Chapter 217 - Lone Peak
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
In the early morning, facing the morning dew, a squad of riders exited the lord's manor, and went straight towards the Azure dragon gate. As the Qingfu horses stepped onto the green stone floors, there sounded out the clean and crisp clatter of horseshoes.
Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia brought four guards, and were prepared to go towards Qiushui City to the east to look for a suitable place for the sect. After the second city wall was built, to differentiate the gates, each gate was given a different name. The core region’s city gates were renamed Azure Dragon Gate to the east, White Tiger Gate to the west, Vermillion Bird Gate to the south, and Black Tortoise Gate to the north. Ouyang Shuo went past the Azure Dragon Gate and passed the Eastern region toward the East gate which was slightly to the north.
Past the East gate, it was the Eastern wilderness. Out of strategic needs, the wild grass and plants were removed and now what remained was an empty and cold plain.
From the East gate, they made an easy straight route towards Shanhai City harbor. Compared to the times of Shanhai Village, the harbor was 20-30 times bigger. Ever since the Advanced Shipyard was moved to Beihai City, the region of water in front of the canyon was all under the jurisdiction of the harbor. As for the harbor, it was run by the Transportation Division. The current Transportation Division officially started taking on the role of modern transportation services.
During the planning, the bridge with linked up the main camp and Qiushui City wasn't built so there were numerous stone resources piled up at both sides. The masons shipped large rocks from the quarry and cut them into smaller pieces before grinding them into rods to use to build the bridge.
After considering that warships needed to go past this river, the design of the bridge was much more complex than the stone arch bridge in the inner city. Based on the architect Wuchi's first draft, the basic cost reached 500 gold.
The hardest part about building a bridge was to build supports for the bridge in the river. The canyon river had the Friendship river and the Qiushui river flowing into it so the water currents were fast and ferocious. Hence, such supports based on olden building standards were really difficult to make.
Ouyang Shuo briefly checked out the progress of the bridge before carrying on, crossing over using the boat at the harbor. The Qiushui City city wall was already built, and from afar it looked like a small city sitting on the plains.
Outside the city were acres after acres of grain land. Early in the morning there were already farmers getting busy.
"Blockhead, what are they doing in the fields? Are they plucking out the seedlings? Didn't they just plant them?" Song Jia couldn't understand their actions.
Ouyang Shuo laughed in amusement. "The farmers are plucking out grass and planting the seedlings. It is very easy for weed and wild grass to grow in the fields. If we don't remove them, they will compete with the grain for space and nutrients and affect the harvest."
"Oh!" Song Jia laughed in embarrassment.
Ouyang Shuo didn't choose to enter Qiushui City, and instead continued south towards the border of the canyon and continued east along the mountain range. In truth, after confirming that Song Jia wanted to build the sect outside of the city, he went to check out the Lianzhou map where there were already clear coordinates.
The difference from the main camp was that on this side of the Qiushui City, they didn't have rocky mountain ranges, but instead a straight forest path, intersecting with the plains to form a unique view. Walking on the plains, there were chances of wild animals like rabbits popping out.
Seeing the wild rabbit, Ouyang Shuo's hunter instincts were piqued as he took out the bow and shot at it. Unfortunately with his basic archery, unless he was lucky, there wasn't a chance for him to hit the nimble rabbit.
The missed arrow made him feel really embarrassed, especially in front of his lover. It turned into rage as he ordered the guards to shoot all the rabbits they met and bring them back to the lord's manor.
Song Jia was giggling at the side, Ouyang Shuo had something that he wasn't good at.
After going around 10 kilometers to the east, Ouyang Shuo signaled for them to stop. He pointed to a mountain peak and asked, "Can you see that mountain in front?"
Song Jia followed Ouyang Shuo's finger only to see amongst the fog the outlines of the mountain and one lone peak. What was more amazing was that the lone peak was like it was punched by a giant and only half the peak was left, narrowing at the middle part of the mountain, forming a giant platform.
"Great, this will be the place." Song Jia was elated.
Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Let's go and take a look."
"En!" Song Jia couldn't wait.
As no one had visited this place before, there were little tracks of men, and the road up was hard to walk. Ouyang Shuo and his men had no choice but to leave their Qingfu horses at the foot of the mountain and walk up on foot.
The 4 guards wielded the Tang knives and helped to open the road upwards. After walking for 2 hours, they finally reached the platform. Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia also had to rotate their inner strength to reduce their tiredness and fatigue.
