Chương 34: Preparations - The Eve Before.
Night was once more setting on the village of Greengate, yet unlike every other day before the place was well lit with torches and lamps lining the streets, from afar you could easily see many small lights and figures scurrying around shouting and yelling while shifting things with carts and their shoulders.
Steadily but surely around the upper residential district a circle of barricades was forming.
But that wasn't the only job being performed, many houses were being cleared to be used as mass shelter and some storage warehouses were fitted with makeshift beds, all sorts of medical equipment people could amass and various resources like food and water; Along with that Old Yun was pumping out spears and knives as fast as he could, some of the village men had also gone to assist him with the menial parts of forging to speed up the process, there was a mass of weapons building up in the makeshift fort being distributed to positions in preparations, not just actual weapons but any kind of tool that could be used as one.
Unlike these people however, Shu He wasn't assisting with these tasks, he had returned to his house and entered his room as soon as he could.
He hadn't wasted a single second and threw whatever was on his desk to the side without caring if it broke or not and organised a specific set up, grabbed a set of plants from his yard and pulled whatever dried version he had in storage and got to work.
His father was leading and overseeing the entire villages operations right now, so he wasn't here, and his mother had left also to help set up the relief centres, fire prevention measures and other tasks that needed more help, so she wasn't here either.
Shu He was alone, not just in his house but in a large area around him, even if he used Keen Sight he would barely catch the activity of people at the edge of it if he extended it in one direction.
A cold sweat dripped down his back.
'I need to focus; I can't make a mistake here!'
The glass tubes in front of him were linked in a complex pattern, as they started boiling the vapour from the tubes travelled along the thin glass contraption, condensing and dripping into another tube.
And it wasn't just a single contraption, there were multiple going at the same time, the sound of burning flame from little metal burning and boiling liquid echoed in the silent room while Shu He was fully concentrated on the dripping liquid.
Soon enough there were multiple tubes full of liquids of varying colour, Shu He sat still staring at them before going in to one of his storage boxes and retrieving a stone that glowed quite brightly.
It was the 'Shinestone' that he had been taught about way back when he had first met Bo Lin, or rather the only time he had met him.
It had a peculiar nature that caused it to glow when exposed to the air, or more accurately the oxygen in the air, it was used for lighting in many more well-off areas and was generally refined to glow brighter before use.
What was in Shu He's hands was the raw material, however that didn't matter to Shu He, he wasn't going to use it for lighting the place up anyway, at least not in that sense.
'In theory, this should work'.
Shu He had bought a small batch of the stones out of curiosity a year back and experimented with them, he learned that by mixing the material Shinestone's are made out of with various different acids he could alter the properties, like making it much brighter, dimmer, a different colour or… make it set on fire instead.
And today he was going to go a step further, one he didn't dare to do before due to the danger, and he had no use for it.
He used a knife to steadily scrape off some Brightstone dust into a small palette before setting it aside and tipping it in to a small vial.
Before he performed the next step, Shu He couldn't help but gulp as he readied himself.
He mixed all the other tubes of liquid together, and they soon formed a eerily clear liquid, this was an incredibly aggressive acid and one of the strongest ones Shu He knew how to make, next he took a glass pipette and took a couple drops of the acid in to it.
Then, he looked at the tiny vial standing on his desk and the pipette in his hand before bringing the two closer to one another until he was ready.
He squeezed the pipette, drop by drop.
The clear liquid fell into the small vial, steadily mixing with the powder inside, Shu He then slowly picked up the vial and VERY gently swished it to stir the contents, after a few seconds he stopped and stared at the contents.
A slightly grey viscous liquid inside, consistent in texture throughout, he steadily capped the small vial and stood up, moving outside while cradling the vial.
He came to the archery range in their yard, he decided this would be a suitable place to test it, but he wouldn't be careless and had moved a thick wooden board to where he would be standing for shelter.
He took position and steadied himself, he usually used a bow, but he had practiced with throwing knives in his free time, so at the very least he was confident in his throwing accuracy.
'Steady, make sure to hit Shu He I can't waste more time' He spoke to himself.
With one quick movement he raised his arm-
-The one that held the vial.
