Chapter 273: The Eve of Leveling Up

After staying with his family, enjoying the reunion, and receiving all kinds of looks for a few days, Ren Baqian returned to Dayao.

After changing his clothes, Ren Baqian went to Yangxin Palace Hall with a bag. The bag contained dumplings, red braised pork, and eggplants with meat filling that his mum made.

The empress was slouching in the sofa watching Noble Aspirations. She was also holding a packet of tomato-flavored potato chips in her hand.

[Noble Aspirations is a 2016 Chinese xianxia Romance television series based on Xiao Ding’s best-seller novel Zhu Xian.)

Upon seeing Ren Baqian arrive at the palace hall, the empress cast a glance at him and then ignored him. She was watching the television series with great attention.

“Your Majesty, I have brought you some dumplings. They are homemade and you definitely have to try them.” Ren Baqian raised up the bag in his hand.

The empress pointed to the lead character on the screen. “I always feel that ugly men like him look like girls.”

Following which, she cast a glance at Ren Baqian and then looked at the pretty-faced character on the screen.

Even though the lead character looked very similar to a girl, Ren Baqian wasn’t much better than him. Fortunately, he had become slightly muscular now, which made him look slightly better.

When Ren Baqian just arrived in Dayao, he was frail and skinny. His waist had been smaller than some aboriginals’ arms.

As for his facial appearance, it was best not to talk about it.

“Three solar furnaces have been set up at Mount Damo, we can produce 3000 catties of iron per day now,” the empress told this good news to Ren Baqian. She was still feeling very happy about it even though it had already been a day.

Furthermore, Ren Baqian was the only person that she could share her joy with.

“They have done a good job!” A look of joy appeared on Ren Baqian’s face as well. Even though the output still paled in comparison to the modern world’s, it was still a good start given Dayao’s mining foundation.

With a surplus in the amount of iron Dayao had, he could start making other things as well.

For example, steam engines?

At this point in time, Ren Baqian and the empress were lying on the sofa, each at one end. Both of their positions were oddly identical. They were both hugging their legs.

The empress realized Ren Baqian was imitating her. Without batting an eyelid, she grabbed a potato chip and threw it at him.

After the previous incident, both of them subconsciously kept a distance from each other. Ren Baqian was really too weak, and he couldn’t withstand any injury.

A slight touch from the empress could cause a severe injury to Ren Baqian.

He was like a piece of beancurd.

However, such a playful action was naturally quite common.

Both of them were also alright when it came to such playful actions.

The next day, Ren Baqian resumed his daily routine.

Practicing his martial arts and getting beaten up. At the same time, he had an additional job of preparing the teaching materials for the educational institution. After all, the first day of school was arriving soon.

Dayao’s new year was in three weeks’ time, and the students would be reporting for school soon after.

While preparing the teaching materials, Ren Baqian realized being a teacher was not easy.

The students in Dayao were different from him when he was young. In the past, he did not have a choice. He had to learn what was taught to him. Furthermore, he took examinations on these subjects all the way till college.

However, these things were new to Dayao. He needed to pique the students’ interests and captivate their attention.

Ren Baqian was going to teach the students language, mathematics, physics, and chemistry for the time being.

Among these four subjects, language was the easiest. All he needed to do was to teach them how to read and write. He also prepared to introduce simplified Chinese characters to this world.

It was absolutely necessary to teach these students mathematics as well. Aboriginal commoners still needed to use fingers to do addition and subtraction for single-digit numbers. For problems involving double-digit numbers, they had to resort to guessing to obtain the right answers. Every aboriginal commoner faced this issue.

The imperial officials weren’t any better than the commoners. They could do simple addition and subtraction. Any math problems that were slightly more complicated than this would cause them to scratch their heads in doubt.

Only the people from Ministry of Revenue had mastered division and multiplication techniques for double-digit numbers.

This world had zero understanding of physics and chemistry.

Of course, everyone knew that punching a rock with bare hands would hurt. After all, they did know that a rock was harder than their bare hands. This was a no-brainer.

No one tried to understand physics on a deeper level.

These fundamental cornerstones were necessary in transforming Dayao into a feudal society in which the material needs of most citizens were adequately met.

No matter how powerful an aboriginal was, without knowledge, he or she only knew how to kill someone and destroy something. He or she couldn’t do anything to build the society.

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Other than carrying bricks.

