Chapter 24

Lishan martial arts hall, in the study.

Lin Tuo stood quietly beside the sand table and waved his hand to dissipate the mist that had been forcibly rolled up from Taihe Mountain.

After he finished all this, he let out a sigh of relief when he looked down at the still shocked crowd on the Yangcheng Central Business District Plaza.

‘Looks like this stage of my plan worked.‘

Taking the time to enter the Taihe Mountains with a clone, he carved the Blue Spirit Breathing Technique on the surface of the stone tablet, which really showed his efforts. To be cautious, he even deliberately carved with his left hand and carefully cleaned fingerprints and other traces.

He made sure no clues were left.

‘Yangcheng isn’t that small, but it’s not that big either. However, there were a lot of people in the square who witnessed that first hand. There were also a large number of people filming. Soon, what’s written will be publicly available to everyone.’

Especially in Yangcheng, his actions would inevitably lead to further heated discussions…

As for the whole country, it was likely to cause some concern, but it may not be very big.

‘After all, the attention that a mysterious warrior can attract is still limited… at least, this will be the case before the practice is proven to be truly effective…’

‘Next, as long as the Yangcheng city officials are not too slow, they will definitely conduct an investigation and report to their superiors. Perhaps the provincial investigation team will come soon.”

However, Lin Tuo was not worried about them finding him. With the help of the Evolving Sandbox Table, he appeared out of thin air and disappeared with no trace. The details of his body were also covered up and his whereabouts could not be traced.

He saw that the reactions of people in the square gradually calmed down.

Lin Tuo stopped thinking about it and went to the martial arts field for daily practice.

…

Noon.

When Lin Tuo went down the mountain and came to the town to eat, he had already heard many diners discussing the morning incident.

In one of his group chats with his friends, there was also videos and photos of the “Blue Spirit Breathing Technique” circulating.

Many people were skeptical, some were sure it was a scam, and some were willing to believe it.

“It’s true! I testify! I happened to be in the city center this morning and saw with my own eyes that the man threw such a large stone tablet into the flower bed from upstairs. The ground was smashed into a big hole!”

He continued, “I even touched it. It is a real stone, not a prop! It was so heavy, and to be able to throw something like that accurately is simply not what a normal person can do!”

In the company group, a former colleague said quite pretentiously.

A little copywriter who came in for an internship recently curiously said, “Is it in the city center? I’ll go see it when I get off work.”

“Don’t go, it has been blocked off. The relevant departments in the city have taken over. I heard that the stones have been removed, but I don’t know if that’s true or not.”

“That’s a pity.. I was really curious about it.”

Lin Tuo glanced at the screen silently, watching everyone’s discussion, not too surprised.

Suddenly, a colleague said:

“You guys were talking about that Blue Spirit Breathing Technique… is it real or not? I mean, this thing reads like some kind of inner strength mental method, right?”

Another person joked, “I think it’s more like martial arts, like in webnovels.”

After a pause, he added, “Shall we try it too? I’ve read it carefully. This method shouldn’t be difficult, just adjust your breathing. It doesn’t hurt to try.”

“Well…Would you like to wait for official news?”

“It doesn’t matter, anyway, after get off work, I will try first.”

“+1.”¹

There were mostly young people in the group, and they were very curious. A few people immediately discussed the matter of cultivation. The others didn’t speak, but Lin Tuo guessed that many people must be moved.

…

After having lunch, he returned to the Lishan martial arts hall. Lin Tuo entered the study and immediately called out and switched to Creative Mode.

In the sand table, the previous map of Yangcheng suddenly collapsed and immediately reappeared, this time forming a continent in an instant.

After more than 30 hours of acceleration, the sand table continent had indeed changed.

From a bird’s eye view, the chaotic farmland of the entire Chi Dynaty had become much more uniform with clear lines. Some originally barren land that was not suitable before had also been reclaimed for farmland.

If you look closely, you can vaguely see the busy human beings pushing new agricultural machinery in the fields.

This was obviously the result of agricultural reform.

