Chapter 166 - Working Out
Elder Guliva was in doubt if he should hear him.
"How will you make it?"
Rean then explained the concept behind the insulation. Of course, he made it look like he found about it by coincidence. As for whether Guliva believed him or not, that didn't matter.
Guliva didn't know if Rean's idea would really work, but he seemed really confident about it. After pondering a bit, he decided to at least give a try. In the worst case, they would only lose a few days of work.
"How many cultivators would you need?"
Rean smiled before saying.
"Lightning Affinity, I probably need just two, but I will ask for four of them to help carry more tests. As for Earth Affinity, I will need their help to put the wires underground, so ten or so should do. I might need some other types later too, but I'll tell you in advance when that happens. As for Blacksmith Hall, I obviously need their help to help me make the cables."
Guliva continued to ponder and didn't really see a reason for denying Rean's request. The number of cultivators that would be involved wasn't significant, after all.
"Alright. I'll let you try, but if you see that it isn't working, let those cultivators go back to their works. Don't waste too much time on it"
Rean was more than happy with that number.
"Great. I'll make sure to free everyone if that happens."
Guliva nodded.
"You can come here tomorrow, I'll arrange things for you. To make things safer, I will ask you to do it between our Sect and Majorias City. No one will try to stop you during it."
Rean nodded.
"Alright. But there is no need to call the cultivators now. First, I will need cables to be made. Second, there is the insulation material I talked about. It will take a few days before I get enough of it. For now, I just need permission to ask a few blacksmiths to help me make the wires."
Guliva didn't mind.
"Alright."
He then took a token from his robe and passed it to Rean.
"A lot of Blacksmiths in the Blacksmith Hall are part of our Iron and Blood District. As long as you show it to them, they will give you their help. There should be quite a few apprentices that didn't reach the Low-Level Blacksmith Stage yet, so you can ask for the help. Since you are only making cables, there should be no need to employ Low-Level or higher blacksmiths."
Rean nodded. Rean only needed a workforce, apprentices blacksmiths were enough.
"No problem. Elder Guliva, I'll be taking my leave now then."
Guliva nodded.
"Very well, you can go. Let me know if you need anything."
Rean then bowed to Guliva and left straight away.
As soon as Rean disappeared in the distance, Guliva got up and went to see Hulian in the Inner Sect. After that, he explained everything Rean told him. Hulian, of course, was surprised by that.
"Do you think he will succeed?"
Hulian knows very well what difference would it make if they could really communicate at such long distances without the talismans. Obviously, he wished that to work. However, he, too, was doubtful of Rean's idea.
Guliva shook his head after hearing that question.
"I don't know. However, Rean seems very confident. Perhaps this... errr... insulation thing might work."
Hulian pondered a bit and then said.
"This is a huge thing. You did right in asking Rean to make this test between the Dalamu Sect and Majorias City. No one will try to intervene now that he has your token. Keep an eye on him to make sure the others won't bother during his work."
Guliva nodded and left. Hulian then looked at the direction of the Iron and Blood district in the Outer Sect and smiled. Ever since Rean and Roan appeared, they had only given him joy.
'If it works, I want to see who will say that our Iron and Blood Faction is all brawn and no brains.'
Rean didn't know about this conversation between the two elders, but he could guess this much at least. Still, he didn't care. This plan might attract even more attention to him and Roan, but he needed to get those 1000 Destiny Points by any means.
Rean went to the Blacksmith Hall and immediately gathered the apprentices. Although they were somewhat dissatisfied to be ordered around by a kid, they had to respect elder Guliva's token. Rean then brought everyone in his workshop and showed them how he wanted the wires to be made. As mentioned before, Majorias City was 300km away from the Sect Entrance, so he would need enough cables to reach that distance, at least.
Rean made them go out and buy as much copper as possible. In the cultivation world, there were several other metals suitable for electrical conduction and a smaller loss of power during the transmission. However, copper was also present in large quantities. The best thing was that it was extremely cheap when you used Spirit Stones to buy them. Rean passed everyone 100 Rank 1 Spirit Stones, which should be more than enough to buy all the copper he needed.
In just three days, the apprentices already began to prepare the cables. They might not be as fast as the specialized machines from Earth. However, they are cultivators, so they were definitely tens of times faster than ordinary people.
Rean didn't stay in the Sect to check the procedures, though. When he went to Majorias City to help buy copper, he stayed behind.
In the next days, there was a few news around Majorias City. Someone needed the sap of a specific tree that could be found almost everywhere. Rean didn't use the Sect's power for this. Instead, he used ordinary people. Not only that, he offered a real high price for every 10 liters of that sap. Unbelievably, Rean offered Ten Rank 1 Spirit Stones for it! It might look little, but in fact, it was a massive sum for something so simple.
Any person could get that much sap as long as they were willing to spend the time. The people in the cultivation world were a lot stronger than the ones he knows back on Earth. Even if they didn't become cultivators, their bodies were much more resistant. The poor ones would suit this job perfectly. Not to mention that Ten Spirit Stones was more than many of them made in an entire month of work!
The cultivators would look down on such a number, but the ordinary people definitely would take it happily.
Rean only needed a little more than a week to collect all the sap he required. Just to be safe, Rean stayed in Majorias for another three days doing the same thing. It was always better to have extra than not having enough.
He also had some people bring it all back to the Dalamu Sect for him. Finally, ten days later, Rean returned to the Sect as well.
He looked at all the Copper Cables and couldn't help but smile. As expected, when Spiritual Energy was involved, things would become several times easier. Even without machines, those several blacksmith apprentices were able to make 300km worth of cables by the time he was back! How could he not be happy?
Suddenly, Rean heard Sister Orb's voice.
[If you want, there is a way to transmit more detailed messages through those cables instead of using signals like morse code.]
Rean's eyes opened wide when he heard that.
'But Sister Orb, wouldn't it be related to technology? I have no idea how those speakers or anything like that works. I'm only using the principle of electrical conduction to communicate. Anything other than that is far beyond my knowledge. I'm only a metallurgist, after all.'
[Don't worry. It's not anything that ridiculous. You forget that you are in the Cultivation World, so you need to think about Spiritual Energy and the things that are possible to make with it. You already resolved the main issue, which was the insulation of the cables. The rest can be done with formations instead.]
Rean was taken aback.
'But didn't you say you don't know how to make formations? That you only knew how to 'drive' them?'
[Idiot. Of course, I have no idea how to make them. Still, that doesn't mean the Formations Master Hall doesn't. Formations are made of hundreds if not thousands of drawn runes that act independently or in a group. All you need to do is have a Formations Master create a formation that can transform those runes in electrical signals. Wouldn't it be the same thing? Such a lightning type formation shouldn't be anything hard for a High-Level Formations Master to come up with.]
Rean pondered a bit and had to admit that Sister Orb's words made sense.
'Alright! I'll take a look at it later. But for now, let me finish spreading the cables and confirm that they work first.'
[No problem.]
It was then that Rean remembered something.
'Oh, right! How's the Ice Block doing?'
At the same time, in the Alchemist Hall, Roan was still studying.
Going back a few days, Roan finished memorizing all the herbs on the Alchemy Repository's First floor. Since he didn't need to take the memory test for herbs anymore, he switched to concoction books. However, his seven days were over before he could read much of them.
Just as he was about to pay another 300 Sect Points to keep reading, the Disciple told him that he didn't need to. Roan had been accepted as an alchemist apprentice by Old Worm, so it gave him the right to read the books of both the first and second floors for another month! In fact, all new Alchemist Apprentices get the same thing when they pass the memory Test. That being said, Roan immediately returned to the repository and began his reading once more.