Chapter 393 - Excavation
The stone materials Zhao Boan bought were stone cuboids that were as tall as a full-grown man.
Blind He squatted in front of the stone cuboids. He did not start working immediately, but merely felt the coa.r.s.e stone cuboids with his hands.
It was at this moment that the onlookers noticed his palms were snow-white and sparkling, and his fingers were slender and long. Every movement he made with his hands was filled with an indescribable sense of beauty.
Blind He’s slim figure resembled a bamboo pole, appearing as if he was extremely delicate, but now, he seemed to have become a completely changed man. His eyes were tightly shut, and his face was solemn. Currently, he was exuding an aura of extreme confidence. It was as if he was confident in every move he made.
The onlookers were infected by his overwhelming confidence. They involuntarily held their breaths and widened their eyes.
Blind He’s long and slender fingers slid gently across the stone cuboids like a bamboo branch skimming across a smooth water surface.
He withdrew his palms and stood up straight. Then, he spread his legs slightly apart and extended his two hands with his palms facing down over the stone cuboids.
A silver eye appeared on each of his palms, followed by a white glow that shot out from the pair of eyes and engulfed the stone cuboids. Suddenly, numerous tiny objects began to form within the faint white light.
These glittering, silver tools were very elaborated. Drill bits, saws, chisels, etc. There was a huge number of each item. Just counting drill bits, there were ten of them. Some were as thick as a person while some were smaller than a toothpick. This equipment appeared to be controlled by a pair of invisible hands, flying and dancing around the stone cuboids. Even though there was a huge number of them, they were working in an orderly manner and were not at all messy.
Every now and then, the stone cuboids would release flying sparks and stone fragments. However, not a single noise was made.
The coa.r.s.e and rough stone cuboids became circular stone pillars. Decorative patterns were forming on the stone pillars at a visible speed. Subsequently, with a perceptible speed, these patterns became increasingly fine and distinct!
The whole process was smooth and natural, warming and delighting one’s heart and eyes, respectively. It was unusually precise and exhibited a matchless sense of beauty.
Within two hours, a stone pillar that was covered with fine veined patterns appeared before Ai Hui. Ai Hui walked closer to take a clearer look. The stone pillar was flawlessly made, and the detail of its vein patterns had exceeded his expectations.
Ai Hui was trembling with astonishment. However, at the end of the day, he still felt more joy than astonishment. It was extremely worth paying a yearly salary of 1,000 Heaven Merit Points for such an exceptional weaponsmith!
Blind He’s performance had not ended yet.
He took an even shorter amount of time to make the second stone pillar. Within one hour, he had completed the second stone pillar. The time taken for the third stone pillar was reduced once again. His final speed was maintained at two stone pillars per hour.
Within 12 hours, he had completed all 20 stone pillars. Right now, it was only noon.
Everyone was shocked by Blind He’s skills after witnessing the whole process with their own eyes. From the first stone pillar to the last stone pillar, their eyes had not s.h.i.+fted away from Blind He.
Qing Feng was no doubt the most knowledgeable among all of them. Even he exclaimed in admiration, "I can’t believe there is such an expert in a small place like Crooked River City. I have come across many weaponsmiths, but I have never seen such skills before. Incredible, incredible!"
He uttered "incredible" twice in a row to describe the shock he was feeling.
Meanwhile, Zhao Boan stuttered, "You’re indeed brilliant!"
Blind He just sat silently on one side. Other than have a slightly pale face, he looked no different from his usual self. The praises from everyone did not seem to cause any changes to his facial expression.
"It is an eye-opening experience," Ai Hui praised. Then, without saying anything unnecessary, he continued, "Since the stone pillars have been completed, I will move out now. Boan and Mr. He, go and see if there are anything else that we need to buy. We will not be staying in this place for too long. Oh, please remember to buy a Bamboo Cart."
Zhao Boan quickly replied, "Yes."
Blind He stood up quietly and stood beside Zhao Boan.
Ai Hui had Qing Feng haul the stone pillars, while he carried Qing Feng and flew toward Sky Capital Peak.
"Are you afraid that I might harm them?" Qing Feng suddenly sneered.
