Ancestral Home

Iron Hammer and Butcher Knife!

Enzo followed Lin Qi and the other two into Lin Qi's ancestral home. Enzo had been curious about Lin Qi for a full three years. What kind of family could raise someone like Lin Qi?

Enzo couldn't help but recall the scene of his first meeting with Lin Qi three years ago—he was cornered by the Round Table Knights, and four of their members attacked him, forcing him to join. Knowing the deep background of the Round Table Knights' leader, Black Horse House, and unwilling to fall out with them, Enzo was pushed back by four swordsmen who were much weaker than him, sustaining over a dozen wounds.

Just as Enzo was about to collapse, Lin Qi appeared with several burly, ferocious-looking men. They smashed the four swordsmen's heads with bricks pulled from the alley walls, then knocked them unconscious with iron-bound oak clubs. Finally, they used the clubs to inflict hidden injuries on their wrists and elbows.

From then on, those four could no longer wield swords. They could barely manage ordinary work, but the hidden injuries in their wrists and elbows would inevitably disrupt their swordsmanship. Four Army Academy cadets who couldn't use swords became useless after graduation, unable to join the army.

Lin Qi's decisiveness, ruthlessness, and heartlessness were still fresh in Enzo's memory.

Today, he had finally arrived at Lin Qi's home. He was very curious, what kind of family and parents could raise someone like Lin Qi? A fifteen-year-old boy had already formed a student gang like the Iron Fist Brotherhood in Berely University City, and it had grown to the point where its outer ring of thugs and ruffians numbered over three hundred. Was this something an ordinary person could do?

How could children from ordinary, law-abiding civilian families do such things?

Lin Qi's ancestral home exuded an exceptionally deep and stable aura. In front of the ancestral home was a vast courtyard, almost forty to fifty acres in size. If Enzo wasn't mistaken, the ground of the courtyard was paved with extremely durable black volcanic steel rock, formed from solidified volcanic lava.

Black volcanic steel rock refers to volcanic rock with a metal content exceeding seventy percent in its lava. This rock is extremely hard and possesses strong defensive capabilities against all spells except lightning magic. Mining this rock is extremely difficult; even with their lives at stake, ordinary workers could mine at most two to three cubic meters of black volcanic steel rock per year.

Extremely hard and highly resilient black volcanic steel rock was shaped into thick, one-meter-square paving stones. Complex mortise and tenon joints connected the paving stones, making the courtyard floor a seamless whole. What shocked Enzo even more was the faint metallic sheen emanating from the gaps between the paving stones, indicating that a molten metal solution had been poured between them to further strengthen the ground.

The cost of the courtyard's ground was already astonishing, but the courtyard's walls were equally terrifying.

To ordinary people, the walls of this house appeared to be ordinary mountain walls, merely three meters taller than those of a typical home. But to Enzo, a top student from the Army Academy, the courtyard walls, covered in dense climbing ivy, were likely miniature city walls. From the outside, the walls looked ordinary, but their width should be enough to accommodate four people walking side-by-side. Moreover, the tops of the walls had bricked-up arrow slits, observation holes, battlements for deflecting arrows, and various other defensive measures.

However, these fortifications were covered by dense climbing ivy, making these murderous military facilities appear harmless.

The material of these walls, like the courtyard's ground, was cast from black volcanic steel rock, with molten metal solution poured between the wall bricks. These walls were entirely an indestructible metal mass. Unless the Empire's main field army attacked with heavy siege equipment, even an army of ten thousand would be unable to breach this ring of walls.

Recalling the snow depth he had just observed at the base of the walls outside the courtyard, Enzo immediately thought of the common defensive structure, the 'moat.' Lin Qi's ancestral home must have a moat, and it wouldn't be narrow, at least five meters wide.

Then there were the two rows of side buildings on either side of the courtyard, spaced far apart, intended for servants and laborers. The dark side buildings clearly used the same materials as the courtyard walls and ground. The two rows of side buildings were crooked, as if the builders hadn't stacked the walls neatly. However, these crooked, angular long side buildings would serve as thorny 'bastions' if enemies breached the courtyard.

Looking at the narrow windows of the side buildings, and the small, child-arm-thick steel bars fixed within the window frames, those windows were clearly designed as embrasures for archers.

What left Enzo speechless was that near the two side buildings, there were stables, granaries, a small mill, and various facilities expected of a large family. However, these facilities were all cast from black volcanic steel rock and built entirely according to the rules of military fortresses.

Within the courtyard, there was another ring of walls, and within this ring stood the main keep of Lin Qi's family. A tallest watchtower stood nearly a hundred meters high, surrounded by over a dozen 'decorative' spires, which could fully serve as 'arrow towers' during wartime.

This main keep occupied a vast area. Judging from the outside alone, this main building structure, with its six floors, was sufficient to house two to three thousand people. In case of any unrest, this main keep would also be sufficient to house two to three thousand people for 'prolonged defense.'

It had to be prolonged defense, because around this main keep, a circle of twenty-four deep wells had been dug!

Enzo's fingers went numb as he looked. Even the Empire's army regulations only required three deep wells for water supply for a frontline defensive fortress. Lin Qi's ancestors were truly far-sighted, digging a circle of twenty-four deep wells, a full eight times the specification required by the Empire's army regulations!

Enzo subconsciously glanced at Lin Qi, who was chattering away to Iron Hammer and Butcher Knife, recounting his exciting experiences over the past three years. Iron Hammer and Butcher Knife listened to Lin Qi's chatter with almost 'innocent' smiles, their faces filled with 'loving kindness' and 'care'?

Such a pair of thugs, yet displaying such 'loving kindness' and 'care'? Enzo's scalp tingled again.

As they approached Lin Qi's main keep, more people appeared around them. However, these were all burly men with scowling faces and arms as thick as an ordinary person's thighs. Even the old men feeding the horses had knife scars crisscrossing their faces, their expressions extremely ferocious and ugly.

Even some servant women carrying milk pails from the cowshed, wearing only short shirts in the middle of winter, had bulging muscles on their exposed arms! Servant women with muscles all over their bodies, judging by the calluses on their hands, were clearly skilled with blades.

Enzo suddenly understood. Only such a family could raise an exceptional individual like Lin Qi!