Mastering the Sword Manual, sweeping across the globe

Outside the window, the construction site's public address system blared.

The Tengger Lake Hub is, after all, a key national project. The broadcasting system is equipped with a complete set of multi-functional sound and light alarm coverage network, with loudspeakers distributed in every corner of the construction area, living area and command area. It is usually used to broadcast safety reminders and construction scheduling.

At that moment, a standard electronic female voice resounded throughout the construction site, drowning out the roar of excavators in the distance and the sound of the waterfall at the bottom of the valley: "Attention all units, attention all units. All construction team leaders, foremen, logistics support team leaders, and all personnel of the security department, please immediately proceed to unloading area number three. Repeat, please immediately proceed to unloading area number three. Prepare to receive new personnel."

Everyone in the meeting room stood up at the same time, the sound of chair legs scraping against the cement floor even more synchronized than when the meeting was adjourned.

The night wind on the grassland, carrying the white light of searchlights, rushed towards us.

In the direction of unloading area number three, all the lights were turned on, and the open space that was usually used to store sand and gravel was now as bright as a stage.

The high command leaders have arrived.

The commander-in-chief and several deputy commanders-in-chief stood at the edge of the unloading area, with a row of engineering vehicles that had just driven in behind them. All the headlights were on, illuminating the unloading area so clearly that even the shadows of the gravel on the ground were clearly visible.

The commander-in-chief was holding a walkie-talkie and talking to someone.

Several deputy commanders nearby were talking in hushed tones, their faces showing both exhaustion and a complex, indescribable expression.

"How much?" someone asked loudly.

The commander-in-chief put down the walkie-talkie: "It should be around ten thousand people."

The head of the security department was a retired soldier in his forties who had worked in corporate security for over a decade after leaving the military. At that moment, his face was the most unpleasant among everyone present.

The section chief took a step forward, his voice filled with anxiety: "These are all fraudsters! There are plenty of bloodthirsty thugs among them... Our security section only has 32 people in total!"

"No," the commander-in-chief raised his hand and gestured, "The higher-ups said that these people will behave themselves when they get to the construction site, and there will be no safety issues."

"Bullshit!" The head of security's face flushed red, and he retorted in front of everyone, "Does opening and closing your mouth make you safe? Who the hell said it's safe? Let whoever said that have authority!"

The commander-in-chief wasn't angry at all, and replied with a smile, "That's what Brother Ming said."

The head of security coughed and then fell silent.

Several people nearby burst out laughing at the same time.

The tense atmosphere dissipated instantly.

Most of the people present had already seen the video, and at that moment they all recalled those scenes.

Ten thousand people walked down the ladder to heaven without anyone pushing or escorting them.

Some of these guys were trembling, some were fearful, some were regretful, and the bolder ones were indifferent and disdainful... but everyone obediently walked down.

No one tried to turn back, no one tried to resist, and no one tried to cut in line.

"Ming-ge, what a clever trick!"

"Hehe, enjoying the immortal magic... These scumbags are getting off easy..."

"Is this the legendary real ox or horse?"

"Don't get too excited yet," the commander-in-chief said, gesturing for his colleagues to enjoy themselves for a while before adding, "The higher-ups also said that this situation will only last for about a week... Of course, please rest assured about safety afterward; there won't be any problems."

"What do you mean?"

"Too much immortal energy consumption?"

"There's a limit to wild guesses. If someone can be arrested from thousands of kilometers away, controlling their behavior is definitely not going to be too easy for Ming."

"He's probably still compassionate. What's the difference between controlling someone for a lifetime and killing them outright? Doflamingo never goes too far; he always leaves a way out..."

Old Deng did not participate in the discussion.

While the commander-in-chief and several deputy commanders-in-chief were still confirming the reception process over the walkie-talkie, Lao Deng gathered several of his colleagues and walked to a relatively quiet pile of sand and gravel at the edge of the unloading area.

The searchlight beam slanted down from above, casting long shadows of several people onto the gravel ground.

