In the beginning, he was ranked alongside An Shigeng as a spoiled brat.

After all, he had the title of Lord Wu'an, which was more than just a name.

In addition, Wang Jian was also pragmatic, with the two pillars of the empire on his side, so Qin Shi Huang was not worried at all about this nobleman resorting to desperate measures.

It can be said that what Qin Shi Huang Zheng most urgently needed was to improve the cultural foundation of the empire and strengthen its rule.

Chapter 115 Xuanzhen Temple and Imperial Academy

Having learned from the previous two experiences, the Royal Trading Company quickly seized the market in the capital and made a fortune every day as soon as it was established.

At the same time, it expanded at lightning speed to Guanzhong, the Central Plains, the Empire... and even beyond Dongsheng Shenzhou, into Nanzhanbuzhou.

Soap, glass, books... like a giant gold mine, earning at least 100,000 gold a day.

Moreover, the faster the expansion, the greater the revenue.

As for the profit sharing?

Fifty percent of the money was used to build private schools, pharmacies, orphanages, twenty percent was used to expand the business, and thirty percent was given to Qin Shi Huang.

Even though Zhang Xiaoshan's strength is extraordinary, he is still ultimately practicing in the mortal realm.

By cultivating good relationships with Qin Shi Huang, one can undoubtedly avoid a lot of trouble and also have less to worry about regarding those greedy and powerful figures.

This division established the absolute dominance of the trading companies within the empire.

Moreover, Emperor Qin Shi Huang was moved by Zhang Xiaoshan's compassion and bestowed upon him the title of "Peerless National Hero".

In just a few years, the empire's infrastructure was almost complete, with private schools springing up everywhere, highways connecting the nine provinces, and government-issued salt at low prices... Moreover, Qin Shi Huang's private treasury was a mountain of gold and silver, making him richer than 19 kingdoms.

As for high-end luxury goods, they are sold in the company's flagship store.

After all, even if glass is cheap, it is still measured in 'silver'.

As a result of the improvement of these infrastructures, people, in gratitude for Zhang Xiaoshan's merits, flocked to various places in Dongsheng Shenzhou to cultivate Xuanzhen Temples, which flourished with incense offerings.

Xuanzhen was Zhang Xiaoshan's pseudonym and Taoist name.

Chunyangzi was too flamboyant, and his status as a disciple of the Dao Ancestor made Zhang Xiaoshan even more hesitant.

Therefore, Zhang Xiaoshan adopted the Taoist name "Xuanzhen" in addition to his pseudonym "Zhang Shan".

If you can preserve the profound truth, all things will be accomplished!

Although the name and Taoist title were fake, the incense offerings were real. Therefore, Zhang Xiaoshan directly used the name of the Sword Master, who was the incarnation of a young boy, to take charge of the incense offerings of Xuanzhen Temple.

Furthermore, based on the Xuanzhen Temple, they collected incense offerings and used them to refine the Chunyang Cauldron.

After all, the Pure Yang Cauldron was Zhang Xiaoshan's natal magic weapon, and its purpose in being placed within the empire was to condense fortune and incense offerings.

The stronger the empire's fortune and the more prosperous its incense offerings, the greater the power of the Pure Yang Cauldron.

Moreover, with the passage of time, the quality of the Chunyang Cauldron will become even better.

However, the drawbacks are also obvious. If the fortune and incense offerings suddenly drop, the power will be greatly reduced. Therefore, apart from Wuji Daoren, Zhang Xiaoshan did not allow any other incarnations or the original body to follow the path of incense offerings.

The path of incense offerings is too restrictive; unless one feels there is no future in it, what carefree immortal would be willing to take the path of incense offerings?

At the same time, he also passed down the teachings of traditional Chinese medicine, exorcism techniques, and the Kunlun Qi cultivation method at the Xuanzhen Temple...

One reason is that it allows the Taoist priests of Xuanzhen Temple to save people, help the world, and exorcise ghosts and demons.

Secondly, select some talented young people to join the real 'Xuanzhen Temple'.

After all, most Xuanzhen Temples were prosperous and wealthy, and these were all offered to him.

In addition, the Taoist priests are self-sufficient, cultivating the land, so it is not a problem for each Taoist temple to take in dozens or hundreds of orphans, especially since there are too many orphans who have nowhere to go due to the war in recent years.

