Chapter 670: Construction

“Amazing! The ghost ship from three hundred years ago!”

“The Haishan! The long-lost flagship of the Hawk family!”

“A great discovery, Captain Victor’s expedition!”

…

The thick, crisp newspaper with a pale yellow surface described the return of the ghost ship in various exaggerated ways, successfully triggering another wave of public interest in the occult.

Wu Ming flipped through several pages and was satisfied to find that the information about himself and others like Vidi had been briefly mentioned, summarized simply as “tourists.”

For such a high-profile matter, let Captain Victor take the spotlight; he himself preferred to stay low-key.

“Mr. Steven Straling! Thank you very much for returning our ancestors’ relics. Our Hawk family will always remember this friendship!”

A well-dressed middle-aged man with white-golden hair smiled before him.

“This was mainly Captain Victor’s achievement, Mr. Anwen!”

Wu Ming replied modestly.

In fact, although the Hawk family was a large financial group with considerable influence in the Kingdom of Golden Oak, in his eyes, they were nothing special. His cooperation with them was mainly to pave the way for Captain Victor.

“I see!”

Anwen Hawk smiled: “Regarding the establishment of the long-distance shipping company, we’ll try our best to provide convenience, and also offer instruments and equipment suitable for long-distance voyages and salvage at factory prices…”

For Westerners, it was normal to expect something in return after doing a favor. In Anwen’s view, this was just another transaction.

Once this favor was done, although they would still be on good terms with this Steven and Captain Victor, their future attitude would depend on their own development.

“Two guys who just barely escaped from the bottom of society wanting to enter the real upper class still have a long way to go.”

Anwen silently sighed inwardly. For some reason, he looked at Wu Ming with an odd expression.

This young man gave him the feeling of being able to grasp that faint glimmer of hope.

…

Just as a long-distance salvage company named “Heart of the Ocean” quietly opened its doors in Victoria Harbor, Wu Ming and his friends returned to Yinchao City.

After the holiday, they also had to face their respective lives.

Angelina needed to continue her studies, while Philip, although he barely passed his middle school graduation exam, unfortunately failed the university entrance exam—it was simply not a place where he could use his cunning, and his family didn’t have the influence to help.

Then there was Alice, who, although she studied very hard, still hadn’t received any invitations from research institutes. She could only work at her mother’s research institute while continuing to prepare for the university entrance exams. After all, even working at the same institute, the treatment and future development determined by middle school and university diplomas were worlds apart.

At the time of parting, she seemed to have a lot to say to Wu Ming but was too shy to speak.

The halo surrounding the figure of Steven Straling was simply too dazzling.

Especially since he had already obtained the recommendation for direct admission and was about to enter Binford Business University, a top-tier business school even in the Kingdom of Golden Oak.

Perhaps, in the years or even decades to come, among all their childhood friends, only Philip might barely glimpse his back.

After resting at home for a few days, Wu Ming boarded a steam train to head to university.

“Did you bring enough clothes and money?”

Mrs. Straling fussily arranged Wu Ming’s luggage: “If you run short of money, just call directly, and I’ll have your father send more!”

She gave James one last glare: “You really don’t have to accompany him?”

“I really don’t need to, after all, there’s business to take care of!”

Wu Ming smiled: “I’m already a university student, not a child anymore!”

This kind of playful response immediately made Mrs. Straling smile: “You’re not even fifteen yet, how are you not my little guy anymore?”

Woo woo!

The train’s whistle blew, and Wu Ming jumped aboard: “Goodbye!”

“Call us as soon as you arrive!”

James and Mrs. Straling waved vigorously. Brandon and Angelina, the two younger siblings, had also come, though one wore a sullen expression while the other seemed somewhat reluctant.

“Angelina’s physique is somewhat special; I should really study it further in the future…”

Wu Ming sat in his seat, watching the houses and trees whizzing past the window, a pensive expression on his face.

The distance from Yinchao City to Caspar City, where Binford University was located, wasn’t far—only a few hours by train.

For this distance, airships might not even have daily tickets, and the travel time was about the same, so taking the train was better.

Wu Ming didn’t really care which university he attended and had casually chosen one that was relatively close.

“Excuse me… sir? Are you a student?”

Across from Wu Ming, a girl of about eighteen or nineteen curiously stared at his face.

