Chapter 307: Chapter 262: Engine
After leaving the Imperial Palace, Li Ang immediately rushed home without stopping to prepare for the compilation of the Medical College textbooks.
He already had a part-time position at the Imperial Medical Bureau, was completely authorized to write textbooks, and he didn’t have to worry about opposition from people like Qiu Quan—all the groundwork had not been laid in vain.
Many cases had proven the correctness of anatomy and surgery. For instance, intravenous injection is chosen for administering medication because the drug can return to the heart through the venous bloodstream. From there, it circulates throughout the body, being distributed to the liver and other locations. Arterial blood pressure is high, making injections difficult and bleeding likely. Moreover, arteries are located deeper, with thicker walls and narrower lumens, making needle penetration challenging. There were also examples like debridement and drainage, vascular suturing, external wound suture, and bone fracture recovery, all of which held relative advantages over previous medical skills.
Yu Country was at its zenith, showing a very high acceptance of new culture and science. Furthermore, Li Ang was already an authoritative figure, adorned with the halo of the Little Medicine King God. Therefore, adding this textbook—and even a whole subject—to the curriculum at the Imperial Medical Bureau was not at all difficult for him.
Li Ang quietly reflected, Now we have a sick house and a Medical College; the only thing missing is making healthcare affordable for the common people. He realized that even in a highly advanced Otherworld, public healthcare remained one of the most challenging social issues. If medical expenses were entirely covered by the state, the pressure would be far too great. And if public healthcare shifted from philanthropy to a market-driven model led by capital, it would inevitably lead to new problems, such as exorbitant medical costs, overtreatment, and tense doctor-patient relationships, among others. Li Ang had no desire whatsoever to see the sick house system he had worked so hard to establish turn into a tool for extorting money from the common people.
After all, we must first increase productivity and make the common people and Yu Country prosperous. Otherwise, no matter how good the system of the sick house and Medical College, it is nothing but a castle in the air.
Li Ang, who was in the middle of writing the textbook, paused for a moment. Tomorrow, I should visit Dr. Su Feng,
he thought. Tantai Leshan did say their engine had made another breakthrough.Three months later, Li Ang returned to the Academic Palace.
He smiled as he walked through the tree-lined path and across the lake bridge, listening to the clear morning reading sounds coming from the supervision building, and arrived at the entrance to the patent office.
Before he even stepped into the patent office, he heard a deafening roar from inside and Su Feng’s hearty laughter.
What’s happening?
Li Ang, covering his ears, walked in with curiosity. He saw that everyone in the hall wore fluffy earmuffs, and on the ground in the middle of the hall, there was a strangely shaped, loudly clanking mechanical device.
The machine was nearly half a man’s height. Its surface featured an intricate and complex arrangement of gears, chains, and belts. Looking through the half-dismantled shell of the apparatus, one could see even more complex pistons, connecting rods, and crankshafts.
"Ah, Risheng, you’ve arrived." Su Feng, wearing pink furry earmuffs, saw Li Ang. He moved a lever on the machine, bringing it to a stop, and then said with a laugh, "How about this fifth-generation engine?"
"Fifth generation?" Li Ang was slightly taken aback. "It’s evolving this quickly?"
He knew that when he left Chang’an, the patent office was still researching the first-generation engine. In just three short months, had they already advanced to the fifth generation?
"Hehe." Su Feng grinned without offering any explanation. He took off the pink furry earmuffs from his head, placed them on the table, and instructed students like Ou Zhiyuan to reinstall the engine’s casing on the floor, before gesturing for Li Ang to follow him to the office.
"I’ve been immersed in researching the engine these three months and didn’t write many letters to you, which I feel somewhat sorry for. Here." Using Telekinesis, Su Feng poured a cup of tea. He then moved forward a few steps to the center of his cluttered, book-filled office and pulled off a tarpaulin.
SWISH. The tarpaulin landed on the floor, revealing a dozen large and small mechanical devices, each with a somewhat different design.
