Chapter 1213: Chapter 1213

1213: Chapter 1199 Mentor 1213: Chapter 1199 Mentor Unlike other more primitive worlds, due to the expensiveness of local wood, most of the houses here are not made of wood.

Rock and similarly textured underwater coral that had undergone lithification, were the main building materials.

However, unlike the solid and neat brick and steel-reinforced concrete houses of the present, theirs resembled “building blocks” cobbled together, exuding a rough, retro beauty of ancient Greek architecture from before the Common Era.

The house that Lu Ping’an was currently renting was considered high-quality, at least the rooms were spacious.

All the cracks had been filled with mud, and they were even coated with a layer of biological varnish that emitted a faint fragrance of spices.

Only, the red “Double Happiness” paper-cutting on the window not only took Lu Ping’an back twenty years, but also made him suspect that there had been some mistake in the cultural transmission.

“…Quite interesting.”

Lu Ping’an closed the latest “newspaper,” and even in a time when wood was so expensive, there was an abundance of cheap paper, seemingly the result of some forces exerting great effort.

He stood up and relighted the extinguished incense.

The dampness in this house was heavy and the odor quite unsettling, making incense almost a necessity for daily life.

Yet just this small detail made Lu Ping’an reflect a great deal…

“Life is much better than before, now even pursuing quality of life.”

Normal people wouldn’t strive for a comfortable room when they cannot feed or clothe themselves adequately.

It’s like a normal politician wouldn’t shout about environmental concern in front of famine-stricken peasants.

The bed was soft, and although the material of the bedclothes was obscure, both the feel and the level of warmth were quite good.

With bookshelves, tea, and a warm lounge chair, Lu Ping’an felt he could stay here for a long time.

“…Just this pirated…”

Seeing his Chamber of Commerce’s Balance Mark appear on the textile made Lu Ping’an somewhat astonished.

But upon closer inspection, he realized something was amiss.

His own trademark featured a Peace Dove with an olive branch, whereas the crooked-mouthed pigeon on the fabric clenched a rose, and where there should have been the spark of a flintlock pistol, it looked rather like an automatic pistol…

“…Seems to be the work of an Earthmate.”

Lu Ping’an sighed, realizing there was no use in pursuing legal action or defending his rights now.

It seemed the Earthmate had noticed his brand was robust and went straight into mass production under his label.

However, from another perspective, this also implied the Chamber of Commerce was doing well, having gained a reputation…

“They haven’t replicated the trademark directly, which suggests they’re not planning to go too far with it—or maybe they fear triggering something…”

In this multi-universe, language holds power, let alone “marks” and “patterns.”

Accidentally touching a holy-emblem or symbol that has been blessed might directly link you with some high-dimensional entity behind it, after which you might not only have a visitation but could also be directly cursed.

Opening the window of his third-floor room in the inn, Lu Ping’an listened to the hustle and bustle of people and vehicles below, and was deeply moved.

He still wasn’t in a hurry to appear in the “Upper Circle”, just quietly lived among the crowd, waiting for everything that was about to happen.

“They hinted that after they opened the gate, there would be a fierce wave coming, but just how intense remains unknown.”

The newspapers Lu Ping’an had set down were mostly reporting events from two months or even half a year ago, casting doubts on their timeliness.

But considering that the islands were still isolated from each other in terms of communication, and this world didn’t have a convenient thing like birds specially trained to deliver newspapers, these newspapers might be “imported goods”.

So this level of delay seemed hardly worth complaining about.

Lu Ping’an still hadn’t contacted those “human powers”, even though he had already passed by several “Lin Nu’s Churches” and the local forces of human gods.

A blind man in these streets might attract some attention, but in the short term, no one was likely to associate him with Lu Ping’an from “ten years ago”.

Worth mentioning is that here, Lu Ping’an actually received various extra care…

even though he explained that he “could see”, people still showed “kindness merely because he was human”.

Of course, there was good and bad: there were also thieves who bumped into him, thinking his eyes were inconvenient.

After all, one shouldn’t expect too high a level of average social morality in the current environment with lower living conditions.

“Today, I’ll go buy books again.”

What surprised Lu Ping’an the most was that, although he was in a relatively large city, he could still see large bookstores and a considerable number of obviously local publications.

Although many of the books were riddled with grammar mistakes, chaotic printing, and the content on local geography, life forms, and humanities was too disorderly and superficial, with lots of apparent logical errors, considering most writers were local people, it was quite remarkable.

In Lu Ping’an’s eyes, this meant that civilization was beginning to sprout anew.

Writing carries knowledge, and knowledge and history transmit civilization…

The severed history seemed to have begun being documented again.

This was far beyond Lu Ping’an’s expectations, after all, ten years isn’t a very long time, and achieving this level seemed a bit too much…

But after inquiring around, he learned about the existence of “Paper-making Divine Grace” and “Photocopying Divine Grace”, and thus could fully understand it.

indeed where the tech tree falls short, magic compensates.”

In theory, the resurgence of a normal civilization might take at least a hundred years to begin, but if the gods truly were involved and could use various “Divine Graces” to leap over technological barriers, the rapid development became understandable.

For Lu, waiting and observing were his most important tasks now.

The primary thing was to understand the changes in the world through “reading”…

He needed to extract himself and observe the world from the perspective of a bystander as much as possible.

“‘Thus Spake the Mentor’…

pff, the book’s title is indeed pretentious.

The content is all trite and clichéd, yet it’s still the best-selling book.

Huh, its ideas are a bit interesting though, share some unexpected similarities with mine, but feel like they might be a tad too radical…”

Books carry ideas, and reading bestsellers helped Lu Ping’an understand the current “public opinion” of society.

The Long Hand Clan was no longer the “slave race” of before.

He tried to find the right way to interact with them…

Considering this ‘philosophical book’s popularity among the younger Long Hand, it indeed provided him with a lot of help.

It’s just that the “Mentor” in the book not only lacked a specific name, the identity was also vague.

However, the content provided Lu Ping’an with strong thoughts of the Eastern Country.

“Heh, a Reformist and a Radical…

Could the Mentor be an Earthmate?”

After some reasonable suspicion, Lu Ping’an turned to the next book “On Trading”…

“Huh, isn’t this a condensed version of ‘Das Kapital’?

Who is fooling around with this…

The author is signed as ‘Mentor’, definitely an Easterner no doubt.

Huh, but something is off, isn’t this also a bit too radical…”