Chapter 27: Mission Reward Items (Part 1)

Chen Yi had his own “architectural aesthetics.” He looked around a few more times before finally choosing a spot that pleased his eye and smashing the warehouse down there.

This was the first time everyone had seen Chen Yi “conjure a building” with their own eyes.

When the enormous structure appeared before them, casting a vast shadow over their heads, the fear of being enveloped by something gigantic was exceptionally clear.

Then the large building descended, and an immense structure comparable to the Sect Main Hall appeared before their eyes.

The ground shook.

Dust flew everywhere.

Chen Yi stood at the very front of the crowd. His outstretched hand had not yet had time to lower. The violent wind it stirred up lifted his collar and sleeves, and deep within his black eyes, layered black lotus petals rotated and emerged, with a faint golden light flowing through them.

Without seeing it in person, relying on imagination alone, it would be absolutely impossible to picture the shock of that moment.

Many people could not even help raising their hands to press against their chests, steadying heartbeats that had already spun out of control.

“Let’s go!”

“Let’s take a look inside!”

Once his heartbeat slowed, Captain Ye could not wait to climb the steps.

He pushed the door. It would not open.

He pushed again. It still would not open.

Captain Ye smiled awkwardly and turned to look at Chen Yi.

Only Chen Yi being able to open the warehouse was perfectly reasonable.

The great door that had shut Captain Ye outside opened with one light push from Chen Yi. As they walked inside, under the faint fluorescence from the firmament above, the whole scene made their hearts tighten solemnly.

Empty. Desolate.

Unlike the Sect Main Hall, which was transparent from one end to the other at a glance, this warehouse contained many wooden shelves. One could tell that in the past, this place should have been packed full of things, but now it looked as though someone had swept through it. It was utterly empty, with nothing at all.

Everyone who had been hoping the warehouse stored a massive quantity of supplies felt their hearts sink to rock bottom.

They walked past row after row of wooden shelves. Some had clearly been for weapons, others for clothing, but all of them were empty. Not a single thing remained.

“There really isn’t anything?”

Unwilling to give up, Captain Ye and Pang Xiaolei circled around through the wooden shelves. There truly was nothing.

“They didn’t even leave behind a single spirit stone?”

Lou Ting said, “Who knows how many years old these ruins are? For the buildings to be preserved intact and then, through Sect Master Chen, reappear before our eyes is already a miracle.

“As for items like spirit stones, pills, and equipment, no matter how magnificent they were back then, if they weren’t preserved through special methods, they’ve probably turned to ash by now, haven’t they?

“On the other hand, these wooden shelves have been preserved for who knows how many tens of thousands of years. Their material is very unusual.”

Tang Qirui nodded. “We don’t see any remaining ash, which means that before this place was sealed, the items in the warehouse were all transferred away. I think that aside from things like mineral veins and medicinal gardens, which we still can’t access, the mission rewards Sect Master Chen obtains most likely come from the sealed warehouse supplies.”

“Yes,” Lou Ting agreed. “There’s also another, smaller possibility. The mission rewards come from human manipulation. Some unseen hand arranged all this with a certain scheme in mind.”

“Perhaps there is a scheme, but it’s one we cannot refuse.”

Chen Yi watched them talk and lowered his eyes.

When it came to conspiracy theories, there were indeed many things about all of this that could not be explained clearly. But they were all the same. None of them could refuse this temptation.

“Look here.” Just then, Lou Ting spoke, pointing at the side of a wooden shelf. “Have you noticed? Ever since we entered, the tree rings on the wooden boards on this side have been increasing. From three rings at the beginning, they’ve now become six rings, nine rings, and twelve rings. What do you think that represents?”

With that reminder, only then did Chen Yi and the others realize that the tree rings on the side boards of the wooden shelves really were different.

The shelves were pitch-black. Even though the light inside the warehouse was decent, it truly would have been very difficult to tell without looking carefully.

Five people had come in, and only Lou Ting had noticed the difference.

