Chapter 168 167: Purify Earth

As early as the period of great technological development following the defeat of the Blutuk Civilization, Li Qingsong had dedicated a portion of his energy to restoring Earth's ecology. He had persevered with this project for decades and had not stopped to this day.

Although it was only a small part of Li Qingsong's total effort, on the scale of Earth, it was still a monumental project.

During the last war, Earth itself was never directly hit by the fighting. However, the planet's surface ecology still collapsed due to Li Qingsong's massive industrial construction.

In those years, immense amounts of exhaust were released into the atmosphere, and countless tons of wastewater were discharged into rivers, lakes, oceans, and the soil.

Radioactive waste, in particular, turned certain areas into barren wastelands where not a single blade of grass could grow—veritable dead zones for all life.

By the end of the war, Earth's surface had been ravaged by Li Qingsong's activities. Vast new deserts had appeared, lakes had turned into fetid pools, and all the fish and shrimp in the rivers had died off.

Over the years, Li Qingsong dismantled and relocated a massive number of industrial facilities. He then launched dredging and purification projects for many rivers and lakes, excavating immense quantities of silt from their beds, purifying it, and then returning it to the natural environment.

Li Qingsong also actively regulated the planet's weather, employing various methods to restore precipitation. He scattered plant seeds across mountains and forests and bred different species of wildlife, doing everything in his power to restore Earth's ecosystem.

Now, Li Qingsong had completed most of the surface-level projects.

But the results were still not very good.

'Sigh... The air pollution from that earlier period was just too severe.'

Li Qingsong sighed softly. 'I originally thought that once the work on the land and water was done, the air pollution would gradually lessen as the ecosystem healed itself. I never expected... I overestimated the self-healing capacity of Earth's biosphere.'

Earth's atmosphere currently contained not only the exhaust and toxic substances from Li Qingsong's large-scale industrial activities, but also contaminants from stray munitions from space. While these projectiles couldn't penetrate the atmosphere to strike the surface, the process of burning up on entry dispersed their constituent heavy metals and toxic materials throughout the air.

The combination of these two sources had even made Earth's atmosphere mildly toxic.

The ecosystem's self-healing ability alone was not enough to repair such massive pollution.

If the atmosphere wasn't restored, no matter how much effort Li Qingsong put into the surface, it would likely have little effect.

This was a complex, thorny, and troublesome problem. And at this moment, restoring Earth's ecology seemed to hold little meaning for Li Qingsong.

After all, he was about to leave the Solar System, and there was no telling when he might return.

But...

Li Qingsong still made his decision without hesitation.

'I must restore Earth's ecosystem! There's no other reason. Earth is my home, and it's the home of Human Civilization!

'Before, I had to personally destroy Earth's ecosystem to defeat our enemy. Now that I have sufficient industrial capacity, if I don't fix it just because it's a hassle... never mind whether my compatriots will forgive me when I find Human Civilization again in the future—I could never forgive myself!

'The target of that Intelligent Mechanical Calamity is intelligent civilizations. If I escape, they most likely won't have any interest in the Solar System.

'An invasion like the one from the Blutuk Civilization is an extremely improbable event.

'As long as I restore Earth's ecosystem, the life on this planet can most likely live on peacefully and safely.

'So, let's do it!'

Having made his decision, Li Qingsong immediately began researching plans to purify Earth's atmosphere.

At present, there was really only one feasible option: to scatter specific chemicals into Earth's atmosphere, allowing them to combine with the toxic and harmful substances, which would then solidify and precipitate out.

This would purify the atmosphere.

The only variables were which chemicals to choose and the specific method of dispersal.

But after running detailed simulations, Li Qingsong ultimately rejected this plan.

The reason was simple: the secondary disasters would be incredibly difficult to control. The collateral damage to Earth's ecosystem would be too great, and it might even do more harm than good.

This was a problem that even Li Qingsong's current technology could not solve.

After testing hundreds of different chemicals and devising hundreds of purification methods, only to have each one rejected by his models, Li Qingsong gritted his teeth and made his final decision.

'Since none of these methods will work, I'll just use the most primitive, brutish, and simplest method there is!'

What is the simplest method of air purification?

Obviously, it's to purify the air bit by bit, using physical or chemical means.

Collect air, purify it, and release it. That's all there is to the process.

Purify one cubic meter of air, release one cubic meter of air. Purify it all, bit by bit, until the entire atmosphere of Earth is clean!

The total mass of Earth's atmosphere is a staggering 5,150 trillion tons.

Li Qingsong had about 30 years remaining until his scheduled departure.

The target mass for purification was 60% of the total, or approximately 3,090 trillion tons. After all, given the distribution of the atmosphere, it was impossible for Li Qingsong to purify all of it. Calculations showed that purifying just 60% would be enough to reduce toxic and harmful gases below a certain threshold, significantly mitigating their impact on Earth's ecosystem.

3,090 trillion tons of atmosphere in 30 years. That averaged out to 103 trillion tons per year, or about 3.26 million tons per second!

He would do it.

Faced with this colossal number, Li Qingsong didn't hesitate. He immediately diverted the necessary industrial power, began manufacturing the machinery required for this purification work, and transported it to Earth.

Li Qingsong located approximately 10,000 airflow convergence points on the planet—places where, due to Earth's weather patterns, gale-force winds blew year-round and air flowed at extremely high speeds. There, he began to build a new kind of exceptionally massive facility.

These structures stood over a hundred meters tall, were more than two hundred meters long and wide, and were filled with complex machinery and pipes.

In the middle of each was a gigantic cavity.

This cavity ran straight through the facility, with a diameter of 60 meters and a cross-sectional area of over 2,800 square meters.

Inside it were more than 20 enormous fans, each with blades nearly 30 meters long.

Now, driven by the immense power from a Nuclear Fusion Reactor, one of these facilities began to operate.

The twenty-plus giant fans began to spin at high speed, emitting a massive, dull HUM.

Aided by the natural gales and the high-speed rotation of the fans, torrents of air began to surge through.

As the air passed through this enormous cavity, the various purification methods Li Qingsong had installed—electrostatic adsorption, chemical reactions, membrane permeation, and Laser ablation to destroy molecular structures—all kicked into gear. They directly removed or destroyed the toxic and harmful substances in the air, converting them into harmless chemicals.

After completing this series of purifications, the clean air was expelled from the other end of the cavity back into the environment.

An endless stream of air began to converge on the cavity, at speeds approaching 100 meters per second!

At this rate, a single facility could process and purify over 300 tons of air every second!

And Li Qingsong had built more than ten thousand of these giant air purification facilities on Earth!

At this very moment, with an ample supply of electricity from numerous Nuclear Fusion Power Plants, these ten thousand-plus air purification facilities began operating at full power.