Chapter 718

Drip… drip…

In the deep, dark palace corridor, cold water droplets continuously fell onto the stone floor.

Li Yan followed Yuan Feng, his gaze occasionally sweeping the surroundings.

The deeper they went, the heavier the chill and dampness seeping from the cracks in the floor.

Although Yuan Feng was slightly drunk, his permission was exceptionally cautious—he allowed only Li Yan to proceed inside.

Along the way, guards were heavily stationed; after multiple checkpoints and verifications, they finally arrived.

This vast dome-shaped cavern was clearly a modified version of a natural cave in the mountain.

The massive prototype steam engine had been completely dismantled; beside it, on a ten-meter-long old elm table, gear components were neatly sorted and arranged.

In the center of the cavern, the sight was even more astonishing:

Twelve bare-chested Mo Men artisans stood at the eight trigram positions, using levers to suspend a massive bronze cylinder.

Several elderly Daoists held steel awls, carefully engraving talismans on its surface, then meticulously painting them with pigment mixed with cinnabar… Li Yan suddenly stopped, his face filled with shock.

The steam engine had clearly been dismantled, yet this massive cylinder seemed to be operating independently!

Condensed vapor formed droplets on its thick metal casing, rolling down like dew.

Hiss—hiss—

The moment the droplets struck the ground, they sparked thin streams of pungent white smoke, leaving behind a thin layer of frost.

This is…

Li Yan frowned, fingers forming a seal, and drew a deep breath.

“Senior! This… is it primordial Gangsha Qi?!”

He sharply turned his head, stunned, toward Yuan Feng.

A strange sensation surged through him—the cylinder’s interior contained an endless, natural flow of Yin-Yang-interacting Gangsha Qi, like a living Taiji vortex.

This was unmistakably the spiritual aura of a Celestial Grotto or Blessed Land!

His armguard “Thousand Thoughts” had once used woven threads to simulate a spiritual orifice, driven by Three Talismans to Suppress Demons coins, but the Qi it produced was merely crude and impure, never achieving spiritual resonance.

Is this… still that heavy steam engine?

When we assembled it, we noticed not the slightest trace of such mystery!

“Hahaha…” Yuan Feng stroked his beard and laughed, his expression brimming with undisguised pride and awe, “Master Wang Su of those days was truly a genius of heaven! Had we not brought this treasure back and dismantled it for study, we would never have glimpsed this secret.”

“What is its true function?” Li Yan’s curiosity deepened.

“It channels immense force, transforming the mundane into the arcane!” Yuan Feng spoke without hesitation.

No wonder… Li Yan suddenly understood.

This had long surpassed the realm of ordinary machinery—utterly different, as distant as heaven and earth.

A steam engine… driving Gangsha Qi… what wonders would it produce?

If such craftsmanship spread widely…

Where would this world’s civilization head?

At this thought, Li Yan felt the path ahead shrouded in thick fog, impossible to foresee.

“How… how was this achieved?” he urgently asked Yuan Feng.

Yuan Feng shook his head, his eyes holding both admiration and regret: “This object was cast as a single, seamless whole. Forcefully dismantling it would destroy its inner mysteries… We have made guesses, but—”

He changed tone, “Ordinary talisman arrays could never produce such power—it must have consumed extraordinarily rare celestial materials.”

“So… the core secret… remains unsolved?” Li Yan frowned tightly.

Yuan Feng spoke so confidently that Li Yan had assumed he had fully mastered it; he never imagined the principle was still unknown.

To promote it without understanding its foundation would be reckless.

“Haha, no need to worry.”

Yuan Feng chuckled, seemingly unfazed, leading Li Yan closer to the massive cylinder. “Young Master Li, have you heard of the foreign state preceptor Matteo Ricci?”

Li Yan nodded: “I’ve heard of him—he was buried beyond the capital’s outskirts after his passing.”

He was a famous figure; according to court records, he came from the Western land of Italia.

