The sun's bright rays shone above all of us as we slowly moved forward. The many peddlers along the path we crossed were surprised at first to see me dragging two almost dead bodies behind me using a chain wrapped around their ankles, but soon, after asking around, and knowing the reason why, and why everyone was calmly and quietly following me, they too joined the group.
After all, the promise of labor and food is more than any of these people had hoped to get.
Surprisingly, many peddlers came, and they all came from different locations, and after asking around, not all of them came from the same place. Some came due to the drought, and the others the complete opposite, as they had their whole town flooded overnight.
It took many hours on foot to finally arrive at Lucid Springs, and there I found Wu Fan had done what I asked and had rounded up everyone available for work.
"I guess you did your job well," I said to Wu Fan who was sneaking glances behind me.
"Oh, these two, hang them by the ankles there," I said as I pointed at the only long light post remaining within the city entrance.
Wu Fan looked back at two young men and nodded to them.
One of the two limbed the light post and pulled the two of them all by himself while the other helped with lessening the weight a bit.
Xiao Bao woke up from the jolts and immediately shouted, "What the hell are you doing to me you filthy bastard!" he called.
A cough from me made Xiao Bao immediately look at me.
Fear gripped his heart as he remembered the horror I'd inflicted on him.
"You'll be staying there, reflect on your actions, and if you dare insult, anyone, in the city, then I promise I'll no longer use my fists and I'll be using my sword," I said
And that immediately got a nice reaction from him, he gulped down, or up in his situation and remained calm.
"Everyone gathered here, Lucid Springs isn't a place for slackers. Wu Fan here will be your city lord. You will hear his words, for his word is my will. Disobey him, and you disobey me."
"We won't dare!" one of the peddlers said as he bowed down.
The rest immediately followed, "We greet the City Lord!"
"But father! Aren't we your sons, why give the city lord position to a stranger!" Xiao Bao, against my last advice, still decided to speak back.
Before he could even realize it, I pulled my Creeping Demise, infused it with my Heart Flame, and sliced towards him. Not a moment later, his left hand was already in my own hand.
Seeing the familiar-looking hand and with his own rings on it, he finally realized that he lost it.
Then the pain finally reached his brain as he began to scream.
"I told you, dare speak up and I'll use my sword. This is my will, if you don't like it, then I can end your life right here." I said
Stifling his pain and suffering, Xiao Bao finally quieted down.
"Anyway, stay here, you'll receive food and drinks, you'll need to rest up for the night, tomorrow you'll all be working your backs off to own a place here," I said.
"Wu Fan, follow me," I said and headed towards my broken-down manor.
Once we arrived, Wu Fan who had remained calmed finally decided to speak.
"Was it wise to be so cruel to your sons?" Wu Fan asked.
"Wise? I doubt it, but they deserved that and more. Do you know what most cultivators do once they reach a certain stage in their cultivation? They sever their connection to mortals. Sons, wives, and hometowns, anything related to their mortal past is discarded and thrown away as if it didn't exist. In my case, I'm still attached to them, otherwise, I would have immediately ended their lives. Though I love my sons I hate to see them act so cruel to everyone. This is an opportunity for them to learn to be humble. They used my reputation and fortune to grow greedy and tyrannical, while they themselves never worked a day in their lives."
"So you're not planning on executing them?"
"Execute them? no, if I wanted them dead, they would be dead. I want them to learn from their mistakes, use them as slaves and workforce, give them the hardest and cruelest of jobs. Make them clean sewers, remove rocks and blockades, and have them dig wells. I want them to break their backs working off the gold they ate up. Only then will they become decent human beings. Also higher people who won't pity them or be swayed by their words. Though my son's current fortune is not a fraction of what I used to have, it can still sway a few greedy people to aid them in escaping their predicaments. I know them and know how they think." I said.
"Right, I'll make sure to do as you asked.
"Now let's start about making some plans for this broken city," I said and then sat on one of the few chairs that were still intact.
There was a table I used to place several papers and documents in front of me.
"Seeing the state of the city, it seems that everything is in desperate need of repairs. But thanks to the nearby forest, anything wood-related can be quickly fixed. The problem is we used too much cement in rebuilding the town that repairing and reconstructing new buildings will be a hassle."
"We still have some saved up raw materials we haven't used. I followed your ideas of creating storage space and made sure that any surpluses we got were saved up there."
"That's smart thinking, good, bring out as much of that stuff as you can and start by repairing the streets and the buildings that are least damaged. Anything that has too much wreckage should be straight up scrapped and rebuilt." I said.
"Some people still live in those rundown houses," Wu Fan said.
"Ask them to huddle up together, the city should take but few months to be functional, so they can probably be able to handle a few months in tight enclosures."
"Right, but why the city streets, that will take a lot of materials, we probably might not even be able to repair all of the lightly damaged houses if we repair the streets." Asked Wu Fan.
"Streets mean accessibility, having a functional road can aid in transportation, and in the long run, will help procure and distribute raw matter easily, it might be slow at first but the building and reconstruction will accelerate in momentously later on."
"Right, Lord Shen Bao is as brilliant as always." Said Wu Fan.
"That's not brilliance Wu Fan, just common sense. Anyway, we'll be needing to rebuild some of the river facilities. And grow crops, I can manage the crops and reflow the river, but it will take a few days."
"You can reflow the river? Are you god?"
"Huh? What are you talking about, that's just simple stuff a drought this severe is definitely not natural, something must have blocked the river and caused it to divert, a few peddlers had mentioned that they didn't run away from their home due to drought, but rather they were flooded. So I'm sure that something happened either at the source or along the way that caused the Lucid Spring river to dry up. I'll check up on it in the morning." I said.
"Very well, then what about this…" Wu Fan began giving me a detailed report on all that is missing and needed to rebuild the city.
From the broken sewer system to all the buildings that needed to rebuild along the riverside, to the bridge that was not safe for mortals to cross, to even the number of cattle that we currently have.
It took the better part of the day to finish what needed to be done, and once that was off I asked Wu Fan to leave back to his home and rest for a while.
"Should you rest up too, you went to a different city and back and didn't even look exhausted." Wu Fan said.
"Cultivator privileges, I'll still need to procure food for the people outside," I said.
"That's something I was trying to avoid, even if we use up all our resources I doubt we'll be able to feed the masses." Wu Fan said.
"Don't worry about that, I already have that figured out. Anyway, I'll see you later, rest up for now. I'll be back in a few hours with food." I said.
Surprise was painted on Wu Fan's face, as he clearly didn't understand how I was going to feed these thousands of new mouths.
But the forest nearby is bountiful and has a lot of food.
Soon, I took out my flying sword and headed towards the forest, there is a pretty big hunting session I'll be needing to do.