Chapter 43: Chapter 43
After Hearing Hei's words, Jingfei left to fetch the things he had asked for.
Hei climbed to the top of the mountain, stepping over the vegetation as he did. He was thinking about what he would do with it.
Once Hei reached the top of the mountain, he became curious to find out if there were any other people there.
He spread out his spiritual perception, and while he could see several caves on the mountain, there were no signs of inhabitancy.
Other than one cave, which Hei assumed was Jingfei's, the other caves were completely empty.
'Just me and my maid then. I can go all the way.'
Since he wouldn't be disturbing anyone, Hei decided to take the whole mountain for himself.
His plans weren't as simple as building a house. He was going to carve the whole mountain from the inside, building his residence inside the hollow shell.
He would then replace the shell with a defensive formation and an illusion formation, so it would look the same from the outside. This would make it so that no one bothered him in his home.
This was going to be the foundation of the Shao Clan, which he would keep in his storage space in the future. So, he didn't really want people to know about it.
After all, it would be strange if it just disappeared one day.
To begin his work, he reinforced the mountain with his Qi. This was to prevent it from possibly collapsing as he dug through it.
He reabsorbed all of the chains in his storage space because he needed space for what he was trying to do.
'Sigh. Those took a long time to make.'
He was a little reluctant to reabsorb the chains he had worked on for months, but he could always just make more.
He then took a large chunk out of the mountain and placed it in his storage space, creating a cube of mountain in his storage space, and a cube of empty space at the top of the mountain.
'Now to separate.'
Hei wanted to extract any rocks, metals and life forms from the mountain soil. The life forms would be relocated elsewhere.
After he separated the components, he formed them into uniform blocks. This was done by adding water to any earth and heating the metals to make them malleable.
All of this was made simple by the temporary spirit roots he had formed.
After he formed the blocks, he would place them at the base of the mountain and climb back up to take another cube.
'No worms or anything.'
Hei didn't know what was usually found in a mountain, but he had expected to find small creatures, but it was just inorganic material.
As he continued his work, he was able to form a lot of blocks of metal and earth, and there were a bunch of stones that he could use too.
At some point, Jingfei returned to the mountain.
When she found that Hei had disappeared, she used her spiritual perception to look for him.
She was surprised to find him inside the mountain. Every now and then, a cube of the mountain would disappear and shortly after, Hei would spit out blocks and rocks.
Confused, she climbed up to the top of the mountain to take a look.
When she looked down into the depths of the cavity Hei had formed, she was shocked.
"Shao Hei! Are you trying to destroy the mountain? I know it doesn't look too good, but it's our home. We have nowhere else!"
Hei, who was focused on his task was surprised by Jingfei's sudden appearance.
He pretended to wipe his brow as he stretched his back and looked up to her.
"Ah, good timing. It's getting a bit dark in here. Can you get me something to light it up?"
Hei had dug his way deep into the mountain, such that not much light was reaching him.
He could still use his spiritual perception to see, but he would rather have his eyes available as well.
Seeing Hei ignoring her question, Jingfei was a little unhappy.
Hei ignored her.
He jumped up to the top of the mountain, landing next to her and held out his hand.
"You can give me the information now."
Jingfei reluctantly handed Hei a spatial ring.
Hei activated his spiritual perception to look inside the ring.
What he saw were many books, which he scanned through, creating internal representations of them which he could read later.
"Mm. Thanks. You did well."
Hei reached his hand up to rub the head of the woman who was much taller than him.
This was what his mother would do when he had completed his chores.
"…"
Jingfei just looked at Hei with a blank expression.
Noticing this, Hei gave Jingfei the ring back and turned around, jumping back into the cavity.
As he fell, he reminded her.
"I need some light."
Jingfei stood at the top of the mountain looking at the strange boy she had invited here.
She wondered if she had made a mistake.
Oblivious to this, Hei continued in his carving work.
Soon enough, he had reached the base of the mountain and had found a lot of interesting things along the way. There was even some gold, which he would make use of later.
'Now for some reading.'
The first thing Hei would do was set up the defence and illusion formations.
He started reading the materials he had received from Jingfei.
'How convenient. It seems my chains can be used for the circuitry.'
Hei had discovered that the formations in this world, were similar to electronic circuits in his past life. Qi would be circulated across conductive materials and by passing through certain nodes in the earth, would produce the desired result.
The key factors were the source of Qi and the Qi circulation system.
If the source was too weak, the array formation wouldn't be able to do much, similarly, if the circulation system was weak or of poor quality, the array formation would break down quickly.
Luckily, Hei could use his chains as both the source of Qi and the Qi circulation system. He could even control the strength by adjusting their density.
He was initially concerned that he would need to find some obscure items in order to power the array formation like in some of the stories he had read, but those worries were eased.
While Hei was studying the formation, Jingfei had returned with what she called night pearls.
Apparently, they were able to both absorb and emit light. If one were to leave them out in the sun, they would appear black, as they absorbed the light, not allowing any of it to escape. But in the dark, they would become white light sources.
Hei placed them around the base of the mountain, lighting it up adequately.
He turned to Jingfei.
"While you're there, you should bring down the materials I left out there."
"Eh?"
Jingfei looked to the literal mountain of materials Hei had left at the base of the mountain.
It had to be known that Hei had carved out the entire volume of the mountain from peak to base, leaving only a thin external layer. The rest of the mountain was resting at the base, creating a solid wall.
"You want me to bring those blocks and rocks?"
"Mm."
Hei gave her a simple response and got back to his studies.
After a while, he had taken in all of the information he needed.
'Alright, let's get to work.'
