Chapter 96: Fortress with a custom Keep

(A/N: There was a duplicate chapter here before, sorry about that.)

——(POV third person)——

"But senior brother, …how do we get that many scrolls and formations?" Kong Chin asked as he didn't have any of those so he was unsure about the feasibility of this plan.

Li Huang chuckled a little. He was the last person that you wanted to ask such a question from as he had more than what a small sect has in their treasury on his personal storage rings.

"You don't have to worry about that, I have those on me." Li Huang said.

The other disciples who didn't know about Li Huang's 'resourcefulness' were shocked that he had this many necessities on him and couldn't help but praise him for his foresight.

"As expected of senior brother Li." Kong Chin said and cupped his fists.

Li Huang only smiled at him and took out his communication device.

~'We have set up our beacon, you can follow the light to get to us.'~ Li Huang said.

~'Hope you have a safe journey.'~ Li Huang finished the communication with this and turned to his fellow disciples.

"Okay let's get to work, we don't have time to waste." Li Huang said as he took one of the storage rings to get some materials.

He also took out a storage ring from his pocket and handed it to Hu Anjing. Well, it was in his living metal storage ring but he took it out in his pocket so that he won't attract attention.

"These are the materials that I have on me. They are of high grade, so use them to create the innermost layer of defense. There is also a map in there, use it and build according to that because that was created by a professional." Li Huang told her. Li Huang got this whole package from an auction where this portable keep was introduced. The design of this keep is the most sophisticated one that Li Huang has ever seen so he bought it at the time because he thought it might be useful.

This kind of item is considered a luxury and no one would think of it as a really practical item because it is too expensive for a new sect to buy and it won't be of much use to a big sect that has built everything already.

Hu Anjing was shell-shocked that Li Huang has such a thing. Even for her who know him quite well, this was beyond what she thought was possible.

"Why did you even think of buying this?" She asked Li Huang with a deadpan.

"Come on, it comes in handy now so it is money well spent. The only regret that I have is that I didn't commission a fort or we would have everything ready…" Li Huang said as he shrugged his shoulders. If he had the fort from the same creator, the situation would be much much better.

"I can't refute that." Hu Anjing said as she looked at the blueprint for this keep. As someone who has her fair share of assassinations, she could testify that this keep was very well designed, and not only it is hard to infiltrate but also besieging it would be futile.

"Use this time to build some parts of this. I will go and gather some materials to create two layers of walls." Li Huang said. He was thinking of creating a fortress with two layers of walls for maximum defensive capability.

Li Huang created a team of four as the guards. The team consisted of Li Huang, Dai Bao, Lai Xinyue, and Mo Hui. Dai Bao was here so that Li Huang could use his power while fighting the beasts as he is one of the powerful disciples. Lai Xinyue is here as she is great in evasion because of her [Fate Eluding Physique], she is also here to attract Jin Fen to this group. Li Huang knew that for some reason Jin Fen is super attracted to Lai Xinyue so he would definitely come back for her, so by doing this he is trying to bait him into doing so. Mo Hui is in the team as he is one of the best twin blade practitioners of the sect. His power is good enough to be in the guard team.

Other disciples are in control of the building process. The reason Li Huang didn't add Ye Ling and/or Hu Anjing to the guard team is that they are needed in managing the tasks and they are powerful enough to handle any horde of beasts that might attack while they are building the fort.

With his team, Li Huang ventured around the temporary camp to find resources to build at least two sets of walls. They needed more because there might be some breaches that would occur after a horde attack the fort and they need to fix the walls. At that time, any additional resources help in handling the situation faster and easier.

"Senior brother, how many more woods do we need?" Mo Hui asked as he was chopping down trees.

"We need as much as we can get. The more trees that we cut, the easier we can see the beast hordes from our watchtowers so let's continue for two more hours and then deliver these and repeat." Li Huang said as he was cutting stone into cubic shapes with his sword Qi. If one of the old sword practitioners were to know that someone is using sword Qi to do stone cutting, they would cough up blood.

"Senior brother, a little help here." Lai Xinyue said. She and Dai Bao were fighting a medium-size horde of wolves. They were okay at first but as time passed the fight got harder for them because more wolves attacked them. Dai Bao was trying to hold on but Lai Xinyue knew that they would soon get overwhelmed by wolves so she asked for help.

Li Huang looked at them and shot a couple of sword Qi strands toward the strongest wolves and killed them in a single move. He was able to do so as he used the [Peeping eye of heaven]. He was getting more proficient with the fairy artifact as time passes, his breakthroughs also played a part in it. The recent developments showed him that he is only using a fraction of the power that this artifact possesses and to access more of its power he needs to be more powerful.

When you compare this fairy artifact with other fairy artifacts that are known to the world, this one is more mysterious as you can not compare it with anything that has been ever seen. No item has such capabilities and as such, Li Huang can only figure out how to work with it along the way.

Li Huang continued cutting the stones and storing them in his storage ring. On the other hand, Mo Hui too worked hard to cut more trees.

…

Like this two hours passed and they started getting back toward the fort's location to deliver the logs and stones. On the way, Lai Xinyue and Dai Bao switched tasks with Li Huang and Mo Hui. This time Li Huang and and Mo Hui were the vanguards and the other two were guarding behind them.

Although they were cutting trees and stones all the time, Dai Bao and Lai Xinyue were the tired ones as they had to constantly fight hordes of beasts. Even though the beasts were not that strong if you only looked at their powers individually, they had high numbers that made them hard to handle.

It didn't take them that long to get back, in only 20 minutes, they were back on their camp. 3 hours has passed from the time they left and a big part of the keep was built. This was an astonishing fact in itself but if you added the fact that it was just as described in the blueprint down to a T, shows the dedication that Hu Anjing and others have while building this keep.

For a keep that is going to be their last line of defense, this quality would really show itself if it comes to falling back to the last line. Nobody would like to think of such a possibility but having a plan for such an event is Li Huang's specialty.

Li Huang saw Hu Anjing from a distance and went toward her. She was looking at the blueprints and would tell other disciples what they were doing wrong and she would also help in moving the materials with her Qi as she was the strongest here.

"I see that you have been working hard." Li Huang said as he got closer to Hu Anjing.