Big Data Cultivation
Chapter 1188: An Unbearable Promotion

Chapter 1188: Chapter 1188: An Unbearable Promotion

Facing Mayor Wu’s fury, Feng Jun smiled indifferently, then pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

Amidst the clouds of smoke, he spoke lazily, "To be honest, for someone as insignificant as you, if you weren’t constantly provoking me, I wouldn’t even bother insulting you."

Mayor Wu trembled with anger, raised his hand to point at Feng Jun, but eventually dropped it in defeat. "Xiao Li, let’s go."

"Did I say you could leave?" Feng Jun snorted coldly. "Drink obediently until you’re down, and I might spare you this time!"

Mayor Wu finally snapped, "And what if I don’t drink?"

Feng Jun laughed in response, "Then you’d be refusing the toast only to drink a forfeit, wouldn’t you?"

Mayor Wu shot him a cold glance, turned around, and left.

After stepping out, he snorted coldly, "Two wads of cash, and look how cocky he’s become. Go investigate him. Check if his mountain lease paperwork is complete, and trace the sources of his funding..."

The secretary, still smarting from being scolded by Feng Jun, reluctantly reminded him, "The Chaoyang district—agriculture, forestry, and water affairs are all under Chao Ying’s say. The funding... seems to come from the capital."

Mayor Wu froze for a moment, wiped his face with his hand, and realized, "Misjudged. I was planning to squeeze some money out of him. How... how did it turn out like this?"

Back inside the room, Dou Jiahui remarked to Feng Jun, "Your temper’s been growing, huh? Forcing a deputy mayor to drink alcohol."

"Not like he actually drank," Feng Jun responded nonchalantly. "I’m starting to regret it now. I’ve been too lenient on him. Donated a million, and he still kept pestering me. If I’d known he was this kind of person, I’d have gone at him directly."

President Gao tried to mediate, "Ah, these days, being an official is still the best. They take advantage and still dare ask for more. Us ordinary folks couldn’t get away with this; we’d have been beaten to a pulp long ago."

While Gao’s words were truthful, they weren’t actionable. Feng Jun glanced apologetically at Dou Jiahui, "Seems like this might affect your bid. Really sorry about that."

"If it affects, it affects," Dou Jiahui brushed it off, taking a small sip of his liquor. "If I actually cared, I would’ve persuaded you earlier... Making money is important, but not at the cost of my brother being wronged."

"President Dou is straightforward," Zhang Caixin raised her glass to toast him, then looked at Feng Jun. "That Mayor Wu sure is arrogant. Took a million and still spat venom... He needs to be taught a lesson."

"I’ll think about it," Feng Jun nodded. "Donating money just to make an enemy? If I don’t deal with him, people will think I’m easily bullied."

At this moment, Feng Jing, rarely speaking, commented, "Consider carefully who to approach. If it’s someone too senior, it might backfire... Local matters should still respect local sentiments."

This was sound advice, and President Gao gave her an astonished look, "Teacher Mei, are you in the system too?"

Just then, Gazi’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen and handed it to Feng Jun, "Brother Jun, it’s for you."

The call was from Elder Yu. Unable to reach Feng Jun’s phone, he had to go through Gazi instead.

It was already close to 9 PM. For the old man to not only still be awake but also in the mood to call indicated he was in high spirits.

In fact, he had every reason to be happy. The crude oil samples sent for testing had yielded results. With a relative density of about 0.71, it was premium low-sulfur light crude.

He hadn’t just sent the samples to one laboratory. One highly reputable institute even stated that the samples differed from any known crude oil composition and requested related geological data and reports to analyze its formation.

In summary, every inspection agency concluded this oil product was second only to the type of crude that could be poured straight into fuel tanks. Even without accounting for refining costs, its environmental impact alone was significantly lower.

Elder Yu’s arrangements for the testing were no small matter, and since he approached multiple facilities, word had spread. By afternoon, a state-owned oil company with "China" in its name had discreetly inquired whose oil this was, its reserves, and pricing structure.

The petroleum industry’s unspoken rules were too many to delve into. Elder Yu’s position was clear: this oil could be supplied in large quantities, with transportation arrangements not being their concern—thus sidestepping any international policing embargoes.

In simplest terms, his sole demand was: treat it as if a domestic oilfield had been discovered. As for where the field was located, if they could find it themselves, that was their own skill.

If such words came from an ordinary citizen, they’d be inviting a visit to have "tea."

But coming from Elder Yu, it became enigmatic and beyond further questioning. In a nation as vast as Huaxia, who could definitively say there wasn’t a new oilfield somewhere?

As long as the oilfield remained undiscovered, and Elder Yu refrained from refining or selling finished oil products, the existing landscape wouldn’t be disrupted—after all, raw crude could be purchased from anyone, and this one was of exceptional quality.

Thus, Elder Yu was quite cheerful as he informed Feng Jun, "I’m coordinating some storage tanks. If all goes well, they might be ready within ten days or so."

Feng Jun was baffled. Building storage tanks takes a long time, doesn’t it? If you’d said ten to eight months, that might barely make sense, but ten to eight days? What does that even mean?

