly be changing the world, and the world would naturally stop us. However, if you rely on magic to create power machinery similar to a steam engine, then it probably wouldn't."

· ·······Begging for flowers····· ·····

"Do you know how black powder came about?" Li Li Changan suddenly looked at Lin Cheng, her gaze serious.

"You?" Lin Cheng pointed at Li Li Changan.

She nodded, gesturing with her hands to mimic a bundle of explosives.

"I discovered that the power of black powder has been severely weakened. The same equivalent that could blow up a small bunker in our world can only injure a few people here."

"Could the ratio be off?" Lin Cheng felt that when he was in Yongjicheng, it wasn't that difficult either.

"At first I thought so too, but until the black powder formula spread outward, and up to now, the original equivalent's power has actually grown again."

"I suspect that once the people of this world gradually accepted black powder, the world loosened its restrictions on black powder, yet steam engines still cannot be manufactured."

If Lin Cheng hadn't been watching Li Li Changan's serious gaze the whole time, he would have thought An'an was joking.

How could there be such an outrageous thing? Could it be that this world's physical rules don't apply universally? But then again, it's not impossible—after all, different worlds.

"A world of magic might really have this possibility, since our world never had rumors of cultivation, magic, or the like."

"Assuming the world has a primary and secondary nature, then our world takes science and physics as primary, with magic and cultivation as secondary—some can appear, but they absolutely cannot become mainstream."

"This magical world can be understood the same way... right?"

"Not bad." Li Li Changan nodded, looking back at Lin Cheng.

"Just as I thought... your mechanical mount should be magical technology, right? A mechanical power conversion principle based on magic power, right?" Dead.