"That’s right," Ai Hui replied bluntly without denying it.
Qing Feng flew into a rage. "Do I look like someone who will go back on my word?"
"You have to ask yourself that." Ai Hui remained unmoved.
Qing Feng froze.
Ai Hui knew how cunning and treacherous Qing Feng was. Even though Qing Feng did not seem to have any chance of making a comeback, Ai Hui still would not lower his guard against him.
"I am already in an impa.s.se. I don’t even know what are you afraid of?" Qing Feng asked coldly.
"Nothing can go wrong by being a bit careful," Ai Hui replied casually.
Qing Feng was speechless.
Gu Tianning had been waiting on the mountain. When he saw Ai Hui’s figure, he was overjoyed. He had heard of Ai Hui’s reputation, but had never interacted with him when they were in the Induction Ground. He did not have much confidence in Ai Hui’s promise.
Gu Tianning ordered his clansmen to handle the stone pillars and reminded them to be careful and not to ruin them. Every Gu clansman cautiously and gently carried the stone pillars as if they were holding precious porcelain wares.
Qing Feng took a sweeping glance at the Gu clansmen and said disdainfully, "The quality of the people you’re encountering is getting lower and lower. I can’t believe you spent so much effort on such a bunch of weak fellows. Are they from the Old Territory? Ahh, I get it. You’re from the Old Territory as well. No wonder you’re willing to help them. However, there are so many people in Old Territory. Are you able to help them all?"
Most of the Gu clansmen that made it to Sky Capital Peak were youngsters. Hence, when they heard Qing Feng’s words, they glared at him angrily.
Ai Hui could not be bothered with Qing Feng and replied bluntly, "You better shut up."
Qing Feng flew into a rage, "I am a follower of Grandmaster Dai, how dare you behave so rude toward me!"
The Gu clansmen who had been glaring at Qing Feng quickly withdrew their gazes. Even though they had not spent a long time in the Silver Mist Sea, they still knew who Grandmaster Dai was.
Even Gu Tianning cast a bewildered look at Qing Feng.
"Have you forgotten the pain after your wounds recovered?" Ai Hui sneered.
Qing Feng became terrified at once. Initially, he thought Ai Hui was a carefree lone wolf who was not afraid of Grandmaster Dai. When he discovered Ai Hui’s ident.i.ty, he expected Ai Hui to be afraid of provoking Grandmaster Dai.
However, he now realized that Ai Hui did not seem to care much about Grandmaster Dai.
Qing Feng was confused. Was Ai Hui really not afraid of Grandmaster Dai? He was not a carefree lone wolf. Furthermore, he was the leader of the Central Pine Faction. Was he not scared of causing troubles for the Central Pine Faction?
Or was this fellow already thinking of silencing him?
Qing Feng gulped his saliva with difficulty as a tinge of fear arose in his heart. He was a paranoid individual. Just now, he purposely said those words to feel out Ai Hui. Qing Feng thought that his mission was a well-concealed secret and that Ai Hui did not know he had fallen out of favor with Grandmaster Dai. Clearly, he did not realize Ai Hui was Chu Zhaoyang.
The result he had gotten disappointed him greatly.
Ai Hui did not seem to have any respect for Grandmaster Dai. He did not know whether Ai Hui was extremely daring or if he had someone’s backing. Regardless of the reason, disrespecting Grandmaster Dai would not benefit him in any way.
Ai Hui could not be bothered with Qing Feng. As long as Qing Feng did his job properly as a training partner, Ai Hui would not purposely make things difficult for him. However, if Qing Feng was up to no good, he would kill him on the spot.
As for Grandmaster Dai, he was still something that was too far for Ai Hui to think about.
When Qing Feng saw that Ai Hui was not afraid of his threat, he quieted down.
The way that Gu Tianning and his counterparts looked at Ai Hui could not help but change again. Gu Tianning knew about Ai Hui’s past achievements. Now, he realized that Ai Hui was far more powerful and unfathomable than he had expected.
This made Gu Tianning and his counterparts feel filled with hope and expectations for Ai Hui.
