Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

Chapter 89 Gold and Steak—A Silent Twin Wave Sweeping the World

"Food is the most important thing for the people, and money is the foundation of the nation. I want to grasp both of these things, and do them as quickly as possible." A cold smile played on his lips.

Almost simultaneously, ribbons fluttered at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco announcing the opening of the "Golden Harvest" supermarket.

The friendly shop assistant, P-12, amplifies customer satisfaction with her spiritual power. Guided by her, housewife Emma and her neighbor Mary are amazed by the tenderness and lack of gamey flavor of the "Supreme Cut" lamb chops and the snow-white color of the premium flour.

On the desolate plains of Nevada, Ben Stone stood atop barren hills, his golden core divine sense, like the most precise seismic wave detector, penetrating the strata and locking onto the microscopic, disseminated gold deposit invisible to the naked eye. "Kalin…the discovery of 1961? Now it's mine," he sneered.

Ben Stone plunged his hands into the ground, his earthen-yellow spiritual energy surging: "Turning Earth into Steel! Metal Breaking Barriers! Quicksand Technique! Devouring Heaven and Earth!" The gold-rich mineralized rock layers were silently pulverized and extracted, flowing into his storage ring. A few days later, the surface was completely unmarked, the soil even more "natural," and the richest mineral deposits underground were empty. Ben Stone had hastily drawn a flawed geological sketch, perfectly branding this future gold sanctuary as a "poor mine."

In the Chelsea district of London, at the "Prime Cut" butcher shop, manager Charles Wellington (E-55) is conquering the palate and wallet of a discerning lord with a piece of Kobe Wagyu beef and a calming mantra. This business, combining high-end ingredients with high-end connections, is expanding smoothly.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in Western Australia, "Jack Wilson" (C-88) is doing something much more direct. By day, he's an engineer directing operations in old mines, guiding mining to avoid truly rich deposits. By night, he burrows deep underground to find those colossal ore pockets forgotten by history.

"Gengjin Sword Qi, Net! Collect!" Countless fine sword energies divided the high-grade gold ore into standard blocks. In a flash of light, the "gold nuggets" weighing tens of tons were stored in the storage ring. What was left behind were only scattered and barren ore tailings, perfectly misleading the current understanding.

London's aristocrats are enjoying top-quality steaks from "Japan," unaware that a real treasure is being quietly emptied from beneath Australia and flowing to the same Eastern warehouse.

In Papua Province, the puppet "Hendrik van der Wieden," codenamed AS-11, is leading his team on a "difficult" exploration through snow-capped mountains and glaciers.

His divine sense had already pierced through the ice, "seeing" the enormous copper-gold ore body of Grassberg. "God's treasure..." he exclaimed in French, then, in the dead of night, he ventured alone into a glacial crevasse. "Mysterious Ice True Understanding, Melt! Earthly Divine Escape, Activate!" He appeared directly at the core of the ore body, frantically "devouring" the richest parts like harvesting truffles, using his storage magic item to collect ore worth far exceeding the total investment during the Dutch colonial period. Before leaving, he set up a bewildering array to deter future explorers from venturing into this place.

In Montreal, Canada, an investment advisor named Pierre Leclerc (N-05) is elegantly sipping coffee and discussing "forestry investments," having acquired "invalid" mining rights in the Malartic region of Canada at a low price.

Meanwhile, at that mine, his "drilling team" was putting on a show. By day, they drilled holes methodically. By night, however, they used earth magic to secretly replace the high-grade ore from deep within the mine with "rock cores." The final report "confirmed" the existence of a massive but low-grade, unprofitable ore body. The report was archived, and the land's value plummeted. Pierre, however, had already used his storage ring to steal the truly valuable ore samples. A perfect financial setup was complete, awaiting the "sudden" discovery of its "true" value in the future.

From a Washington, D.C. reception where "Alexander Winters" (P-07) uses his spiritual sense to guide officials' thinking and pave the way for resource development in Southeast Asia; to a Swiss bank vault where a puppet advisor (F-09) uses his spiritual power to open the safe and steal oil agreements; and then to the Uzbek desert where a young teacher "Alisher" (R-19) "luckily" finds mineral deposits while secretly using a flying sword to mine rich ore at night...

Lin Yan's global network is operating synchronously with astonishing efficiency. On one hand, it gently opens up markets, binds social classes, and collects information with food whose quality surpasses the times; on the other hand, it uses simple and brutal extraordinary power to seize the wealth that has not yet been discovered by the times and is buried deep underground.

