Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1451 Mobile Phone
"Cellphones? Yes, there are plenty." Shangluo called Master Lan, who replied affirmatively, "You've been getting better and better at it lately."

"Hey, Master Lan, can you make it a little bigger? And use flexible metal for the screen, preferably one that can be folded."

"What do you want this for? To make a visual memorial?"

"No, this is what I want. It doesn't need to be folded as many times as a memorial. Three folds will do."

Master Lan was a little confused. He could understand Shangluo's request, but why did it have to be folded, and why did it have to be three?

But since it was Shangluo's request, he would satisfy it. After all, Shangluo seldom asked him for anything.

So why is it triple-fold?

"Well, it happens to you too: when you were a kid you wanted to buy something but didn't get it, so when you grow up you want to buy it as revenge."

[So you wanted a phone like this that can be folded in three places, but you didn’t buy it before, and now you want one? So, is it a very special thing? ]

"It's not that special, I just really want one. It's pretty cool."

[Well, Master Lan should be able to satisfy your small request. ]

“I just think that the material for flexible screens might be a little difficult.”

[You are talking to a group of alchemists about the material problem. Unless you want some strange special materials with extremely demanding performance requirements, such as requiring toughness to remain at 3000℃, it may be a bit troublesome. But if you just want a foldable flexible screen, it will probably be very easy for them. Of course, mass production is another matter. There are alchemists who can make this thing, but they can't sit there every day to make pills for you. ]

"Okay, okay, then I'm going to indulge in some extravagance, haha. One screen to watch videos, one screen to play games, and one screen to check the chat group."

Can’t you have three?

"How can you have three? Each person can only have one. If you want three, you'll be eating too much."

[So you want one that is three times as big, right?]

"That makes sense." Shang Luo replied, "It's true that each person can only have one office, but is it okay to divide the office space according to the rank? This Heavenly Lord is busy with official duties, so of course I need a phone with three screens."

Although Shangluo's request made Master Lan a little confused, the next morning, Shangluo became the confused person.

Early in the morning, he was called to Zhu Xianxin's office.

"Oh my, Shangluo, this is a great idea. Look at mine!"

Zhu Xianxi showed Shangluo his new phone. He stretched out his hand and unfolded the 12-fold screen, each page showing different content. The fully unfolded phone took up the entire desktop.

"Shangluo, this is yours." Master Lan sat beside him drinking tea, with many other bags on his hands, which were other gifts he brought.

"Ah, this." Shangluo silently opened his small box.

What was in there was indeed what he wanted - but it was not the 3-fold one he wanted, nor was it Zhu Xianxun's 12-fold one, but a 10-fold one.

"Master Lan, this is..."

"You mentioned this to me, and I thought about it. I think your suggestion is very good. If everyone uses the same phone, it won't show the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues of ruler-ruler, minister-minister, father-father, and son-son. So I think the emperor should use a 12-fold fold, princes a 9-fold fold, officials a 5-fold fold, and scholars a 3-fold fold."

"That's great!" Zhu Xianxi was delighted. He received a satisfying gift early in the morning, and he was particularly energetic when eating breakfast today.

"But, Mr. Lan, what do you think of my 10-fold?"

"I've thought about this. I originally planned to use 12-fold for both you and the Emperor, after all, Daozu treats you two as equal. But this is going to be used outside, and it's not quite right to give you 12-fold. After all, Daozu didn't tell everyone about the relationship between you and the Emperor. But it's not right to give you 9-fold, because you are obviously higher than the princes. So, I chose 10-fold."

“Then why not 11 folds?”

"Well, that's a good question. There is a reason for this. 9 is the number of the extreme. The princes who hold the highest position use 9 to fold. And you use 10 to fold, which means it is beyond the three realms and not in the five elements. 10 also means perfection, good luck. Moreover, the princes fold 9, the ministers fold 5, and the scholars fold 3 - these 9, 5, and 3 are all odd numbers. But you and the emperor both use even numbers, and the folding method is the same. So, I folded 10."

