Chapter 492: Cultivating Truth Through Illusion
“Boom!”
“Boom!”
......”
Each cannon blast, accompanied by earth-shattering roars, turned a target into dust and ashes.
The five cast-iron infantry cannons brought forward easily swept away more than half of the dozens of targets on the field.
Yet, even with such destructive power, the cold-faced youth showed not a hint of emotion.
He raised a hand, gently patting the air before him, and the gunpowder smoke that permeated the training ground, making some soldiers cough incessantly, instantly settled to the ground.
At the same time, the remaining unbroken targets were silently pulverized.
The mountain-splitting, rock-shattering power of cannons held no true shock in this era of manifested transcendent abilities. A casual strike from a bloodline user could easily achieve the same effect.
Bai Mo was noncommittal, for he cared not about the success or failure of this plan. Even if the other party truly was a Don Quixote-esque madman charging windmills with a sword, it made no difference.
It was merely a play. If it succeeded, he’d watch it as a comedy; if it failed, as a tragedy. He could disengage at any time. At least, that was what Bai Mo still thought.
......”
“This is a firearm. It can grant an ordinary child the power to kill even the lowest-grade demonic beasts in the wild.” Lu Yuesheng picked up a short gun, skillfully pulled the trigger, and shattered a stone on the firing range.
“The common people of Great Wei cannot survive without the protection of bloodline users. Even the weakest demonic beasts require four or five fully armed soldiers to contend with.
Should a demonic tide occur, without a bloodline user leading the charge, ordinary people would face certain death.
But if everyone could wield a firearm, and every city possessed cannons, they could slowly break free from their reliance on the lower and middle strata of the Bloodline Houses.
Only by gradually dismantling this dependency can we even begin to turn our weapons and rebel against the Bloodline Houses.
......”
She articulated her thoughts, bit by bit.
“Thankfully, it’s not a tragedy right from the curtain rise.” Bai Mo replied absently.
“His speaking style, why is it so similar to people from Earth? And I’ve rarely heard the concept of ‘tragedy’ mentioned in Great Wei. Could it be...”
Lu Yuesheng, combining her inexplicable familiarity with Bai Mo and his past words, suddenly had a guess flash through her mind—a guess that startled even herself.
However, when she transmigrated, the Spirit Qi on Earth hadn’t even erupted yet; it was still that peaceful and harmonious modern society.
She simply couldn't imagine a monster, whose power rivaled that of a mid-tier Bloodline House patriarch, being born on Earth and then coincidentally transmigrating to her world.
“Are you guessing my origin?” Bai Mo discerned the hint from her slightly evasive gaze.
“N-No... I’m not!” She felt guilty.
He turned his head to glance at Lu Yuesheng, saying nothing more.
“......The internal structure of Great Wei has never been a monolithic bloc. Many unaffiliated Bloodline Houses, as well as minor Bloodline Houses ostracized by the council, are the behind-the-scenes supporters of several peasant uprising armies.
My idea is to sell large quantities of firearms to them, and through these roving uprising armies, spread the concept of firearms throughout Great Wei.
This land, plagued by rampant demonic strangeness and where human lives are as cheap as grass, possesses an extremely fervent martial spirit. Everyone’s inherent desire for power is beyond imagination, and even the Bloodline Houses themselves wouldn't dare to enforce a gun ban.
And with the vast wealth and resources gained from selling firearms, we can, while all under heaven is in chaos, quietly develop these few prefectures, continue to advance technology, until a new turning point emerges.”
Lu Yuesheng deliberately used some modern terms this time, such as “develop fields” and “advance technology,” hoping to probe Bai Mo in return.
Unfortunately, Bai Mo remained with his eternally unchanging ice-cold face, showing no discernible change in emotion, rendering her probe largely useless.
“Why does this feel more like a male-oriented transmigrator?” This was Bai Mo’s thought at the moment.
......”
“I’m no idiot. Of course, I know that relying solely on these things, it’s impossible to deal with bloodline users who can soar through the sky and burrow through the earth, let alone contend with the endless demonic evils they’ve fought for thousands of years.”
“However, in this dark era, even if it only sparks a faint, fleeting glimmer, it’s worth fighting for.”
Having struggled in this land for nearly twenty years, Lu Yuesheng had developed a profound attachment to it. She wanted to do something to push the world towards a better future.
“Perhaps ten or even a hundred times the number of people sacrificed to the ‘Blood Tax’ will die by the weapons you sell.” Bai Mo said with a hint of mockery.
He wasn’t truly concerned with how many people would die; he merely spoke those words to observe the reaction of the “Empress of Arms,” to see how she viewed her own actions.
“It’s always people who kill, not weapons. I merely gave them the power to choose their own destiny.
Will they continue this cycle of despair, repeating a fate like wild grass for millennia upon millennia?
Or will they, little by little, change the future, gambling on a new era with their blood!”
“Quite interesting, though the killing is a bit wasteful.” Listening to Lu Yuesheng’s impassioned words, Bai Mo recalled certain individuals from his time on Earth, then uttered a rather off-kilter remark.
“Wasteful?”
“Sentient life is a very precious thing. Destroying so much of it is a bit wasteful.”
“Treating souls as precious wealth... this guy really is a demon, isn’t he!” She couldn’t help but recall a thought she’d had yesterday.
“Engrave this mark on every firearm. That way, I can guide back the souls of those killed by that gun.”
Bai Mo said, simultaneously using his finger to trace a slightly complex pattern on the tabletop, like a laser engraving.
Instead of letting these souls return to the heavens and earth upon death, it would be better to let them fill the empty “planes” within the Nine Netherworlds, one after another.
These souls, placed into various artificial worlds, would “reincarnate” again and again into different “planes,” until they reached the natural limit of their souls and dispersed.
The virtual worlds created by Bai Mo naturally couldn't surpass their creator’s cognition in terms of intricacy.
His purpose in distributing these souls was precisely to, through their contemplation, individually identify the loopholes in the virtual world’s rules, thereby further perfecting his understanding of the reality's operating principles.
Cultivating Truth Through Illusion: using virtual worlds to explore the universe’s mode of existence and operating principles—this was Bai Mo’s attempt to find the next direction for his advancement.
He had learned from Wu Zhi’s words before that as the Spirit Qi’s concentration and activity continuously decreased, the difficulty of entering the next stage would rise sharply.
The possibility of stumbling upon a breakthrough method, as in the past, had become exceedingly slim.
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