LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 330.1
“What is this?” Lin Beifan asked with curiosity.
“Your Majesty, this is a mechanical bird!” the young disciple said with a smile.
“Don’t be fooled by its wooden build. It’s a lifeless object, but under my control, it will soon come to life!”
As he spoke, the wooden bird in his hand began to slowly flap its wings as if it had come to life. Then, with a gentle toss, the wooden bird actually took flight, circling the palace a few times. If one didn’t look closely, they might think it was a living bird.
Through the Empire Sandbox, Lin Beifan discovered that the design of this wooden bird was truly ingenious, filled with extremely precise mechanical structures more complex than a clock.
As for the power source of the wooden bird, it was True Qi.
The Mohist disciple learned and possessed a unique form of True Qi, invisible yet resilient, like fine threads pulling the wooden bird and controlling its flight.
Lin Beifan couldn’t help but clap his hands: “Amazing! How high and how far can this wooden bird fly, and what is its purpose?”
“Your Majesty, with my current abilities, I can control the wooden bird to fly a hundred zhang away! As for its purpose…” the disciple said with a shy smile.
“It doesn’t really serve much of a purpose—it’s purely for fun and not something that would be presented in a formal setting.”“That’s not necessarily true!” Lin Beifan laughed.
“If this wooden bird were big enough, couldn’t it carry people and fly?”
“Your Majesty, you make a good point!” Chu Tianming laughed.
“Our Mohist school once tried to create a wooden bird large enough to carry people, but we found that it was very clumsy in flight due to its massive size!”
“Moreover, it would require a great amount of True Qi to control a wooden bird of such a large size, which only Imperial Qi powerhouses could supply! In the end, we only made a few small ones for children to use!”
“I see!” Lin Beifan nodded and smiled.
“Do you have any other mechanical things that you could show me?”
“It would be our pleasure! However, those mechanical beasts are quite large and cannot be brought into the capital city. If Your Majesty is interested, we could go outside the city to take a look!”
“Good!” Lin Beifan agreed readily.
About half an hour later, everyone arrived outside the city, where Chu Tianming and others demonstrated the Mohist’s mechanical arts to Lin Beifan.
Lin Beifan saw them operating a giant steel vehicle, moving swiftly like a modern-day truck.
He saw them operating a two-zhang-tall humanoid mechanical beast, making different movements like a human, with a body as strong as copper and iron, its strength comparable to an Innate.
Lin Beifan saw them operating a mechanical beast resembling an eagle, carrying a seven or eight-year-old child flying through the sky.
It was truly dazzling and overwhelming. The Mohists were like the inventors of this era!
If he could persuade them to join him, the Great Xia would develop at an even faster pace!
“Excellent, truly excellent. I’ve opened my eyes today!” Lin Beifan clapped his hands repeatedly.
“Your Majesty, this is just a part of it!” Chu Tianming said proudly.
“Being away from home, we can only carry these small items with us! We have many more mechanical beasts, some powerful enough to withstand a Grandmaster! We can also build huge mechanical cities that even a million-strong army couldn’t breach!”
The other Mohist disciples looked on proudly.
The Mohist’s most powerful skill is their mechanical engineering, renowned throughout the world!
Lin Beifan’s eyes lit up: “All these are great treasures… How can I possess them?”
“Your Majesty, as long as you are willing to accept our family’s philosophy and govern the country with Mohist thought, our family will certainly support Your Majesty with all our might!” Chu Tianming bowed and expressed his intentions.
“Your ideas are too idealistic, and they also harm my interests as well as those of Great Xia. I do not accept!” Lin Beifan flatly refused.
The Mohist members were somewhat stunned. They did not expect Lin Beifan to reject them so quickly and straightforwardly.
They hadn’t even said anything yet.
“Your Majesty, you may have misunderstood us!”
Chu Tianming spoke earnestly: “Our Mohist advocates universal love and non-aggression, which simply means promoting equality for all and opposing war and aggression! This is what our family has tirelessly pursued, and we are willing to devote all our efforts to it, even our lives!”
“But at the same time, we also realize that our ideas are too idealistic!”
“Equality for all is easy to say, but how difficult is it to achieve?”
Chu Tianming lamented: “As humans, there are inherent differences in status and disparities in strength! And people have selfish desires and aspirations; it’s impossible to achieve true equality!
“Now, let’s talk about wars of aggression!”
“Looking back over thousands of years, history is practically a chronicle of wars of aggression! As long as there are people, there will be conflicts of interest and struggles! The disputes between nations involving interests are even more complex, and when negotiations fail, war is the only recourse!”
“To put it bluntly, peace is the exception, and war is the norm!”
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