"It looked like I'd really shot myself in the foot..." Zhao He saw that even his wife was saying this, so he didn't dare hide anything anymore.
I hadn't known that old man Lian Geng was so crafty. He had actually used hollow bricks to help me build the houses. They would be fine for normal living for a decade or so, but problems would crop up after that. Only people building industrial projects and factories used them—they left as soon as the work was done. My Daoist temple, on the other hand, would have to be lived in for many years.
The first time, Li Qinghe had built the place with ordinary materials, and it had ended up being burned down by the Tang family. This time, old man Lian Geng had built it, and it looked like we would have to tear it down again. I immediately called Lei Hu and had him bring some engineers over, then went to speak with Zhu Yiguang, who was still scolding Zhao He and his wife.
"You two! You're really trying to kill me! You let your martial grand-uncle live in this deathtrap—what if his snoring shakes it down in the middle of the night?" Zhu Yiguang slapped Zhao He on the head. He then wanted to beat Fang Yuewan too, but when he realized she was a female disciple, he let her off.
Zhu Yiguang had brought quite a few female disciples as well, some of them in their forties. After all, many alchemists were women. Although men were more likely to achieve fame in the field, women liked the work more.
"Martial grand-uncle, you know what conditions were like in our sect back then. The last time you refined that batch of Nine-Heavens Jade Dew, you almost destroyed our