"Let's meet up before they arrive." Old Deng squatted down, picked up a piece of gravel, and drew a few lines on the ground. "We need to adjust our recruitment strategy."

Old Ma, Engineer Sun, Little Zhao, Old Hu, and Old Hu formed a half-circle, some squatting, some sitting on the pile of materials. This thing is better left untouched... it's too cold, it'll freeze your chickens.

“First,” Old Deng drew a line on the ground with a pebble, “the local herders. Before, we only thought about recruiting them to work on the construction site, but they have their own pastures and livestock, so they were unwilling to come.”

"But let's think about it another way... instead of letting them work on construction sites, let them work in logistics."

“The construction site consumes a lot of meat, milk, and vegetables every day. In the past, these were transported from the nearest city, which was costly and the vegetables weren’t fresh. Now, we can have the herders in the nearby villages supply them directly. The sheep are slaughtered and delivered on the spot, and the dairy products are brought over from their own workshops. As for transportation, the herders have pickup trucks and motorcycles, and they are familiar with the terrain. They are better at short-distance transfers within the construction site than drivers from other places. This doesn’t take up construction jobs or compete with the construction team for their livelihood. The herders earn money, and we save on logistics costs.”

Old Ma nodded after listening: "It's definitely more cost-effective to outsource the procurement and short-distance transportation to them than to bring it from other places ourselves. I'll contact the people in the Sumu later and ask them to recommend a few reliable herder cooperatives."

"Secondly," Old Deng drew another line, "the labor market will continue to recruit... those who are willing to earn hard-earned money should still have opportunities."

"Still recruiting?" Old Hu squatted on the ground, his hands tucked into his sleeves. "Weren't ten thousand people supposed to be here soon?"

“Ten thousand scammers,” Old Deng glanced at him, “even if they’re the most honest, they’ve never done much manual labor… Do you expect someone who’s spent years sitting in an office typing away at a keyboard and running pig-butchering scams to be carrying steel bars and pouring concrete tomorrow?”

"If you had that kind of hard work, you wouldn't be doing this kind of unethical business," Old Hu muttered from the side.

Everyone laughed.

“So,” Old Deng tapped the pebble on the second bar, “we still need to recruit experienced veterans. No matter how many we recruit, each team must have a few who have actually done the job. Let them lead those greenhorns. If they can lead them well, that’s a skill. If they can’t, at least make sure nothing goes wrong.”

As he spoke, Lao Deng looked at Xiao Zhao and said, "Don't stop working with the labor company. Keep pushing them. Focus on finding people with experience in road and bridge construction. You can raise the salary a little more."

"Understood." Xiao Zhao quickly jotted it down in his notebook.

“Third,” Old Deng drew the third line, “management personnel.”

"Management personnel?" Engineer Sun pushed up his glasses. "What we lack right now are workers, not office workers."

“What we lack isn’t office workers,” Old Deng shook his head. “What we need are on-site managers who understand technology and can get things done. Construction workers, surveyors, safety officers, quality inspectors… every year there are plenty of graduates in civil engineering and engineering management majors from universities. But only a small portion of them can actually get into state-owned enterprises or large engineering companies. The rest either change careers or do odd jobs on small construction sites.”

“We now have tens of thousands more people, and there is a huge gap in team management alone... A team has dozens or hundreds of people, and there has to be someone to keep an eye on the progress, safety, and quality.”

“That’s a good idea,” Old Ma said, crossing his arms over his stomach. “Young people who have just graduated have solid theoretical knowledge, but what they lack is on-site experience. This project will take at least a few years to complete, enough for them to go through everything from the books.”

"Let them recruit," Old Deng gestured with his chin toward Xiao Zhao. "Connect with the human resources department, issue a notice, and accept both recent and past graduates from universities, as long as their majors match. When they come, they'll start as interns, paired with experienced construction workers to mentor them."

“Fourth.” Old Deng drew the fourth line, pressing the stone deeper into the soil than the previous lines.

"Winter support and winter training preparations."