"Great, great." Zhu Xianxi nodded, "Master Lan is really good at solving problems. He solved them so well in no time."

[Shangluo. Is Master Lan used to doing questions?]

"How can I not get used to it? After all, I have been the imperial Taoist priest for the Super Riddler for so long, and his level of guessing riddles is definitely not comparable to ours. Sometimes I forget that we are a feudal country because of the abundance of resources. Now I remember it."

"Shangluo." Zhu Xianxi suddenly asked, "Look, this 12-fold is amazing! Look, let me run this "Acrobatic Troupe" game again."

Acrobatic Troupe is a horizontal jumping game of jumping through fire hoops. There are no platforms, just jumping through fire hoops on a horizontally extending axis. This game is relatively old in terms of gameplay, but because the game mechanism is very simple and saves energy, it is used by many people as a hypnotic game and occasionally to brush up their scores.

The score of this game can grow infinitely. But as the game progresses, the fire circle will fly faster and faster, and finally it will be so fast that even the Qigong practitioners can't react. Zhu Xianxin is a Dan cultivator. Although he has advanced to the Heavenly Man, his reaction speed has never been very fast. He has never had the confidence to rush to the top of the scoreboard, until he got the 12-fold mobile phone——

With a whoosh, the entire game screen extended to the width of the entire desktop. The positions of the long row of fire circles, according to density and height, were all visible at a glance. Others could only concentrate on a small mirror, but Zhu Xianxi's 12-fold could be far-sighted, using the super-long horizontal coordinate axis to see in advance the shape of the fire circle that would come in a few seconds. He could also make top-level designs in advance and be mentally prepared for the next level.

With almost no effort, he broke his personal record of 4 points. Although it was still a long way from the highest score of 4 points, he planned to spend some time to break it.

[Ah! I got that 4! It’s my record! Shangluo, hurry up! Give me your 9-fold later! How can I be surpassed in playing games? I’m a native of the second dimension!]

Shangluo was silent.

"Shangluo, do you like it?" asked Master Lan. "Of course I like it, but I think a 3-fold is already very luxurious. How can I use this 10-fold? Isn't it a bit wasteful?"

"Hey." Master Lan Tian waved his hand, "You still have to have the necessary clothes. If everyone else uses three-fold clothes, it would be embarrassing for you to use three-fold clothes too. The King of Korea can also use nine-fold clothes according to his rank, and you can't use a smaller one than the King of Korea. So, although it costs more material, it's normal for good clothes to cost more material."

"Let me think, should I give the censor a 4-fold one?"

"Is there any explanation for this?" asked Master Lan.

"The censor is considered a scholar. If he also uses the 3-fold, he will be indistinguishable from the crowd. The censor does the work of the 5-fold, but his level is only the 3-fold. So, it's just right to use the 4-fold. The 5-fold is more feudal, and the 4-fold is more sportive."

[Shangluo. You already know how to answer quickly. ]

"It's been so long, I guess I'll get enough of it."

Master Lan thought for a moment and said, "That's fine. We should treat the censors with more kindness. I haven't started yet, so I'll give them new things later."

Shangluo doesn’t know whether it is right or wrong to classify mobile phones according to their screens, but this is indeed very feudal.

Although this gives a strange sense of déjà vu of an emperor using a golden hoe, since Zhu Xianxun himself likes it very much, there is no problem with it.

"Okay." Zhu Xianxin turned off the game and tried to load the file on the screen - 12 Fold displayed a whole column of data.

"That's right. The experience is excellent, just like reading memorials - Shangluo, you said before that you wanted to climb the technology tree, right? This technology tree is really good, it's wonderful. The technology tree is really a good thing."

"Brother, it's good that you like it. But, Master Lan, if you want to make a lot of these phones, do you need my help?"

"Yes. Actually, you need to get me some cinnabar. This flexible material is made from cinnabar and is different from ordinary glass. I made two for you to play with. If they work well, I'll have my disciples start refining them."

"Oh, right." Shang Luo suddenly wanted to fight, "Master Lan, I actually have a question. How did you get something this long into the alchemy furnace?"