The land was cultivated by “big landlords”, or the county government. Using new farm tools, new fertilizers, and more scientific planting methods, grain output increased accordingly.

As for the labor force originally engaged in farming, they were recruited into state-owned factories. They had an opportunity to be trained for work and they used new technologies to produce fertilizers, pesticides, new agricultural machinery and so on.

After getting off work, they entered the night school for basic education.

When Lin Tuo shifted his gaze to the factories that were beginning to take shape, he felt better.

This feeling of witnessing the rapid development of a country…it was amazing.

“Open the log.”

Lin Tuo said softly, and the interface popped up automatically.

[Chi State’s agricultural reforms took place and they implemented a series of new regulations. In the same year, the state opened the first state-owned factory in Tao County to produce agricultural needs and set up related laboratories to do a test.]

[…One year later, the scope of the experiment was gradually expanded, and the then monarch proposed the first five-year plan…]

[…In 829, the first large-scale textile factory was established on the banks of the Taochuan River in the suburbs of Kyoto, and the new textile machinery impacted the original textile industry.

[In the same year, Chi State invested ten thousand taels of silver into the development of steam engines, and they were the first to invest in silver mining, and planned to issue a new currency… further liberalizing private business practices…]

[…In 838, the first stock exchange in Chi State was established in Kyoto, raising private capital over…]

[…Forty-one years passed…]

[…Fifty-three years passed…]

Lin Tuo scrolled through the log with great interest.

While scrolling, he had also become more aware of the rules of the log. Which was, the log was more inclined to record certain iconic events of social or technological development.

Simply put, iconic events were events that were worth recording in the history textbook and placing on a test paper.

Therefore, during this period of rapid technological development, records were extremely frequent.

Later, if there was no major change in technology or big events, not a lot would be recorded.

Closing the panel, Lin Tuo looked forward to the current environmental Ether concentration expectantly.

It was not surprising that the latter was still at a “low” state.

It showed potential, though. There was a green, rising arrow, which meantt hat the Ether in the sandbox world was rising.

“This time, it won’t be that little.”

Lin Tuo muttered in his heart, looking down at the sand table. Lowering his body slightly, he then began using the breathing method.

Then, over the rapidly changing sand table continent, wisps of blue and white breath were drawn over and swallowed into his belly.

This time, as the Ether entered, Lin Tuo’s skin suddenly became flushed. It was warming up as if it had a high fever. More and more subtle sweat came out.

After dozens of seconds, Lin Tuo opened his eyes and asked again.

“How much Ether do I have now?”

Information emerged in his mind.

[The host currently has Ether value: 536 points]

‘536!’

Seeing this number, Lin Tuo was shocked.

Originally, after purchasing the Universal Language Technique, he only had 24 Ether left. He consumed a few more points though while tempering his body and used those up.

He actually sucked more than 500 points this time!

This was a huge leap compared to the last time.

You know, even with Yangcheng City, that only provided him with about one hundred Ether.

This was equivalent to five Yangchengs!

Of course, it wasn’t so simple and easily calculated.

First, after these years of development, the total population of Chi Dynasty had increased. Second, Lin Tuo did not absorb the Ether in real time like with Yangcheng. Under the effect of time acceleration, he absorbed it after it had been gathering for years.

Therefore, it was five times higher than Yangcheng easily because of that.

Moreover, because the conversion costs of the two modes were different, Lin Tuo suspected that the actual amount of Ether that was actually absorbed far exceeded this number, but part of it was consumed by the Evolving Sandbox Table.

‘This is definitely the right way to earn Ether. If I stick to the Observation Mode, how long would it take to earn five hundred points?’

With emotion in his heart, Lin Tuo felt a little giddy.

When you have money, you naturally think about using that money.

He opened the Mall with his mind and only one product remained inside.

[Observation range: 1,000 points/10,000 square kilometers]

Seeing 1,000 points, Lin Tuo was silent for two seconds. The excitement he had in his heart disappeared suddenly.

‘I thought I had hit a jackpot, but I can barely afford half of that.’

Lin Tuo sighed deeply, smiling bitterly.

‘I’m so poor.’