Chapter 51 Positions of magicians and merchants
“That’s right, I don’t have enough gold coins right now and can’t support the daily expenses of this Magic Tower.” Hearing Xu Yi coldly penetrating through him, Great Magician Camilla didn’t seem hurt at all. He just let out a soft sigh and directly admitted the truth, “But Xu Yi, I don’t like magic being polluted by the spirit of merchants. This is my principle, you don’t need to spend all that effort to change my thoughts.”
Xu Yi slightly knit his brows, “Your excellency Great Magician, can I ask why you feel this way…..Magic and money coming together, will it definitely be polluted? From what I can see, this is a complete paradox. Just like I said just now, money is innocent and as for how it is used, it completely depends on a person’s thoughts. You might think that money and magic coming together is bad, but rather I feel the complete opposite. If money and magic come together, it can create very wonderful changes.”
“Wonderful?” Great Magician Camilla gave a strong snort, “For a fellow like you with such a strong talent for magic to become a lowly merchant, how is that a wonderful change?”
Xu Yi knit his brows even tighter, “Your excellency Great Magician, your prejudices are too strong. Perhaps in the tradition of the Sines Continent, magicians are higher than merchants, but from what I can see, the merchants of the Sines Continent are stronger than the magicians.”
“Nonsense!” Great Magician Camilla suddenly slapped the desk and angrily stood up. He pointed at Xu Yi as he cursed, “You actually dare say that a magician can’t compare to those dirty merchants? What can those merchants do? They only rob people of their money with their black conscience! Whether it is their eyes or their brain, it is filled with thoughts of money and they don’t even have any honour among themselves! Those fellows, you are actually comparing them to magicians? Are you trying to shame me?”
“Then your excellency Great Magician, what can magicians do?” Xu Yi said with a cold smile, “Keep researching more powerful magic to become more efficient at killing people?”
“You……” Great Magician Camilla wanted to say that Xu Yi was speaking nonsense, but he suddenly stopped.
This was because he realized that Xu Yi was actually completely right.
That’s right, magicians had a high status on the continent, but why was that ? Of course it was because magicians were stronger than normal people and then easiest place for that to manifest itself was on the battlefield. Magicians had much greater killing power than normal soldiers with their magic.
In the history of the Sines Continent, many countries had countless wars and in those wars, magicians played a very important role each time.
Even some more powerful magicians, like those at the Great Magician Rank, just one or two of them was enough to change the situation of a battle or even influence the entire war.
Therefore, from a long time in the past, Magicians had always been feared and worshipped by people of the Sines Continent. Their statuses kept increasing without stop.
But no matter how high of a status a magician had, that didn’t change a fact, which was that Xu Yi was completely right. Magicians had always done a single thing, which was to keep studying more powerful magic.
As for the reason why they studied more powerful magic? Of course it was to have a bigger role on the battlefield.
To be more precise, it was to be more effective at killing people.
Thinking of this, Great Magician Camilla’s face that had been red because of Xu Yi’s words instantly turned pale. His finger pointing at Xu Yi began trembling and after a while, he fell back into his chair and didn’t speak for a long time.
Xu Yi gave a sigh and shook his head. If it wasn’t for the special circumstances, he wasn’t willing to be this direct with Great Magician Camilla.
But this was indeed his true inner thoughts.
He could understand why magicians had such a high status on the Sines Continent, but that didn’t mean he agreed with this.
From what Xu Yi could see, having powerful strength was indeed important because this could allow one to protect oneself and one’s important things.
But other than this, the most important thing was normal life.
Humans created civilization because they chased a more beautiful life.
Because of this point, humans invented various tools. This was the case from the ancient stone ages to the highly advanced civilization on earth.
With the development of civilization, humans could go from not having enough to eat to not worrying about food or clothes. They could even go into the sky or ocean, or even reach outer space.
If they lost this point, that means that human civilization would lose their driving force. At that time, they would be no different from animals.
