Cultivation, Inc.I Use Capitalism to Fix a Dying Sect

Chapter 204: Plans for the Communication Device

Hearing the deafening cheers echoing from the Refining Hall, the disciples in the neighboring Miscellaneous Arts Halls exchanged envious glances. It was a given—the Headmaster was raining down bonuses again. Fueled by jealousy and ambition, they doubled down on their own work, desperate to elevate their craft and earn their own payouts.

Back on the factory floor, Sun Yi surveyed the ecstatic crowd, feeling a deep sense of accomplishment. The team had successfully tackled the Qingyun Battle Armor, achieving phenomenal results.

This armor was poised to become one of the Qingyun Sect’s ultimate trump cards. It would drastically inflate the combat output and survivability of their baseline troops. Once our industrial capacity scales, Sun Yi mused, we could even export downgraded models as a premium market commodity. But until our hard power secures our monopoly, that stays on the whiteboard.

He cleared his throat, his authoritative voice easily cutting through the remaining chatter. “Alright, settle down. You’ve all earned this victory. But do not mistake a successful prototype for the finish line. Our R&D roadmap is just getting started.”

He swept his calculating gaze across the engineers. “For instance, your next mandate: materialize a synthetic or alternative compound to replace Flowing Silver. We must completely sever our reliance on that supply chain bottleneck. That is critical to our expansion.”

“Consider it done, Headmaster!” a lead engineer roared, thumping his chest. “We will tear the formulas apart until we find a viable substitute!”

Sun Yi chuckled, radiating CEO-level charisma. “I don’t need blood oaths; I just need your best work. Our recruitment drives will soon funnel fresh talent into the Refining Hall. Mentorship is mandatory. Share your techniques, elevate each other, and push the boundaries of what this Sect can forge.”

“We won’t hold a single rune back, Headmaster!” the crowd affirmed in unison.

Sun Yi nodded in approval before turning to the emotional Elder Yan. “Elder Yan, as the Hall Master, the logistical burden falls to you. Your priority is to aggressively optimize the new assembly line protocols and manage the incoming labor force. I know I’m working you to the bone.”

Elder Yan furiously shook his head, his eyes shining with gratitude. “You overstate it, Headmaster! I am not tired in the slightest. This has been the most fulfilling period of my life. It is solely because of your vision that our Refining Hall has reached such unprecedented heights.” He could still vividly recall the destitute, struggling workshop they used to be before Sun Yi took the helm.

“This is the result of our collective grind,” Sun Yi smiled warmly. “And I know the Refining Hall will only continue to scale.”

“With a visionary like you, Headmaster, and a peerless genius like Qingcheng, our future is blindingly bright,” Elder Yan beamed.

“Hahaha! Naturally!” Gu Qingcheng struck a flamboyant pose, flipping his hair. “I am the man destined to sit at the absolute pinnacle of the forging world!”

Sun Yi smiled, a sharp, calculating glint flashing in his eyes. “Since you’re aiming for the pinnacle, Gu Qingcheng, let me ask you a theoretical question. What is your professional assessment of our current communication infrastructure? Specifically, communication talismans. Do you find them… optimal?”

Gu Qingcheng paused, dropping his dramatic pose as he seriously considered the query. “Communication talismans are foundational,” he replied after a moment. “They knit the Cultivation world together, allowing instantaneous data transfer over vast distances without physical travel. Honestly, the ancient Senior who first conceptualized their runic matrices was a monumental genius.”

Elder Yan and the surrounding craftsmen nodded in fervent agreement. Even Patriarch Qingxuan stroked his beard, expressing deep reverence for the ancient inventor.

Sun Yi, however, let out a soft, dissenting chuckle.

“While I respect the pioneer,” Sun Yi began, his voice taking on a profound, disruptive edge, “I find the current talisman model severely lacking. The user experience is clunky, the manufacturing cost is absurdly inefficient, the bandwidth is pitiful, and the transmission speeds are bottlenecked.”

“What?!” Gu Qingcheng’s eyes bugged out. “Not convenient? Headmaster, what kind of divine artifact would you consider ‘convenient’?” The other elders stared at Sun Yi as if he had grown a second head.

The corner of Sun Yi’s mouth ticked up into a visionary smirk. These people have never experienced the sheer dominance of a smartphone. The moment I establish a telecommunications network, traditional talismans are going straight to the museum.

“I envision a communication matrix that operates in real-time,” Sun Yi declared, his words echoing with absolute conviction. “A device where I can seamlessly connect with an operative thousands of miles away, converse as if they are standing right next to me, and even project a high-fidelity visual feed of their surroundings.”

“You’re… you’re talking about a Mother-Child Mirror!” Gu Qingcheng gasped, immediately associating the concept with the legendary artifact.

“Exactly!” Elder Yan chimed in, equally stunned. “But Headmaster, Mother-Child Mirrors are astronomically expensive and incredibly rare! Even Nascent Soul Seniors struggle to procure a single set!”

Patriarch Qingxuan frowned deeply. “Is that what you plan to forge? A replica of the Mother-Child Mirror?”

Sun Yi’s smirk widened into a grin. “My Communication Device possesses all the functionality of a Mother-Child Mirror, yes. But it will be exponentially cheaper to manufacture. So cheap, in fact, that we could mass-produce them to the point where every single mortal peasant in the world has one in their pocket.”

The Refining Hall fell dead silent. Then, it erupted.

“What?! Headmaster, surely you jest!”

“That’s completely impossible! Outfitting every mortal? Do you know the sheer volume of materials that would require?”

“Headmaster, this is pure fantasy!”

“Such an artifact cannot exist!”

They outright rejected the premise. A device more powerful than a Mother-Child Mirror, mass-produced for mortals? It was the raving of a madman.

Watching their minds short-circuit, Sun Yi suppressed a laugh. If they only knew what the silicon-based tech of Earth had achieved, they wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss him.

Of course, recreating an Earth-grade smartphone from scratch was currently beyond his capabilities. But the Cultivation world possessed distinct advantages that Earth’s scientists would kill for.

Extreme precision machining. Here, a cultivator’s divine soul and spiritual sense could manipulate matter at a sub-atomic level, entirely bypassing the need for complex photolithography machines.

Miracle materials. The Cultivation world was rich in elements that flat-out defied Earth’s physics. For instance, Thunder Silver. It was an incredibly common, high-yield ore that naturally retained and conducted lightning energy without any degradation. During his early material testing, Sun Yi had discovered that alloys doped with Thunder Silver exhibited perfect room-temperature superconductivity.

If Earth’s physicists got their hands on Thunder Silver, it would trigger a scientific singularity.

Armed with these superconducting materials and the sub-atomic precision of Cultivation forging, Sun Yi was absolutely certain he could engineer a magical smartphone and establish a global wireless network. If it took a year, fine. If it took a decade or two, so be it. He would drag this world into the information age.

But he had to start small. A basic two-way radio—a walkie-talkie—was the logical first step. He already had the conceptual blueprints drafted in his mind.

His only constraint was bandwidth. Managing the Sect, researching the Cultivation space, and engineering the Tempering Blood Pool absorbed too much of his time. He couldn’t handle the hands-on prototyping himself.

But looking at Gu Qingcheng’s flamboyant, hyper-active genius, an idea clicked into place. He has the raw intellect and the obsessive drive. He’s the perfect lead engineer for the telecom division.