Ai Hui did not think so much. All he wanted to do was to help them. As for the people that were still in the Old Territory, they were the responsibility of the Old Territory’s native heroes. Ai Hui did not think that he was a hero. The outside world might praise him to the skies, but he knew how much he was really worth.
"We need earth fire. Is this place the deepest karst cave?" Ai Hui asked Gu Tianning.
"There is still a deeper one," Gu Tianning quickly replied.
After finis.h.i.+ng his sentence, he began to lead the way. He and his counterparts knew all about the karst caves in Sky Capital Peak.
With Gu Tianning leading the way, they advanced toward the depth of the karst cave. Within a short period of time, they reached the depths. They could hear sound of underground rivers. Usually, the deepest parts of karst caves would contain underground rivers.
Gu Tianning did not stop and continued moving forward. As he walked, he said, "This region is filled with underground rivers. The region where earth fire can most likely be found is at the deepest cavern."
As they advanced forward, the cavern became smaller and narrower. The surrounding cavern walls had become dry as well. The air was pervaded with a faint smell of sulfur.
Ai Hui was energized. His plan could only be carried out if he had earth fire.
Finally, they came to a small cavern that could only fit three to five people. The temperature of this cavern was also much higher than the other caverns.
"This is the place."
Gu Tianning looked expectantly at Ai Hui.
Ai Hui examined his surroundings and nodded his head in silence. This cavern should not be far from the earth fire.
"This is the place I’m looking for. Excavate this cavern and make it bigger and wider. How many people do you have?" Ai Hui asked.
"56," Gu Tianning replied swiftly.
"Expand this place until it can fit 100 people. Excavate through four directions and maintain the height of the cavern at around 3.5 meters."
Gu Tianning acknowledged Ai Hui and quickly got everyone to work. Even though their base level was low, they had developed elemental energy before. Furthermore, the elemental energy they developed was earth elemental energy. Underground rocks were similar to the ordinary rocks above the surface. When everyone worked together, the process became faster.
After around four hours, they had already expanded the cavern to the point that it could fit 100 people.
Gu Tianning placed some glowing stones on the surrounding walls of the wide and s.p.a.cious cavern to serve as lighting. The cavern was illuminated in an instant.
These glowing stones contained a small amount of elemental energy that enabled them to give off light. Other than that, they did not have many uses and were very cheap.
Ai Hui pointed to the center of the cavern and instructed, "Dig a fire well at this spot. The diameter of the fire well should be around 1.5 meters."
"Yes."
Without any hesitation, Gu Tianning started digging at the center of the cavern. He was an earth elementalist, so the hard underground rocks were like soft mud to him. Meanwhile, his clansmen kept on transporting away the underground rock that he had dug up.
As he dug deeper and deeper, the underground rocks got hotter and hotter. The color of the rock had turned from green to black. Beads of perspiration began to appear on Gu Tianning’s forehead.
Bang.
The sound of an underground rock cracking resounded through the air. A flash of red glow emitted from the crack.
After the cracked underground rock was removed, a dazzling red light shot out from the fire well and lit up the entire cavern with a bright red color. The temperature of the cavern rose rapidly. The low-level Gu clansmen could not tolerate the heat and began to retreat from the cavern.
Gu Tianning heaved a sigh of relief. "I’m glad I did not fail you."
Unwittingly, he used boss-subordinate tone.
"All of you leave the cave now."
"Yes."
Gu Tianning quickly led his clansmen out of the cave. While he guarded the entrance, he kept on looking curiously into the cave.
Qing Feng stood at the entrance of the cave with a curious look on his face. Initially, he still did not know what was going on. Now, he knew that Ai Hui wanted to help the Gu Clan by increasing the concentration of earth elemental energy in this place.
He did not believe in this plan. Briefly increasing the concentration level of elemental energy in a place was not difficult. The difficult part was maintaining the increased level of elemental energy. This would require a huge amount of high-grade materials. The gains simply could not make up for the losses.
The Gu Clan was in a dest.i.tute state. How could they afford high-grade materials?
Qing Feng disapproved of this plan in his heart.
Suddenly, he froze. He had just that remembered that Ai Hui’s master was w.a.n.g Shouchuan.
The w.a.n.g Shouchuan who came up with [Treating The City As A Piece Of Cloth]!