While the others studied the tree rings on the wooden boards, Chen Yi glanced at Lou Ting a little longer, then heard him say, “I’ve been researching the office desks and chairs that appeared in the Sect Main Hall. Setting aside the methods of office management, this set of desks and chairs is made from a material that currently does not exist on Blue Star. It has an extremely obvious mind-refreshing effect and is extraordinary.”

So that was why.

That was why his attention had been on the material itself, unlike them, who had come in full of joy only to find the result disappointing and sink into deep frustration.

Pang Xiaolei said, “They really weren’t placed randomly. All the wooden shelves with the same number of tree rings are grouped together.”

Captain Ye said, “At the entrance, there are three rings, and the quantity is the largest too. There are a full twenty-two wooden shelves. For five rings, there are only twelve.”

Tang Qirui said, “Come count this with me. How many rings are on the innermost ones?”

Chen Yi and Lou Ting went over, and the three of them counted together and got the result. “Fifteen rings. There are two wooden shelves.”

Captain Ye was curious. “What do you think the difference between them represents?”

Pang Xiaolei said, “Value? The higher the number of rings, the older the tree, so of course it would be more expensive.”

Captain Ye said, “In the end, they’re only used to hold items. Where’s the difference?”

Pang Xiaolei said, “Of course the better the items, the more expensive the shelf used for them.”

Captain Ye sighed. “Can we stop looking only at whether something is expensive or not? Could there be some other difference?”

Provoked by those words, Lou Ting immediately had a flash of inspiration. “This is a cultivation civilization. We can’t think according to our common logic.

“If I had a weapon, then I would definitely hope its storage location had exactly the right humidity, absolute constant temperature, no possibility of accidental discharge or spontaneous detonation, and preferably the ability to self-maintain.

“If I were storing pills and medicinal materials, the storage location would definitely have to preserve the medicinal effect to the greatest possible extent.

“And then there’s spirit rice and ingredients. That should be related to keeping things fresh too. Think about it. It’s similar to the refrigerators we use in modern times. So tell me, where do the differences among these wooden shelves lie?”

Captain Ye slapped his forehead. “I know. They can freeze things!”

Lou Ting: “…”

Then, helplessly, he said, “Time! It’s time!”

“Tch!” Captain Ye bared his teeth. “I was just joking. You’re the only one who gets it?”

“If I hadn’t said it, would you have figured it out?”

“It was only a matter of time. Isn’t that how warehouses are used?”

“Then tell me, what differences might appear between different wooden shelves?”

“We’ll know once we run experiments. In the end, it’s just a difference in time.”

Hearing this, Tang Qirui immediately said, “I’ll arrange for people to follow up on the warehouse’s specific functions.”

“Good.”

“Fine.”

The warehouse issue was resolved through that conversation.

During that whole time, Chen Yi did not say a single word.

It was not that he could not keep up with their train of thought. Rather, he had discovered that once enough talented people gathered around him, it seemed his own brain no longer had much reason to exist.

Many hands make the fire burn high.

What was there to worry about in the future?

With the warehouse resolved, what remained was the other reward everyone was anticipating.

Outer Sect disciple residence.

Lou Ting looked at him eagerly. “I’ve been waiting for the disciple residence for ages already. Do you really have the heart to make me keep waiting?”

Everyone was amused by Lou Ting’s expression.

Chen Yi said, “I’m looking forward to it too.”

By now, it was nearly dinner. Most of the trainees were resting, but after hearing the news, they followed over. A dense crowd of a little over forty people headed toward the living area planned behind the Sect Main Hall.

Even the two old men wholeheartedly obsessed with farming came over.

The living area Lou Ting had planned was behind and to the left of the Sect Main Hall, in the opposite corner from the Scripture Pavilion. The planned area was very large. It could even be called the largest area at present.

Lou Ting had already used white powder ahead of time to draw strict lines, perfectly straight horizontally and vertically. The occupied area was no less than 0.8 hectares, fitting the living area of a basic residential community.

Once it was Lou Ting’s home ground, the face of this high-quality human male became somewhat distorted with excitement. He gestured wildly at a spot and said, “Here. Put the house here. Yes, here. Face it toward the Mountain Gate.”

