LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 641
Chapter 641 – Dark Heaven Village
“A good machine is necessary, huh? What kind of ridiculous talk is that? And why do we need to go to the Western Regions?”
Zhuge Sa interlaced his fingers and said, “So, how many copies of the novel do you think are sold in a year?”
“I don’t know.”
“Even if metal typesetting has developed and more than ten million books are printed in the Great Ming Empire each year, most of those are studies on classical texts or the recently trending Yangming studies. At least eighty percent are aimed at helping with entrance exams, while the rest are treated as miscellaneous writings. Among those, the proportion of novels is so low that even if a book sells a lot, it’s hard to exceed a thousand copies a year. And that’s if sold in a big city—otherwise, they might never see the light of day in a secondhand bookstore. Well… if we can sell three hundred copies, that would be exceptionally good. Unpopular books are just passed around among friends.”
“……”
“The reason there are so few scholars writing novels is that there are many jerks in the market who belittle novels as ‘feudal literature.’ There are many obstacles to succeeding in the novel industry.”
Is that really how it is? ‘Then again, novels were really expensive…’ I barely managed to buy one by scraping together everything I had during the time of the Escort. That much paper and books were precious, not to mention that it was hard to even find novels. Zhuge Sa continued, “Well, it’s one thing for them to be sold, but it’s hard to impress the Celestial Sage with that. To move him emotionally and rally him to our cause, we need to show substantial success—like enough popularity to warrant a Peking opera adaptation in Luoyang.”
“Ugh… that’s a bit…”
“Exactly. So we’ll push this through in bulk. I’m thinking of massively developing printing and typesetting technology. It’ll be at a level where it’s almost impossible to fathom in the current civilization. If printing technology explodes in development, naturally a lot of books will be printed, and novels will become famous more easily. Take out the Crystal Stele.”
As I pulled out the Crystal Stele, Zhuge Sa began to touch its surface and said, “The secrets of all alchemy are contained right on this stele’s surface. The development of civilization is closely related to the temperature of fire, and this stele has methods recorded to raise the fire’s temperature to a blue hue.”
“I know. You taught me.”
I nodded and accepted Zhuge Sa’s statement. “The higher the temperature, the more metals can be refined and processed, plus material transformation becomes easier.”
The temperature of fire changes from red to orange, yellow, eventually to white, and beyond that to blue. The blue temperature was incredibly high, and almost no metals could resist it from melting physically. I knew this because I had also studied alchemy.
“The same goes for printing technology, which is closely related to the temperature of fire. Currently, the printing technology mixes both metal types and wooden types, and Goryeo has better printing than the Great Ming Empire. The technological gap is roughly about thirty years. I aim to leapfrog beyond that level using the alchemical technologies from the Crystal Stele, advancing civilization by about two hundred years. After all, this round of life is likely going to be a short-term engagement, so it wouldn’t hurt to push a little.”
I was astonished by Zhuge Sa’s words. “T-Two hundred years? We could leap that much in printing technology?!”
“With proper use of this Crystal Stele, overcoming a civilization gap of five hundred years is possible. It gathers the results of millennia of research and the secrets of Hermes Trismegistus, the god of alchemy, who is said to have comprehended the principles of alchemy. If crafted well enough, it could allow manipulation of atomic structures.”
He continued, slightly excited. “The paper issue can be solved easily as well. Though it’s all manual now, we can switch to automatic printing, and since the current xuan paper isn’t suitable for the pressing methods, we’ll create a new type of paper with the Crystal Stele. We can solve both the paper and technology issues at once.”
Zhuge Sa continued, “But despite being me, I haven’t learned cutting-edge printing technology. I haven’t been interested enough in this field to the point of creating something from nothing. So, high-tech machinery will be necessary. Baek Woong, you need to handle this quickly.”
“What should I do?”
“Go to the Western Regions and find the Alchemist Guild. Retrieve the best printing technology they possess or steal a printing machine.”
“……”
“I think stealing a printing machine is the more realistic option since learning it will be quite difficult.”
I was dazed for a moment but snapped back to reality. “I’ll give it a shot.”
Normally, I would’ve grumbled that asking to steal a printing machine was out of the question. But now, I had undergone enough adventures that I couldn’t afford to consider that level of difficulty as a challenge.
Zhuge Sa said, “This is more important than you think. The Celestial Sage is a temperamental person; if he’s in a good mood, he’ll be generous to you. If you can get definite assistance from him along with divine favors, the survival rate in Dark Heaven Village might greatly increase.”
“Great!”
