Chapter 23: New Standards

That evening, Wei Zhe, the representative of the Sea Tribe, returned with all the items—90 jin of Sea Soul Silk, 10 low-grade spirit stones, and 30 jin of various other spiritual threads.

Li Xian was thrilled with the 10 standard-sized, fist-sized, complete low-grade spirit stones, and his grievances against the Sea Tribe diminished considerably. He had been worried that they might be defective or of poor quality.

Among the 30 jin of various threads were Fire Spider Silk, and even some Jade Silkworm Silk, Heavenly Silkworm Silk, and Man-Faced Spider Silk. There was also a type of plant fiber called “Immortal Vine,” which was a second-tier (Golden Core stage) material. Unfortunately, the quantity was pitifully small—only seven strands, totaling about five feet in length.

There were also dozens of other types of silk threads, each in very limited amounts, including the hair of powerful demonic beasts and the tentacles of jellyfish.

The reason Li Xian reluctantly parted with 100 jin of Sea Soul Silk was to acquire these diverse threads, hoping to research why they could conduct spiritual energy. If he could thoroughly study even just one type, it would be a significant achievement.

In addition, the Sea Tribe had promised ores and other materials, which would be delivered after Li Xian completed the weapons. The quantity of ores was enormous—20 million jin of ores for 1 million jin of weapons!

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 and opened a warehouse where 1,000 identical mirrors, each three feet in size, were neatly arranged. All the mirrors had the same decoration, and they were all perfectly made.

To be honest, while the decoration on these mirrors was beautiful, having 1,000 mirrors with the same design was a bit monotonous and dull.

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

Li Xian chuckled inwardly. If I don’t give you something different, would you prefer that I give you something varied? That wouldn’t be generosity; it would be poor business sense. Leaving a bit of a flaw now will set the stage for a surprise later.

Of course, while thinking this, Li Xian responded differently, “Senior, I promised Princess Ao Qingxue 1,000 mirrors. Before obtaining the princess’s consent, I dare not arbitrarily change the design. It’s a matter of commercial credibility.

If the princess wants more designs, we have other patterns available, and we even accept custom orders.”

“Alright, then we’ll leave it as it is for now. You should deliver the mirrors to the seaside, and I will have the shrimp soldiers come to help.”

A thousand mirrors might seem like a lot, but a few carts were enough to transport them. Upon reaching the seaside, Li Xian was truly amazed. There were indeed shrimp soldiers, each with six legs and large pincers, carefully and laboriously dragging the carts into the sea. Li Xian couldn’t help but feel… speechless. Couldn’t they send some higher-level demonic beasts? Although these shrimp soldiers and crab generals looked impressive, they were just too cumbersome.

Seemingly aware of Li Xian’s confusion, Wei Zhe offered a wry smile, “There’s an agreement between the human, sea, and demonic tribes that prohibits sending Golden Core stage or higher beings into each other’s territories.”

“I see!” Li Xian’s eyes lit up like little light bulbs—this was an unimaginably huge business opportunity! No wonder there were so few beast materials from the human side.

Taking the opportunity, Li Xian also inspected the nearby coastline. The location chosen by the Sea Tribe was indeed excellent and very suitable for port construction.

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

“If you’ve chosen this place, I’ll report it to the princess. In a few days, I’ll send crab soldiers to guard it so you can start construction.”

“That’s great! Once the port is built, we will be responsible for delivering not only the items needed by Princess Ao Qingxue but also any items required by the Sea Tribe to the designated locations.”

“Hmm.” Wei Zhe acknowledged the plan without objection, though Li Xian had encountered a slight setback.

Afterwards, when all the shrimp soldiers and crab generals had used their magic to wrap the mirrors and other items in protective bubbles, Wei Zhe took his leave and, along with the shrimp soldiers and crab generals, waded away. Li Xian was envious—being at the Foundation Establishment stage was impressive.

Once the shrimp soldiers and crab generals were out of sight, Li Xian gleefully jumped up three feet high, “Haha, not only do we have a port, but we also have a new trade route.

Once we have the port and the ships, we’ll explore new routes and new lands.

Oh, I’m so impatient! Industry needs to develop step by step. We need to build the port first, and for now, we’ll make do with traditional wooden ships and engines. The main issue is the wires. If that problem isn’t solved, future development will be difficult. It’s giving me a headache.

Wires, wires, why are you so difficult? Back on Earth, in the early days of electrical technology, there was no mention of wire problems. I have no reference for this. Oh, oh, oh, beep beep beep…”

After venting his frustrations, it was time to get back to work. All the threads and spirit stones were sent back to the research department for further study.

