Chapter 2256: Buying Slaves, Researching Psionic Creations

The more Xia Duo thought about it, the more wrong it felt. Unwilling to be swindled out of a sum of money for no reason, he thought for a moment and launched a sudden attack on Jiamu:

"Tax Official Jiamu, are you worried about the rebels outside?"

"Not worried, and none of you need to be worried either. We can completely retreat into the Twin-Spire first. As long as the rebels dare to attack the Twin-Spire, the Twin-Spire will automatically guide the Empire's guards here to quell the rebellion."

"Are we just going to watch them destroy the city like this?"

"What have they destroyed? The city? It doesn't matter if it's destroyed. Once their war implements are exhausted, they will still be obedient slaves. However much is destroyed now, that much will be rebuilt later, and the resources and such will still be mined by them themselves."

"During this period, not a single craftsman or soldier will die. As for the slaves, if more of them die, it will even save on food!"

Jiamu's cold words, which he did not find the least bit unusual, made Xia Duo deeply realize that even though this country already possessed the potential for industrialization and even automated production, it was still a typical old society of slavery.

To Jiamu, a true Yimaska, the passing of countless flesh-and-blood lives was just a number on a ledger.

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Xia Duo's heart churned, feeling inexplicably uncomfortable. He noticed that the expressions of Poche and the other Elves were not looking good either, but in the face of such a situation, what could they do?

After a moment of silence, having struggled to calm his mood, Xia Duo asked Jiamu: "Do you sell the slaves here?"

"Sell, of course we sell!"

"I want this group of rebels outside right now."

"Rebels? No! There are craftsmen and soldiers among them, and craftsmen and soldiers are not for sale to outsiders in Yimaska."

"It doesn't matter. You can exclude everyone you think cannot be sold; I want all the rest."

"That is possible, but Zhanjite City is currently short of people due to this destruction. If you buy them here, the price will be higher than elsewhere! And we are not responsible for the transport of all slaves; you must be responsible for it yourself."

"No problem, but I will buy more slaves later. I want a discounted price!"

Although buying slaves was a spur-of-the-moment decision, it was absolutely in line with Xia Duo's long-term plan—to increase the population. Netherese are people, Langasi are people, and Yimaska are of course people too.

Before coming here, he never imagined that there would be a country that would artificially trigger wars to consume its population because of insufficient food. This was simply inconceivable.

Since Yimaska didn't care, Xia Duo did. In a few years, he would even have the descendants of the slaves he bought today serve as envoys to Yimaska, publicly showcasing the daily life in Daxia Territory.

By then, if Yimaska was still like it was today, it would likely be met with a chorus of support from his people, instantly emptying out most of the lower classes.

……

In the end, Xia Duo negotiated the price for the rebels outside at a unit price of 100 Makala. Thus, to Zhanjite City, the rebels outside were no longer a negative asset, but shiny Gold Coins one by one.

The local commander immediately led his troops out from the Twin-Spire. After several lures and the intervention of hidden undercover agents, the war supplies in the hands of the rebels were quickly exhausted.

What followed was the "catching ducks" operation common to the whole world. From noon until dark, they still hadn't finished catching them all, so Xia Duo simply didn't need to consider the question of leaving.

He would stay in Zhanjite tonight!

Of course, catching slaves and such was left to the Yimaska to handle; it was none of Xia Duo's business. That night, he returned to the Floating City and began research on materials for Psionic Creation.

……

Inside the Laboratory.

Xia Duo first reviewed the material property research report submitted by the Mages of the Tower of Time. Indeed, there was an energy-conducting metal with properties similar to Mithril, only the energy-conducting effect of this metal material was not as good as Standard Mithril.

But recalling the unit price provided by Jiamu during the handover, wasn't this just a cheap substitute for Mithril!

And according to Jiamu's introduction, the main use of this material called "Nuofu Iron" was as a basic material for manufacturing other puppet materials.

In other words, almost all Imaskar Secret Devices would contain this energy-conducting metal component called "Nuofu Iron."

Regarding this, Xia Duo could only sigh that it was indeed very cheap, but at the same time, he also thought that if there could be a Nuofu Iron, there should also be materials with better energy-conducting effects.

Perhaps it was an optimized version of Nuofu Iron, or of course, it could be other materials.

But in any case, for "Nuofu Iron" alone, Xia Duo felt the trip was worth it.

Additionally, the word "Nuofu Iron" was spoken by Jiamu in Elvish, where "Nuofu" was phonetic and "Iron" was semantic. Xia Duo speculated that it might be some kind of alienated elemental iron, or some special compound of iron.

The Magic world also had compounds, but their manifestation was not in the form of atomic bonding, but in the form of elemental infection. In other words, if it were indeed an iron compound, the key to its preparation would be the infection ratio of the different elements within it.

After pondering for a moment, Xia Duo separated a small sample and placed it into the Zero Element Reactor in the Laboratory. This was experimental equipment specifically designed for researching artificial Mithril; he hadn't expected to use it here on the first try.

As the reactor started, the elements inside began to be rapidly evacuated, turning into a state that was like a vacuum but not quite, because a vacuum itself was also an elemental state.

Subsequently, a beam of extremely thin Annihilation Light was introduced into the reactor by Xia Duo. The moment it hit the sample, it flared brightly, and a large amount of elements were released during the process of the sample's material structure disintegrating.

If Annihilation Light were used for an attack, these released elements would also be annihilated together; the higher the energy level, the fewer free elements would eventually dissipate.

But now, this extremely thin beam of Annihilation Light, through Xia Duo's careful calculation, could disintegrate the material structure while avoiding accidental damage to the released elements. Furthermore, because the volume was extremely small, it was exhausted before it could even completely disintegrate the material structure of the sample in the reactor.

The next step was to check the elemental ratio in the reactor.

Although it was difficult to determine the true material composition of the sample by doing this, at least it could be used to compare with known materials to judge whether it was iron.

After all, in front of Annihilation Light, everyone is equal, and materials are equal too.

Soon, the elemental detection had a result—"4:3:3.5:5?"

Seeing such an "irregular" ratio, Xia Duo immediately made a judgment: the so-called "Nuofu Iron" was definitely not some kind of alienated elemental iron.

As for what it actually was, further research was needed.

However, having obtained this result, Xia Duo breathed a huge sigh of relief. What he feared most was that "Nuofu Iron was some kind of elemental iron," because that would largely mean—

The Yimaska had mastered the method of converting ordinary iron into energy-conducting material.

Although there was theoretically a possibility of converting ordinary iron into energy-conducting material, Xia Duo just couldn't accept that possibility when it came to the Yimaska.