Following Lou Ting’s instructions, Chen Yi extracted a disciple residence from the system and placed it in the designated spot.

Buildings appearing from the void and falling to the ground—Chen Yi had already lost count of how many times he had seen it. But for most of the people behind him, this was their first time.

“Whoa!”

“Ah!”

“Wow!”

Gasps rose one after another. There was even applause.

Chen Yi had the illusion that he had just performed a magic trick.

Elder Zhang, the agricultural expert, pushed up his glasses. “Marvelous. Absolutely wondrous!”

There were also people discussing where exactly these buildings had come from.

On this point, the internal opinion was basically unanimous.

“According to the sect master’s folded-space theory, these buildings must have been inside folded space. When the conditions are met, items and buildings are drawn from folded space into the present world, creating the scene we just witnessed.”

“And these buildings seem as though they were refined by heavenly craft, seamless and whole, with time standing still, always brand-new.”

“There are still many secrets inside the Sect Main Hall. I heard the dome cannot be approached, and there’s also the round-table meeting, as well as many desks and chairs that haven’t appeared yet. With such a large space, there should be even more functions.”

“It makes no difference whether we live in houses or not, but since these are rooms specially made for disciples to cultivate in, there should be some unique little functions inside, right? Like the Sect Main Hall.”

Chen Yi heard a little of the special training members’ discussion, but by then he had already followed the impatient Lou Ting into the Outer Sect disciple residence.

From the outside, this was a building similar to an old capital courtyard house, with blue tiles, white walls, and an enclosing wall.

Entering through the door, they found that there was even a small courtyard of about a hundred square meters. The ground was paved with thick, heavy bluestone slabs and was extremely level.

There were three buildings in the courtyard, arranged in a triangular formation. They picked the most convenient building and pushed the door open to enter.

The room was about twenty square meters and could be taken in at a glance. One building contained two such rooms, so one small courtyard could house six people.

The furnishings inside were antique and elegant: a square wooden table and long benches, with a wooden wardrobe by the window.

Chen Yi’s gaze fell on the single bed that resembled a northern heated brick bed, and he became thoughtful.

He was just about to sit on it and take a look when he saw Lou Ting search inside and outside the room, then say anxiously, “Where’s the bathroom? There are no water supply pipes and no drainage pipes. What kind of lousy house is this? Unqualified. Completely unqualified!”

In cultivation, there was the concept of fasting. As long as one entered Qi Refining, one could take fasting pills, no longer participate in the cycle of grains, and thus no longer have the trouble of using the bathroom.

Why would they still consider drainage issues?

But the current problem was that before the Alchemy Pavilion came out, there were no fasting pills in stock.

These hundred or so people, and even more in the future, would all have to face eating, drinking, and excretion before Chen Yi reached Foundation Establishment.

Lou Ting had been full of anticipation that the mission-reward Outer Sect disciple residence could directly throw waste into another space. In the end, the residence had never arranged such a function at all. How could his head not ache?

Were they supposed to carry out massive construction in this sacred cultivation land and dig sewers? Or have him dig them with his own hands?

As early as five days ago, the toilets inside the sect had been reserved for only a small number of people. The special training members, who made up the majority, had to go to the public toilets outside the sect, including for washing up.

If not for Chen Yi’s mission reward of disciple residences, a large stretch of land outside would have had to be requisitioned to build dormitories.

Now the choice had come again.

Should they let the team members live inside the sect space and wash up outside?

Or should all the team members be settled outside the sect and come in only when cultivating?

Lou Ting, Tang Qirui, and the others were all a little dissatisfied with this Outer Sect disciple residence and were currently worrying over how to arrange things, when Chen Yi, who had stayed in the room for quite a while, came outside the courtyard.

“Let’s live here.”

Everyone looked at him.

Chen Yi said, “Although it’s a little simple and crude, a miniature Spirit-Gathering Array is carved on the stone bed. It can be used by one person for cultivation. Even sleeping on it without cultivating will allow spiritual energy to cleanse the body, which is beneficial.”

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