If he really wanted to, Stav could have drowned Zod Heath in money. But he chose to use something else.
"An oil field in Texas, North America???"
Uld blurted it out in shock, unable to believe Stav's additional condition.
As long as Zod Heath could develop a cancer-specific medicine, Stav would give him an oil field in Texas.
That was real industry.
You could even say countless people spent their whole lives dreaming of owning an oil field, just to live without worries for generations. Even though the rise of new energy was gradually threatening old energy, having an oil field was still a huge deal.
Zod Heath had looked into the petroleum industry because of the whole new energy versus oil situation.
Texas in North America, the Middle East in Asia, the North Sea in the U.K., the Caspian region in Central Asia, and Siberia, these five major oil-producing regions accounted for 70%70% of the world's oil output and 25%25% of the world's energy supply. They were the lifeline of the world, the blood and veins of industry.
This was the world's largest resource system, the system that fed modern society's energy and chemical raw materials. It was an energy system that let certain nations lie on wealth and squander it, an energy system that controlled war, politics, economics, and industry, something that was unimaginably important now and in the past. It involved OPEC, oil futures, the oil industry and most of the petrochemical industry. More than a billion people worldwide lived off the oil industry. Even more survived on ethylene and petrochemicals. The auto industry, plastics, aerospace, this world could practically be called a world built on oil.
And it was also the greatest enemy of Zod Heath's new energy, because he accepted no investment and clearly intended to monopolize it.
Stav's condition was essentially an invitation, an invitation for Zod Heath, who currently held the most valuable and most monopoly-worthy new energy, to join this oil empire.
Zod Heath's new energy no longer relied on palladium. It was a magnetic-beam fusion reactor. Its output might be inferior to the new-element reactor, but in every other aspect it completely outclassed the old palladium cold fusion reactor.
After Tony Stark went missing and was confirmed dead, and Obadiah took over Stark Industries, plenty of oil tycoons invested in fusion reactor projects. They supported new energy research and development, but they only wanted to turn new energy into their new oil.
After all, the most profitable business in the world was monopoly.
Zod Heath's magnetic-beam fusion reactor wasn't as welcomed as his earlier inventions. In America, where public education was weak, most people believed the capitalists' propaganda that new energy caused cancer and all kinds of diseases. They strongly resisted Zod Heath's magnetic-beam fusion reactor.
At the same time, many people came to his door with "good intentions." They carried sums so large they sounded unreal. As long as Zod Heath nodded once, Blade Tech Industries would become a giant like Umbrella Corporation, even standing above it and above the law.
But Zod Heath was an incredibly proud man. The education he received in his previous, previous life made him disdain bowing to capital's power. If you resist new energy, fine. If you don't want it, he would sell it to other countries.
Even if 99%99% of the world was capitalist, there was one country that definitely wasn't.
"Oil…" Zod Heath sighed.
He could directly overthrow oil, stripping away its role as energy. Then oil would only have value as a chemical raw material, but even that was not irreplaceable.
Seawater, through magnetized water materials, with sufficient energy input, could be molded into the best light-industry materials.
This plasticized water, solid and gel-like, could also replace plastics and ethylene, replacing petrochemical materials.
But just as he'd said before, if Zod Heath did this, it would be the same as declaring war on finance and capital. He could withstand it, but if finance and capital collapsed, billions of people would be affected.
That was the limitation of the era, and also the sorrow of geniuses who were ahead of their time. They could not change an era, and the era would not allow itself to be changed by them.
"Accept it," Zod Heath said.
He was going to release a cancer-specific medicine anyway.
Stav finally breathed easier. But now he worried whether he could live long enough to see the day the cancer medicine came out. For that, he had no choice but to accept traditional treatments to buy time.
Of course, Zod Heath wasn't going to hand it over immediately. He planned to drag it out for a while first.
Kamar-Taj.
Morgan sat with her eyes closed, cultivating Kamar-Taj's magic. Of course, it was the Vishanti's trinity white magic. All other magic required paying a price. As a child of a Dimensional Demon God, if she dared use other magic, it would be like telling other Dimensional Demon Gods that there was a sweet and delicious coordinate right here.
Once other Dimensional Demon Gods discovered it, they absolutely would not let Morgan go. She was the perfect material for channeling power at any time, and she would become a consumable.
For the sake of her own life, after the Ancient One explained the stakes clearly, Morgan absolutely would not touch other magic.
But Morgan underestimated the temptation of being a child of a Dimensional Demon God.
While she was routinely carrying the Book of Vishanti and preparing to study white magic, she accidentally tripped over a book.
Morgan stood up in surprise. She had heard the Ancient One say that every book in Kamar-Taj's library had its own mystical power. This book actually tripped me?
She picked it up and, without realizing it, flipped it open. The pages inside were blank, yet they displayed, in English, information on how to resist Dimensional Demon Gods, along with knowledge of magic, symbols, and more.
Morgan was stunned. Kamar-Taj's library actually had a book this powerful?
She read with complete fascination, until a sharp shout at her ear snapped her back. Then she watched as the Ancient One closed the book.
"This is the Darkhold. Where did you get it?"
The Ancient One hadn't expected that she only went to chat with Odin for a bit, and when she returned and sensed something wrong, Morgan would actually be holding the Darkhold!
Where did this Darkhold come from?
Billions of years ago, one of the Elder Gods, Chthon, who had already fallen into a demon, was forced to flee into other dimensions to avoid being devoured by the God-Eater. Before escaping, Chthon wrote down all his evil deeds and spells on indestructible parchment, known as the Scrolls of Chthon. Later, these parchments were compiled into a book and became known as the Darkhold. Before Chthon went into exile, he left the Darkhold on Earth as a channel for him to influence Earth and release energy.
The Darkhold was once the origin of spellbooks such as the Book of the Dead, and it ensured that users could fully understand it in any language. Although the Darkhold contained many powerful dark magics, its corruptive influence was extremely strong, and the Darkhold's dwarves would seduce people into using the spells recorded within. After many used it, their souls would belong to Chthon.
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