216: Chapter 217 Woodblock Printing Techniques, Printing the Great Ming Code

Yin Susu's mind still echoed with world-shaking terms like "shattering the Void Realm" and "collective Ascension"; her heart surged, unable to calm down.

Lu Chen looked at her shocked expression, but there was no pride on his face; instead, he reached out and rubbed his brow as if he had a bit of a headache.

"The idea is good, but the road is still long."

"One must eat one bite at a time and do things one by one."

He pulled the still-dazed Yin Susu and turned to leave.

"Husband, where are we going?" Yin Susu asked subconsciously.

"To print books." Lu Chen didn't look back.

"Print... books?" Yin Susu froze, her thoughts unable to keep up with this leap.

They were just discussing grand, suffocating topics like the destruction of stars and collective Ascension, so how did it jump to printing books in the blink of an eye? Wasn't this span a bit too large?

Lu Chen didn't explain and took her directly to a recently renovated side hall.

This hall was enormous; it might have originally been a place for storing ceremonial guards or holding small banquets, but now it was completely cleared out.

In the center of the hall, metal plates were neatly stacked like a small mountain.

Each piece was cut extremely regularly, about the size of A4 paper from later generations, shimmering with a dull alloy luster.

Beside them lay a pile of chisels.

Xuan-iron Chisels.

"This is..." Yin Susu looked at this setup, even more confused.

"Printing, you know about it, right?" Lu Chen said casually.

Yin Susu nodded. "Of course. Although I come from the Heavenly Eagle Sect, I am still a well-educated lady from a prestigious family."

"Our Heavenly Eagle Sect has its own book-printing workshop. It's for making money, nothing to be ashamed of!"

She frowned. "Movable type is ultimately cumbersome, especially with the vast number of Chinese characters; it's hard to prepare a full font library."

"If you want both text and illustrations, it's even more time-consuming and labor-intensive."

"In the current market, Woodblock Printing is still the majority, but it's labor-intensive and time-consuming, making it difficult to promote on a large scale."

"Exactly." Lu Chen snapped his fingers. "So, we'll use some 'high-tech'."

He walked to the pile of metal plates and picked one up at random.

The alloy plate felt slightly heavy in his hand, its surface as smooth as a mirror.

"Traditional methods are too slow and the efficiency is too low."

Lu Chen weighed the plate in his hand. "To achieve the goal I just mentioned, the popularization of knowledge is the first step. Without culture, how can we succeed?"

Yin Susu: "..."

His gaze swept over those Xuan-iron Chisels, and a mysterious smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Do you remember when I changed Third Brother Xie's eyes back then?"

Yin Susu's heart skipped a beat; of course she remembered.

That was when Lu Chen displayed his divine skill, Controlling needles with Qi, precise and subtle to an almost inconceivable degree.

Lu Chen took a deep breath.

In the next instant, the air in the entire hall seemed to freeze.

Buzz—

A slight humming sound rang out.

The Xuan-iron Chisels stacked to the side suddenly floated up as if pulled by invisible threads!

Yin Susu held her breath, watching without blinking.

Lu Chen became the center of the entire space.

"Begin," he said softly.

As soon as he finished speaking.

Shoosh, shoosh, shoosh—!

Countless streaks of light cut through the air!

Those floating Xuan-iron Chisels, as if coming to life, lunged at the alloy plates!

The speed was extreme, and only blurry afterimages could be seen!

Chichi chi!

Mars splashed everywhere, like holiday fireworks.

But every Mars and every cut was precise to the millimeter!

Yin Susu watched, dumbfounded.

She saw those blank alloy plates being engraved with dense text and patterns at a speed visible to the naked eye!

The handwriting was clear, and the strokes were smooth.

The patterns were even more detailed and intricate—mountains, rivers, people, birds, beasts, geometric shapes, mechanical structures... all lifelike!

Each alloy plate was quickly filled with engravings, then automatically flew up and landed in a neat stack on the other side.

Then, new blank plates were grabbed by an invisible force and thrown into this crazy "Assembly line."

The entire process was as smooth as flowing water, with an efficiency so high it was hair-raising!

How was this engraving?

This was simply a miracle!