The platform was huge, and on first glance it was more than 10 square kilometers, bigger than the Shanhai when it was still a town. Water flowed down from the peak and made a small pond at the foot of the platform, constantly sounding out noises. The water flowed out from the pond onto a small stream on the platform and flowed down it. Under the shine of the sunlight, the water stream formed a rainbow.
Beside the pond was an ancient tree, and on its branches were many unknown birds flying around. Seeing Ouyang Shuo and the others, they weren't afraid and flew up from the tree, circling their heads and chirping.
Song Jia fell in love with the place instantly and muttered, "So beautiful!"
Ouyang Shuo looked around and found that there was no lack of wooden materials. On the platform there was a water source which fruits could be planted. As long as grain was sent up on time, their sect could be self sufficient. As players had storage bags, to transport grain up was very easy.
"Jia Jia, bring Xiaoyue here tomorrow. She is the architectural advisor so ask her to do a basic design of the sect including the road to get down the mountain. After you all settle on the blueprints, I'll arrange for the Construction Division to work on it."
Hearing that Ouyang Shuo had planned everything out for her, Song Jia smiled gently. "Blockhead, you are the best."
"Ok la, sect leader Song, create a name for your future sect."
"Oh ya." Song Jia was instantly excited. "Blockhead, why don’t we name it Dream Sword Sect!"
Ouyang Shuo was going to faint. "Your name is Jiaqi Rumeng, the courtyard you stay in is called Dream Pavilion, and now even the sect you want to call it Dream Sword Sect, it really doesn't have any standards."
Song Jia frowned. "Hen, then what would you name it?"
Naming something wasn't hard for Ouyang Shuo. He pondered and instantly thought of one. "It's east of a lone peak and looks upon Shanhai City. Why don’t we call it Dongli Sword Sect, what do you think?"
Song Jia said crisply, "Blockhead, I couldn't tell you were so talented! Okay, let's follow your idea and call it Dongli Sword Sect."
As it got close to noon, they had their meal on the mountains. The guards cleaned the wild rabbits at the pond and found some tinder to start a fire for a barbecue.
Ouyang Shuo, who was an adventure mode player in the last life, often ate out in the wilderness and wild rabbit was a common meal. He gleefully showed his skills to Song Jia and barbecued the rabbit till it was crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.
Eating such a delicious wild rabbit, Song Jia couldn't help but commend it, and the four guards also finished up everything. After that, they didn't wait any longer and went down the mountain.
Going back to the lord's manor, it was already 4 PM.
After two days of promotions, there were many people who registered at the lord's manor. Zisu recorded all of them and announced on the morning of 9th month 1st day that they would have a trial at the lord's manor.
When having dinner, Yingyu mentioned, "Big brother, Er Wazi told me he wants to take a master and he doesn't want to go to the private school; he kept on begging me to talk you you about it, what do you think?"
Er Wazi was brought around by his side at the start, but as time passed, Yingyu became in charge of him. Ever since he went to the private school, his food had been settled by Yingyu.
However Er Wazi was still a member of the lord's manor. During the original household registration, he personally didn't assign him as a farmer and instead kept him in the lord's manor. Now that Er Wazi wanted to give up school to learn martial arts, he naturally needed Ouyang Shuo to agree.
Ouyang Shuo nodded, it seemed like his half year of private school wasn't for nothing. At least he learned manners, asking him for permission.
Ouyang Shuo was a very sentimental person and he said to Yingyu, "Since he wants to, I won't stop him, allow him to go under Jia Jia and be a core disciple." Ouyang Shuo looked at Song Jia as he said it to seek her perspective. She nodded. She definitely had to agree to Ouyang Shuo's request.
Seeing that Ouyang Shuo agreed, Banxia, who was standing at the side had a weird expression on her face.
Yingyu has always treated Er Wazi as her real brother, and hearing him do such planning, she was naturally delighted. Although she wasn't from a martial arts background, she knew the difference between a nominal disciple and a core disciple. A core disciple would be though everything and inherit the entire sect, the choosing requirements were extremely strict.
Ouyang Shuo continued, "That kid could be considered our family. Since he has matured, we cannot keep calling him Er Wazi, we should give him a proper name. Yingyu, since you two are close like brother and sister, I'll leave it to you."
"En." Yingyu nodded and took up the task.