Chapter 146
Sect Construction Accelerates
It has been ten days since the newcomers arrived and settled down. Leo, however, hadn't been to see them ever since their first day of arrival; he delegated all of the work to others (benefits of having people willing to listen, he supposed), though he hadn't really spent the free time he had doing much else besides cooking and lazing around. He'd meditate and cultivate on the rare occasion he got inspired, but he'd been severely spoiled by the system--even with minimal work, he was already extremely strong and had progressed rather 'far,' at least relative to his starting timeline.
There was still the doubt of whether it would come back to bite him in the ass, what with the possibility that the system itself might disappear one day and perhaps even take all of Leo's gains with it.
Today, however, he decided to visit the flat area and see how much progress they'd made; if it was satisfying, he even considered making a 'special' dinner for everyone.
"Me too, me too, me too!!" That was Shui'er throwing one of her regular tantrums whenever she wanted something. Though he'd spoiled her initially, Leo had made sure to slow down with indulging her whims, even when she threw a tantrum like this. Today, however, he figured it wouldn't be the worst idea to have her tag along.
"You promise to behave?" he asked.
"I do, I promise! I swear!!" she exclaimed with rather radiant eyes.
"If you don't," Leo said. "You'll have to listen to whatever Hino wants for the next month."
"E-eh...? R-really? Why...?"
"But you swore you'd behave, so why would it matter? Or were you planning on making trouble?"
"N-no, I will behave! I will be a good girl!" That was a blatant lie, Leo knew; the more time the girl spent here, the more of her core nature showed through. Shui'er was spoiled--and it wasn't even because of Leo. That was just who she was at her core. Rather than asking for things, she oft demanded them or outright 'expected' them. It was clear that (until she was abandoned in the Forest, at least) she was catered to as though she were a princess.
As her fearfulness slowly faded away in the passing days, more of who she was before the forest began breaking out--mischievous, spoiled, and, on occasion, to concerning levels. Leo knew that he'd have to nip it in the bud, but he wasn't quite sure as to how. After all, his parents didn't do it for him--they'd let him run amok as he wished, often preferring to simply clean up after his screwups rather than ensure he never had any.
"It will break my heart, you know?" Guilt-tripping: that was one thing Leo was familiar with, and he figured he'd give it a shot. "But I will be really happy if you behave nicely. I might even give you a gift."
"R-really? A gift? What gift?" she asked, curling herself up against him as he bent down and picked her up into his arms. She tossed hers around his neck and pressed her face against his, her curious and excited eyes radiating out unmasked greed.
"I wonder? But if you're not going to behave, I--"
"--humph, I will behave! So, you better prepare a really nice gift!" Huh, it wasn't so much guilt-tripping that worked as it was good, old bribery.
Setting her down, Leo glanced over at Hino. Despite having spent over two weeks with them already, the boy was still Fort Knox. Though he played with Shui'er a lot, and though she asked a lot, a lot, of questions, he seldom answered any, especially if they were personal. The most Leo could garner was that he had an older sister and not that many friends.
"You want to come too?" Leo asked.
"Hm," Hino nodded rather shyly, prompting Leo to sigh.
"Alright, go wash, eat your breakfast, and let's go."
There were only the three of them--Lu Yang, Azariel, Yue, Liang, Elder Ag, and Zexian had all departed quite a few hours ago, whole cauldrons of food in their spatial rings.
More and more Spirits and animals, from what he'd heard, started gathering there, too, curious about what was happening. And now, he was curious too.
Having finished bathing and eating breakfast, the two kids first sprinted ahead, running between the trees as they explored, before tiring themselves out within ten minutes and eventually ending up being carried by Leo. Even Hino, as guarded as he was, often got swept into Shui'er's rather inane pace, and today was no exception. About halfway through, both of them fell asleep, just in time to miss quite a few animals and Spirits joining them in the journey (or, perhaps, the timing was perfect as the animals waited for them to pass out?).
About an hour later, as Leo slowed down so as to not wake them, he emerged onto the clearing and gasped. Though he expected to see a few things sticking out from the ground at least, his expectations were blown out of the water.
Just about a few dozen buildings stood in various states of construction; the ground was evenly plowed, and the roots even Leo hadn't dug out from a while back were pulled out completely. What they did and how they made the soil so hard and 'trekkable', Leo didn't know, but it fully resembled a dirt road more so than anything else.
There were bands of ten to fifteen working in concert on various things; to his left, there were groups chopping up wood, beside them there were those 'refining' it, and then there were others processing it into usable timber. There was Qi involved; that much he could tell. Everyone was using it to one degree or another. Lu Yang had already mentioned that all of the newcomers, young and old alike, had at least reached Qi Condensation even before reaching the Forest itself.
Despite Leo withholding the 'special' stew, eating the one he did prepare for as long as they did was still extremely beneficial, apparently.
"Hey, you two," he jostled the kids awake. "We're here."
"Hmm...? W-WOOOW!!" Shui'er--and Hino, even--both exclaimed as they yawned themselves awake, climbing down to the ground. "Can we...?" Shui'er turned toward him and asked.
"Don't disturb them," he said. "Or pull any pranks. If you do, I'll know."
"I--I won't!!" She harumphed before grabbing Hino's arm and sprinting away.