Where should I begin! I stepped back from Zhuge Sa and pondered on my next move. ‘Hmm… Should I go check out that “fake” Saint Germain first?’
In my last life, while tracking the alchemist of the Imperial Palace, I discovered there were two people sharing the same name. Instinct suggested that finding the fake one first should speed up the process, even if it was just a pretender; after all, he would still be knowledgeable in alchemy. This might be the Surefire way to track down the alchemist.
Suss…
I summoned the spirit of the National Seal to activate its search function.
“Spirit of the National Seal, locate where the alchemist Saint Germain is using the Palace Examination Technique!”
[No thanks… You can find it yourself…]
“What?”
[No. I will find it.]
Did that brat just disrespect me?!
As I was in astonishment, the spirit of the National Seal spoke up shortly after. [There are a total of two search results for Saint Germain.]
“Give me the locations.”
[Here they are.]
One of the screens displayed an old Western man studying while trembling in a ramshackle room. The other showed an alchemist administering a suspicious potion to a Dragon Person. I gazed at the two screens before replying, “I want to know the exact location of the old man.”
[I will provide the coordinates.]
Wiying…
The coordinates of the “fake” Saint Germain popped into my mind. At that moment, I realized I could teleport there using my alchemical techniques and immediately went to the fake Saint Germain.
Pa-at!
As I entered the dilapidated room, I felt an overwhelming sense of cramped space. The old man, seated at his desk writing with a quill feather, spun around in shock.
“#&^$… @&^&@!!”
As expected, his foreign language was incomprehensible. I frowned and grabbed a nearby spirit, commanding it to translate for me.
“Greetings, elder. I am Mauritz of Nassau. Are you a citizen of our country?”
“I-I am…”
The old man stammered before glaring at me. “A-are you a necromancer? What do you want from me?!”
With the help of Mauritz’s spirit, I translated his words and replied, “You claim to be the true Saint Germain, correct?”
“……?”
The old man looked utterly bewildered. Then he spoke again. “Fake? Who are you? What do you intend? Are you an alchemist?”
“Answer my question.”
“I am Saint Germain! Not a fake!”
The old man mocked me with a crooked smile. “Mauritz of Nassau… Are you pretending to be a famous figure who died during the independence war in the Netherlands? Just get lost! I do not want anyone interfering with my research.”
“I’m curious about your relationship with the real Saint Germain. Such a coincidence to share a name.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Anyway, since you are also an alchemist, tell me the location of the Alchemist Guild. Or, alternatively, share where advanced printing machines are located.”
“Eat shit, you bastard!!”
Pew!
Suddenly, the old man activated a smoke grenade and attempted to escape, but such tricks wouldn’t work on me, a seasoned expert. I grabbed his hand and quickly struck his bloodline, causing him to faint in an instant. I then used the Soul Exchange Technique to extract information from him.
“Why are you impersonating Saint Germain? What are you doing in this remote place?”
Under the influence of the Soul Exchange Technique, the old man responded with a dazed look in his eyes. “Impersonation… No… I am Saint Germain… an alchemist…”
“Eh?”
“I am… the real one… not someone else…”
So he’s claiming to be the real deal? I could only feel perplexed. ‘He can’t lie under the Soul Exchange Technique, can he?’
If that’s the case, then it must refer to an incredibly powerful being if he’s able to act like he’s under my control—just like the Demon King who feigned charm under Miho’s allure. But I couldn’t wrap my mind around that possibility, so I had no choice but to accept that he might indeed be the true Saint Germain. Perhaps my Soul Exchange Technique was lacking in skill, preventing me from fully subduing his spirit, but it didn’t feel like a lie.
“Alright, if you’re the real alchemist Saint Germain… then do you remember anyone who might impersonate you?”
“Impersonation… that… might be…”
The alchemist seemed to recall something. “… decades ago… I created a homunculus while attempting to make the Philosopher’s Stone… I couldn’t recover all the test subjects… it might be that one…”
“Huh?!”
A homunculus?!
That’s also referred to as Divine Portraits in the East! Though technically made with slightly different techniques, it was similar in that it was crafted to resemble a human being. I sensed a new truth flowing in and said to him, “Alright. Then tell me where the Alchemist Guild is located, and also point out the place with the most developed printing technology in the Western Regions!”
“The Alchemist Guild… is under the command of Elder Merlin… in the Otherworld… you must cross Mundus… it does not exist in this world… you cannot go without using magic or techniques… you must contact the magic society… and the place with the most advanced printing technology in the West… is the British Empire… as far as I know, there’s a brilliant inventor who crossed over to the New Continent… and created the double-sided rotary printing machine… that should be the cutting edge…”
“A double-sided rotary printing machine?”
