Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme

Chapter 1064: Chapter 649: Transformation

Technology is the core of a civilization and a vital support for the development of a territory, benefitting the entire territory, affecting heroes, troops, buildings, and items in every aspect. Some civilization technologies can even unlock special troops, special buildings, or grant troops and heroes special skills.

For example, the “Firearms Manufacturing” technology that Xu Yang had unlocked through the blueprint, once the Yellow Turban Civilization acquired this technology, it directly unlocked the special building Yellow Heaven Gunpowder House, the special troop Yellow Turban Bombardier, and the distinctive item Sky Shattering Bomb.

That’s the advantage of civilization technology.

But such technology isn’t so easily obtained.

Take “Gunpowder Technology” as an example; this technology became available to the Yellow Turban Civilization only after Xu Yang offered the “Firearms Manufacturing” blueprint to the Civilization Wonders and, through a transformation by the Wonders, it then became the usable “Yellow Heaven Gunpowder” technology.

Therefore, to obtain technology, you first need technology items like blueprints, and then you need to offer them to Civilization Wonders to have a certain probability of obtaining the technology or its variant.

Blueprints and the like are one thing, but the main issue is the probability of obtaining technology, which depends on luck and compatibility. With good luck and high compatibility, obtaining technology is possible.

If you’re unlucky or unclear about the compatibility of the technology with your own civilization, you might fail on nine out of ten blueprints, losing your investment entirely.

Take the previous “Firearms Manufacturing” as an example. Although turning it into “Yellow Heaven Gunpowder” technology was mostly luck, there was also a bit of compatibility factor, like a Magician discovering gunpowder while practicing Alchemy.

A Magician discovering gunpowder while practicing Alchemy can still make a bit of sense, but if you offered a blueprint for “rocket Manufacturing,” that would be totally illogical.

With complete incompatibility, using such technology items is bound to fail nine times out of ten, and even if it succeeds, the result is unlikely to be favorable—usually, it results in useless or suboptimal waste technology.

Moreover, the technologies obtained through technology items often come with various drawbacks.

Again, take “Gunpowder Manufacturing” as an example. Although this technology unlocked the Yellow Heaven Gunpowder House and Yellow Heaven Bombardier for the Yellow Turban Civilization, that was as far as it went.

Without subsequent advanced technologies, these buildings and troops had no further upgrade path. Now the Yellow Heaven Bombardiers are about to be phased out of Xu Yang’s military forces, unable to keep up and of no use.

To change this situation, one can only continue using technology items to develop subsequent civilization technologies, or even form a technology system.

But then things come full circle. It’s difficult to initiate technologies, there are too many waste technologies, and substantial investment is required. All sorts of problems cause Middle and Low Tier Lords to shy away from technology development.

It’s not just Middle and Low Tier Lords who are indifferent; even High-level Lords take a “salted fish” approach to technological development. They mainly rely on their own civilization’s technologies; if other technologies are usable, they use them; if not, they ignore them without spending time, money, or energy to form a complete technological system, because they lack the resources.

Only after reaching the Ninth Order and becoming an Immortal God Lord will one focus on the construction of technology and build a civilization system based on it.

At this time, the benefits of technology become evident. A complete technological system represents various special buildings, special troops, and distinctive items, which are of significant military and economic value. Some may even become the foundation and support of a territory’s development.

In short, to profit from technology, massive investment is necessary.

Xu Yang now has the right to self-build technology, so compared to ordinary lords, he has more advantages in technology development. He can open up one civilization technology after another through Creation, Fusion, and Innovation, gradually forming a complete system.

But this still requires a massive investment, whether in time or money.

Xu Yang researched and found that among the three methods, Creation is the most cost-effective and can even bring in profits beforehand.

Manufacture certain items with some technology, and when it reaches a certain degree, the corresponding technology can be generated.

This sounds paradoxical, like the “chicken or the egg” dilemma—if you have the technology to manufacture items, then why don’t you already have the corresponding technology?

However, this so-called technology doesn’t necessarily have to be a scientific technology; it could also refer to a lord’s or hero’s skills, or even the ability of troops.

Taking the Mingxiao Taoists as an example, through Xu Yang’s training, the Mingxiao Taoists have mastered the Hundred Arts of Cultivation for Creation, including Alchemy, Artifact Refining, Spirit Plant cultivation, and breeding.

But since these are abilities Xu Yang gave to his self-built troops, unrelated to the civilization, the Yellow Turban Civilization doesn’t have the corresponding technology.

Without the corresponding technology, the Mingxiao Taoists’ Hundred Arts of Cultivation only benefit themselves and cannot benefit the entire territory.

So, the ability to transform the skills of heroes and troops into technology is a major advantage of “self-built technology.” It turns the singularly effective troop skill into a technology system that benefits the entire territory and civilization.

Once skills are transformed into technology, not only can related building troops and distinctive items be unlocked, but their effects can also be enhanced—in short, the benefits are numerous.

Xu Yang is now capable of accelerating the Mingxiao Taoists in refining Spiritual Objects and transforming Elixir and Talisman Technique, Spirit Plant Beast Mastering, and all other cultivation arts into technology.

This method requires less investment and may even yield returns, as the Spiritual Objects crafted by the Mingxiao Taoists can be sold. This way, not only is nothing lost, but considerable profit can be made.