On a patch of firm ground on the outskirts of Ren Town.
In just a few short days, it was naturally impossible for a massive factory to rise from the earth.
For now, they could only rely on the weak but diligent bodies of the Pupu, using the perseverance of ants moving a mountain to first erect the skeleton of the workshop.
Using the Level 2 [Petrification] skill of the Rock Pupu to construct a building that could provide shelter from the wind and rain—without worrying about aesthetics or disaster resistance—was relatively easy.
However, when all was said and done, the most important part of a factory was its equipment.
Looking out over the workshop, Liya spread out the [Magic-Patterned Fine Steel Recipe] once again, her brow furrowing slightly.
The Empire’s metallurgy… gave off a rugged vibe that was simultaneously primitive and advanced.
First, a mid-tier Mage of the Dominion Sequence majoring in fire was required to control the temperature throughout the process.
This was supplemented by a magical casting furnace to melt the pig iron and maintain it at a constant temperature.
Afterward, a series of Magical Beast materials, such as Qianze Flowers and Blue Wolf Marrow, were added to initiate a violent compound reaction.
Midway through, a Mage majoring in the wind element was needed to ensure the “Qi Element” remained uninterrupted before performing two more “refinements.”
The subsequent casting and molding were even more complex.
It often required beefy men who practiced the martial arts of the War Sequence to personally strike the metal with forging hammers.
Only after exhausting a great deal of effort could production be completed…
After reading it, Liya had only one feeling: it was no wonder the Empire’s metallurgy had always remained stuck in a workshop model.
Even military factories were just larger, composite workshops.
Judging from Liya’s perspective, the Empire’s reliance on “caster” talent was far too heavy.
Perhaps it was precisely because of this that the Empire had developed a brilliant magical culture, while simultaneously possessing a severe tendency toward technological conservatism.
In a sense, this was understandable.
After all, as the ruling and middle classes, casters would certainly maintain their technological status and reject any scientific progress that would damage their interests.
For instance—”hanging the inventor of block printing.”
Using a Mage’s Hand to assist in hand-copying, they would rather continuously increase the number of Mage’s Hands and train their copying speed to improve efficiency than switch to a different method of printing.
It sounded ridiculous, but if a group of highly respected old Mages, who could casually summon a few meteors to smash your roof, sat in protest before you for the sake of the livelihoods of tens of thousands of low-level Mages… you probably wouldn’t be laughing.
Fortunately, Liya had no such concerns.
As a newborn race, the Pupu Clan didn’t have all those complications yet.
They were like a blank sheet of white paper that could be painted on at will, full of infinite possibilities.
‘Hmm…’
Liya thought deeply.
‘A forging machine is the easiest to solve. I can use a Pupu-powered motor, supplemented by the Rock Pupu’s ability to double their gravitational potential energy at any time, to operate high-efficiency forging hammers.’
‘Converters… desulfurization furnaces… refining furnaces… hot blasts… I can figure those out too.’
‘On the contrary, the relatively simple and most important blast furnace… is a bit troublesome. The main issue is the flame.’
The Pupu were, after all, water-aligned Magical Beasts, which conflicted somewhat with fire.
As far as Liya could remember, there wasn’t a single color of Pupu that possessed fire abilities.
Perhaps deep within some dark cave in the world, there existed Magma Pupu, but Liya couldn’t find any at the moment.
‘Fire… a high-temperature, controllable fire… where can I get one…?’
Liya fell into deep thought.
Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration.
Half an hour later.
A Flame Demon was shoved underneath the blast furnace.
“Wait! Stop! Both of you, stop! I’ve bled for the Empire! I’ve been loyal to humanity! I even helped kill Demon Lord Lia! Argh!”
The Flame Demon’s originally hideous and terrifying fiery “face” was currently filled with horror and grievance.
Wailing cries for mercy poured from its mouth.
It thought it had been captured by humans, so it kept recounting its contributions to the Human Empire.
The result was that the more it spoke, the darker Liya’s expression became.
“Stop screaming! If you scream again, I’ll use you to fill the river! I’ll never fish you out!”
