Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 87 Earth Fire (Part Two) (Bonus Chapter for 30000 Favorites)

The above content is very simple and easy to understand. Liu Xin believes that anyone with at least a junior high school education can understand and accept his theory on the chemical reactions of coal gasification. However, the problem is:
He didn't know if Deputy Director Zhang had the level of junior high school physics and chemistry. Liu Xin noticed Deputy Director Zhang's unease and decided to comfort him in his own way.

"Do you know about subterranean fires, Deputy Director Zhang?"

"Earth...fire?"

“There is a type of geological disaster that you, as someone in the energy field, may not be familiar with, but I think geologists and environmentalists certainly abhor. In fact, there are still more than 20 geological fires around the world, and I have been fortunate enough to witness the largest one.”

Liu Xin recounted the story in detail.

"In Tianjiang, I saw the earth's fire for the first time. It was an apocalyptic scene. I seemed to see the earth billions of years ago when it was still in a magma state. The dark red surface was like the surface of boiling molten iron. Cracks spread wildly across the scorched earth. I saw the ferocious sight of the earth being torn apart and felt the scorching heat waves carrying the smell of sulfur and scorched earth. I tried to breathe in that environment, but my lungs were burned."

As Deputy Director Zhang listened, his breathing gradually became rapid.

“Occasionally, dazzling flames would burst forth from the cracks in the earth. Fire dragons broke free from the shackles of the earth's core and soared into the sky. It was a diffuse volcanic eruption that covered the plains. Flames carrying scorching rocks rained down like rain. Everything around had already been ignited in the repeated rain of fire. So the falling flints and scorched earth could only rub against each other in the air and ignite themselves again. The world became charred in this round and round of self-ignition. I believe that if Sophon were here, the Trisolaran friends would be familiar with this scene.”

Deputy Director Zhang felt like he had been completely fooled, and he looked at Liu Xin in horror.

Liu Xin opened her mouth and smiled, revealing her pale white teeth.

"Guess when this fire started?"

Deputy Director Zhang swallowed hard and whispered, "After the founding of the People's Republic of China?"

"No, it was the Qing Dynasty, to be precise, it was 1874, the time when the Self-Strengthening Movement was in full swing."

Deputy Director Zhang stood there, stunned. Liu Xin patted him on the shoulder, offering a word of comfort as if she had a change of heart:
"Of course, Deputy Director Zhang, you don't need to worry about this happening. There is no oxygen in the coal seam below, and the coal reserves of the No. 1 gasification coal experimental mine are very limited, only 30,000 tons. Even if a subterranean fire does occur, it will naturally extinguish itself within half a month at most."

...

The 'ignition' ceremony began.

Liu Xin pressed the red button that represented 'ignition'. Hundreds of meters underground, tens of thousands of volts ignited everything. The red veins representing oxygen-free combustion began to extend in the dark coal seam and quickly 'boiled' around the ignition point. The combustion field began to expand rapidly and soon covered the entire Experimental Mine No. 1. In the mine, thousands of low-frequency heat-resistant sensors were still working normally. On the computer in front of Liu Xin, red high-temperature dots quickly filled the designated coal area.

Under high pressure and high heat in an oxygen-free combustion environment, the surface of solid coal begins to turn red as if it were being steamed. As the temperature rises, the dark red glow of the solid coal is gradually replaced by incandescent light, which is the boiling of solids.

Under the energy suppression brought by high temperature and high pressure, the molecular clusters on the surface of solid coal begin to rise. The van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonds, which represent intermolecular forces, begin to break. The wobbly coal mixture molecular clusters break free from the constraints of the solid arrangement and rise into the gas. At this moment, the sublimation of solid coal begins.

As water was injected and the chemical reaction of water vapor occurred, the gas pressure inside the No. 1 gasified coal experimental mine gradually rose to an incredible level. Under these circumstances, Liu Xin issued the order to open the gate.

A one-meter-diameter exhaust pipe stands tall in this desolate northwestern land, like a giant's chimney, from which violent gasification of coal gas bursts forth, and the high-pressure air jet emits a shrill sound.

Those present could smell a strong odor of sulfur compounds. But this harmful smell did not last long; an automatically extending remote igniter rushed into the chimney outlet and then activated the electrical interlock device.

boom!
A towering pillar of fire, three meters in diameter and hundreds of meters long, exploded. The base of the pillar was a transparent purple, and the air twisted violently in the flames. Then, like a rainbow, it changed colors in the sky, from dark to light and from cold to warm, like a dazzling, vertical rainbow that shone brightly on this desolate northwestern land.