Magic was very powerful, but Xu Yi was more willing to use magic to increase everyone’s quality of living instead.
So using his magic and his mechanical knowledge, he invented the Magic Fan to allow the people of Banta City to enjoy a cool breeze in the burning summer.
He then invented the Magic Harvester to increase the efficiency of harvesting wheat. It made Viscount Leslie and the other nobles confident in planting even more wheat, increasing Banta City’s grain yield indirectly.
After this, he would invent even more and more magic machines and help the people of this world to obtain a good life through these magic machines.
He even hoped to establish a complete industrial system on the Sines Continent, letting people of the Sines Continent have the same lives as normal people on earth.
Xu Yi knew that it was very difficult to complete this, but he wouldn’t retreat at all.
This was because while he was researching the magic machines, not only did he find again the joy of researching machines he had done for over three years, he also felt the joy of changing the world.
And right now, the first thing he needed to change was Great Magician Camilla’s thoughts.
“Your excellency Great Magician, if I may be frank, although merchants are like you say where their eyes and minds are only filled with thoughts of gold coins, it is because of this that they would have the idea to make and sell products. It is because of the drive from the profits that products would circulate on the Sines Continent, so people will not suffer the predicament of lacking anything. Perhaps there are quite a few degenerates among them, who even sell their conscience for gold coins, but can we deny the changes they bring?”
Great Magician Camilla was silent for a bit and his expression kept changing. After a while, he let out a long sigh and looked at Xu Yi.
“Xu Yi, I admit that your words have reason, but is this related to what you want to say? Speak, what exactly do you want to say?”
Xu Yi seriously looked over Great Magician Camilla’s face and found that he had seemed to have regained his calm. He couldn’t help revealing a smile.
Great Magician Camilla was after all an old person with experience and wisdom, he would not be easy to strike down.
“Your excellency Great Magician, let us return to the main problem. You don’t have enough gold coins right now to support your Magic Tower, then are you willing to cooperate with me? I can completely provide you with enough gold coins. Hei, I won’t hide it from you, my recent income isn’t bad.” Xu Yi said with a smile.
“Humph, you want to cooperate with me again.” Great Magician Camilla gave a cold snort and waved his hand, “Don’t say anymore. I said that this is my principle, I won’t change it.”
“Your excellency Great Magician, how about you let me finish first?” Xu Yi continued, “I think why you hate combining magic and business is one, because once it is combined with business, the magic research will be affected. And two, you feel unsettled about helping merchants cheat money from normal people. Don’t you think so?”
Great Magician Camilla gave another snort, but didn’t reject this.
“Very good, if your scruples are with this, I can tell you that if you cooperate with me, these two things won’t be problems.”
“Let’s not talk about whether the magic research will be affected or not. If I were to cooperate with you, you won’t cheat money out of normal people?” Great Magician Camilla asked in a thoughtful voice, “You think that I would believe a weak reason like this?”
Hearing how more relaxed Great Magician Camilla’s voice was, Xu Yi laughed. He took out a blueprint from his chest and put it on the table in front of Great Magician Camilla.
“Of course I won’t say that I won’t cheat normal people’s money, but what would you think if I were to say that people would look forward to me cheating them of their money?”
“Are you joking?” Great Magician Camilla’s eyes popped out, “Would there be anyone hoping that others would cheat them of their money?”
“It’s very simple, it’s because they need something and other than me, no one else can give them this thing. These things are especially important to them, so in this kind of situation, do you think they would care if I cheat them out of a bit of money?” Xu Yi said with a smile.
“How could there be such a thing?” Great Magician Camilla looked at Xu Yi, but his eyes couldn’t help looking over at the blueprint.
After looking it over a few times, Great Magician Camilla said in a strange voice, “What is this thing? Why does it look so strange? What is it used for?”
Since Xu Yi began inventing magic machinery, he didn’t even know how many times he had heard this question.