“It’s automatic printing, not manual… it can print tens of thousands of pages in a short time…”
“What is this New Continent?”
That was my first hearing of it. As I questioned him, Saint Germain replied, “The tales of Marco Polo stirred up interests… adventurers are seeking out the East Continent… accidentally discovering a new continent… vast and currently under colonization… it’s the land of adventure with the greatest curiosity…”
“Hmm…?”
Is there actually a place called the New Continent? I pondered, and it began to click. ‘They must be talking about the place between the great oceans.’
I had explored the Sea of Heaven and Earth thoroughly, but there was one place I had not yet visited. I hadn’t even set foot on the Heavenly Clutch Continent, and I had not gone to the Black Continent situated below the Western Regions. Moreover, knowing that across the massive ocean lay a great New Continent to the west of the Western Regions, which would also be toward the east from Dongyoung or Goryeo, it seemed the people from the Western Regions were currently exploring that continent.
“What do I need to do to get to the New Continent?”
“You should go to the Spanish port of Portobello… Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire is frequently recruiting adventurers… to send to the New Continent… they are currently at war with the British Empire over there… you can go along with the adventurers…”
“Great! I have more questions, but I will ask them later, for now, get into the Wooden Armor!”
Swish…
I shoved Saint Germain into the Wooden Armor and immediately set off using the Heavenly Secret Technique to head toward Portobello. Thankfully, since it was a well-known place, I didn’t even need the spirit’s assistance to arrive by asking passerby for directions. Once I reached Portobello, I managed to get a map of the New Continent.
‘Hmm. It’s incredibly far…’
The distance made it comparable to that of crossing over to the British Empire, which was unthinkable. I couldn’t possibly make it without a ship, and it left me in deep thought. Would it even be possible to cover such a distance by running?
“… Let’s take the easy route.”
I could, but there was no reason to do so. I immediately summoned the spirit of the National Seal and urged, “Tell me where the inventor of the double-sided rotary printing machine is located!”
[Searching… Search Complete.]
The National Seal quickly pinpointed the location and provided me with the coordinates. With the information at hand, I could simply look it up, receive the coordinates, and teleport directly. As soon as the coordinates were set in my mind, I used the technique to teleport.
Pa-at!
I landed not directly beside the inventor but in a nearby clearing overlooking the mound. Indeed, this was the New Continent, and below the hill lay Western adventurers and soldiers.
“I did it!”
Have I almost circled the globe once now? Just need to reach the Black Continent and the poles, and I’d be all set.
‘Huh?’
At that moment, a chill ran down my spine. Something felt off.
Whooooo…
As I sensed the strangeness, I noticed crystallized formations resembling clouds gathering and dissipating in the sky up ahead. Intrigued, I glanced up, only to have my body freeze instantly.
“……!!”
It’s the [Old Ruler]!
‘What?!’
There’s no other entity that could give off such a chilling aura, distinctly warping space and dimensions with merely its divine power than the [Old Ruler]! I didn’t know for sure, but those cloud-like crystal formations were undoubtedly related to the [Old Ruler].
Boom!
Moreover, several other [Old Rulers] began to appear here and there. Some looked like massive eyeball clusters, while others were bizarre giants with eighteen legs and triangular horns. They were all [Old Rulers].
‘Hiiieeeek.’
I was too shocked to think, hurriedly attempting to teleport away, but the technique wouldn’t activate.
‘Damn it!!’
With no alternative, I rushed into a nearby cave and hid, hoping they might wander off and lose interest in me. This wasn’t the time to be looking for the inventor.
Drip…
Sweat poured down as I lay hidden in the cave like a wild animal, feeling the immense tension gripping my heart. I forced myself not to exhale, fearing I might burst my heart.
How much time passed—
Finally, I cautiously emerged from the cave, confirming that the [Old Rulers] had vanished. I then surveyed the area.
A tragedy!
The Western adventurers who had come to explore the New Continent, along with large armies, were upside down both inside and out. Their insides were laid out like blood vessels, a gruesome sight. What’s worse, they seemed to be still alive, twitching helplessly.
‘Ugh…’
The [Old Rulers] had just feasted on the humans exploring the New Continent. Thousands lay strewn about, slaughtered. I felt my chest heave, as if I had just encountered a tiger.
“Damn.. I must summon the inventor’s spirit and flee!”
I muttered bitterly.
There was no way to conduct further exploration in such a place. The New Continent! It was a land where wild [Old Rulers] roamed about without a care in the world.