As soon as those four words were uttered, the expressions of the group became more serious.

“I won’t emphasize the importance of security here,” Old Deng’s gaze swept across the faces of several people. “We will soon have 10,000 people… They can’t go to the construction site in winter, but they can do other things.”

"Safety training is a must. How many of these people have ever touched a safety helmet? How many know that safety belts are required for working at heights? Basic training will definitely be conducted in the next few days, but more complex training can be arranged during the winter. Basic skills training will also be carried out at that time. Steelworkers, formwork workers, and concrete workers all have basic training courses. One winter is enough for them to learn from scratch and be able to work."

"Oh right, there's also mechanical maintenance... There must be quite a few people in this group who have technical experience or computer skills, so we can select some to train them in equipment maintenance."

Old Deng finished speaking in one breath, then stood up, dusted off his knees, and said, "The above is the routine arrangement."

"Anything unconventional?" Engineer Sun asked.

“The Tengger Lake hub itself is not a conventional entity.” Old Deng threw a pebble into the gravel pile. “Among the scumbags that Ming brought back, aren’t there many foreigners? In the future, as the industrial base here develops and transportation becomes more convenient, people will flock here. The new city will need people for everything… We can’t just send these people back after they finish their work on the construction site, can we? No matter what they do in the future, they must learn Chinese and Chinese characters as soon as possible and comprehensively, the sooner the better. Don’t let them waste a single day.”

"Damn, you want to lock them up here for the rest of their lives?"

"What? I won't even mention the ones in China, but what about those abroad... do you think any of them wouldn't get a life sentence?"

“Okay, you have a point, but if it’s this kind of plan…” After a short while, Old Ma said softly, “I think 1 people might not be enough.”

"If it's not enough, ask for more," Old Deng said softly.

176 Whom do you spare?

As dawn broke, the last batch of human resources at the abandoned airport was finally allocated.

From yesterday morning until now, I've been busy all night without even realizing it!

Standing on the edge of the line, Zhang Qiliang felt quite guilty: if he continued like this a few more times, he might ruin the industry's reputation at any time.

After finding a spot in the Gobi Desert, Zhang Qiliang gently left the airport and flew back to Y City to sleep.

Even Zhang Qiliang felt a bit exhausted. The telecom fraudsters, who had just returned from Southeast Asia and had been exposed to shock, fright, steam, and sun for a whole day and night, naturally found it even more difficult to endure.

However, even if you can't bear it, you have to persevere!

The vast majority of people continued to hold on, enduring the afternoons in Yangon, enduring the night winds over the border, enduring the dull thuds of each step on the steel plates on the ladder to heaven, enduring the moment of landing on the Gobi Desert, and now, they continue to hold on...

However, some guys, for various reasons, finally couldn't hold on and accidentally fell asleep.

……

When Tao Shun opened his eyes again, he found himself kneeling on the ground.

My knees ached from the pressure. I looked down and saw not the Gobi Desert, but something finer and sharper.

Like... layers upon layers of broken bone fragments?

I looked up again and saw a gray, desolate field before me. The sky was dark gray, without clouds, stars, or any light source, but everything in my field of vision was clearly visible. Light seeped up from the ground, a dark red light that shone faintly from the broken bones beneath my feet.

The air carried a faint, even, fishy smell, so even that it seemed as if the entire space had been permeated by it.

Further away, there were several blurry outlines, which looked like low-rise buildings or some kind of long-abandoned facility.

Before Tao Shun could make out the exact shapes, two figures suddenly appeared silently at the edge of his line of sight.

From a distance, the two figures were small and thin, like monkeys that hadn't fully developed. One was wearing a drab gray short jacket, and the other was wearing a dirty leather apron with a row of shiny iron hooks hanging on their chests, making a jingling sound as they walked.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that although they were as thin as bamboo poles, they were at least two meters tall, with frighteningly long arms and extremely thin, long fingers covered with curved, sharp claws.

The two were extremely fast, and in no time they were in front of Tao Shun.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," the figure in the apron glanced down, her tone like a greeting to a colleague at the early shift workstation.