A brilliant sky lantern appeared on the Loess Plateau.

The coal gasification experiment was a success, and the crowd erupted in cheers that lasted for a long time. This means that before controlled nuclear fusion becomes widespread, humanity has obtained the last means of transitioning from energy crisis to the era of unlimited energy.

Deputy Director Zhang walked out from the crowd.

"Chief Engineer Liu, you've succeeded. Now please put out this flame; it looks terrifying... Of course, I'm here to congratulate you. You've solved humanity's energy problem for at least the next twenty years, allowing humanity to calmly begin widespread research into controlled nuclear fusion—anyway, put out the fire first; I'm scared."

"What are you afraid of?" Liu Xin looked at the deputy director strangely. "We should let the country and the world see this. This is a great technological achievement." "The world has already seen it very clearly." Deputy Director Zhang pointed to the television reporters behind Liu Xin, then leaned closer and whispered, "Shut that pipe first, and give the future some time."

"No, I refuse. I want it to burn forever, as a tribute to the millions of workers who have died in coal mines around the world since the First Industrial Revolution, including my father. Of course, it's impossible for it to burn forever; it will take at least two years for this No. 1 experimental coal gasification mine to burn completely. The Summer Olympics are starting in two years, aren't they? Let's take the torch from here."

...

The disaster struck on the fifth day.

The residents of the coal city first noticed the abnormal weather forecast. Despite it being winter, the temperature in the entire city reached an astonishing 20 or 30 degrees Celsius. The plants in the city were deceived by this brief warmth, and the poplars and willows along the roadside sprouted tender buds.

This heat is far more exaggerated than the small-scale spring caused by controlled nuclear fusion studied by Ding Yi.

But soon, this spring-like warmth was swallowed up by dryness and heat. People soon discovered that the Fen River, the mother river of the coal city, had experienced a significant drop in water level. This second largest tributary of the Yellow River, which originates from the foot of Guancen Mountain in Ningwu, could now be faintly seen on its riverbed.

At this point, the meteorological bureau had already issued an alert to the entire city, and an emergency evacuation had begun. But how could this megacity with a population of tens of millions complete the evacuation in such a short time?

The heat, the dryness, and the panic began to spread through the city.

The investigation into the abnormal heat was completed quickly, and almost as soon as the conclusion was reached, Liu Xin was forced into a transport vehicle by the military and police.

"What happened?" Liu Xin asked, panting and bewildered.

The military police officers escorting Liu Xin didn't speak, but instead coldly pushed his head out of the window. What came into view was a gentle hillside. Liu Xin could clearly see that the hillside was covered with endless tender green in the winter, as if spring had arrived. Liu Xin looked carefully for a while, but quickly realized that something was wrong.

The tender grass seemed to have dried up, limp and lifeless, like withered grass.

Combined with the abnormal temperature around them, Liu Xin vaguely realized something. As the convoy drove in, Liu Xin gradually saw the huge city in the distance, which began to emit steam. The steam shimmered in the sunlight. It was the Fen River being evaporated.

Liu Xin received a nightmarish truth: the underground coal seam of the coal city was on fire. It was a super coal seam with reserves of up to 1100 billion cubic meters, the foundation of the coal city's prosperity, and now, the largest fire in human history was forming.

“This is impossible. The closest test coal seam to this large coal seam is more than 100 kilometers away. How could the fire have reached there?” Liu Xin struggled.

"If you had simply monitored all directions of the test coal seam using ultrasound beforehand, you wouldn't have asked this question," an elderly expert with white hair scolded angrily, before handing Liu Xin a cross-sectional diagram of the underground coal seam.

Miao Fuquan's blind mine extended an extremely narrow coal seam that stretched for hundreds of kilometers, miraculously reaching the huge coal seam beneath the coal city. Most critically, the super coal seam beneath the coal city had maintained a good oxygen supply during mining operations, and this coal seam became the fuse connecting the No. 1 gasification coal experimental mine with the super coal seam.

"How could this happen..." Liu Xin murmured.

"You'd better pray that the Wallfacer can solve this huge problem," the military police officer escorting him sneered.

Before ETO was destroyed, its desire to force humanity to give in by destroying metropolises was unintentionally fulfilled by Liu Xin.

Coal city, sky.

The nascent soul penetrated 30 kilometers into the earth and radiated outwards for 3000 kilometers from the city center.

Looking at the Northwest East Province that was about to be engulfed in flames, and the super-city coal city at the heart of the fire, Luo Qing couldn't help but curse angrily.

"Damn, what kind of weird stuff have these scientists come up with this time?"

(End of this chapter)