“Un, this is the very special thing that I just told you about. With this thing, it will solve a problem that has puzzled people for a long time. They will clearly know that I am relying on this thing to make money, but their hearts will be filled with gratitude towards me.” Without knowing it, Xu Yi had already come beside Great Magician Camilla and had bent over to start explaining the blueprint, “First, this thing is called the Magic Plowing Machine……”
Chapter 52 Mentality change
This time, when Xu Yi left Great Magician Camilla’s exclusive research lab, he didn’t look as sorry as he did before. Instead he had his head up high and he had a proud smile on his face.
Still had been waiting outside for a full two hours and had already become anxious from waiting. When she saw Xu Yi come out, she immediately rushed over and expectantly asked Xu Yi, “How is it? How is it? What did grandfather say?”
Xu Yi smiled as he raised his right hand’s index and middle finger at still, showing the “v” hand sign. Then realizing that Still might not understand what this meant, he quickly said, “Relax, his excellency Great Magician agreed.”
“Agreed?” Still called out in surprise. She looked over Xu Yi with a face covered in curiosity, “Grandfather actually agreed! I say, Xu Yi, how did you make grandfather submit? Could it be that you used the legendary dark enchantment magic on grandfather?”
“How could I possibly know that stuff?” Xu Yi snappily looked at Still, “Then again, your grandfather is a Great Magician. I am just a fellow who hasn’t even passed the Magicians Guild’s certification examination, wouldn’t I be rushing to my death if I cast magic on him?”
“Then how did you get grandfather to agree? He is someone who absolutely hates businessmen, not to mention working together with them.” Still kept questioning him in a curious manner.
“This…..” Xu Yi paused for a bit before giving a helpless sigh, “His excellency Great Magician had no choice. In the end, a magician still needs to eat and the problem your grandfather faces right now is real, he doesn’t have any money. Although an old person like him is very stubborn, compared to this Magic Tower that he painstakingly built, that stubbornness doesn’t count for anything. Then again, cooperating with me is better than cooperating with other merchants, I at least am considered a merchant with a conscience. Moreover, at the same time, I also have a status as a magician, which makes it easier for your grandfather to accept.”
A dispirited look appeared on Still’s face as she gave a slight nod. She said with a sigh, “That’s right, if it wasn’t for the fact that he really had no other choice, grandfather definitely wouldn’t do this.” After saying this, she looked at the door to Great Magician Camilla’s exclusive laboratory, “I’m going to see him.”
Watching Still walk in, Xu Yi considered it before turning to leave the Magic Tower.
He had just discussed this matter with Great Magician Camilla for a full two hours, Xu Yi’s harvests could be considered quite rich.
The most important harvest was naturally finally being able to cooperate with Great Magician Camilla.
Since what he studied was magic machines, magic naturally had an important role to play.
Before now, the magic machines Xu Yi studied could be considered light machinery, so the magic used wasn’t any high level Magic Arrays. With his current strength, it was enough to complete it.
But when Xu Yi prepared to develop the Magic Plowing Machine, he ran into a problem that he had already expected. That was the fact that his magic power wasn’t strong enough.
Because the Magic Plowing Machine needed to loosen a large area of earth, it needed a power source that was stronger than the other magic machines that Xu Yi had developed before. After Xu Yi made some careful calculations, he confirmed that if he were to use Wind Attributed Magic Arrays, it would take at least a Level Six Magic Array to work.
Although Xu Yi’s magic power had been constantly increasing, since it had been a short period of time, he was still only between a Third and Fourth Grade Magician. He could only use a few Fourth Grade Magic Spells and Magic Arrays, he had no way of using Sixth Grade Magic Arrays at all.
Even if it was Still, Evita, and Akali who were stronger than Xu Yi, they also couldn’t use a Sixth Grade Magic Array. Xu Yi was helpless in this matter and could only steel his heart to look for Great Magician Camilla for help.
