Chapter 73: Unease
Rest tonight, Yao Shens Qi-Amplified voice addressed the three divisions cultivators, who had pitched simple cloth tents instead of constructing housing like the Elders had. Construction shall begin tomorrow, at the break of dawn.
There were loud acknowledgements from the Sky Divisions side, their intensity enough to drown out the other cultivators' hesitant acknowledgements.
Yao Shen nodded at the response, before heading back inside the temporary housing.
In the privacy of his own quarters, he spread All-Havens blueprint across a table that he had nonchalantly shaped out of stone. First in the order of importance came the Apartment Buildings. After refining the design with the help of the Earth Divisions Elders, it was decided that each apartment floor would have four houses with four individual bedrooms and be twenty stories tall. That meant that each unit was capable of housing a total of three hundred and twenty people, requiring them to construct a total of one hundred and twenty five apartment units to house a total of forty thousand mortals.
In all honesty, it was a conservative estimate. Not all mortals would agree to move and it was better to underestimate in the beginning rather than building a ghost city that was sparsely populated, at best.
The Apartment Units would still be constructed in the same U-shaped formation, with parks, heated pools and play areas for children filling in the gap in the center.
A well-paved road would lead to the commercial district, Yao Shens planned melting pot for both cultivators and mortals. His crown jewel, the Auction House, had already earned enough to fund the entirety of All-Havens construction through the auction of shares. He remained the largest shareholder in the auction house, an honor that he only intended to share with the Elves. The remaining shares were distributed amongst the legacy families of the three divisions, with only two going to non-affiliated Elders.
The Mortal College of Spycraft and Warfare would be relatively easy to construct, being designed to host a population of three to four thousand at most. Three interconnected, five storey buildings would serve as the main campus, with a separate mess building and gym placed west and south of it. A running track would dominate the north and the east was left barren for future expansion.
Placed above the commercial district, the college would have its own established perimeter and entry checkpoint. In mortal distances, it was about a twenty minute walk from the Apartment Units, through the commercial district and then reaching the college.
The Martial School was the final structure that they had to construct, placed to the north of the Apartment Complex. It would take shape in the form of a grand dojo overlooking a spacious garden that would be home to picturesque ponds and vibrant fauna.
Children above the age of seven would be taught the basics of combat in the Mortal School until they reached fourteen years of age. The ones that were gifted the ability to cultivate amongst them would be recruited by the three main divisions, while the mortal children would have the opportunity to serve by joining the Mortal College of Spycraft and Warfare.
The mortals residing in All Haven would no longer have to worry about growing crops to sustain themselves, as that responsibility would be incentivized onto foundation establishment disciples. Though it was difficult for even a Nascent Soul Cultivator to influence the growth of Spiritual Plants, let alone Natural Treasures, when it came to mortal crop, even a foundation establishment disciple could stimulate its growth and reduce months of effort to a week.
In place of the lost jobs and occupations, new ones would be created. There would be a need for administrative roles, to manage the equitable distribution of food among the people. The Commercial District would be populated by shops that primarily focused on mortal-made goods, except the auction house.
Perhaps most cultivators could not see the point of that decision yet, but Yao Shen understood the concept of scarcity. Back on Earth, he had lived in an age where hand-made goods had started to be priced at way higher premiums than machine-made goods, even though the latter was superior in almost every aspect.
It would perhaps be harder to get that point across to the combat-oriented cultivators, but Yao Shen firmly believed that they would understand the value of a gift that a mortal had toiled over for hours upon hours exceeded a trinket they had an earth cultivator fashion out of the earth in the matter of minutes.
Yao Shen had scoured through every inch of the blueprint, searching for a flaw or a critical error that he had made, only to find none.
The runic formations would be laid out only after the construction was completed, so there was no real risk of them going haywire and injuring the weaker cultivators. Even if there were any spies among their ranks that belonged to foreign forces, Yao Shen didnt believe that they would be interested in his plans for mortals beyond passing curiosity before dismissing it as the whims of a recently ascended cultivator.
So then, what exactly was the source of his uneasiness?
Shadow, Duyi, Yanyue and Xiaoli had accompanied the Sky Divisons contingent on this excursion.
Was that it?
No, they were safest here, under his presence. His divine sense had already ascertained their presence too, so nothing had gone wrong there.
Cultivators at Yao Shens level did not ignore their intuition but ultimately, he could find nothing amiss.
So he just had to be on guard.
Two weeks had passed since the construction on All-Haven had begun and things were progressing smoothly.
Ninety of the one hundred and twenty five apartment units had been constructed, the process going smoothly as core formation cultivators that had long memorized the blueprint worked in tandem. First the floor, then the walls followed by the roof it was a simple task for cultivators that were expected to use Earth Qi in combat to erect uniformly shaped walls.
Occasionally, there was a mistake or two, but experienced Sect Guardians would step in and remedy them without difficulty.
The Sky Division was making themselves busy by transporting the mounds of soil that had been displaced by the construction while the Flame Division focused on metal work for balcony and staircase railings.
Yao Shen had been spending time with his disciples during the day while also helping out where he was needed without expending much of his Qi Reserves. The night was reserved for his conversations with Vondar, as they haggled over the cost he would have to pay to learn aspects of greater runescript.
It was then, that the vague feeling of unease bloomed into full blown alarm.
Soul Emperor! A malevolent voice bellowed, the arrogance in his qi-empowered tone self-evident. Come out and face me before I knock this charade down, he demanded, a hint of amusement leaking into his voice.
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