Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

Chapter 352 The Heart of Oil

September 1971.

A new guest arrived at the Hilton Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Li Ming, a novice monk now using the alias Abdul Hamid, checked in as a senior advisor to a Kuwaiti investment company. His mission was clear: to gain access to the inner circle of the Saudi royal family.

Through a court steward who had received a generous gift, Li Ming met Crown Prince Fahad's third son. At a private dinner party, the prince sipped his wine and casually complained, "Liverpool played terribly last week; that penalty was ridiculous." Li Ming naturally chimed in, "The second penalty? The defender touched the ball first; the referee's positioning definitely had a blind spot."

The prince put down his wine glass, somewhat surprised: "You watch the English league too?"

"I keep an eye on it in my spare time," Li Ming said modestly with a smile. In fact, he had used his divine sense to scan the prince's study the night before, and had not only seen the Liverpool match schedule on the table, but also glimpsed a photo of a girl and several unread document summaries under the glass. These details gave him confidence in his conversation.

Two weeks later, the prince's butler delivered a letter of appointment, and Li Ming became one of the prince's private advisors, responsible for "international investment and risk assessment".

In October, Li Ming attended the quarterly meeting of the Saudi Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources as an advisor. His "assistant" sat quietly in the back row as a recorder, the photographic stone hidden in his sleeve slightly warm, faithfully recording every word spoken and every expression.

That evening, a divine message traveled thousands of miles to reach Hong Kong: "Saudi officials are seriously discussing the gradual nationalization of Aramco. There are clear differences of opinion on oil prices: the younger generation advocates raising prices from $1.8 per barrel to over $3, while the conservative elders are worried about angering the United States and undermining security commitments."

November, Tehran, Iran.

Wang Lei, the leader of another team, targeted a mid-level official at the national oil company who wielded real power but had a heavy family burden. After a chance encounter and dinner together, Wang Lei applied a low-intensity mind control technique to him. This technique didn't take his mind away, but rather subtly increased his trust and obedience. Soon, the official began to "habitually" take some non-top-secret but important documents out of his office and hand them over to Wang Lei's people to photograph. One draft copy showed that Iran intended to increase its daily production from five million barrels to eight million barrels and demanded that its profit-sharing ratio with Occidental oil companies increase from 50% to 55%.

In December, the operation in Baghdad, Iraq, encountered setbacks.

Team leader Zhang Wei attempted to arrange a meeting with the Minister of Petroleum through an intermediary, but the security department seemed to have sensed something amiss, and two team members operating on the periphery were suddenly detained and interrogated. When the news reached Hong Kong, Lin Yi ordered: "Activate 'Operation Gecko'."

That night, a silent ripple stirred beneath the walls of the detention center. The two detained monks used earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows one to disappear into the earth and rocks), emerging from another inconspicuous corner outside the walls. Simultaneously, on the straw mats inside the cells, two "corpses" formed from shapeshifting runes quickly displayed the characteristics of drowning victims, showing no signs of life. When the interrogators broke down the door, they found only the dead bodies and were baffled. The remaining members of the team dispersed overland within two hours, evacuating Iraq and entering Syria to await further orders.

On January 15, 1972, in the analysis room of the Lin Group in Hong Kong, six IBM mainframe computers hummed as they processed massive amounts of data.

Lin Yan used spatial imprints to connect several heads of departments scattered around the world via divine sense for a meeting. Alexander went straight to the heart of the matter: "The most crucial issue is timing. When exactly will OPEC officially raise prices?"

Lin Yi retrieved the latest intelligence summary from the Saudi source: "According to the royal family's leaked agenda, the initial motion may be submitted for discussion in early 1973. However, Saudi Oil Minister Yamani made a statement during a closed-door meeting last month that has been recorded: 'If the United States continues to supply weapons to Israel without reservation as it does now, then oil prices will no longer be an economic figure, but a political weapon.'"

Marcus's voice came through the Cairo line, tinged with seriousness: "I need reinforcements. I need experts skilled in spirit manipulation."

"I'm transferring twenty late-stage Golden Core cultivators from the reserve force, specializing in spiritual cultivation techniques, to you," Lin Yan said calmly. "They should arrive in Cairo tomorrow and will be under your command."

Albert then reported on the progress in Europe: "The Ekofisk oil field in Norway will be officially put out to tender on March 15th, with proven reserves of approximately 3 billion barrels. We need to prepare a bid deposit of US$50 million, and the initial development budget after winning the bid will be at least US$800 million."

"The funds will be transferred from a Swiss account via route three," Lin Yan approved. "The equity structure must be clean, and tracing back to the fifth level, it must be an unrelated charitable foundation."

After the meeting, Lin Yan kept Lin Yi behind alone.

"We don't have enough manpower in the Middle East right now." He walked to a huge map. "We'll transfer two hundred experienced Golden Core cultivators from the Americas branch."

"All personnel must be in place by September 5th." Lin Yan's finger traced the coast of the Persian Gulf. "Prioritize reinforcements for Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and the UAE. Each country must have at least one complete operational team of thirty people, and the team leader must be fluent in the local language and familiar with the customs."

In early September, the support team arrived at a safe house prepared in Cairo. Logistics personnel had already prepared brand-new passports, uniforms, cash, and background information. Within two hours, they had blended into the flow of passengers on flights bound for various destinations in the Middle East, posing as businessmen, engineers, and scholars.

By the end of September, the intelligence network that Lin had woven in the Middle East had taken initial shape: a total of 47 active nodes, eight of which were able to access information at the cabinet level. An invisible net had silently covered this land rich in black gold.