Speaking of this, Xu Yi should thank the Lampuri Kingdom’s Royal Family. If they didn’t suddenly cut Great Magician Camilla’s funding, causing this economic crisis for the Great Magician, Xu Yi wouldn’t have been able to make this clean sweep with him. Who knows when he would have been able to convince Great Magician Camilla to agree to working with him,
Xu Yi was not in a rush for success. He knew that even if Great Magician Camilla agreed to work with him, the prejudice against merchants in his heart would not easily disappeared. So, he only brought out this Magic Plowing Machine to let Great Magician Camilla study and didn’t raise any other requests.
It had to be said, a Great Magician really was a Great Magician. Not only did his magic power surpass Xu Yi’s, his eyes, wisdom, and realm all surpassed him.
After Xu Yi thoroughly explained the concept of the Magic Plowing Machine, Great Magician Camilla only said a single word that stunned Xu Yi for a while.
“Since it’s to plow the earth, why do you use a Wind Attributed Magic Array? Why not use an Earth Attributed Magic Array?”
When Xu Yi heard this, he was stunned for a while before slapping his forehead.
Idiot!
Great Magician Camilla was completely right. Since the Magic Plowing Machine was used to plow the earth, using an Earth Attributed Magic Array was the more direct and effective method. It was far from something that that plows moved by a Wind Attributed Magic Array could accomplish.
Xu Yi understood that he was completely limited by his structured thoughts.
This was because in his original world, all the machines used energy transformation and then used that energy to power the machine. So, when Xu Yi researched the magic machines, he had followed this same logic.
For the first Magic Fan that Xu Yi made on the Sines Continent, he found that the Wind Attributed Magic Array could simulate most engines from earth. So in his further studies, he simulated the machines from earth and naturally used Wind Attributed Magic Arrays.
However, now that he had been reminded by Great Magician Camilla’s words, Xu Yi suddenly realized that he had made a mistake.
The Sines Continent in the end was different from earth and the biggest difference was magic.
Although it wasn’t able to compare to the highly developed industrial system of earth, magic had its own advantage.
Before this, Xu Yi sighed with emotion at how efficient Magic Crystals were in powering Magic Arrays, but now he found that magic had a powerful advantage in terms of flexibility.
Just with the Magic Plowing Machine. If one followed Xu Yi’s thoughts, it would be the same as plowing machines on earth and would use a Wind Attributed Magic Array as a power source.
Because the land that had to be plowed had been desolate for so long, the power needed to move land that was this firm was quite high. In the end, Xu Yi determined that it would need at least a Grade Six Wind Magic Array.
But after being reminded by Great Magician Camilla, Xu Yi quickly changed his thoughts. If he considered it from the angle of Earth Attributed Array, he found that it only needed a Second Grade Earth Magic Array, the Earth Splitting Array to satisfy this requirement.
As long as the design was fine tuned a bit, the effects would be even stronger than what Xu Yi had estimated before!
In this process, the most important thing to Xu Yi was not making the design of the Magic Plowing Machine much simpler or greatly decreasing the cost, rather it was that his thoughts had been open.
Before, Xu Yi only used his rich mechanical engineering knowledge and used a bit of magic to make copies of the machines. Now, Xu Yi found that there were many uses to magic and he could completely change the design, perfectly combining magic and the special mechanical engineering knowledge that he had together.
In other words, the magic machines Xu Yi researched before could only be considered magic powered machines.
But this new Magic Plowing Machine that he designed after researching with Great Magician Camilla, that is a product that was a true fusion of magic and machines! It represented the true fusion of the culture of the Sines Continent and earth!
Thinking of this, Xu Yi’s footsteps couldn’t help becoming faster.
The heart of a mechanical engineer inside him had already begun to burn and he was impatient to rush back to the factory. He wanted to lead Camby and the dwarves as they carried out research on the new Magic Plowing Machine.
But when Xu Yi stepped on the little path to the factory and looked into the distance, he was stunned. In the empty space in front of the two buildings, it was filled with people forming a dense crowd that didn’t leave a single opening.
Seeing how noisy these people were, Xu Yi’s heart skipped a beat.
Could it be something happened?