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They did as I asked, but I could see that only ShouLi really understood the importance of such things.

“This mountain will be our new home. While you are here, you will be protected, and no outsiders will be able to harm you in any way. However, you should notclimb down the mountain until after you ascend to Martial Master. The territory around us is swarming with dangerous cultivators, and right now, I am the only one who can protect you.”

I gave them meaningful looks to try and impress upon them the importance of this statement, but I didn’t expect it to be much of a real problem. To descend the mountain, they would have to climb down a series of sheer cliff faces. By the time they were able to accomplish that, they would be strong enough to defend themselves from most of the people who would randomly decide to cause them trouble.

“This mountaintop will be our home for the foreseeable future. As you can no doubt see, we are starting a new settlement from scratch. There are no buildings for us to live in, and there is no infrastructure in place to take care of us. We must construct everything ourselves. So, your first task is to build yourself a house.”

Reaching into my storage space, I pulled out dozens of large granite boulders that I had collected during my run from Rosehill.

“You are all currently cultivating earth qi, but this mountain is composed entirely of blueschist. You will not be able to do much with it until you are Martial Masters, and it won’t be easy to work with until you are Grandmasters. So, leave the mountain as it is and use this granite to build your houses.”

They all stared at me in shock.

Mo worked his jaw and tried to say something. “Patriarch…”

I pulled five copies of a basic earth-moving technique from my storage space and handed one to each of them.

“That will teach you what you need to know to do the job.” I pointed to the small plateau I had claimed for myself. “My house will be there, on the west side of the mountain. You should each look for a suitable location on the east side. Build your houses, and once you’re finished, come find me. I will evaluate your work and reward you with time in the Affinity Room based on its quality. The better the house you construct, the more time you will receive.”

I intended to leave my instructions at that, but ShouLi raised a hand to stop me.

“Patriarch, how will you evaluate our work? What qualifies as ‘good?’”

I blinked at her in thought. The question made me realize that I was doing to them exactly what the leaders of the Nine Rivers Sect had done to me. I was giving them a somewhat nebulous task and not telling them anything about how they would be evaluated.

Part of me wanted to shrug off the question and force them to try and guess what might appeal to me. I could see value in doing this as it might lead to them being more creative in their approach to the problem. However, a larger part of me wanted to reward ShouLi for asking the question by giving her a real answer. I just had to figure out what it was first.

This was a rather simple task, and I was mainly interested in helping them gain practical experience with using earth qi for something other than fighting.

“You will be graded on two factors. The first is the quality of the building itself. Is it sturdy? Are the walls straight? Does the roof leak? Is it a pleasing place to live? You don’t have to make it beautiful, but spending time on aesthetics will improve your score. You only need to build a single room, but you can make a large multistory complex if you so desire. The grander the building you construct, the higher my evaluation of it will be. There is no hard upper limit.”

I looked around to see if this explanation was sufficient for everyone. I wasn’t going to give them a complex breakdown of specific point values for different features or anything like that, but I wanted them to understand a bit of what I was looking for.

Satisfied with their apparent understanding, I continued.

“The second factor in my evaluation will be the level of skill with earth qi that you demonstrate during the construction process.” I used a thread of qi to cut a rectangular brick from one of the granite boulders and then carved it to have perfectly flat sides and nice, sharp corners. “How you demonstrate this proficiency is up to you. It can be through the precision of your cuts, or it can be by adding small accents throughout the entire house. Importantly, I will consider using a variety of skills to be more valuable than using the same one multiple times.”

Explanation complete, I turned to leave, but as I did, Liang shouted to stop me.

“Patriarch, what about my parents?”

I halted and turned back to face him. “I do not expect the Su Clan to do anything to your families in the short term. That would only be signing their own death warrants. However, you are right that your families need to be informed of your presence here. If you give me their names and locations, I will go and meet with them while you are all busy building your houses. I will also provide them with certain defensive measures so that they remain safe until you have the power to protect them yourselves.”

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Everyone except ShouLi gave me a quick rundown on their family’s information and I noted it down in my journal. ShouLi was slightly worried about what her presence here would mean for her mother, but she did not ask me to provide her with any additional protection.

After handing out a few fasting pills and other essential supplies, I took my leave and departed Mount Jiang. I was a bit worried about leaving them alone, but I didn’t have a choice. There were several tasks I needed to take care of as soon as possible.

As Liang pointed out, I needed to visit everyone’s family and put some basic protections in place in case the Su Clan decided to target them. The Su Clan would gain absolutely nothing from such a provocation and would only incur my wrath, but there were more than enough crazies in the Su Clan that I couldn’t rule it out.

Aside from this, I also needed to gather a large number of basic supplies like food, lumber, and simple furnishings. I should have taken care of this during my months and years of preparation, but if we had stayed in Rosehill as I had originally intended, such supplies wouldn’t have been necessary.

I maybe should have done all this with everyone safe and unconscious in my storage space, but I didn’t want to keep them in that state any longer than necessary. In any case, with the sect-protection formation I had purchased in place, everyone should be relatively safe.

Still, I would do my best to hurry.

The boy and girl who joined me along with ShouLi were named Su GuiMing and Su GuiAi. They were twins whose parents lived in Dragon Gate City. Since that was also where Mo’s family lived, it was my first destination.

