Chapter 17: Civilization Accelerator

Ever since the situation of the "spirit-beast migration" was known, the entire Li Family Village had been mobilized in an emergency.

Especially after Li Yu went into the mountains to investigate the situation, he immediately organized all the young and able-bodied laborers in the village.

Because according to the news Li Yu brought back.

This migration involved not only spirit-beasts, but even the animals in the mountains had shown obvious signs of restlessness.

Of course, it was said to be all the young and able-bodied people of the village.

Actually, in this small village with only a dozen households, there were fewer than twenty young people.

This even included several fourteen- or fifteen-year-old youths; it could almost be called a full mobilization.

Li Yu did not expect so few people to be able to resist the spirit-beasts that were about to arrive.

He only needed everyone to occasionally make some noise near the village to scare away those starving wild beasts.

At the same time, Li Yu also had the village peddler go to nearby villages to inform them of this news.

"Brother Yu is truly kind-hearted!"

"If it were me, I would definitely take the opportunity to charge them some money."

The village peddler was named Li Er; usually, he was the one responsible for buying and selling goods in nearby towns and villages.

If one really calculated it, Li Er could be counted as one of the few wealthy families in the village.

Whenever the village lacked firewood, rice, oil, salt, or similar items, one could go to Li Er's house to purchase or exchange them.

"Second Brother, you cannot say that!"

"After all, we are all neighbors from the same area; we must help each other out."

Tightly following behind Li Er was a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old youth.

The youth was named Li Li Chengfeng; he was Li Er's fourth younger brother and also his only surviving younger brother.

It was said that Li Li Chengfeng's name was given by Big Daughter's father when he was still in the village.

So this also counted as one of the few names in the village that were somewhat acceptable.

"Hmph! Expecting those bastards to help each other out?"

"You might as well hope they don't fight with us for water this year!"

What Li Er said was a very realistic issue; the nearby villages all shared a single river.

If the upstream used too much, the downstream would have none left.

Therefore, several villages had fought over such matters many times in previous years.

Standing from an even more selfish angle, Li Er even hoped that the casualties in the nearby villages would be greater this year.

"Second Brother, look, isn't that Big Daughter and Bu Ku Er?"

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

"What are they doing again?"

Following the direction Li Li Chengfeng pointed, Li Er indeed saw Big Daughter's figure jumping up and down with a basket on her back.

"I heard they are looking for mud suitable for building walls?"

"Brother Yu plans to build a moat outside the village and set up some traps to prevent wild beasts from entering the village again like last year."

Upon hearing this, Li Er gazed at Big Daughter's back and fell into deep thought.

Although he did not believe that a single moat and some traps could prevent wild beasts from entering the village again.

But from Li Yu's arrangements, it could be seen that he was obviously not very confident about the village's safety.

"Brother Yu is a hunter favored by the Mountain God, and Bu Ku Er is the Mountain God's child..."

"Do you think our village could consider building a special shrine for the Mountain God?"

Hearing Li Er's words, Li Li Chengfeng could not help but blink his eyes.

"Uh... Second Brother, do you know what the Mountain God looks like?"

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Strengthening the village's defensive measures and even setting up separate sentry posts was not solely Li Yu's idea.

After Li Li Boyang was born into this world, he had actually been thinking about similar things.

Because in Li Li Boyang's view, the collective public facilities of Li Family Village were truly too terrible.

Apart from the fence surrounding the village.

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

So when Li Yu instructed the children in the village to search everywhere for mud to see which place had mud suitable for building walls.

Li Li Boyang suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and a bold idea popped into his mind.

Thus, he had Big Daughter join in as well.

Whether it was due to the times or simply because the village was too poor...

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

That is, the kind where mud is molded into brick shapes, then air-dried and baked under the sun to naturally obtain primitive mud bricks.

Some were even directly made of stones, entirely plastered together with mud mortar and wood ash.

For such houses, even achieving the most basic insulation was difficult, let alone meeting requirements in other aspects.

So Li Li Boyang had Big Daughter search everywhere for mud along with the other children.

Actually, he also wanted to see if he could find high-quality soil to prepare for firing real blue bricks in the future.

Of course, considering the molds, earth kilns, high temperatures, clay, water sources, and environment required for firing blue bricks, firing blue bricks in a short time was simply an unrealistic thing.

Therefore, Li Li Boyang only treated it as a long-term plan and did not rush for immediate success.

"Little Brother, is this kind of mud okay?"

Big Daughter, dirty like a calico cat, stared at Li Li Boyang at this moment, her eyes filled with curious light.

Because Li Li Boyang was currently holding a small clump of mud, placing it atop his head to bake.

Whoosh!

It took only a few breaths.

The downy hair on Li Li Boyang's head radiated astonishing heat, even vaguely forming a terrifying wave of thermal air.

Without a specific thermometer, Li Li Boyang did not know the exact temperature of his hair at that moment.

Yet, simply looking at the eldest girl's scorching face,

Li Li Boyang could easily judge that this temperature had definitely exceeded the range a normal human could endure.

【Have I lost my normal temperature perception?】

【No, to be precise, my tolerance for heat has surpassed that of ordinary humans.】

Feeling the mud in his hands gradually harden, Li Li Boyang decisively stopped channeling the evil qi into his crown.

As the evil qi weakened, the temperature of the downy hair gradually dropped to a normal level, until finally returning to its crimson appearance.

"Ah!"

Gently crushing the outer casing, Li Li Boyang saw the black mud block, baked into a rectangular shape, in his hand.

"So hard! This looks like a piece of iron!"

The eldest girl also reached out to pinch the thoroughly baked mud block and immediately cried out with a look of delight.

"Is this the mud you, little brother, were looking for?"

Facing the eldest girl's inquiry, Li Li Boyang nodded affirmatively.

The metal element content in this mud was indeed relatively high compared to the mud found so far.

This meant that if Li Li Boyang wanted to refine green bricks in the future,

he would not need to mix in extra materials like slaked lime to increase their hardness and fire resistance.

Most importantly, the mud here only needed simple shaping and firing to be used as ready-made hard bricks.

【With suitable bricks, we can accelerate the civilization of this era!】

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(End of Chapter)