Pioneering

Hearing this, Han Weishu rolled her eyes in thought, then stared at him with bright, spirited eyes and said,

"It's so dangerous for you to hit the road alone. How about I go with you?"

Hearing her say this, Tong Jialiang asked in surprise,

"Ah? But you haven't even told your family yet. Besides, you're a girl. Wouldn't it be a bit inconvenient for you to travel with me like this?"

Han Weishu waved her hand dismissively.

"Don't worry about my family. I know what I'm doing."

Saying so, she lifted her chin and looked proudly at Tong Jialiang.

"What's wrong with being a girl? Don't you know what I'm capable of? If any bandits dare to mess with me, it's hard to say who will be the unlucky one."

Tong Jialiang had originally met Han Weishu in a small town.

A year ago, when he went to the town to buy household supplies, he was bullied by some thugs from a nearby village. He happened to run into Han Weishu, who had sneaked out of the Qinghe Sect, and witnessed her single-handedly take down several burly thugs.

At the time, Han Weishu was dressed in men's clothes. With her disheveled hair and dirty face, looking as if she hadn't washed in days, she looked exactly like a little beggar boy.

It was only after the fight, when Han Weishu spoke to him, that he realized this person was actually a girl.

Tong Jialiang had no idea that the girl standing before him was a first-level Qi Condensation cultivator who had been cultivating for over a decade. He just thought she was born with great strength, possessed formidable martial arts skills, and was quite clever, which allowed her to defeat those thugs.

Since then, the two had become friends.

According to Han Weishu, her home was quite far from here, and it took her two or three days to travel each time she visited.

Every time Han Weishu came out, she would find Tong Jialiang to hang out for a few days.

As for where she stayed at night, Tong Jialiang had no idea.

Whenever he brought it up, she only said she had a place to stay, but never revealed the specific details to him.

Hearing her words and recalling how formidable she was, Tong Jialiang agreed.

"Alright then. But it's a long journey, and you don't have anything on you right now. How about I escort you home first so you can pack some luggage?"

"No need, no need, no need!" Han Weishu quickly waved her hands.

"You don't need to worry about that. Just walk. We're setting off right now."

Saying that, she grabbed Tong Jialiang's arm and dragged him forward, her footsteps hurried as if a ghost were chasing her.

Meanwhile.

Over in Xiushui Village.

Inside the Lingxian Sect, a massive project was in full swing.

On a clearing nestled against the mountain halfway up the slope, everyone in the Lingxian Sect was gathered, except for Sun Yigao, who was currently teaching.

Above the steep mountain cliff here, Lin Xiao, Liu Yunan, and a few others were using the Air-Treading Spell to fly back and forth, measuring something.

From time to time, they would also clear away the trees in certain areas.

Not long after, once they finished measuring, Lin Xiao flew back down and pulled out his peach wood sword.

He raised his hand, wrapping the sword in spiritual energy, and then thrust it forcefully into the junction where the cliff face met the ground.

The peach wood sword pierced right into the rock wall.

Then, he took a deep breath to gather his strength, channeled his qi, and flew up the cliff face, dragging the peach wood sword along!

On that hard and steep mountain cliff, a long, deep groove was carved open wherever he passed.

Flying rocks and dirt crumbled and cascaded down behind him, kicking up clouds of dust.

Many shrubs and grass stems were also uprooted and carried away along with the crushed stones and soil.

As he made his way upward, his speed wasn't extremely fast, because he needed to maintain a consistent depth and navigate various twists and turns.

Instead, he channeled his qi to move upward in a swift yet steady manner.

From the halfway point of the mountain to the peak, it was nearly three thousand meters.

Lin Xiao carved the groove along their pre-planned route all the way up to the two-thousand-meter mark before stopping.

Then, he flew back down to the mountainside and, three meters away from the first groove, mimicked his previous action to carve an identical groove.

Afterward, he stopped on the mountain and began to cut the rock face between these two grooves from top to bottom, carving it piece by piece into a downward-sloping incline about one meter deep.

The people at the bottom of the mountain were divided into three groups.

Seeing him go up, the first group began the cleanup work.

They cleared away the deep-rooted tree stumps, weeds, and scattered rocks along the path.

The second group simultaneously took out various stone-chiseling and cutting tools. Following behind the first group, they started excavating the same sloping surface from the bottom up.

The third group followed closely behind, starting to chisel out layers of stone steps from the bottom up.

That's right, they were currently carving a mountain path upwards.

This was the first matter regarding the sect's construction that Liu Yunan and Lin Xiao had discussed recently.

Taking into account the future recruitment of disciples and the increase in sect members, coupled with the fact that Senior Liao had also mentioned many detailed construction requirements for a sect.

Lin Xiao felt that they still needed to clear more space.

Although he still had fragments of the Yaoguang Floating Island in his private treasury, along with some kind of auxiliary pearl, it was conceivable that their sect would likely possess a floating island and an independent space in the future.

However, there was only one fragment right now, and it was unknown when they would be able to collect the remaining two.

Furthermore, they had no idea just how large the so-called floating island and space actually were.

So, after thinking it over, it was more reliable for them to carve out the land themselves.

Anyway, the North Mountain was huge; for now, it was more than enough for them to build on as they pleased.

And the first step to expanding the sect's area was naturally to develop into the North Mountain range by carving a mountain path.

Although everyone now had cultivation bases, and cutting stone was no longer an impossible task for them.

But because everyone's cultivation level varied, Lin Xiao and Liu Yunan had specifically divided the work tasks according to each person's cultivation level.

Those with higher cultivation were responsible for cutting large chunks of the cliff face.

While those with lower cultivation were responsible for subsequent tasks like smoothing the surfaces of the stone steps.

Moreover, they couldn't all work at once; they had to set aside some manpower to work in shifts, taking over when the first team's spiritual energy was exhausted.

As for these tasks, Lin Xiao, who was at the very top, did them all by himself.

There was no helping it; his speed alone was almost equal to the combined speed of everyone below.

Cutting and refining these two thousand meters of length, step by step, was also a task that severely tested one's patience.

Lin Xiao felt as though he had turned into an emotionless stone-cutting machine.

The two-thousand-meter height, combined with the various horizontal twists and turns in between, amounted to nearly seven thousand steps in total.

Lin Xiao alone cut over three thousand steps.

He went completely numb.

The group worked from noon until dark, for nearly twenty hours, and finally managed to completely carve out this mountain path by the early hours of the next morning.

Whether they were in the Foundation Establishment stage or the Qi Condensation stage, after the final stone step was finished, everyone completely collapsed on the ground, not wanting to speak a word.

In the end, it was Lin Xiao who took out his iron lump of a spirit boat to barely manage to transport the collapsed crowd down from the middle of the mountain path.

After laying everyone out neatly near the small mountain spring that housed the spirit vein, Lin Xiao himself flopped down and lay right next to them.