Chapter 23

That evening, the representative of the sea race, Wei Zhe, returned with all the items—90 pounds of Sea Soul Silk, 10 pieces of low-grade spirit stones, and 30 pounds of various other grades of spirit silk.

The 10 standard, fist-sized, complete low-grade spirit stones delighted Li Xian greatly, and his resentment towards the sea race diminished significantly. Originally, Li Xian had thought they would be defective or of inferior quality.

There were also 30 pounds of various types of silk, including Fire Spider silk, a small amount of Jade Silkworm silk, Heavenly Silkworm silk, and Human-faced Spider silk, as well as a plant fiber called "Immortal Vine," which was a second-stage (Golden Core period) material. However, the quantity was pitifully small, only seven strands, totaling no more than five feet in length.

There were also dozens of other types of silk, each in very small quantities. Among them were even powerful beast hairs and jellyfish tentacles.

The reason Li Xian had endured the pain of cutting 100 pounds of Sea Soul Silk was to exchange for these various types of silk, to study why these silks could conduct spirit energy. If he could thoroughly research even one type, it would be a significant gain.

In addition, the sea race had promised to provide minerals, which would be delivered after Li Xian handed over the weapons. Moreover, the quantity of minerals was enormous; 1 million pounds of weapons had been exchanged for 20 million pounds of minerals!

After Li Xian verified all the materials, Wei Zhe finally spoke, "Young Master Li, you promised our princess 1,000 mirrors. Are they ready?"

"Please follow me, Senior." Li Xian led the way, opening a warehouse where 1,000 identical, three-foot mirrors were neatly arranged. These mirrors had the same decorations and were all perfect.

To be honest, the decorations on the mirrors were beautiful, but having 1,000 mirrors with the same decoration was a bit monotonous and dull.

"Why are they all the same?" Wei Zhe clearly noticed the issue.

Li Xian chuckled inwardly. If they weren't the same, would you want different ones? That wouldn't be generous; it would be bad business. Leaving a small flaw now would lead to pleasant surprises later.

Of course, he said something different: "Senior, I promised Princess Ao Qingsnow 1,000 mirrors. Without her approval, I dare not change the design. It's a matter of business integrity. If the princess wants more designs, we have other patterns available, and we can even accept custom orders."

"Alright, let's leave it at that for now. Please deliver the mirrors to the seaside, and I'll have the shrimp soldiers help."

A thousand mirrors weren't too many; a few carts were enough. At the seaside, Li Xian was truly amazed to see actual shrimp soldiers, each with six legs and large pincers, carefully and laboriously dragging the carts into the sea. Li Xian was speechless—couldn't you send some higher-level demons? These shrimp soldiers, though impressive, were too cumbersome.

Seemingly noticing Li Xian's confusion, Wei Zhe smiled bitterly, "There is an agreement between the human race, the sea race, and the demon race that no one can send Golden Core period or higher beings into the other's territory without permission."

"Ah, I see!" Li Xian's eyes shone like a small light bulb—what a tremendous business opportunity! No wonder the materials from demons were so scarce on the human side.

Taking this opportunity, Li Xian also inspected the nearby coastline. The sea race had indeed chosen a great location, very suitable for building a port.

"Senior Wei, we plan to build a port here. What do you think?"

"Since it's chosen, I'll report to the princess. In a few days, I'll send a crab general to guard it, and then you can start construction."

"That's great. Once the port is built, we will be responsible for delivering the items Princess Ao Qingsnow needs, and even the items the entire sea race needs, to the designated locations."

"Hmm." Wei Zhe responded without much enthusiasm, and Li Xian felt a slight setback.

Later, after the shrimp soldiers used their magic to protect the mirrors in bubbles, Wei Zhe bid farewell and left with the shrimp soldiers. Li Xian was envious—Foundation Establishment stage was truly impressive.

After waiting until all the shrimp soldiers were out of sight, Li Xian jumped three feet high in excitement, "Ha-ha, not only do we have a port, but we also have a new trade route. Once we have a port and ships, we'll explore new routes and new continents. Oh, too hasty, too hasty. Industry must develop step by step. We'll start with traditional wooden ships, supplemented by engines. The main issue is the wiring. Without solving this, it will be hard to develop further. What a headache."

