Tao Su stepped forward , " Allow me to explain Mr. Zhou , I suggest that we use clay to reinforce the bamboo to make it sturdier. " Tao Su stated.
Zhou Zilong shook his head , " While that is possible it'll also make the bamboo significantly heavier, making it hard for us to transport them."
Tao Su shook his head , " Mr. Zhou I must remind you that my personal skill is handling clay , I can manipulate the clay to cover a very thin layer inside the bamboo, this wont make the bamboo poles heavier ."
Zhou Zilong was now nodding along , " Well that is possible , but if the clay layer is too thin , the hot water can easily eat away at it and wear it out."
" Mr. Zhou , have you ever heard about Celestrite clay ?" Liu Ying spoke up.
" Celestrite clay ? I must admit I've never heard of it before," Zhou Zilong replied.
" Celestrite clay is an extremely rare clay that is known for being extremely lightweight but heat resistant , true to their nature they are only found near areas of extreme temperatures. " Liu Ying explained. " Tao Su here has another special skill , he is able to detect the different types of clays in the soil , and he tells me that there is a Celestrite clay deposit quiet close by , Tao Su and I will depart soon and bring the clay back."
" Go where exactly , " Yang Changtian's voice came from behind them , he had just arrived after dealing with Zhang Anying so he only managed to catch the last few words of their conversation.
" To bring back some Celestrite clay ," Liu Ying answered .
" Celestrite clay ? What is that ? " he asked curiously.
Liu Ying sighed and explained the whole thing to Yang Changtian.
" Okay then , bring some disciples along." Yang Changtian offered.
" That won't be necessary Mr. Yang , the both of us are more than enough. Besides as I said , the Celestrite clay deposits usually occur in places with extremely high temperatures , so I don't want to risk anything." Liu Ying rejected Yang Changtian's offer.
Yang Changtian didnt want Liu Ying and Tao Su to go there alone. Now , was he worried about their safety ? Nah, Liu Ying could protect herself fine , but he sure was worried , worried that she was up to no good. So he decided to join them personally. Yang Changtian's spiritual power was quite high , so he could easily withstand the high temperatures.
Liu Ying agreed to let Yang Changtian join them.
Soon the three of them set off from the village. Tao Su led them into a cave located deep into the small fort located south from the village. The three of them stopped in front of the cave and scoured the area.
" Ms. Liu , would there be Crazies in this cave too ? Yang Changtian asked worried.
" I doubt that, the area inside this cave has a higher temperature than normal , so it would be hard for them to stay inside. Therefore I think that we would be safe , but just incase I did bring along some weapons. She pulled out three small crossbows ,the same crossbows Yang Changtian used on his mission to the underground lake. Liu Ying opened her bag again and pulled out 3 pairs of gloves, 3 masks and another smaller bag . She distributed the gloves and masks among the other two and wore her own gloves and mask before opening the small bag , the bag was filled with sedative laced arrows , she systematically distributed the arrow amongst the group , and the three of them entered the cave slowly.
Yang Changtian quickly lit the torch he brought along , providing them with some light. After walking inside , they reached a slope and after descending the slope , Tao Su suddenly stopped in his tracks. Liu Ying signaled Yang Changtian to stop too.
Tao Su closed his eyes and turned his head around continuously. Liu Ying inched closer to Yang Changtian, " He's trying to pinpoint the exact location of the clay deposit inside," she explained.
After a while Tao Su opened his eyes. He then pointed deeper into the cave , " Master , the deposit inside a small cavern further in , we must go deeper."
Liu Ying just nodded and beckoned Yang Changtian to keep up.
The three of them went deeper and deeper into the cave and soon the path split into 3. Tao Su pointed at the path on the left and the three of them took the path deeper and deeper into the cave. They felt the cave become hotter and hotter , and it was getting a bit stuffy.
Soon they arrived at an entrance , " Beyond this , the heat will get worse , the deposits are inside that chamber," Tao Su pointed inside.
Liu Ying and Yang Changtian nodded at each other before going inside slowly , just as they stepped inside , they were blasted with a sudden temperature rise. The air was heavy , making it somewhat hard to breathe. They split up and quickly scoured around the cave , suddenly Tao Su urged them to come over , " Master over here ! I found it ."
Liu Ying and Yang Changtian rushed over , the three of them were looking straight at a pit of clay.
" Let's speed up , it's getting harder to breathe so we need to get out quickly." Liu Ying instructed. The three of them were completely flushed red , so it was clear that they were running out of time , a normal person would have been killed the moment they stepped inside this chamber.
" Tao Su , use your skill to make the clay into a big lump , it'll be easier to carry it back like that. And be sure to get enough."