Shangluo remembered that the alchemy furnaces he had seen looked like small coal briquette stoves, which were the alchemy furnaces used in the Jinyiwei alchemy room.

Such a small alchemy furnace cannot even accommodate the size of the mobile phone screen. It is obvious that the technology used by Master Lan at that time was somewhat different from this.

"Ah, that's what you're talking about." Master Lan explained, "Because we don't use ordinary alchemy furnaces."

"Hmm?" This made Zhu Xianxin interested. "Master Lan, do you have a different alchemy furnace? How did you make it?"

Logically speaking, there are certain requirements for the alchemy furnace - the furnace is designed to be solid and strong, with twists and turns to ensure safety.

The alchemy furnace itself has a fixed style. There are special requirements for the medicinal mud, the middle body, the use of fire, etc. Before opening the furnace, one must recite mantras such as "The great heaven, the yellow earth. Give birth to all things, and all things are prosperous", and perform some rituals.

The alchemy furnaces in the Jinyiwei alchemy room are all standard alchemy furnaces. It is difficult to make any other modifications to this style, otherwise the various rituals cannot be performed. At most, there are some differences in appearance.

However, refining such a large screen at one time is obviously not something that the small alchemy furnace can accomplish.

“We got a tunnel furnace.”

"Tunnel furnace?" Zhu Xianxun asked, "Does it meet the requirements?"

"You know what, it really fits the bill. And it's a pleasant surprise. That's what I want to talk about today. Shangluo, you said before that you wanted a chip, right?"

Shangluo nodded. He knew that although other technologies of the Ming Dynasty had been developed beyond the standard, semiconductor technology was the only thing that was not developed. The computers they built were as big as a house. Not to mention the low computing power, programming also required manual weaving of magnetic flux lines. The most important thing to prevent in this computer was bugs. If a bug crawled in from somewhere, the program would be completely messed up.

"After that, I thought about it for a long time. Shangluo, I remember you mentioned something called a 'photolithography machine'. I was indeed thinking about how to make one. But after thinking about it, I felt that I was limited by the 'photolithography machine' you mentioned. You said that the photolithography machine is a machine, right?"

Shangluo nodded.

"But I think there is no need to build such a lithography machine here - we have no shortage of space. We can build a huge ring-shaped facility, let the light beam run in it, and then select the light we need. Then we found that it is not only the light beam that can run in it, but also Dan."

"Ah?" Shang Luo was stunned for a moment, "Does this conform to the alchemy method?"

"It does. If we make a ring-shaped furnace and let the pills flow in it, it does meet the requirements - the requirements for an alchemy furnace are 'round like the sky and earth, folded up like a pot, closed and dense, with the spirit flowing inside'. A giant ring-shaped facility is indeed round and closed and dense. You can really make pills in it."

"Hey!" Zhu Xianxi clapped his hands suddenly, "Then our alchemy problem has been solved, right?"

"I'm afraid it hasn't been solved yet. The furnace is too big, and ordinary people's spiritual power can't take care of it. It's a magical tool that can only be used by those in the Jindan stage."

"Then Master Lan, you can make pills, right?"

"It's possible, but with my attainments in alchemy, I'm afraid it's difficult to really make it - to be honest, Tianzi, your attainments in alchemy have indeed surpassed mine. So when we built this alchemy furnace, we mainly made it for the mass production of some ordinary elixirs, such as pills that can block poisons and create a golden body in a short time."

"So, such a complicated elixir requires me to reach the Golden Core Stage to refine it? Ah, this seems a bit far away. Moreover, I need to keep an eye on it all the time, right?"

Master Lan nodded: "I'm afraid it's not suitable to refine overly complicated pills for the time being."

"It's nothing. After all, there aren't many people who need it right now, so we just need to speed up the refining process. However, there is really no end to learning. I thought the Foundation Establishment Stage was already very powerful, but I didn't expect that there are magical instruments that can only be used by the Golden Core Stage."

"Well." Shangluo raised his hand. "Actually, I might have some ideas. I can let the automaton give it a try."

(End of this chapter)