We bear people have power

Zuo Lingfeng ordered several of his men to tie up people, while he himself played with the cylinder in his hand and said, "This immobilization spell can blast a group of people at once. Even if I were hit, I wouldn't be able to move. After more than ten years of hard training in martial arts, I have no ability to resist this kind of magical weapon. Sigh."

A sigh encapsulates the bitterness of a martial artist.

Not long ago, Sickle Hammer City began to teach the Longevity Technique to its members under certain restrictions. Only trusted elders were allowed to practice it, and even private instruction was strictly forbidden. Zuo Lingfeng had a good father; Zuo Zhongtang and Guan Bo were old acquaintances, and Zuo Lingfeng had caught Guan Bo's eye because of the incident with the Wuji Kingdom's Grand Preceptor.

Therefore, Zuo Lingfeng was among the first batch of cultivators.

He initially thought it was some profound martial art, but it turned out to be a cultivation technique for achieving immortality. At first, he was overjoyed, thinking he was about to become a young sword immortal who could roam freely in the heavens. However, for him, the only effect of this technique was to convert his internal energy into magical power.

His martial arts skills were much more powerful than before, but that was all. He specifically went to Zhang Yuanshan to ask and learned that he lacked talent and would probably never become a sword immortal in his lifetime. This magical power wasn't meant for them to actually cultivate immortality, but rather to equip those who had cultivated magical power with new equipment for testing.

This cylinder was one of them, but I didn't expect it to be so effective. It immobilized seventeen or eighteen people with a single blow.

If this were on a battlefield, a hundred men firing simultaneously could turn tens of thousands of soldiers into wooden stakes to be hacked down at will.

That's why Zuo Lingfeng lamented that his years of martial arts training had been meaningless.

Such situations are common in Sicklehammer City. Whether it's petty theft or bullying, no amount of influence or connections can completely eradicate these scoundrels; the only recourse is to try and control their existence through punishment.

These days, law enforcement officers are patrolling much more frequently. Anyone they see behaving improperly, who might have previously only received a warning, is now being dealt with using magical artifacts. Those lucky enough are hit with a freezing spell, while those less fortunate receive a paralysis spell, a lightning spell, or even a simplified version of a flying sword.

These new pieces of equipment were tested; some were very effective, while others were so powerful that they nearly injured friendly fire. All this information was compiled and sent to the city lord's mansion.

Guan Bo and Nie Shuhuan gave their suggestions for improvement based on these reports, and then rushed to the magic weapon manufacturing factory in Sickle Hammer City.

That's right, it's no longer a small-scale laboratory, but a production line factory with more than 100 employees.

"The structure of the immobilization spell still needs improvement. Here are the new blueprints. You need to remelt the gold seal and then engrave the runes. The Heavenly Thunder Spell has too low a hit rate and is prone to accidental injury, so we should stop producing it for now..." He gave the instructions one by one.

The employees removed a square, pure gold seal, measuring ten feet in diameter, from a massive machine and then placed it in a furnace to be melted down. The patterns were then re-engraved, but the task of engraving the runes had to be handled by Guan Bo.

Although these employees had all cultivated the Longevity Technique and possessed the magical power of cultivators, only Guan Bo, a Nascent Soul demon, could carve the runes onto the golden seal in a micro-engraving style. These densely packed runes, arranged in a special way, formed one hundred new immobilization spell arrays, and were also mixed with quantum entanglement runes unique to Sickle Hammer City.

Half of the quantum entanglement runes were engraved on the gold seal, while the other half was divided into ten parts by Guan Bo and engraved into ten pure gold discs.

Having completed all this, the gold seal was reinstalled into the machine, and with a rumbling sound, the machine began to operate. A sheet of yellow paper, about ten feet square and slightly larger than the gold seal, emerged from one end of the machine and began to roll towards the gold seal under the action of the rollers.

Meanwhile, the employees of the ten factories sat neatly at their posts, channeling spiritual energy into the pure gold discs that Guan Bo had just crafted. They worked with practiced ease and perfect coordination, and each golden disc shone with magical light. Under the influence of the quantum entanglement runes, the golden seal naturally followed suit.

The magic power illuminated the immobilization spell's array diagram. When the yellow paper was placed under the golden seal, it completed a full charge of magic power. Then, the machine pressed down the golden seal, imprinting the immobilization spell's array diagram onto the yellow paper with magic power. Next, the yellow paper would undergo several soaking and sealing processes before being cut into one hundred equal parts by a sharp blade.

The yellow paper was transformed into divided immobilization spell paper as it moved from one side of the machine to the other, a process that took less than the time it takes to brew a cup of tea.

Aside from Guan Bo's intervention required for casting the gold seal, once the seal is complete, these workers alone can finish the remaining processes. And as long as the raw materials are plentiful, this single machine can produce 30,000 immobilization spells per day. This is because the workers' magical power is limited and they need rest to recover; if a shift system were implemented, with the machine running day and night, it could produce at least 50,000 spells per day.

Even if this kind of immobilization spell is only effective against mortals or cultivators below the Foundation Establishment stage, the sheer number of these spells is enough to terrify any cultivator in the world. Putting aside everything else, if Guan Bo were to make the talismans himself, he'd be lucky to produce a hundred or so a day; that would be an incredibly laborious task.

There are five such machines in this factory, used to produce talismans that do not cause fatal damage, enough to support the daily use of Sicklehammer City, and even with spare capacity.

The only material that requires a significant amount of resources is yellow paper. Not just any paper can be used to make talismans; it must contain a trace of spiritual energy. The best material is naturally jade, as jade imbued with spiritual energy can be used to create jade talismans that can be used multiple times. However, this material is extremely expensive and rare, which contradicts the inexpensive nature of industrial products.

After much deliberation, Guan Bo finally decided to focus his attention on the spiritual spring.

Papermaking inherently requires a large amount of water, and these yellow papers are all soaked in spiritual spring water, so they naturally carry a bit of spiritual energy and can be used to make talisman paper.

With the raw materials secured, the rest can be handled by machines.

These five machines are the culmination of countless hours of research and development by Guan Bo and Nie Shuhuan. Using the Flame Worms as their power source, Guan Bo created the simplest steam engine to power these enormous machines.

This is all thanks to Guan Bo's Nascent Soul stage cultivation; forging steel is as easy for him as molding clay. Otherwise, he couldn't have tested it dozens of times a day, using countless experiments to standardize the machine's design. The employees are mainly responsible for operating the machines and infusing the golden seal with magical power. Guan Bo has transformed a technology-intensive job into a labor-intensive one. If these talismans were modified to be offensive, they could easily wage war.

"It's finally starting to look somewhat industrialized," Guan Bo remarked.

“Yes, we don’t need to keep an eye on the factory all the time anymore. Now, let’s move on to the most crucial part,” Nie Shuhuan nodded.

Hearing Nie Shuhuan mention this, Guan Bo felt a surge of excitement. A mere assembly line talisman paper production factory shouldn't have alarmed Guan Bo, a transmigrator. In fact, this factory was just a practice run; the truly world-changing weapon was still in preparation.

Guan Bo called this plan: Divine Punishment!