 

When seeing ten standard low-grade spirit stones, many people’s eyes lit up with brilliant light. Fortunately, the worst thing Li Xian feared did not happen—although everyone was envious of the spirit stones, they only satisfied their curiosity with a glance and controlled their greed.

Xu Ren saw this and congratulated Li Xian, which meant that Li Xian had truly won over these people! However, Li Xian seriously despised this in his heart—damn it, you’re just boasting indirectly. Anyway, it was indeed something worth celebrating.

In addition, there were 90 jin of sea soul silk and 30 jin of other types of silk, totaling a length of 250 li. This quantity is quite substantial, but relative to the demands of industrial development, it is still just a drop in the bucket.

Fortunately, it can barely meet the current needs. Except for a portion reserved by the research department, the remaining silk will be used to produce engines and some important components—such as wires for connecting additional spirit gathering arrays. Currently, the engines are mainly used in textile machinery and machine tools, which is sufficient for now. The path to industrialization finally seems to be showing some light.

After two busy days, Li Xian finally sorted out various matters.

Machine tools and stainless steel are the primary projects, but textile machinery cannot be neglected either. The development of machine tools and stainless steel is aimed at obtaining large amounts of sea soul silk from the sea tribe, while the large-scale construction of textile machinery is the most important first step for the rise of industry and pooling funds.

The research on engines, the improvement of spirit gathering arrays, and the study of wires cannot stop, but they can be deferred.

No, there is still one very important matter—standards! Without standards, industry cannot achieve ‘mass production’; for large-scale production, there must be standards. In reality, within the Great Xia, there are various divisions like “large zhang” and “small zhang,” with various odd measurement standards that leave Li Xian dizzy.

Since it’s so chaotic, it’s better to plan a new set of standards myself! Just use units like hours, minutes, seconds, centimeters, and kilometers from another world. Moreover, setting units and standards is also a good means of confidentiality.

As soon as he thought of it, Li Xian acted on it. After a brief organization, that very evening, he held a meeting and implemented these new standards. He defined one meter as one-third of the “small zhang,” and the remaining measurements—millimeters, centimeters, and kilometers—were set accordingly; 500 meters would be called “one li,” and 1000 meters would be “one kilometer.”

Additionally, the old division of 12 hours a day was refined to 24 hours, with minutes and seconds following in order.

For weight, the unit “gram” was introduced, with one gram being one-thousandth of the market “large jin.” Later, 100 jin would be one “shi,” and 10 shi would be one ton (or “jun”).

Furthermore, the amount of spirit energy consumed by a one-horsepower engine per hour was labeled as “one degree” of spirit energy.

For water temperature, the “temperature” standard was introduced, abbreviated as “degree.” The freezing point was set at 0 degrees, temperatures below this point were considered negative, and the boiling point was 100 degrees.

Concepts like acceleration, pressure, momentum, inertia, friction, resultant force, angle, gravity, density, resistance to spirit energy flow, as well as the concepts of liquids, gases, solids, colloids, and fluids were introduced to facilitate calculations. Of course, many of these concepts existed in the Immortal Realm, but there was no unified, publicly available academic system.

Mathematical and geometric concepts were updated, and the concept of “laws of the material world” was clarified, abbreviated as “physics.”

There were many changes, and Li Xian did not reveal everything at once; instead, he introduced one new standard every few days to allow everyone to adapt.

This set of standards was clear, concise, and straightforward. Once implemented, it greatly improved efficiency in work, especially in the research processes for engines and arrays, providing mutual references.

However, adopting these units did come with some questions. Xu Ren was puzzled: “Why call it a kilometer?”

Li Xian, with righteous fervor, replied, “Using 1000 meters as a unit makes it easy to remember. The reason it is called a kilometer is because I believe it will become the most widely used unit in the future, a standard that everyone will follow!”

“Then why call the unit of pressure ‘Pascal’?”

“Because this force is equivalent to the pressure produced by a handkerchief placed on a flat surface.”

“Then the handkerchief must be made of iron wire.”

“Sir, you are too clever. We will immediately weave a handkerchief out of gold threads.”

Xu Ren naturally did not believe this at all but chose not to dwell on such trivial matters.

(Note: Units like meter, ton, degree, and Pascal are transliterated. According to traditional notation, meter should be called “gongchi” and ton should be “jun.” For ease of reading, the standard units are used here.)

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