Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 63 Cultivating Immortality is for Better Bricklaying

"Brother Dog, am I, a man of imperial stature, meant to be here chopping stones and cutting planks?"

The Jade Emperor looked like he was questioning the meaning of life. After exhausting his last bit of mana, he simply let himself collapse to the ground, looking as if his body had been hollowed out.

"The capable should do more work. There are only a few players with the [Swordsmanship] skill, so there's no way around it! Put in more effort. I've already sent two people from those three teams over there. Our overall progress is slow because you guys are cutting materials too slowly! Stop thinking about what you deserve and start thinking about what you've contributed! Do you understand?"

While displaying the ugly face of a capitalist, Wang Ergou used his [Transport] skill to lift up a new batch of cut building materials and drove away.

The Jade Emperor pursed his lips in displeasure and muttered, "Sooner or later, I'll have to hang that Er Gou guy from a street lamp!"

After Wang Ergou left, a middle-aged NPC rubbed his hands together, bowed and scraped as he approached the Jade Emperor. Pointing tremblingly to a piece of wood with charcoal lines drawn on it, he said, "Immortal...Immortal, there's too much left here, you need to cut some more..."

"Oh, you cut to the black line, right? Sorry, I didn't notice just now, please wait a moment!"

As the Jade Emperor spoke, he temporarily meditated to replenish the mana of one skill, and then unleashed a sword aura formed from spiritual energy at the black lines on the wooden board.

The NPC cautiously shifted his body slightly to the side, and with a thud, the piece of the wooden board in his hand, outside the black carbon lines, was sliced ​​off by the sword energy and fell to the ground.

On the ground, there were already many scraps of wood and stone scattered about, almost forming a small mountain—and even so, it had been cleaned up several times!
Thankfully, the five senses in the game can be adjusted, and the so-called "brick-moving" work is also aided by spiritual power and various spells. Otherwise, no matter how good the benefits Wang Ergou offers or how tempting the promises are, players would not have the patience to do such a "laborious" task as building a city.

After several hours of hard work, the "City Lord's Mansion," which was the first building to be constructed, was already taking shape. The foundation had been laid, several beams and pillars had been erected, and the stone brick walls were neatly built. All that was left was for the tiles and bricks to be fired in the kiln, and then the main buildings of the "City Lord's Mansion" could be built.

The publicly released blueprints were designed by Aunt Wang's side for the city that Wang Ergou was ordered to build by the task force. There were originally several design plans, but Wang Ergou and Zhao Qing both took a liking to the "Chang'an City" plan at first glance. Based on the principle of majority rule, everyone selected it.

In the renderings, the overall color scheme is white walls, red paint, and blue tiles, which looks grand and magnificent. The buildings are mostly symmetrical, and the city planning is also a zoned design, which is orderly and exquisite, a typical Tang style.

However, compared to actual ancient Chinese architecture, the buildings in the plan are mostly two to three stories high. This was planned based on considerations of building materials and practicality in the world of "Ten Continents".

Although the lack of industrialization and mechanization means it's currently impossible to replicate grinding machines with sufficient precision to manufacture cement, this is, after all, a world of cultivation. There exist unconventional, seemingly illogical yet perfectly fitting special materials, making cement no longer the optimal choice. For example, a tree very common near the Taiyin Sect is called the "Red Iron Tree." Its bark is black, but the wood inside is deep red. Its texture is extremely hard; once cut from the ground, it quickly becomes impervious to blades, spears, water, and fire, making it excellent timber.

In the past, if ordinary people were to handle this, they would first have to bake the wood for several days to make it brittle, then soak it in ice water before they could barely use the sharpest black iron to shape it. Or, experienced craftsmen would shape it into appropriately sized planks before it was even taken out of the ground, and then chop it down in one go, which would save some effort.

Therefore, due to its superior properties and scarcity caused by its extreme difficulty in processing, hematite is highly sought after in the construction industry and has also caught the eye of the project team.

However, players completely disregard the characteristics of the Crimson Iron Tree—too hard? Can you withstand the sword energy formed from spiritual power? Need high temperature and ice water treatment? Are you underestimating the power of my various talismans?
Moreover, the so-called "invulnerability to swords and spears" and "imperviousness to water and fire" only refer to ordinary swords and spears and mundane water and fire. As long as it is imbued with spiritual energy, even the worst green special-grade sword in the hands of players can easily break through the defense of the red ironwood.

Even the NPCs who were hired by Wang Ergou at a high price to help out went from watching the "immortals" do hard labor with fear to expressing sincere amazement at the efficiency of the "immortals". Even the hands that were carefully handling all kinds of exquisitely crafted and shiny knives and swords became accustomed to it.

What would normally require a lot of effort to cut into planks and stones can now be easily cut by the "immortals" in just a couple of strokes, and then used after a little polishing.

Wood that normally takes several months to air dry can be dried in less than an hour by the "immortals" who either blow it back and forth with wind or repeatedly roast it over fire. Even the kilns for firing bricks and the kilns for baking tiles are "magical treasures" created by the "immortals," making people marvel at their divine abilities.

However, these methods and techniques, including several kilns used for firing bricks and tiles, were all researched and designed by members of other groups within the project team. This is why Wang Ergou and others were able to use these crystallizations of modern technology and otherworldly cultivation wisdom as soon as possible.

For example, the kiln used to fire bricks is a rough and somewhat ugly adobe house with arrays carved on the walls and floor to maintain a high temperature. As long as you continuously send spiritual energy to the arrays, you can maintain the temperature of the kiln and easily fire a whole house's worth of bricks.

The "technical advisor" worshipped by many players is a new member of the project's third technical team and the first Dragon Team technician to meet Wang Ergou and others in the game. Of course, ordinary players do not know the true identity of this player. Wang Ergou deliberately confuses the public, claiming that this technical expert was someone he had "poached" by contacting each account that had won the activation code by applying to be friends with them one by one and finally at great expense.

This tech guru has a very ordinary ID, Zhou Qian, which is a breath of fresh air among all the flashy and gimmicky player IDs.

Although Zhou Qian only entered the game today and his level was a pitiful 1, he arranged everything in an orderly manner while overseeing the city's construction plan. Even during breaks from inspecting the players' work, he muttered to himself, "The brick kiln is still too inefficient, taking several days. Since this is a world of cultivation, are there any formations or talismans to speed things up? Or is there any way to accelerate the process? Hmm... I'll have to research both of these directions later..."

(End of this chapter)