Elder Yu’s reply was straightforward: "Deep tunnels, ample grain, no hegemony—haven’t you heard of it?"

Feng Jun indeed had heard of it. That was part of Huaxia’s civil defense initiatives in the 1970s, meant for wartime preparation.

Back then, Huaxia’s oilfields mainly exported oil for foreign exchange, but setting up a few storage tanks to stockpile crude or refined oil for wartime wasn’t unreasonable.

Still, he figured that the storage tanks from that era probably weren’t very large. After all, in those days, a ten-thousand-ton ship was considered massive. "I’m not interested in small storage tanks. They’re not even worth a single operation for me. Let me know if you find larger ones."

"There are large ones too," Elder Yu said hesitantly. "The location is decent, but it used to be privately owned. Ownership rights are a bit unclear."

"You go ahead and handle it first," Feng Jun replied casually, then offhandedly asked, "Old man, do you have any connections in our Hubei Province? Someone’s trying to mess with me."

"Someone’s going after you?" Elder Yu perked up, sounding intrigued. "Tell me, what’s going on?"

Feng Jun didn’t see why he should hide his situation. In fact, he expressed a certain level of contempt: Look at these so-called leaders—you have so many legitimate tasks to handle, but all you do is focus on exploiting me. Is that fun for you?

After listening, Elder Yu chuckled dryly before saying, "A deputy mayor... that’s a bit beneath my reach, too low-level. Talk to Gu San’s wife... Never mind, I’ll ask around for you."

After hanging up, he glanced at his secretary, "Almost forgot, gotta help this guy smooth things over."

The secretary said nothing, but not far away, Yu Qingzhu spoke up, "Forcing officials to drink alcohol—Feng Jun is really bullying people too much, isn’t he?"

Elder Yu glanced at her and shook his head slightly. To his granddaughter, pressuring officials to drink seemed like disrespecting authority, but he had his own views. "This culture first became popular within the system. It started when we were learning techniques from Ivan’s people. Over there in Russia, this was already a common practice."

Yu Qingzhu still seemed dissatisfied. "A million per glass? Just because he has money, does that mean he can do whatever he wants?"

"Of course," Elder Yu laughed. "If it weren’t for his wealth, why would the local deputy mayor have bothered with him?"

In his heart, though, Yu believed that Huaxia wasn’t exactly a place where having money meant power. But Feng Jun wasn’t just wealthy.

After all, anyone who could secretly bring the Lexington to Huaxia could certainly do as they pleased.

Elder Yu looked at his secretary, "Time to rest. Look into this Mayor Wu for me."

"Rest assured, Old Chief," the secretary smiled and nodded. "You’ll have answers by the time you wake up tomorrow."

Feng Jun and the others didn’t drink too late. Dou Jiahui, busy with work and with a pregnant wife at home, had to leave early.

Back at the small lake by the mountain, Feng Jun declared, "I need to focus on cultivation for a few days."

In truth, he needed to kill some time on the Earth Plane.

Zhang Caixin, slightly tipsy, asked, "Why do I get the feeling your cultivation level has gone up again?"

"That’s right," Feng Jun nodded with a smile. "I’ve reached the third stage of the Out-of-Dust Realm, but I haven’t hit its peak."

Hearing this, even Feng Jing couldn’t hold back anymore. So he wouldn’t let her go to the Mobile Phone Plane, but he was secretly advancing by another level?

She cleared her throat, "Boss, I’ve encountered some issues in my cultivation. Could I trouble you to give me a private lesson?"

This was the first time she had made such a request in front of Zhang Caixin—she normally wouldn’t dare.

Feng Jun thought this seemed a bit inappropriate, like it might set a bad example for the younger ones.

But on second thought, with someone like Feng Jing, who usually had such a laid-back attitude, showing initiative was rare. So he nodded and spoke earnestly, "I’m going to study some movement techniques. Those of you who need to cultivate, cultivate. Those who need to rest, rest."

What he was studying was none other than the Flash Move technique. This movement skill was extremely practical, allowing for near-instantaneous "blink" movements within a radius of one mile, leaving behind afterimages.

Similar techniques could be found in Tiantong, with starting prices around seventy to eighty thousand Spirit Stones. For slightly better ones, prices could exceed a hundred thousand.

Does that sound like the price of Broken Qingluo? Wrong. Techniques like Broken Qingluo in Tiantong couldn’t sell for more than fifty thousand or so—and that was because Broken Qingluo was a foundational technique.

Of course, the strict attribute requirements of Broken Qingluo kept its price relatively low, which was another factor.

In summary, ever since Feng Jun acquired the Flash Move technique, he’d wanted to cultivate it. However, while on the Mobile Phone Plane, he was always with Kong Ziyi and Huang Fu Wuxia. He didn’t want them pointing fingers and saying, "You’re cultivating the technique you stole? This guy lacks foundation."

So he waited until he returned to Earth to begin studying the technique.

This wasn’t something that could be mastered in a day. Feng Jun immersed himself in it until midnight before returning to the courtyard.

In the courtyard, only Feng Jing was sitting cross-legged. When she saw him return, her eyes lit up immediately.