1136 - A civilized underground shrine
Chapter 1136 – A civilized underground divine palace
After the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
Ye Qingyu saw the electric slaves that the village chief had mentioned.
At the back of the valley, in a deep cavern, there were about one hundred people in thin coarse robes, and because the temperature in the cave was very high, they were all drenched in sweat. They looked a bit malnourished, and their physique was extremely weak, even more so than the average black-haired Dark Ones. It was completely different than the imagined image of a scholarly figure that holds a mysterious power, but looked more like miners and labourers.
No wonder they were called electric slaves.
The word slave already demonstrated everything.
“We pay our respects to Lord.” It was evidently the first time that the electric slaves saw an important figure. Somewhat apprehensive, they still respectfully bowed down, with a glimmer of fear in their eyes.
Ye Qingyu nodded.
On the other side, the village chief spoke, “These electric slaves spend hours a day tinkering some useless things, and don’t work, but rely on other people to support them, so all the villagers despise them. But the electricity they make do have some uses, though could only supply for a portion of the people. Adding to this it is very dangerous. A few years ago, someone was killed by electricity, and even electric slaves had been killed by electricity before. Therefore the electric slaves were also considered by the villagers to be ominous people...”
The village chief rambled on, though it was clear that he despised the electric slaves.
The reason why there were electric slaves in the village was said to be because in the Central City, there were some aristocrats interested in electricity, so they had secretly ordered the village chief to feed these electric slaves and let them do as they like. Otherwise, the electric slaves would have been starved to death long ago.
“A shortsighted and good-for-nothing person.”
Ye Qingyu shook his head, looked at the village chief whose face was filled with disdain, did not say anything, but had formed a judgment in his mind.
This sort of power of electricity, if it was created by the weak and thin black-haired Dark Ones before him, had great significance, because these people were not martial artists, had not mastered the power of yuan qi, yet managed to create a power comparable to the strength of a Heaven Ascension expert. Moreover, they looked very young with the oldest being just over forty years old, which meant that even black-haired Dark Ones with poor aptitude can master this power. The significance this represented, even the thought of it, was very terrifying.
Imagine if each and every black-haired Dark One had this sort of power in their hands...
“Go out, all of you.” Ye Qingyu waved dismissively, interrupted the village chief, who was rambling about everything around him, and told everyone, including the village chief and his entourage to leave.
In the cave, only the less than one hundred electric slaves remained.
Previously, the village chief had already introduced Ye Qingyu's identity to them. At this moment, seeing the City Lord drive all the people away and remained behind alone, there suddenly was a bad feeling surfacing from the mind of every electric slave. After all, the stories regarding the City Lord's cruelty and murderous behaviour had long circulated around the entire Luoshen Ridge.
Almost all of the electric slaves were kneeling on the ground, couldn't stop kowtowing and shivering in fear.
Ye Qingyu lifted his hand when a soft force lifted them up. His aura as gentle and soft as the spring breeze as he smiled, “You do not need to be nervous, I am only interested in electricity, so I came to take a look. This village chief is useless and does not understand electricity at all. You are the people who truly understand this power, so I told him to leave. Otherwise he would just interrupt and waste time. I know you would only feel fearful with him around.”
The electric slaves, one after another, breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this, and then exchanged glances with each other. They could feel the sincerity of the City Lord. They couldn't help but feel a warm and familiar feeling.
This was, of course, some of the mind controlling method that Ye Qingyu had used.
Given his current cultivation base, with the slightest body of qi, he was able to change the thinking of many martial arts experts, and erase or modify memory. Thus, in the face of these electric slaves who had no experience in martial arts, it only took him one thought to make them relax and fully believe in him.
He looked to be only around twenty years old, and although young, he evidently had a high status among the electric slaves. His body was weak and thin, but his eyes were flashing a rare glimmer of wisdom. Ye Qingyu could vaguely feel that this person's mental strength was much stronger than that of the black-haired Dark Ones, indicating that he was extremely intelligent and determined.
“Electricity, exactly where does it come from.” Ye Qingyu asked.
At this time, these electric slaves were no longer afraid of him, acted much calmer and more composed, which was the result that Ye Qingyu wanted.
“Lord, please come with me.” The young electric slave turned around and guided Ye Qingyu towards the depths of the cave.
On the way, Ye Qingyu learned that this young, intelligent electric slave was called Li Qing, and was only twenty-four years old. He was intelligent and wise, particularly in the aspect of electricity, and can be called a master. Among all the electric slaves he had the highest prestige.
In the depths of the cave, the temperature was rising.
At the end was an underground volcanic crater, red lava was bubbling like boiling water, and hundreds of meters of flames were gushing up, releasing a tremendous amount of heat.
“The power of electricity is extracted and transformed from this underground fire.” Li Qing pointed to the flames below, explained, and then took Ye Qingyu to a huge steel device built on a black lava rock, “This can turn the power of the underground fire into electricity and transmit it to the surface.”
