Without saying anything, Li Yao focused his spiritual energy on his eyes and observed the workers in the Great Iron Plants carefully.
Observed from such a long distance away, the workers who were moving among the blast furnaces, tubes, and all kinds of iron structures looked like black and brown ants.
Most of them had covered themselves in gray capes and were wearing simple protective masks and eye masks. Their skin that was exposed to the air, however, had been smeared into brown or black by the dust and the pollutants. Also, because of the protective earplugs, their movements were rather dull and sluggish, making them truly look like mechanical worms that had not been wound up or a bunch of lifeless zombies.
Li Yao finally understood why Nepenthe was able to expand around the Great Iron Plants without being discovered. Whether or not those workers had practiced the Serenity Arts, they did not seem to have any feelings, just like the machines that were tired of metal!
Most of the workers were working hard in the depths of the mines or inside the factories. Naturally, it was impossible for Li Yao to see what was going on. However, Li Yao saw rows after rows of workers crawling out from the depths of the mines, dragging carts of raw ores one after another.
Even such a simple job that could be completely replaced by spiritual puppets was undertaken by the hominoid miners. As far as Li Yao's eyes could reach, the only spiritual puppets that he could see were the supervisors on the commanding heights. The entire Great Iron Plants turned out to be a place where machines supervised the work of human beings and maintained the cold and bloody order!
Li Yao even saw that an execution platform in the shape of a cross had been established in a corner of the factory area. A hominoid miner was tied to the platform, and a battle puppet was whipping the miner's heavily wounded back brutally with an electromagnetic whip in its hand.
Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!
Sparks were spluttering, and flesh was splashing. The hominoid miner screamed miserably in excruciating pain.
A hundred hominoid miners were also forced to watch by the battle puppets. Their mouths and noses were all covered by the protective masks, and it was impossible to see their faces clearly. However, judging from the cramping of their shoulders, they were obviously in extreme fear and fury.
Judging from the bloodstains around the execution platform, it was obvious that somebody had been sent here to set an example for others.
Li Yao clenched his fists and muttered, "What crime did this worker commit to be whipped like this?"
"He was whipped more than ten times," Long Yangjun said. "It was a major crime such as damaging the mining magical equipment, not a minor crime such as spending too much time in the toilet, right?"
Li Yao was taken aback. "What? Going to the toilet for too long is considered a 'small crime'? Do I have to be whipped?"
"Of course. The Immortal Cultivators provide for so many workers and pay them every month, not for you to come to the toilet all day long."
Long Yangjun said, "According to gender and age, there are different timings for the toilet. If you do not return to your desk after five minutes, you will be violating the rules of the Great Iron Plants, and you will be whipped at least once."
After a long daze, Li Yao observed the commanding heights and firing points around the Great Iron Plants carefully and continued asking, "I can tell that the battle puppets that the Immortal Cultivators deployed here are indeed much more advanced than Xiao Xuance's Grand Illusionary Soldiers years ago, but why are there not many civil puppets? A lot of the simple and repetitive work can be completed by the civil puppets, can't they?
"It is rather strange. The Imperium's overall technological capability is at least decades ahead of the Federation's. That is true in terms of military magical equipment and battle puppets, but there does not seem to be any advantages in civil magical equipment, civil puppets, and the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus. In certain fields, the Federation is even better!"
"Don't you understand? It's because there is no demand in that regard!"
Long Yangjun said in a low voice, "The Xing Yao Federation pays more attention to the rights of the ordinary people, which leads to a high cost of hiring ordinary people in the factories. In order to reduce the cost, you can only devote tremendous new technologies and resources to the industrial automation and the development of civil puppets, replacing the previous workers with civil puppets. Only when there is a demand in that regard will there be a technological boom.
"But the Imperium has no such concerns at all. It can reduce the cost of the hominoids to the minimum blatantly without considering the benefits, rights, or occupational diseases at all.
"In the meantime, the Imperium can also increase the work efficiency of the hominoids and expand the cost advantage through methods with high side effects, such as activating the demonic genes or overdosing the exhilarants.
"Under such circumstances, it is only natural that the civil puppet industry of the Imperium cannot develop. All the new technologies and resources have been devoted to exploiting the hominoids!
