——(POV third person)——

Zheng Jingyi was waiting for the answer unaware of the grave mistake that he made. Well, it didn't take long for him to know that he did something wrong.

How did he know? When Hu Anjing released her pressure on him, there was no way that he could miss this obvious hint.

Hu Anjing didn't do it on purpose and released her full cultivation power on Zheng Jingyi subconsciously. The moment this happened Zheng Jingyi could feel that his knees were almost giving out even though he too used his Qi cultivation and body cultivation power to stop this sudden aggression. Needless to say, he wasn't successful at all and he was moments away from getting planted to the ground. Luckily Hu Anjing came back to her senses and suppressed the pressure that she was applying on Zheng Jingyi subconsciously.

This happened in a span of a second so most of the disciples didn't know about this small episode between Hu Anjing and Zheng Jingyi, all they saw was that Zheng Jingyi almost fell to his knees.

Hou Shuqing on the other hand understood everything and cold sweat formed on his forehead. He knew that he would be the same if he were under the same pressure. Hu Anjing is easily the strongest person here as she is at the peak of the twelfth stage of the meridian formation realm.

"Sorry about that, you and your fellow disciples can start working on the outer layer of the walls." Hu Anjing said and she wasn't really sorry about it. If they didn't need to work together right now, she would probably act differently even before Li Wanrou could walk away from here.

"…Uh, yes. We will do so." Zheng Jingyi said as he was wondering how he has offended Hu Anjing.

"Junior sister Ye Ling, please let them know how to work." Hu Anjing told Ye Ling.

~'And make sure they know how to build it right…'~ Hu Anjing said in sound transmission. The last time that the White Moon sect disciples worked on one side of the walls, some of it were not up to standards and they needed to rebuild them. Hu Anjing doesn't want to repeat the same mistake by leaving Zheng Jingyi to his own devices.

"I understand, senior sister." Ye Ling cupped her fists to Hu Anjing and walked toward Sky Pillar sect disciples.

"Please follow me." Ye Ling said and guided them toward one part of the outer walls. Zheng Jingyi was glad to follow her as it would place a distance between him and Hu Anjing. He didn't know what he did wrong but he was sure that he did something wrong and he wasn't willing to interact with Hu Anjing before he could figure that out.

Now that the Sky Pillar sect's disciples left, only the 19 disciples from the smaller powers were waiting for instructions.

"You are also welcome to stay at the fort but everyone has to work for it here as there is no such thing as a free lunch…" Hu Anjing said to the group of disciples. They might think that they can seek protection from the holy lands and stay at the side so Hu Anjing gave them a warning so that they know what they are signing up for.

"If you have changed your mind, you can turn back now but if you are willing to help just like everyone else in the fort, follow us…" Hu Anjing said. As the holy lands have a leader in their groups, it is easier to convince them about such work but in the smaller powers, the participants come from different backgrounds so it is hard to convince all of them to work together.

Hu Anjing turned around and started walking. Behind her, all of the disciples from the smaller powers were following her. The disciples from the smaller powers are usually more arrogant as many of them got to where they are through connections, something that is almost impossible to happen in the holy lands as the holy lands has anything that they want so they can't be bought easily. Despite that, they know that what happened 300 years ago was not a laughing matter so even the most arrogant person in the group of 19 disciples didn't hesitate to follow Hu Anjing to enter the fort.

"Please assign anyone that you think would be of help to your group and man the new towers." Hu Anjing told Hou Shuqing.

"Yes, I will." Hou Shuqing said and started analyzing each and everyone to find the suitable personnel for his group. He was trying to find out their weapon of choice by focusing on the lines on their hands or how they walked and their posture, like what one of the books he read explained. The effectiveness of this method is not known.

——(POV third person, the eastern inner walls)——

Li Huang was building the walls and fixing Cai ZhenKang's mistakes that kept happening. Surprisingly, using Hu Anjing to scare him helped and the mistakes were less frequent from then on.

'He said let's finish it in half an hour but I thought it will take way more time. Although we will be done in about an hour it is still impressive, to say the least.' Li Huang thought. To finish this much work was an achievement in itself. After the walls are built and checked, the formations will be placed on them to improve their durability and resilience.

"Huang, I came here to help you." Suddenly Li Huang heard a familiar voice. Turning around, he saw Li Wanrou who was standing near him with her fellow disciples.

"Wanrou, good to see you here. How was your trial so far?" Li Huang went in front of her and asked her. As he knew that she was really hard working and invested in her training, he asked about her trial first.

"We had a good time this year. Well, if you factor out the fact that we might be facing what resulted in the eternal wail trial's massacre." Li Wanrou said as she tilted her head at the end.

"True." Li Huang nodded to her. He kind of missed Li Wanrou and her personality. She has always been like this, she would answer your question but wouldn't even try to continue the conversation. Not that she is not interested, no, most of the times she thinks that the conversation is already over.

Cai ZhenKang who saw that Li Huang wasn't following him like he always would and kept telling him he is doing this or that wrong, turned back to see why he wasn't there. It was at that moment that he saw Li Huang and Li Wanrou talking together.

Even after all these years, Cai ZhenKang didn't learn his lesson and made the same mistake that he made the first time that he saw Hu Anjing.

"Li Huang, are you playing with a girl when you should be working? HAHA—ha?" Cai ZhenKang was laughing at Li Huang that a spear was planted to the ground dangerously close to his crotch area. Cai ZhenKang followed the end of the spear and his eyes landed on Li Wanrou who took out a new spear from her storage ring.

"Is that brick head an acquaintance of yours?" Li Wanrou asked Li Huang as she got ready to throw the next spear Cai ZhenKang.

"Wanrou, he has some problems when it comes to talking to humans in general, you don't have to dirty your hands." Li Huang tried to deescalate the situation by saying that Cai ZhenKang is an idiot. Well, most of the time this is true so he wasn't lying.

"Is that true?" Li Wanrou asked Li Huang.

"Yes." Li Huang said and looked at the stupefied Cai ZhenKang.

~'He is from the Blue Bulls sect, they say their training affects the mind…'~ Li Huang sent this last part as sound transmission. Li Wanrou who heard it nodded a couple of times as she understood.

"You should have said it sooner." Li Wanrou said as she put her spare spear back in the storage ring. One of her fellow disciples ran toward Cai ZhenKang and retrieved the other spear for her.

Cai ZhenKang now understood that she was like Hu Anjing so he didn't even think of retaliating. He was thankful to Li Huang for saving him from this crazy lady just now.

Well, if he could stop himself from making jokes about doing girly things, none of these things would happen to him but it would take him more time to come to know that crucial fact.

"I keep that in mind for the next time." Li Huang said. He didn't want to bring out that Li Wanrou didn't even give him a chance to do so in the first place as she attacked Cai ZhenKang without hesitation.

"What should I do to help?" Li Wanrou asked Li Huang.

"We are building the walls and the towers like this…" Li Huang explained the plan to her and the architecture that they were going with.

"Good. We will help to finish it faster." Li Wanrou said and they got back to work.