And threw it forward while diving behind the wooden board.
It wasn't even a split second before-
*BANG*
A small explosion echoed throughout the yard and a bright light lit the place up before dimming a second later as the smell of burning infested the air.
Shu He who had cowered behind the wooden board quickly peeked out from the side, looking at the target he aimed for.
It was gone, blown to smithereens and scorch marks were spread on the remaining wood.
'Holy… that was only a few small droplets… good thing I was careful'.
He wiped the sweat off his brow as he observed the work of his creation before heading back inside, his job had only just started, now that he confirmed it worked he needed to get to mass production.
What he had made here was somewhat reminiscent of Nitro-glycerine in his old life's world, he had looked up how to make it out of curiosity many times and found out it wasn't hard to make with household items… at least in that world, in this world a lot of things were different and he couldn't find the raw materials or there sources here, at least not all of them, so he had basically made a copy.
Though he did wonder whether Dynamite was made with it here, or whether it was an entirely different item.
'I don't have an unlimited number of vials… I'll use whatever is available until I run out!'
"With this, I'll definitely be a big help!"
…
Meanwhile, Shu Li was in the process of checking the status of the fortifications and organising the position of weapons and stations.
*Bang*
Shu Li quickly turned his head and furrowed his brows.
'Was that an explosion?'
Amid the hustle and bustle of the surrounding people Shu Li had still heard it due to his amazing hearing, he looked around to see if anyone else had heard and reacted to it too, yet no-one had done so.
He went to a nearby building and began climbing the ladder on the side.
'That direction should be my house…'
As soon as he got to the top he looked into the distance, away from the hustle of the villages people, he could barely see it, but he noticed a light flickering from his house.
'Shu He, what are you doing?' He thought to himself.
He wasn't going to go over and stop him however, instead he preferred his child to be like this, the more they acted on their own and became independent the better, he knew it was the best way to get on in this world.
He looked to the horizon, the forest and mountainous areas that surrounded the village, dimming with shadows like a ravenous maw threatening to swallow the village howl.
'…In the end it came to this' He turned around and looked at the entire village, this building was the tallest and granted the best vantage point so he could get a clear view of everything which was important as an archer.
'Beast tides… dark sects… why is it not simpler? Why is it not just me?' He sighed as he thought to himself.
He stared at the horizon once more, the way the beast tide was coming from.
'Tai Min, you're coming, aren't you?'
The man covered in blood was pictured in his mind, one of many that he ran away from that day and stabbed in the back, the one person who would cross worlds just to kill someone who betrayed him.
'Is this all my fault? Or was it inevitable either way?'
He then shook his head.
'No, it doesn't matter… I just need to protect them… An'er, my son, I can't let them be harmed!'
…
On the top of Cao Yang's mansion three figures could be seen, sitting and watching the hustle and bustle with eagle like eyes, there was a strange serenity between them that served as a contrast to the mad chaos that surrounded them.
"Do you think they can survive?" Bai Shun asked casually.
"It's 500 beasts, that'd be a tough fight on its own, but they're controlled to be aggressively mindless so it's an entirely different thing, why didn't we tell them this?" Yun Hua spoke before asking Chao Shi who was sat between them.
"You have to give them hope, what kind of beasts and who's controlling them is irrelevant for them, they only need to know one thing, that they need to survive" he said before looking down at the hard-working people below.
"Besides, you shouldn't underestimate them, heroes can be born among mortals" He spoke wistfully, staring over to the tallest building in the village where a single man stood atop.
"Aside from that, do we have any confirmation on the targets location yet?" Bai Shun asked.
"The scouts have narrowed the area down, but we will probably have to wait until it starts tomorrow to pinpoint them" Chao Shi spoke while shaking his head "Regrettably" he added.
"I see… how unfortunate" Bai Shun sombrely replied, looking at the people below.
"Are you sure you want me to remain behind? It would make more sense for the three of us to go together…" Yun Hua asked with a tone slight disappointment.
"I'm positive, normally you would be correct, they'll let the beasts attack while remaining at a distance, however… some of the information we received from that bastard Dong Jie is concerning, it's just a hunch but I feel this attack might play out a bit differently"
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