"These are the achievements of this period," Su Feng rubbed his palms together, eagerly introducing, "First, there’s the first-generation engine; you remember it, don’t you? The principle of the first-generation engine was to use the Wind Talisman to draw in fierce winds, propelling the piston back and forth. However, the majority of the wind force conflicted within the Wind Chamber and was consumed, resulting in insufficient power. Therefore, following your proposal, we invented the second generation, using water as an alternative. Igniting the Fire Intense Talisman generated thermal energy, which heated water to steam. This steam then drove the piston. This increased efficiency by over 50% compared to before. However, the Fire Intense Talisman burned out too quickly; even talismans from a Cloud Patrol Realm Cultivator couldn’t last longer than half an hour. Unless you get a Divine Talisman Master like Master Tantai to make them."
"..." Li Ang leaned in to closely inspect the second-generation engine, his heart thumping wildly. Indeed, Su Feng truly is one of the most brilliant minds of Yu Country in the past hundred years. This second-generation engine is no longer different from the steam engines in my Otherworld memories. All it needs is to switch the talismans with coal.
Su Feng continued, "Which is why I invented the third and fourth-generation engines. The former employed the Former Sui Mechanical Puppet Skill, which could autonomously replace and trigger talismans. This extended the machine’s operating time to two hours (one shichen). The latter, based on the former, used a dual-talisman system. It had both a Fire Intense Talisman for thermal energy and a Water Condensation Talisman that drew water from the air, eliminating the need for continuous water refilling. The overall operation time increased to twelve hours (six shichen)."
Twelve hours?! Li Ang’s mouth fell open in amazement. A steam engine that could run continuously for twelve hours could already meet most current production needs; no amount of praise would be too much.
"But well, the maintenance is still too troublesome, and once operating, it cannot pause, otherwise an entire talisman would be wasted." The smile at the corner of Su Feng’s mouth was unmistakable. Ordinary folks, the simpletons, could not comprehend the significance of this invention. On the contrary, surprising and impressing a smart person of the same caliber as Li Ang brought him even greater joy and pleasure. "So, that brings us to the fifth-generation engine."
With a beaming smile, Su Feng took out a large roll of blueprints and handed them to Li Ang.
"This is..." Li Ang looked at the blueprints with their intricate and abstruse mechanical structures, and those runes etched onto metal plates, unable to suppress the shock and surprise on his face. "Divine Evil Cloud Talisman?"
"Shh, keep it down." Su Feng quickly waved his hands and whispered, "The fifth-generation engine largely abandons ordinary talismans. Instead, it directly engraves the Pre-Qin Period Divine Evil Cloud Talisman onto the metal plates. Talisman Magic originates from Witches and shamans. As one of the oldest talismans, the Divine Evil Cloud Talisman connects more directly with the sensing and communication between heaven and earth. It was replaced by later generations of talismans solely because it was difficult to control and could lead to unforeseeable consequences. Nature’s spiritual energy is not stagnant but flows and changes like the wind. The Divine Evil Cloud Talismans on the metal plates can function like a funnel, absorbing even the weakest flowing nature’s spiritual energy to power the engine. It only needs the addition of the most basic talisman to trigger it. Through experiments, it was found that a Rain Listening Realm Cultivator could write ten qualifying talismans per day. Each talisman, when used to start an engine, could replace the work efficiency of hundreds of laborers and farmers."
Li Ang took a deep breath, the shock in his heart beyond words. He was not astonished at the output power of the Divine Evil Cloud Talisman engine; Su Feng’s design was to capture the faint spiritual energy when nature’s spiritual energy flows, somewhat similar to a wind power generator. Its power has a limit and could not compare with a Cloud Patrol Realm Cultivator.
But to be driven by nature’s spiritual energy... Such a design had already diverged distinctly from his Otherworld memories. From steam engines, skipping stages like internal combustion engines, gas turbines, and jet engines, they were leaping straight into the "Spiritual Energy Machine" era. The technology tree had completely developed in an entirely different direction.