Chapter 17: Civilization Accelerator

Ever since learning about the "spirit creature migration," the entire Li Family Village had been urgently mobilized.

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

This was because, according to the news Li Yu brought back.

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

Of course, saying "all the young and able-bodied" was a bit of a stretch.

In reality, in this small village of only a dozen households, there were fewer than twenty young people.

This even included a few boys of fourteen or fifteen; it could almost be called a full-scale mobilization.

Li Yu did not expect such a small group to be able to fend off the incoming spirit creatures.

He only needed everyone to make some noise near the village from time to time to scare away those ravenous 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, and he was usually responsible for buying and selling goods in nearby villages and towns.

If one were to really count, Li Er could be considered one of the few wealthy families in the village.

Whenever the village lacked things like firewood, rice, oil, or salt, they could go to Li Er's house to buy or trade for them.

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

"After all, we are all fellow villagers; we have to help each other out."

Following closely behind Li Er was a boy of fourteen or fifteen.

The boy was named Li Chengfeng, Li Er's fourth younger brother and the only one of his brothers to survive.

It is said that this name, Li Chengfeng, was given by the big girl's father when he was still in the village.

So, it could be considered one of the few decent-sounding names in the village.

"Hmph! Expecting those bastards to help out?"

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

Li Er was talking about a very realistic problem; the nearby villages all shared the same river.

If the upstream used too much, the downstream had none left.

Therefore, the villages had often fought over this in previous years.

From a more selfish perspective, Li Er even wished for the nearby villages to suffer greater casualties this year.

"Second Brother, look, is that the big girl and Bukuer?"

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

"What are they doing now?"

Looking in the direction Li Chengfeng pointed, Li Er indeed saw the big girl jumping around with a basket on her back.

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

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

Hearing this, Li Er looked at the big girl's back and fell into deep thought.

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

But from these arrangements by Li Yu, it was clear that he was not very confident about the village's safety.

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

"Do you think our village should consider building a shrine specifically for the Mountain God?"

Hearing Li Er's words, 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 just Li Yu's idea.

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

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

Aside from the fence surrounding the village.

One could not see anything that could be called "public facilities" at all.

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

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

Thus, he had the big girl join in.

Whether it was because of the era or simply because the village was too poor...

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

It was that kind of primitive earthen brick obtained by kneading mud into brick shapes, then air-drying them, and leaving them to bake in the sun.

Some were even just made of stone, held together entirely by mud and wood ash.

For such houses, even basic insulation was difficult to achieve, let alone other requirements.

So Li Boyang had the big girl follow the other children to search for mud everywhere.

It was actually to see if he could find high-quality soil to prepare for firing real blue bricks in the future.

Of course, considering the molds, kilns, high temperatures, clay, water sources, and environment needed to fire blue bricks, it was simply unrealistic to fire them in a short time.

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

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

The big girl, dirty like a tabby cat, stared at Li Boyang, her eyes full of curiosity.

Because Li Boyang was currently holding a small lump of mud and placing it on top of his head to bake it.

Whoosh!

In just a few breaths' time.

The fine hair on Li Boyang's head emitted an astonishingly high temperature, even vaguely forming a terrifying heatwave.

Since there was no specific thermometer, Li Boyang did not know what the temperature of his hair was right now.

But just looking at the big girl's scorched face.

It was not hard for Li Boyang to judge that this temperature had certainly exceeded the range a normal human could withstand.

[Have I lost normal temperature perception?]

[No, to be precise, my tolerance for temperature has already exceeded that of an ordinary human.]

Feeling the mud in his hand gradually becoming hard, Li Boyang decisively stopped channeling evil energy to his crown.

And as the evil energy weakened, the temperature of the fine hair gradually dropped to a normal level, until it finally turned back to its red appearance.

"Ah!"

Gently crushing the outer shell, Li Boyang saw the pitch-black lump of mud in his hand that had been burned into a rectangular shape.

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

Also reaching out to pinch the thoroughly burned lump of mud, the big girl immediately shouted in surprise.

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

Facing the big girl's question, Li Boyang nodded affirmatively.

The metal element content in this piece of mud was indeed already relatively high among the mud found so far.

This meant that if Li Boyang wanted to refine blue bricks in the future.

He would not need to add extra things like slaked lime to increase its 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, I can speed up the civilization of this era!]

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(End of chapter)