Ye Qingyu nodded.
Within this huge steel device, he was unable to sense the slightest martial arts formation. Operating the [Eyes of the Void], he could detect some extremely complex structure, some similar to the lines of formations, but the principle was obviously completely different. It could not guide the yuan qi energy gathered between the heavens and earth.
It was a device he couldn’t understand at all.
But Ye Qingyu intuitively sensed the terror of this steel device, which contained a very frightening force, that once it erupts, was comparable to the powerful blow of a Saint realm expert.
He turned his head back to take a look at the thin and weak electric slaves.
It was hard to believe that it was these people who created this power. Does that mean the power of ordinary people was comparable to martial artists who have trained for hundreds of years?
“How long does it take to recreate this device provided that all the materials were present?” Ye Qingyu asked.
He was concerned about whether the steel device had the potential to be replicated and mass-produced.
Li Qing hurriedly answered, “Lord, this thing, we call it an electricity generator. If all the conditions are fulfilled, then given the number of electric slaves, the re-construction of a new generator will take about one month.”
“One month?” Ye Qingyu was even more surprised to hear this.
Less than one hundred electric slaves, one month of time, and with these simple materials, they can create something comparable to the powerful blow of a Saint realm expert. This efficiency was a little high.
But then he heard Li Qing sighed regretfully, “Yes, time is a little too long... sigh, unfortunately, we don’t have enough manpower. If there were one thousand electric slaves, we can build a generator in a day. And at that time, all the places within the Central City would be supplied with electricity. We can create a city that never gets dark, and recreate the spectacle seen in the ancient historical records.”
Ye Qingyu’s eyes flashed, asking, “How long will it take to cultivate a new electric slave? In terms of qualifications, what are the requirements?”
Li Qing, after a careful thought, added, “With ordinary villagers, as long as they are willing to work hard and to learn, it is in fact very simple. They will only need to follow a master and train for half a year. Of course, to learn to a profound level, it is most likely impossible without two or three years of study. The mysterious skills and civilization left behind by the ancient people of the Earth Province are too profound.”
Ye Qingyu didn't speak for a good time when he heard this.
These words of Li Qing had completely answered the puzzlement in his mind.
There was no doubt that what they call generators was fully capable of being replicated and mass-produced. Moreover, the time, cost and qualification of training up a new electric slave was unexpectedly low. In other words, if he wanted to, he could soon be able to train up a large number of electric slaves and develop a large number of generators?
These thoughts were very scary.
This was Ye Qingyu’s greatest thought and feeling at this moment.
Of course, he also knew that this so-called electricity needed to be transformed from underground fire, and that even the electric slaves could not fully control it. Even Ye Qingyu has had the experience of being electrocuted, but he knew that, if properly manipulated and used reasonably, it could create a force enough to change the Dark Realm.
Since he could find out and was aware of its potential, why didn't the real Zhang Longcheng, the aristocrats in the city, and the black-haired Dark Ones not discover this?
Ye Qingyu thought that perhaps it was not that these people did not find out, but that even if they found out, they wouldn’t value the power of electricity at all.
Because Zhang Longcheng and others were experts of formation martial arts, and saught the power of cultivation. Moreover, as rulers of the Dark Realm, they felt they had an absolute superiority over the Dark Ones.
This sense of superiority made them firmly believe that the power of formation martial arts could dominate everything. In their view, the so-called electricity was only a type of little power, which even the electric slaves cannot fully grasp. Thus it cannot threaten the status of formation martial arts.
As the village chief had said, there were occasionally one or two aristocrats interested in electricity, but that was only because they thought it was fun and not that they saw its potential and terror.
On the other hand, Ye Qingyu was now almost standing at the pinnacle of formation martial arts, only one step from the absolute peak. He had experienced too many things; thus his vision was incomparably wide. Moreover, he was most likely the first to stand in the point of view of the black-haired Dark Ones and treated them as his citizens. Therefore, only he realized how significant this power would be if it developed.
Next, Ye Qingyu asked some more questions.
Li Qing answered all of them.
To Ye Qingyu’s great surprise, Li Qing told him that the power of electricity could be stored in a particular container. This was absolutely explosive news, because it meant that the power of electricity was no longer constrained by geographical location and did not need the presence of underground lava to be transformed.
“How did you know about and grasp all of this?” Ye Qingyu finally asked.
All of the other electric slaves fixed their eyes on Li Qing.
And Li Qing, after a slight hesitation, spoke frankly, “Because it was my ancestor who fell through a crack in the ground after an earthquake, and inadvertently found a complete underground divine palace. It was in there that he mastered a number of techniques, including the manufacture and control of electricity... Sigh, it’s a pity that he did not really go deep into the divine palace, but only obtained some superficial knowledge...”
Underground divine palace?
Ye Qingyu's eyes lit up.
A complete underground divine palace must absolutely contain the mysteries of that civilization. His interest was immediately piqued.——