He stood up, ready to start carving out circulation paths when he noticed Jingfei's resentful gaze. She was carrying blocks of materials, one by one.
"… Why don't you just use your spatial ring?"
Jingfei deflated a little.
"To tell you the truth, I don't really have anything better to do."
"You could cultivate or something."
"That…"
Jingfei's voice became quieter.
"I've been stuck at a bottleneck for a while now."
Hearing this, Hei had an idea.
'Why didn't I think of it before? I don't have to solve her problems at all! All I have to do is make it so that she can solve them on her own!'
Hei had realised that most young ladies' problems came from the fact that they were too weak.
Who would be able to force her to do anything if she was stronger than them?
It was the same concept he was using for raising Bai.
Contrary to what one may think, Hei wasn't raising Bai to be the world's strongest for personal gain. Sure, it would help him get home, but his real intention was to prevent her from becoming a part of some little punk's harem.
Who could mess around with the world's strongest?
With this, Hei had decided his future approach to helping people.
'Solve your own problems. Then become my subordinate.'
This way, he would also be able to avoid needless trouble.
But that was for later. Right now, he had a formation to set up, so he decided to make use of this maid of his.
"Speed up. I've got more work for you after this."
Hei had already mapped out the circulation paths in his mind, so he would spend his time forming the chains and the source.
Jingfei decided to play along.
She started carrying the materials in her storage space and was able to transfer all of them after a while.
"Alright, so what else is there?"
Hei used his Qi to create a three-dimensional image of the formation's circulation paths.
"I need you to carve these paths into the ground. Take your time, there's no need to rush. It's better for them to be of good quality rather than prepared quickly."
After Jingfei turned to look at the image, Hei spoke again.
"Make sure that the paths are three meters below the surface."
He wanted to leave room to build on top of the formation.
"Mm."
Jingfei actually seemed to be happy to do this.
Seeing that there wasn't a problem, Hei focused on creating the chains.
After a while, both parties had finished their respective tasks.
Hei spread his spiritual perception to inspect the paths Jingfei had created.
"Not bad. Are you an array master?"
Hei was quite impressed by Jingfei's carvings. They were almost as good as what he would have made himself.
"Mm. I have been interested in arrays since I was a small child. These circulation paths… What are you planning?"
Hei smiled in response to her question.
He placed his chains in the circulation paths, and at the heart of the formation, He placed a large link, which contained very dense Qi.
Hei estimated that it would be able to power the formation for close to a month before it needed to be replaced.
He would think of a more permanent solution at a later date, but he wanted a functional formation sooner rather than later.
It would make the next steps a little easier.
After Hei placed the link at the heart of the formation, Hei used his chains to attack the walls of the mountains, breaking large sections of them.
After he was finished, the entire mountain was gone, all that was visible were the blocks of materials, the rocks, Hei and Jingfei, on a flat piece of land.
Jingfei watched as the previously dimly lit giant cave became an open plain.
At this moment she realised something.
"My-my cave! What happened to my cave?"
Seeing her expression, as if she had lost something important, Hei smiled.
"Your cave is in my storage space. It was in the way, so I moved it."
Jingfei's eyes opened wide after hearing this.
"Your storage ring is so large?"
"You could say that."
Hei had no intention of clearing up her misunderstanding of him having a storage ring. It was easier to explain than a storage space he was born with.
Jingfei then had another question.
"What are we going to do now? The elders will be upset that you have destroyed the Man Peak. Don't think I will be sticking my neck out for you."
"…"
Hei was lost for words. Wasn't this young lady seeking his help? Why did it sound like he was the burden instead of her?
"The Man Peak is still here, just as it was before."
Pointed to the outside.
Jingfei looked around into the vast distance that she could see.
"Still here? What part of this can be called a mountain?"
"The formation."
Hei said this, as he took the lead in walking.
Jingfei followed behind him, still confused.
Even though she had been studying formations for a long time, the formation Hei was using was new to her. It seemed to be two formations in one.
After they had stepped past the place that used to be the edge of the mountain, Hei turned around and looked back to Jingfei.
He pointed his hand to the area behind her and spoke.
"You tell me. Isn't that a mountain?"
Jingfei turned around with a confused face.
What she saw, caused her eyes to widen.
"This! The Man Peak? It looks exactly the same!"
When Hei had scanned the mountain, looking for any other cultivators, he had also created an internal representation of it, which he used in the creation of the illusion formation.
Jingfei went up to the 'mounatin' and tried to pass back through, but her foot landed on the mountain's surface.
"How?"
She had heard of illusion formations, but to be able to touch the illusion was something new to her.
"There is a defence formation entwined with the illusion formation."
"Ah!"
Jingfei now understood.
The nature of defence formations meant that they could be felt.
The combination of illusion formation and defence formation meant that all of the foliage and rocks, every detail of the Man Peak had a physical presence.
The only way to know that the peak wasn't real, would be to try to interact with the objects. They couldn't be moved.
Hei had already thought of this, and his next step would be to create a sensory interference array, which would let people feel like they were interacting with the objects, when in fact, they were only grasping air.
Hei then wrote a technique in the sky.
"Use this technique, and you will be able to enter and exit the mountain as you please."
Hei was giving Jingfei the 'key' to their home. He was going to include the subordinates' residences as well. One for Liling and a temporary one for Jingfei.
He would allow Jingfei to see how well his subordinates were treated, making it easier for her to accept the maid position in the future.
Hei started walking back into the mountain.
He was halfway in when he noticed Jingfei was just standing there, so he turned around to take a look.
His legs were hidden behind the illusion, but from the waist up, he was visible, creating an interesting image as he spoke.
"Come now, we have more work to do."
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