“Correct,” Yuan Feng walked to the cylinder, pointing to the talismans being meticulously carved by the Daoists. “Master Ricci, though a foreign missionary, was adaptable and not entirely opposed to our Divine Dao traditions. His map, ‘Complete Atlas of the Myriad Nations,’ greatly aided our maritime endeavors.”

“Yet he was incurably curious, often invited to observe our secrets, yet ignorant of our taboos,” Yuan Feng’s tone carried a hint of resignation and mockery. “He wrote down what he saw, compiling it into ‘Ten Chapters of the Eccentrics’ and spreading it abroad…”

Li Yan was puzzled: “How does this relate to this treasure?”

Yuan Feng gently touched the dense, gold-inlaid talismans now being filled with cinnabar, his expression turning solemn: “You once told me: ‘Those deities dwelling high in the heavens, elusive and mysterious, are merely others’ gods. This is the true god of our Mo Men’s earthly domain!’”

“When I first heard those words, it was as if I heard the voice of heaven!”

Yuan Feng’s voice trembled slightly, as if reliving that moment of awe. “I devoutly followed our ancient rites, treating this treasure as a divine entity. During its transport to the capital, regardless of wind, rain, or darkness, I performed incense offerings and prostrations every dawn and dusk, never slackening.”

“I thought it was merely a pious custom… until…”

He grew too excited, his words nearly choking.

Li Yan’s pupils shrank sharply. “It… worked?”

“It worked!”

Yuan Feng nodded firmly, his emotions calming slightly. “Perhaps heaven responded. Even within the palace, our incense offerings never ceased. I received divine inspiration—last year, I deciphered the steam engine’s structural principles! Several of my disciples also gained this insight.”

“How could Mo Men possibly keep such a momentous secret?”

Yuan Feng’s expression turned solemn. “We immediately reported it to His Majesty. That’s how today’s grand academy inauguration came to be. On that day, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau reported: ‘A crimson star, shaped like a wheel, appeared in the Taiwei Constellation!’ The celestial omen confirmed it—His Majesty was overjoyed and personally bestowed the divine title: ‘Sui Lun, the True Lord of Water and Fire!’”

“Sui Lun… True Lord?” Li Yan’s throat bobbed; he fell silent.

He looked again at the bronze cylinder, still swirling with Gangsha Qi: “Then this object…?”

“This is the ‘heart’ of the divine artifact!”

Yuan Feng explained, “We shall use the Divine Dao secret of ‘Zhuang Zang’ to enshrine it within the True Lord’s golden statue.”

“By imperial decree, the True Lord’s divine seat has been established in the State Temple, receiving state sacrifices! From now on, every prefecture, county, and government workshop casting steam engines must erect a ‘True Lord Shrine.’ On seasonal festivals, offerings of livestock and wine must be made, and all the people must worship together—never slackening!”

As he spoke, the same near-fanatical fire blazed once more in his eyes:

“The great wheel of human civilization has begun turning—its tide is mighty and unstoppable! Why hesitate? Why not follow heaven’s will? What harm in revealing the divine art to the world?”

“When tools benefit the people, the people grow rich; when the people grow rich, the state prospers! From this day forward, every roar of a steam engine across our Great Xuan lands adds another incense offering to the True Lord—every breath, every labor of the myriad people, becomes the unextinguishable fuel of Shenzhou’s destiny!”

Watching Yuan Feng’s nearly deranged expression, Li Yan felt a chill crawl from his spine to his scalp.

He had an inexplicable feeling—he had bent the timeline…

………………

“Such a bizarre thing?!”

In the Rouyuan Inn, Sha Li Fei grabbed his greasy bald head, eyes bulging wide.

After returning to the inn and the academy inauguration’s clamor fading, Li Yan recounted everything he had seen and heard.

All who listened were stunned and pale.

Wang Daoxuan stroked his beard, his face filled with worry: “Fortune and misfortune are unpredictable—the danger… remains unknown…”

It was no wonder they worried—even Li Yan now felt the path ahead shrouded in fog.