Tao Su nodded and jumped straight into work. He rapidly did some hand signs and soon the clay began to rise from the pit ,obeying Tao Su's silent commands. The clay lumped together to form a big lump that was levitating. Tao Su did some more hand signs and commanded the clay to move. Obeying the handlers commands, the lump of clay began to float outside the chamber. Tao Su followed the lump, making sure it was still in his range. Liu Ying followed Tao Su closely while Yang Changtian followed behind her. They finally managed to exit the chamber and when they reached the slope , Tao Su first placed the clay lump on the upper cave , that way his hands would be free to climb the slope. The three of them scaled up the slope and Tao Su repeated his hand gestures to recast the spell. The clay lump began to levitate again and the three of them continued their journey back outside.
Exiting the cave , Tao Su began to feel quiet, light headed , his personal skill requires a huge amount of spiritual and physical strength, and he was feeling very drained. Liu Ying noticed and immediately moved closer to him , she traced a talisman on Tao Su's back and placed her palm in the middle of the pattern. A faint blue-green light traveled from her arm to Tao Su's back . And Tao Su was visibly getting revitalised.
Yang Changtian was strongly surprised , she was replenishing his spiritual and physical energy ! While he had many questions , he knew that disturbing her could cause some backlash , so he waited quietly till she was done.
After a while Liu Ying finally opened her eyes. And Tao Su was feeling better than ever . Yang Changtian approached Liu Ying , who had broken out in a cold sweat. " Ms. Liu, are you okay ? " he asked .
Liu Ying just nodded , after a while she spoke up , " Do not worry Mr. Yang , the sweat is likely due to the rapid change in temperature that just happened , in fact you are sweating yourself," she pointed out.
Yang Chanhtian quickly wiped his sweat off, he hadn't realised that he was sweating himself. " Ms. Liu , what you just did- " Yang Changtian began.
" That was my personal skill Mr. Yang , I have the ability to replenish an individual's spiritual power and physical energy when they're running low." Liu Ying explained before Yang Changtian asked , " But I do not get any backlash nor do I drain my personal energy , therefore you don't have to worry about anything."
Yang Changtian was surprised to hear this , while being able to replenish an individual's energy is not that rare , it had major backlashes , hence the skill was considered one of the worst skills to possess. But being able to do so without any backlash is rare , it was even rarer to be completely unaffected by it. To keep it simple Liu Ying's personal skill was extremely rare and also extremely useful.
" Ms. Liu if you don't mind asking me the range and extent of your powers ? " Yang Changtian immediately asked .
Liu Ying looked at him with her eyebrow raised for a while before finally answering , " I can help anyone inside a 1 mile radius and in terms of amount I can help around 150 people per day, if your talking about a full replenishment, much more if it's just a partial replenishment."
Yang Changtian's eyes were about to fly off his head. He then fell silent. ' If that's really her personal skill , then the King is obviously helping us, why else would he send someone this useful , it seems like he really wants to help out.' he muttered to himself , " But then again , if she is this powerful , why hasn't he heard about her before ? " While it was true that he didn't step out much for the past 20 years , he would have certainly heard about such a person. Both his admiration and suspicion towards Liu Ying grew , when he broke out of his train of thought , he was shocked to see that Liu Ying and Tao Su had already left , leaving him behind. Yang Changtian hurried to catch up with them.
When they got closer to the village they used the western entrance to avoid being detected by the people spying on them, they didn't have to worry about sending the clay to Zhou Zilong as his tent was also located in the west.
The three of them entered Zhou Zilong's tent , and Tao Su placed the lump of clay down right in the middle. Zhou Zilong wasn't there so they decide to stay till he comes , Zhou Zilong suddenly rushed inside , he had gone out to get some air when he heard from a disciple that Yang Changtian , Liu Ying and Tao Su were back , he immediately rushed to meet them.
" Oldest senior brother ! Ms. Liu , did you find it ? " he asked hopefully. He went around the village looking for other bamboo poles , just in case they couldn't find the clay , but to his dismay , almost all of the bamboo poles were used up, they couldn't just cut down fresh bamboo either , because they needed to be dried before they could be used.
Yang Changtian nodded and pointed at the huge clay lump that was in the middle of the tent .
Zhou Zilong was confused about how they brought such a big lump of clay along for a minute before remembering about Tao Su's skill.
" Then what are we waiting for , all the other components of the system are done , we just need the bamboo. " Zhou Zilong urged .
Tao Su nodded and began to do some more hand signs , these hand signs were getting more and more intricate , and Tao Su broke out into a cold sweat , but he managed to manipulate the clay into multiple small lumps and then he spread each lump thinly yet evenly onto the split bamboo.
Within mere minutes he was done , "Now we just have to let it dry so they can be used."
Yang Changtian turned to Zhou Zilong , " Zilong , they'll need some time to dry so why don't you catch up with some sleep .It's going to get hectic in the afternoon ,so rest when you can."
Zhou Zilong eagerly accepted his offer and almost immediately went to his bed and collapsed onto it.
