Exploring Immortality Cultivation

After speeding down the road, Wu Chengdao's car hurtled toward a towering building. With practiced ease, he swung the vehicle sideways so that the doors faced the grand entrance of the building.

This was the entrance to the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion.

Different from the popular architectural style in Shenzhou, the structure of the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion was extremely simple, outlined solely by straight lines and right angles. Aside from the bronze patterns on the building's surface, there were no other adornments.

Once Wang Qi and the other two had gotten out of the car, the mechanical vehicle automatically disassembled into several metal blocks. Wu Chengdao collected the blocks and led the trio into the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion. As they walked, he said, "You've arrived a bit early. The Banquet of Completion officially starts tomorrow. You won't be able to enter the main hall and attend the banquet until then. For now, I'll take you to your guest rooms to rest."

Mo Zhenzhen and Huangfu Lian had no reason to object, but Wang Qi spoke up, "By the way, Brother Wu, do you sell mechanisms here?"

In his previous life on Earth, where the laws of physics did not support the Immortal Dao, one could only rely on tools. Therefore, Wang Qi held the mechanisms of the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion in high regard. Additionally, Ran Yingwei's Mechanical Butterfly had piqued his interest, particularly the butterfly-shaped Mechanical Beast named Flow Control Model Three, a product of the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion.

Wu Chengdao chuckled, "Then, after I've escorted these two to their guest rooms, I'll accompany Senior Brother Wang to the Three Rivers Hall, where the mechanisms are sold."

Wang Qi shook his head, "There's no need for that much trouble. Just tell me the place, and I can go there myself."

"That's not advisable. With the Banquet of Completion nearing, many Wanfa Disciples are present within the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion," Wu Chengdao quickly objected. "As far as I know, half of the Wanfa disciples harbor hostility toward you, Senior Brother, and of the other half, yet another half are quite discontented with you. If we let you wander around, a fight might break out inadvertently, right?"

Wang Qi felt a pang of guilt, "Shouldn't... it be that serious?"

Wu Chengdao shook his head again without saying much more.

After leaving Mo Zhenzhen and Huangfu Lian in their guest rooms, Wu Chengdao then led Wang Qi to a golden building. This was where the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion sold mechanisms to the public. The Three Rivers Pavilion, named to signify "wealth flowing in from three rivers," was the largest mechanical shop in Shenzhou.

Incidentally, as the Sect of Elder Ji Turing, the inventor of calculators, the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion was very modernized—especially the Three Rivers Pavilion—which was among the earliest establishments in Shenzhou to offer online shopping and home delivery services.

Along the way, Wu Chengdao introduced, "All mass-produced mechanisms from our Thousand Mechanism Pavilion are sold here. There are also some concept machines that are too expensive to reduce costs and are only available for purchase by our own disciples—of course, if you are one of our loyal customers who has made significant prior purchases and can pay in full at once, those are also not impossible to buy."

Wang Qi was curious, "You have an integral system?"

"Yes, an integral system. Also, if you purchase a certain series of products ten times, then all subsequent purchases of the same type of product will be discounted by twenty percent—we have many such offers."

As soon as they entered the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion, Wang Qi was captivated by the dazzling array of mechanisms. Considering that most products here were intended for sale to other Sects, they were not made in the modular form like those used by Wu Chengdao but were direct-form Mechanical Beasts. Although referred to as "beasts," they were not designed to fully mimic ordinary animals, since evolution does not concern precision, and life beings' bodies have many irrational aspects. Mechanical Beasts could be designed in the most logical manner possible. All War Beasts were more ferocious than their prototypes, especially the red humanoid Mechanical Beast in the corner—look at its streamlined structure, look at that...

Wait a minute, this...

Wang Qi tugged at Wu Chengdao and, pointing to something that looked out of place, asked, "Brother Wu, what is this?"

"Oh, a very famous 'toy'," Wu Chengdao seemed ashamed to let people see this thing as he pulled Wang Qi deeper inside, "Spirit Armor, it's armor driven by spiritual power. This thing was originally designed to give low-level cultivators almost the same combat power as high-order ones, but it later became the biggest joke."

"Why?"

"It's totally useless," said Wu Chengdao, with a wry smile, "You understand, right? The Immortal Alliance is actually an alliance of Seeking Dao Seekers, where the main task of a cultivator is to seek the Dao rather than fight and kill. When facing a foreign enemy that we absolutely must fight, the Immortal Alliance usually overwhelms them with high-order cultivators, just like in the later stages of the ancient-modern war, where Modern Cultivators are usually led by nearly ten Carefree cultivators and hundreds of Grandmasters crushing Ancient Method Sects that don't even have Mahayana, with not a single casualty."

"And for high-order cultivators, wearing full body armor is just restrictive, it doesn't enhance strength, it's a burden, not as comfortable as a magic robe."

"Now, the only low-level cultivators who actually go to the battlefield are the Guardian Envoys on the Western Border. But only those desperately lacking in merit points or genius cultivators needing to test new spells would become Guardian Envoys, the former can't afford it, and the latter don't need it."

This is also a different physical law leading to different combat strategies and tactics; the correct way to build an army in the Immortal Hero World is still "more people — more cultivation geniuses — more high-order cultivators."

Wang Qi said in surprise, "Then why do you still sell it here?"

Wu Chengdao looked around and lowered his voice, "We invited some street writers to create a series of storybooks themed around Spirit Armor and also produced Mirage Games, featuring slaying the Demon Clan or battling Ancient Cultivators, which are quite popular…"

Wang Qi was shocked, "Brother Wu, has your three Rivers Pavilion ever considered changing its name to 'Bandai'?"

"What do you mean?"

"Bandai is timeless!" exclaimed Wang Qi, "Shenzhou's foremost emotion-creating merchant, offering entertainment through its products and services, allowing consumers to experience 'emotion.'"

Wu Chengdao felt that Wang Qi was being sarcastic and coughed awkwardly, "Our main business isn't really toys…"

After wandering around for a while, Wu Chengdao asked, "Alright, Senior Brother Wang, what mechanical artifact are you looking to buy?"

Wang Qi looked around, "Do you have the Flow Control Type Three here?"

"Oh! Senior Brother Wang, you are interested in such an obscure mechanism!" exclaimed Wu Chengdao, taken aback, "Without the Mysterious Palace's mental method, you wouldn't be able to activate something like Flow Control Type Three."

"I have it; don't worry about that," Wang Qi himself had practiced many mental methods, many of which were interlinked with that of Mysterious Palace.

The Flow Control Type Three Mechanical Beast was the only device he had access to that involved Vacuum Zero-Point Energy and the Dirac Sea; it was essential for his research. Additionally, he had some ideas about the Butterfly Group's movement algorithms.

Being an obscure mechanism, a single Flow Control Type Three cost twenty merit points, and Wang Qi bought ten of them. Last time, Chen Feng destroyed several hundred of them from Ran Yingwei in one go, no wonder Ran Yingwei looked like he wanted to kill someone. If Wang Qi hadn't earned a large sum of merit points recently, he really would have been reluctant to buy such magic artifacts.

Then, for the rest of the day, Wang Qi did not go out and cause trouble or provoke his fellow sect members; instead, he honestly stayed in his room, refining the mechanical artifacts and cultivating.

The next day followed, and the Banquet of Completion commenced. (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it with a recommendation ticket or monthly ticket on Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)