Chapter 97: The Rise of a Nation Through Misaligned Technology, Part 12

Three years passed in the blink of an eye. Mu Yin had finally reached the fifth level of Qi Refinement and the seventh level of Physical Technique. It hadn’t been easy, but at least she had thoroughly mastered the basics from several foundational texts. Once a miscellaneous servant reached the fifth level of Refining Artifacts, they could choose to work on one of the various peaks.

After some thought, Mu Yin chose the Refining Artifacts Peak. Cao Lihua was still in the Servants’ Village. Although she had successfully drawn Qi into her body, she was only at the first level of Qi Refinement. Fortunately, her Physical Technique had already reached the fourth level. The highest level for Physical Technique was nine, roughly equivalent to the constitution of a Golden Core stage cultivator, while level four was comparable to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Cao Lihua was quite content with this. She felt her life here was very good—tending the fields, raising chickens and ducks, practicing cultivation daily, and befriending fellow servants of a similar age. It was a relaxed and pleasant existence. She did not aspire to immortal longevity or ascending to the heavens; she simply wanted to spend more time with her daughter.

Now that Mu Yin was moving to the Refining Artifacts Peak, Cao Lihua said nothing but reminded her, “Be careful in everything.”

“I know, Mother. I will come back often,” Mu Yin replied, nodding. She then packed her things and left for the Refining Artifacts Peak, where she was assigned to the lowest rank servant’s quarters. Even among servants on the peak, there were ranks, and their duties varied accordingly. The higher-ranked servants even assisted the artifact refiners.

Mu Yin’s role was to help the refiners prepare meals—not by cooking herself, though she had learned some culinary skills over the years, still not matching those who specialized in culinary cultivation. Instead, she was in charge of delivering meals and selecting materials.

Although most refining materials were rare and high-grade, some were mass-produced from designated mineral veins. These ores were mined, roughly refined, and then transported back to the sect. Specialist refiner masters would then perform deeper refinement, and finally, the artifact refiners would forge the items.

Besides the materials themselves, refining artifacts also involved embedding formations—usually formation diagrams. These diagrams were most suitable for embedding in magical weapons and typically enhanced auxiliary attributes such as sharpness, accuracy, armor penetration, and defense—much like game mechanics.

This wasn’t just a gaming concept; weapons naturally required these qualities. Cultivators could enhance their weapons by embedding formations to add such attributes. Why wouldn’t they?

Though Mu Yin was merely a servant, she diligently observed the refining techniques of the artifact masters and secretly studied their methods. The sect did not forbid this; on the contrary, if disciples had the ability, they might become valuable assets to the sect in the future. Occasionally, masters would even explain their refining methods to the disciples.

This greatly benefited Mu Yin. Moreover, she found an artifact refiner specialized in puppetry arts and began learning puppet-making from him. Puppets, like machines, had ranks—high-level puppets resembled humans, while low-level ones were made of wood.

However, like machines, puppets required a nervous system, constructed from unique spirit-conducting metal wires that functioned like circuits, enabling the puppets to move their limbs and bodies.

Puppets also had a special component: a control board, analogous to a robot’s chip. This control board was the puppet’s chip; only with it could a puppet act according to its master’s commands.

Among puppets, crafting these chips was particularly difficult. The process was extremely delicate, requiring a strong spiritual awareness to accomplish. Naturally, Mu Yin was undeterred by this challenge.

She had also studied chip fabrication before, originally intending to use such knowledge in other worlds. Back in the modern world, she often took time to observe the similarities and differences across worlds, noting the vast imagination they contained. She was aware of various literary genres—academic prodigy stories, technology-driven nations—and this world was somewhat like that, though it failed to achieve balance and thus had no significant effect.

In other worlds, she would truly need to rely on her own knowledge. Comparing technological chips with cultivation world control boards, she found that aside from differing materials, their functions were fundamentally the same.

All changes lead back to the core; the ultimate frontier of science is indeed theology. In fact, science and theology are merely different applications of energy—the essence remains the same: the manipulation of energy.

Realizing this accelerated Mu Yin’s learning considerably. Within a year, her cultivation advanced to the ninth level of Qi Refinement, her Physical Technique to the eighth level, and she had mastered basic puppet manufacturing, capable of producing puppets that could act on her commands.

Mu Yin noticed her cultivation speed had quickened and reflected on her activities over the past year. She hadn’t been idle; in fact, she had learned blacksmithing specifically for refining artifacts. Refining artifacts required blacksmithing skills. Though it was possible to use spiritual power to eliminate impurities from ores, Mu Yin believed that metal tempered through repeated hammering was tougher than ordinary metal.

Of course, blacksmithing involved technique. Mu Yin once used her spiritual power as a microscope to observe how hammering affected metal density. To increase her strength in blacksmithing, she deliberately studied Physical Cultivation techniques. Originally, she knew Physical Technique and Physical Cultivation methods could complement each other, but she hadn’t expected such remarkable results.

Encouraged, Mu Yin focused on Physical Cultivation. She no longer hoped for the protagonist’s aura to suddenly blossom into a true Chaotic Spirit Root—almost was not quite enough. After practicing Physical Cultivation, she felt her progress quicken.

Physical Cultivation primarily strengthens the body. While it stores spiritual energy in the meridians, more is stored within the flesh and blood, continually refining the body until its toughness reaches the level of a magical artifact.

In essence, Physical Cultivation is akin to refining an artifact, except the practitioner uses their own body as the material. Therefore, most artifact refiners practice Physical Cultivation, as it does not conflict with other cultivation methods.

Over the past year, Mu Yin had not seen the protagonist. She guessed that among the few female refiners, most were burly and strong, so perhaps the protagonist was intimidated and dared not come. For this, Mu Yin felt only glad.

But since she had resolved to seize the protagonist’s business, she had to follow through. The planting puppets were only the beginning; once her cultivation improved, she would start developing other things.

She sent a puppet to Cao Lihua, showing her how to operate it. It was simple—there were a few buttons on the puppet’s back for power, planting, and breeding. Mu Yin had already programmed the basic methods for planting and breeding into the chip.