Above the Dam

Although the dam looked magnificent, Lin Xiao could somehow sense that it was already at the end of its rope.

Perhaps before long, it would be unable to withstand the increasingly ferocious currents of the Guyue River and would collapse with a deafening crash.

When that happened, not only these conscripted laborers but also their families waiting for their triumphant return in the city would likely be swallowed by the surging floodwaters.

Lin Xiao had originally planned to wait until nightfall, when the laborers were resting, to place the reinforcement formations.

However, he soon discovered that these laborers were actually working in shifts!

It seemed the local government had done its homework. Each group was given adequate rest time, and there were always enough people laboring at every post.

Meanwhile, as the prefect of Liaoju Prefecture, the capital of Hufang Province, Prefect Tong had been working his fingers to the bone lately.

He had no background in the imperial court. Before being promoted to the prefect of Liaoju Prefecture, he had spent his career moving around various lower-tier counties and prefectural cities, working diligently as an official.

At the end of last year, after returning to the royal capital to report on his duties, he was suddenly dispatched to Liaoju Prefecture to serve as the prefect of this provincial capital.

At the time, he was overjoyed, believing his talents had finally been recognized by his superiors.

But to his dismay, after taking office, he discovered the difficulties of this position.

The governor of Hufang Province was simply a scion of a wealthy, noble family who came here to gild his resume. He ignored everything on normal days, dumping all matters onto Prefect Tong. And Prefect Tong, who had aspired to be an official since childhood, dared not refuse.

Knowing the governor's background, he feared that if he resisted, he would lose his official position.

Then the ambitions he had harbored since childhood would never be realized.

Having navigated officialdom for many years, Prefect Tong knew that encountering such situations was inevitable. Therefore, he constantly comforted himself that this was nothing. The governor handing everything over to him and washing his hands of it was still better than having someone constantly dictating what to do.

So, even though Prefect Tong was the parent official of Liaoju Prefecture and drew a prefect's salary, he also had to worry about many major and minor affairs of the entire Hufang Province.

For instance, the recent matter of repairing the Guchuan Dam.

For Prefect Tong, the only advantage of having a noble scion as a governor was that once he explained the stakes, applying for funds became easy.

What Prefect Tong rejoiced in most was that this governor was purely here to build his resume; he had no intention of embezzling or scraping wealth from the people.

Thus, in major matters like this, his requests for funding were not easily rejected, nor would they be heavily skimmed.

As for sending official dispatches to request aid from the Shangyang Sect...

Although he had just asked for help not long ago, to him, compared to being seen as a nuisance by the Shangyang Sect, saving the lives of the common people was far more important. So, after discovering the danger of the Guchuan Dam collapsing during a previous inspection, he simultaneously applied for repair funds and immediately sent a plea for help to the Shangyang Sect.

However, the back-and-forth of letters always took time.

Furthermore, for the Shangyang Sect, their jurisdiction spanned more than just Hufang Province and Liaoju Prefecture. So, their response time was never short. Just like the previous case of missing children in Liaoju Prefecture, they only arrived many days after he had sent the official dispatch.

Prefect Tong dared not place too much hope on the Shangyang Sect, so he personally attended to everything every day, making comprehensive plans and arrangements for the repair work.

The last light of the setting sun completely vanished over the horizon, and darkness descended.

At this moment, he was working in a tent near the Guchuan Dam.

Little did he know that near the dam, a young man was quietly weaving through the crowd, speeding toward the structure.

Using a concealment spell, Lin Xiao moved among the conscripted laborers. None of the exhausted men noticed his presence.

He avoided the crowd as much as possible and climbed onto the dam.

The people repairing the dam were all suspended on the side where the water flowed out, so Lin Xiao used an air-stepping technique to reach the other side.

The river water on this side was extremely turbulent, and a deafening roar filled Lin Xiao's ears.

But he paid it no mind. He simply continued to walk on air, placing one of the large reinforcement formations he had brought every hundred meters.

On the outlet side, Wei Dagui, who was repairing the dam wall, was shivering in mid-air while struggling to mend the wall in front of him.

His face was pale, his trembling lips purple from the cold, and the river water gushing out beside him had long since soaked him to the bone.

He shuddered uncontrollably, half from the freezing cold and half from fear.

As he worked, he could clearly see the looseness of the dam wall. Because his family were butchers and he had eaten plenty of pig liver since childhood, his eyesight was excellent.

Especially near the large outlet not far away, the surface was already covered with cracks of all sizes.

Wei Dagui was terrified. He feared that the outlet would suddenly give way at any moment, and the terrifying river water would sweep him away.

Now, his only thought was to finish the work as quickly as possible so he could be pulled up sooner.

Not long ago, a man from his village had suddenly fallen down. Swept away by the ferocious river water, he could not even hear his fellow villager's final cry.

He tightly gripped the hemp rope tied around his body with one hand, praying fervently for his shift to end soon.

Unknowingly, Wei Dagui suddenly realized that the dam wall didn't seem as precarious as before.

The cracks seemed to have gotten smaller?

For some reason, he suddenly felt that the dam wall in front of him no longer gave off the feeling of an imminent collapse. The intense sense of crisis that had lingered in his heart since getting on the dam also gradually lessened.

Wei Dagui looked up at the sky, blurred by the water mist. All he could see was pitch black, with only the faint glow of the torches held by his companions above illuminating his surroundings.

He thought that perhaps the heavens didn't want their group to die here and were helping them.

However, as Wei Dagui rejoiced in his heart, he failed to notice that his companion above, perhaps due to sheer exhaustion, had accidentally swayed his torch-holding hand. A spark ignited the hemp rope tying Wei Dagui.

The drowsy companion above, nodding off from extreme fatigue, jerked awake at the sight. He hastily reached out to grab the burning rope, but as soon as he gripped it, the rope slipped from his grasp, slicing his palm and leaving it covered in blood.

In the next moment, a sense of weightlessness engulfed Wei Dagui's entire body.

Before he could even react to what had happened, he was plummeting straight down.

He looked at his terrified companion above, forgetting to even cry out.

All he knew was that his life seemed destined to end here.

Yet in the next instant, the rapidly falling Wei Dagui suddenly felt someone catch him steadily.

He looked up.

He saw that the person who had caught him was a handsome young man with a face as flawless as jade and a very elegant demeanor.