Chapter 95 - Disciples, assemble.
——(POV Li Huang)——
"The best course of action now is to stick together. If the beasts act in hordes, we will also fight in numbers. Let's check out the map for the best location to set up a makeshift fort." I told them the plan that I had.
"Yes, I agree." Hu Anjing said and with Ye Ling, they got the map ready.
It was because of my negligence that Jin Fen could run away. I should have thought of the possibility that he might have a teleportation treasure. Although I tried to cancel his teleportation by cutting the hand with the teleportation ring, I didn't choose the right hand and he was successful.
'It seems I got a little rusty as I spent two years in that trial.' I should have seen it coming when he started talking back but I just interpreted it as Jin Fen being arrogant as he always is and not that he is stalling for time.
Nevertheless, he is still in the trial so I have the chance to finish him off for good. I didn't go for the kill as I was trying to stick with the sect's protocols in these kinds of situations but now I can kill him as he is now a traitor to the sect and has put everyone in danger.
'I have enough time to think about my statement to the punishment hall later..' I put these thoughts aside for now and focused on the map.
"These are all the locations that we have traveled through." Hu Anjing said.
Looking at the map I could locate multiple locations that were suitable for building a fort.
historical
"Here, here, and here. They are suitable for the fort as they are in higher grounds." I pointed at locations that caught my eyes.
"But we have to take others into account too.." Ye Ling said. As I planned to cooperate with other participants, it was natural to choose a location that was relatively near to everyone.
"True, we have to take that into account." Hu Anjing also seconded her words.
I also nodded as this was important to consider.
"Yes, but we have a more important factor to consider. What are the beasts around these parts?" I asked. If the surrounding beasts are too powerful, we won't have the time to build a fort as we are constantly busy fighting those beasts.
Hu Anjing got what I was saying and checked a book where we logged such informations about each location.
"This is near where we fought giant giant apes." Hu Anjing pointed at one of the locations that I choose.
"Okay, what about the next one?" I crossed that option out immediately. If the number that we fought that time was normal, I don't want to know what a horde of them looks like.
"This location is near the giant gray worm nest that you located." Hu Anjing said after flipping a few pages.
"..what about the last one?" I didn't like to fight giant gray worms from the get-go. They can destroy the structure of our fort easily when we are in the initial stages of building it.
"Hmmm, the last one is really good as there are not any beast nests there." Hu Anjing said.
"Good. This is also almost in the center of the map so it will be a good location for everyone." I said.
"But.. how are we going to contact others?" Ye Ling said with a frown. We had to talk to others to let them know we have this plan, otherwise, there would be no point.
Hu Anjing looked at me as she knew I wouldn't suggest this plan if I didn't have the necessary means to do it.
"Well, let me show you how.." I didn't plan to waste more time so I took out my most precious treasure from my storage ring.
This item was a communication device that my parents left for me to contact them. It was so powerful that you could use it to contact anyone on the planet and the distance didn't matter. It was supposed to be my way to contact them as I get older, well, before they disappeared..
This communication device has another useful feature, you can use it as a broadcasting device that would send messages to everyone in the vicinity. As this device can work fine when sending a message across the whole planet, I do not doubt that I can use it to cover this trial's space.
With the communication device in my hands, I started speaking.
~'This is Li Huang, the chief disciple of the heavenly sword sect.'~
~'I have evidence that suggests this punishment is the same thing that caused the massacre 300 years ago.'~ I said.
~'At that time only four disciples were able to come out of this trial alive. To avoid that same fate happening to us, I suggest that we enter a temporary alliance to overcome this hurdle.'~ I continued.
~'Our sect is on the move to the best location that we found to make a fort. When we are at the location we will set up a beacon to guide you there. This place is near the center of this space so I suggest you move toward the center for now..'~ I said and signaled Hu Anjing to get ready to move out.
~'As the time is short, we will talk more in person.'~ I ended the communication like this.
"Will it work?" Hu Anjing asked as we were running toward the fort's location.
"It will. The holy lands will gather as they knew about the massacre the best and smaller powers would also come as they want to have the protection of our holy land." I said as I ran.
——(POV third person, camp of the Blue Bulls sect)——
"What should we do, senior brother?" asked the second in command of the blue bulls sect disciples.
"Of course we will go. What is there to lose? In the best case we get to fight the heavenly sword sect's disciples and in the worst case, we will get to fight hordes upon hordes of beasts. I see this as a win-win situation." Cai ZhenKang said as he picked up his axe. He wouldn't mind a rematch with Li Huang.
——(POV third person, camp of the White Moon sect)——
"What do you think about this, Yunyu?" He Junli, leader of the White Moon sect's disciples asked her best friend.
"I think he has no reason to lie about it. That aside, I too think this could be the same as the beast horde of 300 years ago." Yuan Yunyu said as she too thought the old man was hinting at that year's tragedy.
"Good. This is a chance to see my Martial Grandmother's grandson.." He Junli said as she got ready to move out.
——(POV third person, Ren twins)——
"Big brother said that we need to gather, let's go Ru." Ren Tai said to his sister who nodded.
——(POV third person, on the way toward the fort's location)——
Li Huang and others were running toward the location that they were going to build the fort for everyone. This time they were in a tighter formation as they didn't need to map anything, also more beasts would attack them so being closer to each other helped.
Li Huang didn't stay idle and used his Qi sense in order to find Jin Fen. He also asked Hu Anjing to use her Qi sense to help him as she had the strongest Qi sense.
What he didn't know was all of the sects and disciples were coming toward them as they decided to believe him for one reason or another.
Obviously, Jin Fen wasn't that much of an idiot to come near the center of the trial space after Li Huang's message but Li Huang was counting on his stupidity to lose direction..
In half an hour they reached their destination as they were running at full speed.
As a paranoid, Li Huang also had an artifact that would work as a beacon. You only had to put some high-grade spirit stones in the device and you were good to go for a day.
"Now we have to start creating a fort. Four disciples would be on guard duty and the others would help in building the fort." Li Huang said to the team.
Everyone nodded to his words.
"We also have to create multiple towers for aerial attacks." Li Huang added. If Divine Arrow Sect disciples decide to show up, this would give everyone a great advantage in fights as they are the best in the ranged attacks.
"For material, the guard team would collect wood and rocks in these storage rings." Li Huang put some empty storage rings on the table in front of him. These rings were full before but Li Huang moved their contents to his new storage ring.
"But senior brother, wouldn't using those materials make the structure weak to attacks?" Ye Ling asked as she couldn't see how wood and rock would hold on against even a beast much less a horde.
"We only need the structure, most of the work will be handled with formation and scrolls." Li Huang answered as he saw it was everyone's question.