Leo himself moved sideways, where he saw Elder Ag chattering with Lu Yang and another middle-aged man that Leo vaguely recalled from the first day; the man, though, was vastly more 'filled' out than he'd been back then and all but wholly rejuvenated.
"Yes, if we add the underpass, then the foundation can be connected to the neighboring structure. If we suppose there to be a pond, we can create a system of smaller streams to any corner we want." the man said.
"Hm. We will probably need some special arrays for that," Elder Ag said. "It is a bit disconcerting to be working backwards, but this is a solid plan. You said you were an architect?"
"No, no, just an assistant," the man quickly corrected. "No, perhaps even that is too much. I'd mostly just observed and noted a few things when I was younger, hoping to eventually learn enough to break into the field."
"What happened?" Lu Yang asked.
"Ah," the man's countenance dropped rather significantly as a bitter smile emerged. "My, uh, my wife... she died very early on in our marriage during childbirth. After that I... I started drinking. Then drinking more. In time, I'd lost everything."
"The kid?"
"Her grandparents took her in, thank Gods," the man said. "I was always too ashamed to visit. Until you'd come along, I'd planned on dying on the streets of Yuvel, drunk and broken."
"Eh? Leo? What are you doing here?" Lu Yang was the first to notice him, his words breaking the rather heavy atmosphere. Leo looked over toward the man who awkwardly shuffled about and bowed deeply as a greeting; it seemed that they all understood that Leo, despite being seen only once, was 'in charge', as it were.
"Came to stretch my legs with the kids," Leo replied, glancing back over at Lu Yang. "It's progressing much quicker than I thought."
"Hm," Lu Yang nodded. "We've managed to unearth a few talents, like Zhou Lin here." The man smiled rather awkwardly as Lu Yang praised him. "Thanks to him, we were much quicker about designating the locations to build. We've also found a few former farmers and even one person who'd worked on road construction who'd helped us prepare the field for construction. You said you came with the kids. Where are they?"
"Making a mess, undoubtedly," Leo sighed. "Shui'er... worries me."
"You spoil her too much."
"Huh, I do? Don't say so, Mr. Here-you-go-Shui'er, have whatever damn hell you please."
"I'm the cool grandpa," Lu Yang shrugged. "You should be the disciplinarian."
"Maybe I should," Leo grunted. "What's the common punishment for the disobedient elderly? Force them to listen to other people's life stories but forbid them from saying, 'Oh, that's exactly like this one thing that happened to me eighty years ago, back when I was young and handsome and living the life of glory!'?"
"That's... oddly specific," all three men chuckled momentarily as Lu Yang spoke.
"Haah, I'll figure something out," Leo shrugged, glancing back over toward the opposite end. "Looks like we'll have to go for the second batch sooner than we thought."
"I was going to bring it up tonight," Lu Yang said. "Though it's rather soon, maybe it's actually perfect. The chatter about us likely hadn't died out just yet, so if I return another time, with a few of them in tow, we might be able to ensnare a few more people."
"Probably none with the level of expertise we require," Elder Ag said. "If you'd allow me, I can reach out to some people I know--"
"--Are these people members of the Holy Blade Sect?" Leo inquired.
"Uh, define members."
"Tsk, you old stooges and your technicalities," Leo said. "Forget about it. If we slow down, we slow down. The issue isn't so much that as the fact that adding another hundred folk might turn my entire day into just cooking and cleaning."
"Ah, about that," Lu Yang said. "There are actually a few people here who can cook--they'd make snacks occasionally and share them. I can see if any of them are interested in helping you."
"Yeah, definitely. I mean, just set up cauldrons here and have someone supervise the ingredients or something."
"Everything sounds easy when you just order it to happen," Lu Yang said as Leo chuckled. "Oh, I almost forgot. There is one kid that I think is wasted here with us."
"What do you mean?"
"He was the first one to join me," Lu Yang said. "So I'd been keeping an eye out on him. A hard worker, for certain, but what's striking is that he actually has rather good natural talent; he has Peak Earth Roots from what I've gleaned, potentially elemental at that. While staggeringly below Yue and Liang, he'd actually be considered a decent candidate even in Tier III Sects."
"... alright," Leo nodded, recalling the young kid Lu Yang was talking about. "Bring him back tonight. He can spend the nights at the longhouse and learn, but keep him working here."
"Naturally. Hm? What's that commotion?" Lu Yang asked, prompting Leo to sigh yet again and look over.
Near the edge, there was a cluster of folk gathering, and he had no doubt in his mind that it was Shui'er's doing. Luckily, the gathering seemed to be more out of curiosity rather than outrage; chances were that she was just allowing herself to be 'pampered'. A cute little kid, this far into the forest, was likely a shocker to all of them.
"Just leave her be," Leo shrugged. "If she's disrupting work too much, I don't know, lock her up in one of the mud huts."
"Me?"
"Well, I certainly won't be the one to do it," Leo said. "Do you know how inhumane it is to lock up an eleven-year-old kid in a dark and soggy place?"
"... maybe it's best if you don't come here," Lu Yang said, eyeing him strangely. "You know, keep up the mystique about yourself and such."
"Ha ha," Leo faked the laugh for a moment before continuing. "Alright, bring everyone in. I'll make the special lunch."
"Are you sure?"
"They've been working hard all these days," Leo said. "They deserve a reward."