Zhang Xiaoshan plans to select some promising young men from among them and, using the 'Xuanzhen Temple' as a cover, establish the 'Demon Suppression Division' of the Great Qin Empire.

It targets those rampant evil cultivators and demons, but does not interfere in court affairs.

This was also a way to accumulate merit and faith in the human world, and therefore it quickly gained the support of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

After all, the power of cultivators is so great that they can not only play a decisive role in critical moments, but also deal with minor demons and monsters.

Because the Xuanmen sect suppressed the Eastern Divine Continent, there were no great demons on the land, but there were many lesser demons.

These demons are not worth the effort of those esoteric masters, so the Great Qin's "Demon Suppression Division" can naturally step in to suppress them and eliminate the evil.

In just three short years, Xuanzhen Temple not only gathered several Earth Immortal masters as offerings, but also sent over a hundred talented young people who, given time, will surely achieve great things.

Zhang Xiaoshan, as the master of Xuanzhen Temple, ruled the temple in his youthful form, acting as a hidden regional lord.

After all, sword control is the most lethal attack method for human cultivators.

Lingbao?

Even the immortals in the celestial realm don't all have one, and innate spiritual treasures are even more precious.

Therefore, the young man's transformation into a swordsmanship instructor to teach these Xuanmen disciples sword techniques for subduing demons and monsters is a good method, and it is quick and efficient.

···

The Imperial Academy, also known as the Academy of the State and the State!

This is the Imperial College built by Zhang Xiaoshan in the suburbs of Xianyang with the support of Qin Shi Huang.

To collect books from across the land and to recruit the most outstanding scholars to join the Imperial Academy, thus cultivating the future pillars of the empire.

The establishment of the Imperial Academy immediately shook the entire Eastern Continent.

Joining the Imperial Academy is essentially like stepping into the halls of power. Moreover, the connections between classmates and teachers are valuable resources, providing countless more opportunities for advancement compared to those scholars who directly enter the court.

However, the Imperial Academy was not only for scholars; it also included military strategists, Taoist practitioners, civil engineers, and more...

Based on the essence of various schools of thought, the entire Imperial Academy was divided into nine main subjects and thirty-six supplementary subjects, cultivating all kinds of talents for the empire.

As long as you enter the Imperial Academy, you are guaranteed a job after graduation.

Of course, this was only the prototype of the imperial examination system.

Zhang Xiaoshan did not rashly ask Qin Shi Huang to directly introduce the imperial examination system. If those nobles were pushed too far, even a rabbit would bite, let alone those nobles.

The method of "boiling a frog in lukewarm water" requires, at the very least, that a person from a humble background be able to stand on equal footing with the nobility in the imperial court.

In addition to being the vice dean of the Sheji Academy, Zhang Xiaoshan is also an academician of the Xuanmen sorcery school.

The purpose is none other than to develop the theory of investigating things.

In particular, the Heaven-Shaking Thunder, a divine artifact that had long been awe-inspiring in the Eastern Continent, was regarded as the greatest masterpiece by Xuanmen sorcerers.

Zhang Xiaoshan led these esoteric practitioners to study the science of natural philosophy, drawing upon mathematics, physics, chemistry, and more...

It can be said that anyone who can meet Zhang Xiaoshan's admission standards in the field of magic will be an absolute genius in mathematics, physics and chemistry in later generations.

Moreover, after these sorcerers joined the Imperial Academy, they stopped studying alchemy and began studying the nature of all things within just one month.

Therefore, after Qin Shi Huang sent a group of sorcerers, he stopped sending any more sorcerers to the Imperial Academy.

The empire recruited sorcerers in order to research elixirs of immortality.

Upon arriving at the Imperial Academy, Zhang Xiaoshan led the man directly into a ditch. He did not cause trouble for Zhang Xiaoshan, out of consideration for Zhang Xiaoshan's merits and remarkable achievements.

Especially the sorcerers of the Imperial Academy, whose grades were the best in all subjects.

However, it is known that Zhang Xiaoshan has no interest in developing an elixir of immortality, or that his expertise is not relevant to it.

So Qin Shi Huang found another highly respected alchemist, Xu Fu, to lead the alchemists in developing elixirs of immortality.

Chapter 116 The Lecture That Opens a New World

"The Tao follows nature, which, as the name suggests, means to understand the laws of heaven and earth and to comprehend and control the power of nature."

