Chapter 102: Li Wanrou
Chapter 102: Li Wanrou
——(POV Li Huang, the construction worker)——
I think the training with grandpa long was at least more fun as we would bicker with each other from time to time, but construction is really a hard job as you have to focus on all the details because this is a fort that is supposed to help us fend off the horde of thousands of beasts that would soon gather to ‘punish’ us.
Their fort has to be perfect for that to happen and to achieve perfection, having complete focus on the building process is a must.
“Cai ZhenKang, those stairs are really badly put together. Let’s put them together again.” I told Cai ZhenKang when I saw one of the stairs that lead to the top of the wall.
“…Do we really have to?” Cai ZhenKang said as he was sulking. The sulking face on such a big guy was just weird, to say the least.
“You look disgusting.” I couldn’t help but say to his face. I don’t know why but when I saw him sulk, I had this unbelievable urge to punch him in the face.
Controlling myself so that I won’t punch him, I pointed at the stairs.
“Do you see that stone there? That would be the weak point for this wall and would make this part of the wall collapse if enough pressure is applied.” I told him. Well, I don’t have any experience in constructing a fort but I have something better, the [Peeping eye of heaven]. Using the trick that I learned in the spar with Cai ZhenKang himself, I could see the weak points in the walls that we were building so we could fix them before they cause major issues.
“Ugh, can’t we go back to cutting stones?” Cai ZhenKang could move materials around easily but the focusing part was getting to him.
“Stop complaining and get back to work. The faster we finish these walls, the sooner we can get back out there.” I knew that we won’t be much out even at that time but I omitted that part to not shit on Cai ZhenKang’s mood any further.
“HAHA, you should have said it sooner. Let’s finish this wall in the next half an hour.” Cai ZhenKang said as he stacked stones on top of each other to increase his speed.
“Hey, slow down. I don’t want to rebuild the whole thing just because you wanted to finish it faster…” I told him. Cai ZhenKang is really not built for this kind of work as he easily gets frustrated.
“Heh, no one is more dedicated to the work than me.” Cai ZhenKang said that and ran to build a tower.
“…But dedication has nothing to do with it.” I said but he was already far from me.
Taking a breath to calm down, I got to work as we really needed to finish these walls.
…
——(POV third person, around the keep)——
Hu Anjing was working on some final touches to the keep when she saw one of the disciples from the Divine Arrow sect that was running toward her.
The disciple got to her as fast as she could and stopped in front of her and cupped her fists.
“I have a report. A group of 39 are getting close to us from the north side of the fort.” The disciple said and waited for Hu Anjing’s instruction. As their leader was someone that is very passionate about the arts of war, almost all of her fellow disciples knew how to act as military personnel so she acted like how one should in front of a high-ranking officer.
“Ye Ling, follow me.” Hu Anjing told Ye Ling and nodded to Divine Arrow sect’s disciple to lead the way.
…
“Is your leader also there?” Hu Anjing asked the female disciple as they were on the way.
“Yes, senior brother should be there now.” The disciple answered. Just like how she was sent to inform Hu Anjing about this, one of the other disciples was sent to inform Hou Shuqing about this situation.
“Good.” Hu Anjing nodded. She didn’t inform Li Huang as she knew that he is building the inner wall so she didn’t want to disrupt him.
In a few seconds, they reached the location of the northern watchtower. Four directional towers were to help them survey the surroundings and this was one of them. As the team is now big enough they can man more towers like these so the speed up in the building process is necessary.
“What do you think about it, senior sister?” Ye Ling asked as Hu Anjing was sensing the group with her Qi sense. At the same time she checked for Jin Fen but she didn’t find him in there. It seems he isn’t that stupid to come with this group.
‘Well, Huang is convinced that he will come back so it is better to be cautious.’ Hu Anjing thought.
“They are from the Sky Pillar sect and the Heaven Reaching Spear sect. Others are from the smaller powers.” Hu Anjing explained to Ye Ling.
When Hu Anjing saw Hou Shuqing she gave him a small nod as a greeting.
“Have your fellow disciples ready for a possible conflict although the chance of such thing happening is minuscule.” Hu Anjing told Hou Shuqing as the new group was getting closer to them.
“They are ready.” Hou Shuqing said. He wouldn’t show it but he would love for a fight to happen as so far the beast hordes were of small size and he is looking for something that would be fun to be a part of. If Hu Anjing were to know his inner thoughts, she would blast him in the face for the added excitement.
The new group got in front of Hu Anjing and Hou Shuqing and introduced themselves.
“Zheng Jingyi, the chief disciple of the Sky Pillar sect.” Zheng Jingyi said as he cupped his fists.
“I am Li Wanrou of the Heaven Reaching Spear sect.” Li Wanrou introduced herself. She is from the Li family just like Li Huang but is a spear practitioner, unlike Li Huang who is training in the way of the sword. Agewise, she is four years older than Li Huang.
She is a member of the main Li family and her grandfather and Li Long are brothers. The relation between Li Huang and her was good in the short interaction that they had over the years.
When she heard Li Huang calling for an alliance she didn’t care about the reason and came here without any hesitation. She would have loved for them to have more interactions at the selection but all they could do was sending a sound transmission that promised a talk after they were done with the trial. As Li Wanrou and Li Huang both had responsibilities at the time, they put this small talk for later but now was as good as any chance to talk.
“Where is Huang? Shouldn’t he be here?” Li Wanrou said nonchalantly. She was a little upset that Li Huang didn’t come to greet her in person so she asked about him from the get-go. Zheng Jingyi didn’t want to get into a fight with her so he let her ask away whatever was on her mind.
Hou Shuqing felt weird that he wasn’t given the chance to introduce himself but stayed silent as he was excited by the prospect of an upcoming conflict.
Hu Anjing who knew about Li Wanrou a little, didn’t mind her actions and decided to be friendly to her.
“Junior uncle is working on the eastern inner walls right now.” Hu Anjing said as she cupped her fist to return the gesture.
“Junior uncle…” Li Wanrou muttered.
“You should be Hu Anjing then…” Li Wanrou said with a nod.
Hu Anjing wanted to confirm her words but Li Wanrou continued without giving her a chance to speak.
“…We will work on that wall too.” Li Wanrou said and passed Hu Anjing and Hou Shuqing and her fellow disciples also followed after their leader.
Hu Anjing did her best to stay calm as the corner of her eye twitched. Hou Shuqing could feel Hu Anjing’s rich Qi oozing out of her body but didn’t dare to point it out as all the books and scrolls that he has read about the art of war would disapprove of this action.
Li Wanrou who didn’t know about this was long gone from the vicinity as she wanted to get to the wall sooner.
Zheng Jingyi knew better to speak when Li Wanrou was there but didn’t know about Hu Anjing enough to be wary of her too so he did the unthinkable and broke this silence.
“We too want to join the fort, should we go to the wall too?” Zheng Jingyi asked as he didn’t want to stay idle when the danger of beast hordes is near.
Everyone at the scene except Ye Ling could see the error in this action and timing but wasn’t dumb enough to address it so all they could do was send him a silent prayer.