"It is the same logic for the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus. In fact, the four families, the local warlords, the Sector Masters, and even the underground tyrants such as Li Minghui do not like to connect the entire Imperium to the same place because the Spiritual Nexus means information, and information is inherently equal, dangerous, and uncontrollable.
"They prefer to shut themselves up and call themselves kings behind closed doors. Sometimes, they only let in the information that is beneficial to them so that they can brainwash the hominoids. Under such circumstances, it will be strange if the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus develops at all!
"Therefore, it is not that the Imperium's technology is not as good as the Federation's, but that we have different directions of development. Don't underestimate the battle puppets here. I once stole one back and dismantled it. It is indeed very precise, complicated, and advanced!"
"I know."
Li Yao watched a squad of battle puppets finish whipping the hominoid miners. Then, medical puppets that had been smeared white stepped forward to treat the victims. Another squad of battle puppets escorted the other miners back to the mines. The whole process was well-organized without the slightest accident. Not a single Immortal Cultivator was commanding nearby.
It meant that the control crystal processors of the battle puppets were so advanced that they could automatically make complicated logical judgments and simulate different situations.
With such powerful control crystal processors, their combat ability could not be weak.
However, Li Yao was still confused. "Why are there no Immortal Cultivators around the entire Great Iron Plants? It is all the battle puppets that are maintaining order. Is Li Minghui not here?"
"As you can see, the environment here is too harsh. Naturally, the Immortal Cultivators will not stay here all day."
Long Yangjun said, "Generally speaking, the management made of the Immortal Cultivators and the private soldiers of the Black Iron Group will stay in the upper space. Five hundred meters directly above the Great Iron Plants, there is a training field and a rest area of quite a large scale, which is the residence of the Immortal Cultivators.
"Li Minghui, on the other hand, barely stays below the ground. He is mainly dealing with business in the world of Immortal Cultivators on the surface of the planet through connections!
"However, it is true that the Great Iron Plants has been particularly understaffed over the past few days. Your changes on the surface of the planet have raised a storm in the underground world, too. Many underground sects and groups that used to be affiliated with the Dongfang family have become stray dogs in panic. Li Minghui, on the other hand, has taken the opportunity to expand his territory and swallow the forces nearby with the toughest bandits under his command. He has turned all the forces with the surname 'Dongfang' into 'Li'. Otherwise, how can he make up for the loss of his godfather?
"It is exactly because of the chaos in the underground world that Nepenthe is planning to take advantage of the chaos. Come to think of it, there is only one day left!"
After observing the distribution of troops in the Great Iron Plants and the environment around, the two of them retreated to the depths of the mines without a sound. Then, they snuck into the living areas around the Great Iron Plants through the unknown gaps.
This place was a mess of shacks and caves, which were the homes of the workers. Not only did the families of all the workers live here, but there were also many providers of food, clothing, accommodation, and entertainment. Occasionally, there were peddlers who walked through the streets and alleys, coming and going from one underground space to another.
Compared to the depressing, gloomy, and lifeless factory areas, this place was more or less vigorous despite its disorderly development like crazy ant nests and beehives. People were waving their hands and yelling, occasionally suppressing the noises above their heads.
Long Yangjun told Li Yao that the Immortal Cultivators had adopted a carefree attitude toward the hominoids outside of the factory areas. They barely entered the stinky shacks in the living areas to search and maintain order. It was mainly because the Immortal Cultivators were unwilling to come to such a dirty and unprofitable place.
In the beginning, Li Minghui had thought of regulating all the hominoids strictly with the battle puppets as the police in the living areas. Later, he discovered that there were too many emergencies in the living areas, and the environment was too complicated for the crystal processors of the battle puppets to cope with. In order to turn the "soldiers" who were simply slaughtering and suppressing into the "police" who had to take care of the most trivial matters, the crystal processors had to be upgraded by at least two levels.
Realizing that the price was too high and that it was unnecessary, Li Minghui dropped the idea and simply appointed a few experienced miners who seemed to be well-behaved as the managers of the living areas. His attitude was very clear. As long as the productivity of the factories was not affected and no major trouble was caused, whatever the living areas of the hominoids became was not his concern.
The Grand Guardian of Nepenthe was named "Xu Zhicheng". He was a model worker that everybody in the Great Iron Plants knew. After his two sons passed away one after another, in order to show his "preferential treatment", the group asked him to be the manager of a neighborhood.
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