How to understand the rules of heaven and earth and control this ethereal and uncontrollable power of nature—that is the subject of our lesson.

The essence of all things!

The Imperial Academy, the school for sorcerers.

As the vice dean of the Imperial Academy, he was second only to the dean, Qin Huangzheng.

Zhang Xiaoshan's sorcerer classes are always packed, with students from other disciplines frequently auditing them.

First, Zhang Xiaoshan's lectures are insightful yet easy to understand.

Secondly, the classroom content is novel; it's not about alchemy or magic, but about things that even they don't know and are extremely interested in.

What is the essence of all things?

The sages analyzed the universe, dividing it into Yin and Yang, the Four Symbols, the Eight Trigrams...

The eight trigrams represent Heaven, Earth, Water, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Mountain, and Lake respectively. Qimen Dunjia imitates the laws of Heaven and Earth to trap and destroy enemies.

But today, I will speak of another essence of all things—the elements!

Since alchemy falls under the category of chemistry, Zhang Xiaoshan naturally needs to make people understand the periodic table.

Although those rare metals were indeed rare, for Zhang Xiaoshan, who was at the Taiyi realm at this time, the powerful magic support made refining those rare metals a piece of cake.

What is an element?

Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Thunder? Yes and no.

As for gold, there are many kinds of gold. Gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin are all metals, and even mercury is a liquid metal.

But besides these common metals, do any of you know of any other metals?

"Does the Grand Tutor mean that there are other metals in the world besides these?"

Yes, there are many.

However, these metals are very difficult to extract and require some magical techniques to refine.

This time, I have prepared some metals that are commonly seen but whose true nature is difficult to discern. For example, the metal that looks like silver is called potassium, which is found in substances such as table salt, alum, and saltpeter.

This metal is lighter than water and extremely flammable; if heated to two-thirds the temperature of boiling water, metallic potassium will melt into a liquid.

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at the metal in Zhang Xiaoshan's hand with curiosity.

Metals extracted from salt and saltpeter are virtually unheard of.

Even Fusu, the imperial prince seated at the head of the table, had a glint in his eye, and while glancing at the other metal objects placed beside Zhang Xiaoshan, he couldn't help but ask curiously:

"Grand Tutor, aren't these metals silver? Or pig iron?"

"No, this piece that is similar to silver is aluminum, which is also a metal that is lighter than iron, weighing only one-third as much as iron."

However, although this substance appears soft and light, once fused with metals such as copper, magnesium, and manganese, its strength surpasses that of finely refined steel, while its weight remains only one-third that of refined iron. It is a top-tier material for forging light armor and other protective gear.

In addition, there is magnesium, a combustible metal; tungsten, which is extremely hard and extracted from heavy rock ore; and uranium, which is highly radioactive…”

Zhang Xiaoshan took out more than a dozen kinds of metals, all of which were things that no one had ever seen before.

For a moment, everyone was surprised and shocked by the profound mysteries of the world, which were far more complex than they had imagined.

I never imagined that there were so many strange metals in the world besides the common ones.

The sorcerer apprentices, in particular, were greatly impressed.

Zhang Xiaoshan's lesson showed them a whole new world.

"Alright, get out of class is almost over, so I'm going to do a little experiment for you all."

Zhang Xiaoshan took out something he had brought with him, which turned out to be black coal. This was something that Zhang Xiaoshan had only recently begun to use extensively in the highly profitable industries of iron smelting, kiln firing, and coal briquetting.

At this moment, Zhang Xiaoshan took out the coal and, under everyone's watchful eyes, slowly crushed it into powder.

Seeing this, everyone was puzzled by Zhang Xiaoshan's purpose.

"We all know that when water is too cold, it will condense into condensation; after boiling, it will turn into water vapor. These are the three common forms of water."

While the form of coal is fixed, its internal structure can be forcibly altered by external forces, much like the legendary alchemy.

Can you imagine what this coal will eventually become?

"Change the internal structure of coal? Does that mean coal will turn into something else?"

"That's good, and it's something that everyone sees all the time."

Although diamonds are rare, many of the people present are from noble families and are not unfamiliar with them.

At this moment, Zhang Xiaoshan released a ball of raging fire from his hand, which was the extremely rare Nanming Li Fire in the Three Realms.

The temperature of the Nanming Fire was too high; before the coal could even burn, the flames quickly enveloped the coal dust in the center, melting it at high temperatures and compressing it within space...