In a mere dozen-plus days, the Shamans' canal had advanced another hundred-odd li, truly reaching the five-hundred-li boundary line. Setting out from here, they could reach Qingming and launch an attack in a single day.
The breach at Ding'an City was already mostly repaired, and a new gate tower had been rebuilt. Along several sections of the city wall not yet fully completed, numerous Dao Foundation cultivators were rushing back and forth carrying boulders weighing hundreds of jin, setting the stones one by one into cages woven from steel rebar.
The interior of the new wall was built of grid cages woven from rebar. Large boulders were placed inside first, followed by gravel poured in as fill, and after every layer was set, cement was cast over it. Consequently, construction progressed with astonishing speed.
As an important material Xu Wenwu had repeatedly mentioned, cement had actually been placed on the agenda long ago. However, its priority had consistently trailed behind gunpowder, firearms, iron forging, and the herb garden. Without much manpower or resources invested in it, progress had been slow.
With this massive invasion by the Land of Rain, the importance of cement finally rose. A disciple from the Hall of Heavenly Craft was assigned specifically to oversee the matter, assisted by over a dozen Dao Foundation cultivators. A breakthrough was finally achieved, though the resulting mixture's performance remained quite mediocre. Based on his experience and his little bird dharma idol, Yu Zhizhuo judged that, much like with gunpowder, the problem lay in the proportions of the formula's ingredients.
There was no shortcut to finding the optimal ratio; it simply required testing over and over again.
After Ding'an City was blown open, the importance of cement leaped straight to the very top of the list. Yu Zhizhuo dedicated all the capabilities of his dharma idol to the task, finally managing to improve the formula. Although the new cement still fell short of what Xu Wenwu had described, it was now usable.
Thus, throughout these days, Wei Yuan specifically assigned five thousand Body Casting cultivators to fire cement on a massive scale and rebuild Ding'an City.
The sturdiness of the newly built cement wall was actually inferior to traditional ancient methods. Fortunately, while Xu Wenwu did not remember the exact formula for cement, he had seen it before and knew the literal meaning of the words "reinforced concrete."
For a genius cultivator like Yu Zhizhuo, the information conveyed by a rigorous name was more than enough.
Yu Zhizhuo devised a fortification method using rebar cages, with boulders as the foundation, gravel as a buffer, and cement poured over it all, allowing progress to fly. As for the cement falling short of standard and lacking sufficient local strength, Yu Zhizhuo's solution was simply to thicken the wall by an entire zhang.
Furthermore, to counter the Shamans' explosive arrows, Yu Zhizhuo drew upon the bunker concept Xu Wenwu had mentioned. He built bunkers at regular intervals along the wall, casting their walls from reinforced concrete and using steel plates for the front face and roof. The gate tower itself was simply turned into a fortress of steel.
Aside from that, the Shamans' marksmen and the colossal beasts hurling water spheres were tremendous threats, possessing a longer range than the short-barreled cannons.
In response, Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World offered an improvement plan: cast a batch of barrel extensions to connect directly to the existing short-barreled cannons, lengthening the barrels while increasing the powder charge.
Wei Yuan found several cannons and tested them using this method; as expected, the range increased significantly, allowing a shot to reach thirteen or fourteen li. The method was crude, but genuinely effective.
The downside was that the point of impact was not very accurate, and the cannons were prone to damage, likely capable of firing around a hundred-odd rounds at most.
Yet this was no issue. A slight lack of precision did not matter; as long as the cannons could hit at that distance, the Shamans' sluggish behemoths would no longer dare expose themselves lightly.
Moreover, Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World calculated that ever since the introduction of short-barreled cannons, each gun had been destroyed after firing an average of fifteen rounds, never coming close to surviving until its natural lifespan of a hundred shots.
Another new weapon was the fire-lance missile Wei Yuan had developed, inspired by the fire-lance. This missile had proved remarkably effective in the previous battle, so Yu Zhizhuo made targeted improvements to it. After the design was repeatedly optimized by Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, a new version of the fire-lance missile was finalized.