"Conductors, conductors, why are you so difficult? Damn, in the early days of electrical technology on Earth, I never heard of a conductor problem. I have no reference for this. Drip, drip, drip..."

After venting his frustration, Li Xian continued with his tasks. He sent all the silk and spirit stones to the research department, where everyone worked together.

When they saw the 10 standard low-grade spirit stones, many eyes sparkled with excitement. Fortunately, the worst didn't happen; although everyone coveted the spirit stones, they resisted the temptation.

Xu Ren congratulated Li Xian, meaning that Li Xian had truly won the loyalty of these people! However, Li Xian secretly despised him—wasn't this just a roundabout way of praising himself? Still, it was indeed a cause for celebration.

Moreover, 90 pounds of Sea Soul Silk and 30 pounds of other silks, totaling 250 miles in length, was a significant amount. However, compared to the needs of industrial development, it was still a drop in the bucket.

Fortunately, it was enough to meet the current needs. All the silk, except for a portion reserved for research, was used to produce engines and important components, such as conductors for external spirit arrays. Currently, engines were mainly used in textile machinery and machine tools, which was sufficient for now. The path to industrialization was finally showing some light.

After two busy days, Li Xian finally sorted out all the tasks.

Machine tools and stainless steel were the top priorities, but textile machinery couldn't be neglected. Developing machine tools and stainless steel was to obtain large quantities of Sea Soul Silk from the sea race, while mass-producing textile machinery was the most crucial first step for industrial development and capital accumulation.

Research on engines, improvements to spirit arrays, and studies on materials could be slowed down but not stopped.

However, there was one very important thing—standards! Without standards, industrial mass production was impossible. For large-scale production, standards were essential. In fact, the Great Xia had various units like "large feet" and "small feet," which were confusing.

Since it was so chaotic, Li Xian decided to create his own system! He would adopt the units of time, seconds, centimeters, and kilometers from another world. Moreover, setting units and standards was also a good way to keep secrets.

With this in mind, Li Xian held a meeting that evening to implement the new standards. He took one-third of a "small foot" as "one meter," and the rest of the units like millimeters, centimeters, and kilometers followed. 500 meters was "one li," and 1,000 meters was "one kilometer."

A day was divided into 24 hours, and the units of minutes and seconds followed.

For weight, "grams" were used, with one-thousandth of a "large pound" being "one gram." 100 pounds was "one dan," and 10 dan was "one ton (jun)."

The amount of spirit energy consumed by a one-horsepower engine in one hour was marked as "one unit" of spirit energy.

Water temperature was measured in "degrees," with the freezing point at 0 degrees, below freezing as negative, and boiling point at 100 degrees.

Concepts like acceleration, pressure, momentum, inertia, friction, resultant force, angles, gravity, density, spirit energy flow resistance, and states of matter (liquid, gas, solid, gel) were introduced to facilitate calculations. Many of these concepts existed in the Immortal Realm but were not standardized or publicly known.

Mathematical and geometric concepts were updated, and the concept of "laws of the material world," abbreviated as "physics," was introduced.

There were many new concepts, and Li Xian didn't reveal them all at once. Instead, he introduced one every few days to allow everyone to adapt.

This new system was excellent, clear, and straightforward, making work much smoother, especially in engine and array research, where there was now a common reference.

However, using these units had some issues. Xu Ren was puzzled, "Why call it a kilometer?"

Li Xian replied with great righteousness, "1,000 meters is a convenient and memorable unit. I call it a kilometer because I believe it will become the most widely used unit in the world, a standard that everyone will follow!"

"Then why is pressure called 'Pascal'?"

"Because this force is equivalent to the pressure of a handkerchief placed on a flat surface."

"Then the handkerchief must be made of iron wire."

"Sir, you are very clever. We will immediately weave a handkerchief with gold wire."

Xu Ren, of course, didn't believe it but didn't argue over such a small matter.

(Note: Units like meters, tons, degrees, and Pascals are phonetic translations. If we followed traditional Chinese units, meters would be "gongchi" and tons would be "jun." However, for ease of reading, the units are presented in their common forms.)

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