Amazing delicacies are beginning to flow across the world's dining tables, while beneath the global economic landscape, the undercurrents of gold and resources are quietly changing course, defying historical trends and converging towards the East. In a villa in Deep Water Bay, a young man, seemingly simultaneously manipulating the fat of a steak and the grit of a gold mine between his fingers, calmly observes this twin wave he spearheads, sweeping across the globe.

Deep Water Bay Villas resembles a tranquil brain center, through which Lin Yan's will remotely controls three thousand powerful "terminals" worldwide via an invisible network of divine consciousness. The plunder of commerce and resources is merely the foundation; to truly shake the world order, one must delve into its core—politics, finance, technology, and energy.

In an upscale club in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., conversations between Alexander Winters (P-07) and State Department officials continue. But this is far from an isolated incident.

London, Parliament corridor: A puppet named Edgar Aldington (codename E-32), with his profound historical knowledge and deep understanding of European tradition, became a senior policy advisor to a heavyweight member of parliament. He didn't offer direct advice, but rather, while seemingly discussing historical allusions, subtly amplified the member's nostalgia for the "glory of the British Empire" and his wariness of "emerging powers," cleverly influencing his stance on policies towards the Soviet Union and the European Community. His notebook recorded not only the key points of conversations, but also the subtle cracks in the other's mental defenses and the directions he could guide.

Moscow, Academy of Sciences guesthouse: A puppet posing as the Soviet geologist "Ivan Sidorov" (E-42) is drinking with several young technocrats from the planning committee. His intuition senses their discontent with the rigid system and their yearning for technological innovation. Under the guise of discussing Siberian resource development, he "inadvertently" reveals resource optimization models and incentive methods "being researched in the West," methods which he "optimizes" to be more suitable for the Soviet system while increasing efficiency. He subtly directs the credit for these achievements to officials he "favors" and who are easily influenced. He is cultivating future "reformist" allies within the bureaucracy.

In Paris, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs salon, in the art salon of "Sophie Durand" (E-17), several future leaders of the African colonial independence movement are having a cordial conversation with her. She not only provides funding but also soothes their anxieties with her spiritual wisdom, strengthens their resolve, and subtly instills the idea that "cooperation with non-traditional forces" is superior to "complete dependence on former colonial powers or the US and the USSR." She is laying the groundwork for the future political and economic trajectory of Africa after independence.

Their guiding principle is not to directly control, but rather, like the most skilled psychologists, to capture emotions, amplify tendencies, and provide what appears to be the "optimal solution" the other person has come up with themselves, subtly guiding decisions in a direction favorable to Lin Yan. Their Golden Core stage spiritual awareness makes them masters of insight and influence over people's hearts.

The success of the "Guardians of the Alps" bank in Zurich is just the tip of the iceberg.

New York, Commodity Exchange: A trader (a puppet) named "James" (codename P-19) stands in the noisy trading floor. He appears to be focused on the price fluctuations of cotton futures, but his attention is actually scattered, simultaneously listening to the heartbeats and breathing rhythms of dozens of key traders, as well as snippets of floor phone conversations. A massive flow of information floods his supercomputer-like brain, performing instantaneous comprehensive analysis. Seconds before a price movement, he can make precise predictions based on his extraordinary integration of collective market sentiment and fragmented information.

"Buy 500 lots of December contracts," he calmly instructed his broker, his tone completely unwavering. A few minutes later, a vague report of reduced Egyptian cotton production arrived, and prices surged. James made a fortune; everyone around him assumed he was incredibly lucky or had inside information, never suspecting that he relied on "mind reading" and an astonishingly fast information processing speed.

Hong Kong, Lin's Group Investment Department: This place has become a secret global financial information processing center. Political intelligence, market sentiment, and supply chain information transmitted through divine consciousness by puppets from all over the world are gathered and cross-verified here.

Lin Yi's team used the cutting-edge financial models provided by Lin Yan to analyze and predict the trends of commodities, currency exchange rates, and even the stock market weeks or months in advance. Then, instructions were issued through the same clandestine channels to puppet operators in financial centers around the world to orchestrate their plans. Like a group of players with a god-like perspective, they were carrying out a devastating attack in a market with extreme information asymmetry.

With gold from Nevada, Australia, and other regions continuously being supplied into the space, Lin Yan had effectively acquired far more physical gold than outsiders imagined. He instructed his financial team to begin small-scale, continuous selling operations in the London and Zurich gold markets through multiple offshore agents, suppressing expectations of rising gold prices and paving the way for larger financial operations in the future. For him, who could produce gold himself, short-term fluctuations in gold prices were irrelevant; what mattered was controlling the rhythm of the entire market.