The new fire-lance missile was larger and heavier. In the initial stage, it was launched by a railgun; in mid-course, the booster ignited for secondary acceleration; and in the terminal phase, a dharma idol cultivator guided it with divine sense. Its speed rivaled a flying sword, and upon impact, it could wipe out every Dao Foundation cultivator within twenty zhang, while even a Great Shaman caught at ground zero would be heavily injured.
Inside the Weaponsmith Workshop, Wei Yuan was conferring with Yu Zhizhuo and Sun Yu on advanced tactics for this fire-lance missile when his heart stirred. He sensed two flying boats approaching the domain boundary and heading straight for the landing field.
With the help of Qingming, Wei Yuan swept his divine sense outward and discovered that they were two flying boats from the Palace of Grand Beginning. After exchanging a quick word with Yu Zhizhuo and Sun Yu, he flew toward the landing site.
Neither of the two Palace of Grand Beginning flying boats was large. When Wei Yuan arrived, they had just touched down and steadied. Obvious marks of war and patchwork repairs marred their hulls, showing that they had rushed here in haste without time for proper refurbishment.
The hatch opened, and first to emerge was a smiling young cultivator. Looking all around, he said, "It truly is perilous here."
Both surprised and delighted, Wei Yuan stepped forward. "Mister Feng? What brings you here?"
This young cultivator was none other than Feng Chutang, who had once taught the General History of the Human Race and another history course. Half of Wei Yuan's historical education had come from Zhang Sheng, and half from Feng Chutang.
Feng Chutang smiled faintly. "I heard that the situation in Qingming was dire. Having just emerged from seclusion, I escorted the disciples from Azure Sky Hall and Water Moon Hall here to gain experience. It happens to give me a chance to stay with you for a while and brush up on Shamanic sorcery."
Wei Yuan was naturally overjoyed.
Among the previous generation of cultivators, Feng Chutang had been ranked alongside Ji Liuli and Zhang Sheng, his talent not inferior in the least, standing a head above Xu Henshui and Feng Tingyu. In truth, in terms of sheer talent, there was another exceptionally formidable figure from that generation: Wang Hu, the senior martial brother of the Hall of the Bright King from their cohort.
If Feng Tingyu simply had a bit more muscle in her head, then Eldest Senior Brother Wang Hu's head was entirely made of muscle, which was why he could not be ranked alongside the three.
Feng Chutang looked Wei Yuan up and down and praised, "You truly live up to your name as the foremost of the younger generation beneath the two Immortal Monarchs! But I heard something went wrong with your master. How is she doing now?"
Wei Yuan replied, "Master has rebuilt her Dao heart and is about to begin cultivating anew."
"Oh? Her Dao heart is fine now? Come, take me to see her."
Wei Yuan hastily said, "There are still many fellow disciples on the ships."
"If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have nearly forgotten." Feng Chutang flicked his sleeve, and the doors of both flying boats swung wide. Thirty to forty disciples descended. Some wore ordinary cultivator robes, others Daoist vestments, their ages varied—some still had childish features, while others bore traces of worldly weariness at the corners of their eyes.
The cultivator commanding the other flying boat was Perfected Person Lanhua, someone Wei Yuan was also familiar with.
A radiant young girl bounded before Wei Yuan and called out, "Senior Martial Brother Wei! I'm back!"
Wei Yuan saw that it was Fei Yutong, the genius disciple of Water Moon Hall. The last time, she had been on the verge of a breakthrough and was recalled to enter seclusion by a Perfected Person of her hall. Seeing her again, she had actually reached late Dao Foundation. Though she had only just stepped into late Dao Foundation, she was two years younger than Wei Yuan; such cultivation speed was truly terrifying.
Wei Yuan exchanged a few words with Fei Yutong before cultivators under his command arrived to lead the Palace of Grand Beginning disciples to their quarters. After greeting Perfected Person Lanhua, Wei Yuan took to the air with Feng Chutang, flying toward Zhang Sheng's residence on the main peak.