"Is... is this the 'high-tech' Husband mentioned?" Yin Susu murmured, feeling her worldview being refreshed once again.

Using Divine Sense to control hundreds of chisels, simultaneously performing ultra-high-precision engraving on alloy plates...

This was the parallel processing capability of Lu Chen's Super Brain under the Ten-Thousand-Fold Increase.

This was the true Sword Kinesis!

"Well, barely."

Lu Chen didn't seem very satisfied.

Yin Susu: "..."

This was still slow?

This was still average?

She looked at the finished Woodblocks being produced continuously like a waterfall and felt that her understanding of the word "efficiency" might need to be redefined.

She walked closer to look at the completed Woodblocks.

great ming code — the handwriting was solemn and exuded majesty.

Arithmetic — filled with simple and clear symbols and various geometric figures.

Geometry — points, lines, planes, and solids, with clear logic and both text and illustrations.

Agricultural Classic — from seed selection and seedling cultivation to farming and harvesting, then to livestock breeding, it covered everything.

Tiangong Kaiwu — mining, mechanical manufacturing, boat and carriage construction, weapon forging... it could be called an encyclopedia of ancient industry.

Three Character Classic, Thousand Character Classic — introductory readers with neat handwriting and vivid illustrations.

There were also the Four Books, Five Classics, and Six Arts.

Yin Susu even saw many characters and symbols she had never seen before, with strange pronunciations marked next to them, forming a brand-new phonetic system.

"This is... Correct Rhymes of Great Ming?"

Yin Susu picked up a plate engraved with a strange alphabet.

"Mm, it's called 'Pinyin.' It's to standardize pronunciation and eliminate illiteracy."

Lu Chen explained casually, "There are also Arabic numerals and the Decimal system, which will be promoted along with Arithmetic and Geometry to build a good foundation."

The "comprehensive collection of knowledge from all times" brought by Lu Chen—fragments from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, lost gems from the Hundred Schools of Thought, the essence of the eighty-one thousand scrolls from Dunhuang, the secret treasures of the former Yuan's Imperial Astronomer, plus future technology...

All this knowledge was organized, corrected, and supplemented by Lu Chen in an incredible way, then rapidly transformed into printing masters that could be infinitely copied using this miraculous method!

"How... how many books are there?" Yin Susu felt her voice fluttering a little.

"Husband... by doing this, aren't you afraid of leaking heavenly secrets?"

Yin Susu was a bit worried; she mistakenly thought these things were brought by Lu Chen from the Immortal Realm.

Lu Chen glanced at her and smiled.

If the steps are too large, it's easy to tear... well, everyone's balls.

That smile carried a hint of natural dominance.

"What I want to promote is the Heavenly Dao itself."

"Who agrees?"

"Who opposes?"

Yin Susu looked at Lu Chen, and the last bit of doubt in her heart vanished.

Yes, he was Lu Chen.

He was the man who had destroyed the Mongol Yuan with one hand and established the Great Ming with the other, possessing power over the world and appearing like an immortal or a Buddha.

Who could stop what he wanted to do? Who would dare?

Instead of worrying about those trifles, it was better to... think carefully about how to help him turn this grand, almost crazy plan into reality step by step.

She took a deep breath, walked to Lu Chen's side, and watched as the countless tools continued to dance tirelessly, watching the alloy plates carrying knowledge and the future continue to pile up.

"Husband, once these Woodblocks are printed, the paper and ink required will probably be astronomical." Yin Susu quickly entered her role and began to think about practical issues.

"Mm, small problem." Lu Chen nodded. "I've already had the Ministry of Works prepare raw materials according to new papermaking and ink processing technologies..."

Yin Susu: "..."

"The most critical factor is still talent." Lu Chen turned his head and looked at Yin Susu, his gaze becoming serious. "Once the books are printed, people need to read them, learn from them, and teach them."

"So, the next step is to combine a nationwide School system, from Primary education to University, to cultivate talent in all aspects."

"Fortunately, in our Huaxia, talent is the one thing we don't lack. Moreover, many things are basic subjects of our Huaxia; at this stage, it's just about promotion, it's not as hard as one might think!"