Petroleum

Li Shiming saw a village up ahead. It was still early, so he dismissed the cyan glow around his legs, slowed down, and returned to an ordinary person's pace.

This was a village near Central Capital City, but because the area was mostly mountainous, it was obvious the village was very poor. The houses were all thatched, adobe huts.

"Liu Zi's Family is truly pitiful. Both mu of their fields were ruined by Demon Water. How are they supposed to live now?" As soon as he entered the village, he heard villagers discussing it.

"Exactly. Forget Liu Zi's Family—even the fields of the neighboring families might not be safe!" another villager lamented.

Farmers lived off their fields. Losing their farmland was the same as losing their livelihood.

"Elder, may I ask what this Demon Water is? Could you take me over to have a look?" Li Shiming's heart stirred, and he gave the old man who had spoken a Confucian salute.

The old man looked up and saw Li Shiming in a scholar's robe. He hurriedly bowed and did not dare speak.

The other villagers nearby also lowered their heads, doing their best to show humility.

Anyone who could wear a scholar's robe was at least a Xiucai. Such a status was not something ordinary farmers could normally Come into Contact With.

The closer they were to Central Capital City, the more farmers knew how terrifying the powerful and noble could be.

Li Shiming's Confucian salute had frightened the old man. If he had spoken in a condescending manner instead, the old man would actually have felt more at ease.

Although Li Shiming had merged with this body's memories and emotions, deep down he still carried the mindset from his Previous Life that everyone was equal.

"Elder, could you take me to see the Demon Water?" he asked again helplessly.

"This old one is unworthy. If the young master wishes to see the Demon Water, I shall naturally lead the way!" Only then did the old man react, replying with his body bowed and his hands at a loss.

The old man was not young, but his legs were very nimble. He led Li Shiming to a stretch of farmland outside the village.

This farmland lay in a low-lying area, about ten or so mu in size. The ground around it was covered with stones of all sizes.

It was clear that this farmland had been cleared by the villagers from among the rubble. The soil quality of these ten or so mu was very poor, and the yield would not be good either.

On the right side of the ten or so mu of farmland, in the middle of two mu of fields, large amounts of thick black liquid were gushing up from underground.

Before he even reached the black liquid, he smelled a heavy odor.

"It's petroleum!" Li Shiming thought. Sure enough.

When the villagers mentioned Demon Water, he had already thought of this possibility.

Petroleum was not useless in this world. The raw materials for things like Fierce Fire Oil were petroleum, but Fierce Fire Oil was classified at all times. Forget farmers—even most Confucian scholars would not recognize petroleum.

To the villagers, land where petroleum appeared would be polluted by it and lose the ability to grow crops. It destroyed their lives like a natural disaster.

But to Li Shiming, petroleum meant something completely different.

With petroleum, he had many things—Diesel, Gasoline, plastic, and more.

Petroleum was known as the blood of industry. With either Diesel or Gasoline, he could manufacture a more efficient Generator, and many of his ideas could continue forward.

"Elder, thank you for leading the way!" Li Shiming took out one tael of silver and handed it over in thanks.

After the old man accepted the silver with trembling hands, Li Shiming turned and left the village.

There was no need for him to personally handle the purchase of this place. Once he returned home, he would instruct Steward Zhang to take care of it.

When the owners of the ten or so mu of farmland heard that someone wanted to buy it, they did not object in the slightest. Instead, they agreed with overflowing gratitude.

Of course, the price Li Shiming offered was very high, more than enough for them to purchase the same amount of good farmland.

One day later, the first batch of two barrels of petroleum was transported to a residence outside the city. That place had also been purchased for convenient storage.

Refining petroleum in the Server Room Space could not be scaled up, but the advantage was that under the micromanagement of his consciousness, he could use the most primitive equipment to refine several basic substances.

The petroleum from that village was of decent quality. The Diesel yield reached forty percent, while Gasoline reached twenty percent.

In the days that followed, Li Shiming was extremely busy every day.

Every day, he used most of his Spiritual Power for spellcasting practice in order to speed up his casting.

That was because among the basic requirements for making Talismans, the more proficient and faster one was at spellcasting, the more helpful it was for making Talismans.

Refining petroleum produced heavy pollution, so every day he had to go to the residence outside the city to refine it. During the refining process, he continuously expelled toxic exhaust gases from the Server Room Space so as not to affect the growth of the Spirit Rice and the Unknown Spirit Plant.

In addition, he still needed to pay attention to the growth of the Unknown Spirit Plant. Whether it was his luck or the Unknown Spirit Plant was not destined to die, under the daily nourishment of the Spring Breeze Transforming Rain Art, both the Unknown Spirit Plant's spirit roots and grafted branches survived.

From now on, it depended on when the buds on the spirit plant's branches would grow out. Only once it truly had leaves would the spirit plant have the foundation for survival.

Steward Zhang did not know what the young master wanted that black, foul-smelling water for. He obeyed orders and had people transport cart after cart of the black water to the residence outside the city every day.

He was anxious too. Next year's Spring Examination was clearly not far away, but the young master did not seem to take the Spring Examination seriously.

As a servant, he could not offer advice either. He could only hope that the young master would wake up in time.

Li Shiming, whom Steward Zhang was worrying about, was currently shutting down the original Steam Engine.

A brand-new Diesel Generator replaced the Steam Engine and the previous Generator, producing more electricity and doing so more steadily.

Of the Diesel refined from petroleum, he stored part of it in two empty Storage Bags and placed them inside the Server Room Space. This allowed him to save as much of the Server Room Space as possible.

Although the space inside each Storage Bag was only one cubic meter, when placed inside the Server Room Space, it only took up a tiny, inconspicuous bit of space.

Now, most of his Server Room Space was occupied by Spirit Rice. With the IBMz15, Uninterruptible Power Supply, Diesel Generator, Electric Arc Furnace, and the cultivation space for the Unknown Spirit Plant added in, there truly was not much space left.

He placed even more Diesel underground at the residence outside the city, treating it as a reserve resource.

Even if the petroleum in the field was completely extracted right now, there was no need to worry about next year's Diesel consumption.

He believed that once he reached the sect, he would be able to find a way to use spirit stones and transform them into electricity. This had actually been mentioned in Rune Inception, but with only that simple description to go on, he had no way to build a Spirit Stone Generator.

Li Shiming had no small amount of gold and silver on hand, and Mo Yan had not been idle during this time either.

Since he would be entering the sect in the future, gold and silver would no longer be of any use, so he used them to have Mo Yan purchase large quantities of all kinds of ores.

Ores without spiritual qi did not receive the regard they deserved in this world. Many ores that Li Shiming considered extremely rare were treated in this world as ores containing impurities.

Perhaps the existence of immortal cultivation civilization had suppressed the civilization of this world. What this world valued most was still metals like gold and silver, which could be used as currency.

As soon as the various ores reached Li Shiming's hands, they were processed through the Electric Arc Furnace, smelted and broken down into various metals.

Day after day passed, and the various resources he had accumulated grew more and more abundant.