Tao Shun tried to stand up, but his shoulder was gently pressed down, causing his body to instinctively lean back, while a large hand gently supported his spine.

And so, the two little devils, half-bent over, one holding Tao Shun by the back of his neck and the other dragging his elbow, moved with the practiced ease of carrying a bag of cement, gently lifting Tao Shun from the ground and placing him in front of a table in a short while.

The table was dark red, with several deep, black grooves on its surface. The edges of the grooves were worn smooth and shiny, as if they had been rubbed repeatedly by something for many, many years.

At each of the four corners of the platform and in the middle of the top, there was an iron hoop. Inside the iron hoop was a soft metal bushing, on which were several rows of blurred teeth marks.

"Tie it up, tie it up."

The little devil in the gray short jacket quickly fixed Tao Shun's limbs to the iron hoops at the four corners.

The tall, thin man in the apron wasn't idle either. He pulled out an iron chain from under the table, with several pairs of pliers of different sizes hanging from it. Some of the pliers had flat jaws, some had serrated teeth, some had barbs, and some had strands of dark red dried tissue stuck to the inside of the jaws.

The tall, thin man laid the iron chain out on the table, making a clanging sound. He then fiddled with several pairs of pliers, finally choosing a medium-sized pair of flat-nose pliers, the jaws gleaming greasy in the dark red light.

Tao Shun's eyes followed the pair of pliers for a moment, and he immediately began to struggle violently.

"Don't panic, it's the first time." The little devil in charge of the neck pressed Tao Shun's head onto the table, his chin hitting the groove, and the iron hoop clicked into place.

Tao Shun was about to say something, but before he could even open his mouth, the little devil in the apron beside him had already grabbed the pliers and, with a smile, casually stuck them into his mouth.

The jaws gripped the front of the tongue firmly, with just the right amount of force—the skill of a master chef in a cafeteria.

"You're here..." the little devil kindly reminded him.

Tao Shun's entire body tensed up.

The next moment, the jaws began to slowly pull back.

I don't know if it's because the overtime pay wasn't paid properly, but the kid's attitude was not proper at all. He only moved slightly after a long time, and even then, he only moved a couple of millimeters.

And so, Tao Shun enjoyed a life of luxury.

The tongue is incredibly sensitive, with a dense network of nerve endings. Even a simple bite usually makes it grimace. Now, with it clamped down and being pulled out millimeter by millimeter… well, the sensation is… well, you know.

Tao Shun's tears and snot streamed down his face, and he kicked his legs on the gravel like he was having an epileptic seizure. The sounds coming out of his throat were like a chicken whose neck had been stepped on.

One minute, two minutes, the fascia at the base of the tongue gradually stretched to its limit, emitting a fine, squeaking sound, like a rubber band being stretched to its limit and about to break.

"Almost there, almost there." The little devil, who was being held by the back of the neck, bent over and spoke in the exact same tone as a nurse coaxing a child to get a shot.

The woman in the apron continued to drag her apron slowly, pausing for half a second, then dragging it again, pausing for half a second, and in between, she even used one hand to scratch behind her ear.

Finally, with a "pop," like pulling a radish out of the mud, a whole tongue was finally pulled out of the mouth, with warm juice still dripping from the root part.

The little devil in the apron shook the pliers into the wooden bucket and turned around.

Tao Shun's legs were stretched straight, all ten toes curled inwards at the same time, and every cell in his mouth was crying out to his brain about the boundless pain.

Just then, a sudden itch came from deep inside my throat.

Tao Shun clenched his mouth in terror, crimson blood trickling from the corner of his lips. Suddenly, he could feel his teeth again... no, it should be said, his tongue could feel the presence of his teeth again...

Tongue?

Yes... In Tao Shun's empty mouth, a brand new tongue grew out, completely new, even the taste buds were new, and it was tasting the bloody flavor.

At this moment, the imp in the apron turned around again, now holding a pair of pliers.

"Ah ah ah ah ah……"