En route, Feng Chutang said, "I've heard the general gist of what happened, but you really can't be blamed. Even without that Karma Great Curse business, your master's Dao heart was bound to run into trouble sooner or later. To break and then rebuild, returning to the right path now, is rather a blessing in disguise."
"Why do you say that, Mister Feng?"
Feng Chutang chuckled. "Your master and Ji Liuli both have ambitions higher than the heavens. Simply forming an immortal manifestation wasn't enough for them; they were always thinking of taking another step further, so they were both nurturing a momentum of invincibility. There's nothing wrong with nurturing a momentum of invincibility, but there are many subtleties to it. Having the two of them glued together day in and day out was absurd. It would have been strange if nothing went wrong."
Wei Yuan pondered it carefully and realized it was indeed so. Fortunately, he had only nurtured his momentum of invincibility for a short time, and that was after Zhang Sheng had been severely wounded; otherwise, they might have clashed as well.
"Since you are so knowledgeable, Mister Feng, why didn't you warn them back then?" Wei Yuan asked with a hint of reproach.
Feng Chutang said helplessly, "I did warn them, but the consequence of every warning was a massive brawl. Neither of them knows how to pull their punches. Who in their right mind would want to spar with them?"
Flying neither rushed nor slow, the two soon arrived at Zhang Sheng's residence and descended into the courtyard.
Wei Yuan knocked on the door, and Zhang Sheng's voice came from inside: "Enter."
Wei Yuan and Feng Chutang entered to see Zhang Sheng standing by the window with her hands behind her back, gazing at the emerald horizon in the distance.
Only when the two stepped into the study did Zhang Sheng slowly turn around and say to Feng Chutang, "You came as well."
"Hearing that the situation here was precarious, naturally I had to come." With that, Feng Chutang looked Zhang Sheng over as well and said, "I remember back when your name was written with the reed character, you weren't even ten years old. Who would have thought so many years would pass in the blink of an eye? Should I call you Zhang Sheng with the reed or Zhang Sheng the scholar now?"
Zhang Sheng said indifferently, "Whether a male body or a female body, both are merely outer forms. There is no better or worse, so long as I can beat you up. So call me whatever you like. Though these days, I am more accustomed to Zhang Sheng."
Feng Chutang huffed. "You speak as if you ever beat me."
"And you have?"
"Does this count?" Feng Chutang swept his wide sleeve, and an image materialized before them. It showed two children rolling and tussling, until the little boy seized the little girl and pinned her face-first into a mud pit, where the scene froze.
Zhang Sheng let out a cold laugh and likewise flicked out a projection.
It appeared to be the second half of Feng Chutang's scene. Two children were brawling in the mud, but the boy had a black eye, dark as a panda's. The girl's face was completely unscathed; though smeared with black mud, her peerless radiance could still be faintly discerned.
Wei Yuan watched dumbfounded, never imagining his master had such a colorful history.
Zhang Sheng scoffed again, pointing at Wei Yuan. "You merely took a step ahead by fluke, nothing to brag about. You most likely aren't even a match for my disciple now. What right do you have to be arrogant?"
Feng Chutang's expression turned a bit strange. "Could this be your new heart of invincibility?"
"Of course not."
Feng Chutang breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, then. Hmph, you can't even beat your own disciple, so what right do you have to be arrogant?"
Wei Yuan felt as if an unwarranted calamity had dropped out of the sky onto his head. Couldn't the two of them just bicker between themselves? Why did they have to drag him into it?
Seeing this, Feng Chutang chuckled and clapped Wei Yuan on the shoulder. "Your teacher here teaches history; when it comes to arguing, when have I ever lost? When you have some free time later, I'll properly teach you how to argue.
"In truth, if you want to infuriate someone half to death, the supreme method lies in backhanded barbs. Resorting to fists like her the moment she can't win an argument within three sentences—that has long stooped below all grace."
Chapter 489