Chapter 534 — Provision Against the Rain

"Oh? That idea of yours has legs… Say! We could apply the same approach to the Magic Web communications—that might solve the signal misalignment we are seeing in the remote regions…"

Once technicians enter a technical discussion they become different people entirely; even Piyun began earnestly arguing through various experimental schemes with Camille. Amber, who had been standing by enjoying the spectacle, sank into a daze the moment the conversation veered onto technical ground. She listened, blinking, as the little old man and Piyun traded remarks back and forth, and at length could not resist poking Rebecca's arm. "What on earth are they going on about… can you even follow it?"

Rebecca thought it over, then answered as though it were the most natural thing in the world: "Sure."

Amber: "…"

A tide of crushing defeat washed over the half-elf's heart—Gaoyang noticed the shift in the expression of this Shame of All Things and understood it deeply. He guessed Amber's mood just then was much like discovering that the classmate who flunked mathematics alongside you was in fact a lopsided genius fluent in eighteen languages…

But this was not a laboratory, and Gaoheng had to cut Camille and Piyun off. "Since you already have a plan for what comes next, finish the remaining tests as soon as possible. I need a practical connection device from you in the shortest time possible."

Camille bowed slightly, and a voice trembling with energy issued from him: "As you wish."

Piyun, curious, asked, "Has something happened on the Never-Sleepers' side? Why the sudden urgency?"

Gaoyang shook his head and said gravely, "It is not the Never-Sleepers. It is Typhon."

This time, even Piyun was at a loss.

How on earth did Typhon come into this?

"I have a hidden line planted on the Typhon side," Gaoyang said unhurriedly, taking in the puzzled faces around him. "I will tell you the particulars of that line later. What I want to tell you now is that the Typhonians… are about to enter the age of magical industry as well."

Of everyone present, the quickest to react—and the strongest in reaction—was Hedy.

"Magical industry?!" the chief steward of Cecil exclaimed. "They have built a Magic Web and magical machines too?"

"Their building a Magic Web and magical machines is not what is frightening," Gaoyang said, glancing at Hedy. "In fact, their 'Magic Web' technology was itself within my plans."

"Within your plans?" Hedy was startled again, and then noticed Gaoyang's half-smiling look. She grew thoughtful. "You… do you have some scheme in mind?"

"I do," Gaoyun said with a slight nod, and spoke the words that startled everyone present. "I intend to help Typhon… to help them into the age of magical industry. And to help them greatly."

Others could not see it, but Gaoyang knew—the magical industry of the Southern Frontier had in fact been forced into being by his own hand. Relying on the experience of a former life, on the vast stores of the mountain treasury, on the pressure of circumstance after the disaster, and on this world's existing accumulation of technology, he had skipped straight over many gradual processes that time alone can build, and lit the technological line of magical industry with a leapfrogging pace of development. His method could compress time enormously (for it skipped a great deal of trial and error, of feeling out the road); but it carried the hidden dangers of a weak foundation and an excessive dependence on "strongman politics." The time saved in the early stage would in the end inevitably have to be repaid as the price of mending those weaknesses.

And Typhon… had completed its accumulation in the normal way.

Even if Emperor Luoyan might take many detours, even if the Typhonians must stumble many times in the course of trial and error, this empire that had completed its accumulation normally would, once it entered the industrial age, soon roll over Cecil with overwhelming force.

No other reason was needed—more people, more land, more grain…

Driven by the great tide, Typhon's age of magical industry could not be stopped. They already knew of Cecil's Magic Web, and new technological breakthroughs kept appearing within their own borders; they had massively raised their grain yields, and their education and institutions were ever evolving. Under such circumstances, even had Gaoyang not planted Daniel, other Typhon scholars would have worked out the secret of the Magic Web and built magical machines of their own. So since it could not be stopped, it was better to give it a push.

"Hedy, do you remember those figures I asked you to compile?" Gao Yang looked at his great-great-granddaughter, many generations removed. "The historical production data from our factories, the workings of the Production Coordination Committee, the investments of progressive merchants and new nobles in industry..."

"Yes," Hedy replied, "and I've been compiling them every month."

Gao Yang nodded in satisfaction. "Good. I need those figures, and I need them from more angles besides..."

Next, he was going to give Typhon a lavish gift.

A gift sweeter than the "Magic Web."