Upon hearing this, Han Weishu's eyes gleamed with excitement. She immediately fixed her gaze on him and said energetically, "Traveling alone is too dangerous. How about I go with you?"
Surprised by her offer, Tong Jialiang replied, "Huh? But you haven't told your family yet, and you're a girl. Wouldn't it be inconvenient for you to travel with me like this?"
Han Weishu waved her hand dismissively. "No need to worry about my family, I know what I'm doing."
Raising her chin proudly, she continued, "And what does being a girl have to do with anything? Don't you know what I'm capable of? If any bandits come after me, it's not clear who would be the unlucky one."
Tong Jialiang had first met Han Weishu in the nearby town. A year ago, while he was there purchasing supplies for his family, some local thugs from a nearby village had tried to bully him. Coincidentally, Han Weishu, who had snuck out of the Qinghe Sect, happened to pass by, and he witnessed her single-handedly take on several strong men.
At the time, she had been dressed as a man, her hair disheveled and unwashed, looking like a little beggar. It wasn't until later, when Han Weishu spoke to him, that he realized she was actually a girl.
Tong Jialiang didn't know that this girl was a cultivator who had been practicing for over ten years, although still only at the first level of Qi Refining. He simply assumed she was naturally strong and skilled in martial arts, combined with a sharp mind, which allowed her to defeat those thugs.
Since then, the two had become friends.
According to Han Weishu, her home was quite far away, and it took her two to three days to travel there each time. Whenever she ventured out, she would visit Tong Jialiang for a few days of fun. As for where she stayed at night, Tong Jialiang had no idea. Whenever he asked, she would only say she had a place to stay, never revealing more.
Recalling her skills, Tong Jialiang agreed, "Alright then. But the journey is long, and you don't seem to have anything with you. Should I take you home to pack your things first?"
"No, no, no!" Han Weishu quickly waved her hands.
"Don't worry about that. Let's just go, we can leave right now." With that, she grabbed Tong Jialiang's arm and started walking briskly ahead, as if something were chasing her.
Meanwhile, back in Xiushui Village.
At the Lingxian Sect, a major project was underway, bustling with activity.
On an open area halfway up the mountain, everyone from the sect had gathered there, except for Sun Yigao, who was still teaching.
High up on the steep mountainside, Lin Xiao and a few others were using the technique Stepping on Air to measure and mark certain spots, occasionally clearing trees and brush from the area.
After a short while, when they had finished measuring, Lin Xiao flew back down, took out his peachwood sword, and with a wave of his hand, enveloped the sword in spiritual energy. He then aimed at the base of the mountain wall and thrust the sword with force.
The peachwood sword sank into the mountain wall.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Xiao summoned his energy and pulled the sword upward, flying along the mountainside!
As he flew, the hard, steep mountain face split open along the path of his sword, leaving a long, deep groove in his wake. Dust and debris tumbled down, filling the air with clouds of dirt, and trees and bushes were uprooted and swept away along with the loose stones and soil.
The path upward was slow, as Lin Xiao had to ensure the groove was of consistent depth and width, and account for various twists and turns along the way.
The height from the middle of the mountain to the top was nearly three thousand meters.
Lin Xiao continued the cut along the planned route until he reached about two thousand meters, then stopped.
He flew back to the middle of the mountain, and about three meters away from the first groove, he cut a second groove parallel to the first.
Next, he started slicing the mountain wall between the two grooves, forming a series of slanted slopes about one meter deep.
Down below, the crowd had divided into three groups.
The first group began clearing the path as soon as Lin Xiao flew up, removing deep-rooted trees, weeds, and scattered stones.
The second group followed closely behind, using various chisels and cutting tools to carve the same kind of slanted surface from the bottom up.
The third group worked right after them, carving steps out of the rock, creating stone stairs from the bottom to the top.
Indeed, they were building a mountain path.
This was the first step in the sect's expansion, a project Lin Xiao and Liu Yunan had been planning recently.
Considering the future increase in disciples and the sect's growing numbers, along with the suggestions made by Elder Liao about the need for more detailed sect infrastructure, Lin Xiao had decided they needed to open up more space.
Although he still had the fragments of the Yaoguang Floating Island and a mystical orb, which would likely give the sect a floating island and an independent space in the future, he currently only had one fragment. There was no telling when he would obtain the remaining two pieces, or how large the floating island and space would actually be.
After weighing his options, Lin Xiao concluded it was more reliable to create their own space.
North Mountain was vast, and for now, it provided more than enough room for them to expand.
The first step in expanding the sect's area was to carve a new path up the mountain.
Although everyone in the sect had some level of cultivation, making the task of cutting stone feasible, their levels of cultivation varied. Lin Xiao and Liu Yunan had assigned tasks based on each person's strength.
Those with higher cultivation were responsible for cutting large sections of the mountainside, while those with lower cultivation handled tasks like smoothing out the stone stairs.
They also had to leave part of the workforce to rotate shifts, so that when one group's spiritual energy was exhausted, another group could take over.
As for Lin Xiao, he handled the task by himself.
He had no choice—his speed alone was nearly equal to the combined efforts of everyone else.
Cutting, smoothing, and shaping the steps along the two-thousand-meter path was an arduous task.
Lin Xiao felt like he had turned into an emotionless stone-cutting machine.
The entire path, including its twists and turns, required almost seven thousand steps.
Lin Xiao single-handedly cut over three thousand of them.
He was completely numb by the end.
From noon until nightfall, everyone worked for almost ten hours. Finally, in the early hours of the next morning, the mountain path was finished.
Whether they were in the Foundation Establishment stage or still in the Qi Refining stage, everyone collapsed onto the ground, too exhausted to speak after carving out the last step.
In the end, it was Lin Xiao who pulled out his clunky spiritual boat to transport the exhausted group back down the mountain.
He neatly arranged everyone near the small spring where the spiritual vein ran, and with a tired sigh, he plopped down beside them.