Along the way, I stopped by a few small villages and bought an assortment of supplies that I thought we might need, such as lumber, rice, and metal. The people who lived in these places didn’t have much to spare, but they were more than happy to sell what they did have to earn a bit of extra silver.

After reaching Dragon Gate City, I went directly to the city’s largest bakery which was located near the Su Clan’s main compound to find GuiMing and GuiAi’s parents. As this was a large commercial bakery that primarily shipped goods to restaurants around the city, my presence in the building filled with busy workers was a bit out of place. However, since I had donned a set of richly colored robes before entering the city, I was seen as a wealthy noble, so a well-dressed older man quickly ran up and bowed to me not long after I arrived.

“Hello, sir. What can I do for you?”

“I’m looking for Su LianFu and Ma XinYi.”

His eyes darted around the room a bit before settling on two workers covered in a light dusting of flour.

“They are here, sir. May I ask what you need of them?”

“I just need to have a short talk with them.” I took out a few gold coins and pressed them into the man’s palm. “Alone.”

He smiled at me. “Of course, sir. Of course. Right this way.”

The manager took me to a small side room, and after I was seated, he left and gathered up the two people he had glanced at previously. After the manager left, the two of them sat down across from me and I examined them closely. While Su LianFu was a Martial Disciple 6, his wife, Ma XinYi, had never cultivated before.

“Hello, Mr. Su, Mrs. Ma. I am here to talk to you about your children, GuiMing and GuiAi.”

Their eyes widened in shock and Ma XinYi was quick to respond.

“What’s happened to them?”

“Nothing. They are quite well. They are currently learning to cultivate in my private compound. It might be some time before they can come here to visit you, but you do not need to worry about their safety.”

“But…”

Su LianFu placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder to calm her down and then looked at me.

“Mister…?”

“Fang.”

“Mister Fang.” He reached into a pocket, pulled out two gold coins, and slid them to me. “Two days ago, someone from the clan came by and gave us these coins. He didn’t tell us much. He only said the money was a reward for having good children. He also encouraged us to have more in the future.”

As he talked, I noticed a trace of bitterness in his words.

“Mister Fang, please, give this money to GuiMing and GuiAi. We don’t need it.”

I looked from the money and back up to the man. He seemed… solid. Life might not have always been kind to him, but from this short interaction, he seemed honest, and the calluses on his hands showed that he was hard-working.

I slid the coins back to him.

“Do not worry. Your children have no need for money. They are safe, and I will take good care of them. However…” I studied the pair and thought a bit about the situation on the mountain. “Mr. Su, Mrs. Ma, I would like to make you an offer. My… organization is new, and I need people. If you are interested, I would like to hire the two of you. It would mean moving to a new city, and there will be challenges along the way, but it would allow you to spend more time with your children.”

They both hesitated at this, and Ma XinYi looked to her husband for his thoughts.

“We… don’t have many skills. What would you need us to do?”

I smiled at him. “I need bakers. Bakers, cobblers, weavers, and everything else. I am mainly offering this position to you because of your children, but if you know any other trustworthy individuals, I can consider hiring them as well.”

“Mister Fang…”

I held up a hand. “Not right now. We are still establishing ourselves at the moment. For now, just think about my offer. I’ll be back here in one year, and you can give me your answer then. If you do decide to join us, prepare a list of anything that might be required for your ideal bakery, okay?”

“Ye… Yes…”

With that settled, I handed each of them a stone pendant that contained a Rank 3 defensive formation. If they were ever in danger, they could activate the pendant, and it would keep them safe for a short period. I also handed over a plate inscribed with a small defensive formation that they could place in their home for more long-term protection. I would still need to keep an eye out to make sure they weren’t targeted by anyone, but with these items, their lives shouldn’t be in too much danger.

In truth, these formations felt a bit unnecessary at this point. From what they had told me, it sounded like the Su Clan had firmly decided not to persecute the families of the children I selected. Instead, they were rewarding these families and even encouraging them to have more children.

This indicated the clan might be trying to form a long-term trade deal with me.

I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about that. It was one thing for me to pay them when recruiting their Disciples, but for the Su Clan to breed children just so that they could be sold off as chattel? It felt… wrong. Was I going about recruiting people in the wrong way?

Still, as long as nothing was done through force, it should be fine, right?

After leaving the bakery, I went and found Mo’s father. He was a small-time official who gave me a greasy feeling when I talked with him, so I didn’t offer him a position in my clan. Instead, I just handed him a pendant and moved on.

Next, I visited the Blue Wind Pavilion and purchased a Rank 3 wind horse. It was well-trained, so I didn’t need to be a beast tamer to control it, and it would let me get around quite a bit quicker in the future.

Finally, I rode north to the small village where Liang’s parents lived. They were simple farmers, and after I explained things to them, I gave them pendants and set up a defensive formation around their house. I would have liked to offer them a position in the clan, but I held off. Building a bakery was one thing, but it would take time before we would be ready for large-scale farming operations.

With all the families informed of their children’s situation, I visited a few small towns and villages to purchase a variety of additional supplies and then returned to Mount Jiang.