The Civilization Accelerator

Ever since learning about the "spirit migration," all of Li Household Village had urgently mobilized.

In particular, after Li Yu went into the mountains to investigate, he immediately organized all the able-bodied young people in the village.

For according to the news Li Yu had brought back,

It was not just spirits migrating this time; even the animals in the mountains were showing clear signs of agitation.

Of course, though they said all the village's able-bodied young people,

In a little village of just over a dozen households, there were actually fewer than twenty of them.

That number even included several youths of fourteen or fifteen. It was practically a mobilization of everyone in the village.

Li Yu did not expect so few people to be able to hold off the approaching spirits.

He only needed everyone to make some noise near the village from time to time, enough to scare away the starving beasts.

At the same time, Li Yu sent the village peddler to the nearby villages to pass the news along.

"Brother Yu really has a kind heart!"

"If it were up to me, I'd make sure to take the opportunity to collect some money from them."

The village peddler was called Li Er. He was usually the one responsible for buying and selling goods in the nearby villages and towns.

By any measure, Li Er's was one of the few well-off households in the village.

Whenever anyone in the village was short of firewood, rice, oil, salt, or the like, they could go to Li Er's home to buy or barter for it.

"Second Brother, you can't say that!"

"After all, we're all neighbors around here. We should help one another."

Following close behind Li Er was a youth of fourteen or fifteen.

The youth was named Li Chengfeng. He was Li Er's fourth younger brother, and the only one of his younger brothers still alive.

It was said that Li Chengfeng had been given his name by Big Girl's father while he was in the village.

That made it one of the few names in the village that sounded halfway decent.

"Hmph! Count on those bastards to help us?"

"You'd be better off hoping they don't fight us for water this year!"

Li Er was talking about a very real problem. The nearby villages all shared a single river.

If those upstream used too much, there would be none left for those downstream.

The villages had often come to blows over such things in previous years.

From a more selfish standpoint, Li Er would even have been glad to see the nearby villages suffer heavier casualties this year.

"Second Brother, look, aren't those Big Girl and Non-Crying Child?"

Seeing this, Li Chengfeng, knowing he could not persuade Li Er, could only turn his head and point toward the village entrance.

"What are they doing now?"

Looking in the direction Li Chengfeng was pointing, Li Er saw Big Girl bounding up and down with a carrying basket on her back, just as expected.

"I heard they're looking for mud suitable for building walls?"

"Brother Yu plans to dig a ditch outside the village and set some traps to keep wild beasts from getting into the village again like they did last year."

Hearing this, Li Er gazed at Big Girl's retreating figure and fell into thought.

Although he did not think a ditch and a few traps would be enough to keep wild beasts out of the village,

Li Yu's arrangements showed that he was clearly not very reassured about the village's safety.

"Brother Yu is a hunter favored by the mountain god, and Non-Crying Child is the mountain god's child..."

"Do you think our village should consider building a shrine just for the mountain god?"

Hearing Li Er's words, Li Chengfeng could not help blinking.

"Uh... Second Brother, do you know what the mountain god looks like?"

Strengthening the village's defenses and even setting up separate sentry posts were not just Li Yu's ideas.

After being born into this world, Li Boyang had also been thinking about similar things.

For in Li Boyang's view, Li Household Village's shared public facilities were truly dreadful.

Apart from the fence surrounding the village,

There was nothing to be seen that could be called a "public facility."

So when Li Yu told the village children to search everywhere for mud and see where they could find some suitable for building walls,

An idea suddenly struck Li Boyang, and a bold thought popped into his head.

He therefore had Big Girl join the search.

He did not know whether it was because of the era or simply because the village was too poor...

The houses and courtyards Li Boyang had seen in the village were basically all built from the most primitive stone bricks.

They were the kind made by molding earth into bricks, then drying them in the shade and leaving them to bake in the sun, producing primitive stone bricks naturally.

Some were even made directly from stones, held together entirely with a paste of mud and plant ash.

Houses like those could scarcely provide even basic insulation, let alone meet other requirements.

So Li Boyang had Big Girl follow the other children as they searched everywhere for mud.

He actually also wanted to see whether they could find high-quality earth, in preparation for firing real gray bricks in the future.

Of course, considering the molds, earthen kiln, high temperatures, clay, water supply, and environment needed to fire gray bricks, producing them in a short time was simply unrealistic.

Li Boyang therefore treated it only as a long-term plan and did not rush for results.

"Little Brother, will this kind of soil do?"

Big Girl, filthy as a calico cat, stared at Li Boyang, her eyes full of curiosity.

Li Boyang was holding a small lump of soil and baking it on top of his head.

Whoosh!

In just a few breaths,

The fine hair atop Li Boyang's head gave off astonishing heat, even faintly forming a terrifying wave of heat.

Without an actual thermometer, Li Boyang did not know how hot his hair was now.

But just by looking at Big Girl's scorching face,

Li Boyang could easily tell that the temperature had certainly exceeded what a normal human could withstand.

Have I lost my normal sense of temperature?

No, to be precise, my tolerance for temperature has surpassed that of ordinary humans.

Feeling the soil in his hand gradually harden, Li Boyang promptly stopped sending Sha Qi to the crown of his head.

As the Sha Qi weakened, the temperature of his fine hair gradually fell to a normal level, until it finally returned to its crimson appearance.

"Ah!"

Gently crushing the outer shell, Li Boyang saw the black lump of earth in his hand, fired into a rectangular block.

"It's so hard! It's like a piece of iron!"

Big Girl also reached out and pinched the thoroughly fired lump, then immediately cried out with delight.

"Is this the soil you were looking for, Little Brother?"

In answer to Big Girl's question, Li Boyang nodded affirmatively.

The metal content of this soil was indeed relatively high among the soils they had found so far.

That meant that if Li Boyang wanted to make gray bricks in the future,

He would not need to mix in additional materials such as slaked lime to increase their hardness and fire resistance.

Most importantly, the soil here only needed to be molded and fired briefly before it could be used as hard bricks ready to hand.

With suitable bricks, I can speed up the civilization of this era!