Wu Ming at this moment looked like a typical teenage boy, but his face lacked any trace of immaturity; instead, it was filled with a kind of wisdom, which was undoubtedly very attractive to young girls just beginning to explore emotions.

“Yes, I’m going to study in Caspar City!”

Wu Ming casually mentioned the name of his university. The girl across from him immediately exclaimed in an astonished tone: “You’ve already been admitted to university? My goodness, sir, you will surely become an extraordinary person in the future!”

Unconsciously, she began using honorifics, drawing the attention of the entire carriage.

The university entrance exam could be taken by anyone with a middle school diploma, and there were no lack of “old birds” in society who had taken the test for several or even dozens of years, or even middle-aged people continuing their studies at university.

Wu Ming glanced at the books beside the girl: “Analysis of Functions,” “New Materials Science”… “You’re a university student too?”

“No! No!”

The girl across from him blushed instantly: “These are my sister’s books; I borrowed them to take a look…”

At her age, being able to understand these books meant she had already received a middle school education, yet she wasn’t a university student, clearly having failed several times.

“Oh!”

Wu Ming replied indifferently, not continuing to ask, but instead looking out the window at the scenery, seemingly absent-minded, while actually secretly communicating with the Master Temple space within his consciousness.

Inside the space at this moment, a special area had already been partitioned off, where the souls of thousands of petitioners rescued from the ghost ship were now residing.

The place where they lived was a vast plain, and now there were already some buildings on it.

The petitioners didn’t need to eat, sleep, or perform a series of actions to maintain their physiological activities. Their current behavior was merely a habit from their previous life and a bit of spiritual solace.

And most of their daily time was spent in prayer.

“My Lord, you are the sovereign of salvation!”

“Your divine kingdom has accepted our souls, and your great path walks through the world!”

“You are everything, the god above gods, the eternal sovereign. Your true name shall endure forever!”

…

To be honest, in a world with real gods, such prayers, once spread, would surely cause a sensation and be met with unified hostility from all deities.

But in this world?

Although he didn’t know whether there were real gods in this steampunk world, Wu Ming hadn’t seen any particularly influential religions, and as long as he kept the Master Temple space closed and didn’t spread it outside, it didn’t really matter.

“These petitioners’ faith is still very sincere… Unfortunately, their numbers are still too small, and the spiritual energy provided by their soul forms is also limited, considering a large part must first be used to maintain their own existence…”

Wu Ming observed from a god-like perspective, then silently sighed within his heart.

He had extraordinary knowledge of the path of divinity and knew that believers could be roughly divided into three levels: general believers, devout believers, and fanatical believers.

General believers were those who worshiped any god they saw, even including pseudo-believers.

Devout believers were true believers, a valuable asset for any deity.

As for fanatical believers? They were rare treasures, the ultimate form being saints whose path completely merged with that of the deity.

These souls, having been redeemed by Wu Ming, now had very firm faith, qualifying as devout believers, with a few fanatics among them. In the secular world, they would already be enough to establish the foundation of a church.

However, for the Master Temple space, this amount of faith, or spiritual power, was still insufficient—far from enough!

“The Master Temple lacks the power of the Great Dao but possesses the ability of creation!”

Wu Ming’s consciousness appeared in the Pearl, looking at a pool of golden spiritual liquid before him, lost in thought.

“Primitive… this space is too primitive… it doesn’t even have an auxiliary computing sub-program, like a blank sheet of paper, everything needing to be added by myself…”

Of course, the entire space couldn’t be managed solely by Wu Ming himself; otherwise, such a complex workload would drive him crazy.

“Therefore, it’s very necessary to establish several core programs, ones that also conform to the rules of this world…”

After all, the Master Temple wasn’t the Master Hall, lacking the power of the Great Dao, and its initial development was based on this world. Thus, even if Wu Ming wanted to do something, he couldn’t violate the basic rules of this world.

“Based on my understanding, in this world, things like computer brains or AI are out of the question, but there might be alternative possibilities…”

Wu Ming waved his hand, and nearly two thousand assembly diagrams and hundreds of thousands of component construction diagrams appeared.

“The steam differential engine and analytical engine, the highest technology in this steampunk world!”

Wu Ming murmured.

Such blueprints weren’t secret; tons of them were stored in the library’s archives, not even guarded against theft because successfully constructing them was an engineering feat so enormous it was almost unimaginable!