Scripture of Days Past

Chu Qiguang put on his mask, and the group began walking through the village fields while Wang Cailiang reported on the village’s current state.

”According to our latest tally, the village’s fiend population is currently one thousand and fifty-two, while the number of planters has reached three thousand and eleven...”

Under Chu Qiguang’s orders, Wang Cailiang had been keeping meticulous records of various village statistics. This naturally created a lot of work, but it also made the village much easier to manage and greatly improved its overall efficiency.

The village’s fiend population was steadily increasing, but the planters were responsible for most of the agricultural work. Thus, the majority of the fiends were receiving an education that would allow them to work in other sectors.

The fundamental subjects taught at the school consisted of ideological education, literacy, mathematics, and martial arts. On top of that, there were also more specialized subjects designed to nurture fiends into skilled workers.

Upon arriving at the school, Chu Qiguang saw some fiends practicing martial arts on the training ground. He nodded with a pleased expression and said, ”Make sure to be selective when it comes to martial arts cultivation. Those who simply aren’t suited for martial arts should be encouraged to become skilled workers instead.”

Wang Cailiang nodded in response.

Before long, the school’s vice-principal emerged and began reporting on the current state of the school to Chu Qiguang and the others.

The vice-principal was a fox fiend named Hu Sanshui. However, as an innate enlightened, he had possessed a human form since birth, and he currently presented himself as a dignified-looking middle-aged man.

He had previously been a steward in Maiden Thirteen’s clan, but after Maiden Thirteen pledged her loyalty to Chu Qiguang, he began working for the village.

He was highly intelligent and literate, so after leaving the labor reform camp, he began teaching other fiends at the school.

Over time, he rose through the ranks to his current position as vice-principal. As for the school’s principal, that position was naturally reserved for Qiao Zhi.

Qiao Zhi had personally experienced Chu Qiguang’s education system, so he knew exactly what kind of results Chu Qiguang wanted and how to achieve them, perhaps even better than Chu Qiguang himself.

As Qiao Zhi looked at the school before him, he was reminded of his own traumatic experiences.

He had started by planting cotton in the village, then moved on to working in a factory in the city. Every night, he also had to attend lessons at school.

The only difference between then and now was the ideological education lessons.

Come to think of it, in my past life, Chu Qiguang became the grand secretary and revolutionized the agricultural industry. As a result, less labor was needed to tend the fields, and people gradually began moving to the cities for work. If I recall correctly, he began opening trade schools around the same time the steam-powered loom was developed.

There was an industrial boom and the demand for labor increased. Eventually, the imperial court began opening trade schools for fiends. As the demonic tainting grew more severe, the imperial court had no choice but to rely on fiends to meet labor demands. Things are completely different this time around. I wonder what the world will become in this life.

Liu Yao had been following Chu Qiguang the entire time, and he couldn’t help but marvel at everything he saw in the village.

In his eyes, the planters were a formidable army unit ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice, while the fiends attending the schools were all educated accountants and skilled workers in various fields.

The entire village was incredibly clean and organized, and to him, that was a sign of discipline and respect for authority.

It wouldn’t take much training for these fiends to form a formidable army capable of easily taking over several manors! This organization definitely has some very lofty ambitions...

Liu Yao was even more shocked when Chu Qiguang took him to the village workshop.

Up to this point, Liu Yao hadn’t noticed anything special about the blood pool channels, but now that he was looking at them up close, he discovered that they were alive and occasionally pulsed like arteries.

Upon entering the workshop, he discovered that the interior was enormous, and every corner was brightly lit.

All the workers inside wore identical sets of cotton clothing, while the blood pool channel split into around a dozen branches that extended to different parts of the workshop.

Some of the branches led to a large pool of what appeared to be blood, where new bone tools were taking shape.

Others led to spinning mules, providing power to the machines.

Several branches resembled balls of knotted yarn that had taken on a vaguely humanoid form.

Wang Cailiang called the workshop manager, a man named Zhu Fashan.

He had once been a blacksmith in Azure Sun County, but forced labor had driven him to bankruptcy, leaving his family of four with no choice but to beg for a living in the county town.

After being abducted by Wang Cailiang, he had initially been terrified of the village and constantly tried to escape. It was only after the Heavenly Fiend Foundation Establishment Technique was performed on his entire family that he finally resigned himself to his fate.

Half a year had passed since he arrived in the village, and he had grown accustomed to his new life. There was no forced labor or taxation, and his family never lacked food or shelter. Compared to his old life, this place was like a utopia.

Zhu Fashan led the group to a series of miniature blood pools and explained, ”We’ve siphoned some qi and blood from the main blood pool to produce bone tools in the workshop. The branches over there are used to power our spinning mules.”

He led them to the humanoid clusters of branches and continued, ”These are the most complex ones of all, and they were designed by Young Mistress Huang and Young Mistress Zhou.”

Young Mistress Huang was Maiden Thirteen, while Young Mistress Zhou was Zhou Yujiao. Upon hearing her name, Zhou Yujiao immediately began explaining the logic and inspiration behind the designs with pride.

”The blood pools contain qi and blood, just like the bodies of martial artists. So I thought, wouldn’t it be really cool if the blood pool could perform martial arts?”

Although Zhou Yujiao had come up with the idea, she didn’t know any martial arts herself. As a result, Maiden Thirteen had been responsible for designing all the branch arrangements and circulation routes.

Excitement welled up in Chu Qiguang’s heart as he studied the branch systems before him. The project was clearly still in its experimental phase, and the current branch arrangements could only accelerate the flow of qi and blood through them. However, it occurred to him that different configurations might produce different effects.

With that in mind, he turned to Maiden Thirteen and instructed, ”Gather all the fifth-state martial artists in the village and have them help design these branch systems. Keep detailed records of every configuration and its corresponding effects, then see if you can replicate the effects of different martial arts through these systems.”

”I... I don’t think that’ll be possible,” Zhu Fashan said hesitantly.

”Why not?” Chu Qiguang asked.

The moment Chu Qiguang’s gaze fell on him, Zhu Fashan felt immense pressure. He became so anxious that he couldn’t bring himself to speak.

”Don’t be afraid,” Chu Qiguang reassured him. ”I won’t blame or punish you for anything you say, so feel free to speak your mind.”

”The blood pool is already struggling to meet our current needs. If we continue taking on more and more side projects, the problem will only get worse.”

Realization dawned in Chu Qiguang’s eyes upon hearing this.

So the problem is that the blood pool’s power output is insufficient.