Yang Changtian , Liu Ying and Tao Su just shook their heads and exited the tent, while it was close to noon , and they hadn't had any breakfast yet , so the three of them decided to get something to eat . When they walked over to the dining area , they spotted Li Cheng , Jin Wei and Da Xiong chatting . The three spotted them and waved them over.
Tao Su bowed at Liu Ying and excused himself. Liu Ying patted his head , and watched as he joined another table .
Yang Changtian and Liu Ying approached the three of them and sat down .
" Brother Yang , Ms. Liu, where were you ? When I woke up , you were already gone. " Li Cheng asked .
" We went to collect some Celestrite clay, " Liu Ying answered.
" Celelstrite clay , whatever for ?" Li Cheng asked, scratching his head , he had heard about this rare clay before but he couldn't figure out why they would need it.
Yang Changtian sighed deeply before explaining the whole thing to Li Cheng.
" Don't be too harsh on Zhang Anying Brother Yang , he likely just wanted to help out , " Li Cheng spoke up , while he too was annoyed at what Zhang Anying did , he felt that Yang Changtian was a bit too harsh on him, especially after being so doting on him the past few years.
" I spoiled him too much , just because he looked up to me a lot. As a result I overlooked many errors , he's now unable to complete even the most basic of tasks without messing up . We can't always cover his mistakes so he needs to learn." Yang Changtian stated , and then just focused on eating , that was his way of saying that this conversation was over , so Li Cheng did not pursue the matter any more.
Liu Ying was just busy , munching on some wild vegetables. " Ms. Liu I went to observe the geysers last night. I must say they're the most magnificent thing I've seen recently." Li Cheng tried to initiate a conversation with her, Liu Ying just nodded back. So when the conversation method wasn't working , Li Cheng just directly decided to ask what he wanted. " Ms. Liu celestrite clay is very rare, so I was wondering if I could have the leftover clay ? "
By then Liu Ying was almost done munching on her vegetables , " Tao Su brought back plenty Mr. Li , I'll tell him to give some to you later."
Li Cheng was overjoyed at this, and profusely thanked Liu Ying. Soon he turned his attention back to his conversation with Da Xiong and Jin Wei, leaving Liu Ying and Yang Changtian to eat in peace.
After eating and freshening up , Yang Changtian , Li Cheng and Liu Ying , went over to Zhou Zilong's tent. They were surprised to see that Zhou Zilong was happily hammering away at some wooden components. He spotted them and beckoned them to come closer. " Oldest senior brother , Ms. Liu , it worked , the bamboo poles are perfect, they're extremely durable and light . And I'm done with my work here , I just need to go over and assemble the whole thing." he stood up and patted the wood shavings off his clothes.
Yang Changtian exited the tent and came back with some disciples , " Go assist your second senior brother . "
The disciples carried all the components over to the geysers. They encountered a problem ,they had completely forgotten that they couldn't approach the geysers without getting burned. While they were brainstorming for solutions they spotted some people coming over.
Liu Ying soon joined the group with Da Xiong who was leading a group of juniors. " When the geysers stop spraying, you have exactly 5 minutes to block them , be careful and be fast." he instructed the group.
Just as instructed, when the geyser stopped spraying the group rushed into the area and used the huge boulders to block the geysers again. Liu Ying yelled out loud 'Now !' and suddenly the soil around the geysers acted like they came to life and gathered around the boulders providing extra support . The disciples watched in fascination and some of them spotted Tao Su doing some weird hand signs behind Liu Ying, after making the clay dummies last time , word spread fast that Tao Su's personal skill was being able to manipulate clay, so they weren't too surprised. Within mere seconds , Liu Ying and her group had worked together to reseal the geysers to provide Zhou Zilong's group a safe space to work.
Zhou Zilong's group immediately got into work , and they were done by dusk , the sun was almost setting.
Yang Changtian , Li Cheng and the others had now joined the group. Liu Ying handed over some wooden poles to the juniors , and she assigned a person to each geyser and instructed them to unblock the geysers with one swift nudge; she made sure they didn't accidentally hit the water system damaging it.
" When I count to three, use all your strength to nudge the rocks off. One ….. two…..three…. Now ! " Liu Ying ordered.
Immediately the juniors used all their straight to nudge the rocks off in one swoop , the rocks rolled off with a loud pop and the boiling water began to spray out. The boiling water from the geysers flowed along the water pipe system successfully ,and the bamboo poles were holding up well. Zhou Zilong breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw this.
When the boiling hot water met with the ice cold water in the river , the instant condensation created a thick fog that enveloped the whole village inch by inch. And it looked exactly like corpse miasma.
Yang Changtian , Li Cheng and the others all looked on in wonder. While they all trusted Liu Ying , deep in their hearts they all had shadows of doubt. Was it really possible to fake miasma ? Was this really going to work ? Will all their efforts be futile ? But all their doubts were silenced when they saw this.
The trap was almost done now, just one small thing left.