Dayao had thousands of Spirit Wheel aboriginals to carry bricks. All of them could carry a thousand of catties’ worth of bricks while running as fast as flying.

…

At this point in time, Ren Baqian was surrounded by darkness. He could only see a tinge of light coming from above his head.

He was completely surrounded by water. The immense pressure was crushing his body. Every single part of his body bore an enormous amount of pressure.

The last trace of air in his lungs had escaped.

Ren Baqian knew he was going to surface soon.

However, he still tried his best to dive downward, even if it was just a little bit of progress.

At this moment, his fingertips suddenly touched something, causing his entire body to tremble.

There was absolutely nothing in this lake, not evenly a stalk of seaweed. This was the first time he touched something in this lake.

“Could it be the lakebed?” Ren Baqian was filled with ecstasy.

Does it mean that he had reached the doorstep of Man Wheel?

Suddenly, he lost his strength completely and he blacked out. Following which, he returned to the real world, and his entire body felt an extreme fatigue.

After Ren Baqian woke up, he touched his body but couldn’t feel any changes.

Right now, the maximum amount of force he could exert was 2500 newtons. His current strength level was built up from scratch.

His strength and speed did not seem to have changed much from yesterday.

“Perhaps I haven’t reached the level of Man Wheel?” Ren Baqian was slightly confused now.

He left his room and asked someone to prepare the medicinal bath for him.

He was still pondering over the issue as he entered the bathtub. The level of Man Wheel was like a mountain pass. After attaining this level, he should be able to feel some changes.

It seemed that he had not attained the level of Man Wheel yet. He decided to cultivate again at night to see what would happen.

After having his medicinal bath, Ren Baqian left the imperial palace with some imperial guards and headed for the glass factory.

The end of the year was near, and the number of people in Lan City had increased significantly.

Many men and women wearing animal-skin-made clothes were shopping in Lan City for salt and fabrics to bring back to their strongholds in the mountains.

They also brought a huge number of fur-based products from the mountains. Most of them even brought wild animals that were caught alive and tied up.

Ren Baqian saw two persons carrying a tree trunk that had a sharp-toothed tiger tied to it.

Other than this, Ren Baqian also saw many unknown products and wild beasts that only existed within the depths of the mountains. For example, oddly shaped horns and unknown birds kept in cages.

Accompanied by a unit of soldiers riding on cows, Ren Baqian headed straight for the glass factory. Upon arriving there, Ren Baqian was led to a house by Jiao Zuo. There were many wooden chests placed neatly in the house, giving off a sweet scent of wood.

Ren Baqian stepped forward and opened up a chest. Inside the chest, there were sparkling and transparent drinking glasses. Dry grass was stuffed between each drinking glass to prevent them breaking when they were being transported elsewhere.

Ren Baqian was used to seeing glassware and hence he did not feel anything when he saw these glasses. However, when Jiao Zuo saw these glasses, a look of pride radiated off his face.

After all, these were made by him and the other craftsmen.

Then, Ren Baqian opened up another chest. This chest contained silver mirrors that were standing upright. All of them were circular in shape and were embedded into wooden disks.

After checking all the chests, Ren Baqian nodded his head with satisfaction.

These items were the goods that would be sent to the other three nations soon.

The amount of gold, silver and gemstones in the imperial palace’s treasure vault could only buy him three months’ worth of medicinal ingredients at most.

Even though a new batch of gold and silver would send to the treasure vault at the end of the year, it was for the next year’s expenses. These expenses included the salaries of the imperial guards, palace maids, and all the other employees in the imperial palace. It also included the empress’s daily expenses.

Therefore, Ren Baqian’s future training necessities would have to depend on this batch of goods.

It was the end of the year, and the two imperial-palace-owned trade caravans had already returned. Ren Baqian could send this glassware byway of these two trade caravans to the other three nations at the start of next year and make those nations pay back part of the huge profits they cheated from Dayao in the past.

“Every craftsman shall receive ten taels of silver and every apprentice and odd-worker shall receive three taels of silver. You yourself shall receive twenty taels of silver. Tally up everything and tell me the total amount of silver needed. I will ask someone to send the silver to you as soon as possible so that everyone can have an abundant new year,” Ren Baqian said plainly after closing up the chests and left the house.

“Sir, you’re wise and brilliant! It is our good fortune to be able to work under you!” Jiao Zuo immediately said.

“What a talent!” Ren Baqian redefined his impression of Jiao Zuo.