Projecting pure physical payloads at hypersonic velocities — that too was a path that could shake the heavens.
"This insane material science is perfect for developing technology, so why does the Douluo world barely have a technology tree at all?" Chen Ming muttered quietly to himself with a small sigh, then returned to his work.
His current spiritual power could already control errors down to 0.01 millimeters, or ten micrometers.
That level was still not enough to make things like chips, but recreating technology from the World War II era was no problem at all.
And in a certain sense, the soul engineer formations used in Douluo's soul tools could be treated as a substitute for programming.
What Chen Ming needed to do now was move some ideas from his previous life into the Douluo world, using soul tool "programming" to build the first prototype machine.
After a full day and night of effort, the first core ever to be genuinely programmed in the soul engineer manner took shape in Chen Ming's hands.
With this core as the base, Chen Ming expanded it into a series of devices, such as mechanical arms and mechanical conveyor belts.
Under Chen Ming's expectant gaze, the first unmanned production line in the history of the Douluo world finally started up slowly.
As Chen Ming added the raw materials, all kinds of mechanical equipment began running.
Thin metal sheets were heated and treated with acid on the production line.
Through one process after another, different patterns were carved onto them in batches. In the end, they were sealed together and turned into card-like objects.
Chen Ming picked up one of the cards, channeled a small amount of Spirit Power into it, and felt the interior space within. He nodded with quiet satisfaction.
This production line was not designed to produce everyday consumer goods, nor cutting-edge high technology. It was a facility built to manufacture low-grade soul tools.
These pre-treated metal sheets, after passing through the various stations on the production line, emerged as storage soul tools in the shape of cards.
Although each card only had one cubic meter of storage space, the success of this process already carried great meaning.
Proper processing procedures and mechanical methods could replace soul engineers in carving qualified soul tool formation patterns. For simple, low-level soul tool cores with uncomplicated formations, the yield rate could reach over 97%.
There was no need for a soul engineer to understand what a soul tool actually was. A Spirit Master only needed to stand at the control station, pour Spirit Power into it, and add metal. Then the production line would operate on its own.
As long as there was enough metal, this small production line could produce four thousand card-type storage soul tools in one hour.
The cost of one card-type storage soul tool was two gold spirit coins.
That was the cost of the pure metal needed to cast the card.
If the mining industry and related supply chains also kept up, the cost could probably be pushed down to half a gold spirit coin, or even lower.
On the market, even the smallest storage soul tool, the kind with only half a cubic meter of space and that was technically a defective product, would still cost at least twenty gold spirit coins.
A one-cubic-meter storage soul tool would cost at least sixty gold spirit coins, and the quality varied greatly.
Of course, this storage soul tool had flaws. In fact, it had a whole pile of them.
Its small storage space was the least of its problems.
Card-type storage soul tools had no anti-theft measures. Anyone could use them easily.
Each use consumed slightly more spiritual power and Spirit Power than a normal soul tool, and there was also a tiny delay.
The soul tool itself was not very sturdy either.
It did not even need to be attacked by a Spirit Master. If a normal adult man hit the card with an iron hammer, the card would deform, and the stability of the soul tool patterns inside would be affected.
It could not withstand high heat, extreme cold, acid, or impacts.
This thing could easily be turned into a lump of scrap metal by all kinds of outside force.
But right now, its production cost was extremely low, its output was extremely high, the market badly needed it, and Chen Ming held a complete technical monopoly.
Chen Ming looked at the soul tool card in his hand, and the corner of his mouth suddenly curled upward.
"This is the symbol of industrialization. The sign that industrialization is coming… Metal, soul tools, weapons, tools, all kinds of materials, all kinds of substances."
"The Douluo world is a huge treasure vault. It's just that human development is deformed, and they haven't dug out the true potential of this world. And now, I already have both strength and background. It's time to do the things I wanted to do before but didn't dare to."
"The only issue is the lack of petroleum…"
Chen Ming shook his head, feeling somewhat helpless.
After all, humanity's technology tree was heavily tied to oil.
Petroleum—that all-purpose industrial lifeblood—was truly one of the most important and irreplaceable foundations of human technology.
Humanity could lose gold, but humanity could not lose petroleum.
For the time being, the Douluo world did not have such an efficient liquid.
Even if Chen Ming wanted to replace it, he would have to spend considerable time and effort searching for an alternative.
Fortunately, Spirit Power was an incredibly versatile form of energy.
It could transform into many forms of energy, and it had extremely high usability.
If there really was no petroleum, finding a way to make Spirit Power batteries would not be impossible.
Although humans ten thousand years later were the ones who developed the battery of soul tool technology, the "sealed milk bottle," it would not be especially hard for Chen Ming to make something like that with his technology.
At most, it would only be an issue of efficiency.
Once he had mastered dragon runes and temporarily handled the matters on Douluo Continent, Chen Ming planned to visit the Sun Moon Continent.
Compared to Douluo Continent, that place had fewer Spirit Beasts and fewer kinds of natural products, but in rare metals, it far surpassed Douluo Continent.
Perhaps over there, he could find some technology and metals that could turn the soul tool industry into a full system.
...
Even though the tiny bit of metal that humans on Douluo Continent had already developed was enough to let Chen Ming feel how insane this world's material science was, for technology, the more insane the material science, the less force was needed to push technology forward.
In the future, the technology tree could be climbed in an even wilder way.
For example, in Chen Ming's previous world, landing on the moon had always been a very serious and difficult matter.
But in the Douluo world, Chen Ming could even forge an iron shell, stuff a Spirit Master inside, and send that Spirit Master straight into space in a one-time launch.
There would not be much technical skill involved.
It would all rely on the Spirit Master being hard to kill, the Spirit Master providing their own energy, and the insane basic material science of the Douluo world.
Although he could not guarantee the Spirit Master would come back, reaching the moon itself would not be a problem.