The penetration of technology is more far-reaching and covert.

Stanford University Lab & Fairchild Semiconductor, California: David Smith (codename P-77) is making remarkable progress in his postdoctoral work. He not only uses his intuition to scan and memorize all technical data, but also, at crucial moments, through "casual conversations" or "inspirational flashes after experimental failures," throws out "ideas" that are ahead of their time but can be understood by current technological conditions.

"Look, what if we tried to replace the current vacuum diffusion tubes with photolithography... Of course, this is just a crazy idea." He would say this to his colleagues, while using his spiritual sense to inspire their interest and confidence in photolithography. Or, when encountering a bottleneck in the process of manufacturing silicon wafers, he would "inadvertently" mention a more efficient solution ratio—which was actually a simplified version from future chemical engineering materials provided by Lin Yan.

His "inspiration" was always perfectly timed, driving technological progress without being overly groundbreaking. He was like a diligent worker bee, gradually injecting pollen from the future into the hive of current technology, guiding integrated circuit technology to accelerate its development in the direction he knew. And the technological advancements he copied onto jade slips every night were continuously transmitted back to Hong Kong.

In the Theoretical Physics Laboratory of Moscow State University, Soviet Union: Another puppet, codenamed S-05, masquerades as a taciturn but mathematically gifted graduate student. He is "obsessed" with calculations and models, frequently "accidentally" deriving mathematical formulas crucial for nuclear fusion confinement and rocket fuel efficiency optimization, only to "forget" them on his desk, leaving them for his mentor—a scientist who will later be vital to the Soviet space program—to "discover" and marvel at their value. He is quietly providing "mysterious assistance from the East" to Soviet space and energy technologies, potentially indirectly influencing the Cold War balance in the future.

Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK: A puppet posing as a visiting scholar (codename E-81) is "involved" in research on the DNA double helix structure. He also uses "inspiration" to guide researchers to focus on the possibilities of gene coding and protein synthesis, attempting to slightly accelerate the progress of molecular biology and lay the foundation for future developments in biotechnology.

Energy is the lifeblood of modern industry, and Lin Yan naturally wouldn't let it slip by.

In Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, a puppet posing as an Arab cultural scholar and mysterious investment agent (codename ME-01) is enjoying tea with members of the Saudi royal family. He not only brings premium dates and dairy products from "Golden Harvest" (made in his own space, of unparalleled quality), but also uses his divine sense to perceive the royal family's internal debates over the distribution of oil revenues and their dissatisfaction with Western oil companies.

"True wealth should be used to build a modern Arab world, not just stored in London banks." His tone was calm, yet he subtly amplified the other party's national pride and desire for independent development. "Perhaps we can explore a new model of cooperation, such as establishing a national oil company controlled by your country, but possessing more advanced exploration technology and global sales channels? Some friends from the East are very interested in this and can provide technical support." He was sowing the seeds for future nationalization of the oil industry and deep cooperation with Lin Yan's capital.

In North Africa, Libya, another puppet (codename ME-12), posing as an Italian businessman, is active in Tripoli. His target is potential oil fields not yet claimed by major oil companies. Using his divine sense for exploration, he has already identified several oil-rich formations. He is secretly acquiring oil exploration concessions in these areas at extremely low prices by cultivating relationships with local tribal leaders and bribing Italian colonial officials. Once successful, a Golden Core cultivator will infiltrate at night, directly using earth-based magic to drill exploratory wells, extract crude oil samples for evaluation, and even conduct small-scale "trial extraction" to store the samples in storage magic treasures—a speed far exceeding that of any oil company.

North America, Texas: Through the connections of Alexander Winters, a company called "Gulf Frontier Energy," controlled by Lin Yan's puppet capital, was quietly established. It is attempting to acquire some old oil fields deemed "depleted" by larger companies. The remaining reserves of these fields, under the guidance of a Golden Core cultivator's divine sense and micro-mana intervention (such as clearing deep oil channels and slightly increasing rock permeability), can be revitalized, becoming stable cash cows, and used as a springboard to penetrate deeper into the American energy politics.

From subtle moments influencing the thinking of political leaders to lightning-fast predictions of financial markets; from sporadic inspirations bestowing key technologies to grand strategic plans for global energy, Lin Yan's reach is penetrating every core area of ​​the world in ways beyond the imagination of this era. This vast network, woven from Golden Core cultivators, future knowledge, and extraordinary power, is quietly tightening, and it will change not only the flow of resources, but also the trajectory of the entire era's destiny.