Liya stood outside the blast furnace, lifted a wooden bucket, and splashed a bucket of ice cubes over him—which, to a Flame Demon, was no different from a human being “branded” with hot iron.
After the splash, Liya threatened him fiercely, “Burn properly! Behave! If you dare to disobey even slightly, I’ll keep pouring ice cubes on you! Do you hear me?”
“Uuuugh…”
The Flame Demon sobbed and nodded desperately, the flames burning across its body instinctively weakening.
As a powerful and eccentric Flame Demon from the First Demon Realm, Flaming Ice had originally lived a wonderful life of bullying weak demons and acting like a tyrant every day.
However, this morning, while he was eating hot pot and singing songs, these two Pupu suddenly jumped out and kidnapped him!
Originally, he had thought:
‘Pupu?’
‘Hah! I should avoid her edge?’
The result—he couldn’t win.
He couldn’t win at all.
In the end, Flaming Ice had knelt on the ground and begged for mercy in humiliation, thinking he would just be re-pledging his loyalty to another Grand Lord as he had before.
Instead, the other party had brought him to the human world.
This had nearly scared Flaming Ice to death! He thought the Empire’s demon-slaying quota wasn’t high enough today and was going to use him to fill the gap!
However…
They actually wanted him to come here to heat a boiler.
This was too humiliating! A dignified Flame Demon! The embodiment of fire and power!
A noble warrior race of the Abyss! How could he heat a blast furnace for the Pupu?
*Splash!*
Another bucket of ice was poured on him.
Flaming Ice wailed in pain.
The ice cubes shattered the Flame Demon’s soul; “Sir, I am but a tool.”
Flaming Ice quickly adapted to his new role.
As the furnace fire blazed, the glowing molten iron reflected off Liya’s delicate and cute pink face.
“Not bad.”
Liya nodded with satisfaction, feeling a surge of emotion.
“Demonkind are so useful!”
“As expected, it was all because I didn’t know how to use them before… No wonder I died. I deserved it!”
While Liya was diligently exploring new uses for her former subordinates, Joen suddenly came looking for her.
Liya quickly put back on her innocent and naive act, chirping in front of Joen.
Zyra watched this scene silently, her respect for Liya reaching its peak.
‘I thought I was adaptable enough.’
‘Look! Just look at her! She is the perfect personification of being able to bow and stand tall!’
A dignified Demon Lord, acting cute and spoiled in front of her arch-enemy—could anyone else do that?
Is it any wonder she was the Demon Lord?
“Friend— Friend— Lily discovered that Flame Demons can be used as fuel— let’s go catch a big one—”
“All right, Lily,” Joen said, rubbing Liya’s small head dotingly.
“But not right now. Let’s pack up. We have to head back to the Empire Capital.”
Liya was stunned.
“To the Empire Capital? Now?”
“Okay.”
Liya couldn’t help but feel it was a bit of a pity.
Time was tight, and she hadn’t had the chance to coax Joen into making a trip to the Seventh Demon Realm to help her bring back textbooks and printing presses.
Forget it… given the current production level of the Thousand Rivers Domain, it was still too early to mention “education.”
It would be the same if she got them later.
Liya wasn’t worried about Pu Town.
In any case, she had full remote control via [Link].
Before this, she had used a merchant caravan to send a Queen Pupu to the North Realm of the Empire for testing; so far, she hadn’t discovered any “maximum effective range for the control chain.”
Even if her true body was far away in the Empire Capital, she could still remotely control Pu Town to continue construction.
However, the Heroic Power consumed here in Pu Town wouldn’t be replenished in time.
So, before leaving, Liya transferred the vast majority of the Heroic Power in her body into these Queen Pupu.
Through Liya’s painstaking management over this period, the number of “Queens” had already reached over 1,000.
It was just that the majority of them were not high-level and were still ordinary Pink Pupu, slowly growing by relying on the “High-Grade Pupu Cultivation Spring” in the center of Pu Town.
After arranging everything for her departure, Liya sat on Joen’s shoulder once more and returned with him to the place where the dream began—Rossi City.
There, Yuna and Margaret, who had changed back into proper noble dresses, and the bored elf Ailita, who was currently doing a handstand, had already been waiting for a long time.