Chapter 533 — The Angres Loom

Daniel nodded slightly. "Yes. Go to the office first and organize the materials."

Mary answered, but before she could leave, a group of researchers with excited expressions suddenly emerged from the corner not far ahead. Upon recognizing them, Daniel and Mary immediately stopped in their tracks.

"Ah! Master Daniel!"

The approaching group had already noticed the master and apprentice—whether because of his own strength and learning, or because of the recommendation of the Royal Mages' Association's president, Daniel already held no small standing in this facility. So they called out greetings while still far away, and only when they came close did Daniel give a nod in response: "I was just about to head back—why are you all so excited?"

"Ah, you should wait a moment—we have something we want you to see!" A scholar in a white robe broke into a brilliant smile. "There is a bold and clever man—a clockmaker from Angres—who has brought a very interesting machine. If your repulsion-piston engine has solved the energy problem, then that machine could be put to great use!"

"A machine brought by a clockmaker?" Daniel's sparse eyebrows lifted slightly, his tone playful. "What is it for?"

"Driven by a waterwheel, it can weave cloth!"

Daniel's expression did not change in the least. He simply stood quietly for a moment before saying softly: "Oh... that is indeed good news."

...

In Xuanyao City, within the lord's manor.

Gao Yang's pen, in the midst of reviewing documents, suddenly stopped. He raised his head and stared at the wall ahead as though unfocused. After a moment, he let out a faint sigh, and his expression turned exceptionally grave.

Amber, who was waiting nearby, noticed Gao Yang's oddity at once and looked over curiously: "What's wrong? Did you ruin another page?"

Gao Yang shook his head slightly: "No. Time has suddenly grown pressing."

In not-so-distant Typhon, a machine called the "Angres Loom" had appeared.

The loom itself was nothing terribly shocking—in fact, in Cecil, practical spinning machines and looms had long since entered the stage of industrialized use. But the very fact that "a clockmaker in Typhon created a practical machine and delivered it to the Imperial research facility" rang in Gao Yang's mind like an alarm bell.

Typhon's development was about to accelerate; at any moment it would enter its next age.

Emperor Luoyan had forged an advanced imperial system, and that system was now revealing its power of its own accord—after decades of centralization, reform, trial and error, construction, and accumulation, Typhon's society seemed to have gathered the strength to break free of the agrarian age. More and more artisans possessed of knowledge and skill had the means to turn their experience into technological products; more and more scholars, in an environment of economic openness, had set their sights on practical industry; and even Typhon's mages... had begun to step out of their towers.

After so much accumulation, a bold clockmaker had at last delivered the machine he had invented to an imperial research facility. That machine would surely draw the attention of Luoyan Augustus—a sovereign of such grand strategy would not overlook its significance—and once this precedent was set, one could well imagine the encouragement it gave Typhon's technical craftsmen; one could well imagine, too, the pace of Typhon's development.

In a world possessed of magical power, where so many technologies made the leap from theory to practice with astonishing speed, once the "Industrial Revolution" began, its pace would only be faster than on Earth.

In that moment, Gao Yang counted himself profoundly fortunate that he had sent Daniel to Aldernan in time.

He raised his head and looked at Amber, whose face was full of curiosity. "Go and fetch Pi Yun and Kamel—and Heddy and Rebecca as well."